FRIDAY - JUNE 18, 2004 - ISSUE NO. 117 | ||
Dear friends of Wireless Messaging and Paging, We have a big issue this week with lots of comments from readers and a great article written by Vic Jackson about Wireless Directory Assistance. Please don't miss the feature article from Mountain Communications about their efforts to fight the heavy-handed actions of Quest (US West) and the FCC. These interconnect issues go far beyond Colorado and may affect the whole paging industry. You should be informed about the recent court decisions, and the good folks at Mountain Communications could certainly use our help with their battle. Does anyone know about international page forwarding services? International paging networks was my specialty for several years, but I have a reader asking about third-party solutions for people traveling outside of their carrier's coverage. Verizon is extending their text messaging services to 28 countries. I keep wondering why we couldn't make text messaging a big success in paging? We invented it, and now the cellphone companies are "eating our lunch." Text messaging is the most popular and fastest growing segment of wireless communications today. Where did we go wrong? It's not too late—"a rising tide lifts all boats." Send in your ideas for the good of the whole group. One new advertiser got an important potential customer contact while the newsletter was still going out with the first ad. If you are interested in supporting this newsletter with advertising and getting your message out, click here. After traveling for over a week, I am still behind on my correspondence. If you are waiting on a response from an e-mail, please send me a second request. I am sorry, but I have been really busy. I generally try to answer every message, but have not been able to do so lately. Well, here we go with this week's news and views. | Promoting Wireless Messaging, Telemetry, and Paging.
A new issue of The Wireless Messaging Newsletter gets posted on the web each week. A notification goes out by e-mail to subscribers on most Fridays around noon Eastern US time. The notification message has a link to the actual newsletter on the Internet. That way it doesn't fill up your incoming e-mail account. There is no charge for subscription and there are no membership restrictions. Readers are a very select group of wireless industry professionals, and include the senior managers of many of the world's major paging and wireless data companies. There is an even mix of operations managers, marketing people, and engineers, so I try to include items of interest to all three groups. It's all about staying up-to-date with business trends and technology. I regularly get reader's comments, so this newsletter has become a community forum for the paging, and wireless data communities. You are welcome to contribute your ideas and opinions. Unless otherwise requested, all correspondence addressed to me is subject to publication in the newsletter and on my website. NOTE: This newsletter is best viewed at screen resolutions of 800x600 (good) or 1024x768 (better). Any current revision of web browser should work fine. Please notify me of any problems with viewing. This site is compliant with XHTML 1.0 transitional coding for easy access from wireless devices. (XML 1.0/ISO 8859-1.) |
WIRELESS NEWS | |||||||
Verizon Wireless' International TXT Messaging Service Expands Reach Across More Than 28 Countries United States’ Leading Wireless Service Provider Adds Cross-Border TXT Messaging to Mexico 06/15/2004 BEDMINSTER, NJ — Verizon Wireless, the leading wireless service provider in the U.S., has expanded the reach of its International TXT Messaging service to include more than 28 countries and more than 400 million wireless users worldwide. With Verizon Wireless’ International TXT Messaging service, customers can send and receive inter-country TXT messages to and from customers of participating wireless companies around the globe, including the largest service provider in Mexico. Verizon Wireless initially rolled out International TXT Messaging in 2002. Many of Verizon Wireless’ 40 million customers use TXT messaging to stay connected to friends and family living in the United States and abroad. In the first quarter of 2004 alone, Verizon Wireless customers sent and received more than 2.1 billion TXT messages. “The worldwide demand for TXT messaging continues to grow and Verizon Wireless is staying ahead of this demand by enabling our customers to stay in touch with people worldwide,” said Jim Straight, vice president of Internet and Multimedia Services for Verizon Wireless. “Verizon Wireless customers can use TXT messaging as an easy and affordable means of communication with their colleagues, friends, and family in real-time despite the distance and borders between them.” Verizon Wireless offers TXT messaging service internationally to customers of participating wireless carriers in Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Germany, Greece, Guam, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Saipan, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and Venezuela. Verizon Wireless has selected Inphomatch, the leading provider of mobile messaging services and global messaging interoperability, to provide the company’s International TXT Messaging. Verizon Wireless customers within the U.S. can send and receive TXT Messages with customers of participating carriers in Mexico, Puerto Rico and Canada for the same price as TXTing within the United States. Customers can pay as they go for TXT Messaging, which is just $0.02 for each message received and $0.10 for each message sent, or select from bundled plans for $2.99 per month for 100 messages, $4.99 per month for 250 messages and $9.99 per month for 1,000 messages sent or received. The rate for other International TXT messaging with customers of participating carriers is $.25 for each message sent and $0.02 for each message received. For more information, visit www.vtext.com. Verizon Wireless products and services are available in more than 1,200 Verizon Wireless Communications Stores, at participating RadioShack and Circuit City locations and on the Web at www.verizonwireless.com. About Verizon Wireless #### Source: Verizon Wireless Press Release
