RCR Wireless News articles from May 2002

RCR Wireless News archives from May 2002

3G Americas now a partner in 3GPP. (Late News).
May 6, 2002... 3G Americas was chosen as a new market representation partner (MRP) of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) last week at a meeting of the organization's partners held in New Orleans. 3G Americas will offer 3GPP input regarding...

Shays: Bush will have to choose spectrum winners.
May 6, 2002... Reporter Heather Forsgren Weaver contributed to this report. WASHINGTON--Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), chairman of the House Government Reform subcommittee on national security, said he will recommend a committee report documenting the...

Carriers entice with all-you-can-eat plans: Smaller players try to differentiate from nationwide competition.
May 6, 2002... With nationwide service providers waging a tit-for-tat pricing war for customers wanting more minutes for less money, smaller, regional operators are in greater numbers taking the full plunge of offering customers all the calls they want for...

IBM embraces Openwave in 10-year data alliance.
May 6, 2002... Data and technology giants IBM Corp. and Openwave Systems Inc. today announced an expansive, comprehensive partnership to help carriers flesh out and strengthen their wireless data offerings. The two companies also boasted of the depth and...

Are data-centric devices friend or foe to handset makers? (News).
May 6, 2002... Starting this year and increasing through next, the wireless industry's handset makers could face competition from a hungry and growing group of data-centered upstarts, companies that come from the corporate computer sector, which are well...

NTIA reminds FCC about spectrum law. (News).
May 6, 2002... WASHINGTON--The Bush administration plans to send a letter to the Federal Communications Commission on a controversial provision in the ultra-wideband decision that the Pentagon and other agencies believe undermines the executive branch's...

Tower firms may swap assets to gain operating efficiencies. (News).
May 6, 2002... NEW YORK--Forced to pay double-digit interest rates on debt now trading at steep discount to face value, wireless tower companies have received a clear message that investors "essentially are saying their stock is worth nothing," said Sean...

Pinnacle to change name, restructure outstanding debt, keep tower focus. (News).
May 6, 2002... Following a financially tumultuous year riddled with credit extensions, Pinnacle Holdings Inc. finally received the help it needed from a group of investors that plan to change its name but keep the company's heels dug in the tower business....

American Tower, SpectraSite slow tower adds in 1Q. (News).
May 6, 2002... American Tower Corp. and SpectraSite Holdings Inc. turned in uneventful first-quarter results, with slightly increased revenues and losses from first-quarter 2001, as the companies continue to adjust to the changing demands being placed on them...

House, Senate push to postpone 700 MHz auction. (News).
May 6, 2002... WASHINGTON--Congress last week moved ahead with legislation to delay the 700 MHz auction. The House Commerce Committee passed its bill to delay the auction, while friends of the wireless industry in the Senate introduced one. Meanwhile,...

Motorola's strength may lie in handset 'guts'. (News).
May 6, 2002... While speculation of a takeover looms over Motorola Inc.'s wireless network division, the company's handset platform technology unit seems to be playing king. In the past two months, both Toronto-based Nortel Networks Inc. and German...

Alltel bets bundling, balance sheet keep it in game. (News).
May 6, 2002... NEW YORK--Alltel Corp., which raised $1.25 billion in the public capital markets last week to help finance pending wireline and wireless acquisitions, is betting that its sound balance sheet and bundled service offering position it well for the...

FutureCom aims to fill niche handset space. (News).
May 6, 2002... The mobile handset industry is a lopsided mix of dedicated wireless megacorporations, struggling subsidiaries of non-wireless megacorporations and a handful of small, independent companies that think there are niche markets still unsatisfied by...

Leap cuts work force by 50 employees. (News).
May 6, 2002... SAN DIEGO--Leap Wireless International Inc. said it is eliminating approximately 50 positions, or roughly 3 percent of its current work force, in keeping with its cost reductions and shift in focus from launching new markets to operating...

