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EarthVision Newsletter Archive

Sent: November 12, 1999
Subject: EarthVision Cellular Consumer News!

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INCREASED CELLULAR PHONE USE BY CONSUMERS PAYS OFF
FDA RECOMMENDATION ON RF EXPOSURE MET WITH STIFLED SMIRKS
TALK WITH YOUR HANDS AND YOUR CELLULAR PHONE
WIRELESS WEB WILL BE A ROUGH AND TOUGH ROAD TO START
ACTIVATE A USED PHONE WITH EARTHVISION CELLULAR
EARTHVISION CEO - ADD TO HIS RESUME ACTOR AND, UM... FIGHTER?
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EarthVision Cellular Consumer News Issue #1 Volume 12

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INCREASED CELLULAR PHONE USE BY CONSUMERS PAYS OFF
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The American people are spending nearly one third more of their time on their cellular phone than they did in 1998. Not to mention that the new subscribers signing up for cellular service continues to move forward "at mach II speed." [Not that we had a great deal to do with that]. A survey released last week shows that celluar phone use increased by nearly 39% but the average monthly bill only rose by 1%. This is the first time that the survey has showed such a significant result since it was first began in 1987. Good news for the cellular phone user.

As it stands today, nearly 28% of the american population now uses cellular phones. And a truly dizzying figure is in the time from 6/98 to 6/99. This 12 month period of time showed that 15 million people signed up to become subscribers. Which equates to adding a subscriber every 2 to 3 seconds. With a global wireless customer base of 400 million subscribers, America makes up for nearly 74 million of those subscribers and as we can see is growing rapidly.

Will the cellular phone replace traditional land line phones? Probably not. At least not in the near future. The average cellular phone user only spends about 2.4 minutes on a cellular phone call. [Not surprising since it is impolite to talk with your mouth full of food.] What this means to you as a cellular phone user. As a cellular phone user, pricing is going to continue to be more cost effective as more people sign up for service. Some of you may know of the "volume discount" principle. In a sense what we have here is a "consumer volume discount" as a whole. The american people have taken to cellular phones to such an extent that it is cost effective for carriers to keep pricing very competitive while building out more networks. Overall, the future is looking very good for consumers with cellular phones.

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FDA RECOMMENDATION ON RF EXPOSURE MET WITH STIFLED SMIRKS
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Recently the FDA made a recommendation on it's website to manufacturers to design cellular phones that minimize the Radio Frequency (RF) exposure. In response, manufacturers have said that they do not intend to change cellular phones. Why? Because they are already making the cellular phones within safety guidelines in regards to RF exposure.

We have all seen or heard about the 20/20 segment on the testing cellular phones in Germany and their RF exposure. But the industry has questioned the validity of the tests in the context of US safety guidelines. In a press release, the FCC has stated they will determine whether the lab's test results were within the commission's test guidelines or not.

The reason they question the results. The standard procedure is for a peer review process advocated by most scientific and medical research organizations requires the examination of a project or report by professionals in the same field and often publication in an industy journal before the results are made public. This process ensures that the issue has been debated in it's entirety and allows for disputing facts or findings by other experts within the same field.

Which has folks trying to stifle smirks in that some think the FDA presented it's recommendation based on the segment produced by the media. The recommendation wasn't posted on the FDA website until October 20th, 1999. Although Dr. Carlo failed to observe the above procedure which is probably what prompted 20/20 to do a segment as well.

An independent research firm in Ontario, Canada has claimed that overall manufacturers are paying attention to the US safety guidelines for RF exposure.

And if anyone is interested, the site is also to have additional information on research conducted over the past 5 years. We have posted a couple of links about cellular phone use and hazards. We recommend that you read these very carefully. You will find some very interesting information within them. The newest one is probably the most interesting.

This link is from 1993 findings on cellular phones.

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/ANSWERS/ANS00466.html This is the most recent link posted on Oct. 1999 http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/ocd/mobilphone.html

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TALK WITH YOUR HANDS AND YOUR CELLULAR PHONE
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Well most of us had had it happen to us. Talking on our cellular phone when the battery goes completely dead on us. Some of you have been on a flight using a laptop and the battery went to low to continue so you had to hurry up and save your document before you lost it.

Very soon, you will be able to get that miniature cardio aerobic workout and keep that cellular phone or laptop right on going. A japanese company has taken Arnold's favorite line "pump it up" to heart.

It is called Nissho USA. What they have designed is a line of manually powered generators and they are hoping to have them to retailers in the US before the holiday season ends. The Aladdin Power product line has two human powered generators. The hand held unit for the cellular phone generates 1.6 watts of power. Just enough to continue using a cellular phone. However, you will have to continuously pump the generator to keep power supplied to the phone. These generators will not recharge a dead battery. Merely keep it going for a little longer. 10 pumps will hold a charge for about 1 minute. [Pretty soon, all of us will have the "Popeye" syndrome with huge forearms.]

The other unit is a step charge generating 6 watts of power for the use of a laptop. Once again the user will have to continuously step down on the foot pedal. [Forget Nordic Track! Get a cellular phone and a laptop computer.]

Both units use the standard cigarette lighter charger to connect with the device. They weight about 11 ounces and measure about 5.5 inches in length. The handheld set will retail for about $45 and the foot pedal unit will retail for about $75 each.

