Dear Friends of Wireless,

Sometimes I tell the story about my grandparents having a paging system on their farm. It was a bell on top of a pole and was called a "dinner bell." As the name would suggest, my grandmother would pull on the rope when dinner was ready and my grandfather would come in from his work in the fields to have dinner. If there was ever an emergency—like a fire—she would pull on the rope much harder and faster, indicating that she need help right away. The story usually gets a good laugh, but it illustrates some excellent points. Like, we all need a simple and effective way to communicate over distance.

With the advancement of technology we have gone from smoke signals, to bells, whistles, flags, flashing lights, telegraph, and finally to radio paging. I really don't think any new technology fulfills this basic need better than paging. Although now most of us prefer to use the term, Wireless Messaging, I thought you might be interested in the origin of the term page, and in a report on a 12^th century Inca messenger in South America that predates our North American Pony Express by many years. As for the word page, I believe it comes from a bellboy walking through a hotel lobby striking a little chime and saying, “. . . paging Mr. Smith . . . paging Mr. Smith.”

These two reports follow near the end of this week's newsletter.

I am happy to report that Cell Broadcast is starting to gain attention here in the USA. This will allow a text message to be sent to every cellphone in one cell (one tower-coverage area) at the same time—just like we can do in paging with group call. This will be a very good thing for critical messaging. A news clip on this follows.

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.

Editorial Policy: The opinions expressed here are my own and DO NOT reflect the opinions or policies of any of the advertisers, supporters, contributors, the AAPC (American Association of Paging Carriers, or the EWA (Enterprise Wireless Alliance). As a general rule, I publish opposing opinions, even when I have to substitute "----" for some of the off-color words. This is a public forum for the topics covered, and all views are welcome (so far). Clips of news that I find on the Internet always include a link to the source and just because I report on a given topic or opinion doesn't mean that I agree with it.

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.

Market Scan

Motorola Razrs Away Its Dividend

Carl Gutierrez, 02.03.09, 10:15 AM EST
Forbes.com

The handset maker posted a whopping loss, suspended its distributions to shareholders and is looking for a new CFO.

Motorola Inc. 02/05/2009 4:01PM ET $3.68-$0.07-1.87%

3 mo.

At A Glance Chart News People BATS Real-Time Market Data by Xignite

More bad news from Motorola has left its long-suffering investors wondering why they had staked their money in the company in the first place.

The struggling cell phone maker posted a hefty 2008 fourth-quarter loss and suspended its 5 cent quarterly dividend, as it fell to fifth place in the global cell phone market.

Motorola (nyse: MOT — news — people ) also revealed that its chief financial officer, Paul Liska, was leaving but gave no explanation for the departure. It named corporate controller Edward Fitzpatrick as acting CFO.

Unsurprisingly, shares of Motorola fell 10.1%, or 46 cents, to $4.08, in trading in New York shortly after the market opened Tuesday.

In mid-January, the company announced that it will cut an additional 4,000 jobs and report a fourth-quarter loss. (See "Motorola Takes A Razor To Headcount.") The company had already laid off about 3,000 workers in the fourth quarter and said the latest cuts would be centered on the mobile device sector.

For a long time now the company has been defined by thus far futile attempts to turn its business around. For example, the flare-up in the financial markets forced Motorola in October to delay plans to spin off its lagging handset unit. (See "Motorola Puts Mobile Move On Hold.") The decision to separate its ailing mobile division from the more profitable home networks (Internet modems) segment was a resuscitation attempt: The Schaumburg, Ill.-based company has not had a handset hit since the Razr, which was more than three years ago. (See "Modest Motorola.")

All the while, it has had to contend with billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn. In April, Motorola persuaded Icahn to drop litigation against the company in exchange for appointing two of the activist investor's handpicked nominees to its board: Keith Meister, a managing director of Icahn investment funds, and financial services stalwart William Hambrecht. (See "Motorola Appoints Icahn's Picks.")

For the fourth quarter, Motorola reported a loss of $3.6 billion, or $1.57 per share, well off a profit of $100.0 million, or 4 cents a share, that was posted in the previous year's corresponding period. The loss, it said, included $1.56 per share in charges related to goodwill impairment and other items. Sales fell by 26.8%, to $7.1 billion, from $9.7 billion a year before.

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House Approves DTV Transition Delay

02.04.09
By Chloe Albanesius
PC Mag.com

Get ready for a summertime DTV transition.

The House on Wednesday approved a bill to move the DTV transition from February 17 to June 12, by a vote of 264 to 158.

The Senate approved the measure last week, so it now moves to President Obama, who is expected to sign the bill into law.

Television broadcasters are federally mandated to switch from analog to digital signals in order to free up spectrum for public safety and other uses. The February 17 date was selected by Congress in 2005, but recent concerns about funding for the converter box coupon program, technical issues, and consumer education prompted President Obama's team to push for a delay.

In addition to moving the transition date to June 12, the bill also allows broadcast stations to make the switch earlier than that date if they are ready. If the stations do make that early switch, that spectrum can immediately be allocated to public safety officials.

Meanwhile, consumers with expired converter box coupons may apply for new replacement coupons. At the moment, people with expired coupons are out of luck.

The vote was preceded by a floor debate, during which Republicans criticized the Democrats for holding a "closed" vote that did not allow for amendments and for not having any hearings or markups on the bill.

"I'm trying to figure out what it is the majority fears about open debate," said Rep. Greg Walden, an Oregon Republican.

"This was discussed in Rules Committee the other day and there is a need for expediency here," responded Rep. Jared Polis, a Colorado Democrat.

Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, a Republican and ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, also questioned why the bill does not include any funding for the transition.

"The money for this bill is in the stimulus package, which probably won't clear the Senate for another couple weeks," Barton said. "We're delaying a hard date without additional money. How silly is that?"

The stimulus package, which passed the House and is currently being debated in the Senate, provides $650 million for the coupon program and outreach efforts.

Democrats were not swayed.

"Can you imagine February 18 when millions of households will have their televisions go dark and not understand why? Yes, it would be great if everybody had received their coupons and everyone understood the transition … but they don't," said Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat. "I don't care about whether or not amendments have not been heard. This bill had been debated ad nauseam in committee over time."

