| FRIDAY - FEBRUARY 4, 2005 - ISSUE NO. 150 | ||||
Dear friends of Wireless Messaging and Paging, I don't know if you noticed the new ad from Daniels Electronics? I mentioned this company to a wireless dealer in North Carolina the other day, who was looking for a good paging transmitter, and I believe they are in the process of signing up to represent Daniels. This company makes a very professional radio—in many different models. I will be going out to visit them in a couple of weeks and will try to include a more detailed report on their products with some photos of the factory.
Well, there is a lot of news this week. The AAPC has a new executive director—Linda Hoover. [Congratulations Linda, and welcome.] There is a nice article about S3 and their vehicle tracking service using ReFLEX (and other means) with GPS. Looks like SBC really wants to Buy AT&T for $16 billion bucks, and Alan Carle at UCOM needs a good paging field engineer. Are you keeping up with WiMax? There are two very interesting articles, near the end of the newsletter, about this exciting new technology that is going to blow wireless data wide open. See it all below. |
Promoting Wireless Messaging, Telemetry, and Paging.
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 Eastern 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. 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.) | |||
| WIRELESS NEWS | |||||
AAPC Announces New Executive Director February 1, 2005 On behalf of the AAPC Board of Directors, I am extremely pleased to announce that, effective today, AAPC has hired Linda M. Hoover as its Executive Director to succeed David Ewald and Ewald Consulting, Inc. as managers of the association. As a result of this change, AAPC’s headquarters has been relocated to Wilmington, NC. AAPC wishes to publicly thank David and his staff for their numerous and invaluable contributions to the founding and growth of AAPC, and gratefully acknowledges their hard work and dedication in nurturing AAPC to its present stage of development. Because of this development, the Board has decided that AAPC’s future needs can best be met through hiring a manager on essentially a full-time basis, and AAPC is extremely fortunate that Linda is available and has agreed to fulfill this crucial role. David and his organization have pledged to make the transition to the new management as smooth and seamless as possible, and AAPC wishes them every success for the future. Many of you already know Linda as the person behind the scenes at the annual SCA meeting in Myrtle Beach, SC. Linda, with the help of the SCA Board of Directors, has coordinated the annual event for the past four years. In this capacity, she was responsible for hotel selection, soliciting vendors, promoting the conference, coordinating registration, speaker details and the golf tournament, as well as handling the onsite logistics. AAPC’s assumption of responsibility for the Myrtle Beach meeting this year provided an ideal opportunity to establish AAPC’s own dedicated staff to handle its growing functions on behalf of the paging industry; and Linda’s prior experience with the SCA meeting and the paging industry made her a uniquely qualified candidate for the position. Linda graduated summa cum laude from Virginia Tech with a B.S. degree in psychology and a minor in human services. She also earned an M.A. in education, concentrating in higher education administration from Virginia Tech. During her five-year tenure working as an assistant dean of students at Winthrop University and at the University of Oregon, she provided a variety of student services and coordinated major campus-wide initiatives, such as new-student orientation, awareness weeks, and on-campus multi-day conferences. Linda has been employed at Your Conference Connection (YCC), a small conference planning and association management firm for the past four years. In her management role at YCC, Linda was responsible for every aspect of conference planning for several association and corporate clients. She has experience in all facets of conference management, including speaker coordination, project timelines, conference budgets, registration management, exhibition marketing, special event coordination, gift procurement, web site content, site selection, hotel contract negotiations, and publication development for conferences ranging from 100 to 1,200 participants and from 1-day to 6-days of activities. In addition, to her conference planning responsibilities, Linda has coordinated the activities of several associations. Linda has assured the AAPC Board that she is energetic, reliable, organized, detail-oriented, and passionate about providing clients with the absolute best customer service and an exceptional level of “behind the scenes” support. We welcome Linda to AAPC! Please note the new contact information for AAPC and be sure to send any payments to this new address:
In addition to this exciting change, please mark your calendars now to attend the annual Wireless Forum, June 1–3, at the Marriott Resort at Grande Dunes in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. This is an excellent opportunity for wireless carriers big and small, suppliers, and network providers to network and learn from one another while enjoying the amenities Myrtle Beach has to offer. We are looking forward to seeing you there.
