DialZero

Taliban intimidate cellphone carriers

2010-03-24T01:33:00.000-04:00

Every evening at dusk, cellphones go dead in Zhari, a district just outside Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city. All three cellphone service companies operating there turn off their antennas until dawn. The reason for this nightly blackout, implemented across southern and eastern Afghanistan is a Taliban decree that aims to prevent villagers from passing tips to coalition forces.

The Taliban also are trying to show who's really in charge in this part of the country by intimidating the cellphone industry, one of the rare Afghan economic success stories. When carriers tried to defy the edict in the past, insurgents destroyed cellphone towers and killed staff in response.

The American surge into southern Afghanistan, including here in Kandahar province, has dealt setbacks to the Taliban. Yet the insurgents are far from defeated. Despite the offensive by tens of thousands of extra U.S. troops in the south, fear of the Taliban still reigns across much of the country. The cellphone shutdown is a sign of how deeply entrenched the insurgency is in the day-to-day functioning of the area, where the Taliban effectively operate a shadow government more powerful than the state.

About 40 cellphone towers — costing as much as $400,000 each — were destroyed by the insurgents over the past year. Chastened by the experience, the government no longer insists that the networks operate at night in insurgent-dominated regions because there is insufficient securioty to protect equipment and employees. American officials estimate that only about 10% of the district is under government authority.

Zhari's governor, Mohammed Niyaz Serhadi, says he has repeatedly implored the mobile operators to restore 24-hour service in his district. He has offered land for a tower inside the district headquarters — a secure location that sits within the perimeter of a large U.S. base on the Helmand-Kandahar highway.

"Once the antennas are shut down at night, our people are like the blind: The businessmen cannot carry on with their businesses, the sick cannot get to a hospital, and people cannot contact their relatives if something happens or if someone dies," Serhadi says. Mobile-phone companies, he adds, rejected his offer: "They said that if they erect their antennas in the district center, the Taliban will bomb their antennas outside and kill their staff."

In Zhari's neighboring district of Arghandab, where a recent deployment of American forces has pushed back the insurgents, there was no mobile-phone service at all until two months ago. Continuing skirmishes made travel unsafe and prompted the phone companies to shut down the towers that hadn't been destroyed.

"People had to walk all the way to Kandahar City or climb to the top of a mountain to get reception," says the Arghandab district governor, Hajji Abdul Jabar. The signal has now reappeared — but, as in Zhari, only during daylight hours. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Help Haiti!

2010-01-14T05:55:00.001-05:00

Haiti shares the island of Hispanola with the more prosperous Dominican Republic. The island is between Cuba and Puerto Rico. Christopher Columbus visited the island in 1492 and founded settlements.

Even during the best of times, Haiti has been a miserable place to live.

Its people suffered as slaves under French colonists, and after revolting and becoming "free," the country was known for turmoil and frequent government takeovers. The United States occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934.

In 1937 Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo ordered the Dominican Army to kill Haitians living on the Dominican side of the border.

Later in the 20th Century, Haitians suffered again under the brutal and corrupt regimes of "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his slightly nicer son "Baby Doc."

Haiti is home to a proud people with a rich culture and important history, but the country is pathetically poor, with a very low literacy rate and one of the worst living standards in the world. Many Haitians left the country.

Haiti was the first independent nation in Latin America, the first post-colonial independent black-led nation in the world, and the only nation whose independence was gained as part of a successful slave rebellion. Haiti is the only predominantly French-speaking independent nation in the Western Hemisphers, and one of just two (with Canada) that designate French as an official language

And now, an earthquake has caused thousands of poorly made buildings to collapes, killing as-yet-uncounted tens of thousands of people.

President Obama, the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense have changed their schedules to deal with the crisis. I changed my blogging schedule to ask readers to donate some money to help, and to encourage others to donate, too.

Google has made it easy to make a donation to help the people of Haiti. Please CLICK to give, and post this information wherever you can.

(Some info above came from Wikipedia)

...

A blatant commercial message:Flashing red Batphone can be delivered before Christmas

2009-12-17T04:17:00.001-05:00

Now everyone can have a red phone with a flashing light like Batman.

When there’s trouble in Gotham City, Police Commissioner Gordon calls caped crusader Batman, the secret alter ego of millionaire Bruce Wayne.

At Wayne Manor, the flashing red Batphone is answered by Alfred the butler, who tells Wayne about the trouble. Then Wayne and his young ward Dick Grayson put on their superhero costumes. As Batman and Robin, they race from the Batcave in the Batmobile to battle evil-doers, or rescue citizens in distress.

Now everyone can have a bright red flashing Batphone just like a superhero. When an emergency call -- or even an ordinary call -- comes in, a bright red light centered in a shiny chrome ring starts flashing to attract attention.

The Batphone has classic sixties styling, with heavy-duty construction, a two-year warranty, and is made in the USA. It gets all of its power from the phone line, and doesn’t require a power cord or batteries. It can work on an ordinary home phone line, or on an "analog extension port" in a business phone system.

The phone rings when the light flashes, unless a purchaser prefers the bell to be disconnected for silent signaling, or an optional high-pitched "BatSignal" or buzzer to be installed instead of the bell. Price with the bell is $122, including Priority Mail shipping to all 50 states.

Order online at www.GetABatPhone.com, or call toll-free 1-888-225-3999.

Judge dismissed charges In Broadcom case because of pressure on witnesses

2009-12-16T05:25:00.000-05:00

Citing misconduct by prosecutors, a federal judge dismissed criminal charges in a stock-options backdating case against two former execs of chip-maker Broadcom. The decision marks the latest setback for the government as it attempts to hold executives accountable for a widespread compensation practice in the early 2000s.

Broadcom co-founder Henry Nicholas III, and former CFO William Ruehle had been accused of playing a role in a stock-options backdating scandal that led Broadcom to record $2.2 billion in backdating-related expenses it should have taken when the options were granted between 1998 and 2003.

Backdating involves retroactively setting the price of a stock option to a low point in the stock's value, allowing employees to reap higher profits if the stock is later sold.

In dismissing the charges in the Broadcom case Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney said the government behaved improperly by pressuring witnesses to testify in a manner favorable to prosecutors.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles denied in court papers that it unfairly pressured witnesses. "We are disappointed in the ruling," said a spokesperson for the office.

In a related development, Judge Carney last week voiced concern that Andrew Stolper, a prosecutor in the case, had committed misconduct in February 2007 by leaking information to the press as a way to exert pressure on another defendant, Broadcom co-founder Henry Samueli.

Samueli last year pleaded guilty to making a false statement to the SEC in connection with the agency's investigation of options backdating at Broadcom. But at a Dec. 9 court hearing, Judge Carney determined there was insufficient evidence that Mr. Samueli had committed the crime.

Broadcom was one of the most prominent companies caught up in the backdating scandal. Last year the company paid $12 million to settle civil allegations by the SEC that it misrepresented the dates of as many as 88 stock-option grants to executives and employees.

In a separate indictment against Nicholas in 2008, prosecutors alleged that he engaged in a pattern of drug use and abuse over a nearly seven-year period. Citing the concerns about the government pressuring witnesses, Judge Carney set a hearing date in February to determine whether the drug charges against Nicholas should also be dropped. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Ebay sells Skype at a loss

2009-11-20T04:37:00.000-05:00

Skype is software that allows people to make phone calls over the Internet. Calls to other users of the service are free. Calls to landline phones and cellphones generally have a fee.

The company that developed Skype was bought by eBay in 2005 for $2.6 billion. eBay hoped that users of its auctions would use Skype to communicate, but few of them did.

EBay is now completing the sale of 70% of Skype for about $2 billion to a group that includes the founders of Skype. Ebay will keep 30 percent.

AT&T sues Verizon over cellphone ad

2009-11-04T07:40:00.002-05:00

AT&T is suing Verizon Wireless over Verizon's "There's a Map for That" commercials, saying that the ads are misleading and deceptive.

AT&T filed the suit in Georgia and is asking for a temporary restraining order and a permanent injunction to stop the ads. AT&T said it has "suffered and continues to suffer irreparable harm" from the commercials.

Verizon's ads show maps of the United States with areas highlighted to depict where high speed "3G" network coverage is available. The maps use red for Verizon and blue for AT&T to show where each company offers 3G coverage. There are blank spaces where no 3G is available.

In one ad, the narrator says, "If you want to know why your 3G coverage works so well on Verizon Wireless, there's a map for that," and a map of the country nearly covered with red dots is shown. The narrator later says "If you want to know why some people have spotty G3 coverage, there's a map for that, too" and a map of the country with some blue areas and a lot of blank space is shown to ostensibly show AT&T's 3G coverage.

AT&T says those maps are misleading because there is still regular coverage in areas where "3G" service is not offered.

Verizon modified the ads after AT&T complained about them saying its customers were "out of touch" where 3G coverage was unavailable. Those words were taken out and Verizon included a tag line saying "Voice & data services available outside 3G coverage areas" at the end of the ads.

Verizon spokeswoman Nancy Stark said the changes are sufficient, and "As to the merits of the suit, there aren't any. The ads are clearly labeled 3G coverage and they also clearly state that voice and data service is available outside the 3G coverage area." (info from The Associated Press)

Avaya idiots paid a man for five years -- but he never worked there

2009-10-28T05:17:00.002-04:00

Anthony Armatys of Palatine, Ill. pleaded guilty Monday in New Jersey Superior Court to one count of theft. He admitted keeping more than $470,000 in paychecks from telecommunications company Avaya, where he never worked.

Armatys accepted a job with Avaya in September 2002, and changed his mind about working there. The Avaya payroll computer kept him on the list, and kept sending money to be deposited into his bank account until February 2007, when Avaya auditors finally noticed the mistake.

Prosecutors recommended a six-year prison term and restitution. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 8.

There is no word on how many other phantoms have been paid -- or are still being paid -- by Avaya. (info from The Associated Press)

Have you been cheating the IRS when you use your company cellphone?

2009-09-02T07:27:00.002-04:00

Under a 1989 law, workers who use company-provided mobile phones for personal calls are supposed to count the value of those calls as income and pay federal income taxes accordingly.

But businesses and workers have long ignored the requirement, prompting IRS to ask Congress to repeal the law.

Wireless trade association CTIA supports legislation to do away with a 20-year-old law. While waiting for Congress to act, CTIA said the IRS should "consider suspending all audit activity on the taxation of the personal use of employer-provided cellphones."

"The alternatives [to legislation] proposed by the IRS are either incomplete or inadequate solutions that would continue to subject employees and employers to onerous call log requirements," CTIA President Steve Largent said. CTIA members include the country's largest wireless companies -- Verizon, AT&T, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile.

The IRS is collecting comments on the cellphone-tax law. In June, IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman asked Congress to repeal it, calling it "obsolete." Shulman's statement signaled a quick turnabout for the IRS, which had earlier proposed that employers assign 25% of an employee's annual phone expenses as a taxable benefit. Under that scenario, a worker in the 28% tax bracket, whose wireless device costs the company $1,500 a year, could see $105 in additional federal income tax.

Without congressional action, the IRS had hoped to clarify the rule so it would be easier for businesses and workers to comply.

Sens. John Kerry and John Ensign and Reps. Sam Johnson and Earl Pomeroy have sponsored a bill with broad bipartisan support that would remove cellphones from the IRS's list of taxable properties provided to workers by their employers.

Most businesses and tax executives prefer a repeal.

U.S. colleges and universities, nonprofits and other employers are also calling for legislation to remove employer-provided cellphones from the list of taxable fringe benefits. Short of legislation repealing the cellphone requirements, the National Association of College and University Business Officers said it favors assigning a maximum number of minutes per month allowable for personal use, that wouldn't be counted for tax purposes.

The Tax Executives Institute, a trade group for company tax directors, asked IRS to suspend enforcement of its cellphone rules until Congress acts.

A California court said it loses about 45 employee hours each month -- from 160 employees that are provided cellphones by the court -- in an effort to track personal calls to comply with IRS requirements. That effort generally results in employees reimbursing the court for a total of about 125 minutes a month for personal cellphone use, wrote David H. Yamasaki, chief executive officer of the Santa Clara County Superior Court.

Of course, employees have been making personal calls with landline phones owned by their employers for scores of years without paying taxes on the value of the calls.

And they don't pay taxes on the value of personal use of business computers.

(info from The Wall Street Journal)

Amazon starts to bail out of Skype

2009-09-01T12:44:00.002-04:00

EBay is selling a majority interest of the Internet telecom service Skype for about $2 billion, reversing a 2005 acquisition that many considered a bad deal at its inception.

EBay is selling a 65 percent stake in Skype to a group of private investment funds for $1.9 billion in cash and a $125 million note, while retaining a 35 percent stake. EBay said the deal values the company at $2.75 billion.

EBay said earlier this year that it would spin off Skype, which lets people make free or inexpensive voice and video calls with computers and cellphones, after struggling to justify its 2005 acquisition of the company for $2.6 billion.

EBay hoped the service would catch on with users of its auction site, but it never became a popular way for buyers and sellers to connect. The company took a $900 million write-down on Skype in 2007, tacitly acknowledging it had overvalued the business.

Still, Skype itself remains popular, particularly among people who regularly make international calls. According to the research group TeleGeography, Skype accounted for 8 percent of international calling traffic last year. The service can typically offer cheaper rates than regular phones by sending voice as data over the Internet just like e-mail and Web pages, reducing the need to tie up dedicated phone lines.

It is also starting to look like a more profitable business, with revenue up 25 percent to $170 million in the most recent quarter.

Skype was founded by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, creators of the music downloading service Kazaa, which had upset the recording industry.

EBay announced in April that it would spin off Skype through an initial public offering next year, though the company said it was open to alternative bids that offered attractive valuation. In a statement Tuesday, eBay CEO John Donahoe said the deal with the investor group achieves that...Skype, as a standalone company, would have the focus needed to compete and "accelerate its growth momentum"

The group of investors buying the stake includes Andreessen Horowitz, the new $300 million fund set up by Web browser pioneer Marc Andreessen. Led by the private equity firm Silver Lake, the group also includes Index Ventures and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. (info from The Associated Press)

I need a break.

2009-05-26T17:48:00.012-04:00

I began blogging on 5/7/06. I started writing one blog, and gradually built up to five blogs a day. I got out of bed at 3:30AM to start my daily writing.

I did it for fun, but lately it has seemed too much like work. I'm not sure that I am officially "burned-out," but I have definitely lost enthusiasm for the daily grind of blogging.

Since the blog obligation was only to myself, and I have no contract, it's an obligation I am free to suspend, cancel or modify at will. No one has a paid-up subscription for words they won't receive.

Therefore, after 2,715 posts, I have decided to take some time off. I need to finish writing a few books, and some essays, and maybe I'll even try poetry and songwriting. My to-do list includes many unread books and un-watched DVDs. I want to spend more time swimming, and walk my dog more often.

The break will last at least a few weeks, but might even be several months. J. D. Salinger has not published an original work since 1965, but I won't be away that long. Even if I don't come back full-time until the Fall, I might pop back in occasionally if I think there's something worth saying.

I am continuing to write BookMakingBlog, my blog about writing, editing and publishing.

CUL/mnm

Man jailed for calling 911 about lost keys

2009-05-20T08:16:00.004-04:00

A man in Tampa, Florida called 911 eight times in one hour because he lost his keys. Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Debbie Carter says George Alvarez became upset with deputies because they could not help him find the keys.

Deputies arrested Alvarez just early Monday morning. He was booked into jail on charges of making a false 911 call and released from jail after posting $500 bail. (info from WFTS)

Your feet can call your phone

2009-05-19T05:38:00.000-04:00

ESoles, which makes custom insoles for athletic shoes, has created prototype insoles with pressure sensors that relay information wirelessly to a nearby cellphone. Then an application on the phone can tell the wearer how much pressure he or she is applying in 11 different zones of each sole.

The system has been used to analyze the technique of the US Olympic BMX team, helping them figure out how to apply maximum power to the bicycle pedals out of the gate, said Glen Hinshaw, founder of eSoles and a former professional cyclist. The system can also analyze a golf swing or skiing posture, he said.

Sports aren't the only application. The insoles can work in games. ESoles is trying a jump rope game, in which the phone screen shows a swinging rope, and users have to time their jumps to it. "If you leave one leg on the ground and you're only lifting the other foot, the jump rope stops, because it's not clearing your foot," Hinshaw said.

Nintendo makes a balance board accessory for its Wii game console that senses the force from the user's feet. ESoles' sensing insoles would essentially do the same thing, but without tying the user to an immobile board.

Hinshaw also envisions medical uses, perhaps for warning diabetes patients who have lost feeling in their feet that they risk injury from too much pressure.

Hinshaw said the company plans to make the insoles available in a limited trial version in July, then put them on the market late this year. The initial price for the sensors would be about $300, but he hopes to bring the price under $50. (info from The Associated Press)

Sprint & Verizon will sell itty-bitty Wi-Fi router

2009-05-15T05:28:00.002-04:00

Sprint will join Verizon Wireless in marketing Novatel’s pocket-size battery-powered Wi-Fi router with embedded cellular data modem.

Verizon announced earlier this week that it would be first to market on May 17. Thursday, Sprint announced availability during the first week of June. Both carriers are pricing the Novatel-made MiFi 2200 at $99 after $50 mail-in rebate with two-year wireless-data service contract.

The 2200 incorporates CDMA 1x EV-DO Rev. A cellular-data modem and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, enabling up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices to access the Internet from places where fixed hot spots or Wi-Fi networks are unavailable. The MiFi’s rechargeable battery provides up to four hours of active use and 40 hours of standby time on a single charge. It measures 3.5 inches by 2.3 inches by 0.4 inches and weighs 2.05 ounces.

The device is the first of its kind to operate on batteries, enabling consumers to take it easily from car to car. Recently, Autonet launched a transportable in-vehicle cellular hot spot, which consumers can move from car to car, but the device must be docked with an installed mounting kit. Kyocera continues to offer a KR2 Wi-Fi router that operates off AC, comes with car cigarette-lighter adapter, and accepts a cellular EV-DO data card to connect to up to 20 Wi-Fi-equipped laptops to the Internet.

The Novatel device will be available through all Verizon Wireless channels. Sprint will offer it online, in its stores and through select other retailers. Soon after, it will offer a version to wireless wholesalers.

Eligible Verizon price plans include $39.99 monthly access for 250MB monthly allowance and 10 cents per megabyte overage. A $59.99 monthly plan comes with 5GB monthly allowance and 5 cents per megabyte overage. Consumers can pay a higher price if they don’t commit to a monthly plan. In that case, the user must get a $15 Mobile Broadband DayPass to access the service for a single 24-hour period.

Sprint’s eligible plans are the $59.99/month broadband-only plan and the $149/month Simply Everything Plan + Mobile Broadband plan, which covers a phone plus the device. Both plans include up to 5GB of data per month, plus 5 cents for every MB more. (info from TWICE)

As usual, biz is bad for Nortel

2009-05-13T06:21:00.002-04:00

Nortel Networks, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January, lost more than half a billion dollars and saw sales plummet 37% in the first quarter, but Chief Executive Mike Zafirovski said the company's cash balance gives it time to hold out for the best sale prices for its assets.

Nortel, which originally said it hoped to emerge from bankruptcy proceedings smaller and more focused, has been in discussions to sell its largest divisions, but the bids have been too low.

For example, Nortel declined an unsolicited, $850 million offer from Nokia Siemens Networks for large parts of its carrier-networks group. Nokia Siemens Networks is a joint venture of Nokia and Siemens that is seeking to court US carriers.

Last week Nortel was preparing to announce that it had found a buyer for its enterprise unit, which makes systems to route voice and data traffic within companies. The bidder, Avaya, is backed by the private-equity firms TPG Capital and Silver Lake. Advisers were working through the weekend of May 2-3 to complete the deal, but couldn't. Talks are continuing.

Nortel's first-quarter net loss came to $507 million, or $1.02 a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $138 million, or 28 cents a share. Revenue fell to $1.73 billion. Nortel had $2.48 billion in cash at the end of March, up slightly from $2.4 billion at the end of 2008.

Zafirovski said that Nortel hadn't lost "a single customer" since its bankruptcy filing but acknowledged that customers had stopped buying new technologies when it entered the process. He said orders increased in February and March, signaling that the business had stabilized. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Feds are fighting car warranty spam calls

2009-05-12T06:30:00.002-04:00

Federal regulators have been investigating and are close to filing lawsuits against companies believed to be behind a national wave of spam "robocalls" that warn people that their auto warranties are about to expire and they need to sign up for new service plans.

The Federal Trade Commission has inquiries underway into several companies involved in the deceptive calls, and "law enforcement action in this area can be expected imminently," FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said Monday in a letter to Sen. Charles Schumer. The FTC also is providing an electronic link on its homepage for consumers to file complaints.

Schumer, who spoke Monday with Leibowitz, had asked for an investigation by the agency into what he calls a scam of "robo-dialer harassment." The computerized calls can eat up a consumer's cellphone minutes, possibly jacking up phone charges, he says.

The message "Your Car Warranty Has Expired" already has brought some 300,000 complaints nationwide, according to Schumer. The calls come even if the consumer has signed up for the national Do Not Call registry, which is operated by the FTC.

"Americans deserve to know the government is on their side, and that this harassment won't be overlooked or ignored," Schumer said. "This prompt, aggressive action should provide some relief to those besieged by these fraudulent calls."

Schumer and Sen. Mark Warner -- who have received the calls themselves -- are expected to announce the FTC's actions at a news conference today.

Liebowitz noted in his letter that such "robocall" or "voiceblasting" phone campaigns may violate a number of telemarketing sales and other FTC rules. The calls target people regardless of whether they have warranties or even own cars and have become such a nuisance that officials in 40 states are investigating the companies behind them.

The lucrative industry is based largely in the St. Louis, Mo. area, according to the Better Business Bureau in that city. A group of companies in Missouri in the mid-1990s began offering extended repair warranties to people whose manufacturer-issued warranties were about to expire.

About three dozen companies offer contracts similar to insurance policies, pledging to pay for car repairs in exchange for fees paid up front. They call numbers randomly and leave messages telling people that their auto warranties are about to expire. Some companies also send out cards that mislead recipients into thinking that their vehicles have been subject to safety recalls.

