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	Wireless Messaging Newsletter
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“Morning Fog” © 2006—Photography With Imagination

by Jim Brickett
jimbrickett@cox.net

More Jim Brickett photos here.

From: ps@jinny.com.lb
Subject: Unipage software
Date: May 18, 2006 9:40:07 AM CDT
To: brad@braddye.com

Dear [Brad],

I read your article about Unipage console software http://www.braddye.com/unipage/unipage.html. Do you by any chance know how I can get a recent software release of this software?

Many thanks,

Pierre

ARRL Shifts Congressional BPL Focus to US Senate

NEWINGTON, CT, May 12, 2006—With an amendment requiring the FCC to study BPL interference now included in Section 502 of the House telecom bill, HR 5252, the ARRL is shifting its focus to the Senate. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will conduct hearings on its own version of telecom legislation, S 2686, later this month and will begin consideration of the bill in early June. Between now and then, the ARRL is urging members in the 22 states with Senators on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee to write seeking support to include similar BPL study language in the Senate bill.

"If we can protect Section 502 when the bill comes to the House floor for consideration, and if we can get similar language introduced on the Senate side, we'll be in a good position when and if the two bills go to a Conference Committee," observes ARRL Chief Executive Officer David Sumner, K1ZZ.

The amendment to the House bill, the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement (COPE) Act of 2006, was proposed by Rep Mike Ross, WD5DVR (D-AR), and supported by Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX). The US House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 42-12 to send the COPE Act, including the amendment, to the full House for its consideration. The House is expected to vote on the measure soon.

The Ross amendment has received significant opposition from electric utilities. The United Telecom Council (UTC), a bulwark of BPL support and administrator of the Interference Resolution Web site, has referred to the amendment as a threat and is urging its members to contact their members of Congress regarding its inclusion.

This week the League began getting out the word via e-mail to members in states with Senators on Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. "Now we must turn our attention to the Senate, where similar language is needed," the letter to members in targeted states says. It asks League members to urge their Senators on the committee to support language addressing the BPL interference issue when the Senate bill is marked up in committee on June 8.

The language the League wants to see in the Senate amendment to the telecom bill would call on the FCC to "conduct, and submit to the House Energy and Commerce and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, a study of the interference potential of broadband over power line systems leading to improved rules to prevent the deployment of systems having a potential to cause destructive interference to radio communication systems."

The ARRL plea includes a sample letter, which members are encouraged to personalize as much as possible. The League wants members to fax their letters to the number indicated in the e-mail to members plus a copy to ARRL's government relations firm Chwat & Company, ATTN: Eric Heis, KI4NFC, 625 Slaters Ln -- Suite 103, Alexandria, VA 22314. Fax 703-684-7594.

The sample letter points out the value of Amateur Radio's role in recent disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina. "The reason we need your help is that the FCC continues to resist growing evidence that its rules are inadequate to protect radio-communication systems, including those relied upon by First Responders, from radio spectrum pollution caused by BPL systems," the sample letter says. "The FCC needs to objectively and carefully review this evidence and adopt rules that will keep interference from BPL within reasonable bounds." The sample letter notes that not only has the FCC shown no inclination to do that, it's so far failed "to enforce its existing rules in specific, well documented instances of harmful interference."

"Remember that it is not BPL that we oppose, but BPL interference," Sumner emphasizes. "Some BPL systems are designed not to cause widespread interference, but many are not. The problem is that the FCC rules don't distinguish between the two. This is unfair to licensed radio services that must deal with the consequences of spectrum pollution." Sumner said it's also unfair that BPL system designers who did their homework on the interference issue "have to compete with those who didn't."

ARRL President Joel Harrison, W5ZN, says members' calls and letters to their lawmakers to support Ross's 2005 House Resolution 230 (H Res 230) were instrumental in securing inclusion of Ross's more-significant amendment to HR 5252. The non-binding H Res 230 calls on the FCC to "reconsider and revise rules" governing BPL based on "a comprehensive evaluation" of their interference potential.

Assuming the House and Senate approve their respective versions of the telecom legislation, a conference committee would convene to meld the differing bills into a single measure.

Source: ARRL

Skype Goes for Broke

The Web-calling outfit owned by eBay is offering free PC-to-phone calling in North America in order to hit growth targets

MAY 16, 2006
Technology
By Olga Kharif

Using Skype's bargain-basement phone service just got even cheaper. Skype customers can now make calls from personal computers to landline or wireless phones within the U.S. and Canada for free, instead of the usual 2 cents a minute. But what comes as great news for consumers may be a sign Skype's growth is falling short of its parent's expectations. The Web calling company was acquired by auction giant eBay in October for $2.6 billion.