To Protect and Intrude By Ariana Eunjung Cha SAN DIEGO—John Phillips peered down at the computer screen. Something didn't look quite right. It was 9:11 a.m. on the West Coast, or just past noon in the East, and all the bus drivers were supposed to be on break. The map of the District of Columbia showed hundreds of red blips representing vehicles that had been parked for more than an hour. But then there was one black dot, a lone bus, moving rapidly in the northwestern quadrant of the city. Could the D.C. Public Schools bus have been stolen—or worse—hijacked with children still on board? Phillips quickly clicked on the icon representing the vehicle and relaxed at what he saw. The bus was in front of the Kennedy Center. It was on a field trip. From inside a dimly lit room behind two-foot-thick concrete walls, a steel door and jail gate, Phillips and eight other staffers in this 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week command center are like all-seeing gods, watching over thousands of people across the continent. Phillips works for Satellite Security Systems Inc., or S3, one of a growing number of private companies providing satellite tracking services to anyone willing to pay. Once a fabulously expensive tool for the military, the technology is becoming part of everyday life, spawning dozens of new uses. S3's clients include school districts such as the District and Fairfax County, state and federal government agencies, police departments and companies. But there are plenty of individual customers, too—people interested in keeping tabs on new teenage drivers, Alzheimer's patients, philandering spouses. The position of vehicles or people is determined by gear they carry that includes Global Positioning System, or GPS, technology, which uses a network of satellites orbiting the Earth to pinpoint the location of things on the ground. The information is then beamed to S3's computers. On a recent weekday, the screens were flashing through maps almost too quickly for the human eye to process. A computer technician was making his way along Sully Avenue in Centreville. Milk delivery trucks were swarming all over Houston, making their morning drop-offs. Tank cars of oil were traversing the Midwest. S3 tracks so many vehicles that federal homeland security officials rely on it to make sure none venture near sensitive areas. One map showed that all was quiet near an anonymous red-marked mass outside Denver. Phillips said the tracking systems have helped increase security as well as efficiency for those who use them. "We look for anything out of the normal and can get a sense of the big picture of how things are moving around in a particular area in a way that couldn't be done before," said Phillips, a 33-year-old former Drug Enforcement Administration officer turned entrepreneur who is now chief executive of S3. S3 is only one company making use of GPS. In the past year or so, prompted in part by a federal mandate requiring most cell phones to be GPS-enabled by the end of 2005 for enhanced 911 service, the price of the technology and other location-based gadgets dropped low enough to make them affordable for mass consumption. Nextel Communications Inc., for example, offers its subscribers phone-tracking ability for as little as a $15 activation fee, and Sprint Corp. is expected to roll out a similar offering this year. A company called Wherify Wireless Inc. plans to sell an inexpensive GPS tracker at Wal-Mart stores starting this spring. Companies such as United Parcel Service Inc. and SuperShuttle International Inc. are requiring workers to keep a GPS system on them throughout the day. Police in several major cities are tagging cars of suspects in criminal investigations with GPS units. The growing use of location-based technology is prompting a backlash from those who worry about its potential for invading people's privacy. The Teamsters and other unions, for instance, have fought for new language in their contracts that limits the use of data collected by the devices in order to discipline workers. Snowplow operators in Boston protested when the state announced it would ask them to carry GPS-enabled cell phones. Laws and legal precedent are often unclear about when and how GPS devices can be used. A federal judge in New York recently ruled that police have a right to place tracking devices on vehicles without a warrant because the drivers should have no expectation of privacy on public roads. But on Jan. 1, California became the first state to restrict car rental companies' use of GPS to track customers. The new law was adopted after at least one company fined customers $3,000 because their GPS system indicated the cars had crossed the state line into Nevada -- a violation of the rental agreement. GPS is a navigation system operated by the U.S. Department of Defense. It relies on satellites that continuously broadcast their position and the time and date, creating a sort of grid of the planet. GPS receivers on the ground—be they attached to vehicles or cell phones or other gadgets—collect signals from the satellites and use that information to calculate their own whereabouts. Superimposing these coordinates on maps pinpoints street addresses and landmarks nearby. By taking readings at different times, the system can also calculate speed and direction. So many people and vehicles are now being tracked by GPS that the White House announced in December that President Bush had ordered plans for shutting down the GPS satellites in the event of a national