How to Buy a Cell Phone

With hundreds of handsets to choose from, it can be tough to find the right one. Here's what you need to know to dial up the perfect phone.

These days, smartphones get all the buzz, but the vast majority of handsets sold in the U.S. are actually feature phones: camera phones, music phones, rugged phones, messaging phones, or just plain voice phones.

Unlike smartphones, feature phones are a matter of "what you see is what you get." They don't receive magical software upgrades or run thousands of additional apps, as does the iPhone, for example. That doesn't mean they only make calls, though you can find phones that only make calls, if a basic phone is what you want. But most feature phones include some combination of a camera, a basic Web browser, e-mailing and text messaging apps, and music and video players.

Feature phones are typically less expensive than smartphones. They're available in a much wider range of shapes and sizes, and on a broader range of plans, including prepaid options. Monthly service fees for feature phones are generally cheaper too, which can make a multipurpose feature phone a good bet.

Ready to find your phone? Here's what you should consider before you start shopping:

First, Choose Your Carrier

Because all the national carriers sell a wide variety of phones, choosing your service provider should be your first move. Here's a quick rundown of what each of the primary U.S. carriers offers:

AT&T boasts nationwide coverage and a terrific selection of phones, particularly for texting. But some folks, especially in the Northeast, complain that AT&T's coverage isn't all it's cracked up to be when it comes to reliability and quality.

Cricket and MetroPCS are new "unlimited" carriers that offer much lower rates than their competitors and don't require contracts. But they aren't available everywhere, and they have a somewhat limited selection of phones.

Sprint is relatively inexpensive, and offers some neat media services and a solid high-speed network. It also has the most open approach to third-party apps, running the best e-mail software and letting its subscribers add a wide range of Java applications to their feature phones.

T-Mobile offers cutting-edge phones at relatively low monthly rates and enjoys a reputation for good customer service. But its nationwide coverage isn't as complete as AT&T's or Verizon's.

Verizon Wireless is famed for its excellent network quality and good customer service. Its prices, however, can be higher than the competition's, and the carrier is typically slow to offer new handset features, like 5-megapixel cameras. But when it comes to voice quality, many Verizon phones excel.

Virgin Mobile is a nationwide prepaid carrier that uses Sprint's network but can undercut Sprint's rates. Virgin has relatively few phones on its roster, and those it does offer are mostly low-end.

You may also see unlocked phones on the market that work with GSM networks such as AT&T and T-Mobile but aren't sold by the carriers. These handsets are often imports. Because they're generally more expensive than carrier-approved-and-subsidized phones, few are sold in the U.S.

Next, What Are Your Feature Priorities?

Because feature phones do almost everything, you should decide what capabilities you need or want most. Start narrowing down your choices by first ranking the five major categories of features in order of importance: voice, messaging, camera, media playback, and Web/GPS/games/miscellaneous. Once that's done, you'll be able to concentrate on a filtered-down selection of feature phones.

If you're big on text messaging, you want to focus on messaging functionality. If you've got a small child, a camera is probably important. If you want to ditch your iPod, keep an eye out for good media features.

Since it's a given that you want your calls to sound good, you may feel you should focus mainly on voice rather than other features. You don't need to worry too much about that. The vast majority of phones sold today have solid voice capabilities. Paying attention to the other features you like, and then double-checking to make sure the phone you choose delivers on voice quality, makes it easier to sift through a long list of handsets.

Sprint offers two new unlimited service plans

Sprint Nextel today ups the ante in the wireless wars.

Reeling from a poor financial performance in 2007 and projecting another bad year, Sprint is trying to lure cord cutters, cell phone junkies, business professionals and other high-dollar wireless customers.

In the process, Dan Hesse, Sprint Nextel’s chief executive, is hoping to take the uncertainty out of monthly wireless bills.

The company today begins offering two new unlimited service plans offering more value for the money than those unveiled by their competitors.

A $99.99 “Unlimited Everything” plan includes voice calls, text messaging and a laundry list of Internet-based data services. An $89.99 “Talk/Message/Connect” plan offers unlimited voice calls and text messaging, but charges extra for access to the Internet or other data services.

The rates undercut competitors AT&T Wireless, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile by as much as 40 percent. None of those companies offers unlimited access to the rapidly growing wireless data market, which includes services as diverse as phone-based TV and turn-by-turn navigation.

Hesse called the Sprint plans “bold” and “unprecedented.”

“To us, this is the beginning of a new era in wireless,” Hesse said.

According to surveys by organizations ranging from Consumer Reports to the University of Michigan to AARP, problems with mobile phone bills are one of the leading consumer complaints nationally.

After selecting plans that provide a set number of minutes for a set price, customers complain that add-on charges for navigation, Web browsing and text messaging bulk up their bills.

“Wireless today is about much more than just voice,” Hesse said. “It is about data services — texting, e-mail, video, pictures, music, navigation, surfing the Web and more. Customers want these applications, but without complexity and without having to worry about their bill.”

Wall Street, however, was less than impressed.

