Page 1 2 3 Page 1 2 3 | FRIDAY - FEBRUARY 24, 2006 - ISSUE NO. 201 |
Dear friends of Wireless Messaging, RIM's DAY IN COURT—TODAY
The prospect of a BlackBerry shutdown in the United States led to the extraordinary intervention of the U.S. Department of Justice three weeks ago. The U.S. government filed an affidavit with the Virginia court asking that a decision be delayed to ensure that about one million of its employees continue to have wireless e-mail service if a ban is implemented, as required by law. The court is not considering the recent decision by the US Patent office that two or the five patents in dispute are invalid. The patent office has recently made their decision "final" on rejecting two of the patents and are expected to eventually rule that all five are invalid. RIM shares were up more than 8 percent at one point today after the judge stopped short of issuing an immediate injunction. RIM shares were trading at $75.12 on heavy volume. There is a good review of this whole issue at the end of this page. Several readers responded with more background information on the RAM/BellSouth/Cingular/Velocita transitions. This came in from Jay Moskowitz:
There is a very good letter from Ron Mayes, President of Advantage Communications & Paging, in the LETTERS TO THE EDITOR section on page three. FCC: HURRICANE KATRINA PANEL I am planning to attend the panel meeting as well—maybe I can cheer, clap my hands, whistle, and stomp my feet as Bruce speaks to the group. But seriously, I am sure he will do a great job of stating our case that Paging Technology is the fastest, most economical, and most reliable means that we have available to notify people in times of crisis. Last September Bruce sent a letter on AAPC letterhead to the FCC, co-signed by Vince Kelly CEO of USA Mobility (who was not a member at that time), asking them to consider appointing a representative from the paging industry to the committee. Even with this strong and valid request they did not get a position on the panel—so this new development is very good news. 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 web site. 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.)
MORE PAGES WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS. . . They get their emergency radio communications equipment on the air, into the affected area, while the public "officials" are trying to figure out which outfit to wear to the event. Hams are called "Amateurs" because they don't get paid for their work. They even purchase their own equipment. Many of them design and build their own equipment as well. There is nothing amateur about their expertise. They really know what they are doing. | ||||||||||||
 Photo by Chuck Hagee/Gazette Alexandria Radio Club’s antenna truck and new communications trailer participate in Alexandria’s Presidents’ Day Parade. |
Radio Club HAMs It Up—Seriously
Their expertise could save a community.
By Chuck Hagee/Gazette
February 23, 2006
Among all the bands, floats and political candidates vying for recognition during Alexandria’s Presidents’ Day Parade, there was one less flashy entrant. It was hardly noticed by many lining the sidewalks of Old Town. But it was one parade participant that could make the difference between life and death.
Tucked near the end of the two-hour event was an entrant by the Alexandria Radio Club. It was their new communications trailer and high powered antenna. A project fully funded by the club’s 53 members, the trailer, with its three independent work stations, provides a mobile platform for emergency communications to support not only Alexandria’s Office of Emergency Services but also other amateur radio emergency service groups throughout Northern Virginia and the entire Metropolitan area. It was the brainchild of club member Gene Jenkins.
“This trailer is our community service contribution. It’s available to all other amateur radio groups throughout the region,” said Alexandria Club President Deanna Lutz.
Their trailer and its facilities are there to operate when local communications are down, according to Lutz. “When all else fails there’s HAM radio,” she said, waiting to enter the parade’s line of march last Monday afternoon.
“The trailer is small enough that anyone with a hitch can tow it. It has three work stations and can cover all bands and all modes. With its own power source, it’s totally self sustaining,” Lutz said.
Don Smith, a club member and leader of Team 205, Alexandria Citizen Emergency Response Team said, “This enables us to offer interoperability when local communications are down.” That was of prime importance in the recent hurricane disasters along the Gulf Coast. Alexandria Radio Club and Alexandria CERT recently conducted a day long interactive training session.
“Flaws in our communications system and in the ability of first responders to communicate with one another was very apparent during Sept. 11. We are more fortunate in this area but it many areas nationwide it is a major problem,” Lutz said.
During Monday’s parade 10 amateur radio operators assisted parade marshals in keeping track of last-minute changes in the parade line up as well as progress of various units along the parade route. The club has provided that service to parade managers for many years.
Operating the antenna station in the rear of the pick-up truck towing the trailer was the parade’s namesake, George Washington himself, otherwise known as club member Jack Hranicky. In a prior life, he was chair of the Alexandria Archeological commission.