crisis to prevent terrorists and other enemies of the country from using them. The D.C. public school system is in the midst of implementing one of the largest tracking systems, a five-year, $6 million endeavor. Over the past few months, some 650 buses have been equipped with GPS locators. By this fall, the 4,000 special-needs children who ride those buses will be issued high-tech ID cards that will log when they get on and off the bus. Parents will be given secret codes that will enable them to use the Internet to track their children. Parents of D.C. public school students have complained for years about problems with buses that were running late or just didn't show up, prompting a federal court to appoint an independent transportation administrator. Some parents expressed mixed feelings about the new program. "I like that the system lets you watch them, because you never know what's going on on the bus, and I want to be sure my kids are safe," said Deneen Pryor, mother of three children, ages 5, 7 and 10, who ride D.C. Public School buses. But, she added, "I worry about criminals getting the information. I don't want anybody watching them that's not supposed to be watching them." Alan Massey is one of the ones who is supposed to be watching. The 27-year-old former U.S. Army sergeant oversees S3's monitoring center, where 17 video screens track some 10,000 vehicles and people. By the end of this year, that number is set to at least double. Some screens display maps of areas where the clients are located. Others scroll through text describing key events, based on data from the satellites and other sensors installed on the buses to monitor whether the engine is on and other conditions. The computers note that at 9:02 a.m. Eastern time, for instance, a D.C. school bus closed its doors at the 1300 block of Allison Street, and at 9:03 a.m. the ignition of another one turned on somewhere on New York Avenue. At 9:03 a.m., a Fairfax County driver had just turned off his engine and parked at the 7500 block of Jackson Street in Falls Church and another was on Lee Jackson Highway going 45 mph. Massey said that most of the monitoring is automated and that the S3 staff is there mostly there to help out in emergencies. He said he takes a detached, unemotional view toward the tracking and respects people's right to privacy. "We only look at them when we have to. It's not like we're spying on them." Most clients have ready access to 45 days' to a year's worth of tracking data and need to make a special request to see the archives of older stuff. The company's decision to indefinitely maintain the data it collects occasionally figures into criminal investigations. In 2004, S3 says, information collected from its GPS systems led to 70 arrests. Still, Phillips said he worries that the system, like any new technology, can be abused. In one case, S3 sold its technology to a pilot in the New York-New Jersey area who hid the tracking device on the car of a female acquaintance. He called the monitoring center constantly to get a fix on the GPS device's position so, unbeknownst to the company, he could follow her around in a low-flying plane. After she became suspicious and called local law enforcement officials, they found the GPS device and S3 cooperated with authorities to gather evidence for the stalker's arrest. The alerts generated by S3 as it has tracked school vehicles so far have been minor, and more often than not they are false alarms, such as when someone goes outside the boundaries of the county for a field trip and forgets to inform the transportation dispatchers. Fairfax County Public Schools was among S3's first customers. It has used GPS to monitor 57 technician and security cars for the past three years. Maribeth Luftglass, assistant superintendent for information technology, said that at first the employees in the cars being tracked were nervous. Dave Fry, 47, a senior telephone technician for the school system, for instance, said he worried that there would be "Big Brother watching." But that changed over the years. "When first put it on, it was, 'Hey what's going on? How are they going to use it?' But now I don't even realize it's there," Fry said. "They call and say, 'You're at such and such site. Can you get over here?' And that's it." D.C. Public Schools is taking a more aggressive approach to monitoring. The information it receives on each bus and child is detailed: a driver's route throughout the day, when the bus stops, when the doors open and close, the speed, and when the ignition is turned on or off. The system also features a database that will hold information on all the children—names, addresses, contact information, disabilities, allergies and when their school day begins and ends. David Gilmore, the court-appointed transportation administrator for D.C. Public Schools, proposed hiring S3 in part to keep tabs on a system that had been expensive to operate and one in which drivers were unaccountable for much of their day. When he announced the implementation of the new systems to drivers last year, he told them, "Life as you know it is over." "As uncomfortable as this might make them, they are now being watched by satellite every minute of their workday, like it or not," Gilmore said in an interview. He said he has already seen improvement. Reports of bus drivers using the vehicles to make detours to banks or for long lunches are diminishing, and the system is receiving compliments rather than complaints from parents who say their kids are finally being