Dear Friends of Wireless,

The article, “Bringing paging into the future" by Gary E. Salazar, of RCR Wireless News, about a new product from Onset Technology, has stirred up quite a controversy in the paging community. I have received links to this article from several readers. Last week I published a letter from Zach Silbinger, Onset’s VP of business development—with his views on the “METAmessage Advanced Paging Solution” — and this week I have a guest editorial from my colleague Vic Jackson, president of Interconnection Services. A lively debate is always interesting.

Did you know that in the "heyday" of paging, Valentine's Day was the busiest day of the year for the number of messages sent?

I have been misunderstood concerning some of my comments about how I thought certain engineers had caused the paging industry to miss their window of opportunity to capture the market for wireless e-mail and wireless instant messaging.

I did mention that some of the tools were available to us, like remote managing of e-mail accounts from a two-way pager, and "The Governor" manufactured by Real Time Strategies, to smooth-out the peaks and valleys in one-way paging traffic.

We all know how much junk e-mail is sent over the Internet. It is a real pain, and if ever sent over a wireless system without any editing or control, it would crash the system in no time at all.

There are many very smart engineers who could have solved these problems for the paging companies. Temporary fixes could have kept us going until more elegant fixes were implemented. Later, the ReFLEX protocol was modified to enable narrow focusing on a few transmitter sites-at-a-time for message delivery, but it was too late. The opportunity had passed us by.

Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.) has come in from the outside and completely taken over the smart-wireless telephone market. They are solving some of the big problems that scared all of us in the paging side of the business. The featured news article this week is about Apple's "Push" technology and how they are dealing with important features that consumers want and need but features that are terrible "channel hogs."

Paging's big advantage is, and always has been, its ability to send one message to many recipients. Most all other technologies have to replicate that one message and send it out many times—once to each recipient.

In a mobile phone, if an application wants to check for messages, it (the e-mail app.) has to be, first running (that means consuming more of the mobile phone's battery) and then it has to go out over the radio channel and check to see if there is a message. Frequently there is no message, and so this type of application is a terrible "channel hog" and a waster of battery life.

So Apple just about has this problem solved with their "Push" technology. I hope you enjoy reading about it. Please don't be one of those people who rolls their eyes and says, "Oh I can't understand that, I'm not technical." Don't chicken out and miss some important points concerning channel loading and wireless messaging.

The big problem in wireless instant messaging has always been "how do we let a subscriber know when someone on his/her buddy list comes on-line?" (Without being a "channel hog.") It looks to me like Apple will solve several of these major problems with their "Push" technology. It will also benefit mass notification of the public in times of emergency—not as well as paging group call but a whole lot better than cellphones can do currently.

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.

Space crash called "catastrophic," lots of debris

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
Associated Press
February 13, 2009

MOSCOW (AP) — The crash of two satellites has generated an estimated tens of thousands of pieces of space junk that could circle Earth and threaten other satellites for the next 10,000 years, space experts said Friday.

One called the collision "a catastrophic event" that he hoped would force the new U.S. administration to address the issue of debris in space.

Russian Mission Control chief Vladimir Solovyov said Tuesday's smashup of a derelict Russian military satellite and a working U.S. Iridium commercial satellite occurred in the busiest part of near-Earth space — some 500 miles (800 kilometers) above Earth.

"800 kilometers is a very popular orbit which is used by Earth-tracking and communications satellites," Solovyov told reporters Friday. "The clouds of debris pose a serious danger to them."

Solovyov said debris from the collision could stay in orbit for up to 10,000 years and even tiny fragments threaten spacecraft because both travel at such a high orbiting speed.

James Oberg, a NASA veteran who is now space consultant, described the crash over northern Siberia as "catastrophic event." NASA said it was the first-ever high-speed impact between two intact spacecraft — with the Iridium craft weighing 1,235 pounds (560 kilograms) and the Russian craft nearly a ton.

"At physical contact at orbital speeds, a hypersonic shock wave bursts outwards through the structures," Oberg said in e-mailed comments. "It literally shreds the material into confetti and detonates any fuels."

Most fragments are concentrated near the collision course, but Maj.-Gen. Alexander Yakushin, chief of staff of the Russian military's Space Forces, said some debris was thrown into other orbits, ranging from 300 to 800 miles (500-1,300 kilometers) above Earth.

David Wright at the Union of Concerned Scientists' Global Security said the collision had possibly generated tens of thousands of particles larger than 1 centimeter (half an inch), any of which could significantly damage or even destroy a satellite.

