| FRIDAY - JUNE 10, 2005 - ISSUE NO. 166 | ||||
Dear friends of Wireless Messaging and Paging, Have you heard that Paging is dead or dying? Well, you should have been at the AAPC convention last week. I think you might have changed your mind. Here are some of the comments that I heard:
My report on the show follows. There was a lot of praise for Ted McNaught, the founder and President of the AAPC, for his three years of leadership. There was also a lot of enthusiasm about the future of the association under the able new leadership of Bruce Deer. I would like to continue my report on the show next week with more comments from anyone who attended. Also, if anyone has digital photos available, please send them to me. I am sure everyone else would like to see them too. Now I am going to make some radical statements. Of course this is nothing new for me, but if I am wrong I know someone will tell me. I asked Vic Jackson to come to the AAPC Wireless Forum and to present some ideas that he and I have been discussing for some time. Some ideas of how Paging companies could morph their business model into one of the most exciting new developments of telecommunications: VoIP. Vic explained how Paging Carriers might be able to use their excess DID telephone numbers to offer telephone service. There are many issues to be addressed but they all seem to be achievable. Vic is certainly an expert in both the legal and technical issues that are involved. The day may come when Paging companies will regret that they removed their infrastructure from service—too soon—just to reduce operating expenses—and missed a MAJOR business opportunity. Just imagine: if you wanted to start a nationwide VoIP telephone company (like some are doing) and you could find equipment already installed with millions of telephone numbers already assigned with local dial-in everywhere in the country . . . do you see where I am going with this? Come on! Let's get some discussion going. This is too big an opportunity to let it slip by. Be sure to read the news article on VoIP near the end of this issue for more background info and market forecasts. Some of the so-called "problems" are actually opportunities. Like the e911 issues that everyone is talking about. Looks to me like there is a simple solution to incorporate a GPS chip into the telephone like the TRACE tracking device uses. If you have a fast broadband connection to the Internet be sure to see Allan Angus' presentation on the TRACE device—it is one of the best I have seen. By the way, Rick Van Dyne at Heartland Communications has a lot of paging equipment in his warehouse that he would like to find a good home for. Take a look at the Heartland ad below and call Rick at 1-800-810-7053 ext. 130. Tell him Brad sent you. The guys at TAPS—the Texas Association of Paging Services would like to add members to their 152.480 MHz paging network via their shared satellite service. They are also offering satellite service to anyone who may need it for their own network. If you have any interest at all, please send me an e-mail and I will call you so we can discuss this opportunity in detail. Now on to more news and views. | 
A new issue of The Wireless Messaging Newsletter gets posted on the web each week. A notification goes out by e-mail to subscribers on most Fridays around noon central US time. The notification message has a link to the actual newsletter on the Internet. That way it doesn't fill up your incoming e-mail account. There is no charge for subscription and there are no membership restrictions. Readers are a very select group of wireless industry professionals, and include the senior managers of many of the world's major Paging and Wireless Data companies. There is an even mix of operations managers, marketing people, and engineers—so I try to include items of interest to all three groups. It's all about staying up-to-date with business trends and technology. I regularly get reader's comments, so this newsletter has become a community forum for the Paging, and Wireless Data communities. You are welcome to contribute your ideas and opinions. Unless otherwise requested, all correspondence addressed to me is subject to publication in the newsletter and on my website. I am very careful to protect the anonymity of those who request it. NOTE: This newsletter is best viewed at screen resolutions of 800x600 (good) or 1024x768 (better). Any current revision of web browser should work fine. Please notify me of any problems with viewing. This site is compliant with XHTML 1.0 transitional coding for easy access from wireless devices. (XML 1.0/ISO 8859-1.) | |||
AAPC Wireless Forum, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, 2005
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Sessions
Ted McNaught, the founder and first president of the AAPC A short tribute . . .
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AAPC Wireless Forum, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, 2005
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www.gtesinc.com GTES is the only Glenayre authorized software support provider in the Paging industry. With over 200 years of combined experience in Glenayre hardware and software support, GTES offers the industry the most professional support and engineering development staff available. New Product Development New Hardware Platform
Continued Support Programs GTES Partner Program CALL US TODAY FOR YOUR SUPPORT NEEDS
|  Wireless Communication Solutions The Hark ISI-400LX is a hardware device that encapsulates serial data into TCP/IP for transmission over the Internet. It can also be configured to convert incoming TAP messages from the serial port and send them over the Internet to Paging providers in e-mail (SMTP) or Simple Network Paging Protocol (SNPP) format. The ISI-400LX with the optional external modem can connect to a secondary dial-up ISP when a failure on the ethernet port is detected.
This device is the perfect companion for the Hark Gateway products. An ISI can be located at a remote location for receiving TAP, TNPP, or Billing traffic using a local ISP eliminating long distance phone charges.
System Features & Benefits:
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Daviscomms—Product Examples For information about our Contract Manufacturing services or our Pager or Telemetry line, please call Bob Popow at 480-515-2344, bob@daviscommsusa.com or visit our website www.daviscommsusa.com
|  Prism Message Gateway Systems Your Choice of Options
Popular Choice for Domestic and International
Logical Choice
Go ahead . . . be choosy . . . choose Prism Systems International
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eRF Wireless
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| InfoRad® Wireless Office (Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP) is designed for the professional who needs full-featured wireless messaging capabilities. Features include enhanced user interface, message log with search function, scheduled Paging, group and individual message addresses, TAPI Smart™, multiple protocol SMS communication compatibility. AlphaCare™ support services available. With a 32-bit architecture, InfoRad Wireless Office is designed for compatibility with Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP. For more information on InfoRad Wireless Messaging software, and a free demo, please click on the logo.
