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Got a wierd call also from verrtex international about goig - savw. Still dont understand why they called, but said they are working to raise the pps....little late for that. Their website is verrtex.com. Ethan ortez called me 858-366-4797.
SOMETHING BIG IS BREWING! I havent posted in over year, but have kept a close watch on Tivus and wanted to share this info with the board. My father worked for LodgeNet for just about 19 years and when I told him that Truckenmiller is now working with Tivus, he was amazed. He said I needed to keep an eye on Truckenmiller because he was the brains behind the foundation and success of LodgeNet. He was also the key to hotel sales and contracts. WE HAVE A GREAT OPPORTUNITY HERE!
This company has HUGE potential. Looking at the balance sheet and financials its crazy how cheap the shares are at this point in time.
http://investors.sparinc.com/financials-statements.cfm
AP IMPACT: Porn company is amassing 1-800 numbers
By DAVID B. CARUSO, Associated Press David B. Caruso, Associated Press
Tue Apr 19, 8:45 am ET
NEW YORK – For years, teenagers across the U.S. could call a toll-free hotline if they had embarrassing questions about AIDS and safe sex. Dial the same number now and you get a recording of giggling women offering to talk dirty to you.
"We both have big appetites for sex," they purr. "Pinch us and poke us. Spank us and tease us. We love it all. ... Enter your credit card number now."
Those naughty misdials, and countless others like them, appear to be no accident.
Records obtained by The Associated Press show that over the past 13 years, a little-known Philadelphia company called PrimeTel Communications has quietly gained control over nearly a quarter of all the 1-800 numbers in the U.S. and Canada, often by grabbing them the moment they are relinquished by previous users. As of March, it administered more 800 numbers than any other company, including Verizon and AT&T.
And many, if not most, of those 1.7 million numbers appear to be used for one thing: redirecting callers to a phone-sex service.
Dial 1-800-Chicago and instead of reaching a tourism hotline for the Windy City, you will hear a woman offering "one-on-one talk with a nasty girl" for $2.99 per minute. A similar thing happens if you punch in the initial digits of 1-800-Metallica, 1-800-Cadillac, 1-800-Minolta, 1-800-Cameras, 1-800-Worship or 1-800-Whirlpool.
All those numbers contain messages redirecting callers to erotic chat lines operated by National A-1 Advertising, a company that shares an office building with PrimeTel, has common ownership and lists many of the same people as executives or business contacts.
Many people who mistakenly dial a phone-sex line probably just get red-faced and hang up as quickly as possible. Others apparently respond to the come-on and supply their credit card number.
"I guess enough people go for it that it makes business sense," said Aelea Christofferson, president of ATL Communications, another company that specializes in toll-free services. Capturing callers who have reached the wrong number — whether because they punched an incorrect digit or dialed a number without realizing it had changed hands — is a "big new industry," she said.
Founded in 1995, PrimeTel is one of around 400 companies registered as toll-free service providers for the U.S. and Canada. That gives it the same power to reserve and assign unused toll-free numbers as big phone companies with millions of customers. But PrimeTel appears to be amassing numbers predominantly for one closely related partner, National A-1.
There is nothing illegal about using toll-free phone services to promote adult entertainment, and callers aren't charged unless they supply their credit card information.
Over the years, though, PrimeTel has been hit with lawsuits and complaints alleging that it is violating federal rules banning toll-free service providers from hoarding digits. Federal Communications Commission rules say that "routing multiple toll-free numbers to a single toll-free subscriber" is usually considered hoarding.
The FCC has never taken formal action against PrimeTel or National A-1, although federal authorities have expressed renewed interest lately in companies that handle toll-free numbers. In the fall, authorities sent subpoenas to several, including PrimeTel, asking for information on how they acquire numbers and why.
And in October, federal agents and Philadelphia police spent two days removing records from National A-1's office suite, although it is unclear if the action was related to the phone business.
