Wireless Technology

WASHINGTON-With predictions that data-particularly e-commerce-will shape the industry’s future, the big question is which enterprise network will handle the most wireless traffic in the New Millennium. Will it be a network based on Internet Protocol or on voice-friendly circuit-switched network …

The harmonious relationship between wireless technology and the Internet is making monumental advances in communication, but the rate at which consumers are taking advantage of both is lagging a little behind. To accelerate the current e-commerce frenzy and entice customers …

WASHINGTON-A Clinton administration telecom grant program under attack by key House Republicans has changed its name and recommitted itself to helping minorities, rural communities and other underserved entities. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, a Commerce Department unit that advises …

WASHINGTON-Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is pressing the White House to include funding for mobile phone-cancer research in the president’s fiscal 2001 budget proposal. President Clinton is expected to submit his budget plan to Congress Feb. 7. A Leahy aide said …

MENLO PARK, Calif.-Customers of the American Automobile Association of Michigan will have a little more help trying to get where they are going. GetThere.com has announced that AAA Michigan will begin using the company’s online travel booking system and wireless …

WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration, backed by telecom firms and other U.S. businesses, last week said it will launch an aggressive lobbying campaign to win congressional backing this year for China’s membership in the World Trade Organization. “This agreement is a good …

If recent announcements by paging vendors and carriers are any indication, two-way paging products and services are poised to make a big splash in 2000. Both Motorola Inc. and Glenayre Technologies Inc. unveiled their long-awaited ReFLEX 25 compatible two-way paging …

OXFORD, United Kingdom-The principal supporters of the Bluetooth short-range wireless technology used the U.S.-based Comdex exhibition late last year to take the message of its capabilities to a much wider and more diverse audience. But despite this first public display …

BOSTON – At the end of the year there will be 875 active wireless operators worldwide, growing to 937 by the end of next year, according to The Yankee Group’s report, “Cellular/PCS Competitive Licensing Assessment and Global Forecast.” This increase …

KANSAS CITY, Mo.-Sprint PCS and Motorola Inc.’s Network Solutions Sector signed an agreement to begin a third-generation trial of Code Division Multiple Access digital wireless technology in the third quarter of next year, the companies announced. The trial is meant …

NEW YORK-In the last seven years, semiconductor processing capacity has increased by about 2,600 percent while battery technology has improved by approximately 65 percent on a watts basis, said Phillip Redman, program manager, wireless/mobile communications for The Yankee Group, Boston. …

LOUISVILLE, Colo.-AirCell Inc. said it signed a contract with Cellular One of Northeast Arizona to provide air-to-ground communications to its aviation customers in the Four Corners region and the White Mountains of Arizona. “Cellular One of Northeast Arizona is pleased …

Motorola Inc. found a third operator in the United States willing to deploy its proprietary integrated Digital Enhanced Network technology and more may follow. Specialized mobile radio operator Pacific Wireless Technologies Inc. announced plans to offer iDEN technology in central …

WASHINGTON-A new study by University of Washington researcher Henry Lai suggests rats exposed to cell phone microwave frequencies suffered long-term memory loss. “Studies before this one have focused more on short-term memory. In this study, the long-term memory of microwave-exposed …

LAS VEGAS-L.M. Ericsson announced its first consumer product incorporating Bluetooth technology at Comdex/Fall ’99. The cellular phone headset connects to a mobile phone by a radio link instead of a cable. The product will be commercially available in mid-2000, said …

WASHINGTON-The Food and Drug Administration-which recently agreed with the cellular industry to replicate two studies by Wireless Technology Research L.L.C. that showed positive findings-may have rejected cooperating with industry on research when mobile-phone cancer allegations first surfaced in 1993 because …

NEW YORK-Landline replacement, the Holy Grail of wireless telephony, received a boost from an array of forces unleashed simultaneously into the communications environment. This is not a high-stakes game of winner takes all, however. Telecommunications providers are learning more about …

Canada Bell Canada offered to purchase for cash up to 15.8 million of the outstanding common shares of Aliant, the largest telecommunications company in Atlantic Canada, at a price of US$18.40 per share. Such an acquisition would give Bell Canada, …

WASHINGTON-Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), ranking minority member of the Governmental Affairs Committee, called for a congressional investigation into whether mobile phones pose a health risk to the nation’s 80 million subscribers. “In the last five years, the numbers of Americans …

WASHINGTON-The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association last week attempted to delay ABC’s “20/20” broadcast on mobile phones and attacked the credibility of the man who led CTIA-funded health research. ABC said it plans to air the segment on mobile phone health …

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y.-Audiovox Communications Corp. said it is expanding its international sales and operations and introducing three new Global System for Mobile communications handsets as well as a dual-mode, dual-band Code Division Multiple Access handset with Web browsing capability. “We are …

Dear Editor, Studies of possible harms to the brain from cell phone use by the Wireless Technology Research Group, meant to be a definitive, industrywide effort, focus on cancer and genetic damage but miss other, more likely, harmful effects. If …

NEW YORK-“We’ve done the really easy stuff, and now the fun begins,” Ivan Seidenberg, chairman and chief executive officer of Bell Atlantic Corp., said in a keynote address Oct. 7 at Fall Internet World ’99. The Internet has evolved rapidly …

WASHINGTON-With only eight months before the World Radiocommunication Conference in Turkey, U.S. spectrum policy for third-generation wireless systems is on the verge of meltdown as the Clinton administration and industry continue to clash without a resolution in sight. “The interests …

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission should begin to have rules in place for using ultra-wideband wireless technologies before the end of 2000, said FCC Commissioner Susan Ness. Ultra-wideband radio frequency technologies long have been recognized as the technology of choice for …