BROWSING: FCC

What is the real motivation behind the reluctance of the Federal Communications Commission to make a decision about what to do with the specialized mobile radio industry? Is it greed? Power? Or are they just caught in a quandary as to how to protect...

WASHINGTON-Following an almost seven-month hiatus, NextWave Telecom Inc. has submitted answers to 43 questions posed by the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding the S-1 form it filed in June 1996 in preparation for an initial public offering.NextWave consequently put that action on hold when...

WASHINGTON-As the Feb. 15 deadline for reaching a global telecom trade pact closes in on Geneva negotiators, Congress and the administration find themselves embroiled in a bitter dispute over foreign ownership that could itself torpedo the deal.Such an outcome would be a major setback...

The Personal Communications Industry Association filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission regarding universal service fund reform. PCIA agreed with the FCC that it must implement access charge and universal service fund reform concurrently to avoid local exchange carriers receiving double recovery of costs....

WASHINGTON-House telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) said he will sponsor legislation to expand legal privacy protection for wireless communications and outlaw all modifications of radio scanners that enable electronic eavesdropping.At the same time, lawmakers at last Wednesday's hearing criticized the wireless telecom industry...

NEPEAN, Ontario-Aprel Laboratories announced it now offers specific absorption rate (SAR) testing, meeting safety guidelines the Federal Communications Commission set regarding radio frequency emissions.SAR requirements determine how much RF energy may or may not be absorbed by the human body, said Aprel. In August,...

SAN FRANCISCO-The Federal Communications Commission approved the merger of SBC Communications Inc. and Pacific Telesis Group. The approval involved the transfer of wireless licenses from Pacific Telesis to SBC, including Pacific Telesis' California and Nevada licenses.The companies said the FCC found "the transfer will...

NEW YORK-The continued expansion of commercially available new wireless services is extremely important to the future success in public capital raising for the entire sector, said Norman C. Frost, Jr., managing director of Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., New York."Now, unfortunately, there isn't a...

A cellular operator with New England properties launched a digital cellular network on the specialized mobile radio frequency in Hawaii, saying it is the first non-traditional cellular company to accomplish this feat.Officials with Atlantic Cellular Co. of Colchester, Vt., said they have explored the...

WASHINGTON-Motorola Satellite Communications Inc. filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission to modify its license for the Iridium mobile satellite system to include authority to provide aeronautical mobile satellite services.AMS services are route services for voice and data that support flight safety communications...

ATLANTA-A split exists between industry reality and regulatory expectations for implementing the Telecommunications Act of 1996, according to a survey conducted by Deloitte & Touche L.L.P.The company said state regulators perceive that preparations for interconnection and resale during 1996 were less difficult than perceived...

CAMARILLO, Calif.-The Federal Communications Commission gave type approval to AML Communications Inc.'s broadband PCS 600 repeater. AML said production and delivery PCS 600 will begin this quarter.The product is designed to relay signals to and from difficult coverage areas such as buildings, tunnels and...

WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration's balanced budget plan calls for $36 billion from expanded auctions over the next five years, a projection that raises key wireless policy questions.The initiative, which includes selling toll-free 888 telephone numbers but is otherwise vague, was included in the $1.7 trillion...

Who's running the Wireless Telecom Bureau?It's not a rhetorical question.Over the past two years, or about as long as Reed Hundt has been FCC chairman and spectrum auctions the rage, the WTB has evolved into a curious creature.We know WTB, aided by Hundt and...

WASHINGTON-The Utilities Telecommunications Council, has taken issue with a recent technical blueprint regarding pool consolidation floated at the Federal Communications Commission by the Industrial Telecommunications Association, and the group has submitted a plan of its own that it said better protects utilities and public-safety...

WASHINGTON-Commenting on a petition regarding moratoria on siting issues, the Personal Communications Industry Association last week submitted to the Federal Communications Commission a laundry list of criteria that should be included in any FCC-generated pre-emptive policy. The group also asked the commission to conclude...

While the GOP-led Congress and the White House gush on about making nice in the 105th/Clinton II, rumblings of cyberpolicy war are growing louder.Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), chairman of the Senate communications subcommittee, re-introduced his encryption bill "to override the Clinton administration's encryption plan." Burns'...

WASHINGTON-Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) has accused Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt of going forward with a plan to link schools and libraries to the Internet without having a funding mechanism in place."We understand that you intend to implement one part...

The Federal Communications Commission granted GWI PCS Inc. the remaining 14 C-block personal communications licenses won last May. The markets had been on hold since that time because of an informal objection filed by Antigone Communications and PCS Devco Inc. that charged the company...

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission has been nominated for a Computerworld Smithsonian Award for developing and implementing its remote electronic auction system. The annual awards program, first introduced in 1989, has been called "the Academy Awards for information technology," and the commission could be up...

WASHINGTON-The fiscal 1998 budget President Clinton plans to unveil this week will propose expanded auction authority and at least one major education program underwritten by wireless license sales, despite uncertainty about revenue projections in a marketplace already flooded with spectrum, service providers and debt.An...

RCR missed boat on NextWave storyDear Editor: RCR is a respected wireless trade publication known for its journalistic standards. It inexplicably departed from those standards in its Jan. 13 edition, which contains analysis and commentary on the Federal Communications Commission's recent decision to conditionally grant...

WASHINGTON-In light of the Federal Communications Commission's recent finding that NextWave Telecom Inc.'s foreign ownership exceeded the FCC's 25-percent threshold, forcing a company reorganization of that segment, C-block winner and defaulter National Telecom PCS Inc. has filed yet another pleading with the commission questioning...

WASHINGTON-With the wireless industry and hearing impaired community unable to agree on long-term solutions for hearing-aid compatibility and interference problems after more than a year of negotiations, federal regulators could be forced to intervene as part of a congressional mandate to enforce the disability...