FRIDAY - AUGUST 18, 2006 - ISSUE NO. 225 |
Dear friends of Wireless Messaging, Greetings to everyone and best wishes for a happy and safe weekend. If you are serious about staying up to date with industry trends and technology, you should find a lot valuable information in this issue. I spend my week searching the web and talking to people to bring you the Wireless Messaging news in one place. My best source of news continues to be from readers. Thank you for sharing.
I just happened to be assigned a seat next to Nancy on my return flight from the last AAPC meeting in Myrtle Beach, so I can report that she is not only good at what she does for a living, she is a nice person too. I am a firm believer that who we really are is a lot more important than what it says on our business card. Never the less, a well-deserved promotion is a wonderful thing. Please take a moment and recommend the newsletter to a friend or coworker. Also, when you talk to one of our advertisers, please mention that you saw their ad in the newsletter. Thanks a lot! Many articles have been written about the wonderful contributions that Amateur Radio Operators made during last year's hurricane season. Ham Radio operators are called "Amateur" only because they do not receive pay for their work—much the same as Olympic Athletes. The "Amateur" designation does not mean that they are any less-qualified than "Commercial" operators or technicians. I have repeated the following offer of a mobile radio van with a 100-foot-extendable tower mounted on a heavy-duty, all-wheel-drive truck, because I think a Ham Radio Club could make good use of it when the next disaster strikes. It is located in the Chicago area. If you are interested, give Stanley Stann a call and he will tell you more about this radio station on wheels. Now on to more news and views. |
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 central 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 web site. I am very careful to protect the anonymity of those who request it. 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.) |
Radio Van—Mobile Antenna Tower 1974 International Harvester Load Star 1600 4x6 (all-wheel-drive) — 304 gasoline engine rebuilt in 2002. Has a 100 foot extendable tower which nests atop vehicle that can be swung back and electrically extended. Has walk in "shack" for radio equipment and unit contains small generator for power—120 volt Onan—produces 2,500 watts. Has a powered nose winch 15,000 lb Broden AMUS-12F, with 650 feet 3/8" cable. Also has outriggers to stabilize the unit while in operation. Asking This truck and generator would make a great addition to any wireless company wanting to increase their emergency backup ability for storms and other catastrophic events. Stanley Stann | Mobile Radio Van With 100-Foot Tower Ideal for deploying a repeater to a remote site in an emergency. Perfect for a Ham Radio Club and/or RACES*. |
* Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service, RACES. RACES, administered by local, county and state emergency management agencies, and supported by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) of the United States government, is a part of the Amateur Radio Service that provides radio communications for civil-preparedness purposes only, during periods of local, regional or national civil emergencies. These emergencies are not limited to war-related activities, but can include natural disasters such as fires, floods and earthquakes. As defined in the rules, RACES is a radio communication service, conducted by volunteer licensed amateurs, designed to provide emergency communications to local or state civil-preparedness agencies. It is important to note that RACES operation is authorized by emergency management officials only, and this operation is strictly limited to official civil-preparedness activity in the event of an emergency-communications situation. [source] |
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WIRELESS MESSAGING NEWS |
USA Mobility Appoints Nancy Green Vice President of New Business Development
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — USA Mobility, Inc. (Nasdaq: USMO), a leading provider of wireless messaging services, today announced that Nancy Green has been appointed Vice President of New Business Development.
Green, who has more than 20 years of experience in the sales and marketing of new systems technologies, has been Vice President of USA Mobility's Systems Applications Division. In her new role, Green will be responsible for new business and product development within the Company's marketing organization.
"Nancy fills a vitally important position at USA Mobility as we continue to support our core customers and expand our service offerings," said Mark Garzone, Executive Vice President for Marketing. "Among her numerous responsibilities, she will explore new acquisition, joint venture and strategic alliance opportunities that complement our core paging and wireless messaging segments. In addition, she will evaluate and develop potential telemetry applications and identify opportunities to expand our advanced messaging capabilities." Garzone added: "During her career at USA Mobility, Nancy has demonstrated a strong sense of creativity and resourcefulness that has enabled her to build our Systems Application Division into a successful business unit. We're confident she will bring the same level of enthusiasm and professionalism to her new role."
Before joining USA Mobility in 1995, Green was Manager of Business Services at AT&T Wireless, where she oversaw national, government and healthcare accounts. Previously, she had been Regional Vice President for The Telman Group, a national telecommunications consulting company to the hospitality industry, and held management positions at Western Union's Business Services Division and Ricoh Office Equipment.
