Dear Editor: I always appreciate the timely articles on market trends in RCR. Last week, I couldn't help but notice two very important cover stories-one on the teenage market and one on Sprint PCS's revised fall quarter projections. I hope you don't mind if I...
During the first day of its 2000 User Forum, Comverse Network Systems, a division of Comverse Technology Inc., introduced additional features to its software and systems enabling network-based enhanced services.The features include its Intelligent Mobile Services, a suite of services using mobile number portability...
NEW DELHI, India-The Southeast Asian region is set to enter a new era of wireless data within the next two years. Many operators in the region have already introduced wireless data services, including Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) launches, in preparation for a full-scale transition...
NEW YORK-If 7,000 responses from last month's survey by Solomon-Wolff Associates are an accurate barometer of wider trends, then electronic mail is the primary use consumers want for wireless Internet access."Are you disappointed?" Susan "Joey" Wolff, partner, asked her audience at the conclusion of...
WASHINGTON-The high-flying mobile-phone industry-poised to pick up its 100 millionth subscriber this week-could soon find itself in the throes of a major consumer backlash.Complaints about mobile-phone service-including dropped calls, busy signals, dead spots, improper billing, false advertising and poor customer service-have begun to resonate...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission on June 8 adopted rules and policies aimed at increasing teledensity on tribal lands but did not address requests from the wireless industry to obtain universal-service funds to serve these areas."The FCC needs to take more concrete actions regarding the...
Throughout the world, wireless providers tend to suffer from a common myopia: Too many carriers see their customer care operations as a simple safety net for agitated customers. While this misperception currently dominates the vision of almost all wireless players, it is both wrong and...
WASHINGTON-Prepaid cellular plans, increased licensing and expanded competition throughout the region will drive future wireless growth in Latin America, according to a report by the Strategis Group."Latin America Cellular/PCS Markets," showed the region recorded a 47-percent penetration growth rate in 1999 compared with 1998,...
NEW YORK-Rural carriers, many of which began as landline providers, already have experienced a long learning curve in service bundling-a current hot topic in the telecommunications industry.No doubt they face challenges posed by downward pressures on roaming revenues and increased competition in their territories....
WEST POINT, Ga.-Powertel Inc., a wireless personal communications services provider in the southeastern United States, will employ the branding slogan "We're On That" to describe an overall service ethic the company says transcends offers, individual products and promotions.Powertel intends to use commercials, print ads...
While Microsoft Corp. and America Online Inc. were the stars of the Internet content provider show at Wireless 2000, several supporting players launched wireless portals of their own, some with scene-stealing flair.They include GiantBear.com, Strategy.com, SpyglassMobile. com, WiredCEO, Logica and Speedia.com.John Dorfman, analyst at...
In the competitive wireless industry, carriers are faced with an almost impossible task: bringing more customers in the door through attractive marketing programs while at the same time addressing the attendant capacity and quality issues as inexpensively as possible.To help carriers accomplish this task, Schema...
A division, not an exclusion, of interests seems to be emerging between cellular and paging services.Business customers are keeping the paging market in check while the cellular phone continues to be the preferred device for personal use.These trends and others were revealed in The...
NEW YORK-Ubiquitous connectivity, driven by consumer demand rather than carrier plan, could well develop into a completely new kind of convergent telecommunications, said Joan Barten Kline of J.D. Power and Associates."Access may become a new product category altogether, instead of the bundling of different...
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill.-Motorola Inc. said its Network Solutions Sector is pursuing several alternatives in the development of advanced emergency 911 wireless caller location functionality that meet the Federal Communications Commission's E911 guidelines."Our infrastructure will provide flexibility by working with operators that are using Motorola...
WASHINGTON-On one level, the wireless campaign on Capitol Hill this year was not unlike that of Congress as a whole. In the end, when it came time for Congress to adjourn for the year, lawmakers belatedly passed a handful of bills-mostly legislation to keep...
Dear Editor: I feel a need for clarification is in order regarding an unfortunate factual error appearing in your Oct. 4 issue. While the headline was correct "Associations decry AMTA auction plan," AMTA is not seeking 10 megahertz for commercial use only, thus implying to...
WASHINGTON-Although the Federal Communications Commission does not regulate the Internet or broadband access to the Information Superhighway, the agency has created a committee to monitor broadband activities and has released a study on how best to ensure all Americans benefit from high-speed technologies.The FCC...
SAN JOSE-Decide.com introduced the Decide.com Web site, where consumers can identify, compare and purchase telecommunications products and services based on how they will use them.The company also announced Wireless Test Drive, a feature that lets consumers actually see where cellular service call quality reception...
Portals have a hidden agenda to capture the wireless e-commerce market.Carriers had better beware.Greek mythology chronicles the fall of the once-prosperous city of Troy, misled by the promise of a gift in the form of a Trojan horse. Looking back, it seems hard to...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission is expected this week to consider rules for the deployment of enhanced 911 automatic location identification technologies.The rules will come at an FCC Open Meeting on Wednesday, when the commissioners also will vote on whether or not to lift the...
WASHINGTON-Whether the spectrum cap should stay or go-one issue that distinguishes incumbent cellular operators and upstart personal communications services operators-"will hopefully" be decided by the Federal Communications Commission at its September meeting, said Thomas Sugrue, chief of the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau.The Cellular Telecommunications...
After nearly two years of fits and starts, the government of Argentina finally awarded six personal communications services licenses for a total consideration of about $850 million.The government awarded two PCS licenses each in the northern and southern regions of Argentina, as well as...
Now that the Federal Communications Commission has completed the re-auction of 365 C-, D-, E- and F-block personal communications services licenses, it still could be months or even years before service in many of the markets is deployed.All the winners had met their payment...