“I’m not seeing anything here that’s going to change the trajectory much,” said Timothy Horan, an analyst with Oppenheimer & Co.

Horan noted that T-Mobile has a plan that offers 1,000 minutes of talk, 1,000 text messages and e-mail for $55.

John Garcia, Sprint’s acting chief marketing officer, said services offered by Sprint and T-Mobile aren’t comparable.

“They are still in a fairly slow network and their data offering is primarily just text and e-mail,” Garcia said during a call with investment analysts. “And anything else you try to do is, like I said, slow.”

Some type of move by Sprint on unlimited calling plans was expected. The company’s three leading rivals announced unlimited service plans last week.

The announcement was the lone positive note Thursday in a cacophony of bad news released as the Overland Park wireless company announced its quarterly and annual financial reports.

Sprint wrote off $29.7 billion in the fourth quarter and said the company will lose 1.2 million postpaid customers during the first three months of this year.

Hesse said Sprint’s plan differentiates the company from its competitors while offering customers simplicity.

In some ways, Hesse is going back to the future.

While with AT&T’s wireless division in 1998, Hesse introduced one-price calling for cell phones, eliminating different charges for local and long distance calls. At the time, consumers were charged extra for cell phone use outside their home region or for long distance calls.

Before the plan was introduced, Hesse said, only about 16 percent of wireless consumers regularly used their phone in areas that would bring extra roaming charges.

“We penalized any customer who actually wanted to use the mobility function,” he said. “You didn’t take your cell phone when you traveled and you didn’t make long distance calls on your cell phone. The market was small because the wireless industry made sure it was small.”

The plan to standardize rates is a whole new revolution, Hesse said.

“At our rates, we feel we have struck a very healthy balance between fiscal responsibility and a broader reach, which will grow the wireless data market,” Hesse said.

William Power, an analyst with Robert W. Baird & Co., said the plan puts Sprint in a competitive position for the most lucrative customers. But, in a report to investors, he included a caveat.

“That is a relatively small piece of the overall market,” Power said.

Power noted that Wall Street had been concerned Sprint would start a wireless price war.

“On the whole, the pricing actions do not appear to be as aggressive as some had feared,” Power said. “The lack of a stronger lower-priced offering could be positive for the industry.”

Hesse conceded that only a small percentage of current customers are coughing up $100 a month for mobile phone service.

“It’s correct that today a small percentage of users spend $100 a month on wireless,” Hesse said. “But that could change. It could be that it’s because we make it difficult for users, or really very expensive, for users to use broadband capabilities on the phone.”

Roger Entner, vice president of the communications sector for IAG Research, applauded Sprint’s plan.

“It’s enough to give them differentiation, but not enough to make everybody freak out and start a price war,” Entner said.

Entner said Sprint’s plan also offers another benefit overlooked by other wireless companies in their unlimited plans — families.

Sprint’s plans give families a $5 incremental discount for each line on a family plan. A second line costs $94.99; a third, $89.99.

“It’s on the right path,” Entner said of the plan.

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Sprint goes unlimited

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$99.99
Unlimited voice and data, including texting, Web browsing, push-to-talk, navigation, TV, radio and other services.

$89.99
Unlimited voice calls, push-to-talk and texting, but no free access to other data services.

$89.99
Unlimited data, including texting, Web browsing, navigation, TV, radio, push-to-talk and other services, and 900 minutes of talk time.

$69.99
Unlimited texting and push-to-talk, and 900 minutes of talk time.

$49.99
Unlimited texting and push-to-talk, and 450 minutes of talk time.

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Wireless Price War a Boon to Enterprise Mobility

Top-tier providers roll out fixed-price plans, as workers gain service leverage.

The fixed-rate war raging between wireless service providers could benefit enterprises that aim to save money and gain even deeper data and Internet services for mobile workforces.

AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile ignited a pricing battle two weeks ago when all three announced fixed-price unlimited calling plans for $99.99. T-Mobile even added unlimited texting.

Sprint Nextel remained eerily quiet until yesterday when it rolled out unlimited voice, data, text, e-mail, Web access, GPS service, as well as Sprint TV, Sprint Music, and Direct Connect and Group Connect options in one plan for the same price.

In a statement, Dan Hesse, Sprint president and CEO, said the plan reflects the sea change in cellular services and users' data needs.

"Wireless today is about much more than just voice. It is about data services. Customers want these applications," he stated. Sprint says the move to unlimited plans that include data signifies an industry turning point.

"Nationally accepted measures of voice quality now show very little, if any, difference among the top wireless providers," the provider acknowledged in its statement.

And that simple statement is exactly why enterprises are in a great position when it comes to shoring up data services at more economical prices, say industry experts.

The price battle proves "data is the new voice" and that "today's cell phone is tomorrow's smartphone," Carmi Levy, senior vice president of strategic consulting at AR Communications, told InternetNews.com. Both trends, he said, bode well for corporate mobility needs.

Enterprises should call their providers and begin negotiating better price point and data service plans.