"This has not been an ideal transition … and this is hardly a perfect solution, [but] punishing consumers is surely not the way we fix this problem," said Rep. Dennis Cardoza, also a California Democrat.

Barton provided details on some of the Republicans amendments that would have been offered had they been allowed, including one that would have removed the delay and simply authorized more money, one that would have exempted broadcasters from the delay if it was going to cost them more than $100,000, and one that said broadcasters would have to go ahead with the switch by February 17 if they were sitting on spectrum that could help provide broadband access to rural areas.

Barton still tried to push one change via a motion to recommit, which would have sent the bill back to committee, but that effort failed by a vote of 180 to 242. Under his plan, stations that are sitting on public safety spectrum would have to vacate by Feb. 17.

"Those stations that have spectrum that's going to be used by public safety officials and first responders have to relinquish that spectrum on Feb 17," Barton said of his motion. Stations that are adjacent to that spectrum would also have to make the switch.

The motion to recommit is "simply unnecessary," said Rep. Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat and chairman of the Energy and Commerce technology subcommittee. "There are very few public safety agencies that are even immediately prepared to start using that spectrum for advanced communication."

Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California accused the Obama administration of being swayed by R. Gerald Salemme, the executive vice president for strategy, policy, and external affairs at Clearwire executive who recently joined the Obama team as a telecom advisor.

"It appears to me that the process …was clearly tainted by someone who as an opportunist was trying to gain those extra four months," Issa said. President Obama, whose transition team pushed for the delay in early January, "was misled," Issa said.

Sprint and Clearwire completed their WiMAX deal in late November, but Clearwire chief executive Benjamin Wolff has said that the network build out might move more slowly than originally planned if the credit markets do not improve by early 2010.

Acting FCC chairman Michael Copps issued his support for a delay in a Tuesday letter to Barton and Rep. Cliff Stearns, a Florida Republican, who wrote to Copps on Monday in opposition of the delay.

"I believe that a short delay in the transition date will give us an opportunity – with adequate additional resources – to significantly improve the outcome for consumers," Copps wrote.

Stearns and Barton asked Copps to provide information about how many stations could switch to digital signals before the transition date without harmful interference.

Of the 1,749 full-power stations making the switch, the FCC has granted requests or received notification from 143 stations that have already shut down analog service. An additional 60 stations plan to make the switch before February 17, Copps wrote.

About 61 percent of all stations are currently operating on the same channels that they will be occupying after the transition and will, therefore, not run into interference issues, Copps said. Of those stations that will be switching channels post-transition, "most … may be able to terminate analog operations prior the transition date without causing harmful interference to other stations," he wrote.

Copps acknowledged, however, that this data "says nothing bout the consumers' ability to receive those signals."

The FCC will host a DTV transition hearing on Thursday. Witnesses scheduled to appear include representatives from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), Time Warner Cable, the National Association of Broadcasters, Consumers Union, the Consumer Electronics Association, among others.

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mocoNews.net - Wondering What Microsoft's Windows Mobile Roadmap Is?

Tricia Duryee
mocoNews.net
Thursday, February 5, 2009; 1:00 PM

When Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer takes the stage at Mobile World Congress in 12 days, he will have plenty to talk about. Yesterday, we outlined the company's new Sky-branded mobile services that will be unveiled in Spain, and today, there's more reassurances that the company will announce the latest release of Windows Mobile. The timing of the company's next operating system accidentally entered the spotlight earlier this week when Motorola's CEO let it slip during the company's quarterly conference call that Windows Mobile 7 won't be ready until 2010, or much later than originally expected.

Quoting anonymous sources, Mary-Jo Foley of ZDNet, was able to drum up some more specifics on the Windows Mobile road map:

• April 2009: Windows Mobile 6.5 will ship to manufacturers.
• September 2009: Cell-phone makers release the first Windows Mobile 6.5 devices.
• November 2009: Windows Mobile 7.0 releases to testers
• April 2010: Cell-phone makers ship Windows Mobile 7.0 devices.

Foley believes that the above dates are more aggressive than even what Motorola (NYSE: MOT) hinted at during the call. Because of that, she suggests that Microsoft is able to move up the release dates by choosing to work more closely with a fewer number of partners (which is something that Microsoft has already said it is doing). If that's true, is it possible that Motorola didn't make the cut? The general impression is that Motorola is decided to spurn Windows Mobile until 2010 and instead work closely with Google's Android operating system. But maybe it's the other way around?

February 05, 2009
BUSINESS

Iridium satellite phones second life

by Max Jarman - Feb. 1, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Ten years later, Iridium is alive and well in Tempe.

The high-profile Motorola venture crashed in a spectacular 1999 bankruptcy after its technologically flawless but pricey satellite phone system failed to catch on with consumers.

Only a handful of employees remained in 2000, when Iridium Satellites LLC paid $25 million for the array of orbiting satellites that Motorola and other investors spent more than $5 billion to develop.

The new leadership refocused the business on industrial customers, not consumers. The company, now profitable, is working on a $2.7 billion replacement of the aging satellite network.

Fittingly, it has brought back many of the project's early engineers to design the new system. "I jumped at the opportunity to come back," said Suzi McBride, who joined Motorola in 1993 to help design the groundbreaking system that would provide wireless phone service anywhere in the world.

"It was a fantastic project for a young engineer to work on because it had never been done before."

She's been working on the next-generation satellite constellation for two years and finds the work just as exciting and rewarding as before.

Of the 90 employees currently working for Iridium in Arizona, about half worked on the original project.

While Motorola's technology - which kept 66 satellites in seamless communication as they circled the globe - was viewed as brilliant, its business plan was a disaster.

The $9-per-minute service and the clunky $3,000 handsets never caught on with consumers, who favored the conventional cellphone service that improved dramatically while Iridium was in development.

Customers complained they applied for Iridium service, were sent information kits, but never were contacted by a sales representative.

They said they encountered programming problems on Iridium's Web site and the "runaround" from the company's representatives.

"It was a good idea," said Jeff Kagan, an independent telecommunications analyst in Atlanta. "They just couldn't sell enough of them to make it profitable."

Iridium North America garnered only about 50,000 of the more than 200,000 customers it needed to be viable. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1999 after defaulting on $1.5 billion in loans. The service had been operational for only nine months.