This situation has not been much of a problem as long as the telephone numbers used by either landline subscribers or wireless subscribers were assigned and controlled separately from each other by the telecommunications companies. However, a new and untested dimension has been introduced to the idea of listing subscriber names and telephone numbers in a directory, as a result of the FCC’s telephone competition rules. The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) local number portability rules went into effect on November 24, 2003 in the largest 100 wireless telephone markets in the USA and became effective in all areas of the USA on May 24, 2004. These new rules allow, “porting” of landline and cellular phone numbers between landline and wireless service providers. Keep in mind the following statistics from the FCC, which were derived prior to the effective date of the agency’s number portability rules. The problem of directory listing of all telephone numbers, both landline and wireless may be a bigger quandary than people realize.
Based on these statistics, the USA is rapidly approaching the time when more than half of the telephones in the USA will be wireless. These new local number portability rules give rise to some interesting questions with respect to telephone directory listings. For example, assume your landline telephone number is currently listed in the local telephone directory. If you “port” that number to your wireless phone will the number continue to be listed in the local directory? The answer seems to be no. Will the ported telephone number that was listed now become “unlisted” by default? The answer is likely yes. Let us further assume that you do want your name and number to continue be listed in local the telephone directory. Can the local landline telephone company refuse to list your number in their directory? The answer appears to be yes, they can refuse. Conversely, if you “port” your cell phone number to a landline phone will the number now be listed in the local telephone directory? The answer appears to be yes. Will you have to pay an extra monthly fee to have your former cell phone number continue to be “unlisted”? The answer is apparently yes. Based on the current directory assistance, “rules of the road,” a landline telephone number in the USA that is “ported” to a wireless phone will no longer be “listed” in the local telephone directory. And a wireless phone number “ported” to a landline phone would now be “listed” in the local directory. But is this a fair and reasonable situation for all concerned in light of the FCC’s competition rules? Can or will the incumbent landline telephone companies hold businesses and consumers hostage by refusing a directory listing if the line is switched to wireless? The answer appears to be yes! Some people want their name and telephone number, whether landline or wireless, “published” in a directory and some do not. The question now is what should be mandated by rule of law in this situation and what should be left up to the marketplace? According to a spokesperson at the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, the PSCW does not regulate telephone directories, either landline or wireless. They apparently maintain a “hands off” policy on this issue. But there are some public service aspects of the new telephone number rules that may not be palatable to the public; especially those folks who want to step into the modern age of wireless communications yet maintain their availability to the public via their telephone. Some business people in rural areas who have traditionally listed their residence telephone number in the directory such as real estate, funeral directors, doctors, insurance and similar businesses need and want a directory listing no matter who the service provider might be. A publicly available telephone directory listing is as critical to their business as is using a wireless telephone. In a related development, on November 25, 2003, a bill was introduced in the US Senate (S. 1973) (Wireless 411 Privacy Act) to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to protect the privacy rights of subscribers to wireless communications services by allowing wireless subscribers to elect, without charge, to not have their wireless telephone numbers disclosed in any form of directory service. Currently this bill has been referred to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. A similar bill has also been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and has also been referred to the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. It is interesting to note that, contrary to the current practice in the landline industry, this legislation would prohibit wireless companies