Dobson gets auction refund from FCC. (News).
May 6, 2002... OKLAHOMA CITY--The Federal Communications Commission refunded Dobson Communications Corp. approximately $91.2 million of the carrier's $109 million deposit related to its participation last year in the re-auction of wireless spectrum. ...

Sprint, Nextel lead E911 Phase II implementation. (News).
May 6, 2002... WASHINGTON--Last week marked the second time that carriers were required to file status reports on the implementation of enhanced 911. Sprint PCS and Nextel Communications Inc. remained the front runners while other carriers lag behind,...

Early adopters expect to up wireless spending. (News).
May 6, 2002... More than half the attendees at a recent wireless and mobile commerce show in Chicago said they planned to spend more this year on wireless voice services than they spent last year, and 42 percent said they would spend an additional 11 percent...

Commercial, private wireless split on 800 MHz issue. (News).
May 6, 2002... WASHINGTON--Commercial and private-wireless have parted ways. Representatives from Cingular Wireless L.L.C. and the Industrial Telecommunications Association, which represents the private-wireless industry, had been working on a coalition...

Symbol wins patent 802.11-related patent. (News).
May 6, 2002... HOLTSVILLE, N.Y.--Symbol Technologies Inc. has been awarded a patent for its technology, which enables wireline telephony features like caller I.D. and call forwarding, transfer and waiting on devices using 802.11, 802.11b and 802.11a wireless...

WiFi Metro, Gatespeed launch in San Jose. (News).
May 6, 2002... PALO ALTO, Calif.--WiFi Metro Inc. and Gatespeed Broadband Inc. launched a wireless "hot zone" in downtown San Jose, Calif., spanning more than six city blocks. The hot zone allows users to establish a wireless high-speed Internet...

Export-Import Bank. (D.C. Briefs).
May 6, 2002... The House voted to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank, which provides loan guarantees and insurance for overseas projects to Motorola Inc., AT&T Corp. and other U.S. firms. The Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corp.,...

Melissa computer virus. (D.C. Briefs).
May 6, 2002... A federal judge in New Jersey sentenced 33-year-old David Lee Smith to 20 months in jail and fined him $5,000 for creating the "Melissa" computer virus, which is estimated to have caused nearly $100 million in damages by disrupting e-mail...

National Telecommunications and Administration director Nancy Victory and Federal Communications Commission member Michael Copps. (D.C. Briefs).
May 6, 2002... National Telecommunications and Administration director Nancy Victory and Federal Communications Commission member Michael Copps will participate in bilateral trade talks with China in Beijing later this month. Hu Jintao, vice president of...

Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group. (D.C. Briefs).
May 6, 2002... A new report claims the costs of arbitration--billed as a low-cost alternative to lawsuits and required in service contracts for mobile phones and other electronic contracts--are so expensive that consumers drop complaints. Public Citizen, a...

The Strategis Group. (D.C. Briefs).
May 6, 2002... Washington, D.C.-based market research and consulting company The Strategis Group trimmed its work force from 40 employees to 15 with plans to refocus its operations on providing consulting services to the telecommunications industry.

When is too much too much? (Opinion).
May 6, 2002... I love technology as much as the next person. But sooner or later we're going to find out that we have sensory overload in our automobiles. A few weeks ago in Stuttgart, Germany, Automotive News Europe held a telematics conference....

Rural intifada. (Opinion).
May 6, 2002... Seemingly out of nowhere, amid the Big Bang that's obliterating the high-tech universe and setting the stage for a brave new world of 1s and 0s, rural America has decided to stand up and roar. Rural telecom firms, feeling deprived of...

IPR gets increased attention from Bush, courts. (News).
May 6, 2002... WASHINGTON--Intellectual property--increasingly the critical asset of wireless and high-tech firms in the knowledge-based economy--is becoming a flashpoint for controversy in the Bush administration, Congress and in the courts. The issue,...