It was labeled one of the biggest business disasters of the decade and one of a series of business missteps that ultimately humbled telecommunications giant Motorola Inc.

After about a year in orbit, the entire network came close to burning up in the Earth's atmosphere when no one took over the network.

Former Pan American World Airways President Dan Colussy finally put together a group to buy the assets, including the satellite network, Earth stations and Tempe headquarters building for $25 million.

"The first day we had to buy supplies for the restrooms and start the business from scratch," said Matthew Desch, Iridium's chairman and CEO.

The company, which once had hundreds of employees in Arizona, had only seven when the new group arrived.

New model
Colussy refocused the business on industrial customers and the military. Instead of selling the high-priced service to consumers, he sold it to shipping lines, oil companies, railroads and trucking companies that needed to keep in contact with workers who were often out of the reach of traditional cellular networks.

Scott Mileur of Palmer, Alaska, uses an Iridium phone to communicate while guiding big-game hunting expeditions of Kodiak Island and other remote parts of the state, where there is no cellphone service.

"I use it to arrange air pick-ups, to talk to my wife and communicate with other hunting camps," he said.

The company has 309,000 subscribers, including about 33,000 telephones deployed with the U.S. military and many more sensor-based applications to track equipment and soldiers.

"When troops call home from Iraq, it's usually on one of our phones," Desch said.

Iridium phones also were a primary source of communication in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and after the earthquake in China last year.

"There will always be a need for a connection in an area where there isn't one," Kagan said. "In those areas, the only option is a service like Iridium."

In addition to the U.S. military, major Iridium customers include ConocoPhillips, FedEx, UPS and MedEvac.

The phones still are expensive, about $1000, but they are significantly smaller and more technologically advanced than the originals. The service costs about $1 per minute, expensive by cellphone standards, but much less than when it was originally offered.

Although Motorola insisted on developing its own technology and products, the new Iridium has dozens of partners who have developed specific applications using the company's technology.

Autonomous data transmissions have become the fastest-growing part of the business, which had 2008 sales of about $300 million. Iridium technology is monitoring oil pipelines, wind turbines, generators and other equipment in remote locations all over the world.

2nd generation
Although the new company technically is based in Bethesda, Md., its human-resources, marketing, engineering and product-development operations are in Tempe.

The satellites are flown by the Boeing Co. from Leesburg, Va., under a contract with Iridium. The gateway, where data and phone transmissions are downloaded from the satellites to ground communications networks, is in Tempe.

Data transmission was an afterthought with the original system, but will be integral in planning the new satellites. They also will be designed to carry commercial payloads, such as climate sensors, for other companies. Iridium estimates the payloads could generate $1 billion in revenue over the estimated 15-year life of the new constellation.

Iridium expects to award a $2.7 billion contract later this year to either Lockheed Martin Corp. or Europe's Thales Alenia Space for 66 new satellites, plus six spares. The two companies are the finalists in a bidding competition for the work.

Iridium plans to begin launching the new satellites in 2014 and have the system operational by 2016. The two arrays will initially operate in tandem, but eventually the older satellites will be taken out of orbit and eventually burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.

To help finance the new network, Iridium is proposing to merge with a publicly held special-purpose acquisition corporation formed by New York investment banker Greenhill & Co.

GHL Acquisition Corp. raised $400 million, through an initial public offering, to be used to make an unspecified acquisition.

The deal would make Iridium a public company again and provide a vehicle to raise capital to build the new satellites. GHL's stockholders are expected to vote on the deal later this year.

Kagan believes there clearly is more demand for Iridium service now than when it was first offered, largely due to computer advances, growth of the Internet and an increasingly global economy.

"People increasingly need information from those remote areas," he said.

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Cell broadcasts could help avert catastrophe

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Cell broadcast sends a message to all phones on all networks
• Unlike SMS cell broadcast is not affected by network congestion
• Could prove invaluable in warning people of natural disaster; tested by governments

By Steve Mollman
For CNN
February 5, 2009 — Updated 0136 GMT (0936 HKT)

(CNN) — Natural disasters like tsunamis or floods will always claim lives, but in the near future some of those lives will be saved by cell phone warnings, thanks to increasing use of a technology called cell broadcast.

Cell broadcasts could reach all mobile phone owners and wouldn't be restricted by network congestion.

The result of the technology — a text message warning on your cell phone — makes it seem similar to SMS. But differences in how it reaches you are matters of life and death in an emergency.

With cell broadcast, thousands (or millions) of potential victims can be reached in minutes because messages are sent indiscriminately to every mobile phone in the receiving area of chosen cell towers.

As with a TV broadcast, which isn't slowed down by a large number of viewers, a cell broadcast is basically immune to the problem of network congestion.

Part of the low-level signaling that goes on between handsets and networks, it's a point-to-multipoint mode of communication that requires neither switching nor specific addresses.

By contrast, SMS (point-to-point) needs both, leading to possibly fatal congestion and delays during a disaster.

The 2004 Asian tsunami was a "seminal event" in terms of focusing attention on cell broadcast, says Mark Wood, CTO of CellCast Technologies, which helps companies with location-based communications.

"Thinkers all over the world noticed that SMS was not scalable up to sufficient size to cover such a large population in such a short time."

The result? Many died who might otherwise have lived. Now, cell broadcast is in various stages of planning, testing or implementation around the world.

South Korea launched the first nationwide system in recent years, and Japan now has services as well. For now those are the main examples, but Wood expects about a dozen nations will have joined the cell broadcast club by the end of this year.

John Tacken, managing consultant at Conict Consultants, has been advising for the Dutch government on cell broadcast.

"It's an ideal platform for a government to use for public warning systems," he says.

One reason is that detailed instructions can be sent. A siren indicates danger, but not what kind of danger.

Consider industrial fires that produce poisonous gases. The best thing to do is stay inside your home, close the windows, and turn on the radio. But the Dutch government found that sounding the siren caused people to go outside to see what's going on.

Other European governments are following Holland's lead.

In the U.S., the WARN Act recently set out rules encouraging carriers to participate in government emergency warnings sent out to cell phones. It doesn't specify cell broadcast, but carriers don't have a lot of other options, notes Tacken.

