Mobile Phone Updates, News, Alerts
Posted: 04/29/08 by Diane Smith
As a telecom veteran, E911 usually brings to mind public safety and the ability for emergency personnel to locate someone in trouble. But the folks at Earth 911 put a whole new twist to E911.
The site's goal is to give everyone information on local resources to recycle everything from consumer electronics to all those cans of paint gathering dust in the garage. The site is a treasure trove of resources both broadly on environmental issues, as well as more specific advice, such as its eight tips on responsible use and disposal of technology.
I was curious what the "Act Locally" search would yield for my neck of the woods. The
tool brought up a link to many resources and programs within Montana, such as the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Department of Natural Resources Conservation and The Montana Material Exchange, which connects organizations that have materials they need to get rid of with organizations that can use them. That program keeps things out of the landfills, saves on disposal costs, and allows us to better help each other and the environment.
That led me to notice the sister site, for businesses, Earth 911 for Business. This site offers GreenGuides" that offer tips to green your business, such as how to conduct a waste assessment and create an office recycling program. As an entrepreneur, I am always looking for ways to save money and keep my dollars for growing business. The site has some no-nonsense advice for reusing materials, cutting down on energy costs by just shutting things off when they are not in use, and investing in products that reduce energy costs and last longer.
There are too many tips to list here, but I highly recommend this site for anyone looking to find ways for a greener life.
Posted: 04/25/08 by Chris Parandian
As many futurists know, I was covering the WCA conference in DC this week. Accordingly, I had the opportunity to hear a FCC Roundtable with the wireless staffers for the respective FCC Commissioners. It was very informative.
Fred Campbell (Chief, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau) kicked off the discussion and mentioned his priority to successfully get the D Block auctioned by the end of the DTV transition. Obviously, there are issues regarding the conditions that are a part of holding that license but getting the D Block done was a sentiment shared by all the participants. Mr. Campbell also mentioned his goal of making sure that the AWS III (2155-2175MHz) spectrum got allocated in 9 months (as specified in the NPRM). He did not elaborate on whether that spectrum would be licensed or unlicensed spectrum.
Bruce Gottlieb (Commissioner Copps) mentioned his continued interest in carriers opening up their networks and believes that this move will help unleash more innovations in the wireless sector. He is pleased with the Commission's efforts to get spectrum out in the market but believes the results are a "mixed bag." For instance, he is concerned with excessive concentration of wireless spectrum and is interested in seeing some wholesaling requirements on future allocations.
Renee Roland Crittendon (Commissioner Adelstein) believes oversight of the DTV transition is important and will be watching related education efforts to inform folks of the transition. Ms. Crittendon supports future wholesaling conditions and emphasized that tradeoffs are a part of these policy decisions. She also is interested in making sure spectrum is not sitting fallow and is made available for service providers.
Wayne Leighton (Commissioner Tate) stated that Ms. Tate is passionate about broadband deployment as well as making sure the DTV transition is successful. With regard to wireless broadband deployment, Mr. Leighton is concerned that the weakening capital markets could be an impediment to some of those efforts.
Overall, a very informative panel and all the representatives were excited about our mobile future...
Posted: 04/22/08 by Mobile Future Team
As cell phone technology becomes increasingly innovative, the shelf life of consumers' cell phones becomes shorter and shorter. Currently, the average American gets a new mobile phone every 18 months, according to Inform, a New York organization with a mission to "educate the public about the effects of human activity on the environment and public health." The old phones either get thrown away or linger around the house taking up space. Less than 20 percent of those cell phones are recycled. With more than 250 million wireless users in the United States, the waste adds up.
In order to combat increasing amounts of hazardous electronic waste, the EPA has partnered with electronic manufacturers and retailers "to offer consumers more opportunities to donate or recycle their used electronics" through the Plug-In to eCycling Program. You can find out more about their program here, but we've condensed the information into five ways that you can recycle your old, unused cell phones. However, before you recycle your phone, remember to:
- Terminate your service.
- Clear the phone's memory of contacts and other stored information.
- Remove your phone's SIM card (if applicable).
5 Ways to Recycle Phones:
1. Wireless Carriers
All the major wireless providers - Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and Alltel will accept donations of cell phones in their stores regardless of the cell phones' manufacturer or carrier. Simply walk into a store and let the employees know that you would like to recycle your phone, and they will help take care of the rest. More
2. Electronics Stores
In addition to carriers, electronics stores, such as Best Buy, Office Depot and Staples, are also major suppliers of cell phones and are concerned about the effects of electronic waste. As a result, these companies have also instituted in-store programs to aid mobile phone recycling. In each store, there are collection areas where you can drop-off your cellular phone for recycling. More
3. Cell Phone Manufacturers
Many of the major cell phone manufacturers - LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson - offer mail-in options for recycling your cell phones regardless of the cell phones' carrier or manufacturer. You'll need appropriate packing materials to mail your phone, but the manufacturers take care of the postage with pre-paid labels that you can print out. Some additional considerations to remember when mailing your phone:
- If you're including batteries, please ensure that the battery is fully discharged and your phone is powered off. Please do not include any loose batteries.