from charging a fee to not list a number in a telephone directory. But shouldn't any listing rules apply to all telephones, not just wireless phones? However, this initiative does not address the more important aspect of people who want their existing landline number to continue to be listed when they port that number to a wireless phone as mentioned previously. Some people and most businesses, who port from landline to wireless, have an expectation that their name and number will continue to be available in the directory so they can be “found” by the general public. According to a representative at Verizon, the landline regional Bell Company, they will not, even for a fee, publish a wireless number in their “white pages” directory. It seems this refusal to list a valid telephone number might be construed as a deliberate and calculated anti-competitive measure to discourage people from porting their phone numbers to wireless. Strangely, in contrast to the white pages policy, it appears that a person could “buy” a “Yellow Pages” advertisement that does list the wireless telephone number. It is interesting to note that in the case of a landline telephone number, you must pay a monthly fee to not have the number listed in a directory. Based on the premise that the more people that are listed in the phone book, the more advertising dollars can be generated, one would think the landline companies would be eager to list wireless numbers in their directories. Apparently, there is more progressive thinking north of the border. In Prince Rupert, British Columbia, City Tel, the local cellular provider, will list your wireless phone number in the local directory for a $3.00 per month fee. Although charging a fee for listing someone in a local directory goes slightly against the grain of good business logic, at least in this Canadian city, you have the option, unlike in the USA, to list your cellular number and name in the local landline telephone directory. This issue also extends to directory assistance. “Directory assistance,” when dialed from your cell phone is not quite what you may expect. Amazingly, the cellular companies directory assistance does not maintain a list of their own wireless subscribers, but only lists the subscribers of their competitor landline phone companies! Currently, as an answer to this conundrum, there is a proposal by the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association to create a nationwide wireless telephone directory that actually lists wireless telephones. Amazingly, some wireless companies are not in agreement with this proposal citing privacy and unwanted caller concerns. Obviously, the current directory assistance system needs an upgrade to be in concert with the new number portability rules between landline and wireless. Listed below are some suggestions to improve on the current “system.”
These suggestions would be easy to implement at minimum cost to the carriers and would greatly enhance the public service aspects of a public telephone directory, eliminate competitive concerns, and encourage commerce among all telephone users. Source: Vic Jackson, Interconnection Services, Inc. |
READER'S COMMENTS | |||
Maturity of Wireless by Frank Dijker You wanted some of my feelings about paging and the growth of the large players and the decline of the industry. The whole wireless industry needs to be re-invented and the model should be based on something that works. Firstly you have to ask yourself: 1) Is one way data messaging dead? Is there a need. My answers: Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 In the wireless industry I want to get a message from point A to point B but now I am told which device to use, what number I have to use, and what network I must be part of, to get this message. The industry thinks that the user cares about the technology but they really do not, they want to get the message. The Network should be like the highway, that is anyone should be able to use the highway as long as they have a licence to do so. The user should be able to use whatever device they want as long as the highway can support this kind of device. The vehicle they use should meet their needs and the user should not be told that they have to use a three-ton truck when what they really need is a four-door sedan. The fuel is the number of messages sent. The more that you drive or the more messages you send, the more it costs you. If you drive nowhere you should have no cost. The package that you send is the message and you should be able to send as big a package as is able to be handled by the courier. Sometimes you might need a large truck to handle the shipment, and sometimes an envelope will do. However the wireless industry tells us which roads we have to drive on, how big the package can be, and what kind of vehicle WE HAVE TO USE. They also do not really care how satisfied all of the drivers are but much rather how many vehicles there are on the road. They also own all of the service stations along the way as well so when you want fuel they can charge you whatever they want. If you want to use another vehicle or a different type of fuel then you also have to travel on a different highway. Not only that but dealers trying to put vehicles on the highway for the highway owners are continually competing with the highway owners themselves, as they too want to get into the transportation game. Anyway, in my mind, it is the networks that really have to grow up and governments have to break the