"It's time to crack open that existing deal and realize some cost savings. IT leaders should be asking their providers 'what are you going to do for me?' And they should be prepared to jump to another carrier as it could prove very cost-effective," said Levy, who expects prices to keep dropping.

"IT needs to be proactive and get the biggest bang for their technology buck. Mobility is a critical business tool," he said.

But whether data services become a fixed price option anytime soon is up to the carriers. Verizon Wireless recently announced a new "unlimited" data plan that has a maximum cutoff at 5GB. Users who go beyond that will pay 49 cents for every megabyte of data over the limit and could get their throughput reduced.

Levy compares this type of strategy to the initial ISP approach when the Web came into play. At that time most ISPs offered minutes-based pricing plans. The industry, Levy said, finally realized that charging per minute wasn't the best business strategy.

"That was a ridiculous approach -- using a meter to charge people -- and it's the same now with data minutes," he said. "Providers need to offer an 'all you can drink' data plan for the enterprise."

And given Sprint Nextel's "brilliant" marketing move, the analyst expects such changes could come quick.

"Competitors can't afford to stand on the sidelines at this point," Levy said. "They all have to balance marketing efforts with better data plans and expanded coverage as mobile workers expect to have service wherever they are."

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U.S. Stocks Decline on Economic Concern; AIG, Sprint Retreat

U.S. stocks tumbled, capping the market's fourth-straight monthly drop, after a report showed business activity fell to the lowest level since 2001 and UBS AG said losses in credit markets may top $600 billion.

American International Group Inc., the world's largest insurer, declined the most in two weeks after posting the widest quarterly deficit in its 89-year history. Sprint Nextel Corp. slumped to an almost six-year low on concern more customers will defect from the third-biggest U.S. wireless carrier. All 10 industries in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index retreated, led by banks and phone companies.

The S&P 500 fell 37.05 points, or 2.7 percent, to 1,330.63, its biggest drop since Feb. 5. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 315.79, or 2.5 percent, to 12,266.39. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 60.09, or 2.6 percent, to 2,271.48. Eleven stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange.

``There is certainly no shortage of negative news out there,'' Michael Magiera, senior analyst at Manning & Napier Advisors, which manages $17 billion in Fairport, New York, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television.

The S&P 500 extended its February decline to 3.5 percent after the National Association of Purchasing Management-Chicago said its business barometer contracted as production and employment weakened, boosting concern the worst earnings slump in six years will continue. The four-month losing streaks for the S&P 500 and Dow are the longest since 2002.

Global Slump

Shares in Europe and Asia retreated on concern that the U.S. economy is tipping into recession. Europe's Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index retreated 1.4 percent, while the MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 1.2 percent. The MSCI EM Latin America Index dropped 4.5 percent, the most in almost six weeks.

Profits at S&P 500 companies fell 23 percent on average in the fourth quarter of 2007, and analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expect a 3 percent drop in the first quarter followed by profit growth of 13.7 percent for the year. Two months ago, the forecasts were for increases of 4.7 percent in the first quarter and 15.1 percent for the year.

AIG tumbled $3.29, or 6.6 percent, to $46.86 after posting a fourth-quarter net loss of $5.29 billion, or $2.08 a share, following an $11.1 billion writedown on investments linked in part to subprime mortgages. AIG said it expects more writedowns this year.

``Fridays are tough days'' because investors don't want to be long stocks in case more bad news is reported over the weekend, said David Goerz, chief investment officer of Highmark Capital Management, which oversees $22 billion in San Francisco. ``The news with AIG just put everybody in a foul mood.''

Citigroup Inc., the largest U.S. bank, slid $1.30 to $23.71. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the biggest securities firm, fell $7.07 to $169.63.

`Cancer in the Market'

Credit-market losses will climb to at least $600 billion from about $160 billion written down so far as investments funded with borrowed money are unwound, UBS credit strategist Geraud Charpin wrote in a note to clients.

``Leveraged risk positions are a cancer in this market and the sooner it is treated the better,'' Charpin wrote. AIG's writedown ``is also the clearest indication that banks are not the only ones to suffer potential losses.''

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bear Stearns Cos. fell after Deutsche Bank AG analyst Michael Mayo forecast further writedowns of subprime assets and lowered first-quarter profit estimates for the firms. At least five other analysts have cut their first-quarter analysts for banks and brokers in the last two weeks. Lehman fell $3.69 to $50.99. Bear Stearns lost $4.36 to $79.86.

September 2002

Financial shares in the S&P 500 fell 4 percent today and tumbled 11 percent in February, the steepest monthly loss since September 2002.

Ambac Financial Group Inc. fell 66 cents to $11.14 after CNBC reported that a deal to boost capital at the second-largest bond insurer hit a snag Feb. 27. The group of banks engaged in the bailout will come back with another proposal to keep Ambac together, the financial news network reported. CNBC cited people familiar with the situation.