- Place phones in appropriate packaging/envelope. There's no need to add extra packaging materials.
- Print the pre-paid postage and affix it to the package. Make sure any previous delivery address and barcodes are covered.
- Drop off the package/envelope in the mail.
4. My Green Electronics
The Consumer Electronics Association operates a Web site called My Green Electronics. The site connects consumers wishing to purchase green products and/or looking for local options to recycle or donate used electronics. The site has a zip code tool allowing users to find their local recycling options are displayed. More
5. U.S. Postal Service
The U.S. Postal Service is testing a pilot program that allows consumers to discard used electronics. The pilot program involves 1,500 post offices providing free envelopes that can be used to mail back electronics, such as inkjet cartridges, cell phones and MP3 players. The pre-paid envelopes are located in post office lobbies. Presently, the program supports 10 areas, including Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., but it may expand in the fall if the program is successful. More
Posted: 04/22/08 by Chris Parandian
I am attending the WCA conference in Washington DC this week. The WCA's theme this year is "capitalizing on the 4G Eco-system" and former Governor Mark Warner (VA) gave a keynote speech yesterday. As wireless networks go from delivering just voice to high-speed broadband to consumers it was fitting that Governor Warner could provide some insight on this evolution.
Briefly, Governor Warner was one of the original wireless pioneers (co-founded the company that became Nextel) and understands the business as well. He is currently running for the United States Senate in Virginia and hopes for the opportunity to help spur broadband efforts across the country.
As Governor of Virginia, Mr. Warner is familiar with the challenges of connecting folks in rural areas. During his speech he discussed the success of paving the way for "700 miles" of next generation broadband lines that connected "600,000" Virginians. Uniting folks across the party lines was key to making this happen and he hopes to bring "transformative" change to the Senate.
With regard to wireless, the Governor believes that facilitating the application process for RUS funds for small wireless providers and getting more spectrum available for providers is critical to our mobile future.
Stay tuned for additional updates from the conference....
Chris Parandian is reporting from the WCAconference, keeping us informed about what policymakers are sayingabout issues we care about. We’re not endorsing, just sharing theircomments.
Posted: 04/21/08 by Chris Parandian
It is highly likely if you are reading this post that you are already on Facebook. Even in Washington, a town that is slow to embrace change, there is a great deal of "vampire biting" and "sheep throwing" happening in the District.
It is also highly likely that you are wondering what this post or Facebook has to do with our Mobile Future. I believe a great deal...
As you may recall at CTIA's Fall IT show last year, Dustin Moskowitz announced that Facebook was going mobile. Folks now have the opportunity to download the Facebook application on their Blackberries. At this year's show, a representative at RIM told me that 1 million downloads of the application had occurred. This is a very impressive development and likely to accelerate as Blackberry devices move into the hands of the millenials. A demographic that will out number the boomers in 2010.
However, it is not necessarily the mobile social networking potential that is interesting but all the different groups in Facebook focused on the wireless industry. On that note, one group that I would like to highlight is the Social Mobile Group.
The Social Mobile Group consists of people who are interested in how wireless can be a positive factor in developing countries across the world. It is an active community that highlights articles and the works of others who believe that wireless can be a factor in changing lives. Ken Banks (a member of Stanford's faculty) founded the group and I'm honored to be a part of this community.
Please consider joining the group and getting involved!
Posted: 04/16/08 by Chris Parandian
As I mentioned in a previous post, social technologies and wireless are a pair of aces. Everyday I'm finding new ways to participate in this digital revolution. In fact, it is hard to keep up with all of the new technologies and I hope you'll tip us to some stuff we haven't seen.
In any case, I recently started utilizing Jott. I heard about Jott from Jonny Goldstein who has taught me a great deal about videoblogging and is a local leader in social media.
Jott has facilitated life for me in a few ways. First, it allows me to organize my thoughts and it centralizes them for me online. Gone are the days when I would leave myself voice-mails. With Jott, I can dictate a message using my blackberry and I can recall it online later. Jott transcribes the message for you.
