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	Wireless Messaging Newsletter
	VoIP Wi-Fi Paging Wi-MAX Telemetry Location Services Wireless Messaging	WIRELESS MESSAGING

Does anyone have some PageThru equipment for sale? A couple of readers have inquired recently. Brad Dye CLICK HERE

From: mattchavez823@hotmail.com
Subject: paging techs
Date: April 7, 2006 4:11:53 PM CDT
To: brad@braddye.com

Hello,
How are you? I came across your website and saw some familiar names. I used to work in customer service at Glenayre Electronics, and then at Pagenet/Arch/USA Mobility for 5 yrs as a switch manager before getting laid off last year. I was wondering if you happen to know of anyone that has an opening for a technician or if you know of any websites that I can apply through. Any assistance is greatly appreciated! Thanks, and have a great day!

Matt Chavez
cell (951) 733-1904

P.S. Resume is included

From: SUNBUMZ@aol.com
Subject: from the newsletter
Date: April 7, 2006 10:17:49 AM CDT
To: brad@braddye.com

In reference to:

Dear friends of Wireless Messaging,

I hope you aren't getting tired of reading about Emergency Alerting. I am still fired up about the topic even though 9/11 is far behind us. and even though the hurricanes of last fall are starting to seem like a long time ago. I don't want to sound like a pessimist, but I wonder how many more disasters will have to happen before something gets done about alerting the public when they are in danger?

Brad,

Thank you for your newsletter. I look forward every Friday to the DYE REPORT.

And, I am not tired of reading about Emergency Alerting. Quite the contrary. My wife Cindy and I run a 24/7 answering service in Florida. We serve all professions who need pagers and someone to dispatch their emergency calls 24/7. We take all kinds of calls: Trauma teams chasing each other down; environmental emergencies; crash teams; doctors offices. You name it.

Being darn near the center of hurricane alley we have given storms our attention for years:

• Our call center sits high on a ridge in a non evacuation/non flood zone. This means we do not have to evacuate. Even if a cat 5 threatens.
• My T-1's and DSL come from the Verizon Central Office 3 blocks away, and are underground and gas protected.
• My computer room and work stations are protected by a Powerware Online UPS.
• We have a diesel generator to power the entire building for days. Even the air conditioning
• We've laid in emergency supplies, rations, water
• We have showers/semi living facilities
• A motor home onsite in case it gets really bad
• Tall trucks to get the staff in.
• We've trimmed/scalped every tree around us.
• And, per advice I received from the DYE REPORT, I ordered two-way Satellite Internet.

I tried to get a ReFlex pager per advice from the DYE REPORT

[ . . . edited]

Only 52 days till the 2006 hurricane season opens and we are as ready as possible. Although . . . I do hope the important people got their ReFlex. Reminds me, get a CB.

Respectfully, Tom Baur CallStar.net PS: I attached a few hurricane images and docs.

Can Cell Phones on Planes Be Dangerous?

Studies continue on the safety of using cell phones on airplanes, while most experts agree that concerns are overblown.

By Daniel Turner
Friday, April 07, 2006

A few years ago I was caught in the roughest descent I'd ever experienced in a commercial airplane. As the pilot's voice came on, informing us that San Francisco was unapproachable and we were being redirected to Oakland, passengers began making cell-phone calls to their rides—hiding the phones from flight attendants, of course, since a federal law prohibits cellular calls on an airplane.

After some jarring and tense minutes, we landed: in San Jose. Once again, the cell phones came out—still in violation of the regulations—as people called to apologize to loved ones.

But soon these furtive maneuvers might not be necessary. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is currently reviewing a proposal to lift the ban on using cell phones in flight. Although there is no date set for its decision, both telecommunications companies and airlines are anxious to provide more services.

So why not allow cell phones anyway? Are they actually a danger? The FCC is evaluating the possibility that cell phones could either block satellite signals or disrupt ground-based towers. To most observers, though, other potential safety issues are more worrisome. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is concerned that cell phones might produce significant radio frequency interference, possibly disrupting avionics, including a plane's Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver.

