Blog | News & Information on Wireless Services & Telecommunications

What’s Cookin

Posted: 03/11/08 by Teri Rucker

To continue to feed my cookbook-buying habit without too much guilt, I always wait to go to the book store until Borders has e-mailed its weekly coupon. Martha Stewart has a new cookie cookbook and how could I have missed owning Chez Panisse Desserts?

Today, as I was printing out the coupon, I noticed that I could get them delivered to my cell phone. That's brilliant! I'm always forgetting to print the coupon or I've left it in the pocket of my other coat or I somehow don't have it when I get to the book store. Now that I'm all signed up to get the coupons delivered to my cell phone, I won't have to decide whether to come back to the store with my coupon in hand or just pay full price. I'll have the discounts in my phone for use at any time.

Another thing I'm really excited about is my favorite cooking web site, www.101cookbooks.com, has enabled the site so recipes can be easily viewed with a wireless device. That is so handy. Now when I am at the grocery store and can't remember what I need to whip up the rustic cabbage soup that site founder Heidi Swanson has dreamed up, I can just pull out my phone and check the ingredients list. I can't tell you how many repeat trips to the grocery store this is going to save me.

I know there are many, many technologies out there that do far fancier things than look up recipes on the fly and I plan on experimenting with those services as time goes on. But the great thing about wireless is it improves life for everyone no matter their skill level or what their passions.

I Heart My Cell Phone

Posted: 03/07/08 by Diane Smith

In six short years, Americans have gone from loving their landline telephone service the most to more than half saying that they simply couldn't live without their wireless phone, according to a report by Pew Internet and the American Life Project. In this survey, only 40 percent said landlines were indispensable and 43 percent couldn't live without TV compared with 63 percent who couldn't live without a land line in 2002.

What's not to love about the wireless world? The freedom to go anywhere and still stay in touch is priceless. That freedom allows me to go skiing in the mornings while staying on top of business. Who wouldn't love to pop into the ski lodge after a few runs down the slope, knock out a conference call with a cup of tea in hand, write some e-mails and then ski some more?

But I digress. The Pew study found that 51 percent of those surveyed said they wouldn't want to give up their wireless phone - more than the 45 percent of folks who couldn't part with Internet service. That makes sense, because you can actually use your wireless device to connect to the internet. Maybe the next time Pew does the study the lines between "the internet" and cell phone will be so blurred that they won't be able to separate the categories. Some day - and I predict that day will be sooner rather than later - we will have at our disposal at least one device that lets us communicate through phone calls, use it like a word processor and surf the web. Every innovation in wireless brings me more opportunities to work hard, even while I ski, hike, and spend time with my family - how great is that!

Check out the report  to learn more about how wireless is indispensable to people.

Innovative loan program aiding in rural broadband deployment

Posted: 03/04/08 by Diane Smith

The Washington Post recently reported that one of the first things new Agriculture Secretary Edward Schafer did was to make it a priority to ensure the Rural Utility Service improved its loan process so companies can provide broadband to rural America.
 
It is just this type of program that, if properly implemented, is government at its best. Thanks to this partnership between the Agriculture Department and private industry that began in the 1920s, rural America has clean drinking water, electricity and telephone service.
 
For nearly a century, the Agriculture Department and the private sector have worked to ensure rural America has basic infrastructure, and in the 21st century broadband is a basic service. For small communities to thrive, being connected to the rest of the world is a necessity and broadband is their link to economic development, educational opportunities, and even opera.
 
Yet, as much as these communities may want something, the economic incentives must be there to deploy the infrastructure, whether it be fiber, cable or wireless towers. It is expensive to serve these areas and the return on that investment can be a long time in coming in sparsely populated areas. That is a tricky proposition for any company seeking traditional financing, where a return on the investment is often expected within a 12-month period. Because that isn’t always possible, the loan program made available by the Rural Utility Service is very important.
 
Take for example, Montana, where less than a million people live in a state that spans more than 147,000 square miles. Wireless broadband technology can be a cost-effective way to deploy broadband and in some cases it may be the most feasible way given the terrain and physical conditions of the land.
 
No matter which technology is being used, it takes significant investments to build broadband networks and offer service.  I wish Secretary Schafer luck in his efforts to make the RUS loans more readily available to those who want to offer broadband in rural areas.
 
This is the way government should be involved in the wireless industry – making available the needed resources to those who can deliver the much-needed services.