WASHINGTON-The new Democratic-controlled Senate is expected to change the tone of telecom policy debate in Congress, but is unlikely to immediately have a major legislative impact. That may well change in time, however.With Democrats assuming control of the Senate for the first time since...
LONDON-About 44 percent of all U.K. households had a mobile phone in 2000, but this year, 68 percent of U.K. households have a mobile phone, according to the "2001 U.K. Mobile Telephone Customer Satisfaction Study" from J.D. Power and Associates.Nearly one in 10 households...
NEW YORK-For the price of additional transceiver cards and its Zone Manager product, mDiversity, San Jose, Calif., promises it can double second-generation GSM network capacity without additional base stations or handset modifications."We believe there is a real opportunity in improving today's 2G voice system,...
Just days before embarking on an unprecedented merger under concurrent Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings, Metrocall Inc. pulled out of its deal with WebLink Wireless Inc., citing WebLink's recently announced layoffs and sales channel cutbacks."Metrocall continues to believe strongly that a combination of the businesses...
While seven-digit numbers are usually reserved for a company's bottom line or telephone number, the seven digits in 6,219,694are of extra importance to Canadian-based wireless messaging company Research In Motion Ltd. Those seven numbers represents the patent issued to the company last week from...
NEW YORK-Wireless data is like a diamond in the rough, waiting for ways to smooth out its rough edges into sparkling facets that will attract growing numbers of consumers into increasing amounts of usage.Where there is a business problem, so too exists a business...
WASHINGTON-Congress last week was set to pass a new budget that embraces President Bush's plan to delay two auctions of valuable radio spectrum but rejects an administration proposal to impose fees on TV broadcasters in order to encourage the clearing of frequencies sought by...
Vision. Brains. Stubbornness. Courage. Discouragement, Spunk. Talent. Persistence.The four people inducted into RCR Wireless News' Wireless Hall of Fame this year display most, if not all of these attributes (and let's be honest, stubbornness is not always looked upon as an asset.) Yet it...
NEW YORK-With up to seven competitors in some large markets, price wars have begun that are not sustainable as a long-term business case for carriers, telecommunications executives said last week at the "Kagan Wireless Telecom Summit.""Verizon missed its additions significantly. When the big guys...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-With a growth rate above 50 percent during 2001 and a 20-percent penetration, cellular telephony has proven itself as the main communications vehicle in Paraguay.Four operators compete nationwide. Telecel and Personal together control 95 percent of the market share, offering traditional cellular...
BEIJING-Once again there seems to be a significant delay in China Unicom's rollout of its CDMA network. The much-plagued endeavor was on track just a couple of weeks ago, when Unicom invited tenders for the first phase of the project to the tune of...
WASHINGTON, D.C.-The Wireless Communications Association has elected seven new members to its board of directors.They are: Jai P. Bhagat, chairman and chief executive officer of Air2Lan Inc; David B. Gibbons, vice president and chief architect of fixed wireless at AT&T Fixed Wireless Services Inc.; Jacques...
For faltering fixed wireless carriers, April proved every bit as cruel as T.S. Eliot decried in The Waste Land. Eliot, it turns out, was as much a prophet as he was a poet. Local telecom competition is quickly becoming a vast dumping ground.Teligent Inc.,...
Clearwire Technologies Inc. and the Instructional Television Fixed Service Spectrum Development Alliance are teaming to deliver wireless broadband services to educational, nonprofit and commercial customers, with a $97 million commitment from Goldman Sachs & Co. and Liberty Associated Partners L.P.The partnership will give Clearwire...
NEW YORK-Paris-based Telemedia.fr has positioned itself to help telecommunications and Internet content providers capitalize on the convenience sought by French consumers, who prefer dialing to surfing for information on their landline and wireless phones."We offer a response to the problem all these companies are...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission is wading through competing comments and competing economic studies as it decides whether to eliminate the cap that limits the amount of spectrum a company can control in a market, leave it in place or raise the cap to 70...
Voice services are a tricky subject for wireless operators. While voice is regarded as the one true killer application for wireless carriers, many are forced to nearly give away voice service to keep up with the ultra-competitive wireless market.
While carriers try to differentiate their...
NEW YORK-Rural carriers, with operating histories often many decades old, appear poised at the forefront of the strategy for long-term growth based on bundled or converged services.Seeking to be the one-stop-shop location for their customers, these companies have in place or have plans to...
WASHINGTON-A Blue Ribbon panel released a report last week that called for the telecommunications excise tax to be used to fund universal service."A current excise tax on telecommunications services, originally created a century ago to fund the Spanish-American War, now funnels revenue into the...
The resurrection of Iridium came full circle last week with the announcement that the company's Tempe, Ariz., gateway is fully operational and voice service now will be available via its 66-satellite network to remote customers all over the world.Iridium Satellite L.L.C. plans to offer...
GroupServeGroupServe announced Tom Stroup, president, will also take on the role of chief executive officer. Stroup's first task as CEO will be to oversee the commercial product launch of GroupPort. Stroup will also oversee the company's business development, strategic alliance and product development efforts....
LOS ANGELES-The cost of wireless service edged up a little in February, with 18 of 25 major cities showing increases, according to the latest monthly survey by Econ One Research Inc.The average monthly cost of service across four typical usage plans (30, 150, 300...
NEW YORK-China Mobile Hong Kong does not need 3G to take advantage of opportunities in a populous country with rising per capita income and low penetration by personal computers and second-generation wireless, said Wang Xiaochu, chairman and chief executive officer of the company.At the...
SAN DIEGO-Qualcomm Inc., announced SECOM Co. Ltd., a Japanese provider of security services, will launch COCO SECOM, a safety service for locating the position of people and vehicles, which represents the first commercial deployment of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies' MSM3300 Mobile Station Modem integrated circuit...
