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Verizon Plans to 'Wi-Fi' Pay Phones
By Ryan Naraine
May 12, 2003
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/stocktalk/msg.gsp?msgid=18936086
Just weeks after slashing its monthly DSL fee, Verizon plans to build Wi-Fi (define) "hotspot" (define) extensions of its broadband service in New York, using existing pay phones as the distribution vehicle.
A spokesperson for Verizon (Quote, Company Info) said the company would upgrade more than 200,000 pay phones in Manhattan to create 802.11b-compliant network nodes for its high-speed subscribers. The move is yet another carrot to lure customers in the burgeoning marketplace for offering wireless Internet access via Wi-Fi.
The spokesperson declined to provide details of the Wi-Fi plans, which surfaced at a Stevens Institute of Technology conference over the weekend where Verizon President Lawrence Babbio said the Wi-Fi service will be offered as a free add-on for its broadband subscribers.
A press conference is scheduled for later this week or early next week to make an announcement, the spokesperson told internetnews.com.
According to published reports, Babbio said it would be near impossible to charge for access to the Wi-Fi nodes because of the absence of electric power supply to pay phones in the New York metropolitan area.
The company is reportedly mulling different business models around Wi-Fi, including a plan to charge mobile phone subscribers a fee to access the wireless connection.
The availablity of 802.11b service on pay phones is also seen as attempt by Verizon to salvage revenue from a pay phone infrastructure that has been overshadowed by cell phone usage.
Because Verizon is locked into multi-year rentals on the space for pay phones, industry watchers believe it's a smart investment to upgrade them to act as Wi-Fi nodes.
Verizon's Wi-Fi service in New York would be competing with several public "hotspots" that offer free high-speed wireless connectivity. Earlier this month, New York City's Downtown Alliance launched three public hotspots at locations in Manhattan and four more are expected to go live later this month.
The hotspots have been set up at City Hall Park, Bowling Green Park, Rector Park and nodes are planned for Liberty Plaza Park, Vietnam Veteran's Memorial Part at 55 Water Street and at South Street Seaport. A Wi-Fi hotspot is already up and running at Bryant Park on 42nd Street but the addition of nodes to cell phones would expand on the coverage throughout the city.
The Wi-Fi plans follow moves by Verizon to cut its monthly DSL fee $10 to $34.95, a move that many expect competitors to mirror in coming months. The new rate, which is being offered to new customers as part of a promotion that includes Microsoft's MSN 8 software, is expected to be extended to existing subscribers sometime next month.
Separately, Verizon announced unlimited usage and fixed fee packages for small businesses in New York and Massachusetts. The Verizon Freedom for Business calling package promises to free business in the two states from per-minute usage charges and introducing unlimited usage for a fixed monthly fee.
The package, which includes DSL and Verizon Wireless services would cover unlimited, direct-dialed local, regional and domestic long-distance calls.
Designed for small businesses with two to 10 lines, the company said the package would eliminate per-minute usage fees associated with business calls.
http://www.atnewyork.com/news/article.php/2204901
Verizon is putting in 200,000 WLAN access points in Manhattan.
I guess they must be a bunch of numbnuts... ?
Say g'bye to DO(A) !
JMHO. Rob
Samsung Unveils Palm OS 5 GSM Smartphone
By Gretchen Hyman
March 13, 2003
Already reputed for its sophisticated line of mobile phones, Samsung Electronics allied itself this week with Sunnyvale, Calif.-based PalmSource, Inc, the software subsidiary of Palm Inc.(Quote, Company Info), to co-develop the first GSM-based, next-generation smartphone running on the Palm OS 5 platform.
Shaped just like a standard smartphone, which PalmSource's Michael Higashi describes as a "sleek, clam shell design," the new Mobile Information Terminals (MITs) SGH-i500 has built-in multi-media and wireless capabilities in addition to an MMS Client and WAP 2.0 web browser for wireless Web access.
Additionally, the MITs SGH-i500 smartphone comes with a 330,000 pixel digital camera that can support a color, PC-quality TFT-LCD screen.