industry apart. The networks should be one entity and anyone should be able to buy bulk airtime and use whatever facilities they want from the carrier (numbers, voice-mail SMS etc.,). The agent should have the ability and the right to offer anyone whichever price they want not the price dictated by the carrier. If the carrier wants to compete with the independent agents then they must do so at arms length. Until this happens we will be dictated to by fewer and fewer carriers and they will tell us what type of products will flourish and which one will die. With the model described above, Paging is due for failure as the large carriers say so. And Paging carriers are fighting against each other trying to gain market share. Innovation, not price, will keep the wireless industry going. Networks should be networks and leave the selling to smaller companies that have the customer's best interest—not that carrier's interest—in mind. Anyway there is my diatribe for today. Frank Dijker <frank@multipath.com> Due to a lack of activity, our Yahoo group for Refarming will expire shortly unless a post is made. Here is an update from Ken Harman. "Alan, everything is on hold until the FCC rules on the petitions for reconsideration of the narrow banding rules, including the paging industry's request for an exemption from the narrowband requirements. Last December, the FCC stayed the effective date of its narrow banding requirements until it rules on the petitions, which means that everything remains status quo until that happens. Lloyd Coward, Deputy Chief of the Mobility Division of the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, reported at SCA last week that the Commission is projecting its ruling on the petitions sometime later this fall." Alan W. Carle Brad, You may wish to make your readers aware of a nice service for 2-way pagers at www.meta-wireless.net. If you register at that site you can send Emails with attachments to their service (such as a Word document) and they will return an Email with the attachment back in text format. Or, if you want a hard copy of a message on your pager, you can send it to another address and include the number of a fax machine on the subject line and it will print a hard copy of your Email on that fax machine. The service is currently free. It has been very handy. Another free service is at www.hz.com. This has been around for years providing all sorts of good information to 2-way devices. Stock quotes, FedEx tracking, airline info, etc. The recently upgraded their service to a set of new servers and actually cut back on the list of features they were offering. But I am certain with time they will all return. If nothing else, the quote service is very handy.
Thought this Associated Press article would be of interest to you as you wear your editor hat. It raised a question in my mind (as an outsider to the paging world) of how privacy issues (not HIPAA security or CALEA surveillance) vary between the world of paging and SMS: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/2613101 I think the "proof-of-concept" virus for Symbian-based handsets that appeared this week is waking up some folks in the wireless phone industry. The wireless phone industry seems to have serious security issues on many, many levels. Something tells me no one is going to write a "worm" for a pager. Between that and the scourge of wireless spam, advantage -> paging industry. (If the paging industry takes advantage of the opportunity.) This article confirms what I have been hearing through the grapevine: http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=documentPrint&doc_id=134004 This one offers some other useful links: Brian Brian D. Gilmore Research on cellular telephone signal strength levels in hospitals This is a link to the web site of Dr. Christopher Trueman. There is a link to the paper "Specifying Zones for Cellular Telephone Operation in Hospital Hallways". Have a look at the "GO 3D Users Guide" as well it has more detail. http://www.ece.concordia.ca/~trueman/GO_3D/index.htm Regards, Hi, my name is Kurt, I have spent the last 17 yrs in the paging business, working for Ram Broadcasting Corp. as well as others, and been on my own as a consultant for about 7 yrs. now, and work with most of the carriers. I was wondering if you could spread the word that I am looking for a handful of old pagers, that most people have disposed of. The PMR 2000 with voice, on 150 MHZ. Any help would be appreciated, IM using them with the printer as a fixed data recorder/voice receiving station, and function well in their application. Regards, Kurt Jackson |
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WANTED USED MOTOROLA PAGING EQUIPMENT AND INSTALLATION ACCESORIES
| WANTED Quintron / Glenayre QT-7795 any vintage parts or chassis Universal exciters and freq. TXC-TCC controllers. UHF link receivers Angie: 1-800-842-1950 Ext: 6411 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Motorola Introduces Two New Pagers Ideal for Health Care, Hospitality, Manufacturing, and Utilities Markets Motorola's newest one-way pagers—the Advisor II pager and the LS355 pager—are ideal for users in demanding business environments who need a convenient and cost effective way to stay in touch. Both the Advisor II pager and the LS355 pager were developed for use in hospitals and medical facilities, manufacturing environments, utilities, hospitality applications, campus settings, and for businesses that own and operate their own paging systems.
