UltraTek, a Torrance, Calif.-based telecommunications equipment research company, has filed patent applications for a global wireless telecommunications system that would turn commercial airplanes into flying cell sites.The company has proposed a system that initially would make use of airplanes flying between North America and...
DALLAS-PageMart Wireless Inc. has created a Telemetry Strategic Business Unit as part of its strategy to extend in-progress ReFLEX 25 narrowband personal communications services network to more "off-the-hip" applications and customers.The new unit already has entered into an exclusive strategic alliance with Interactive Technologies...
Last month marked the first anniversary of the Federal Communications Commission's revised radio-frequency radiation guidelines. Those guidelines constituted the first major overhaul of RF rules in nearly a decade and the only one since wireless entered the high-tech era of personal communications services, digital...
HELSINKI, Finland-Nokia Telecommunications demonstrated its High Speed Circuit Switched Data technology on a Global System for Mobile communications network, which boosted data speeds from current 9.6 kilobits per second to 14.4 kilobits per second in a single traffic channel.Nokia said applications on display included...
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.-Specialty Teleconstructors Inc. changed its name to OmniAmerica Inc. and now trades on the Nasdaq Stock Market under a new ticker symbol, XMIT. The company was formed in April through the merger of Specialty Teleconstructors Inc. and OmniAmerica Holdings.According to the companies, the...
Lucent Technologies Inc. said scientists at its Bell Labs research and development arm have developed a technology that could boost capacity of some wireless links by a multiple of 10 to 20.Known as BLAST, the technology may allow fixed wireless technology to near the...
NEW YORK-WinStar Communications Inc., New York, is beta testing in Washington, D.C., a point-to-multipoint system with Optical Carrier level-3 (OC-3) radio capacity, said Randy Domolky, the company's general manager for carrier sales. A commercial service launch is anticipated for sometime next year."We have announced...
GLOBECOM SYSTEMSGlobecomm Systems Inc. announced commercial availability of its Systems Explorer II Portable Satphone, a satellite phone system that uses Integrated Services Digital Network technology. Explorer II is made in the United States and weighs 32 pounds. The system can be configured from the...
Nextel Communications Inc. recently offered a farmer in South Coventry, Pa., a new $70,000, 105-foot silo if the wireless phone company could put an antenna inside of it to fill a gap in its coverage.This is just one example of the extremes companies will...
PETAH TIKVA, Israel-ECI Telecom Ltd. and Tadiran Telecommunications Ltd. signed an agreement in principle to merge in a stock-for-stock transaction, pending a definitive agreement the companies expect to execute by the end of October, said the companies.The agreement stipulates that Tadiran shareholders will receive...
FORT LEE, N.J.-MobileMedia Corp. announced it has closed the sale of its transmission towers to Pinnacle Towers Inc. for $170 million in cash.MobileMedia diverted the fee for the 163 towers to its secured creditors, who have a lien on these types of assets totalling...
WASHINGTON-Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and James Jeffords (R-Vt.) shortly plan to introduce new legislation that would repeal federal pre-emption of local zoning regulation, encourage alternative technologies in lieu of large towers and allow communities to reject antenna-siting applications if wireless carriers fail to fully...
NEW YORK-Venture-backed investments in the second quarter reached an all-time high of $3.7 billion, breaking the prior record of $3.3 billion set in the last quarter of 1997.These investments increased by 26 percent from the $2.99 billion reported for the second quarter of last...
WANDEL & GOLTERMANNRadMan is a personal safety monitor introduced by German company Wandel & Goltermann that measures electric and magnetic fields in any direction. RadMan monitors the limit values established by control boards and gives an alarm if the levels are exceeded. The monitor...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-The long-awaited launch of cellular service in Botswana is expected to have a huge impact on the country's communications and business sector.Botswana's small population of 1.47 million people was seen as a main reason for the delay. Proposals for cellular can be...
The race is on for local multipoint distribution service carriers to launch service, but many players remain confused about which services to offer and which markets to target."One of the most influential factors in delaying the LMDS market is the actual conceptualization of what...
NEW YORK-As mergers among telecommunications giants tear around the track at breathtaking speed, it may seem that domestic deregulation, intended to promote competition, has instead achieved consolidation.However, a glance in the rear-view mirror reveals a bevy of new competitive wireline local and interexchange carriers...
NEW YORK-After dramatically reducing the size and price of its initial public offering, Crown Castle International Corp., a Houston-based wireless tower company, sold 14 million shares at $13 each Aug. 18.The company had registered June 19 with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell...
ARLINGTON, Va.-The Telecommunications Industry Association said it published a new performance guideline for cellular Time Division Multiple Access and personal communications services networks.Interim Standard-727, or "TDMA Cellular/PCS-Radio Interface-Minimum Performance Standards for Discontinuous Transmission Operation of Mobile Station," describes definitions, methods of measurement, minimum delay...
STOCKHOLM, Sweden-L.M. Ericsson and wireless operator Mannesmann Mobilfunk GmbH began a live trial of adaptive antenna technology-both downlink and uplink-on Mannesmann's Global System for Mobile communications network in Germany.Adaptive antenna technology is designed to improve performance both to and from the phone by reducing...
Belgacom S.A. and Tele Danmark announced they have expanded their BruCop B.V. joint venture to build a Global System for Mobile communications network at 1800 MHz in the Netherlands.The company paid $300 million for six licenses totaling 16.6 megahertz. The licenses are effective for...
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-New Local Multipoint Distribution Services operators are expected to earn $6.5 billion by 2007, according to "LMDS Buildout Strategies: A Broadband Wireless Market Research Report," a recently released report from Pioneer Consulting.About 75 percent of the projected revenues are expected to be generated by...
Nextel Communications Inc. announced the option exercise and issuance of 10 million common shares to the McCaw Family in a non-cash transaction. The McCaw Family options, which were to expire July 28, were split into two tranches. The first is an option to acquire...
WASHINGTON-While congressional and Justice Department investigators concentrate on whether satellite technology transfers helped Communist China improve its nuclear missile capability, the United States quietly is leading an effort to decontrol all telecommunications technology by this fall.The so-called Wassenaar Arrangement, named after the Dutch town...
