Dear Friends of Wireless Messaging,

AAPC Meets with the FCC
The Letter from AAPC President that follows tells of a recent visit to the FCC in Washington, DC by Scott Forsythe, Ted McNaught and Roy Pottle — along with AAPC counsel Ken Hardman. This is a great example of the aggressive leadership that we enjoy in our Paging trade association. It makes me proud to be associated with this group, and I hope that it serves as a stimulus to all carriers — large and small — that are not already members — to join immediately.

Why?
In meetings with the assistants to four FCC Commissioners, "the unique capabilities of paging technology during emergencies" were presented by the AAPC delegation. These staff members were also shown "that paging services continue to play a vital communications role for health care providers, first responders, and critical infrastructure enterprises." The AAPC delegation plans to return to Washington in a few weeks for additional meetings that could not be scheduled during this trip.

The AAPC is dedicated to representing and advancing the paging industry. If you or your company are a part of the paging industry, you need to be a part of AAPC.

Click here for a membership application.

Click here for a summary of membership benefits.

I spend my week searching for news and talking to people on the telephone. Lots of "inside scoop" comes in by e-mail (thanks a lot). I publish items that I think will be of interest to you dear reader. Sometimes I find information that I believe to be very important. The visit by the AAPC delegation to the FCC, mentioned above, is one good example. The other example this week is a video interview of Dr. Martin Cooper. As you probably know, Marty Cooper is the inventor of the cellphone.

This is a "Must Watch Video" of a C-Span interview featuring Dr. Cooper. This video is almost 33 minutes long. If you are at all interested in wireless, this is certainly worth your time. I recommend that you come back later, and view it in its entirety. Bring along a cup of coffee, learn about the latest ideas concerning radio spectral efficiency, and enjoy this historic interview. Everything is explained in non-technical terms that anyone can understand. More details below.

Now on to more news and views.

Wireless Messaging News
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 Opinion pieces present the opinions of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of AAPC, its publisher, or its sponsors.

Brad Dye, Ron Mercer, Allan Angus, and Vic Jackson are friends and colleagues who work both together and independently, on wireline and wireless communications projects. Click here  for a summary of their qualifications and experience. They collaborate on consulting assignments, and share the work according to their individual expertise and their schedules.

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Advertiser Index

Author has the book on Blackberry

March 06, 2010
TORSTAR NEWS SERVICES

WATERLOO — In the summer of 1985, the business office for Research In Motion was a 500-square foot room above the Bagel Bin on Erb Street East in Waterloo.

For work space, co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin used battered desks scrounged from the basement apartment they shared on Churchill Street and old doors that they laid across metal trestles. The pair were so poor they walked or biked to work, lived on spaghetti and stored soft drinks in the air-conditioning duct to keep them cool.

Lazaridis and Fregin were hard at work on a contract they had signed to provide electronic signs to the General Motors truck plant in Scarborough.

Research In Motion had secured this deal through a company called Computer Advertising Signs of Toronto, which had heard of an innovative product designed by Lazaridis called the Budgie that allowed users to broadcast messages on electronic signs using a computer program.

Home Hardware had ordered a few of the Budgies, but the majority remained stacked in boxes in Research In Motion’s tiny office, awaiting buyers who were slow to materialize.

For a young company such as RIM, the contract with General Motors was a huge one, worth $600,000. It caused the folks at Computer Advertising Signs to lose their heads. They redesigned their offices, ordered new furniture, hired a receptionist and started burning through cash that had nothing to do with the signs.

Meanwhile, Lazaridis and Fregin could only dream of eating the bagels they smelled as the aroma wafted up from downstairs.

Computer Advertising Signs went bankrupt before the contract was even completed. What about Research In Motion? Not only did it supply the Budgies to GM, it has never looked back, and today it is what author Rod McQueen calls one of the most amazing success stories in Canadian manufacturing history.

RIM has taken a place alongside Massey-Harris in the 19th century, and Bata, Bombardier, Magna and briefly Nortel Networks in the 20th, as the only Canadian manufacturing firms that have achieved success as a global brand, McQueen says in his new book BlackBerry, named after RIM’s flagship smartphone product.

A veteran business writer who has authored 12 books on companies such as Confederation Life, the Eatons and Manulife, McQueen said in an interview he was drawn to do a book on RIM because of the company’s astonishing success.

But gaining access to co-chief executives Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie did not come easily. Like a cagey predator stalking his prey, McQueen started doing background interviews in 2005. Among his early sources were key executives at microchip manufacturer Intel in Arizona and telecom carrier BellSouth in Atlanta, two pivotal partners in RIM’s early success.

McQueen did not approach Lazaridis and Balsillie until the spring of 2006, six months after he started working on the book. They were in Toronto to accept an award as CEOs of the year from the Canadian Club. McQueen approached Lazaridis and told him of his book idea and some of the people he had already interviewed.

Lazaridis was initially taken aback. “We don’t do very much of that,” McQueen recalls him saying.

Though they did not agree immediately, Lazaridis and Balsillie did consent to think about it. Eight months later, interviews commenced at the RIM offices in Waterloo and continued over the next two years.

Access was key, McQueen says. A book came out last year on RIM, called BlackBerry Planet, in which author Alastair Sweeny only had limited access to the RIM bosses via email. “It was decent enough book, but it didn’t have the stories” he was able to elicit, says McQueen.

Among the stories he was able to relate:

• Lazaridis read all the science books in the Windsor Public Library before he was 12, fixed the electrical system in his high school lab after it was damaged by fire and, aided by childhood friend Fregin, built his own computer that could add, subtract and play a game.

• While attending high school in Peterborough, Balsillie had five paper routes, ran a student painting business and worked at local ski hill and the local General Electric plant.

• In the early days, Lazaridis interviewed every applicant and placed the utmost importance on hiring the right people. Among them was Michael Barnstijn, a UW math and computer science grad. “Michael was a genius,” said Lazaridis. “He was doing stuff quite frankly that few people at the time understood.”