Both the Advisor II pager and the LS355 pager are available in POCSAG, UHF or VHF models and ship with a one-year standard warranty. As part of the continued support of these pagers, Motorola offers a two-year Express Service Plus program. This feature provides hardware repair coverage for two years beyond the standard one-year warranty for a total of three years of pager repair coverage. Both pagers are available through Motorola Authorized Resellers. MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. © Motorola, Inc. 2003. | Complete Technical Services For The Ira Wiesenfeld, P.E.
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A fast and reliable alarming system is an indisputable prerequisite for emergency fire and rescue services to respond successfully and efficiently. State-of-the-art paging enables groups as well as individuals to be alerted. The Quattrino Voice and Memo two tone pagers are suitable for everyone, even for those working in an emergency during severe weather conditions. Continual further development of previous popular models has resulted in a practical, reliable and user-friendly device, innovatively housed with ergonomic operating controls. Design elements include a very long standby function and weather proofing to the European IP54 specifications. I am an authorized Manufacturer Representative for Swissphone. Please contact me directly for any additional information. |
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Remember that old word “Residuals”? The EE Group is actively seeking Dealers with sales/ service/installation capabilities to promote the latest wireless AVL, SCADA and data products from Telegauge Systems, Inc. This innovative program requires NO inventory and NO billing by your facility; you just sell it and sign up the end user to collect the commissions. Now the real reason to choose the EE Group and Telegauge over the host of others; we pay you permanent residual income every month on your airtime sales forever. Airtime commissions range up to 12% per month based on prior sales and you buy all equipment direct from the factory at 2-tiered wholesale prices as well for great margins. Telegauge builds fully 2-way overt and covert (hidden) GPS based Automatic Vehicle Location, SCADA, remote management, telemetry and data systems routed via cellular and satellite that are delivered to the end user via the Internet or direct to the desktop. Applications are both ‘canned’ and custom depending upon the customers needs. We even have full dispatch systems including credit card swipe and billing if needed. Finally, the prices on the product are guaranteed to be the LOWEST in the industry at under $600 retail for the equipment and from $6 to $30 on the monthly airtime with most customers in the $15 range. Note too that the price is the same for cellular OR satellite world wide coverage and no one else has this exclusive capability. Telegauge provides the product, software, airtime, billing and final information from a single source and you can be a BIG part of it. You stock NOTHING, just collect the checks. We are paid by the manufacturer to support YOU and unlike other factories; we never bid against you, restrict you or take your deal. We help you with demo equipment, brochures, information, sales assistance, web advertising and user name/passwords for the website so that you don’t even need to buy anything to start up fast. Contact us for a no-obligation CD of all the presentation and training material, price spreadsheets and information at: EEGroup@EEonTheWeb.com or for fast action call for a link to the Dealers Only page: 310-534-4456 and mention that you found out about it via Brad Dye’s Newsletter. You have nothing to lose and some great residual income to gain. Call or e-mail NOW. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Thank you to all of Brad's readers who provided equipment and leads for my last want list. I continue to search out and recreate early wireless e-mail systems from the 80s and 90s and am looking to acquire the following:
If you have any of the above or a lead on same please contact us.
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![]() AAPC’s Mission Statement Defines Purpose
Our industry must move forward together or we will perish individually. If you want to get involved, please click here. Come and join us! The AAPC "newsroom" is a great source of information. The AAPC also hosts the Paging Technical Committee site. There is a lot of good paging industry information here. Click on the logo above to get a membership application. | High-speed simulcast paging with protocols such as POCSAG and FLEX™ requires microsecond accuracy to synchronize the transmission of digital paging signals. ![]() Zetron's Simulcast System uses GPS timing information to ensure that the broadcasted transmissions between the nodes of the Simulcast System and associated transmitters are synchronized to very tight tolerances. This system is ideal for public or private paging system operators that use multiple transmitters and wish to create new paging systems or to build out existing systems into new regions. For more information about Zetron's High Speed Simulcast Paging System, the Model 600 and Model 620, go to: www.zetron.com/paging.