FOUNDED IN 1954, the Alexandria club is on call in any emergency. It is an affiliate of the American Radio Relay League, Foundation for Amateur Radio and the Northern Virginia FM Association.
The new 12-foot enclosed trailer was purchased in 2005. Its first deployment was to support the 2005 Marine Corps Marathon.
Each June, the club participates in a sanctioned field day. Emergency equipment is set up to operate “off the grid” for 24 hours in preparation for an actual emergency.
Twice a year the club conducts entry level and advanced classes to help others get their HAM operator licenses. Classes are held one day a week at the Alexandria Fire Department Training Center at Lee Center, 1108 Jefferson St., at 7 p.m. They begin in February and September, depending on classroom availability, according to the club’s brochure.
The club meets on the second Friday of each month at the Training Center beginning at 7:30 p.m. Additional information is available at www.W4HFH.org or by e-mail at info@hamradio.html.
Source: Connection
| AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PAGING CARRIERS |
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| WIRELESS MESSAGING NEWS |
Nighthawk Systems Receives Order from Nebraska Utility
SAN ANTONIO, TX—2/22/06—Nighthawk Systems, Inc. (OTC BB: NIHK), a leading provider of intelligent wireless power control and emergency notification products, announced today that it has received an initial order for its CEO700 meter-based whole house disconnect units from Cornhusker Public Power District of Columbus, Nebraska. Cornhusker placed the order after testing units that were originally purchased by its neighboring utility, Nebraska Public Power District. Nebraska Public Power has been purchasing CEO700 units from Nighthawk on a regular basis since March 2005.
The CEO-700 gives electric utilities the ability to remotely connect and disconnect power to residential electric meters on a moment’s notice, saving them significant time and money over the traditional manual method that typically requires multiple truck rolls and field personnel.
H. Douglas Saathoff, Nighthawk's Chief Executive Officer, stated, "I'm very pleased that our customers are willing to share the positive results they experience using our equipment with their neighboring utilities. Satisfied customers are our greatest marketing tool."
About Nighthawk Systems, Inc.
Nighthawk is a leading provider of intelligent wireless power control products that enable simultaneous activation or de-activation of multiple assets or systems on demand. Nighthawk's installed customer base includes major electric utilities, internet service providers and fire departments in over 40 states. Nighthawk's products also enable custom message display, making them ideal for use in traffic control and emergency notification situations.
Individuals interested in Nighthawk Systems can sign up to receive email alerts by visiting the Company’s website at www.nighthawksystems.com.
Forward-looking statements
Statements contained in this release, which are not historical facts, including statements about plans and expectations regarding business areas and opportunities, acceptance of new or existing businesses, capital resources and future business or financial results are "forward-looking" statements. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, customer acceptance of our products, our ability to raise capital to fund our operations, our ability to develop and protect proprietary technology, government regulation, competition in our industry, general economic conditions and other risk factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or implied in the forward-looking statements. Although we believe the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, they relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made, and our future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements may not meet these expectations. We do not intend to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this press release to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations, except as required by law.
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 Source: Nighthawk Systems |
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U.S. Wireless Market Revenue Rises 10.7% in 2005 Reaching $174.7 Billion; Expected to Grow to $265.2 Billion in 2009
[February 23, 2006]
ARLINGTON, Va.—Business Wire)—Feb. 23, 2006—Revenue in the U.S. wireless market totaled $174.7 billion in 2005, up 10.7 percent from 2004, with an acceleration in handset revenue and a ramp-up in new wireless subscribers as key drivers of growth, according to the newly released TIA's 2006 Telecommunications Market Review and Forecast. The wireless handset and device market totaled $15 billion in 2005 and is expected to increase 19.3 percent in 2006 climbing to $17.8 billion. Twenty-five million new wireless subscribers were added in 2005, more than in any other year, and the 21.4 million subscribers added in 2004 matched the previous high in 2001. TIA projects the overall wireless market, including transport services, devices, wireless equipment and services in support of the wireless infrastructure, to grow at an 11.0 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR), reaching $265.2 billion in 2009.