The man listed on many government records as the top executive at both PrimeTel and National A-1, Richard Cohen, declined interview requests. A lawyer for both companies, Charles Helein, would not discuss their business dealings in detail but said PrimeTel isn't breaking any rules or engaging in prohibited practices such as selling numbers or obtaining ones it doesn't intend to use.
"They are extremely sensitive to the FCC. ... They wouldn't have them if they didn't need them," Helein said of PrimeTel's huge pool of numbers. He said the company's large share hasn't caused any shortages: "Everybody's got all the numbers they need."
Helein said the raid last fall was not aimed at PrimeTel. National A-1 and its owners have a variety of business enterprises headquartered at the same address, including a website sometimes used by prostitutes to advertise their services.
According to a database maintained by an industry organization, PrimeTel was listed as the administrator of record for at least 1,667,000 out of around 7.87 million active 800 numbers as of this March. Industry experts said PrimeTel also holds a dominant share of numbers with other toll-free codes, like 888 and 866, giving it several million numbers overall.
Sex isn't the only business. Some numbers reach advertisements for a mortgage brokerage based in New Jersey. Others promote a dieting website or a travel reservation service. Those instances appear to be outnumbered by ones in which callers reach a phone-sex solicitation.
Critics of the company say it isn't the sex that bothers them, but the acquisition of so many numbers.
Bill Quimby, whose company, TollFreeNumbers.com, specializes in helping businesses obtain easy-to-remember digits to connect with customers, said it can be a challenge to find a good match because PrimeTel has gobbled up such an outsized share of the supply.
"They started by getting numbers for phone sex, then getting good numbers in general, then they started taking all phone numbers," he said.
A spokesman for the FCC, David Fiske, would not comment on whether the agency had ever examined PrimeTel's activities but said the commission is actively enforcing rules on number hoarding.
PrimeTel appears to have benefited by grabbing numbers associated with famous names, like 1-800-Beatles, or numbers that have recently been canceled but are still advertised widely.
From the late 1980s until around 2005, teenagers who dialed the national hotline used by Teens Teaching AIDS Prevention would reach a call center in Kansas City, Mo., where other youths were waiting to answer questions about the disease. When that program ended, the number was soon routed to one of National A-1's sex lines. But the AIDS hotline number is still publicized by public health groups.
When New York City's Fire Department relinquished its toll-free fire safety hotline a few years ago because of an administrative slip-up, PrimeTel grabbed it the moment it became available. Soon enough, 1-800-FIRETIP was ringing into one of National A-1's phone-sex lines.
The same thing happened to the Cook County Jail in Chicago when it canceled its toll-free inmate information line, and to rape counseling hotlines in Maine and New Mexico.
The Republican National Committee once printed a fundraising mailer with a toll-free calling code and was publicly embarrassed when the calls began ringing in to one of National A-1's chat lines.
It happened to Glenn Noyes, too. Shortly after the toll-free number for his auto repair business in Edgewater, Md., was mistakenly canceled by his phone company, it began redirecting customers to an erotic chat service called "Intimate Encounters."
"It was pretty embarrassing," Noyes said. "I had people walking around wearing T-shirts with that number."
People in the telecommunications industry who are familiar with PrimeTel say that in addition to snapping up familiar 1-800 numbers, the company may be trying to capitalize on people's fat-finger dialing mistakes by acquiring numbers that are just a digit or two away from a major company's number.
Helein denied PrimeTel was trying to capitalize from misdials or engaged in a strategy to intercept calls made by customers of other businesses.
The key to PrimeTel's business is its access to the entity that controls the assignment of toll-free numbers, called the 800 Service Management System. Numbers are available on a first-come, first-served basis at a cost of about 9.6 cents per month. When a customer is done using a number, it is supposed to go back into the pool for use by someone else.
FCC rules expressly ban service providers from reserving a number unless they have a genuine customer lined up to use it. Speculating in numbers is banned. They are considered public resources that may not be bought or sold. The big phone companies that supply toll-free numbers make their money not by selling the number itself but by providing telephone service.
But there are also companies that are illegally buying and selling the numbers, and they are a hot commodity, sometimes even available on eBay.