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Commtech Wireless introduces MAXPage, a desktop paging terminal packed with features. Alpha, Numeric, Tone, & Voice Serial Interface Telephone Interface Alarm Inputs Features*
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| ![]() Wireless Communication Solutions The Hark ISI-400LX is a hardware device that encapsulates serial data into TCP/IP for transmission over the Internet. It can also be configured to convert incoming TAP messages from the serial port and send them over the Internet to paging providers in email (SMTP) or Simple Network Paging Protocol (SNPP) format. The ISI-400LX with the optional external modem can connect to a secondary dial-up ISP when a failure on the ethernet port is detected. This device is the perfect companion for the Hark Gateway products. An ISI can be located at a remote location for receiving TAP, TNPP, or Billing traffic using a local ISP eliminating long distance phone charges. System Features & Benefits:
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Daviscomms USA Inc. is your direct connection to Daviscomms (S) Pte Ltd., the leading pager manufacturer in the world with many years experience in Engineering, Design, and Manufacturing of highly-reliable, premium-quality FLEX and POCSAG Alphanumeric and Numeric pagers. Daviscomms offers unparalleled quality, features and functions. We perform our own stringent quality testing as well as certification by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) to meet all of their standards. All of our paging products meet FCC and IC Standards for use in the USA and Canada. Our manufacturing facility, located in Malaysia, is a 40,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility. Customers, globally, choose Daviscomms for our QUALITY, RELIABILITY, ON-TIME DELIVERY, COMPETITIVE PRICING and our TOTAL COMMITMENT to providing the best value for their needs.
At Daviscomms, we are proud to provide our customers with end-to-end manufacturing solutions while delivering superior quality and support. Daviscomms is at the forefront of the industry with its commitment to leading-edge technology, cost-effective manufacturing and the highest degree of customer service. Daviscomms delivers low cost, high volume manufacturing solutions to our customers. We help maximize time-to-market objectives while minimizing procurement, materials management, and manufacturing costs. For information about our contract manufacturing services or our Bravo-branded line of numeric and alphanumeric pagers, please call Bob Popow, our Director of Operations for the Americas, 480-515-2344. (Scottsdale, Arizona) or visit our website www.daviscommsusa.com. |
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FEATURE ARTICLE—MOUNTAIN COMMUNICATIONS |
Good Morning Brad, I enjoyed meeting you last week at the SCA conference. As I said, I have read your material for years and very much appreciate your sharing of information to all the industry. You have helped many of us learn about the business and technical aspects. The advertisers have received orders from us. All a good cause. I found the SCA very interesting and worth the time spent. It re-enforced my knowledge and commitment. I also was able to meet many of the folks that I have talked with on the phone. The networking is always the most important benefit from a conference. You had asked to resource information on Mountain Communications' battle with USWC/Qwest, and I very much appreciate your request. This of course has been a long, expensive and important battle. I have great respect for my attorneys, Mike Higgs who started the fight, Ben Aron that has successfully won the battle, and the wild Bob Schwaninger that has stood behind me and supported this fight with plenty of time and $$$. Many like or hate him, but he has stood the ground and put his $$$ where his mouth is. No small accomplishment. I invite you to visit our web site www.mtncomm.com and download the basic fight info, my request for help letters, and any of the resource documents. They attempt to state the info. Attached is the pdf of the small tri-fold that I gave out at the SCA. Interesting points: Dozens of carriers have called for help and knowledge when they were confronted with higher rates, or outrageous demands from their LEC's. Our guys need to know that the damning 'Mountain Order' has been nullified by the DC Court of Appeals. I got another call this week from a carrier that was faced with their LEC hitting them over the check book with the 'Mountain Order'. Its been 6 months since it was remanded. Most of these carriers that are calling with problems are NOT in Qwest's territory. Some have said that this is just my problem, just a Qwest territory problem, no so - we are all effected. Each LEC uses the gains of the other LEC's to extinguish our industry. Qwest has lost many orders for me, but never refuses to take an order. DEX, not now Qwest, ya right, dropped me from northern CO phone books (white and yellow), just don't know how that can happen. Other carriers have had the same problem. On the PageMe! advertising orders, there are references on every page to Mountain, even though they are two distinctly separate corporations. As I mentioned, I started PageMe! Inc. for two