If people call back and agree to buy policies, the Better Business Bureau says, the companies often don't let them see the contracts until they agree to pay. And some people apparently don't learn until it's too late and they've spent thousands of dollars that the deals don't cover many types of repairs. (info from The Associated Press)

iPhone use causes stress on AT&T network

2009-05-11T06:01:00.002-04:00

The iPhone has brought AT&T lots of new customers, eager to play with their cool new toys. Unfortunately for AT&T, the iPhone is expensive for the company, and not just because of the heavy subsidies on the initial purchase price.

Users of iPhone download games, video and other Web data at two to four times the rate of other smartphone users. Yet AT&T charges iPhone subscribers the same fee $30 per month for data that it levies for other smartphones. And aside from restricting certain activities, like file sharing, AT&T doesn't limit how much data can be downloaded.

Web applications popular with iPhone customers are bandwidth hogs. A recent analysis of North American wireless network use during the midday hour on one day found Web browsing was consuming 32% of data-related airtime but 69% of bandwidth, while email used 30% of data airtime but only 4% of bandwidth. Email taxes network resources but in a different way.

As the proportion of customers with iPhones grows -- 5.9 million 3G iPhones were activated in the last three quarters, 7.5% of AT&T's total subscribers -- the resulting growth in downloading and Web browsing will strain AT&T's network. AT&T will need to add cell towers and spend more on the lines that connect the towers to the rest of the network.

The iPhone is the leading edge of a challenge for the wireless industry. Until now, carriers have boosted revenues by taking on new customers -- even when average revenues per user haven't grown much.

The falling cost of voice minutes and additions of lower-end customer has offset growth of text messaging and other data services. Voice and texting use little bandwidth and are lucrative.

Now, new customers are harder to come by. The question is whether new data revenues the industry is banking on -- from Web-browsing and entertainment services -- will be as profitable, at least as measured by return on invested capital. That looks doubtful. To ensure networks have the capacity to offer these services, particularly bandwidth-heavy offerings like video streaming, carriers will have to make heavy capital investment. Both AT&T and Verizon are building the next-generation 4G network, each spending more than $9 billion last year on new wireless spectrum, as well as $6 billion annually on overall capacity.

The new networks are likely to be more efficient at delivering data applications.
In the short term, carriers should abandon unlimited data pricing plans. Both AT&T and Verizon already charge extra for heavy users with wirelessly connected laptops. They will have to contemplate similar strategies for smartphone users.

Setting the right price won't be easy. With competition, the temptation to discount will be hard to avoid. And there's no guarantee that customers will pay as much for entertainment as for voice-calling and email. Whatever they do, the carriers may be caught between a rock and a hard place. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

TIME OUT

2009-05-04T06:39:00.000-04:00

I'm taking a few days off to finish writing a book and start a new one. I should be back during the week of 5/11.

TXT MSG delays hurt Sprint's bargain Boost service

2009-05-01T05:26:00.002-04:00

A new $50 unlimited-calling plan sold under the Boost brand has been a badly needed success story for Sprint Nextel, luring hundreds of thousands of new customers. But dealers and customers report widespread problems with texting on the Boost network. Messages are frequently delayed by hours, in many cases reaching their recipients early in the morning.

"There's a huge deficiency in the text messaging and multimedia messaging," said John Kim, an independent dealer who has a Boost Mobile store in the Dallas area. He warns new customers about the problems, and tests the system by sending himself text messages. "I got five text messages at 4 o'clock in the morning that I sent myself nine hours before," he said.

He's been signing up 10 to 12 new customers a day on the plan, three or four times the number that came in before the Boost Unlimited plan was introduced in January. But a lot of them come back, "very irritated" about the text messaging problems. "This trend of a lot of people signing up to Boost is going to disappear really quickly if they don't resolve the texting issue," Kim said.

The new Boost Mobile plan uses Sprint's Nextel network, which uses a different underlying technology than the main Sprint network. Nextel users have complained of occasionally delayed text messaging for years, but the network's main selling point has been the walkie-talkie-like "push to talk" capability, used by work crews and emergency responders. Now the new Boost plan has opened the network to a new category of customers, for whom text messaging is more important.

John Votava, a spokesman for Boost, said the texting problems are due to the influx of new customers, and denied that there are long-standing problems with the Nextel network. "The popularity of Boost Mobile caught us off guard. It overwhelmed our system," he said. The company has been working "day and night" to fix the problems, and aims to have the system "much improved" by next week, Votava said.

Analysts expect Sprint to report Monday that Boost attracted somewhere around half a million subscribers in the first quarter, which would be a rare piece of good news for the company. The additions from Boost are not expected to outnumber defections from Sprint as a whole, however.

The Boost plan was partly a response to the network expansions of MetroPCS Communications and Leap Wireless. They have long offered unlimited calling for about $50 per month in limited areas, but in recent months they've moved into big cities in the Northeast, greatly increasing their possible customers. Virgin Mobile later responded with its own $50 unlimited prepaid plan, and T-Mobile USA started offering long-term customers a similar plan to keep them.

Despite the texting problems, it seems most Boost subscribers aren't giving up.
Bryan Scheiber Michigan., signed up for Boost Unlimited in February, and has been mostly happy with it. The call quality is better than on his previous carrier, AT&T, he said. He's woken up to find four text messages that were sent to him the previous day, but he's not a big texter. "For the price," he said, "you can't complain." (info from The Associated Press)

Verizon may get an iPhone, or an iPhone competitor

2009-04-30T04:55:00.002-04:00

Some publications have suggested that Verizon is talking to Apple about making a version of the iPhone to run on Verizon's existing CDMA network. USA Today reported this in a story earlier this week, and the New York Times echoed it, even as it noted why this idea makes no sense. CDMA is essentially a US technology used by Verizon and Sprint. The rest of the world operates on a standard called GSM. That’s partly why Apple chose to work with AT&T (a GSM provider) in the first place.

What’s more, Verizon will begin upgrading next year from CDMA to a fourth-generation network using a different technology called LTE. It would be odd, at best, for Apple to invest in a CDMA phone that has limited distribution now and will work on a network that is being phased out in the next 12 to 18 months. In a recent earnings call, Apple COO Tim Cook noted that CDMA has a limited lifespan, and Verizon Chairman Ivan Seidenberg told The Wall Street Journal that he didn’t think Apple ever intended to make a CDMA phone.

Apple, as it negotiates with AT&T on an extension of the carrier’s iPhone exclusive, may be looking for some leverage by making a Verizon CDMA phone seem plausible.

There have also been reports that Apple and Verizon would be likely collaborators on a fourth-generation iPhone, made to work on the carrier’s LTE network, which will come online next year. This is pretty straightforward. When Apple creates a 4G/LTE phone, it will want the broadest global reach possible for it, and Verizon will be the largest LTE operator in the US.

The question is timing: Verizon only expects to reach 25 to 30 markets next year, so many analysts believe this 4G iPhone looks more likely for 2011 — which, coincidentally, is how long AT&T would have the current iPhone if it is able to extend its exclusive deal with Apple.

Verizon’s more intriguing discussions may not be about the iPhone, per se, but other devices in Apple’s pipeline, such as a multimedia device larger than the iPod touch. BusinessWeek first reported on this aspect of the discussions. People familiar with the discussions say it is in the early stages — and this, too, could be part of an Apple effort to wring concessions from AT&T in its renewed agreement on the iPhone. But one could imagine Verizon being especially excited about getting a new hit Apple device to itself.

Verizon doesn’t want the risk of attaching its fate to any single device, however iconic. That is one reason it has been building a deep partnership with Microsoft. The Wall Street Journal reported that Verizon has been working for several months on Pink, a Microsoft project to launch a touch-screen multimedia cellphone on Verizon early next year.

It would combine music and video functionality — which Microsoft has from its Zune player — along with other software that would form a new platform that extends Windows Mobile. The inclusion of the Windows Marketplace for Mobile, Microsoft’s new app store, is also likely.

This project is drawing on the new hardware and software expertise Microsoft has from acquiring Danger, which created the T-Mobile Sidekick. All of this might be too little too late with Apple having staked out such a lead with the iPhone, but it’s an ambitious new project. (info From The Wall Street Journal)

Arkansas Health Dep't phones are sick

2009-04-29T11:12:00.003-04:00

Some telephone calls to the Arkansas Department of Health have been ringing through to non-governmental residential and cellular phone numbers as the department receives calls about swine flu.

Department spokeswoman Ann Wright said it appeared that the agency's call forwarding system wasn't working correctly. Many staffers have been working at an emergency operation center at the department's Little Rock headquarters, requiring them to leave their desks and work there. (info from The Associated Press)

Cablevision new high-speed champ, beating FiOS

2009-04-28T06:49:00.001-04:00

Cablevision plans to announce today the fastest Internet speeds available from any cable or phone company.

Starting May 11, the cableco will offer speeds of up to 101 megabits per second downstream throughout its service area, and 15 Mbps upstream. Cablevision has three million subscribers in the New York metro area.

Cablevision also plans to double the downstream speed of its Wi-Fi Internet service up to 3 Mbps for free. Cablevision offers wireless Internet at several Wi-Fi hotspots in New York's Long Island, Connecticut and Westchester service areas, and in parts of New Jersey.

Cablevision is competing against Verizon, which is rolling out its fiber-optic FiOs service in New York City. At present, Verizon's top Internet speed is 50 Mbps per second with a starting cost of $140 a month plus a free wireless router. Cablevision is offering its service at $99.95 a month.

The second fastest Internet speed offered by a cable operator is up to 60 Mbps from Charter Communications, but currently it's only available in the St. Louis area. (info from The Associated Press)

Apple will allow fake farts on iPhones, but not fake baby shaking

2009-04-23T04:46:00.002-04:00

Apple removed a 99-cent iPhone game called "Baby Shaker" from its iTunes store Wednesday after its theme -- to quiet a crying baby with a vigorous shake -- prompted protest.

"Baby Shaker" displayed black-and-white line drawings of a baby. The iTunes description included the line, "See how long you can endure his or her adorable cries before you just have to find a way to quiet the baby down!" Once the iPhone owner finishes shaking the device, the on-screen baby is depicted with large red X's over its eyes to represent sleeping.

Public outcry came from organizations including the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome and the Sarah Jane Brain Foundation, condemning Apple for approving the game's sale.

The application was designed by Sikalosoft. "Baby Shaker" was deleted from its Web site Wednesday afternoon.

Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said "Baby Shaker" went on sale Monday, and confirmed that Apple removed it Wednesday. She would not comment on why the program was initially approved for sale nor about how many people downloaded the game. Apple itself screens each iPhone application, a process some prospective iPhone application developers have complained can take weeks or months. Others have said Apple gives little feedback when it accepts or rejects a program.

Apple has rejected apps that let iPhone users throw virtual shoes at President George W. Bush or watch clips from the "South Park" cartoon. It has accepted numerous programs that simulate flatulence. (info from The Associated Press)

District Attorney sued for going too far in fighting teen "sexters"

2009-04-22T07:25:00.003-04:00

The practice of teens taking naked photos of themselves and sending them to friends via cellphones, called "sexting," has alarmed parents, school officials and prosecutors who fear the photos could end up on the Internet or in the hands of sexual predators. In a handful of cases, authorities have resorted to what one parent here called "the nuclear weapon of sex charges" -- child pornography.

But some legal experts say that in Wyoming County, Pa., District Attorney George Skumanick has expanded the definition of sexting to such an extent he could be setting a dangerous precedent. He has threatened to charge kids who appeared in photos, but who didn't send them, as well as at least one girl who was photographed wearing a bathing suit. One of the accused is 11 years old.

In a recent court session, photos of semi-nude or scantily clad teenage daughters were stacked before Skumanick as parents surrounded him. He said the images had been discovered on cellphones confiscated at the local high school. Parents were told they could either enlist their kids in an education program or have the teens face felony charges of child pornography. "We could have just arrested them but we didn't," said Skumanick.

"The whole tawdry episode seems to call for a little parental guidance and a pop-gun approach, not a Howitzer approach with a felony prosecution," said Louis Natali, a law professor at Temple University.

The sexting case in Tunkhannock, Pa. is being closely followed by juvenile justice authorities. Many prosecutors say pornography laws should be used to protect children from adults, not from other children. In some cases, teens could end up listed on sex registries if convicted of child pornography. Others say that if charges are made, they should be limited to kids who actually distribute the photos.

Last month, the American Civil Liberties Union and a group of parents sued Skumanick in federal court, alleging he violated the freedom-of-expression rights of three teenage girls. The ACLU also says that Skumanick is interfering with their parents' rights to raise them as they see fit. Skumanick says he plans to appeal and says he didn't have to offer the education courses as a way out. "We thought we were being progressive."

Some see Skumanick's alternative of offering classes as appealing. "You don't want to tag them with a scarlet letter for the rest of their life," says Shannon Edmonds, a staff attorney at the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, about charging teens with sex crimes.

Sexting came into the spotlight in this rural town, population 1,900, in October. A female student in the Tunkhannock High School cafeteria saw a boy scrolling through his cellphone and spotted a nude photo of herself, according to Skumanick. When the girl became upset, the school took the phone and called the police who, in turn, handed it to the district attorney's office.

Skumanick says he was troubled by the photo, and what worried him most was an incident in Ohio where the mother of a teenager blamed sexting for her daughter's suicide last year. The girl, Jessica Logan, had sent nude photos of herself to her boyfriend and later hanged herself after being harassed by schoolmates when the boy allegedly sent the images to his friends.

MaryJo Miller was dumbstruck when she opened a letter that said her daughter, Marissa, had been "identified in a police investigation involving the possession and/or dissemination of child pornography."

As Skumanick contemplated what to do, the school turned up several other phones with nude or semi-nude photos of students. One showed an image of a 17-year-old girl in a towel wrapped just below her breasts. The girl, who asked not to be identified, said she sent the photo to her boyfriend about a year ago to make him jealous when she heard he was interested in another girl.

Another confiscated phone had photos of a 17-year-old girl that she described in an interview as "semi-nude pictures, underwear and stuff like that." The girl, who took the photos herself, was debating whether to send them to her boyfriend when a teacher took the phone.

Skumanick thought he had enough evidence to charge them as juveniles on pornography violations -- not just for sending the photos, but for appearing in them, too.

With the help of school officials, Skumanick convened a series of assemblies, from fifth-graders to seniors. For the youngest students, he asked them to conjure how they would feel if their grandparents saw a photo of them that is "not nice." He warned the older students that sexting could damage their college or job prospects and could result in felony charges.

At one of the assemblies, a student interrupted and accused Skumanick of trying to ruin the teens' lives. "This isn't a debate," Skumanick told the senior boy, who was escorted out of the auditorium.

Skumanick also worked with area youth officials to offer the teens a class in lieu of charges. Patrick Rushton, education manager at the Wyoming County Victims Resource Center, culled course outlines for both boys and girls from educational Web sites on sexual harassment and violence. His curriculum included material on "what it means to be a girl in today's society" and a poem, "Phenomenal Women," by Maya Angelou.

On Feb. 5, with the course outline mostly in order, Skumanick sent a letter to parents of the students involved, saying their children had been "identified in a police investigation involving the possession and/or dissemination of child pornography." The letter summoned the parents to a Feb. 12 meeting at the Wyoming County Courthouse.

MaryJo Miller was dumbstruck when she opened her letter, which targeted her daughter, Marissa. Skumanick later told her he had a photo of Marissa that showed her from the waist up wearing a bra.

Marissa and her mother say the photo was snapped at a slumber party more than two years ago when Marissa was 12. Neither Marissa nor her mother knows how it got circulated but they don't see the photo as explicit. "It was like an old grandma bra. Nothing skimpy," says Marissa.

Marissa and her parents joined a group of about 50 others at the courthouse. Before showing the photos, Skumanick explained his offer to the crowd, answering one father's question affirmatively, that -- yes -- a girl in a bathing suit could be subjected to criminal charges because she was posed "provocatively."

Skumanick told them he could have simply charged the kids. Instead, he gave them two weeks to decide: take the class or face charges.

He then told the parents and teens to line up if they wanted to view the photos, which were printed out onto index cards. As the 17-year-old who took semi-nude self-portraits waited in line, she realized that Skumanick and other investigators had viewed the pictures. When the adults began to crowd around Skumanick, the 17-year-old worried they could see her photo and recalls she said, "I think the worst punishment is knowing that all you old guys saw me naked. I just think you guys are all just perverts."

Skumanick dismisses the criticism, saying that no one could see photos of teens who weren't their own children.

In the end, parents enrolled 14 teens in the course. But the parents of three other girls, including Marissa Miller, recruited the ACLU's help to sue Skumanick. At a hearing March 26, a federal judge indicated he thought the girls may be successful in their suit and temporarily blocked Skumanick from filing charges, pending a June hearing. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

TXT MSG can save stolen car

2009-04-17T11:11:00.003-04:00

A text-message to your stolen car, ordering it to shut down, is being heralded as a new way to thwart auto thefts. Engineering students at Canada's University of Saskatchewan say they have developed a program that integrates cellphone technology and the computer system on most cars.

Michael Siourounis and two classmates devised the system as a project for their senior-year studies. "You text your vehicle and inform it that it has been stolen," Siourounis explained. "It will actually initiate a sequence of events that causes the car's internal computers, that we don't modify at all, to think that the car has overheated."

Shae Pederson, one of the other engineering students on the project, said the first signal to the engine tells it to go into a limited power mode. Pederson said the reduced power provides a measure of safety to the driver.

"That 30 seconds gives them the time — the thief or whoever — time to pull over. And then after that it will shut the car down right away."

The next signal comes from the car back to the cellphone, the students said.

"Then an onboard GPS unit on our device texts you back the location of the vehicle," Siourounis said. "So then you can send the police to go recover it or go get it yourself," he added.

Siourounis said the prototype cost about $600, but expected the price would come down if it were commercialized. (info from CBC)

Moto accuses ex-CFO of destroying evidence against him

2009-04-16T05:46:00.003-04:00

Motorola alleged in a court filing Wednesday that former Chief Financial Officer Paul Liska wiped his laptop and potentially destroyed evidence related to the pending wrongful termination lawsuit.

It's the latest shot in an increasingly ugly legal battle between the embattled cellphone maker and its former financial chief at a time when the company is trying to resurrect itself.

Motorola claims Mr. Liska has yet to provide an accounting of the documents he took, and requested the Circuit Court of Cook County, Ill., delay the discovery process until the court settles the issue. Liska's attorney declined to comment.

Liska questioned the rapidly changing financial forecasts for Motorola's troubled mobile devices business, which sank from a top-tier player to an also-ran over the last few years.

Motorola claims Liska was fired because he was "erratic, unprepared, abrasive, divisive -- and often simply absent and "unavailable.'" Back in February, the company said it replaced Mr. Liska because it had postponed the spinoff.

Moto is dealing with this drama even as co-Chief Executive Sanjay Jha attempts to orchestrate a comeback on the back of Google's Android mobile platform. Jha is attempting to turn around years of little innovation which turned its once flagship Razr phone into a bargain bin device.

With the recession and growth slowing in the cellphone business, Moto is getting squeezed. In the fourth quarter, its cellphone sales fell by half and it posted an operating loss of $595 million. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Mobile digital TV coming to NC

2009-04-15T15:13:00.002-04:00

CBS affiliate television station WRAL announced that it will launch mobile digital television (DTV) broadcasts to consumers this summer, making Raleigh, N.C. the first US market to commercially deploy mobile DTV.

The station is working with technology vendors LG Electronics and Harris to create a system that will use WRAL's digital spectrum to deliver both linear programming and interactive data to Capital Area Transit buses serving passengers throughout the capital city. Beginning this summer, CAT bus passengers will be able to watch WRAL's programming throughout the day. Passengers will also get city-oriented news briefs, real-time weather and other information on digital screens in the buses.

That WRAL would be the first station to declare its plans is not surprising, as the station has long prided itself on being a technology vanguard: it launched the first commercial HDTV broadcasts in the US in July 1996, and began doing field tests of mobile DTV last summer.

LG is providing mobile DTV receivers, flat screen monitors and project development and support, while Harris is supplying its complete "MPH platform for ATSC Mobile DTV", InfoCaster digital signage systems and development and support services. Microspace Communications Corporation will provide wireless networking and digital signage system management, while Digital Recorders, Inc will provide integration of the communications systems on the CAT buses.

The first mobile DTV-capable bus in Raleigh is expected to be fully operational this summer, and additional buses will be equipped and rolled out over the next twelve months. (info from Boradcasting & Cable)

Burglars caught while homeowner watched them on webcam. One robber was a friendly neighbor.

2009-04-14T07:11:00.003-04:00

Last October, burglars stole thousands of dollars in jewelry and rare coins from Jeanne Thomas's home in Boynton Beach, Florida. Then, other things began to disappear: a crock pot and the ice cream maker.

So, Thomas bought a video surveillance system to monitor her home while at work using a live video feed over the Internet. Her husband, Tony, thought she was nuts for spending $250 on the system, telling her she would never catch anyone.

Initially he was right. Mrs. Thomas would come home from work and watch hours of uneventful footage (though she did catch her dogs jumping on the sofa). She stopped watching for a while.

But on Wednesday morning, she logged onto the system from her office in Fort Lauderdale. "It was the strangest feeling," she said. "I had a feeling something wasn't right. When I went on, I saw a person standing in my house."

She quickly called 911.

Two men had broken into her home through a doggy door for her Golden Retriever. Thomas watched as the men wandered around her home and took her flat screen television, safe and a gaming machine. She described what she saw to the 911 dispatcher. "The cat is freaking out. The dogs are hiding."

One of the burglars took a bag of shredded cheese from the refrigerator and could be seen on the video stuffing cheese in his mouth.

None of them noticed the small camera that resembles an air freshener. "They walked right up to it and didn't know what it was," said Thomas.

The men kept walking in and out of her bedroom and could be seen taking her son's Wii system and other items from her home.

Thomas kept begging the dispatcher to send police. Within a few minutes, 18 officers from the Boynton Beach Police Department arrived and surrounded the house.

"You could see them on the video freaking out," said Thomas. "They darted around the house trying to figure out how to get out."

One of the men could be seen throwing down a bag that Thomas said was filled with jewelry and other valuables before fleeing the house. They were arrested as soon as they left the home.