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, healthcare and emergency response sectors. USA Mobility offers traditional one-way and advanced two-way paging via its nationwide networks covering more than 90% of the U.S. population. In addition, the Company offers mobile voice and data services through Sprint Nextel and Cingular Wireless, including BlackBerry and GPS location applications. The Company's product offerings include wireless connectivity systems for medical, business, government and other campus environments. USA Mobility focuses on the business-to-business marketplace and supplies mobile connectivity solutions to over 80% of the Fortune 1000 companies. For further information visit http://www.usamobility.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 expectations for future operating and financial performance, 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 paging products and services, the ability to continue to reduce operating expenses, 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, as well as other risks described from time to time in 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, it can give no assurance that its expectations will be attained. USA Mobility disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statements.
Contact: Bob Lougee, (703) 721-3080
Source: USA Mobility Press ReleaseEMA Hearing Impaired Warnings System
Area emergency management leaders can now reach more people during emergencies thanks to a new paging system.
Coffee, Covington, Dale, Geneva, Henry and Houston Counties are now the front-runners in a paging emergency response system that targets the deaf.
Under the program EMA officials will send alerts through pages to the hearing-impaired.
Those who qualify and choose to get the alert service will receive a Graylink pager that tells when a storm or other emergency is near their home.
In order to receive the paging system, they must first get a certificate from the Alabama Institute of the Deaf and Blind and a pager from Graylink Wireless.
There will be $5 monthly service fee.
Source: WTVY News 4
Commission Chair Says Emergency Communications Still A Problem In Post-9/11 World
August 16, 2006
The co-chair of the 9/11 commission says communication problems like those five years ago still plague the nation. In part two of NY1's special interview, Thomas Kean says the White House is taking too long to implement the commission's recommendations. NY1's Solana Pyne filed the following report.
It was a moment of celebration for the 9/11 commission; In December of 2004, President Bush signed a bill that would reorganize the intelligence community and enact some of the 9/11 commission's major recommendations, a necessary defense in an increasingly volatile world.
"If there's anything that keeps me awake at night, it's the idea of a terrorist with a nuclear device. That's the scariest to me," says Kean. "Now, there are about a hundred sites in the world that have enriched uranium, a lot of them in the ex-Soviet Union. Once you get enriched uranium, you can read on the internet how to build a bomb."
It's just one of many vulnerabilities, highlighted by the commission, that Kean says the government has not done enough about.
"I think they are distracted, and they become more distracted every day. But that's the same problem before 9/11," says Kean. "I mean, it wasn't that the Clinton administration and the early Bush administration didn't know terrorism was a problem, but they put it down here on the list, when it should have been up here. And that was a problem."
And that is something that Kean finds not only frightening, but also disappointing.
"[I'm] disappointed, because I worry every day about people's safety," he says. "There are areas we worry about and those areas should be protected better, by forcing the intelligence agencies to talk to one another, so we get information earlier; by setting up a system where we don't have the kind of tragedy that happened in New Orleans, because there was no command and control center."
"There was no communications, so that if there's a terrorist attack or a natural disaster, we're better prepared. [We need] to get congress to do it's job and really oversee the intelligence agencies, so we know whether their operating or not."
Kean says the botched response to Hurricane Katrina shows that communication breakdowns continue to be a main problem during large-scale emergency response operations, as they were on 9/11.
"Two things happened during Katrina that happened on 9/11, and they were in our recommendations. One was there wasn't a central command. We all saw it on television. Nobody knew who was in charge, and we lost lives. People died because of that, because there wasn't anybody in charge," Kean says.
"The second thing we recommended, because we saw it in 9/11, was communications," he continues. "The police with their radios couldn't communicate with the firemen, when they saw the firemen going up the towers and the towers were starting to get shaky. The policemen were saying, 'get out! Get out!' Well the radios didn't work, so the firemen didn't get that message. People died because of that. Well New Orleans, same thing again."
Kean says the fix is straightforward. First responders need more air space, so-called bandwidth, so that in an emergency the airways don't get overwhelmed by emergency communications. First responders have asked for frequencies now used by broadcasters, which can carry much more information. The problem?
"Frankly, [the problem is] the communications industry is the most powerful lobby in Washington," he says.
Kean says the bottom line is that not enough changes have been implemented since the release of the commission's report, and the U.S. remains a vulnerable target.
"We're in just as much danger if there's another hurricane this fall, or if there's another terrorist attack, as we were on 9/11. And that's intolerable," says Kean. "Why haven't we made those changes? We've had five years."
