EarthVision Newsletter Archive ****************************************************************************************** A WORD TO EVC NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS LAW ENFORCEMENT TO BECOME BIG BROTHER HERE'S ONE FOR THE PET LOVERS NEW YEARS CELLULAR PHONE CRASH SAMSUNG SCH3500 PUSHING TO BE TOP SELLING PHONE EARTHVISION CELLULAR LOYALTY PROGRAM NOW ONLINE ****************************************************************************************** EarthVision Cellular Consumer News Issue #14 Volume 1 ___________________________________________________________ A WORD TO EVC NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS ___________________________________________________________ Another year has passed and another new year, new century, and new millenium is about to begin. Pretty amazing when you think about it. What we find equally amazing is the online customers and newsletter subscribers of EarthVision Cellular. By the way, this is the final issue of the newsletter for this year. With the company being established in 1995 and our just now going online earlier this year, the website was a new venture for us. We weren't certain that our being online would be effective in competing with the big companies online. Thanks to all of you, we can officially declare the website a success. That is an accomplishment worth boasting on New Year's Eve. And in an indirect manner, we have been honored by our competitors. We recently discovered that they would review our website and attempt to implement or copy some of the offerings we had for our customers. We must have been doing something right to merit such recognition. We wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! _________________________________________________________________ LAW ENFORCEMENT TO BECOME BIG BROTHER _________________________________________________________________ Recently, the FCC has handed down The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act. Most of you may not have heard about it. But in general, it means the following: You longer have a right to private phone calls on your cellular phone should law enforcement feel that they need to know what you are taking about or your location. The rules of the act require carriers to disclose the full content of a data packet, capture credit card information, bank account numbers, and user's will not have an option of turning off the location function on their phones. Nor does the requesting law enforcement agency need a full warrant under the act before tapping into cellular phone conversations. Many of the consumer privacy advocacy groups consider this to be an invasion of privacy and the first step into creating a "big brother" enviroment where privacy is no longer a right. So far several lawsuits have been filed with the court of appeals. The concern is that the act allows law enforcement to access more information that they would be allowed without full search warrants to secure private content under the old wiretapping laws. The wireless industry is working on creating a location system for cellular phone users which will give cellular phone user's the choice of being located. And if the current act isn't repealed, will not offer the user a choice at all. Instead, we will have the first stages of a police state being formed. ________________________________________________________________ HERE'S ONE FOR THE PET LOVERS _________________________________________________________________ Call it crazy if you must. But pets have become a part of the family. We leave them home all alone throughout the working day. And the japanese are working furiously to come up with new ideas for new subscribers of wireless service. Pet owners will become the next target. It is predicted that every adult in Japan will own a cellular phone by 2003. Because that market is about to be closed, two companies in Japan have come up with a wireless collar for pets. The first run on production will allow the pet owner to check in with their pets constantly throughout the day. It will go beyond even that to looking at a global position service which will locate lost pets and fax you a map pinpointing the location of your lost poochie or feline friend. Wireless industry analysts seem to think that such a device would not appeal to the american consumer who owns pets. People interviewed about the device gave mixed responses. Some of them loved the idea and others thought that it would not have much use. For those that really think of their pets as being part of the family, the location service may be something to have. _________________________________________________________________ NEW YEARS CELLULAR PHONE CRASH _________________________________________________________________ No. We don't mean a crash because of the Y2K bug per se. Carriers are not concerned that there will be failures due to the 00 number change. Rather that people using cellular phones are going to cause a crash. Every New Year's Eve, people call friends and family. With the current volume of cellular phone user's and the media overkill on the Y2K bug, traffic is probably going to exceed capacity. It is expected that people will be calling everyone they know to find out if lights are working, etc. Carriers are asking cellular phone users to use their phones only if necessary. Millions of dollars have been spent in building out networks but cellular phone users may still get a fast busy signal. Be prepared that your cellular phone may not allow you to get through to place calls for emergency purposes. Inform every cellular phone user you know to observe the request of the carriers to use the phones on New Year's Eve as little as possible to allow emergency calls to get through. _________________________________________________________________ SAMSUNG SCH3500 PUSHING TO BE TOP SELLING PHONE _________________________________________________________________ Well, Nokia and Motorola Star Tac Phones appear to have a front running competitor in the digital market. The SCH 3500 is internet ready and selling fast. A mid range priced product in which Sprint PCS is offering a $30 rebate until mid Janurary. Once the special promotion expires, the phones will be sold at $149 each. The popularity of these phones stem from the fact that they have voice activated dialing, a headset jack, vibrating call alert, and graphics display. For only a slightly higher price than the next lower model which does not have these features. So far it appears to be the phone that has the most to offer for the price in comparison to other phones. And has the most appeal to the general public. Other web browsing types of cellular phones are being sold on the high end at $229 each. Samsung is scrambling to keep up with demand but thinks they will be able to maintain stocking of the shelves for the booming sales for this particular phone. ________________________________________________________________ EARTHVISION CELLULAR LOYALTY PROGRAM NOW ONLINE _________________________________________________________________ We finally got it online. Take a look and see for yourself what we have done to show our appreciation of our customers. You can earn up to $100 in store credit just for being a customer of EarthVision Cellular. And you get credit for referrals too. Your accumulated points are tracked and reported to you each month. This program is effective as of today. Why not join? You don't see an offer like this one being made by cellular phone stores either offline or online. We have created a diversity in our program by giving you six (6) options. That is right! Six ways to earn points with our program. The really good part is that you don't have to spend any money at all to earn points if you choose not to do so. Why is that? Take a look for yourself and you will see. In addition, we have added a new service. Ibyphone which is an email service by telephone. If you are interested in learning more about it, click on the ibyphone logo on the right hand side of the main page. We are working hard to bring you only the best. We hope that we are suceeding in doing so. Please let us know if there is something you would like to see on our site. We have set up a feedback form for that purpose. Again, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Until next year! PLEASE TELL YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY, AND ASSOCIATES ABOUT OUR NEWSLETTER. WE APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT AND ASSISTANCE IN MAKING OUR NEWSLETTER A SUCCESS. EarthVision Communications Inc. "Taking Cellular to Mach II Speed" www.earthvisioncellular.com Back