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!
PCS networks defy build-out expectations
While naysayers doubted that personal communications services networks could be built out in record time, the five systems now up and running prove them wrong. Western Wireless Corp. last week turned on a PCS network in New Mexico, its third PCS launch in five months. The operator also has networks running in Honolulu and Salt Lake City. Each of the nation’s five PCS networks use Global System for Mobile communications technology at 1900 MHz. Four of the five networks were built entirely with equipment manufactured in Raleigh, N.C., by Northern Telecom Inc. While other manufacturers are busily building out A- and B-block PCS systems all over the country, Nortel is leading the race. Network builders say two distinct things gave them the ability to build out quickly: early equipment manufacture and the availability of smaller, cabinet-size equipment. Three or four years ago, Nortel redesigned the international version of PCS technology for North American frequencies. Then Nortel spent several million dollars renovating an area in its Raleigh switch manufacturing facility. Before the PCS auctions had even begun, Nortel began building GSM base stations dedicated to the U.S. market. “We were ready and the auctions weren’t,” said Dave Twyver, president of wireless networks for Nortel. Equipment was built and tested in certain markets. “It was a risk start. But when the winners of the A- and B-block auction were looking around for suppliers, we were able to commit. We had the GSM 1900 design ahead of everyone else, production ahead of our competitors and already had established our reputation,” Twyver said. … Read more
Western Wireless turns up PCS in Texas, New Mexico
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.-Western Wireless Corp. has turned on a personal communications services network in the Albuquerque, N.M.-El Paso, Texas, major trading area. The company’s service is branded VoiceStream Wireless and is available from the town of Espanola, north of Santa Fe, to Socorro, south of Albuquerque. By the end of 1997, VoiceStream service is scheduled to be extended to all of New Mexico’s major cities and highways, as well as to El Paso on New Mexico’s southern border. Western Wireless also is a cellular operator in Texas markets east of El Paso, including Midland, Odessa, Abilene and San Angelo. … Read more
Olympic athletes use ‘OlymPagers’
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla.-U.S. Olympic athletes in Atlanta communicated with their coaches, teammates, friends, family and press using OlymPagers, alphanumeric pagers that Motorola Inc. provided to each Team USA athlete. The pagers were unexpectedly beneficial for athletes needing to communicate with family and with one another after the bombing in Olympic Square last month. “It’s very important for all of us athletes to have pagers, especially since there are no family or coaches allowed in the Olympic Village,” said Matt Ghaffari, who won a silver medal in Greco-Roman wrestling. Athletes said the pagers have been a great way to receive game schedule updates as well as messages and congratulations from family and friends. Motorola’s North American Paging Subscriber Division supplied the OlymPagers. … Read more
Nokia offers a ‘fax card’
ESPOO, Finland-Nokia Mobile Phones K.K. (Japan) has introduced the Nokia Digital Data/Fax Card to the Japanese digital cellular networks. The card enables wireless data transmission linking Nokia’s digital mobile phones and portable computers with the PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) slot. A user can send and receive e-mail, faxes and data files and gain access to public information services, such as the Internet, said Nokia. … Read more
Legislation focuses on anti-terrorism, including wiretaps
WASHINGTON-Starting the week united but ending it divided, President Clinton and a bipartisan congressional group struggled to agree on an anti-terrorism bill to give law enforcement expanded wiretap authority and other tools to fight domestic and international crime. While there was an outside possibility for passing a bill before Congress broke for its August recess, some lawmakers suggested taking up the matter upon returning after Labor Day. White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta led the negotiations for the administration while Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) headed up the congressional task force. Clinton signed anti-terrorism legislation in April but a coalition of conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats stripped out several provisions, including so-called roving wiretaps that save law enforcement officials the time and trouble of having to get a separate court order for a wiretap every time a suspect moves from one location to another or even from a wireline phone to a wireless phone. As such, the president offered Congress a wish list of nine items, including roving wiretap authority and encryption export restrictions, for inclusion in the new anti-terrorism bill. But the administration and congressional leaders, after reaching an agreement in principle by mid-week, got bogged down in debate over privacy issues and chemical markers-called taggants-that the FBI and White House want to use to identify manufacturers of explosives. Yet, the recent spate of fatal incidents including the Olympic Park blast, the TWA Flight 800 explosion and the Saudi Arabia bombing has raised the visibility of digital telephony wiretap funding issue while reviving the debate on balancing national security and constitutional privacy. … Read more
Taiwan opens its wireless market
WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration said Taiwan has agreed to open its wireless market as part of an overall effort to liberalize telecommunications in that country. The move is expected to give American firms better odds of landing upcoming wireless contracts in Taiwan. ”Removal of these barriers is a good first step toward moving from a monopoly to a competitive market in Taiwan’s telecommunications sector,” said Charlene B arshefsky, U.S. trade representative. “Taiwan’s actions provide opportunities for U.S. companies to gain market access in a sector of tremendous interest to them. The U.S. will monitor Taiwan’s actions closely as it implements the se commitments.” Taiwan passed legislation in January to end its telecommunications monopoly and to invite foreign competition. But the new law included barriers to entry, which Taiwan has since signaled it will lift. … Read more
D-, E- and F-block PCS auctions set to start
WASHINGTON-Following July 30 rulings by two different U.S. appeals courts, the Federal Communications Commission’s D-, E- and F-block broadband personal communications services auctions will start Aug. 26. The application date for bidders was July 31. Judges Walter Stapleton and Collins Seitz of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (Philadelphia) issued a one-sentence decision on a petition for stay filed July 16 by National Telecom PCS Inc., the original winner of American Samoa in the C-block auction; that license was re-auctioned with 17 others and was won by Westel L.P., majority-owned by former-PCS 2000 L.P. principal Quentin Breen. Incorporating no flowery language or legalese, the order read simply, “The foregoing motion for a stay of the Report and Order issued by the FCC is denied.” On the same day, Judges Patricia Wald, Douglas Ginsburg and David Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia denied a petition for a writ of mandamus and an emergency stay of the auction filed two weeks ago by the National Paging & Personal Communications Association, Personal Technology Services Inc. and DigiVox Corp. “Ordered that the petition for writ of mandamus be denied in light of petitioners’ failure adequately to explain their delay in filing the petition for reconsideration and their concession that `it would be impractical to expect that the Commission could act upon the petition for reconsideration before the D-, E- and F-block filing date,’ ” the judges wrote. “It is further ordered that the emergency motion for stay be denied. Petitioners have not satisfied the stringent standards required for issuance of a stay.” … Read more
Check out the RCR Wireless News Archives for more stories from the past.
