Signal Up

Interview with the Grandfather of the Cell Phone Marty Cooper

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 24 May 2010 16:51:00 +0000

The inventor of the cell phone Marty Cooper was recently interviewed in this article of CBS News in which he shared some insights on what he thinks of modern day cellphones. Cooper mentioned in the interview that "Technology has to be invisible. Transparent. Just simple. A modern cell phone in general has an instruction book that's bigger and heavier than the cell phone. That's not right."

He thinks that consumers should dictate exactly what they want from a product and not the engineer because in the end the consumer is king. It'll be interesting to see what will come of wireless communication in the future.

Alcatel-Lucent and Aruba Networks Partner to Develop Mobility Solutions for China

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 20 May 2010 16:48:00 +0000

According to this news release on MarketWatch Aruba Networks Inc. will be partnering with Alcatel-Lucent to deliver secure mobility solutions to enterprises, vertical markets, service providers and government agencies throughout China. China has been steadily increasing their expansion of more cost-effective and reliable networks for their growing workforce, and their is no doubt that this collaboration will aid in that.

Dominic Orr, President and CEO of Aruba, mentions "This collaboration brings together the industry's most nimble players - with the best mobility products, service offerings, and support programs - to meet the needs of China's fast evolving wireless LAN market." It looks China is stepping ahead of the game. Makes me wonder what country will quickly follow suit next...

FedEx Releases "Smart" Wireless Devices to Automatically Track Packages

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 18 May 2010 19:22:00 +0000

This article in CNNMoney.com highlights that FedEx will be releasing a sensor-enabled device that will allow for wirelessly fed real-time data about a package's wherebouts and conditions over the internet.

This is big news! Now this will allow for more accurate in-depth knowledge of a package's whereabouts and will not require for FedEx personnel to manually input or scan barcodes to indicate the package's location. Mark Hamm, vice president of innovation at FedEx, says "There's going to be a high level of interaction. You are going to have large player and small players plugging into the platform. That's going to be revolutionary."

What are your thoughts on the revolutionary technology?

New Mobile UC Application is Launched for in-Building Wireless

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 17 May 2010 14:22:00 +0000

According to this article in TMC.net, iBwave has released a mobile app that makes it easy for users to capture building information and basic network information essential for indoor radio planning.

It turns a smartphone into a device that is able to capture information from the building and is able to conduct on-site surveys. What are other examples of similar devices that have been launched within the past couple of months? Interested in hearing your thoughts.

How to get ultimate protection for your PC without spending a penny

noreply@blogger.com (suyesh) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:09:00 +0000

I’ve been testing out whole lot of antivirus software out there. i had subscription for kaspersky internet security 2010 which i’ve been using since forever because awhile ago when kaspersky was still in version 8 i really loved it and i thought i dont need anything else. but again as my hobby, from time to time i tested out other protection suites that came out or had major updates.

1 ESET smart security ($69.99)

2 Kaspersky internet security ($79.99)

3 Avira premium security suites ($53.95)

If u look at it $80/year on average is not a whole lot of money to spend to get ultimate peace of mind while browsing the Internet. Over the past i have bought all three and tested it out and even have bought others like bitdefender, norton, Mcafee etc etc which i dont even want to talk about. then recently i’ve been testing out free antiviruses and other addons trying to find out the best way to protect my PC that hands down beats all those expensive softwares. I tried numerous of them for past few months. now i think i finally came to a conclusion. Yes !!! i finally found a way to create your own security suite that will give you ultimate protection and you dont have to drop a penny. Every software i am about to recommend can be found for free on the Internet.

So How do i get ultimate protection for free ?

You will need Three different software, i will get into it on detail later on but here are the list of softwares:

1 Avast Antivirus

2 Comodo personal Firewall

3 Spyware terminator

setting it up for the first time will be little hard especially with comodo but after that everything will be a breeze, because everything is light on system and doesn’t burden your process. let me go through it on detail one by one

1 Avast antivirus

Avast is unbelievably amazing anti virus software for being free. It has real time scanning. Boot time scanning is a cool feature. when u schedule a boot time scan it restarts the computer and runs only avast on the system and the scans is detailed and fast because nothing else will be running on the background at the moment. I have never had a false positives and it have detected almost every threat on real time. I have had numerous trojans removed by avast that Kaspersky hasn’t been able to detect.

