BROWSING: WCA

Wireless broadband finds success in modular approach

It has been just a few years since wireless broadband was all but declared dead. But the industry instead has made a small recovery.Wireless broadband service attracted a lot of attention from its dawn in the late 1990s until about 2000, as carriers were...

Nextel’s effort to buy WorldCom assets under greater scrutiny

WASHINGTON-WorldCom Inc.'s proposed $144 million sale of fixed wireless assets to Nextel Communications Inc. potentially faces far more obstacles than initially thought, a situation that a federal bankruptcy judge is set to address at a hearing in Manhattan on Tuesday.U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez...

Slaughter to speak at WCA expo

WASHINGTON-The Wireless Communications Association announced Loea Corp.'s president and chief executive officer, Louis Slaughter, will be a featured general session speaker on Jan. 13, the opening day of the Ninth Annual WCA Technical symposium and Business Expo.

FCC to check if phones comply with 911

WASHINGTON-The FCC's Enforcement Bureau on Friday said it wanted to evaluate test results by the Wireless Consumers Alliance that claimed that none of the 33 mobile phones tested by the group meet the government's 911 strongest-signal rules adopted in 1999."The Federal Communications Commission takes...

WCA urges regulators to set rules for millimeter wave spectrum

WASHINGTON-The Wireless Communications Association International urged federal regulators to set rules by early year for fixed wireless broadband service in upper millimeter wave spectrum that promises gigabit- per-second speeds. "I am confident that the high speed wireless services and backhaul enabled by this new...

WCA meeting starts Monday

WASHINGTON-Wireless Communications Association International is hosting two high-profile panels at its annual conference in Boston next week that will assess the implications for the wireless communications industry of homeland security developments such as the proposed new cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security, WCA said.The sessions...

Inventor says he can fix phone call-back problem

WASHINGTON-A Richardson, Texas, inventor says he has developed a way to allow public safety answering points to call back non-initialized phones that make 911 calls.The statement comes as the industry, public-safety agencies and consumer advocates submitted comments on proposed Federal Communications Commission rules that...

FCC may drop analog set-aside rule

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission proposed rules that could lead to the eventual end of analog cellular service, a move that could hurt telematics and other security businesses.However, the commission gave itself a number of "outs.""We seek to ensure that eliminating the analog compatibility standard...

WCA elects new board

WASHINGTON, D.C.-The Wireless Communications Association has elected seven new members to its board of directors.They are: Jai P. Bhagat, chairman and chief executive officer of Air2Lan Inc; David B. Gibbons, vice president and chief architect of fixed wireless at AT&T Fixed Wireless Services Inc.; Jacques...

Endwave, WCA, others form spectrum policy task force

SUNNYVALE, Calif.-Endwave Corp., the Wireless Communications Association and several wireless broadband industry leaders said they have formed the WCA Engineering Task Force for Spectrum Policy Above 40 GHz, which will initially develop and propose guidelines for Federal Communications Commission allocation of the 94 GHz...

Industry, privacy advocates call for privacy rulemaking: Consumers, advertisers urge restraint

WASHINGTON-Privacy advocates and the wireless industry urged the Federal Communications Commission recently to initiate a rulemaking designed to create wireless location privacy rules, while a wireless consumer group and a wireless advertising group urged the FCC to take a different approach.The Cellular Telecommunications &...

Inhofe weighs in on 3G spectrum battle

WASHINGTON-Last December, two months after President Clinton ordered government studies on spectrum availability for third-generation wireless systems and at a time when mobile-phone and Pentagon officials were intensely studying the issue, Senate Armed Services Committee member James Inhofe (R-Okla.) quietly directed the General Accounting...

Consumers expect wireless industry to meet service standards

WASHINGTON-With the Federal Communications Commission having reaffirmed last month that state courts are not prohibited under the telecom act from awarding monetary damages in lawsuits against wireless carriers, the mobile-phone industry suddenly finds itself vulnerable to consumer litigation on a wide range of business...

MMDS group formed

SAN JOSE, California, United States-Top executives from several multichannel multipoint distribution services (MMDS) operators throughout Latin America announced the creation of Latin American Networking (LaNet), an alliance formed to advance MMDS networks and services in that part of the world.The alliance's founding members include...

Carriers lose appeals court ruling in liability case

WASHINGTON-A California appeals court on Thursday told a lower court it must deny a petition from two California mobile-phone carriers that claimed they could not be sued in state court for false advertising due to the Communications Act's pre-emption on rate making."We conclude that...

Bill would set service standards: Industry opposes Weiner measure

WASHINGTON-Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) this week plans to re-introduce legislation that sets mobile-phone service standards and directs the Federal Communications Commission to monitor complaints of dropped calls, busy signals, dead spots, improper billing and other wireless consumer problems.Also early this week the FCC is...

Latin American MMDS group formed at WCA meeting

SAN JOSE, Calif.-Top executives from several multichannel multipoint distribution services operators throughout Latin America helped kick off the Wireless Communications Association International's 7th Annual Technical Symposium last Wednesday by announcing the creation of Latin American Networking, an alliance formed to advance MMDS networks and...

FCC proposes spectrum plans

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission last week proposed earmarking a slew of spectrum bands for third-generation mobile-phone systems, while rejecting a petition to set aside some 3G-designated frequencies for mobile satellite service.The FCC missed the Clinton administration's Dec. 31 deadline for issuing the 3G proposal,...

Rooftop access divides Congress, White House

WASHINGTON-With the Federal Communications Commission set to rule shortly on whether building owners should be forced to open their doors to upstart telecom carriers, lobbying between fixed broadband wireless carriers and the real estate industry over building access has intensified in a controversy that...

FCC: CMRS carriers can be subject to lawsuit damages

WASHINGTON-Nearly a week after the Federal Communications Commission ruled that wireless carriers can be subject to damages awarded in civil lawsuits, consumers and the industry are reading the ruling differently. Meanwhile, interest in wireless consumer issues on Capitol Hill is picking up momentum.To the...

Consumer complaints on rise

WASHINGTON-The high-flying mobile-phone industry-poised to pick up its 100 millionth subscriber this week-could soon find itself in the throes of a major consumer backlash.Complaints about mobile-phone service-including dropped calls, busy signals, dead spots, improper billing, false advertising and poor customer service-have begun to resonate...

FCC will guide courts on claims against carriers

WASHINGTON-A Federal Communications Commission ruling on liability could be issued within weeks, with the completion of a staff proposal that is expected to steer clear of specific litigation issues and instead provide general guidance for state courts evaluating consumer claims against wireless carriers."Our goal...

FCC to rule on Motorola’s 911 waiver request

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission is expected shortly to rule on Motorola Inc.'s 911 call processing-telematics waiver request, a filing that attracted industry support and sharp criticism from consumer and public-safety groups.Motorola last month asked the FCC for permission to build an additional 30,000 handsets...

Fixed wireless lobby influences WRC debate

WASHINGTON-While the mobile-phone industry knew from the start it faced an uphill battle to convince the U.S. government to embrace a multiband spectrum harmonization approach for third-generation technology at next month's conference in Turkey, carriers and vendors perhaps did not count on opposition from...