picked up on time. Source: The Washington Post SmartLink Radio Networks Announces $15M in Series B Financing Led by Key Venture Partners Includes Continued Investment from General Catalyst Partners and Highland Capital Partners; Funds Continued Expansion of Interoperable Radio Network Solution Set BILLERICA, Mass.,—January 31, 2005—SmartLink Radio Networks Inc., a supplier of two-way radio networking and interoperability solutions, today announced the closing of a Series B financing led by Waltham, MA-based Key Venture Partners with participation from existing investors General Catalyst Partners and Highland Capital Partners. Proceeds from the new funding will be used to continue expansion of SmartLink's sales and marketing reach and product development initiatives. The Company will also invest in the development of an expanded customer service infrastructure to support anticipated growth. The annual market for two-way radio networking and interoperability solutions for first responders, critical infrastructure and industrial use is over $4.5 billion1 today and is expected to grow significantly over the next few years. In 2005 and 2006 in public safety alone, more than $6.7 billion in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding has been allocated for use by state and local agencies across the United States2. Radio interoperability and networking have been identified as high priority requirements to be addressed by the DHS funding. SmartLink's software-defined network breaks down the interoperability barriers created by different radio frequencies and protocols. The result is a seamless and flexible networked radio environment that not only delivers interoperability, but lays the groundwork for customers to easily adapt and expand to future technologies. "As we continue to deploy and refine the SmartLink solution, it is very clear that we are aligned with a very large market opportunity," said Tom Lambalot, president and CEO, SmartLink. "Two-way radio users need to know they can adapt to the future without abandoning the past. We are bringing the best of traditional RF and new IP technologies together, to create an inherently flexible solution that frees customers from depending on single source providers." Lambalot continued, "With this new funding, we are geared to take the next step in the execution of our product development roadmap. We'll expand our market reach and build the infrastructure required to support a growing customer base." "SmartLink understands the requirements driving purchase decisions in the radio communications and networking market today," said Ted Mocarski, Managing Director of Key Venture Partners. "They are building a cost-effective path to interoperability. Their multi-vendor 'system of systems' solution protects a customer's existing investment and creates a network that can seamlessly embrace new technologies. The attractiveness of this approach makes SmartLink well-positioned to capitalize on the market opportunity." About SmartLink Radio Networks Inc. About Key Venture Partners About General Catalyst Partners About Highland Capital Partners
Source: SmartLink Press Release Vermont Ruling Favors Broadcaster After OET-65 Rules Were 'Attacked Head On,' Victory in Tower Dispute Is Seen as Significant January 19, 2005 by Randy J. Stine BURLINGTON, Vt. A dispute pitting neighbors of a radio station tower against a local broadcaster has been resolved. A state environmental board ruled that new scientific evidence is not strong enough to enact more stringent local guidelines governing radio frequency radiation exposure. Observers say the tower siting dispute was unique in that homeowners, fearing possible adverse health effects from the electromagnetic radiation of the station's antenna, constructed an environmental legal argument against the transmitter and tower. Broadcasters and some industry groups who followed the case, which concerned a tower built in 1987, worried about the long-term impact a negative decision could have on an industry they feel is already coping with harsh tower siting guidelines from communities. The Vermont Environmental Board ruled in late October that there was not enough evidence to determine that RFR exposure was impacting the health of the station's neighbors. "While the evidence in this case raises several concerns about the possible adverse health effects associated with RFR, the Board is persuaded by a preponderance of the evidence that RFR from WIZN(FM) will cause no adverse effect," stated members in the report. The homeowners' group and its attorney claimed WIZN presented undue air pollution caused by the RF, said Gerry Tarrant, the attorney representing the transmitter opponents. Air pollution is one of the 10 major developmental categories under Act 250 in Vermont that the environmental board regulates, Tarrant said. "We contend current (FCC) RF exposure standards are outdated and do not take into account low levels of radio frequency radiation absorbed by the body over time," Tarrant said. The antenna and tower were erected in 1987 on Pease Mountain. The dispute dates to 1995 when residents near Charlotte, Vt., claimed the facility failed to meet Vermont's development control laws, known as Act 250. The group then attempted to have the board force the broadcaster to move. A subsequent board decision found that, when the tower was constructed, it had been unclear whether the site required a state land-use permit. An Act 250 permit eventually was granted in 1999. Opponents appealed