News
RFS Cablewave builds state-of-the-art facility
RFS Cablewave Systems has moved into its new manufacturing plant, headquarters facility and eastern regional service center in Meriden, CT.
The new facility occupies about 10 acres on a 52-acre parcel of land. The structure itself is 1/4-mile long and contains a 310,000-square-foot manufacturing plant for cables, antennas, warehousing and shipping, and 40,000 square feet for the executive and administrative offices, sales, marketing and engineering departments. The facility’s project cost exceeded $20 million.
The grand opening is set for October. The open house for employees and their families was on June 20.
“The building was a massive effort of so many people,” said George Gigas, president of RFS Cablewave Systems. He explained that one of the critical components of the new expansion effort had been the development of a partnership between RFS Cablewave, the state of Connecticut and the city of Meriden. RFS Cablewave chose the Meriden site after extensive economic and demographic analysis of various locations within and outside the state of Connecticut.
“It took nine months to design, and 13 months to relocate,” Gigas said. The main office has a tall, open entryway with floor-to-ceiling windows that allow a view of the surronding forest. The actual manufacturing plant is clean, with clearly marked walkways and blue machines. “We painted all the machines, and we have acquired some new machines,” Gigas said.
“The facility is outstanding as far as energy conservation is concerned,” Gigas said. The building has a sophisticated climate control system that maintains comfortable temperature in all seasons. All roof surfaces are pitched to avoid standing water and ice build-up in the winter. To conserve energy, the lights in individual offices also shut off automatically when there hasn’t been any movement in a certain period of time.
For employees, two lunchrooms hold new vending machines, bulletin boards, and tables and chairs. There are patios for outside dining as well. The facility contains expandable meeting rooms.
“Everything is useable space,” Gigas said. “We can easily expand to twice our present capacity.
“With this new plant, we expect to satisfy any level of future demand in a very timely manner,” he continued. “The employees are crosstrained on different products and processes to enhance manufacturing flexibility.”
RFS Cablewave Systems employs more than 300 people in the facility, an increase of 100 employees from a year ago. The company also predicts the creation of 285 additional jobs over a three-to-five-year period.
“We have people who have been with the company more than 10 years, some 20 or 30 years. We have very little fluctuation. People like it here,” Gigas said. RFS Cablewave Systems, founded in 1973, is the North American partner of the globally operating RFS group with manufacturing locations in Australia, Brazil, France, Germany and the United States. The six flags flying in front of the new facility represent these countries, and the state of Connecticut.
The company serves its customers in North America, Latin America and the Caribbean from the new facility as well as two other regional sales and customer service centers in Illinois and California, and a network of authorized stocking distributors.
The address for the main office is: 200 Pondview Drive, Meriden, CT 06450.
FCC NOTES
*New rules promote commercial use of 47GHz military band
The FCC recently adopted a Memorandum Opinion and Order and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking representing the next step in the commercial utilization of the 47.2GHz-48.2GHz frequency band. This band was initially developed for military use and now holds the potential for commercial use. The Commission concluded that it should take a flexible approach to regulating the “frontier” band, allowing licensees to offer any service consistent with the United States Table of Allocations and the Commission’s rules. The Commission is finding that the dominant use probably will be fixed and point-to-multipoint satellite services.
*WTB announces new management team
The Auctions and Industry Analysis Division of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB) has a new management team. Amy Zoslov has been named chief of the division. She has served in the Mass Media Bureau, the Cable Services Bureau, the office of Commissioner Duggan and the WTB. Zoslov was most recently deputy chief of the division. Mark Bollinger has been named deputy chief (legal) and will oversee the legal and finance branches of the division. He was previously the division legal advisor. Louis Sigalos has been named deputy chief (operations) and will oversee the auction operations and expenditures management branches of the division. He previously was the chief of the auction operations branch.
*AMTA requests rulemaking
The American Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) has requested that the FCC adopt rules changing licensees’ status from primary to secondary if those licensees have not started using “spectrally-efficient” equipment by a certain date. AMTA proposes that the conversion date be determined by the licensees’ market. The licensees in markets 1-50 would have until Dec. 31, 2002 to change their equipment; markets 51-100 would have until Dec. 31, 2008, and the remaining markets would have to convert by Dec. 31, 2020. The FCC has not acted or commented on the proposal, nor has it begun a rulemaking proceeding, which would be required for AMTA’s request to be adopted.
GN Netcom completes acquisition of ACS Wireless
GN Netcom, based in Copenhagen, Denmark, has completed the previously reported acquisition of ACS Wireless, a headset manufacturer. ACS Wireless stockholders approved the terms of the agreement. A new company, GN Netcom, Inc., has been formed by the merger of GN Netcom’s North American organization, GN Netcom/Unex and ACS Wireless.
P. Michael Fairweather will be president of GN Netcom, a position he held previously with GN Netcom/Unex. The company plans to continue operations in both Nashua, NH, and Scotts Valley, CA.
The new company will continue to design, manufacture and market telephone and computer headsets under the brand names GN Netcom UNEX and ACS. Products are sold to the mobile, call center, commercial and consumer markets through the organization’s worldwide distribution.
“Our customers, distributors and employees will all benefit from this merger,” Fairweather said. “We have spent the last few months planning a smooth transition, and are ready to move ahead quickly.”
Tellabs, Coherent
to complete mergerThe antitrust division of the U.S. Department of Justice has reviewed the merger of Tellabs and Coherent Communications Systems and will not oppose the merger. The two companies anticipate that the merger will be completed in September.
The company will design, manufacture and market echo cancellation and con-ferencing products for international telecommunications companies, cellular and PCS providers, and network operators.
