SAN DIEGO-Contract manufacturers are beginning to reshape the global plastics industry, according to a senior official with Flextronics International Ltd.Paul Santina, vice president of business development and global plastics for the Singapore firm, is speaking from experience. Flextronics has grown at bullet-train speed, from...
WASHINGTON-A new day appears to be dawning for FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell.This new day will have Powell greeting four new colleagues by the end of the year, reforming an agency that some on Capitol Hill have said cannot be fixed and should be...
Motorola Inc.'s miserable journey into the realm of mobile satellite communications with Iridium L.L.C. worsened last week when a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge in New York ruled that creditors of Iridium could proceed with plans to sue Motorola for $2 billion in damages.Creditors contend...
It was the wild, wild West of wireless history.After the breakup of AT&T, in which the company lost its cellular business, the Federal Communications Commission began allocating cellular licenses to the Baby Bells and others. One of those others was McCaw Cellular Communications Inc.,...
WASHINGTON-The wireless industry last week received the strongest indication to date that securing third-generation mobile-phone spectrum will be difficult if not impossible, as an eclectic mix of military, educational, religious and fixed wireless licensees voiced serious reservations about leaving their frequencies to make room...
WASHINGTON-Huawei Technologies Inc., a Chinese telecom firm that is quickly becoming a global wireless juggernaut, is reportedly suspected of violating U.N. sanctions by supplying Iraq with fiber optic cable to improve its air defense capability.The Washington Post, citing Western and Asian sources, said Western...
Qualcomm Inc. rose to the defense of third-generation technology, amid reports the technology will drag its feet for about three years.The company said the demand for its CDMA integrated circuits would meet the forecast of 16 million units, a 1 million unit increase from...
In the RCR Wireless News article, "Cellport finds positive landscape for its product in negative problem," (Feb. 12, page 33) the founder and chief executive officer of Cellport should have been identified as Pat Kennedy.
Editor's Note: Posted on Quantum Group, Inc.'s Web site, www.mergeusa.com, is an outspoken and somewhat controversial article on consolidating industries. It is an article that predicts general doom and misery for consolidators in any industry - including the tower industry. While the prophecy of consolidation...
NEW YORK-The Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting a formal investigation of Lucent Technologies Inc. for possible fraudulent accounting practices, The Wall Street Journal reported.The SEC reportedly is looking into whether Lucent improperly booked $679 million in revenues during its 2000 fiscal year, which...
WASHINGTON-After 31 years, he's been there and done that.Now it is time for Mark E. Crosby, president of the Industrial Telecommunications Association, to leave the private-wireless advocacy group to become president of Access Spectrum L.L.C.-the entity he created and nurtured to acquire radio-frequency spectrum...
WASHINGTON-The mobile-phone industry, buoyed last week by the third study in two months that failed to link mobile phones to brain cancer and other diseases, still remains mired in mushrooming litigation.Motorola Inc., the nation's top mobile-phone manufacturer and a defendant in several suits, has...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission is losing its most conservative member, although Harold Furchtgott-Roth does not expect his departure to leave the the newly named GOP chairman of the agency outnumbered by Democrats on the commission.Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth said Wednesday it was time for him...
TeleCommunication Systems Inc. said it received the necessary shareholder and regulatory approvals to complete its acquisition of privately held Xypoint Corp.Under terms of the agreement, Xypoint shareholders received 4.2 million shares of TCS class A common stock.Shortly following the announcement, shares of TCS increased...
Twenty years ago, in a dangerous neighborhood in the slums of Denver, a monthly newspaper called Radio Communications Report was first published. Its mission: to cover the emerging land mobile communications industry.From those humble beginnings (and trust me, there isn't much more humble than an...
WASHINGTON-The wireless industry last week suffered two stunning legal setbacks in health-related litigation, capped by the decision of wealthy Baltimore superlawyer Peter Angelos to take control of an $800 million mobile phone-cancer lawsuit in Maryland.It was an unprecedented week that left the industry in...
In an RCR Wireless News story, "Kite launches Phoenix beta trial of MMDS service," (Jan. 8, page 20) it incorrectly stated the type of service provider Kite was and the type of technology the company uses. The headline and copy should have read Kite...
WASHINGTON-The U.S. Supreme Court last week declined to consider appeals of mobile phone and tower radiation safety guidelines adopted by the Federal Communications Commission in 1996.Four parties had challenged a decision last year by a federal appeals court in New York, which upheld the...
When the Federal Communications Commission set aside a portion of the licenses up for bid in its 1996 personal communications services auction, the intent was to foster competition in the wireless industry by allowing minority-owned companies, known as designated entities, to purchase licenses without...
The sagging stock market is partly to blame for another telecommunications snafu as Western Multiplex Corp. and wireless broadband equipment manufacturer Adaptive Broadband Corp. announced last week that Western Multiplex's planned acquisition of Adaptive Broadband for approximately $645 million has been terminated."The fixed-wireless industry...
WASHINGTON-The Communications Workers of America signed a contract with employees of the newly formed Cingular Wireless Inc. in Illinois, Massachusetts, New York and Maryland."The negotiations between several CWA regions and Cingular management were very positive and a good effort. Both sides were determined to...
WASHINGTON-Consumer advocate and failed presidential candidate Ralph Nader last week called for the creation of a world consumer protection organization that would be similar to the existing World Intellectual Property Organization but "more democratic."Nader said the WCPO would be able to negotiate international treaties...
WASHINGTON-Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.) last week won the battle to chair the House Commerce Committee as part of a congressional realignment that has pro-wireless industry lawmakers heading key committees in the 107th Congress, a scenario partially offset by the prospect of legislative gridlock borne...
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Adaptive Broadband Corp. lowered its revenue expectations for the fiscal second quarter ended Dec. 31, calling into question its pending acquisition by Western Multiplex Corp. and causing its shares to dip nearly 50 percent immediately following the news.The revenue adjustment was due...