Wright, in a posting on the group's Web site, said the two large debris clouds from Tuesday's crash will spread over time, forming a shell around Earth. He likened the debris to "a shotgun blast that threatens other satellites in the region."

Meanwhile, there's no global air traffic control system that tracks the position of all satellites.

The U.S. military tracks some 17,000 pieces of space debris larger than 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 centimeters), along with some 900 active satellites. But its main job is protecting the international space station and other manned spacecraft, and it lacks the resources to warn all satellite operators of every possible close call.

"With the amount of spacecraft and debris in orbit, the probability of collisions is going up more rapidly," said John Higginbotham, chief executive of Integral Systems Inc., a Lanham, Maryland-based company that runs ground support systems for satellites.

Oberg said the limited accuracy of tracking data and computer calculations makes it impossible to predict collisions, only their probability. He said most satellites also have little fuel to escape what most likely would be a false alarm.

"The collision offers a literally heaven-sent opportunity for the Obama administration to take forceful, visible and long-overdo measures to address a long-ignored issue of 'space debris,'" Oberg said.

In January 2007, China destroyed one of its own defunct satellites with a ballistic missile at an altitude close to that of Tuesday's collision, creating thousands of pieces of debris which threatened other spacecraft.

Both NASA and Russia's Roscosmos agencies said there was little risk to the international space station, which orbits 230 miles (370 kilometers) above Earth, far below the collision point. An unmanned Russian cargo ship docked smoothly Friday at the station, delivering water, food, fuel, oxygen and other supplies as well as a new Russian spacesuit for space walks.

American astronauts Michael Fincke and Sandra Magnus are aboard the station along with Russian Yuri Lonchakov. The crew size will be doubled to six members later this year.

AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson in New York and AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report.

Associated Press via Google

Collision Simulation

Advertiser Index

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Smartphones To Take Center Stage At Mobile World Congress

The mobile industry trade show may be Android's coming-out party as new handsets are expected from HTC, Sony Ericsson, and other manufacturers.

By Marin Perez
InformationWeek
February 13, 2009 06:46 PM

The mobile phone industry as a whole is expected to contract in 2009 for only the second time in its existence, and headlines have been filled with quarterly losses and layoffs. While it may be impossible to avoid the specter of the global economic slowdown, next week's GSMA Mobile World Congress should have enough new hardware are services to get businesses and consumers excited.

The market as a whole could decline by as much as 10%, but smartphones will continue to see tremendous growth over the next few years. The major manufacturers will have a full slate of new smartphones at the show that will take advantage of this rising consumer demand.

Many consumers are still taking a wait-and-see approach with Google (NSDQ: GOOG)'s open source Android platform because users haven't had a good look at other handsets besides the T-Mobile G1. With multiple Android handsets expected to be released in 2009, Mobile World Congress could be Android's coming-out party.

HTC will reportedly show the sequel to the G1, and it will likely ditch the slide-out keyboard for a full-touch interface. Huawei, Lenovo, and Sony Ericsson may also have smartphones with Google's mobile operating system.

Motorola (NYSE: MOT) could be an interesting player on the Android front, as the struggling manufacturer has focused many of its resources toward a handset with Google's OS. The company is still struggling to find a hit on par with its Razr phone, and it's reportedly prepping an Android-powered device that has strong social networking features.

Samsung was expected to have at least one Android smartphone at the show, but it recently said its handsets would be delayed until the second half of the year. The company will likely focus on handsets like the UltraTouch, the Acme i8910, as well as the revamped TouchWiz user interface.

The world's leading cell phone manufacturer is also expected to have a big show, and Nokia (NYSE: NOK) is sure to unveil a few handsets. Retailer Expansys already unveiled the full details of the E75 smartphone, and the Symbian device will have a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, assisted GPS, Wi-Fi, 3G, and a 3.2-megapixel camera. Nokia will share more details on its touch-screen N97, and rumors persist that the cell phone manufacturer will be bringing out an online store for distributing mobile applications wirelessly.

Microsoft Expected To Show Off The Next Windows Mobile

There were more phones sold with Windows Mobile than iPhones last year, but the consensus is that Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)'s mobile platform needs a reinvention. CEO Steve Ballmer will be delivering a keynote and participating in sessions, which should point out how important the mobile space is to the software company.

Microsoft will likely show off Windows Mobile 6.5, which is expected to have an overhauled user interface that makes it more suitable for touch navigation. It will also be introducing the My Phone service, which will sync data wirelessly between Windows Mobile devices and cloud-based storage.

