IntellicellIntellicell Corp. announced Mike Hedge and Michael King, both previously with CellStar Corp., are heading up Intellicell's sales and marketing group. Hedge will be responsible for the implementation of an overall strategic growth plan to increase revenues and King will focus on developing a...
"To see what competitive telecommunications will look like tomorrow, look at wireless today," read a banner at CTIA's Wireless '99. That's not the way Ernest Kelly, president of the Telecommunications Resellers Association, sees it."I wish I had more encouraging things to say, but I...
The Personal Communications Industry Association supported Cook Telecom Inc. in its continuing battle for interconnection rights and termination compensation from Pacific Bell Inc.Cook Telecom is a one-way paging carrier in California that has been in a legal duel with Pacific Bell ever since the...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission was given some advice on FCC reform last week as Michael Kennedy of Motorola Inc. suggested the FCC create a spectrum management board comprised of bureau chiefs to examine the "impact of domestic and international spectrum allocation issues."The suggestion of...
WASHINGTON-As the Federal Communications Commission moves closer to setting guidelines to make telecom equipment and services accessible to disabled individuals, the wireless industry is pressing regulators to back off proposed rules that it claims are too restrictive and burdensome and that run counter to...
WASHINGTON-Wireless telephones will work when the new millennium arrives-right? Well, maybe.The Federal Communications Commission last week refused to give a clean bill of health to the wireless industry regarding the millennium bug because only 31 percent of 300 companies surveyed responded to the FCC's...
WASHINGTON-As the private wireless industry prepares to enter the battle against auctioning spectrum, competing private wireless groups are fighting over how spectrum should be coordinated.At the middle of two disputes is the Personal Communications Industry Association, which has been criticized by some for spending...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission late Friday adopted proposed rules to implement the Balanced Budget Act of 1997.The long-awaited notice of proposed rule making does not "even render tentative conclusions" about the use of auctions in private wireless licensing, said Thomas Sugrue, chief of the...
WASHINGTON-Rep. Charles Bass (R-N.H.), in the latest effort to strengthen state and local oversight of antenna siting, has introduced legislation to shift the burden to wireless carriers to ensure transmission towers meet with approval of local residents.The Local Zoning Preservation Act of 1999, introduced...
WASHINGTON-The cellular industry apparently knew what it was doing when it waited for Reed Hundt to retire as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission before asking that the spectrum cap be lifted. "Let's not talk about lifting the spectrum cap. The spectrum cap is...
SAN DIEGO-If you are a small specialized mobile radio operator, which trade association, if any, should you belong to?Three trade associations, all based in the Washington, D.C., area, purport to represent the SMR industry: the American Telecommunications Mobile Association, the Personal Communications Industry Association and...
WASHINGTON-The Department of Justice has signed a letter of intent with a telecommunications manufacturer to buy software and give it to carriers to implement the digital wiretap act, Attorney General Janet Reno told a congressional panel last Thursday."We have signed a letter of intent...
WASHINGTON-Telecommunications networks are expected to pass the coming of the new millennium without catching the dreaded millennium bug, said a group representing local exchange carriers and a congressional report last week. While other areas of the national economy, such as health care, may still...
WASHINGTON-Let the lobbying begin.Now that the Federal Communications Commission has decided to think some more about its position on whether to auction private wireless spectrum, lobbyists are gearing up efforts.Private wireless representatives, who consistently have opposed the notion of competitive bidding as a licensing...
WASHINGTON-The regulatory landscape for the personal communications services industry is dominated not by issues that are PCS-specific but by issues impacting the entire commercial mobile radio services industry."Even though there may be some rules that are different (for PCS carriers than for cellular carriers),...
WASHINGTON-The future of the American Mobile Telecommunications Association has become clouded by the anticipated departure of Nextel Communications Inc., the nation's top dispatch radio operator and a major underwriter of the trade association."We're reshaping things," said AMTA President Alan Shark.Shark last week confirmed speculation...
WASHINGTON-In an effort to spur the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau to act on outstanding issues regarding the 800 MHz band, the Personal Communications Industry Association has sent a letter to WTB Chief Thomas Sugrue.The letter was sent in the wake of a federal appeals...
WASHINGTON-The FBI should set digital wiretap capacity standards for messaging services based on percentages rather than geography, said the Personal Communications Industry Association in comments filed with the FBI last week. Those services include traditional paging, two-way paging, narrowband personal communications services, mobile satellite...
Increasingly, for wireless regulators, striking a policy balance on issues affecting competition, consumer safety and law enforcement is a big challenge. Owing in part to converging technologies and changing markets, these issues are more complex than ever. Answers are not readily apparent, and what...
WASHINGTON-The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association has filed reply comments with the Federal Communications Commission arguing entities-including the Personal Communications Industry Association-that say the spectrum cap should remain in place "misrepresent the current state of competition."The spectrum cap limits carriers to 45 megahertz in a...
WASHINGTON-The Personal Communications Industry Association continued its fight last week to keep the spectrum cap in place. The spectrum cap limits carriers to 45 megahertz in a given geographic area.In reply comments filed with the Federal Communications Commission, PCIA said personal communications services carriers...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission last week rejected a proposal from the Personal Communications Industry Association to institute a caller pays, or coin-in-the-box, plan for pay-phone compensation rather than the current carrier-pays setup.A coin-in-the-box proposal would require customers to deposit coins equal to the local...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission's review of the spectrum cap has turned into a big vs. little battle with the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association and most large wireless carriers in favor of lifting the cap, while the Personal Communications Industry Association and smaller carriers argue...
WASHINGTON-Notwithstanding the Federal Communications Commission's findings last week that the rollout of advanced technologies is "reasonable and timely," Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), chairman of the Senate communications subcommittee, plans to introduce legislation this month to prod the FCC to do more.Burns was not-at-all happy...
