Search

When a firm acquires rival firms in one market, and moves their capacity to another market, should antitrust authorities be concerned? We address this question by studying a multi-stage game. A dominant firm has the opportunity to acquire fringe firms that operate in the same market. Then, the dominant firm has the opportunity to move capacity from that market to a second market. The model is motivated by a series of acquisitions in the Specialized Mobile Radio industry aimed at establishing a new cellular carrier. We derive necessary and sufficient conditions for the dominant firm to acquire too little capacity relative to the social optimum. The results shed light on the Consent Decree negotiated in US v. Motorola Inc. and Nextel Communications Inc., 1994.

For many years, the walkie-talkie has been synonymous with the construction industry. During jobsite project execution, there are three variables which can either hinder or facilitate successful results, namely, quality, quantity, and timing of information. Wireless data communications technology is capable of delivering just-in-time information within the `last mile' between the trailer and a desired location on the jobsite. This paper reports on a study which surveyed information needs at the jobsite, emerging wireless data communications technology, and assessed the extent to which wireless data technology can fulfill the information needs of the jobsite [J.M. de la Garza, I. Howitt, Wireless communication and computing at the jobsite, Research Report 136-11, Construction Industry Institute, Austin, TX, 1997]. We have organized jobsite information needs into the following ten categories: (a) requests for information, (b) materials management, (c) equipment management, (d) cost management, (e) schedule and means and methods, (f) jobsite record keeping, (g) submittals, (h) safety, (i) QC/QA, and (k) future trends. Each category was analyzed in terms of its appropriateness to take advantage of wireless technology. The four formats considered to transmit information wirelessly were: (a) live voice, (b) live video, (c) batched data, and (d) live data. Current wireless communication technology has been classified into the following five classes: (a) circuit-switched wireless data systems, (b) packet-switched wireless data systems—this class was further subdivided into specialized mobile radio systems and cellular digital packet data systems, (c) wireless local area networks, (d) paging systems, and (e) satellite-based data communications. A primer for wireless communications covering both fundamental and advanced communications concepts has also been included to enable a better understanding of the issues involved in making trade-offs while configuring a wireless jobsite communication system. The example presented in this paper shows how a contractor can define a subset of information needs by choosing from those already articulated herein and determine if a given wireless technology should even be considered as a viable way of meeting the information needs that such company has.

New telecommunication applications like fiber-in-the-loop, fiber-to-the-home, and wireless systems (cellular, personal communication services, and specialized mobile radio), have created new challenges for the lead acid batteries that supply the emergency power for these systems. The challenges are: volumetric energy efficiency, thermal management, high performance, long life, and reliability in a remote, outside plant location. This paper addresses the product design and manufacturing processes behind a 10 year valve regulated lead acid battery that meet the challenges imposed by the outside plant environment. In this environment, batteries are often installed in tight cubicles, allowing very little space for maintenance and limited air flow for cooling. The enclosures for these systems are often installed above ground without temperature controls. This uncontrolled environment exposes batteries to low temperatures, which reduce available capacity, and high temperatures, which reduce life. The remote nature of these systems combined with the sheer quantity of systems limits the availability of resources to perform scheduled maintenance routines. Finally, the limitation of available space for batteries combined with these other factors drives system designers to consider 10 year monobloc designs as an alternative to 20 year designs as the power solution in these harsh applications. While all of these new application sensitive demands are being placed on small valve regulated lead acid batteries, the reliability of the telecommunications network cannot be compromised. >

In recent years, trunked land mobile radio system technology has grown from commercial Specialized Mobile Radio (SMR) applications into very sophisticated private system applications. Many of these private trunked radio systems provide communications over very large geographic areas such as entire states. Some wide area communications systems, as designed by Motorola, allow nearly seamless communications between sites within the total geographic area and are marketed by Motorola under the trademark SmartZone. Subscribers in a SmartZone multi-site trunked communication system have the ability to accomplish site hand offs without needing the fixed end equipment to notify them when to switch to another site. The subscriber units accomplish this by utilizing Received Signal Strength Indications (RSSI) in the hardware and with software algorithms to smooth out the raw RSSI data collected by the radio from the control channel. Preferences can be placed on specific sites which will cause the subscriber units to switch towards/away from specific sites. This process of having the subscriber units determine when it will be beneficial to switch to another site eliminates the additional signaling on the control channel which would be needed to keep the subscriber units at the optimal site if the site switching decision was performed at the fixed end. >