Dear Friends of Wireless Messaging,

I am pleased to report that there is a lot of very interesting news this week. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did as I finding it for you.

I don't have a very much in the way of editorial comments this week.

Just this:

I wonder how many people could have their jobs back if we took the ridiculous and obscene compensation packages away from the heads of many major US corporations?

I should have taken more business courses in college . . . like finance and economics. Maybe then I could understand the logic behind paying one person 100 million dollars a year for mis-managing a company.

"Nuf said."

Oh, one more thing—don't forget Enterprise Wireless 08, November 5 - 7 in Scottsdale, Arizona. I will be there and I hope you will too.

Now on to more news and views. . .

Wireless Messaging Newsletter
Emergency Radio Communications Wireless Messaging Critical Messaging Telemetry Paging VoIP Wi-Fi WiMAX Location-Based Services	WIRELESS MESSAGING

This newsletter is brought to you by the generous support of our advertisers and the courtesy of iland Internet Solutions Corporation. For more information about the web-hosting services available from iland Internet Solutions Corporation, please click on their logo to the left.

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 readers' 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.)

The local newspaper here in Springfield, Illinois costs 75¢ a copy and it NEVER mentions paging. If you receive some benefit from this publication maybe you would like to help support it financially? A donation of $25.00 would represent approximately 50¢ a copy for one year. If you are so inclined, please click on the PayPal Donate button above. No trees were chopped down to produce this electronic newsletter.

Are you a USA Mobility paging reseller faced with huge price increases? AAPC can help!

As a result of USA Mobility's recent price increases, AAPC and its members have been deluged with calls from USA Mobility's Resellers concerned about their viability and looking for an alternative service. If you are one of the many paging Resellers affected by USA Mobility's price increases, AAPC can help. In most instances, AAPC's members provide local or regional coverage, service and support equivalent to or better than USA Mobility's local or regional service.

AAPC has set up a special "Reseller Help" (Find A Reseller) button on its website to direct you to a carrier in your area that can help. Go to the AAPC website and begin moving your customers today.

Register Today [CLICK] and join your AAPC colleagues at Enterprise Wireless 2008 for a 2-day information packed forum to share new ideas, network with one another, and develop fresh solutions. Conference highlights include: Click here for a detailed schedule.

Hotel Accommodations — Doubletree Paradise Valley Resort This hotel will sell out—make your reservations early by calling 800-222-8733. Please be sure to reference the Enterprise Wireless event to receive the discounted rate of $159/night. If you prefer to make your reservations online, you may do so by entering EWA as the group code at: http://doubletree.hilton.com/en/dt/groups/personalized/PHXSJDT-EWA-20081104/index.jhtml.

Thanks to our Gold Vendor member!

PRISM Paging

Thanks to our Bronze Member Vendors!

• Commtech Wireless
• Critical Response Systems, Inc.
• Hark Technologies
• Inilex, Inc.
• Microspace Communications Corporation
• Minilec Service, Inc.
• Nighthawk Systems, Inc.
• Raven Systems
• United Communications Corporation

Sept. 25, 2008
Enterprise Wireless 2008 Attendee Newsletter

Wouldn't this be a good time to hear from an economist?

Dr. Coleman Bazelon Keynote Speaker

What better time than now to hear noted economist and wireless technology expert, Dr. Coleman Bazelon, keynote speaker at Enterprise Wireless 2008, November 5-7. The presidential election will be over, a perfect time for his address “New Technologies, New Competition and Now a New President . . . What Should I Know?” Dr. Bazelon is an advisor to the FCC, other government agencies and leading wireless manufacturers. His insights will help you make smart decisions in a changed technology landscape in 2009. His recent report on the value of White Space at auction has been covered extensively in the media. Get more details on Dr. Bazelon and his talk at Enterprise Wireless 2008.

New to the program – “Sizzle” and “New Spectrum.”

Stay after the keynote on Thursday November 6th for “Spectrum Driving New Business Applications.” This round table discussion, chaired by EWA President Mark Crosby will be a lively one. In one hour, from a wide variety of experts, you'll learn all you need to know about new mobility business applications and how T Band/D Block issues, specialized 3.65 GHz deployment and new services in 1.4 GHz will bring you opportunities and alert you to possible new competition.

At 2:15 pm on Thursday stay around for “Seizing the Sizzle.” Facilitated by Eric Hill, EWA's new Vice President-Business Technology, the authorities on hand will include newly launched spectrum auction site Spectrum Bridge and Tim Totten, who directs wireless strategies for UPS and others who will share the latest opportunities for securing and selling spectrum. Be first to find out what the buzz is about – this will affect your business in 2009.

Other highlights of the conferences include presentations on the value of spectrum, updates on regulatory issues and technical presentations on M2M, broadband, wireless in Europe and more.

Act today and get the best prices!

October 13 is the deadline for the special $159 rate at the headquarters hotel, the Doubletree Paradise Valley. This is a 50% discount, so don't delay. You can register directly at Enterprise Wireless Alliance.

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Study: Campus alerts unreliable

By Lee Shearer | lee.shearer@onlineathens.com
Story updated at 11:32 pm on 9/24/2008

Emergency notification systems that send automated text messages and voice calls to cell phones are unreliable and slow in a crisis and even could interfere with 911 communications, according to a study by a Georgia Tech scientist.

The University of Georgia and many other U.S. colleges and universities have adopted alert systems that deliver warnings through cell systems, especially after a 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech that left the shooter and 32 other people dead.

But even in the best of conditions, cell phone-based systems are not able to meet a federal emergency alert goal to reach 85 percent of the population within 10 minutes, according to Patrick Traynor of Georgia Tech's Information Security Center.

"There's a great misconception about what text messaging can and cannot do," Traynor said.

UGA officials say the UGAAlert emergency system has not been hit by the kinds of problems Traynor has identified in tests and real-life emergencies. In addition to text messages, the UGA system uses other avenues to get the word out, including e-mail and voice messages.

Text messages are subject to the same kinds of random delays that can slow e-mail delivery, according to Traynor's study, released last week.

At Georgia Tech last year, an alert system sent out text messages warning of a chemical spill, telling people to evacuate campus. Soon after, the system issued a second message saying to ignore the evacuation order - the spill was not as drastic as feared.

Some on the Tech campus got the second message before they received the first one, he said.

And people call loved ones after they receive an automated warning - adding to call volume and generating a spike of cell-phone traffic potentially large enough to overload a cell network and interfere with E-911 communications, Traynor said.

In addition, text-messaging systems are vulnerable to fraud, he said. A hacker could send out a false emergency alert, and the people who received the message would have no way to know it was fake, he said.

But UGAAlert has worked well for the most part, according to Steve Harris, head of UGA's Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness.

"We've seen that SMS (short message service) text messaging goes through very quickly," Harris said.

The system is supposed to notify 90 percent of the people signed up for the warnings - around 50,000 - of an emergency within 15 minutes.

Cell phone vendors say they have not seen any unusual spikes when the UGAAlert system has been activated, Harris said.

And UGA's system does not rely solely on text messaging and cell phones, Harris said.

The UGAAlert system did not begin sending out a tornado warning Aug. 26 until 13 minutes after the National Weather Service issued the warning. But the delay was unrelated to the shortcomings Traynor identified in his research.