While demand for wireless communications remains strong, there are limits to its subscriber growth potential, as nearly two-thirds of the U.S. population has already subscribed to a wireless service. As a result, carriers are encouraging the development of new wireless applications that will boost average revenue per user. Growth in wireless revenue will be driven by additional minutes of use for voice services, subscriptions to wireless data packages, additional revenue-generating applications and subscribers' willingness to trade up to more comprehensive, and more expensive, plans resulting in increased revenue per subscriber. TIA expects a drop to single-digit increases in wireless subscribers (wireless telephony and paging) beginning in 2007, with growth averaging 8.2 percent on a compound annual basis through 2009, when there will be an estimated 278.5 million wireless subscribers, representing 88 percent of the population.
Revenue generated from all wireless services rose 14.8 percent in 2005 to $118.6 billion. TIA expects revenue to increase to $180.4 billion in 2009, growing 11.1 percent on a compound annual basis.
The recent pick-up in wireless subscribership reflects, in part, moderating price increases and the introduction of new uses for wireless communications devices (wireless phones, pagers, PC cards and personal digital assistants (PDAs)). Revenue in the wireless device market rose 22.6 percent in 2005 reaching $15 billion as a 25.4 percent increase in wireless phones offset a 21.6 decline in pagers and a 5.9 percent decrease in PDAs. The emergence of new mobile applications such as video and music will continue to fuel both the subscriber and handset markets. Wireless phones comprise 94 percent of the total wireless device market, with revenue reaching $14 billion in 2005. The overall wireless device market is expected to increase from $17.8 billion in 2006 to $24.5 billion in 2009 growing at a 13.1 percent CAGR.
Overall wireless equipment revenue totaled $29.4 billion in 2005 and is expected to grow at an 8.3 percent CAGR reaching $40.4 billion in 2009. With the continued expansion of third-generation network coverage and the near-term licensing of advanced wireless services spectrum, a substantial roll-out of third-generation infrastructure will contribute to capital spending during the next few years. Capital expenditures revenue will grow at a 7.5 percent CAGR reaching $32 billion in 2009. Spending on services in support of the wireless infrastructure rose 18.0 percent in 2005, accelerating from the 13.6 percent increase in 2004. New wireless applications and wireless infrastructure upgrades are fueling growth in this area. Total spending on services in support of wireless infrastructure in the United States will increase to a projected $20 billion by 2009, up 14.1 percent CAGR from the $11.8 billion total of 2005.
TIA's 2006 Telecommunications Market Review and Forecast provides an overview of telecom's interrelated market segments including landline network, enterprise and consumer, wireless communications, and international markets. It's available in hard copy or on CD-ROM. To order, please visit http://www.tiaonline.org/business/research/mrf/ or call +1 (703) 907-7074. To obtain a press copy of the report, please contact Jennifer Mead at +1 (703) 907-7723 or email jmead@tiaonline.org.
TIA is the leading trade association for the information and communications technology (ICT) industry. As owner and producer of GLOBALCOMM™, TIA represents global ICT suppliers and their service provider and enterprise customers through its leadership in standards development, domestic and international policy advocacy, and facilitating member business opportunities. TIA represents the communications sector of the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA). Visit us at http://www.tiaonline.org.
Source: TMC.net
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Blurry on BlackBerry The legal battle over the mobile messaging system could change the way millions of U.S. customers use the hand-held devices and result in a windfall for the company started by a Chicago-area inventor. By Mike Hughlett Chicago-area inventor Thomas Campana Jr. fashioned a wireless e-mail system years before the word "blackberry" came to mean more than just fruit. His invention showed promise but was crude compared with the BlackBerry, the little device that built the mobile e-mail market. And Campana, who died two years ago of cancer, never logged a sale. Yet today Campana's invention is at the heart of an epic legal battle that threatens to shut down much of the U.S. BlackBerry system, which has more than 3 million users. Campana, who lived in Orland Park, patented a messaging system in the 1990s. His patents are the primary assets of NTP Inc., courtroom foe of BlackBerry's creator, Canada-based Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM). NTP, which Campana formed with veteran patent lawyer Donald Stout, sued RIM for patent infringement in 2001. In 2002, a jury agreed, although recently the U.S Patent Office has back-pedaled on the validity of Campana's patents. If NTP weathers the legal appeals process and ultimately prevails in its fight with RIM, Campana's widow and Arlington, Va.