Such numbers are so highly sought-after that several companies have built powerful computer systems that search the database every day, looking for digits of potential value. Numbers can be reserved as quickly as 95 milliseconds after they are released by former users.
Helein said PrimeTel has been the target of complaints from other industry players who are "jealous" of the company's computer systems.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110419/ap_on_hi_te/us_phone_sex_kings
5,037 people like this
Is it me or that is a pretty large number of people who like Tivus? Some other stocks I follow (in the pinks) dont have anywhere near that amount.
According to this Tivus Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/TivusConnect?ref=ts
That is good news.
Philadelphia Marriott Downtown
Is this the 1408 room Host hotel Tivus is now installing it's system in?
http://www.marriott.com/hotels/hotel-rooms/phldt-philadelphia-marriott-downtown/
TIVUS IS MAKING AN IMPACT
Lodgenet is making some changes to focus on their "next generation Envision platform."
??Anyone know how many of Lodgenet's hotels have this system??
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lodgenet-announces-launch-of-credit-facility-amendment-117694583.html
SIOUX FALLS, S.D., March 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- LodgeNet Interactive Corporation (Nasdaq: LNET), the leading provider of media and connectivity solutions to hospitality and healthcare businesses, announced today that it is seeking to amend its existing Credit Facility. The proposed amendment will modify certain terms of the existing Credit Facility, including an increase in the permitted leverage under the Facility, the creation of a specific preferred stock dividend payment basket, and the potential to extend the term of the Credit Facility beyond its current expiration in April, 2014. The proposed amendment will also reduce the commitments under the Company's Revolving Credit Facility, increase the interest rate and required amortization under the Facility and adjust other covenants. The Company is and has remained in full compliance with all of its Credit Facility covenants since obtaining the Credit Facility in April 2007.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20080115/AQTU120LOGO)
"We have proactively managed our business through the recession by diversifying our revenue base, significantly increasing our free cash flow and decreasing our outstanding debt by more than one-third over the past two years," said Scott C. Petersen, Chairman and CEO. "As we enter 2011, we are experiencing strong interest in our High Definition interactive television systems and, in particular, our next generation Envision platform. These systems provide state of the art media services to our hotel partners and strong financial returns to LodgeNet. Therefore, we believe it is in the best interest of both our debt and equity investors to increase our flexibility to invest more of our operating cash flow into the rollout of our HD platform and other growth initiatives at our best hotels throughout North America. In addition, the creation of a specific dividend basket will allow LodgeNet to continue to pay quarterly dividends on our Series B Preferred shares."
http://www.lodgenet.com/oursolutions/forhotels/ihdtv/pages/envisionhome.aspx
Welcome to Envision. Our next gen iHDTV solution, Envision revolutionizes how guests and hotels will use the guest room TV by connecting it to the cloud.
All-new guest apps and 1:1 interactivity coupled with the most scalable and cost-effective solution on the market makes for a winning combination that will increase revenue, streamline operations, reduce expenses and wow guests.
WHAT IS ENVISION?
• Our next generation iHDTV platform, connecting the guest room TV to the cloud | Opens the door for mega options in Web content and more
• A whole new ball game with easy apps to connect guests to the things that matter most to them | This is more than entertainment; it’s access to local attractions, dining, weather and all the things guest look for when they’re on the go
• Powerful, engaging ways for hotels to connect to guests like never before | What can you do with real-time messaging and 1:1 interactivity? The possibilities are endless
• The most scalable solution on the market | Can be delivered via a wide range of infrastructures including coax, twisted pair and others
• The most cost-effective solution on the market | Available as part of the LodgeNet Partners Program (LPP), with no capital investment for qualifying hotels
WHAT CAN ENVISION DO FOR YOU?
• Increase Revenue. Transaction and Entertainment apps are revenue opportunities waiting to happen. Drive sales at your spa, gift shop and more plus bring in new promotional revenue to help pay for your system. • Streamline Operations and Reduce Expenses. Eliminate printing costs and automate guest requests to save staff time and money. It’s easy with Envision.