MBIA Inc., Ambac's larger rival, decreased $1.09 to $12.97. The company is writing ``very little'' new bond insurance business as borrowers balk at buying a guarantee from a money- losing company without stable AAA credit ratings. MBIA said losses on mortgage-backed securities will probably increase this year and expand beyond subprime mortgages.

Subscriber Losses

Sprint slid 98 cents to $7.11. The company said it will likely lose 1.2 million subscribers in the first quarter. That was triple the number Stanford Group Co. analyst Michael Nelson in New York had forecast and represents 2.2 percent of Sprint's wireless customers.

Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. fell as crude oil retreated from a record and natural gas declined from a two-year high in New York. Exxon lost $2.37 to $87.01. Chevron tumbled $2.36 to $86.66.

Novell Inc. posted the biggest gain in the S&P 500, adding 91 cents, or 14 percent, to $7.45. The second-biggest seller of Linux operating-system software in the U.S. reported a fiscal first-quarter profit that beat analysts' estimates after cutting costs by eliminating jobs and changing sales tactics. The company raised its full-year sales forecast.

Gap Inc. rose 72 cents to $20.17. The largest U.S. clothing retailer said fourth-quarter profit advanced for the first time in three years and forecast further gains this year after it sold more full-priced sweaters and jeans during the holiday season.

3Com Buyout

3Com Corp. jumped 38 cents, or 13 percent, to $3.29. Bain Capital LLC and Huawei Technologies Co. plan to reapply within several weeks for U.S. approval to acquire the networking systems and services provider for $2.2 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Today was the most active trading day on the NYSE since Feb. 1, with 1.76 billion shares changing hands. Over the past three months, average daily volume has been 1.59 billion shares.

The National Association of Purchasing Management-Chicago said its business barometer dropped to 44.5 in February from 51.5 a month earlier. Figures less than 50 signal a contraction.

Consumer spending in the U.S. rose more than forecast in January, reflecting a jump in prices that is eroding buying power. The 0.4 percent rise in spending followed a revised 0.3 percent gain in December, the Commerce Department said. The Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation climbed 0.3 percent, the most in four months.

Treasury Yields Fall

Yields on Treasury securities slid, sending the two-year note under 1.7 percent for the first time since April 2004, as investors increased bets on interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.

Interest-rate futures indicate traders for the first time assign a higher probability to a three-quarter-point cut than to a half-point cut at the Fed's next meeting on March 18. The odds of a three-quarter point cut implied by futures prices rose to 70 percent from 36 percent yesterday and 2 percent a week ago. The remaining bets are on a half-point cut.

The central bank has lowered its target for the overnight lending rate between banks five times since September, most recently to 3 percent on Jan. 30.

``The market has been of the belief that the Fed's aggressive easing action would relieve the pressures,'' said Henry Herrmann, president of Waddell & Reed Financial Inc., which manages $65 billion in Overland Park, Kansas. ``The complications are not diminishing, they're growing.''

Economic Slowdown

Stocks slid yesterday after slower-than-forecast economic growth, rising jobless claims and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke's warning of possible failures among smaller banks deepened concern that the economy has tipped into a recession.

U.S. equities, as measured by the S&P 500, fared the worst among the world's 10 largest markets in February on concern that a recession is inevitable. Japan posted the second-biggest decline, with a drop of 1.6 percent in the Topix index.

Six of the 10 biggest markets have fallen more this year than the S&P 500, which is down 9.4 percent in 2008. Canada's Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index has lost 1.8 percent and Brazil's Bovespa fell 0.6 percent.

The S&P 500 trades at less than 14 times expected earnings, the lowest valuation since October 1990, reflecting investors' lack of confidence in profit estimates.

Financial companies and telephone stocks posted the biggest drops among 10 S&P 500 industries in February, declining 11 percent and 9.6 percent, respectively.

The Russell 2000 Index, a benchmark for companies with a median market value 22 times smaller than the S&P 500, dropped 2.8 percent today to 686.18. The Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Index, the broadest measure of U.S. shares, fell 2.6 percent to 13,455.96. Based on its decline, the value of stocks decreased by $450.9 billion.

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Sprint and Samsung Release M520 Slider Phone

Sprint and Samsung (News - Alert) Mobile have unveiled a new phone: the M520 by Samsung. It is described as the first slider Power Vision phone, and is packed with communication and entertainment features including Web access, live TV, location services, song downloads, texting and GPS.

The M520 comes in a slim, slider form factor. It’s designed for multi-tasking so, for example, users can play music in background mode while sending text messages, playing games or browsing the Web.

The Samsung M520 will be supported by the Sprint Mobile Broadband network. The phone will offer access to exclusive services and multimedia content from Sprint. These include:

Sprint Navigation - a Telenav-powered GPS service that offers audio and visual driving directions, one-click traffic rerouting and over 10 million local listings.

Live Search for Sprint - A Microsoft (News - Alert) service that offers voice-enabled access to directory information while on the move, GPS-enabled directions, interactive maps and one-touch click to call access.

