I need your help.The next few weeks at RCR and everywhere else in the wireless industry are going to be crazy. It's too late to try to clean off my desk, but I'd like to be able to file away some questions that keep...
WASHINGTON-The Mexican government will auction new frequencies for paging, narrowband PCS (two-way paging), trunking and point-to-point microwave. The auctions are scheduled for late 1998 and early 1999, depending on the service, according to the Comision Federal de Telecomunicaciones (Cofetel), Mexico's regulatory agency.Earlier this year,...
Chances are slim to none that U.S. mobile phone operators will agree on one standard for the next generation of mobile phone services.Already fragmented with three different digital standards-cdmaOne, TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) and GSM (Global System for Mobile communications)-the United States is...
WASHINGTON-Almost 500 years after Columbus visited, Portugal and Spain are back on Latin American shores; this time, it isn't sugar cane or gold they are after, but rather the potentially lucrative telecom sector. Telefonica de Espana and Portugal Telecom were the most aggressive bidders...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-The licensing of two additional cellular carriers in South Africa will represent the biggest opportunity for black empowerment in Africa-and for some, the last chance to become involved in the vibrant telecommunications market here.When the Department of Communications issues tender invitations later...
WASHINGTON-The third-generation wireless debate took a dramatic turn last week as a key Clinton administration official questioned whether the United States should follow Europe's lead in allocating massive 3G spectrum, and an industry schism erupted that could have Motorola Inc. going its own way.Motorola,...
L.M. Ericsson head Sven-Christer Nilsson told the Japanese press late last week his company will continue negotiations with Qualcomm Inc. and said it is ready to reach some form of compromise over intellectual property rights to third-generation technology.Ericsson spokeswoman Kathy Egan said the company...
WASHINGTON-In perhaps the strongest signal to date of congressional concern about U.S. global competitiveness in the future third-generation mobile phone market, Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.) pressed the Clinton administration to outline the steps it is taking to ensure American technology is not snubbed by...
WASHINGTON-The wireless industry and the hearing-impaired community appear headed on a collision course over the implementation of the 1996 telecom act's mandate that equipment and service be accessible and usable by persons with disabilities if it is "readily achievable."The readily achievable caveat, among other...
SAO PAULO, Brazil-Qualcomm do Brasil S.A., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Inc., announced a new Qualcomm phone manufacturing facility in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with initial manufacturing capacity of about 300,000 phones per year.Qualcomm said the facility will begin producing Code Division Multiple Access dual-mode handsets...
The industry's first cellular phone manufacturer has become another casualty of the highly competitive handset business. Oki Telecom Inc. has ceased manufacturing, sales and marketing all mobile phones in the United States.Suwanee, Ga.-based Oki was a pioneer in the cellular handset industry. Involved with...
SAN DIEGO-Qualcomm Inc. licensed Acer Peripherals Inc. of Taiwan to develop, manufacture and sell subscriber products based on its Code Division Multiple Access technology.Terms of the multimillion-dollar, royalty-bearing agreement allow API to make products for cdmaOne wireless applications, including cellular, personal communications services and...
WASHINGTON-The head of the Federal Communications Commission told RCR last week he believed assurances he received from Europeans that they would not discriminate against American companies on third-generation wireless standards were lacking.FCC Chairman William Kennard said the assurances were not "sufficient because basically what...
Qualcomm Inc. said it has clarified its stance with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute on intellectual property rights it claims to own for W-CDMA technology.In January, ETSI chose W-CDMA technology, based on a Global System for Mobile communications platform, as a third-generation technology choice...
To the Editor: Amidst an escalating industry-wide debate about competing wireless technologies, we want to ensure that the "GSM-CDMA Economic Study," prepared by Andersen Consulting with two other consulting firms, is not misinterpreted. Consequently, we at Andersen Consulting want to clarify certain aspects of the...
WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration, encouraged but apparently not swayed by assurances in Brussels that Europe will be open to multiple third-generation wireless standards, is growing increasingly worried that American mobile phone technology will be locked out of the 15-nation European Union in the next century."We...
HAUPPAUGE, N.Y.-With $18 million in order bookings during the second quarter, Microwave Power Devices Inc.'s backlog reached a record high of about $100 million, boosted by an $11.1 million military subcontract and a $4.5 million Qualcomm Inc. order.MPD's second-quarter net income tripled to $336,000,...
MEXICO CITY-Pegaso Telecomunicaciones S.A. de C.V. increased its equity commitments to $400 million by adding four new consortium members: Grupo Televisa S.A., Citicorp Equity Capital Latin America, AIG-GE Capital Latin America Infrastructure Fund and Nissho Iwai Corp.The consortium, formed by Grupo Pegaso and Qualcomm Inc....
ALEXANDRIA, Va.-The Personal Communications Industry Association announced the industry leaders who will speak at the Personal Communications Showcase '98 conference Sept. 22-25 in Orlando, Fla.Federal Communications Commission Chairman William Kennard will deliver the keynote address at the opening SuperSession, "Connect to Leadership: Building a Wireless...
Some U.S. GSM and TDMA operators are irked at Qualcomm Inc. and its lobbying efforts within the U.S. government to frame the third-generation issue as a trade issue with Europe.They say that while Qualcomm is urging the State Department to take action against Europe...
This week the wireless industry at last understood the pace of summer. Only 10 or so breaking news events designed to change the face of the industry as we see it today happened.With that in mind, I finally managed to organize the pile of...
Turns out there is not one but two million-dollar men in the Portals fiasco.Subpoenaed documents provided to congressional investigators by Tennessee developer Franklin Haney last week supposedly reveal that former Tennessee senator Jim Sasser, before becoming U.S. ambassador to China, pocketed $1 million for...
SAN DIEGO-Qualcomm Inc. signed an agreement with Pegaso PCS S.A. de D.V., a wholly owned subsidiary of Pegaso Telecommunications S.A. de C.V., to supply about $650 million of infrastructure equipment and deployment services in Mexico during the next three years.Purchase orders for more than...
WITCHITA, Kansas-IFR Systems Inc. announced it has entered into a royalty-bearing license agreement with Qualcomm Inc. that gives IFR the right to use and continue to develop Qualcomm's proprietary software for production testing of CDMA handsets."We are developing automatic CDMA test systems based on...
