WASHINGTON-In an amici curiae brief submitted by four members of Congress, the Federal Communications Commission is taken to task for taking telecommunications law into its own hands in the currently stayed interconnection and local competition order.And speaking at a gathering of regulatory utilities commissioners...
WASHINGTON-The U.S. Supreme Court has closed the book on any further appeal to vacate a stay of certain interconnection and local competition rules adopted last August by the Federal Communications Commission. The court last week denied for the second time a petition for such...
WASHINGTON-Certain parts of the Federal Communications Commission's interconnection and local exchange rules dealing with negotiations between local exchange carriers and commercial mobile radio service operators will not be included in the current stay that prevents FCC pricing restrictions from being implemented.Responding to an emergency...
WASHINGTON, D.C.-The U.S. Department of Justice said last week the scheduled merger between SBC Communications Inc. and Pacific Telesis Group does not violate federal anti-trust laws.In addition, two other mergers are nearing final approval.Shareholders of Bell Atlantic Corp. voted overwhelmingly Friday to approve the...
NEW YORK-The new federal telecommunications law unleashed a flurry of mergers and acquisitions, but the true test of success will be profitability, not size."The trend began three years ago, but as predicted by many, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 turned the torrent into a...
WASHINGTON-Antitrust policy is adapting to sweeping pro-competitive, deregulatory telecommunications reforms mandated by Congress, but not abandoning traditional oversight safeguards, one of the nation's top regulators said.The Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission are all shifting their missions, noted...
Sixteen wireless operators have made the cut to be considered possible partners for Greece's government telephone company.Watching the success of the country's two private cellular providers, the government has awarded a third mobile license to its own landline entity, OTE. OTE will compete with...
HighwayMaster Communications Inc. announced it reached an agreement with SBC Communications Inc. for a $20 million equity investment in HighwayMaster. The company said SBC's initial investment will be in preferred stock, which is convertible into common stock at the rate of $12.50 per share....
MORRISTOWN, N.J.-Bellcore said its board of directors has not yet approved the sale of the company, although a California defense contractor is believed to be close to making the buy.Bell Communications Research Inc. was created in 1984 by the regional Bell operating companies following...
Dennis Miller is the new president of Midwest Wireless Communications, the company taking over management of Cellular 2000. The transition between MWC and Cellular 2000's current management company, Pacific Telecom Cellular, is expected to be complete by the end of the year. Miller will...
WASHINGTON-More regional holding companies filed petitions for review at various courts of appeals of the Federal Communications Commission's local competition and interconnection order in hopes of killing, or at least delaying, commission rules that they view as being anti-states' rights. And in the midst...
WASHINGTON-The Senate Judiciary Committee last week scrutinized pending mergers involving four of the seven regional Bell telephone companies, setting the stage for a broader debate on whether the new telecommunications law is fostering competition or limiting it.There are strong views on both sides of...
WASHINGTON-Organized labor wants to make inroads in the wireless telecommunications industry as part of a broad makeover to regain political clout that has been waning for the past two decades."It's a major priority," said Jeffery Miller, a spokesman for the Communications Workers of America.But...
The Chilean supreme court recently dismissed a lawsuit regarding spectrum regulations, which means the government is on track to issue three personal communications services licenses.Isabel Valenzuela, commercial specialist at the U.S. Embassy in Santiago, said the PCS licenses are expected to be awarded in...
WASHINGTON-Only weeks after luring Alex Mandl away from AT&T Corp. for a reported $20 million in a much celebrated coup, Associated Communications L.L.C. now finds itself mired in controversy over the suddenly popular 18 GHz spectrum for local broadband wireless multimedia services that Mandl...
NEW YORK-After many delays, Brazil's B-band cellular license auctions, which will be open to foreign bidders, are likely to begin early next year.The Brazil Senate last month ratified telecommunications deregulation legislation already approved by the House, thereby opening satellite and cellular services to outside...
AT&T Wireless Services Inc. has acquired the Little Rock, Ark., and Memphis, Tenn., 1900 MHz personal communications services licenses from SBC Communications Inc.In addition to acquiring the two major trading area licenses, AT&T said it also will gain control of SBC's 35.7 percent interest...
Teletouch Communications Inc. announced it has completed its acquisition of laPAGEco of Baton Rouge, La. laPAGEco is a privately owned paging company that provides services to about 6,700 pagers on 157.74 MHz, Teletouch's main paging frequency. Teletouch said the acquisition complements its paging operations...
The prospect of taking SkyTel 2-Way messaging service from a workable technology to a marketplace product is at the crux of John Stupka's new role as president and chief executive officer of paging giant Mtel.In taking the helm at Mobile Telecommunication Technologies Corp., Stupka...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Trade Commission said cost savings should be considered regularly in antitrust analysis of high-tech mergers, such as the multimillion dollar deals sweeping the telecommunications industry. But it is not clear whether the policy changes being contemplated will help or hurt consumers and...
Code Division Multiple Access has been touted as a success story in Seoul, South Korea and in Hong Kong. Many U.S. personal communications services licensees have based their access technology decision on CDMA's reported superior performance, high capacity and low cost. Many analysts put...
At one-month-old, my daughter has discovered how to kick off the covers. This delights her and she does it often, leaving her mother obsessed with room temperatures and blankets.According to my favorite parenting book, the room temperature should be set between 70 degrees and...
NEW YORK-The urge to merge struck again with an Easter weekend announcement that AirTouch Communications Inc. would pay about $1.65 billion to buy the 60 percent of Cellular Communications Inc. it doesn't already own.The proposed AirTouch takeover of CCI follows closely on the heels...
