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To: DownSouth who wrote (38871)	8/27/1999 6:59:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 152472

Inside The Belly> From the August 30, 1999, issue of Wireless Week Inside The Belly Of The Network Beast By Brad Smith When Sprint PCS launches its Wireless Web service in a few weeks, 3Com Corp. will be playing a key role behind the scenes. Even though its importance may not be understood outside the industry, it's a function that 3Com intends to expand. The company is supplying a hardware/software gateway combination to Sprint PCS that allows the code division multiple access carrier's circuit-switched network to function with Internet protocol networks such as the Internet and corporate intranets. The company calls the gateway its CDMA InterWorking Function, which is combined with QuickNetConnect software. All that technical stuff may seem esoteric to non-techies, but its importance will be evident when Sprint PCS commercially launches its nationwide Wireless Web service around Sept. 20. Among other things, a Sprint PCS customer will be able to use his wireless phone as a modem to send and receive documents at a data rate of 14.4 kilobits per second. The CDMA IWF is important in another way. It shows 3Com's new focus on wireless communications, a path the company started down in earnest last spring when it created a wireless division to compete in networking areas against Lucent Technologies Inc., Nortel Networks and others. 3Com's new division is under its Personal Connectivity Business Unit, an umbrella for emerging markets, which also includes home networking and high-speed Internet access. The 3Com gateway acts as a hand-shaking link between a CDMA network and a wireline network, while the QuickNetConnect feature eliminates the need for a network modem so that mobile users can connect directly to the Internet or an intranet, or can make a dial-up connection through the public switched telephone network. 3Com owns the market for this kind of IP gateway, with 95 percent penetration worldwide and 100 percent in the United States. "It converges the wireless and the Internet worlds," said Ben Cardwell, wireless product director for 3Com. He said it enables voice and data use on one device, such as a smart phone, but also provides a full spectrum of data services. Neither Sprint PCS nor 3Com is saying how much the IWF contract is worth, but the basic price of each gateway is $1,600 per access port. At least one server is installed at each central switch in the carrier's network, which has 4 million subscribers in 4,000 cities. Installation of the IWF gateway and QuickNetConnect was completed in Sprint PCS' network by the end of June. The gateway also is in use by other CDMA carriers in the United States and globally, presumably including Bell Atlantic Mobile Inc. and Canada's Bell Mobility Ltd. Keith Paglusch, operations senior vice president for Sprint PCS, said the next data step for the carrier will be the 1XRTT standard. A so-called 2.5G protocol, it will enable data rates up to about 144 kbps. Paglusch said Sprint PCS would start testing 1XRTT next year, with commercial deployment in 2001. Besides Internet and intranet connectivity, the Sprint PCS Wireless Web offering includes two new handsets with a microbrowser from Phone.com Inc. and access to new mobile services from Yahoo! Inc. Subscribers may not be aware of it at all, but 3Com's CDMA IWF technology allows fast data setup times and eliminates the cost of wireless modems. Despite its transparency, Paglusch calls 3Com's technology a "magic" tonic in the innards of the carrier's network. Taking the analogy a bit further, it speeds up the digestive process.

To: DownSouth who wrote (38871)	8/27/1999 7:01:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 152472

NextWave On Hold?> From the August 30, 1999, issue of Wireless Week Judge Questions Nextel-FCC Pact By Caron Carlson WASHINGTON--Wait just a minute there. A bankruptcy court judge has objected to a private pact made by FCC general counsel Christopher Wright and Nextel Communications Inc. on C-Block spectrum. In the pact Wright assured Nextel he would recommend that the commission approve the transfer of bankrupt NextWave Telecom Inc.'s licenses to Nextel and grant the necessary ownership waivers. These assurances have left much of the industry--and many in the legal community--scratching their heads about the FCC's processes. Predictably, rivals of Nextel Communications Inc.--including Vodafone AirTouch plc and Radio Communications Systems Inc.--signaled their concern as well, but those companies were focused on obtaining an opportunity to secure NextWave's licenses in a competitive bidding process. The most forthright condemnation of the deal came from U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Adlai Hardin, who last week rejected the latest FCC attempt to derail NextWave's reorganization confirmation hearing, scheduled for Sept. 8. In denying the commission's request for a stay of the confirmation, Hardin said the FCC's assertion that the integrity of auctions would be harmed by the confirmation "appears to be little more than a sham in the face of the Nextel pact." "[T]he FCC's arguments with respect to the integrity of the auction process are utterly, totally destroyed and undermined by the Nextel pact, which pledges the FCC in effect to do all in its power to see that the NextWave licenses including the C-Block and F-Block licenses are conveyed to Nextel without any auction whatever," Hardin said. Meanwhile, AirTouch wrote to Wright asking him to identify who at the FCC is receiving rival bids for the NextWave licenses, when the bids are due and how the commission will judge among competing proposals. "[W]e think it is critically important that the FCC announce appropriate procedures so that interested parties know how to proceed with regard to the NextWave licenses (if they are not maintained by the current licensee)," Brian Kidney, vice president for external affairs, said in an Aug. 26 letter. Radio Communications has a different interest in Nextel's agreement with the FCC. The specialized mobile radio provider told the Department of Justice Aug. 20 that Nextel's public statements about the NextWave spectrum "are at odds" with its representations about spectrum held by bankrupt Geotek Communications Inc. Nextel needs the government to modify a 1995 consent decree before it can acquire Geotek's licenses. In the NextWave matter, Nextel stated that "its existing spectrum position is ample to meet the needs of its current business plan." If that statement is true, Radio Communications argued, it undercuts Nextel's implication that it needs Geotek's spectrum to remain competitive or that it has used up its existing capacity. Also, its pursuit of NextWave's licenses shows that Nextel has access to spectrum other than that allocated for dispatch service, Radio Communications said. It's long been clear that the FCC will go to great lengths to maximize the revenue generated from NextWave's licenses, but uncertainty abounds regarding the range of methods the commission is pursuing behind closed doors. At least one other carrier said that FCC Chairman Bill Kennard's office has spoken to other carriers regarding terms similar to those NextWave proposed. "The difference is that this went public, and the timing was peculiar," the unidentified carrier said.