reasons. One, could not get services for Mountain; and two, was consolidating 3 or 4 small UHF carriers in CO and needed a new identity. Filing a formal FCC complaint is a nightmare. It is not for the weak at heart or pocket. The costs are endless. The garp from the attorneys is endless. It is not designed for the common business guy to succeed. I am proud to fight this battle. We started this with a sword in our hand, strong support from Schwaninger, SBT, many small carriers, and 6 large carriers, as it is not restricted to paging guys, it involves the two-way guys and the cell guys. As the industry has shrunk, many scratching to survive, others of course not surviving, it is now just about down to Ben and I. The cash has been very slim. Some carriers, even one at the SCA, came up to me and still have one of my support request letters in their drawer. They got it a 'bad time' in cash flow and have always intended to pull it out and put a check with it . . . Some have asked why I can't get support from the interveners? Well they have staff lawyers. They all thank us for winning the appeal. Great Job! Want us to share the cost - no way. If you go broke, out of business, die or dry up; oh well. We will just re-file, doesn't cost us any more, the guys have to work on something. Of course they have run up the bill drinking coffee and working on the common language for the briefs. Qwest has stated to others that they will just wait for us to give up. It is not going to happen. Qwest will not agree on any of our points in the formal compliant wit the EB. Qwest will not refund the payments made to the bogus bills. She has not stopped billing me, and all the others, for the bills that are stacking up. Qwest will not provide us with the Type 1 or Type 2 lines, numbers, facilities as required. They will not drop their absurd demand for transit traffic (about 26% of the billing they are not suppose to bill me). Now their attorneys will drop transit billing, by providing us with the source billing info. That does us no good, as we can't collect from the sources. Let alone the battle we decided not to fight - recip payments. Hope that helps. Sorry I am long winded, but my soapbox just pops out. Please ask for any other info you require. I do hope you will help us get the word out. Honestly, this is a business problem for each of us, all of us. I must keep fighting the battle, but we got to find more cash. Thanks, Dave David Balsick To download a "pdf" copy of the brochure above, please click here. |
MARK HOOD | TIPS FROM JOHN SIMMONS |
Paging Technician Mark Hood mehood@cox.net Telephone: 757-588-0537 Paging Field Engineer/Electronic technician in the Hampton Roads, Virginia area. Download resumé here. | I’m continuing the topic of marketing suggestions to increase your sales of pagers (and more important, the monthly service!) One of customers called recently asking for a way to remotely secure phone line access to one of his remote-controlled devices. “Easy!” I cried. He now has a paging activated phone line. One call to his pager number and his equipment is connected. Another call to his pager number, and his equipment is disconnected. My customer is really happy . . . and so is my boss, having sold some equipment and another monthly service. How am I doing? Are these tips helpful? Send comments or tips to share to me at: jsimmons@rogerstwoway.com John |
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www.gtesinc.com GTES is the only Glenayre authorized software support provider to the paging industry. The GTES team consists of highly qualified and seasoned associates who were formerly a part of Glenayre's paging infrastructure support and engineering operations. We are poised and ready to "Partner" with you to ensure the viability of your network, reduce your long-term cost of ownership, and to provide future solutions for profitability. GTES will offer product sales, maintenance services, software development and product development to the wireless industry. GTES SUITE OF PRODUCTS GTES Partner Program Product Sales On-Site Services Software Development Product Training CALL US TODAY FOR YOUR SUPPORT NEEDS | Intelligent Paging & Mobile Data Hardware & Software Selective is a developer and manufacturer of highly innovative paging receiver/decoders and mobile data equipment. The PDT2000 Paging Data Terminal is THE MOST INTELLIGENT PAGING RECEIVER IN THE MARKET. The PDT2000 is a large display pager designed for desktop or in-vehicle mounting and is widely used by emergency services and in onsite paging systems for forklift dispatch etc. All of the following capabilities are standard features of the PDT2000 and of our other paging data receivers:
Our mobile data equipment includes a range of Mobile Data Terminals (MDTs) which may be interfaced to a variety of wireless networks including trunked and conventional radio, GPRS & CDMA cellular, Mobitex etc. Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) and GPS solutions, Dispatch & Messaging software. We offer mobile communications dealers and systems integrators a "fast to market" job dispatch and job management capability. Specialised local area paging systems, paging interception and message reprocessing software, field force automation and mobile dispatch solutions. We export worldwide.