Sprint Music Store – A virtual store where users can browse and download songs wirelessly to their phone. Users can select from over 1.8 million songs for just 99 cents each

Sprint TV – offers over 50 channels of live and on-demand video and audio

Sprint Exclusive Entertainment (SEE) - the industry’s only made-for-mobile sports and entertainment video programming network.

For all downloads, standard data charges apply.

In addition to the above, the device also offers a wide array of other features, such as Web access, SMS voice and text messaging, Phone as Modem, picture caller ID, Wireless Backup, a MicroSD slot that supports 4GB of memory (64MB card enclosed), stereoBluetooth with audio caller ID that helps users to identify callers with a spoken voice while listening to music, and a 1.3 megapixel camera that offers 2x digital zoom and camcorder functionality.

The device is now available in all Sprint retail channels and through its Web site. It is priced at $49.99, with a $50 mail-in rebate and a 2-year contract. The phone measures 4.01” x 2.04” x 0.5” when closed, and weighs less than 2.8 ounces.

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Cell phone bill on the rise? Check your SMS charges

If you've been paying attention to mobile carriers' SMS pricing lately (and something tells us you haven't) you'd be surprised to discover a fairly disturbing trend amongst providers: price hikes.

Over the past year or so, nearly every major carrier in the US has raised their per-price cost of SMS messages, with Verizon and Sprint jacking up the fee from $0.15 to $0.20 a message, and AT&T and T-Mobile adding another nickel to their $0.10 charge. Of course, this trend of rising prices accompanies a major spike in the use of text messages amongst customers, with some surveys marking a 130-percent jump over SMS use since June 2006 -- and telcos are taking it to the bank.
What's most insidious about the inflated costs is the fact that SMS data is particularly low-bandwidth, and analysts say that the price increases aren't related to higher operating costs -- these companies are simply gouging customers for a service which they have embraced. Companies say the hikes are meant to encourage customers to go for more expensive "bundles," though we're confident they won't mention it when your Mom uses more messages than her plan allows and unwittingly pays a few extra bucks on her bill -- that stuff adds up, you know?

Amazon Kindle: Save Trees, Support E-Book Readers

As much as I love to read, turning pages one by one, breaking a new paperback book into a well-weathered memory to trophy in my book case, I realize it is costing some forest, somewhere, a tree.

Although e-books have existed since the 90’s a portable platform designed just for e-books that is truly functional has not been available until recently. I read up on two products out there, Sony Reader, which I liked, and the Amazon Kindle, of which I liked a little better.

he Kindle retails at $399 and in my fair and balanced opinion, it comes the closest to getting all things right for this relatively new medium. It lets you download a mini library of books, magazines, and blogs wirelessly. It can do this from just about anywhere you might find cell phone service, kindle specifically uses the Sprint wireless network to link up. The key feature to the wireless kindle is an integrated high-speed EVDO antenna (similar to the ones found in the 3G phones). This antenna allows users to download a 544-page book in 45 seconds. This rockin’ bonus to this wireless access is that it’s free. However, there is a but, do remember that subscribing to magazines, blogs, and newspapers can cost you.

The unit weighs 10.3 ounces and is smaller than many hardback books. The E-ink display screen does not need constant poser to feed it allowing the battery to last much longer. A full QWERTY keypad can be used to do text searches or insert remarks.

The kindle makes reading as close to the real “paper” experience as possible. The unit contains a 6-inch screen that produces a high-contrast E ink display that will not flicker nor does it use a backlight. This E-ink technology allows you to read for hours without eye strain. The text can be instantly resized for easy reading or those who have adjusted vision requirements.

There are large Next Page/Previous Page buttons on the side of the screen that are convenient but they are so big that you can accidentally bump the buttons and throw yourself off by a page or two. Also, the scroll-wheel-based menu system does take some getting used to.

The Kindle store via Amazon is the supply portal for the e-books, complete with some 90,000-plus available titles. The supply proves to be both plentiful and cheap, with best sellers going for $9.99, and many e-books out there are free or mere pennies compared to the paper copy. It holds over 200 titles at once and it has a very long battery life. According to Amazon, leave wireless on and recharge approximately every other day or turn wireless off and read for a week or more before recharging. The unit fully recharges in 2 hours.

After spending $399 it can be a major disappointment not to find a title you are searching for. Although it is costly to get into and it still costs more than it should for simple e-books in my opinion, this alternative allows you to store many novels and periodicals and helps save the planet one e-book at a time.

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Sprint to launch Samsung Ace World Phone

Sprint is expecting to launch the Ace, a BlackJack-Like Samsung Smartphone. This is a Windows Mobile 6 Standard smartphone will be a WorldPhone, offering seamless transitioning from the US to other countries.

The Samsung Ace rocks a 1.3 megapixel camera, microSD card slot, Bluetooth 2.0, and EVDO on the CDMA-side of things. Unfortunately, jet-setters will be relying on the Rev. 0 flavor of EVDO, while GSM-surfers will have to deal with a lowly GRPS data connection to get their wireless data-fix.

