EarthVision Newsletter Archive
Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2000 1:42 AM
Subject: EarthVision Cellular Consumer News!Another issue of the EarthVision Cellular Consumer Newsletter. This newsletter is for the soon to be educated cellular phone user community. If you know of anyone else that may have an interest in our newsletter, make sure to forward them a copy. Now we move forward at Mach II speed!
[Note: This newsletter is delivered Bi-Monthly on Wednesday.]
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AT&T ANGEL PROGRAM READY FOR NATIONAL ROLLOUT IN 2001
CALIFORNIA CELL PHONE NUMBER SHORTAGES ABOUT TO GET WORSE
EARTHVISION CELLULAR OFFERS MORE CONTENT THAN EVER
LUXURY CARS TO HAVE BUILT IN CRADLES FOR STAR TAC CELLULAR PHONES
FCC PUT ON A VERY SHORT LEASH BY CONGRESS
WEB DOCUMENT DELIVERY BY WIRELESS PHONE
HOT! HOT! HOT! SPECIALS: PENTIUM LAPTOP, OWNER'S MANUALS & MORE
WILLIAM IS OFFERED INDUCTION INTO THE INTERNATIONAL EXECUTIVE GUILD
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE CONTEST WINNER!
HALL OF SHAME - CRIMINALS BUSTED BY EARTHVISION CELLULAR
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EarthVision Cellular Consumer News Issue # 7 Volume 2
AT&T ANGEL PROGRAM READY FOR NATIONAL ROLLOUT IN 2001
We thought this would be a good time to inform our subscribers about AT&T's lesser known project. This was something that was asked of William at expertcentral.com back in February. The success of this new service is critical to AT&T as they spin off AWS with an IPO. This is your big chance to buy some stock if you time it right and get in while the going is good.What this project amounts to is a fixed wireless digital broadband service. Here is how it will work. A base station will transmit a signal to a flat antenna mounted on the home. (About 12 inches x 13 inches). This antenna will have been hardwired to a control unit in the home or garage. Similar to the size of a VCR. This is then connected to the phone and/or modem card. It is expected that the service will offer 1 megabit per channel. Offering up to 12 times faster delivery than a regular dial up modem will offer.
AT&T is hoping the fixed wireless will allow them to generate more revenue with fixed wireless by offering local phone service and cable TV as well. In areas where AT&T doesn't have cable installed, they will use the fixed wireless to reach about 55 million homes. They expect to have enough towers and radio equipment operational to reach about 1.5 million homes and 15 million by the end of 2002.
For us, it means that we will have another option over the local phone companies service being offered for DSL service. Although pricing has yet to be worked out, with the test run being rolled out in Fort Worth, Texas these are the current pricing packages. A voice line with unlimited local dialing, caller ID, call waiting, and 3 way calling runs $25.95 per month. High Speed Data runs $34.95 a month and includes AT&T Worldnet Internet Access. They are working on agreements with other ISPs so that consumers can have the option of choosing from one of six ISP companies. Installation will take about 2 hours to complete.
However, they are concerned that the demand will be too high for capacity. In an effort to avoid AOL's problem of capacity vs. demand, they may charge for the network card needed for internet access of charge a higher monthly fee for the service. It will probably be a few more years before we see this service on a wide scale.
CALIFORNIA CELL PHONE NUMBER SHORTAGES ABOUT TO GET WORSE
Seven more months could see some areas of California without any phone numbers available for new cellular phone subscribers. One of the hot spots is the Los Angeles 310 area code. It looks like there are just under 4 million cellular phone numbers available for that area code before they have been exhausted. These are to be shared between 20 service providers in the area.
The various service carriers are very upset with the California PUC since they decided to introduce a trial program to create number pooling to conserve the remaining numbers. What has the carriers in an uproar is that the current conservation measure has delayed introduction of a backup number plan such as an area code split to create more numbers.
The CPUC has yet to study the other 24 area codes within the state in reference to the usage of cellular phone numbers before they will implement the number pooling program into those areas too.
Here is where things begin to get messy. For carriers to participate in the cellular phone number pooling, they must be capable of Local Number Portability. But the FCC has given wireless carriers until 2002 to implement Local Number Portability. On the other hand, the CPUC cannot force carriers to implement the Local Number Portability in order to participate in the number conservation programs.
Because of that, you would almost think that what the CPUC is doing is a futile exercise. If you live in Southern California, we will say it again. Get out there and get that cellular phone activated before it is too late.