-based Stout could reap hundreds of millions of dollars. The case has been closely watched largely because NTP is trying to get a court-ordered shutdown of the BlackBerry e-mail system; a critical hearing on the issue is slated for Friday. The case has also put a spotlight on the surge in patent litigation and the rise of so-called "patent trolls." Trolls are companies that have no products but do have patents, sometimes very broad patents that critics say should never have been granted. They make money by licensing their patents or by suing those who refuse such licensing agreements. Some patent analysts say they look sort of like NTP, which has no employees and no office. "I lump the NTP/BlackBerry case into a bigger issue," said Jason Schultz, a staff attorney with the non-profit Electronic Frontier Foundation, which researches public interest issues on patents. "Is all this litigation good for the U.S. economy, technology and the public? The only benefit is that they [NTP and companies like it] get to extract money. What have they done for the world?" That seems to be RIM's thinking on the issue. "Unlike NTP, RIM actually created something—a company and a new market segment through over 20 years of innovation, risk-taking, partnering, customer service, growth and re-investment," RIM's Chief Executive Jim Balsillie wrote in a December opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal. Campana supporters see it differently, scoffing at the "troll" notion. "Why should an entrepreneur not be able to protect his property," said Stout, a partner in law firm Antonelli, Terry, Stout & Kraus. Or as Campana's dad, Thomas Sr., put it, "If you're not going to protect patents, what is the use of having them?" One matter is certain: While patent lawsuits have risen in tandem with a surge in patent grants over the past decade, intellectual property has always been a litigious terrain. "If you're going to get into the patent game, you better be ready for litigation," said James Conley, a professor of technological innovation and industrial engineering management at Northwestern University. History is full of inventors—famous ones, too—who waged patent wars in the courts, with little success in bringing a product to market. "The Wright Brothers, they sued the hell out of everybody," Conley said referring to the aviation pioneers. Three years after their pioneering 1903 flight, the Wrights got a patent, one that included a method for attaining the basic aviation concept of lateral control. Beginning in 1909, the Wrights fought a patent war with Glenn Curtiss, who was far more successful than Wilbur and Orville in commercializing the airplane. In 1913, Orville finally won. Wilbur died along the way of typhoid fever, his condition possibly worsened by stress over the patent fight. Thomas Campana Jr. won't go down in history in the same league as the Wright Brothers. But "Thomas Campana was a great inventor," Conley said. "I've read his patents." Campana, who grew up in the Marquette Park neighborhood on Chicago's Southwest Side, began tinkering with electronics in grade school, his father said. He repaired radios as a pre-teen then moved on to TV sets. In high school, he and a friend built a computer. A neighbor who taught electronics once said of Tom that "there was no limit to what he could do," the elder Campana recalled. And he said his son loved his work. "He lived and breathed electronics." Campana got a tech school degree in communications and received training in broadcasting while in the Air Force. His first patent, one of about 50, came from his first post-service job at Argonne National Laboratory, where he worked in the early 1970s. The patents at the heart of the NTP dispute stem from Campana's work in the late 1980s and early 1990s with Telefind, a Florida-based paging company. Campana owned a Chicago Ridge electronics engineering firm called ESA that did Telefind's engineering work. Campana also helped raise money for Telefind and served as the company's vice president of engineering. Telefind had a nationwide paging network that caught the eye of communications giant AT&T. At the time, most paging systems only worked regionally; a pager in Chicago, for example, wouldn't work in New York. But Telefind's system allowed for one pager to work throughout the country. AT&T was looking for a paging service to help beef up a new product, the Safari, a laptop computer it was developing with a Japanese company. At the time, AT&T operated a system that provided e-mail services to major corporations. Essentially, AT&T wanted to run its e-mail service wirelessly through the Safari laptop via a paging system. There was one problem. "AT&T did not have the paging expertise," said Murali Narayanan, who was working on the Safari project from the Naperville office of AT&T's Bell Laboratories. Hopes high, then dashed So Narayanan called on Telefind, and Campana's ESA went to work. Campana was "very, very responsive" to what AT&T was looking for, said Narayanan, who now works for Microsoft. "Tom was a pure entrepreneur," he said. "He was very enthusiastic, like a kid at heart." In November 1990, Campana demonstrated a prototype of his system at Comdex, a big trade show for the computer industry. His audience: representatives of several major AT&T customers, including UPS, Sears and Xerox. The test was a success, both Narayanan and Campana testified in court. And that success bred great expectations at Telefind and ESA. "There was a lot of optimism that AT&T would go with this," said Gary Thelen, who worked for Campana