BROWSING: FCC

WASHINGTON-In a report and order adopted June 19, the Federal Communications Commission amended its current forfeiture policy to "add predictability in the forfeiture amounts assessed for similar violations among different services."FCC rule violations, ranging from missing or paperwork filed late to broadcasting without a...

WASHINGTON-The wireless telecom industry apparently has failed to secure support from federal regulators and the Clinton administration for broad pre-emption of antenna moratoria, though efforts are in play to provide limited relief to carriers.The Federal Communications Commission, according to sources, is expected shortly to...

WASHINGTON-Following a nearly two-year-old presidential memorandum, a notice of inquiry and several industry forums held earlier this year, the General Services Administration instituted rules June 11 governing the placement of commercial wireless antenna sites on government lands.Published in the Federal Register June 16, the...

Two environmental health advocates in Boston and New York have initiated petitions to stop area launches of personal communications services networks and shut down existing networks pending a public hearing and epidemiologic studies on potential health effects.The Boston petition, introduced by Susan Clarke, has...

BALTIMORE-Statistics have shown that some 70 percent of calls made to 911 operators have nothing to do with life-or-death situations. People have been trained to call the number to gain immediate access to someone who may or may not be able to help. Although...

Could the Clinton administration be scheming to take down its own Justice antitrust chief nominee, Joel Klein, or just giving him a little wake-up call if he manages to be confirmed by the Senate?Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt wouldn't have made his "unthinkable"...

NEW YORK-Price Communications Corp. reached a definitive agreement to sell the Fort Myers, Fla., metropolitan statistical area that it acquired during its recent purchase of Palmer Wireless Inc.Wireless One Network L.P., which owns three rural service areas surrounding Fort Myers, plans to purchase the...

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission's delay in compiling a telecom diversity report could foreclose future female and minority bidding credits because of new anti-affirmative action legislation, which in turn could trump the Clinton administration's highly publicized race relations initiative.The FCC recently announced it would document...

WASHINGTON-The Senate Commerce Committee last week rejected spectrum fees and toll-free telephone number auctions, but embraced lease fees for private wireless licensees in budget legislation lawmakers concede will fail to generate $26.3 billion from wireless license sales during the next five years.But spectrum fees...

NEW ORLEANS-The integration of wireline and wireless capabilities into the local loop "may not happen the way we all envision it," said John Woodward, director of program implementation for GTE Wireless Corp. in Atlanta. Rather, he added, "it may be taken over by such...

Narrowband personal communications services companies have petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to have their license payments deferred along with those of broadband C- and F-block PCS licensees, citing issues of competitive fairness.Conxus Communications, Benbow Ventures Inc. and Insta-Check Systems Inc. have separately filed petitions...

Stratus Computer Inc. and IEX Corp. have developed a joint solution for local number portability that features IEX's Nexus Service Control Point software running on Stratus' Continuum fault-tolerant software.The company's LNP solution will allow local telephone wireless and wireline customers to retain their existing...

As a procrastinator from birth, I'm usually not one to point fingers at slackers. During my school years, long-term projects were put on the back burner until the night before they were due. Even in college, when my humanities professor declared at the beginning...

RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J.-The Federal Communications Commission granted MobileMedia Corp.'s request to stay the hearing initiated by the FCC to evaluate whether the company is suitable to retain all of its paging licenses.The hearing, originally scheduled for June 10, was postponed 10 months. MobileMedia said...

WASHINGTON-A bipartisan bill introduced late last week by Reps. Thomas Bliley (R-Va.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.), if passed, could bring competition to the international satellite arena that includes the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization and Inmarsat (formerly known as the International Mobile Satellite Organization).According to...

BALTIMORE-Major investor and creditor Pacific Eagle Investments Ltd. has pledged another $5 million infusion to Pocket Communications Inc. to keep the C-block personal communications services licensee going until mid-December. This new deal supersedes a $5 million loan contract that was pending between Pocket and...

WASHINGTON-TRW Inc. and Motorola Inc. asked the Federal Communications Commission to investigate Mobile Communications Holdings Inc. in connection with alleged lobbying violations aimed at securing industry, congressional and Clinton administration support for a global pocket phone satellite license."MCHI has on its own, and in...

Over the past couple years, telecom lawmakers were known to have taken a shot or two at budgeteers if the subject of spectrum auctions happened to come up. The quips were cutting, but mostly harmless. Whatever criticism there was lacked the rhetorical passion typically...

WASHINGTON-Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association President Thomas Wheeler said last week that antenna siting disputes will be tied up in litigation for years if federal regulators fail to break the moratoria logjam undermining the congressional mandate for facilities-based wireless competition.CTIA is one of several parties...

MobileMedia Corp. delisted its Class A common stock from the Nasdaq National Market June 3 because it cannot meet certain financial reporting requirements of securities laws, which are necessary to list a stock on the Nasdaq exchange, said the company. Nasdaq ceased trading the...

WASHINGTON-The Federal Commissions Commission, in a stunning reversal, agreed last week to grant 19 rural cellular applications that an administrative law judge previously dismissed for being part of "a massive scam."The FCC's June 3 ruling, which could spark a flurry of appeals and prompt...

NEW YORK-Competition from personal communications services companies in the United States is proving to be good news for wireless carriers and their stocks, David A. Freedman, managing director of Bear Stearns & Co. Inc., New York, said June 4."If you look at a graph...

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission has proposed a rulemaking that would allow almost limitless foreign ownership of U.S.-based telecommunications carriers.The commission, however, vowed to retain certain safeguards that would restrict some foreign investors and/or carriers that exercise near-monopoly power from entering the domestic market. In...

Euristix Ltd. and Tellabs are working together to develop Tellabs' Titan 550 Element Management System using the Euristix Raceman EMSX platform development toolkit based on Windows NT. The companies said the 5500 EMS increases operational efficiency and through a variety of northbound interfaces will...