| FRIDAY - NOVEMBER 19, 2004 - ISSUE NO. 139 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dear friends of Wireless Messaging and Paging, Zetron was accidentally left off the list of sponsors at the AAPC conference in Phoenix in last week's newsletter. This was unintentional. Zetron has long been a major manufacturer of Paging Infrastructure and a strong supporter of paging association activities. They were the first company to offer to support this newsletter and without their help there probably wouldn't be a newsletter right now. The sponsors of various lunches, dinners, coffee breaks, and entertainment were: GTES, American Tower, DX Radio Systems, VCP International, Sun Telecom, Unication, Zetron, and Canyon Ridge Communications. Thanks again to all of these companies for their support. Well the merger of Arch Wireless and metrocall Wireless was completed this week as expected. The new company name is USA Mobility, Inc. It appears that at least one other company already uses this name. Want a good laugh? Check out this USA Mobility web site. Here is a summary of their performance this year. These quarterly reports have been reported previously, but here they are all together.
I have stopped using the old term "churn" left over from the days when fickle (consumer) subscribers would switch from one paging company to another just to save a couple of dollars a month. Now I call it "loss" or "attrition" since the shift is to other technologies. And now on to this week's Wireless Messaging 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.) Your help is needed. Help keep the newsletter going. Click on the PayPal button. Disclaimer: I have no formal training in either law or finance. So please don’t take anything that you read here very seriously. This is my understanding of the issues based on my reading of publicly-available information. I have done my best to present the facts as I have found them. If you want to make sure about any of these issues, please consult with a professional legal or financial advisor. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| WIRELESS NEWS | |
Metrocall/Arch Merger Completed USA Mobility Creates National Leader in Cost-Effective Paging Solutions 16-Nov-2004 Alexandria, VA, Tuesday, November 16, 2004—USA Mobility, Inc. announced today the completion of the merger of Metrocall Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: MTOH) and Arch Wireless, Inc. (NASDAQ: AWIN). USA Mobility combines the two leading independent paging and wireless messaging companies in the United States. Vincent D. Kelly, USA Mobility President and CEO, commented: “USA Mobility is now the largest national paging company and the undisputed leader in wireless messaging. We have extensive network infrastructure, sales and distribution channels and customer support capabilities. Our facilities-based messaging platform continues to represent one of the most compelling cost/benefit and reliable wireless communications offerings available today. Through our strategic relationships we offer mobile phones, data applications, including Blackberry, Wi-Fi, in-building systems, and location-based services for customers who require more advanced solutions. We recognize that over the course of 2004 the paging industry has continued to shrink due to considerable competitive pressure from new cellular and PCS technologies. This consolidation in the face of that pressure brings together the best of both companies’ management, systems and practices and allows us to take advantage of significant financial and operational synergies that would not otherwise have been available to Arch and Metrocall on a stand-alone basis. We will operate the combined company with the same cash flow oriented objectives that we each embraced on a stand-alone basis, while continuing to provide our customers with premiere paging and wireless messaging products and services and first-class customer service.” In the merger, Metrocall shareholders who properly elected to receive cash for their shares of Metrocall common stock will receive $75.00 in cash per Metrocall share for a total of 2 million Metrocall shares of common stock. As a result of more than 2 million shares being tendered by Metrocall shareholders for cash election, Metrocall shareholders who participated in the cash election will receive cash for approximately 42.38% of the shares of Metrocall common stock tendered. Each remaining share of Metrocall common stock, other than shares for which proper notice was delivered to Metrocall, and not withdrawn, seeking appraisal under Delaware law, has been converted into 1.876 shares of USA Mobility common stock. Each share of Arch common stock has been converted into one share of USA Mobility common stock. Information regarding exchange of share certificates will be sent to former Metrocall and Arch shareholders as soon as practicable. On November 17, 2004, the common stock of USA Mobility will begin trading on the NASDAQ National Market under the symbol "USMO," and the common stocks of Metrocall (“MTOH”) and Arch (“AWIN”) will cease trading on the NASDAQ National Market. To fund, in part, the $150 million in cash consideration payable to Metrocall stockholders in the merger, Metrocall, Inc. and Arch Wireless Operating, Inc., two subsidiaries of USA Mobility, borrowed $140 million under a senior secured credit facility from a syndicate of lenders led by UBS Loan Finance LLC and UBS Securities LLC. USA Mobility and substantially all of its subsidiaries have guaranteed the facility on a joint and several basis. Available cash on hand at