Rayovac to Change Name to Spectrum Brands
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Battery maker Rayovac Corp. ROV.N  said on Tuesday it will change its name to Spectrum Brands Inc.  to reflect the increasing diversity of its products.
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Cingular is making over AT&amp;T Wireless Stores with new signage, but the changes are more than just window dressing. Thanks to spectrum gained in the $41 billion acquisition, Cingular said it will build a third
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The FCC releases names of 266 companies officially planning to bid in the government's upcoming 700-MHz-spectrum auction. More than half those botched their initial applications, including big names like Verizon, AT&T,  Qualcomm and Alltel. They have until Jan. 4 to qualify for the auction.
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FinancialWire) Stream Communications Network Inc. ( STNYF ) said it has changed its name from Stream Communications Network Inc.
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LG.Philips LCD is changing its name to LG Display, after Philips Electronics reduced its stake in the company.
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(InfoWorld) - The latest version of CA's Spectrum network management software, released Monday, can factor in human errors when gauging the health of a network. Spectrum Network Fault Manager r8.1 can compare settings on network devices, such as routers and switches, to ones set by a network administrator. If something has been configured differently, the software can tell and will notify a manager. In addition, it will take that nonstandard setting into consideration if it sees a problem in how the network is running, said Jerome Simms, a director of product management at CA. TheÂ company has built this "change awareness" capability into the fault analysis software, whereas other network management systems make enterprises use two different tools, Simms said. Combining the two means faster repairs to the network, he said. CA acquired the Spectrum software by buying Concord Communications in 2005. The latest version of Spectrum is an exercise in integration with two other software tools now working more closely with the product as well as the addition of change awareness. Wily Introscope, which CA acquired by buying privately held Wily Technology last year, is performance management software for Web-based applications. CA eHealth for Voice, which the company also got through the Concord acquisition, helps to manage call quality on converged voice and data networks. The company previously integrated the main eHealth performance management application, Simms said. This is the second major release of Spectrum since CA bought the product. Also on Monday, CA changed the way it prices Spectrum. Now there are three Spectrum packages, called Foundation Suite, Standard Suite, and Premium Suite. The Foundation Suite includes basic tools, such as root cause analysis, device management, and alarm notification. The Standard Suite includes the newly integrated features introduced Monday and other capabilities. The Premium Suite includes such components as reporting and service level management that are optional with the other configurations, Simms said. The foundation suite starts at $60,000 for software for one server. The standard suite starts at $250,000, and the premium suite starts at $570,000.
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Second-largest US provider will buy wavelength portions from NextWave Telecom, which is emerging from bankruptcy. By Ken Belson. Verizon Wireless said Friday that it would pay $3 billion for the spectrum licenses
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Microsoft Corp. unveiled on Sunday a  new brand name for its Internet-based television platform, a  service deployed by 10 companies including AT&T Inc.
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Reflecting a new emphasis on reality shows, the Court TV cable network is taking on a new name as of Jan. 1: truTV.
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(InfoWorld) - New broadband providers should be given a better chance of winning pieces of valuable wireless spectrum to be auctioned by early next year, several groups said Friday. The groups, including Google, startup Frontline Wireless, and consumer advocate Public Knowledge, called on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to change the way it auctions spectrum when it sells off 60Mhz of spectrum to be freed up when U.S. television stations move to all-digital broadcasts. The auction of the coveted 700MHz band of spectrum -- which allows broadband-speed wireless signals to travel farther and penetrate buildings better than some other bands -- presents the best hope U.S. consumers have of a third major broadband service to challenge cable and DSLÂ carriers, said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at the New America Foundation, a think tank that hosted Friday's spectrum forum. "If we do nothing -- if we take the [auction] rules we've used for the last 10 years, the same incumbents are going to win," added Harold Feld, senior vice president of the Media Access Project, an open media advocacy group. "There is no competition fairy. There is no magic that's going to happen that if we just deregulate enough, somehow a new competitor is going to emerge." The groups at the spectrum auction forum didn't agree on all the details, but they suggested that the way the FCC has auctioned spectrum in the recent past has favored large incumbent telecom carriers. The FCC is expected to set the rules and conditions for the auction of the 700MHz band of spectrum in the coming weeks. The groups called on the FCC to require that the winners of a chunk of the spectrum allow "open access" -- sell access to competitors on a wholesale basis. The open access requirement would allow a nearly unlimited number of competitors to offer wireless broadband services, said Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge. The groups also want the FCC to conduct anonymous auctions -- where bidders wouldn't know whom they're bidding against. In the past, large wireless carriers have used transparent auctions to drive up prices on chunks of spectrum being bid on by small competitors, said Gregory Rose, an econometrician and game theorist working with open access proponents. In many cases, many larger carriers then dropped their bids after the smaller carriers were eliminated, he said. Some carriers have also engaged in retaliatory bidding against other companies that bid on spectrum they were interested in, he said. The retaliating bidder will bid on spectrum the second company is interested in, "as a signal to say, 'back off on the license I want, or I will drive the price of the license you want through the roof,'" Rose said. VerizonÂ and AT&T, two large broadband and wireless carriers, have declined to comment on the upcoming auctions. But some free-market think tanks and carrier trade groups have been vocal in opposing open access requirements for the spectrum auctions. Scott Cleland, chairman of advocacy group NetCompetition.org, questioned Frontline Wireless' open access goals in a blog post Thursday. Frontline "wants the FCC to auction spectrum to them requiring ... open access -- so effectively no company will be able/or want to pay much for the 700 MHz spectrum -- and so Frontline Wireless could capture this most valuable spectrum available at the market-managed price of pennies on the dollar," he wrote. But Frontline chairwoman Janice Obuchowski, speaking at Friday's forum, noted that the two largest wireless carriers are gobbling up market share, and without new auction rules, that will continue to happen after spectrum auctions. She called for the FCC to auction off the 700Mhz spectrum in small chunks that smaller companies can afford, breaking with Google's call for larger blocks to be auctioned. The goal of the auction should be for "true, robust competition" to emerge, she said.
