Telephone Equipment

Richard Wilson Carey, a retired telephone equipment manager, died Monday in Thousand Oaks. He was 87. Carey was born March 3, 1913, in Hinckley, Utah. He went to school there and in Lone Pine, Calif., where he later graduated high school in a class with four students. Carey married Elaine Smith on Oct. 23, 1937, in Salt Lake City, and they had two sons. He worked for Western Electric, then AT & T before retiring after 35 years of service as a central equipment manager.

A U.S. appeals court panel sharply challenged the Bush administration Friday over new rules making it easier for police and the FBI to wiretap Internet phone calls. A judge said the government's courtroom arguments were "gobbledygook." The skepticism expressed so openly toward the administration's case encouraged civil liberties and education groups that argued that the U.S. was improperly applying telephone-era rules to a new generation of Internet services. "Your argument makes no sense," U.S.

In an unprecedented move, the United States has refused to begin an important round of trade talks with Japan, accusing the Japanese of being unwilling to discuss seriously the purchase of American telecommunications products. Commerce Under Secretary Lionel Olmer had been scheduled to begin negotiations in Tokyo on Monday on how American firms could do business in Japan after the Japanese government turns over the giant Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Co. to private ownership. U.S.

For AT&T Corp., the last mile is proving to be the longest. Faced with rising costs, plummeting profit and an uncertain regulatory environment, the company founded by Alexander Graham Bell soon will decide whether to abandon its nationwide foray into local phone service, according to analysts and company insiders. The stumbling block for AT&T has been the so-called last mile of copper wire that connects home telephones to the main network.

Clinton to Impose Trade Sanctions on EC: The Clinton Administration said it will impose trade sanctions against the 12-nation European Community in a dispute involving government contracts for telephone equipment. The EC condemned the U.S. action and threatened to move quickly, perhaps in the next two weeks, to retaliate against U.S. companies.

The Senate Commerce Committee approved a bill Tuesday that would lift restrictions preventing the seven regional Bell telephone companies from manufacturing their own equipment. The bill, introduced by committee Chairman Ernest F. Hollings, (D-S.C.) and advanced to the Senate floor on an 18-1 vote, would allow Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, Bellsouth, NYNEX, Southwestern Bell, Pacific Telesis and US West to make their own equipment as long as the manufacturing was done in the United States.

PairGain Technologies Inc. said it will cut an undetermined number of jobs from its 700-member work force and contract out some manufacturing to Monterrey, Mexico, by July to reduce costs. The telephone equipment maker said it hasn't determined how many workers it will fire at its headquarters in Tustin. The company has warned twice in the last year that earnings would miss forecasts as it lost business and cut prices to compete with rivals.

The city's zoning administrator has approved a request to install cellular telephone equipment inside an office building in the Marketplace shopping center near UC Irvine, despite protests from the building's tenants. AirTouch Cellular plans to install equipment in a second-story office suite to relay cellular telephone calls.

The Bush administration urged the nation's top phone regulator Wednesday to keep a lid on wholesale price increases for network lines and gear for at least a year and then gradually phase in any rate hikes. The White House called on Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael K. Powell to use "all methods at your disposal to protect consumers and ensure appropriate competitive access to local networks," according to a letter from Michael D.

The Baby Bell companies that control the nation's local telephone networks apparently like to keep their friends close -- and their enemies closer. Reversing their long-held disdain for the competitors that lease Bell networks and equipment to provide local phone service, some of the Bells now want to bind rivals to those facilities and prevent them from installing their own gear. The apparent about-face is infuriating regulators, people familiar with the situation said Thursday.

State regulators on Monday proposed 21% to 25% hikes in the rates rivals pay to lease telephone lines and equipment from SBC Communications Inc., a move consumer watchdogs said would kill competition and lead to higher customer bills. The California Public Utilities Commission, under a draft by an administrative law judge, would raise the wholesale price to $16.90 for the package of lines and gear that SBC's competitors need to provide full phone service. The current price averages $13.

AT&T Corp. will propose today that it use its own equipment to provide local telephone service across the country, part of a bid to break a deadlock over access to residential lines owned by the regional Baby Bells. The nation's largest seller of long-distance service has been locked in a bitter dispute with Bell companies such as SBC Communications Inc. over the rates the Bells charge competitors to use their networks.

SBC Communications Inc., majority owner of Cingular Wireless, may sell telephone lines valued at about $1.5 billion to help fund Cingular's purchase of AT&T Wireless Services Inc., people familiar with the matter said. Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. were hired to seek bidders for about 500,000 lines, the people said. A sale, which would cover SBC customers mainly in rural Texas and Michigan, isn't imminent, they said. SBC and BellSouth Corp.

Verizon Communications Inc., SBC Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp., the three largest U.S. local-telephone carriers, said they're seeking proposals from equipment makers to replace older copper phone wires with high-speed fiber-optic lines for selling high-speed services. New York-based Verizon, the largest local-phone company, BellSouth and SBC also agreed to common technical standards to make it easier for phone-equipment makers to install the optical lines to homes and businesses.

In its third acquisition in a week, No. 1 telephone equipment maker Lucent Technologies Inc. said it has agreed to buy Excel Switching Corp., a maker of programmable switches, for $1.7 billion in stock. Lucent said it will pay 0.5580 share of its stock for each share of Excel, valuing the Hyannis, Mass.-based company at $37 per share--a 34% premium to its closing stock price Tuesday. On Wednesday, Lucent fell $2.31 to close at $64.19 on the New York Stock Exchange. Excel soared $7.06 to $34.

Franklin Telecom, a provider of telecommunications and Internet telephone equipment based in Westlake Village, says it has begun shipment on a $250,000 order for Tempest Data Voice Gateway units to J.M. Best Communications, a provider of Internet telephone services via long-distance calling cards. The order includes six beta units, which are already operational. Over the next 12 months, the company plans to purchase an additional 45 units. J.M.

As an Army private in World War II, Clifford Long landed in the initial waves of four key Pacific Island invasions, but he wasn't there to shoot at the enemy. Instead, Long and fellow radiomen in the Signal Corps lugged telephone lines, switchboards, batteries and other heavy, bulky gear to shore. Then they rolled out trunk lines to command posts and local lines to the troops so officers could relay tactical information as quickly as soldiers advanced under the leadership of Douglas MacArthur.

Qualcomm Inc. said it would ship more mobile telephone chips than the company previously forecast during this quarter and next as consumers snap up handsets with color screens and digital cameras. At least 28 million chips will be shipped in its fiscal first quarter ending Dec. 29, compared with a previous estimate of 25 million to 27 million, the San Diego-based company said. Qualcomm will ship 24 million to 27 million chips in the next three months, more than a forecast of at least 20 million.