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!
Wireless phones up for vote on 90s lifestyle stamp
Americans who use wireless phones can vote for them to be on a stamp. The Postal Service was set to begin accepting votes for its “Celebrate the Century” stamp collection on Saturday. Wireless phones are nominated for the lifestyle category for the 1990s. “We have constantly said that wireless phones have changed lives. This would put a stamp on it and make it official,” said Thomas Wheeler, president of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association. … Read More
With full footprint, Aeris takes commercial plunge
Aeris Communications Inc. said its MicroBurst technology now covers the whole of North America and is ready for commercial service. At the WirelessDeveloper ’99 conference last week, Aeris announced coverage pacts with Orbcomm Global L.P., and with cellular carriers, whose control channels transmit mobile and fixed wireless data applications based on the MicroBurst technology. While negotiating the various carrier agreements needed to fill out its terrestrial coverage is noteworthy, it is the hybrid agreement with Orbcomm that Aeris finds most compelling. According to the company, it is the first hybrid cellular control channel/satellite network agreement for data services. … Read More
Ginn says wireless is ‘bigger than the Internet’
At a time when all the rage on Wall Street is about the Internet, a CEO of a major wireless company contends wireless is bigger. Speaking at a luncheon sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute, Sam Ginn, chairman and chief executive of AirTouch Communications Inc., said, “Wireless is in 110 countries [while] the Internet is in roughly 10 countries. From almost every perspective, wireless [is bigger than the Internet] … I don’t think it is a perception widely held, particularly around Wall Street.” … Read More
AMSC aims to link personal wireless functions to PDAs
American Mobile Satellite Corp. introduced a service called eLink, a two-way wireless messaging application with integrated personal information manager functions. Using a modified version of the RIM 950 pager from Research In Motion Ltd., the eLink service will use AMSC’s Ardis wireless packet data network. Other than two-way wireless messaging, AMSC said the eLink service automatically will forward e-mail sent to a desktop account to the pager, as long as the desktop e-mail system is based on Post Office Protocol 3, a common Internet e-mail standard. MCIMail and AT&T Worldnet are both POP 3-based, as are most local area network e-mail systems like Microsoft Outlook and Notes. … Read More
People increasingly irritated with inconsiderate callers
Mobile phones have become commonplace in our society, but they aren’t welcome every place. People increasingly have become annoyed listening to others’ ringing phones and loud conversations in restaurants, on trains and even in movie theaters. And many business owners have had enough, deciding to ban cellular telephones from their establishments. … Read More
Microsoft joins WAP
Ending months of speculation and veiled tension, Microsoft Corp. last week officially announced it joined the Wireless Application Protocol Forum, a move many see as effectively ending a microbrowser war in the making. The announcement spurred a collective sigh of relief among industry players holding their breath since the software giant first announced its intention to create a microbrowser that could filter Internet-based content to wireless phones based on existing standards. … Read More
U S West to roll out Internet access
Leveraging its parent company’s strength as a landline and Internet service provider, U S West Wireless said it expects to roll out commercial mobile text-based Internet access during the fourth quarter. Users also will have access to features such as an e-mail service that can receive, display and store e-mail as well as a fax mailbox that will be able to receive and store faxes, allowing wireless customers to forward the data to any fax machine for printing. … Read More
MCI WorldCom-Nextel gone but not forgotten
MCI WorldCom Inc. last week halted talks to buy Nextel Communications Inc. after succumbing to differences over price, putting shares of the No. 2 long-distance telephone company and the last independent national wireless operator on a wild roller-coaster ride for weeks. Some Wall Street analysts said the timing was not right, and they would not be surprised to see MCI WorldCom and Nextel back together at the negotiating table again in the not-too-distant future. Others are not so sure, pointing out that Nextel spectrum capacity constraints-which the firm is trying to improve in court and at the Federal Communications Commission-added to its highly leveraged position appeared to have scared away MCI WorldCom. … Read More
Harmonization effort take-or-leave package
The Operators Harmonization Group, an assembly of mobile phone operators from around the world, said they agreed last month in Tokyo to a baseline proposal to harmonize ITU CDMA-based third-generation technology proposals. The proposal needs further refinement, a process that should be completed in the next 30 days, said the group. Carriers and manufacturers involved with the OHG have agreed not to elaborate on details of the proposal to the press until the high-level agreement is accepted by all OHG members. Sources familiar with the harmonization efforts, however, indicate the proposal is a take-all or leave-all package, meaning members will have to agree on all the proposed technical parameters. … Read More
Despite slashing and shuffling, telecom job market remains promising
Working in the fast-paced world of wireless telecommunications is like playing a game of musical chairs-everything moves along smoothly until the music stops. In the silence, many are making a mad dash to get their seat in the circle only to find it has been acquired by a bigger kid or is too crowded. In an industry where the “only thing that’s constant is change,” job security and loyalty are certainly rare, if not extinct. In the past five months, at least six major telecom companies have slashed their work force, including Alcatel Inc., Nortel Networks, L.M. Ericsson and NEC Corp. A sluggish global economy and the company’s restructuring to focus on different technologies forced Alcatel to announce in March plans to cut 12,000 jobs during the next two years. NEC suffered major losses in its Packard Bell division and announced in February plans to eliminate more than 15,000 jobs during the next three years. … Read More
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