WASHINGTON-As the end of the first session of the 105th Congress nears, the wireless telecom industry is left hanging with key policy issues unresolved.In limbo are antenna siting moratoria, wireless privacy, digital wiretap funding and implementation, wireless cloning, encryption, regulatory reform, high-tech securities litigation...
Sorry Jay, the edge this week goes to your friends at CTIA again.That's right. Tom just hired himself some "tall timber" lobbying talent: Steven K. Berry, former chief counsel for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, ex-Bush administration lobbyist and now partner in the Holland &...
WASHINGTON-The National Telecommunications and Information Administration came under fire last week by congressional Republicans who charged that some agency functions are redundant and attacked grant programs as a waste of taxpayer money that distort the free market."In an era where Americans are calling for...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission would be phased out over five years and spectrum management given over to a board with limited powers, under a new balanced budget proposal by a conservative think tank."Although the Telecommunications Act of 1996 eliminated many of the rules and...
WASHINGTON-Now that most of the spectrum earmarked for auction has been sold by the Federal Communications Commission, the question of spectrum management for the future is on the front burner both at that agency and in Congress.Will future management policy be measured by the...
WASHINGTON-Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) has accused Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt of going forward with a plan to link schools and libraries to the Internet without having a funding mechanism in place."We understand that you intend to implement one part...
Clinton II and greener pastures are generating more exits, some through the infamous revolving door.Bob McNamara, chief of the FCC's Private Wireless Division, is leaving the agency after 21 years to join Nextel Communications Inc. in McLean, Va.FCC antitrust guru James Olson is leaving...
WASHINGTON-An innovative government-subsidized program is placing schools, libraries, hospitals, local governments, public safety agencies, community organizations and other groups at the cutting edge of new wireless and wireline telecommunications applications.The Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program awarded 210 grants in 48 states, the District...
Donald Gips has a penchant for throwing himself into his work-and play-with reckless finesse and abandon.And he's paying for it today with a severely ruptured disc on the mend from years of rough and tumble sports that could have easily left him paralyzed and...
WASHINGTON-In a formal ceremony Sept. 16 attended by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt and Assistant Secretary of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration Larry Irving, the Public Safety Wireless Advisory Committee handed over the final version of its report outlining the needs of...
WASHINGTON-The U.S. low-earth-orbit data satellite market may end up far less competitive than envisioned as policymakers struggle to craft rules around a smaller-than-anticipated spectrum allocation capable of supporting only a few licensees.The Federal Communications Commission delayed proposing rules last month for little LEOs-which are...
WASHINGTON-Lawmakers return this week to tackle a handful of telecommunications policy and funding issues before adjourning in a month to campaign in House and Senate races.Appropriations bills will dominate the last month of the 104th Congress. The Federal Communications Commission and the National Telecommunications...
WASHINGTON-The job of exporting the information revolution appears increasingly better suited to National Telecommunications and Information Administration chief Larry Irving than to Mickey Kantor, who was named Commerce Secretary four months ago after Ron Brown died in a plane crash in Croatia.There are reports...
WASHINGTON-Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor, touting economic accomplishments of the Clinton administration and laying out his own agenda, said America must continue to invest in high technology and press for free trade while protecting U.S. markets closed overseas."We are and will be the pre-eminent economic...
WASHINGTON-Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Ky.), chairman of the House commerce appropriations subcommittee, said the Federal Communications Commission will not receive the $223 million requested for fiscal 1997 and blasted FCC Chairman Reed Hundt for delays in addressing long-term public safety needs and in implementing a...
WASHINGTON-In a long-awaited study, two Clinton administration economists say flaws in Federal Communications Commission bidding rules forced firms to pay relatively more for less populated markets in the first broadband personal communications services auction.The report, prepared by Mark Bykowsky and Robert Cull of the...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission has given the wireless community in general, and the public-safety arena in particular, an extra-long comment period to ponder the agency's thoughts on the future spectrum and service needs of that mobile communications sector. In addition, the notice proposes to...
I've got a scoop! I think I now know how President Clinton plans to balance the budget. By selling the budget-all five volumes of the fiscal '97 spending plan for $100.Reporters, lobbyists, trade associations and think tanks eat this stuff up. What fools we...
WASHINGTON-With telecommunications reform behind it, Congress now wants to overhaul the Federal Communications Commission."The key issue is whether a regulatory agency-the Federal Communications Commission-devised in the 1930s based on the Interstate Commerce Commission model of the last century makes sense today as we prepare...
WASHINGTON-In a bold speech with profound and far-reaching policy implications, new Federal Communications Commission Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Chief Michele Farquhar said she will pursue policies to help wireless carriers compete not only with each other but with local landline telephone companies as well."My main...
A new study issued by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration said wireless telephone service may be a desirable alternative to wireline service in some rural areas because of cost factors.The report, which analyzed a range of telecom services, concluded that distance and low...
WASHINGTON-Michele Farquhar is leaving the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to return to the Federal Communications Commission as head of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, a move strongly supported by industry.Farquhar, who is acting deputy director and chief of staff for NTIA, is expected to...
WASHINGTON-The wireless telecommunications industry may have to tap into federal government and broadcast spectrum, implement new technologies and share more to meet operational requirements in the future, says a new government study.The report by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration is part of a...
Of all the recruits at the Hundt-led Federal Communications Commission, perhaps none has received fewer headlines and contributed more than Christopher Wright.Wright, deputy general counsel, successfully defended entrepreneur block rules for personal communications services licenses that were made race-and gender-neutral by the FCC after...