Metrocall and Arch was used to pay the balance of the cash consideration to Metrocall stockholders as well as fees, costs and expenses associated with the transaction and will be used for working capital purposes of the combined company. About USA Mobility USA Mobility, Inc. headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia is a leading provider of paging products and other wireless services to the business, government and healthcare sectors. USA Mobility offers traditional numeric, one-way text and two-way paging. In addition, the company offers mobile voice and data services through Nextel and AT&T Wireless/Cingular as well as wireless e-mail solutions. The company’s product offerings include Integrated Resource Management Systems with wireless connectivity solutions for medical, business, government and other campus environments. USA Mobility focuses on the business-to-business marketplace and supplies wireless mobile connectivity solutions to businesses and organizations of all sizes. In addition to its reliable, nationwide one-way networks, USA Mobility’s two-way networks have the largest high-powered terrestrial ReFLEX footprint in the United States with roaming partners in Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. USA Mobility provides the preferred ReFLEX wireless data network for many of the largest telecommunication companies in the United States that source network services and resell under their own brand names. For further information visit www.metrocall.com and/or www.arch.com. Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act: Statements contained herein or in prior press releases which are not historical fact, such as statements regarding USA Mobility’s projected revenues, cash flows and operating results following completion of the merger of Metrocall and Arch, are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause USA Mobility’s actual results to be materially different from the future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expectations include, but are not limited to, declining demand for their paging products and services, USA Mobility’s ability to continue to reduce operating expenses, USA Mobility’s future capital needs, competitive pricing pressures, competition from both traditional paging services and other wireless communications services, government regulation, reliance upon third-party providers for certain equipment and services, the timely and efficient integration of the operations and facilities of Metrocall and Arch as well as other risks described from time to time in USA Mobility’s, Arch’s and Metrocall’s periodic reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Although USA Mobility believes the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, they can give no assurance that their expectations will be attained. USA Mobility disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Metrocall Contact: BlackBerry Subscribers Pass The Two Million Mark Subscribers Double In Less Than Ten Months November 17, 2004 Waterloo, ON—Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced that its award-winning BlackBerry® wireless platform has passed another major industry milestone by exceeding two million active wireless subscribers. BlackBerry continues to lead the industry and becomes the first integrated wireless data platform to reach the two millionth subscriber mark. This rapid growth illustrates the widening popularity of BlackBerry and the increasing market potential for converged devices and wireless data connectivity. “This is a significant milestone, especially when you consider it took five years to establish the market and attract the first million BlackBerry users and less than ten months to double that number,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “Together with our partners around the world, we continue to build upon this momentum and expand the market opportunity for BlackBerry.” Today’s news follows a busy ten-month period whereby RIM and its partners executed well and continued to pave the way for future growth. Several new and innovative BlackBerry devices were launched. Services were broadened and enhanced. RIM and its carrier partners expanded into many new countries and channels. RIM expanded its BlackBerry licensing programs with many of the world’s leading device manufacturers. BlackBerry Enterprise Server™ v4.0 and support for Novell Groupwise were readied. A new BlackBerry handheld for WLAN networks was previewed. RIM introduced new tools for developers and BlackBerry ISV Alliance partners continued to build upon the BlackBerry platform. “It’s an exciting and energizing period,” added Lazaridis. “We’re not only seeing wireless email services reach wider geographies and audiences in terms of business, government and individual buyers, but we’re also seeing a broader range of wireless data applications. Companies are realizing the ROI and strategic benefits of mobilizing enterprise applications such as CRM and we’re seeing other more specialized applications grow in areas such as real estate, health care, legal, government and financial services.” BlackBerry has steadily maintained its leading position since it was originally introduced in 1999. For corporate customers, BlackBerry Enterprise Server software tightly integrates with Microsoft® Exchange or IBM Lotus® Domino™ (Novell GroupWise support is expected later this year) and works with existing enterprise systems to enable secure, push-based, wireless access to email and other corporate data. For individuals and smaller businesses, BlackBerry Internet Service™ allows users to access up to ten corporate and/or personal email accounts (including Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino and many popular ISP email accounts) from a single device. About Research In Motion (RIM) Forward-looking statements in this news release are made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used herein, words such as "intend" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions made by and information available to Research In Motion Limited. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements include, without limitation, possible product defects and product liability, risks related to international sales and potential foreign currency exchange fluctuations, the initiation or outcome of litigation, acts or potential acts of terrorism, international conflicts, significant fluctuations of quarterly operating results, changes in Canadian and foreign laws and regulations, continued acceptance of RIM's products, increased levels of competition, technological changes and the successful development of new products, dependence on third-party networks to provide services, dependence on intellectual property rights and other risks and factors detailed from time to time in RIM's periodic reports filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, and other regulatory authorities. The Company has no intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The BlackBerry and RIM families of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties and trademarks of Research In Motion Limited. RIM, Research In Motion and BlackBerry are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be pending or registered in other countries. All other brands, product names, company names, trademarks and service marks are the properties of their respective owners. Source: RIM Press Release | |
| READER'S COMMENTS | |
Hello My name is xxxxx, and I am a neurosurgeon in Dayton, OH. I'm sorry to inquire with a cold email but you seem to be the man to ask. Like many docs I am burdened by carrying a PDA, cellphone, and 2-way pager. I am trying to find an integrative solution here and running into a brick wall. In my research I found that there was a "pager module" available for Palm OS several years ago but this has mysteriously disappeared. I need the reliability of the Motorola FLEX/ReFLEX network (deep in buildings), but it seems that this is only available in stand-alone pagers. Motorola offered no help, nor did my messaging or wireless providers. Is there anyone out there who can offer a pager module/card/chip that can be integrated with a PDA? I would even be willing to pay $$ for a custom made unit (and I know many other docs who would too—it could be a great business opportunity). Thank you very much for your assistance.
Brad, Frank Mercurio passed on a copy of your wireless newsletter and your e-mail address. We thought you may be able to help us with a Budelman AM Paging Transmitter that I recently acquired. This transmitter consists of three chassis, a power supply, modulator deck and an RF/control deck. The rectifiers are a pair of 866s, the final is a 4-250 and a pair of 4-125s are used as modulators. We are confident it was manufactured by Budelman because all transformers and chokes bear the inscription "Budelman Electronics Corporation." The power supply and the modulator deck have glass windows to display the tubes. No identification plates or tags are present on any of the chassis. We are confident that it was operated from a remote location due to the presence of a "Remote/Local" switch and the presence of a 600 ohm audio transformer in the modulator suggesting that audio was sent through a twisted pair together with a dc voltage to activate the transmitter. Other controls on the front panel of the RF deck include the usual multi-position switches and final grid and plate tuning controls. We have been attempting to locate a schematic and any historical information that may be available with respect to the transmitter and Budelman Electronics Corporation. We did locate an Internet story that identified Fred Budelman as Fred Link's chief engineer until he left Link to form his own paging transmitter company in the early days to two-way communications. I would greatly appreciate any information you may have with regard to this transmitter and would be particularly interested to see if you (or know of anyone who might have) a schematic for the transmitter. Many thanks in advance. Regards, Peter Stratigos, N9HXW
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| BELIEVE IT OR NOT ? | |
From A 1954 Popular Mechanics Magazine
This is a great photo with a believable story, but it is a well-constructed hoax that is being passed around the Internet as an e-mail attachment. More info here. |
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Intelligent Paging & Mobile Data Products
Selective is a developer and manufacturer of highly innovative paging receiver/decoders and mobile data equipment including the PDT2000 Paging Data Terminal, 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 intelligent Mobile Data Terminals (MDTs) which may be interfaced to a variety of wireless networks including GPRS & CDMA cellular. 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 with the inbuilt job processing system which may be interfaced to a variety of CAD & JMS platforms. Specialised local area paging systems, paging interception and message reprocessing software, field force automation and mobile dispatch solutions. We do custom product development and export worldwide.