it. Lawsuits by the homeowners' group ensued, with as many as six filed before various regulatory bodies at one time, including one that claimed the broadcaster's signal interfered with home appliances. The environmental board held a series of open meetings in April of 2004 to discuss revoking the broadcaster's permit, and reached a decision in October. "This was a significant win for broadcasters. I know of no other case where the FCC's OET-65 rules, which set the maximum permissible exposure to radio frequency radiation, were attacked head on," said Fred Hopengarten of WIZN's legal team. "Residents were asking the Environmental Board to set levels dramatically lower. "We proved that the science doesn't change. In fact, the FCC is always reviewing and updating OET-65," Hopengarten said. WIZN is licensed to Vergennes, Vt., and operates at 50 kW. The ongoing litigation eventually caused the radio station's owners to consider moving the tower to an alternative location, Hopengarten said, though none of the options worked out. The station, owned by Burlington Broadcasters Inc., spent close to $1 million in defense expenses, said Jay Williams, chief operating officer. "We are local and committed broadcasters who faced a lot of trumped up and overblown charges. We felt it would have been disastrous for us and the industry to have lost this case," Williams said. The board concluded that there is no persuasive evidence that RFR can cause cancer or any other adverse non-thermal health problem, Williams said. "The small levels of RFR the general public can get from our tower is less than what our opponents got from holding their cell phones to their ears during the proceedings," Williams said. Despite what he termed the "landmark status" of the case, Williams said neither the National Association of Broadcasters nor the Vermont Association of Broadcasters offered much legal or financial support "This is an industry problem and is not unique to Charlotte," Williams said. He acknowledged that NAB provided names of RF consultants but said the association didn't provide more. An NAB spokesman said the association can provide legal or engineering assistance to members, but not financial aid. Vermont Association of Broadcasters Executive Director Alan Noyes said, "Burlington Broadcasters did contact us originally in regards to this issue," but that the organization elected not to become involved. "It was our policy and still is our policy not to become involved in lawsuits between two parties." Tarrant said the homeowners' group plans no appeal. "The group feels we presented the board with the best information we had and still lost. The judicial process is about the process, not outcomes." Source: Radio World Online | |||||
| READER'S COMMENTS | |||||
Vytek Page Pro exciters We need a couple of the now-obsolete UHF Sonik/ Vytek Page Pro series of 2-watt exciters to replace some units in service, do you have any contacts that might have some on the shelf? New or used, preferably working but we can fix them so that is a last-resort option as well. Best regards, Robert L. (Bob) Burchett Good opportunity repeated from last week: 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 data is live on two different satellites at all times in case of a failure of one of them and covers the North American Continent. 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, for their own frequencies, by paying only for the data which they transmit, we track the data on a per bit basis and what ever percentage of the total data sent by each user is billed back to them as a percentage of the total satellite bill, (ex: if 6% of the data is the members', the member is billed for 6% of the cost of the sat plus 10% for overhead.) 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 to $1,500.00 a month (depending on the amount of traffic). Contact Ted Gaetjen @ 1-800-460-7243 or tedasap@asapchoice.com | |||||
| THE PAYMENT GUARDIAN |
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Wireless Overview System Operation Payment Guardian requires absolutely no customer interaction and integrated seamlessly into the vehicles electrical system and is not visible to the customer, decreasing the possibility of tampering. Unlike other similar products on the market, Payment Guardian™ requires no keypads or input devices, eliminating the hassle of having to generate codes and giving those codes to the customer each and every payment cycle. With Payment Guardian?, lenders no longer have to rely on customers to enter codes into a keypad correctly. With Payment Guardian, only non paying customers require use of the system. Once the system has been activated in the customer’s vehicle—each time the ignition is turned to the OFF position, Payment Guardian reminds the customer that payment has not yet been received or insurance is not current and provides them with specific instructions to contact the leinholder immediately. If the reminder is ignored, you can simply activate Payment Guardian’s Starter Interrupt feature allowing no one to start the vehicle until the system is reset. Payment Guardian’s system control center has been designed to meet the different need of individual lenders and dealers that want a total customized solution to manage their systems, providing you with 3 different ways to use the systems features. This enables you to instantly activate system features, schedule activations to occur at a preset time or completely automate the systems features, allow you to just manage your systems with just a click of the mouse. System Features Audible Voice Reminder Starter Interrupt Emergency Override Vehicle Finder Door Unlock