A weather radio in a UGA Police dispatch office did not pick up the tornado warning, and a slow-responding computer system added to the delay.

UGA officials are working with the private company that sold the university its alert system, Blackboard Connect, to find and fix the computer problem, Harris said.

Despite those glitches, most people on campus learned of the warning quickly through other means, such as Athens-Clarke County tornado sirens, warnings broadcast on radio and TV, and word of mouth, UGA officials said.

A new technology called cell broadcast messaging could reach cell phone users much more quickly during an emergency, according to Traynor and Chris Pearson, head of an organization called 3G Americas, a trade group for cell phone companies. Cell broadcasting can deliver a message simultaneously to all cell phones in a geographic area, as opposed to the thousands of individual calls a text-messaging system makes to alert a group of people.

But right now, cell phone networks don't have the equipment for such emergency broadcasts, and few existing cell phones are capable of receiving the broadcasts, Pearson said.

The federal government and private industry are working together to deploy a cell broadcast network in the United States, Pearson said. The system could become operational in 2011, he said.

Until then, notification systems like UGAAlert still are the most reliable way to notify large numbers of people of emergencies, Harris said.

Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Thursday, September 25, 2008

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BEFORE THE
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, DC 20554

To: The Commission, en banc

COMMENTS OF
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PAGING CARRIERS
ON FURTHER NOTICE OF PROPOSED RULEMAKING

THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PAGING CARRIERS (AAPC), by its attorney, respectfully submits its comments to the Federal Communications Commission in the captioned proceeding, in response to the Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (the “FNPR”), FCC 08-182, released August 8, 2008, and published at 73 Fed. Reg. 50285 (August 26, 2008).

As its comments in response to the FNPR, AAPC respectfully states:

Summary of Position

In the absence of more complete available data, the messaging fee applicable to paging carriers should be no higher than approximately one-seventh of the fee applicable to broadband cellular and PCS carriers, which is the approximate ratio of the average revenue derived per subscriber by cellular/PCS carriers compared to paging carriers. Therefore, assuming the cellular/ PCS regulatory fee is maintained at its current $0.17 per unit, the messaging fee applicable to paging carriers should be reduced to $0.025 per unit.

Comments on FNPR

In this phase of the proceeding, the Commission seeks to explore more equitable and reasonable approaches to assessing regulatory fees. The Commission has acknowledged that the methodology it has used since 1994 to allocate fees among different groups of fee payers may require updating because of important changes in the communications marketplace, such as the growth of new services that did not exist in 1994 or reductions in market share experienced by some industries since 1994. The Commission seeks comments on ways to improve its regulatory fee process for all categories of service, and inquires whether regulatory fees can be better aligned with its regulatory activities; whether it should continue to assess fees based on the allocation used for 2008 or should revert to an earlier allocation; or whether an entirely different allocation method should be adopted. The Commission also inquires about possible methodologies for re-calculating the regulatory fee allocation.

AAPC is the national trade association representing the interests of paging carriers throughout the United States. AAPC’s members include a majority of the paging operators with nationwide licenses under Parts 22, 24 and 90 of the Commission’s rules; a representative crosssection of operators of regional and local paging systems licensed by the Commission; as well as equipment suppliers and other vendors to the carrier industry. AAPC has urged the Commission for the past several years to re-examine the regulatory fee applicable to paging carriers, and thus welcomes the opportunity to respond to the FNPR.

As AAPC has repeatedly noted in its comments over the years, regulatory fees are supposed to be determined in accordance with the principles set forth in Section 9 of the Communications Act, 47 U.S.C. §159.¹ In FY 2002, when the Commission increased the CMRS Messaging fee from $0.05 per unit to $0.08 per unit over the objection of the paging industry, Commissioner Copps pointed out in his concurring statement:

[T]he Commission does not address when or how it would adjust regulatory fees to take into account changes to the cost of regulating various services. The paging industry argues that it faces a 60 percent per unit increase in regulatory fees this year due to a declining subscriber base, notwithstanding reduced regulatory resources devoted to paging. Today’s order . . . fails to address the underlying concern about revisions to the Commission’s methodology. I take some comfort, however, that the Commission plans to have in place a new accounting system in the near future . . . .²

In 2003 the Commission decided to maintain the CMRS Messaging fee at the FY 2002 level based on “unique circumstances” applicable to the paging industry,³ noting that “The Commission is completing design work on a new cost accounting system. As part of this process, we are evaluating methodologies for capturing data relevant to the regulatory fee setting process.”⁴ To date, however, the Commission has not altered its methodology for annual revisions to the regulatory fee schedule or undertaken a new accounting system to allocate costs among industry segments; but the “unique circumstances” applicable to the paging industry in 2003 continue to prevail. Accordingly, as an interim solution, the Commission has maintained the messaging fee at $0.08 per unit each year since 2002, despite a declining base of fee-paying messaging units.

The Commission still has not implemented a new accounting system to determine its costs of regulating different industry segments; instead, it has released a limited amount of data showing such statistics as the fee revenue generated by each Bureau and an indirect cost allocation by Bureau. The data do not, however, indicate whether the direct and indirect costs include those costs that properly should be defrayed by application fees, or how the application fee revenue realized by the Commission affects the allocation of regulatory costs within a Bureau. As a result, it is not possible in AAPC’s view to undertake a meaningful re-examination of the existing regulatory fee allocation methodology based upon the cost principles set forth in Section 9; and its comments herein of necessity will be limited to changes that are appropriate and justified within the limits of the data available.

To this end, AAPC does not at this time seek to challenge the rough proportion of regulatory fees derived from the CMRS industry as a whole, but does request that the ratio of the per unit CMRS fees be adjusted to reflect the approximate ratio between the average subscriber revenue derived by (broadband) cellular/PCS carriers and the average subscriber revenue derived by (narrowband) paging carriers. If this is done, as explained below, the messaging fee applicable to paging carriers will be reduced to $0.025 per unit, assuming that the cellular/PCS fee remains unchanged.

As noted above, the messaging fee applicable to paging carriers currently is $0.08 per unit, nearly one-half of the $0.17 per unit applicable to cellular/PCS carriers. However, the average revenue realized by paging carriers is approximately $8.00 per month,⁵ compared to the average revenue of approximately seven times that amount realized by cellular/PCS carriers.⁶ In this regard, AAPC notes that the Commission’s regulatory “costs” in recent years have been overwhelmingly incurred on the broadband (cellular/PCS) side of the CMRS industry, considering, e.g., such matters as E-911, wireless number portability, wireless ETC designations, universal service fund distribution matters, intercarrier compensation, AWS-1 and AWS-3 spectrum allocations and other issues which at most have limited applicability to the paging industry and generally do not apply to paging carriers at all. Accordingly, even in the absence of a new cost study on which to base a fee allocation, the Commission properly can and should adjust the fee ratio so that messaging and cellular/PCS fees paid by the CMRS industry each represent approximately the same proportion of the revenues derived per subscriber.

Assuming that the cellular/PCS fee remains unchanged at $0.17 per unit, this means that the messaging fee should be approximately one-seventh of that amount, which is $0.024 per unit or approximately 2.5 cents per unit if implemented for 2008.⁷ For the future, the pro rata regulatory fee revenue requirement properly applicable to the CMRS industry should be allocated between a messaging and a cellular/PCS unit using the same 1 to 7 ratio.