if you would like more info on Avast or reviews on what people are saying head over here to cnet.com.
2 Comodo personal Firewall
Well as we all know it is an inconvenient truth that windows firewall sucks (excuse me for using that word but i had none other on my mind). and No antivirus will be complete without a strong Firewall. Kaspersky had a real good firewall and others like ZoneAlarm are not that bad for being free But Comodo’s speed and performance blows everything to dust. Comodo Internet Security, Comodo’s award-winning free security suite, offers prevention-based, Default Deny Protection (DDP) technology to prevent malware in your PC. Conventional security suites ignore prevention, focusing only on the eventual detection of viruses. Basically, this means that it will allow all applications to access your PC resources by default as long as the application is not on your security software’s blacklist of already known malware. Comodo Internet Security includes an extensive white-list of safe executables called the ‘Comodo Safe-List Database’. This database checks the integrity of every file and application asking for access to your PC. Comodo Internet Security will alert you of potentially damaging applications before they are installed. This is a ground-breaking method of protecting your PC. Traditionally firewalls only detect harmful applications from a blacklist of known malware – often-missing new forms of malware that are being created and launched daily. Comodo Internet Security is continually updated and currently almost 3,000,000 applications are in Comodo Safe list, representing virtually one of the largest safe lists within the security industry. Put simply, the good stuff gets in, and the bad stuff gets nowhere near your PC’s insides. Our latest version includes both DNS protection, to make sure the URLs you visit are safe, and the option oh installing the HopSurf toolbar, a new and innovative way to surf the Web. Comodo Internet Security is now available in 15 different languages, and comes included with a free 30 day trial of LivePCSupport. Best of all, it’s free for life.
it was real easy to install and everything.After the first reboot it askes you bunch of question and you will have to decide if you want to allow network access or not. not a big deal,if you know what the softwares are. if you dont know then just block it.simple.
overall best firewall in the market. it asks you almost everything, everytime something is trying to access the network or your computer. Its up to you to allow or block it. but its so easy “Even a Caveman can do it”.
3 Spyware Terminator
Spyware Terminator includes Real-Time Protection, HIPS, and antivirus. Effectively remove spyware, adware, trojans, keyloggers, home page hijackers, and malware threats even dangerous threats like Look2Me, BetterInternet, VX2, and CWS. Spyware Terminator is easy-to-use, requires minimal PC resources, and performs ultra fast scans. Protect your computer with powerful real-time protection shield, advanced system scanning and safe quarantine for found spyware. Scan your computer manually or schedule full system sweeps. Perform in-depth scans of your computer’s hard drives, memory, process, registry and cookies to seek out and remove all known spyware threats. Includes optional Web Security Guard which displays website reviews and threat level to help identify potentially dangerous Web sites.
Via Cnet
This spyware scanner and removal tool does the job, but enabling some functions may cause slight slowdowns and it’s not ready for Vista.
Spyware Terminator’s crisp, clean interface uses simple buttons and tabs to operate and set options. The latest spyware signatures are automatically downloaded, and the real-time protection keeps baby-sitting to a minimum. Real-time protection monitors key spyware types and Windows objects, though slight system slowdowns depend on your machine. Those features and the simple scheduler will make this app appealing to novices.
Advanced users will appreciate Spyware Terminator’s flexibility. Setting the sensitivity of various scans is as easy as moving a slider. Experienced users will want to enable the built-in antivirus tool, which extends the power of real-time analysis by comparing program code against a database of known viruses, Trojans, and worms.
From set-it-and-forget-it users to those delving into virus code, all will find Spyware Terminator flexible, simple, and effective, key measures of a good antispyware tool.
So there you have it. its on you if you want to trust me or not. but regardless if it a try nextime your anti-virus software expires or if you are using Norton,Mcafee,Bitdefender etc etc i recommend toss them out of your PC haha.
Install these three softwares on your PC and you are protected very well from the latest threats. Give it a shot, if you come across any kind of problems while installing or anytime comment below or just hop into the FREE live support if i am online. Have Fun!!