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| WIRELESS NEWS | |||||
Space Data Press Releases Space Data Forges Roaming Relationship with SkyTel Data Carriers Move to Combine Urban and Rural Coverage Capabilities Chandler, AZ; June 2, 2005 — Space Data® Corporation, a company providing wireless data services in rural and remote areas, today announced a mutual roaming agreement with MCI, Inc (Nasdaq:MCIP) that extends MCI’s SkyTel footprint throughout Texas and Oklahoma and provides Space Data with the ability to offer extended service via SkyTel’s network. Both companies expect to begin offering roaming for location and fleet management services in June 2005 with two-way messaging service to follow later this year. Space Data’s aerial SkySite Network is unique in its ability to provide reliable, affordable data communications to rural and remote areas. The company offers 24/7 data communications services for messaging, telemetry, and vehicle location applications throughout the entire states of Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, as well as eastern New Mexico, western Arkansas and portions of the Gulf of Mexico. “This strategic relationship offers significant business advantages for both companies,” said Gerald Knoblach, Space Data’s CEO and chairman. “Space Data specializes in offering coverage in rural areas, augmenting Skytel’s nationwide coverage in towns and cities. Together, we offer a regional data network that is unmatched in its combination of coverage, capacity and price. Each of us can now leverage that network to better serve our core markets.” For more information about SkyTel, please visit www.skytel.com. For more information about Space Data Corporation, please visit www.spacedata.net. Editors Note: Space Data and SkySite are registered trademarks of Space Data Corporation. PR Contact: Tim Ayers Source: Space Data RIM hits patent deal impasse By Paul Taylor in New York Shares in Research in Motion fell sharply yesterday after the Canada-based maker of BlackBerry mobile e-mail devices said it was going back to court after hitting an impasse in finalising a $450m patent dispute payment to NTP, US-based patent holding company. RIM's shares fell more than 5 per cent yesterday to $73.55 after the company disclosed that it has asked the US courts to enforce the terms of a court-approved deal struck with NTL in March designed to end a long-running patent dispute between the two companies. RIM said it was returning to court because "NTP refuses to honour its obligations". The Toronto-based company added that it was reviewing any potential accounting implications of the latest developments and would provide a further update when it reported first-quarter fiscal 2006 results on June 29. RIM said it has already set aside the funds to make the payment. NTP successfully sued RIM in 2002 for patent infringement and won an injunction in 2003 halting US BlackBerry sales. That was suspended pending the outcome of the appeal process. In December the appeals court upheld the patent infringement finding but said part of the earlier ruling was flawed and sent the case back to a lower court which sanctioned the proposed $450m payment by RIM in March. Although the settlement was one of the largest of its type, it was welcomed by shareholders because it appeared to remove a major uncertainty hanging over the stock. In the immediate wake of the proposed settlement, RIM's shares gained 17 per cent. Source: Financial Times, UK PANGO PARTNERS WITH LEADING SOLUTIONS PROVIDERS TO MEET GROWING DEMAND FOR WIFI-BASED RFID SYSTEMS Leader in Active RFID Market Expands Distribution and Increases Customer Base PanGo Networks (www.pangonetworks.com) today announced that it has formed three new strategic partnerships to deliver advanced active RFID solutions to a growing market. The new partnerships come as PanGo adds ten new customers in healthcare and the public sector and witnesses unprecedented demand for its industry-leading product, PanGo Locator®. PanGo Locator is the only complete RFID solution in the world that uses a business' WiFi access point infrastructure as a reader network, thereby eliminating a separate and costly overlay of hardware and associated labor. PanGo's complete solution includes an application platform that integrates with third party location technologies, a rich, intuitive end user application for asset monitoring and reporting, as well as web service interfaces for rapid integration into third party, or home-grown business systems. PanGo's new partners and their customers have identified active RFID as a strategic technology and a business priority. The partners each bring tremendous track record of success in RFID, enterprise networking, systems integration and deployment. BCS Networks RSI ID Technologies, Inc. "RFID adoption is on a steady incline, as is the demand for active RFID-enabled location solutions," said Wolf Bielas, CEO of RSI ID Technologies. "These solutions will increase the overall value and time to ROI for our customers. Our partnership with PanGo further reinforces our commitment to offer superior technology and services to our customers." GTES Networks "Our new partners extend the power of an already compelling technology and make it easier for customers to deploy and integrate within their operations," said Michael Campbell, Executive Vice President of Business Development, PanGo Networks. "Each of them uniquely expands our geographic reach, domain expertise and ability to acquire and keep satisfied customers. The partnerships reflect an important step in the evolution of PanGo Networks." For information about becoming a PanGo Networks partner, please refer to the following link: http://www.pangonetworks.com/registration.htm. About PanGo Networks Specializing in a range of markets including healthcare, manufacturing, higher education, visitor attraction and government, PanGo delivers reliable and accurate information about the location of connected devices, people and assets. PanGo's location-aware systems enable optimal information management and