Accordingly, for the reasons stated above, the American Association of Paging Carriers respectfully urges the Commission to establish regulatory fees for messaging units at approximately one-seventh the per unit fee applicable to cellular/PCS units and to maintain that ratio when establishing future regulatory fees.

¹ Section 9(b)(1) requires the Commission to “determin[e] the full-time equivalent number of employees performing [fee-recoverable] activities . . . , adjusted to take into account factors that are reasonably related to the benefits provided to the payor of the fee by the Commission’s activities”.

² Assessment and Collection of Regulatory Fees for Fiscal Year 2002 (Report and Order), 17 FCC Rcd 13202 (FCC 2002) (concurring statement of Commissioner Copps).

³ Assessment and Collection of Regulatory Fees for Fiscal Year 2003 (Report and Order), 18 FCC Rcd 15985, 15992 at ¶¶21-22 (FCC 2003).

⁴ Id. at ¶21 & n. 31.

⁵ In the Matter of Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service, et al. (Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Report and Order), CC Docket No. 96-45, et al., FCC 02-43, released February 26, 2002 and published at 67 Fed. Feg. 11268 (March 13, 2002), at ¶59 & n. 145. Due to the intense competition within the paging industry and from the cellular/PCS industry, the average revenue per unit realized by paging carriers has changed little since 2002.

⁶ See, e.g., Kristen Beckman, “By the Numbers: Top Ten U.S. Wireless Service Providers,” RCR Wireless News, June 19, 2008 (reporting monthly Average Revenue Per Unit or “ARPU” ranging from $77 per month on the high end to $42.22 per month on the low end, with the five largest carriers all reporting ARPUs in the mid to low-fifty dollar range.

⁷ AAPC notes that the fee schedule for 2008 has a built-in “surplus” of $1.3 million, according to Attachment B to the FNPR. Thus, the relatively small reduction in fee revenues that would result from reducing the messaging fee from $0.08 to $0.025 per unit, if implemented in 2008, would not undermine the overall fee structure.

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Satellite Phone Surge

Elizabeth Woyke
09.16.08, 3:15 PM ET
Forbes

Greg Ewert lives in Maryland, but Hurricane Ike has been keeping him up at night.

As executive vice president of global channel distribution for Iridium Satellite, Ewert aims to make sure that organizations ranging from the Red Cross to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have ready access to his firm's satellite phones.

The job has been getting tougher. Hurricanes Gustav and Ike have swelled demand, prompting Iridium to ship 6,200 phones over the past three weeks. Last week, as Ike bore down on the Texas coastline, the firm's call traffic in the region tripled. Two weeks ago, when Gustav swiped New Orleans, the company's Louisiana traffic doubled.

"Three different areas in the southern U.S. have been affected in the last 30 days," says Ewert. "We're calling into service more equipment than we have in past years."

So far, Iridium has managed to meet demand. The company's policy of keeping three months' inventory of phones prepared it for the recent run on handsets. It has been routing calls the way it normally does: through its network of 66 satellites and down through a "gateway" station in high-and-dry Tempe, Ariz. This sky infrastructure insulates Iridium's system from whatever is happening on the ground, be it a hurricane, earthquake, wildfire or civil uprising.

The hurricanes, grim as they are, highlight Iridium's recent achievements. Its frothy rise under Motorola and subsequent $5 billion bankruptcy in the late 1990s led many to write it off as a costly flop. New management and foreign investors resuscitated the company in 2000 as Iridium Satellite.

Iridium's goals have since come down to earth. It has 305,000 subscribers—much fewer than the 1 million it once pursued but enough to make it the world's fastest-growing mobile satellite services provider. Frost & Sullivan has declared Iridium's service more reliable than that of its closest competitor, Milpitas, Calif.-based Globalstar, for the past two years.

Even so, the phones are hardly devices that average consumers will pick up. Iridium phones cost about $1,500 per handset and $1 per minute of talk time, prices which limit customers to being renters, says Ewert. Mobile data services cost extra and require an additional device.

(For a look at phones that help consumers during disasters, see "In Pictures: 11 Cellphones That Could Save Your Life.")

"Iridium's original idea of the ultimate businessman's cellphone was horrendously dumb because of the infrastructure costs," says Max Engel, a strategic analyst at Frost & Sullivan. "But the company that went bankrupt bears no resemblance to the company now."

The new Iridium essentially reversed its thinking. "Rather than worry, 'How can we give every executive a phone?' they said, 'We can communicate between any two points on the globe. Who needs this? Who will pay for it?' " says Engel. "It's a much more intelligent question."

The upshot is that Iridium has carved a niche as a communications provider to industries with far-flung, remote workers. Its major customers are maritime-related, ranging from oil and gas rigs to commercial fishing boats to container ships. It also has 31,000 Department of Defense employees, who comprise about 25% of revenues. In comparison, Iridium's disaster sales are tiny, about 5% to 6% of the company's annual business, estimates Ewert.

It's increasing with each hurricane season, though. Catherine Melquist, head of marketing for Vizada Americas, a major Iridium distributor, says the company has seen a surge of phone purchases and phone traffic, beginning with the onset of Hurricane Gustav. Customers—who generally purchase through Vizada's own network of service providers--range from Weather Channel reporters to utility agencies in Florida.

"There's always a spike during hurricane season, but people are coming to [satellite phones] quicker than in prior years," says Melquist. Purchases of one of the company's main product bundles are up 70% over August.

Ewert attributes the shift to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. As telco switching boxes flooded and generators got cut off from power, "There was a deepening awareness of the devastation that happens to traditional networks," he says. Iridium's phones can be activated in 30 seconds and work anywhere in the world as long as their antennae are visible to the sky.

These days, FEMA is a major client, along with the National Guard and numerous non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and state and local agencies. Iridium's phones have traveled to China following the Sichuan earthquake, to southeast Asia in the wake of tsunamis and out West to battle forest fires.

Companies like Cisco (nasdaq: CSCO - news - people ) and Raytheon (nyse: RTN - news - people ) have built routers that enable public safety staffers to pass calls between satellite phones, cellphones and walkie-talkies.

If the Federal Communications Commission accomplishes its plan to establish a dedicated wireless network for emergency communications, Iridium would try to work with it, too, says Ewert.

Iridium's next challenge is to replace its aging satellites with more advanced models. Ewert says that will happen around 2013 or 2014. Notes Engel, "It's in a pretty good competitive position as long as it doesn't lose focus."

MOTOROLA IMPROVES COMMUNICATIONS SOLUTIONS FOR THE MINING INDUSTRY

By Raju Shanbhag
TMCnet Contributing Editor
September 23, 2008

Motorola has introduced the most recent improvements to its portfolio of voice and data solutions for the mining industry. Along with its Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA)-approved HT750 portable two-way radio, the company has introduced MOTOMESH Solo wireless broadband network solution.

A wireless communication will face the ultimate test of its performance and reliability in industrialized locations like mining operations. All over the world, MOTOMESH Solo single-radio networks provide superior performance under the harshest, most challenging RF environments, according to Motorola.

Providing excellent combination of cost-effectiveness, ruggedness and reliability in challenging RF environments, Motorola’s MOTOMESH Solo mesh network solution is powered by a purpose-built equipment portfolio. To meet a variety of industrial needs, Motorola has come up with a variety of fixed access points and client devices.

