Legislation by Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.) to prevent the Federal Communications Commission from approving the transfer of licenses from an American telecommunications company, such as VoiceStream Wireless Corp., was included in the FCC spending bill last week.
The FCC was successful last week in its attempts to have language inserted in its spending bill allowing it to take back licenses from anyone who misses a payment deadline, goes bankrupt or has already gone bankrupt.
Three telecommunications trade associations have asked the FCC to extend by 90 days the Aug. 1 deadline for filing the Numbering Resource Utilization/Forecast Report. The report detailing how many telephone numbers a carrier believes it will need in the future based on past usage is to be used by state and federal regulators and the members of the North American Numbering Association in number conservation policy-making.
Massachusetts’ highest court has ruled that Jack E. Robinson, president of National Telecom Inc., had a sufficient number of voter signatures to challenge Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) this fall. Robinson gained notoriety in the wireless industry for doggedly pursuing litigation after failing to win a personal communications services license in a 1996 government auction.
Japan agreed to U.S. demands that Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Co. lower interconnection fees charged to foreign telecom carriers and to study the possibility of imposing stiffer regulations on NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s dominant mobile telephone carrier. The accord, following months of negotiations and U.S. threats to file a complaint with the World Trade Organization, is expected to create more competition in Japan’s telecom and Internet markets.
President Clinton and leaders of the world’s leading industrialized nations met over the weekend in Japan to discuss ways to expand opportunity through information technology. The emphasis on bridging the “digital divide” attracted executives from Cisco Systems Inc. and other high-tech firms to the island of Okinawa.
Compiled from wire reports and other news outlets.