workflow, and provide measurable and significant return on investment. For more information, visit http://www.pangonetworks.com. Contacts Source: BusinessWire Verso Appoints Mark Dunaway to Board of Directors ATLANTA—Verso Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: VRSO), a leading provider of packet-based solutions, today announced that Mark Dunaway has joined its board of directors. Mr. Dunaway serves as the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Composite Materials Technology, based in Atlanta, Georgia. Most of his career has been in the telecommunications sector, including 25 years in the wireless sector. In the last 20 years, Mr. Dunaway was a founder of Preferred Networks, a wireless network and service company. Preferred Networks was taken public in 1996. Mr. Dunaway resigned in 2001. Subsequently, he co-founded and served as Chief Executive Officer of a paging and cellular company; both achieved over $100 million in annual sales. Both companies were sold to Bell Atlantic Corporation (now Verizon). Subsequently, Mr. Dunaway served as President of British Telecom's pager subsidiary in North America where he was actively involved in several domestic acquisitions. Mr. Dunaway left to found the Beeper Company, a national paging company which was later sold to Arch Communications. He also co-founded Friend Technologies, a telecom services company, which was sold. Mr. Dunaway served as a partner and co-founder of Criterion Partners., LLC, a private equity investment firm based in Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Dunaway served as a board member for several public companies including Dial Page, Preferred Networks and Cypress Communications. Mr. Dunaway is filling the vacancy left by Steve Raville, who resigned from the Verso board on May 31, 2005, due to a new business venture which required Mr. Raville to resign from any public boards. "I would like to personally thank Steve Raville for his time and effort at Verso," commented Steve Odom, Verso's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "We are saddened to see Steve leave the Verso board, but understand that this situation was unavoidable and wish him the best of luck. On another note, we are pleased to welcome Mark Dunaway, as he brings tremendous telecommunications experience to our board. He was highly recommended by one of our independent board members based on his strong entrepreneurial skills as well as management experience and knowledge of our industry. We look forward to working with him." About Verso Technologies Source: dBusinessNews Atlanta GTES INTRODUCES NEW LOCATION SERVICE APPLICATION Custer, WA – June 1, 2005 GTES announces the availability of its SHERLOC? location service application. GTES announces today that its new location service offering SHERLOC? is ready to begin pilot testing with select customers. SHERLOC? is a web-based service that tracks the location of specialized wireless devices produced by a number of manufacturers. The system makes use of the latest advances in mapping services and wireless location, and combines these technologies with an intelligent business-oriented application that is simple to manage and yet scales to meet the needs of customers from SMB to enterprise. The approach of being both device and wireless carrier agnostic is unique in the industry. “In the research that we did prior to launching this project we saw that most location services providers were dedicated to one type of device and wireless network “ stated GTES President, Russ Allen. “GTES is committed to supporting the most up to date wireless data services and location enabled products, so as to enable agents and resellers to tailor a solution specific to their client’s needs”. According to Frost and Sullivan Location Services will be a 4-5 billion dollar industry by the year 2010. GTES believes that technology has advanced to the point where location services have become a cost-effective and powerful tool suitable for large and small businesses, even when operating in dense urban environments where traditional location technologies have been unreliable. “We see the ability to use a small battery-powered pager-sized device will be an enormous boon to businesses who need to efficiently manage their mobile assets or track their high-value shipments”, said Gunnar Jonsson VP and General Manger. With over 30 years of experience at providing carrier-grade solutions to the wireless industry, GTES is able to offer our customers the support they will need to integrate location-based intelligence into their business. GTES is working with a several leading device and wireless partners to enable this new and exciting business opportunity. The latest generation of wireless location devices employ a technology that allow them to operate with internal antennas, and they don’t require a clear view of the sky to provide an accurate fix. “Thanks to the E911 mandate by the federal government in the US, improvements in GPS based location performance have been dramatic,” said Peter Carr, Vice President of engineering for the company. For more information on SHERLOC? please contact Brooks Marsden, VP of Sales, at 770-754-1666, email us at sales@sherlocgps.com or refer to our website at www.sherlocgps.com. About GTES Leveraging over thirty years of experience in the development and support of carrier grade wireless solutions, GTES has just launched SHERLOC™, a hosted wireless location service supporting multiple location and wireless linking technologies. Source: GTES Press Release TensorComm, Inc. Secures $7 Million in New Financing Led by Centennial Ventures May 31, 2005 DENVER, May 31 /PRNewswire/—TensorComm, (http://www.tensorcomm.com/) a wireless technology company that enables CDMA and W-CDMA carriers to increase network capacity and utilize their spectrum more efficiently, announced today that it has secured $7 million in financing led by new investor Centennial Ventures. All existing investors, including Access Venture Partners, Crawley Ventures, and iSherpa Capital, also participated in the financing.