The lightweight MITs SGH-i500 also comes with bundled multimedia applications for video, audio, and viewing data, email, or documents on-the-run.
The MITs SGH-i500 is the third Palm OS-based handset Samsung has produced in recent years, but it is the first that is based on the Palm OS 5 platform, said Higashi.
The Samsung/PalmSource alliance is among the company's first business relationships since plans were announced last year by its parent company Palm, Inc. that Palm Solutions and PalmSource would officially become two separately traded companies.
Following the announcement, PalmSource CEO David Nagel went to market with not only a new handheld operating platform, the Palm OS 5, but new additions to the company's product line and a slew of new licensing partnerships including Kyocera, Acer, Garmin, and Handspring, and a hefty business alliance with China, one of the fastest growing handheld consumer markets in the world.
"The China market is very important, obviously," Nagel told a news conference. "Worldwide, China is one of the leading economic powers in terms of growth and diversification, and we see the same growth in consumers themselves."
New PalmSource-generated products include a deal with Texas-based Fossil to include the Palm OS platform in a new wristwatch device (called Wrist PDA) under two brands: Fossil and Abacus. The Wrist PDAs are expected to ship in the middle of 2003.
Among its newly forged China-based business ties is a four-year deal to license its OS operating system to the Legend Group and the Group Sense (International) Limited (GSL).
The president of the Legend Group, Lu Yan, was quoted as saying that his company plans on putting the Palm OS platform in more than half of the company's PDAs by the end of 2003.
PalmSource also recently opened a subsidiary in Hong Kong to more easily foster relationships in the region, the company said.
According to representatives for PalmSource, the Samsung deal is just another feather in the company's new hat.
"Combining Samsung's world leadership in the handset market with the power and flexibility of the Palm OS, has enabled the development of innovative and easy to use smartphones like the MITs SGH-i500," said Nagel.
Samsung's new smartphone is scheduled for rollout later this year.
Editor's note: PalmSource CEO David Nagel recently sat down with internetnews.com for a one-on-one interview about the future of his company. You can read that Q&A session here.
http://siliconvalley.internet.com/news/article.php/2109301
Hey DR,
You have an open mind; that should serve you well...
Cheers! Rob
BTW Target Frequencies
IEEE 802.16a (802.16e mobile extension of 802.16a) 2-11Ghz
IEEE 802.20 450Mhz to 3.5Ghz
BTW2 It appears that the ITU has abdicated their standard-setting role to the IEEE - and more amazing is that most telecom investors aren't even aware of this fact!
Actually 802.20 (Flarion, Cisco, TI, Siemens, Northrop Grumman, Sony, Nextel, ...) covers those frequencies. With a fresh slate (and no dependence on QCOM investment) Flash-OFDM, as opposed to wideband OFDM for 802.16a/e, would be the only economical choice for a wholesale data network. Naturally 802.11/802.16/802.20 will all be complementary! ;^>
Of course, QUALCOMM is free to throw as much money as they want at trying to prove otherwise, but unfortunately money can't change the laws of physics.
As for Nextel, you can bet on them moving directly to 4G...
Cheers! Rob
When it comes to WAN data solutions, QUALCOMM is shooting blanks:
http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/16/docs/03/C80216-03_02.zip
DO is DOA!
jmho. Rob
IEEE 802.16 is a Wide Area Network Technology. May I suggest that you read thoroughly before you post...
Great Post!
Your logic is sound; but if they're going to build a data only wholesale network, why use the incredibly expensive EVDO technology?! Check out IEEE 802.16a and 802.16e (the follow-on standards to take 802.11 to the WAN)...
Cheers! Rob
DoCoMo Plans Always-On Net Service for PDAs, Notebook PCs
February 28, 2003 (TOKYO) -- NTT DoCoMo Inc. will launch on April 1 an always-on Internet service for users of personal digital assistants (PDAs) and notebook computers that access the Net through PHS (personal handyphone system) telecommunications, company sources said.
The move reflects efforts to catch up with DDI Pocket Inc., the largest provider of this kind of service, which unveiled on February 27 a device that allows both data and voice communications.