Palm will continue its comeback bid and show off the Pre smartphone and the webOS platform. Palm CEO Ed Colligan said the company is killing Palm OS to focus resources on webOS and Windows Mobile going forward. Some more details may emerge about Palm's app store, and the company could potentially bring out a GSM version of the Pre.

Research In Motion (NSDQ: RIMM) isn't expected to unveil new BlackBerry smartphones, and the company won't even have a press conference at the show. Apple won't have a significant presence at the show, but the iPhone's presence will be felt. Many application developers will show off the next-generation of programs for the App Store, and full touch-screen handsets will try to emulate the iPhone's style.

The conference will also be the host to a slate of newcomers trying to establish themselves in the smartphone market. Garmin (NSDQ: GRMN)-Asus will show off its GPS-centric devices like the Nuvifone G60 and the M20, which is powered by Windows Mobile. PC maker Acer will also be entering the field with multiple handsets, but it's unclear what operating system will be powering them. The conference could also be the right platform for Dell (Dell) to debut its oft-rumored smartphone.

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Iridium network patched after collision in space

Sat Feb 14, 2009 12:40am GMT
By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Iridium Satellite LLC said Friday it had patched a hole in its global telecommunications network caused by a collision in space with a defunct Russian military satellite.

The fix "addresses a significant portion of outages that customers otherwise might have experienced," said Liz DeCastro, a spokeswoman for closely held Iridium.

Details were not disclosed.

The crash, about 485 miles above the Russian Arctic on Tuesday, destroyed the derelict Russian craft and one of the 66 cross-linked satellites that make up the Iridium mesh.

The company, based in Bethesda, Maryland, said it was preparing to activate one of its orbiting spares to restore the network fully.

The constellation provides voice and data services for areas not covered by ground-based communications. It counts about 300,000 clients worldwide, including the U.S. Department of Defense, maritime users and scientists at the South Pole.

Iridium declined to say if it was considering action against Russia for any negligence. Operators are expected to bring dying spacecraft back to Earth or park then in orbits out of the way of operational satellites.

"Of course, we're still looking at the matter," DeCastro said.

NEC'S NEW M155 MESSENGER SETS NEW STANDARDS IN MOBILE MESSAGING

Small and comfortable, the ultimate messaging device for healthcare and hospitality

Hilversum, The Netherlands, January 12, 2009 – With the introduction of the M155 Messenger, an extremely sophisticated and easily wearable wireless messaging device, NEC sets new standards in mobile communications and once again demonstrates the company is at the forefront of innovations.

The M155 Messenger is a sophisticated wireless messaging device, ideal for use in professional healthcare and hospitality environments. The small watch-like device is easy to wear and provides the mobile user the optimum in mobility, accessibility, flexibility and comfort. Besides a messaging device, the M155 also offers the mobile user speakerphone communication and acts as a personal alarm device.

Comfortable, practical and appealing
The M155 Messenger brings mobile messaging and speakerphone Communication for DECT users to the highest level of comfort. The device has a three-line display and is easy to wear on the wrist or as necklace. The M155 gives users full control over their accessibility and provides various call control options and integrates seamlessly with an organisation’s PBX and (messaging) applications.

The M155 Messenger provides an excellent communications device for organisations that rely on messaging or alarm information sent to employees, such as in hospitals and hotel environments. Integrated with applications common in healthcare and hospitality, the M155 Messenger meets the needs of message communications in environments where conveying messages to the mobile user is of utmost importance.

***************

About NEC Philips Unified Solutions
NEC Philips Unified Solutions is a leading provider of comprehensive communications solutions to organisations of all types and sizes. NEC Philips offers advanced IP-based solutions that unify products, applications and services, enabling organisations to communicate and collaborate more effectively, efficiently and reliably. The company is a joint venture of NEC Corporation and Royal Philips Electronics and draws on more than 50 years experience in providing communication systems and services to a diverse and global base of customers. NEC Philips Unified Solutions is headquartered in Hilversum, the Netherlands, and serves its customers through a global network of sales organisations and business partners. For more information: www.nec-philips.com

About NEC Corporation
NEC Corporation (NASDAQ: NIPNY) is one of the world's leading providers of Internet, broadband network and enterprise business solutions dedicated to meeting the specialized needs of its diverse and global base of customers. NEC delivers tailored solutions in the key fields of computer, networking and electron devices, by integrating its technical strengths in IT and Networks, and by providing advanced semiconductor solutions through NEC Electronics Corporation. The NEC Group employs more than 150,000 people worldwide and had net sales of approximately 4,825 billion yen (approx. $41.2 billion) in the fiscal year ended March 2006. For additional information, please visit the NEC home page at: http://www.nec.com

***************

For more information, please contact:

Robert van Amerongen
NEC Philips Unified Solutions
Tel: +31 35 689 1521
e-mail: robert.van.amerongen@nec-philips.com

Forward-looking statements

This release may contain certain forward-looking statements with respect to the financial condition, results of operations and business of NEC and Philips and certain plans and objectives of both companies with respect to these items. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future and there are many factors that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

The M155 Messenger is ideal for use in professional healthcare and hospitality environments.