U.S. carriers not cooperating with the WARN Act will have to prominently indicate it on consumer packaging at the point of sale. Fear of this competitive disadvantage has persuaded operators large and small to indicate they will participate (though some have declined to).

Japan and South Korea are ahead of the curve, as they often are in wireless technologies. Customers of Japan's NTT DoCoMo, for instance, can opt in to a free offering called the Area Mail Disaster Information Service.

Different approaches

There's much that still needs to be worked out with emergency cell broadcasts, and slightly different approaches will be taken in different places. One question is whether consumers should have to opt in to receive warning messages or get them automatically unless they opt out.

Area Mail customers must opt in, which requires a few easy steps on their handsets. But many experts believe opt-out is a better approach for public safety.

Also open for debate is whether to allow marketers to also use cell broadcast. The governments in Holland and South Korea have decided against it. But some argue it could help with the cost of deploying cell broadcast, especially in larger nations.

"Commercial and public uses can sit side by side without interfering with each other," says Wood, whose company is counting on it.

Few would disagree that all commercial messages should be strictly opt-in. Nobody wants spam broadcasts on their cell phones. Wood feels an education program "to inform citizens that cell broadcast does not intrude on their privacy and does not transmit spam" should be done.

Not fail proof

Cell broadcast does have some vulnerabilities. For instance if the cell tower itself is destroyed -- possible in an earthquake -- messages won't go out. And if your phone is off during the broadcast, you won't get the information even if you turn it back on minutes later, unless it's resent.

Cell broadcast has also met with resistance from carriers, some of whom complain about the costs (relatively marginal) of setting it up or their liabilities if a message fails to go out.

Indeed carriers have generally ignored cell broadcast, though most handsets can receive it and it's long been available as a standard part of GSM networks. (For other types networks some tweaking might be necessary.)

One reason is that they can't track and charge for each message, which possibly eats into their profits.

Such protests, though, ring increasingly hollow with each new tragedy in a world full of mobile phones that could save lives. Cell broadcast now seems poised for widespread if uneven adoption in public safety across the globe.

The upshot? Your cell phone might just save your life some day. Pack it in your beach bag.

Utility, phone service outages isolate many areas

By John Cheves, Bill Estep and Ryan Alessi - Herald-Leader Staff Writers

Wednesday, Feb. 04, 2009

GREENVILLE — In recent years, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has spent tens of millions of dollars to improve the emergency communications systems across Kentucky.

All it took was one ice storm last week to knock out electricity and phone service, isolating desperate communities in Western Kentucky.

In different counties, police and firefighters lost the radios connecting them to dispatch centers; county leaders couldn't use telephones to call Frankfort for aid; and emergency officials scrambled to connect themselves to the outside world by any means available, relying on ham radio operators or relaying messages to friends in nearby Tennessee who remained online.

"We've learned a valuable lesson, should an earthquake ever come, that we're not ready," state Rep. Steven Rudy, R-West Paducah, said at the state Capitol on Tuesday. "It's obvious that, if our communications are down, we're going to have to be self-sufficient for several days."

The Kentucky Office of Homeland Security, which awards millions of dollars a year in federal grants so that cities and counties can buy communications equipment, said it was unaware of communications problems.

"We have not received one complaint about any failures," said Homeland Security spokesman Michael Embry.

The Kentucky Division of Emergency Management, which works with local emergency officials in the county seats, said it already had provided a satellite phone to each of its 10 regional managers across the state.

But those regional managers can be responsible for a dozen or more counties, and in a disaster — such as an ice storm — roads might be impassible, so they can't travel. If individual counties want their own satellite phone, they need to buy one, said Emergency Management spokeswoman Monica French.

A satellite phone can cost $1,000 or more, plus $50 a month for a subscription, plus per-minute airtime costs of up to $10.

"They're very expensive," French said. "That's gonna be a county issue in terms of what that county can afford."

In the meantime, Kentuckians should be grateful to ham radio operators who stepped forward to link Western Kentucky to Frankfort, French said. Those volunteers are actually an important part of the state's emergency-response strategy, she said.

Around Western Kentucky, local leaders said they were mostly satisfied with the assistance they're now getting from Frankfort and the Federal Emergency Management Agency — including generators, food, water and National Guard troops — but only after they could get someone on the phone.

Police and firefighters in Ohio County lost the use of their two-way radios when the power failed and their batteries ran down. They found generators and brought them in to run the county's emergency dispatch center.

"We did what we had to do to work through it," said Charles Shields, director of Ohio County emergency management.

Without cellular or land-line telephones — ice took out the towers and lines — Muhlenberg County officials searched for a satellite phone to call state leaders in Frankfort for emergency supplies.

They found a satellite phone at a nearby hospital, but only after a day had passed, possibly delaying the relief sought by residents, said Keith Putnam, director of Muhlenberg County emergency management.

"Communications were almost nil from here," Putnam said Tuesday.

The Kentucky National Guard later sent a mobile command vehicle full of communications equipment, but it would have been tremendously helpful for county officials to have their own satellite phone, Putnam said.

Hopkins County Judge-Executive Donnie Carroll issued an emergency declaration after the storm hit Tuesday, but without phone service, he couldn't call the state emergency operations center in Frankfort for help. He finally reached Frankfort courtesy of a ham radio operator, but Carroll said he thinks that was more than a day later.

Fulton and Hickman counties had to rely on officials in adjoining Tennessee to relay their calls for help and lists of emergency needs because phone service was mostly non-existent, said Rudy, the state lawmaker from West Paducah.

"Everyone has been able to get what they needed as long as they could request it," Rudy said.

AT&T cell phone service died soon after the ice took down power lines throughout the region. Rudy said he plans to talk to the Kentucky Public Service Commission about requiring cell towers to have back-up generators.

Local emergency workers in a third county Rudy represents, Carlisle, had a satellite phone, and because of that, they were able to get drinking water, generators and fuel, he said.

The state Division of Emergency Management conceded that it needs to study how well government responded in the ice storm, particularly in the area of communications.

"We were prepared, but we couldn't communicate with people," said Emergency Management spokesman Buddy Rogers.