MOTOMESH Solo provides broadband connectivity well beyond the capabilities of Wi-Fi technology and operates in the 2.4 GHz frequency band. Motorola’s proprietary Mobility Enabled Access (MEA) technology automatically adapts to high multi-path, highly mobile environments.

While the client-router architecture extends the network as the subscriber units move throughout the mine environment, its dynamic frequency assignment feature avoids other 2.4 GHz traffic automatically. With the help of tools like a single computer console, and Google Earth network views, the recently launched One Point Wireless Manager facilitates complete visibility and control of this entire wireless network.

Offering professionals in the private and public sector with reliable voice communications, Motorola’s HT750 two-way radios have stood the test of time. With the introduction of the MSHA-approved HT750 radio models, companies in the mining industry can now take advantage of this proven technology.

“Mining operations require reliable communication capability among workers to better coordinate their activities in and outside the mine - resulting in increased productivity,” said Paul Cizek, director of Professional Commercial Radios, North America, Motorola. “More importantly, voice communication is essential to maximize worker safety in emergency situations. With the MSHA-approved HT750 portable two-way radios, workers can communicate with one another to quickly respond to an incident.”

Raju Shanbhag is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Raju's articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Michelle Robart (TMCnet contributing editor.)

Ex-Motorola venture Iridium to merge with Greenhill affiliate

From Chicago Tribune news services
September 24, 2008

A unit of merger advisory firm Greenhill & Co. agreed Tuesday to buy Iridium Holdings LLC in a deal valuing the satellite-phone-service provider at roughly $591 million.

Greenhill will invest $22.9 million in Iridium prior to the purchase by affiliate GHL Acquisition Corp. and use $324 million to pay off debt and other costs, New York-based Greenhill said. Iridium shareholders will receive about $77 million in cash and 36 million shares in the company to be called Iridium Communications Inc.

Bethesda, Md.-based Iridium said the transaction will allow it to be debt-free and in a good position to replace its fleet of 66 satellites.

Iridium, in a prior incarnation, launched its "anywhere" mobile phone service a decade ago. But it signed up just a fraction of the subscribers that were stipulated when it secured its loans and, in 1999, Iridium LLC filed for bankruptcy protection.

Later that year, a company called Iridium Satellite LLC bought Iridium's satellites and other assets for $25 million—a fraction of the $5 billion it had cost Schaumburg-based Motorola Inc. and other investors to develop it.

The new Iridium re-launched service in 2001.

Emergency calls bring comfort, cash for Haitians

26 Sep 2008 17:58:00 GMT
Written by: Oisin Walton
Reuters

Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.

Boys make use of TSF's humanitarian calling operations in Haiti. —TSF

Today I heard a man speak to his estranged son for the first time in over a decade. His voice shook as he spoke through a volunteer who translated the father's Haitian Creole into the son's mother tongue, French.

The father and son had last seen each other when the son was a baby, emigrating from Haiti to France in his mother's arms. Now, here in this crowded, muddy town square in Gonaives - a city ravaged by the global food crisis and then severe tropical storms - the father has this first tearful exchange with his son via a free, three-minute phone call.

I am one of the two teams of Telecoms Sans Frontieres (TSF) emergency telecommunications specialists who deployed to Haiti as it was hit by four cyclones ? Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike ? in less than a month.

TSF's teams deployed from bases in Nicaragua and in France to support communications both among humanitarian relief workers and for Haitians who had been driven from their homes by flood waters. The hub of emergency response efforts in Haiti is in Gonaives, a northern city that has been largely destroyed by the hurricanes.

Around 77,000 of Gonaives' residents have moved to temporary housing ? crowded schools, churches or hospitals which have also been damaged by the storms. Countless more are staying in informal shelters, with family or friends. Our driver, for example, has been sheltering 20 people in his house for more than two weeks.

Gonaives is surrounded by hills ravaged by deforestation, triggering mudslides that pour into the city. Continuing heavy showers are frustrating the relief effort.

Mud chokes roadways and clogs houses, and while the water level is down, heavy rains are still triggering overflow from toilets and drainage pipes. Aid agencies fear the stagnating water will spread disease if it is not pumped out quickly.

I am on the team running a "humanitarian calling operation", which provides affected populations with free short phone calls to reconnect them with loved ones.

Since we launched our operation two days ago, it has been a tremendous success. Already more than 1,300 families have been able to contact relatives to ask for money or simply give them news for the first time since the cyclones hit Haiti.

Our team travels from shelter to shelter, reaching around two per day. We use satellite phones for international calls and mobile phones for domestic ones.

Access to satellite phones is very important since 80 percent of the calls go abroad. Of those, 90 percent are to the United States, mainly to Florida, but also to New York, Boston, Washington or Kansas.

There are many compelling testimonies to the importance of communications after disasters.

A few days ago, a 53-year old woman was able to call her father in Miami for the first time since the disaster. She thanked us because, even if her father wasn't able to send money, they were both very happy to exchange news. "It was so good to hear his voice. You gave me three minutes of happiness," she said.

Later, a man cried after calling his wife in Boston.

The Western Union office here has reopened, making TSF's calls even more important as people can now arrange money transfers. The Haitian diaspora is a huge source of revenue for many families living in Gonaives.

Normally, a three-minute call from Haiti costs around 135 gourdes ($3.45). To put that in context, a cup of rice (people don't count in kilos or pounds but in "cups") costs 35 gourdes.

For a population battered by the food crisis and then these storms, access to TSF's phone lines can mean not only moments of comfort connecting with loved ones, but also a potential lifeline to those who might send money.

Our calling operations should last several more days.

TSF's deployment to Haiti is also providing communications support for U.N. Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) teams and relief workers with the U.N. Children's Fund and agencies such as Medecins Sans Frontieres and the Spanish Red Cross. It is backed by partners including the European Commission Humanitarian Office (ECHO) and the UN Foundation and Vodafone Foundation Technology Partnership, which supports the use of emergency communications for disaster relief.

For more information about TSF, visit www.tsfi.org. For more information about the UN Foundation-Vodafone Foundation Technology Partnership's Emergency Communications for Disaster Relief program, visit www.unfoundation.org/vodafone.

The Best in Paging Is Also the Biggest!

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• Supports E1 trunks, T1 trunks, analog trunks, and dial-up modems.
• Includes extensive voice-messaging features.
• Provides Ethernet interface for e-mail and paging over the Internet.
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• When used with the Model 600/620 Wireless Data Manager, a simulcast network can be connected to the Model 2700 over Ethernet links.

Contact Zetron today to discuss your paging needs.

Zetron, Inc.
P.O. Box 97004
Redmond, WA 98073-9704 USA
Phone: 425-820-6363
Fax: 425-820-7031
E-mail: zetron@zetron.com
Web: www.zetron.com

SATELLITE CONTROL FOR PAGING SYSTEMS

$500.00 FLAT RATE

TAPS—Texas Association of Paging Services is looking for partners on 152.480 MHz. Our association currently uses Echostar, formerly Spacecom, for distribution of our data and a large percentage of our members use the satellite to key their TXs. We have a CommOneSystems Gateway at the uplink in Chicago with a back-up running 24/7. Our paging coverage area on 152.480 MHz currently encompasses Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana, and Kansas. The TAPS paging coverage is available to members of our Network on 152.480 MHz for $.005 a transmitter (per capcode per month), broken down by state or regions of states and members receive a credit towards their bill for each transmitter which they provide to our coverage. Members are able to use the satellite for their own use If you are on 152.480 MHz or just need a satellite for keying your own TXs on your frequency we have the solution for you.