On a related note, they have recently added additional functionality for the blackberry. You can download it here. Basically, if I get an email from you, I can hit "reply with Jott" and respond to your email via voice. Once again, Jott will transcribe the message and you will receive a reply email from me. A bonus feature by Jott is a "cc" to you on the email so that you can see if the message was transcribed accurately.
The next time you are out and about and you want to give the qwerty keyboard a break - give Jott a try. Jott is definitely "bringing simple back."
Posted: 04/15/08 by Hiram 'Art' Contreras
As this blog has
mentioned before, there are numerous ways to recycle your electronic waste. One great example of such civic and corporate responsibility is the partnership between Dell Inc. based in Austin, Texas and Goodwill Industries of Houston. The two organizations have joined together to promote electronic recycling via Reconnect, a free citywide electronic recycling program.
Through the Reconnect program, residents can recycle old cell phones, video game equipment and computers at various drop-off points throughout the Greater-Houston metro area. The devices are then refurbished and sold in Computer Works stores at discounted prices or they are recycled. The city of Houston is following the trend set by fellow programs in Austin, San Antonio, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, San Diego and San Francisco.
While the environmental benefits of such a program are obvious, there are economic advantages as well. Due to the need for labor to refurbish and sell the recycled electronics, the program has created new jobs in the community and filled 14 staff positions.
The Houston-program has high expectations. The goal for the Houston-area Reconnect program is to divert 1.5 million pounds of computers from landfills. The Austin Reconnect program is able to divert 250 tons a month and the Houston area is able to divert a substantially larger amount.
I can't say enough good things about the partnership between Dell and Goodwill - not only are they working to help the environment through electronic recycling, the community through job creation, but they are also filling a need for those who are not able to purchase new computers by selling the devices at affordable prices. Technology is increasingly becoming a necessity rather than a luxury, so the more that programs like Reconnect can do to provide technology to those in need, the better.
Posted: 04/10/08 by Teri Rucker
We all know that mobile technology makes a difference in our lives in big and small ways, ways that are uplifting and important, but then it can also be used for pure fun. Since man and woman cannot (or at least should not) live being serious all the time, today I want to focus on a new site that is going mobile and its only redeeming social value is its ability to make you laugh out loud. The I Can Has Cheezburger site will now send out updates via text and the mobile web with some help from Frengo.
If you haven't seen it, I Can Has Cheezburger posts hilarious pictures of cats and some other animals with amusing captions. It sounds absurd, but it's addictive and provides endless entertainment for those of us with offbeat senses of humor. In my own defense, I recently attended a brunch with some amazingly smart people -- telecom lawyers, physicists, journalists, lobbyists -- and someone brought up this site and we talked and laughed like third graders about it for 20 minutes.
No, this site isn't going to save the world, but getting mobile updates of the latest wacky cat pictures is enough to put a smile on your face and having a happier day is certainly a noble goal.
Posted: 04/08/08 by Jo-Anne Basile
Earth Day is April 22 and during the month of April, Mobile Future will share information on how wireless users can be kinder to the environment by disposing of their wireless devices in a responsible way.
In 2005, the EPA estimated that there was about 2.2 million tons of e-waste -- e-waste includes all consumer electronics from computer terminals to cell phones and more. That statistic was one of the first things I heard the other morning on NPR and what was more disturbing is that only 15 percent to 20 percent of the electronic devices that are disposed of each year are recycled.
The good news is that the wireless industry makes it really easy for people to recycle their old phones, since the average consumer replaces their phone about every 18 to 24 months. It is encouraging that the wireless industry has stepped up and volunteered to make recycling easy.
All the major wireless providers - Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and Alltel accept donations of cell phones in their stores regardless of the cell phones' manufacturer or carrier. All you have to do is let the employees know that you would like to recycle your phone, and they will take care of the rest. Many electronics stores, such as Best Buy, Office Depot and Staples, also have collection bins where people can drop off their cell phones.
Oftentimes, carriers will donate perfectly useable phones to good causes or they will use the money they raise by recycling the pieces to support charities. One I particularly like is Verizon's Wireless HopeLine where the funds raised are used to purchase wireless phones which are distributed (along with donated air time) to victims of domestic violence.
Now the Post Office is testing a pilot electronics recycling program.
Free postage-paid envelopes are provided to individuals to mail in everything from inkjet cartridges to MP3 players to cell phones. Currently 1,500 post offices are participating in 10 areas across the country, including Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. If the program is successful, they will expand it in the fall.
This is just the tip of the iceberg - there are many other ways to responsibly dispose of your old phones. Check back with Mobile Future for other resources we will highlight.
And don't forget, before you recycle your phone, remember to terminate your service, clear the phone's memory of contacts and other stored information and remove your phone's SIM card.
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