"We've talked about and prepared for a New Madrid earthquake," Rogers said. "This is the New Madrid ice quake. This is catastrophic."

Staff reporter Beth Musgrave also contributed to this report.

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• January 14, 2005—Intelsat 804 suffers electrical power system anomaly—TOTAL LOSS

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Memories of BlackBerry still vivid 10 years later

Software VP was shocked device named after a fruit
January 31, 2009
MATT WALCOFF
RECORD STAFF
KITCHENER

Ten years ago, developers at Research In Motion were working on an exciting project called PocketLink when they got the word from the marketing department that from then on, they were to refer to their creation by the name of a fruit.

"I can remember clearly at the end of '98 being shocked when they picked the name out," says Gary Mousseau, the Waterloo company's acting vice-president of software at the time.

"I was just floored. We didn't have the branding, marketing and sales experience of these guys. We weren't appreciating their skill set."

Fortunately, the name BlackBerry stuck despite the techies' objections.

Ten years later, the Waterloo Region Record brought together some of the people involved in the creation of the BlackBerry to swap stories and talk about the genesis of the device that would change the world.

They certainly didn't feel like they were changing the world at first, says Mousseau, who was hired as RIM's 11th employee in 1991 and is now an intellectual property consultant. RIM, founded in 1984, had created an innovative device simply dubbed the 950.

It looked like a pager, but with a full keyboard, expanded monochrome screen and Intel 386 processor inside.

To the frustration of RIM's employees, the company's customers were not taking full advantage of the device's capabilities. They were using it with old servers and weak networks, mostly limiting its use to paging.

RIM was largely focused on paging in the late 90s, with email as an afterthought, says Dave Castell, who was on the marketing team for the original BlackBerry and is now retired.

"The BlackBerry project actually was more like hedging our bets or the contingency plan in case the first plan didn't work out," he said.

RIM, however, was an early adopter of email in the workplace, says Dale Brubacher-Cressman, one of RIM's first employees and program manager for handheld development in the late '90s. So RIM had an inkling just how much of an advantage ready access to email might be.

"I think there was a realization that this could be a game-changing solution," says Brubacher-Cressman, now president of Vigor Clean Tech, an alternative-energy company in Kitchener.

"I don't think we ever imagined it would be anywhere near as popular as it became."

Mike Lazaridis, the company's founder and current co-chief executive officer, Mousseau and a few others had jury-rigged an email solution on their 950s by forwarding their work email inboxes to their mobile devices. It worked only one way; they couldn't reply to the messages.

But "it was exciting enough that one day Mike just called me into his office and said, 'Gary, we're going to solve this two-mailbox problem once and for all,' and we just started hashing it out," Mousseau says.

The two-mailbox problem meant that existing mobile devices could not work with users' work email, requiring a separate mailbox for mobile use. RIM's achievement was a solution that integrated the mobile device with the same mailbox used at the office.

RIM's employees were the test subjects for the BlackBerry email technology as the company worked on it in 1998.

They also became the first CrackBerry addicts.

"How we just did business just accelerated for me, at least in software," Mousseau says. "I got my answers so much faster; the roadblocks were just cleared quicker; I could just make decisions faster in '98."

The first devices -- machines that got BlackBerry email quickly became known as BlackBerrys -- were intended for text alone.

Conventional wisdom at RIM in the late '90s was that multi-use smartphones would never work, and the company was reluctant even to put a phone in the devices.

At the time, Jim Balsillie, RIM's other co-CEO, would compare what he called "everything devices" to the Chevrolet El Camino, the half-car, half-pickup truck that wasn't particularly good at being either, says Steve Carkner, former director of product development at the company.

Carkner now is chief executive officer of Panacis Medical in Ottawa.

Lazaridis is often called the creator of the BlackBerry. In fact, many people had a hand in the device's creation, from executives to overworked co-op students who developed software on RIM's then-modest budget.

But none of the RIM old-timers begrudged Lazaridis any of the credit.

"I'm not sure you could have replaced him with anyone else and still had BlackBerry," Brubacher-Cressman says.

"He obviously had a lot of really smart and really talented people working for him, but it was his job of pulling all that together."

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BloostonLaw Telecom Update

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

[Selected portions reproduced here with the firm's permission.]

www.bloostonlaw.com

Gomez Appointed Deputy NTIA Administrator

Anna Gomez has been appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information for the U.S. Department of Commerce and Deputy Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). One of her chief priorities will be to help ensure that the transition to digital TV goes smoothly.

NTIA has been criticized by the Democratic Congress for mismanaging the converter box coupon program. Gomez will be charged with making sure consumers get coupons and the information they need to switch to digital programming. The House today passed legislation extending the DTV transition deadline from February 17 until June 12.

Most recently, Gomez served as vice president for state, regulatory and government affairs at Sprint Nextel. Before that, Gomez worked for several years at the FCC in various management positions in the Wireless Competition Bureau and the International Bureau, where she assisted in developing policy on international telecommunications and satellite airwaves. She also served as a senior legal adviser to former FCC Chairman William Kennard during the Clinton Administration. She is also an adviser to President Obama’s transition team.

Prior to her work at the FCC, Gomez was deputy chief of staff in the National Economic Council during the Clinton administration specializing in the development of U.S. telecommunications policy and issues related to Hispanic education. She was also staff counsel in the Senate Commerce Committee's subcommittee on communication.

BloostonLaw contacts: Hal Mordkofsky, Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and John Prendergast.

Senate Adds $3 Billion To Broadband Stimulus Grants

The U.S. Senate last week increased from $6 billion to $9 billion the amount of broadband funding in the economic stimulus package. Introduced by Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), S 336 allocates $9 billion for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA’s) “Broadband Technology Opportunities Program” to remain available until September 30, 2010. Fifty percent of the funds are to be used for projects in rural areas.

Up to $200 million is to be available for competitive grants for expanding public computer center capacity, including at community colleges and public libraries; not less than $250 million will be available for competitive grants for innovative programs to encourage sustainable adoption of broadband service; and $10 million will be transferred to Department of Commerce, Office of Inspector General for the purposes of audits and oversight.

As noted above, 50 percent of the funds are to be used to support projects in rural communities, which in part may be transferred to the Department of Agriculture for administration through the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) if deemed necessary and appropriate by the Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture, and only if the Committees on Appropriations of the House and the Senate are notified not less than 15 days in advance of the transfer of such funds.

