NEW YORK-The New York Wireless Carriers Coalition is hoping for passage this spring of a bill that some group members believe would be the first in the country to set uniform statewide tower-siting requirements for local governments to follow and implement.The proposed legislation's primary...
WASHINGTON-The Internal Revenue Service is coming under attack from Congress again. IRS-bashing is common sport. But this time it is not taxpayer abuse that has the lawmakers upset, it is an obscure technical advice memo-or TAM-that could strip away the tax-exempt status from rural...
BAL HARBOUR, Fla.-Let the lobbying wars begin. The Universal Wireless Communications Consortium is stepping up efforts to promote Time Division Multiple Access technology around the world following the CDMA Development Group's success in working to open up the Chinese market to Code Division Multiple...
NASHUA, N.H.-TeleCorp PCS Inc. launched its SunCom digital wireless services in Concord, Manchester and Nashua, N.H., and Worcester and Auburn, Mass. Launches in Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, Mass., soon will follow, said TeleCorp.A member of the AT&T Wireless Network, the SunCom service...
In the first major initiative since the group formed in December, the WirelessReady Alliance held its first member meeting last week in Vancouver, where members discussed the state of the wireless data industry and plotted future strategy.Sierra Wireless Inc.-which formed the group-brought together 23...
"To see what competitive telecommunications will look like tomorrow, look at wireless today," read a banner at CTIA's Wireless '99. That's not the way Ernest Kelly, president of the Telecommunications Resellers Association, sees it."I wish I had more encouraging things to say, but I...
MESA, Ariz.-Copper Key Technologies Inc. sold a nationwide license for its CK-Enterprise product to AT&T Wireless Services Inc., which uses it as the foundation for its Comprehensive Mapping, Analysis and Performance Solution, also developed by Copper Key Technologies. Since February 1998, AT&T Wireless has...
WASHINGTON-The re-auction of personal communications services licenses for the C, D, E and F blocks closed last week with participants bidding $412.8 million in 78 rounds, or about $3.60 per pop, according to BIA Consulting of Chantilly, Va.The Federal Communications Commission celebrated the end...
CORONADO, Calif.-At the Demo Mobile show last week, Aether Technologies Inc. announced the formal opening of its Enterprise Data Wireless Center in Maryland, designed to extend wireless access capabilities to enterprise information management systems.Initial customers include AT&T Wireless Services Inc., Bear Stearns & Co.,...
NEW YORK-A panel of three federal judges heard arguments April 5 in an appeal of Federal Communications Commission siting and safety requirements for the placement of microwave cell sites for wireless telecommunications.The judges questioned attorneys for both sides critically and closely, allowing the clock...
Amid speculation that it could be a takeover target by MCI WorldCom Inc., SkyTel Communications Inc. announced a new pricing plan and a major strategic alliance last week, both designed to better position it for the wireless messaging battle ahead.Most significantly, the company announced...
While many of their counterparts in the high-flying build-to-suit industry are prospering, tower manufacturers are finding the road ahead may be a difficult one. Likewise, recent siting decisions do not bode well for carriers trying to build their networks.Late last month, Rohn Industries Inc....
GTE Corp. last week announced plans to purchase 20 Ameritech Corp. wireless properties in the Midwest, ending months of speculation about who would acquire the lucrative Chicago and St. Louis markets that became available when SBC Communications Inc. and Ameritech announced their merger last...
NEW YORK-Carriers, resellers and handset makers involved in domestic prepaid wireless services have much in common with ancient mariners navigating the narrow Straits of Messina where the mythical monsters of Scylla and Charybdis threatened them on either shore."Carriers recognize there is something to this...
Unwired Planet Inc. last week filed a registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering of common stock in June, and also announced the first commercial launch of its technology by a Global System for Mobile communications operator.Although it...
MURRAY HILL, N.J.-Lucent Technologies Inc. announced it signed a four-year agreement with AT&T Wireless Services Inc. to provide an expected $1 billion in equipment and services for the next phase of its Time Division Multiple Access DigitalPCS network buildout in the 1900 MHz and...
While many major cities are supporting up to seven mobile phone operators, cellular carriers operating in small markets aren't expected to face much competition for many years to come, say analysts.According to Chris Larsen, senior wireless analyst with Prudential Securities Inc. in New York,...
WASHINGTON-Nextel Communications Inc., already up against strong opposition from the Justice Department and dispatch radio operators, faces a heavy legal burden in convincing a federal judge here to vacate a 1995 antitrust consent decree designed to protect competition in the specialized mobile radio market.U.S....
Widespread consolidation among telecommunications carriers has concentrated buying power into fewer and fewer hands, with vendors experiencing many of the side effects.In the last year alone, at least half of the carriers on RCR's 1998 Top 20 cellular carriers' list have been acquired by...
The battle continues at the Federal Communications Commission over whether a waiver of the airborne cellular rule granted to AirCell Inc. is proper.Louisville, Colo.-based AirCell has proposed an air-to-ground communications system for use in general and commercial aviation markets that makes use of existing...
WASHINGTON-Telecom mergers are not just about mergers anymore.Multibillion-dollar deals have become the jumping-off-point for activism on labor rights, civil rights, regulatory reform, consumer protection, globalism, politics and a slew of other special-interest issues.So many and so big have mergers become that Senate Judiciary Committee...
WASHINGTON-Rural America may be left out of the re-auction of personal communications services licenses. At the end of round six on Thursday, 37 percent of the C-block licenses had not received any bids.Information provided by the Federal Communications Commission shows these 128 markets had...
AT&T Wireless Services Inc. is expected to award Lucent Technologies Inc. a Time Division Multiple Access contract valued at more than $1 billion during the next three years, sources close to the companies say.Joseph Bellace, analyst with Merrill Lynch, indicated last week that AT&T...
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a hamburger and French fries? Probably McDonalds.Think of a pair of tennis shoes, and you probably picture the Nike swoosh. Or a pair of jeans, and you probably think of Levi's....