Look for Sprint to drop the Samsung Ace on February 17th, at a $449.99 price-point (most likely sans contract)

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Cell phone calls to 911. It's not what you think.

If you think help is on the way when you call 911 from your cell phone, think again. Many phones don't tell dispatchers where you're calling from and that makes it hard for help to get to you.

This can be a big problem for police, firefighters, paramedics. A call comes in for an emergency but they have no idea where to go. Nearly everyone has a cell phone. But is you used it to call 911 would police or firefighters be able to find you?

The answer is, maybe not. Because mobile phones are, well, mobile and the call could be coming from anywhere.

Sean Collins of the Kern Co. Fire Department, "It is very difficult, at this time, to know exactly where a caller is from. When the call comes in on a land line, emergency dispatchers can automatically track it back to a specific address. But when the call comes in on a cell phone, often times they have to rely on a caller that may be panicked and scared."

And if they're too shaken to give details, dispatchers are left guessing.

It happened this week in Taft. Someone called 911 from their cell phone to report a fire, but the phone couldn't give specific details about the location.

As a result, three people were forced to jump from the second story of a burning building.

Sean Collins, "If we do not know that address explicitly, we then have to wait for another caller or try to keep calling back the cell phone user, *if* we get there telephone number."

But they don't, they have to rely on information from the cellular provider and some are better than others.

Elizabeth Trujillo of J's Communication, "It just depends on whether the provider has something enabled on the phone that way."

For example, Sprint and Verizon use global positioning satellites to locate callers which can pinpoint a location.

Other companies like AT&T and T-Mobile use their cell towers which only give a general location. But neither way gives a specific address.

And in an emergency where time is critical, a few minutes can mean the difference between life and death.

We can only respond to what we know. Obviously we cannot determine or make things up or assume.

If you want to know if a 911 call can be traced back to your phone, take a look at the settings.

Look for something that says, "GPS" or "Location".

If you still can't figure it out call your wireless service provider.

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Wireless TV & Studios Inc. Introduces nightVision: Live Video Browsing -- the Next Great Leap in Search Engines

This new technology takes search engines to the next level. Citysearch and Google offer the consumer archived information. nightVision offers live search -- allowing users to search the moment.
New York, New York (PRWEB) January 5, 2008 -- New Year's Eve, just after midnight, the ball has dropped. The lines at New York's hottest nightclubs run around the block, as bouncers fend off hordes of revelers. A black Cadillac Escalade SUV pulls up to the curb, a striking reporter and a camera crew exit the vehicle, greet the doorman and walk seamlessly through the velvet rope and into the club. Once inside, they are waved into the VIP section, where they rub elbows with New York's nightlife elite. Is it for TV? No. The internet? Wrong again.

Welcome to live TV on your cell phone ... free to all, regardless of cell phone carrier.

"Years of research and development are finally coming to fruition," said Eduardo Lipschutz-Villa, president of Wireless TV & Studios, Inc., as he and an assistant monitored the live broadcast unfolding in front of him, via cell phones from all the major carriers: Verizon, ATT, Sprint and T-Mobile.

"With this new technology, we're taking search engines to the next level. Citysearch and Google offer the consumer archived information. nightVision offers live search -- we allow people to search the moment. Can you imagine being out and about, and being able to see if a bar is hopping, what the crowd is like, how they're dressed, if your ex is there," Lipschutz-Villa smiled. "Now we have achieved content specific to the device and tailored to the lifestyle and needs of the user."

"What's so great about this service is that we offer not only live reporting, but comprehensive video archives of the best New York has to offer -- restaurants, bars, live music and events -- and they're all constantly updated," commented Lisa Lyons, Executive Producer of nightVision. "So if you're out in the city and you want to, say, find out what bands are playing downtown, in less than a New York minute you're checking them out in a video on your cell phone, or getting a preview of the ambiance and food being served in the restaurant of your choice. Ultimately, the service will include easy ticket purchase and restaurant reservations."

The team behind nightVision, Wireless TV & Studios Inc., is no stranger to wireless content and technology. In the late 1990s, WTV developed and implemented 2-way interactive wireless communication systems, and in 2007, created wireless video content and user interface for Digital Dispatch Systems, to obtain the final Notice to Proceed for the NYC Taxi Technology Enhancement Project for the TLC (New York Taxi and Limousine Commission).

nightVision's infrastructure consists of several reporter and camera crew teams enabled to deliver real time data, which is treated and broadcast for access from any cell phone browser in the world, regardless of carrier. Wireless TV & Studios Inc. uses 3G technology, an innovative networking and encoding. This ASP platform, powered by Nexage, has proven to be more dynamic and faster to use than internet sites modified for cell phone usage.

This free service is commercial-driven, and expects to generate revenue through advertisements. "After all, New York City's nightlife is a $10 billion a year industry, with plenty of opportunities for product branding," commented Lipschutz-Villa.

Having successfully delivered the technology, and with a solid marketing strategy in place, Wireless TV & Studios Inc. is projecting a March 1, 2008 launch of nightVision in New York City, soon to be followed by other major cities across North America and Europe.