WorldCom CEO steps down. (News).
May 6, 2002... CLINTON, Mass.--Bernard Ebbers resigned his position as president, chief executive officer and director of WorldCom Inc. The resignation came as WorldCom's stock had fallen from more than $60 share a couple of years ago to less than $3,...

Motorola wins spam lawsuit against Paging America. (News).
May 6, 2002... BOYNTON BEACH, Fla.--Motorola Inc. emerged the victor in its lawsuit against Paging America, which used Motorola's brand name and products in its e-mail spain campaign. In an Illinois federal court default judgement, Paging America must...

Metrocall delays reorganization filing. (News).
May 6, 2002... ALEXANDRA, Va.--Metrocall Inc. announced it is working on a pre-negotiated plan for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is pushing back the date it plans to file for reorganization. The company said it plans to file for bankruptcy in the later part...

TDMA lingers on, even thrives, despite death knell: technology still big in South America, may last another decade. (Focus).
May 6, 2002... One critical signal that a technology is on its way out is when manufacturers' research-and-development divisions look elsewhere. Or when they look at it with a withering squint. TDMA, which stands for Time Division Multiple Access, gets...

U.S. Cellular moves operations. (Focus).
May 6, 2002... CHICAGO--U.S. Cellular Corp. relocated its national financial services organization to Tulsa, Okla., and Madison, Wisc., in an attempt to increase the size and scope of its customer relations operations. The regional operations were moved...

Bombing injunction against birds could halt tower builds. (News).
May 6, 2002... WASHINGTON--In a ruling with potentially serious consequences for the tower industry, a federal judge last week told the U.S. Navy that it cannot conduct bombing exercises on an island in Guam. "The court's reasoning in this decision could...

CTIA asks to drop FCC regulations. (News).
May 6, 2002... WASHINGTON--The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, in an attempt to take advantage of a federal appeals court decision dealing with media ownership rules, late last month urged the Federal Communications Commission to eliminate...

NTT to launch WLAN service in May. (News).
May 6, 2002... TOKYO--NTT Communications, a long-distance and international business unit of the NTT Group, announced that it will launch wireless local area network service on May 15 at $12.46 a month. The carrier is planning to open 1,000 "hot spots," where...

Nextel phones allow worldwide roaming. (News).
May 6, 2002... RESTON, Va.--Nextel Communications Inc. introduced the Motorola Inc. P280 and v60 iDEN handsets for international users. "The Motorola P280 and v60 allow our customers to expand their reach just by swapping the Worldwide Service-activated...

Lucent completes UMTS data call. (News).
May 6, 2002... MURRAY HILL, N.J.--Lucent Technologies Inc. says it has completed what it described as the industry's first high-speed commercial UMTS data call using 1900 MHz spectrum at transmission speeds of up to 384 kilobits per second. "Lucent...

Brightpoint seeks reverse stock split. (News).
May 6, 2002... INDIANAPOLIS--Brightpoint Inc. received notice from Nasdaq that it is not meeting the required $1 minimum bid price, and consequently Brightpoint is submitting for stockholder approval a one-for-seven reverse stock split. If Brightpoint's...

Cingular targets youth with data offering. (News).
May 6, 2002... ATLANTA--Cingular Wireless launched a youth-targeted Web site, called Shoutout, offering a suite of mobile data products allowing customers to personalize their mobile phones with downloadable ringtones and graphics, interact with friends...

Average Monthly Charge for Wireless Service.
May 6, 2002... AVERAGE MONTHLY CHARGE FOR WIRELESS SERVICE Across 50, 200, 500, 800 minutes of use--March 2002 Rank City Avg. Cost March Pct. Chg. from Feb. 1 Cincinnati $39.58 1.3 2 Kansas City ...

Wireless venture funds up 8% in 1Q. (Business).
May 6, 2002... Investment bank Rutberg & Co. found that wireless technology companies received approximately $700 million in venture funding in the first quarter of 2002, representing an 8-percent increase from fourth-quarter 2001. According to Rutberg's...