I am an authorized Manufacturer Representative for Selective Communications. Please contact me directly for any additional information. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Paging Training Course Specially designed course for sales, marketing, and administration personnel. Engineers will only be admitted with a note signed by their mothers, promising that they will just listen and not disrupt the class. (This is supposed to be funny!) This is a one-day training course on paging that can be conducted at your place of business. Please take a look at the course outline to see if you think this might be beneficial in your employees: Paging training course outline. I would be happy to customize the content to meet your specific requirements. Although it touches on several "technical" topics, it is definitely not a technical course. I used to teach the sales and marketing people at Motorola Paging and they appreciated an atmosphere where they could ask technical questions without being made to feel like a dummy and without getting a long convoluted overly-technical answer that left them more confused than before. A good learning environment is one that is non-threatening. Let me know if you would like to receive a quotation, or if you would like to have any additional information. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
EXECUTIVE AVAILABLE Industry executive looking for new position. Many people in this industry know Bob Spillar. Please read his impressive resumé here. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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WI-FI NEWS | |
Intel, Proxim Team For WiMAX June 17, 2004 Intel continues to move full speed ahead in its quest to broaden the acceptance of WiMAX technology. The latest: The chipmaker says it is aligning with Proxim to deliver WiMAX products for the fixed and portable broadband wireless access market. WiMAX (or 802.16) technology is seen as a last-mile alternative to DSL and cable modem access and more specifically, as a means to create a wireless metropolitan area network connecting Wi-Fi hot spots that use 802.11 technology. WiMax equipment is expected to have a 30-mile range and optimum data rates of 70 Mbps. The partnership between Intel and Proxim will result in the delivery of base station and subscriber unit access points. The companies also will work together to co-develop a reference design for WiMAX customer premise equipment, with the base station architecture coming from Intel. Proxim plans to market a WiMAX base station under the Proxim Tsunami MP.16. Just last week, Intel announced two WiMAX deals in China with the governments of Dalian and Chengdu. As part of the agreements, Intel said it will deliver network infrastructure using WiMAX technology. In April, the chipmaker said it was teaming with Alcatel to jointly develop WiMAX equipment as a means of accelerating acceptance of WiMAX technology. Initial products resulting from the alliance are expected by the second half of 2005. Intel is a board member of the WiMAX Forum, which was formed to promote the adoption IEEE 802.16-complaint equipment by operators of broadband wireless access systems. The fixed broadband wireless market is expected to grow from $430 million at the end of 2003 to more than $1.6 billion by the end of 2008, according to a recent market study from Maravedis. The market research firm predicts that although WiMAX will not solve all the problems facing service providers, the technology will help reduce equipment and component costs through integration and economies of scale. Source: Wireless Week |
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Many thanks to all the readers who have sent in comments, news, and articles. This is how the newsletter becomes a wireless-messaging-community forum. We all have opinions, and here is a place where we can express them. Especially helpful is assistance for other readers with sales, marketing, and technical issues. I hope to hear from you soon.
FLEX, ReFLEX, FLEXsuite, and InFLEXion, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Motorola, Inc. | ||||||||||||||||||||
THE WIRELESS MESSAGING AND PAGING INFORMATION RESOURCE |