WASHINGTON-In a major victory for the wireless industry, the Justice Department last week approved an antenna siting collocation plan crafted by the Personal Communications Industry Association.The PCIA approach includes an information exchange, known as the Site Search Clearinghouse, which will allow wireless carriers to...
ALEXANDRIA, Va.-The Personal Communications Industry Association received approval from the U.S. Department of Justice on planned efforts to help wireless communications carriers develop a seamless nationwide network by launching a clearinghouse to organize tower collocation efforts.The Collocation Clearinghouse is designed to help carriers identify...
WASHINGTON-The Telecommunications Resellers Association last week defended its study that claims a "resale blockage" exists in broadband personal communications service and specialized mobile radio service.TRA President Ernie Kelly, in a March 24 letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Bill Kennard, lashed out at Personal...
The wireless industry, having been defeated on Capitol Hill and Bunker Hill by environmentalists, organized labor and soccer moms, has turned to John Q. Public, Marcus Welby, M.D. and Ivan to makes its case. And what a wonderful strategy shift it is. Better late...
Like a tsunami we don't see until it's too late, number portability is heading toward the wireless industry, and few companies seem prepared for the impending storm.While phones, technology and communication vehicles have changed dramatically through the years, one constant in the telecommunications industry...
WASHINGTON-The Personal Communications Industry Association launched its "Agenda for a Wireless America" aimed at urging regulators and legislators at the local, county, state and federal levels to focus their efforts on smoothing the industry's path toward full competition.The program, unveiled Feb. 10 by PCIA...
SINGAPORE-The Telecommunication Authority of Singapore is taking a new approach to encouraging competition in the local wireless market. Beginning April 1, 2000, TAS will lower annual license fees for mobile and paging operators to 1 percent of annual sales.Currently, paging providers pay 3 percent...
WASHINGTON-With the first round of universal service payments having been made this month to the government by any service-offering telecommunications operation, there still is controversy surrounding how and why commercial mobile radio service providers that are not in direct competition with local exchange carriers...
SINGAPORE-The Asia-Pacific currency crisis has taken its toll on the Personal Communications Industry Association's first venture into the international trade-show arena. Wireless Showcase Asia, held here last week and touted as the first all-wireless show in the region, drew only limited attendance from outside...
WASHINGTON-The Personal Communications Industry Association is awaiting Justice Department approval for a national database that will include information on potential wireless site locations targeting new and collocation opportunities. Justice is expected to take two to three months to vet the plan.According to the association,...
In an initial victory for paging carriers nationwide, the Federal Communications Commission's Common Carrier Bureau announced its current rules do not allow local exchange carriers to charge paging carriers for delivering traffic over the LEC network.Specifically, the bureau said its rules "do not allow...
WASHINGTON-Comments regarding the Federal Communications Commission's notice of proposed rule making on the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act have one thing in common-moving the compliance date back two years, to Oct. 25, 2000.The Telecommunications Industry Association, the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, the American...
Remember the old Kris Kristofferson standard, "Everybody's got to have somebody to look down on?" Well, I think I saw that in spades when I sat in on a recent roundtable meeting between alphanumeric paging dispatch providers, those who use such services and a...
The state of wireless technology and devices is in good shape today, and should continue to stay healthy well into the future, as long as carriers understand the changing dynamics of wireless users, according to a study presented by the Personal Communications Industry Association.Titled...
The Personal Communications Industry Association and a coalition of alphanumeric paging dispatchers have filed petitions to either stay or reconsider, respectively, the Federal Communication Commission's Pay Telephone Compensation Remand Order.PCIA believes the ruling will cause economic and competitive harm to the paging industry, and...
WASHINGTON-After months of being publicly pounded on antenna siting, health concerns, unsafe cell phone drivers and blocked E-911 calls, the wireless industry is responding with an approach that relies on good corporate citizenship and uses the power of advertising to stress the public-safety benefits...
ALEXANDRIA, VA.-The Personal Communications Industry Association announced that the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Communications Society's Wireless Communications Conference will be held in conjunction with PCIA's Personal Communications Showcase '99 Sept. 22-27 in New Orleans.The official agreement was signed by PCIA President Jay...
WASHINGTON-For the second time, the law enforcement community has nixed an industry-crafted digital wiretap standard by taking advantage of liberal voting procedures in a way that wireless companies believe amounts to stuffing the ballot box.Last week's setback is expected to further fuel the flames...
The paging industry is gearing up for a fight over what one industry executive termed "one of the most important issues affecting our industry at this point."The comment refers to the Federal Communications Commission's decision to adopt a per-call, carrier-pays compensation scheme for 800/888...
WASHINGTON-According to a new book on wireless regulations written by former Industrial Telecommunications Association staffer Fred Day, "In 1993, Congress amended the Communications Act to incorporate a new term, `commercial mobile service,' also referred to as `commercial mobile radio service.' This term is essentially...
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 &...
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...
WASHINGTON-Senate Commerce Committee members sternly advised Federal Communications Commission chairman nominee William Kennard to rethink agency positions on federal pre-emption and wireless universal service funding and to stop dragging its feet on little low-earth orbit satellite licensing.But despite sharp criticism of the FCC's handling...
WASHINGTON-The Senate Commerce Committee last week rejected spectrum fees and toll-free telephone number auctions, but embraced lease fees for private wireless licensees in budget legislation lawmakers concede will fail to generate $26.3 billion from wireless license sales during the next five years.But spectrum fees...
