Wireless Technology

NEW YORK-Armstrong World Industries Inc., Lancaster, Pa., has produced conventional looking, pop-out ceiling tiles that hide radio-frequency antennas in their upward facing sides. “Providing in-building coverage for voice and data communications is a new frontier for the wireless and ceiling …

FRESNO, Calif.-Pacific Wireless Technologies Inc. launched an integrated wireless communications services network using Motorola Inc.’s iDEN technology, covering 40,000 miles in California.

Centerpoint Broadband Technologies Inc., an optical networking company based in San Jose, Calif., revealed this week it is expanding the reach and capabilities of its core technology to serve the local multipoint distribution services industry. The company’s new point-to-point technology …

WASHINGTON-The wireless industry last week suffered two stunning legal setbacks in health-related litigation, capped by the decision of wealthy Baltimore superlawyer Peter Angelos to take control of an $800 million mobile phone-cancer lawsuit in Maryland. It was an unprecedented week …

Canada Ericsson announced trials for Wireless Application Protocol technology over a TDMA network with Rogers Cantel, a Canadian wireless provider. The announcement is the first WAP 1.1 system on a TDMA network, said Ericsson. The system being delivered is based …

LAS VEGAS-Whether we like it or not, most of us are plugged in, turned on or otherwise connected to everyone else on this planet. But in spite of these universal ties, there is growing interest in maintaining individuality, or so …

Secure with 50 converts and confident of its quality, the torch bearers of the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) technology believe that telecom companies are heeding their call to make it a global standard. The association, known as the OFDM …

WASHINGTON-Commerce Secretary-designate Donald Evans said he will stress spectrum management in the next administration and told Senate Commerce Committee members he realizes the international implications of third-generation mobile-phone development in the United States. “We need to put a lot more …

Refinery Inc., a six-year-old Web development company, identified the wireless industry as something it “definitely needed to be involved in,” the company’s director of marketing said. However, Refinery isn’t planning on chasing wireless applications like some corporate holy grail-an illusion …

NEW DELHI, India-Several leading GSM operators in the Asian region have announced plans for migration to 2.5-generation (2.5G) services during 2001. Many of them hope to roll out commercial General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) services during the year, but mass …

In a trinity aimed to reinvent itself, mobile applications provider Mobilelogic changed its name, hugged a new partner and closed a deal last week. It now wishes to be called Vaultus, a name chosen to reflect its marriage with Sieglegale, …

SAN JOSE, Calif.-Cisco Systems further staked its position in the wireless technology market by buying Exi0 Communications for $155 million in stock. The deal which is Cisco’s 22nd this year will close in its third fiscal quarter ending April 28. …

WASHINGTON-A new book describes top cellular lobbyist Thomas Wheeler as obsessed with controlling public relations for industry-funded mobile phone-cancer research conducted in the 1990s and claims he attempted extraordinary measures to downplay suspected health risks. In “Cell Phones: Invisible Hazards …

The frenzy to find more spectrum for encroaching third-generation services is mostly unwarranted if wireless technology keeps progressing as it has, according to Marty Cooper, chief technology officer of ArrayComm Inc. Spurred by an Oct. 13 directive from President Clinton, …

Isn’t it ironic that German and Japanese interests are planning to take significant stakes in U.S. wireless telephony-countries that were sworn enemies of the United States nearly 60 years ago this week, when Pearl Harbor was attacked, catapulting the United …

WASHINGTON-The Supreme Court this week will hear arguments in a case that could go a long way to determining how much privacy mobile-phone subscribers will have in the future. The case, set for oral argument on Tuesday, pits wireless privacy …

PARIS-Matsushita Communications Industrial Co., Ltd. and Nortel Networks moved to push the standards set by 3G Partnership Projects and their own products and services. Under a new agreement, the two companies plan to test the interoperability of third-generation mobile terminals …

NEW YORK-Despite the hope and hype around consumer and corporate use, vertical applications remain today’s stronghold for wireless data, said Jeffrey Schlesinger, wireless technology analyst for UBS Warburg. Recognizing this fact, many large and small companies have made a foray …

NEW DELHI, India-Five companies and groups have submitted bids for supply of infrastructure for the proposed GSM network of the state-owned company ACT Mobile in Thailand. Those in the fray are Nokia, Lucent Technologies, IEC/Nortel Networks, Alcatel, and a consortium …

WASHINGTON-A major personal injury lawsuit is expected to be filed this week in Illinois against Motorola Inc. and possibly others by a former technician with the company who claims his brain tumor was caused by mobile-phone radiation. The suit, the …

Qualcomm Inc. announced it will form a venture arm to invest in start-up companies in an effort to proliferate the use of CDMA technology. Qualcomm is making a $500 million commitment to the new venture company, Qualcomm Ventures. “The convergence …

NEW YORK-Tokyo-based NEC Corp. has ambitious expansion plans for its wireless handsets and infrastructure business, but the plans do not target North America, said Koji Nishigaki, president. In Asia, the company sees a big opportunity to supply third-generation mobile networks …

WASHINGTON-The Supreme Court, in a major blow to the wireless industry, last week said it would not hear an appeal of a lower court’s antenna-siting ruling favoring a Pennsylvania town. “It would appear that it gives towns again the opportunity …

Not one operator around the world has rolled out third-generation services yet, but discussion of fourth-generation technology is already under way. An industry that began offering a basic communications tool is evolving into something much flashier, much more futuristic and …

SAN DIEGO-Integrated circuits producer Philips Semiconductors formed a strategic alliance with Widcomm Inc. to speed up the development of its Bluetooth wireless technology products and to provide customers with a complete range of Bluetooth solutions and support. “Widcomm is a …