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Verizon Wireless has agreed to pay US$3 billion to buy the remaining spectrum of a bankrupt wireless firm, allowing Verizon to expand its network capacity in big markets such as New York and Los Angeles.
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(InfoWorld) - A coalition of technology and telecommunications vendors will oppose a plan to give public safety agencies across the U.S. new wireless spectrum, saying it could jeopardize an agreement already in place that would provide spectrum for interoperable emergency communications by early 2009. Members of the High Tech DTV Coalition on Tuesday sent a letter to leaders in the U.S. Congress urging them to reject a proposal that would carve out 30MHz of wireless spectrum for public safety interoperability, instead sticking to legislation passed last year that would give emergency response agencies 24MHz of spectrum. The legislation requires U.S. television stations to move from analog broadcasts to digital television, or DTV. The alternate plan, advanced by Cyren Call Communications, could endanger the compromises in the Digital Television Transition Act, representatives of the High Tech DTV Coalition said at a press conference. Debate over the Cyren Call proposal, echoed in a January proposal from Senator John McCain, could push back by years the date when spectrum is available to emergency responders, said the coalition, whose members include Microsoft, Intel, Dell, and Verizon Wireless. The Cyren Call proposal would take a significant chunk of spectrum slated to be auctioned by the government, with the $10 billion or more in proceeds going for federal deficit reduction and emergency communications interoperability programs, the group said. "We think [the proposal] threatens the progress Congress made last year," said Jeffrey Connaughton, executive director of the coalition. "It's a distraction from what are better solutions for public safety." The High Tech DTV Coalition lobbied hard last year for a bill that frees up spectrum for public safety uses by requiring TV broadcasters to move off the upper 700MHz spectrum band by Feb. 17, 2009. After much debate in Congress, President George Bush signed the bill a year ago. The DTV transition bill represented a fragile compromise, said Jeffrey Eisenach, chairman of Criterion Economics and co-author of a report criticizing the Cyren Call plan. "It would throw, at best, sand in the gears of a process that's been going on for a long time," he said. "I don't think there's a way to unwind this and put it back together simply." The Cyren Call proposal, first advanced last April, calls on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to put 30MHz of spectrum into a "public safety broadband trust" controlled by the agency. The spectrum would be used for commercial purposes after police, fire, and other public safety agencies' needs are met. Representatives of Cyren Call and McCain didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on the High Tech DTV Coalition. But McCain, an Arizona Republican, called for the government to do more to help emergency responders when he announced plans for public safety spectrum legislation in January. "If we do not act now, this valuable spectrum will be auctioned off, and this opportunity will be lost forever," McCain said in a statement. McCain has been calling for more public safety spectrum since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. The 9/11 Commission investigating the attacks and their aftermath recommended additional radio spectrum for first responders because police and firefighters on the scene reported being unable to communicate with each other or with rescue vehicles. The Cyren Call proposal has been endorsed by several public safety organizations, including the International Association of Chiefs of Police, International Association of Fire Chiefs, Major Cities Chiefs Association, and National Sheriffs Association.
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Cingular, soon to be the United States&#39; largest cellular network, will drop the AT&amp;T brand six months after it completes its merger with AT&amp;T Wireless.
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South Korean flat screen maker LG.Philips  LCD Co Ltd  said on Tuesday it was planning to  change its name to LG Display Co Ltd, pending approval at its  annual shareholder meeting on February 29.
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Battery maker Rayovac Corp. ROV.N on  Tuesday said it would buy United Industries Corp., a maker of  lawn, garden and pet products, for about $535.4 million in  order to diversify its product mix.
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By Scott Wuerz, Belleville News-Democrat, Ill.  Feb. 10----   After 10 years as a Computer Renaissance franchisee, Toby Griggs has gone independent and changed the name of his store to Action Computer Co.
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Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) is suspending its spinoff of Rainbow Media Enterprises and plans to pursue strategic alternatives for the division&#39;s