Pocket Communications

These are different times, good times for Susan Ness. She’s the surviving member of the new-look Federal Communications Commission who, despite being denied the title of chairman, could still become the most influential regulator of the telecom industry in the …

WASHINGTON-C-block personal communications services bidder National Telecom PCS Inc. has charged DCR PCS Inc., also known as Pocket Communications Inc., with conducting illegal ex parte communications regarding its PCS licenses now tied up in bankruptcy proceedings. In a Nov. 8 …

WASHINGTON-A NextWave Telecom Inc. plan that would defer interest payments for C-block personal communications services companies for five years was circulating last week on Capitol Hill. The plan would circumvent the Federal Communications Commission’s financial restructuring blueprint adopted in October …

WASHINGTON-Fourteen subsidiaries of Dallas-based General Wireless Inc., the third-ranked bidder at the C-block personal communications services auction last year, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Company attorneys Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom in Washington, D.C.; and Andrews & Kurth …

WASHINGTON-Wireless resellers have interconnection rights that have been ignored by carriers and federal regulators said an industry coalition, including surprise MCI Communications Corp. suitor WorldCom Inc., in a brief filed in federal appeals court. The Federal Communications Commission “has inexplicably …

PCIA vs. CTIA: An update on the battle for the heart, soul and wallets of the wireless telecom industry. The nod for last week goes to CTIA, somewhat by default. PCIA President Jay Kitchen may have inadvertently rubbed NextWave Telecom …

WASHINGTON – In a surprise move, National Telecom PCS Inc., which lost its C-block American Samoa personal communications services license last year due to default but which has been fighting for it ever since, has proposed to take over all …

The months-long debate at the Federal Communications Commission over C-block personal communications services debt restructuring, culminating in last month’s factious decision to offer limited relief to floundering auction winners, saw the unprecedented clashing of conflicting legal doctrines and policy objectives …

The PCS companies now proposing that the Federal Communications Commission change the rules to allow them to stay in business are proposing options that any creditor in the business world would not consider. You buy a new car. You can’t …

WASHINGTON-Comments submitted last week by NextWave Telecom Inc. to the Federal Communications Commission regarding proposed changes to the established C- and F-block personal communications services repayment plans smacks of a last-ditch effort to keep a sinking ship afloat. Couched in …

BALTIMORE-Major investor and creditor Pacific Eagle Investments Ltd. has pledged another $5 million infusion to Pocket Communications Inc. to keep the C-block personal communications services licensee going until mid-December. This new deal supersedes a $5 million loan contract that was …

Over the past couple years, telecom lawmakers were known to have taken a shot or two at budgeteers if the subject of spectrum auctions happened to come up. The quips were cutting, but mostly harmless. Whatever criticism there was lacked …

WASHINGTON-According to a June 3 petition filed at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland, C-block personal communications services licensee Pocket Communications Inc. is courting a white knight for a temporary financial bail out. Although the court has …

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission has proposed a rulemaking that would allow almost limitless foreign ownership of U.S.-based telecommunications carriers. The commission, however, vowed to retain certain safeguards that would restrict some foreign investors and/or carriers that exercise near-monopoly power from …

BALTIMORE-Following a creditors’ meeting held May 7 in Baltimore regarding Pocket Communications Inc.’s Chapter 11 reorganization, National Telecom PCS Inc. filed a brief with the court trustee May 21 that advocates Pocket’s immediate move to Chapter 7 liquidation. NatTel, which …

WASHINGTON-NextWave Telecom Inc. shut down its Southeast and Midwest operations last week, the first wave of what could be a nationwide reduction in force that could cut the C-block personal communications services licensee’s 380-member staff significantly in the near future. …

C.J. Silas resigned as a member of Comsat Corp.’s board of directors for health reasons. He recently had open-heart surgery. Edwin Colodny was appointed to serve as chairman. Colodny has been a director of Comsat since 1992. He has served …

WASHINGTON-Dan Phythyon, acting chief of the Federal Communications Commission’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, does not want to characterize himself or his staff as “the James Brown of the commission.” He modestly holds that his domain is “a hardworking bureau like other …

WASHINGTON-While no notice of proposed rulemaking is pending regarding the start and parameters for the next round of paging and narrowband personal communications services auctions, the wireless industry does need to gear up for the continued transition from free to …

NEW YORK-Wall Street, once ebullient about wireless stocks, is somewhat gloomy these days about the prospects for new personal communications services carriers to raise public equity. A convergence of global and local factors is at play in a situation that …

Oh, the C-block PCS auction is becoming one of life’s little ironies. Consider this: Congress in 1993 demanded that spectrum be set aside for smaller companies that want to participate in the nation’s wireless telecommunications business. The C-block auction is …

BALTIMORE-A creditors’ committee made up of the seven largest owners of unsecured debt in C-block winner Pocket Communications Inc. was chosen by the U.S. Trustee’s Office in Baltimore April 16 to address the direction Pocket’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy will take …

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 …

Julius Caesar had his ides of March. I had my ides of April, and I think it would have been cheaper for me this year to have just fallen on my sword (or pen, as the case may be) instead …

WASHINGTON-In the early to mid-1980s, the rush was on at the Federal Communications Commission to get cellular licenses in major metropolitan and rural areas issued as quickly as possible to get the new service operating. Because of the time element …