EARTHVISION CELLULAR OFFERS MORE CONTENT THAN EVER
We are guilty of hyping up our new product lines and not coming through. We are working on adding new product lines that we think will be of interest to you. We ran into a lurch when our webmaster suddenly disappeared on us. We now have a new webmaster working on our website. We are confident in stating that we will have all of the new product lines up and running no later than May of this year. Right now, we are going to be finishing up with our "Business Products" product line by the end of this week.
For those of you who have a small business, home office, or even a medium sized company, you may want to take a look at what we have to offer. Including an "On Hold" music system that can be used by the home office and/or small business. It will certainly lend you that professional image that you would want to display to customers when they call in to speak with someone.
We have also brought into our product lines the Handy Fax WF500P which is a portable fax that can be used by landline telephone and/or cellular telephone. If you own a 3 Watt Cellular Phone, it may cost a little more for an adapter but you will be able to use the fax machine with that type of phone as well. It comes with everything needed to start using it right out of the box.
Next, William wrote an e-book that covered the cellular phone industry. Something to the effect of 52 pages of a word document. The decision was made not to offer it as an e-book. Instead we will share the information with anyone who should have a desire to read the material presented. We should have it up and running on our website within the next couple of weeks. This subject was covered in a very comprehensive manner. We expect that a couple of authors selling books on the subject at Amazon.com and with other online book stores may get a bit miffed about it. We expect that it will answer a majority of your questions should you have any.
Our new business products page is located here: (Graphics are on the shopping cart. Missing graphics will be available by this weekend. We have some cool items here.)
http://www.earthvisioncellular.com/business_products.html
LUXURY CARS TO HAVE BUILT IN CRADLES FOR STAR TAC CELLULAR PHONES
Sprint PCS, Mercedes Benz, Ford, GPS, Motorola Star Tac. What a mixture of names that has come about. Car manufacturers are looking for ways to get into the wireless market. They are doing just that by targeting the higher end spectrum of society. The Star Tac phone was chosen because it is associated with those who can afford luxury vehicles.
Last December, Mercedes Benz was the first car manufacturer to offer the integrated wireless system in US cars. The system included a Motorola Star Tac phone that drops into it's own mount. It also allowed for the phone book and other data to be integrated with car's display, automatic muting, and pausing of the car's audio along with voice recognition in some cases.
Sprint PCS wasn't to be left behind when they signed an agreement with Ford to become the first carrier to offer an optional accessory to buyers. The agreement was that Ford would put Motorola Star Tac phones in some of the year 2001 Lincoln luxury cars. About 200,000 of these cars will be manufactured with customized Star Tac docking cradles that can be used in the vehicle or removed for mobility purposes. The handsets will be integrated with the RESCU telmatics systems and GPS location equipment.
As of yet, no pricing has been decided. Nor have it been decided if Sprint PCS WAP services will be bundled into the pricing structure. Having the GPS system as an option costs the buyer about $2,000 more on the purchase of the vehicle. The Star Tac handset option will be in addition to that pricing.
We have to take out hats off to Sprint PCS for being as aggressive as MCI Worldcom in getting out there and picking up market share any way they can manage.
FCC PUT ON A VERY SHORT LEASH BY CONGRESS
In our newsletters, we have often referred to the FCC. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term FCC, they are the Federal Communications Commission. This agency's job is to regulate and promote competition in the telecom arena.
They also approve mergers of telecom companies. Which has an impact on us in that with each merger that takes place, our pricing should come down for various services available. A merger means that duplicate services are no longer needed. Granted, it may eliminate jobs to some extent but hopefully those people are cross trained into another division.
Not too long ago, the FCC was nailed for doing back yard deals and secret meetings. Congress has stepped in to put a leash on the FCC by drafting a bill called the "Telecommunications Merger Review Act of 2000" and has bipartisan (Republican & Democratic) support. It gives the FCC only 90 days to complete reviews and approve the process for a license transfer. When it comes to Local Exchange Carriers (aka LEC) seeking to be acquired or merged with another company, the FCC is being offered only 60 days.
Some in Congress have claimed that the agency is abusing it's power, and is arrogant as well as oppressive. It has been alleged that the FCC has been forcing applicants of a merger to accept so called voluntary back room conditions that cannot be appealed later. Congress is looking to reduce the power of the agency and imposing micro management of the agency.
The FCC took 192 days to approve the merger between Qwest and US West, 411 Days to approve SBC Communications and Ameritech, and 158 days to approve AT&T and TCI. Approval for the MCI WorldCom/Sprint Merger has been in progress since 11/17/99 and Bell Atlantic (BAM) and GTE Corp. merger has been in progress since 10/8/98.