These worries were inflamed recently by an article in the March 2006 issue of IEEE Spectrum, the monthly publication of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The article, "Unsafe at Any Airspeed?", by Bill Strauss, M. Granger Morgan, and Daniel Stancil, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), recapped Strauss's 2003 PhD thesis, which revealed that people do sneak cell-phone calls during flight—and that it could, in some circumstances, lead to interference with avionics systems through a process known as intermodulation.

Intermodulation occurs when two radio signals of different frequencies interact, potentially causing spikes in new frequency ranges. As Strauss and his colleagues pointed out in their article, signals within the two main cell-phone frequency ranges used in the United States (the cellular band at 824 to 849 megahertz range, and PCS at 1850 to 1910 megahertz) do not interfere with those used by most aircraft navigation aviation systems. Yet Strauss, who carried radio-monitoring equipment on several commercial flights, reported seeing intermodulation effects from cell-phone signals "in the frequency bands used by an aircraft's GPS and distance-measuring equipment."

However, according to David Carson, a lead engineer in cabin systems engineering at Boeing, the CMU report does not justify the hysteria evident in some articles on the topic. Carson is also co-chair of a special committee on portable electronic devices for RTCA, a private, nonprofit aviation consulting organization in Washington, DC. The FAA has commissioned the RTCA committee to produce a report on the in flight use of cell phones and other portable devices. The report, which examines "intentionally transmitting" devices, including cell phones and computers with Wi-Fi cards, will be completed in December 2006.

Carson notes that Strauss was a founding member of the special committee in 2003, and that part of his work there became his PhD thesis. "The thesis was an in flight study of whether transmissions from cell phones occurred," Carson said. "And the conclusion was, yeah, people do use cell phones on airplanes despite the ban."

Carson says that "the potential to have interference with airplane systems is real." But he adds that the few airplane systems that could be affected by radio frequency interference, such as the public address system and wireless tire pressure gauges, are not critical to flight safety. The RTCA released studies of earlier portable-electronics technologies in 1963, 1988, 1996, and 2004, Carson says, and each time the airline industry responded by placing better shielding around airplane electronics and adopting other mitigation strategies. As a result, no airline crash has ever been attributed to radio emissions from devices brought onboard by passengers.

Strauss acknowledges that his study is only suggestive. "It's not an 'Oh, my God' situation," he says. "But it's not a light situation either."

Source: MIT Technology Review

ABC takes shows online for free, with ads

By Peter Cohen

April 10, 2006 2:11 pm ET

The Disney-ABC Television Group announced Monday plans to offer free full-length episodes of its series Lost, Desperate Housewives, Alias and Commander In Chief, available in streaming format from its Web site the day after the shows are broadcast. The move may put ABC in the awkward position of competing with itself for online viewers, as three of those shows are already available through the iTunes Music Store. There are important differences in how the shows are offered in each format, however.

ABC called the effort part of “a two-month long experiment” to see how consumers react to the new offering. The company plans to offer current episodes of Lost, Desperate Housewives and Commander in Chief—three shows also available for purchase from the iTunes Music Store—as well as the entire current season of Alias. The shows will be available on the Web site in May and June.

Consumers will be able to watch the shows free of charge using a Mac or PC—they’re encoded in Flash 8 format, and will be posted in two different sizes—500 x 282 pixels, streamed at 400 kilobits per second (Kbps) or 700 x 394 pixels, streamed at 700Kbps. Streaming means that the content won’t be available for download and viewing later, as the iTunes Music Store allows video buyers to do—there, the content can be viewed on a video-capable iPod.

Another important difference—unlike the content available for purchase on the iTunes Music Store, free streamed videos viewed on ABC’s Web site will have advertisements embedded within the shows. These ads will be interactive, according to ABC, and will “take many different forms.” ABC said it’s already signed up major advertisers for the effort including AT&T, Cingular and Ford.

Alex Wallau, ABC TV president, Operations and Administration, said that his company is exploring ways to work with local TV affiliates. Executives at network affiliates have voiced frustration with the move to put content for sale online, as it’s excluded them from any revenue stream.

“Our ultimate goal is to find an effective online model, one in which our affiliates can take part,” said Wallau in a statement.

