WASHINGTON-In addition to new litigation alleging that mobile phones cause brain cancer, the wireless industry also faces possible Supreme Court litigation over government exposure standards and a class-action lawsuit in New Orleans that claims manufacturers failed to take steps to minimize consumer exposure to...
NEW YORK-Telecommunications is like chess, because the grand masters emerge as victors by controlling the center of the board, Ivan Seidenberg, president and co-chief executive officer of Verizon Communications Inc., said."In our case, the move to center means four platforms: robust local access, local broadband,...
NEW YORK-AT&T Labs, Florham Park, N.J., is peering into the future of wireless communications and working on ways to enhance the next generation of services, researchers said at a recent media and analyst briefing.Closest to fruition is the Location-Aware Information Services research project. The...
WASHINGTON-If Al Gore becomes the next president of the United States, as polls increasingly are suggesting, Big Telecom could gain unprecedented access to the White House and have extraordinary influence on high-tech policy for the next four years.It's not that Big Telecom is any...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission said it has signed up 29 co-sponsors for the Indian Telecom Training Initiative (ITTI 2000) to be held Sept. 25-28 in St. Paul, Minn.Co-sponsors include Alltel Corp., AT&T Corp., Ericsson Inc., Globalstar L.P., Lucent Technologies Inc., Lukas, Nace, Gutierrez &...
WASHINGTON-A Motorola Inc. technician who was a mobile-phone trouble shooter for 10 years plans shortly to sue Motorola Inc. and possibly others for allegedly causing his brain cancer. The man went on disability last fall after being diagnosed with a potentially deadly brain tumor...
SpectraSite Communications Inc. snagged a major contract with one of the nation's top wireless carriers, entering an agreement to lease 3,900 communication towers from SBC Communications Inc. and build 800 new towers for SBC under a five-year build-to-suit agreement, for a total of 4,700...
WASHINGTON-The Justice Department will require SBC Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. to divest wireless licenses in 16 markets throughout three states as an antitrust condition for a joint venture that will create the second-largest mobile phone company in the nation.The divestitures include wireless properties...
WASHINGTON-With the Federal Communications Commission set to rule shortly on whether building owners should be forced to open their doors to upstart telecom carriers, lobbying between fixed broadband wireless carriers and the real estate industry over building access has intensified in a controversy that...
WASHINGTON-Wireless firms last week pushed to have the Baltimore mobile phone-cancer lawsuit moved from Maryland state court to a federal court.The filing was prepared by the Atlanta law firm of Alston & Bird on behalf of Motorola Inc., Verizon Wireless, SBC Communications Inc., the...
CanadaFuzion Wireless Communications said it launched its fixed wireless broadband services network in Ontario, Canada. Serving businesses in Toronto and other locations, Fuzion said it will deliver Internet connectivity at speeds from 500 kilobits per second to 45 Megabits per second.United StatesVerizon Communications and...
MONTREAL-Bell Canada International (BCI) said it signed an agreement with Taiwan Cement Corp. to sell its 20-percent minority interest in KG Telecom, a Taiwanese PCS provider, for US$1.71 per share, generating gross proceeds of about Canadian $790 million (US$534 million).BCI announced a joint venture...
DenmarkTele2 entered an agreement with Sonofon to become a mobile virtual network operator (VNO) in Denmark. Sonofon is the first operator to open its networks to mobile VNOs, according to Tele2's parent company, NetCom.FinlandSonera said it is in talks about a merger or partnership...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission said it will vigorously enforce wireless radiation safety rules that go into effect later this week."We are serious about this and will be checking," said Robert Cleveland, the FCC's expert on radio-frequency exposure rules. Cleveland said the FCC will conduct...
WASHINGTON-While the Communications Workers of America succeeded in winning concessions that make it easier to organize wireless workers at Verizon Communications-the nation's largest mobile phone and local telephone company-the prospect for widespread wireless unionization is challenged by a confluence of forces that conspire against...
OSLO, Norway-Tele Danmark and partner SBC Communications Inc. agreed to sell their combined 40-percent stake in Norway's mobile operator NetCom ASA to Sweden's Telia.In May, Tele Danmark purchased 25,000 additional shares in NetCom and attempted to take control of the operator with a $34...
TOKYO-Japan's dominant wireless carrier, NTT DoCoMo, is in talks with SBC Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. about taking a minority stake in the combined mobile venture between the two U.S. carriers, according to a report in the Aug. 17 edition of the Financial Times.The...
WASHINGTON-A little known government panel could play a big role in the coming years as new trade rules free up foreign firms to buy U.S. wireless companies, a trend that some in Congress claim is a national security threat.The U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment...
WASHINGTON-The Baltimore law firm that earlier this month filed a mobile-phone cancer lawsuit against several wireless firms and two industry trade associations is expected to file additional lawsuits as early as this week, according to sources. The lawsuits could be filed in Georgia and...
WASHINGTON-While Verizon Communications workers strike in part to make it easier for its wireless workers to join unions, union issues have been largely settled at other companies.Before its workers began striking Aug. 6, Verizon Communications said it did not believe it was in a...
LOS ANGELES-As the official communications and wireless company of the 2000 Democratic National Convention, SBC Communications Inc. provided voice, data, video and wireless services for the four-day convention, and the more than 15,000 journalists and 5,000 participating delegates.SBC noted that more than 450 digital...
VoiceStream Wireless Corp. last week reiterated its confidence in its merger with German operator Deutsche Telekom as both companies' stock values dropped since the merger announcement.By press time, the deal was valued at about $45.3 billion, or $171 per VoiceStream share, compared with $50.7...
BALTIMORE-Maryland doctor Chris Newman, 41, filed an $800 million lawsuit in Baltimore City Circuit Court claiming his wireless phone caused a malignant tumor behind his right ear.The tumor was discovered in March 1998.The lawsuit, first reported by Jeffrey Silva in the July 31 issue...
WASHINGTON-A top-flight Baltimore law firm is expected to file a lawsuit this week claiming a malignant brain tumor diagnosed in a 42-year-old male neurologist was caused by heavy and long-term mobile-phone use.The lawsuit, likely to be filed in a Washington-Baltimore area court, is being...
