The telecom leadership facelift in Congress continues as lawmakers suddenly find themselves confronted with President-elect Obama's request to postpone next month's digital TV transition, a possible shift that could force wireless providers to wait longer to obtain spectrum they paid nearly $20 billion for...
A cancelled hearing has not slowed down M2Z Networks Inc. John Muleta, CEO of M2Z, insists that the FCC's recent cancellation of a hearing to discuss auction plans for the AWS-3 spectrum has not weakened the company's spirits. Muleta still believes that the free...
Gerald P. (Jerry) Vaughan, 64, a retired veteran of the Federal Communications Commission who helped launch the first spectrum auctions, died Dec. 6 at his summer home in Pennsylvania of an apparent heart attack.The FCC said Vaughan worked at the commission for more than...
Two senior members of the House telecom subcommittee urged the Federal Communications Commission to vote internally on Chairman Kevin Martin's free wireless broadband auction plan, an initiative previously scheduled for agency action today at a meeting subsequently cancelled in response to congressional pressure."We...
Congressional pressure has prompted the Federal Communications Commission to scrap its Dec. 18 meeting, but the action does not necessarily mean the agency will forgo ruling on the free wireless broadband plan and other major items championed by Chairman Kevin Martin before he likely...
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin suddenly faces congressional pressure to pare down the Dec. 18 meeting agenda, a development that could blow up a scheduled a vote on a free, family friendly wireless broadband plan.Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.),...
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin and the Bush administration are on a collision course over a possible Dec. 18 vote on a free, family-friendly wireless auction plan, uncharacteristically bringing into public view a high-stakes policy dispute between the Republican White House and...
After Barack Obama ran for president promising change and openness, and making a point of refusing to accept lobbyists' contributions, the president-elect's transition team secretly held a meeting with broadcasting lobbyists to discuss the digital TV changeover.The unannounced meeting was held Friday in Washington....
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin said the agency is considering a Dec. 18 vote on a version of a free, family-friendly wireless broadband auction plan that could make spectrum available for unlicensed use if the winning license bidder fails to meet an interim...
Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly feature, Analyst Angle. We've collected a group of the industry's leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry.Conventional wisdom suggests that the spectral efficiency of a wireless technology has a meaningful impact...
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin, with time dwindling to move top policy priorities as a new administration prepares to assume power in January, is laying the groundwork to win approval by mid-December of final rules for highly controversial public-safety and wireless broadband auction...
Major fundraisers who previously were highly influential in the wireless space have assumed key roles on the Obama-Biden transition team, a move that comes amid efforts by the Democratic president-elect to limit the clout of lobbyists in putting a new government in place.Thomas Wheeler,...
The mobile-phone industry has dropped a legal challenge to the open-access condition imposed on a third of the 700 MHz spectrum auctioned by the Federal Communications Commission earlier this year. Wireless industry trade association CTIA appealed the agency's C-Block open-access rule last year -...
With Democrats capturing the White House and strengthening their control of Congress on the same day that federal regulators approved two major telecom deals, wireless policy changes could be in store as lawmakers, federal regulators and the incoming Obama administration take measure of an...
The Department of Justice approved Verizon Wireless' $28 billion purchase of Alltel Communications L.L.C., subject to required divestitures of wireless assets in 100 markets encompassing 22 states."The divestitures required are necessary to protect wireless customers and are among the most extensive required by the...
Editor's Note: RCR Wireless News Washington Bureau Chief Jeffrey Silva asked the presidential campaigns of Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) to respond to e-mailed questions covering a wide range of policy matters confronting the wireless industry and the telecom/high-tech sectors generally.
McCain's...
FREE, FAMILY-FRIENDLY WIRELESS broadband for the masses may be on the way. So may messy litigation to keep it grounded. The Federal Communications Commission tentatively concluded operations in the advanced wireless services-3 band will not interfere with T-Mobile USA Inc. and others licensed in...
Election Day 2008 is shaping up as monumental for the wireless industry.The Federal Communications Commission is poised to vote Nov. 4 on the Sprint Nextel Corp.-Clearwire Corp. and the Verizon Wireless-Alltel Communications L.L.C. tie-ups as well as on wireless operations in TV white spaces,...
The Federal Communications Commission tentatively concluded that nationwide broadband operations in the advanced wireless services-3 band will not interfere with T-Mobile USA Inc. and others in the advanced wireless services-1 band, possibly signaling the agency is close to issuing final rules for an auction...
Verizon Wireless offered to divest another 15 markets as part its $28.1 billion play for Alltel Communications L.L.C., but the proposed transaction is becoming trickier by the day because of fluid economic, regulatory and political factors.In a filing with the Federal Communications Commission, the...
In an unexpected twist, chipmaker giant Intel Corp. urged the Federal Communications Commission to keep intact proposed interference safeguards that T-Mobile USA Inc. insists are inadequate to prevent interference from wireless broadband operations in the advanced wireless services-3 band. Moreover, Intel warned the...
Editor's Note: This is one of a series of stories examining the current economic downturn and how it affects the wireless industry. For more on this topic, visit RCRWireless.com/ Economic Downturn.The potentially cataclysmic collapse of Wall Street has injected a new, pressing issue into...
The government's goal of restructuring 700 MHz public-safety/commercial rules by year's end and conducting a re-auction in mid-2009 could be in jeopardy, with key House members urging Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin to slow down the rulemaking so parties have more time to...
T-Mobile USA Inc. said government testing revealed interference from operations in a spectrum block that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin wants to auction for wireless broadband and that is situated adjacent to wireless licenses for which the No. 4 cellular carrier paid $4.2...
