On the cusp of its service launch, Sprint gains new brand, while Chicago sees rash of new prepaid entrants … 20 years ago this week
Editor’s Note: RCR Wireless News goes all in for “Throwback Thursdays,” tapping into our archives to resuscitate the top headlines from the past. Fire up the time machine, put on the sepia-tinted shades, set the date for #TBT and enjoy the memories!
Sprint PCS venture gets new alias, manufacturer
Qualcomm Personal Electronics says it is meeting the handset manufacturing contract requirements of Sprint PCS, which intends to launch service in 15 to 20 major markets by year’s end. Even though Sprint recently signed a handset contract with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Samsung isn’t scheduled to make initial deliveries to Sprint until April. Which means the fanfare service launch by Sprint PCS depends on handsets coming from the new California manufacturing partnership of Qualcomm Inc./Sony Electronics Inc. Sprint PCS is expected to use Sony brand handsets at launch. Sprint PCS is the new name for Sprint Spectrum, the Sprint Corp.-cable TV venture that owns personal communications services licenses in 33 major trading areas covering 190 million people. … Read More
Chicago wireless carriers battle for prepaid clients
SBC Communications Inc. has made the latest move in the battle for prepaid cellular customers in Chicago. In June, SBC, operating under the franchise name Cellular One, began offering its Chicago-area customers a prepaid card called the AccessCard. Last month, Ameritech Cellular Services followed by offering prepaid service with a disposable card backed by a credit card. Now, SBC has launched a pay-as-you-go cellular kit in a box which contains a cellular phone, the AccessCard, a battery and charger. The kit, called Cellular One-2-3, is available at SBC’s cellular retail stores. … Read More
Motorola, MIT partner to develop future paging applications
The futuresque communications previously only envisioned by StarTrek’s writers are reality in the here and now as demonstrated at PCS ’96 by students of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, in conjunction with Motorola Inc. The communications technology projects exhibited by MIT use Motorola’s FLEX family of data transmission protocols. “The FLEX family is enabling a tremendous amount of new applications,” said Jim Page, director of marketing, FLEX operations in Motorola’s Messaging Systems Product Group. … Read More
Paging manufacturer aims to cut buildout costs with repeater
A California manufacturer is producing a paging repeater that it believes is unique and will appeal to carriers battling high installation costs. The P450 by AML Communications Inc. has a split chassis design. Most repeaters are housed in a single unit that combines the receiver and transmitter. AML has separated those modules to eliminate the need for extensive coaxial cable. The AML receiver can be placed on the roof near the antenna. Twisted pair conductor wires are run through the building to the AML transmitter, which may be placed in the basement. … Read More
Wireless devices benefit from Microsoft platform
The market for handheld devices may get a shot in the arm now that Microsoft Corp. has introduced Windows CE, a 32-bit operating system platform that can support a broad range of communications, computing and entertainment products, including those for wireless networks. “We think this is a very important introduction because it integrates desktop functionality and synchronization with handheld in a platform that’s recognized and that people are comfortable with … Our market research with end-users clearly demonstrates a desire for a handheld unit if it automatically synchronizes with the desktop/notebook,” said Gerry Purdy, president and chief executive officer of Cupertino, Calif.-based Mobile Insights Inc., a research firm specializing in the mobile computing industry. … Read More
CTIA balks at tax attempts on wireless
The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association late last week petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to pre-empt excessive or discriminatory taxation of commercial wireless carriers, calling the growing trend “a profound moral hazard.” The filing represents the wireless industry’s most serious attempt to date to combat wireless taxation in cities and states across the nation. The industry argues it has the law on its side: 1993 auction/deregulatory legislation and the 1996 telecom reform bill. … Read More
Trade groups lobby against FBI initiatives
While carriers, manufacturers and the FBI continue to argue about digital wiretap implementation, the wireless telecom industry is quietly lobbying Congress to keep personal communications services and digital cellular licensees from having to pay for equipment changes. Under the 1994 digital wiretap law, known officially as the Communications Assistance and Law Enforcement Act, telecom carriers that deploy systems after Jan. 1, 1995 or that perform major upgrades to existing systems after that date are not eligible to be reimbursed for costs associated with CALEA compliance. … Read More
Nine C-Block winners default as current PCS auctions continue
The D-, E- and F-block personal communications services auction topped $1 billion last week, while nine more bidders defaulted in the C-block auction. The defaults on $125 million worth of down payments pale in comparison to the $10.2 billion taken from the C-block PCS auction and appear far less severe than what was anticipated. “In think this sends a positive signal to the financial markets,” said Jonathan Foxman, director of strategic and business planning at BIA Consulting Inc. … Read More
When telecom PACs come calling, firms let $$ talk
When it comes to getting a say in telecommunications policymaking in the nation’s capital, firms let their dollars do the talking. And, oh, how the money has talked in recent years, like an endless filibuster gushing in all its gilded glory. While political action committee money is not surging out of the spigot with the same force it did in the years, months, days and hours before Congress passed landmark telecommunications reform legislation last February, it will continue to flow into the campaign coffers of Republicans and Democrats as new issues arise and old ones resurface. … Read More
Tower firm spread wings
American Tower Corp. is expected to close soon on the acquisition of Prime Communication Sites L.L.C., which will give Texas-based American nearly 200 additional tower sites and complete the company’s goal of creating “the first nationwide rental tower company.” American Tower is the nation’s largest independent tower rental company. It already owns more 400 communication towers in 24 states and is backed by Summit Capital and Chase Capital investor groups. The company has headquarters in Houston. … Read More
Check out RCR Wireless News’ Archives for more stories from the past.