According to Boynton Beach police, the men, Curtis Williams and Steven Morales, told police that two other men who were in a house down the street were also involved in the burglary. One of men in the house, Scott George, said he was waiting for the other men to finish the burglary and was going to help load the stolen items into his truck and drive away. He told police exactly what items they were looking to steal.

The fourth burglar was identified as Jonathan Cruz, a neighbor. Thomas said she has known Cruz since he was 8 years old and remembers him helping with neigborhood Easter egg hunts. Her husband would often give him rides to school when he was younger. As an adult, he would wave hello. Thomas never suspected he was involved with the first burglary.

All four men confessed to the burglary. They were charged with burglary and attempted grand theft and taken to jail.

The system now seems like the best investment Thomas made and hopes this will be a lesson for burglars. "You never know who is watching you," she said. (info from Palm Beach Post)

Time out

2009-04-08T14:17:00.001-04:00

I'm taking a few days off.

Alltel Spinoff Windstream Sues Alltel Owner Verizon

2009-04-07T07:02:00.002-04:00

Arkansas telco Windstream sued Verizon Wireless last week, accusing Verizon of overcharging it $7 million for calls connected through its network.

According to the complaint, Windstream is disputing the charges incurred when customers of other telcos call Alltel customers using Windstream’s networks, i.e., “transit traffic.” Those charges have been lumped in with what the complaint calls “legitimate traffic,” or calls directly from Windstream to Alltel subscribers.

“Since 2006, Windstream received monthly invoices from Alltel (the ‘Invoices’). The Invoices should contain billings solely for Legitimate Traffic,” the complaint says. Windstream says it has paid the invoices but is now seeking damages to recoup the $7 million it says it was overcharged.

What gives the lawsuit an Oedipal aspect is that Windstream is the landline phone company spun off from Alltel, a wireless company now owned by Verizon. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

ISPs face Fed fight

2009-04-06T04:41:00.002-04:00

Telcos and Cablecos are preparing for a fight as regulators begin work Wednesday on a national broadband strategy that could bring major changes to how Internet services are delivered to American homes.

The $787 billion government stimulus package requires the FCC to provide a plan for how potentially billions of future taxpayer dollars should be spent to build or upgrade Internet access across the US.

The agency will map out how the US can ensure that every American not only has access to broadband, but has service that runs much faster than what's available today. It will also look at how to update policies that haven't kept pace with the way Americans get phone, cable TV and Internet services in their homes.

Implicit in the review is that the federal government plans to invest more money in broadband infrastructure than the $7.2 billion promised through the economic-stimulus plan. Rules for how companies can apply for those stimulus funds are expected in the next month or so.

The FCC plans to examine issues ranging from how to define faster, next-generation broadband to what sort of rules should be applied to guarantee delivery of Internet traffic. It will examine competition between Internet-service providers and what can be done to provide incentives for building broadband infrastructure.

The FCC is required to turn in its plan next February, and will begin Wednesday by opening up the issue for comment.

The plan will raise thorny issues about what sort of requirements, if any, should be imposed on Internet-service providers to share the networks they have built with government help. Phone and cable companies argue that such requirements would likely stifle investment and be counterproductive.

Phone and cable companies, which provide a vast majority of the Internet access in the US, plan to lobby the agency and Congress to ensure that the FCC's plan doesn't require more stringent rules, particularly on how they manage their networks.

Internet-service providers want to control their systems so that big users don't hog bandwidth and slow service for others. But consumers and companies that want to offer services such as online video don't want those services blocked or hobbled.

Future federal funding for expanding broadband access likely would come through changes to the Universal Service Fund, a $7 billion annual program designed to subsidize phone service in rural areas and to low-income Americans. The Obama administration says the fund should provide money for broadband, not just phone service. But any changes to the program are sure to be controversial; rural phone and wireless companies could receive significantly less revenue from the fund if changes are made. Stimulus funding, meanwhile, is an important first step to getting broadband out to more areas where there is little or no Internet service. Most of the $7.2 billion set aside for high-speed Internet in the stimulus plan will have been spent before the FCC produces its wider plan for how the US. should invest in broadband. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Like Y2K, 4/1/09 was no big deal

2009-04-02T02:14:00.002-04:00

Back in the 1990s many tech experts predicted that when the calendar showed the first day of the year 2000, computers would choke, elevators would halt, credit cards wouldn't work, phones wouldn't ring and maybe rockets wouldn't launch.

In reality, 1/1/00 was pretty much the same as 12/31/99.

April 1 of 2009, a much-hyped date when a sophisticated computer virus was set to potentially cause havoc, came and went without incident.

The Conficker computer virus, which has infected several million computers since November, was programmed to seek new instructions beginning Wednesday. That triggered speculation about what would happen, leading to media reports that Conficker could launch a massive cyber attack or do something similarly nefarious.

But security experts said there had been no Conficker-related activity. So far, Conficker has done "nothing," said Alfred Huger, vice president of engineering at computer-security company Symantec Corp. The non-event raised criticisms that efforts to use Conficker to spread awareness of cyber threats spun out of hand.

"It's really complicated and media outlets have a hard time understanding it," said Rick Wesson, chief executive of security company Support Intelligence LLC. Mr. Wesson has called Conficker a "digital Pearl Harbor."

On Wednesday, he said that he used that language to get people "to wake up" to the threat posed by cyber criminals, which aren't as obvious as threats in the physical world.

The hype around Conficker picked up in January after a self-proclaimed cabal formed to hunt down the virus's creator. It reached a new level in February, when Microsoft Corp. offered a $250,000 reward.

"In the post mortem of all of this, we're hoping this is an incident where we raised awareness of a very serious issue and that this wasn't crying wolf," said Jose Nazario, manager of security research at Arbor Networks Inc., a member of the cabal.

Security researchers say Conficker is more sophisticated than most viruses and they caution it could still cause trouble. But ultimately, Conficker will most likely be used for the same criminal purposes as other viruses. Security experts add that consumers who have up-to-date antivirus software are at little risk from Conficker and that most businesses deal with similar threats every week. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Panasonic lawyers lose April Fools' fight

2009-04-01T05:28:00.004-04:00

April Fooler Michael N. Marcus Rejects Panasonic Gag Order, Urges People to Attend Free Speech Rally at Patrick Henry Memorial in Virginia

Michael N. Marcus is an author, businessman and April Fooler. Born in April, Marcus says April Fools' Day and Halloween are his favorite holidays. For nearly ten years, he's "pranked" electronics manufacturer Panasonic in early April, but this year his perennial victim has gotten tough, and has threatened court action to block the pranking. Marcus remains defiant despite the threat.

Marcus is president of AbleComm, Inc., a Connecticut-based supplier of telecommunications equipment. The company's main phone system brand is Panasonic. Marcus said, "I also own some Panasonic stock, and I review Panasonic electronic products on my GottaGet1 blog. I have a lot of respect for the company, but that doesn't mean I can't have some fun with it."

Marcus continued, "Since the mid 1990s, I've distributed an April Fools' news report about a mythical press conference that took place at a non-existent hotel, where fake people announced fake corporate policy changes and fake new products. For those who were in on it, It became an eagerly awaited annual tradition. Lots of people love my spoofs, but gullible victims, of course, don't. Some of my fake news has actually become real news in later years."

The annual custom reached a new height in April, 2008. Marcus realized that the public and the news media were becoming increasingly sophisticated and skeptical of "news" distributed with a 4/1 date. So, to enhance credibility, he skipped the first of the month and distributed a spoof two days later.

Early on April 3, 2008 he launched a 90%-false press release. The press release contained several revelations, but the most important was that Panasonic would be manufacturing cellphones with plasma video displays. A few months earlier Panasonic demonstrated the world's largest plasma TV, so Marcus decided they should also have the smallest.

Through very lucky timing, a few days before the "news" went out, AT&T had announced their Mobile TV service for watching shows and sports on cellphones, which added usefulness and legitimacy to the fictitious device.

Within a few hours, the story was picked up and published by websites around the world. Many news writers added original material to demonstrate their extensive knowledge of the phony subject; but only one of them called Marcus to check on the story, and Marcus told him that it was a spoof.

Mobileburn.com was particularly fanciful in enhancing the fake news. They said "Panasonic took the stage at CTIA 2008 this week with partner AbleComm to announce that it has been working with AT&T to develop plasma displays for mobile phones, for use with the carrier's new Mobile TV service." There was absolutely nothing in the news release about an appearance at the CTIA event or Panasonic "working with AT&T.".

Crunchgear.com had a headline that read, "AT&T wants Panasonic to develop plasma screens for cellphones." The news release never said that, and neither did AT&T.

Some people at Panasonic laughed as expected, but some, particularly new employees who were unaware of the tradition, were upset. One outraged exec sent an email saying that Marcus caused "people to lose thousands of productive working hours." Panasonic demanded that the news distribution service that Marcus had used issue a retraction -- and this added fuel to the fire.

The retraction generated more coverage of the fake news, and personal insults, Marcus explained. "Several websites that received the retraction accused me of forgetting what day it was. One critic with dubious credentials said it was a "late, poorly executed April Fools' joke," and another called me an April Idiot. Actually it was not late, and it was extremely well executed, and my mother didn't have any stupid kids."

"There's certainly no rule that limits hoaxing to one day per year," Marcus continued. "No one who was filmed for TV's Candid Camera on 3/20 or 10/15 objected because it wasn't 4/1. Similarly the celebrities who were victims on the MTV show Punk'd may have grumbled, but not because they were not punked on the first day of the fourth month. And the subjects of "Stuttering John" interviews on The Howard Stern Show didn't check the date before deciding to participate."

Many of the websites that ran the news of the retraction, but had not run the original fake news, ran it with the retraction, thus increasing the circulation and readership of the spoof.

Some victims were complimentary.

Dailytech.com said, "Yesterday AbleComm sent out a press release that was all very believable talking about how Panasonic was going to be using small plasma displays in a mobile phone designed to be used on the new AT&T Mobile TV service launching in May. The release was professional, interesting and all very plausible replete with quotes from Panasonic and all. It didn't take long before the story was all around the internet…"

Some websites were actually suspicious of the retraction. Phonemag.com said it "Looks like someone let the plasma cat out of the proverbial bag too soon, and is now desperately backtracking to try to salvage a business relationship. It's unclear whether this was a deliberate or accidental occurrence, though the release was sizable and contained multiple quotes from all the parties involved which lends weight to the idea that it was an authentic document prematurely distributed."

In anticipation of another April Fools "attack" this year, Panasonic's law firm Katz, Honigman, Shapiro and Flynn sent a registered letter to Marcus last week warning him against further spoofing. The attorneys told Marcus that "unless you agree to restrain yourself, Panasonic will go to Court to obtain a restraining order against you."

Years earlier, Panasonic's in-house legal department had warned Marcus not to contact the then-new head of Panasonic's Business Telephone Systems division, and Marcus refused to obey.

Now in 2009, Marcus is once again making a stand for freedom of speech and freedom of fun.

He said, "It's ridiculous that the company that I have invested my money in, and that makes products that I sell and recommend, will spend money and time merely because they have no sense of humor. I will not be silenced. I will not obey a "gag order" even if they convince a court to issue one. We are living in dark times, and Panasonic and the rest of the world need to lighten up."

"Freedom of speech is a fundamental part of American culture," Marcus emphasized. "In 1791 it was guaranteed in the very first Amendment of the U. S. Constitution. Even earlier, in 1215, free speech was included in the British Magna Carta, and the caliph Umar incorporated free speech as part of Islamic law in the 7th century."

Marcus invites all supporters of free speech, both serious and spurious, to gather on April 1 at 2:00 p.m. at the Patrick Henry National Memorial in Virginia, about 35 miles south of Lynchburg.

Patrick Henry is known for his immortal words supporting the American Revolution in 1775: "I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" The rally will take place at the Orator's Stage, near Henry's grave and law office. All attendees will be allowed five minutes each to address the audience on any topic. While there will be no censorship, Marcus urges that speakers "keep it clean" because there will probably be children in the audience. The address is 1250 Red Hill Road, Brookneal, VA 24528.

Marcus noted, "My former spoof victims and passive co-conspirators have been eagerly waiting to see what I would devise for this year. I won't let them down and will not be intimidated by lawyers. I'm reminded of what John Belushi said in his Bluto Blutarski role in Animal House: "Over? Did you say 'over'? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!"

The merry prankster proclaimed, "I proudly reiterate the defiant words of Bluto Blutarsky. I say to Panasonic and to its uptight attorneys, Hell no!"

"It's time they realize that pranks, spoofs and put-ons are part of normal American life, and should be responded to with a smile, not an injunction," Marcus concluded. "Besides, most people know not to believe anything they read on the first day of April."

Michael N. Marcus is author of the recently published I Only Flunk My Brightest Students: stories from school and real life, Phone Systems & Phones for Small Business & Home, and The AbleComm Guide to Phone Systems, all available at Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com.

(Patrick Henry painting by George Matthews from the U. S. Senate website. Michael N. Marcus photo by Cloe Poisson. © 2008 The Hartford Courant.)

Sprint is still in the toilet, but boss gets big bonus

2009-03-31T04:22:00.002-04:00

Sprint Nextel Chief Executive Dan Hesse received a $2.6 million bonus in 2008, 30% higher than his targeted payout, even as the company's subscriber defections and losses mounted.

Hesse's overall compensation package for the year was valued in the company's proxy filing at $15.5 million, including equity grants and a base salary of $1.2 million. Sprint's customer base shrunk by 4.6 million during 2008, and it posted net losses totaling $2.8 billion.

Sprint spokesman James Fisher said Sprint has improved in several areas under Mr. Hesse's leadership, with customer call resolution up, $1 billion in cost-cuts in the second half of the year, and renegotiation of key credit agreements that has given Sprint some breathing room financially.

Fisher noted that the actual value of Hesse's equity awards is much smaller now than when they were granted, given the decline in Sprint's stock price. "The board thinks the most effective approach to executive compensation is to link it closely with our company's performance," he said. Sprint shares, which were trading at $3.43 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, have lost more than 70% of their value since the beginning of 2008.

Hesse took the helm at Sprint in late 2007 when the company was already struggling and losing market share to rivals AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

"By most people's estimation Dan Hesse didn't cause Sprint to be in the situation they're in now," said Christopher King, a telecom analyst with Stifel Nicolaus. "And you can see early signs of some incremental progress that's being made."

Still, it appears Sprint did not achieve some of the goals set out in its own guidance on how bonuses are calculated. According to the proxy, one goal in early 2008 was to increase additions of customers on the Nextel side of the business. That unit, acquired in 2005, has been at the root of many of Sprint's problems in recent years. In 2008, the negative trend continued, with nearly 5 million Nextel users dropping the service.

Sprint's proxy does not say what its internal subscriber target was for the Nextel division. After the first quarter, Sprint dropped Nextel subscriber targets from its formula for calculating bonuses. Sprint also did not disclose its target for reducing churn -- the monthly customer turnover rate. Churn was reduced to 2.16% at the end of 2008 from 2.3% of the subscriber base at the end of 2007, but it is still significantly higher than Sprint's rivals.

AT&T's chief executive Randall Stephenson decided to forego a bonus in 2008. AT&T is considered on Wall Street to be among the best performing telecom companies, and its wireless business has taken market share from Sprint in recent years. Stephenson announced his decision after AT&T reported a 23% drop in fourth-quarter earnings and said it would cut 12,000 jobs.

The proxy also highlights the exit package Hesse would receive under various circumstances. If he were terminated without cause, he would get a package valued at $10.1 million. If he left after a change of control -- such as a sale of Sprint to another carrier -- he would receive a package valued at $10.7 million. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Skype to allow iPhone users to bypass AT&T to make calls

2009-03-30T06:17:00.004-04:00

EBay's Skype subsidiary plans to release a version of its Internet-based phone software for Apple's iPhone. The move puts Skype in competition for wireless voice services with network operators such as AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

Skype's free software allows iPhone users to call other Skype users on computers or supported cellphones free if they are in a Wi-Fi hot spot. Or they may call land line phones for a fee, typically 2.1 cents a minute.

Skype already offers software for smart phones using Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system, which the company says has been downloaded 12 million times since 2005. It released a version of the software in January for the Android G1 phone, a product backed by Google, and says it will introduce a version that works on BlackBerry devices later this year.

Skype uses VoIP (Voice over Internet protocol), which treats calls as data like email messages or Web pages and routes them over the Internet, rather than a traditional phone network. It has more than 400 million users around the world.

Skype's chief operating officer Scott Durchslag said the iPhone product is part of Skype's push toward cellphones, as opposed to the calls from computers, for which Skype is known. Mobile devices are "where the majority of the world's conversations are happening these days," he said.

Skype's move into mobile communications could threaten the business of wireless carriers, which generate the bulk of their revenue from cellphone calling plans. One sign of that tension is that the Skype iPhone software makes calls only when users are connected to a Wi-Fi network, and not over the AT&T 3G data network that US iPhone users already pay to access. Wi-Fi offers short-range wireless broadband Internet access around a "hot spot."

The software would also work with the iPod Touch -- which offers the same Wi-Fi capability as the iPhone without having to buy a cellphone plan -- but would require the user to purchase a microphone.

Durchslag said Apple's terms of service for software distributed through its iPhone App Store forbid Skype from accessing the AT&T 3G data network. In the US, Skype users can make calls over the 3G network on Android G1 on Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile, as well as on the HTC Touch Pro on Verizon Wireless.

AT&T's terms of service for wireless data users don't specifically bar Internet calling on its other devices, but generally prohibit applications that would strain the company's network with too much data traffic.

Mobile data services can be expensive. Verizon, for example, charges about $2 a megabyte on some Web browsing plans, and a Skype call typically requires one to 6.25 kilobytes a second -- translating to about $4 in data charges for a 10-minute call. Such charges might undermine Skype's attractiveness, but users have the option of buying unlimited data-usage plans.

Durchslag said Skype, as a software company, has an advantage over network operators and handset makers in attracting customer loyalty. "We are not tied to a single device. We are not tied to a single network. We are ultimately the most flexible and personalizable vehicle for communication," he said. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

AT&T will warn web customers accused of media piracy

2009-03-27T10:01:00.002-04:00

ATT, the nation's largest Internet service provider, will start sending warnings to its subscribers when music labels and movie studios allege that they are trafficking in pirated material. The phone company is joining other major ISPs that either go beyond legal requirements or interpret their duties under the law to mean that they have to forward such notices.

Jim Cicconi, AT&T's top executive in Washington, confirmed this week that the company is looking to expand a trial program it ran late last year with movie studios. It is currently testing a system with the Recording Industry Association of America and will expand the program with other rights organizations.

Comcast, Cox and Verizon already forward such notices, but the approaches differ, and the legal situation is muddled.

Copyright holders such as movie studios can, in many cases, identify Internet users who download or provide pirated material by their Internet address, but cannot match it up with a subscriber name without the cooperation of the Internet service provider. ISPs have previously identified their customers to copyright holders who bring court orders. The copyright holders and their representatives, like the RIAA, have then been able to sue the customers.

But that strategy had been widely criticized, and the RIAA said late last year it was abandoning its policy of filing lawsuits, opting instead to work with ISPs to cut abusers' access if they ignore repeated warnings. At the time, the RIAA said it agreed with several leading ISPs to notify alleged illegal file-sharers and cut off service if they failed to stop.

Cicconi said AT&T's program was not the result of a deal with the RIAA, and the music industry organization was not part of the first trials the company conducted of the notification system last year.

Under the new system at AT&T, copyright holders would send a notice to the ISP that a certain numerical Internet address is associated with piracy. The ISP would then automatically forward the notice to the customer via e-mail, without telling the copyright holder who the customer is.

AT&T and other participating ISPs are doing more for copyright owners than they are legally obliged to, according to Fred von Lohmann, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. However, they do have an obligation to have a policy in place to kick off repeat offenders, he said.

AT&T will only forward the notice and won't threaten its customers with suspension of service or any other sanction, Cicconi said. If copyright holders want to go further, it's up to them to bring court orders, he said.

Cox, the fifth-largest ISP in the country with about 4 million Internet customers, forwards thousands of notices per month and has cut off a few repeat offenders.

There's confusion about the legal obligations of ISPs, von Lohmann said, because "nobody on either side has had the nerve to go to court over it, probably because the stakes are so high, neither side wants to gamble on what the ultimate answer might be."

In Ireland, the association representing RIAA members sued a local ISP, forcing it to disconnect a subscriber after three recorded copyright violations.

Internet lawyers and consumer advocates have pointed out that many reports of violations from copyright holders are inaccurate. Cox and AT&T said that in many cases, the notices have gone out to parents who didn't know that their children were pirating copyrighted material. In other cases, AT&T's Cicconi said, customers hadn't secured their wireless routers, and someone else near had been using them for downloading, so AT&T has helped customers secure their routers. (info from The Associated Press)

T-Mobile finally offers laptop service

2009-03-25T06:36:00.002-04:00

T-Mobile USA is opening up its new cellular broadband network to laptops for the first time, with today's launch of a USB "dongle" that lets portable PCs get wireless Internet access.

The plug-in device costs $50 with a two-year contract, or $100 if the buyer is signing up for one year. From then, service costs $60 per month for up to five gigabytes of traffic.

The prices are similar to those at the three larger cellular carriers. T-Mobile is playing catch-up to Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Sprint Nextel in building a nationwide third-generation, or "3G" data network.

T-Mobile inaugurated the network last year for the use of a few phones, most notably the G1 "Google phone." The network reached about 100 million people by the end of 2008, and T-Mobile plans for it to cover 200 million by the end of this year.

T-Mobile subscribers using the dongle will get access to the company's network of 10,000 Wi-Fi hot spots at hotels, airports, and Borders book stores. They will also get free access at Starbucks shops, even though AT&T now operates those hot spots. Wi-Fi downloads are generally faster than 3G, and don't count toward the monthly traffic limit. (info from The Associated Press)

Union workers approve strike against AT&T

2009-03-24T06:59:00.002-04:00

Union workers at AT&T have given their leaders the authority to call a strike as part of negotiations for a new contract covering 112,500 employees.

