Article Abstract:
Germany's telecommunications agency conducted the largest auction of wireless communications licenses, with companies and consortiums bidding close to $50 billion to secure the rights to 12 permits. Companies in Great Britain, Spain, France, Finland, Netherlands, Japan and Hong Kong all had stakes in the bidding wars, backing four of the license winners MobilCom AG, Viag Interkom, Group 3G and E-Plus Hutchison. The remaining two winners, German communications giant Deutsche Telekom AG and Britain's Vodafone AirTouch, had bid the licenses up by $15 billion in the hopes of locking in positions as Europe's primary providers of third-generation mobile service providers. Investors and stockholders have expressed concern for the billions of dollars spent not only for European licenses, but sums expected to be spent on acquiring competitors and building the infrastructure needed to carry cellular services.
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Article Abstract:
Government and industry researchers believe it is possible to use higher frequencies of the radio spectrum, which had been considered unusable. If this is true, it portends revolutionary changes in communications technologies. Until now, commercial services have operated below 5 GHz (five billion cycles per second), but the entire range between 5 and 90 GHz is being reconsidered. Advances in science and technology apparently might render much of that region available. In fact, some characteristics of waveforms at super-high frequencies might be especially useful for certain applications, such as personal communication networks. Motorola is said to be working with Centel Corp's Cellular Inc, developing a high-frequency wireless network that would connect with fiber-optic stations. Such a radio network could connect voice, video and data services with individual homes.
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Article Abstract:
Embedded fiber optic sensors can provide an accurate means of determining the condition of structure such as bridges, pipelines and airplanes. Optical sensors offer an advantage over electronic sensors in that they are far more sensitive and are not subject to electromagnetic interference. The technology is still emerging and prototypes for aircraft monitoring will not be available until 1995 to 2000. Utility and gas companies are only beginning to show interest in optical sensors, and computers and software have yet to be developed that could receive and convert optical signals into meaningful information.
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