WASHINGTON-The Senate last week approved legislation to curb illegal cloning of wireless phones, setting the stage for passage next year of a bill that could stop hackers from stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from carriers each year."It's illegal to clone a wireless phone....
WASHINGTON-A NextWave Telecom Inc. plan that would defer interest payments for C-block personal communications services companies for five years was circulating last week on Capitol Hill. The plan would circumvent the Federal Communications Commission's financial restructuring blueprint adopted in October via a rider attached...
Tectonic Engineering Consultants P.C. named Robert E. Lister a supervising engineer, with responsibility for the structural design and analysis of buildings, infrastructure projects and wireless communication facilities. A licensed professional engineer, Lister most recently was responsible for the construction buildout of NextWave Telecom Inc.'s...
"The best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry."(Maybe not for the mice, in this case. I doubt they were consulted).Wireless Technology Research head Dr. George Carlo has said he will not be conducting short-term or long-term animal exposure studies during the...
MCI Communications Corp., which last week found itself with a third suitor in GTE Corp., may finally have an opportunity to enter the wireless arena in more than a reseller role.GTE, which owns cellular licenses in several metropolitan statistical areas, last week made a...
WASHINGTON-Wireless resellers have interconnection rights that have been ignored by carriers and federal regulators said an industry coalition, including surprise MCI Communications Corp. suitor WorldCom Inc., in a brief filed in federal appeals court.The Federal Communications Commission "has inexplicably refused to acknowledge the right...
PCIA vs. CTIA: An update on the battle for the heart, soul and wallets of the wireless telecom industry.The nod for last week goes to CTIA, somewhat by default.PCIA President Jay Kitchen may have inadvertently rubbed NextWave Telecom Inc., Pocket Communications Inc. and General Wireless...
The months-long debate at the Federal Communications Commission over C-block personal communications services debt restructuring, culminating in last month's factious decision to offer limited relief to floundering auction winners, saw the unprecedented clashing of conflicting legal doctrines and policy objectives and the tragic collapse...
The PCS companies now proposing that the Federal Communications Commission change the rules to allow them to stay in business are proposing options that any creditor in the business world would not consider.You buy a new car. You can't pay for your new car,...
WASHINGTON-With industry consolidation increasing and prospects for greater facilities-based competition diminishing, new life has been breathed into the wireless resale debate.Most recently, San Francisco-based AirTouch Communications Inc. has come under fire for a new wireless resale program that critics call illegal, anti-consumer and anti-competitive.AirTouch's...
WASHINGTON-Comments submitted last week by NextWave Telecom Inc. to the Federal Communications Commission regarding proposed changes to the established C- and F-block personal communications services repayment plans smacks of a last-ditch effort to keep a sinking ship afloat.Couched in terms that could be interpreted...
WOODLAND HILLS, Calif.-Wireless reseller DCN Wireless signed a definitive agreement with NextWave Telecom Inc. to resell 600 million minutes of personal communications services airtime to California customers.DCN Wireless is a public utility licensed by the California Public Utilities Commission to provide wireless services in...
Southern California's emergence as a burgeoning wireless hub was reinforced when yet another new telecom company, Kokusai Communications Systems Inc., opened its world headquarters last month in San Diego.Kokusai Communications is the newest subsidiary of Kokusai Electric Co. Ltd., a Tokyo-based manufacturer of wireless...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Commissions Commission, in a stunning reversal, agreed last week to grant 19 rural cellular applications that an administrative law judge previously dismissed for being part of "a massive scam."The FCC's June 3 ruling, which could spark a flurry of appeals and prompt...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission has proposed a rulemaking that would allow almost limitless foreign ownership of U.S.-based telecommunications carriers.The commission, however, vowed to retain certain safeguards that would restrict some foreign investors and/or carriers that exercise near-monopoly power from entering the domestic market. In...
Congress last week approved an $8.6 billion disaster relief bill. Relief, that is, for states throughout the country humbled, yet not humiliated, by floods, tornadoes, mud slides and other natural disasters, known as acts of God.So far, for acts of man-those who run official...
WASHINGTON-C-block personal communications services licensee NextWave Telecom Inc. went through another round of downsizing last week, but would not disclose anything more than that the cuts were nationwide and that no more reductions in force would be implemented. A week before, the company had...
In the beginning, it was Reed Who?But by last week's resignation announcement, the only question was, When?Arguably the most controversial, yet most constructive Federal Communications Commission chairman in history, Reed Hundt's decision last week to step down was not unexpected. It just came a...
WASHINGTON-Congress is slowly backtracking on spectrum auctions as a source of revenue in the bipartisan balanced budget plan, a retreat spurred by recent falling wireless license prices and financial troubles among companies that many believe spent too much for access to the airwaves early...
DALLAS-Excel Communications Inc. and NextWave Telecom Inc. signed a letter of intent to negotiate the purchase of wireless airtime by Excel on NextWave's personal communications services network.NextWave's goal is to offer airtime on its Code Division Multiple Access PCS network to other carriers and...
My husband and I were vacationing in Mexico when a newspaper peddler cried out for us to read all about O.J. Simpson accused in the brutal murder of his ex-wife.I marveled to myself at how Mexican tabloids must be even more outrageous than their...
WASHINGTON-NextWave Telecom Inc. shut down its Southeast and Midwest operations last week, the first wave of what could be a nationwide reduction in force that could cut the C-block personal communications services licensee's 380-member staff significantly in the near future.Allen Salmasi, NextWave chairman and...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission gave NextWave Telecom Inc. extra time to reorganize its ownership structure in light of anticipated commission changes in foreign-investment rules that could result from an upcoming rulemaking.The FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau granted only part of NextWave's waiver request regarding foreign...
WASHINGTON-In an effort to control paperwork and legal fees connected with compliance to certain Federal Communications Commission guidelines mandated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Personal Communications Industry Association submitted a petition for forbearance that deals with six sections of FCC strictures.Citing Section...