The performance of ICT™ has been proven on a commercial network and its economic benefits have been validated by a major U.S. carrier to be in the billions of dollars. ICT™ is the only technology of its kind capable of canceling interference from all channels in a signal, including pilot, paging, synchronization, voice traffic channels and supplemental data channels. ICT™ is designed specifically to anticipate future extensions for handset and base station technologies. "Controlling operating and capital expenditures, while evolving their networks for projected growth, is a major challenge faced by carriers worldwide" said Steve Halstedt, managing director and co-founder of Centennial. "TensorComm has developed a breakthrough technology and the strategic partnerships to deploy it in wireless networks. We are impressed with the team and its relentless determination to succeed." Mr. Halstedt will join TensorComm's board of directors. This round of financing will be used to commercially deploy ICT™ enabled handsets, aggressively continue development of CDMA and W-CDMA products and focus research and development efforts on evolving technologies, such as WiMax and OFDM. In addition, it will support the expansion of its management team and further its business development efforts, primarily in Europe and Asia. About TensorComm About Centennial Ventures For more information, please visit the companies' web sites located at http://www.tensorcomm.com/ and http://www.centennial.com/. Source: TMCnet Mexico's Telecommunications Sector Grows 20.6% In 1Q MEXICO CITY—(Dow Jones)—Mexico's telecommunications sector grew 20.6% in the first quarter of this year, the Federal Telecommunications Commission, or Cofetel, said Wednesday. Cofetel, as the regulator is known, said tariff promotions by wireless and long-distance operators, as well as competition for increased share of the data transmission market, were among factors that contributed to the expansion, which it measures by an index of industry output. Telecommunications again outpaced the economy as a whole, which grew 2.4% from the first quarter of 2004. The commission said mobile telephony grew 35.2% from the year-ago period, with the number of users standing at 40.8 million at the end of March. Users of trunking services, which include push-to-talk, rose 22.7% to nearly 1 million, while paging continued to decline at a rapid pace as message services offered by wireless and trunking operators gained steam. Cofetel said it expects the recently completed auctions of 800 MHz and 1,900 MHz wireless spectrum to contribute to future growth, as operators expand the reach of wireless and trunking services. The number of fixed lines increased 9.8% to 18.5 million at the end of March, or 17.7 lines per 100 inhabitants. Operators other than dominant carrier Telefonos de Mexico SA (TMX) accounted for 7.7% of the lines added in the quarter. Incoming international call traffic grew 31.8%, and outgoing traffic 2.1%, while domestic long-distance was up 5.8% from the year-ago quarter, Cofetel said. Cofetel said subscription television services grew 9.5%. Cable TV subscribers rose 8.1% to 2.97 million, and satellite TV subscribers rose 2.4% to 1.08 million. Source: CellularNews.com Appointment of New Vice President and Controller RESTON, Va., May 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/—NII Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: NIHD) (the "Company") announced today that Daniel Freiman has been appointed to serve as Vice President and Controller by the Board of Directors. About NII Holdings, Inc.
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I have built two web pages about Mountain Communications in Mountain Home, Arkansas—a regional Paging company that the owner wants to sell. The first page has several photos and some links to background information on the company. Please click here for that page. If you like what you see and want to read all the financial details, please send me an e-mail and I will send you the unpublished address of the second page. This is an outstanding opportunity for someone to acquire a Paging company in a beautiful resort area of the Arkansas mountains where there are several large lakes and rivers. They tell me the fishing and boating are great in that area. By the way, this business also includes some wireless broadband, a trunking radio system, and a two-way radio dealership. Update: we are willing to negotiate. Please call Brad Dye at: 618-842-3892. |
Equipment Needed—Want to Buy the following
Please contact Brad Dye if you have any of this equipment to sell. Equipment located outside of the USA is OK. |
| READER'S COMMENTS |
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THIRD TERM SUPPORTER |  Building on its long success story in 1-way Paging, Advantra International has become the expert in designing and manufacturing the most advanced and lowest cost ReFLEX™ radio modems for 2-way data-communication. The company also focuses on offering total telemetry solutions. Advantra’s current product mix of own products includes the ReFLEX™ radio modules Barran, Karli and Wirlki and the new, highly successful and very low cost location device, the Kepler. Advantra thanks its solid reputation to its world-renowned development team, state-of-the-art manufacturing, excellent customer service and its proven track-record. Location Devices & ReFLEX Modems
Sales and Marketing Contacts
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Newsletter repair prices—starting at:
**Special pricing on cellular and pager refurbishment**
Ask for Special Newsletter Pricing. Please call: (800) 222-6075 ext. 306 for pricing.
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Please click here to e-mail Ayrewave. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Intelligent Paging & Mobile Data Products
Selective is a developer and manufacturer of highly innovative paging receiver/decoders and mobile data equipment including the PDT2000 Paging Data Terminal, THE MOST INTELLIGENT PAGING RECEIVER IN THE MARKET. The PDT2000 is a large display pager designed for desktop or in-vehicle mounting and is widely used by emergency services and in onsite paging systems for forklift dispatch, Information services etc. All of the following capabilities are standard features of the PDT2000 and of our other paging data products:
Our mobile data equipment includes a range of intelligent Mobile Data Terminals (MDTs) which may be interfaced to a variety of wireless networks including ReFlex, GPRS & CDMA cellular. Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) and GPS solutions, Dispatch & Messaging software. We offer mobile communications dealers and systems integrators a “fast to market” job dispatch and job management capability with the inbuilt job processing system which may be interfaced to a variety of CAD & JMS platforms. Specialised local area paging systems, paging interception and message reprocessing software, field force automation and mobile dispatch solutions. We also do customized product development and export worldwide.
