Editor’s Note: The RCR Wireless News Time Machine is a way to take advantage of our extensive history in covering the wireless space to fire up the DeLorean and take a trip back in time to re-visit some of the more interesting headlines from this week in history. Enjoy the ride!
Loophole found in wiretap law
A federal court ruling has exposed a huge loophole in the wiretap law, one that gives wireless consumers far less protection from eavesdropping than industry officials and government policy makers have led the public to believe to date. U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan recently ruled the First Amendment can trump wireless privacy protection. The case at issue involved the interception of a conference call in which House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and other GOP leaders plotted strategy to deal with ethics violations a congressional committee was to cite against the speaker. … Read More
Qualcomm, Ericsson continue to lock horns over IPR
Sweden-based L.M. Ericsson said it has found no reason to believe the current W-CDMA 3G standard chosen by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute would infringe on any valid intellectual property rights claimed by Qualcomm Inc. In fact, CEO Sven-Christer Nilsson’s comments to the Japanese press two weeks ago concerning Ericsson’s willingness to compromise with Qualcomm on the IPR squabble were taken out of context, said Ericsson late last week in a press release. … Read More
Capitalized companies hold advantages as stocks drop
U.S. stock markets, like most markets around the world, last week experienced a roller-coaster ride that left many companies with no choice but to hold on and hope for the best. Wireless stocks were not immune to the sudden drop Monday brought on by the mix of economic and political upheaval overseas that fed investors’ fears the several-year-long bull market the United States has enjoyed may not last much longer. The Dow Jones Industrial Average Monday fell 512.61 points, or 6.36 percent, in the second-largest single-day point drop in history. The stock market rebounded Tuesday, regaining more than half of its losses to close up 288.36 points. … Read More
Pentagon may want 3G spectrum for protection
About a year after the Clinton administration created a special panel in 1996 to assess potential threats to telecom networks and other critical infrastructure, the Pentagon conducted a top secret exercise-code named “Eligible Receiver”-that found national security vulnerability far greater than what the U.S. government previously had acknowledged. In his new book, The Next World War, author James Adams reports senior U.S. officials were stunned at the degree to which Eligible Receiver exposed wireless and wireline networks, power grids, banking and financial operations and other vital support systems to sabotage. … Read More
CDMA rollouts delayed in China
An old Chinese saying may be relevant to the commercialization of CDMA mobile phone networks in China-”Those who know don’t talk, and those who talk don’t know”-at least on the record. When will Code Division Multiple Access networks be launched commercially in China? No one knows for sure. It’s a sensitive subject-in particular because the People’s Liberation Army owns 50 percent of China Telecom Great Wall, China’s only mobile phone operator that has been experimenting with CDMA mobile phone networks. … Read More
Venture-capital financing strong for wireless
Venture-backed investments in the second quarter reached an all-time high of $3.7 billion, breaking the prior record of $3.3 billion set in the last quarter of 1997. These investments increased by 26% from the $2.99 billion reported for the second quarter of last year, according to the Price Waterhouse Coopers Money Tree Survey. “The pace of investing is on track to break 1997′s full-year record of $11.6 billion,” said James D. Atwell, managing partner of the venture capital practice in PWC’s Global Technology Industry Group, Austin, Texas. … Read More
Omnipoint offers bundled plans
Succumbing to marketplace pricing pressures, Omnipoint Communications Inc. began offering bundled-minute pricing plans and new prepaid packages last week. “This is the first major pricing change we’ve made since starting business in New York,” said Omnipoint President George Schmitt in a press conference. “We need to remain competitive in the marketplace.” Omnipoint, which has long avoided offering bundled-minute pricing plans, has been testing bundled-minute pricing in Miami. During the test, use increased by 50 percent compared with the company’s other markets, and average revenue per user exceeded $60 compared with the company’s average of $54, said Omnipoint. … Read More
Philips CEO quits; unit continues to struggle
The head of Philips Consumer Communications quit in late August amidst the company’s announcement it doesn’t expect to break even this year. PCC President and Chief Executive Officer Mike McTighe resigned from those positions effective October 1. When Lucent Technologies Inc. and Philips Electronics N.V. hatched the consumer communications joint venture last year, they may have been expecting by now to be making strides toward the goal of being one of the top three wireless handset manufacturers. Instead, the company in the last several months slowly has backed off that goal and now says its failure to break even this year is “mainly the result of delays in the introduction of new products.” … Read More
Preparations in full swing for WRC 2000
The World Radiocommunication Conference is a lot like the Olympics: preparations for the next one start almost before the current event has ended. And, like the athletes who competed earlier this year in Nagano, Japan, are preparing for the 2000 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, the wireless industry and federal policy makers, who last year participated in the WRC in Geneva, are gearing up for the WRC in Istanbul, Turkey, in the spring of 2000. The analogy goes even further. Radio spectrum allocations are a lot like gold medals. Those who don’t win them come back time and time again to get them. … Read More
Bell Mobility to roll out Wildfire
Wildfire Communications Inc. announced Bell Mobility of Canada will become the first telecom service provider to offer the Network Wildfire personal assistant service commercially. The limited market launch is expected to begin Sept. 16 to Bell Mobility’s 1.7 million subscribers in the Toronto area. The agreement was made under a co-development agreement with Bell Emergis, the network-centric application development division of Bell Canada that contracted with Wildfire to purchase the software licenses. According to Rob Mechaley, chief executive officer at Wildfire, Bell Mobility will add the service throughout its coverage area of Ontario and Quebec as the facilities to do so become available. … Read More