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iPhone Push Notification Server tied to Snow Leopard Server

By Prince McLean
Published: 09:00 AM EST
AppleInsider

Despite licensing the proprietary ActiveSync Exchange Server protocol from Microsoft for use with the iPhone, Apple is building its own Push Notification Server for messaging services in both the iPhone and Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server using open, interoperable standards.

However, the company's pioneering, yet protracted leap into push messaging indicates that notification technology can be more complex that it seems, having delayed Apple's intended deadline for shipping PNS by many months.

The push for push messaging

Push messaging relates to information that is sent immediately rather than queuing up on a server, waiting to be picked up. In conventional e-mail, delivery is always push; sending an e-mail immediately pushes it to the server using the outgoing e-mail SMTP service. The client can always push out e-mail because it knows where the SMTP e-mail server is supposed to be.

In contrast, the incoming POP3 or IMAP mail server doesn't typically track the location of the e-mail client, meaning that new e-mails sit on the server until the client system manually checks for e-mail. This polling process (Apple calls it "fetch") is often set to occur on a schedule, as often as every few minutes. With mobile devices, having to rapidly poll for new e-mails on the server results in frequent network connections that usually result in discovering that no new e-mails are available.

The original goal of push messaging was to provide battery savings for mobile devices by having the server track the location of the device so that the server could both push out updates immediately and only when necessary, sparing the mobile device from having to fruitlessly poll for data to stay current.

RIM vs Microsoft in push messaging

The added luxury of having the server track the location of e-mail clients came at a steep price: RIM's highly profitable BlackBerry empire was not built on hardware sales, but rather from service revenues related to licensing its BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) software, which is used to track mobile devices and relay them new messages from the corporate e-mail system as they arrive.

Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) software (which has only its name in common with the company's unrelated desktop sync tool) duplicates the role of RIM's BES as an add-on mobile device tracker for facilitating push messaging. Both systems also allow IT administrators to manage the devices they track, limiting the software users can install or remotely wiping a lost or stolen unit, for example.

Apple licensed Microsoft's EAS for iPhone 2.0 rather than introducing its own competing push system, a decision which made the iPhone immediately useable for many businesses who already owned EAS infrastructure, or at least already used Exchange Server and could easily set up EAS for use with the iPhone at no additional cost.

Apple pushes back with MobileMe

At the same time, Apple also completed its own push messaging system for use with .Mac and delivered this alongside EAS in the iPhone 2.0 update. The new cloud push service and the existing .Mac services were fused together to create MobileMe, which allowed home users to enable push messaging on the iPhone without needing an Exchange Server account. In contrast with Microsoft's soon to be officially unveiled My Phone for Windows Mobile users (formerly known as SkyBox), MobileMe supports users' existing e-mail accounts and contacts and also provides data sync with their desktop apps, in addition to web hosting and video uploads.

When an iPhone is set up to perform push messaging with MobileMe, it registers with Apple's cloud servers, which then track its location on the network so that new e-mail, contacts, calendar, and browser bookmarks can be immediately delivered over the air the instant they change on the server, without continuous polling by the device.

MobileMe can also push updates to desktop client computers that register with the service. On Mac OS X, once users enable push messaging, the system registers its location with Apple's cloud servers and updates are pushed to Sync Services, which then distributes the updates to Address Book, iCal, Safari, and any other apps that register with that system. On Windows, iTunes handles the syncing of contacts, events, and bookmarks via a Control Panel interface, and sends new data to the configured Windows apps.

e-mail push messaging doesn't require messages to run through Sync Services (like calendar and contact updates) because the incoming e-mail IMAP-IDLE service supports the ability for the client to inform the server that it will accept new message notifications. This means that rather than pushing the entire e-mail to the client, the server sends a notification of new e-mail when it arrives at the server, giving the client software the option of downloading it immediately. This is more flexible than a straight push, because the system may want to delay the downloading a large e-mail, particularly if the system is mobile and the user only wants to download full messages when a fast connection is available.