DoCoMo plans to charge a flat monthly fee of 4,880 yen for its service, called @FreeD, 50 yen less than a comparable service offered by DDI Pocket.
DoCoMo considered ending its money-losing PHS operations in 2002, but decided to continue them in view of the success of DDI Pocket's PHS-based data communications service. It plans further discounts in order to catch up with DDI Pocket.
DoCoMo's new service will deliver maximum throughput of 64kbps, the same as that of the ISDN service offered by Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp.
DoCoMo will also offer as an option an annual advance payment package, at a flat 48,000 yen.
Card modems used in the service will be supplied by Sharp Corp and Panasonic Mobile Communications Co Ltd.
DoCoMo intends to market in June a device that can use both the PHS Net service and a wireless LAN (local area network) service called Mzone with a maximum throughput of 11Mbps. Use of the Mzone service will cost an extra 2,000 yen per month.
A subscriber would use the PHS service while traveling, with the device automatically shifting to the LAN service as soon as they arrive, for example, at a hotel where it can be accessed.
The Mzone service is now available at some 100 locations in the Tokyo area, including hotels and restaurants.
Customers using the new device to be marketed by DDI Pocket in early April will pay a monthly fee of 4,930 yen for Net browsing, plus 10-30 yen per minute for voice communications.
(The Nihon Keizai Shimbun)
http://neasia.nikkeibp.com/wcs/leaf?CID=onair/asabt/news/233611
Datang-Siemens, toll gate to Chinese 3g.
As for BREW's role, I don't think they're big coffee drinkers in China (ha! ha!). Seriously though, if they're going to dodge cdma royalties, why on Earth would they use BREW? It's not like QUALCOMM has any real sustainable advantage in programming...
JMHO. Rob
BT’s Wi-Fi Play Reported As Snub
BT announced deals with BAA, Welcome Break and Hilton Hotels that to reach its target of 400 Wi-Fi hot spots by this summer, and 4,000 by June 2005. These deals -- which follow similar agreements with Costa Coffee and the Jarvis and Thistle hotel groups -- will help BT to target its service at business executives on the move. “Our strategy for rollout is based around where the Road Warrior stops,” commented BT Director of Mobility David Hughes. “We're certainly planning to introduce hot spots based on 802.11a, and 802.11g, when we see demand. One commentator said that Hughes “showed less enthusiasm for 3G, though, and claimed that Openzone's Wi-Fi offered a better service at a cheaper price.” Hughes cited these statistics: It costs an Openzone customer less than 5 pence to download 1MB of data, compared to 50 pence for a 3G user.
http://www.wcai.com/lea/le_news2003.htm#feb6
Sorry, I thought it was fairly clear.
Those banking on Nextel migrating to CDMA are going to be disappointed....
IMHO. Rob
One of the things SoftE knows, that investors ought to...
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/stocktalk/msg.gsp?msgid=18561739
http://www.google.com/search?q=gates+nextel+investment&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&meta=
Later. Rob
The payment came after the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce and International Court of Arbitration (ICC/ICA) ruled last December that Qualcomm should share part of its royalties with ETRI because the latter made a great contribution toward commercializing the CDMA technology.
Too bad that it took legal action to obtain payment for ETRI IPR. Then there's the whole issue of discriminatory royalty structures in the Chinese market. No wonder the Koreans are looking for the exit!
Cheers! Rob
GRUB!!!!
Wow, Nice Spin! But unfortunately, I'm not wearing the Koolaid shades so your interpretation of someone's plain-spoken words (that require no interpretation) doesn't work for me.
But hey, to each their own... Rob
Hi Data_Rox,
As an investor, my only allegiance is to common sense!
Besides, those were the words from the head of ETRI - a quote; nothing Andy O says/writes can change that fact. That he is so outrageous is amusing, 'cause I'm sure that he really gets under the skin of some of the more "devout" qcom followers.
Don't worry, I don't expect any QUALCOMM fan to understand this statement out of Korea's leading research institute...