I am an authorized Manufacturer Representative for Selective Communications. Please contact me directly for any additional information. | TGA Technologies 
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CUSTOM APPLICATIONS
Please call me so we can discuss your need or your idea. Or contact me by e-mail for additional information. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Remember that old word “Residuals”? The EE Group is actively seeking Dealers with sales/ service/installation capabilities to promote the latest wireless AVL, SCADA and data products from Telegauge Systems, Inc. This innovative program requires NO inventory and NO billing by your facility; you just sell it and sign up the end user to collect the commissions. Now the real reason to choose the EE Group and Telegauge over the host of others; we pay you permanent residual income every month on your airtime sales forever. Airtime commissions range up to 12% per month based on prior sales and you buy all equipment direct from the factory at 2-tiered wholesale prices as well for great margins. Telegauge builds fully 2-way overt and covert (hidden) GPS based Automatic Vehicle Location, SCADA, remote management, telemetry and data systems routed via cellular and satellite that are delivered to the end user via the Internet or direct to the desktop. Applications are both ‘canned’ and custom depending upon the customers needs. We even have full dispatch systems including credit card swipe and billing if needed. Finally, the prices on the product are guaranteed to be the LOWEST in the industry at under $600 retail for the equipment and from $6 to $30 on the monthly airtime with most customers in the $15 range. Note too that the price is the same for cellular OR satellite world wide coverage and no one else has this exclusive capability. Telegauge provides the product, software, airtime, billing and final information from a single source and you can be a BIG part of it. You stock NOTHING, just collect the checks. We are paid by the manufacturer to support YOU and unlike other factories; we never bid against you, restrict you or take your deal. We help you with demo equipment, brochures, information, sales assistance, web advertising and user name/passwords for the website so that you don’t even need to buy anything to start up fast. Contact us for a no-obligation CD of all the presentation and training material, price spreadsheets and information at: EEGroup@EEonTheWeb.com or for fast action call for a link to the Dealers Only page: 310-534-4456 and mention that you found out about it via Brad Dye’s Newsletter. You have nothing to lose and some great residual income to gain. Call or e-mail NOW. | High-speed simulcast Paging with protocols such as POCSAG and FLEX™ requires microsecond accuracy to synchronize the transmission of digital Paging signals.  Zetron's Simulcast System uses GPS timing information to ensure that the broadcasted transmissions between the nodes of the Simulcast System and associated transmitters are synchronized to very tight tolerances. This system is ideal for public or private Paging system operators that use multiple transmitters and wish to create new Paging systems or to build out existing systems into new regions. For more information about Zetron's High Speed Simulcast Paging System, the Model 600 and Model 620, go to: www.zetron.com/paging.
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Advertise Here Details about the various advertising plans can be read here. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
 
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Customers in Latin America may contact Brad Dye for price and delivery information. Español esta bien. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| MORE TECHNOLOGY NEWS |
Wireless LAN phone can survive hospital environment
08 Jun 2005
A US-based company has developed a 'rugged' wireless phone specifically for the UK wireless healthcare market that can survive being dropped several stories and having fluid spilled over it.
The NetLink h340 (right), manufactured by Colorado-based SpectraLink, is designed to work over low-power hospital wireless LANs, integrate into the main hospital switchboard, and also run specific applications provided by third parties.
For instance, software can be installed on the phone that will link into patient alarm systems, notifying healthcare professionals if the vital signs of any patients they are responsible for give cause for concern.
Gary Mead, international vice president of SpectraLink EMEA, told E-Health Insider: "You now have an increasing number of applications developed that can then be relayed straight to the Spectralink phone."
He added that the h340 phones had been designed in response to feedback from staff using phones already supplied across SpectraLink networks, who wanted something that was durable and also with backlighting; a specific request by staff working in dimly-lit conditions.
The h340 phones are not currently in operation in the UK yet. However, SpectraLink have other phone models and a wireless network installed in West Dorset Hospitals NHS Trust, who are slowly beginning to replace their paging system with the devices.
"In West Dorset we very simply provided them with a wireless phone that they can use. They figured out that they needed to get the phone in the hands of the nurses and doctors," said Mead.
According to the company, the networks and phone do not interfere with electrical equipment and have been tested in West Dorset for this. SpectraLink also say that they comply with all security protocols on the IEEE 802.11b standard.
As well as several installations in the US and Canada, where the NetLink h340 phones are currently in operation, SpectraLink are also active in Germany, Australia and Scandinavia.
Mead said: "Healthcare is our primary focus area right now. Our mission is really education - we are trying to inform people in terms of some of those new technology coming out."
Source: E-Health Insider
Tut Deploys MPEG-4 Headend
JUNE 02, 2005
LAKE OSWEGO, Ore.—Tut Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: TUTS - News), an industry pioneer in enabling the delivery of next-generation data and video services over broadband networks, today announced that it is deploying what it believes is the first MPEG-4 AVC digital TV headend in North America at Farmers Telephone Cooperative, Inc. in Kingstree, South Carolina.
Farmers Telephone Cooperative, Inc. (FTC) selected the Tut Systems Astria® Digital TV platform to serve as the core video processing system for its all-MPEG-4 AVC digital headend. Tut Systems is also providing comprehensive systems integration services to FTC, including design, assembly and pre-launch testing of its digital headend. FTC plans to commercially launch its Digital TV service in the fourth quarter of 2005.
FTC is the 3rd largest telephone cooperative in the United States, serving more than 60,000 consumers. The company currently offers local, long distance, paging, digital wireless, high-speed Internet services, business solutions and data networking.
"MPEG-4 AVC supports all of the services we believe are required to effectively compete in today's digital entertainment marketplace," said Robin Coker, Chief Marketing Officer for FTC. "Tut Systems' MPEG-4 AVC solution has shown a significant quality advantage over other solutions and the flexibility of its platform ensures that it will continue to improve with time and support advanced functions. The track record of success Tut Systems has had in helping more than 120 telephone companies roll-out Digital TV, along with its active involvement in both the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) standards bodies, made them the clear choice. The company's Astria platform provides us with a proven IPTV solution capable of delivering compelling, next generation digital entertainment services over DSL."