at ESA and helped develop the wireless e-mail system. Campana, whom Thelen described as a "very energetic, very upbeat" guy, anticipated that AT&T would buy Telefind. But those hopes were dashed. Further testing showed that Telefind's system didn't work well enough; messages didn't always get through, Narayanan said. Plus, by June 1991, Telefind had told AT&T that it was running out of money, Narayanan testified in the NTP/RIM lawsuit. "We were very, very concerned." AT&T dropped Telefind and switched to a rival paging company to work on the Safari project and then eventually shelved the entire project, deeming it impractical. Telefind went bust not long after AT&T dropped it. ESA had its own problems but survived. "I know [Campana] struggled for money to make the payroll lots of times, but he always made it," Thelen said. Telefind owed ESA about $400,000—a "substantial sum of money," as Campana later testified. He never got it repaid, Stout said. But Campana, through ESA, did get the e-mail system patents. NTP created to handle patents In 1992, Campana teamed with Stout, who had been doing patent work for Telefind, to create NTP, which Campana later said stood for "New Technology Products." NTP's mission: work out licensing agreements for Campana's patents. By 2000, there was no bigger potential licensee than RIM, whose BlackBerry was beginning to prove a hit. Stout sent a letter to RIM, asking that it pay licensing fees to NTP. RIM never responded and so began a tortuous, much-chronicled legal battle. A federal jury in 2002 found that RIM was infringing on NTP's patents and ordered it to pay up. The presiding judge, James Spencer, then granted NTP's request for an injunction that would shut down the BlackBerry system. But Spencer stayed the injunction pending appeals. Last spring, the dispute looked like it might finally end. RIM and NTP agreed to a preliminary settlement in March, nine months after Campana, a heavy smoker, died at age 57 of esophagus cancer. The settlement called for NTP to get $450 million. But the deal disintegrated over disagreements on how to implement it. Meanwhile, the wrangling has migrated beyond the courtroom. Not long after the jury ruled against RIM, the director of the U.S. Patent Office ordered a re-examination of NTP's patents, a rare move that NTP claims was prompted by RIM's lobbying. In recent months, the Patent Office has issued "non-final" rejections of the NTP e-mail patents, essentially saying they don't cover a new invention. But even if the patent office issues a final rejection and cancels the patents, NTP has a lengthy appellate process at its disposal. Meanwhile, time is running out on RIM to stave off a possible court-ordered shutdown. Spencer has set a hearing for Friday to revisit the injunction issue, and his decision is expected soon thereafter. RIM says it has devised a "workaround" solution that would allow the U.S. BlackBerry system to keep running without violating any court orders. Meanwhile, RIM's competitors are trying to capitalize on the uncertainty and poach BlackBerry customers. Several of those larger competitors, such as Good Technology, Visto and Nokia, don't have to worry about being sued by NTP. They've all signed licensing agreements with the company. What's a troll? The "troll" pejorative has been lobbed at companies that own patents but haven't adequately commercialized them or don't intend to. Instead, they seek licensing fees from companies that have developed products based on similar concepts. Firms that won't pony up get sued for patent infringement. In their defense, companies like NTP, which has taken on BlackBerry's parent firm in court, and others argue that they simply represent inventors asserting their intellectual property rights. Big firms do the same, they say, suing those who violate their patents. Here are a two other well-known cases with ties to Chicago: Eolas Technologies vs. University of California Chicago-area inventor Michael Doyle of Eolas Technologies Inc. and the University of California claimed Microsoft illegally incorporated their patented technology into its Internet Explorer browser. Microsoft argued the technology was not novel and never should have been patented. A jury awarded Eolas $520 million in 2003. MercExchange vs. eBay Virginia-based MercExchange sued eBay for allegedly infringing on its patent with the "buy it now" feature. MercExchange was awarded $25 million in damages, and a judge issued a permanent injunction to shut down "buy it now." EBay appealed the injunction, and the U.S. Supreme Court is slated to hear the case this year. If the Court strikes down automatic injunctions in patent infringement cases, it would be a landmark ruling. MercExchange has been working with a small Chicago-based eBay competitor, uBid. Source: Chicago Tribune |
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Judge James Spencer of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia today declined to issue an immediate injunction against RIM's Blackberry service. RIM attorneys said that their "workaround" solution to avoid infringing on NTP's patents, could take two million hours to implement. The judge told RIM and NTP to settle this issue or else . . . or else he would settle it for them and they might not like his solution. This judge has made several comments that he is tired of this case. 
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