How this all boils down to the consumer level. Well, it takes up taxpayer money. Especially since the FCC has asked for an increased budget to deal with operational expenses and for salaries. And second, it takes that much longer for the trickle down effect on pricing to consumers. Finally, it is taking more time to spur competition which helps to drive down pricing.
WEB DOCUMENT DELIVERY BY WIRELESS PHONE
From real life experiences, ideas are born. An entrepreneur had a brother who had lost his briefcase while on a business trip. In it was his itinerary, traveler's cheques, and documents. Realizing that his brother could have expedited the process by having his documents stored in cyberspace, he created a web based delivery document company. The company is called vVault Inc. (That isn't a typo either.) vVault is a virtual safe deposit box for documents.
Users with a Palm Pilot device or WAP phone can access the web saved documents by typing in vVault. They will then enter a user name and password and then selecting the file name. Then the document can be sent to a fax or to an email address and even viewed by the handheld device's screen. How then do you deposit a document into the vault? Fax it in. Simple as that.
Xerox is offering a similar service called MobileDoc and is certified for the Motorola Pagewriter 2000X and will be offered through WebLink Wireless. Xerox can also offer the service via the Timeport P930. Europeans will have the service available to them via the Nokia 9100 Communicator and should be available on the 7100 series later this year. The nice thing about MobileDoc is that it can be updated wirelessly and managed from your PC.
Another company called eFax.com will also begin offering the service. But it is believed that the market is limited and Xerox will end up on top of the mountain for the corporate business market.
HOT! HOT! HOT! SPECIALS: PENTIUM LAPTOP, OWNER'S MANUALS & MORE
We are starting our spring house cleaning. Take advantage of these offers while you still can!
A Compaq Pentium 75 Mhz LTE 5000 DS Laptop. Excellent Condition. We have no need for it now but had it rebuilt and had the hard drives cleaned. Comes with a 500 MB hard drive, 8 MB Ram, 10.4 inch color DS screen, Basic Windows 95 Software with unused license agreement, 28.8 modem (not installed but will be included), 3.5 inch floppy disk, and AC power cord. Has the rotating button tracker for moving the curser too! We only have the one so it is a first come, first serve basis. We will be giving it away for $425. If you are interested, contact us right away. You can also fax in your payment information to 888-841-6616.
Spring Cleaning Special: Buy any Nokia 5100 Chameleon faceplate (subtly changes colors) or a Ferrari Gold or Ferrari Silver faceplate for only $14.95 each. Limit 2 faceplates per color on each order. We don't want to sell off our entire stock. Each order with at least 4 faceplates (of two or more different colors) will include a tool for removing the antennae.
Handy Fax WF500P: As a new product being brought online, we will present this as a special offer for only one week. This is a portable fax machine that can be used with a cellular phone or a landline telephone. Often presented as the world's smallest fax machine. Includes everything you need to start using it upon delivery within a matter of minutes. Send, Receive, and even copy. You can get one for $799 if you are a current subscriber to our newsletter. This offer will end as of April 5th, 2000. Feel free to compare this pricing with any competitors of EarthVision Cellular. [Especially if you will be looking at that web document delivery service....]
Cellular Phone Grab Bag: Crazy as it may seem, William said to do it. In this case, we need more room for new products coming in. We thought we would give our customers a chance at buying phones that we would normally sell to dealers. These are "cherry picked" phones. In other words, they are sold "as is" but most dealers would pass them off as refurbs. Most of these are in display condition (aka like new.) Some have manuals some don't. Some have wall adapters and some don't. Batteries that they came with are included. Some have extra accessories included and some don't. So if you know someone who has been looking for a good used phone, this is your chance to give it to them. We add $5 for S&H of each phone ordered if lot is broken up. Current market value of this lot is around $1000 or more without our doing anything to them. Sell them at a garage sale, use them for trade-in's but get something out of them.
NO REASONABLE OFFER WILL BE REFUSED! (Or take the whole lot for $375 + Cost of Postage)
NOKIA 2160 EFR DIGITAL WITH NEW SLIM NIMH BATTERY
NOKIA 100
ERICSSON KH688 - BRAND NEW NEVER USED
ERICSSON CH337 SPRINT PCS GSM PHONE - DISPLAY CONDITION
AT&T BAG PHONE WITH BATTERY - DISPLAY CONDITION
TECHNOPHONE BC901 BAG PHONE - SOFT CASE - DISPLAY CONDITION
NEC DIGITAL TALK TIME
SONY CM333
MOTOROLA ULTRA CLASSIC II BRICK PHONE
OKI 1145 TELEGO WITH MANUAL - NEEDS CLEAN UP & ANTENNA
MOTOROLA i380 IDEN FLIP PHONE -
AT&T 3812A
MITSUBISIHI DIAMONDTEL - No Battery
MITSUBISHI CELL PHONE IN DISPLAY CONDITION
Owner's Manuals: Priced at $19.99 each and are available for the following Models: Audiovox 440/470, Audiovox 501/506/507, Nokia 282, Nokia 252, Nokia 918, Nokia 2160, NEC P810/P820, Star Tac 7760, Star Tac 7790, Star Tac 6000/6500, Star Tac 3000, Motorola Populous, Motorola 550PT/900PT, Motorola Piper/DPC650, Motorola Lite XL, Motorola Elite, Motorola M70, Motorola M77, Motorola M75 and Transportable TVM200/TVS200, TX400, AK400, and 2950M.
