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 those sepia-tinted shades, set the date for #TBT and enjoy the memories!
US companies partner to participate in Indian spectrum auction
U.S. firms were big winners in the latest round of cellular licensing in India, after watching Asian and British companies get the lion’s share of previous awards. Twenty-one licenses covering 15 regions of the country were awarded to eight companies-two licenses per region. Operators will deploy Global System for Mobile communications technology. The Indian government said the eight companies paid a total of $262 million in first installments. Eight cellular licenses were first issued in 1992; two licensees operate in each of the four dominant cities of Bombay, Calcutta, Madras and New Delhi. California-based AirTouch Communications Inc., a partner in another Indian cellular licensee, snagged its second jewel-a license in the nation’s largest state, Madhya Pradesh, to serve 70 million people. Regional cities include Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur and Gwallor. AirTouch is a 20 percent partner in Mobile Telecom Services, which won a license last year to offer cellular service in Madras. That venture is led by RPG Enterprise, which also leads the new venture, Cellular Communication India Ltd. AirTouch controls 49 percent of the new alliance. Together, the partners will pay $16 million over 10 years for the Madhya Pradesh license. Service is expected to begin during this year’s third quarter. Nynex Corp. is making its first move into Indian wireless as a minority partner in the venture that won the other license for Madhya Pradesh. The group, led by Reliance Industries Ltd., also won licenses for West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Northeast and Orissa. … Read more
US auction of PCS, 900 MHz licenses set to resume
WASHINGTON-Participants in the Federal Communications Commission’s spectrum auctions are taking the next few days to gear up for Jan. 5, when the bidding for C-block broadband personal communications services and 900 MHz specialized mobile radio licenses resumes. Bidders ended the year by pledging about $166.8 million to the 900 MHz auction and $1.2 billion to the C-block PCS auction. Following a two-week hiatus that began Dec. 22, bidders will enter at Round 14 of the 900 MHz auction and Round 5 of the C-block PCS sale. Top 900 MHz bidders returning to the fray include Paging Network of America Inc., with $13.1 million in net high bids; Geotek Communications Inc., bidding $10.7 million; FCI 900 Inc. (Nextel Communications Inc.), bidding $10.3 million to date; Motorola SMR Inc., at $2.8 million and A&B Electronics (Pittencrief Communications Inc.) at $2.3 million. Of the original 128 bidders, 111 remain. The commission has made no decision regarding moving from one round of 900 MHz SMR bidding per day to two, even though the number of new bids and of new high bids per round had dropped to less than 100. On the PCS side, Puerto Rico-based PCS 2000 LP leads the pack with $442.6 million in net high bids, followed by GWI PCS Inc., with $257.2 million; NextWave Personal Communications Inc., at $162.1 million … Read more
Spectrum sales key to budget negotiations
WASHINGTON-Congressional GOP and White House budget negotiators reached an agreement on auctioning radio spectrum through the year 2002 as part of renewed talks aimed at producing a compromise on a seven-year balanced budget plan and ending the longest government shutdown in the nation’s history by as early as this week. But the prospects for success are uncertain. “The minute we have a budget agreement we should be able to get something through the House within hours that would take care of all the current problems,” said Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., speaker of the House. But, he added, “The key is we have go back to the White House and we have to have an agreement so when members come back from home they have something to look at. I don’t think members are going to come back and say, `Well, glad you guys had nice meetings.’” The House is scheduled to begin voting on Wednesday. Meetings between congressional and administration staffs were held last Wednesday and Thursday, setting the stage for President Clinton to meet Friday and possibly through the weekend with Gingrich, Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole (R-Kan.), Senate Minority Leader Thomas Daschle (D-S.D.) and House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.). It was not clear what deal was worked out on spectrum auctions because it is tied to a $40 billion package of savings including other components. The GOP seven-year balanced budget plan that Clinton vetoed last month would have the Federal Communications Commission raise $15.3 billion over the next seven years by expanding auction authority. Public safety and broadcasting frequencies would be exempt from competitive bidding under that plan. … Clinton’s latest budget proposal would erase the federal deficit by 2002, in part by generating $28.3 billion from the sale of wireless licenses, including analog television channels. … Read more
Hearing aids and mobile phone interference play out in policy conversations
WASHINGTON-Hearing disability advocates are privately furious with the wireless telecommunications industry over the agenda for this week’s conference on hearing aid interference from next-generation pocket phones and with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt for suggesting the problem can be solved by the marketplace. Publicly, however, representatives of the nation’s 4 million-plus hearing aid users are downplaying their grievances and expressing optimism that something good will come out of the “Hearing Aid Compatibility and Access to Digital Wireless Telecommunications Summit Meeting” on Wednesday and Thursday in Washington. “We’re really committed to making this work,” said Brenda Battat, deputy executive director of Bethesda, Md.-based Self Help for Hard of Hearing People (SHHH). “We would like providers and manufacturers to go away with the idea that access should be built into the phones from the outset.” That has not happened in England and in other countries where digital cellular systems driven by Global System for Mobile communications technology were built and hearing aid wearers were left to deal with interference from phones. The hearing aid community does not want that situation repeated in the United States, but it appears things are moving in that direction-apparently with the FCC chairman’s blessing. … Read more
Could 1996 be CDMA’s year?
This may be the year that Code Division Multiple Access technology becomes a commercial reality for cellular operators, with one system already running in Hong Kong and four nearing completion in the United States. Systems launched today are deployed with an 8-kilobit vocoder chips for voice quality. U.S. companies say that if they launch now with base stations and handsets designed for 8 kilobit, they can make the transition to 13-kilobit chips when they become available sometime this year. Hutchison Telephone Co. Ltd. in Hong Kong launched a $79 million CDMA cellular network in October, but the company won’t say how many new customers it has recruited. Hutchison plans to migrate customers from its Advanced Mobile Phone Service analog network to the CDMA network throughout 1996 and 1997. “It is up and running. At first there were not enough handsets, but now things are being stepped up and it’s picking up at a faster rate,” said Hutchison spokeswoman Laura Cheung. Qualcomm Inc. of San Diego provides the dual-mode AMPS/CDMA handsets, which were manufactured through a joint venture between Qualcomm and Sony Electronics. About 1,000 of the QCP-800 portable phones initially were shipped to Hong Kong; as of last month Qualcomm will have shipped 10,000 phones to the bustling Asian city. Motorola Inc. manufactured the infrastructure and built the system. “If we can put a CDMA system in Hong Kong, with that (congested) RF environment, we can put one anywhere,” said Qualcomm spokeswoman Julie Cunningham. … Read more
Check out the RCR Wireless News Archives for more stories from the past.