Additionally, up to $350 million may be expended for the purposes of developing and maintaining a broadband inventory map. Further, funds deemed necessary and appropriate by the Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with the FCC, may be transferred to the FCC for the purposes of developing a national broadband plan or for carrying out any other FCC responsibilities, and only if the Committees on Appropriations of the House and the Senate are notified not less than 15 days in advance of the transfer of such funds. Not more than 3 percent of funds may be used for administrative costs, and this limitation is to apply to funds which may be transferred to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the FCC.

Although the House version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (HR 1) passed that chamber last week, it did so without a single Republican vote. And 11 Democrats voted against it. Debate began early this week in the Senate, where the measure is expected to have a difficult time.

BloostonLaw contacts: Hal Mordkofsky, Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and John Prendergast.

House Votes To Delay DTV Date On Second Attempt

The House today passed The DTV Delay Act (S. 352), 264-158, thereby delaying the date for transitioning to digital TV from February 17 to June 12. The action was made possible after the Senate last week approved, for a second time, the same bill. The Senate did so in order to allow the House to bring its version of the legislation back to the floor today for its second attempt. The initial House bill was rejected because it was voted on under suspension of the rules and required a two-thirds majority. This time around, the bill required only a simple majority to pass. President Obama is expected to sign the legislation as early as today.

In voting a second time on DTV delay legislation requested by the Obama administration, Senate Republicans signaled they could have a much different agenda than their House counterparts.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said that Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison’s (R-Texas) leadership was critical to getting this bill passed. “We addressed the concerns of our colleagues, public safety, broadcasters and most importantly, consumers. The House will have a second chance [today] to implement this delay, I am hopeful they will pass this bill so we can send it to President Obama.”

The White House has criticized the Bush administration’s handling of the DTV delay and urged prompt action again by the House.

Speaking to the Consumer Advisory Committee on the issue late last month, Acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps said: “Unfortunately, things don’t look any better now that I’ve had a chance to look under the hood since becoming Acting Chairman. If anything, they look worse. At this point, we will not have—we cannot have—a seamless DTV transition. There is no way to do in the 26 days new leadership has had here what we should have been laser-focused on for 26 months. That time is lost— and it’s lost at a cost. We cannot make it up. There is consumer disruption down the road we’ve been on. We need to realize this. We need to plan for it. And we need to do whatever we can to minimize it and then to repair it. This has been the focus of my one week and one day running this place. I wish we had more time and additional resources to prepare, and maybe we will get them yet. Right now we’ve got a February 17 date and we need to deploy the resources to deal with that. All I can promise is that we will do everything we can in the next 18 days to make things work at least a little better for consumers, and then to deploy what resources are left to clean up after whatever dislocation occurs.”

Now that the February 17 deadline has been extended until June 12, new 700 MHz licensees from Auction No. 73, who are required to file quarterly reports on their DTV consumer education efforts; and all eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs), who are required to send monthly DTV transition notices to their Lifeline/Link-Up customers, may find that the current March 31, 2009, deadline for such obligations likely will be extended as well, requiring them to continue their outreach/reporting efforts longer. At this time, it is not known whether the FCC will extend the license expiration date and construction schedules, which are tied to the old February 17 DTV deadline, now that this deadline has been extended to June 12, as a result of today’s House vote.

BloostonLaw contacts: Hal Mordkofsky, Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and John Prendergast.

FCC ACTIVATES DISASTER INFORMATION REPORTING SYSTEM FOR KENTUCKY ICE STORMS: The FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (PSHSB) has announced the activation of the Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) in response to the recent ice storms in Kentucky. DIRS is a voluntary, efficient, web-based system that communications providers, including wireless, wireline, broadcast, and cable providers, can use to report communications infrastructure status and situational awareness information during times of crises. The Commission requests that communications providers expeditiously submit and update information through DIRS regarding the status of their communications equipment, restoration efforts, power (i.e., whether they are using commercial power, generator or battery), and access to fuel, if they provide service in any of the following counties in Kentucky: Ballard, Barren, Breckinridge, Bullitt, Butler, Caldwell, Calloway, Carlisle, Christian, Crittenden, Daviess, Edmonson, Fulton, Graves, Grayson, Hancock, Hardin, Hart, Henderson, Hickman, Hopkins, Jefferson, Livingston, Logan, Lyon, McCracken, McLean, Marshall, Meade, Muhlenberg, Ohio, Simpson, Todd, Trigg, Union, Warren, or Webster. Communications providers can accomplish this by accessing DIRS at https://www.fcc.gov/nors/disaster/ or under e-filing on the Commission’s main webpage or PSHSB webpage. Providers that have not previously done so will be asked to first provide contact information and obtain a User ID when they access DIRS. Communications providers that serve areas in any of the Kentucky counties listed above and that have already provided contact information in DIRS will be sent an e-mail requesting that they provide the above-referenced status information through DIRS. The FCC encourages all communications providers that have not already logged onto DIRS to input their contact information, do so as soon as possible.

NTCA’s Web site has issued the following alert for Kentucky telcos: The storm has knocked out power in most of West Kentucky Telephone Cooperative’s service area. The co-op is in dire need of generators larger than 8 kilowatt (kW)—ideally those in the 25 kW size. West Kentucky Telephone is also in need of installers and construction crews with bucket trucks to help restore service. Additionally, the state of Kentucky has requested generators as large as 100 KW to power hospitals and nursing homes in the affected area. Levoy Knowles, CEO of Ben Lomand Telephone Cooperative has offered to co-ordinate relief efforts for West Kentucky Telephone, as the coop is unable to make or receive calls at this time. Please contact Levoy at 931-473-2517 if you have the requested resources and are able to provide assistance.

BloostonLaw contacts: Hal Mordkofsky, Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and John Prendergast.

