WASHINGTON-Congress passed landmark telecommunications reform legislation late last week, paving the way for the wireless lane of the information superhighway and setting the stage for a fierce debate on a national spectrum policy bill later this year.The measure, which President Clinton is expected to...
Having grown weary of competing in the increasingly commoditized market for analog cellular telephones, Fujitsu Network Transmission Systems Inc. is retrenching and restructuring its phone division in hopes of making a comeback with digital.The Richardson, Texas-based company will wind down the production of its...
NEW YORK-Wall Street gave Omnipoint Corp. a resounding welcome Friday, buying seven million shares of an initial public offering of common stock that opened the trading day on Nasdaq at $16 per share. Near close, the stock was trading at $20 per share. Omnipoint,...
WASHINGTON-Bidders returned to the Federal Communications Commission's auction of C-block broadband personal communications services and 900 MHz specialized mobile radio licenses with renewed fervor last week, following complications from the government's second furlough and the East Coast Blizzard of '96.While there continues to be...
WASHINGTON-Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole (R-Kan.) threatened last week to block telecommunications reform legislation from moving forward until changes are made to auction television licenses potentially valued at up to $70 billion.Dole's latest salvo against the broadcasters could, if combined with other factors, cause...
WASHINGTON-As the telecommunications reform marathon of 1995 nears the finish line, the great political race of 1996 is taking shape before a restless American electorate.Political theater at its best. Judgment time for the rocky Republican Revolution and the clumsy Clinton administration.In 1996, the year...
I greet you this New Year with praise of gridlock.While many people are downcast about the chaos accompanying balanced budget and telecommunications reform bills, I find comfort in the belief that all the discord and seemingly endless bickering over every provision-big and small-is precisely...
WASHINGTON-Congressional GOP and White House budget negotiators reached an agreement on auctioning radio spectrum through the year 2002 as part of renewed talks aimed at producing a compromise on a seven-year balanced budget plan and ending the longest government shutdown in the nation's history...
WASHINGTON-While congressional Republican leaders late last week signaled problems with landmark telecommunications reform legislation, the wireless telecommunications industry declared victory after securing antenna siting, long-distance access and other provisions that keep the deregulatory gains of 1993 intact.Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), speaker of the House,...
WASHINGTON-While competition intensifies in wireless telecommunications with the licensing of new carriers throughout the nation, the industry's biggest foe in 1996 and beyond could be local landline telephone companies.There already are signs of the impending battle.The Federal Communications Commission last Friday was expected to...
WASHINGTON-Stores are crowded. Literature is disappearing. Customer service is forced to beef up. Product is in short supply. The holidays are around the corner. Overwhelming success is a double-edged sword.But it is this sword that Sprint Spectrum, the personal communications service joint venture between...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission's first-ever auction of 900 MHz specialized mobile radio spectrum is set to enter its third week of daily, one-round bidding, and there is no indication that auction proctors will step up the pace any time soon.According to Jerry Vaughan, deputy...
WASHINGTON-House and Senate conferees agreed on key wireless provisions in the telecommunications reform bill last week, but with several controversial issues still unresolved and time running out this session it remains unclear whether the historic legislation can be passed this year.The measure is expected...
WASHINGTON-Congress, in the face of an impending veto and resumed fighting with the White House over government spending that could lead to another government shutdown next week, approved a Republican balanced budget bill that would raise $14 billion over the next seven years by...
Paging Network Inc. has a new face and so does the wireless industry with the appointment of Glenn Marschel as the company's new president and chief executive officer.Marschel comes to PageNet from First Financial Management Corp., where he was vice chairman and chief operating...
WASHINGTON-Congress, in a partial setback for the Federal Communications Commission, has limited-but not precluded-the use of auctions to license refarmed private wireless spectrum.Auctions are one of several market-based incentives the FCC is considering introducing in private wireless bands below 512 MHz, which are being...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission will go forward with the C-block personal communications services auction and allow Radiofone Inc. and several others that had sought waivers of PCS-cellular cross ownership rules to bid Dec. 11, but vowed to challenge a recent federal appeals court decision...
VIENNA, Va.-North American Wireless Inc. announced that seven small businesses have agreed to participate in its nationwide network. The firms are planning to bid in the Federal Communications Commission's personal communications services C-block auction scheduled to start Dec. 11.NAWI said it is focusing on...
In an initial study of customer satisfaction among cellular telephone service consumers, J.D. Power and Associates found that local Bell telephone companies achieved higher satisfaction rankings than their nonwireline rivals in most of the eight markets covered in the study.The "1995 J.D. Power and...
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.-Sun Microsystems Computer Co. unveiled its Ultra workstation family, Ultra 1 and Ultra 2, designed to help cellular companies expedite cell site planning, engineering and design.Sun said the workstation incorporates a number of technology innovations that, when coupled with a high-performance microprocessor,...
WASHINGTON-Expanded spectrum auction authority and other telecommunications legislation are about to get caught up in a high-stakes budget battle between the Clinton administration and the GOP-led Congress that might not get settled until Christmas.The House and Senate late last month passed sweeping bills to...
SEATTLE-AT&T Wireless Services introduced a prepackaged phone that is available in stores and activated by calling a 1-800 number and receiving credit-card verification.The telephone costs about $40 with an access charge of $20. The monthly charge includes two hours of free off-peak calling per...
Glenayre Technologies Inc. announced it will supply equipment for narrowband personal communications services to Paging Network Inc. under a contract agreement. PageNet will use the equipment to beta test its VoiceNow service in San Francisco. The contract order, valued at $4.5 million, calls for...
While some microwave incumbents are being unreasonable, others are negotiating fairly, reaching agreements and making plans to move their microwave links from the 2 GHz spectrum, according to telecom and utility people involved in the process."It's unfair to tarnish the image of the microwave...
