BROWSING: FCC

ALEXANDRIA, Va.-The Personal Communications Industry Association last week challenged unexplained regulatory fee increases, claiming the fees will hinder competition between wireless and wireline services.PCIA argued the Federal Communications Commission has denied wireless, local exchange and interexchange carriers; and television stations and private radio services...

WASHINGTON-A federal bankruptcy judge in Baltimore last week ordered the Federal Communications Commission to surrender to unsecured creditors of Pocket Communications Inc. information intentionally omitted from the company's reorganization plan provided last month by the FCC, Justice Department and several vendors.The Creditors Committee argued...

To the Editor: Regarding your opinion article on April 13, (It's time for small businesses to be creative) great insight; however, in order for the small operators to succeed we need more than money, brains and marketing skills. We need frequencies!But guess what? Someone stole...

KIRKLAND, Wash.-Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin AbdulAziz Alsaud of Saudi Arabia invested $200 million cash in Teledesic L.L.C., the "Internet-in-the-Sky" satellite communications venture of primary investors Craig McCaw and Bill Gates.Alwaleed, a billionaire nephew of Saudi Arabia's King Fahad, said, "I'm attracted to Teledesic...

WASHINGTON-Federal Communications Commission member Harold Furchtgott-Roth, joining a growing chorus of critics, has charged the Democratic-led agency with subordinating the interests of rural and low-income universal service recipients to connecting schools, libraries and rural-health care facilities to the Internet by 2000.Rural and low-income "universal...

Adler Engineering Inc. has won a contract with the state of New Jersey to evaluate all state-owned property for wireless antenna siting and assist in marketing viable sites to carriers.Adler Engineering, headquartered in Barrington, N.J., provides site design, surveying, environmental investigation and structural engineering...

SAN RAMON, Calif.-U.S. Wireless Corp. signed an agreement to test and evaluate its RadioCamera wireless geographic location and tracking system in cooperation with Bell Atlantic Mobile's cellular telephone network.Bell Atlantic Mobile is evaluating the RadioCamera system as a possible solution to the Phase II...

The Land Mobile Communications Council this week is expected to ask the Federal Communications Commission to allocate 15 megahertz now and more spectrum later for private wireless communications. The request will include opportunities for sharing with the federal government, a feature supported by the...

DENVER-The Colorado Public Utilities Commission scrapped a plan that would have provided a new area code for wireless phones and pagers only.Citing legal and financial implications, the commission has instead opted to retain an original plan calling for an all-services overlay for area-code relief.The...

WASHINGTON-House Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley (R-Va.) said the privatization of the International Maritime Satellite Organization and the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization being negotiated by the Clinton administration may be inconsistent with U.S. law and could complicate an international satellite-reform bill that is estimated...

WASHINGTON-In an unexpected blow to government efforts to foster diversity in the fast-growing telecommunications industry, a federal appeals court here last week repealed some Federal Communications Commission equal employment opportunity rules and put another nail in the coffin of affirmative action.The ruling of the...

RogersRogers Corp. introduced thin versions of its Poron urethane foam designed for making thin gaskets and pads used in pagers, personal organizers, cellular phones and global positioning systems. The Poron 4701-50 materials are cast in thicknesses down to 0.017 inch (0.43 mm), which produces...

WASHINGTON-In a move that could reignite the debate over the wireless industry's responsibility to physically challenged Americans, a Colorado-based maker of a device enabling hearing-impaired people to use mobile phones said it will file a complaint against Qualcomm Inc. this week for violating disability...

WASHINGTON-The paging industry's battle against pay-phone deregulation has picked up support from an unlikely source in Congress.Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), a leading opponent of federal pre-emption of local antenna-siting regulation, has introduced legislation to force pay-phone operators to make change for calls costing more...

Unsecured creditors of Pocket Communications Inc. have subpoenaed the Federal Communications Commission for information omitted from the reorganization plan approved last month by several creditor-vendors, the FCC and the Justice Department.Unsecured creditors believe knowledge of private portions of the secured lenders term sheet is...

I discovered writing about high-tech wireless hasn't prepared me for the real world. On spring vacation with my family in central Florida, I got an early taste of the coming 2000 computer meltdown, topped with a dash of Seinfeld.I thought the worst was over....

The FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau struck another blow against specialized mobile radio station owner Marc Sobel when it opposed his Revised Request for Inquiry and Investigation that is pending with the Federal Communications Commission.Sobel is asking the FCC to initiate a full investigation into...

"The industry created two decades ago to foster dispatch wireless communications in the United States stands at a crossroads as regulatory, technological and market forces conspire to put mom-and-pop two-way radio businesses out to pasture."Nextel Communications Inc., the largest specialized mobile radio operator, has...

The torrents of spring are up upon Bill Kennard.Kennard, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission for all of four months, stands at the vortex of an historical transformation of the telecommunications industry, whose powerful forces, the Democratic Clinton appointee is finding, are nearly as...

The Federal Communications Commission's International Bureau granted low-earth-orbit licenses to four companies, authorizing them to operate non-voice, non-geostationary mobile satellite systems, also known as little LEOs.E-Sat Inc., Final Analysis Communications Services Inc., Orbital Communications Corp. and Volunteers in Technical Assistance each received little LEO...

WASHINGTON-Wireless and wireline carriers last week tabled a plan to sue the FBI over implementation of the 1994 digital wiretap law, just as Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fla.) was putting the final touches on draft legislation that is not expected to give carriers the relief...

WASHINGTON-Despite all the hoopla surrounding antenna siting legislation, wireless anti-fraud, privacy and tax-repeal bills stand a far better chance of being passed by Congress and enacted into law this year.President Clinton is expected shortly to sign legislation that will outlaw unauthorized mobile phone cloning...

WASHINGTON-The Personal Communications Industry Association filed comments last week at the Federal Communications Commission seeking to halt any merger of SBC Communications Inc. and Southern New England Telecommunications Corp. until SBC stops charging paging carriers for SBC-originated traffic."When it comes to interconnection, SBC has...

KELOWNA, British Columbia, Canada-Globus Technologies Inc. announced it is trying to secure accreditation from Industry Canada and the Federal Communications Commission to become an approved testing facility for Specific Absorption Rate measurement of human radio-frequency exposure.Globus plans to pursue opportunities in government testing programs...