Mobility Watch

Virgin is employing a new strategy to keep its customers “wired” to Virgin Mobile. The target market of Virgin mobile is predominantly teen and young adult.

Virgin mobile, together with Netspend created a Virgin Mobile branded Visa Debit card called ‘Virgin Mobile Stash’ that generates points redeemable for free airtime everytime you use it.

Since it is a debit card, it’s just like cash. This is a big plus for Virgin Mobile subscribers. If you’re going to buy something anyway, why not use this card and gain airtime.

It also has extended features such as peer to peer money transfers and wireless text alerts to manage spending and prevent fraud.

It’s not a new concept but this strategy developes a certain kind of loyalty to Virgin Mobile.

Looks like Sprint is eating up another telecoms company.

Shareholders of UbiquiTel Inc. on Tuesday approved the wireless provider’s sale to Sprint Nextel Corp. for $1 billion, the company said.

In addition, Sprint will assume $300 million in debt and pay $10.35 for each of the company’s outstanding shares. The deal, the company said, is expected to close “promptly.”

As the mobile industry is becoming more and more competitive, scenarios such as buyouts and mergers are most likely to happen. This would consolidate jobs and get better economies of scale.

Shares of UbiquiTel gained 11 cents while Sprint Nextel gained 6 cents. It seems that stockholders on both companies are happy with the decision.

[via msn ]

Millions of Americans have toyed with the idea of dropping landline phone service.  Millions more have actually done it.  For most of them it’s a matter of price, or convenience.  In and around New Orleans, there’s another reason.  Katrina.

Some areas, such as St. Bernard Parish, are still more than 80 percent without Bell South landline service.  Cox Communications, the primary cable provider, isn’t giving specific numbers about how much of its service area is still out.  But wireless and satellite providers are having a field day.  (Wireless providers bent over backwards to make friends in the aftermath of Katrina, with one-time credits on their bills.)

For many, wireless is a temporary fix, such as the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s office. The Times-Picayune reports that they’re getting along on three dozen cell phones until Bell South can get them wired.  (Never mind that according to the Criminal Courts building website, cell phones are forbidden.  Those wireless phones presumably don’t get around much.)  

Other customers have had to buy two different cell phones (with different area codes and presumably with different providers) to make sure they’ll have service throughout the area.  One podiatrist actually gets some of his appointments via text messaging.   

Wireless internet providers like Superior Wireless are also making new friends, promising installation in 72 hours, no contracts and rates as low as $35 a month for high speed residential service.  While Bell South is spending $700 million rewiring everything in New Orleans with fiber optics, there’ll be thousands of happy wireless customers saying, “Who cares?”.

[via New Orleans Times-Picayune]

Wireless phone providers have just about recovered from the last hurricane season.  Here comes the next one. 

How much better prepared are they?  Answer is, we won’t know until after the storms have hit.  An Associated Press writeup offers post-Katrina kudos to Cellular South.  Based in Jackson, Mississippi, Cell South says its network was 60 percent operational one day after Katrina.  Cell South says it’s investing $78 million in new cell sites, including 40 new ones in south Mississippi.

But first responders in the Gulf seem to be putting a lot of their trust in satellite phones  as the communications provider of last resort.  (You can rent one, if you’re so inclined, for as little as $20 a week.)  Mississippi’s governor Haley Barbour will probably go that route; he indicates communications after Katrina in parts of Mississippi were about as good as they were during the Civil War.

For its part Cingular says it’s spending $1.8 billion on its system in the Southeast, with 800 new cell sites coming and $60 million to be spent just on hurricane preparation.  For many phone service providers the issue over the long haul was the lack of electricity.  Verizon says it’s trying to connect as many of its generators as possible to natural gas lines or big propane tanks that will last longer than diesel generators.  Likewise Sprint Nextel is spending a big chunk of its $100 million in hurricane prep money on beefed-up cell tower generators, permanent and portable. 

But if you live in the Gulf you may want to do some wireless phone storm preparation of your own; having some spare batteries and keeping them charged isn’t a bad idea.  Program in emergency numbers and be prepared to text message - when voice circuits are jammed, texting may be the only way to go.

Resources:  Verizon Wireless   Cingular   Cellular South 

The Samsung MM-A920 has a sleek, compact design. It has a 1.3-megapixel camera, speakerphone, beautiful internal and external displays, and of course Bluetooth. It can also play mp3 and AAC files but unfortunately, I doesn’t support WMA.

Using sprint as your carrier, you’ll have an even better experience.

Here’s a preview of what you can do using Sprint Power Vision and its other services.

