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 creates wireless broadband division
KANSAS CITY, Mo.-Sprint Corp. last week announced it created a new organization that will be responsible for building a broadband fixed wireless network in markets where Sprint has acquired licenses. The Broadband Wireless Group will focus on building fixed wireless facilities and developing high-speed Internet services for homes and small businesses that will compete with cable data offerings, incumbent local exchange carrier xDSL services and CLEC data offers, said Sprint. Sprint is waiting for final approval from the Federal Communications Commission for its planned purchase of five multichannel multipoint distribution service licensees, including Peoples Choice TV, American Telecasting Inc., Transworld Telecommunications Inc., Videotron USA and WBS America. The licenses will give Sprint up to 200 megahertz of spectrum in more than 65 markets nationwide, covering about 30 million households, said the company. Sprint named Timothy Sutton, formerly the company’s vice president of technology and corporate development, president of the new group, which will be part of Sprint’s National Integrated Services division. In addition to deploying a fixed wireless network, the group also will work with Sprint’s Consumer Services Group, Sprint Business and other NIS groups to roll out Sprint’s Integrated On-Demand Network, called Sprint ION, over the wireless infrastructure. … Read more
European cellular penetration has room to grow
LUTON, England-Cellular penetration in western Europe is expected to surpass 70 percent within five years, according to a new report by Strategy Analytics titled “Mobile Communications Service-Europe.” Annual service revenues could grow to more than $150 billion during that time. However, average revenue per user will continue to fall from $54 per month last year to $46 in 2004, said the report. “ARPU in western Europe has fallen from $71 per month to $54 between 1996 and 1998, and this despite the fact that penetration was still at a relatively immature 24 percent at the end of last year,” said Declan Lonergan, director of wireless services in Europe for Strategy Analytics. “We will see a growing contribution to ARPU from non-voice services over the next few years. However, over the coming five years the net result of penetration growth and data revenues will still be a drop in ARPU. “The good news, however, is that this may well represent the bottom of the ARPU curve, and operators can look forward to a growth trend in the longer term.” … Read more
GTE tests access to early “internet-based” mobile services
BELLEVUE, Wash.-GTE Wire-less said it will test @mobile.com’s Internet-based information services to customers in its Seattle and Spokane, Wash., markets. Services include a group text message broadcast service, a service sending Internet-based content to digital wireless phones at predetermined times and the ability to query pre-selected Internet content at any time. … Read more
Read your email on your pager!
JACKSON, Miss.-SkyTel Communications Inc. introduced a unified messaging service, called SkyTel Message Center, which notifies users on their two-way pagers when they receive voice mail, e-mail or faxes at their office or home, and gives them several response options. When receiving an e-mail, SkyTel Message Customers will be notified of the sender, subject, number of characters and any attachments. Customers can then choose to read it on the pager, reply to it or redirect it to a different e-mail address or fax. If a fax comes in, the service pages the user with the fax’s sender and number of pages, and the user can forward it to a default number, other number or an e-mail address. … Read more
New FCC strategic plan focuses on managing spectrum
WASHINGTON-One of the core goals of the Federal Communications Commission in the 21st century is to effectively manage radio-frequency spectrum, the FCC said last week in a draft strategic report it sent to Congress. To accomplish this, the FCC by 2003 plans to restructure its operations along functional lines rather than by industry sector. In other words, the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau will cease to exist. “With this plan, the FCC is meeting the challenge of reinventing itself to keep pace with the rapidly changing communications industry landscape … It will allow the FCC to enter the next century able to respond fully and quickly to emerging technologies and the inexorable movement from regulation to competition,” said FCC Chairman William Kennard. WTB functions will be combined with like functions from the FCC’s Common Carrier Bureau to form a policy bureau and a licensing bureau. The FCC will begin this process by “selecting one of our current technology-specific bureaus as a test case. We will restructure this bureau into a prototype of the eventual agency-wide structure,” according to the report. The FCC did not say whether WTB, the Common Carrier Bureau or Cable Services Bureau would be the prototype. … Read more
Nextel takes issue with private wireless licenses
WASHINGTON-Nextel Communications Inc. is charging that private wireless receives a subsidy because it does not pay for its licenses. The enhanced specialized mobile radio operator made the remarks in reply comments filed at the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC is establishing a record on what services should make use of 36 megahertz of spectrum made available as part of the transition to digital TV. The spectrum is located in the 746-764 MHz and 776-794 MHz bands, known as TV channels 60-69. Nextel, which won most of the licenses in the upper 800 MHz band auction, said, “Licensees assigned spectrum free of charge have little incentive to implement cost-effective, spectrum-efficient technology … [The FCC should] assign this [spectrum]for any fixed, mobile or broadcast use to any eligible bidder.” Nextel goes on to charge that “among the large corporations currently holding licenses obtained at the American taxpayer’s expense (and seeking to continue these subsidies) are Ford Motor Co. and the Boeing Co., which are ranked second and ninth on the 1999 Fortune 500, respectively … There is no reason that the `owner’ of those private spectrum allocations, i.e., the American public, should not be directly compensated for use of this resource just as the owner of every other resource used in the production of these for-profit goods and services is compensated by the private licensee.” … Read more
More cellular buying options come online
NEW YORK-Consumers looking to comparison shop on the Internet for wireless services and products will soon have two new choices. CellMania.com said it plans to launch its service Sept. 8 and will offer information, advice and buying opportunities for more than 10,000 service plans and 50 different handsets. Ronjon Nag, former head of the Lexicus division of Motorola Inc., is the founder and chief executive officer of CellMania.com, which is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif. Let’s Talk Cellular & Wireless Inc., Miami, a specialty retailer of wireless products, also is getting into cyberspace sales. It has formed a separate company, San Francisco-based LetsTalk.com, to design, develop and operate an online superstore. Wireless products and services will be cross-marketed between Let’s Talk’s 266 retail stores around the country and the LetsTalk Web site. … Read more
Check out the RCR Wireless News Archives for more stories from the past.