• Lazaridis was blown away by Balsillie when he first met him. At the time, Balsillie worked for the local manufacturing firm Sutherland-Schultz, which wanted to acquire RIM. He was known as the closer, brought in to finalize deals. “When he walked in the door, you could just tell he presented a unique personality,” said Lazaridis. “The thought that came to mind was, ‘You want this person on your team.’ ”

• When Intel was designing a microprocessor for an early version of the RIM pager, the company thought so little of the project it assigned mostly college grads to the development team and dubbed it Show Low after a nearby town in Arizona. Later, leaders of the team called the project one of the highlights of their career.

• BellSouth in Atlanta spent $300 million to build a wireless data network, but had picked up only 30,000 customers by the spring of 1997 and was on the verge of scrapping the whole thing when Lazaridis persuaded them to hear one final pitch for the pager RIM had been working on.

• When Lazaridis and Balsillie went to BellSouth’s headquarters in Atlanta for the crucial meeting, they were so nervous, they left samples of the hand-held device in a taxi cab. When they were finally able to retrieve the samples, BellSouth executives found themselves looking at pagers made of wood, plastic and a pasted-on keyboard. Still, they were impressed. “Mike was just awesome in his demeanor” said Jim Hobbs of BellSouth. “He had those guys believing he could walk on water.” BellSouth later placed an order for the devices worth $70 million, RIM’s first big contract.

• During later negotiations on the same deal, Balsillie left a meeting at a key juncture to buy a sandwich. While driving around he was in a car accident, but continued negotiations on his cellphone while he made sure the other driver was OK and waited for police to arrive.

The partnerships RIM had with Intel and BellSouth in the 1990s were very unusual, McQueen said.

“Normally big players like that only want to play with other big players. Here they were dealing with RIM that had fewer than 100 employees, but they could see they were on to something.”

McQueen spends only a few pages on the stock option controversy in 2006, but devotes a whole chapter to the expensive patent fight with NTP Inc. The stock option problem was common among many firms in North America, he said, but the patent dispute was one of the most publicized patent cases in U.S. legal history.

Lazaridis and Balsillie saw a final draft and only made a few changes to correct technical mistakes. “If they had wanted to make all kinds of changes, I would have taken my name off the book.”

In the end, the BlackBerry book is really a story about having a dream and sticking with it, McQueen said.

“Being an entrepreneur, you don’t have a eureka moment,” he recalls Lazaridis saying. “It’s really about persistence. Obviously you have to have a vision, you have to know where you’re going, but you have to be persistent and, he’s the first to admit, have a little luck along the way.”

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

Cellphone Inventor Uses a Motorola Droid And a Jitterbug

March 11th, 2010

Many of us don’t really know how the modern cellphone/smartphone came to be. We could spend hours upon hours trying to explain the history of it. However, all you need to know for now is that back in 1973 Martin Cooper invented the very first cellphone. Nowadays, the guy apparently spends his time using and trying different cellphones. As of lately, he is using the Jitterbug for phone calls only, and the Motorola Droid for more advanced tasks like tweeting. Cooper says he used to own an iPhone, but he now wants to get familiar with the Android platform.

The information comes from a recent interview with C-SPAN, who asked Cooper which cell phone he uses. This is what he responded:

“It depends when you ask me. I uh, always have the latest cell phone, and I try every cell phone out, only because people like you keep asking me. Right now I’m using the Droid, because I want to get some experience with the Android operating system, and I, so far, have some favorable results. I’ve had an iPhone, which I gave to my grandson, which he used for three months and then I had to upgrade to a — better version. And I’ve tried many other phones. For my day to day conversations I actually use the Jitterbug. So I carry two phones — one very simple phone that I can flip open that has a very simple phonebook and nothing else. But when I want to twitter . . . tweet . . . then, I use my Droid."

BRAD'S COMMENT:
Following is a "Must Watch Video" of a C-Span interview featuring Marty Cooper, the inventor of the cellphone. This video is almost 33 minutes long. If you are at all interested in wireless, this is certainly worth your time. I recommend that you come back later, and view it in its entirety. Bring a cup of coffee, learn about the latest ideas concerning radio spectral efficiency, and enjoy this historic interview. Everything is explained in non-technical terms that anyone can understand.

Aquis Communications Announces Launch of UnityAlert Emergency Mass Notification System

Yorktown, Virginia, March 9, 2010

Aquis Communications, a subsidiary of ComSoft Corporation, announced the successful launch of its UnityAlert™ Emergency Mass Notification System. UnityAlert™ is a multimodal mass notification system which incorporates multi-sensory wireless equipment and the most comprehensive notification architecture in the industry. Systems have already been deployed at Centre College in Danville, KY; Pikeville College and Pike County 911 in Pikeville, KY; Portsmouth City Schools in Portsmouth, OH and a number of government institutions.

Brian Bobeck, Aquis’ President said “the UnityAlert™ system was developed due to shortfalls in existing mass notification systems. Aquis leveraged our critical communications experience and developed a fully comprehensive system. We expanded the ways in which constituents in a campus environment can be notified.” In addition to SMS text, E-mail, cell phone, landline and other traditional means of communication, UnityAlert™ offers wireless point-to-multi-point information dissemination delivered to a variety of multi-sensory wireless devices. The devices include large LED display boards, small wall-mounted emergency display devices, wireless sirens as well as personal devices. The system permits zoned, targeted and all inclusive message delivery. The devices have flashing strobe lights, audible alarms, text message displays and text to speech announcements. These capabilities collectively improve the ability of the system to attract attention during an emergency as well as provide informational assistance to the hearing and vision impaired. At the heart of the system is UnityAlert™ Dispatch Software with both client and hosted solutions available.

The UnityAlert™ system has been designed to provide robust and reliable time critical emergency notification messaging, alarms and voice commands to any environment or geographical area. The system can accommodate larger public areas as well as smaller areas such as classrooms, stairwells, dormitory rooms and offices. The UnityAlert™ system may also be used for informational messages such as weather, events or schedule changes. The software can also send instant messages to viral community forums such as MSN, AOL, Yahoo, Twitter and Facebook.