Analysts cheer RIM initiatives, cautious of thrifty corporations. (Business).
May 6, 2002... Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry seems to be everywhere lately. Some of the world's biggest wireless carriers are partnering with the company in order to sell the device, investment analysts continually applaud the company's long-term...

724 Scores carrier contract. (Business).
May 6, 2002... 724 Solutions Inc., a company founded and publicly traded in the hopes that mobile commerce would be huge, has been gradually expanding its reach beyond the slow-moving world of m-commerce and into other, more readily available sources of...

Wireless StockWatch.
May 6, 2002... Wireless StockWatch April 24-May 1 GAINS CLOSING CLOSING PERCENT 52-WK EXCH COMPANY 5/1/02 4/24/02 CHANGE HIGH NYS Alcatel Alsthom 12.70 ...

Stepped-up CRM efforts to benefit communications software firms. (Business).
May 6, 2002... NEW YORK--Communications software companies are poised for a rebound beginning this summer as carriers focus on improvements m customer relationship and network management, said Peter Jacobson, vice president of Kaufman Brothers L.P. "We...

MetaSolv gains wireless footprint with Nortel OSS buy. (Business).
May 6, 2002... The concept of a network makes no sense unless the various parts work together. When carriers want to install their networks they are equally concerned with the quality of the individual parts as they are with bundling them into a connected and...

Verizon Wireless offers multimedia for BREW handsets. (Business).
May 6, 2002... BEDMINSTER, N.J.--Verizon Wireless introduced Summus Inc.'s Exego suite of multimedia applications for its BREW-enabled handsets, allowing users to send photos, multimedia messaging, e-mail, and image and file sharing from their phone. The...

Fair, Isaac to buy HNC Software. (Business).
May 6, 2002... SAN RAFAEL, Calif.--Fair, Isaac & Co., which provides predictive solutions for wireless service providers, said it will acquire HNC Software Inc. for $810 million to "deliver greater value to its customers, shareholders and employees." The...

Telekom Malaysia buys stake in rival. (Global Wireless).
May 6, 2002... KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia--Telekom Malaysia acquired a 13-percent stake in Malaysian cellular operator TRI for $188.8 million, a purchase that could spark a merger between the two operators and a wave of consolidation in the overall Malaysian...

Nokia signs GSM deal with Thai operator. (Infrastructure Contracts).
May 6, 2002... HELSINKI, Finland--Nokia Corp. said it has signed a $50 million deal to supply GSM infrastructure equipment to Thailand operator Advanced Info Service plc. "Under the agreement, Nokia will supply to AIS GSM radio and core network...

Nortel reaffirms contract with T-Mobile. (Infrastructure Contracts).
May 6, 2002... BONN, Germany--Nortel Networks said it signed a contract to supply T-Mobile International with UMTS infrastructure equipment and services in Europe under a 10-year frame agreement. "We are looking forward to working with strong allies like...

Ericsson to expand China Unicom network. (Infrastructure Contracts).
May 6, 2002... STOCKHOLM, Sweden--Ericsson AB said it expanded its original CDMA equipment and services agreement with China Unicom under a $55 million contract. The contract covers seven provinces in China, including Jiangsu, Anhui, Sichuan, Yunnan, Henan,...

Nokia snags 36 contract in Austria. (Infrastructure Contracts).
May 6, 2002... HELSINKI, Finland--Nokia said it won a contract as the sole supplier of Hutchison 3G Austria's third-generation network. The value of the contract was not disclosed. Nokia will supply its 3G core network equipment and its network...

Green Machine, Micel plan to merge. (News).
May 6, 2002... DELRAY BEACH, Fla.--Green Machine Development Corp. announced it plans to merge with Micel Wireless Corp., which specializes in the sales, service and support of Motorola fixed cellular, telephone, PBX, cellular phone and wireless...

