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Kids: Your cell phone isn’t worth it

Joe — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:00:10 +0000

Why is the story of a 16-year-old girl attacking her parents with knives a significant story for a prepaid cell phone blog? Because the issue stemmed from cell phone use, specifically prepaid. The girl’s father believed that she stole money from her mother’s purse to purchase more prepaid minutes, so he took the phone away. This allegedly turned her homicidal, as she wielded two kitchen knives, forcing her parents to lock themselves in their bedroom until the police showed up. Your cell phone just isn’t worth it. The girl now faces multiple felony charges.

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Kids: Your cell phone isn’t worth it

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Kids: Your cell phone isn’t worth it

Small carriers band together to promote rural competition

Joe — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:30:31 +0000

Honestly, upon reading the headline to this press release, I was hoping for a list of companies involved. After about a half hour of Googling, I’ve got nothing, so let’s get down to the issue at hand. NextGen Mobile LLC has announced the partnership of 28 “independent mobile operators and commercial mobile license owners,” which will take on issues facing the competition in and advancement of rural wireless. This issue has become a bit more prominent recently. Rural carriers have bemoaned policies which disfavor them for larger network operators. The two recent spectrum auctions, 700 MHz and AWS-1, exacerbated the issue, as has the universal service fund cap. This is the small guy’s way of fighting back.

Some words from the CEO:

“Forming NextGen Mobile was a no-brainer,” says E. Kelly Bond, Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of NextGen Mobile. “Once we realized that each and every one of our companies was separately facing the exact same market pressures, only in different geographic markets, it became clear that we can work together on a myriad of projects to help nurture the development and survivability of small and rural mobile networks. In this era of unprecedented consolidation within the wireless sector, small operators, especially those in sparsely populated markets, need to be resourceful in not just cutting costs, but also attracting and retaining customers. NextGen Mobile is the perfect vehicle to help mobile operators remain competitive while at the same time remaining independent and true to their local subscriber bases.”

Bond’s email address is from pstel.com, which is Public Service Telephone Company. Secretary/Vice Chair Craig Freeman hails from Adams Telephone Co-Operative, and CFO Bob Martin is from ,PC Management, a company which provides wireless managed services. Presumably, these companies are part of those which make up NextGen. These companies all use, or plan to use, GSM technology, including UMTS, and which will expand to LTE.

Martin shares a bit of what the company’s reason for forming and what they plan to do:

“A huge obstacle for any mobile operator who is not one of the ‘Big 5′ carriers is procurement of the latest, must-have handsets. By aggregating our orders, NextGen Mobile hopes to entice device manufacturers to develop and deliver the next ‘it’ handset or data card to those customers shut-out in the past. This is an unprecedented opportunity, not just for small operators, but more importantly, for our valuable customers.”

It sure seems like a noble cause. We’ll keep up to see which companies comprise this organization, as well as the initiatives they spearhead.

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Small carriers band together to promote rural competition

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Small carriers band together to promote rural competition

Wireless shakeup in Canada

Joe — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:15:32 +0000

As we’ve discussed before, the wireless picture in Canada isn’t so hot. A few incumbent parties seem to be keeping the prices high for everyone. That won’t be so for much longer. A chunk — 40 percent — of the 105 megahertz spectrum up there is set to be auctioned off. The good news: Rogers, Bell Canada, and Telus won’t be eligible to bid. This, of course, has them upset, but honestly, this is the best thing Canada can do with its wireless situation.

“When the new entrants get their gloves on the whip and start rolling out things, we’re going to see a lot more creativity in pricing options,” said Iain Grant, managing director of telecom consultant Seaboard Group.

While an initial fear is that these new companies will take years and years to get off the ground, rules have been established that allow these new entrants to roam on the incumbent networks for at least five years. This mandate will probably stick for as long as it takes to build the network — so long as there is a good faith effort to do so.

Eamon Hoey, senior partner with Hoey Associates Management Consultants Inc., says the new business models brought about by competition “will deal with the angst of consumers on contract issues.” Among those long-term agreements and additional monthly fees for network access and roaming.

“The more nimble companies will be contractless, simple to understand and you have options to buy buckets of minutes for prepaid prices,” says Mr. Hoey.

Wireless in Canada is already super expensive, so you might as well justify the price by having more flexibility. One for the other, right?

[National Post]

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Wireless shakeup in Canada

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Wireless shakeup in Canada

Mobile phone payments in 2008?

Stuart — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 17:00:47 +0000

Maybe for Canada. It appears that Visa Canada is working with Royal Bank to make this a reality. According to Visa: “”mobile devices will be embedded with Near Field Communication (NFC) contactless chips that will enable users to make purchases using the Visa payWave feature just as they would with a contactless payment card.” Sweet deal, we say.