- Solana Pyne
Source: NY1 News
Beeper could be a life saver
By Greg Bruno
Times Herald-Record
August 13, 2006
West Point - The heart-pounding bass sound thumps in the background: Somewhere in the desert, U.S. Army soldiers are preparing to storm an Iraqi hut.
The tempo quickens. Nearby, a black-veiled insurgent kneels over an artillery tube. A shell is launched. Obliteration is imminent.
But seconds before the whistling round explodes, tiny pagers in the pockets of U.S. soldiers begin to beep. The troops flee. Bricks fly. The hut crumbles in a harmless heap. No one is hurt.
For now, the wartime scenario exists only in cyberspace, computer animation created by the U.S. Military Academy. But that might be about to change.
A researcher in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at West Point has developed a sophisticated pager system the Army says will, one day, warn soldiers targeted by incoming rocket and mortar rounds.
Still in its pre-production phase, the device, creators say, could become as important as body armor and cover fire in the endless fight to save soldiers' lives on the battlefield.
"It's a paradigm shift," said Maj. Fernando Maymi, the West Point assistant professor who helped engineer the system.
For years the Army has used radar to track large-caliber rounds before they hit.
But what the Army has traditionally done to defend against enemy rocket fire is take out the source, not protect the target. Maymi says his device will let commanders estimate where a shell will hit, and warn soldiers who might be in the target.
"We've never had a mechanism to get this information to the dismounted solider," he said.
Now they do, and the Army could certainly use the technology. Since October 2001, when the Pentagon began tracking the causes of death of U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, 160 soldiers have been killed by mortar and rocket fire. More than 2,000 have been wounded.
The idea for the strike warning system, as it's called, came by way of Fort Monmouth, N.J., where Paul Manz has spent years developing systems for warfare. He approached Maymi with the concept about five years ago.
Here's what they've come up with: On-the-ground radar systems scan the sky for enemy fire. When a shell is launched, software estimates where it's going to land.
Radio signals then relay the information to pagers carried by individual soldiers. Because the system knows where each pager is - a global positioning chip is implanted in each one - only soldiers within the blast zone are alerted.
The cost? Less than $500.
Alan Avidan, senior vice president for sales and marketing at MadahCom Inc., of Sarasota, Fla., said his company is close to signing a deal with the Army to manufacture the device.
He is especially interested in nonmilitary applications, from assisted-living alert pagers to devices that could help parents track children, at amusement parks, for instance.
The Army "had an idea and developed it to show that it's practical," Avidan said. "Now, they are handing it off to a smart little company that can run with it."
There's no guarantee the pagers will ever see the battlefield. While the device has received high praise from inside the Army, including recent recognition for stellar research and development, its military fate remains uncertain.
But the future look promising, its creators say.
"I personally feel that if this capability were "cost-effective," Manz said, "there will be a lot of uses."
Source: Times Herald-Record
With Prayer Pagers, Patients Not Alone
POSTED: 8:37 pm PDT July 19, 2006
UPDATED: 4:32 pm PDT July 20, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO — People can feel helpless and isolated when suffering from a serious illness, so a Bay Area man set out to make sure patients know they're not alone.
Leukemia survivor Scott Francis has launched a program to help people receive prayers from a pager.
Francis said he knows how much prayer helped him recover from leukemia.
"To know that a group of people are praying for you has a definitive effect on the outcome of your illness, and so it helped me through it," Francis said. "So I wanted to provide something along the same lines, only with a direct contact to the patient."
When Francis first started the project, he had three pagers for Bay Area patients. There are currently 135 pagers in the hands of patients nationwide.
Phil Busbee is used to praying for others — he's the pastor at the First Baptist Church in San Francisco.
When complications from diabetes forced him into a hospital, a pager put him on the receiving end of hundreds of prayers.
"I probably have averaged about 30 pages a day," Busbee said.
Busbee is benefiting from the Prayer Pager Project. He received a pager while in the hospital and posted his prayer needs on a Web site.
Now family, friends and even strangers page him every time they pray for him.
The pages are all numbers. Some are random, while others hold meaning.
"They type in 'one, two, three,' which tells me they're from our church or they type in their phone number," Busbee said.
He doesn't have to return any pages.
While hospitalized in San Francisco, Busbee had part of his foot amputated.
One early-morning page in particular helped him get through a tough time, Busbee said.
His pager sounded at about 2:30 a.m. He said he was amazed that someone would be up at that hour praying for him. "That was pretty important," Busbee said.
Bruce Feldstein, a hospital chaplain, said that while most studies about the power of prayer have been inconclusive, he's convinced that prayer makes a difference.
