WASHINGTON-A paging consortium led by Maceo Sloan, founder of the nation’s largest minority-owned investment firm, late last week appeared headed for a big victory in regional narrowband personal communications services auctions. Fifty-seven rounds after the narrowband PCS auction began in Washington, D.C., PCS Development Corp. had top bids for licenses in all five regions and [...]

RUTHERFORD, N.J.-Nextel Communications Inc. announced it has increased its ownership stake in Saber Communications Inc. to 89 percent, and has agreed to purchase up to 100 percent of the Mobile, Ala.-based specialized mobile radio operator by the end of the year. Saber has about 20,000 units in service in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and the Florida [...]

Transmitting mug shots and fingerprint images over wireless is the aim of the FBI’s $17 million-plus technology update program, but it comes at a time when government spectrum already is clogged. “A picture is worth a thousand words, but it takes a lot more bandwidth to send. A picture uses up 100 times more airtime [...]

A new age of global wireless telecommunications is beginning as barriers to competition fall and innovative satellite technologies move from the drawing board to the heavens. For developing and underdeveloped countries, mobile satellite communications could become a key component of their telecommunications networks. Ordinary pocket phones will be made to work virtually anywhere on the [...]

RUTHERFORD, N.J.-Nextel Communications Inc. has signed a definitive agreement to invest in Corporacion Mobilcom S.A. de C.V., a Mexican specialized mobile radio operator, and share frequencies along the U.S.-Mexico border. Nextel said it will invest $107.5 million, which could increase to $116.4 million, for 22 percent of Mobilcom. Nextel has loaned Mobilcom $42.5 million through [...]

US MobilComm Inc. announced it will complete the initial phase of construction for its Boston-to-Washington corridor of 220 MHz systems this month. US MobilComm said it will begin loading viice users in New York City this month and will begin loading in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington next month. Message Center Beepers is beta testing transmitting [...]

CHICAGO-Seven large wireless communications companies have united to provide seamless, uninterrupted cellular service between the United States and Mexico. The Pan American alliance is open only to B-band licensees. Initial members are Alltel Mobile, Ameritech Cellular Services, BellSouth Mobility Inc., CommNet Cellular Inc., GTE Personal Communications Services, Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems and Radiomovil Dipsa S.A. [...]

WASHINGTON-He’s baaack! Craig McCaw, founder of the cellular empire that AT&T Corp. bought for $11.5 billion, will bid for broadband personal communications services licenses Dec. 5. The wireless entrepreneur is one of 74 applicants seeking 99 licenses to operate next-generation pocket telephone systems across the country. There will be two licenses issued in each of [...]

ARLINGTON, Va.-Bell Atlantic Corp. has reorganized its international business unit, naming Alexander H. Good president and chief executive officer of Bell Atlantic International Inc. Good, a former assistant U.S. secretary of commerce, was senior vice president of Mobile Telecommunication Technologies Corp. and president of Mtel International before joining Bell Atlantic. Edgar L. Brown, who had [...]

In efforts to achieve compatibility of mobile communications systems among public-safety agencies, several manufacturers contributing to the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International Inc.’s Project 25 have encountered communication snags of their own. Motorola Inc.’s Land Mobile Sector and E.F. Johnson Co. signed a joint licensing agreement for digital radio technology to be used in Project [...]