An assistant for Blackberry users

noreply@blogger.com (suyesh) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 09:03:00 +0000

Today when i was browsing my game informer magazine i came across this cool watch inPulse byAllerta, i fell so much in love with it i was so exited all nite to get back home and blog about it.Allerta is a new company formed just in 2008 who promises to make accessories to mobile users.inPulse is going to be their first product. here is a quick description about inPulse

inPulse is a watch which connects wirelessly to your phone via BlueTooth, alerting you instantly to incoming emails, SMS and calls. how cool is that?? that means u dont have to dig on your pockets to take out your phone and see the alerts, all you gotta do is just look at your watch.Using your inPulse, a glance down at your wrist is all it takes to discreetly check recently received email and SMS messages. New messages are pushed directly to your inPulse. Instead of pulling out your phone to figure out who keeps texting you, just keep an eye on your inPulse.Thats totally awesome but here is the downside, inPulse is only compatible with BlackBerry Smartphones. So people using Android, Iphone, Palm etc may have to wait because i am pretty damn sure they will make it compatible with other smartphones too, i mean WHY NOT??

Head over here to read more

What is MOBS About? The Year of the Onslaught

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 21:10:00 +0000

Internally and externally, people have been asking me about MOBS and what it means.

MOBS stands for Mobile Omnipresent Business Solutions, and it's a conference I am putting together for mid-July on the West Coast.

The event’s focus will be still be on Inbuilding but will also encompass the evolving use of mobile throughout retail enterprises, health care, hospitality, public safety, university campuses, and more. It will bring together integrators, international and domestic carriers, professionals in WiMax, LTE, HSPA+, applications developers for Android, iPhone and more. It will also bring together entrepreneurs starting their own companies or managing existing companies that focus primarily on commerce for the mobile devices.

This is an evolving definition, since 2010 is the Year of the Onslaught. This is a year where we will see so many new devices and where behavior of the users of these devices will radically shape the way enterprises are run. If you are interested in being a part of this forum, you can leave a comment on this blog and I will get back to you.

Apple Tablet: Does Tech Solve a Business Crisis?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 20:51:00 +0000

Things to consider:

The release of the Apple tablet is being considered a solution for the publishing crisis / newspapers crisis / media crisis.

Maybe people are just talking to each other more through other tech means, like mobile phones, and they don't need to consume news that much.

Should journalists be social and community organizers rather than "reporters?" What does reporting accomplish these days? What are you as a reporter if nobody knows your name in the social web?

If the trend away from objective, non-partisan reporting towards being invested in a community is true, than what mobile projects can we develop to bring communities closer? And what does that mean for the mobile industry and the job of telecoms?

The new role of telecom would be the role of social hub. Telecoms that are more aware of the social habits of their customer base could service them better. What I don't know is whether the amazing amount of data use brought on by Android apps, iPhone apps and the like have given telecoms any more profounder insight into how to service their end-users.

In this way, perhaps tech can solve a business crisis, for telecoms and media, but I think it's really more likely that understanding humans helps move business forward.

People Pulling Together for MOBS

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:24:00 +0000

MOBS is really coming together, and it's one of the few times in your life when getting a MOB together is positive and a boost for business.

Groups of people are coming together to offer mobile solutions, coordinate strategy with telcos, and chart the future of wireless on the phone. some of them I've never met before. Some of them I know through reputation. Some of them really helped me with research this year.

I was happy to see Marshall Brown, CEO of Wired Towns showing his enthusiasm for joining the MOBS Forum in 2010.

And I just spoke with Ronny Haraldsvik, Vice President of Marketing for Spider Cloud, which is doing some amazing things in what seems to be a new niche for mobile operators.

He and Spider Cloud CEO Mike Gallagher are going to help put together part of the program and hook us up with a few more speakers in the indoors wireless space.

They belong to the group of enterprise-focused companies offering convergence opportunities, which should enhance business and usage capabilities while offering eye-opening opportunities for people looking to invest in the space.

And right before heading out the door last night, I talked with Todd Sullivan at CrowdZone, who is packing his bags for the forum in June. Maybe he's not really packing his bags just yet, but he said he will come.

There are a whole bunch of people coming to this forum. See below for the continually expanding list of companies, and see you there!