FCC TO HOST SUMMIT ON NEXT GENERATION IP-ENABLED 911, E911 SERVICES: The FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (PSHSB) has announced that it will host a Summit on Deployment and Operational Guidelines for Next Generation IP-Enabled 911 and Enhanced 911 (E911) Services, to be held on Wednesday, February 25, 2009, from 9:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. in the Commission Meeting Room (TW-C305). The New and Emerging Technologies 911 Improvement Act of 2008 (NET 911 Act) requires that the Commission work with public safety organizations, industry participants, and others to promote consistency in the deployment and operation of IP-enabled 911 and E911 services through development of standards concerning geographic coverage areas for Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs); PSAP certification and testing requirements; network diversity requirements for delivery of IP-enabled 911 and enhanced 911 calls; call-handling in the event of call overflow or network outages; validation procedures for processing location information; and the format for delivering address information to PSAPs. The Summit will bring together public safety organizations, industry representatives, and others to address these matters, and will serve to build upon the Bureau’s February 2008 summit entitled “911 Call Center Operations and Next Generation Technologies.” Additional details and a full agenda will be made public in the near future. The Summit will be open to the public; admittance however will be limited to the seating available. Those individuals who are interested in attending the summit may pre-register on-line at: http://www.fcc.gov/pshs/summitregistration. html. Those who pre-register will be asked to provide their name, title, organization affiliation, and contact information. Individuals may also contact Stephanie Caccomo at 202-418-1812 regarding pre-registration. The deadline for pre-registration is Monday, February 23, 2009. Audio/Video coverage of the meeting will be broadcast live with open captioning over the Internet from the FCC's web page at www.fcc.gov/realaudio . The FCC’s web cast is free to the public and does not require pre-registration.

BloostonLaw contacts: Hal Mordkofsky, John Prendergast, Cary Mitchell, and Bob Jackson.

NORTEL EXITS MOBILE WiMAX BUSINESS: Nortel has announced that it has decided to discontinue its mobile WiMAX business and end its joint agreement with Alvarion Ltd. Nortel said this decision, which will have no impact on Nortel's other solutions, will allow Nortel to narrow its focus, better manage its investments and strengthen its broader carrier business to better position itself for long-term competitiveness. Nortel said it will work closely with Alvarion to transition its mobile WiMAX customers to help ensure that ongoing support commitments are met without interruption.

"We are taking rapid action to narrow our strategic focus to areas where we can drive maximum return on investment. We will work closely with Alvarion to transition our mobile WiMAX customers to them and assure customers that they will continue to benefit from leading-edge technology and high-quality service," said Richard Lowe, president of carrier networks, Nortel. "Our continued success in the wireless business requires us to focus our energy on opportunities with long-standing customers. This will position Nortel more effectively to capitalize on future resurgence of carrier spend levels and drive value to the business."

The agreement, announced in June 2008, outlined the integration of Alvarion's advanced radio access network technology with Nortel's core network solutions, backhaul solutions, and global services. It also covered the resale by Nortel of the Alvarion platform of WiMAX access products. "Our priority is to minimize the effect on customers," said Tzvika Friedman, president and CEO, Alvarion. "We will work closely with Nortel to ensure that the transition will be as smooth as possible." Nortel missed out on a crucial WiMAX contract when it was not chosen by Sprint Nextel Corp. for its WiMAX rollout. Nortel also has dropped its W-CDMA business line but is continuing with its LTE roadmap and is in trials to test LTE with Verizon Wireless, according to RCR Wireless. Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection at the beginning of this year.

FCC Meetings and Deadlines

Feb. 5 – FCC open meeting.

Feb. 17 – DTV Transition has been delayed until June 12.

Feb. 17 – Deadline for comments on NECA’s proposed modification of average schedule formulas for interstate settlements (WC Docket No. 08-248.)

Feb. 20 – Deadline for reply comments on Rural Cellular Association petition regarding exclusivity arrangements between commercial wireless carriers and handset manufacturers (RM-11497). Extended from Dec. 22.

Feb. 23 – Deadline for comments on CTIA proposal to transition cellular licensing to CMA geographic market areas (RM- 11510).

Feb. 25 – FCC Summit on Next Generation IP-Enabled 911 and E911 Services.

Feb. 27 – Deadline for reply comments on NECA’s proposed modification of average schedule formulas for interstate settlements (WC Docket No. 08-248.)

Mar. 2 – CPNI Annual Certification is due.

Mar. 2 – FCC FORM 477, Local Competition and Broadband Reporting Form, is due.

Mar. 2 – Deadline for comments regarding possible changes to rules under Regulatory Flexibility Act (CB Docket No. 08- 21).

Mar. 5 – FCC open meeting.

Mar. 9 – Deadline for reply comments on CTIA proposal to transition cellular licensing to CMA geographic market areas (RM-11510).

Mar. 31 – FCC Form 507, Universal Service Quarterly Line Count Update, is due.

Mar. 31 – FCC Form 525, Competitive Carrier Line Count Quarterly Report, is due.

Mar. 31 – FCC Form 508, Projected Annual Common Line Revenue Requirement Form, is due.

Mar. 31 – Annual International Circuit Status Report is due.

Apr. 1 – FCC Form 499-A, Telecommunications Reporting Worksheet, is due.

Apr. 10 – Auction 73 winners must file quarterly report covering DTV consumer education outreach efforts for period Jan.-Mar. 2009.

Apr. 11 – Deadline for FCC to act on Embarq forbearance petition regarding IP-to-PSTN voice traffic, or have it deemed granted (WC Docket No. 08-8).

Apr. 20 – FCC Form 497, Low Income Quarterly Report, is due.

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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

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PAGING & WIRELESS
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rmercer@pagingplanners.com

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Early Paging in the Americas

Editor's note: You might even call this “Wireless Messaging.”

The Chasquis (also Chaskis) were agile and highly-trained runners that delivered messages, royal delicacies and other objects throughout the Inca Empire, principally in the service of the Sapa Inca.

Chasquis were dispatched along thousands of miles, taking advantage of the vast Inca system of purpose-built roads and rope bridges in the Andes of Peru and Ecuador. On the coast of what is now Peru their route ran from Nazca to Tumbes. Chasqui routes also extended into further reaches of the empire into parts of what are now Colombia, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile.