I am an authorized Manufacturer Representative for Selective Communications. Please contact me directly for any additional information. | TGA Technologies
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CUSTOM APPLICATIONS
Please call me so we can discuss your need or your idea. Or contact me by e-mail for additional information. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Building on its long success story in 1-way paging, Advantra International has become the expert in designing and manufacturing the most advanced and lowest cost ReFLEX™ radio modems for 2-way data-communication. The company also focuses on offering total telemetry solutions. Advantra thanks its solid reputation to its world-renowned development team, state-of-the-art manufacturing, excellent customer service and its proven track-record.
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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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Advertise Here Your company's logo and product promotion can appear right here for 6 months. It only costs $500 for a full-size ad in 26 issues—that's $19.23 an issue. (6 month minimum run.) Details about the various advertising plans can be read here. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
ReFLEX Two-Way Paging/Data Messaging Systems Technical Services support for existing paging systems SIMULCAST SYSTEMS ARE OUR SPECIALTY!! call (217) 221-9500 or e-mail sales@AdvancedRF.biz 301 Oak St., Suite 2-46A, Quincy, IL 62301 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Please click on the image above for more information. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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 AAPC Mission Statement To represent paging carriers throughout the United States to ensure the success of our industry by:
Our industry must move forward together or we will perish individually. AAPC links:
| 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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Prism Message Gateway Systems Your Choice of Options
Popular Choice for Domestic and International
Logical Choice
Go ahead . . . be choosy . . . choose Prism Systems International
|  MAXPage
Commtech Wireless introduces MAXPage, a desktop paging terminal packed with features. Alpha, Numeric, Tone, & Voice Serial Interface Telephone Interface Alarm Inputs Features*
*Some of the features listed are optional and are not supplied as standard For more information, simply fill out the feedback form or contact us on the details below.
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Mark Hood mehood@cox.net Telephone: 757-588-0537 Paging Field Engineer/Electronic technician in the Hampton Roads, Virginia area. Download resumé here. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
www.gtesinc.com GTES is the only Glenayre authorized software support provider in the paging industry. With over 200 years of combined experience in Glenayre hardware and software support, GTES offers the industry the most professional support and engineering development staff available. New Product Development New Hardware Platform
Continued Support Programs GTES Partner Program CALL US TODAY FOR YOUR SUPPORT NEEDS |  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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| DX Radio Systems, Inc. manufactures high quality, high specification type communications products. The following is a list of products that DX Radio Systems, Inc. manufactures or supplies as a single supplied product and can be included as part of a turnkey system:
Performance that is tough to find anywhere at a price you can afford.