Cheers! Rob
And Qualcomm is a company that's unloved even by its closest allies:
"Seven years ago we did not have international experience, we are just now starting joint venture work," Seon Jong Chung, president of Korean Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) once said. "So seven years ago we followed Qualcomm and the US way. At the time, the US way was more advanced than ours. Later on we found that the US way was not the international way. I'm very sorry, but we committed to such a mistake. We didn't use the modern, standardization approach."
Ouch! Finally realizing they chose a proprietary approach over an open standard. Oh well, I guess they'll fix that on this go around...
jmho. Rob
Yes, it's what Microsoft knows that investors ought to be worried about. No question.
JMHO. Rob
Given the government's vagueness and foot-dragging on 3G, says Ms Hsu, there is even the possibility that China might be thinking about skipping 3G altogether and going straight to 4G--whatever that turns out to be.
I wonder if they're sharing strategic directions/approaches with Nextel!? :^>
Later. Rob
Well I don't usually like to state the obvious. ;^>
What I meant was that "3g was toast", but a subset of that thought is that "DO is DOA".
The markets don't want any spending on unprofitable markets using unproven technologies. I understand South Korea/Japan are focusing on WLAN's/BWAN's as a major new growth/investment area for internet access - good for them! As for mobile phones, 2.5 (1X/GPRS) will be adequate for the indefinite, foreseeable future, IMHO.
Who knows, slapping an OFDM downlink on Wcdma may yet save that technology, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it...
Cheers! Rob
The markets have resoundingly rejected 3g...
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/stocktalk/msg.gsp?msgid=18485162
As predicted many months ago on SI, DO is DOA.
Just Mine (and Mr. Market's) Humble Opinion. Rob
Re: Wi-Fi and Big Guns
To state that the technology is complementary at this stage is presumptuous (since it implies a level of control by the telcos which simply doesn't exist) and smacks of desperately trying to associate with a hot new area of growth. That said, it's probably the thing that could still save some of the telcos from the train wreck that lies ahead... (telecom services price deflation combined with a mature market is a lethal combo).
jmho. Rob
Broadband Increases on Telecom's Decline
Online staff -- Electronic News, 1/23/2003
Broadband may be the poison in telecom's pill.
Two reports issued separately this week say that the weakened telecom market may be on its way out if it doesn't sharpen up its technology edge to compete with emerging bigger and better broadband products.
Cedar Knolls, N.J.-based Probe Research suggested that industry-driven events are, for the first time, beginning to hint at the possibility of industry "catastrophe" for telecom.
Probe characterizes a catastrophe scenario as one where any collapse would spread to the major players, resulting in a crippled market with no companies exerting leadership.
"In earlier years it was always assumed that only the confluence of a number of extreme external events could trigger a catastrophe scenario in the industry," said Victor Schnee, Probe's founder and president, in a statement. "Now, this is not necessarily exclusively the case."
Schnee believes the most disturbing part about the telecom catastrophe is that there is ample evidence suggesting the industry itself is a partial cause of its own collapse, and said it is a market with little change, dynamics at low ebb, and demand stifled with a slowdown in the rates of change and growth.
With telecom's sinking decline, broadband is gaining ground.
According to a study by Allied Business Intelligence (ABI), by incorporating advanced features such as personal video recorder (PVR), video on demand (VOD) and thin client functionality (video networking capabilities), set-top boxes (STB) are becoming more complex brain centers for the living room.
As technological advancements continue to improve, STB manufacturers will assist multiple service operators (MSO) in creating new technologies for subscribers.
However, that will not come cheap. MSOs will pay from $600 to $1,000 for a highly integrated STB versus $250 for a plain old box, ABI said.
"MSOs are demonstrating the willingness to spend more on increasing the functionality of set-top boxes," said Adam Becker, a senior analyst with ABI, in a statement. "With anemic growth of basic subscribers, reducing churn and increasing revenues per subscriber are the major tenets of service provider strategies. They can see the ROI (return on investment) potential and can justify the investment."
In 2002, 33.4 million STBs were sold, with 3.8 million of those units incorporating PVR functionality, according to ABI. By 2008, the market researcher predicts that of the 72.5 million STBs shipped, about 68 percent, or 49.2 million units, will have PVR capabilities.
http://www.e-insite.net/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA272101&title=Article&spaced....