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!
The telecom pie grows amid ‘acquisition frenzy’
NEW YORK-Competition, as intended, is causing the telecommunications pie to enlarge. But it also is creating numerous consolidation plays among carriers as they strive for dominance and economies of scale within and across borders. “You have to wonder where it’s all going to end up,” said Cheryl A. Tritt, a partner in the Washington law firm of Morrison & Foerster L.L.P. and former chief of the Federal Communications Commission Common Carrier Bureau. “There is a trend to mammoth, multinational oligopolies and also hundreds of niche businesses. Five years ago, I would never have dreamed it could be this way.” In the days of the movie, “The Graduate,” the code word for success was `plastics.’ “Now, the magic word is `bandwidth’ for faster, better, cheaper communications,” she said. “There is a need for everything, for vertical integration that is driven by the Internet, and voice is becoming a commodity.” … Read more
The early days of intelligent networking
NEW YORK-Changing things inside a network is about to get easier by orders of magnitude, according to NEO Networks Inc. and Lucent Technologies Inc. NEO Networks, Minnetonka, Minn., will integrate Lucent’s Inferno, a distributed inter-networking operating system, into its StreamProcessor, a network forwarding product line. StreamProcessor uses what NEO Networks terms “massively parallel” supercomputer technology for very high speed and high efficiency forwarding of data in a network environment. Inferno will allow Stream Processor “to distribute intelligence throughout the network, across devices,” said Mark Cree, vice president of marketing for NEO Networks. Instead of having to reconfigure each device individually-an arduous and time consuming manual process that can require network downtime-“Inferno allows one device to tell the other devices automatically so that the network acts as one brain.” … Read more
FCC says spectrum actions work
WASHINGTON-Most of the wireless industry still has not seen the entire Federal Communications Commission report to Congress on spectrum auctions, released Oct. 9, but those who have agree the commission is pushing for additional powers. Eighteen companies and organizations-including most of the industry’s associations, a few telcos, Iridium L.L.C., Motorola Inc., Nextel Communications Inc. and some smaller concerns-submitted comments regarding spectrum auctions, but apparently not many of them listed burning issues that need to be solved. While using the document to tout the successes of competitive bidding, the FCC also forwarded an upcoming plan to implement combinatorial bidding-offering packages of licenses in certain circumstances. A consultant currently is evaluating scenarios regarding its best use. Another congressional idea-minimum bids for a license-will be used for the first time during the 800 MHz specialized mobile radio service auction later this month. The commission wants more, though. … Read more
Clinton administration rejects wireless regulatory reform bill
WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration is not embracing a sweeping regulatory reform bill that would subject the wireless industry and other regulated business sectors to a new government oversight regime grounded in peer reviewed cost-benefit analysis and risk assessment in which power would be heavily concentrated in federal agency chiefs. Given the lack of consensus on the current bill-sponsored by Sens. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.)-in Congress, the legislation is dead for this year and will have to await until next spring most likely before efforts resume to move it forward. As such, Thompson’s Senate Governmental Committee is working with lawmakers, environmentalists, the White House and others to shore up support for the measure. … Read more
Check out the RCR Wireless News Archives for more stories from the past.