Apple's Push Notification Server

Last year, Apple introduced plans at WWDC to provide a third push mechanism for the iPhone, in addition to EAS support and MobileMe. Rather than pushing updated contacts or calendar messages, the new Push Notification Server (PNS) would allow third party developers to push notifications of any type to the iPhone, which would then badge the application's icon, alerting users that the application had new information waiting for it.

That application, once started, could then download (or offer to download) whatever new data the notification server had alerted it to. For example, an IM provider might push notifications of new messages to the iPhone in order to badge its specific IM app. A mobile app that presents news, stock events, or some other information via an RSS feed could similarly be badged by the developer via PNS.

PNS was intended in part to allow third party iPhone apps to reflect regular new updates, pushed over the air, without the apps actually needing to stay active in the background listening for updates themselves (and eating up memory and processor cycles while waiting around). Instead, the iPhone would triage all the push notifications itself and badge the apps' icons so users and developers could both benefit from push notifications as efficiently as possible, and without developers needing to implement their own notification system.

Originally due last September, the service would allow iPhone developers to push three kinds of notifications to users' iPhones: badges, alert sounds, and textual messages.

However, Apple indicated that PNS was supposed to ship by last September. That deadline came and went, and the service was never rolled out. Apple released a developer seed with a PNS API, but the company noted that "this API is not yet integrated with a live push server." It appears that PNS ran into unforeseen complications. Apple hasn't given up though; the company itself uses a notification system to push badge updates on the App Store's icon, which then has to be launched to check with the iTunes server of what those notifications actually are, behavior identical to that described for PNS.

With the App Store icon, neither the actual software updates nor even their descriptions are automatically pushed to the phone; its badge is simply incremented by, presumably, PNS. However, the system isn't yet fully operational even for internal use; sometimes apps are available but aren't reflected with a new badge increment, and sometimes the badged number doesn't match the software updates that are actually available. Apple has been working similar kinks out of iTunes, which also tracks available iPhone software updates with less than perfect results.

The progression of a notification badge being sent from a server belonging to a third-party iPhone developer to an iPhone running the developer's application.

Apple has historically allowed a number of technologies to languish as it focuses on the most promising and profitable products to invest its resources in. That's good news for anyone wondering if the company's PNS will ever see the light of day, as the company has so much riding on it. Unlike Apple TV, iCal, and other projects that seem to have taken a long time to develop as back burner hobbies due to the lack of any real revenue stream to justify their development, Apple's PNS is directly related to immediately profitable, high priority projects from the iPhone to MobileMe to iTunes to Snow Leopard Server.

Snow Leopard Push

While Snow Leopard's Mail, iCal, and Address Book are set to gaining high profile support for Exchange Server messaging, they're also being updated to support open push messaging with Apple's own Snow Leopard Server. Rather than being based on EAS, Apple's own server push products are based on interoperable, open standards, the same as PNS.

Apple's iCal Server, which the company debuted both in Leopard Server and as an open source CalDAV calendar server project, is being updated to use XMPP publish-subscribe, an IETF open standard branching from the core of the Jabber IM service. That means Snow Leopard's iCal Server 2 will push calendar updates to clients using extended instant messages, making it an inherently push service. Like IMAP-IDLE, the system only sends a lightweight notification that new data has arrived, leaving iCal to fetch the new data itself in response.

In contrast, Microsoft's Exchange Server handles calendar events and other data as specially formatted e-mails, requiring additional infrastructure (RIM' BES or Microsoft's EAS) to supply push functionality for immediate updates. That also requires Microsoft to support a separate set of protocols when talking to desktop clients (MAPI) and mobile devices (EAS).

Instant messaging is always push

The main difference between IM and e-mail is that IM is inherently push. That's because the IM service constantly monitors the location of the client, enabling it to send rapid updates in both directions. The presence indicator systems that IM users must log into required more infrastructure than typical e-mail servers did, resulting in an initial domination of the IM business by proprietary protocols from AOL, Yahoo, and MSN. However, the Jabber project has since introduced an open source IM protocol that has expanded to become the eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP).

Apple began embracing XMPP in Mac OS X Tiger, with iChat gaining Jabber support on the desktop (next to AOL's proprietary IM protocol), and iChat Server being entirely based upon the open Jabber XMPP specification. That allowed iChat to work with other Jabber IM providers that appeared, including Google's GTalk.

In Snow Leopard Sever, iCal Server is paired with a Notification Server to provide push calendar updates using XMPP's publish-subscribe specification. Also known as pubsub, the service works like a "push RSS feed," so rather than polling an RSS file on a server to discover new updates, the Notification Server pushes out just what's changed to all of the clients who have subscribed to the update system (and who have been authenticated to receive updates). In some respects, the Notification Server is like a secured Twitter feed, with iCal server sending tweets to listening iCal clients to keep them abreast of changes.