Several contracts covering workers at AT&T's landline division expire on April 4. AT&T is trying to make the employees pay more for their health care, among other concessions. The Communications Workers of America says 88 percent of members covered by the contracts voted in favor of a possible strike.

AT&T spokesman Walt Sharp says the strike authorization is "expected and routine at this stage in the negotiations." AT&T is the nation's largest employer of union labor. (info from The Associated Press)

Some 911 wackos greatest hits

2009-03-23T06:35:00.002-04:00

A call came into 911 because two couples were going to share a hotel room and there weren't enough towels.

A lady called 911 because of a fight going on in a parking lot. When asked to describe the combatants, she said: "There's one man, and he's dressed like Elvis. He's kicking another man who's laying on the ground and screaming "You ain't nothing but a hound dog."

A man called and requested police call gas stations on all exits of I-95 to find out which ones were open.

A woman called 911 to report she had seen a wild mouse in her house.

Someone called 911 to report the parrot got out of his cage and is in a tree outside.

A man broke up with his girlfriend and wanted police to go over to her house and report to him the owners of any cars, other than hers, in her driveway.

A guy called to ask if they delivered dope. When the person answering told him it was the Sheriff's Department, he hung up.

A woman called to request a police officer come to her residence to change the battery in her smoke detector because she couldn't reach it.

A person called to find out the number to the police station.

Dispatcher: 911 What is your emergency?
Caller: I heard what sounded like gunshots coming from the brown house on the corner.
Dispatcher: Do you have an address?
Caller: No, I have on a blouse and slacks, why?

Dispatcher: 911 What is your emergency?
Caller: Someone broke into my house and took a bite out of my ham and cheese sandwich.
Dispatcher: Excuse me?
Caller: I made a ham and cheese sandwich and left it on the kitchen table and when I came back from the bathroom, someone had taken a bite out of it.
Dispatcher: Was anything else taken?
Caller: No, but this has happened to me before and I'm sick and tired of it!

Caller: Yeah, I'm having trouble breathing. I'm all out of breath. Darn....I think I'm going to pass out.
Dispatcher: Sir, where are you calling from?
Caller: I'm at a pay phone. North and Foster.
Dispatcher: Sir, an ambulance is on the way. Are you an asthmatic?
Caller: No
Dispatcher: What were you doing before you started having trouble breathing?
Caller: Running from the Police.

Dispatcher: 911 What is the nature of your emergency?
Caller: I'm trying to reach nine eleven but my phone doesn't have an eleven on it.
Dispatcher: This is nine eleven.
Caller: I thought you just said it was nine-one-one
Dispatcher: Yes, ma'am nine-one-one and nine-eleven are the same thing.
Caller: Honey, I may be old, but I'm not stupid

AT&T will sell you an iPhone with no contract

2009-03-20T06:56:00.003-04:00

Starting next Thursday, AT&T will sell iPhones without requiring a two-year contract, but they will cost $400 more. AT&T will sell the phones for $599 or $699, depending on the storage capacity. The two models cost $199 or $299 under contract.

The company had said in July, when the latest version of the iPhone was launched, that it would sell contract-free phones in the US. Such phones are sold in some other countries.

The new phones will still be "locked" to AT&T and won't work with any other cellular carrier unless they're modified. AT&T will only activate them on the regular iPhone plans, which include a $30 monthly charge for data access. Prepaid service will not be available.

Apple, the maker of the iPhone, has been selling the device from its stores and Website, but would not say if it would sell the contract-free version.

Apple is expected to release a new version of the phone this summer. (info from The Associated Press)

Craigslist busted for prostitution

2009-03-19T07:00:00.003-04:00

Craigslist, the giant classified ad website, has antagonized the authorities over the ads in its adult section. Recently the sheriff in Cook County, Illinois called the site the “largest source of prostitution in America,” and filed a civil lawsuit to get Craigslist’s “erotic services” section shut down.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart announces at a news conference that he has filed suit, accusing the site of knowingly promoting and facilitating prostitution.

Dart said: “They’ve actually catered their site so it facilitates (prostitution), where you can actually and more specifically and quickly get to what you want.” He continued: “How is that different than somebody who’s aggressively and actively working with a pimp to try to get the word out about the women working for him?”

Craigslist, in a blog post by chief executive Jim Buckmaster, said that it doesn’t tolerate illegal activity on the site and has taken steps to stop it.

While the company thinks the latest complaint is “not well founded in law,” he writes, “we still very much appreciate and commend the good work of Sheriff Dart’s department, and will continue to provide any and all assistance whenever we are called upon to help in their efforts to protect and serve the people of Cook County.”

Responding to government complaints last fall, Craigslist agreed to crack down on ads posted by prostitutes, by requiring posters of erotic-services ads to give a working phone number and pay a fee with a valid credit card. (The adult ads, like most others on the site, were previously free.)

Does the sheriff’s suit have a legal leg to stand on?

Electronic Frontier Foundation senior staff attorney Matt Zimmerman doesn’t think so. “I would be surprised if it went very far,” he said today. Aside from Craigslist already cooperating with authorities, a federal court has already ruled that Websites are immune to liability for what a third party posts, so long as the site doesn’t directly help create that content. And if it ever got that far, constitutional freedom of speech protections likely also apply to Craiglist, he said.

He makes a practical point, too: Shutting down erotic ads on Craigslist probably wouldn’t make prostitution go away. “But wouldn’t one rather have a centralized location where people are posting information about illegal activity,” he asked. Such a database could make the sheriff’s job “a little easier.”

But all of that begs the question: Why does Craigslist have an “erotic services” section in the first place? As anybody who has ever picked up the classifieds section of a local newspaper has noticed, these sorts of ads can be a great source of income.

Craigslist has a more philosophical answer: Users asked for it, so that potentially objectionable ads wouldn’t be mixed in with the ordinary personals. The company says it isn’t interested in the money from erotic ads — it donates 100% of net revenue from “erotic services” ads to charities. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

AT&T's 3G network could not handle demand

2009-03-18T06:56:00.002-04:00

Over the weekend, hordes of attendees at the South by Southwest Music and Media Conference in Austin, Texas overloaded AT&T's wireless network with their iPhones and other 3G-enabled devices. In response, AT&T doubled its network capacity in the city in a matter of hours.

When the iPhone 3G launched in July 2008, it was pretty clear from the start that there were lots of problems related to its ability to access AT&T's 3G network. Apple -- not AT&T -- took the fall, and in September issued a major firmware update for the 3G iPhone that "fixed" the iPhone's ability to connect to AT&T's 3G network.

In a blog posted yesterday, Om Malik said, "AT&T keeps denying that it has any network bandwidth problems and continued its state of denial in an article in the New York Times this past weekend. Kristin S. Rinne, senior VP of architecture and planning for AT&T, blamed the phones and the chipsets on handsets for some of the problems." At the same time, SXSW was kicking off in Austin. Om continues, "AT&T’s network choked and suddenly everyone was up in arms."

AT&T operates its network in the 850- to 1,900-MHz bands across the United States. Cellphones sold by AT&T can access either band. Between the two slices of spectrum, AT&T has major portions of the US covered, so cellphones will work wherever it has either 850- or 1,900-MHz spectrum.

In Austin, AT&T was using just the 1,900MHz band. In response to the outcry by SXSW attendees, AT&T doubled its network capacity in Austin by firing up the 850-MHz band on eight different towers that cover downtown Austin. This spectrum had been used for AT&T's analog network, and, according to Malik, AT&T will be turning on 850 MHz in San Francicso and New York City at some point later this year to add to its 3G capacity in those markets. Malik contends that AT&T is knowingly selling 3G devices that it doesn't necessarily have the capacity to support. (info from Information Week)

Telcos and cablecos oppose Federal financing of competitors

2009-03-17T04:12:00.002-04:00

Cable TV companies and big phone companies don't want $7.2 billion in Federal stimulus money set aside for new high-speed Internet lines to subsidize upstarts planning to compete with existing broadband services.

Stimulus money should be used for "extending broadband [service] to unserved areas," the cable industry's lobbying group emphasized in a letter to members of Congress last week. The group repeated those remarks in a paper released Monday. Lobbyists for AT&T and Verizon are spreading the same message, urging regulators to spend the money only on wiring homes in rural areas that still rely on dial-up Internet service.

The definition of unserved, and how that is different from underserved, could be critical in deciding who gets stimulus money to extend broadband services, and where the money goes.

That isn't the only issue overshadowing the Obama administration's efforts to extend fast Internet services to more Americans. Advocates of an open Internet, or net neutrality, are wrangling with big telecommunications companies over what conditions, if any, are attached to grants. Meanwhile, industry groups want the money to be given to companies directly, instead of requirements that they work with local governments on grants. Local officials frown on that idea.

The biggest issue, however, is the debate over unserved areas versus underserved areas. Established broadband providers are concerned that the government not give federal grants to competitors looking to build new -- and potentially faster -- Internet services in markets that already have some form of broadband.

"We believe that the rules that will result here should not overly fund competitors in a market where there are already multiple broadband providers," said Matthew Polka, president of the American Cable Association, which represents smaller cable operators.

Midsize phone companies and consumer advocates argue that some stimulus money should be spent on new Internet lines in areas that already have service. New "middle mile" Internet lines could be used by multiple phone and wireless companies to offer faster service over longer distances, they say, and potentially increase competition.

Last year, a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that only about 10% of Americans still use dial-up service. Upwards of 10 million households don't have any access to broadband service, according to a July 2008 Brookings Institution study, which found most unserved areas were in rural communities that are expensive to wire.

Cable and large phone companies would also like some of the $7.2 billion in stimulus funds to go toward spurring demand by consumers who have access to broadband now but don't subscribe. Incentives for such consumers might include things like subsidized purchases of PCs or discounted broadband access for low-income households, for instance, through an existing federal telephone-subsidy program.

Decisions on rules for the broadband stimulus grants are expected to be made in a few weeks, much faster than the usual government rule-making process. On Monday, hundreds of lobbyists packed in to the Commerce Department for the first workshop, which focused on eligibility requirements for private companies. Later this week, scheduled meetings will focus on issues including how to define unserved areas and how much of a role state officials should play in the grant-making process. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

AT&T wants to cut union wages & benefits. Strike is possible.

2009-03-16T05:49:00.004-04:00

AT&T, the largest employer of union workers in the US, is renegotiating contracts that cover 112,500 workers, and seeks to take advantage of the recession to reduce its health care costs. Five regional union contracts expire on April 4. A sixth that expires a few months later is being negotiated at the same time.

The last time this batch of contracts was up for negotiation, five years ago, there was a four-day strike that was seen as a minor victory for the Communications Workers of America. But this time, the economic meltdown has shifted the balance of power decidedly toward the employer.

The contracts cover AT&T's shrinking wired phone business, rather than the growing cellphone division. AT&T wants concessions on health benefits, saying the wireline workers pay far fewer of their health care costs than employees on the mobile phone side. Retirees' health benefits are also likely to be affected. AT&T spends $5.5 billion a year on health care; its 2008 revenue was $124 billion.

UBS analyst John Hodulik wrote last week that a strike is likely, but that the company would come out on top. Management employees have received extensive training to keep the company running if there is a strike, he said, and AT&T could reap large savings on its health care costs.

Not only is the threat of job losses sharper in the current economy, said Sanford Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett, the union war chest is likely also badly depleted by the weak stock market. Unions in general also aren't very popular since they're getting some blame for the troubles of the auto industry. Ford, General Motors and Chrysler have negotiated concessions from their unions.

Since the last contract negotiation, cable companies, with a largely nonunion work force, have grown into a formidable competitor for home phone customers. Comcast announced last Wednesday that it was the third-largest provider of home phone service in the country, surpassing Qwest.

AT&T spokesman Walt Sharp said the workers covered by the expiring contracts pay 8 percent of their yearly health care costs, compared to the national average of 34 percent. Their total health care costs are also higher because the benefits structure doesn't promote responsibility, he said.

Meanwhile, AT&T employees are well paid, compared to the competition, Sharp said. A 2007 survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the hourly wages of phone company line installers and repairers at $26.80 per hour, compared to $19.50 per hour at cable companies.

Sharp also emphasized that AT&T in general has a good relationship with its unions. Of its 300,000 employees, 160,000 are unionized. It's the only wireless carrier with a large union work force. (info from The Associated Press)

If you live near a border, don't call 911 with your cellphone

2009-03-12T06:43:00.002-04:00

Radio waves don't recognize and stop at municipal and state borders.

Years ago I called 911 from my car to report an accident on the NY Thruway in Yonkers. I connected through a cell tower across the Hudson River and was connected to New Jersey State Police. I hung up and had the same problem two more times. On the third attempt I asked if they could transfer my call to the New York cops. They couldn't transfer, and I couldn't find a phone booth. I hope a cop discovered the crash in time to help the victims.

Now the Staten Island Advance has reported a similar problem:

After Jacyln Massa and her husband moved to Livingston, they got a word of caution from their neighbors: Do not use your cellphone to call 911 because, chances are, the people who pick up will be across the Kill van Kull in Bayonne, New Jersey. The advice also holds true for those dialing from slivers of land along the waterfront in Port Richmond and Mariners Harbor, according to Bayonne officials.

"I'm a nurse myself, and in a situation where it could be life or death, it's really insane to be patched to New Jersey," said Mrs. Massa, who did a test call with her Verizon phone, and sure enough reached Bayonne from in front of her home. "It's kind of scary."

Whereas 911 dialed from a land line will allow the emergency center to locate the caller, the same does not hold true for cellphone calls.

Emergency calls can also be routed to distant centers when one center becomes overloaded. Such was the case on Sept. 11 when Bayonne received dozens of calls from people trapped in the Twin Towers.

Bayonne operators are instructed to answer the 911 calls by saying "Bayonne Police."

But if they forget to make that clear, or if the panicked caller does not hear, precious seconds can be lost before the call gets put through the direct link to New York City 911 dispatchers.

ATT will subsidize netbook purchases

2009-03-11T05:50:00.003-04:00

AT&T hopes to have the same discount-based sales success with netbooks as it did with Apple's iPhone. By forging marketing alliances with makers of the compact low-cost laptops, it hopes to expand its wireless customer base. With AT&T rebates, consumers can buy netbooks from Acer and Dell for $99 (about a third of the normal retail price), and AT&T is talking with other computer makers.

AT&T boosted demand for the iPhone by providing subsidies to Apple that lowered the device's retail cost to $199. AT&T gained by signing iPhone customers to two-year service contracts. AT&T charges iPhone users $30 a month for data service and garners $40 to $100 for calling plans.

While subsidies cost AT&T in the short term, it gains more high-spending consumers paying for its services. It wants use that strategy with other hardware, starting with the very popular netbooks. AT&T says it will expand its subsidy program to cameras, portable video game machines, GPS devices -- anything that uses lots of wireless data.

"The economics for us are terrific. We're willing to invest to get a customer," said AT&T's Glenn Lurie. "We're very comfortable with the margins we're going to receive on these netbooks, in the deals we're talking about."

The netbooks are equipped with built-in chips for wireless Internet access. AT&T charges netbook users $60 a month for data services, the same as it charges customers who use larger portable computers.

In Germany, wireless service provider T-Mobile began subsidizing netbook sales in September. AT&T's main US rival, Verizon Wireless, offers a $200 rebate for Sony's high-end Vaio Pocket netbook and also offers $100 rebates for some laptop PCs.

Wireless subscriber growth has slowed for AT&T, Verizon and other wireless firms. Also, AT&T is signing up fewer customers for DSL service at homes, another reason to invest in wireless broadband. AT&T spent billions of dollars upgrading its wireless phone network to 3G technology. In December, AT&T bought Wayport for $275 million. Wayport manages 20,000 Wi-Fi wireless hot spots nationwide. (info from Investor's Business Daily)

New rivals to iPhone App Store

2009-03-10T03:46:00.003-04:00

Apple faces a growing threat to its iPhone business, as renegade stores spring up online to sell unauthorized software for the device.

The developer behind some popular iPhone software plans to open a service called Cydia Store that could potentially sell hundreds of iPhone applications that are not available through Apple's official store. Users must download special software that alters their iPhones before they can run these programs. Another small company plans a store called Rock Your Phone for iPhone users who have not yet modified their devices to make it easier to download and buy unauthorized applications. A third start-up is building an online store that specializes in selling adult games for the iPhone.

The new stores take aim at one of the underpinnings of the iPhone's success, Apple's App Store. It sells thousands of independently developed applications ranging from from games to news and entertainment features. People download them to their iPhones, often for free or as little as 99 cents.

When Apple opened the App Store, it provided building blocks so programmers could create software that worked on its phone. But the company tests submissions to maintain quality control and to protect the user experience. Apple collects a 30% commission from sellers on its store. 2008 sales were estimated to be about $150 million and are projected to reach $800 million this year.

The upstart sites can carry software programs that Apple won't, such as free app called Cycorder, which turns the iPhone into a camcorder. A $29 program dubbed PdaNET lets people use their iPhones as laptop modems to connect to the Internet.

Jay Freeman, who created Cycorder and is behind the Cydia Store, says he decided to open the store so developers like himself have a way to make money from their efforts. A big hurdle the Cydia Store and others face is that the applications they offer typically only work on iPhones that have been modified, or "jailbroken," to allow users to download unauthorized programs.

People have downloaded more than 500 million applications from the App Store, but the App Store rejects some submissions for technical and content reasons. It is also so sprawling that it can be difficult for a new developer to get programs noticed.

Apple appears to be preparing for a fight. While the company hasn't taken legal action against anyone for modifying iPhones or building applications for them, it filed a statement with the US Copyright Office. Apple maintains that use of software to modify iPhones is illegal, according to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Cydia Store's Freeman says he has lined up a lawyer in case Apple takes legal action. "The overworking goal is to provide choice," he says. "It's understandable that [Apple] wants to control things, but it has been very limiting for developers and users." (info from TheWall Street Journal)

Is this something to brag about?

2009-03-09T05:14:00.011-04:00

Infinity Publishing provides services to authors who can't or don't want to use traditional publishers.

The company brags about its innovation and technology. They distribute a useful promotional and instructional book aimed at prospective customers.

It includes this pathetic picture. The caption says "Michelle Shane, sales administrator, is seen here receiving an order for a book. She will then oversee the invoicing and sale of the book as it makes its way through our system. It will be shipped in less than 48 hours!"

The ancient CRT monitor on the desk is not the worst lapse of technology.

Poor Michelle's left arm is twisted like a pretzel to hold her telephone handset against her right ear to free her right hand for writing.

She's not even taking advantage of the high-tech shoulder rest that someone stuck onto the handset.

Michelle should be using a HEADSET, not a handset, so both of her hands will be free to conduct business.

And why is she writing on a piece of paper instead of typing on a keyboard?

I suppose her method is better than using a quill on a sheet of parchment -- but just barely. I wonder if Infinity's books are printed on demand, as scrolls, by monks working by candlelight.

Also, the company can't accept uploaded manuscripts, but they will let authors send in a stack of floppy disks. Some computer users have never used a floppy disk, and floppy drives are seldom installed in modern PCs.

New book about phone equipment and services

2009-03-06T05:55:00.000-05:00

(press release about my own book)

A hundred years ago, telephones were simple. If you wanted to call someone, you picked up the receiver, cranked the crank, and waited for the nice lady to say, “Operator, may I help you?” Then you said something like, “I want to talk to Daddy,” or “I need the doctor;” and in a few seconds you were connected. You didn’t even need to know the phone numbers.

For equipment, maybe you could choose between an oak box on the kitchen wall, or a metal candlestick model on the hall table. If you lived in a high-tech area, maybe you could get a dial instead of a crank.

Regardless of the telephone style, you would pay to rent it month after month, and there was just one company in your town that you could do business with, and that company owned “your” phone.

Today the choices seem endless. Phones can be analog or digital, rotary or touch-tone, plain or fancy, corded, cordless, or cellular. You can connect through a local phone company, a national phone company, an international phone company, a TV company, a satellite company, a cellular company, or a VoIP company. Phone companies sell TV service. Cable television companies sell phone service. They both sell Internet service.

You can get a phone or phone system or a phone gadget from hundreds of sources, and buy it, rent it, lease it or may-be get a freebie. You can pay someone to install it, you can install it yourself, or you can get something that needs no installation.

An authoritative but easy-to-understand new book, “Phone Systems & Phones for Small Business and Home” by Michael N. Marcus helps people sort out their options. It covers basic phones, multi-line phone systems, add-ons like headsets, music-on-hold, paging systems, backup power and fax equipment — for professional offices, businesses and homes. There are sections on technology trends, telecommunications terminology, tools, wiring, troubleshooting, and much more.

The book will help people pick out the right size phone system, to minimize initial cost, and provide room to grow. It even deals with the important items that people really do need in a phone system, but are often left off sellers’ bids and proposals.

The book also sorts out the various technologies for making phone calls and accessing the Internet: conventional dial tone, ISDN, DSL, cable, fiber, T1 and VoIP.

Marcus’s book includes about 40 detailed hands-on product reviews. Recommendations range from a $12.99 home phone to complex multi-thousand-dollar business phone systems, plus a wide array of add-one to improve communications.

It will help readers avoid the worst mistakes of phone system buyers, and can help them decide if they can save money by installing their own home or business phones. The book will also help people quickly diagnose many common telecom troubles, and often fix them easily and inexpensively or maybe even for free.

Marcus says, “But even if you don’t plan to do your own phone work, by understanding what has to be done, you’re more likely to get the right thing done, and pay the right price. You could save much more than the price of this book.”

Some reader comments:

• Outstanding! An entertaining and sometimes humorous thorough education on phones and telecommunications. It’s a must-read for shoppers as well as salespeople.

• I’ve been in telecommunications for nearly 30 years, but I still learned a lot from this informative and entertaining book.

• After just three minutes I learned that a really annoying telephone problem could be cured for $4, instead of nearly $400. This book belongs in every office and many homes.

• This delightful book makes phones ultra-useful for people who run mini-Fortune 500 companies. Highly recommended.

The illustrated book has 396 pages. It is available from Amazon.com and other booksellers.

This is the third book on communications equipment written by Michael N. Marcus, a writer who has specialized in electronics and telecommunications for over 30 years. Marcus is a successful and popular explainer, known for mixing technology and humor. His humorous memoir “I Only Flunk My Brightest Students: stories from school and real life” was published in December.