However, we leave it to you to figure out just how useful a product it would really be to cellular phone users overall.

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WIRELESS WEB WILL BE A ROUGH AND TOUGH ROAD TO START
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Thinking about going to wireless web? Don't expect PC frames and downloading images of models onto your phone. Sprint has been touting it's wireless web for sometime now. What most folks are getting is access to some of the larger sites that provide informational news services similar to that being offered by pagers.

Industry analysts are worried that it will leave a bad taste in the cellular consumer's mouth when they are not able to access sites as they have grown accustomed to getting with a PC. And some think that consumers will be biting at the bit in that they are restricted to who and what they can access.

Sprint PCS has stated that they will listen to the customer and refine the services offered via wireless web. They have stated that they expect wireless web to become a new shopping media for the consumer. However, they have not stated if the shopping experience for the wireless web user will be restricted to the brand name sites that have paid tons of money to be listed on their service or not.

The challenge for Sprint PCS will be in managing customer expectations of wireless web and that it won't offer animation and other eye candy gif files. In addition, they will have to make sure that the networks are robust enough to provide reliable data transfer via wireless networks.

Currently the packages range from $9.99 to $179.99 and will soon by offered in Kmarts across the nation. And they have claimed to have been signing up thousands of subscribers to the wireless web service but they will not disclose if they are existing Sprint PCS subscribers or new subscribers. Nor will they disclose which plan(s) are the most popular with consumers.

We can only remind you that wireless web is still in it's infancy and like all other technologies will take time to evolve into a truly great service to the consumer. Competition from other carriers should help speed up that process.

[Bizarre Story: A doctor in Hong Kong was performing surgery on a patient. It appears that it was a local anesthetic since the patient was awake. While doing the surgery, the doctor was on his cellular phone with a car salesman discussing the purchase of a new car!]

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ACTIVATE A USED PHONE WITH EARTHVISION CELLULAR
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Some of you out there have bought used cellular phones from us and already had a carrier that would activate it for you. But others out there have not had a carrier readily available. Well, the need has been discovered that cellular phone users like you need some assistance.

We will now be working with our customers that do not currently have a service provider to get ahold of rate plans for the carriers listed on our website. This information will be emailed to you on request in regards to the rate plans available from the carrier in your area.

It was decided that since rate plans change way too often, it would be easier to email an updated verison of the rate plans to the customers who requested the information. For those of you who have the time to take it directly to a carrier to activate the phone have that option. And for those of you who would rather have the time to fill out the info at home and fax it into us for activation purposes can do that as well. We will give you the option of having the application faxed or mailed to you.

A side note: We were recently contacted and was told by an individual that the carrier would not allow them to upgrade their phone to a newer model. We would like to make it clear that you can upgrade your phone to a newer model if you choose to do so. The carrier will not subsidize the cost of the new phone so you would pay retail price for it. Even if you only had the phone & contract for a month, you can still upgrade by purchasing the phone from a third party. [For those of you waiting on your free gift. We haven't forgotten about you. We are still waiting on our last purchase order to arrive. As soon as we get it, we will be sending out your surprise gift for signing our guestbook.]

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EARTHVISION CEO - ADD TO HIS RESUME ACTOR AND UM FIGHTER?
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Before the CEO created the EarthVision Conglomerate, he had a very impressive track record that included mostly fortune 100 and fortune 500 companies. And with all the awards and certificates of recognition he has received over the years, he could probably wallpaper his entire office.

Most of us would never know that he was a key player in the design, development, and implementation of a telecom program which is now used by a number of electric utilites across the US to allow people to report power outages. It allows the utility companies to identify and fix the problem faster based on consumer's input. If you have reported a power outage, there is a good chance that you used the program to report your outage.

And from talking with him, you would have to ask him directly to learn that he has literally travelled nearly the whole North American continent including Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, and Mexico. Visited countries in the South Pacific, the Orient, and the Middle East. He even visted Guam. [Why would anyone want to go there!] The CEO says it was because he wanted to be able to say he had been there and done that. He said when he visits Europe and Russia, he will then and only then consider himself a global citizen. So you would think that it would be enough for just about anyone to say they have done it all.

Not in this case. He was asked to take a part in a movie being produced by an independent film director. Why? If you ask him, he would reply it was because he was just so good looking. Actually, we got the real scoop on it. It was because he has experience in being a businessman and that is what the part calls for in the movie. And it doesn't hurt to know the Star of the movie either. He admits that it will truly be acting since the part calls for a scene that he said would be considered to be out of character for him. It is supposed to be released in April of 2000. But don't expect it in a theater near you. It will probably end up on the Bravo Channel or something. He said we have to wait to find out the name of the movie though.

To top it all off, he has applied to enter the Toughman Contest. [And if he said he was accepted because of his looks, we would buy that.] We asked him what his strategy was going to be to win the contest. His reply was that he was going to run around the ring and hope his opponent fell over from exhaustion in trying to catch him. When we told him that it was probably going to be on national TV, he just smiled. And then said, "See there, I am going to show them what our slogan really means when we say we take it to Mach II speed."

[Another bizarre note: A resturaunt in New York is now setting up a special section for smoking, non smoking, and cellular phone use allowed!]

EarthVision Communications Inc. "Taking Cellular to Mach II Speed" www.earthvisioncellular.com

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