WASHINGTON-In a potential test case of a 1993 law that pre-empted state entry and rate regulation of commercial mobile radio services, U S West Inc. has asked federal regulators to declare illegal two local ordinances enacted by Roseville, Minn. The two measures, among other things, levy annual fees on wireless carriers and give Roseville the [...]

William Lenahan is celebrating his one-year anniversary as president and chief executive officer of Ram Mobile Data L.P. by initiating a change in strategic direction for the packet data carrier. He recently announced a new Strategic Network that provides a selection of hardware, software and network options to customers allowing them to obtain “no compromise” [...]

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission will go forward with the C-block personal communications services auction and allow Radiofone Inc. and several others that had sought waivers of PCS-cellular cross ownership rules to bid Dec. 11, but vowed to challenge a recent federal appeals court decision that calls those rules into question. In response, Radiofone is considering [...]

SAO PAULO, Brazil-Qualcomm Inc., through its Brazilian subsidiary, Qualcomm do Brasil, and NEC do Brasil plan to deliver digital cellular systems based on Qualcomm’s Code Division Multiple Access technology to Brazil. The two companies plan to jointly bid on tenders that will be issued by Brazilian operators to supply digital wireless systems. NEC do Brasil [...]

WASHINGTON-The future is here. Vice President Al Gore, father of the information superhighway, christened the broadband personal communications services industry with a call to Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke Nov. 15 on the Sprint Spectrum system operated by American Personal Communications. “I’m proud to speak to you today by means of this brand new technology that’s [...]

A number of small U.S. cellular companies have been hit with lawsuits from the government of Alberta, Canada, which is charging the companies breached contracts by not purchasing cellular equipment from NovAtel. One of the companies, Dial Two Inc. of Santa Rosa, Calif., is fighting a $600,000 lawsuit. Dial Two is accused of breaching a [...]

As you no doubt are aware, particularly if you’re one of the 800,000 federal government workers furloughed last week as the GOP Congress and Democratic White House tried to prove their political manhood, there’s bad CARMA in the nation’s capital. Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary got a slap on the wrist from the Clinton administration for [...]

IRVING, Texas-Nokia Corp. announced the personal communications services 1900 market in the United States has selected the Enhanced Full Rate voice codec developed by Nokia and the University of Sherbrooke in Canada as the industry standard codec for PCS-1900. The EFR codec is a coding algorithm that helps convert analog speech into a digital stream [...]

VIENNA, Va.-North American Wireless Inc. announced that seven small businesses have agreed to participate in its nationwide network. The firms are planning to bid in the Federal Communications Commission’s personal communications services C-block auction scheduled to start Dec. 11. NAWI said it is focusing on creating a reseller-friendly community of C-block companies. By aggregating network [...]

RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J.-America Online users can send text messages directly to people who use MobileMedia Communications Inc.’s alphanumeric pagers, MobileMedia announced. MobileMedia said the new feature operates like e-mail and is available at no extra charge. The service is accessible on AOL at keyword: Send Page. The company said its alliance with America Online Services [...]