BROWSING: Policy

WASHINGTON-Two seemingly unrelated national policy actions highlight how regulators and lawmakers may be overlooking and underestimating the value of wireless technology in the new telecommunications paradigm that stresses competition and connectability.Last month, the Federal Communications Commission created a new, $2 billion universal service fund...

WASHINGTON-Congress is slowly backtracking on spectrum auctions as a source of revenue in the bipartisan balanced budget plan, a retreat spurred by recent falling wireless license prices and financial troubles among companies that many believe spent too much for access to the airwaves early...

In the beginning, it was Reed Who?But by last week's resignation announcement, the only question was, When?Arguably the most controversial, yet most constructive Federal Communications Commission chairman in history, Reed Hundt's decision last week to step down was not unexpected. It just came a...

WASHINGTON-Two California lawmakers, citing lack of cooperation from the Federal Communications Commission and the startling prospect that spectrum legislation pushed by Congress and the Clinton administration will not provide a solution to frequency congestion in Southern California, have introduced legislation to give that region...

The House Budget Committee on Friday was expected to approve a balanced budget deal reached by Congress and the White House that anticipates $26.3 billion from spectrum auctions during the next five years.The plan, which would expand the Federal Communications Commission's auction authority, expects...

That efforts to integrate more women and minorities into the multibillion dollar wireless industry have largely failed is testament to the changing politics of affirmative action and the capital-intensive nature of the telecommunications business. Especially in the Age of Auctions.The policy failure is also...

When the federal government offered spectrum auction license incentives to women, minorities, small businesses and rural telephone companies a few years ago, Steve Neely didn't bite.Though a die-hard entrepreneur like his father, a role model who used to own and operate 26 Shell gas...

Editor's Note: As C-block winner Pocket Communications Inc. goes through its bankruptcy restructuring, RCR takes an in-depth look at how Congress, the FCC and Wall Street are addressing PCS auction issues. Additional stories appear from page 9 through 15.WASHINGTON-The shakeout emerging in the personal communications...

WASHINGTON-Key wireless initiatives are caught in the grip of legislative inertia that has paralyzed Congress and the White House and shaken the foundations of both institutions in the aftermath of House Speaker Newt Gingrich's (R-Ga.) ethics violations and the Clinton administration's link to the...

Can't we all just get along? I mean really, what with House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and David Obey (D-Wis.) shoving each other and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) breaking off non-existent budget talks with the Clinton administration. I thought lawmakers patched...

WASHINGTON-Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) has drafted spectrum auction legislation designed to rein in what has become a high-stakes wireless licensing process driven increasingly by budget forces, possibly at the expense of competition.Pete Belvin, a Commerce Committee telecom counsel, told an industry...

WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration has overestimated by $12 billion the amount of revenue from spectrum auctions over the next five years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.CBO's numbers, prepared at the request of the Senate Appropriations Committee, appear to confirm growing suspicions about devaluation of...

WASHINGTON-Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt's flexible spectrum policy violates the law, according to a Catholic University communications law review article.Though published a year ago, the article by Tara Susan Becht, a Catholic University law graduate now in private practice in Washington, D.C., has...

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission, bowing to congressional and wireless industry pressure, scaled back a budget-driven proposal to raise $3 billion this year from the sale of flexible 2.3 GHz wireless licenses.The FCC decided against auctioning a nationwide license, opting instead to sell two 10...

WASHINGTON-While calling for campaign finance reform amid Justice Department and congressional investigations of Democratic fund-raising irregularities, President Clinton unapologetically mingled with high-rolling contributors at the lavish town house of wireless entrepreneur Shelby Bryan last Tuesday night in New York's Upper East Side.The president's appearance...

WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration's balanced budget plan calls for $36 billion from expanded auctions over the next five years, a projection that raises key wireless policy questions.The initiative, which includes selling toll-free 888 telephone numbers but is otherwise vague, was included in the $1.7 trillion...

Who's running the Wireless Telecom Bureau?It's not a rhetorical question.Over the past two years, or about as long as Reed Hundt has been FCC chairman and spectrum auctions the rage, the WTB has evolved into a curious creature.We know WTB, aided by Hundt and...

WASHINGTON-Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.), introduced legislation last week to set aside broadcast spectrum for state and local public safety communications and to earmark up to $750 million in auction revenues for new equipment for them.In doing so, McCain beat the Clinton...

NEW YORK-Advanced Radio Telecom Corp., a 38 GHz provider of wireless local loop service that went public last year, has registered to sell a public offering of debt and stock-purchase warrants. In documents filed Jan. 16 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, ART, headquartered in...

Dear Editor: Recent trade articles have covered the story of American Airlines' difficulties with a commercial specialized mobile radio service. This is just one part of a multidimensional problem that is finally garnering the attention of some members of Congress. The problem, known to most...

InterCel Inc. wants to learn if cellular customers who are familiar with rate plans will behave differently when let loose on a 1900 MHz system for a flat $50 a month."We'll be able to analyze usage in an unlimited threshold," said Ed Horner, chief...

WASHINGTON-New Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) last week vowed to continue fighting for digital TV auctions and hinted at re-examining the 1996 telecom act that he opposed for being too regulatory.The two initiatives, announced by McCain after being elected chairman at the...

WASHINGTON-If the wireless telecom industry has learned one thing in recent years, it is that rules for paging, cellular, specialized mobile radio, personal communications services, mobile satellite, microwave, wireless local loop and private wireless services are not made in a vacuum.Wireless regulations and legislation-even...

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission plans to seek legislation to privatize spectrum auctions, a move that would shift debt collection to a third party with banking expertise.While the FCC would continue to be responsible for crafting and enforcing auction rules as well as administering bidding...