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| BLUETOOTH NEWS |
Bluetooth to triple in speed by next year Bluetooth is set for a major revamp, to improve speed, security and quality of service. Tuesday 16 November 2004 A roadmap, presented last week, outlined how the wireless connectivity technology will be three times faster, have increased range, improved security and better quality of service within two to three years. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group, which includes hundreds of companies that incorporate Bluetooth connectivity, said enhancements would be available by the middle of next year. The group plans to complete the Bluetooth Version 2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate specification by the end of this year, moving from the current version 1.2. Michael Foley, executive director of the Bluetooth SIG, said, "Our roadmap addresses future market demands and sets the stage for Bluetooth wireless technology. "It will not only help manufacturers set their own product roadmaps but will also define Bluetooth technology's place in the wireless world." Foley said the maximum connectivity speed between two Bluetooth devices would be almost tripled to about 3mbps, with the first products entering the market by June 2005. The SIG also plans security and quality of service improvements, and said Bluetooth's wireless range will be tripled to about 30 metres by 2006. The enhancements are needed as Bluetooth is facing rival technologies in the personal area networking market, such as wireless USB and near-field communication, which is being heavily promoted by Nokia. Analyst firm Arc Group predicted that Bluetooth's growth would continue. Arc said that in the global smartphone market alone, the number of phones equipped with Bluetooth would reach 87.5 million by 2009, up from six million in 2004. Ericsson, the original backer of Bluetooth, recently announced that it was winding up its dedicated Bluetooth development team. Source: ComputerWeekly.com |
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| WI-FI / WIMAX / WIRELESS BROADBAND NEWS | |
Making the connection Cable companies and other broadband services are giving traditional phone companies a run for their money—and customers (November 14, 2004)—A fight over the telephones and televisions of Rochester [NY] is heating up. Traditional telephone companies, cable companies and others are quickly invading each other's businesses. One consequence: Area customers are likely to gain as yet unheard of choices, such as television service from a phone company (and vice versa), blazing fast Internet links and video via cellular links. Meanwhile, large, well-financed phone companies such as Verizon are investing billions to string high-speed fiber optic lines to millions of U.S. homes over the next few years, laying the groundwork for services that haven't even been invented. All these new choices are capturing the attention of area residents. "Now I can have everything all on one bill, my Internet, my cable and my phone," said Karen Battist of Penfield, who signed up with Time Warner Cable for all those services two months ago. "Anything to make my life easier is a good thing." Though Rochester is not yet on the list for some of the most advanced services, that may be only a matter of time as national companies fight to offer the next wave of services. "You are seeing a lot of different services start to converge," said Chance M. Glenn, a professor of telecommunications engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology. "This is a time when a lot of companies are trying new things to entice consumers and choice is something that is good from a customer standpoint." The first major salvo in this fight came this spring, when Time Warner began offering phone service over cable TV lines, bypassing Frontier — Rochester's major local phone company for more than a century. The service works by digitizing a person's voice at the call's source and sending the digital signal over a data link, often called Voice Over Internet Protocol, or VOIP. Now Time Warner is expanding VOIP service throughout Rochester and the Monroe County suburbs and into Ontario, Wayne and Seneca counties, reaching nearly 385,000 households or 80 percent of its local marketplace by January. By the end of 2005, that could grow to around 95 percent. To sweeten the deal, Time Warner last week added free, unlimited calling to Canada, plus voicemail and call forwarding at no extra cost. "This is being accepted very well by the Rochester marketplace," said Mark Murphy, vice president, digital phone at Time Warner. Time Warner does not disclose how many customers it has wooed away from Frontier, but Murphy expects the pace of VOIP growth will be "consistent or slightly outpace what we saw in Road Runner," the company's high-speed Internet service, now with more than 100,000 customers. Tough competition This week, the Federal Communications Commission gave Vonage and similar companies a boost by ruling that only the federal government can regulate Internet phone service—not 50 individual state regulators. The new competition likely will promote more and varied offerings for consumers, packages that combine many services under one bill, a strategy many businesses say offers the best approach for retaining customers. It's not exactly possible to compare the packages because their offerings differ. Time Warner's premiere package called "All n One" costs about $123 a month and includes Road Runner Internet service, 250 digital cable channels and unlimited local and long distance calling. (Premium channels such as HBO come at an additional