The third revolution in television has arrived.

Source

CAPITAL CURRENTS: Cell phone E911 location update

The FCC has just released a decision that requires cell phone companies to meet the location accuracy requirements over much smaller geographical areas than is the current practice, and you can hear their screams for miles. Even though the FCC allowed five years for full implementation, the screams seem justified.
There are two kinds of cell phone location technologies, and the FCC has different accuracy requirements for them. For “network-based” technologies, accuracy must be within 100 meters for 67 percent of calls, 300 meters for 95 percent of calls; for “handset-based” technologies, within 50 meters for 67 percent of calls, 150 meters for 95 percent of calls. The remaining 5 percent of calls are handled on a “best efforts” basis.

“Network-based” generally means Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) – a carrier has receivers located at cell towers and determines a cell phone location by processing the signals received from that cell phone, which arrive at slightly different times at the different receiver locations. “Handset-based” generally means a cell phone has a built-in Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver – it calculates its own location by receiving transmissions from at least three GPS satellites.

They both work well in some areas but not so well in other areas. Network-based systems work well in urban areas where there are many receiver locations, but not so well in rural areas. Handset-based systems work well in rural areas where there is a clear line-of-sight path to the satellites, but not so well in urban areas and indoors where the satellite signals are blocked by buildings.

Cell phone companies claim that they meet the FCC accuracy requirements. But the national operators (AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile) have been meeting the requirements on a national average basis. Now the FCC has decided that they must meet the accuracy requirement within the geographical coverage area of every Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). According to Consumer Reports magazine, accurate location information is not delivered at the PSAP level in nearly half of the country. According to a list maintained by the FCC, there are around 6,000 to 7,000 PSAPs in the U.S. Verizon says it has deployed E911 wireless location capability in areas served by more than 2,800 PSAPs. But it has run into cases where cities and counties conflict with one another, each claiming PSAP jurisdiction over the same area. And PSAP service areas vary in size and shape. But the FCC said, “We recognize that geographical variations in service areas can present challenges to the provision of E911 service, but in the interest of public safety, we cannot permit those challenges to justify diminished location accuracy.”

The FCC accuracy rules are statistical in nature, and hundreds of test calls are required to determine the 95 percent confidence level. That would translate into millions of test calls if accuracy had to be confirmed for each PSAP separately. So the operational burden is evident. But the FCC was unsympathetic, saying, “While we acknowledge that meeting the deadline and benchmarks may require the investment of significant resources by certain carriers, we believe that such expenditures are more than justified by the accompanying public safety benefits.”

But more importantly, there is widespread agreement among everyone but the FCC that achieving the accuracy requirements within every PSAP area with today’s technologies is infeasible. For example, using GPS in urban areas with tall buildings or indoors, it may be impossible to achieve any location fix at all in more than 5 percent of locations, so the 95 percent requirement could never be satisfied.

Several companies proposed a hybrid approach, using both GPS and TDOA. The carriers that have deployed GPS handsets would have to add cell tower receivers for TDOA. The carriers that have deployed cell tower receivers for TDOA would have to include GPS in new cell phones. But while the hybrid approach would improve location accuracy, and might satisfy FCC requirements in the majority of PSAPs, even proponents agree that improvement might not be sufficient to satisfy the accuracy requirements in every PSAP. While the accuracy standard applies to 95 percent of calls, it applies to 100 percent of PSAPs.

This new requirement is potentially a big deal for cable operators, if the FCC decides to apply it to VoIP phone service. Cable MSO VoIP service is intended to be used only at the subscriber location, which is known precisely. But what about “over-the-top” voice services like Vonage and Skype? Suppose the FCC creates a VoIP location accuracy requirement, and then imposes it on the underlying ISP rather than the “over-the-top” vendor.

This new FCC requirement will certainly be appealed in court. Courts have not been too sympathetic to the cell phone industry, affirming earlier FCC decisions that required aggressive deployment of existing location technologies. But this is different, because the FCC has no evidence that it is technically feasible to meet the accuracy limits within every PSAP area. The last time I can recall that a court had to review an FCC decision that was technically infeasible, it dealt with noise figure limits for UHF TV tuners, and the FCC was reversed. It could happen again.

Source

Verizon Wireless donates phones to domestic violence victims

KINGSTON - Verizon Wireless donated 20 wireless phones to Family Domestic Violence Services today to celebrate the grand opening of the company's new store at 1200 Ulster Ave.

As part of the company's HopeLine program dedicated to combat and raise awareness about domestic violence, the phones will be distributed to victims of domestic violence in the area so they can call for help in an emergency or life-threatening situation. The phones can also help domestic violence survivors find employment, child care arrangements and housing.

Phone donations are accepted at all Verizon Wireless stores nationwide. For more information, visit www.verizonwireless.com/hopeline.

Spammers go after cell-phone users, too

It’s hard enough coping with all that spam clogging our computers. Now it’s stalking us on our cell phones.

