Wireless Technology

WASHINGTON-After months of delay, oral arguments are set for the week of Nov. 30 on legal challenges to radio-frequency radiation exposure guidelines adopted by the Federal Communications Commission in late 1996. The outcome of the litigation has enormous implications for …

WASHINGTON-Pekka Tarjanne, outgoing secretary general of the International Telecommunication Union, predicted last week a family of third-generation wireless standards will emerge by year’s end and that family will include a standard “pretty close” to the Global System for Mobile communications-based …

WASHINGTON-Federal Communications Commission Chairman Bill Kennard vowed to support telecommunications development in Africa, a continent with emerging markets that is looking to wireless technology to leapfrog into the 21st century. “I want to work as a partner with you for …

NEW YORK-Recent gyrations in the public capital markets have made for splashy headlines, but they are not likely to stop telecommunications mergers unless there is a prolonged and profound slump, said Dave Rhodes, senior vice president of Daniels & Associates, …

Applied Cellular Technology Inc.’s board of directors approved a strategic plan aimed at growing its earnings per share by 20 percent that calls for the divestiture of non-core business units and the repurchase of 5 million shares of its common …

Seventy years ago, the mobile radio industry was born when the Detroit Police Department installed the first one-way radios in their squad cars. Today there are approximately 19 million two-way radios in use in the United States, including 3.1 million …

Lucent Technologies Inc. said scientists at its Bell Labs research and development arm have developed a technology that could boost capacity of some wireless links by a multiple of 10 to 20. Known as BLAST, the technology may allow fixed …

So, you want to build a wireless telecommunications network. Then you must be thinking about how to leverage the infrastructures of existing cellular and PCS systems. After all, you figure, the more collocating you do, the sooner your system is …

WASHINGTON-A powerful Senate resolution that was to promote third-generation wireless harmonization was thoroughly diluted by U.S. backers of European-based mobile phone technology last week, a bizarre turnabout that drew a mix of new faces into the escalating controversy and further …

NEW YORK-Australia’s Optus Communications, a multiservice carrier, announced fiscal year-end results Aug. 31 that showed significant declines in operating losses compared with the prior year. Optus closed out Fiscal 1998, ended June 30, with 1.7 million wireless telephony customers, of …

WASHINGTON-The Mexican government will auction new frequencies for paging, narrowband PCS (two-way paging), trunking and point-to-point microwave. The auctions are scheduled for late 1998 and early 1999, depending on the service, according to the Comision Federal de Telecomunicaciones (Cofetel), Mexico’s …

WASHINGTON-Almost 500 years after Columbus visited, Portugal and Spain are back on Latin American shores; this time, it isn’t sugar cane or gold they are after, but rather the potentially lucrative telecom sector. Telefonica de Espana and Portugal Telecom were …

The head of Philips Consumer Communications quit in late August amidst the company’s announcement it doesn’t expect to break even this year. PCC President and Chief Executive Officer Mike McTighe resigned from those positions effective 1 October. When Lucent Technologies …

The head of Philips Consumer Communications quit last week amidst the company’s announcement it doesn’t expect to break even this year. PCC President and Chief Executive Officer Mike McTighe resigned from those positions effective Oct. 1. When Lucent Technologies Inc. …

WASHINGTON-In perhaps the strongest signal to date of congressional concern about U.S. global competitiveness in the future third-generation mobile phone market, Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.) pressed the Clinton administration to outline the steps it is taking to ensure American technology …

ST. LOUIS-Ameren Corp. and CellNet Data Systems Inc. jointly unveiled Ameren Abacus, an energy information service that give operations managers energy-consumption information on production processes, equipment, facilities and other commercial and industrial endpoints. CellNet’s wireless technology monitors the consumption in …

The sinking ship that is Geotek Communications Inc. wallowed deeper into troubled waters last week when the company filed voluntary petitions for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection while its captain and founder, Yaron Eitan, stepped down as chief executive officer and …

DENVER, United States-L.M. Ericsson, Nokia Corp. and United Kingdom-based Psion Computers plc conditionally have agreed to form a joint venture called Symbian, and Motorola Inc. has signed a memorandum of understanding to join, said Ericsson. Symbian aims to drive the …

MONTREAL-Microcell Connexions Inc. announced plans to establish an advanced testing facility for third-generation wireless communications services, in cooperation with its partners in the North American GSM Alliance L.L.C. The research and development initiative is aimed at devising a 3G technology …

WASHINGTON-The State Department, amid a flurry of high-level lobbying and an unsuccessful last-minute move to withdraw U.S. support for the European-based mobile phone technology used by carriers here and abroad, will forward four standards for third-generation wireless technology to the …

WASHINGTON-As House Telecommunications Subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) and Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) negotiate funding federal cancer research with revenue from E911 legislation, a major effort is underway in Europe to address the health question head on. The European Commission …

WASHINGTON-A seemingly parochial fight between a small San Diego firm and two European manufacturing giants over next-generation wireless technology could foreshadow a larger confrontation between the United States and the European Union and offer a glimpse into a future where …

WASHINGTON-The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association last week went on the offensive to put in place a technical standard that will allow carriers to alert subscribers of an impending natural disaster or weather emergency. Also, James L. Witt, director of the …

WASHINGTON-CTIA last week at its fourth annual Cellular Telephone Industry Association Foundation Achievement Awards Dinner paid tribute to Dennis F. Strigl, Newt Gingrich and the 50 winners of its Vita wireless samaritan awards who all used wireless phones to help …

WASHINGTON-While lawmakers and industry executives toiled last week through the minutia of competing third-generation wireless technologies, Qualcomm Inc. was laying the foundation to parlay an esoteric standards dispute into a major trade debate that would pit the United States against …