Mr. Bobeck adds “many schools, universities and healthcare institutions have relied on systems utilizing SMS Text and e-mail as their sole or main delivery mechanism. Transient students, congested cellular networks, SMS text delays as well as coverage issues have made this notification method unreliable when used as the sole method of notification. The UnityAlert™ system will notify cell phones, SMS text, pagers, land line phones, E-mail, fax and community based applications such as Facebook and Twitter. In addition, UnityAlert™ will allow any entity to take more responsibility in ensuring a safe environment by supplying strategically located equipment throughout their facilities. The Campus should not just rely on users supplying their own equipment. The more diverse the system the more effective it will be in an emergency situation. Campus visitors and other members of the public will receive notification regardless of their personal communication devices and regardless if they registered with the system or campus.”

UnityAlert™ supports the Joint Commission’s Emergency management Standard EM 02.02.01. UnityAlert™ also supports the 2008 HEOA (Higher Education Opportunities Act) Section 485. UnityAlert™ qualifies for grants under the HEOA Section 821 awarding funds for Emergency Notification Systems.

About Aquis Communications
Aquis Communications is a critical communications company whose history dates back more than 25 years. Aquis is headquartered in Yorktown Virginia with offices in PA, NJ, TN, GA and WV. Aquis provides mission-critical and time-sensitive communications services to government agencies, healthcare organizations, educational institutions, public safety and industrial organizations throughout the country. Contact Aquis Communications at 100 N. Constitution Avenue, Yorktown, VA 23692. Telephone: 800-525-1134. For additional information on UnityAlert™ visit www.aquiscommunications.com.

www.daviscommsusa.com

Br502 Numeric VHF/UHF-900 MHz FLEX

Bravo Pagers FLEX & POCSAG

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With or Without Housing With or Without BNC Connector

For information call 480-515-2344 or visit our website
www.daviscommsusa.com

FCC Proposes To Transition High Cost Fund To Support Broadband Over 10 Years

FCC staff last week briefed Capitol Hill and the press on Universal Service Fund (USF) proposals included in the National Broadband Plan (NBP) that will be unveiled at the Commission’s March 16 open meeting. What follows is a summary of press and industry reports. However, this is only a preliminary view; it is not set in stone. We will have to await the details of the Plan and certainly the lengthy rulemaking process that will follow.

The FCC’s National Broadband Plan will propose transitioning the current high-cost USF to support broadband over a 10-year period.

The transition will take place over 10 years to a new “Connect America Fund” (CAF) that will support broadband, and the fund will support only one network provider per geographic service area on a technology-neutral basis, so that the solution could be either wireline, wireless, or satellite. The selected provider would receive support via a “market-based mechanism,” but it unclear what that mechanism would be.

Also, there will be a separate “Mobility Fund” to expand the reach of 3G wireless networks. Under this Fund, money would go to service providers in states where 3G service is considered to be “below the national average.” (But the “national average” is not defined.”)

According to Blair Levin, Executive Director of the Omnibus Broadband Initiative (OBI), the goal would be to make broadband available to more than 99% of Americans without any additional Congressional appropriations within 10 years. The NBP will state, however, that broadband goals will be achievable more quickly if Congress is willing to provide an additional $9 billion in three $3 billion increments over three years, Levin said.

Connect America Fund: Initially, carriers will only receive support from the CAF for broadband deployment to areas that are presently “unserved,” which will be defined as being “served” below a certain yet to be determined speed. The minimum speed will be adjusted periodically.

During the transition, rural incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) will continue to receive “legacy” support; however, Interstate Common Line Support (ICLS) will be frozen. There will be no net increase in the overall size of the Fund. This will be accomplished by:

• eliminating all legacy competitive eligible telecommunications carrier (CETC) support
• targeting IAS (a price cap carrier mechanism) –toward broadband deployment
• freezing ICLS
• moving rate of return carriers to incentive regulation.

FCC Senior OBI Advisor Carol Mattey noted that funding would be determined on a provider- and technology-neutral basis. In some areas, she said, extending fiber closer to end users might be the best solution, while in other cases, fixed wireless or satellite might be more economical. If more than one provider is interested in serving an area, she said it is a possible to use a (yet undetermined) market-based mechanism to select the provider and the amount of support.

Intercarrier compensation reform will also occur over the transition period. Initially, intrastate rates will be brought down to interstate levels. By the end of the transition, per-minute access charge rates will be eliminated entirely. Carriers can still negotiate flat rates amongst themselves.

Carriers will be able to receive access replacement funding. However, there will be a modest subscriber line charge (SLC) increase and the imputation of a local benchmark rate. While per-minute rates will still exist, there will be rules to address phantom traffic.

There will be a recommendation to broaden the base of USF contributors, but nothing specific was revealed.

Rulemaking proceedings are expected to be launched during the 2010-2011 period, with implementation of the CAF to begin in 2012. The transition is expected to be completed by 2020.

According to press reports, the FCC’s Mattey said the CAF will favor areas where market conditions do not support commercial broadband buildouts. The plan would also favor areas where the cost of extending broadband would be relatively low, requiring only capital expenditures. In other words, the FCC would target areas where it is cheaper to provide service. Such projects, she said, might begin receiving funding as early as 2012. Reforms also call for freezing support to small rate of return carriers, who draw most heavily from the USF today, and are shifting more funding toward price cap companies such as AT&T, Verizon, Qwest and mid-size Independents. Of seven million homes that do not have broadband today, only one-third are served by the small rate of return carriers while the other two-thirds are in areas served by price cap companies, Mattey said.

The plan also will call for the phase-out of the per-minute access charge system, beginning in 2012. Instead service providers will be encouraged to develop an alternative methodology for compensating one another similar to what Internet-based providers have established for interconnections.

Levin conceded that migrating the fund required some hard calls in terms of shifting money from current recipients, but pointed out as he has before that the FCC is not playing Santa Claus, but dealing in the real world.

One area where they will be shifting some of that fund support to broadband will be from CETCs. That’s mostly wireless phone providers, where there could be cases in which wired service and wireless service for a parent, and plans for the kids, could all be getting USF support, according to The Associated Press. “There has always been something suspect about the CETC process, “said Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service Commissioner John Burke in a statement. “The current approach to funding multiple carriers to provide service where ostensibly there is not [an] economic business case to support even one has never made much sense.