Duke Energy markets towers, property holdings
Duke Energy announced that it has created a subsidiary, Duke Communication Services, to market more than 34,000 existing tower and property holdings in 33 states to help meet the growing need for antenna sites.
Since 1996, Duke has been working with wireless providers and local city and county planners in North Carolina and South Carolina to install antennas on top of electric transmission towers. This has enabled wireless providers to market their services faster, less expensively and with less difficulty than if they had to construct their own free-standing towers and antenna structures. The existing tower sites have been received by planners and local communities as alternatives to free-standing towers with single attachments.
Jim Miller, general manager of Duke Communication Services, said: “The creation of Duke Communication Services will take this effort a step further by leveraging Duke’s existing communications tower network across the eastern United States to offer the wireless industry thousands of desirable co-location tower sites. These additional sites will help the wireless industry develop their systems, so they can offer customers the reliability they demand.”
Duke Communication Services is an unregulated division of Duke Energy Transmission and offers the following services to the wireless industry: o co-location sites on more than 320 existing communications towers ranging in height from 50 feet to 600 feet along Duke Energy’s 31-state natural gas transmission system and Duke Power’s 20,000 square-mile service territory in North and South Carolina.
o complete turn-key services to design, construct, install, own and manage co-location antenna sites throughout the eastern United States.
o thousands of potential co-location antenna sites within or near the rights of way on Duke Ener-gy’s 12,700-mile electric transmission system and 22,000-mile natural gas transmission system.
o more than 30,000 antenna sites on existing electric transmission towers, ranging from 75 to 200 feet, in North and South Carolina.
o a user-friendly computer application to identify existing antenna sites available on the World Wide Web at www.dukecomsvcs.com.
The new subsidiary will work closely with Duke Engineering & Services, another Duke subsidiary, in the areas of land acquisition, design engineering, project management and construction. It also will work closely with Duke Power and Duke Energy’s natural gas pipeline telecommunications groups.
Dictaphone, Stratford, CT, has formed a commercial markets sales division within its Communications Recording Systems (CRS) group to serve call center customers.
“The call center business is growing by more than 20% per year, and managers are being overwhelmed by new technologies,” said Ron Elwell, senior vice president and general manager of Dictaphone’s CRS group. “Voice recording is no exception. Our team of specialists thoroughly understands the needs of call centers, so they’re better equipped to help customers sort through the technology choices.”
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) approved another standard in Project 25 suite of standards, according to Project 25 Steering Committee Co-chair Art McDole, who also noted that the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) is publishing “Project 25 Vocoder Description” ANSI/TIA/EIA-102-BABA-1998. John DiSalvo, chairman of the Project 25 User Needs Sub-committee, said the formal adoption of the standard would ensure its industry-wide acceptance.
Dataradio, Atlanta, has installed IBM’s middleware network technology on the existing Dataradio Wireless Network at Arizona Public Service (APS), Phoenix. “Reliability and stability were our main concerns in implementing a new system,” said senior communications engineer Claes Laestander. “We wanted to use our existing Dataradio network, and nothing else would fit. CAD was not considered a good solution.”
Motorola’s Land Mobile Products Sector (LMPS), Schaumburg, IL, will manage wireless communications equipment facilities on Houston-based Waste Management North America’s sites across the country. Under the agreement, Motorola’s Antenna Site Division will manage future facilities at Waste Management’s transfer stations, buildings and recycling facilities. “Motorola can help property owners, such as Waste Management, maximize their potential revenue from these communications facilities,” said Joni Glockner, director of operations for the antenna site division.
Dataradio, Atlanta, will supply Sedgwick County, KS, with a countywide mobile computing system. The plans include a multi-site 800MHz data network from Dataradio to support the Sheriff’s Office’s mobile computing needs. The network will enable other public safety entities within the county to utilize mobile computing. The mobile computing system will consist of four base sites for countywide coverage, as well as the networking of 200 Sheriff vehicles through a Dataradio Multi Site Controller.
Crown Communications, Pittsburgh, PA, has acquired all of the common stock in a Dallas-based partnership called Abner, including Abner’s principle assets, which are five communication towers that serve the Dallas metropolitan area. Abner was founded about six years ago to take ownership of towers that its partners had owned individually as part of other communications businesses in which they were involved, including SMR, paging and community regulators.
TriTech Software Systems, San Diego, CA, has installed its VisiCAD for Fire/EMS at the San Diego Fire Department. The Windows NT-based computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system incorporates vehicle routing, high-resolution integrated mapping, comprehensive graphical reports, and a fire and emergency medical triage system. “VisiCAD for Fire/EMS’ advanced feature set enables fire departments to reduce response times, streamline resource deployment and enhance dispatcher productivity,” said Christopher D. Maloney, president of TriTech.
Nextel Communications, McLean, VA, has purchased a centralized test and monitor- ing system from TTC, Germantown, MD. The $3.1 million sale included TTC’s Centest 650 remote test units, TTC’s NetAnalyst client/server-based test management software, Clear Communication’s EarlyWarning intelligent surveillance software and TTC’s professional services support. “Our agreement with Nextel further establishes the need for TTC’s proactive, systems-based approach to network monitoring and testing,” said GaryMayerick, president, systems and software, TTC. “TTC’s centralized test system w ill enhance Nextel’s ability to assure network availability and will play a critical role in verifying and maintaining Nextel’s network performance for its nationwide customers.”
Lenbrook Wireless Communications, Pickering, Ontario, has appointed Pat Connelly Repair (PCR), Indianapolis, as the service center for warranty repairs of Powerwave Technologies’ (formerly Milcom International) land mobile amplifiers sold by Lenbrook. PCR will also handle all non-warranty repairs of Powerwave land mobile amplifiers.
