BROWSING: Cyren Call
Looking back while going forward: How the early days of Nextel reflect on today
Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.Ever since the huge turn out last Fall in Chicago for the Wireless History Foundation gala, I've...
PSST wants $15 billion of stimulus package for 700 MHz shared-use network
As President-Elect Obama's administration continues to work on a financial plan to stimulate the country's sagging economy, the Public Safety Spectrum Trust Corp. is asking that $15 billion be included in the plan to help build a shared public-safety/commercial wireless network at 700 MHz.Harlin...
ECONOMIC DOWNTURN: Wall Street shakeup impacts D-Block debate: Established carriers seen as favored partners
Editor's Note: This is one of a series of stories examining the current economic downturn and how it affects the wireless industry. For more on this topic, visit RCRWireless.com/ Economic Downturn.The potentially cataclysmic collapse of Wall Street has injected a new, pressing issue into...
D-Block comments begin rolling in: ‘Just give it away,’ argues one exec
THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION SET A JUNE 20 DEADLINE for public comment on D-Block revisions, but already the agency has begun receiving suggestions from industry, public safety and academics. Most filings focus on how D-Block rules can be restructured to attract bidders capable of...
Timing the D Block
THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION'S ATTEMPT TO REVAMP the 700 MHz D Block could be shaped as much by substance as by timing, with Democrats seemingly in less of a hurry than Chairman Kevin Martin to get the valuable spectrum auctioned before the end of...
FCC to overhaul D Block approach: New legislation would fund PSST
The Federal Communications Commission today launched a wide-ranging proceeding to revamp D-Block rules, an effort that will not only examine changes to the national public safety/commercial license left stranded in the 700 MHz auction but also consider whether the public-private partnership approach should be...
DT-Sprint Nextel combo would face uphill climb
ON MANY LEVELS, politics alone appear to weigh heavily against the government approving a merger that would propel German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom AG to the top of the U.S. cellphone-carrier ranking through an acquisition of Sprint Nextel Corp.But perhaps that's precisely the point....
Executive Interview: Robert Dawson
When people think of domestic iDEN carriers, the most common name mentioned is Sprint Nextel Corp., which serves more than 13 million customers on its Motorola Inc.-designed network. But that shouldn’t be where the conversion ends; Atlanta-based SouthernLINC Wireless operates its own iDEN network...
Worst of the Week: Odds and ends
Hello! And welcome to our Thursday column, Worst of the Week. There's a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWirelessNews.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way....
Rallying the rural troops: Cyren Call’s O’Brien lays out D-Block pitch at RCA
LAS VEGAS - Despite troubles brewing back in Washington, D.C., regarding Cyren Call Communication Corp.'s handling of its partnership with the Public Safety Spectrum Trust in regards to the failed auction of the D-Block license, Chairman Morgan O'Brien took Cyren Call's message to the...
MVNO links made, disputed in D-Block
PUBLIC SAFETY SPECTRUM TRUST CORP. Chairman Harlin McEwen has distanced himself from a key element in a Federal Communications Commission inspector general report on the unsettled 700 MHz D Block.The report, which cleared Cyren Call Communications Corp. of any wrongdoing prior to the...
Morgan O’Brien lauds IG report
LAS VEGAS - Cyren Call Communications Corp. Chairman Morgan O'Brien said that any company the Public Safety Spectrum Trust advisor spoke with prior to the unsuccessful attempt to auction off the D-Block license that thought Cyren Call was looking to resell access to the...
Disconnect between government and biz
Recent events in the wireless industry underscore the disconnect between regulatory processes that lag far behind the technology and business decisions they are supposed to guide. This gap is apparent in the government's views on the D-Block auction, the so-called "spectrum screen" and even...
Big voice for small players: RCA repositions itself for greater leverage in wireless industry
LAS VEGAS -- The past 12 months have been a tumultuous time for rural carriers and even more so for the Rural Cellular Association. The trade association has brought in a new executive director with a different view on RCA's mission; has seen large...
D-Block report sheds new light on players’ plans: Cyren Call planned MVNO over 700 MHz spectrum
Public Spectrum Safety Trust Corp. Chairman Harlin McEwen appears to have distanced himself from a key element in a new Federal Communications Commission inspector general report, which cleared Cyren Call Communications Corp. of any wrongdoing prior to the failed auction of the 700 MHz...
D Block on FCC meeting agenda May 14th
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin said the agency at next month's open meeting will consider rule changes to the 700 MHz D Block, which failed attract a bidder willing to pay at least $1.3 billion for the national commercial/public-safety wireless license and fomented...
FCC to reassess D Block: Spectrum may be back up for auction by end of year
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin said the agency will at next month's open meeting consider rule changes to the 700 MHz D Block, which failed attract a bidder willing to pay at least $1.3 billion for the national commercial/public-safety wireless license and fomented...
Frontline’s Hundt: D-Block rules were too vague: Public safety: Let’s re-auction this year
A former executive of now-defunct Frontline Wireless L.L.C. said rules for the national commercial/public-safety license that went unclaimed in the recently completed 700 MHz auction were ambiguous and poorly designed, warning that a rush to re-auction the D Block without making fundamental changes would...
D Block: Looking back and moving forward
SO WHAT WILL IT BE for the sequestered 700 MHz D Block? A few tweaks here and there, an approach one lawmaker dismissively coined 'D Block lite'? A complete overhaul? Or something in between?That's the predicament facing the Federal Communications Commission in the aftermath...
Climate change
For public safety, the political atmospherics have changed from what they were just a year ago when federal regulators understandably gave great weight to first responders' suggestions on how to write rules for a national commercial/public-safety license that would go to the bidder willing...
Public safety rallies for public-private partnership on D Block: Lawmakers raise questions on 700 MHz conditions
Public-safety groups scrambled to salvage support for a private-sector funded national wireless broadband network shared by first responders and a commercial entity, following calls by some House Republicans to abandon in the 700 MHz D-Block re-auction that they consider a fatally flawed experiment."APCO International...
Cyren Call: Don’t blame us for Frontline’s demise
Cyren Call Communications Corp. said it never demanded long-term payments as a condition for a winning bidder of the 700 MHz national commercial/public-safety license, breaking its silence in response to news reports and blog postings that strongly suggested that it caused the demise of...
LTE to cover much of 700 MHz band, but deployments still on horizon: Qualcomm to use auction winnings for MediaFLO
The nation's top two carriers plan to deploy Long Term Evolution network technology over their recent spectrum winnings. However, Verizon Wireless executives said an LTE rollout won't happen until 2010 at the earliest, while those from AT&T Mobility pegged a rollout date as far...
Cyren Call: Don’t blame us for Frontline’s demise
Cyren Call Communications Corp. said it never demanded long-term payments as a condition for a winning bidder of the 700 MHz national commercial/public-safety license, breaking its silence in response to news reports and blog postings that strongly suggested it caused the demise of one-time...