Each chasqui carried a pututu (a trumpet made of a conch shell), a quipu in which information was stored, and a qipi on his back to hold objects to be delivered. Chasquis worked using a relay system which allowed them to convey messages over very long distances within a short period of time. Tambos, or relay stations, were constructed at key points along the road system, often consisting of a small shelter with food and water. Chasquis would start at one tambo and run to the next tambo where a rested chasqui was waiting to carry the message to the next tambo. Through the chasqui system a message could be delivered from Cusco to Quito within a week.

A caricature of the Chasqui was used as the mascot for the Copa América in 2004, which was hosted by Peru that year.

This is my favorite—in my small collection of wood carvings. I bought it on a trip to Peru while visiting paging companies. I call this Chasqui “the first South American Pager.”

The European and North American “Page”

The medieval page
In medieval times, a page was an attendant to a knight; an apprentice squire. A young boy served as a page for seven years, from the age of seven (after cutting hair) until he was fourteen. At age fourteen, he could graduate to become a squire, and by age 21, perhaps a knight himself. Similar pages served in castles, and great houses fetching things and running messages for aristocrats and royalty. These boys were often the scions of other great families who were learning the ropes of the manorial system by watching and learning. Their residence in the house served as a goodwill gesture between the two families involved and helped them gain political contacts for their adult lives. A reference to this kind of page is found in the Christmas carol Good King Wenceslaus: "Hither, page, and stand by me, if thou know'st it, telling . . ."

The modern household page
Boys of humble background might also gain a similar place in a great house. According to the International Butler Academy, these pages were apprentice footmen. Unlike the hall boys, who did heavy work, these pages performed light odd jobs and were liveried when the aristocrat was entertaining.

The decorative page
During and following the Renaissance it became fashionable for black boys and young men to be decorative pages, placed into fancy costumes and attending fashionable ladies and lords. This custom lasted for several centuries and the "African page" became a staple accoutrement of baroque and rococo style. The character is frequently illustrated in literature and film, particularly period-work:

• In the Grace Kelly film, To Catch a Thief, an undercover detective wears the costume of her "African page" to a costume ball.
• Valentine Nwanze played an "African page" attending James Graham, Marquess of Montrose in the film Rob Roy.
• "Koko", the fictional manservant of an opera diva, is cast as her African page in A Nut at the Opera by Maurice Vellekoop.
• Decorative pages feature in a drawing room scene in Persuasion.

This type of page is almost unheard of today outside of royal residences, although the functions and status of United States House of Representatives Pages are a clear continuation of the earlier precedent.

U.S. Government Pages
Many state level government bodies uses pages as assistants to Senators, Representatives and/or Delegates during session. They mainly perform small tasks such as running errands, delivering coffee or assisting a speaker with visual aids.

• In the VA General Assembly the pages range from young males and females 13-15. They assist Senators and Delegates with delivering and errands.
• In the United States Congress, pages are high school juniors. The application process is very competitive. They are always present on the Senate and House floor during session to assist the proceedings as needed.

From: Zack Silbinger
Date: February 4, 2009 5:07:32 PM CST
To: Brad Dye
Subject: Remarks to a post

Brad,

I read Martin Flynn’s remarks (link to the post) about the METAmessage Advanced Paging product and would like to emphasize that Advanced Paging does not use the SMS protocol. Instead, it uses the reliable BlackBerry PIN-to-PIN communication mechanism (www.blackberry.com). SMS travels over the voice channel and can suffer from network congestion, while PIN-to-PIN communications use a small fraction of the data channel, which is designed to carry large amount of data.

The SMS/text messaging mechanism can't provide the service level expected from paging and doesn't meet governmental and healthcare organizations’ communication standards using paging for emergencies and critical life saving matters. To better understand the SMS barrier inadequateness for emergency communications and the mobile network limitations during crises and heavy loads (as was expected during the inauguration in DC).  I recommend the overview published in last week’s newsletter by Aaron Osgood - INAUGURATION: Will my cell phone work? (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10144044-94.html).

Along with reliability and similar user experience , Advanced Paging software offers several additional benefits:

1. Efficiency — Paging recipients can instantly respond to pages or use their smartphones to make calls or review records.

2. Custom Alerts — Pages cut through the clutter of email and texts with admin-controlled distinctive message alerts — even when smartphones are set to “Quiet” mode.

3. Cost savings — Advanced Paging typically pays for itself in 6-7 months.

4. Accountability — tracks when message is sent, received and opened.

5. Wi-Fi — for enhanced building penetration.

For more information please visit Onset Technology’s website: (www.onsettechnology.com) or contact me directly at: zack.silbinger@onsettechnology.com.

Sincerely,
Zack Silbinger
Onset Technology

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Editor's note: Check out this article about Onset Technology from RCR Wireless News, “Bringing paging into the future.”

From: Jay Moskowitz
Date: January 30, 2009 3:18:13 PM CST
To: Brad Dye
Subject: Two-way paging

Brad,

Further to your comments on two-way paging, look what RIM did with the blackberry service during the same timeframe as two-way paging was being developed. And they did not have radio channels that sent data faster than ReFLEX. I told you the story of how my first ½ month of forwarding my Email to SkyTel was a bill in excess of $7,500 which immediately drove me, a long time paging person, to a Blackberry instead. And in addition to the “Governor” product you mentioned, RTS Wireless created an airtime efficient Instant Messaging protocol that we were trying to get adopted as a recognized message type of FLEXsuite and integrated into a new T900-type pager. AOL's initial implementation of IM on the Blackberry, in which RTS was also involved, was an incredible air time hog and had an equally poor user interface. What RTS proposed was very airtime efficient, also including compressed text messages to further improve performance. But so many CEO’s were fearful of airtime utilization of Email and IM and they allowed Blackberry and text messaging to walk away with the business.

Jay Moskowitz
Chairman and Founder
SPD Control Systems Corp.
25 Health Sciences Drive
Suite 212B
Stony Brook, NY 11790
(631) 776-8500 (office)
(516) 249-6900 (direct Line)
(516) 445-8724 (mobile)
(631) 776-8501 (office fax)
(561) 732-3329 (direct fax)
Web site: www.spdControlSystems.com
Email address: jay@spdControlSystems.com
Skype: jay.moskowitz

"Changing the way you view windows"®

Editor's note: More will follow on the topic of e-mail over paging channels next week. I never meant to to imply unlimited e-mail over paging networks. I know that this would very quickly overload a paging network.

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