BROWSING: FCC

WASHINGTON-The National Telecommunications & Information Administration estimates that the liberalization of the global telecommunications marketplace has resulted in a $675 billion opportunity for carriers that want to pursue business overseas.While the World Trade Organization treaty has paved part of the way into what used...

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...

WASHINGTON-Federal Communications Commission Chairman Bill Kennard responded March 30 to a congressional letter questioning the commission on its recent C-block personal communications services financial-restructuring reconsideration order and on its pending deal with one bankrupt C-blocker's creditors.Reps. Thomas Bliley (R-Va.), Billy Tauzin (R-La.) and John...

To the Editor: Before the advent of the brave new wireless world, I used to regularly read and identify with the opinion offered by Jeff Silva on numerous topics surrounding wireless regulation and the politics that control many of our futures. I quit paying attention...

To the Editor: I felt compelled to write after your recently published guest article by Reed Hundt (RCR, Feb. 23). Mr. Hundt, now unencumbered from tempering his personal beliefs and feelings, expresses why we, the two-way radio industry, have so much to fear from an...

WASHINGTON-Following a demonstration of disabilities-compatible telecommunications equipment by four Americans with audio, visual and neuromuscular problems, the Federal Communications Commission last week unanimously adopted a notice of proposed rule making that would mandate accessibility of wireless equipment to physically challenged people.While being given flexibility...

To the editor: In response to Kristen Beckman's story "Pilots break no cell phone use" in RCR, March 16, 1998: I wonder if the fears of reduced revenue for cellular providers who have air phones installed in commercial airlines is perhaps another reason the FCC prohibits...

Two wireless enhanced 911 services vendors last week announced their systems were live in time for the Federal Communications Commission's Phase I deadline, which calls for carriers to be able to transmit a call-back number and the location of the cell site receiving the...

The wireless industry, having been defeated on Capitol Hill and Bunker Hill by environmentalists, organized labor and soccer moms, has turned to John Q. Public, Marcus Welby, M.D. and Ivan to makes its case. And what a wonderful strategy shift it is. Better late...

WASHINGTON-The Justice Department on Friday asked the Federal Communications Commission to declare the telecom industry's digital wiretap standard deficient and to approve on an expedited basis a broader standard that incorporates eavesdropping features sought by federal, state and local law enforcement.Justice wants the FCC...

WASHINGTON-The wireless industry will be gearing up soon for cutover to a universal electronic licensing system that will consolidate 11 systems and databases into one and allow a one-day turnaround in a best-case scenario. The on-line, secure, private system, demonstrated earlier this month at...

WASHINGTON-No one was more surprised at the eventual outcome of the most recent Federal Communications Commission spectrum auction as was Thomas Jones, president of WNP Communications Inc., who walked away with the right to build in 30 of the top 50 markets.Auction 17, which...

Last Sunday at church the main reading was the parable of the Prodigal Son. You remember the one, about the wealthy farmer with two sons. One son asks for his share of the family fortune and leaves home to squander his money on wine...

WASHINGTON-The Telecommunications Resellers Association last week defended its study that claims a "resale blockage" exists in broadband personal communications service and specialized mobile radio service.TRA President Ernie Kelly, in a March 24 letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Bill Kennard, lashed out at Personal...

WASHINGTON-Still not satisfied that the Federal Communications Commission went far enough to protect the viability of certain financially disabled C-block personal communications services licensees, three congressmen have asked FCC chairman Bill Kennard to respond by March 30 to two questions regarding last week's reconsideration...

The Federal Communications Commission's Phase I E911 deadline is set for Wednesday, but that doesn't mean that dispatchers across the nation this week will begin receiving the extra information called for in the mandate.Phase I requires carriers to relay the Automatic Number Identification of...

WASHINGTON-Unless it receives as-yet-undefined "higher and better alternatives" from potential buyers who would like to purchase the Dallas and Chicago C-block licenses from bankrupt Pocket Communications Inc., a group of Pocket's creditors may end up with those properties, with Pocket's remaining 41 licenses returning...

WASHINGTON-House Commerce appropriations subcommittee Chairman Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) last week threatened to block a Federal Communications Commission budget bill and vowed not to fund the relocation of agency headquarters to the Portals.Rogers, echoing sentiments of Senate appropriators, said he will not act on a...

WASHINGTON-Major lenders to C-block personal communications services licensee Pocket Communications Inc. have struck a tentative deal with the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department to buy the bankrupt company's Dallas and Chicago clusters. Pocket's remaining licenses would be returned to the FCC, and...

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission denied a waiver request forwarded last December by AirTouch Communications Inc. that would have stayed any per-call pay-phone compensation until pay-phone service providers are able to provide pay-phone-specific coding digits to facilitate blocking.In an order released March 9, the commission...

The Federal Communications Commission fined U S West Communications Inc. and a Western Wireless Corp. subsidiary $1.2 million each for discussing bidding strategy during the D-, E- and F-block personal communications services auction and failing to report the incident in a timely manner. The...

WASHINGTON-Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) earlier this month asked President Clinton to help resolve a dispute over whether the Federal Communications Commission violated the 1997 budget law by licensing vacant frequencies to a paging carrier rather than a Southern California public-safety agency."Unless the president personally...

WASHINGTON-As the Justice Department broadens its antitrust probe of WorldCom Inc.'s proposed $37 billion purchase of MCI Communications Corp., Rev. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/Push Coalition is using the mega-merger as a springboard to advocate increased diversification in the booming telecommunications industry.Last week, Jackson, Federal Communications...