IN SUM: As noted above, it is not clear at this time what the National Broadband Plan will propose, and if the proposals will be accepted by Congress, or even survive the lengthy rulemaking and judicial review process.

Some of the current reports, in fact, are contradictory about whether the CAF is meant to support only one provider per geographic area, or one wireline and one wireless service provider per geographic area. It is also not clear what the specific relationship is between the CAF and the Mobility Fund.

Nevertheless, even this preliminary report offers a caveat that clients should not take lightly.

BloostonLaw contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and Mary Sisak.

Strickling, Adelstein Update House Panel On Broadband

In his testimony at last week’s House telecommunications subcommittee oversight hearing on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Lawrence Strickling, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration said NTIA is on track to meet its statutory obligation to award all grant dollars by September 30, 2010. Strickling said that by the end of that week (i.e., by March 5), NTIA will have awarded 111 Recovery Act grants totaling $1.1 billion. He said NTIA has funded projects in all 50 States and several territories as well. This includes 52 broadband mapping grants totaling approximately $100 million, and 59 Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) grants worth more than $960 million. An additional $270 million in matching contributions has been pledged by the applicants themselves.

Recently, Strickling said, NTIA announced an extension of the March 15, 2010, filing deadline for all infrastructure projects to March 26, 2010. The deadline for filing applications for Round 2 Public Community Centers and Sustainable Broadband Adoption projects remains March 15, 2010.

The Rural Utilities Service (RUS) and NTIA issued separate Notices of Funds Availability (NOFAs) in Round Two to allow each agency to focus on its distinct funding objectives. “We took this action in response to feedback received from Round One applicants, and it will help speed application review. RUS and NTIA will continue to collaborate to maximize the impact of available federal funding, to best leverage the experience and expertise of each agency, and to avoid duplication in projects funded by the two agencies,” Strickling said.

He said that NTIA also made a number of targeted changes to increase efficiency, sharpen BTOP’s funding focus, and improve the applicant experience. Based on Round One experience, NTIA formally adopted the “comprehensive communities” approach under which it will give review and funding priority to infrastructure projects that emphasize middle mile broadband capabilities offering new or substantially upgraded connections to community anchor institutions. NTIA also made adjustments to the online application that will streamline the intake of information and reduce applicant burden. These steps include eliminating the joint NTIA/RUS application, increasing the amount of time available to applicants to submit due diligence materials, and eliminating or altering a number of previously required attachments. These improvements, coupled with significantly upgraded applicant support services and bolstered back-office portal functionalities, will improve the applicant experience and facilitate the application process this time around.

“Early indications suggest there will be a strong demand for Round Two funding,” Strickling said. “In January, we established BroadbandMatch, which allows applicants to identify potential project partners. This online tool allows a broadband infrastructure provider to identify potential project partners, like universities, hospitals, or libraries for a proposal to bring high-speed Internet service to their facilities. More than 1,200 entities have signed up for BroadbandMatch, including anchor institutions, small and disadvantaged businesses, non-profits, public safety entities, municipalities, tribal organizations, technical experts, and others.

“I have high hopes that this forum will lead to truly comprehensive projects that meet the broad needs of entire communities, which is the centerpiece of Round Two funding. In addition, we are encouraged by the number of applications that applicants have started online, including many from new applicants who did not participate in Round One. These early results are encouraging and show that there is keen interest in the grant program across the stakeholder community.”

Oversight and Compliance.
As Round One wraps up and Round Two starts, Strickling said NTIA is making headway on of the necessary oversight and compliance of awardees. Since the inception of the program, NTIA has been working with the Department of Commerce’s Inspector General to design the program in a manner that minimizes the risk of waste, fraud, and abuse. NTIA has developed rigorous post-award processes for grants including:

• training sessions for applicants and awardees;
• oversight of every awardee's project progress;
• auditing of an awardee’s grant administration;
• requiring extensive reporting from awardees; and
• developing an outline of best practices.

He said NTIA is committed to ensuring that taxpayers’ money is spent wisely and efficiently. NTIA has been working to develop comprehensive monitoring, reporting, and oversight systems to ensure that BTOP funds fulfill the purposes of the Recovery Act, and using a risk assessment model to determine the level of monitoring required for each project. Recipients that expend $500,000 or more of federal funds during the fiscal year will be required to submit an organization-wide financial and compliance audit report. For-profit awardees will be required to comply with the program-specific audit requirements.

In addition, grant recipients will be required to report quarterly and annually on the progress of their project and their use of grant funds. Infrastructure awardees will be required to demonstrate progress in achieving important programmatic goals such as broadband availability, adoption, transmission speeds, and prices associated with their projects. Recipients of Public Computer Center funding will be required to provide information on the expansion of their facilities and training provided to their users, and Sustainable Broadband Adoption recipients will report information on their success in stimulating demand and adoption. In addition to these BTOP-specific reporting requirements, grant recipients must comply with Recovery Act reporting requirements that include detailed information regarding the use of funds and jobs created.

Short- and Long-Term Benefits.
According to Strickling, the lessons learned from the BTOP-funded projects and broadband mapping efforts can be leveraged to help improve the nation’s broadband landscape in the coming years. In the short-term, the metrics associated with these programs are just starting to materialize. The first awardees are in the early stages of turning their funded proposals into reality, and will file their initial reports next month; mapping grantees will provide their first data sets at the end of the month. I think, however, that it will be important to measure the results against the baseline, capture the lessons learned, and share the information so that successes can be replicated.

In the short-term, Strickling continued, the Department of Commerce’s investments will help create thousands of jobs for building infrastructure, installing computers, and developing and implementing outreach to broadband consumers. At this early stage, it is impossible to predict the precise number of jobs the BTOP program will create. However, the jobs range from manufacture of fiber optic cable and other high-tech components, to the stringing of that fiber from pole-to-pole, to trenching, and to the installation of broadband networking hubs. Computer centers need to be built, and new computers and related hardware and software will be installed and networked into public computing centers in the short-term as well. Outreach strategies need to be planned and executed, and trainers will need to be trained how to best provide communities with needed broadband information and skills. The data we collect in the near-term will show how the broadband initiatives contributed to the overall Recovery Act economic stimulus activity. It will also start establishing the measurable impact these projects will have.