If you get a new Amazon.com credit card, you can get a $30 certificate to pay for the book.

Italy wants to ban texting for Lent, but Pope likes Facebook and uses YouTube

2009-03-05T05:09:00.003-05:00

Roman Catholic bishops in Italy are urging the faithful to go on a high-tech fast for Lent, switching off modern devices from cars to iPods and abstaining from using the Web or text messaging until Easter.

The suggestion goes far beyond traditional meatless Fridays, giving a modern twist to traditional forms of abstinence in the five-week period Christians set aside for fasting and prayer ahead of Easter. It also shows the Church's increasing focus on technology's uses -- with many of the Lenten appeals posted on various dioceses' Websites.

Dioceses and Catholic groups in several cities called for a ban on text messaging every Friday in Lent, which began last week with Ash Wednesday.

"It's a small way to remember the importance of concrete and not virtual relationships," the Modena diocese said. "It's an instrument to remind us that our actions and lifestyles have consequences in distant countries." The diocese said the "no SMS day" seeks to draw attention to years of conflict in Congo fueled in part by the struggle for control of coltan mines. The mineral is an essential material in cellphones.

The Turin diocese is suggesting the faithful not watch television during Lent. In Trento, the church has created a "new lifestyles" calendar with proposals for each week of Lent. Some ideas: Leave cars at home and hop on a bike or a bus; stop throwing chewing gum on the street and start recycling waste; enjoy the silence of a week without the Internet and iPods.

Italians have reacted cautiously. Some say Lenten abstinence should be a personal matter, and others contend that people who need technology to work shouldn't be asked to do without. "What does giving up mean? If the use is capricious, then abstinence is welcome, but if technology is needed for work it makes no sense," said Giancarlo Angelo Andreis, a priest in Rome.

The Church is trying to balance an increasing appreciation of modern communication with a wariness of new media. In January, the Vatican launched its own YouTube channel, with Pope Benedict XVI welcoming viewers to this "great family that knows no borders." Benedict praised social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace for forging friendships and understanding, but cautioned that online networking could isolate people from real social interaction. (info from The Associated Press)

SURPRISE! There's some good news in the telecom biz

2009-03-04T04:15:00.003-05:00

Most recent telecom news has been doom-and-gloom, but there may be a slightly brighter LED at the end of the tunnel.

Research firm Gartner Inc. said Tuesday that about 315 million cellphones were sold in the fourth quarter of 2008, down 5% from a year earlier, but "we are seeing growth in 2010," a spokesperson said. "It will be very moderate, but growth."

Virgin Mobile USA posted a narrower fourth-quarter loss and returned to customer growth in a sign that more people are considering prepaid wireless plans.

Reversing two quarters of customer defections, Virgin Mobile added 216,000 net new users to end the period with a base of 5.4 million. The company's turnaround underscores the increasing reluctance of consumers to commit to a multiyear service plan given the uncertainty over the economy.

Net service revenue rose 10% to $326.7 million.

Helping Virgin Mobile is the increasing popularity of "hybrid" plans, which offer a set number of minutes at a standard price without a contract. When the plans launched a year ago, they attracted a third of all new customers who signed up. Now, more than half of Virgin Mobile's customers choose a hybrid plan.

The plans have helped Virgin Mobile reverse a trend of declining monthly revenue per user. The average revenue per user in the fourth quarter was $21.14, up from $20.36 a year ago.

The rate of customer cancellations -- typically higher for a prepaid service -- fell to 4.8% from 5.1% a year ago. Virgin Mobile faces stiff competition from Leap Wireless International Inc., MetroPCS Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp.'s Boost, all of which offer flat-rate calling plans without a contract. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Dish Network gains income but loses customers

2009-03-03T05:45:00.002-05:00

Despite a 24% jump in fourth-quarter net income, Dish Network's subscriber base continued to dwindle, as it slipped further behind larger rivals in the pay-TV arena.

Dish is the USA's number-two satellite-to-home video broadcaster and posted net income of $217 million, or 48 cents a share, versus $175 million, or 39 cents a share, a year earlier.

But its customer base shrank for the third quarter in a row while marketing costs climbed. The gains in Dish's net income are primarily the result of raising prices and customers opting for more features. But even with average monthly prices up by 5% in the last quarter, the company hasn't been able to maintain the same revenue growth rate it had previously. Revenue grew 1% to $2.92 billion -- compared with a robust 11% a year ago -- highlighting Dish's increasing difficulty in sticking with its traditional focus on rural and lower-income customers.

Coupled with a wider fourth-quarter loss posted by sister firm EchoStar Corp. -- which also is controlled by Dish Chairman and founder Charles Ergen -- the results are bound to increase pressure on Ergen to find new partners or devise another survival strategy.

Even before the current economic turmoil, limited satellite capacity and other factors constrained Dish's high-definition program lineup compared with larger rival DirecTV. Dish lost more than 100,000 net subscribers during last year's fourth quarter, while DirecTV gained 301,000 net new customers in the same period. Dish also has been losing momentum due to aggressive video and Internet packages offered by cablecos and telcos.

For some time, analysts have viewed Ergen and his management team as treading water until they could find a way to differentiate their offerings from those of rivals. Now, many of the same analysts believe the company must urgently chart a new strategy. Dish's efforts to plot a new course suffered a major blow last month, when Ergen failed to gain control of Sirius XM Radio. The long-term goal, was seen to be combining broadcast spectrum and in-orbit assets to create a truly mobile video network.

Dish was hurt last month when AT&T officially ended its partnership and switched its joint marketing efforts to DirecTV. The AT&T tie-up accounted for nearly 20% of new subscribers in the latest quarter, and no new partners appear ready to make up the loss. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Supreme Court supports AT&T in old Internet access price complaint

2009-03-02T05:41:00.003-05:00

The US Supreme Court rejected claims by Internet service providers that AT&T's Pacific Bell predecessor charged unreasonable wholesale prices for access to the company's phone network. The opinion unanimously reversed a ruling by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which had allowed the case to proceed.

"We decline the invitation to recognize such claims. Two wrong claims do not make one that is right," wrote Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. He said the Internet companies haven't "stated a duty-to-deal claim" and also "have not stated a predatory-pricing claim."

The justices left open the possibility the Internet-service providers could argue a predatory-pricing claim when the case is reviewed by lower courts, but a majority of the justices said a high bar exists for those claims to succeed.

Now part of AT&T, Pacific Bell Telephone (also known as PacTel, PacBell and Pacific Telesys) was sued by several Internet services providers in 2003, including Linkline Communications, Notelog and In-Reach Internet.

By law, Pacific Bell is required to sell the service providers wholesale access to its telephone network. But the companies allege the prices were too high for them to effectively compete with the phone company's own Internet service. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Cablevision lost money because of newspaper purchase

2009-02-27T06:16:00.002-05:00

Cablevision Systems had a fourth-quarter loss amid a $402 million write-down from the company's recently acquired Newsday newspaper and slowing subscriber growth at its cable business.

Despite the trouble, Cablevision continued to generate healthy cash flow, and the company's chief operating officer Tom Rutledge said cable-subscriber growth in the current quarter has so far exceeded that of last year's first quarter at the same point.

"There doesn't appear to be any significant change at all in our metrics with regard to the economic situation," Rutledge said. He added that the cable business tends to be "countercyclical."

Cablevision, which last year added Newsday to its holdings that include the New York Knicks basketball team and the New York Rangers hockey team, swung to a loss of $321.4 million, or $1.11 a share, from year-earlier net income of $6.6 million, or two cents a share.

Revenue rose 11% to $2.1 billion. The company said two weeks ago it expected to take a write-down of between $375 million and $450 million at Newsday, for which it originally paid $650 million last year.

Rutledge outlined a strategic plan for Newsday for the first time, saying Cablevision would shutter the newspaper's free Website, potentially offering it as a service for Cablevision and Newsday customers.

"When we purchased Newsday, we were aware of the long-term issues facing the traditional newspaper industry," Rutledge said. "We plan to end the distribution of free Web content and make our news-gathering capabilities a service for our customers."

Newsday focuses on Long Island, New York, where Cablevision has the bulk of its subscribers, and the move is said ti be aimed at thwarting customer defections from Cablevision.

Shares of Cablevision fell six cents to $13.31 at 4 p.m. in composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has dropped about 49% over the past 12 months, partially on concerns about Cablevision's liquidity and its ability to repay bond maturities coming due this year.

Cable television providers have been seeing slowing subscriber growth because of the sagging economy and rising competition from telecommunications companies, such as Verizon. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Bankrupt Nortel will fire 3,200 more, and they won't get severance pay

2009-02-26T06:26:00.003-05:00

Nortel Networks plans to eliminate 3,200 more jobs over the next several months, as the telecom equipment vendor tries to restructure under bankruptcy court protection.

The layoffs are in addition to 1,800 job cuts the company announced last year. Nortel won't be paying severance to the employees who lose their jobs.

Once Nortel completes the job cuts, the company's work force will have dropped to about 25,000. During its heyday in the 1990s, Nortel employed about 93,000 people.

The company filed for bankruptcy protection in Canada and the US in January and has been delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. It still trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange, and was at 8 US cents Wednesday.

Chief Executive Mike Zafirovski said Wednesday that executives were working to have a restructuring plan ready in March. "We are moving with speed, but we are not moving in haste," he said. He didn't rule out future rounds of layoffs.

Zafirovski said one priority was trying to keep Nortel's current customers on board, but admitted that few were willing to invest in the company's new technologies. He declined to say whether the company would stake its future on selling network gear and services to telecom carriers or to corporations running private networks, where it competes against giant Cisco Systems.

Since its filing, Nortel has suspended plans to sell its promising Metro Ethernet business, leading some analysts to believe that Nortel will focus on its shrinking but highly profitable wireless business. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Dead man's widow got his $1,000 bill for phone sex, but he's been dead for 20 years

2009-02-25T06:46:00.004-05:00

In Nebraska, 86-year-old Arlene Hald recently received a credit card bill for over $1,000 in phone sex calls addressed to her husband, Sylvester, who died nearly 20 years ago.

Hald said they never had a credit card, yet an account in his name was charged. The family suspects identify theft.

Hald's daughter called the billing company, which agreed to remove the charges.

The daughter says the family thought that was the end of it -- until another bill arrived for over $70. The billing company agreed to remove the latest charges and never bill Hald again. (info from The Associated Press)

Moto dumping mobile email business

2009-02-24T04:38:00.002-05:00

Motorola has found a buyer for Good Technology Inc., the mobile email provider it bought for about $500 million just two years ago to help it compete against BlackBerry and other messaging devices. Visto Corp., a company whose messaging services are offered through carriers including T-Mobile and Vodafone, is purchasing the business to expand its client base.

Terms of the transaction weren't immediately disclosed, but are likely to represent a steep drop in Good's value since Motorola's acquisition. The deal is expected to be announced this week.

The sale comes as Motorola plans to sell some assets as it tries to raise cash and cut expenses to stem losses at its rapidly shrinking cellphone unit. It also eliminates the potential expense of fighting litigation that Visto initiated against Good in 2006.

"Good was either going to fade away or be given to someone," said Ken Dulaney, a mobile-computing analyst at Gartner Inc. "They get rid of a failed business, take some employees off the books and end a lawsuit."

Visto said the deal would enable it to better compete for business from carriers looking to promote their brands through messaging services that can run on any device. "This is a story about Visto's consolidation of the non-Microsoft and non-BlackBerry community of users," said Chief Exec Brian Bogosian.

Motorola currently sells Good's mobile email through carriers including AT&T, Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless. In terms of users, Good and Visto lag behind market leader Research In Motion Ltd., maker of BlackBerry devices.

Despite the expected sale, engineers and other staff who worked on Good's email service are now central to Motorola's efforts to develop a new class of cellphones. These phones, focusing on social-networking and expected later this year, are at the core of Motorola's efforts to turn itself around.

Motorola acquired Good in early 2007, at the height of the ultraslim Razr phone's popularity and on the eve of the company's spectacular collapse from the No. 2 maker of cellphones by market share to No. 5 today. The purchase was part of a series of acquisitions and share buybacks that drained $6.6 billion of the company's $11.2 billion cash pile in a single quarter.

At the time, the world's largest cellphone companies moved to acquire the makers of such software. But turmoil within Motorola's leadership frustrated plans to focus on consumer email, and the unit was integrated into the former Symbol Technologies Inc., which made handheld scanners and other devices for blue-collar workers. That unit had a hard time convincing its retail, delivery services and industrial clients of the need to purchase email services for field staff.

Visto has aggressively sought to defend its patents regarding the "push" email technology and has sued seven rivals. Last year, it settled a case against Microsoft for an undisclosed amount. A separate suit against Research In Motion was stayed in July pending the US Patent and Trademark Office's reexamination of five disputed patents. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Pumping Federal money into rural broadband may be a waste

2009-02-23T06:03:00.003-05:00

With the first concerted federal program to subsidize high-speed Internet services in rural areas, the new economic stimulus package will create some jobs and could get hundreds of thousands of households online. Yet there's doubt whether the economy would be more energized by spending that money on other things.

Because Internet access is already widespread and still being expanded even in a shrinking economy, injecting more money for broadband may be unnecessary.

"From the rural Vermont that we see, broadband is happening, happening fast," said Michel Guite, president of Vermont Telephone Company. The company, which serves 21,000 lines, is able to borrow from commercial lenders when it needs to invest in expanding Internet services, Guite said. Although he wouldn't decline cheaper loans from the government, Guite said Congress could help his company better by cutting red tape, particularly when it comes to freeing up spectrum for wireless services.

The stimulus bill provides $7.2 billion for grants, loans and loan guarantees, primarily for areas that lack broadband or are "underserved," though the term is not defined. Some of that money is set aside to expand Internet access at public centers like community colleges and public libraries.

One reason the money won't likely have much impact is its small size: less than 1 percent of the overall stimulus package, and substantially less per citizen than some countries, like Ireland and Sweden, have spent on improving their networks. The Obama administration is looking at creating a more comprehensive plan to get the whole country covered by broadband, but it's not yet clear if that would mean more subsidies.

Larry Sarjeant, vice president of legislative affairs at Qwest Communications, said the phone company could use $3 billion to expand Internet access to 2 million households and small businesses in 14 Western states, many of them thinly populated.

Because Qwest is unlikely to get that large a share of the funds, and the number of households that sign up for service will be smaller still, the net effect would be at most a few hundred thousand new Internet subscribers. Qwest added 236,000 broadband subscribers on its own last year.

In 2007 and 2008, the Pew Internet and American Life Project asked households that lacked broadband why they haven't signed up. Lack of availability was ranked fourth, given by 14 percent. Most answered that they didn't need the Internet, that it was too expensive or too hard to use. Many people who don't use the Internet simply don't have computers.

About 95 percent of households can already get broadband, according to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association. But the industry hasn't been very forthcoming in saying exactly where it's available, and that's part of what the stimulus package wants to address - it has allocated $350 million to mapping US broadband access.

There are signs that the money will do at least some good to rural areas. A study of 3,000 people in Michigan, Texas and Kentucky found those in areas that received broadband Internet grants from the federal Rural Utilities Service quickly signed up for service, matching the penetration rates in cities. That happened where network investment was coupled with community programs aimed at convincing people about the benefits of Internet access. Home broadband users were more likely to start businesses or take classes online, and less likely to move away, researchers found. (info from The Associated Press)

Comcast wasted $600 million on Clearwire

2009-02-20T05:43:00.002-05:00

Comcast, the nation's largest cable TV provider, said Wednesday its fourth-quarter earnings fell 32 percent, hampered by a $600 million write-down of its investment in wireless technology provider Clearwire.

The Clearwire write-down was expected. Other Clearwire investors like Google, Intel and Time Warner Cable have recently taken similar charges against their earnings. The companies invested in Clearwire to develop wireless services, which cable operators need to offset an advantage held by phone companies.

Comcast's revenue and adjusted earnings beat Wall Street estimates, and the company raised its dividend 8 percent. However, the company showed markedly slower growth in its video, high-speed Internet and phone businesses. Comcast said competition from phone companies has intensified, and fewer customers have been moving their subscriptions to more expensive levels of service.

But the company said it has not seen a massive scaling down from customers who now choose to watch TV shows online. Time Warner Cable, the nation's second-largest provider, warned of the threat of that trend two weeks ago, calling it "the beginning of cord-cutting."

The economy's effect on the pay-TV sector thus far hasn't been disastrous. Providers have been offering discounts and trying to lure customers with "bundled" services of video, Internet and phone that are cheaper than a la carte.

In the fourth quarter, Comcast earned $412 million, or 14 cents per share, compared with $602 million, or 20 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. Excluding items such as the Clearwire charge, Comcast earned 27 cents per share, up 7 cents per share from the same quarter last year. Comcast's revenue rose 9 percent to $8.77 billion, ahead of analyst forecasts for $8.64 billion in revenue.

Comcast said that in the fourth quarter, customers ordered 537,000 new lines of service - whether video, Internet or phone - down 57 percent from the same quarter a year earlier.

Comcast's video revenue rose 3.5 percent to $4.74 billion. The company lost 233,000 video subscribers - which left it with 24.2 million overall, down 2 percent from a year earlier. However, Comcast's count of digital customers, who pay more for service, increased by 247,000. That helped Comcast's average revenue per video customer rise 9 percent to $113.80 per month.

Revenue from broadband Internet services rose 9 percent to $1.86 billion. Comcast added 184,000 Internet subscribers during the quarter, down 46 percent from the 341,000 it added in the year-ago quarter. The company ended the period with 14.9 million broadband customers.

Revenue from Comcast's digital phone segment rose 45 percent to $731 million. However, the company's addition of 344,000 digital phone customers was down 44 percent from the amount added in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Advertising revenue fell 5 percent to $409 million. Comcast has been reducing costs, cutting 3,300 jobs in the third and fourth quarters. (info from The Associated Press)

Thousands of confused and pissed-off people called FCC about end of analog TV

2009-02-19T04:21:00.002-05:00

The FCC said today that it received more than 28,000 calls on its consumer help line Tuesday, with more expected in coming days, as hundreds of TV stations shut off their analog transmitters.

The FCC said that the calls on Tuesday came in response to only a portion of the broadcasters who completed their transitions to all-digital TV broadcasting during the day, or from owners of digital TVs who did not know they needed to perform a channel rescan, as some digital TV stations moved their digital channel assignments at the same time.

However, the majority of the 421 stations that had notified the FCC of their analog termination plans did not actually turn off their broadcasts until midnight, so a greater volume of calls was expected on Wednesday.

The FCC’s help line, 1-888-CALL-FCC, received on Tuesday 28,315 calls, which was up 37 percent over Monday’s 20,673 call volume, and preliminary results for Wednesday indicated a 5 percent increase. From midnight until 11 a.m.

The FCC’s call center was established to help consumers with information about why their analog TVs are no longer receiving channels and how they can take action to receive new digital broadcasts, either by using new digital TVs, or by connecting their current TVs to an over-the-air TV converter box or to cable or satellite TV service.

The FCC said about 220 stations made the transition before Tuesday, for a total of 641 stations having made the transition by the end of Tuesday -- 36 percent of the full-power stations nationwide.

Stations making the transition before Tuesday included those in the Wilmington, NC market, which made the transition on Sept. 8, 2008, and Hawaii, which made the transition on Jan. 15.

The FCC said many of the calls that came in Tuesday were from consumers who were unaware that they should run the “scan” function on their digital televisions or converter boxes in order to get reception from a station that changed its digital channel after the transition. (info from TWICE)

Competitors Qualcomm and Nokia will get together

2009-02-18T07:55:00.007-05:00

In the past I've had cellphones made by Qualcomm and by Nokia. I may soon be able to get a phone made possible by the cooperation of the two rivals.

Nokia plans to use Qualcomm chips in high-end phones. Qualcomm and Nokia were bitter rivals in the courtroom until last year, when Nokia agreed to pay royalties to settle a protracted patent dispute. The new arrangement is the first since the companies' settlement.

Nokia and Qualcomm said Tuesday at the Mobile World Congress that they expect the new phones be available by mid-2010. Nokia has never used Qualcomm chips before.

Companies are struggling in the handset market, which is expected to decline for the first time since 2001. In January Qualcomm issued a disappointing forecast for its fiscal second quarter.

The deal represents a small but promising move for Qualcomm. Finland-based Nokia has roughly 40% of the global market but lags behind in North America. Nokia has long talked about pushing into the lucrative US market. Ironically, years ago Nokia was a pioneer in the American cellphone market as the major supplier of phones sold by Radio Shack. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

iPhone app helps to win at blackjack

2009-02-17T05:37:00.001-05:00

California gaming authorities tipped off their Nevada counterparts to a blackjack card-counting program that can be used on either the Apple iPhone or the Apple iPod Touch portable music player. "The program calculates the true count and does it significantly more accurately," according to a Gaming Control Board memorandum sent to casino operators last week warning of the electronic device.

Card counting is not illegal in Nevada casinos. However, using a device to aid in the counting of cards is considered a felony under Nevada laws governing cheating, control board member Randy Sayre said. Gamblers using the iPhone card-counting program can be detained by casino operators and arrested by state gaming agents. "We wanted to put the industry on notice to be aware this device is out there," Sayre said.

He added that there haven't been any reports of the device being used in Nevada. Sayre and the agency consider the iPhone program an electronic method for cheating.

Operators of a Northern California Indian casino discovered customers using the program and alerted the California Bureau of Gambling Control. The program is installed through the iTunes Web site. It makes counting cards easier, Sayre said.

The program uses four different strategies for card counting. It also operates in the "stealth mode," in which the phone's screen is shut off. The program can be run effortlessly without detection as long as the user knows where the keys are.

Sayre said it is up to individual casino operators to decide policies concerning the use of cellphones and other electronic devices at gaming tables. Last year, state gaming regulators eliminated the ban on cellphones inside race and sports books.

After iPhones came on the market in 2007, Harrah's Entertainment halted their use at the World Series of Poker. Cellphones are banned at the tournament, although iPods and other MP3 players are allowed. "We're looking at this internally and this is an issue that needed to be in the public domain," Sayre said. (info from Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Only a sort-of lobbyist, SPRINTer to help plan telecom policy

2009-02-16T05:39:00.003-05:00

The Obama administration has tapped a Washington executive of Sprint Nextel to help run an agency that shapes telecommunications policy and will dole out billions of dollars in federal stimulus money to wireless providers.

