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U.K. fixed wireless auction prices top $123M

LONDON-After 14 rounds of bidding in the U.K. auction of 42 broadband fixed wireless access licenses, bids totaled more than $123.7 million last week, with two companies withdrawing.FirstMark Communications and Unica Communications had withdrawn from the auction at press time.Of the 14 regions with...

U.K. broadband auction begins

LONDON-Ten companies are vying for 42 wireless broadband licenses in the United Kingdom in a government auction commenced last Friday.The auction is expected to raise about $1.42 billion, but could go higher if the final outcome of the government's third-generation PCS auction this spring...

A tale of two LMDS leaders: Teligent Winstar release 3Q reªsults

Following the disclosure of their third-quarter earnings, two leading local multipoint distribution services carriers proved the business of financing is a hit-and-miss proposition.Winstar Communications Inc. said it secured approximately $1.02 billion in financing, enough money to keep the company funded until it can generate...

U.K. to begin BWA auction Nov. 10

LONDON-The U.K. Radiocommunications Agency said the auction for broadband fixed-wireless access licenses in the 28 GHz band will begin Nov. 10. Nine bidders will participate for three licenses in each of 11 English regions, plus Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.Reserve licenses range from $145,000...

Fixed-wireless see wins in Congress, FCC

WASHINGTON-Fixed-wireless carriers last week were praising both the Congress and the Federal Communications Commission for rules they say will help them gain access to federal government and business customers in multitenant buildings.Congress included language in the transportation appropriations bill that prohibits landlords of buildings...

D.C. Briefs

Congress approved legislation that will increase to 600,000 the number of visas issued to skilled foreign workers during the next three years. The measure also includes provisions funding scholarships for American students and training for U.S. workers."The overwhelming bipartisan support for the H-1B visa...

House telecom subcommittee approves bill-and-keep billing

WASHINGTON-The House telecom subcommittee last week voted to include wireless carriers in a new scheme for carriers to compensate each other for carrying each other's traffic.The bill, which now goes to the full committee for consideration, would end the process known as reciprocal compensation...

Stevens pushes to get building access vote on table

WASHINGTON-Federal Communications Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth got the agency to delay the vote on telecom building-access rules, but brow beating from Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) appeared to have contributed to assurances that the controversial matter will not be sidetracked and will be voted on in...

Dozen apply for U.K. fixed licenses

LONDON-The U.K. government said 12 companies applied to bid in the October auction for 28 GHz broadband fixed wireless access licenses. The auction is expected to raise about $1.45 billion.Three licenses will be auctioned in each of 11 English regions, along with Scotland, Wales...

Broadband firms point to `smoking gun’

WASHINGTON-Fixed broadband wireless carriers, seeking to underscore the need for nondiscriminatory building access, say they have identified a `smoking gun' in the form of a legal memo on a license agreement between BroadBand Office and a national real estate company that imposes a 12-month...

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...

Wireless broadband carriers urgent to get to market

NEW ORLEANS-A sense of urgency surrounded attendees of the Wireless Communications Association's "Xtreme Wireless" conference in New Orleans last week as it became clear the marketplace is ready-but still waiting-for high-speed fixed wireless broadband service.Keynote speaker and Sprint Corp.'s Broadband Wireless Group President Tim...

North America could run out of numbers before 2020

WASHINGTON-If nothing is done to try to conserve telephone numbers, North America will run out of area codes and later phone numbers sometime between 2012 and 2019.NeuStar Inc. told the North American Numbering Council last week that given the current assumed demand for numbers,...

Administration split on rooftop access

WASHINGTON-While lobbying intensifies in Congress and at the Federal Communications Commission over whether real-estate landlords should provide nondiscriminatory access to fixed broadband wireless carriers, an apparently divided Clinton administration is quietly considering an executive order that would mandate such connections as a prerequisite for...

News Briefs

Pine Belt Wireless, based in Arlington, Ala., said it will introduce prepaid wireless services to its cellular and personal communications services markets using National Telemanagement Corp.'s SmartPay Wireless real-time billing system. SmartPay Wireless is an account-based system that eliminates the added expense and limitations...

$411 million of fixed wireless licenses sold

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission last week raised nearly $411 million as it sold 2,173 licenses for fixed wireless service in the 39 GHz band."Winning bidders have the potential to create robust competition to the local telephone companies and other local service providers. This should...

Rooftop siting requires landlords to develop telecom knowledge

NEW YORK-With existing wireless carriers seeking to expand coverage and capacity and new spectrum poised for commercial use, building owners and managers must develop enhanced expertise in telecommunications before negotiating cell site leasing deals.Landlords must deal with issues including: health hazards to equipment installers from...

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...

WORLD BRIEFS

Hong KongPhone.com Inc. and Sunday, a developer and provider of telecommunications and wireless Internet-related services in Hong Kong, launched mobile Internet services using the Phone.com Wireless Application Protocol UP.Link Server 4.0. The service, branded "SO WAP," positions Sunday as the first carrier to deliver...

Success will come to those companies that can reinvent themselves

NEW YORK-After first admonishing all attendees to turn off their cell phones, William T. Lake, a partner at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, Washington, D.C., convened a recent Practising Law Institute conference on Telecommunications Convergence with these remarks."Convergence is a word used without knowing what...

D.C. BRIEFS

The Federal Communications Commission has approved 35 bidders to participate in this Wednesday's auction of licenses for the 39 GHz band. The 39 GHz band is located at 38.6-40 GHz. Some of the prominent bidders and their up front payments include WinStar Wireless Fiber...

D.C. NOTES: Taking it to the street

Talk all you want about the wonderful telecom revolution, but don't mention it around District of Columbia pols. They're irked. Big time. First it was mobile-phone towers in Rock Creek Park, which opponents decried as a blight on the landscape and an affront to...

D.C. BRIEFS

Real estate owners told a House Judiciary subcommittee that forcing private building owners to give access to all telecom service providers would violate constitutional rights of landowners. The Real Access Alliance, comprised of 11 real estate trade associations, has mounted an aggressive lobbying campaign...

Fixed wireless best method for last-mile broadband

FAIRFAX, Va.-Fixed wireless is the best method for providing last-mile broadband while fiber is best for long haul, an executive of a fixed-wireless company told the Global Internet Summit last week."WinStar's conviction is that fixed wireless is the most cost effective to provide last-mile...