Security is important to users who only want to notify themselves, their delegates, and their mobile devices of updates on their server-based calendar. Apple's PNS has similar requirements; adequate security is required to make sure that only a known developer is able to send notification updates through the system, and that only updates requested by the user are sent to their specific phone. Last year's WWDC attendees described Apple's PNS as a secured web service that simply relayed tiny XML messages. Why not use the same XMPP system to relay notification updates to the iPhone as will be used to deliver push calendar and contact notifications? That may be exactly what Apple has in mind, tying the release of PNS with the completion of Snow Leopard Server's own Notification Server.

Kenwood Systems and Zetron Partner to Provide P25-Compatible System

Kenwood Systems and Zetron recently partnered to design and implement a new, P25-compatible system for the 9-1-1 center in Hampshire County, West Virginia. This provides the new center with a more functional and reliable system. It also allows them to connect to West Virginia’s statewide UHF P25 radio system, greatly improving their interoperability with agencies throughout the state.

Redmond, Washington, U.S.A. February 10, 2009: Kenwood Systems and Zetron recently worked together to design and implement a new, P25-compatible system for the 9-1-1 center in Hampshire County, West Virginia. The solution integrates Kenwood radios with Zetron consoles to provide the 9-1-1 center with a more functional, more reliable system. It also allows Hampshire County to connect to West Virginia’s statewide, UHF P25 radio system. This will improve their radio interoperability with agencies throughout the state that do not all use the same types of radios.

The installation included six Kenwood P25-compatible TK-5810 radios and Zetron’s Series 4000 Communication Control System, Model 4048 Common Control Unit, and four positions of Zetron’s Integrator RD Workstation. The Zetron equipment and Kenwood radios were sent to Kenwood’s systems sales office in Atlanta, Georgia where Kenwood integrated the radios into the Zetron consoles. The equipment was then sent to Hampshire County 9-1-1 where Zetron reseller, Custom Communications and Computers, completed the installation.

“The project has been a complete success,” says Michael Crouse, Hampshire County’s director of emergency management and 9-1-1. We got a cost-effective solution that exceeded our expectations and facilitates our transition to the state’s new, state-wide UHF P25 radio system.”

“This is an excellent example of how Zetron consoles and Kenwood radios can be combined to enhance the functionality of both,” said Zetron’s Vice President of Sales, David De Long.

About Kenwood
Kenwood U.S.A. Corporation-Communications Sector is a worldwide provider of mobile and portable radios and systems to public safety, government and commercial users as well as amateur radio equipment. Founded in the United States in 1961, Kenwood U.S.A. is the largest sales subsidiary of Kenwood Corporation of Japan (founded 1946), which has 11 domestic and 22 subsidiaries around the world serving the needs of communications, as well as, home and car entertainment customers. Kenwood has achieved a leadership role in the two-way communications industry through a history of reliability and engineering excellence in diverse product offerings. For more information, visit: http://www.kenwoodusa.com, or call Kenwood at 1-800-950-5005.

About Zetron
For over 25 years, Zetron has been a leading provider of mission-critical communication solutions for public safety, transportation, utilities, manufacturing, healthcare, and business. With offices in Redmond, Washington, U.S.A.; Basingstoke, England, U.K.; Brisbane, Australia; and numerous field locations; Zetron supports a worldwide network of authorized resellers and distributors. Zetron is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kenwood Corporation. For more information, contact the Zetron Sales Department at (425) 820-6363. Or visit: http://www.zetron.com

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

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Interconnection Services, Inc.
Telecommunications Industry Consulting

Report to the Wireless Messaging Newsletter By Vic Jackson

February 12, 2009

In a Friday, February 6, 2009 article labeled “Healthcare field targeted for paging-enabled smartphones,” published in RCR Wireless News and written by Gary E. Salazar, the traditional common carrier paging industry has come under attack by a company (Onset Technology) touting a device that is a combination of a “smartphone” using conventional cellular networks and a “secure” Wi-Fi network communicator.

In defense of the traditional common carrier paging industry, I write this response.

Several of the statements quoted from Onset officials with respect to conventional Common Carrier paging are simply not true. The article implies that conventional CC paging is not reliable or cost effective, when in fact legacy CC paging networks are the most reliable and cost effective of any telecommunications available to the healthcare industry. The article also overlooks the significant security concerns, reliability problems and incompatibility/proprietary network issues involved by having only one device for all communications.