As a vice president of government affairs for Sprint, Anna Gomez wasn't registered as a lobbyist so she isn't restricted by President Obama's new ban on hiring lobbyists to oversee the issues they influenced in the private sector. A separate provision in the administration's new ethics rules -- one that restricts appointees' work with recent employers -- will limit Gomez's official duties, preventing her from reviewing contract bids by Sprint for two years. But she could still play a role shaping policies that affect her former employer.

Gomez was named deputy director of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration on Feb. 3. She is currently acting director of the agency, which shapes the president's telecom policy within the Commerce Department. Under the stimulus bill, the NTIA will handle as much as $6.65 billion in wireless and broadband grants available to Sprint and its competitors.

White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said Gomez's telecommunications expertise made her a good pick for the agency. "During the course of her 12-year tenure as both a policy maker and legal adviser at the FCC, Anna Gomez obtained skills and knowledge on issues from international telecommunications to satellite spectrum that make her uniquely qualified to serve consumers and enforce the law at the NTIA," Mr. LaBolt said. He added that it is unlikely she will encounter matters that directly involve Sprint, but she will recuse herself from meetings and discussions that do.

But Gomez might still play a role in decisions about Sprint's competitors or policies that affect the industry more broadly. The NTIA manages spectrum use by federal agencies and negotiates spectrum policy internationally -- decisions that indirectly affect the entire wireless industry.

While Gomez wasn't a registered lobbyist, she worked for three years for Sprint trying to influence telecommunications policy at the FCC, where she was employed from 1994 to 2006. At Sprint, Gomez also worked on compliance with regulatory law and pressed her company's case with state agencies.

Public records at the FCC show more than 50 contacts between Gomez and the commission in the past two years.

The Lobbying Disclosure Act requires individuals to register as lobbyists if they spend more than a fifth of their time attempting to shape policy with certain members of the executive branch, including top officials at the FCC. Publicly disclosed communications -- such as Gomez's recorded contacts with the commission -- are exempt from that calculation.

Gomez therefore avoided the new president's executive order barring lobbyists -- as defined by federal statute -- from joining his administration to handle issues they have dealt with in the previous two years. But critics cite her appointment and others as signs that Obama is stretching the spirit, if not the letter, of his pledge to curb the influence of special interests in his administration. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Even a Taliban can love the iPhone

2009-02-13T03:53:00.005-05:00

I don't know if he'll be joining Justin Long, the "I'm a Mac" guy in Apple commercials, but Mullah Zaif, a former Taliban official, raved about his iPhone to Al Jazeera correspondent Hamish McDonald during a visit in Kabul.

"I'm addicted," he said, "the internet is great on this, very fast."

Last year the Taliban was threatening to blow up cellphone towers if wireless operators didn't observe a curfew, ostensibly to prevent attacks by the American military. When the conservative Taliban religious movement ruled Afghanistan, it banned almost all modern technologies. (info & photo from Al Jazeera via ValleyWag)

Verizon (now owning MCI) revives "Friends & Family"

2009-02-12T03:53:00.003-05:00

Verizon Wireless is expected to announce that subscribers on some plans will be able to pick five or 10 phone numbers that they can call for free, without using their plan's minutes. Verizon Wireless, now the country's largest cellular carrier, is calling the feature "Friends & Family." MCI, which Verizon bought several years ago, had a long-distance plan called "Friends & Family" in the early 1990s.

There is no added charge for the service. It mimics a popular feature called "My Circle" at Alltel Corp., a smaller cellphone carrier that Verizon Wireless bought in January.

Verizon Wireless' announcement means that former Alltel customers will be able to keep the feature when they sign up for new plans, and expands the availability to other Verizon Wireless customers.

The new plan will be available starting Sunday. Customers on single-line plans starting at $60 per month will get five free numbers, and those on family plans starting at $90 per month for two lines will get ten free numbers. Customers will need to sign up for the feature and pick their numbers online.

T-Mobile USA, the fourth-largest carrier, has a similar feature, which it calls "myFaves." (info fro mThe Associated Press)

Feds get fooled on analog TV shut-off plans

2009-02-11T07:31:00.002-05:00

About 40% of the nation's local TV broadcast stations want to shut off analog transmission by next week. Thousands of Americans soon could lose TV service despite Congress's recent decision to postpone the digital TV switch. Lawmakers didn't anticipate that so many stations would want to shut off analog signals next Tuesday, and the development raises the likelihood that people will become even more confused about what to do.

Congress approved delaying the mandatory switch to digital-only television to June 12, but local stations can ask to switch earlier than that. Many want to do so, hoping to save thousands of dollars they would have to pay to continue broadcasting in both analog and digital for a few more months.

The FCC is considering denying some stations' requests so communities won't be left without at least one local channel.

Most Americans won't be affected by the switch to digital because they subscribe to cable or satellite TV services. About 20 million US households rely on free over-the-air TV, although millions of viewers have already prepared for the digital switch by installing set-top converter boxes. An estimated six million homes are unprepared for the switch.

For viewers wondering what to do, the FCC will post on its Website a list of the stations that plan to shut off service early. Local stations must also inform viewers of their intentions.

Nearly 500 stations asked the FCC for permission to shut down their older analog signals on Tuesday of next week, the original date of the mandatory switch. An additional 190 local stations either already have permission or have done so already.

People in some markets would be affected more than others. In Bloomington, Ind., and Utica, NY, for example, just one station plans to shut off its analog signal next week. Five stations in Dayton, Ohio, would switch to digital-only, leaving analog viewers with only one.

A waiting list for government coupons that help pay for the set-top converter boxes needed to keep older TVs working is now about 3.7 million requests long. Congress has included $650 million for more coupons in the economic-stimulus plan that passed the Senate Tuesday, but it could take a few months for the backlog of requests to be eliminated.

Some consumers may soon have difficulties finding converter boxes in stores. Government estimates of converter-box demand didn't account for a delayed transition, which means there may not be enough to go around until late spring.

Consumer-electronics makers estimate that there are from three million to six million converter boxes available for sale now, far fewer than the number needed to fill demand. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Now LoJack tracks people

2009-02-10T05:26:00.002-05:00

LoJack, maker of wireless devices that allow cops to find stolen cars, is announcing the launch of a radio device designed to locate people.

Several companies already offer devices that use wristband radio transmitters to help police locate people quickly. But advocates for the elderly and disabled say there's a large and unmet need for more such services.

An estimated 18,000 people are already using wristband radio-tracking devices made either by Care Trak International, a LoJack competitor, or by Locator Systems, a Canadian company acquired by LoJack last year. Some of them are distributed by police departments. On average, they cost about $25 to $30 a month to use, though in cases of need, they may be provided free.

There are an estimated 5.2 million Americans with Alzheimer's, and more than half of those affected sometimes go on random and dangerous walks, according to the National Alzheimer's Association. Wandering is considered among the most life-threatening behaviors associated with the illness.

When an autistic child or an adult with dementia wanders off and gets lost, finding them quickly sometimes can make a difference between life and death. The National Autism Association says 92% of respondents to a poll said their child was at risk of wandering. In the past four years, the group says, 14 autistic children died because of wandering, including a 7-year-old boy who froze to death. Autistic children often don't respond when rescuers call out for them, so tracking technology would help.

Such technology was first rolled out on a very small scale in the mid-1980s when an Illinois company called Wildlife Materials went beyond its core business of tracking endangered animals. A subsidiary called Care Trak International built a radio transmitter worn on a wrist that would emit a signal to a receiver, usually placed in a police car.

LoJack chief executive Ronald Waters says the company hopes to leverage its nationwide network of 1,900 police departments that already use its car-tracking system. LoJack plans to give away receivers for free, and charge clients a $30 monthly fee, on top of a $99 enrollment fee. Project Lifesaver International, which works exclusively with LoJack, is now approaching police departments with offers to switch from the Care Trak technology.

Referring to LoJack's marketing might, Care Trak vice president Mike Chylewski says he expects a tough battle. "It's David and Goliath," he says. Each company says its product is superior. Care Trak claims its frequency band is free from interference by wild animals wearing tracking devices. LoJack says its frequency is not affected by interference from some television channels. Before signing up for any tracking service, people should check with their local police departments to inquire about support. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Microsoft expanding in cellphone biz

2009-02-09T08:13:00.002-05:00

Microsoft is planning a series of new programs and services for cellphones, responding to stiff competition from Apple and other rivals. The offerings will include an online bazaar for distributing software to phones that run Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system. Such services have become an important complement to advanced cellphones since Apple introduced its iPhone App Store last year.

In coming weeks Microsoft also will offer a new version of the operating system, called Windows Mobile 6.5, that provides a more-sophisticated interface and could further narrow the gap with the iPhone.

Microsoft needs to energize its mobile strategy as web-enabled smartphones take on many chores associated with computers and take a bigger share of the overall cellphone business. Although it was one of the earliest computer-industry entrants in the smartphone business, Microsoft is widely perceived to have lost technological ground to Apple's iPhone and Google's Android software, both of which are particularly good for calling up Websites.

Even Palm, a smartphone pioneer that stumbled badly in recent years, is grabbing attention with new mobile software and a device called Pre, due out later this year. Microsoft's share of the smartphone business increased to 13.3% last year from 11% the prior year, but Apple tripled its share during the same period, rising to 9% from 3%.

One factor is that Microsoft focused largely on business functions such as easy access to corporate email systems, though smartphones stopped being seen by many users as purely work devices. Company executives have said they plan to place a much greater emphasis on multimedia and other functions of interest to consumers, such as photos and music.

One new service the company is already talking about, called My Phone, wirelessly synchronizes data stored on Windows Mobile smartphones, including contacts, calendar appointments, photos and text messages, to a Website. The service is designed to make it easier for users to back up their information in case their phone is lost or stolen. My Phone will compete with a similar service from Apple called MobileMe, though it currently lacks a MobileMe feature that synchronizes data from users' cellphones to applications running on their computers. Microsoft will offer My Phone for free, while Apple charges $99 a year for MobileMe.

Microsoft's Windows Mobile is already a target for other programmers, who have generated thousands of applications for the operating system. But they aren't all stored in a single online marketplace that is as easily accessible as Apple's iPhone App Store, which has been a big hit with consumers.

Google, too, hosts an application store, dubbed the Android Market, for phones running its Android mobile operating system, the first of which is the G1 from T-Mobile USA. This week Google will start allowing developers to charge for software sold through the Android Market. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Blackberry bosses will pay BIG BUCKS in lawsuit

2009-02-06T06:48:00.002-05:00

The co-executives of BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion will pay most of about $62 million in fines and restitution to settle allegations they participated in a practice known as stock option backdating. The settlement is one of the biggest in the history of the Ontario Securities Commission, and marked a rare occasion where some of Canada's most prominent executives appeared before the commission for wrongdoing.

Under the settlement, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, co-CEOs of RIM, as well as former chief financial officer Dennis Kavelman will contribute the bulk of the fines. Also included are several other executives.

The allegations surround stock option backdating, a practice that was once commonplace in the technology sector. The provincial stocks regulator said the executives were negligent in overseeing the option backdating, but did not commit fraud. "The sanctions send the right message that the conduct we saw here won't be tolerated by anyone," OSC litigator Sasha Angus said after the record-high settlement was announced.

Lazaridis, who founded the company, will pay a $1.2 million penalty to the commission. Balsillie, who has already stepped down as chairman, will pay US$4 million to the commission and $570,000 toward the Ontario Securities Commission investigation. Balsillie will also be prevented from being a director of any company for a year - although he will be allowed to remain an executive of RIM.

The two men and Kavelman must also repay a total of $31.1 million) plus $4.3 million in interest to RIM. And they must pay US$36.5 million to cover the company's investigative costs, of which they have already contributed US$12.3 million.

Kavelman, who was RIM's chief financial officer from 1995 to 2007 and has been chief operating officer since then, is prohibited from acting as a director or officer of any Canadian reporting issuer for five years.

RIM's lead director, John Richardson, said the company is pleased the parties have resolved the matter. The company's statement said the staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has reached settlements with RIM and its senior executives, which remain subject to final approval.

The OSC said RIM employees improperly gained $54 million through backdated options, and have given back only about half of that amount through repayments and canceled options. The commission also said executives and directors allowed financial reports to be issued that contained "the misleading or untrue statement that options were priced at the fair market value of RIM's common shares at the date of the grant."

Stock options - especially popular in Silicon Valley during the high-tech boom - give employees the right to buy shares of stock at a predetermined time. The options are a coveted incentive to lure and keep talent, particularly when granted by newly public companies with the opportunity for rapid growth. Backdating options make the rewards even more lucrative by retroactively setting the exercise price to a low point in the stock's value. Usually, a stock option's exercise price coincides with the market value at the time of a grant to give the recipient an incentive to drive the price higher. If companies backdate options without properly disclosing and accounting for the move, it can cause profits to be overstated and taxes to be underpaid.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has investigated more than 100 companies, including Apple over the issue in recent years and has reached settlements with a number of companies and executives. (info from The Associated Press)

MetroPCS expanding cell service to NY and Boston

2009-02-05T05:11:00.006-05:00

MetroPCS’s upcoming expansion to New York and Boston will change the prepaid cellphone provider from a regional carrier to one that can compete more with national companies like Verizon and AT&T.

MetroPCS CEO Roger Linquist said the company will be building its New York City network — including the five boroughs as well as parts of New Jersey and upstate New York — throughout 2009. MetroPCS ultimately intends to connect that area with Boston and Philadelphia, where it already has cellphone coverage.

Until recently, the company has focused on areas such as Greater Dallas and parts of California and Florida, and charged roaming fees when customers travel outside their home areas. It has a deal with regional carrier Leap Wireless that lets their customers avoid the fees in each other’s coverage areas. Creating a bigger coverage area will attract more roaming subscribers, Linquist said. “Having a wider, broader footprint across the nation is attractive.”

MetroPCS’s prepaid plans, which tend to be less expensive than postpaid offerings by bigger carriers, are appealing to cost-conscious consumers. In 2008 it gained 520,000 net new subscribers, ending the year with 5.4 million. AT&T added four times as many wireless subscribers in its fourth quarter, but its customer base is more than 14 times the size of MetroPCS’s. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Groups oppose Verizon sale of cellphone territory to AT&T

2009-02-04T03:29:00.002-05:00

In the bidding for the roughly $3 billion in wireless assets Verizon Wireless must divest as part of its purchase of Alltel, one strong but controversial contender is emerging: AT&T.

AT&T, Verizon's chief rival, is among the bidders, along with a joint bid from private-equity firms Carlyle Group and Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts & Co. and a separate bid from Providence Equity Partners LLC and at least one cable TV company.

Verizon Wireless agreed to sell the assets to get government approval for the $28.1 billion Alltel purchase, which closed last month. Assets include 2.1 million wireless subscribers in 22 states, as well as wireless spectrum and other assets necessary to run the businesses in those markets. The assets are worth roughly $3 billion. AT&T is in the strongest financial position of the interested companies and is in a good position to walk away with a large chunk of the assets.

Critics, including consumer advocates and Verizon's smaller competitors, say such a deal -- allowing one giant telecom provider to transfer customers to another -- wouldn't be in the interest of consumers. AT&T and Verizon Wireless have a combined 160 million subscribers, nearly 60% of the US market.

Gigi Sohn, president of the public interest group Public Knowledge, said the government should encourage Verizon to sell the assets to smaller players to enhance competition. The Department of Justice, which must approve the divestitures, says it would examine affected markets and any competitive issues that a sale would raise as part of the approval process.

Trade groups representing rural cellphone operators are concerned AT&T could charge high roaming fees if it takes control of the Alltel assets. Carriers pay roaming fees to other providers when their customers use a cellphone outside their home coverage area. Laurie Itkin, director of government affairs for Leap Wireless International, a small wireless provider that opposed the Verizon-Alltel merger, is also concerned about radio spectrum. "If it ends up going from one mega-carrier to another mega-carrier we think that's a bad outcome for consumers," she said.

Antitrust lawyers say the Justice Department generally evaluates divestitures based on competitiveness in each individual market area. "If Verizon divests assets to AT&T in areas where AT&T doesn't have a significant presence now, the traditional analysis would say there's no problem with that," said Donald Russell, a former Justice Department attorney who reviewed several major telecom mergers.

Others say it doesn't make sense to look at the wireless market in individual market slices, since the companies set national rates for consumers and benefit from national scale in their roaming negotiations with competitors. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Porn replaced Super Bowl in Arizona

2009-02-03T05:33:00.007-05:00

Comcast is examining whether a malicious attack is behind the interruption of its Super Bowl broadcast Sunday by a pornographic film in some areas of Tucson. The interruption, which lasted less than 30 seconds, affected customers watching the company’s standard definition coverage but not high-definition.

Comcast asked the FCC and local authorities to investigate. An initial review showed that the company’s technical systems functioned properly at the time of the incident, suggesting that someone deliberately interrupted the broadcast rather than a glitch.

“We are mortified by the incident and we apologize to our customers,” a Comcast spokeswoman said. The company will likely issue credits to customers who were affected, though the amount remains to be determined.

The TV station that supplied the signal was KVOA, which said it provided Cox with a feed via a fiber-optic line, which Cox subsequently sent to Comcast, also via fiber. KVOA said that only Comcast customers saw the porn and that customers of other operators, like DirecTV Group and Cox, as well as over-the-air viewers, received “clean feeds.”

The Comcast spokeswoman said it was not immediately apparent how or where the breach occurred. Cable signals pass through several transmission facilities, including out to an operator’s local offices and to customers' homes. This is the first time the company is aware of its signal being tampered with in this way, the Comcast spokeswoman said. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

AT&T cuts TV push while Verizon expands TV

2009-02-02T12:20:00.002-05:00

As the recession speeds the decline of the traditional phone business, AT&T and Verizon are pursuing different strategies as they try to surpass each other.

AT&T is staking its growth largely on the wireless market by aggressively marketing high-end devices such as the iPhone, while Verizon is pushing premium television services to homeowners.

AT&T has its own TV offering, but said Wednesday it plans to slow the roll out of its U-verse service as part of a broader move to slash capital spending as the company posted a 23% decline in fourth-quarter profit.

Verizon, while also counting on growth at Verizon Wireless, is pressing forward with an aggressive expansion of its FiOS TV and high-speed Internet services. Verizon said it has no plans to slow its FiOS expansion this year, which ran ahead of schedule in 2008.

Industry observers say it is too early to tell which strategy will be better. While AT&T has taken a conservative tack, Verizon's FiOS gambit has always been more of a risk financially because it will take time to generate healthy margins on the video business. FiOS is expected to generate positive cash flow for the first time in 2009. But long term, Verizon's ability to offer TV as part of a bundle of TV, phone and Internet services may give it a leg up in the battle against cable providers for customers.

Verizon is "of the opinion it can't roll out FiOS fast enough," because one in five potential customers in the markets it covers sign up for the service.

AT&T's U-verse service added 264,000 customers in the fourth quarter, bringing its total subscribers to one million at year end. But it lags behind FiOS, which added 303,000 TV customers in the fourth quarter and ended 2008 with 1.9 million subscribers. AT&T is banking on wireless. The company added 2.1 million net new customers, including 1.3 million high-value post-pay customers, who pay monthly bills and generally sign two-year contracts. AT&T ended the year with 77 million customers; Verizon Wireless had 72.1 million. Its recent acquisition of Alltel brought its total to about 80 million. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Call me on the Dellophone

2009-01-30T10:30:00.002-05:00

A Dell smart phone could be released as soon as next month, running Windows Mobile or Google Android.

Dell is focusing on so-called smartphones, higher-end devices that include features like Web browsing and email. One model includes a touchscreen but no physical keyboard, like Apple's iPhone. Another is a slider-style phone with a keypad and that slides from beneath the screen, an insider said.

Dell hasn't finalized its plans and may still abandon the effort, which would pit it against such powerhouses as Apple and Research In Motion. A Dell spokesman said the company hasn't disclosed plans to offer phones, adding: "We haven't committed to anything."

Dell has probed new markets since founder Michael Dell returned as chief executive in 2007, but it has moved cautiously in earlier situations. A smartphone push would come as the company tries to remake itself following its plunge from its perch as the world's biggest PC maker two years ago. While Mr. Dell has sought new growth through consumer PC products and tech services, the turnaround has been uneven. Dell has suffered layoffs and hiring freezes, and last month announced a management reorganization in which two top executives left the company. Dell has also continued to lose PC market share. Its stock is off about 60% since August.

Mr. Dell has seen smartphones as an opportunity since early 2007, when he returned to the compan. At the time, he announced a plan to move deeper into the consumer market by developing sleek new notebook PCs and selling them in retail stores.

The smartphone development team spent much of last year meeting with suppliers of phone components, several phone software companies, and Asian manufacturers of phones.

If Dell moves forward with a phone, it would become the latest computer company to follow Apple into the handset market in the hopes of finding new growth. In recent years, smartphones have spurred consumers to use phones for functions they had performed on PCs.

In 2008, 157 million smartphones were sold worldwide, up 26.9% from 2007. Smartphone shipments are expected to almost double to 301 million by 2012. That growth rate is in stark contrast to the PC business. Last quarter, PC unit shipments slipped 0.4% from a year earlier.

Smartphones are particularly attractive to PC makers because they can be bundled with existing PC software. The iPhone, for example, is linked to Apple's iTunes Store. Similarly, Hewlett-Packard, which began selling phones mainly in Europe last year, has a feature that seamlessly backs up data on a phone and laptop PC.

Dell has been exploring ways to tie its smartphones in with software from Zing, a company it acquired in 2007 that develops technology to move content like music and movies between mobile devices and PCs.

Dell has moved cautiously in the phone arena because computer makers face obstacles in entering the phone market, including reaching a distribution deal with a cellular carrier. And the smartphone market is crowded, with RIM's BlackBerry and the iPhone dominating 70% of the US market. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

House of Reps voted to extend analog TV, but vote didn't count. They'll vote again next week.

2009-01-29T14:46:00.002-05:00

On Monday the US Senate voted to delay until June the date when television stations must broadcast digital signals only.