Sampling of Companies

Reliance Communications (India)
Sprint Nextel
Mobients
T-Mobile

AT&T

Stoke

Exitel Unwired Solutions of Mexico

Spider Cloud Wireless

Crowd Zone

Proxim Wireless

Boost Mobile

NYU Langdone School of Medicine
EffectiveUI
Health Hero
Mobifoundry
Apisphere
TomTom (China)
WiMax Italia (Italy)
Tishman Technologies
Raytheon
Motorola
Federal Office for High Performance Green Buildings -- U.S. General Services Administration
Vornado Realty Trust
CTO from Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group
Quantum Networks
K-Edge Networks
MobileTribe
Sintnow
ProvenPowerful
RF Wise
Cisco Systems
ABI Research
CIO from VA Health System VISN 20 Health Care
CTO of Alcatel-Lucent
IIT
InBuilding Wireless Alliance
Wired Towns
Health Technica

Marshall Brown, CEO, Wired Towns

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:47:00 +0000

Our latest speaker to join the MOBS forum is Marshall Brown, who is the founding CEO of Wired Towns.

We talked at a party last night in New York City hosted by Steve Masur of Masur Law.

(Readers of my Fast Company blog might remember that I wrote about him last week in an article about the legal ramifications -- or not -- of Augmented Reality.)

Marshall told me that after leaving Harvard, where he was working on a thesis for his PhD, he decided to work in the mobile telecoms space.

He ended up doing quite a bit, including gearing areas in New York City for free wi-fi access.

You can see a video of him on Fox Business News here: Is free wi-fi coming to a city near you?

Marshall is also blogging over at his company site, Wired Towns.

Speaker Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:53:00 +0000

It's that time of the production cycle when I let you all in on the fabulous companies that have come on board as speakers and supporters of the forum.

Here's a list of companies that will be supporting the Mobile Omnipresent Business Solutions forum with their speakers:

Reliance Communications (India)
Sprint Nextel
Mobients
T-Mobile
AT&T
Effective UI
Health Hero
Mobifoundry
Apisphere
TomTom (China)
WiMax Italia (Italy)
Tishman Technologies
Raytheon
Motorola
Federal Office for High Performance Green Buildings -- U.S. General Services Administration
Vornado Realty Trust
CTO from Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group
Quantum Networks
K-Edge Networks
MobileTribe
Sintnow
ProvenPowerful
RF Wise
Engineer for Cisco Systems
ABI Research
CIO from VA Health System VISN 20 Health Care
CTO of Alcatel-Lucent
IIT
InBuilding Wireless Alliance

I will be adding to this throughout the day and throughout the holidays into 2010. Keep in mind that we do have some room on our quickly filling panels. If you want to be considered for a slot and you can:

*Discuss strategy for using mobile for business
*Provide insights into telecoms operations, pricing and development of the inbuilding and data spectrums
*Talk about your enterprise's use of mobile as a business tool
*Consider the pros and cons of wireless hospital infrastructure

We want to hear from you. Please send me an email at dcrets [at] iirusa [dot] com. I am happy to talk with you in detail about the agenda, and send you a version of it.

Top Ten Gaming Apps on the iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:38:00 +0000

These are the top ten highest grossing iPhone Apps, and interestingly the first few are created by big gaming companies, like EA.

The Droid: Hype or Happening?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:06:00 +0000

Remember when you were young and dating for the first time? I bet someone, your mom or your dad, or maybe a sister or brother, told you that you should never put your heart out there all at once.

It's best to keep 'em guessing a little bit, showing a little of the greatness you possess, but not all.

Apparently, this strategy works very well with releasing a game-changer phone.

The go-slow, reveal little approach to releasing the Droid seems to have worked well for Verizon.

I'm actually thinking of getting this phone, even though I was left longing when I signed up for the iPhone 2.0 release.

Is this the year for too much hype? Does anyone out there have the Droid? Does it perform well? I like Verizon's call network and data network. I don't think I've ever had a dropped call in the one and half years I have had Verizon service.

What really I want to know about is how does the phone perform on the user level?

Monitoring the Friday Telecom Twittering

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:53:00 +0000

These are the current conversations I am following today on Twitter. They are the "what's happening" in mobile that is keeping me interested and tuning my analysis at the moment.

@sesemic is talking about Virgin Mobile Canada as the fifth outlet for iPhone sales.

@wirelessbroad is following the use of netbooks as this big push for mobile broadband.

The move to volume-sell and market computers is a major step for operators used to selling tightly specified handsets under long-standing commercial relationships. To ensure that this move is profitable, operators need to be alive to the risks and to maximise the opportunities for market share growth, pull-through revenue and data service ARPU.