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SECOND 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. 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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Paging Field Engineer Needed Paging Field Engineer Needed in Boston Area for growing Paging Company. Must be experienced with maintenance & installation of paging system infrastructure; transmitters, antenna, terminals, servers, routers & interconnecting circuits. Must be willing to provide excellent customer service, be on call and work independently for extended periods of time. Send resume in confidence to acarle@ucom.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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
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Prism Message Gateway Systems Your Choice of Options
Popular Choice for Domestic and International
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Go ahead . . . be choosy . . . choose Prism Systems International
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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 etc. All of the following capabilities are standard features of the PDT2000 and of our other paging data receivers:
Our mobile data equipment includes a range of intelligent Mobile Data Terminals (MDTs) which may be interfaced to a variety of wireless networks including 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 do custom 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. | Signal Pro Test Equipment For Sale
The unit is in excellent condition. It does not have a built-in synthesized receiver. It comes with a specially modified (constant volume output at earphone) RS Pro-2037 200-channel, triple conversion scanner with hyperscan. Owner guarantees the units to work perfectly. Comes with the soft case, cords, scanner, software, and mag-mount GPS antenna if you don't want to use the built-in 10MHz reference. It uses AC, 12V ext. DC, or the built-in rechargeable battery (which could probably use a replacement since is has started to not hold a very good charge). This equipment is used for monitoring, optimizing, and capturing paging data which includes full messages, capcodes, times, frame information, and other technical data. Please contact the owner, Carlo Savaglio directly. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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 AAPC Mission Statement To represent paging carriers throughout the United States to ensure the success of our industry by:
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| 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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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 email (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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| NEWS |
BlackBerry eases the burden of sending secure messages 02/02/05 By William Jackson Research in Motion Ltd. of Waterloo, Ontario, has integrated a secure messaging server with its BlackBerry Enterprise Server to simplify the task of sending sensitive messages from its handheld devices. By passing secured messages through to the Entelligence Messaging Server from Entrust Inc. of Addison, Texas, users of BlackBerry handhelds no longer have to manage the digital certificates on their own. “This is something that was driven by our government customers,” said Leah MacMillan, Entrust vice president of products and solutions. The BlackBerry paging and messaging devices are widely used in government, where there is high demand for securing sensitive traffic. Entrust has provided digital certificates for secure BlackBerry traffic for several years. The handheld devices encrypt messages, but end users must manage the digital certificates for the recipients. The messaging server now can provide centralized certificate management and policy enforcement. It also determines the format of the outgoing e-mail, depending on whether the recipient has a Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension or a Web e-mail account. Off-loading these chores simplifies the job of sending secure messages, especially to multiple recipients or to recipients outside the sender’s domain. RIM used Entrust application programming interfaces to modify its BlackBerry Enterprise Server to direct messages being sent with certificates to the messaging server. Traffic routed to the messaging server can be decrypted at that point for scanning if necessary. It is re-encrypted before being sent on to the recipient. Source: Government Computer News SBC to Buy AT&T for $16 Billion Mon Jan 31, 2005 12:12 PM ET By Justin Hyde WASHINGTON (Reuters) - SBC Communications Inc. (SBC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Monday said it would buy AT&T Corp. (T.N: Quote, Profile, Research) for about $16 billion, making SBC the largest U.S. telecommunications company and ending AT&T's independence after suffering a two-decade decline after losing its U.S. monopoly. The purchase, which will face antitrust hurdles, will make SBC the largest U.S. provider of landline and wireless communications service to homes and businesses with about $90 billion in annual revenues. "We've seized a great opportunity and asset in AT&T," SBC Chairman Ed Whitacre told a conference call with analysts. "We obtained these assets for a