On Wednesday, the House voted 258-168 to delay the digital transition. The bill didn't pass because it was debated under rules requiring a two-thirds vote, a procedure usually reserved for noncontroversial bills.

The House will vote against next week under rules that will ensure the bill will pass. A majority of House members support putting off the digital shift to June 12. Then the measure will go to the White House for President Obama's signature.

Without the bill, all TV stations must stop broadcasting their programs in analog format on Feb. 17. Once TV stations turn off their analog broadcasts, people who rely on over-the-air TV won't receive signals unless they buy a digital television, a converter box, or subscribe to a cable or satellite TV service.

House Republicans are protesting the delay, saying a new analog shut-off date will confuse consumers, harm public safety groups waiting to use the freed-up channels and create havoc for TV stations that have been preparing for the shift for years.

Democrats and consumer advocates say the country isn't prepared for the transition. Among other things, people now must go on a waiting list at the Commerce Department to apply for $40 coupons that offset the cost of digital converter boxes. With several weeks of wait time once the coupons are approved, it is now impossible for applicants to get them in time for a Feb. 17 transition.

As of Wednesday, the Commerce Department had requests for more than 3 million converter box coupons on the waiting list. The Commerce Department is currently sending coupons to people on the waiting list as older, unused coupons expire. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Cox Cable not Net-Neutral, will try selective web speeds

2009-01-28T03:17:00.002-05:00

Cox Communications, the third-largest cable company in the US, will be trying out a new way to keep its subscribers' Internet traffic from jamming up. Starting on Feb. 9 in parts of Kansas and Arkansas, Cox will give priority to Internet traffic it judges to be time-sensitive, like Web pages, streaming video and online games. File downloads, software updates and other non-time sensitive data may be slowed if there is congestion on the local network.

The news will likely revive the debate about "Net Neutrality," or the question of how much Internet service providers like Cox can interfere with subscriber traffic. Comcast, the nation's largest cable company, was sanctioned by the FCC last year for its method of traffic management, which involved secretly stifling file sharing, a type of Internet traffic.

It was the first time regulators waded into the issue. Comcast is fighting the FCC's ruling in court, but has abandoned its congestion management system in favor of one that doesn't discriminate between different types of traffic. It has also abandoned secrecy and revealed details on how the new system works.

Tests conducted by the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems in Germany indicated last year that Cox was using the same discriminatory network management system that Comcast employed then. Cox never revealed the details of its system but said it used "protocol filtering," a principle also used by Comcast.

Further testing by the Institute indicated that Cox cut back sharply on its use of the old congestion system in August, and that it was shut down by January. Cox spokesman David Grabert said the company began evaluating its old system after the FCC order on Comcast. This new technique is based on the time-sensitive nature of the Internet traffic itself, and we believe it will lead to a smoother Internet experience with fewer delays," the company said.

Cox expects to apply the new technology to all of its Internet subscribers later this year if it proves successful in Kansas and Arkansas. It has 4 million subscribers, but that figure includes business users who would not be affected. (info from The Associated Press)

Senate wants to delay analog TV end until June

2009-01-27T11:20:00.003-05:00

The Senate voted on Monday to delay next month’s transition to digital television until June 12 because some viewers would not be ready for the switch.

The voice vote followed a call by President Obama’s administration to postpone the Feb. 17 date for major TV stations to stop sending traditional analog signals. Similar legislation awaits action in the House today.

Democratic Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, of West Virginia who leads the commerce committee, said last week that he had reached agreement with Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, the top Republican on the panel, on the legislation. Some Republicans had opposed a delay, saying it would cause confusion by changing a long-planned date.

A federal program to subsidize digital equipment that some viewers will need has fallen short of money, and last week the government reported a waiting list of 1.4 million households.

More than 6.5 million homes are not able to receive digital TV programming, the Nielsen Company said last week. The figure is a decrease from last month, when Nielsen said almost 8 million could not receive it. (info from The New York Times)

House of Reps approved Internet improvements

2009-01-23T04:22:00.003-05:00

Yesterday the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved rules for billions in government funds to spur high-speed Internet networks in unserved and underserved areas. House Democrats have proposed $6 billion in Internet investments as part of a sweeping economic stimulus bill that the full House is expected to vote on next week.

The Internet funding portion of the stimulus bill -- a potential huge boon to phone, cable, and wireless companies -- is approved byPresident Obama, who wants to blanket the country with high-speed connections. The $6 billion is considered a down payment on efforts Obama will make in this area over the next several years. The Internet grants will be doled out by the Commerce Department and the Department of Agriculture.

The Energy and Commerce Committee approved rules for just the Commerce Department grants, which total more than $2.8 billion. The USDA grants carry few criteria and appear to be aimed at ensuring that some type of mobile voice or basic Internet service is available even in the most remote areas.

The Commerce Department's Internet buildout grants carry several conditions, including a contentious requirement that Internet networks built with the government grants be open to all devices like cellphones and laptops, regardless of the manufacturer or provider. CTIA, an association of wireless companies, sent a letter to committee leaders Wednesday asking that the "vague, undefined, and unnecessary 'open access' obligation" be removed. CTIA said carriers will be reluctant to apply for the grants if they are uncertain of their open access obligations. Rep. Anna Eshoo (D., Calif.), an ardent proponent of an open Internet principle called "net neutrality," brushed aside the carriers' concerns. "These are public dollars. Networks built with this funding should be open," Eshoo said.

The Commerce Department grants also dictate minimum speeds for basic Internet connections and set a goal that 75% of the money be allotted for deluxe link-ups that would support video-conferencing.

The stimulus bill contains $350 million to fund an Internet mapping program that was enacted last year. The project will zero in on specific areas that have little or no options for wiring up. Several committee members worried that the terms "unserved" and "underserved" in the bill are too vague to target new Internet networks to regions that need them the most.

Responding to those concerns, the committee adopted an amendment by Rep. Bart Stupak (D., Mich.), requiring the FCC to revise its definitions of "unserved" and "underserved" once the Internet mapping project is completed. Without better information about Internet availability in specific areas, Stupak said the grants will be given in the same haphazard manner as in the past. Earlier grants "quite honestly, have been based on political influence and earmarks," he said.

Under the bill, $1 billion of the Internet grant funds will be set aside solely for wireless carriers to bolster their infrastructure for mobile phone and laptop connections. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

FCC's Martin made last-minute attack on Comcast

2009-01-22T04:23:00.002-05:00

Just a few hours before he officially lost his job, Republican FCC Chairman Kevin Martin announced an investigation into whether Comcast is deliberately degrading its rivals' Internet phone services, suggested fines of upwards of $500,000 against cable companies in another dispute, and released a flurry of long-delayed reports.

Since the FCC will now be in Democratic hands, little of what Martin proposed in his last days in office may actually come to pass. The Obama administration has not yet formally announced its candidate for FCC chairman.

In recent weeks, Martin's attention appeared to focus on his legacy at the agency. On Friday, the FCC released a report entitled, "Moving Forward: Driving Investment and Innovation While Protecting Consumers," which documented Martin's four years as chairman.

Late Monday night, Martin announced his decision to levy about $500,000 in fines against several cable operators for not providing enough information in response to the agency's investigation into potential price gouging when moving channels from analog to digital tiers. Those fines followed Martin's decision on Sunday to launch a formal investigation into Comcast's Internet phone practices.

Concerns have been raised by consumer groups over whether Comcast is giving preferential treatment to its Digital Voice Internet phone service over competing Internet phone services. Consumers using rival Internet phone services could experience degraded phone quality, consumer groups worry. A Comcast spokeswoman said the company has "fully complied" with the FCC's order regarding so-called congestion-management practices. "We are reviewing the FCC staff's letter," she said.

Comcast was also one of the cable operators -- along with Time Warner and Cablevision and others -- hit with the proposed fines for failing to provide enough information to the agency for its investigation into whether cable companies are improperly moving channels from analog to digital tiers -- leaving the analog customers without access to those channels -- without lowering the analog subscribers' monthly bills accordingly. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Want to save money? Negotiate with your phone company.

2009-01-21T07:04:00.002-05:00

Frustrated with his hefty and mounting monthly bill for TV, Internet and phone service, a Texan called his provider, AT&T, last month to ask for a discount. He hoped for a reduction of about 10% to his $159 monthly bill. To his surprise, AT&T reduced his bill to $94 a month, a drop of almost 50%, for a one-year period. An AT&T spokesman declined to comment on the specific bill but said that "we work hard to give our customers the services they need at the best price."

While times are tough for consumers, they are also tough for cable and phone companies. Under intense pressure from Wall Street to keep subscribers as the economy sags and competition intensifies, many carriers are bent on retaining customers even if it means offering big price breaks.

"The key is to hang on to every possible customer right now," says Alex Dudley, a spokesman for Time Warner Cable. "They are our lifeblood." Dudley says that Time Warner Cable is also more receptive to giving stretched customers a discount during these tough times.

On the surface of it, the country's biggest carriers continue to boost prices despite the downturn. AT&T recently increased the price of high-end services, such as bundled movie channels, by 30%. Behind the scenes, however, the companies are much more accommodating. Many are offering steep discounts to keep, win or win back customers. Consumers, reeling from the recession, are crafting novel ways to cut costs, including switching to cheaper prepaid cellphone plans and using Web-enabled mobile devices to connect to the Internet instead of buying home broadband connections.

Negotiating with cable and phone companies may present a more direct route to saving on communications services costs. And companies are often happy to make deals with customers -- particularly if that allows them to poach them from rivals.

One New Yorker left Cablevision for Verizon's FiOS TV, broadband and phone service. But after his introductory offer from Verizon expired and his initial price shot up, a representative of Cablevision knocked on his door to persuade him to come back. The customer now pays Cablevision about $120 a month, down from the $226 a month he was paying Verizon for the three services.

Carriers' quest for customers is heightened by the battered housing market, since providers often target new customers when they move. That is leading to a slew of new deals for customers, some of which the carriers aren't marketing aggressively. Many of the steepest breaks tend to be for triple-play bundles of TV, Internet and voice service, since customers pay the most for subscribing to all three. Comcast now offers economy bundles that include scaled-down versions of all the services for lower prices.

Phone companies like Verizon and AT&T, meanwhile, are allowing customers to substitute cellphones for land lines in these bundles and still receive discounts. The move encourages customers to cut their land lines -- acknowledging that redundant phone connections are among the first services to go in tough times.

But discounts also include individual products. Last week, Verizon launched a new offer for a lower speed DSL service priced at $17.99 a month. For under $20 in some areas, Verizon and AT&T allow customers to sign up for "naked DSL," which allows customers to have a broadband connection without subscribing to a land line.

"If a customer calls to disconnect, we are not going to just let them go," says William Kula, a Verizon spokesman. "Our representatives try very hard in these times to keep customers rather than have them peel away to rival companies." (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Sprint to offer $50 unlimited cellphone service

2009-01-16T05:27:00.002-05:00

Sprint Nextel's youth-oriented Boost Mobile service plans to offer an unlimited nationwide calling plan for $50 a month, in a move to severely undercut rivals.

With the new plan, which is half the cost of the $99 unlimited plans offered by the major carriers and roughly $10 cheaper than similar unlimited prepay services offered by MetroPCS and Leap Wireless, Boost is hoping to go after budget-conscious consumers. It represents an aggressive move by Sprint to attract customers even as its own core wireless service continues to lose subscribers.

In addition to unlimited calling, customers will get unlimited text messages, mobile Web surfing, and a walkie-talkie feature. Customers aren't locked into a contract, and can leave anytime.

The major carriers offer unlimited calling for $99, as does Sprint's own "Simply Everything" plan, with unlimited calls, texts, faster mobile Web surfing and other bells and whistles. But those plans typically require a one- or two-year contract. Leap and MetroPCS offer similar flat-rate services without a contract, but the calls are limited by region. While some of Leap and MetroPCS's basic plans are cheaper, extra services such as text messages and roaming charges add to the bill, so a comparable plan would run around $60.

People looking to join Boost Mobile will have to switch to the Nextel network, which means buying a new phone not compatible with other networks. There are a limited number of phone choices, all from Motorola. More phones are in the works. The Boost plan is part of Sprint's decision to back the Nextel network after failing to find a buyer for the business.

Phones run between $20 and $100. Because there are no contracts, there are no subsidies for the phones. The mobile Web access is comparable to slower dial-up speeds. In addition to the monthly flat rate, Boost offers the option to pay $1 a day, which includes a charge of 10 cents a minute during the day, and unlimited night and weekend minutes. Both rates will be available on Jan. 22.
(info from The Wall Street Journal)

As expected, Nortel files for bankruptcy, but still has a few billion

2009-01-15T04:43:00.002-05:00

Nortel Networks sought protection from creditors in the US and Canada, falling victim to the economic downturn and years of struggle to turn around what was once Canada's largest company. On July 26, 2000, its shares were trading for as much as $124.50. That's equivalent, on a split-adjusted basis, to $1,245 in today's market. At one time Nortel stock accounted for more than a third of the value of the benchmark index of the Toronto Stock Exchange. Now the share price is seven cents.

The Chapter 11 filing further weakened the ranks of major telecom-equipment makers and sent chills through suppliers already coping with declining sales of network gear and handsets. Phone carriers more than ever are seeking suppliers with good products and better balance sheets.

A $107 million interest payment due today may have hastened Nortel's decision to seek protection from creditors. The company is entering bankruptcy court with $2.4 billion in cash to fund day-to-day operations, at a time when financing is drying up for companies reorganizing under bankruptcy protection.

Analysts and industry executives said at the least Nortel could be forced to shed assets at rock-bottom prices. Nortel would likely retain its corporate-networking business, where it competes against Cisco, the leader in the sector.

Mike Zafirovski, Nortel's chief exec, said the credit crisis swamped the company as it struggled with swings in the US dollar, weak sales and rising pension costs. He said Nortel can emerge as a respected technology supplier. "We have made some technology bets to take Nortel from being a legacy company to one that can be relevant today," he said.

Once a technology star valued at $250 billion during the dot-com boom, Nortel saw its value collapse after being racked by accounting restatements, price cutting, and a merger wave that made its rivals more formidable. Nortel failed to find a merger partner, despite talks with rivals including Alcatel, Nokia, and Avaya.

A government agency that provides credit to Canadian exporters, Wednesday agreed to provide $30 million in short-term financing. Trading in Nortel shares was suspended Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange. But in premarket electronic trading, shares were off 25 cents, or 77%, to seven cents.

The company had lost half of its market value in September after disclosing plans to sell a promising business to raise cash to weather the downturn. The move, meant to restore confidence in the company's future, instead shattered it.

The bankruptcy filing means Nortel will be able to renegotiate its liabilities, which include $4.5 billion of long-term debt and pension liabilities that have increased as the value of its pension fund has declined. Nortel said subsidiaries are expected to make similar filings in Europe. The company reported in court filings consolidated assets of $11.6 billion and liabilities of $11.8 billion. (info from The Wall Street Journal & CBC )

Big increase in reported data thefts. But it may just be an increase in reports, not thefts

2009-01-14T06:27:00.002-05:00

The number of reported data breaches climbed substantially in 2008.

Businesses and other organizations disclosed 656 breaches last year, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center, a non-profit organization that helps victims of identity theft. That’s up 47% from the 446 breaches reported in 2007.

It isn’t necessarily a sign that the frequency of breaches is increasing. “I think we’re learning about more breaches,” says Linda Foley, founder of the ITRC. She cites laws in 44 states that require organizations to notify people whose personal information they lose. Some states require organizations to report breaches to the attorney general’s office and make these reports publicly available.

These laws were intended to shame organizations into better protecting the information like social security and credit card numbers they collect. But despite these efforts, malicious insiders and computer hackers accounted for 29.6% of all breaches. The number of inside jobs more than doubled from 2007. Human error was the root cause of 35.2% of breaches.

Businesses suffered 240 reported breaches, or 37%, which is a higher percentage than past years. Educational organizations were hit in 20% of the breaches, while the government accounted for 17% of them, healthcare organizations for 15% and financial institutions for 12%.

The ITRC, which has made the details of all reported breaches it tracked available on its Web site, says at least 35.7 million records that were exposed in these breaches, but cautions that the number is most likely substantially more than that because many organizations didn’t disclose how many people’s information they lost. *info from The Wall Street Journal)

Proposed new FCC head backs net neutrality

2009-01-13T10:23:00.002-05:00

President-elect Barack Obama intends to nominate his technology adviser, Julius Genachowski, to head the FCC, according to a source close to the Obama transition team.

Genachowski is a former Harvard Law School classmate of Obama. He previously worked at the FCC during the Clinton administration. More recently, he co-founded LaunchBox Digital, a venture capital firm. He worked at Barry Diller's IAC/InterActive Corp. in various executive positions for eight years after leaving the FCC.

During the campaign, Genachowski served as the top technology adviser, putting together a detailed technology and innovation plan that expressed support for open Internet or "net neutrality" protections; media-ownership rules that encourage more diversity; and expansion of affordable broadband access across the country.

If confirmed, Genachowski will take over an agency that has had rocky relations with Congress and major companies in the telecommunications industry under current Chairman Kevin Martin. The agency may also still be coping with the transition to digital-only television, which is scheduled to take place Feb. 17 but could be pushed back to the summer. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Safety group wants total ban on cellphone use by drivers

2009-01-12T04:40:00.005-05:00

The National Safety Council is advocating a total ban on cellphone use while driving, saying the practice is clearly dangerous and leads to fatalities.

The organization says States should ban drivers from using both handheld and hands-free phones, and businesses should prohibit employees from using cellphones while driving on the job.

The group's president Janet Froetscher likened talking on cellphones to drunken driving, saying cellphone use increases the risk of a crash fourfold. "When our friends have been drinking, we take the car keys away. It's time to take the cellphone away," Froetscher said.

No state currently bans all cellphone use while driving. Six states -- California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Utah and Washington -- and the District of Columbia ban the use of handheld cellphones behind the wheel. Also, 17 states and the District restrict or ban cellphone use by novice drivers.

The Council acknowledged a total ban could take years. "Public awareness and the laws haven't caught up with what the scientists are telling us," Froetscher said. "There is no dispute that driving while talking on your cellphone, or texting while driving, is dangerous."

Froetscher said the council examined more than 50 scientific studies before reaching its decision. One was a study by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis that estimates 6% of vehicle crashes -- the equivalent of 2,600 deaths and 12,000 serious injuries a year -- are attributable to cellphone use. Hands-free cellphones are just as risky as hand-held phones, she added. "It's not just what you're doing with your hands -- it's that your head is in the conversation and so your eyes are not on the road."

John Walls, vice president of CTIA, a cellphone trade group, objected to a complete ban. He said there are many instances where the ability to make a phone call while driving enhances safety.

What makes cellphone use distinct from other risky driving behaviors, Froetscher said, is the magnitude -- there are 270 million cellphone users in the US and 80% of them talk while driving.

The Governors Highway Safety Association agreed that cellphone use while driving is dangerous, but said it would be difficult to enforce a ban. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which is funded by auto insurers, said banning all cellphone use "makes sense based on the research," but agreed that enforcement will be difficult. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Obama wants to delay end of analog TV

2009-01-09T05:09:00.001-05:00

President-elect Barack Obama's transition team asked Congress Thursday to consider delaying the planned Feb. 17 switch to digital-only television, citing concerns about consumer readiness for the transition.

"We have discovered major difficulties in the preparation for the February 17 conversion," wrote John Podesta, co-chair of the Obama transition team in a letter to congressional leaders Thursday. "In addition, the government's programs to assist consumers through the upheaval of the conversion are inadequately funded."

The Obama team asked Congress to reconsider the Feb. 17 analog cut-off date and push it back further into 2009.

On Monday, Bush administration officials announced that a $1.5 billion coupon program to help consumers buy digital boxes needed to keep older TVs working after the switch is running out of money. Consumers who apply for coupons now are being put on a waiting list, but administration officials acknowledged there was no assurance that consumers who apply now would get the $40 coupons before the switch. They urged consumers to buy at least one set-top converter box, which retail around $50 to $80, without a coupon.

Congressional leaders were already considering pushing back the digital conversion date by three or four months. They're also looking at how to add more money to the troubled government coupon program quickly.

"Considering the federal treasury is going to book nearly $20 billion in revenue from the DTV spectrum auction, we think this is the right move. Consumers shouldn't have to pay for this transition they didn't ask for," said Chris Murray, senior attorney at Consumers Union, which recommended a delay on Wednesday. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

DUMB NAME AWARD:to Toshiba for "Cell Television"

2009-01-08T04:49:00.010-05:00

At the International Consumer Electronics Sjow in Las Vegas, Toshiba is demonstrating a prototype television that uses the powerful Cell processor, the chip that powers Sony’s PlayStation 3. (Toshiba, Sony and IBM collaborated in developing the chip).

Cell television is a bit of misnomer. It has nothing to do with cellphones.

The chip will actually be inside a set-top box that functions like a computer server, processing various video signals at once.

That box will come with a display that Toshiba says can handle video quality four times sharper than the current high-definition displays. The Cell box will convert regular high-definition video (1,920 by 1,080 pixels) into a “Quad HDTV” (3,840 by 2,160 pixels. The Cell TV box will come with a hard drive and can handle up to 48 video streams at once. It can also boost Internet video to higher quality video.

Toshiba said it expects the cell televisions (set-top box plus accompanying display) to sell for between $5,000 to $10,000. At that price, they could throw in a freebie cellphone. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Greener Motorola makes new phone from old water bottles

2009-01-07T03:46:00.003-05:00

At the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Motorola is showing their new MOTO™ W233 Renew, said to be the world’s first cellphone made with plastic from recycled water bottles.

Motorola says Renew is also the world’s first carbon neutral phone. Through an alliance with Carbonfund.org, Motorola offsets the carbon dioxide required to manufacture, distribute and operate the phone through investments in renewable energy sources and reforestation. The phone has earned Carbonfund.org’s CarbonFree® Product Certification after an extensive product life-cycle assessment.

When designing the packaging, Motorola was able to reduce its size by 22 percent and the box and all of the materials inside are printed on 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper. In addition, a postage-paid recycling envelope in the box makes it easy to return your previous cellphone for recycling at no cost.

