Howard Buskirk

U.S. promoters of ultra wideband (UWB) are closely watching developments in the U.K., as regulators there complete work on rules governing the technology. Controls the U.K. establishes could prove significant since UWB chip makers are likely to pursue rollout of products worldwide that will meet limits in as much of the world as possible.

Ultra wideband firm PulseLink, which recently formed the CWave Alliance, will present its technology to the FCC today (Mon.) at the FCC Lab in Columbia, Md. The demonstration comes amid growing speculation the FCC will grant a waiver request on radio frequency rules to the Intel-Texas Instrument led Multi-band OFDM Alliance (MBOA).

Broadband equipment makers shipped 74% more units in 2004 than the previous year but revenue increased only 15%, Infonetics Research said Fri. The firm said revenue fell 7% 4th quarter from 3rd to $1.16 billion. That drop in the customer premises equipment (CPE) market came despite 17% sequential unit growth to 23.3 million.

The WiMedia Alliance and the Multi-band OFDM Alliance Special Interest Group (MBOA-SIG), 2 of the primary groups that have been promoting ultra-wideband (UWB), announced Thurs. they're merging. The development gives UWB of the MBOA stripe the same standardization Wi-Fi and WiMax have already achieved. Microchip manufacturers and consumer electronics companies will have to look to only one organization for a certification logo. The new group will be called the WiMedia Alliance.

Qwest took its offer to acquire MCI to the N.Y. financial community, holding a breakfast meeting Tues. with investors and analysts at which CEO Richard Notebaert accused MCI of refusing to negotiate over the deal and of responding only through the news media. In a development that could make the merger more controversial politically, Qwest revealed that the merger could result in 12,000- 15,000 job cuts. That development comes on the eve of a House hearing on telecom mergers.

NTIA Deputy Dir. John Kneur said Mon. that a group of multi-agency federal spectrum officials, the Policy & Plans Steering Group (PPSG), is on target to release a report in May on the next steps for implementing the recommendations of the President’s spectrum policy initiative, which was released in June. “We're going to meet that deadline,” Kneur said in comments to a conference sponsored by the E-Gov Institute. “That’s going to come up with the nuts and the bolts for an implementation… of each of these different recommendations.” Kneur told reporters the high-level members of the PPSG met once in Jan. but that smaller working groups have been holding continuing meetings. “The entire execution of this implementation plan is one that’s being worked on at the expert staff level. It’s being approved at the high level and we're getting contributions at the high level of the agencies as well,” he said: “We're working top down, bottom up, back and forth.” Kneur told the conference NTIA wants to make clear that the govt. is changing how it does business: “This is not just a one time exercise. We are building into our processes and into our management scheme these lessons, these improvements and we plan to execute on them.” Kneur wouldn’t disclose which spectrum ranges are being examined by NTIA for its contribution to the spectrum testbed, a key recommendation of the June NTIA report on U.S. spectrum policy in the 21st Century. Kneur said the testbed could be used to test geographic sharing of spectrum and the use of masks. “The ultimate goal is to really develop the state of the art of the technology,” he said.

NTT DoCoMo, the largest wireless carrier in Japan, announced it’s largely scrubbing its low-cost, no frills “personal handyphone system” (PHS) business and would cut its profit forecasts as a result. DoCoMo said it would stop accepting new customers April 30 and likely begin withdrawing from the business, though the carrier hasn’t made a firm decision to get out entirely. DoCoMo said it would have to post a $652 million charge that would reduce profits for the year to $7.4 billion from an anticipated $8 billion.

Verizon came out swinging Mon. against Qwest, its rival to acquire MCI, alleging that “cash-strapped” Qwest’s possible ownership of MCI’s Internet backbone has bad implications for national security. Meanwhile, the war of words between the rival suitors also escalated on the other side, as Qwest CEO Dick Notebaert questioned whether Verizon’s buying MCI would hurt telecom competition.

MCI CEO Michael Capellas said on a conference call Fri. that his company remains convinced Verizon is the “right partner” for a merger. But he also acknowledged the concerns expressed by some large shareholders and said MCI would consider the revised offer from Qwest the company received late Thurs. (CD Feb 25 p8). Capellas reflected on the merger only in general terms, at the end of a half-hour presentation on MCI’s 4th quarter and 2004 results. “Obviously we entered into in so we believe in it,” he said of the Verizon deal. “We'll also continue to honor our fiduciary responsibilities.”

An FCC order released Wed. that gives equipment makers another year to comply with new restrictions for unlicensed devices that operate in the 5.250-5.350 GHz band (CD Feb 24 p12) was a win for companies that make equipment for the frequency, sources said Thurs. At issue was possible complications for a class of devices made by companies including Cisco, D-Link, Atheros Communications, Motorola and Proxim that operate at 5 GHz, as an alternative to the more commonly used 2.4 GHz operations.