BROWSING: FCC

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission may have violated a key telecom provision of the 1997 budget act by making idle frequencies available to a paging company instead of to a Southern California public-safety agency that had sought them two-and-a-half years ago.Less than two months after...

WASHINGTON-Attorney General Janet Reno said Friday she will postpone seeking Federal Communications Commission intervention in the digital wiretap controversy if the telecom industry can show progress in the coming months toward resolving implementation disputes with the FBI that have continued three-and-a-half years after the...

WASHINGTON-Four Senate telecom lawmakers plan to introduce universal service legislation this week aimed at preventing mandated Internet links for schools, libraries and rural health-care facilities from draining telephone service subsidies for poor and high-cost rural subscribers.The bipartisan draft, authored by Sens. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska),...

RESTON, Va.-The Federal Communications Commission approved the transfer of control of Ardis Co.'s wireless data network from Motorola Inc. to American Mobile Satellite Corp., following a $100-million cash and stock deal announced Dec. 31, said AMSC.The acquisition received approval from the Federal Trade Commission...

What?There is not a shortage of available phone numbers? The rise in fax machines, pagers and cellular phones is not to blame for what is being perceived as a number shortage.Instead, the telephone number shortage is because phone numbers are assigned in an old-fashioned...

Ericsson forms office mobility unitATLANTA-Ericsson Inc. announced the formation of the Wireless Services unit in response to the increasing need for wireless communications in the workplace.Ericsson said the new unit will provide a wireless office solution based on the Interim Standard-136 Time Division Multiple...

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission already could be headed for a local multipoint distribution services reauction, now that the bidding has reached Stage 3. Overall bidder eligibility has dropped below the total amount of available spectrum and the commission appears to be balking at lowering...

WASHINGTON-Area-code splits are unnecessary at this time, and the Federal Communications Commission needs to take command of state-controlled phone number allocations that need to move away from the traditional 10,000-number blocks.The rise in fax machines, pagers and cellular phones cannot be blamed for what...

WASHINGTON-Attorney General Janet Reno, amid indications of coming legislation, told Congress last week she will order the Federal Communications Commission to intervene in mid-March if the deadlock between the FBI and the telecom industry over digital wiretap implementation is not resolved by then."We may...

Latest statistics put the national capital area as the second worst gridlocked place in the country, second presumably to Los Angeles.As a native Washingtonian, I've sensed for some years that congestion was getting worse.Now I know why: the lawyers, the scandals, the lawsuits, the subpoenas...

WASHINGTON-The General Accounting Office told Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) last week the Federal Communications Commission's move to the Portals "is in the best financial interest of the government and is preferable to the FCC's staying in its current locations."At the same...

WASHINGTON-Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) and House telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) are expected shortly to introduce legislation to use federal antenna siting fees to upgrade local and state wireless 911 systems, an approach that will require lawmakers to beef up...

The Telecommunications Resellers Association has filed comments urging the Federal Communications Commission to reject a petition filed by the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association requesting a five-year delay in the wireless number portability implementation deadline.CTIA's petition, filed in December following its previous request for a...

WASHINGTON-Senate communications subcommittee Chairman Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) have asked Federal Communications Commission Chairman Bill Kennard to reconsider rules they believe hurt emergency road service communications, such as those relied on by the American Automobile Association and others."We are concerned...

WASHINGTON-With the auction of local multipoint distribution service scarcely a week old, the battle lines for leadership have been drawn between WNP Communications and McCaw/Nextel-backed Nextband Communications, with wireless local loop player WinStar LMDS L.L.C. in close pursuit. On the other hand, some initial...

WASHINGTON-Despite recent Federal Communications Commission allusions to a prompt public notice detailing changes to its C-block personal communications services financial restructuring order, such a notice probably will not be released for weeks-perhaps months-and the election date for any of its options won't be until...

NEW YORK-Omnipoint Corp., Bethesda, Md., reported year-end results that showed increased subscribers, revenues and losses.In related developments, Bradley Sparks, chief financial officer, said during a Feb. 26 teleconference that the company had secured additional borrowing capabilities totaling $1.45 billion, more than enough for its...

A commercial mobile radio service provider in Puerto Rico filed a brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to appeal universal service rules established by the Federal Communications Commission.Celpage Inc. contends the FCC's universal service rules are not in line...

WASHINGTON-The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association has asked the Federal Communications Commission to address three regulatory issues surrounding calling party pays, calling on the agency to "step up and deal with the anti-consumer problems that force each subscriber to see every cellular call as a...

WASHINGTON-The Wireless Telecommunications Bureau is taking steps to solve both the millennium-bug problem and inconsistencies that exist between radio-frequency services applications rules by issuing a notice of proposed rule making that will consolidate and streamline the filing of electronic applications.At its Feb. 19 open...

The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association has filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission asking the agency to move forward with a rulemaking on calling party pays service. While CPP service has been implemented with great success throughout much of the rest of the...

WASHINGTON-House Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley (R-Va.) blasted the Federal Communications Commission for not giving a college in his state the same discount given large corporations that began bidding last week for local multipoint distribution service licenses."There is no compelling public reason Virginia Tech...

WASHINGTON-Labor Secretary Alexis Herman last week reiterated her innocence in connection with a Justice Department probe into whether she profited from helping Mobile Communications Holdings Inc. obtain a global satellite phone license last year."As I said, first of all, the allegations aren't true, and...

To the Editor: During the next few weeks, the Federal Communications Commission will rule on requests to modify its decision to provide limited debt relief to C-block wireless personal communications services licensees that owe the U.S. government billions of dollars. The public interest would be...