In the longer-term, Strickling said, BTOP investments will have secondary benefits that will be critical to the nation's overall economic future. BTOP-funded projects will help bridge the digital divide, improve the nation’s education system, provide improved access to better health care, heighten safety and security, increase employment options, foster innovation, and boost economic development for communities held back by limited or no access to broadband. These investments will also help preserve America’s economic competitiveness in the world, and will accrue benefits especially to disadvantaged, rural, and remote America. The ripple effects of these broadband investments could be positively transformative.

Jonathan Adelstein, Administrator of the RUS, noted that as of March 1, RUS had sent over 1000 letters to non-selected NOFA 1 applicants, providing them with an opportunity to reapply under NOFA 2. These notifications also supplied applicants with information as to why their applications were not successful under NOFA 1. The most common reasons applicants were not funded were that they applied as proposing to serve “remote” areas, when in fact the areas they were proposing to serve did not meet the remote definition. The second reason was that applicants requested a grant amount greater than the 50 percent allowed for non-remote applicants, Adelstein said. Both of these provisions have changed in the second NOFA, and RUS is encouraging those applicants not funded to resubmit their applications.

The applications and associated proposed maps of coverage areas have been and will continue to be posted on www.broadbandusa.gov for public review and comment.

Adelstein said the challenges that RUS encountered while reviewing the applications for the first round of funding, as well as feedback it received, resulted in development of alternative approaches to simplify the application process.

For the second NOFA, USDA eliminates the separate funding bucket for “remote” projects. Instead, USDA offers higher points for projects in the most rural areas. USDA also allows applicants to request a grant amount greater than the standard 75 percent grant, up to a 100 percent grant. This waiver process will allow USDA to make viable awards to the most rural areas and those areas with density issues, low median income, and high unemployment.

With separate NOFAs and no joint applications, USDA and NTIA have elected to concentrate on specific types of projects. NTIA will focus on Middle Mile projects that connect community anchor institutions and USDA will focus on Last Mile projects, which are urgently needed in many rural communities and which directly connect to homes, businesses and key community anchor institutions. USDA will finance Middle Mile projects for current RUS borrowers and grantees.

The second NOFA also provides more flexibility. For example, USDA can add priority points for projects that provide significant assistance to essential community facilities, promote rural economic development, and support persistent poverty counties or chronically under-served areas. In addition, in the unexpected event that RUS receives an insufficient number of high scoring applications, RUS can elect a “second review” of meritorious applications which meet Recovery Act objectives. USDA may also accept an application from NTIA which it cannot fund but appears meritorious under USDA’s BIP program, Adelstein said.

BloostonLaw contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, John Prendergast, and Mary Sisak.

Genachowski Outlines Small Business Proposals In NBP

In remarks to the D.C. Department of Small and Local Business Development last week, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski outlined proposals to aid small businesses that will be included in the Commission’s National Broadband Plan. He said the Plan will recommend funding initiatives through the Small Business Administration (SBA) to sponsor training in IT and broadband applications for small businesses. “Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) and Women’s Business Centers (WBCs) are key conduits for this training. The Plan will recommend increasing the capabilities of these Centers to reach more small businesses with technology training and expertise. By using virtual training mechanisms, we can reduce the in-office burden on SBDCs and WBCs to free up those local resources for companies that lack access to broadband,” he said.

“The Plan will seek to augment entrepreneurial mentoring through organizations such as the SBA and the Economic Development Administration (EDA). The SBA and the EDA are working aggressively on developing new programs that foster entrepreneurial development across the country, particularly in those regions that are not currently innovation hotbeds. These efforts can be enhanced through proper broadband connectivity and tools, Genachowski,” said.

“The Plan recommends expanding this effort with funding for 10 new pilots while connecting these programs with broadband and online collaboration tools to ensure expertise and best practices are shared nationally.

“Together with our national broadband effort, the FCC’s Office of Communications Business Opportunities (OCBO), lead by Director Thomas Reed, is central to the Commission’s mission to support and encourage the development of small and diverse businesses in the telecommunications industry. It coordinates, evaluates, and recommends to the Commission, policies and programs that promote participation by small entities, women, and minorities in the communications industry,” the Chairman said.

“OCBO has been active in assisting the Commission’s development of the National Broadband Plan — gathering information, and developing solutions. OCBO hosted a workshop on “Broadband Opportunities for Small and Disadvantaged Businesses,” and coordinated a “Capitalization Strategies Workshop” for small and diverse telecommunications businesses. This workshop provided entrepreneurs with a nuts-and-bolts understanding of the steps necessary to obtain public or private sector financing. It was a success, and we will repeat it in the future.

“OCBO also coordinated one-on-one sessions between finance and capital experts and a number of small business participants. This was a first for the Commission, was widely praised by participants, and will also be repeated.

“Finally, a key element of the Broadband Plan’s recommendations will be to foster the development of a public-private partnership for small businesses. The goal of this partnership would be to create a comprehensive solution that includes digital literacy and computer training, assistance with business-relevant applications, and support to the smallest businesses in the country’s neediest areas. The public-private partnership is being designed to provide easy access to these tools through a proven program that already reaches many small businesses,” the Chairman said.

BloostonLaw contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and Mary Sisak.

FCC May Release Spectrum For “Free or Low-Cost” Wireless Broadband Service

The FCC may release spectrum for "free or very low-cost" wireless broadband service to boost wider broadband adoption, according to press reports. The proposal is one small part of the Commission's National Broadband Plan, which will be unveiled at its March 16 open meeting.

The FCC did not give details about the “free spectrum” proposal, including how it might be funded. The announcement came in an FCC statement yesterday released during a Digital Inclusion Summit aimed at connecting one-third of Americans without home broadband service, according to Reuters.

