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!
HSN to hawk cell phones
ATLANTA-Mobile America-an alliance comprising Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems, BellSouth Cellular Corp., HSN (Home Shopping Network Inc.) Direct Joint Venture and Wholesale Cellular USA Inc.-plans to sell cellular phones and service to home shoppers. HSN plans to market products and services through a variety of formats, starting with network infomercials, said Southwestern Bell and BellSouth. The infomercials are expected to air in the telecom companies’ select markets beginning this month. Using proprietary software, BellSouth will process orders for cellular service as well, said the companies. … Read more
Wait, wireless penetration is how much in Canada?
Wireless penetration rates are just shy of 10 percent in Canada, but are predicted to exceed 40 percent in the next decade, according to a recent study by Redondo Beach, Calif.-based MESA Research. In “Telecompetitiveness and the Wireless Sector: Competition Without Chaos,” Dr. William H. Davidson examines Canada’s wireless industry climate and-focusing on the dawn of broadband personal communications services-stresses a need for government to activate public policy that propels equal access to competition and integration of wireless sectors for the benefit of consumers and the country’s economy as a whole. Increasing development of voice and data services is and will continue to blur boundaries among wireless segments, resulting in a single extended market structure, Davidson noted. In what Davison describes as “the new wireless economy,” advances in the wireless business have kicked off a revolution. Davidson suggests that increasing power of user devices, the rise of interactive media networks and applications, a growing choice in carriers and services, `anytime, anywhere’ connection capabilities and workers’ increasing need for mobile communications are key factors transforming wireless niche markets to large mainstream markets. … Read more
PCS spectrum auction anxieties
Whether minorities, women or small businesses, some designated entities planning to bid in the government’s auction for personal communications services spectrum are concerned what effect the Supreme Court’s ruling on federal affirmative action laws will have on the auction and whether it will be postponed for a second time. Following the court’s June 12 negative ruling in the Adarand Constructors Inc.’s case, FCC directives have elicited responses from potential bidders that vary as much as they do. When the FCC announced it would delay the June 15 application deadline for entrepreneurial block PCS bidders, some players declared the game over, while others sustained confidence. “The investors are gone,” asserted Zoe Hazen, president and chief executive officer of Boston-based Windkeeper Communications Inc. Up until June 12, Hazen was optimistic about investors. … Read more
Comcast ditches Nextel …
The resignation of two Comcast Corp. representatives from Nextel Communications Inc.’s board of directors and Comcast’s request to register its Nextel stock for sale are part of a shift from a strategic to financial investment in Nextel, Comcast said. “Over time, our investment has taken on a different tone,” said Comcast spokesman Bill Dortlman. Comcast is one of the three cable TV operators that aligned with Sprint Corp. in the Sprint Telecommunications Venture, bidding as WirelessCo L.P. in the personal communications services auction ended March 13. The group holds licenses in 29 markets. While the investment shift has been gradual, Comcast faced a visible conflict of interest in April when the Craig McCaw family announced a $1.1 billion investment in Nextel. … Read more
… and backs bidding on an Irish cellular spectrum license
WAYNE, Pa.-A month before the tender application deadline, Comcast Corp. announced its Comcast International Holdings Inc. subsidiary will head a consortium bidding a second cellular license in Ireland. Comcast will own a 65 percent stake in the venture. Irish partners are Radio Telefis Eireann, a National Broadcasting Service company; Bord Na Mona, an energy, horticulture and environmental group; and GCI Ltd., a new communications company led by Declan Ganley. For more than a year, Comcast said it has been working closely with its partners, devising plans to “construct an infrastructure that will support the newest and most comprehensive cellular technology available in the world today.” In March, an Irish Cabinet subcommittee approved launching the public tender competition for a second network, a move required by the European Union but one that has been delayed more than a year. … Read more
AirTouch says there’s no demand for its trial packet data network
AirTouch Communications Inc. shut down its nascent cellular digital packet data network in San Diego-apparently the casualty of changing approaches to CDPD business development. According to a “report card” issued by the CDPD Forum last January, AirTouch was supposed to be testing the new mobile data technology over an area equivalent to its cellular voice coverage in the San Diego market with commercial service beginning sometime in the first quarter. But AirTouch spokeswoman Susan Rosenberg confirmed the trial has been discontinued. “We decided not to continue with it because we haven’t seen enough market demand,” she said. She also confirmed that Lee Franklin, president of AirTouch’s Cellular Data Group, left the company several months ago and his department has been folded into the cellular marketing group headed by Vice President of Marketing Ujjal Kohli. The CDPD technical standard was unveiled two years ago by a number of cellular carriers who wanted to transmit packetized data over their analog networks to compete with the dedicated packet-radio networks of Ram Mobile Data USA L.P. and Ardis Co. … Read more
Newt Gingrich wants to phase out the FCC
WASHINGTON-Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt could be in for a long, hot summer of discontent. This month Hundt, a Democratic Clinton appointee, faces a hostile group of GOP lawmakers on the House telecommunications subcommittee who want to downsize his 2,200-person agency and perhaps reduce its funding. At the same time, the Republican-controlled Congress is counting on the FCC to implement landmark telecommunications reform legislation moving through the House and Senate. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., said he wants to phase out the FCC in three to five years and the conservative Progress and Freedom Foundation think tank Gingrich is associated with has a plan to carry out the task. “It is fairly obvious that this group has a rhetorical and political mission that pushes their logic beyond the limits of good sense,” said Hundt in a recent speech. … Read more
Check out the RCR Wireless News Archives for more stories from the past.