TAPS will provide the gateways in Chicago, with Internet backbone and bandwidth on our satellite channel for $ 500.00 (for your system) a month.

Contact Ted Gaetjen @ 1-800-460-7243 or tedasap@asapchoice.com CLICK TO E-MAIL

Nighthawk Systems Discusses Recent Sales Activity

—Sales of Power Control Products Remain on Record Pace—

SAN ANTONIO, TX – September 25, 2008 - Nighthawk Systems, Inc. (OTC BB: NIHK) (“Nighthawk”), a leading provider of wireless and IP-based control devices and solutions, announced today that sales of its traditional power control devices have remained on a record pace throughout the first nine months of 2008 and that it expects those trends to continue throughout the remainder of the year and beyond. Nighthawk’s wireless control devices are used by a variety of customers, including electric utilities, departments of transportation, and communications companies, that need on-demand access to turn on or off power to or reboot remotely located, mission-critical devices.

H. Douglas Saathoff, Nighthawk’s CEO, stated, “Just as in years past, our growth has been generated by sales to both new and existing customers, and we expect this to continue. Core customers like Nebraska Public Power District and Verizon Wireless have placed new orders during the past thirty days, as have new customers such as Polk-Burnett Electric Cooperative and the City of Torrington, Wyoming. These and other orders have us poised to produce record revenues from sales of our legacy power control products not only for the first nine months of 2008, but for the year as a whole. As we begin to introduce new products to our targeted industries in the coming months, it’s important to know that our core products continue to produce a growing foundation of business for the Company.”

About Nighthawk Systems

Nighthawk is a leading provider of intelligent devices and systems that allow for the centralized, on-demand management of assets and processes. Nighthawk products are used throughout the United States in a variety of mission critical applications, including remotely turning on and off and rebooting devices, activating alarms, and emergency notification, including the display of custom messages. Nighthawk’s IPTV set top boxes are utilized by the hospitality industry to provide in-room standard and high definition television and video on demand. Individuals interested in Nighthawk Systems can sign up to receive email alerts by visiting the Company’s website at www.nighthawksystems.com.

Statements contained in this release, which are not historical facts, including statements about plans and expectations regarding business areas and opportunities, acceptance of new or existing businesses, capital resources and future business or financial results are "forward-looking" statements. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, customer acceptance of our products, our ability to raise capital to fund our operations, our ability to develop and protect proprietary technology, government regulation, competition in our industry, general economic conditions and other risk factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or implied in the forward-looking statements. Although we believe the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, they relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made, and our future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements may not meet these expectations. We do not intend to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this press release to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations, except as required by law.

Contact: Doug Saathoff
Chief Executive Officer
Nighthawk Systems, Inc.
dsaathoff@nighthawksystems.com
(877)7-NIGHTHAWK, Ext 701

www.daviscommsusa.com

Daviscomms – Product Examples

For information call 480-515-2344 or visit our website
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NEWS RELEASE

September 24, 2008
Contact: Joe Farren
202-736-3207

CTIA – The Wireless Association® Calls For Science-based Hearing on Health Effects

WASHINGTON, DC – CTIA - The Wireless Association® President and CEO Steve Largent issued the following statement today in advance of tomorrow's House Domestic Policy Subcommittee Hearing into wireless phones and health effects:

"CTIA and the wireless industry take the health of our customers very seriously. That is why the wireless industry has supported scientific research on these issues, and also supports the Federal Communications Commission's strict safety guidelines that apply to all wireless devices that are sold or marketed in the U.S.

"The wireless industry has always maintained that this important issue should be guided by sound science. The available scientific evidence and expert reviews from leading global health organizations such as the American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute, United States Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization reflect a consensus based on published scientific research showing that there is no reason for concern.

"In fact, just yesterday, the U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute stated that; '... [concerns] that using a cell phone may increase a person's risk of developing brain cancer are not supported by a growing body of research on the subject.' See http://www.cancer.gov/ncicancerbulletin/NCI_Cancer_Bulletin_092308/page7.

"The public will be well served if tomorrow's Congressional hearing focuses on the conclusions of peer-reviewed, published science."

###

CTIA is the international association for the wireless telecommunications industry, representing carriers, manufacturers and wireless Internet providers. www.ctia.org

Andrew Seybold: 25 Years of Cellular

September 22, 2008 — 11:24am ET
By Andrew M. Seybold
FierceWireless

Andrew Seybold

CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2008 was held two weeks ago in San Francisco. Even with the economy down, the show was well attended. Although I have not seen any numbers, according to those who were there, it was either smaller or about the same as last year's event. It was a good show where the hype was somewhat mitigated from previous years and there was a lot of realistic discussion about today's wireless and what is coming.

There were also signs everywhere advertising a very special dinner to be held Monday, Oct. 13, 2008, exactly 25 years after the first cellular phone call was made from the parking lot of Soldier's Field in Chicago. The dinner, hosted by the newly formed Wireless History Foundation, is the first event but my bet is that it won't be the last. The dinner guest list is shaping up to be a who's who in the cellular industry. You will note that I said 'cellular' not wireless. Wireless has been around since the late 1920s and early 1930s. The official history of two-way police radio indicates that the first two-way radio to be installed in a police car was in Bayonne, N.J., in 1933.

Cellular, or 'wireless' as we know it today, was not the first mobile phone service to be introduced into the United States (or elsewhere), it was first conceived by Bell Labs and presented to the FCC in 1945. Before the FCC got around to cellular, it first licensed mobile telephone service to AT&T and Southwestern Bell and the first system went live in June of 1946. In 1964, IMTS or Improved Mobile Telephone System was introduced--if you got a channel, you could use a rotary dial in your car, dial your own call and also receive a call directly. Operators known as Radio Common Carriers (private companies not related to the phone company) were also offering mobile telephone service, but most of them originated and placed calls using operators and most ran one-way paging systems as well.

There was activity in the mobile telephone industry in other countries as well, and according to one source, the first truly automatic mobile phone was invented by Ericsson and was first installed in cars in Stockholm. No matter what type of mobile telephone you had, it weighed about thirty pounds and was usually mounted in the trunk of your car with a control head mounted in the front seat.

I find it interesting that the first handheld cellular phone was invented by Motorola (Martin Cooper and his team) and when the first cellular systems were turned on, it had already received FCC approval. However, the vast majority of cellular phones were either mounted in car trunks, again with a control head in the front. Shortly after that we had "bag phones" that were smaller but still weighed ten pounds or more, and some were even usable in a car or when you were out of your car and walking around.

In December 1985, my co-author Mel Samples and I wrote a book entitled Cellular Mobile Telephone Guide that was published by Howard Sams and we even sold a few copies. Looking back at the pictures of the phones in use in those days and the simplistic network architectures makes what we have today seem incredible. So as we approach the 25th anniversary of the first cellular phone call made in the United States, we should keep in mind what came before and how long it took to get a cellular system approved by the FCC on unheard-of frequencies in the 800-MHz band!