Our clients that have paid for spectrum at auction should be wary of this development, as it could undercut their ability to realize a return on their investment and the opportunity to provide all of the services that prompted their auction bidding decisions. It may be advisable to actively oppose the free spectrum proposal, once details are known.

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

COMMENT CYCLE SET FOR RURAL RADIO PROCEEDING: On January 28, the FCC adopted a First Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) in the Matter of Policies to Promote Rural Radio Service and to Streamline Allotment and Assignment Procedures. The Rural Radio First R&O was released February 3. In the Further Notice of Proposed Rule Making, the Commission sought comment, first, on whether, and how, it should establish an auction bidding credit for federally recognized Native American Tribes and Alaska Native Villages (Tribes). Second, the Commission sought comment on whether, and how, to extend the Tribal Priority adopted in the Rural Radio First R&O to Tribes without tribal lands. The Commission set deadlines for filing comments and reply comments at 60 and 90 days, respectively, after publication of the Rural Radio First R&O in the Federal Register. The Media Bureau now announces that the Rural Radio First R&O was published in the Federal Register on March 4. Comments in this DA-10-387 proceeding must be filed by May 3, and replies must be filed by June 2. BloostonLaw contacts: Hal Mordkofsky, John Prendergast, and Richard Rubino.

This newsletter is not intended to provide legal advice. Those interested in more information should contact the firm.

Source: Blooston, Mordkofsky, Dickens, Duffy and Prendergast, LLP For additional information, contact Hal Mordkofsky at 202-828-5520 or halmor@bloostonlaw.com

Prepared Remarks of
Chairman Julius Genachowski
Federal Communications Commission
Martin Luther King, Jr. Library
Washington, D.C.
March 10, 2010

"Delivering on the Promise of Equal Access to Broadband for People with Disabilities"

Thank you, Dale. It is such a pleasure to be here. Thank you, Kareem Dale for joining us. And thank you to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library for hosting — and AAPD and ITIF for co-sponsoring this event.

On my first full day as FCC Chairman, I delivered a speech to all FCC staff. I mentioned three people in my remarks who had taught me valuable lessons that led me to that podium on that day. Two were my mother and father. The third was Dale Hatfield.

The story I shared about my parents actually speaks to today’s event.

When I was in high school, my dad took me into the dusty stacks of the MIT library, and showed me engineering plans he had drafted as a graduate student. They were for a device designed to someday help blind people “read” words on paper by translating text into physical signals.

The formulas and drawings didn’t make much sense to me, but the core lesson has remained with me: Communications technology has the power to transform lives for the better.

And we’re applying this lesson in the Broadband Plan that we’ll be delivering to Congress and the President in 6 days.

Last year in the Recovery Act, Congress and the President charged the Commission with developing a strategy to bring high-speed Internet and its benefits to all Americans.

Broadband is our generation’s major infrastructure challenge. It’s like roads, canals, railroads and telephones for previous generations.

It’s like electricity in its transformative power.

Broadband is a platform for opportunity and economic growth. Studies from the Brookings Institute, MIT, the World Bank, and others all tell us the same thing — that even modest increases in broadband adoption can yield hundreds of thousands of new jobs. As we rebuild our economy, we must seize the opportunities and tackle the challenges of 21^st century communications.

Broadband is a platform for innovation – allowing anyone, anywhere to dream big and bring those dreams to life — so long as they are connected to the Internet.

Broadband is also a platform for solutions to many of our country’s most pressing challenges: education, health care, energy and public safety.

Few populations stand to benefit more from broadband than persons with disabilities.

Broadband has the potential to bridge gaps and provide opportunities that were inconceivable in the past.

Broadband allows people with disabilities to live independent lives in their communities of choice.

If you have broadband, you can telecommute or run a business out of your home; receive remote health and job-related support; or gain access to online educational classes and digital books.

Broadband holds tremendous potential to enable people with disabilities to communicate and connect with others; to engage as part of our national civic discussion, as online forums are becoming the town-halls of the 21^st century.

Broadband can make government more accessible. Our proceeding to development the National Broadband Plan has included over 40 public workshops. Previously, it would have been difficult to participate, but with broadband, people with disabilities can follow a live, close-captioned stream of these events and submit questions online — and people have.

Unfortunately, the promise of broadband for the 54 million Americans with disabilities is falling short of the reality.

A couple of weeks ago we released a paper on Broadband Adoption and Use in America. Our consumer survey showed that only 42 percent of people with disabilities use broadband at home, compared to 65 percent of people nationwide. An astounding 39% of all non-adopters have a disability.

The costs of this digital exclusion are great and getting greater. In the 21st century, high-speed Internet is essential to an individual’s ability to participate in our economy and our democracy. Rather than closing the opportunity gap for people with disabilities, the Internet has the potential to exacerbate inequality — if we do nothing.

This is not acceptable. And we have a Congressional mandate to take action to ensure that people with disabilities are not left behind.

Historically, it has taken years — even decades — for people with disabilities to gain anything close to equal access to communications. This has been true for wireline telephones, televisions, and digital cell phones and other devices.

Designers of equipment, services and networks have too often neglected to consider accessibility issues in the design and development stage — and retrofit solutions are expensive. This was the story with fixes that had to be made to digital wireless technologies to make them compatible with TTYs and hearing aids.

With broadband, we have the opportunity to consider accessibility issues relatively early in the deployment process, and enable people with disabilities to share fully in the benefits of broadband.

In order to realize broadband’s potential for people with disabilities, though, we must address the barriers.

Devices, services, software, and content are often not accessible to people with disabilities. Assistive technologies are sometimes very expensive, not interoperable with the latest technologies, or are difficult to find and repair. People with disabilities also often do not get the training and support they need to use broadband technologies and services.

Industry innovation and collaborative efforts have tremendous potential to help close the gaps for people with disabilities.