cost.) Phone service without a cable subscription would cost about $45 per month. Frontier offers a package that does not include video, but does include local, long distance and high-speed Internet service for about $57 a month. The research firm Garnter Inc. estimates that over the next four years, 17 percent of phones in North America could switch to some form of VOIP. "We know there will be some loss of customers to others," said Bill Griswold, Frontier's Rochester region vice president. "We're working hard not to lose any." What you see Griswold said Citizens may well use new technology to push video through its existing network of wires around Rochester, helped by new data compression technologies that he said run four to five times faster than Frontier's own high-speed DSL Internet service. "There are a number of ways to do this," Griswold said, adding that Citizens may hire a media company to provide video programming. "These are all in the evaluation process. ... We are taking a real serious look at all our video options. ... I'm a NASCAR fan, myself and I think in the future we could see things such as using a broadband connection to watch races on a machine that is some form of integrated entertainment center." Perhaps the biggest opportunity for change comes as both Verizon and SBC Communications are spending billions of dollars to deploy fiber optic links directly to residential neighborhoods in some of their southern and western U.S. markets. The hair-thin fibers of glass use pulses of laser light, rather than electricity to send data far faster than either copper telephone lines or cable lines, providing an enormous pipeline directly into homes for rapid Internet connections, high-definition video broadcasts and other services. The company closest to Rochester—Verizon—plans to deploy fiber links to 2 million or more homes by the end of 2005,, and hire 3,000 to 5,000 more employees to help build and manage the network. Verizon is in talks with major video content providers, said Mark Marchand, a company spokesman, and will begin offering video in several markets. So far, Verizon has picked growing communities and those with wide adoption of broadband for fiber, among them Orange and San Bernardino counties in California; Nassau, Rockland and Westchester counties in New York; and Arlington, Fairfax and Loudoun counties in Virginia. Marchand said Monroe County is "a very good market, with everything from educational and technical institutions. We look to where there is a lot of demand for broadband and then look down the road to other factors." The company has not decided which cities may make the list for fiber in 2005, and Marchand said Verizon would not rule out Rochester. Meanwhile, some firms are leapfrogging wires on the ground altogether. Sprint, Nextel, Cingular and Verizon Wireless are all investing heavily to deploy faster wireless links. Verizon Wireless—a separate affiliate of Verizon — plans to deploy a new, much faster service in the Rochester market by the end of next year under the name Broadband Access. For now, the company is marketing the service mainly to business customers, but company spokesman John O'Malley said faster links will follow, allowing "things like high-definition video, music, interactive multiplayer games, etc." RIT's Chance said "choice is good for the consumer, and the more it happens, the better." Source: DemocratandChronicle.com (Rochester, New York) Nextel Eyes $1B Network Saving 11.18.04 Nextel Communications Inc. claims “enormous” interest in its RFP for the nationwide deployment of a wireless broadband network, demand that could cut the cost of the deal by up to $1 billion. Last month Unstrung reported that the U.S. carrier is mulling over two standards as its long-term technology of choice: Flarion Technologies’ proprietary Flash-OFDM and industry standard CDMA 1x EV-DO (Evolution, Data Only). Nextel has issued an RFP for the nationwide deployment of both technologies, due for completion by the end of this month. Speaking at a UBS AG conference in New York this week, Nextel president and CEO Tim Donahue was keen to talk up vendor interest in the project. “From the vendor community perspective, this is a big deal. . . It’s probably the last time a vendor has an opportunity to build a nationwide network without having to worry about a lot of legacy issues, and so you can imagine there has been an enormous amount of interest and activity against the RFP which has now been sent out. My expectation is that we are going to get extraordinarily competitive pricing. We have been talking about costs of two to three billion dollars. It could be closer to two than three. We’ll see when it comes in.” Donahue was also keen to stress that Nextel remains undecided on its choice of technology. “We are straight down the middle on this. We are going to see what the vendors come back with . . . We haven’t finalized any plans yet.” The carrier has previously stated it expects to make a final decision in the first quarter of next year. OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) is a modulation scheme that has provided Nextel with an average downlink speed of approximately 900 kbit/s in recent trials. In contrast, EV-DO is an upgrade to CDMA 1x RTT networks, intended to crank up data rates to a theoretical 2 Mbit/s, although 300 to 500 kbit/s is a more realistic limit. EV-DO network suppliers likely to be banging on Nextel’s door include Ericsson AB, Lucent Technologies Inc., Motorola Inc., and Nortel Networks Ltd. Nextel’s rivals have already committed to the technology. Source: Unstrung.com |
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