Sprint Power Vision transforms your wireless experience from functional to fantastic with features and content that are very visual, extra entertaining, and perfectly personalized.
Take, view and store digital pictures with a Sprint Power Vision Picture Phone and send them to email addresses or other Sprint Power Vision Phones.
Capture unexpected moments. Take, view, store and send short video clips with a Sprint Power Vision Video Phone.

Send and receive email, exchange text messages, or join a chat room — all on select Sprint Power Vision Phones.

Enjoy full–color video clips or live TV of the latest news, sports, and entertainment from brands you know, like CNN, Fox, The Weather Channel, and more.
Music

Whatever kind of music you’re into, plus headlines and video clips of artist interviews and performances, Sprint Power Vision can deliver it right to your phone.
Turn downtime into fun time. Graphically-enhanced games for one or multiple players provide hours of entertainment.
Choose from thousands of ringers and identify key callers with Music Tone ringers of actual songs, movie and TV themes, and more.

Reflect your interests with thousands of pictures of your favorite TV characters, sports teams, celebrities, urban artwork, and more.

Check out full-color versions of popular web sites or purchase and download premium applications to your Sprint Power Vision Phone.

[via sprint ]

The FCC has just granted licenses for airborne communications services to a subsidiary of Jet Blue Airways along with a firm tied into AirCell, Inc.  These two new licenses mean the end of the line for Verizon’s Airfone service, which has been a perennial money-loser and must give up the airwaves by 2010.

Exactly what kinds of airborne service we’ll get from this deal (Internet, voice, email) is not clear yet.  Right now Airfone charges 69 cents a minute for domestic voice calls, plus a $3.99 connection fee.  World travelers can already access the Internet on a handful of international carriers on Boeing’s Connexion service for about $10 a flight.   (AirCell, one of the winners in the FCC auction, is known for providing inflight cellular technology for private and business aircraft.)

But the bigger, juicier issue yet to be decided is plain old cell phone use on airplanes.  The FCC and FAA are weighing the issues, at least the technological and security issues.  A decision is expected this year.

Technologically, there are concerns about cellular transmitters interfering with the avionics on the planes.  Security-wise, there’s the worry about terrorists using cell phones as a tool to coordinate hijackings.  (Of course, if you’re willing to hijack a plane, you probably wouldn’t obey rules about not using a cell phone in flight.)

There’s one other issue, less likely to be on the FCC and FAA’s radar screen - the psycho-social, Miss Mannersy, lifestyle issue of whether we would rather not allow cell phone use in flight because it’s a nuisance.  Public Relations consultant and frequent flyer Chuck Underwood is quoted saying it will be intolerable being trapped on an airplane sitting inches away from other passengers blathering loudly and incessantly, call after call.  Leading to in-flight arguments between passengers.  Worse than allowing alcoholic beverages in-flight, he implies.

Have things really gotten this bad?  Can we not give our fellow passengers credit for even a slight shred of humanity?  Is there a compromise possible?  Should we say yes to text messaging only?  Declare certain sections of the plane as No Calling zones?

Can’t we all just get along?  (Don’t answer, it’s a rhetorical question.)

Unstrung reports Verizon Wireless is following quickly in Sprint/Nextel’s footprints, adding SMS-to-landline messaging capability.  TeleMessage’s text-to-speech system will let you send a text message that will end up on your home wireline phone as a computer-spoken message.  Great for kids who have to communicate with their parents but would rather not speak with them - when they’re late coming home from a party, for instance.

But this is so twenty minutes ago for our tech-savvy brethren across the ponds.  Much of Europe and Australia have had text-to-landline capability for some time.  British Telecom offers full text capability to and from landlines.

Ho hum.  Doesn’t seem like such a big deal, except… in a disaster, or a terror attack, when cellular circuits can get incredibly busy, text messages often continue to get through.  For those of us who don’t ever use texting capability on our phones, might not hurt to learn enough about it to send a text message to our home phone with this new service, just in case.  

 

At 2.72 inches tall, 1.69 inches wide and and 0.76 inches thick, the new Pantech C300 is the latest offering in Cingular’s prepaid GoPhone line. Cingular is touting this as the smallest “camera flip phone” in the world.  (By comparison, Motorola’s RAZR is 3.9 inches tall, 2.1 inches wide and 0.5 inches thick.) 

You may be asking yourself, who, or what, is a Pantech?  If you hadn’t been paying attention, you weren’t aware that Pantech is the number two mobile phone company in South Korea (the largest is SK Telecom).  Or that it’s the seventh largest handset manufacturer in the world.  Some of Pantech’s phones have been branded with other manufacturer’s names, including Nokia.  The C300 is part of Pantech’s “Slim Series” which will be exclusive in the United States to Cingular, at least for the time being.

