Trucking Technology Alert - Nov. 2
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Both the online report and e-mail are sponsored by @Track Communications, a supplier of wireless communications and dispatch services.
Today's Technology Headlines:
- Cellular Prices to Drop Soon
- Cell Phone Owners Pay Price for Spam
- Wireless Industry Seeks to Scrap Airwave Limits
- High-Speed Wireless Looms
- Cell Phone Owners Pay Price for Spam
Cellular Prices to Drop Soon
According to the September monthly report from Econ One, which examines the cost of mobile phone calling packages in 25 large cities in the United States, prices have hardly moved in most areas. Charles Mahla, the research firm's senior economist, said calling plan prices are always static during the autumn period, and he advised anyone thinking of buying or upgrading a cell phone to wait until the holiday season, when prices normally go down. The report found that out of the 25 major cities examined in September, just five showed changes of more than 1% in average prices, while 10 cities showed no change at all.The only city that saw a major increase in prices was Atlanta, which the company said was caused by one carrier taking over another. The biggest fall in prices occurred in the California cities of Sacramento, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, where the national calling-plan prices witnessed elsewhere in the United States are now being established. The report found that the average costs of mobile phone calling plans were lowest in Chicago, Seattle, and Phoenix, and highest in San Francisco, Boston, and Cincinnati. Newsbytes (11/02/01); Gold, Steve
Cell Phone Owners Pay Price for Spam
Wireless phone owners in the United States have started getting wireless spam, and they are very annoyed about it. Wireless spam costs mobile phone users money, because most carriers, including Sprint and AT&T Wireless, charge a few pennies to both receive and send text messages. Wireless carriers are currently spending billions of dollars to construct new, faster phone networks, and they hope that services such as short text messaging will help them recover some of that money. However, analysts say that many mobile phone users in the United States may be put off sending text messages completely if they see they have to pay extra because of spam.In separate news, Verizon Wireless recently took Phoenix-based Acacia National Mortgage to court because it purportedly sent 170,000 text messages to Verizon subscribers in Arizona and Colorado. According to Brian Wood, a spokesman for Verizon, Acacia settled out of court in what it thought to be the first-ever use of anti-spamming legislation against unwanted short text messages. CNet (11/02/01); Charny, Ben
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Wireless Industry Seeks to Scrap Airwave Limits
Tom Wheeler, the head of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association and the top lobbyist for the U.S. wireless industry, is urging the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to immediately get rid of limits on the reach of wireless phone carriers instead of adopting a proposal to ease restrictions over time. The commission is shortly scheduled to consider scrapping or raising the limit on how much airwave companies like AT&T Wireless Services and Verizon Wireless can possess in a single market. That limit is currently set at 45 megahertz in urban districts. Commission officials have proposed increasing the limit to 55 megahertz in urban districts right away and then getting rid of the cap completely over the next 12 months to 18 months, according to people familiar with the FCC proposal.The cap dates back to a period when there were only a small number of wireless telephone operators and the limit was intended to encourage competition in the emerging wireless industry. Now, however, there are numerous wireless telephone providers and at least six carriers with a nationwide presence, including VoiceStream Wireless, Verizon, Sprint PCS, Nextel Communications, Cingular Wireless, and AT&T. Wheeler says about 80% of people in the United States now have the choice of at least four wireless carriers. He has been working particularly hard to get rid of the cap since the military took spectra the companies wanted off the table, following the recent terrorist attacks on the United States. Reuters (10/31/01); Pelofsky, Jeremy
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High-Speed Wireless Looms
After spending billions of dollars purchasing equipment, wireless companies say that high-speed networks are just around the corner for American consumers.Over the next few years U.S. carriers are expected to introduce 2.5G networks, which will allow a number of new wireless services, such as videogames, instant messaging, and wireless Web browsing, though they will not be as fast as the 3G wireless networks being launched at the moment in Japan. According to wireless companies, 2.5G networks will completely alter the way people use mobile phones. TechTV (10/30/01)
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