• Increase Guest Satisfaction and Brand Loyalty. Impress your guests with a fully interactive HD experience they’ll remember long after checkout.
If you're in charge of a corporate brand, Envision can scale across as many properties as you want right up to your entire portfolio. Helping you manage your brand image, improve guest satisfaction and loyalty, and add value for your franchisees.
GREAT NEWS!
Thanks A1! Just would like new investors to have an idea of the potential of Tivus when Hotels get online.
Can we add this as a sticky?
MOMENTUM BUILDERS
People like this are growing in number who are now utilizing Go800!
MARK EDWARDS (http://twitter.com/MarkEdwards)
OK, this is kind of a @Maddow Moment Of Geek, but if you txt my name to 46800, it will connect you with me. I'm quite geeked about @Go800
3,051 Following
2,890 Followers
98 Listed
Mark Edwards
Broadcast And Online Content Innovator
Program Director at Soft Rock 98.1 KUDL and Gen-X Radio 99.7, Entercom Communications/Kansas City. Pioneering social media and Web 2.0 development for radio stations. Over a quarter of a century as a highly successful radio Program Director and Product Manager. Extensive experience in brand building and marketing broadcast and online properties. Award winner for radio programming and innovative direct marketing programs. Where I grew up Chicago Places I've lived Indianapolis; Chicago; Philadelphia; Denver; Boston; St. Louis Companies I've worked for CBS; Entercom; Bonneville International; Viacom; Greater Media; Knight Quality Stations; Fairbanks Broadcasting; Infinity Broadcasting Schools I've attended University Of Evansville
http://about.me/markedwards
IF Comm WILL HAVE A HUGE IMPACT ON GOIG!!!!
Key facts from one of IF Comm's Clients...
•In a little over 6 years, LOVEFiLM has become a leading European film subscription service, combining the benefits of DVD rental by post and, more recently, watching movies online via the Player (on the PC, the PlayStation®3 or streamed direct to TV). Customers can therefore choose how they want to watch from a selection of over 70,000 titles, including HD/Blu-ray DVDs, video games and digital streaming.
•LOVEFiLM is an official PlayStation®3 integrated subscription film service partner
•LOVEFiLM has over 1.4 million members and operates in the UK, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Germany
•LOVEFiLM weekly newsletters reach over one million members
•LOVEFiLM was a pioneer in digital film delivery in the UK and has recently launched the LOVEFiLM Player with thousands of digital titles available for members to watch on their TV or PC. The LOVEFiLM Player is available to all users of LOVEFiLM. For those on an Unlimited package the service comes at no extra cost. Premium titles are available to everyone on a pay-per-view basis, and a number of titles are available to all site visitors for free with advertising support
•The LOVEFiLM Player is becoming available through a range of internet-enabled devices – including Sony and Samsung – taking LOVEFiLM directly into members’ living rooms through their TV sets
•LOVEFiLM customers have generated 80 million ratings, 843,000 member reviews and generate around 2 million trailer views per month – information which helps LOVEFiLM to promote the most relevant titles for customers to choose from
•LOVEFiLM also sells DVDs, Blu-ray and video games through the LOVEFiLM shop
•LOVEFiLM is Hitwise’s 2009 Number 1 website based on market share of visits among all UK websites in the Entertainment – Movies industry (ranked 4th in the Shopping and Classifieds – Video and Games industry)
•LOVEFiLM offers a range of rental options in each market with free postage and no late fees. In the UK these include £4.99 a month allowing members to have one DVD at a time (limit of two per month. Does not include online viewing), £5.99 a month for one DVD at a time (limit of three per month plus 2 hours online viewing ), £7.99 for two DVDs at a time (limit of four per month plus 4 hours online viewing), £9.99 a month for one DVD out at a time (Unlimited DVDs by post and online viewing), £12.99 for two at a time (Unlimited DVDs by post and online viewing) and £15.99 gives the option for three DVDs at a time (Unlimited DVDs by post and online viewing). Members on an Unlimited package have access to the LOVEFiLM Player at no extra cost
•LOVEFiLM also offers a range of video games rental options in the UK market to support gaming across XBox 360, Xbox, PS3, PS2, Wii and DS. These include £5.99 a month for one disc at a time (limit of three per month. Does not include online viewing), £9.99 a month for two discs at a time (limit of three per month plus 4 hours online viewing), £14.99 a month for two discs at a time (Unlimited discs by post and online viewing) and £18.99 for three discs at a time (Unlimited discs by post and online viewing), all with free postage and no late fees