You’ll see it (if you look closely) at Cingular Wireless stores and at www.cingular.com for $119.99.

 

NTT DoCoMo, one of the worlds leading mobile communications company released the new lineup of eight FOMA “9 Series” handsets.
The series includes Japan’s first HSDPA-compatible handset, the N902iX HIGH-SPEED. HSDPA is a new high-speed packet-transmission technology for downlinks at up to 3.6Mbps, or 10 times faster than current FOMA handsets.

Other features common to many of the new 9 Series handsets include:

• Extensive securityData Security Serviceâ„¢ enables phonebooks to be stored on the DoCoMo network.
• Omakase Lock smart card and personal data locking for lost phones

• Biometric Authentication
• Business mopera “ANSHIN” manager enables corporate administrators to lock phones and delete/backup phonebooks remotely via computer.
• Chaku-moji. The caller’s phone can transmit a 10-character message that displays on the receiver’s screen as the phone rings
• 3G roamingCompatibility with DoCoMo’s WORLD WINGâ„¢ service for international roaming via W-CDMA networks
• Deco-mailâ„¢ SignatureDecorative Deco-mail graphics can be automatically inserted in e-mail signatures and subject lines.
• Receive videophone calls during packet communications
• Remote control of A/V equipmentThe “9 Series” handsets can be used outside the home to program audio/video equipment, such as DVD recorders, for recording TV programs.

[ Read more at nttdocomo ]

If you are a premier type of person who wants premier service and don’t mind petty issues such as costs, then Voce would be for you.

What plans are available? Just one. A plan with unlimited domestic, long distance, and roaming, and some very unique services from a mobile company.

You get a phone fit for an executive, together with 3 chargers (one for your home, office, and vehicle), plus all the accessories, cables, and bluetooth. Not only that, you get a complimentary upgrade every 12 months. It is also insured and replacements are usually delivered within 24 hours.

So what are these unique services you may ask. Well here are some

• Restaurant Recommendations and reservation
• Travel arrangement and booking
• Event and meeting planning
• Business and personal services
• Appointment scheduling and booking for personal services
• Airport assistance worldwide
• Luxury luggage delivery service

Quite unique for a mobile service company isn’t it?

Currently available in Los Angeles. New York and San Francisco will be launched later this year.

The price? If you are asking for the price, then probably this service isn’t for you

[via Voce.com]

HELIO is a new mobile brand custom-built for young, connected consumers.

Helio’s service offering is designed to enhance communication with your community of friends through unique social networking, gaming and entertainment applications. Helio is the only mobile service provider to offer a custom mobile MySpace service that allows you to manage MySpace mail, comments and friend requests while on the go. We also offer photo blogging and posting directly from your Helio device to your MySpace account, including more photo storage on MySpace. Other unique services include the ability to gift, or buy for another Helio member, and beg, or request from another Helio member, content including 3D and multiplayer games.

With its focus on the younger mobile market, their phones are geared towards applications mostly used by the young generation such as music, camera, and games. This is why their units have bigger screen, faster processor, a 2megapixel cameras, and supports mp3 and mp4.
Here’s a quick specs of their Hero and Kickflip mobile phone units.

Hero Specs
Huge Screen - Large 2.2� QVGA, 260K color TFT-LAC, 240 x 320 resolution

Fast Processor - Power chip to support cutting-edge multimedia, 3D games, and MPEG 4 video

Mega Memory - 70 MB + extra memory available via MicroSD Card (TransFlash)*

Loaded Camera - 2 megapixel, built-in flash, 4x digital zoom, and MPEG 4 video camera

Superior Audio - Built-in dual full duplex stereo speakers for awesome video and gaming sound

Entertainment - Personal Entertainment Center supports: MP3, MPEG 4/H.264 player, QVGA video, VOD, MMS, Mobile Flash

Kickflip Specs
Loaded Camera - 2 megapixel, 4x digital zoom, with built-in flash for night shots

Video Camera - MPEG 4 video camera for action shots anywhere you and your friends go

Big Screen - Large 2.2″ QVGA, 240 x 320 resolution screen

Mega Memory - 70 MB + up to 1200 friends’ contacts! Get extra memory via memory cards.*

Internet Surfing - Yahoo! Search and one-click access to your favorite websites and MySpace

Entertainment - Plays the latest 3D games and also supports: MP3, MPEG 4 player, VOD, MMS, Mobile Flash and TV output*
[via helio.com]