Spam has gone mobile. Increasingly, consumers answer their cell phones thinking it’s important. Instead, it turns out to be a telemarketer peddling time-share resorts, bogus lotteries or even porn.

While computer e-mail spam is just a pain, unsolicited text messages on your cell phone can be costly — 10 cents or more per message.

The problem is so new that federal agencies still are unsure how bad it is or how to combat it. But they say clearly that with millions of new cell-phone users and literally billions of text messages tapped out monthly, the annoyance is growing.

San Francisco-based Ferris Research, which tracks consumer messaging services, predicts U.S. cell-phone users will get 1.1 billion spam messages in 2007 — up from 800 million last year.

“As more and more people get cell phones, they are dealing with all sorts of products, services and consequences,” said Lisa Hone, an attorney with the Federal Trade Commission’s consumer protection bureau.

Wireless officials say they have learned from the experience of the computer industry and are taking aim at mobile spam. But the problem is that it’s a moving target.

“It is a constant and ever-changing threat,” said Joe Farren, a spokesman for CTIA-The Wireless Association, which represents the wireless industry. “As we develop new filters and firewalls, the spammers seek to develop new strategies as well. So it is an arms race of sorts.”

Illegal operators often use automatic dialers. Spammers sitting at a computer can zap millions of calls addressed to random cell-phone numbers. At the same time, cell-phone numbers are illegally bought and sold on Internet sites that are started up as fast as they are shut down.

In April, Verizon Wireless sued telemarketers it said “inundated” the company with 12,022,411 unsolicited commercial text messages. Verizon said in its lawsuit it was able to block all but 4,618.

Still, the barrage not only hit customers with “unwanted charges,” but also clogged Verizon’s networks, requiring the carrier to “dedicate equipment, software and personnel” to filter out the messages.

Spokeswoman Debra Lewis said the company was “using everything in our arsenal” to stop the spammers.

“We stop most of it, but some still goes through,” Lewis said, adding, “People aren’t expecting it, because a cell phone is a private number.”

Indeed, the expectation of privacy — cell phones are not part of any directory — is a big reason for the explosion in cell phones.

Today, more than 233 million cell phones are in use — more than double the number in 2000. Text messaging is the fastest-growing feature. Since last year, Verizon users more than doubled their text messaging from 12 billion to 28.4 billion.

Among young adults between 18 and 26, the preference for text messaging has made e-mail the equivalent of snail mail. Text messaging is used to play games, vote on TV reality show contestants, register political preferences and check news headlines, weather and movie times.

But it is also used by legitimate businesses to reach subscribers and by first responders to communicate in emergencies, pointed out Sprint spokeswoman Roni Singleton.

“It’s a service and a convenience and in some cases a vital communication tool,” Singleton said. “That is why it is so critical to make this a matter of priority.”

Sprint also sleuths for dishonest marketers and helps find ways for subscribers to block unwanted text senders, she said.

The phenomenon of cell-phone spam was not even contemplated when the federal do-not-call laws passed, and regulatory agencies have had to scramble to protect consumers.

In 2004, the Federal Communications Commission voted to ban all unauthorized text messages to mobile phones and pagers. The FCC also now applies the Telephone Consumer Protection Act — which prohibits autodialed and prerecorded calls to cell phones — to text messages. FCC guidelines now say text-based telemarketing solicitations sent to cell phones are covered by the national do-not-call rule.

While some states also are trying to erect regulatory barriers, experts say some legitimate businesses do not want too many hurdles in the way of legally cashing in on the potentially profitable cell-phone advertising market.

Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL are just a few of the major online companies searching for ways to reach cell-phone users with mobile ads. Using global positioning technology, companies could deliver tantalizing pop-up ads to cell-phone users when they are within blocks of, say, a McDonald’s.

“It’s too lucrative an opportunity,” said Allan Keiter, founder and president of MyRatePlan, an online site that monitors cell-phone carriers.

Pop-up ads would be delivered only with a cell-phone user’s consent. Keiter predicted, however, that consumers could be enticed with the promise of cheaper cell service subsidized by commercials.

“Advertisers are champing at the bit,” he said.

SOURCE

Sprint to offer Blackberry Pearl 8130 Next Month

Cell-phone service for children to end

BURBANK, Calif. - Walt Disney Co. will end its Disney-branded cell-phone service at the end of the year, 18 months after first offering the plan to customers.

Disney could seek a partnership with a wireless carrier to provide mobile-phone service, the company said Thursday.

The Family Center plan was marketed to parents as a means of better controlling children's cell-phone use. The company shuttered a money-losing ESPN-branded mobile service for sports fans in December. Content from ESPN is now offered through a partnership with Verizon Communications Inc.'s wireless unit.

"They learned their lesson with ESPN," said David Bank, an RBC Capital Markets analyst in New York. "I don't think they made the same level of investment or had the same expectations as they did with ESPN."

The Disney-branded service, started in June 2006, has a GPS feature parents can use to locate children and is carried on Sprint Nextel Corp.'s network. Disney said it will reimburse some customers.

SOURCE.