Verizon Wireless (VZ) is claiming that Cellular South's recent announcement that it was working with Samsung Telecommunications America calls into question the rural operator's claim that small operators will not be able to launch LTE networks if equipment makers are not required to produce...
Kentucky-based rural wireless operator Bluegrass Cellular said it has taken Verizon Wireless (VZ) up on its offer to partner with smaller operators in an attempt to broaden the deployment of LTE services using 700 MHz spectrum.Bluegrass said it has entered into an agreement with...
Editor's Note: This is the first in a new series by RCR Wireless News that will seek to interview C-level executives from around the world to gain insight into their challenges and successes. To nominate someone for the series, please e-mail Tracy Ford at...
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Rural Cellular Association recently instituted plans to increase its presence in the regulatory halls of Washington, D.C., that included a reorganization that saw the trade group replace its former executive director with a new CEO. RCA's new leadership announced the...
LAS VEGAS – Rural wireless carriers received a brutally honest opinion of what their future may look like if they fail to keep up with rapidly technology changes in the mobile industry during a panel discussion at this year’s Rural Cellular Association event in...
LAS VEGAS – To the surprise of few, rural wireless operators continue to face a number of challenges in their daily quest to remain viable options for consumers increasingly bombarded with advertising and promotions from nationwide operators. Operators that spend billions of dollars on...
LAS VEGAS – The Rural Cellular Association kicked off its annual convention with a pledge to improve the trade organizations efforts in Washington, D.C., following a reorganization that saw the trade group replace its former executive director with a new CEO. RCA's new leadership...
The Rural Cellular Association kicks off its 18th Annual Convention and Exhibition this week in Las Vegas, and as in years past the trade organization faces a number of issues that are impacting rural operators. Those issues include access to devices, roaming agreements, network...
The Rural Cellular Association kicks off its 18th Annual Convention and Exhibition this week in Las Vegas, and as in years past the trade organization faces a number of issues that are impacting rural operators. Those issues include access to devices, roaming agreements, network...
Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.On Nov. 4, the Federal Communications Commission issued a decision that few have thus far given very...
So far, despite massive lobbying over scheduled Nov. 4 votes on white spaces, wireless mergers, the universal service fund and intercarrier-compensation reforms, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin has yet to blink. The FCC last night released the official agenda for the...
The controversy over the Federal Communications Commission's decision to cap subsidies flowing to wireless carriers for building rural networks has been elevated to a new level, with rural cellular operators asking a federal appeals court to review the agency's action. Hundreds of millions of...
A group of rural and small wireless providers asked the Federal Communications Commission to reconsider its decision to impose an interim cap on high-cost universal service fund payments to eligible telecommunications carriers, urging the agency to refrain from putting the rule into effect and...
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin said he wants action before month's end to relax roaming rules and freeze further licensing of wireless microphones in the 700 MHz band as regulators explore policy options to address potential inference from allegedly illegal operation of wireless...
SPRINT NEXTEL CORP. AND CLEARWIRE CORP.'S CAMPAIGN to win government approval of a their national WiMAX plan is drawing static from AT&T Inc. and rural cellular operators on key unsettled wireless policy issues, but the deal has picked up backing from many educational and...
Public-safety groups, which last year successively persuaded federal regulators to adopt a strict enhanced 911 location accuracy standard over the objections of wireless providers, now say the rule is unworkable and should be replaced with a more lenient one. They also told the Federal...
The nation's leading consumer groups urged the Federal Communications Commission to act on a request to investigate exclusivity pacts between top mobile-phone carriers and handset suppliers that rural wireless operators claim are anticompetitive.Last month, the Rural Cellular Association petitioned the FCC to open a...
Rural mobile-phone operators have asked the Federal Communications Commission to investigate exclusivity deals between the industry's major carriers and handset vendors, taking aim at an entrenched business practice that they assert is anticompetitive and denies rural residents in many states access to popular wireless...
LAS VEGAS - Cyren Call Communications Corp. Chairman Morgan O'Brien said that any company the Public Safety Spectrum Trust advisor spoke with prior to the unsuccessful attempt to auction off the D-Block license that thought Cyren Call was looking to resell access to the...
LAS VEGAS -- The past 12 months have been a tumultuous time for rural carriers and even more so for the Rural Cellular Association. The trade association has brought in a new executive director with a different view on RCA's mission; has seen large...
Wireless providers continue to push back against proposed reforms to the stressed universal service program for rural America, arguing that they are being penalized at a time when consumers increasingly demand the kind of mobility and broadband capabilities that wireless technology provides.The FCC is...
A federal appeals court blocked the Federal Communications Commission's new enhanced 911 location accuracy rule from going into effect, possibly setting the stage for the court to overturn the agency's 2007 decision.The Rural Cellular Association and T-Mobile USA Inc. challenged on substantive and procedural...
The Federal Communications Commission put the brakes on the September 2008 deadline for mobile-phone carriers to comply with new enhanced 911 location accuracy guidelines, but the action is unlikely to make court challenges go away.Last September, the FCC clarified that cellular carriers must meet...
The Federal Communications Commission is coming under increasing pressure from the wireless industry to put on hold new enhanced 911 location accuracy guidelines, with court appeals virtually guaranteed.On the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the FCC clarified that wireless service...