Today no one questions the technology or the size and power of the devices, (except for battery capacity, which has been a problem from the first handheld onward). No one questions the fact that we can travel almost anywhere in the world and stay connected, and no one really seems surprised by the promised data speeds that will be available when 4G systems hit the street. And data is even more nascent than voice. The first wireless email system was turned on by RadioMail in 1992 using the RAM Mobile Data network (partially owned by BellSouth in those days), and it sported data speeds of up to 8 Kbps. This was followed by services over the ARDIS mobile data network owned by Motorola and IBM as a joint venture and then by CDPD or Cellular Digital Packet Data systems that employed unused analog cellular channels and was the first, I believe, wireless IP-based network.

Also in the 1990s, there were more than 50 million pagers in use (today there are less than ten million) and we were experimenting with two-way paging, voice paging and, of course, faster digital paging systems. The wireless industry has seen a lot in only a few short years and it is wonderful that many of those who helped make it happen are still with us and will join the celebration in Chicago on Oct. 13! This is truly an anniversary worth celebrating.

Andrew Seybold is an authority on technology and trends shaping the world of wireless mobility. A respected analyst, consultant, commentator, author and active participant in industry trade organizations, his views have influenced strategies and shaped initiatives for telecom, mobile computing and wireless industry leaders worldwide. Click here for more information about the Wireless History Foundation and the Oct. 13 dinner in Chicago.

NEWS FLASH — SATELLITE FAILURES

• January 11, 1997—Telstar 401 suffers a short in the satellite circuitry—TOTAL LOSS
• May 19, 1998—Galaxy 4 control processor causes loss of fixed orbit—TOTAL LOSS
• September 19, 2003—Telstar 4 suffers loss of its primary power bus—TOTAL LOSS
• March 17, 2004—PAS-6 suffers loss of power—TOTAL LOSS
• January 14, 2005—Intelsat 804 suffers electrical power system anomaly—TOTAL LOSS

DON’T WAIT FOR THE NEXT SATELLITE OUTAGE

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FCC Runs Blue-Light Special for D-Block Spectrum

By Frederick Lane
NewsFactor Business

September 25, 2008 1:53PM

The FCC, hoping for an emergency-responder network, has reduced the price of the unsold D-Block spectrum. Other rules proposed by the FCC in relation to the sale of the D Block include dividing the spectrum into 58 separate regions, if no single entity bids on the D Block. The FCC stresses the necessity of an emergency network on the D Block.

Last spring, the Federal Communications Commission held its highly publicized 700MHz auction, the sell-off of the slice of the electromagnetic spectrum that analog television signals will no longer be using as of next February. The auction raised nearly $20 billion for government coffers, and was generally considered to be a rousing success.

The only piece of the 700MHz spectrum that did not sell was the so-called "D Block," a narrow frequency range reserved by the FCC for the development and implementation of a national emergency-responder network.

In an effort to revive interest in the spectrum, the FCC announced that it is seeking public comment on a new set of rules governing the purchase and use of the spectrum. The most significant change is the minimum bid, which the FCC reduced from $1.3 billion to $750 million for a national license.

In addition, if no single entity bids on the D Block, the new rules propose dividing the spectrum segment into 58 separate regions, which would further lessen the investment required for a company to participate. The time limit for rolling out the network was also extended from 10 to 15 years.

Public/Private Partnership

The FCC's concept for the D Block is that a private company will build a national emergency-communications network that will ensure that police, fire and other first responders can talk to each other. Incompatible communications devices and conflicting networks were a serious problem during the response to the terrorist attacks on 9/11.

In exchange for building the network, the private company (or companies) would earn revenues by charging emergency responders for use of the network and selling wireless access to the spectrum to commercial accounts, as well.

"Let us be clear about what is at stake," FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said. "Without the partnership, there are no other viable tools for the commission to ensure that this network can be built in a timely manner, with a maximum level of interoperability for use by all public-safety entities small and large, rural and urban."

However, potential investors questioned whether the potential revenues would be large enough to offset the FCC's minimum bid and the cost of building the new network. The FCC projects the cost to be $6 billion to $7 billion, but potential bidders put the cost at twice that amount.

A 2009 Auction Planned

Once details of the proposal are released, the public will have 30 days to comment and offer suggestions. Chairman Martin said he hopes the commission will vote on the final D-Block auction rules by the end of the year, and then hold an auction next year.

"We — and more importantly, public safety and the American people — cannot afford to wait," Martin said. "In the seven years since 9/11 we have experienced enormously destructive hurricanes and tornadoes and deadly bridge collapses. Fortunately we have not experienced another terrorist attack. Simply put, we cannot afford to wait until we do."

Intelligent Solutions for Paging & Wireless Data

WiPath manufactures a wide range of highly unique and innovative hardware and software solutions in paging and mobile data for:

• Emergency Mass Alert & Messaging
• Emergency Services Communications
• Utilities Job Management
• Telemetry and Remote Switching
• Fire House Automation
• Load Shedding and Electrical Services Control

PDT3000 Paging Data Terminal

• FLEX & POCSAG
• Built-in POCSAG encoder
• Huge capcode capacity
• Parallel, 2 serial ports, 4 relays
• Message & system monitoring

Paging Controlled Moving Message LED Displays

• Variety of sizes
• Indoor/outdoor
• Integrated paging receiver

PDR3000/PSR3000 Paging Data Receivers

• Highly programmable, off-air decoders
• Message Logging & remote control
• Multiple I/O combinations and capabilities
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Specialized Paging Solutions

• Emergency Mass Alerting
• Remote telemetry switching & control
• Fire station automation
• PC interfacing and message management
• Paging software and customized solutions
• Message interception, filtering, redirection, printing & logging
• Cross band repeating, paging coverage infill, store and forward
• Alarm interfaces, satellite linking, IP transmitters, on-site systems

Mobile Data Terminals & Two Way Wireless  Solutions

	Fleet tracking, messaging, job processing, and field service management Automatic vehicle location (AVL), GPS CDMA, GPRS, ReFLEX, conventional, and trunked radio interfaces

Contact
Postal Address:	WiPath Communications LLC 4845 Dumbbarton Court Cumming, GA 30040
Street Address:	4845 Dumbbarton Court Cumming, GA 30040
Web site:	www.wipath.com CLICK
E-mail:	info@wipath.com CLICK
Phone:	770-844-6218
Fax:	770-844-6574
WiPath Communications

 SEE WEB FOR COMPLETE LIST:
www.preferredwireless.com/equipment CLICK HERE

Too Much To List • Call or E-Mail

Preferred Wireless Rick McMichael 888-429-4171 rickm@preferredwireless.com CLICK HERE www.preferredwireless.com/equipment OR HERE

Preferred Wireless

Motorola Authorized Service Center for Paging and Cellular.

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Contact

E-mail: whittinghill@minilec.com

Minilec Service, Inc. Suite A 9207 Deering Ave. Chatsworth, CA 91311

Minilec Service

Class-action lawsuit against Motorola proceeds

September 26, 2008 — 10:27am ET
FierceWireless
By Phil Goldstein

A federal judge has refused to dismiss a class-action lawsuit against Motorola, which claims that the handset maker's former CEO, Ed Zander, and the company's board misled investors about the company's prospects.