fair price that will pay for itself in a very short period of time." SBC's acquisition of the No. 1 long-distance carrier includes $14.7 billion in SBC stock and a special cash dividend of roughly $1.04 billion to be paid by AT&T to its shareholders when the deal closes. SBC will issue 0.78 of a share for each AT&T share, valuing AT&T at $18.41 a share. AT&T will then pay a special dividend of $1.30 a share. Combined, the deal would value AT&T at $19.71 a share -- equal to its closing stock price on Friday. Shares of AT&T had risen on Friday on media reports of a deal with SBC, after closing on Thursday at $18.46. Analysts have criticized the $16 billion purchase price for the deal, which is expected to close by the first half of 2006, as too much for a company with shrinking revenues and questionable growth prospects. AT&T, whose history dates back 130 years to the invention of the telephone, has been slammed by increasing competition from SBC and other dominant local carriers in the long-distance market. AT&T's market value and revenues peaked in 1999. "AT&T's business doesn't seem that accretive or value added," said Greg Gorbatenko, an analyst with Marquis Investment Research. AT&T last July said it would pull back from the residential market, stung by government regulation and a changing marketplace as consumers turn increasingly to wireless services. Banc of America analyst David Barden said SBC will have to issue about 625 million new shares under the deal, diluting its current equity by about 19 percent. SBC, based on its Friday closing share price, was valued at $78 billion. Shares of SBC rose 31 cents to $23.93 in late morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange, while shares of AT&T fell 70 cents, or 3.5 percent, to $19.02. BABY BELL RETURNS HOME A combination of AT&T and SBC would reunite "Ma Bell," as AT&T was known for years, with a "Baby Bell," one of the local phone companies spun off from AT&T due to antitrust rulings in 1984. Former Federal Communications Commission chief Reed Hundt had deemed such a reunion "unthinkable" in 1997. For Whitacre, a voracious purchaser of companies during his 15-year tenure at the helm of the Texas-based company, buying AT&T would complete a transformation of SBC from a regional, local telephone company into an international force. "With this move, SBC would be elevated above the other Baby Bells with national business services," industry analyst Jeff Kagan said. It is unclear what will happen to the AT&T name. Whitacre said the AT&T brand name was strong, and "we need a little time to contemplate" its future. Whitacre will be chairman and chief executive officer of the combined company, while AT&T's Chairman and CEO, David Dorman, would be president. SBC said it expects the acquisition to slow its revenue growth rate in the "near term" after the deal closes. It expects the transaction will add to cash flow in 2007 and to earnings per share in 2008. The deal also includes a breakup fee of 3.5 percent, or about $560 million. The companies said they expect the deal will produce a "net present value of more than $15 billion in synergies, net of the cost to achieve them." Nearly half of the savings are expected to come from the consolidation of network operations and information technology. AT&T held unsuccessful merger talks with another Baby Bell, BellSouth Corp. (BLS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) , in 2003, but BellSouth walked away after seeing AT&T's revenue and growth potential shrink. THE NEXT TARGET The acquisition of AT&T will shift attention to MCI Inc. (MCIP.O: Quote, Profile, Research) , No. 2 long-distance company, as the next takeover target, analysts said. "It would definitely put MCI on the block and it would be acquired quickly by one of the other Bells, Verizon or BellSouth or Qwest," said Kagan. A takeover of the two largest long-distance carriers has been seen by some industry executives as inevitable as the Baby Bells try to expand their mix of services. But many of those carriers have suffered steeper revenue declines than AT&T on the competition by the Bells. Source: REUTERS |
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| Paging Training Course Specially designed course for sales, marketing, and administration personnel. Engineers will only be admitted with a note signed by their mothers, promising that they will just listen and not disrupt the class. (This is supposed to be funny!) This is a one-day training course on paging that can be conducted at your place of business. Please take a look at the course outline to see if you think this might be beneficial in your employees: Paging training course outline. I would be happy to customize the content to meet your specific requirements. Although it touches on several "technical" topics, it is definitely not a technical course. I used to teach the sales and marketing people at Motorola Paging and they appreciated an atmosphere where they could ask technical questions without being made to feel like a dummy and without getting a long convoluted overly-technical answer that left them more confused than before. A good learning environment is one that is non-threatening. Let me know if you would like to receive a quotation, or if you would like to have any additional information. |
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 |  hmce@bellsouth.net  e-mailhttp://www.h-mce.com web site | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Complete Technical Services For The Ira Wiesenfeld, P.E.
