When controversy comes calling, policy makers and wireless telecom firms turn to a high-tech sounding board whose work is based more on reality than on rhetoric: the Telecommunications Industry Association.TIA, comprised of U.S. and foreign telecom manufacturers that develop technical standards, has been dragged into...
The Federal Communications Commission late Friday extended the compliance deadline for implementation of the digital wiretap act until June 30, 2000. Without the extension, telecommunications carriers were subject to possible fines of as much as $10,000 per day come Oct. 25.The extension was not...
MOBILEMEDIAMobileMedia Corp., dba MobileComm, promoted several people in management positions. Steven Gross was named executive vice president of sales and marketing. He joined MobileComm as senior vice president of sales and marketing in 1996, and since has been responsible for new product introductions, including...
WASHINGTON-A powerful Senate resolution that was to promote third-generation wireless harmonization was thoroughly diluted by U.S. backers of European-based mobile phone technology last week, a bizarre turnabout that drew a mix of new faces into the escalating controversy and further muddied the waters for...
Chances are slim to none that U.S. mobile phone operators will agree on one standard for the next generation of mobile phone services.Already fragmented with three different digital standards-cdmaOne, TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) and GSM (Global System for Mobile communications)-the United States is...
WASHINGTON-The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association last week went on the offensive to put in place a technical standard that will allow carriers to alert subscribers of an impending natural disaster or weather emergency.Also, James L. Witt, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, last...
WASHINGTON-The Telecommunications Industry Association rejected the strongest-signal proposal for completing E911 calls, saying it was not technically feasible.The strongest-signal proposal would require cellular carriers to program cell phones to send 911 calls to the A- or B-side system that offers the best signal, regardless...
As standards bodies around the world study the possibility of harmonizing third-generation technology, the prospect has taken an ugly turn in the United States.While GSM-based wideband Code Division Multiple Access technology will be a key element in almost all proposals that will be submitted...
WASHINGTON-The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association and the Personal Communications Industry Association, unable to get wireline carriers and manufacturers on board, moved forward on their own last week with a lawsuit against the Justice Department and the FBI over the implementation of the 1994 digital...
WASHINGTON-Wireless and wireline carriers last week tabled a plan to sue the FBI over implementation of the 1994 digital wiretap law, just as Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fla.) was putting the final touches on draft legislation that is not expected to give carriers the relief...
The CDMA Development Group said wideband cdmaOne technology is ready to be submitted to the International Telecommunications Union after gaining approval from groups within the Telecommunications Industry Association.The CDG said the TIA TR 45 Committee, the TIA Wireless Communications Division, the TIA Ad Hoc...
WASHINGTON-Negotiations between the Justice Department and the telecom industry over a digital wiretap standard collapsed last week, an outcome that will pull the Federal Communications Commission into the fray and raise the stakes for a legislative fix.The Justice Department is expected shortly to file...
Vendors and carriers have renewed hope that the world could have one standard in place for third-generation systems, but Europe holds one of the keys in making it a reality.The situation is as political as ever as vendors, carriers and interest groups work within...
ARLINGTON, Va.-The Telecommunications Industry Association announced it published a series of documents on system specifications for Cellular Digital Packet Data in the first step toward establishing the documents for standardization.The Wireless Data Forum, previously the CDPD Forum, presented the documentation for consideration by TIA...
Since announcing its new vision last fall, the Wireless Data Forum has taken several significant steps in the last weeks to move toward its goal of transforming into an industry-wide organizationMost recently, the organization hired Mark Desautels as the WDF's new managing director. Desautels...
WASHINGTON-Attorney General Janet Reno said Friday she will postpone seeking Federal Communications Commission intervention in the digital wiretap controversy if the telecom industry can show progress in the coming months toward resolving implementation disputes with the FBI that have continued three-and-a-half years after the...
In a jointly published report, the Telecommunications Industry Association and the MultiMedia Telecommunications Association estimate the mobile and wireless communications market reached $41.6 billion in 1997, and predicted the market will continue to grow to $70.1 billion by 2001.The "1998 MultiMedia Market Review and...
European Telecommunications Standards Institute members last week reached a consensus agreement for a third-generation mobile phone standard, incorporating two major proposals that were on the table. The agreement came after members failed the day before to reach the 71-percent consensus vote required to approve...
ARLINGTON, Va.-The Telecommunications Industry Association has proposed manufacturer guidelines to the Federal Communications Commission to address telecom equipment accessibility issues.Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 states that manufacturers of telecom and customer premises equipment must "ensure that the equipment is designed, developed...
WASHINGTON-Comments regarding the Federal Communications Commission's notice of proposed rule making on the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act have one thing in common-moving the compliance date back two years, to Oct. 25, 2000.The Telecommunications Industry Association, the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, the American...
WASHINGTON-The Telecommunications Industry Association announced it officially completed its merger with the MultiMedia Telecommunications Association, which now is a not-for-profit subsidiary of TIA.The union is the final result of an alliance between TIA and MMTA that began late last year, when the two signed...
What, you haven't had enough paparazzi already?Mohamed Al Fayed, owner of Harrods and the man who might have been father-in-law to the late Princess Di, is back in the news. He's in court challenging a 70-foot mobile phone tower near his estate at Oxted,...
WASHINGTON-Amid an uproar of protest within an earshot of the White House against China's human and religious rights record and its sale of nuclear technology to rogue states, President Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin announced China will sign a global pact to phase...
CTIA clarifies role in standardizationDear Editor: As initiator of the CTIA Ad-Hoc Group on Phone-to-Vehicle Interfaces (VIF), I was disturbed to read in your Sept. 22 edition that CTIA (Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association) was presenting a specific commercial implementation to TIA (Telecommunications Industry Association) for...