The terminology used in the article for “Paging” and “Pagers,” as previously used for the last forty years to describe common carrier paging networks, is confused and unjustly equated in the article with cellular text or e-mail messaging and with Wi-Fi communications over non-common carrier paging networks.

Zach Silbinger, Onset’s VP of business development is quoted as saying: “Get pages on a smartphone”. Unfortunately, the “pages” that are sent to a smartphone over cellular or Wi-Fi networks are not as nearly as reliable, cost-effective, or proven, compared to “pages” sent over legacy, common carrier, FCC licensed paging networks.

Conventional, legacy, common carrier, FCC licensed paging networks have multiple advantages over both cellular networks and Wi-Fi enabled networks such as:

1. Many orders of magnitude greater range and penetration into buildings and vehicles.

2. The capability of instant messaging to large groups of people over large geographic areas at the same time.

3. The advantage of being a completely independent network not connected in any way to the cellular or Wi-Fi networks.

4. Networks that are proven over decades of use, to be a low cost, reliable, and simple personal communications system.

The Smartphone article fails to mention some important considerations that could materially impact both users of their device and the reliability of their healthcare services.

Use of a single smartphone or communications device, regardless of technology involved, has no redundancy for communications if the device itself fails or is lost-stolen or if the network on which it operates fails for any reason.

A physically separate backup communications device, served by a completely separate network and technology, provides a valuable purpose and a life saving service if the backup device and its network can provide communications that are redundant to the primary communications device. Places such as hospitals with critical power needs do not rely entirely on the local power grid to supply electricity. They have physically separate backup generators and wiring for those situations when the primary power fails. The same should be considered for the hospital telecommunications networks whether they are large or small. In a very real sense, redundant systems and backup arrangements for any critical application is insurance well spent. A physically separate backup communications device, such as a CC paging system, served by a completely separate network and technology, can also provide an everyday overflow capability during high traffic situations (such as an extraordinary, but non-emergency event) as well as a more secure and private communications path when required by the users.

Kitty Weldon, a principal analyst with Current Analysis is quoted as saying: “Moreover as the market has moved from pagers to cellphones, paging companies can no longer afford to maintain their networks as they did before, much less expand them,” This statement is simply untrue. Only one large CC paging network provider has been trimming their network to more closely align with their business plan. In general, however, most CC paging carriers are improving and expanding their networks as market demand has dictated, especially for the healthcare industry.

Patrick Corr, Onset’s VP of sales is also quoted in the article as saying: “But a traditional pager has limitations because a phone is needed to place a call and more than one pager is needed if a doctor works for multiple clinics or hospitals.” Mr. Corr’s statement is both incorrect and misleading. A phone is not “needed” to place a call to a CC pager. Calls to traditional CC pagers can come from the public switched telephone network (including cellular phones) as well as the Internet, a dedicated terminal, call answering bureaus (both live and voice mail) or automated machine to machine systems such as medical devices or alarm systems. It is easily possible for a single pager to serve multiple networks. Of equal importance, when reading Mr. Corr’s statement in this regard, is the highly proprietary nature of the smartphones being mentioned in this media article for use on current cellular networks in the USA. One of the more pressing issues with the current cellular networks is the general inability to port any cellphone (or smartphone) device from network to network or to use open source software applications in cellular network devices.

The Onset official’s solution to “spotty” coverage (speaking of the Onset Advanced Paging Solution) in areas that have “dead” zones, is to promise that “networks are going to improve in the future”. However, this declaration was made after a prior statement from Mr. Corr, that; “This [meaning the health care industry] is an industry that is not hoping for reliability.”

The idea of paging over Wi-Fi networks is not a unique or new idea. Ron Mercer, a paging industry veteran and Consultant with Paging & Wireless Network Planners LLC, in East Northport, NY, and well known for his telecommunications expertise, authored a paper in November 2008 titled; “In Defense Of Paging Over Wi-Fi Networks” which was published in the Wireless Messaging Newsletter in the December 5, 2008 issue. This very timely and comprehensive article discussed the pros and cons as well as technical considerations for paging over Wi-Fi networks, especially as paging is used in hospital environments. Mr. Mercer points out in his discussion that paging over Wi-Fi networks is an “attractive potential” for hospital use but the technology is still under development from both a network and personal device perspective.

Certainly, Wi-Fi and/or cellular networks are, or can become, valuable utensils for some healthcare telecommunications needs. However, as noted above, the legacy, common carrier paging networks should not be summarily discarded as outmoded. Instead common carrier paging should be considered an essential and cost effective tool in maintaining and improving healthcare industry telecommunications networks of the future.