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Wireless Messaging Software 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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| Wi-Fi and WiMax News | |
Cisco Weighs WiMax 02.01.05 Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO - message board) says wireless metropolitan area specification WiMax could potentially be a challenger to 3G cellular networks for some high-speed data applications, but expects mass market acceptance of the technology is up to four or five years away. The networking firm, which is a member of the WiMax Forum, has been fairly quiet on its plans for WiMax thus far. But, speaking to Unstrung on Friday, Cisco's Ann Sun, senior manager for wireless and mobility, shone a light on how the firm sees the market developing, while mostly sidestepping the question of what actual products Cisco will bring to the party [ed. note: company policy, dontcha know]. "WiMax now is like where we were with WiFi in 1999... with the standards just coming in place" says Sun. Cisco's predictions about the adoption curve for the overall WiMax market are similar to what others have already laid out. Sun expects to see initial fixed-wireless WiMax products—using the 802.16-2004 (née 802.16d) specification—on the market at the end of 2005 or early 2006. Initial mobile WiMax products—using the 802.16e specification—should hit the market in 2006 or 2007. Mobility and cheaper customer equipment should help to drive consumer interest, hopefully leading to mass market uptake by 2009 or 2010. Cisco's Sun envisages fixed-wireless WiMax products being used as a cable or DSL replacement, mainly in "underserved rural areas in developed countries or in developing markets." Sun cites Brazil as an example of a developing country—with a fairly large and diverse land mass—that could use WiMax for wireless infrastructure purposes. Mobile WiMax, however, seems to be the technology that interests Sun more. The 802.16e mobile update to WiMax should allow users to move between basestations at automobile speeds, opening up some new possibilities for data, multimedia, and even VOIP applications. "That's very compelling from a data application perspective," says Sun. "Our thinking is that it could potentially challenge some of these 3G [cellular] deployments." And, as she notes, unlike the initial versions of the 802.11 wireless LAN standard, the WiMax spec already implements security and quality-of-service technology, which means that it could be suitable for more than just consumer applications from the get-go. Sun regards WiMax and wireless LAN networking as complementary technologies. In fact, while talking about using the two networking mechanisms together, Sun drops a hint about the direction that Cisco itself may be going with the technology. Cisco already has a product called the 3200 mobile access router that can be used for wireless access that hands off between different network types. Sun suggests this could be used in municipal network deployments to switch between WiMax and wireless LAN networks. And this is not the only way the 3200 could be deployed: The box could potentially also use WiMax as a backhaul mechanism for WiFi users in a train and other mobile environments. Of course, last November, Cisco CTO Charles Giancarlo left many thinking that backhaul was about all WiMax was good for, at least in Cisco's eyes. "Other than providing the backbone infrastructure that may be behind any WiMax deployment, Cisco is not invested in WiMax," Giancarlo told the Next Generation Networks conference in Boston. "DSL and cable are [already] there, and they are much more deterministic." We should note that after Giancarlo made his comments, some analysts suggested that he was mainly talking about WiMax's use—or rather uselessness—as a home networking technology. Whatever. Cisco seems to have mellowed out on its approach to WiMax a little since then. Although, Giancarlo and Sun are essentially saying the same thing, Cisco won't be pushing to deploy WiMax in areas that already have cable or DSL in place. Source: UNSTRUNG WiMAX To Challenge DSL, Cable Broadband January 31, 2005 Courtesy of TechWeb News A report released Monday predicts that the controversial wireless technology WiMAX is likely to eventually take its place as a major broadband service-providing platform competing vigorously with DSL and cable broadband. Arjun Chokkappan, a Frost & Sullivan analyst, said the lower cost structure of WiMAX as well as its continued evolution and flexibility should propel WiMAX into the vanguard of broadband delivery services. However, Chokkappan hedged his bets somewhat by noting that the technology will have to prove it can deliver on quality of service (QoS) issues. He said also that potential interference problems will likewise have to be solved. "This (interference) is likely to prove challenging, since the 802.16 standard operates in the unlicensed spectrum," he said in a statement. "With the number of service providers on the rise, there are greater chances of interference." WiMAX, whose standards still haven't been set by the WiMAX Forum, is the subject of impassioned debate, with one side maintaining that 3G cell phone service will make WiMAX superfluous, while others are moving ahead to develop the nascent technology. Major backing for WiMAX has come from Intel, which has helped the technology gain credibility in the marketplace. Chokkappan views Wi-Fi as something of a double-edged sword in the development of WiMAX. Wi-Fi could offer some competition, but the analyst also sees WiMAX operating in combination with Wi-Fi on cell phones, laptops, and PDAs. For Cisco, metropolitan area mobility seems to be the market where things start to get really interesting. Source: InformationWeek mobilepipeline |
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