Wireless Facilities wins siting contract from Bechtel. (News).
May 6, 2002... SAN DIEGO--Wireless Facilities Inc. won a three-year subcontract from Bechtel Corp. in conjunction with Cingular Wireless L.L.C.'s GSM/GPRS network overlay project. Bechtel will have responsibility for program management including...

LocatioNet wins Austrian contracts. (News).
May 6, 2002... NEW YORK--U.S. supplier LocatioNet Systems Ltd. announced it received two contracts from Austrian mobile operator One. LocatioNet will supply its location-based services middleware platform, geographic information system and open set of APIs....

Correction.
May 6, 2002... In the "Metrocall plans bankruptcy filing by end of month" story on page 15 of the April 22 issue, the story incorrectly stated Metrocall's plans for its indirect sales channels. Metrocall will cut back on its indirect sales, but not shut them...

Regional players have hit-and-miss quarter. (Business).
May 6, 2002... Following the release of mixed first-quarter results for nationwide wireless operators, a number of regional carriers and affiliates reported results last week that showed similar hit-and-miss results depending on the operator's focus. ...

Fast-track trade stalemate broken. (Late News).
May 13, 2002... The Senate and the White House have broken a stalemate on fast-track trade legislation, opening the way for a Senate vote this week on a measure strongly supported by slumping telecom and high-tech sectors in search of new markets. The...

U.S. Cellular shores up Chicago market with PrimeCo buy.
May 13, 2002... With a number of small rural wireless providers riding out the uncertainty surrounding the telecommunications industry on the sidelines, the larger regional players are moving forward. U.S. Cellular Corp. is the latest as it announced late last...

Nokia exec predicts W-CDMA vendors will consolidate to four: EDGE expected in U.S., Europe this year.
May 13, 2002... HELSINKI, Finland--Nokia Corp., the Helsinki-based Finnish wireless equipment supplier, is predicting a dramatic concentration on the vendor side of global telecommunications, believing that the number of major vendors will diminish by 2006 to...

700 MHz auction delay up in air.
May 13, 2002... WASHINGTON--Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, may have foiled plans by the Federal Communications Commission to delay the 700 MHz band auction, scheduled for June 19. Stevens introduced...

Nokia plan for 5% royalty cap called self-serving.
May 13, 2002... By calling for a 5-percent cap on all wide-band CDMA patent royalties, Nokia Corp. said it was preaching fairness. Not so, say some in industry. "Nokia's proposal appears to be very self-serving by primarily benefiting the equipment...

Macromedia eyes wireless animation via Flash. (News).
May 13, 2002... Macromedia Inc.--yet another Internet player looking to expand into the wireless world--is slowly forming partnerships with the industry's movers and shakers in hopes of getting its massively popular Flash technology into the hands of wireless...

Winphoria refines its push-to-talk feature: could bring competition to Nextel's iDEN service. (News).
May 13, 2002... With more than 9 million wireless customers, Nextel Communications Inc. may be only the fifth-largest wireless operator, but with its strict focus on high-value business customers the carrier routinely reports subscriber metrics that are the...

People say they want telematics for navigation, safety. (News).
May 13, 2002... Three separate reports on telematics and location-based services found strong interest among consumers for navigation, safety and security services, despite the high upfront equipment and installation costs. Driscoll-Wolf Marketing &...

Jackson enters dealer fray. (News).
May 13, 2002... CHICAGO--Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., founder and president of Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, last week intervened in a controversy that has an African American wireless dealer here alleging he was forced into bankruptcy because VoiceStream Wireless Corp....

Prospects for C-block settlement dim, despite senator's efforts. (News).
May 13, 2002... WASHINGTON--The C-block calamity escalated last week as a senator tried to jumpstart negotiations, the Federal Communications Commission filed its brief at the Supreme Court and a congressman said he might introduce legislation to force the...

Western Wireless stock dives after 1Q results. (News).
May 13, 2002... NEW YORK--Investors and analysts took their frustration out on WESTERN WIRELESS Corp. following its disappointing first-quarter results sending the struggling rural carrier's stock price down more than 40 percent in early Friday trading to an...

