Wayne Rash

Within minutes of the Federal Communications Commission giving final approval to the merger of AT&T and BellSouth Dec. 29, the companies involved created a 22-state communications company that takes a big step in reassembling the Ma Bell of decades past, a huge telecom monopoly broken up by federal edict years ago. However, the world today […]

Motorola is bringing Linux-based phones with strong entertainment features to the consumer marketplace. Two new phones, introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, are the MOTORIZR Z6, a slide-to-open phone similar to the companys existing Z3, and the MOTOMING A1200, a flip-open, touch-screen communications and entertainment device. Both are quad-band GSM phones, while […]

APA Cables and Networks, a maker of fiber management equipment for some 1100 local independent telephone companies, has announced a new fiber management upgrade kit that will allow local fiber distribution networks to meet their full potential. The new product, called the Cross-Connect Upgrade Kit, allows local phone companies to upgrade their APACN Fiber Scalability […]

The Ford Motor Co. is introducing the first vehicles with Microsofts Sync software, which allows a car to connect to a variety of Bluetooth and USB devices, including PDAs, smart phones, music players and cell phones. Sync, which is based on the automotive version of Windows Mobile, can work with voice recognition or steering-wheel-based controls. […]

Within minutes of final FCC approval of the merger between telecom giants AT&T and BellSouth, the wheels of change began turning to create a 22-state communications company that takes a big step in reassembling the old Ma Bell of decades past. The huge telecom monopoly broken up by federal edict years ago was again starting […]

SpectraLink, a manufacturer of enterprise-class wireless phones, has introduced a new series of 802.11 wireless IP phones. According to the company, the new NetLink 8000 Series phones will support 802.11a, b and g. There will initially be two phones, the 8020 and the 8030, the latter of which will feature push-to-talk capability. “SpectraLink first launched […]

The Western States Contracting Alliance has put into place a wireless purchasing contract designed to save money for states and localities across the United States. In a new contract that went into effect Jan. 1, WSCA has developed a contracting vehicle that can be used by states, cities, counties and other municipal entities to get […]

Xirrus has received a preliminary patent on a new RF shaping capability that allows the companys high-capacity Wi-Fi antennas to significantly improve signal coverage while also reducing signal leakage beyond defined borders, company officials told eWEEK. The Sharp Cell technology, which is available now, builds on the Xirrus sectored antenna design that already provides significant […]

Sprint Nextel announced Dec. 12 that it has launched 10 new markets for its high-speed EVDO Rev. A broadband data service. Previously, the Sprint Power Vision service had been available in 10 markets; however, the added markets are the largest in the United States and include New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Washington. […]

Research in Motion, makers of the popular BlackBerry messaging device, has sued Korean electronics giant Samsung over the name of its new BlackJack messaging device. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on Dec. 8, according to Telecoms Korea. The BlackJack device is sold in the United […]

When Qualcomm announced on Dec. 4 that it was acquiring Airgo and the Bluetooth business of RF Micro Devices, the company presented the added products as being highly important. However, not everyone agrees. To some, it was just one way of rounding out the companys patent portfolio. According to Qualcomms vice president of strategic products, […]

WASHINGTON—The Technical Guidelines Development Committee, a committee appointed by the Election Assistance Commission to study security issues involving electronic voting, voted on Dec. 5 to recommend a move to software independence in voting machines used in the United States. Software independence means that election results can be determined independently of whether voting machines have software […]