[Financial Post]

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Mobile phone payments in 2008?

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Mobile phone payments in 2008?

Nokia’s prices drop, profits grow

Stuart — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 17:00:54 +0000

Now, this story gives us pause to consider the markup on handsets. Nokia, the worlds No. 1 maker of handsets, announced a flurry of good news yesterday. Among it was that they now control 39 percent of the mobile market, up from 36 percent last year. The big news, to us anyway, is that their profit margin for their phones jumped to 22.6 percent, from 13 percent a year ago. That’s pretty damn significant. And they’re doing it with lower phone prices.

The average selling price of a Nokia pone fell from $132 in the second quarter to $116 in the third quarter. So they’re making greater profits from lowering their prices? Hmm…sounds fishy to us.

The data is skewed, though, and we’d be remiss to omit this caveat: There have been increases in shipments to China, where phones sell for much cheaper than they do here. That, to us, signals a lower quality of phone being shipped to China, rather than rates for the same phones being cheaper there.

The company has been making some big moves. On Oct. 1, Nokia said it would buy Navteq (NYSE:NVT) , the world’s top seller of mapping software for GPS and other devices, for $8.1 billion. In late August, Nokia said it would launch a Web site where its cell phone users could download music, maps, games and photos as it seeks to expand revenue sources. The moves pushes Nokia into the Web services field against a host of new rivals.

We appreciate the progress, Nokia. Problem is, over here in the U.S. a lot of those acquisitions don’t do us much good. Software is locked and blocked by the carriers, so downloading music to a Nokia handset through Verizon can only be done through Verizon’s “Get It Now” service. It’s a shame, really, because the choice would be nice. Such is the wireless industry in America, though.

All that said, we’re fans of the N95.

[CNN Money]

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Nokia’s prices drop, profits grow

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Nokia’s prices drop, profits grow

Sanyo out of mobile phone business

Stuart — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 17:00:58 +0000

You know, we’ve always been fans of the Sanyo Katana. Yeah, it’s basically a rip-off of the RAZR, but we saw so many damn people carrying them when it first came out — as well as a billiondy commercials for it — that we got sick of it real quick. Once we saw the Katana, we saw an alternative, and one which we thought was superior in its own way. Now, though, Sanyo is ditching the mobile phone portion of its business. No, it’s not completely folding, but rather changing ownership. Meet Kyocera, soon to be the No. 7 producer of mobile phones worldwide.

There are few details of this deal, mainly because it’s not finalized yet. Sanyo had realized many losses from this aspect of the business, so selling it off makes total sense. It’s not like they had a shoddy product line; it’s just that few U.S. carriers picked up their phones.

So now Kyocera, a company we’re not too enthralled with, takes over. Honestly, the only experiences we’ve had with their phones have left us with a poor impression. They’re flimsy, and not the most functional phones. Maybe the acquisition of Sanyo will help them boost handset quality.

Or maybe Sanyo should have just bought Kyocera.

[Reuters]

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Sanyo out of mobile phone business

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Sanyo out of mobile phone business

Is your cell boosting your brain function?

Stuart — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 15:00:36 +0000

The September issue of the International Journal of Neuroscience is being released in a week or so, though we didn’t know that until this morning. Our interest relates to a mobile phone study conducted that relates to the device’s effect on brain power. Until this point, most studies noted a negative effect on brain power in high-volume cell users. This one, however, takes a different tack, and one that might be a little more favorable to talkaholics.

The study written about in the journal utilized 300 people: 100 non-cell users, 100 frequent users, and 100 moderate users. “Neuropsychological functions such as attention, memory and executive function and personality traits were assessed.”

The results are that frequent cell users show better focused attention. This is because frequent cell users are often surrounded by distractions, from noises to people, and they learn to shut out anything not pertinent.

The results weren’t all good, though. The study, like the many that preceded it, shows that frequent cell users display “more slow activity (increased Delta and Theta) and a slowing of the Alpha Peak Frequency.” This can at first glance be construed as risky, since Alzheimers comprises a slowing of brain activity. However, the scientists have said that the level of risk is not the same.

What do you prefer: Slowed brain activity and increased focus, or quicker brain activity and not as intent focus? We’ll take the latter. You?

[Cellular-News]

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Is your cell boosting your brain function?

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Is your cell boosting your brain function?