These will now be listed as a part of our shopping cart too.
WILLIAM IS OFFERED INDUCTION INTO THE INTERNATIONAL EXECUTIVE GUILD
Just what we need. For William to be recognized by another organization as being an expert and contributing to the advancement of the industry. His head is big enough as it is. We have taped a sign on the back of his head that says "Caution Wide Load".
We are very pleased for William to have been recognized (again). From looking at questions being asked of him at expertcentral.com there are some intelligent people out there. It was said that he turned down a position with about.com as an expert in the cellular phone area. He has turned down a few offers over the past few months.
What is the International Executive Guild? Ask William and he will tell you he doesn't have any idea. We think it is an association created for cronies like William to sit around drinking coffee and patting each other on the back. But in all seriousness, it is an association that selects members based on their qualifications in a specific field. With this association, you must have some type of international presence to be recognized.
Although EarthVision Cellular offers international shipping, William was probably selected because of his
previous title as President for an allied trading group. He stepped down from that position over a year ago but
maintains his international contacts for promoting EarthVision Cellular worldwide.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE CONTEST WINNER!
The contest officially ended on Friday, March 31st, 2000 midnight. We have been keeping track and some of you really went all out to win. Had we known that some of you have such a competitive spirit, we would have set it up to offer a 1st, 2nd, & 3rd place prize.
Here is a refresher on what it took to become the winner. Each contestant earned points for referring people to our newsletter or as a purchasing customer. With 157 accumulated points, the winner is Michelle Johnson of Los Angeles. She chose the Star Tac 8500 Series Cellular Phone complete with accessories. Congratulations to Michelle!
HALL OF SHAME - CRIMINALS BUSTED BY EARTHVISION CELLULAR
Some people just never learn that trying to commit fraud just doesn't pay. We are seriously considering creating a Hall of Shame so that we can post information about dishonest and unethical individuals who think they can use EarthVision Cellular as the conduit for scams and committing dishonest or unethical acts and crimes. We are certain they would love knowing that their information is posted on the great big WWW for thousands of visitors to see each month.
We recently had an individual who wanted to get products shipped to Romania but was trying to purchase the products with a stolen credit card with a US address. We contacted the intended victim and provided them with the information that we obtained. As it stands, this individual just isn't going to be a beneficiary of the fine products from EarthVision Cellular. Did anyone know we now have FBI offices in Romania by request? We just found that out.
Then we had one where a store employee in a mall lifted account information from a receipt or something a customer of the business signed and tried to get away with a prepaid cellular phone order. So now they face fraud, forgery, and theft charges. This mastermind may want to consider taking over the world as their next caper. This will cost them a lot more than it was worth for some time to come. Maybe we can get the arrest on video and sell it to the COPS program.
We have said it before and we will say it again. Criminals are not the most intelligent people on earth. The first clue telling them that they would be busted is that we do not automatically process credit card orders online. Each order is reviewed and then we manually process the credit card transaction. Second, we have the American Express Fraud Protection Guarantee listed right on our site. If we have it for American Express, we must have it for other credit card companies too.
Speaking of which. Did anyone notice a while back that American Express had us listed on their ad in USA Today about companies who offered guaranteed fraud protection? We didn't either, we found out when someone else told us about it.
Who knows, maybe one day we will get a crime-stoppers award. Could we even begin to hope that one day we won't have to write about such pathetic and annoying individuals such as the two above.
PLEASE TELL YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY, AND ASSOCIATES ABOUT OUR NEWSLETTER. WE APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT AND ASSISTANCE IN MAKING OUR NEWSLETTER A SUCCESS. If you want your name to vanish from our list because our newsletter is just too boring or someone else signed you up, let us know. We will reluctantly take you off of our newsletter list. And we still reserve the right to make faces at you when you aren't looking. Go to www.earthvisioncellular.com/newsletter to take your name off or to add your name to our newsletter.