Although consumers won’t be able to avoid the ads in each episode, ABC said that viewers will be able to pause and move back and forth between “chapters” in each episode. They'll also be able to view the content in a 16 x 9 aspect ratio (widescreen format).

Source: Playlist Magazine

Wi-Fi Cell Phone Battle Looms

Wireless companies hope a technology called UMA will keep their customers from using VoIP services like Skype.

April 5, 2006

Wireless phone companies, worried their customers may start using VoIP services like Skype as Wi-Fi-enabled phones become commonplace, are lining up behind an alternate technology called UMA.

UMA, short for Unlicensed Mobile Access, would allow calls to move seamlessly from the GSM (global system for mobile communications) cellular network to Wi-Fi networks. More important to the cell companies, it would let the operators retain control over the call and charge the customer for the time.

With Skype and some other VoIP services, customers would be able to call for free once their phone is connected to a Wi-Fi network. With some U.S. cities now proposing free citywide Wi-Fi services, that could mean billions in lost revenue for the wireless firms.

UMA also offers some advantages for the customer. For one thing, in UMA the phone numbers remain the same no matter what network is in use. With Skype, customers have to store and dial the numbers from a separate address book.

On the other hand, customers may be able to download and install the Skype software themselves, while UMA only works with special UMA-enabled phones.

It isn't yet clear how much UMA calls would cost compared to existing long-distance service, but the cost is expected to be significantly lower.

Still, the technology has its critics, including William Quigley, managing director of Clearstone Venture Partners, which has invested in Divitas, a company focusing on a competing technology.

“UMA is a technology developed by carriers that just does not have a business justification,” he said.

Hot Topic
Nonetheless, the idea of blending Wi-Fi with existing cell service is a hot topic at this week’s CTIA trade show in Las Vegas where wireless companies are showing off their latest wares. Several companies have been exploring ways to hand over calls from Wi-Fi to cellular networks, but the task has proven to be more difficult than expected.

Kineto Wireless, a Milpitas, California-based startup, has been developing and testing UMA for the last two years. Mobile giants like Nokia and Motorola are supporting the technology on their devices and on networks.

The technology gained more support this week as Texas Instruments, the leading chip maker for cellular phones, announced it is including Kineto’s software in its mobile Wi-Fi platforms.

Nokia and Motorola have developed UMA software for their phones, but the TI deal should help other manufacturers to produce UMA devices.

Going Global
British Telecom in the United Kingdom has already launched a UMA service called Fusion, but instead of Wi-Fi, BT uses Bluetooth as an alternative access technology.

Most likely a full UMA service will not be available before the second half of this year, said Kineto marketing director Steven Shaw. He believes TeliaSonera of Sweden may be the first mobile company to offer a commercial UMA service.

Others that have been active in the area are Telecom Italia and T-Mobile in the United States.

Until now, UMA has been limited to home use because UMA phones weren't able to roam in just any Wi-Fi hot spot available. An authentication process is required when a phone connects to Wi-Fi for the first time.

However, Boingo, a worldwide Wi-Fi hot spot provider, said Wednesday at the CTIA trade show that it is providing its access points to carriers deploying UMA services. Boingo currently has more than 25,000 hot spots around the world in places like airports and cafés.

Service Extended
So far, Boingo has provided Wi-Fi access to laptop users only. But with the new software developed for mobile devices, the service has now been extended to phones as well, said Colby Goff, senior vice president of strategy and business development at Boingo.

UMA’s global extension will not be widely available immediately, however. Boingo software runs only on the Windows Mobile operating system, but no UMA phone with Windows Mobile is currently available on the market.

The partnership with Kineto is not the first of its kind for Boingo. The company joined forces with Skype last summer.

Skype users can utilize Boingo’s Wi-Fi network with their laptops by subscribing to a service called Skype Zones for $7.95 a month.

Source: Red Herring

That's all for this week. Let me know if you come across any news for next week's newsletter.

With best regards, K9IQY	Brad Dye Wireless Messaging Consultant P.O. Box 266 Fairfield, IL 62837 USA
	Skype:	braddye		WIRELESS MESSAGING
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	E–mail:	brad@braddye.com
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