Fair enough, but I'm more interested in what's being put on netbooks. What applications are the big heat-seeking missiles for users right now?

@andrewparkerft is reporting on what he's hearing at the FT telecoms conference and he points out that 3, the mobile provider, won't feel competition from a drop in market participants from five to four. He also, interestingly, points out that Etisalat warns that "network sharing" is urgently needed in Africa.

@Blackipresnews says that Deutsche Telekom is looking for US partners to help grow the T-mobile network, which is building out its HPSA+ network following the launching of that network in the US.

Mobile Health Initiatives Heating UP

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:49:00 +0000

In the past couple of days, I have received a few emails from some members of LinkedIn groups that I belong to mentioning the tremendous groundswell being generated by federal funds allocations slated for the mobile and wireless industries. This is the much heralded American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA.

A colleague in the industry forwarded me two pieces of intelligence out there. I will link you to one of them, here: This is the mHealth Initiatives cluster of target areas for growth.

Points to pull out from there:

•Drug databases
•Medical calculators
•Reference programs
•Decision support for both physicians and nurses
•Tracking (weight, blood pressure, etc.)
•Patient history accessing, managing, and documenting
•Communication managers
•Payer tools (coding, eligibility determination, etc.)

The same colleague found this bit of information and I thought it would be useful, as well:

The research firm [Pike & Fischer] predicts that wireless carriers, including AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel will become key players in the increasingly wireless-enabled telemedicine market, while smaller companies like software developers and device makers will be key acquisition targets. AT&T is likely to dominate, however, the report predicted. The firm also points to the need to control health care costs as another driver of the growing telemedicine market, while stimulus funding from ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) will lead to more remote patient monitoring services and mobile access to EHRs, according to Pike & Fischer.

iPhone Can Drive Your Car, and Lock It for You

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:27:00 +0000

What more can the iPhone do? It can drive your car.

According to this blog post at Fast Company:

What'll it let you do? Navigation, of course. But also remote door locking, vehicle finding, dealer connect, stolen vehicle location, automatic alarm notification, roadside assistance calling, and automatic collision notification (a potentially worrying one--presumably it'll let you know if your partner has pranged your lovely Merc). If that's not enough, there are premium extras that give you location-based weather and traffic info, and a concierge service that lets you book hotels, find stores, make restaurant reservations and so on.

It may look like a phone, act like a phone, and deliver phone calls, but iPhone is not a phone. It's the beginning of the way people will conduct business, life, commerce, and more.

Video is the Common Denominator of Internet Usage

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:19:00 +0000

Over the next few years, internet traffic will increase six times, with 46% of that traffic driven by video

Have Doctors found a Smart Phone They Can Use?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:01:00 +0000

Jeff Brandt sent me a link to this blog posting about the emergence of the Droid phone as a real mobile device tool for doctors.

The comments are interesting. One commenter points out that the rumored Apple tablet device is a game changer and more able to be a doctor's device.

The link is provided by Leonard Kish, who further leads me to this blog post about about the health care internet.

Looks like several blogs are going into the feeder read today.

New: Global Retail Executive Council

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:08:00 +0000

I managed to find this blog about the growth in interactivity, engagement and mobility in the retail experience when I got an email in my inbox this morning.

So I called up their executive director to find out more about it. Jim Crawford, Executive Director,Global Retail Executive Council, spoke to me while he was on his way to a meeting. The organization started up in February, right as the great dregs from the economic tsunami were washing up on the beaches of commerce and retail.

"It proved a great time to start up this association," says Crawford.

The organization serves two missions:

1. Nurturing and building on the broad and inclusive concept of what it means to be a sustainable retailer, improving the economic model for retailers, building on being able to have a sustainable relationship with consumers, and helping them grow through life cycle of interaction with the consumer through the interaction and nexus of mobile devices and technology and the shopping experience

2. Collaborating with retailers on next generation customer experiences in retail, building on changes and the evolution in the store experience using mobile

"It’s a radical game changer in the way retailers look at technology at stores," says Crawford. I agree.

We talked about how the carriers are vital to this growth but that at the same time, we are seeing huge customer-driven changes brought on by data-loving retail shoppers and end users of mobile.

More on this later, as it develops.