Renew was designed for eco-conscious consumers as well as the millions of people who put making phone calls as their number one priority in a phone. It provides nine hours of talk time, CrystalTalk technology and messaging capabilities. Renew will first be available at T-Mobile USA in in the first quarter of this year.

Cubans save money by not answering cell calls

2009-01-06T05:43:00.005-05:00

Since taking over as Cuba's president from his ailing older brother Fidel, Raúl Castro has decided that Cubans can now legally purchase once-forbidden fruit, such as DVD players, microwave ovens, desktop computers and cellphones.

Cubans are crazy for them. But it's tough to buy them. The manager of medical records in a hospital earns $21.44 a month and figures it will take a year to save enough money to buy a very basic $58 Nokia.

Everyone agrees a microwave oven is a useful tool, but a cellphone is the icon of modernity. Since Castro began allowing the purchases in April of 2008, and then slashed prices in half in December, cellphones have become the new status symbol in proletarian Havana, but with a twist. Cubans don't actually talk on their cellphones -- They use them as pagers.

When Cubans get a call, they rarely answer. Instead, they look at the number, find a land-line telephone, which is ubiquitous and very inexpensive to use, and return the call. If they're feeling flush, they might type a message.

The Cuban government has not released official tallies of cellphone users, though a person who works in the technology field estimated that there were no more than 250,000 users in a nation of 11.2 million.

Even so, the obstacles to entering the cellular world are almost impossibly high for most Cubans. First, there is getting the phone. Most Cubans appear to have worked a deal for a used phone on the gray market -- or more likely, were given one by a relative living abroad. The old, outdated phones that were gathering dust in Miami or Madrid have gone to Cuba.

To open a mobile phone account with the state telephone monopoly, ETECSA, a user must go, with a cellphone, to one of the few offices in Havana, stand in line for an hour and then pay $65 to activate the service -- a bargain compared with the $130 the government used to charge. This money is not paid in Cuban pesos but in the parallel currency used by foreigners, Cuban "convertible pesos," known as CUCs and pronounced "kooks." These are huge sums for Cubans, whose average monthly salary is around $20.

The price of minutes in Cuba is cruel. Local calls between cellphones cost 65 cents a minute. Cellphone calls to a land-line are slightly more. Dialing the United States costs $2.70 a minute. A call to Europe will cost $5.85.

To use their cellphones, Cubans purchase prepaid cards; the most common denomination is 10 convertible pesos. Some Cubans limit their calls by buying only one prepaid card a month. There is no credit in Cuba.

And although some plugged-in sophisticates in Havana have BlackBerrys, there is no Web surfing, no YouTube watching, no e-mailing on cellphones. The bandwidth is not available for them. Cuba connects to the digital world via Italian satellite. Because of the US trade embargo, there is no undersea fiber-optic cable connecting Cuba to Florida.

Until the changes announced by Raúl Castro last year, ordinary Cubans were not permitted to open cellphone accounts. But foreigners could -- so many of the first Cubans to have and use them were government officials, workers for foreign companies, and hotel hustlers and street prostitutes, girlfriends and boyfriends of foreign visitors, who were given or sometimes sold a phone and an account number.

Cubans speak some of the highest-speed Spanish in Latin America, but even that cannot save them from the ticking clock and cost of cell minutes. Many Cubans don't like to give out their cellphone numbers, for fear they will be called -- and have to answer a number they don't recognize. They never use voice mail.

A Cuban with a BlackBerry explained that like the United States and Europe, Cuban society will be changed by the cellphone. "We will be reachable, but we don't want to answer." (info from The Washington Post)

iPhone unlocking software available

2009-01-05T06:26:00.002-05:00

A group of independent programmers says it has "unlocked" the latest generation of Apple iPhones so they can be used on unauthorized wireless networks, in a move that could threaten Apple's carrier partners. Since the original iPhone was launched in June 2007, Apple has struck partnerships with carriers such as AT&T. Under the agreements, the iPhone can generally be used only by subscribers to those carriers.

Last Wednesday, a group called the iPhone Dev Team released a free piece of software called "yellowsn0w" that unlocks the iPhone 3G. The software lets users reprogram the phones so they can work on any wireless network based on the same technical standard. Several users said they successfully installed the software on their iPhone 3Gs and were able to make calls on non-authorized networks.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on the iPhone Dev Team's work, only saying that Apple doesn't support unlocked iPhones in the US. Apple offers such phones in Germany and Hong Kong where government regulation requires it but they usually come at a steep price.

Software programmers have been trying to unlock the iPhone 3G since it came out last July.

The development could lead to a loss in revenue for Apple's wireless partners. International travelers would be able to buy airtime for their iPhones on local wireless networks when they travel abroad, so they don't have to incur steep roaming charges. People in markets where Apple hasn't yet launched the iPhone could also buy the device elsewhere and use it in their home countries. In China, for example, consumers can already buy previous generation iPhones that have been smuggled in unlocked.

In the US, "the iPhone is meant to be used exclusively on the AT&T network. Any other use of the device is inappropriate and would void the warranty," said an AT&T spokesman. The iPhone Dev Team is the same group that unlocked the original iPhone model more than a year earlier. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Internet providers want to take advantage of Obama's broadband push

2008-12-31T06:17:00.004-05:00

President-elect Barack Obama's call to improve the nation's broadband infrastructure has cable and phone company lobbyists maneuvering for prime positions to cash in.

Congress wants a plan that will create jobs over the next two to three years while also tackling the longer-term goal of improving the availability and quality of high-speed Web access. The US has slipped to 15th from fourth place since 2001 in broadband penetration. Advocates say broadband deployment is critical to the competitiveness of the US economy.

Among the issues are what speed Congress should define as broadband and whether government money should be funneled only to areas that have no broadband access, or if it should also subsidize upgrades to existing networks.

Policies under serious consideration are corporate tax credits to build new wireless or landline infrastructure, government-backed broadband "bonds" and grants to companies or local governments, legislative aides and lobbyists close to the process say. There also is strong agreement that low-income consumers need to be encouraged to sign up for broadband -- for example, through vouchers to purchase computers or discounts on monthly service.

Large cable operators are seeking to increase the FCC's definition of broadband download speed to about five megabits per second, about 6½ times as fast as the current definition. Internet service providers building out "unserved" regions, where service of that speed isn't available, would be given the full benefit of tax incentives or grants.

The big cable providers also want to target "underserved" areas, where there is only one broadband provider or the service isn't widely available. In those markets, companies would get incentives to build out next-generation services. The download speed that would qualify as next-generation would likely be in the range of 40 to 50 megabits per second.

The cable plan would disadvantage phone companies, especially smaller ones whose DSL services are slower than cable. The Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance, which represents midsize phone companies, is pushing for a slower broadband standard, in the range of 1.5 to 3 megabits per second. Curt Stamp, the group's president, says the federal largesse should be used to subsidize carrier investments in rural areas rather than to finance upgrades to their existing networks.

Wireless services will likely be able to qualify as broadband at a slower download speed than landline services. But if the mark is set above 2 megabits per second it could be a boost for Clearwire Corp., a start-up operator that is rolling out a WiMax network capable of download speeds of 2 to 4 megabits per second. Other carriers weren't planning major wireless upgrades until at least 2010.

Equipment makers such as Cisco and Motorola stand to benefit if carriers undertake massive upgrades. Carl Russo, CEO of Calix, which supplies equipment to phone and cable providers, says Congress should define broadband as 10 megabits per second so the networks it builds now will be able to support bandwidth-hogging applications of the future, such as high-definition video.

"Remember, you only get to do this once, so you want to build the widest highway possible," Russo said. The Telecommunications Industry Association, which represents equipment makers, is pushing for a $25 billion grant program for Internet service providers. Under another proposal, grants could go to state and municipal authorities, which would build high-speed networks and then open them up to competing service providers. That would likely meet with considerable resistance from large carriers like Verizon, which have challenged attempts by local governments to build and operate their own wireless or high-speed fiber networks.

Steve Davis, senior vice president of policy for Qwest Communications, says the big phone company wouldn't object to public broadband projects in areas that currently have no high-speed Internet service, provided private operators have a right of first refusal in building the networks. "The first place the government should look is to the industry," Davis says.

Meanwhile, outside groups are offering various proposals to Congress. Consumer advocacy group Free Press released a broadband stimulus proposal that calls for a $44 billion investment in Internet services over three years, much of which would be funneled through the FCC's existing Universal Service Fund, which subsidizes telephone services in rural areas and for low-income people.

Public-interest groups are clamoring for conditions to be imposed on carriers that receive tax credits, such "net neutrality." (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Blackberry maker sues Motorola over hiring restriction

2008-12-30T13:32:00.003-05:00

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion is hiring, Motorola is laying off thousands, and the two mobile and wireless rivals are going to court because RIM claims Motorola is unfairly blocking former employees from working for RIM.

RIM is seeking a court order preventing Motorola from blocking its former workers from working for RIM. In a complaint filed last week, RIM claims Motorola is engaging in improper competitive practices by unfairly enforcing a nondisclosure and nonsolicitation agreement signed by the two rival cellphone makers in February.

RIM claims in the Dec. 23 complaint filed in a Chicago court that the agreement expired in August and it is free to hire former Motorola employees. In September, Motorola sued RIM to bar it from hiring any Motorola employees under the terms of the February agreement.

Since May 2007, Motorola has laid off approximately 10,000 workers and plans to cut another 3,000 employees in 2009. Most of the fired employees worked in Motorola's financially bleeding handset unit.

"Motorola's position shamelessly ignores the fact that Motorola's massive layoffs, and not the RIM entities, have caused hundreds of Motorola employees to date to seek employment with the RIM entities," states the RIM complaint.

The complaint adds the claim that Motorola's actions are preventing RIM "from hiring any Motorola employees, including the thousands of employees Motorola has already fired or will soon fire, without regard for [RIM's] rights or for the damage this tactic will unfairly inflict on Motorola's own employees and ex-employees who will be prevented from finding new employment" with RIM.

The filing also notes that RIM "continue[s] to grow and hire new employees" while Motorola is making "massive layoffs of thousands of its employees in an effort to cut costs within its faltering wireless communication devices businesses." (info from eweek.com)

Now there are thousands more placesto buy an iPhone

2008-12-29T05:33:00.005-05:00

In a confirmation of swirling rumors, Apple's iPhone 3G went on sale yesterday at about 2,500 Walmart stores and at Walmart.com.

Walmart is the second independent retail chain after Best Buy to sell iPhones. They are also sold at Apple and AT&T stores.

Walmart sells the black 8 GB iPhone 3G model with the every day price of $197 and the 16 GB black or white model for $297, with a new two-year AT&T service agreement or a qualified upgrade. Walmart's price match policy allows stores to match the price of any local competitor's advertised store price on the same item within the same promotional period.

The new iPhone 3G combines the features of the original iPhone plus 3G networking that can be twice as fast, built-in GPS for expanded location-based mobile services, and iPhone 2.2 software which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and runs over 10,000 third party applications available through the new App Store.

There are Apple iPhone kiosks in the Home Entertainment departments at Walmart stores. Employees have been trained to assist customers with questions, demonstrations and activation.

Cybersquatting company lost $33.2 million judgement to Verizon, but skipped the trial

2008-12-26T06:35:00.006-05:00

Verizon has been awarded $33.2 million in a "cybersquatting" case against a San Francisco company that registered Internet domain names purposely similar to the telecommunications giant's trademarks. Verizon, however, may not see any money, as the registrar, OnlineNIC, never appeared in federal court to defend itself.

The default ruling said the company "unlawfully registered at least 663 domain names that were either identical to or confusingly similar to Verizon trademarks.," Verizon was awarded $50,000 per name for OnlineNIC's "bad-faith registrations" that were intended to steer traffic away from Verizon's sites.

"This case should send a clear message and serve to deter cybersquatters who continue to run businesses for the primary purpose of misleading consumers," said Sarah Deutsch, Verizon associate general counsel. "Verizon intends to continue to take all steps necessary to protect our brand and consumers from Internet frauds and abuses." The company has won several similar cases.

Complaints about cybersquatting -- setting up a Website using a trademarked name and then profiting by selling the name to the trademark owner -- surged to a record in 2007, according to World Intellectual Property Organization.

Anyone can register domain names for a few dollars per year, but cybersquatters claim popular domain names with the intention of selling them at a profit when the real owners of the names come calling. More recently, Internet entrepreneurs have set up Websites using famous names -- or even versions with typos in them -- and setting up per-click ads leading to the entity's official site.

The practice was barred in the US. in 1999. After declining for several years, incidents began to rise in 2004 and have been climbing in recent years. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Estonians will vote by phone

2008-12-24T07:17:00.002-05:00

The Estonian Parliament has approved a law making Estonia the first country to allow voting by cellphone, in the next parliamentary elections in 2011.

Estonians were allowed to cast Internet ballots in last year's parliamentary vote. Government officials said the Internet voting system proved secure despite worries about hacker attacks, identity fraud and vote count manipulation.

The mobile-voting system, which has already been tested, requires that voters obtain free, authorized chips for their phones. The chip will verify the voter's identity and authorize participation in the electronic voting system.

The system and software have proven effective and reliable in an independent security audit. A spokesman said the system "is the most secure way to authenticate digital signatures."

Finland and Sweden possess the software and technical capabilities to conduct a similar cellular election. (info from The Associated Press)

Maybe satellites are safer.Undersea cable cut hurts mideast Web access& phone calls

2008-12-23T05:26:00.004-05:00

Yesterday the Middle East spent its first workday coping with slow and spotty Internet access after key communication cables were cut. Telecommunication providers from Cairo to Dubai continued to scramble to reroute voice and data traffic through potentially costly detours in Asia and North America after the lines running under the Mediterranean Sea were damaged Friday. The cause of the cuts wasn't yet known.

It is the second time this year that trans-Mediterranean cables to Europe have been cut, knocking out Web and telephone access for many in the Middle East. The earlier cut, in late January, was apparently caused by a ship's anchor.

On Sunday afternoon, a ship operated by France Telecom's marine division arrived at what it believes is the accident site south of Sicily.

The crew released a robotic submarine to search for two of the three damaged cables, which are owned by a consortium that includes France Telecom. Once found, the cable ends will be pulled to the surface and repaired on deck -- a process that could take several days. The company hopes to have the first line fixed by Thursday. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Television questions caused phone system to crash

2008-12-22T04:04:00.003-05:00

Two years ago, Congress set 2/17/09 as the date requiring the US to switch to digital TV. Digital signals don't take up as much air space as analog signals, and Congress wanted to auction off some of the airwaves left vacant by the switch to make money. It also set aside some of those airwaves for a future network for police and firefighters, who have complained about communications problems during disasters.

Households with satellite or cable TV won't be affected by the switch to digital, but others need converter boxes. Broadcasters and cable operators across the country are in the midst of a campaign to raise viewers' awareness about the transition. But problems have arisen with a government coupon program that helps consumers buy digital-converter boxes needed to keep old TVs operational, suggesting that some viewers may not be prepared.

Almost 20 million homes rely on free, over-the-air television. An additional 15 million households have cable or satellite TV but also own some TVs that may require converter boxes. Nearly 17 million of the $40 government coupons have been redeemed to buy converter boxes. The boxes, which cost about $40 to $60 each, allow analog TVs to pick up digital signals.

The government doesn't know how many TVs need converter boxes. Nielsen Media Research estimated Friday that 7% of U.S. households remain unprepared for the digital transition.

Last week, 40 stations in Ohio shut off their analog signals for five minutes to show viewers what their analog TVs would look like without converter boxes: a blank screen.

Viewers flooded a broadcasters' hot line with calls to ask how to get the government coupons and how to operate converter boxes, among other questions, said Christine Merritt, executive vice president of the Ohio Association of Broadcasters. She added that the hot line got so many calls -- about 7,500 -- that the phone system overloaded and crashed. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Give or get a Batphone for Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Christmas

2008-12-19T04:03:00.001-05:00

Now everyone can have a flashing red phone like Batman

When there’s trouble in Gotham City, Police Commissioner Gordon calls caped crusader Batman, the secret alter ego of millionaire Bruce Wayne.

At Wayne Manor, the flashing red Batphone is answered by Alfred the butler, who tells Wayne about the trouble. Then Wayne and his young ward Dick Grayson put on their superhero costumes. As Batman and Robin, they race from the Batcave in the Batmobile to battle evil-doers, or rescue citizens in distress.

Now everyone can have a bright red flashing Batphone just like a superhero. When an emergency call - or even an ordinary call - comes in, a bright red light centered in a shiny chrome ring starts flashing to attract attention.

The Batphone has classic sixties styling, with heavy-duty construction, a two-year warranty, and is made in the USA. It gets all of its power from the phone line, and doesn’t require a power cord or batteries. It can work on an ordinary home phone line, or on an "analog extension port" in a business phone system.

The phone rings when the light flashes, unless a purchaser prefers the bell to be disconnected for silent signaling, or an optional high-pitched "BatSignal" or buzzer to be installed instead of the bell. Price with the bell is $122, including "ground" shipping to all 50 states. Fast shipping for delivery before Christmas is available at an extra charge.

Order online at www.GetABatPhone.com, or call toll-free 1-888-225-3999.

French iPhone monopoly deal is illegal

2008-12-18T04:14:00.005-05:00

French antitrust authorities ruled that Apple's deal to sell the iPhone in France exclusively through France Télécom posed an unfair barrier to consumer choice. This move could pave the way for other operators to sell the iPhone.

The decision from France's Competition Council suspends a five-year contract that the companies signed last year. The ruling came in response to a complaint filed by one of France Télécom's competitors, Bouygues Telecom. France Télécom said it would appeal the decision.

The decision is a blow to France Télécom, which has bet that the iPhone would help attract high-tech savvy customers who tend to spend more on their monthly communication bills. It also complicates Apple's marketing plans in one of Europe's biggest markets, but the decision isn't likely to have immediate repercussions outside France.

There is a patchwork of different situations in Europe. In Belgium, for example, consumers can buy an iPhone and use it with any operator. In Germany, a similar legal challenge filed in 2007 by Vodafone to derail Deutsche Telekom's exclusive contract with Apple failed.

The Competition Council said France Télécom's deal with Apple was "clearly excessive" and risked "serious and immediate damage to competition on the mobile market and to consumers."

France Télécom said the decision would have the unwanted effect of stifling innovative services for consumers, such as mobile video, by causing operators to think twice before investing in network upgrades. The operator said it had "heavily invested" to upgrade its network to handle and optimize the iPhone. It has sold about 600,000 iPhones. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Texas prison cancels cellphone jamming test, but FCC wants them to go ahead

2008-12-17T02:59:00.004-05:00

An Austin, Texas prison, citing legal concerns, canceled plans to test cellphone-jamming technology that a South Carolina jail demonstrated last month. However, an FCC spokesman says: “We would encourage Texas authorities to move forward with their test.”

Smuggled cellphones are an ongoing problem in prisons, where they facilitate crime both behind bars and in the outside world. In Texas, officers have found hundreds of contraband phones this year, and State Sen. John Whitmire even received a call from a death-row inmate using one.

Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said the state’s attorney general recommended the cancellation because jamming wireless signals remains illegal in the US, with the exception of some uses by federal agencies.

“At every turn, we have attempted to identify a legal way to perform this test so that we could move forward,” Oliver Bell, chairman of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice, said in a statement. “I cannot, in good faith, violate the law in front of our nearly 38,000 employees and then demand they violate no law under threat of prosecution.”

The jamming technology is made by CellAntenna. At the Ridgefield, SC demonstration, the Associated Press reported that it successfully blocked cellphones in the auditorium, but didn’t affect reception outside the room, a key concern of wireless-industry advocates who oppose the technology on the grounds that it could interrupt calls in too broad an area.

To date, that demo hasn’t resulted in legal action, and the FCC said prior to it that it is willing to work with state and local law enforcement officials on the issue.

Lyons said that Texas is still restricted by the law, regardless of the South Carolina demo. “We support the technology. That’s not the issue,” she said. “But until it’s legal for us to use or even demonstrate, we’re just not going to go down that path.” (info from The Wall Street Jiournal)

More heads to roll at Alcatel-Lucent

2008-12-16T06:02:00.002-05:00

Alcatel-Lucent said it will eliminate another 1,000 white-collar jobs as part of its new chief's plan to return the company to profitability, but shares slumped as investors were hoping for a bolder shift in business strategy. Investors dumped the stock on the news. Shares sank 14 percent and the company was the biggest percentage loser in the CAC 40 index.

The Paris-based maker of telecom networking equipment also intends to get rid of half of the 10,000 contractors it employs in measures aimed at nearly a billion dollars by the fourth quarter of 2009.

Investors were disappointed that Alcatel-Lucent's strategy appeared to consist of rooting out duplication rather than making major spin-offs of businesses, said Roland Pitz, a Munich-based telecoms industry analyst for Unicredit. "It looks like more restructuring but not the substantial change in the business model" that investors were hoping for, Pitz said.

Alcatel-Lucent said the cuts could help it break even at the operating level next year. It hasn't made a profit since the company was formed through Alcatel's purchase of Lucent for $11.4 billion in 2006. The company's shares have fallen around 85 percent since the company was formed, as it has struggled to integrate its two halves and compete with emerging Asian rivals. The Alcatel-Lucent merger aimed to boost margins through savings on expenses and research and development, but intense competition has forced the company to pass many of those savings to customers in the form of discounts.

CEO Ben Verwaayen, who took over in September following the removal of Patricia Russo, said the cuts would make Alcatel-Lucent a "more agile" company by stripping out layers of management. Verwaayen, who is credited with transforming British telecommunications operator BT Group into a broadband Internet powerhouse earlier this decade, was brought in to pull off similar results at Alcatel-Lucent.

The 1,000 new job cuts will come out of Alcatel-Lucent's total white collar work force of 15,000, and come on top of a previous plan to cut 16,500 jobs by the end of next year. The company employed a total of 76,410 as of the end of 2007.

Verwaayen said Alcatel-Lucent will shift investment to technologies in which it is either already a leader or which it has targeted for development, such as LTE, W-CDMA, and enhanced packet core. The company will also cut investment in aging technologies such as CDMA, GSM and ADSL and seek to sell "non-core" businesses that Verwaayen declined to identify. (info from The Associated Press)