"These kinds of positive things do affect the body's immune system, so they have an effect," Feldstein said. "So, it's good for the person's spirit. I've seen that directly."
Busbee said the beeps are a vocal reminder that he's not alone.
"I realize that there are people praying for me, and I don't even know who they are," Busbee said.
Busbee was released from the hospital and led the service at his church on Sunday. He told the congregation how the prayer pager made a difference during his recovery.
Since 2003, more than 200 patients have benefited from the project.
Source: NBC11.comFEATURED ADVERTISERS SUPPORTING THE NEWSLETTER |
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GTES has recently made the strategic decision to expanding its development activities to include wireless location technologies; a market that researchers forecast could reach $3.6 billion by 2010. In support of this new strategic direction, GTES has developed SHERLOC™ a complete one-stop wireless location service, providing the flexibility of being protocol neutral and network agnostic. Targeted at business customers who need to track their high-value shipments or better manage their service or delivery fleets, SHERLOC™ is a hosted application that combines configuration flexibility with ease of use. GTES is offering SHERLOC™ services both directly and through authorized resellers. If your company has an interest in finding out how location services can enhance your revenue stream, and has the contacts and expertise to make you successful in the location marketplace, please contact us for further information at www.sherlocgps.com and select “Reseller Opportunities,” or call us at 770-754-1666 for more information. 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. Continued Support Programs CALL US TODAY FOR YOUR SUPPORT NEEDS
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Press Release | Source: Omnilert LLC |
Penn State Creates 'PSUTXT' Service Using e2Campus SMS Text Messaging System
Wednesday August 16, 9:04 am ET
PSUTXT Service Will Send News, Emergency Info to Students' Cell Phones and Mobile Devices
LEESBURG, Va., Aug. 16 /PRNewswire/ — Omnilert LLC, the leading provider of selective mass communications, today announced The Pennsylvania State University has chosen e2Campus for creating a revolutionary new wireless campus news service to be offered to students, faculty and staff. Penn State Live now sends instant SMS text messages of news and emergency information to subscribers' mobile phones using the e2Campus Web-based communication system.
"Penn State has a news Web site, Penn State Live, and more than three dozen companion listserv-based Penn State Newswires that offer the latest news and information about Penn State to more than 365,000 subscribers around the world. We were on the cutting-edge of electronic communications when we developed that system more than 10 years ago, and it's continuing to grow," said Annemarie Mountz, assistant director of Public Information for Internet communications at Penn State. "In fact, roughly 6,000 incoming students subscribed to our Student Newswire in just the past two months. However, the way people — especially young people — communicate continues to change. Text-messaging on cell phones has become the communications vehicle of choice for many students, so giving them the Penn State news they want through a text-messaging news service is the next logical step in the evolution of the Live/Newswire system."
Mountz continued, "e2Campus is really simple to use. We log into the SMS system on our Penn State Live site to create new SMS messages, type in the message, click on the categories and hit send. Only the people who signed up for the selected categories will get the message. The initial response has been great." To learn more about Penn State Live, visit http://live.psu.edu online.
About e2Campus
Endorsed by Security On Campus Inc. and used by schools around the country, e2Campus is the Web-based mass notification system that enables school officials to self-administer and send time-sensitive messages for a fraction of the cost and complexity of existing notification solutions. There is no traditional software to install, no hardware to buy and no additional phone lines needed. A school can set up a secure notification system in minutes to send routine, urgent or emergency notifications to their entire campus community or groups, such as multiple campuses, residence halls, staff- only or sports news. e2Campus instantly and simultaneously sends mass alerts to a subscriber's mobile phone (via SMS text message), BlackBerry, smart phone, wireless PDA, text pager, e-mail account and relevant Web page. To learn more, visit http://www.e2Campus.com online.
About Omnilert LLC
Omnilert LLC is the leading provider of selective mass communications for sending time-sensitive information to large groups of people. The self- service, Web-based system enables a single person to communicate timely information to thousands of people anywhere, anytime, on any device. It is ideal for announcing school closings, game cancellations, weather warnings, terrorist alerts, and marketing promotions. The system is built around a reliable SMS text messaging system that sends content directly to a mobile phone, as well as an e-mail address, Web page, pager or wired phone. Omnilert Text and Voice solutions are sold under the names e2Campus, Amerilert, RainedOut and through resellers. The privately held company is headquartered in Leesburg, Va., and at http://www.omnilert.com online.
Media Contacts:
Annemarie Mountz, Live@psu.edu, 814-865-7517
Bryan Crum, bcrum@omnilert.com, 800-936-3525 x703
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