•LOVEFiLM UK awards include: British Video Association’s award for the UK’s Best Rental Service in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008, won the fast-growing media company Media Momentum award in 2005, 2007 and 2008, UK technology – Innovation & Growth award for Mediatech Impact of the Year 2008, Home Entertainment Week awards for Rentailer of the Year 2007 and 2008, the 2008 Fast Growth Business Award for Retail/Leisure business of the Year, featured in The Sunday Times top 100 fastest growing private technology companies in 2010, 2009, 2008, and 2007, awarded 3rd place in The Sunday Times top 100 private equity-backed companies with the fastest-growing profits in 2010, a finalist in the National Customer Service Awards 2008, finalist in the Retail Week awards 2009, awarded 5th place in the Deloitte Fast 50 UK 2009, awarded 22nd place in the Deloitte Fast 500 EMEA fastest growing public and private technology companies and named Company Of The Year at the Growing Business Awards 2009
•The group currently works with major partners in the UK including Tesco, easy Group, CD Wow, Guardian News Media, Odeon and Vue Cinemas, some of whom offer a fully white-labeled online DVD rental service
http://corporate.blog.lovefilm.com/
LodgeNet (LNET) Comments on Research Report; Wants to Clarify Any 'Misleading' Statements
January 19, 2011 1:06 PM EST
LodgeNet Interactive Corporation (Nasdaq: LNET) issued the following response to a Craig-Hallum Capital research report released earlier this morning.
From the release:
"Today an analyst reported that one of LodgeNet's largest hotel customers has implemented a policy regarding adult content, and raised concerns regarding the impact of such a decision on LodgeNet's Guest Entertainment revenues. The Company was not aware of Craig-Hallum's report in advance, but believes that the following information should be considered in connection with the report in order to clarify the contents of the report and assure that the information contained therein is not inaccurate or misleading.
LodgeNet has always offered hotels options to restrict mature content. The customer in question has an option to restrict adult content, but only beginning in 2013. The customer and LodgeNet have adjusted the economic model in such a way as to assure that the Company is economically indifferent to decisions made by the brand to offer mature content.
No existing agreements are affected, and future agreements with this customer are expected to be structured in a manner that also do not have a material adverse impact on the Company's return on invested capital. Similarly, there is no expected economic impact as a result of this agreement in either 2011 or 2012. There is no change in programming expected at currently installed properties in 2011 or 2012.
The Company's ongoing relationship with the customer in question is good, and LodgeNet is actively engaged with the customer in discussions regarding the upgrade of their existing systems to high-definition and providing new services that would generate incremental revenues.
It has been widely disclosed the Company has been diversifying its revenue base, and is less reliant on revenue from mature content than at any point in the past. The Company's next-generation Envision system integrates in-room technology that connects the Company's interactive TV system to the "cloud" and permits streaming video and other applications that would generate incremental revenues.
The Company stands behind its guidance, and has not adjusted its projections or outlook as a result of the agreement referenced in the report. The information in the report is not expected to have any impact on the Company's covenant compliance.
The report also states that another hotel chain plans to remove 50,000 rooms of video-on-demand over the next six months. The decision of hotels in the economy sector to remove VOD systems and revert to free-to-guest programming only has also been widely reported. The systems in question are nearly all tape-based systems at the end of their useful life, and which generate marginal VOD revenues. The loss of these rooms has been anticipated, and will not have a significant impact on the Company's revenues or prospects."
http://www.streetinsider.com/Corporate+News/LodgeNet+%28LNET%29+Comments+on+Research+Report%3B+Wants+to+Clarify+Any+%27Misleading%27+Statements/6223471.html
???May have a good impact for TIVU???