Some telecom vendors riding out storm nicely. (News).
May 13, 2002... Some companies are smiling through the rough and tumble of the wireless industry, as evidenced by recent quarterly results. While marquee names like Nortel Networks Inc., Lucent Technologies Inc. and Motorola Inc. try to find their way out...

Motorola poised for more cuts. (News).
May 13, 2002... CHICAGO--Motorola Inc., which has been laying off workers in waves for the past 18 months, has one more round of cuts to make before reaching its goal of trimming 50,000 jobs, or one-third of its work force. Motorola executives are...

Sprint may drop PCS tracking stock. (News).
May 13, 2002... NEW YORK--Sprint PCS' tracking stock price spiked on Thursday following a report that parent company Sprint Corp. was looking at removing its tracking stocks to help reduce confusion among its investors. Sprint Chief Executive Officer...

IBM researchers find SIM security hole. (News).
May 13, 2002... IBM Corp.'s research group announced it found a new security hole in the subscriber identity module cards of digital GSM mobile phones that cuts down the amount of time hackers must spend with the phone from more than eight hours to just a few...

Radiation shields vary in effectiveness. (News).
May 13, 2002... WASHINGTON--A British government report said devices for reducing mobile-phone radiation vary widely in effectiveness and there are trade-offs that can hurt handset performance, a contrast with the Bush administration's aggressive crackdown on...

802.11 comes with its own alphabet soup. (News).
May 13, 2002... Although wide area networks remain the jugular of the wireless world, wireless LAN technology is ramping up attention as major players see it as a ready source of revenue in a slow economy. The technology, which is often called 802.11, will...

Cingular fined $100,000 for missed E911 deadline. (News).
May 13, 2002... WASHINGTON--Cingular Wireless L.L.C. agreed on May 2 to pay the government $100,000 because it did not begin deploying enhanced 911 Phase II services in its TDMA markets by the Oct 1 deadline. "We are pleased we were able to reach this...

Stearns Web bill relies on self-regulation. (News).
May 13, 2002... WASHINGTON--Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) introduced Internet privacy legislation that would rely heavily on industry self-regulation and bar consumer lawsuits. The Stearns bill, which covers online and non-cyber consumer privacy, has...

Sprint, AT&T exchange PCS spectrum. (News).
May 13, 2002... KANSAS CITY, Mo.--Sprint PCS and AT&T Wireless Services Inc. completed the exchange of 10-megahertz blocks of personal communications services spectrum covering approximately 18.5 million potential customers under an agreement announced by both...

Money top obstacle in effort to stop 800 MHz interference. (News).
May 13, 2002... WASHINGTON--Who pays? Even as the public-safety, commercial wireless and private wireless industries offer solutions to solve the interference problem at 800 MHz, there is no consensus on who should pay to fix it. "There is still an...

Image boosting. (Opinion).
May 13, 2002... Wireless stock prices around the world have taken a beating lately. Vodafone Group has most noticeably suffered investors' wrath and is now trading at less than a pound. To make matters worse, its shares fell an additional 5 percent last week...

Bowling for dollars. (Opinion).
May 13, 2002... Ed Whitacre, the folksy chairman of SBC Communications Inc., is getting as much exposure these days as Ed Stevens of TV fame. One day he's speaking here at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The next thing you know he's got top billing at a...

Four inducted into Wireless Hall of Fame, class of '02.
May 13, 2002... DENVER--RCR Wireless News announced four inductees into its third annual WIRELESS HALL OF FAME, created to recognize the efforts of those people who have made significant contributions to advance wireless telecommunications. Fourteen...

Jai Bhagat: engineering an untethered dream. (Hall of Fame).
May 13, 2002... Jai Bhagat, chairman and chief executive officer of Air2Lan, did not have to tinker with toys as a boy to become a virtuoso in the wireless world. All he needed to do was dream. "When I was in high school, the telecom field fascinated...