2377 Seminole Dr. • Okemos, MI 48864 • Telephone: 517-381-0744
E-Mail: vic@interconnectionservices.com

Vic Jackson is the founder of Interconnection Services, Inc., which specializes in assisting Commercial Mobile Radio Service carriers seeking Interconnection Agreements with other telecommunications carriers, Interconnection Issues and other Interconnection related services. Additionally, Vic is a telecommunications consultant for businesses, educational institutions, and government telecommunications systems.

Vic’s background is technical and systems management, including paging systems, two way mobile systems, telephone networks, and computer applications. For the past thirty years he has been involved in negotiating wireless interconnection and numbering issues with the local exchange carriers in various capacities on a local, regional and nationwide basis. He has also made numerous presentations as a nationally recognized authority on interconnection issues before industry groups, FCC staff, Regional Bell Operating companies, and state commissions. Please see www.interconnectionservices.com for more information.

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:

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Too Much To List • Call or E-Mail

Rick McMichael Preferred Wireless, Inc. 888-429-4171 rickm@preferredwireless.com OR HERE

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Easy Solutions provides cost effective computer and wireless solutions at affordable prices. We can help in most any situation with your communications systems. We have many years of experience and a vast network of resources to support the industry, your system and an ever changing completive landscape.

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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 E-mail Throttling Gateway (anti-spam).

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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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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

Handset Vendors In The U.S. Ranked

Posted by Eric Zeman
Feb 6, 2009 03:24 PM
InformationWeek

With the final numbers in from IDC, we now have a pretty clear picture of how the mobile market in the United States played out in the fourth quarter of 2008. Who was on top, and who wasn't?

Samsung's solid growth throughout 2008 coupled with Motorola (NYSE: MOT)'s disastrous 38% drop in sales led to the Korean maker of mobile devices overtaking Motorola as top handset vendor in the United States. Samsung reached 22% of the U.S. market and Motorola grasped onto 21.6%. In 2007, Motorola held onto 33.4% of the U.S. market and Samsung 18.1%. The reversal in ranking shows how drastically different the two companies performed in 2008.

LG wasn't too far behind Motorola, with 20.7% of the U.S. market. If Motorola's 2009 is as bad as its 2008, it wouldn't be surprising to see LG overtake Motorola in the rankings.

Fourth place falls to Research In Motion (NSDQ: RIMM), which sported a nice gain from 4.5% of the market in 2007 to 9% in the fourth quarter 2008. Nearly one in 10 people across the United States is carrying a BlackBerry.

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) — the No. 1 provider of cell phones in the rest of the world — nabbed 8.5% of the U.S. market in the fourth quarter. That's down from 10% a year ago.

Apple took sixth place with 4% of the U.S. cell phone market. Not bad for only being in the game for 18 months. I have to wonder what percentage of the market RIM had when it was 18 months old.

Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson, Kyocera, Sanyo, and Palm took places seven through 10.

The situation is quite different if you look just at smartphones.

According to IDC's numbers, RIM holds 49% of the U.S. smartphone market, with Apple ranking No. 2 at 21%. Those two are followed by Palm with 9%, Samsung with 6%, and Motorola with 5%.

Subject: Two-way paging with voice for hospital

Hi, Brad.  My wife works in dispatch at a hospital locally, and they have a problem, which I thought perhaps you and/or your readers could address.  Please do not publish my name on this, I don't have authorization from the hospital to be involved.

An institutional cell-phone system exists, and has been proven to work well for the department.  But each phone for this institutional (non-public, almost certainly HIPAA-encrypted) phone system costs $1,000 plus, which is really much too much; the phones can get lost, fall into toilets and other liquids, etc.

Optimal, would be a two-way pager system with voice.  The dispatch would send only typed data, using a web-browser system from her main PC.  The receivers would receive messages of about 100 characters each, and respond either by typing messages on a full mini chiclet keyboard, or by speaking a five-second voice soundbite into a microphone.  The dispatch would receive the soundbites through the PC.

Right now they are testing a one-way pager system which can send on the order of ten characters from dispatch to receivers, where each pager costs $250. 

Surely the industry can do better than that ???!???!???!  I know that there are $100 Linux devices which could be programmed to be clients for the whole 'optimal' setup, given general WPA2 wifi or 3G with VPN.

Worthless Geek Trivia...

I've heard that tonight, February 13 2009 at 17:31:30, the Unix Time stamp will be 1234567890. —N9PUZ

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