World mobile phone subscriptions double landlines

Joe — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 15:00:10 +0000

You should see our news feeds sometime. Okay, so they’re not really that interesting, but they do help illustrate this point. You see, while most of the news comes from American outlets, you’d be surprised at the number of news items we see about cell phones in India, Senegal, Pakistan, China, and other Eastern nations that we don’t normally associate with technology. Hell, we also get feeds from Africa. And that’s not to mention the glut of news we see from Europe — the UK and the Netherlands most frequently. Mobile phones are spreading everywhere, leading to an enormous number of worldwide subscribers: 2.68 billion.

The craziest part is that mobile phones have left landlines in the dust. Only (and we say “only” in relative terms) 1.27 such lines exist in the world. It seems illogical at first glance, right? Landlines have been around longer — far longer — than cell phones. Have cell phones really come to replace the landline at such a torrid rate?

Not really. Many of the Eastern countries we mentioned never had a real phone network. Hence, they didn’t have residential landlines in the first place. Building a network of cell towers might be more costly because of the technology, but it’s certainly less of a hassle, as physical wire doesn’t have to be run all across the country.

The world’s two most populated countries, China and India, have been at the forefront of this movement. In the first three months of this year alone, they added a combined 200 million to the world mobile phone count.

We lied in the second paragraph, by the way; there is an even crazier part to this. Just 11 years ago, there were fewer than one billion phone subscriptions, landline and mobile combined. Of course, back then mobile phones were more Zack Morris and less Derek Zoolander.

This number is clearly on the rise, too. With Africa developing at a greater rate, and kids getting cell phones at younger and younger ages, we can see the world phone subscription mark hitting 5 billion in the not so distant future. But we’re not analysts, so don’t ask us when.

[Canadian Press]

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

World mobile phone subscriptions double landlines

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

World mobile phone subscriptions double landlines

Joopz adds another dynamic to text messaging

Stuart — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 15:00:41 +0000

So we found out about this new text messaging service called Joopz, and we think it’s compelling enough to share. See, it lets you send text messages from your computer to any mobile phone. Wait. Don’t leave! There’s more! If a reply is sent from the recipient, it sends right back to your computer. Okay, see? They do have something unique to offer. You can also send text messages en masse with their service, which has us hoping that they have some top-notch spam detectors.

To us, this looks like an excellent personal productivity tool. One of the best features is that if you are texting someone from your computer, you can forward that conversation to your phone and pick it up on the go. No more jagged “gotta jet, later” ends to what could be important conversations.

The multiple recipients feature is a bit flexible, too. You have the option of either being the only recipient of replies, or you can have it act as a chat, where all replies are sent to everyone. That should make some “on the go” meetings a bit easier to manage. To make that even easier, Joopz records all conversations.

There is also a message scheduler, for which there are dozens of uses. Is there a birthday coming up that you really don’t want to forget? Schedule yourself a text message reminder. Have a big meeting tomorrow? Set a text that will send to you 20 minutes prior. Heck, you can even schedule one to be sent to your colleagues, so they’re prepared too.

You know what? This really seems like a common-sense service that should have been around well before now. But it’s here, and everyone should at least give it a whirl, especially if your work habits would improve with such an organizational device.

Anyone can try Joopz for free, which covers 10 messages per month. For heavier users, there are options to pay $2.95 per month, or $19.95 per year.

[Joopz] via [Datamation]

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Joopz adds another dynamic to text messaging

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Joopz adds another dynamic to text messaging

Nokia teams with Microsoft to enhance mobile entertainment

Joe — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 17:00:05 +0000

One of the factors holding back a more widespread selection of mobile entertainment programming is copyright. So many artists and corporations won’t allow their content to be used on a mobile platform because they fear piracy. Nokia has gone a long way in protecting copyrights, having developed S60, the most widely used copy protection software in the cell phone industry. Now they’re teaming with Microsoft to solidify the issue, hoping to bring more entertainment options to the mobile platform.

The idea is that Nokia will implement PlayReady, Microsoft’s Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology, into the S60 software. PlayReady allows people to share media with others while still acting within copyright boundaries.

The move represents the filling of mutual needs by the two companies:

As cell-phone prices decline, handset vendors are looking for new revenue from potentially lucrative software operations, while at the same time Microsoft is looking for new revenue from the mobile space.

If you remember back about seven months, Bill Gates actually spoke out against DRM, saying it would be better if we all just bought a CD and ripped it. However, that just isn’t a feasible scenario, given everyone’s rabid taste for purely digital music. We understand; we haven’t bought a physical CD in years.

So it appears that this is a move of necessity, not a move of want. We have issue with DRM and how it’s implemented, but that’s a subject for another day — and likely on another blog.

We just hope this DRM system isn’t as restrictive as the one Apple has had in place.

[Washington Post]

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Nokia teams with Microsoft to enhance mobile entertainment

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Nokia teams with Microsoft to enhance mobile entertainment