PCIA Washington Bulletin articles from November 1999

PCIA Washington Bulletin archives from November 1999

SCENIC TRAILS ACCORD.
November 1, 1999... PCIA took part in the landmark signing of the National Scenic Trails Resolution on Oct. 19 in Washington, D.C. Mary McDermott, PCIA's senior vice president and government relations chief of staff, participated in the signing ceremony on behalf...

MESSAGING.
November 1, 1999... PCIA filed reply comments Oct. 19 with the FCC regarding the licensing of multiple address systems (MAS) in the 900 MHz bands. In its filing, PCIA noted that its messaging carrier members require continued access to spectrum in the MAS bands....

CPP.
November 1, 1999... In reply comments filed Oct. 18, PCIA told the FCC that, if properly implemented, calling party pays (CPP) will enhance competition between landline and wireless telephony carriers. However, for CPP to succeed, the commission must remove...

911 EMERGENCY.
November 1, 1999... President Bill Clinton last week signed into law the 1999 Wireless Communications and Public Safety Act, establishing 911 as the universal emergency assistance number. Under this new law, wireless carriers have the same liability protection as...

FCC REFORM.
November 1, 1999... On Oct. 26, the House Telecommunications Subcommittee held a hearing on FCC reform for the new millennium. FCC Chairman William Kennard testified, as did the four commissioners. Kennard discussed the FCC's strategic plan for the 21st...

NEW FCC BUREAUS.
November 1, 1999... In testimony before the House Telecommunications Subcommittee Oct. 26 on the FCC's five-year strategic plan, Chairman William Kennard announced the creation of two new bureaus within the commission, the Enforcement Bureau and the Consumer...

FCC INFO REQUEST.
November 1, 1999... The FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology on Oct. 20 issued a long-awaited public notice seeking information from licensees of low-power medical telemetry (medtel) devices in the 450-460 MHz band. The FCC is gathering the information in...

The Road Ahead to WRC-2000.
November 1, 1999... The next World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) is scheduled for May 2000 in Istanbul. One of the most important issues to be addressed at the WRC will be spectrum for IMT-2000 (third generation wireless) services. For the past several...

BLM SITE INITIATIVE.
November 1, 1999... The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) extended to Nov. 12 its deadline to respond to a proposed rule that would increase processing and monitoring fees for all BLM rights-of-way, including communications sites. Comments originally were due Oct....

E911 COST-RECOVERY.
November 15, 1999... PCIA sent an ex parte letter to FCC Chairman William Kennard and the four commissioners asking them to dismiss a request from the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International (APCO) to eliminate the commission's...

SERVICING TRIBAL LANDS.
November 15, 1999... Relaxing some technical and regulatory constraints to entice wireless carriers to provide service to remote tribal lands may be marginally helpful in enabling carriers to economically justify providing service to these high-cost areas, PCIA...

BLM SITE INITIATIVE.
November 15, 1999... In comments filed last week with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), PCIA questioned the fairness of the approach the agency is taking in increasing administrative fees on permit holders of communications facilities. PCIA also voiced concern...

CALEA WORK ONGOING.
November 15, 1999... Compliance with the 1994 CALEA statute continues to be a significant priority for PCIA's paging and messaging members. Although the industry completed its standards for traditional and advanced paging last year, and for ancillary paging in...

INTERCONNECTION.
November 15, 1999... At the end of October, U S West announced that it had reached an interconnection agreement in eight states with AirTouch Paging. The eight states are Arizona, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington. Under the...

E-COMMERCE SEMINAR.
November 15, 1999... As business opportunities and challenges emerge with the rise of wireless Internet commerce, PCIA, in partnership with Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, one of the world's leading law firms in the developing field of e-commerce, will present a primer...

Building Access Among PCIA Priorities as Congress Nears Recess.
November 15, 1999... As legislators prepare to wrap up the first session of the 106th Congress, building access has become one of PCIA's main legislative priorities. As most of you are aware, the issue of access to multi-tenant buildings for fixed broadband...

PCIA UNIVERSITY AT IWCE.
November 15, 1999... PCIA will host a mobile wireless seminar March 21-22, 2000, during the International Wireless Communications Expo (IWCE) in Las Vegas. The one-and-a-half-day workshop -- PCIA University -- will feature a mobile wireless curriculum, including a...

E911 RULING.
November 29, 1999... At its Nov.18 open meeting, the FCC adopted rules regarding enhanced 911 (E911) services for wireless users. Among its decisions, the commission eliminated its ruling that a cost-recovery mechanism must be in place before carriers are obligated...

SPECTRUM MANAGEMENT.
November 29, 1999... The FCC at a recent open meeting outlined several spectrum management initiatives for the new millennium. At the Nov. 18 meeting, the commission issued a policy statement that included guiding principles for spectrum management, including...

PROPOSED AUCTION.
November 29, 1999... As Congress and the White House completed work on the FY 2000 budget, proposals were made to re-auction Nextwave Telecom's C-block licenses for inclusion in an omnibus appropriations package. Both the White House, and some members of...

PAGING SET FOR Y2K.
November 29, 1999... Customers can rest assured that come Jan. 1,2000, their paging products and services will continue to serve them uninterrupted, thanks to a year's worth of work that the PCIA Y2K Paging Task Force undertook to ensure a smooth transition into...

MESSAGING STANDARD.
November 29, 1999... PCIA's Paging Technical Committee (PTC) adopted a recently developed protocol enabling two-way messaging devices to access the Internet. The committee recommended that the protocol--the Wireless Communication Transport Protocol...

TTY FORUM REPORT.
November 29, 1999... The TTY Forum filed a status report with the FCC Nov.12 detailing the forum's ongoing efforts to find viable solutions for TTY access to 911 service over digital wireless systems. The report summarized every TTY test submitted to the forum and...

TAKING TIME TO SAY `THANKS'.
November 29, 1999... The start of the holiday season, the imminent arrival of Y2K and a number of significant personal events in the last six months have caused me to be much more reflective this year than in the past. I've learned that in the press of everyday...

TTY FORUM MEETING.
November 29, 1999... At its most recent meeting, held Nov. 18 in Baltimore, Md., the TTY Forum discussed several issues and developments related to their work in finding solutions to ensure TTY access to 911 service over digital wireless systems. Todd Lantor, PCIA...