In the last year, we’ve seen the introduction of Apple’s smart phone that contains a built-in screen reader and captioning capabilities. Windows 7 supports a number of accessibility features, such as speech recognition, a magnifying window; an onscreen keyboard; and a screen reader. AT&T and AOL have teamed up to provide a real-time IM relay service. Google developed technologies which allow it to use voice recognition software to automatically caption videos on its You Tube site, and last week it announced that it would offer captions for ALL videos on the site.

We have a unique opportunity to build on these positive developments with the National Broadband Plan we will release next week.

The Plan’s recommendations on how to expand the reach and depth of broadband’s benefits to people with disabilities are guided by 4 principles: 1) Enhancing coordination; 2) Improving enforcement and implementation; 3) Using data wisely; and 4) Updating our policies for the 21^st century.

Let me summarize some of what the Plan will recommend.

First, the Plan will recommend the formation of an interagency working group to coordinate policies that promote broadband adoption by people with disabilities. This group will help ensure that government leads by example, when it comes to accessibility policy. It will help coordinate a government-wide assessment to make sure every agency is complying with requirements that federal information and communications technologies be accessible. This review should extend from websites that are used by the public to IT equipment purchased for agency use. All should be accessible.

The working group can also apply a common-sense test to existing policies to make sure they advance the broader objectives of promoting innovative, affordable accessibility solutions. Consider Medicare, which will pay for a piece of “durable medical equipment,” such as an Augmentative and Alternative Communication device that costs $8,000 — but not a $300 smart phone that can run $150 text-to-speech software that works more effectively and efficiently than the $8,000 device.

The working group can look at issues like that, and at ways to lower the costs of assistive technologies to ensure that they are keeping pace with other technological breakthroughs. For example, the group can explore efforts to use cloud computing and other platforms to allow people to access the assistive technologies they need anytime, anywhere, and on any device.

Second, the plan will recommend establishing an ongoing Accessibility and Innovation Forum, which will promote the use of collaborative, problem solving processes among a diverse group of stakeholders.

The forum will allow industry, consumers, academics, researchers, students, assistive technology vendors, third party application developers, and others to share best practices and new innovations and to learn from consumers about their needs.

The forum will hold workshops on a regular basis, both here in D.C. and out in the field. Some possible topics include industry best practices, cloud computing, wireless devices and applications, assistive technologies, and digital literacy.

The forum will have an online presence, and we intend to present an Annual Chairman’s Award for Accessibility and Innovation.

Third, the plan will recommend that the FCC, Congress, and the Justice Department update our accessibility laws and policies – and ensure that they are enforced. I believe that legislation introduced by Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA) — the “21^st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act” (H.R. 3101) — should be a starting point for legislative discussions to achieve many of these updates.

To address barriers to services and equipment, the Plan will recommend updating the Section 255 telecom accessibility rules and the Hearing Aid Compatibility rules.

To address content barriers, the Plan will recommend opening a proceeding on the technical issues relating to captioning and video description of programming on the Internet, and the devices that are used to watch this programming. The plan will also recommend that DOJ determine the applicability of the ADA to commercial websites.

To address affordability barriers, the Plan will recommend that there should be federal support for those who cannot afford assistive technologies and who do not have access to assistive technologies through existing programs.

And to spur a broad range of innovative accessibility solutions, the Plan will recommend that Congress give the FCC authority under USF to provide up to $10 million per year to provide competitively-based funding to developers of innovative devices, components, software applications or other assistive technologies that promotes accessibility.

Our proceedings for the National Broadband Plan are already having an impact.

Many of you may have attended the FCC’s field hearing in November at Gallaudet and heard Marlee Matlin’s forceful remarks about the lack of captioning on the Internet. One of her many examples was that she could not watch herself on “Dancing with the Stars” on ABC.com. I’m happy to report that, before long, Disney stepped up to the plate. The company committed to captioning all of its long form programs that it puts on its online player at ABC.com, including reality and live shows like “Dancing With The Stars.”

We also have found that new media tools have allowed us to tap into perspectives and new sources of information that would have been unimaginable and unreachable in the past. Let me read you the words of sandraleesmith46, posted on broadband.gov in December:

[I am] a disabled citizen on a very tight budget. . . I have this computer as a gift from my sister, and I currently have wireless Internet access as part of my rent at the RV park where I live. . . I have difficulty getting out and doing many things physically, and to shop, bank, and the like. . . Before going on line, I rarely socialized because the physical effort to get there, to do so, was just too great. With the Internet, I can do so with little energy output, and enjoy doing so. Believe it or not, that is a big deal.

We as a society must believe sandraleesmith46 when she tells us that having access to broadband is a big deal.

We must embrace the cause and understand that if 39 percent of non-adopters have a disability, we will not close the adoption gap until we address the barriers faced by people with disabilities.

We must make clear that building in accessibility at the design and development stage is cost-effective, and that all of society benefits from the widespread use of accessibility features such as captioning, speech recognition, and speech output.

Delivering on the promise of equal access to the broadband infrastructure will require ongoing commitment and resources from both the public and private sectors. Our solutions must build from existing efforts, both in industry and in government. But our solutions must also tap new sources of information and innovation and utilize the tools of new media and open government.

Now is the time to engage in this endeavor in earnest and show that we do indeed believe that this is a big deal, for people with disabilities and for all Americans.

Thank you.

NEWS FLASH — SATELLITE FAILURES

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

DON’T WAIT FOR THE NEXT SATELLITE OUTAGE

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

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 SEE WEB FOR COMPLETE LIST:
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Too Much To List • Call or E-Mail

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

ComScore: Motorola, BlackBerry rule U.S. market

March 11, 2010 — 12:28pm ET | By Mike Dano
FierceWireless

New figures from research firm comScore show Motorola and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion commanding the U.S. device market. According to the firm's January numbers, close to 23 percent of the 234 million Americans over the age of 13 who owned a cell phone carried a Motorola-branded device. As for smartphones, BlackBerry captured 43 percent of the 42.7 million people who owned smart gadgets.

ComScore derives its figures from monthly surveys of consumers, and its findings represent current phone ownership among the U.S. population.

