Wireless Services

Working Ventures Canadian Fund Inc., sponsored by the Canadian Federation of Labour, announced it completed a $3 million equity investment as part of a $15 million financing package with co-investors Helix Inc. of Quebec and AT&T Wireless Services in LanSer …

WASHINGTON-While congressional Republican leaders late last week signaled problems with landmark telecommunications reform legislation, the wireless telecommunications industry declared victory after securing antenna siting, long-distance access and other provisions that keep the deregulatory gains of 1993 intact. Rep. Newt Gingrich …

DALLAS-AT&T Wireless Services has launched its commercial rollout of Interim Standard-136 service with a Dallas in-office system, using L.M. Ericsson microcells and Nokia Corp. handsets. The office system installed at Perot Systems uses a distributed antenna strategy, and allows handoffs …

WASHINGTON-A government plan for personal communications services licensees to share microwave relocation costs has received qualified support from both carriers and fixed users, while providing the two warring factions a public forum to continue fighting. The Federal Communications Commission’s proposal …

It’s the morning after. The reporter arrives at 10: 15 a.m. at the historic Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., (conveniently across 14th Street from the National Press Building) to interview the co-recipient of RCR’s 1995 Person of the Year: American …

A private Dutch company has combined traditional paging with high-tech messaging to produce “Maxing,” an advanced wireless service that Eindhoven-based CallMax bv hopes to offer commercially early next year. Using the service, subscribers will be able to store or forward …

Michael Snitz of Phoenix-based Cell Phone Extensions says his business is a part of the new “emulation industry,” but cellular carriers call his work illegal cloning and fraud. “This is a thorn in the paw of the cellular industry,” said …

The upcoming chairwoman of the GSM MoU Association is confident that Global System for Mobile communications technology will figure prominently in the U.S. personal communications services market. Gretel Holcomb Hoffman is currently the group’s deputy chair, but is scheduled to …

In an initial study of customer satisfaction among cellular telephone service consumers, J.D. Power and Associates found that local Bell telephone companies achieved higher satisfaction rankings than their nonwireline rivals in most of the eight markets covered in the study. …

KIRKLAND, Wash.-AT&T Wireless Services announced the commercial availability of the AT&T CellCard, a smart card the size of a credit card that is designed to extend the reach of a customer’s cellular phone number to an additional 35 countries. AT&T …

WASHINGTON-Expanded spectrum auction authority and other telecommunications legislation are about to get caught up in a high-stakes budget battle between the Clinton administration and the GOP-led Congress that might not get settled until Christmas. The House and Senate late last …

SEATTLE-AT&T Wireless Services introduced a prepackaged phone that is available in stores and activated by calling a 1-800 number and receiving credit-card verification. The telephone costs about $40 with an access charge of $20. The monthly charge includes two hours …

DALLAS-PCS PrimeCo L.P. announced it has made the world’s first wireless phone call on a carrier-based personal communications services system using Code Division Multiple Access digital technology at 1900 MHz. The company said the calls, which were made in the …

AT&T Wireless Services has unveiled personal Air Communications Technology, a new open standards-based architecture for two-way messaging that the company expects will become an industry standard for narrowband personal communications services. Armed with pACT, AT&T is first to challenge Motorola …

As the entrepreneurial block auctions for broadband personal communications services get underway this December, the first broadband PCS services also are scheduled to become reality. But a later rollout schedule is par for the course among major PCS license holders, …

Standard Telecom America Inc. introduced a line-up of Nixxo pagers including Nixxo Tutti, Nixxo AirFly and the alphanumeric Nixxo, to American and Latin American markets. The company is a new player in the U.S. paging market but is a leading …

The prime movers behind the recent rollout of Personal Handyphone System services in Japan are not losing any time promoting the digital technology in other Asia-Pacific markets. Cable & Wireless plc joined with Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., NTT Mobile …

WASHINGTON-The regulatory environment for personal communications services is still evolving as policymakers try to determine how next-generation pocket telephone systems fit into a telecommunications industry undergoing historic change and evaluate what that means to society. The issues are complex, with …

LEXINGTON, Mass.-Wildfire Communications Inc., which introduced the Wildfire Electronic Assistant product one year ago, signed on AT&T Wireless Services and Pacific Bell Mobile Services to develop Wildfire as a network-based system. Valued at $3 million each, the contracts with AT&T …

Wireless technologies are critical to introducing true competition into the country’s last bastion of telecommunications monopoly, according to market research by Action Information Services. Unlike today’s analog cellular services that merely supplement traditional wireline service, new digital cellular and personal …

Specialty Teleconstructors Inc. announced its purchase of Orlando Tower Service Inc., an Orlando, Fla.-based builder of transmitting and receiving facilities for wireless telecommunications providers. Consideration for the transaction totaled $135,000 in cash, consisting of two semiannual payments of $65,000 during …

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati last week stayed the entrepreneur block auction for broadband personal communications services licenses after Radiofone Inc., a cellular operator in New Orleans, challenged PCS-cellular cross-ownership rules. The Federal Communications …

KIRKLAND, Wash.-AT&T Wireless Services is introducing AT&T wireless circuit data service in New York and New Jersey. Circuit data service allows cellular customers with portable computing devices to access corporate databases and e-mail with throughput comparable to landline connections, according …

PARSIPPANY, N.J.-Lin Broadcasting Corp. shareholders voted to approve a merger agreement with AT&T Wireless Services at the annual shareholder meeting. Lin shareholders will receive approximately $129.90 in cash for each Lin share. The total value of the merger is about …

AT&T Corp.’s strategy to become three different companies has evoked positive and adverse reactions, but analysts agree the forecast looks good for the wireless business. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert Allen announced the restructuring following months of discussions and …