The new pricing scheme is aimed at stepping up growth of the North American user base and fending off increasingly vicious competition. At least one analyst speculates the move is an indication Skype is behind schedule in reaching targets outlined at the time of the eBay purchase.

Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis and other Skype owners and executives stand to get a windfall of about $1.5 billion if certain growth targets are met in the coming years. EBay hasn't specified what the goals are, but they center on sales, gross margin, gross profit, and the number of active users of Skype's service.

SATISIFED MANAGERS.
User growth may be 20% to 25% behind plan, according to estimates by Albert Lin, an analyst with American Technology Research. Although Skype's software has been downloaded more than 300 million times, many users have downloaded the application to multiple devices. As a result, Skype now only has some 40 million regular users, he estimates. Unless Zennstrom and Friis rev that number up to 100 million by yearend, they might have to forgo a chunk of their bonus, Lin says. Skype also could extend its free PC-to-phone calling offer to other areas, including Western Europe, he says.

Skype says it's pleased with growth and denies more price cuts are in the works. "We are not planning on expanding the promotion," says Henry Gomez, general manager for Skype in North America. "We are very, very satisfied with the growth, it's been flying."

That growth could come down to earth, though, as rivals Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft's and Google offer more free Web-calling services. AOL just announced a major redesign of its TotalTalk Web-calling service, providing users with free phone numbers and free incoming calls from regular phones. Skype charges nearly $13 for a three-month subscription to a comparable service.

PROFITS MIA.
The May 15 announcement is "a direct response to AOL," says Jon Arnold, principal at Web-calling consultancy J Arnold & Associates. Other providers of Internet-based calling, including Verizon, are also lowering call prices(see BW Online, 05/05/06, "Verizon's VoIP Offensive").

Another casualty of the Internet-calling price wars, of course, is profitability. "The [100 million users] goal is achievable," says Lin. "It's all a question of, at what price." Analysts forecast that Skype will book $200 million in sales this year. That may need to be revised as the SkypeOut PC-to-phone service—one of the few paid services the company provides—becomes free in North America. About 5 million of Skype's active users, or 12.5% of total customers, live in the U.S. and Canada, Lin estimates. Skype believes the promotion won't affect the revenue targets.

And just how Skype will goose sales remains uncertain. By Lin's estimates, Skype generates about an average 9 cents in sales a month per customer. While Skype has been steadily increasing its revenues per subscriber, its journey to breakeven—especially if the company makes some of its paid services free—could take years.

SHADOWY STRATEGY.
Analysts are becoming increasingly perplexed about exactly how eBay plans to make money off of the Web-calling outfit. "I don't understand what their strategy is, why they want more unpaying customers that add more cost to their network," says Stephan Beckert, an analyst with telecom consultancy Telegeography. "They just want to be Santa Claus."

One possibility: Skype may be on the verge of moving to an ads-based business model, Beckert says. But the company continues denies having any plans to run ads. "It's really about turbocharging our growth and solidifying our market position here before others catch on," says Gomez. The company's executives say they hope to acquire a loyal customer base to whom to they can sell premium products, such as ringtones and business Web-calling services (see BW Online, 05/03/06, "Skype Piles It On").

Meanwhile, Skype's per user costs could mount as the customer base rises and it becomes subject to greater regulation, Beckert says. For instance, the company, whose service is currently unregulated, could be asked to route 911 calls—a feat it currently doesn't and can't perform. Such regulation would add to the costs for Skype—and its new owners.

Source: BusinessWeek Online

Vonage IPO Scheduled for Next Week

6:00 am on May 19, 2006

Popular VoIP provider, Vonage Holdings Corp., has revealed that its much-anticipated IPO stock offering will begin on May 23, 2006.

The company plans to publicly issue a total of 31.25 million shares, priced at between $16 and $18 a piece. Vonage is hoping to entice its current customers to buy stock, in hopes of cashing in on the provider’s future growth.

Citigroup, Deutsche Bank Securities, UBS Investment Bank, Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., Piper Jaffray & Co. and Thomas Weisel Partners LLC have all agreed to underwrite the IPO, and will receive a total of 4.7 million shares for doing so (separate from those offered to the public).

In total the IPO is expected to generate between $575 million and $647 million (more than originally planned) for the VoIP provider. Most of the proceeds will be pumped into its extensive advertising and marketing endeavors.

Source: TeleClick

There is still time to make plans to join us at the AAPC conference that is only eleven days away. Please come.

AAPC Wireless Forum
May 31 – June 2, 2006
Marriott Resort at Grande Dunes
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Register at: www.pagingcarriers.org

We are going to have some great speakers and several representatives from the European Mobile Messaging Association (EMMA) in Europe. I am really looking forward to seeing many old friends and to making some new ones.

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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THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world” —C.S. Lewis
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