Interestingly, new numbers from research and consulting firm Strategy Analytics paint a slightly different picture. Strategy Analytics showed Samsung as the most prolific cell phone maker in North American in 2009, with 26 percent of the market. LG came in second with 21 percent of the market, while Motorola followed up as No. 3 with 16 percent of the market (RIM was No. 4 with 12 percent of the market). Strategy Analytics' numbers tally shipment numbers rather than ownership numbers, which indicate Samsung could overtake Motorola in comScore's rankings as the Korean firm's devices make their way into consumers' hands.

Nokia, by far the world's largest handset maker, barely made a dent in the North American market; Strategy Analytics showed the firm with a 7 percent share in 2009.

Apart from its manufacturer rankings, comScore also offered January numbers for smartphone operating systems. While BlackBerry controlled close to half the market, Apple scored a solid No. 2 position with 25.1 percent of the U.S. smartphone playground. Microsoft pulled up third with 15.7 percent of the market, though the firm's share declined by 4 points from comScore's October 2009 figures. Google's Android platform enjoyed the most dramatic gains, with an increase from October to January of 4.3 points, to 7.1 percent.

For more:
• see this comScore release

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Plano, Texas 75023
Vaughan Bowden
Telephone: 972-898-1119
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Wireless Communication Solutions

USB Paging Encoder

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• Pictured version mounts in 5.25" drive bay
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• Available as a daughter board for our embedded Internet Paging Terminal (IPT)

Paging Data Receiver (PDR)

• Frequency agile - only one receiver to stock
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Software-Defined Radios Are Here Now

Have you ever tried one?

By Louis E. Frenzel, Staff
March 09, 2010

Just recently I was shopping for a new communications receiver for ham radio and general shortwave listening. Lots of transceivers are available, but I only needed a receiver since I use a home-built QRP transmitter. While there are fewer separate receivers out there, the selection is interesting. I was on the verge of buying the popular Icom IC-R75-12. This general-purpose receiver covers frequencies to 60 MHz, which includes the 6-m ham band. It is a triple-conversion superhet with DSP filtering.

After some investigating, though, I could not ignore the increasing number of available software-defined radio (SDR) models. After a good look, I bit the bullet and bought one of the latest models, the RFSpace SDR-IQ. Here is a look at my experience with this SDR receiver.

TESTING THE SDR-IQ

Figure 1 shows my new radio and the antenna tuner I used. The SDR-IQ has a standard 50-Ω BNC input for the antenna. I didn’t have a 50-Ω antenna available so I just used a 30-foot piece of hookup wire with this MFJ L-network antenna tuner to handle impedance matching. It was hard for me to believe that this full-coverage receiver is so small. But because it uses a PC as the DSP and the display, it only requires the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and filtering to get the complete receiver functionality. Even the power is supplied through the USB port of the PC.

Inside the box, a set of passive filters narrows the input range from 0 to 5 MHz, 5 to 15 MHz, or 15 to 30 MHz. The filters feed the low-noise amplifier (LNA), and then the ADC. No, this is not a superhet. No mixing or down-conversion is used. Instead, an Analog Devices 14-bit ADC sampling at 66.66 Msamples/s digitizes the entire bandwidth. Converter output is sent to a digital down-converter that isolates a 190-kHz window around the selected center frequency and generates the I and Q signals for the DSP. The digital data stream is sent through the USB port to the PC, where the Pentium or Athelon processor quickly performs a fast Fourier transform (FFT) spectrum analysis, does more filtering, and implements the display.

The SpectraVue software that is used is available with other SDR receivers. What you get is a full display of the selected 190-kHz bandwidth (Fig. 2) around the frequency you tune to. Below the spectrum presentation is the waterfall display, which represents frequency on the horizontal scale and time on the vertical scale. The display constantly “falls” over time and the signals are shown in colors representing different signal levels. I haven’t really learned the true purpose of this functionality, so I cannot appreciate its usefulness at this point.

The radio is tuned with the PC mouse. Users can also key in a specific frequency. A signal can be selected on the display by pointing and clicking. The receiver accommodates all the normal modulation methods, such as AM, SSB, CW, and FM. Of course, audio output is sent through the PC’s speakers or headphones if you want to use them.

The receiver works just as well as any other general-purpose radio, but you really do need a good antenna. It has taken me some time to get used to tuning with the mouse and keyboard. After decades of using knobs and switches on Hallicrafters, Hammarlund, Heathkit, and Yaesu radios, I am still uncomfortable with the SDR tuning, but I am getting there. I love the spectrum display because it really shows you what is going on around you, which is pretty cool!

Of course, anyone who has used a cell phone has experienced SDR. Most use a direct-conversion radio with a software baseband for the modulation, demodulation, and other functions. It is truly invisible.

SOME OTHER SDRs

There plenty of other SDR radios out there today. RFSpace also has a more expensive SDR-14 model. U.S. manufacturer Ten-Tec offers its RX-320D SDR radio, which is strictly a black box that has a USB port connected to a PC that handles the DSP and the display.

You can also get a software demodulator for Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM), the digital shortwave technology used mostly in Europe. Another interesting SDR radio is Micortelecom’s Perseus. It too covers 0 to 30 MHz and uses a 14-bit, 80-Msample/s ADC with an FPGA digital down-converter.

The Winradio WR303i down-converts the input to an IF from 1 to 15 kHz and then performs the DSP demodulation and filtering in the PC. The radio also offers a DRM demodulator. Winradio offers models that actually plug into the PCI bus of the PC as well.

As for transceivers, the big gun is still FlexRadio, with its stalwart 5000 model, and a newer 3000 model.

If you like to experiment, you may want to check out the kits from HPSDR. This is an open hardware/software standard created by hams for hams or SW listeners who want to build and experiment. The company offers a series of modular kits and boards you can assemble into a receiver and/or transmitter. Check out its products at www.openhpsdr.org.

A great deal has been written about SDR, and much of it infers that it is still to come. The reality is that it’s here right now—big time—and in many forms. You may want to experiment yourself.

Note from Brad's mom:

Please forgive Brad if he gets confused and repeats himself. Sometimes his grammar and spelling are not very good. I dropped him on his head when he was a baby and he just isn't right.

—Brad's mom