LodgeNet (LNET) Shares Plunge 26% as Craig-Hallum Considers Issues with Customers
January 19, 2011 12:48 PM EST
Shares of LodgeNet (Nasdaq: LNET) have tumbled very sharply today amid some concerning comments and a downgrade from an analyst at Craig-Hallum.
The stock last traded at $3.03, down more than 26% from yesterday's closing price.
The analyst, who now rates LNET shares a Neutral, disclosed information that a large hotel customer will likely ban adult video-on-demand movies to it's properties following the expiration of its contract with LodgeNet. Further, Craig-Hallum has also gotten word that another hotel operator could remove nearly 50,000 of LodgeNet's units from rooms over the next 6 months.
To track all the market-moving analyst action on shares of LodgeNet, visit our Analyst Ratings page.
http://www.streetinsider.com/Analyst+Comments/LodgeNet+%28LNET%29+Shares+Plunge+26%25+as+Craig-Hallum+Considers+Issues+with+Customers/6223417.html
Twitter Courts Businesses to Advertise
By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER
Twitter has a message for businesses: the micro-blogging site is open for business.
On Wednesday, Twitter introduced a new version of its Web site for businesses, which opens the door to any advertiser who wants to appear on Twitter. Previously, Twitter had limited the number of advertisers and said it had a line out the door.
Dick Costolo, Twitter’s chief executive, said in September that Twitter would offer self-serve advertising to small businesses next year. The new site does not yet do that, but has an online form that advertisers can use to contact Twitter. Twitter is also offering advertisers a dashboard that tracks things like how many people have seen or mentioned a business’s posts — a major step toward solving Twitter’s analytics riddle.
Many big-name advertisers, like Coca-Cola and HBO, have flocked to Twitter’s new advertising model and its 175 million registered users, but other advertisers say they are waiting to see whether and how Twitter advertising works.
Twitter’s advertising products, which were introduced last spring, include Promoted Tweets that appear at the top of the Twitter feed when people search Twitter and, for some Twitter apps like HootSuite and TweetDeck, in the timelines of users who follow similar accounts to those of the advertiser. Twitter charges each time a user forwards, replies to, clicks on or marks a Twitter post as a favorite.
Businesses can also buy Promoted Trends, which Twitter has said sell for $100,000 a day and appear in the list of trending topics, or Promoted Accounts, for which Twitter suggests that relevant users follow a business.
The new site also includes a primer on Twitter for new users and advertisers, case studies of companies like Best Buy and Etsy and a list of best practices (“respond to compliments and feedback in real time” and “Tweet updates about special offers”) for companies using Twitter for free to communicate with customers, as many business, both big and small, have been doing.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/15/twitter-courts-businesses-to-advertise/
WRONG! Texting worked during Katrina. In fact it was the only way we were able to communicate with each other after the storm. Maybe you didnt do your homeowork before posting such info!
Review this article. Katrina – Recovery: Verizon Explains Text Messaging Is "Most Efficient Use of Wireless Networks"
Connecting with Hurricane Katrina Survivors Through Text Messages Uses Less Bandwidth
http://wireless.sys-con.com/node/128261
Hong Kong Update
• Over 300 shareholders texted GOIG to G0800 last week.
• Working on partnership with Mr. Foo? (Instrumental to China expansion).
• Will be advertising Go800 with Lift up America W/ National industry leaders and sports personality.
• Editing video to 30 sec clips for more web exposure
• Wants to increase 10 fold website clicks (G0800.com)
• Major bank considering using the service (at least 50 key words)
o The bank is currently testing the system.
o Ike anticipates to signing them in July.
• Identified a national media figure to host go800 gala event.
New update for the week of 28 June!!!
Text GOIG to Go800.
NEW GOIG STOCK TICKER UPDATE