"Deploying the first MPEG-4 AVC digital headend demonstrates FTC's commitment to delivering a highly competitive digital entertainment package," said Craig Bender, VP of Marketing & Corporate Development for Tut Systems. "We believe this is the first of many all-MPEG-4 IPTV systems that will be deployed and is the starting point at which the IPTV industry rapidly moves towards a next-generation delivery platform and video compression standard."
Source: Light Reading
Wireless Carriers' Veto Over How Phones Work Hampers Innovation
June 2, 2005
By WALTER S. MOSSBERG
One reason the American high-tech industry has been able to create so many innovative products is that it was able to maintain a close, direct relationship with the individuals and companies that used its products. High-tech companies could quickly determine whether their software, hardware and online services were meeting user needs, and they could revise and improve these products rapidly and continuously.
This direct feedback loop between the high-tech industry and its user base became even better and faster in the past decade because of the Internet. The Net created both an electronic-commerce system where products could be directly purchased, and electronic forums where user comments and complaints could be better heard.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has called this Internet-aided feedback loop "frictionless" because it minimizes the distorting and masking effects of the middleman. It is one of the purest examples in history of the benefits of free-market capitalism.
But in recent years, as the high-tech industry has begun to offer wireless-phone products, this connection between technology producers and users has been blocked by huge, powerful middlemen. In the U.S., the wireless phone carriers have used their ownership of networks to sharply restrict what technologies can actually reach users.
I call these cellphone companies the new Soviet ministries, because they are reminiscent of the Communist bureaucracies in Russia that stood athwart the free market for decades. Like the real Soviet ministries, these technology middlemen too often believe they can decide better than the market what goods consumers need.
Of course, the cellphone carriers aren't Communists, and they aren't evil. They spent billions of dollars to acquire and build their networks. They have every right to want to manage these networks carefully and to earn a fair return on their investments on behalf of their shareholders.
Also, these companies often subsidize the cost of the phones consumers buy, so they feel they have a right to decide what products reach consumers.
However, I believe that, in the name of valid business goals, the U.S. carriers are exercising far too much control over the flow of new technologies into users' hands. In an ideal world, any tech company with a new cellphone, or with software to run on cellphones, should be able to sell it directly to users. These customers would then separately buy plans from the cellphone companies allowing those devices to work on the networks.
But that isn't how it works. In most cases, manufacturers must get the network operators' approval to sell hardware that runs on their networks, and carriers don't allow downloading of software onto phones unless they supply it themselves. I once saw a sign at the offices of a big cellphone carrier that said, "It isn't a phone until 'Harry' says it's a phone." But why should it be up to Harry (a real carrier employee whose name I have changed)? Why shouldn't the market decide whether a device is a good phone?
Verizon Wireless didn't agree to offer its customers the innovative Treo smart phone until thousands of its customers signed an online petition demanding it do so. I'm not saying there was a cause and effect, but clearly some Verizon customers wanted a Treo that worked on the Verizon network and couldn't buy one even though the Treo's maker was eager to supply a Verizon model.
When AT&T Wireless brought out the first U.S. cellphone using Microsoft's smart phone software, it hobbled the phone's user interface so that an icon for its online store would always be visible. And several carriers have crippled phones' Bluetooth wireless functionality so they can't be used as laptop modems or to synchronize with a PC.
More recently, unidentified cellphone carriers are reported to have balked at allowing customers to buy a new phone, jointly designed by Motorola and Apple Computer, that would let users synchronize and play back music from Apple's iTunes computer program. One possible reason: They want to sell music themselves.
At last month's D: All Things Digital technology conference, which I co-produce for The Wall Street Journal, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said he was wary of producing an Apple cellphone because, instead of selling it directly to the public, he would have to offer it through what he called the "four orifices" -- the four big U.S. cellphone carriers.
Cellphone carriers say one reason they keep tight control over what phones run on their networks is to protect the networks from harm and assure service quality for their subscribers.
But we've heard that before, and it wasn't true then. Until the 1970s, when the government forced open the market, the old AT&T phone monopoly refused to let consumers buy phones and plug them into their home phone lines. You could only rent phones, and they had to be models made by an AT&T subsidiary. AT&T said the restriction protected the quality of the wired phone network. But, lo and behold, when the ban was lifted the phone network was just fine, even though consumers were plugging in millions of less expensive, more innovative phones.
Just as consumers benefited from that change, I believe they would benefit if the new Soviet ministries loosened their grip.
