1998

At the end of each year, the RCR editorial staff looks back on the news events that made RCR headlines and decides which were the most significant, industry-impacting stories of the past 12 months. Here are our picks for 1998. …

M/A-Com M/A-COM, a division of AMP Inc., announced a new family of DC-2 GHz GaAs Field Effect Transistor Microwave Monolithic Integrated Circuit digital attenuators with integral Application Specific Integrated Circuit drivers. The attenuators in this family are multichip modules containing …

WASHINGTON-With a panoply of prickly issues tied to major telecom policies of local competition, disability access, spectrum management and digital wiretap compliance, the future could not be cloudier for the wireless industry in 1999. Besides the fact wireless policy is …

PCIA The Personal Communications Industry Association appointed Brent Weingardt vice president of government relations. Weingardt previously was regulatory counsel for Iridium LLC where he gave legal advice on regulatory matters and provided guidance regarding compliance with U.S. wireless and common …

The Palm VII personal digital assistant, announced this month by 3Com Corp. and Palm Computing Inc., continues to generate news and speculation, even though the product is not expected to be in consumers’ hands until late next year. Convergys Corp. …

HELSINKI, Finland-Nokia Corp. signed a definitive agreement to acquire Vienna Systems, a privately held Internet Protocol telephony company of Kanata, Ontario, for about $90 million. Vienna Systems designs and manufacturers hardware and software products for voice, fax and video communications …

SEATTLE-Go to any trade show where mobile phone operators congregate, and you will hear grumbling about how AT&T Wireless Services Inc.’s Digital One Rate pricing plan has wreaked havoc on business plans. The play for the high-end business user seems …

NEW YORK-Echoing Rodney Dangerfield’s complaint, wireless carriers continue to say, “I don’t get no respect” as they fight skirmishes over local exchange carrier interconnection fees while the decisive battle is pending at the U.S. Supreme Court. Winter’s fallow time finds …

NEW YORK-Olivetti S.p.A. and Mannesmann AG commenced a tender offer of $65.75 per share for all of the outstanding shares of Cellular Communications International Inc.’s common stock. Olivetti and Mannesmann Dec. 11 announced plans to purchase Cellular Communications through Kensington …

WARREN, N.J.-Anadigics Inc. has joined the Bluetooth Special Interest Group. Anadigics manufacturers gallium arsenide integrated circuits for high-volume communications applications, such as mobile phones.

WASHINGTON-Paging Network Inc. was expected last week to complete the last of 13 interconnection agreements with Bell Atlantic Corp. “We are pleased that PageNet and Bell Atlantic have been able to agree on interconnection terms in all of the states …

As a call to arms goes out to prepare for cyberterrorism, we now know at least a few ways vital U.S. infrastructure can be shut down. There are errant construction crews and maintenance screw ups. Lights out San Francisco! Looking …

Three Granger Telecom employees and an independent contractor have been killed in Chechnya, a breakaway republic of Russia located north of Georgia. Granger Telecom employees Darren Hickey, Rudolph Petschi and Stan Shaw, and independent consultant Peter Kennedy, were taken hostage …

After months of aggressive buildout-beginning in late June with the Texas launch-PageMart Wireless Inc. announced its two-way, ReFLEX 25-based narrowband personal communications services network is available nationwide. The $310 million, Internet Protocol network upgrade adds two-way messaging capabilities to its …

WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration progressed in getting more telecommunications and information technology products shielded from tariffs, but last week acknowledged problems persist in convincing China to open its market and hinted the United States was ready to consider retaliation. “Our companies …

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill.-Motorola Inc.’s Cellular Infrastructure Group plans to shut down its plant in McHenry, Ill., that housed analog base station equipment manufacturing functions. Sue Frederick, a spokeswoman for Motorola CIG, said the facility was opened in 1995 as a …

DALLAS-Cellular One celebrated its 15th anniversary Dec. 16. On the same day in 1983, Cellular One initiated wireless service in Washington, D.C. “Before cellular technology, there could only be a handful of mobile telephone callers at a given time in …

WASHINGTON-Oral argument in the appeal of the Federal Communications Commission’s 1996 radio-frequency radiation exposure guidelines has been postponed until February or March. The case, Cellular Task Force v. FCC, had been scheduled to be heard last June and, after numerous …

WASHINGTON-The most conservative member of the Federal Communications Commission last week said the current microscopic review of telecommunications mergers is unfair given the lack of attention the FCC is expected to give to the merger between oil giants Exxon and …

DALLAS-Paging Network Inc. announced it is in the final stages of field testing its advanced messaging network and plans to launch commercial service in the upcoming first quarter. PageNet said the narrowband personal communications services network will first support the …

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-The number of cellular and personal communications services subscribers in Southeast Asia will grow from more than 8.5 million this year to more than 19.8 million by 2003, according to a Pyramid Research study, titled “Wireless Markets and Strategies …

SCHAUMBURG, Ill.-In an agreement with IBM’s software group, Motorola Worldwide Data Solutions Division said it now will be able to offer IBM’s eNetwork Emulator Express, eNetwork Web Express and eNetwork Wireless Gateway and Mobile Client as part of its Private …

WASHINGTON-The Industrial Telecommunications Association warned the Federal Communications Commission not to use a pending proceeding involving Nextel Communications Inc. to make a de facto ruling that private wireless spectrum should be auctioned. “Saia [Communications Inc.] argues that the policy behind …

MURRAY HILL, N.J.-Lucent Technologies Inc. will integrate SignalSoft Corp.’s suite of wireless location services with its Wireless Intelligent Network platform to broaden the range of services available on the platform, said the companies. SignalSoft’s wireless location services include local.info, wireless …

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y.-Microwave Power Devices Inc. announced it was awarded an estimated $39 million consignment order to supply highly linear, single channel, cellular Code Division Multiple Access amplifiers to Lucent Technologies Inc. Lucent will use them predominantly in its CDMA telecommunications …