The lawsuit, filed in August 2007, seeks to represent anyone who bought Motorola stock between July 2006 and January 2007. Judge James Moran of Chicago's U.S. District Court said the plaintiff, Eric Silverman, has made sufficient claims to withstand Motorola's efforts to get the lawsuit dismissed.

However, the judge said Motorola's current CEO, Gregory Brown, and Daniel Moloney, head of the company's advanced research group, were absolved from wrongdoing because they could not have known about the actions Motorola is accused of.

Wireless Messaging Software

AlphaPage® First Responder (Windows 2000, XP, Vista). When the message matters, AlphaPage® First Responder is the fast, reliable, and secure solution Emergency Management Professionals choose. AlphaPage® First Responder is designed for the modern professional who requires full-featured commercial wireless messaging capabilities that include advanced features such as automated Route-on-Failure, custom message templates, and secure messaging with SSL encryption. AlphaCare™ extended premium support plans are also available. For more information on all InfoRad Wireless Messaging software solutions, and fully supported free demos, please click on the InfoRad logo.

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RADIO MENSAJES

A LEADING WIRELESS MESSAGING PROVIDER IN COSTA RICA IS SEEKING SOURCES FOR PAGERS (POCSAG AND FLEX - 929 MHZ AND 151 MHZ) AND CAR ALARM EQUIPMENT WITH PAGING REMOTE CONTROL AND BLOCKING.

PLEASE WRITE TO:
Miguel Gonzalez
MGONZALEZA@RADIOMENSAJES.CO.CR

WE ARE A SERIOUS PAGING CARRIER WITH EXTENSIVE EXPERIENCE IN THE FIELD

Wireless Communication Solutions

ISI-LX Internet Serial Interface with Protocol Conversion Converts Serial TAP message to SNPP, SMTP, or WCTP Pass through Serial Data to TCP/IP and TCP/IP back to Serial Supports Ethernet or PPP Connection to Internet w/Dial Backup Includes 4 Serial Ports for Multiplexing Traffic

IPG Internet Paging Gateway No Moving Parts Such as Hard Drives or Fans to Fail Supports 10Base-T Network Connection to Internet Accepts HTTP, SMTP, SNPP, and WCTP from Internet Sends TAP or TNPP to Your Paging Terminal

PageTrack Inexpensive method of automating your paging monitoring Uses standard paging receiver Available in 152-158 POCSAG or 929 FLEX (call for others)

Omega Unified Messaging Server Full Featured Internet Messaging Gateway TAP Concentrator and TNPP Routing Functions w/TNPP over Internet Serial Protocols Supported: GCP, SMDI, SMS, TAP, TNPP Internet Protocols Supported: AIM, HTTP, SMPP (out only), SMTP, SNPP, and WCTP Full Featured, Easy-to-use Voice/Fax/Numeric Mail Interface One Number For All Your Messaging Optional Hot-swap Hard Drives and Power Supplies Available

Please see our web site for even more products designed specifically for Personal Messaging carriers. For example, the Omega Messaging Gateway and Email Throttling Gateway (anti-spam).

Contact

Hark Technologies 3507 Iron Horse Dr., Bldg. 200 Ladson, SC 29456

Tel: 843-285-7200

Fax: 843-285-7220

E-mail: sales@harktech.com CLICK HERE

Web: http://www.harktech.com CLICK HERE

Hark Technologies

FCC revives emergency communications plan

By JOHN DUNBAR
Associated Press
September 25, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Communications Commission approved a new framework for the creation of a nationwide emergency communications network Thursday amid concerns that the ongoing economic crisis may make it difficult to attract investors.

This is the agency's second attempt to create a set of rules for the network, which would use public airwaves and private money. The first attempt flopped earlier this year when it failed to attract a bidder.

The new framework includes more detail and makes the plan more attractive to private companies in several areas.

The proposed network would be used by police, firefighters and other emergency crews responding to disasters or terrorist attacks.

The basic concept is unchanged.

The agency would auction a swath of airwaves — made available thanks to the transition to digital broadcasting — to a private bidder. That spectrum would be combined with a roughly equal portion of airwaves controlled by a public safety trust.

The private investor would build a wireless network and lease access to emergency responders while selling wireless service to commercial users for profit.

In March, a similar plan failed to attract a minimum bid of $1.3 billion. Potential investors said the proposal was too vague and too risky to serve as the basis of a multibillion-dollar investment.

Ideally, a new network will help solve the problem of public safety organizations not being able to communicate with one another. It also would avail emergency personnel of many advances in wireless technology that are accessible to commercial users.

The FCC says a national network could cost between $6 billion and $7 billion, but private sector estimates are more than double that amount. Construction of such a network would be years away even with FCC approval.

To make the plan more appealing to investors, the agency would reduce the minimum bid for a national license by nearly half and relax requirements on how quickly the bidder must construct its network.

The plan also allows bids on regional licenses rather than requiring only a single, national license.

The plan was placed on the agenda for a vote by Republican FCC Chairman Kevin Martin despite some resistance from the two Democrats on the commission.

Commissioner Michael Copps worried that the network may not be robust enough to withstand hurricanes and earthquakes, and that a proposed charge for public safety users of $48.50 per user, per month may be too high.

Jonathan Adelstein said the reserve price was too much despite the reduction and said Martin is not allowing enough time for public comment before a final vote.

Martin said public safety organizations need a network now. The airwaves for the proposed system will be available in February and will lie "fallow" without FCC action.

"I think it's just critical to get this done as soon as possible," he told reporters following the commission meeting.

The FCC could vote on final rules by the end of the year with an auction taking place sometime in mid-to-late 2009.

On the Net:

• Federal Communications Commission: http://www.fcc.gov

BloostonLaw Update

Published by the Law Offices of
Blooston, Mordkofsky, Dickens, Duffy & Prendergast, LLP

For faster downloading the BloostonLaw section has been moved to a separate page. CLICK HERE

There is a link and the end of the BloostonLaw section that will return you back right here when you finish. Please don't skip this section since it contains lots of important information.

EMERGENCY AUTOMATION & NOTIFICATION

• FIREHOUSES • SCHOOLS • PUBLIC FACILITIES • GOVERNMENT FACILITIES • EMERGENCY ROOMS WHAT DO FEDERAL AND STATE GOVERNMENT AGENCIES, FORTUNE 500 COMPANIES, WISPS, HAVE IN COMMON? THEY ALL USE NIGHTHAWK.

Nighthawk Systems Inc. manufactures low cost and reliable remote control products for fire house alerting, volunteer alerting, activation of warning signs and sirens, and a number of applications for public safety. The Company manufactures the EA1 and the FAS-8 which have been designed specifically for these applications. Both products are paging based and will work with any public or private paging network. They are available in all VHF, UHF, and 900 MHz paging frequencies. The products can serve as the primary notification system or an excellent, low-cost backup to existing systems.