Source: Personal Technology
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SATELLITE CONTROL FOR PAGING SYSTEMS $500.00 FLAT RATE TAPS—Texas Association of Paging Services is looking for partners on 152.480 MHz. Our association currently uses Echostar, formerly Spacecom, for distribution of our data and a large percentage of our members use the satellite to key their TXs. We have a CommOneSystems Gateway at the uplink in Chicago with a back-up running 24/7. Our paging coverage area on 152.480 MHz currently encompasses Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana, and Kansas. The TAPS paging coverage is available to members of our Network on 152.480 MHz for $.005 a transmitter (per capcode per month), broken down by state or regions of states and members receive a credit towards their bill for each transmitter which they provide to our coverage. Members are able to use the satellite for their own use If you are on 152.480 MHz or just need a satellite for keying your own TXs on your frequency we have the solution for you. TAPS will provide the gateways in Chicago, with Internet backbone and bandwidth on our satellite channel for $ 500.00 (for your system) a month. Contact Ted Gaetjen @ 1-800-460-7243 or tedasap@asapchoice.com | Want to help the newsletter? Become a SPONSOR Promote your company's image with one of the posters or better yet, one of the commercial advertising packages
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EXPERIENCED PAGING TECHNICIAN Knowledgeable w/ Glenayre 3000L and Motorola paging infrastructure. Full-time salary including health benefits. RCC in Allentown, PA. Send resume & salary requirements via e-mail to: nickb@cawinet.com |  Now Hiring Motorola 2-way Radio Outside Sales Person Charleston, SC 843-266-6241 |
| Wi-Fi, WiMax, and VoIP News |
VoIP Inc.'s Rodriguez Discusses State of Telephony
By Jennifer LeClaire
TechNewsWorld
05/25/05 5:00 AM PT
Enabling technologies and trends such as deregulation, open-source applications and cheaper more powerful processors have significantly lowered the barrier of entry to becoming a service provider. While these trends foster competition, they also encourage the entry of providers that may not be able to provide the level of service required for business class IP Telephony, said VoIP Inc.'s Albert Rodriguez.
Once criticized for unreliability, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is now making headlines for it flexibility. Once accused of being difficult to deploy, VoIP is today being touted for its ease of use an manageability. Indeed, VoIP technology has come a long way in just a few years. The "not quite ready for prime time" claims are falling by the wayside as the technology moves into the mainstream.
How mainstream is it? Research consultancy Atlantic-ACM predicts the retail VoIP market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 64 percent through 2009. The technology will penetrate 12.1 million households by the end of the decade, according to Jupiter Research. That represents about 10 percent of U.S. households. Moreover, enterprise adoption of VoIP spending was up 46 percent last year, according to Infonetics Research. The firm predicts 29 percent of large, 16 percent of medium and 4 percent of small enterprises in North American will have adopted VoIP by the end of 2005.
Security, one of the last remaining challenges, is now being addressed by industry vendors and researchers that have banded together to form the VoIP Security Alliance. The alliance is entrenched in defining security requirements for Internet telephony networks. Analysts say the outcome could be a significant boon for the industry.
TechNewsWorld caught up with Albert Rodriguez, vice president of VoIP Inc., a global service provider of VoIP solutions for residential and business customers. Rodriguez discussed industry trends and challenges—and where VoIP is headed.
TechNewsWorld: VoIP is certainly gaining momentum. What are the most encouraging signs that this technology is set to explode?
Albert Rodriguez: The fact that we see Vonage and AT&T (NYSE: T) advertising on national television is certainly indicative of the mainstreaming of VoIP. It's amazing that you can simply walk into your neighborhood big box electronics retailer and have your choice of VoIP providers. What is not as obvious—particularly to the layman—is the paradigm shift among enterprises. In the most recent quarter, IP PBX shipments actually outnumbered legacy PBX shipments for the first time. Anecdotally, I recently met with several enterprise CTOs and telecom mangers and was astounded that very few of them actually questioned whether VoIP worked; their primary focus was how VoIP could work for them.
TechNewsWorld: What challenges remain to be tackled?
Rodriguez: Aside from the obvious e911 concerns, most of the technical issues related to basic functionality have been addressed. At this point, VoIP providers are focused on adding additional functionality to their hardware and service offerings to stimulate consumer adoption. The true challenges lie in increasing customer awareness and comfort level with enabling technologies, and promoting a favorable regulatory environment.
TechNewsWorld: What steps is the industry taking to overcome those challenges?
Rodriguez: Avaya (NYSE: AV) , Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) , Vonage and AT&T are spending a fortune advertising on national television and making great strides in educating the general public. Smaller equipment and service providers are also meeting the challenge by increasing advertising and marketing budgets in trade magazines, shows, and other industry-focused media. Just a glance at how VoIP-related publications have swollen from advertising clearly indicate the marketing commitment the industry has made.
TechNewsWorld: What are the biggest myths about VoIP?
Rodriguez: That it is inherently not as reliable or does not meet the quality of legacy TDM service. What is not understood by the general public is that most long distance telephone calls today already traverse a VoIP network at some point on the carrier's backbone. The key to assuring quality and availability lies not in VoIP, but the management of the underlying IP network.
TechNewsWorld: How are deregulation issues impacting the VoIP industry?
Rodriguez: The FCC has time and again ruled in favor of protecting the deregulated status of VoIP to ensure that the technology is properly incubated and continues to deliver on the mandate to foster competition in the telecommunications industry. As a disruptive technology, VoIP has allowed a new breed of telephone company to emerge that delivers true competition with enhanced functionality and downward price pressure. While some sort of regulation and/or classification is imminent, the current environment points towards a light-handed approach that will not impede upon the growth of VoIP. In fact, many in the industry are calling for some regulatory activity to ease the concerns of the investment community.
TechNewsWorld: You mentioned e911. What about 911 issues? The FCC is pushing for VoIP providers to provide 911 support. What challenges does that present to the industry?
Rodriguez: It is important to view 911 as an opportunity and not an issue. The convergence of voice and data on a single network provided almost limitless possibilities to enhance emergency services. There are hospitals today using wireless IP (Wi-Fi) phones that allow teams sharing a single channel to broadcast messages without dialing an extension. Nurses broadcast their requests for help to move patients without the need to recall extensions or rely on paging systems. Efficiency increases and patients benefit from improved bedside attention. The enhanced emergency system of the future will make available a variety of devices allowing us to alert relatives or neighbors with an e-mail, telephone call or text message.