"Cloud-Bursting," by AT & T

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:44:00 +0000

Fast Company has a brief mention of the IBM and AT&T cloud computing systems that they are rolling out in the next few years.

Blue Insight by IBM and the AT&T "cloud-bursting" synaptic system will enable data to be stored elsewhere.

Fast Company talks about the security issues with other systems that might make the AT&T system an attractive offer for small businesses:

AT&T's goal seems to be to leverage its big-name status and existing business relationships to attract potential customers who may be wary of cloud computing from other providers, due to data security issues and cybercrime events like Distributed Denial of Service attacks. AT&T will roll out the service to U.S. networks first, and then onto its global data centers so it can be sold to clients around the world.

It's what is available for small enterprises that excites me, because, deductively, I wonder what it is that small business is focused on doing, as a collective.

To me it seems that the small business mindset is:

1. Stay small, in order to grow quickly, virally, in other people's computers, mobile devices and applications.

2. Be outward facing all the time -- no better way to face outward than through synaptic text, data and a collective applications system.

3. Be all over the place, at scale, but small enough that people are not encumbered by your presence. See number one.

This new age of small business, social entrepreneurship, javascript:void(0)social networking and all just keeps going and going.

Where is The Cloud?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:10:00 +0000

This was a rather interesting, if simple, story about what happens when you store things on the internet.

Looking into The Cloud of cloud computing and storage.

The Intelligence Group Forms

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:21:00 +0000

Right now I am in the process of putting together an Intelligence Group for Mobility Industries.

See below:

It’s time for a world-class globally scalable wireless, 3G and 4G forum that deals with content, applications, systems engineering and general business development for all of the important verticals in the mobile world.

SMART, the global forum for convergence and operational excellence across mobility industries, will be launching in June 2010 in the United States.

From implementation, engineering and distribution to content, user-experience, business development, product development and new frontier uses in transport, healthcare, entertainment, utilities, venues, property development, data and mobile broadband.

We are searching for information on the experience of working in mobile communications from some of the brightest minds in those verticals. We would like to talk with you for five minutes about the most important facets of your job and your industry, so that we can invite you to be a speaker to a forum that faces your industry on a global scale.

If you could take the time to talk with Douglas Crets, Director of the SMART Forum, it would really help us to scale the event accordingly and invite the top people to attend.

You can reach me at +1 646 616 7627 or dcrets@iirusa.com

You can also join our blog, Signal Up, as it gets started and revises itself in this space.

If you are interested in being a blogger (anonymously or named), please email dcrets [@]iirusa [dot] com . We will talk with you about this.

Best,

Douglas Crets
SMART Director
New York, New York
+1 646 616 7627

Black Dot Wireless Lands Contract

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:50:00 +0000

The partnership will create new opportunities for Open Range, a WiMax initiative.

More WiMax, please!

Even in a downturn, wireless broadband grows

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:47:00 +0000

It's getting to where a guy can't leave the house without getting some wireless broadband reception.

In Southeast Asia, that is.

Broadband Internet penetration in Malaysia -- 21.1 percent of households at the end of 2008 -- lags other Asian countries, such as Singapore and South Korea. But the Malaysian government wants to see that figure increase to 50 percent by the end of 2010.

Whether WiMax plays an important role in extending the reach of broadband Internet services remains to be seen.

WiMax will have to compete for wireless broadband market share with Malaysian cellular operators, offering Internet access over their 3G networks, market research firm IDC said in a report issued earlier this month. WiMax is hampered by limited coverage in Malaysia and established cellular operators will move aggressively to defend their market position from new entrants, it said.

Legislators Look at their Own Phone Bills, Question Legality

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:43:00 +0000

Years after exclusive contracts for wireless service became de rigeur, a few legislators are now wondering if exclusive phone contracts are in fact a bane to competition.

No, consumers like higher prices for phone contracts. It convinces them that they are paying top dollar for top service.

No, really.

"The four largest wireless carriers have hijacked consumer access to handset technology," said John E. Rooney, chief executive of U.S. Cellular, the nation's fifth-largest cellphone service operator with 6.2 million subscribers. "Everyone is going to the big four to get exclusive rights to these phones, so we are stuck with everything other than these. It puts a big dent in our ability to compete and our ability to supply these phones to areas of the country where we serve customers where they don't."