The EA1 is the solution for remotely activating public warning signage. Examples include tornado sirens, flash flood warnings, fire danger, Amber Alert, icy roads, etc. The EA1 can also send text messages to scrolling signs. This can occur in conjunction with the activation of audible alarms and visual strobes. This is ideal for public notification in buildings, schools, hotels, factories, etc. The group call feature allows for any number of signs or flashing lights to be activated at the same time over a wide geographic area. In addition, the EA1 Emergency Alert is the perfect solution for low cost yet highly effective alerting of volunteer fire fighters in their home. When activated the EA1 will emit an audible alarm and activate the power outlet on the units faceplate. A common setup is to simply place the EA1 on a table and plug a lamp into the faceplate. When paged from dispatch or any touch tone phone the EA1 will awaken the fire fighter to a lit room. As an option the EA1 can be ordered with a serial cable, allowing for attachment of a serial printer. When paged the alphanumeric message will be printed out at the same time the alarm sounds and the outlet is activated. The EA1 is an ideal complement to alphanumeric belt pagers common to volunteers.

The FAS-8 is designed for activating one or more relays in a firehouse and if desired, printing the alphanumeric message to a serial printer. For this application the FAS-8 is set to activate upon receiving the proper paging cap code sent from 911 dispatch. Up to eight different devices can be activated all with individual time functions. The most common devices to turn on include the PA amplifier, audible wake up alarm, and house lights. The most common device turned off is the stove. The FAS-8 can accept up to 8 different cap codes and have separate relay and time functions per cap code. This allows for different alerting to be accomplished at the same physical location depending upon which cap code is sent. This can be very helpful when fire crews and medical crews are housed in the same building.

FAS8

Put the innovative technology of Nighthawk to work for you. For more information on any of our products or services, please contact us. Nighthawk Systems, Inc.
10715 Gulfdale, Suite 200
San Antonio, TX 78216 Phone: 877-764-4484
Fax: 210-341-2011
E-mail: sales@nighthawksystems.com
Web: www.nighthawksystems.com

PAGING & WIRELESS
NETWORK PLANNERS LLC WIRELESS SPECIALISTS

www.pagingplanners.com
rmercer@pagingplanners.com

R.H. (Ron) Mercer Consultant 217 First Street South East Northport, NY 11731
Cell Phone: 631-786-9359

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From: Ron Mayes
Date: September 25, 2008 12:12:16 PM CDT
To: "Brad Dye" <brad@braddye.com>
Subject: IP RELAY OPERATORS - SCAM OR NOT

Brad,

Last April Fools I informed you about a strange call using “IP RELAY OPERATOR” to inquire and attempt to purchase two way radios in quantity and have them shipped overnight via special courier from our business Advantage Communications.  The caller was going to pay via credit card and was going to use the radios.  I thought it was a joke because a deaf or mute person wouldn't have much use for a two way voice radio and we never processed the transaction.

This month we are averaging one or two calls a day from the “IP Relay Operators” who have the same request for a quote on Motorola VHF TWO WAY radios of various models or computer components like RAM and Hard Drives. Even before we get a price stated they want to use a credit card and have the radios shipped overnight.  On one particular call we asked the caller to email us through our website their request with complete information and address.  I Googled the address provided and it was a vacant lot in an industrial district in Georgia with no individual homes around.  Most of the time we inform the caller that we do not accept telephone orders for products outside of our business area and thank them for their interest.   Unfortunately, it takes three to four times longer to deal with such transactions using a IP Relay Operator.  Today I instituted a policy for our staff to inform the calling IP Operator that we NO LONGER ACCEPT Out of Area IP Relay calls.  Here’s my reasoning: Our company doesn't sell products over the phone; If a person out of state has the ability to find our business phone number they have the same ability to find our website and email us from there; All of our business customers are within our operating area and we do not do mail order to new customers. My personal experience with Hearing Impaired is that they like to see and deal in person on many communications products, however, they will shop around like anyone else.

The purpose of my letter is to make other communications shops and businesses aware of this activity so that they can take appropriate steps to avoid becoming a victim of fraud and end up with a bad credit card transaction and loss of money.  I’ve not been a victim of this scam however, researching these types of calls has shown a significant abuse by scammers because this contact method is basically untraceable, unverified as to who is really placing an order, and avoids many of the felony legal restrictions of the transaction through utilization of third parties and  non government shippers.

Having done business with the Hearing Impaired community in Kansas for many years past with TDD and TTY equipment and Alpha numeric pagers (70s -80s) I am very familiar with them.  Today technology has improved their ability to communicate at home and on the go through many devices.  In fact I copies the website information for IP-Relay.com here to give a legitimate basis of the services offered to continue to assist such citizens.  However, such various methods of IP Relay operator contact becomes a point of potential fraud by clever crooks as well.  The details on the service web site can be read as “NO PROOF of calling party disability status or identity required” and they can use wireless devices and internet connections to make such calls to further reduce traceability.

Here’s what the IP-Relay.com website states about their service:

“IP-RELAY.com was the first service to offer deaf and hard of hearing persons the ability to place calls over the Internet. Calls terminating within the United States are placed confidentially and free of charge. Users have the ability to request a male or female operator based on preference. IP-RELAY.com users are not required to register or provide proof of disability. Calls can be placed either by the Call Now option which automatically connects to a relay operator at the click of a button or through the Custom Calling option which gives you the ability to customize communication.

In addition to voice-assisted calls, IP-RELAY.com users can place Video Relay calls. IP-VRS allows you to communicate with anyone you want using sign language and the speed of the Internet. Through the use of a Video Interpreter and video conferencing, you and the person you're calling can communicate in the language which is most natural for you. It's simple! You sign to a Video Interpreter who communicates to the voice caller and then in turn signs the voice user's response back to you. Video Interpreters are certified by the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) and/or National Association of the Deaf (NAD IV/V). Interpreters are required to meet strict codes of ethics so you can be assured of confidentiality.”

With the economy being so iffy at present, Identity theft, fraud and other crimes are on the increase.  Our small business operators need to be more aware of these types of activities that can cost us a lot of hard earned money.

Have a great day!

Ron Mayes
President
Advantage Communications
Wichita, KS
ron@advcom.net

From: Michael Mann
Date: September 20, 2008 7:09:09 AM CDT
To: Brad Dye
Subject: "New" interoperable first responder system...
Reply-To: mmann4tsr@yahoo.com

I don't understand why the simplest completely interoperable first responder system is never talked about. The "Nextel" part of Sprint Nextel seems like an obvious choice to me. It's embedded, it's already built, and how many groups do you know of that use Nextel phones already? After the rebanding project is completed the network will be in its very own spectrum area, free from interfering competition. It's also inherently secure and scalable at all levels. The US government could probably "buy" the network in its entirety for next to nothing, or simple concessions of other available spectrum for the company's CDMA and WiFi networks. Sprint Nextel doesn't appear to want the network anyway. Get to a location and have poor coverage? Just drive a COLT over there and crank up the mast, and you've got solid service. They've got hundreds of portable cell sites, they'll probably toss them in with the sale for free. Every single site already has backup batteries, and many also have generators. It's a proven technology, there are sites everywhere, and there is still no equal to its push-to-talk service (sorry Verizon). One-to-many and group calling features are built in from the ground up. There are a dozen ruggedized and intrinsically safe UL listed handset versions already on the market too...

With best regards,

Newsletter Editor

73 DE K9IQY

Brad Dye, Editor
The Wireless Messaging Newsletter
P.O. Box 13283
Springfield, IL 62791 USA

“Relativity applies to physics, not ethics”

—Albert Einstein