TechNewsWorld: On a scale of 1 to 10, how reliable is VoIP connectivity today? And how soon before those connections are 99.99999 percent reliable?
Rodriguez: In today's world, data communications can be as important, and in some cases more important than voice communications—think eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY)—therefore, IP networks can be engineered with a high degree of redundancy and fault tolerance. Keep in mind that the Internet was originally developed by the Defense Department to provide a distributed network with limited single points of failure. As VoIP is as reliable as the underlying IP network, it can be engineered to provide the degree of availability required by the specific application.
TechNewsWorld: Some analysts have said that the VoIP boom is beginning to strain some ISPs, which could cause a degradation in network performance. What steps is the industry taking to address this issue?
Rodriguez: During the telecom boom of the '90s, service provider networks were built out extensively and are generally running below capacity at the moment. While VoIP is certainly one of the "killer apps" that will stimulate Internet consumption, the relatively small bandwidth requirements should have little impact on these networks. Multi-media applications such as videoconferencing do pose a threat to network performance, however given advances in networking technologies such as DWDM (Dense Wave Division Multiplexing) that utilize existing physical infrastructure to deliver significantly higher bandwidth, the network service providers should be able to keep pace with growing demand.
TechNewsWorld: What should CEOs look for in a VoIP service provider?
Rodriguez: Enabling technologies and trends such as deregulation, open-source applications and cheaper more powerful processors have significantly lowered the barrier of entry to becoming a service provider. While these trends foster competition, they also encourage the entry of providers that may not be able to provide the level of service required for business class IP Telephony. With this in mind, it is critical for the decision maker to learn as much as possible about the potential provider. Ask for references from existing customers, look for industry recognition and awards, ask about underlying carriers, and most importantly—make sure you are able to test the service extensively before committing to an individual provider.
TechNewsWorld: What should CEOs look for in VoIP equipment?
Rodriguez: Is the system SIP or H323-based, or does it use a proprietary protocol? Will it support generic IP phones or does it require proprietary handsets? How does it support remote survivability?
TechNewsWorld: There's talk about Wi-Fi headsets and VoIP as a combo that could conceivably replace cordless phones in homes and small businesses. How far are we from that picture?
Rodriguez: Equipment vendors are approaching this with a two-phased approach. Several leading phone vendors are unveiling standard 5.8 GHz cordless handsets with integrated VoIP adapters that work with multiple handsets throughout the home. Very soon, we will see dual-mode GSM cellular and VoWLAN dual mode devices and a variety of innovative and economical services accompanying these products.
TechNewsWorld: What's it going to take to push VoIP into the mainstream?
Rodriguez: It already is in the mainstream—you can pick up a device at your local big box electronics or office supply retailer. On the business side, VoIP port shipments are already outpacing legacy PBX and Key System shipments.
TechNewsWorld: Do you see any other issues coming down the pike that are encouraging or discouraging for VoIP?
Rodriguez: As the number of subscribers increases, it will be incumbent upon the industry to proactively respond to legitimate policy concerns about challenges like 911 emergency services. In the early years of cellular adoption, that segment wrestled with the need to better triangulate user locations in the event of an emergency. Since we know that mobility introduces heightened technical complexity, the VoIP sector will evolve similarly.
Improvements will arrive through an evolutionary—not revolutionary—process. What is particularly encouraging, is the adoption trend overall. Some projections place the number of U.S. residential VoIP subscribers by the end of this year to be 1.6 million. While this is a relatively small number compared to the total number of residential voice customers, it becomes quite significant when we realize there were only 600,000 such subscribers at the end of 2004. The breadth of equipment options, enhanced feature benefits, inherent network efficiencies and promotional efforts make VoIP an inevitability.
Source: TechNewsWorld
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There was a good joke going around at the AAPC convention in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina last week. Here it is:
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| THE WIRELESS MESSAGING AND PAGING INFORMATION RESOURCE | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Edward “Ted” McNaught, Jr. is the President and CEO of NEP, LLC d/b/a Northeast Paging in Maine and UCOM Paging in NH, MA, CT, VT, & RI. He is also the President and CEO of API, a wholly owned subsidiary of NEP. Mr. McNaught began working in the Paging industry in 1986 for the former Summit Communications, Inc. located in Portland, Maine. NEP hired Mr. McNaught in 1993 to expand and grow the business. Since then, under his leadership, the company has grown from a 6-transmitter system serving 900 subscribers to a 154-transmitter system with over 65,000 subscribers. Mr. McNaught has also served as an expert witness in CRMS litigation. He has a BA in Sociology and a minor in Business Administration concentration in finance from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.
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TensorComm has developed a patented Interference Cancellation Technology (ICT™) that delivers a cost-effective, easily deployable CDMA and W-CDMA component that fits in a mobile handset without requiring form factor changes or radio frequency (RF) redesign. Providing immediate improvements in network economics, ICT™ gives wireless carriers the flexibility to improve network capacity, coverage and service quality while enhancing Internet services for high-end data users. In 2004, wireless carriers spent $39 billion on infrastructure equipment to increase capacity and for network build out.
"Our first round of funding was based on the promise of proving our technology solution and its economic benefits," said John Thomas, CEO and founder of TensorComm. "We have now proved the technology and its benefits on commercial networks and will use this funding to accelerate the deployment of ICT technology in CDMA and WCDMA networks worldwide."
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