EarthVision Newsletter Archive
Back to Archive Home PageSent: Tuesday, May 16, 2000 8:13 PM
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 biweekly on Wednesday.] *************************************************************
VERIZON TO GO EXCLUSIVELY DIGITAL CELLULAR SERVICE
WIRELESS INTERNET WITH YOUR FLIGHT SOON TO BE A REALITY
THE REAL DEAL ON AT&T PREPAID CELLULAR SERVICE
EXCITE FINALLY ADDS WAP INTERNET PORTAL SITE
PREPAID WAP PHONES AVAILABLE IN THE UK
NEW YORK NEXT ON THE CELL PHONE DRIVING BAN LIST
CELLULAR PHONE ADVERTISING BOMBING OUT AND MORE TO COME
DRIVING AND CELL PHONE DISTRACTION STUDY BY REAL PEOPLE
EARTHVISION CELLULAR SPECIAL FOR SUBSCRIBERS
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EarthVision Cellular Consumer News Issue # 10 Volume 2
VERIZON TO GO EXCLUSIVELY DIGITAL CELLULAR SERVICE
A surprising move by Verizon (formerly Airtouch) is that they are going exclusively digital. I have a tendency to put carriers to the test.I contacted Verizon mainly to see what kind of customer service they offered now that they have merged. An extremely annoying experience to say the least.
The customer service representative I spoke with was poorly trained and didn't have the answers to various basic questions I asked. Nor did he have phone numbers to other divisions within the company. He said he worked inside sales and couldn't help with anything else because he didn't have the information available. I finally let him off the hook and got down to business.
It isn't his fault as to how the company's customer service operations are designed. Beware those of you who subscribe to Verizon. You may find yourself doing a run-around to get simple answers to basic questions.
In any case, I told them I wanted to activate a phone and he began detailing various plans available after asking me a couple of questions.
I said that is really cheap for analog service. "What changed?" I asked. The CSR responded that it was digital plans he was referring too. Verizon is phasing out analog service and going digital.
When I said that digital coverage was very poor and that I wanted analog service, he agreed and then told me to "keep in mind" (on a repeated basis as his rebuttal) that at some point they will be exclusively wireless.
However, existing analog subscribers would be able to continue with their current calling plan. To activate a new phone with them, you will have to go with a digital phone even if you are an existing analog subscriber. They are offering something of a mix and match package that allows for an established user to have both analog and digital phones on one bill.
Allow me to clarify that they are not excluding all areas from obtaining analog service plans. Only in areas where they feel they have enough digital network towers to sustain the customer base. A very scary thought when you look at Sprint PCS having the largest area of digital coverage. Sprint PCS has barely made it past the Mississippi River with any kind of decent coverage.
The advantage that Verizon will present to subscribers over Sprint PCS is that they will charge the same one rate even when you are roaming on analog service as a digital subscriber. At least that is what the inside sale rep told me. My confidence level on the accuracy of that information is about 40%. Aside from the customer service concerns, I would jump on the bandwagon for a deal like that if it is in fact true.
WIRELESS INTERNET WITH YOUR FLIGHT SOON TO BE A REALITY
Actually, it will be more like a WAP phone type service with a twist while you are flying. TV, email, and internet access may be coming to a flight near you. You will be able to catch up on the news from two broadcasters, trade stocks online, make online purchases, and email. All this can be yours for a price that has yet to be announced through a special phone jack that will be built on the airliner's planes.The general traveling individual will probably be more inclined to read a book to pass the time. My assumption is that this service will only be available to first class flyers. I would think they would not be so foolish as to exclude the business travelers that fly coach more often than not.
The thought behind this process is that business travelers are becoming a very large market base. Many people must stay in contact with employers, employees, and clients.
For those of you who are interested in this service, Boeing is looking to have this service launched in North America. By the end of next year, you should see it available. They intend to announce the airlines of whom they have partnered to provide this service later this summer. It is not clear yet as to how a user may access these services. It could be that you supply the laptop or they will have built in consoles.
The wireless service will be transmitted via satellite signal to 2 inch antennas located on the top of the plane. It is expected they will build more satellites to accommodate European and Asian business travelers.
As with any service of this type, expect to have a credit card handy that will absorb some hefty fees and provide limited choices. I can see a number of scenarios that could outweigh the cost of such a service. A good move by Boeing if they want to break into the wireless industry.
For those of us who take flights to avoid email communication, are long term investors, and dislike the boredom of TV. There is always that local airport bookstore to keep us happy for the duration of the flight. A lot easier on the pocketbook too.
THE REAL DEAL ON AT&T PREPAID CELLULAR SERVICE
There is a reason why we do not offer AT&T prepaid cellular service. First because it is a digital service and the coverage isn't great. In fact, it is mediocre at best. They can get consumers set up with a prepaid phone for a little cheaper though. But there were a number of factors that had us running long distance to stay away from the service.Here is what we discovered. A while back MCI used to offer personal 800 numbers for free to their long distance subscribers. There was a catch to it though. The catch was that people calling you had to dial an extension in order to use it. This allowed MCI to use one 800 number with multiple extensions. Which meant that if anyone who wanted to pull pranks and run up your bill had only to dial extensions at random and you got billed for it.
And it doesn't stop there either. When you go to dial out, you have to use a speed button before you connect your call. Why? Well the speed dial button is used to dial a 800# which is then connected to a third party that will then connect your call to the party you wish to call.
This information came from an ATTWS employee who worked with the prepaid cellular service. The similarities that we have with them is that they too state that a standard phone is not compatible with their prepaid system. Where we differ which isn't unusual is that we offer prepaid cellular packages to our customers.
We have to take a moment and allow this recent customer comment to be noted:
"After researching most of the other prepaid cellular websites, I'm certain yours has the best value. I want to buy the "Starter Package Plus" deal."
We are very pleased to know that many of our current prepaid subscribers came to us even after looking at AT&T prepaid cellular service. An important announcement is that we will be adding yet another new prepaid cellular package to our offers. It will be the most unusual one yet. You will not find any other company making such an offer for this package as we are about to put on our site.
EXCITE FINALLY ADDS WAP INTERNET PORTAL SITE
For those of you who have WAP phones and were looking to enter another website search engine, Excite has opened it doors to you. You can personalize your wireless portable service on the PC through excite mobile that can be found at www.mobile.excite.com if you have an interest.Why it is different from other WAP portals is because they offer a more robust service. Tools available are the inbox e-mail, address book, calendar planner, yellow & white pages, ATM sites, and even driving directions.
Access to the excite portal is free of charge. AT&T wireless customers will have the service available to them when the pocketnet service is updated in the next couple of months. You will also have the choice of choosing the excite portal or another provider offered by ATTWS. AT&T also happens to be the major stockholder of excite and recently took control of the board of director seats.
At least excite is offering something a little more unique than the content that you can get on a standard alpha text pager service like some of the other services have done. The question at this point is if Excite has waited too long to enter the market or not.
Carriers are told they are welcome to partner with the new Excite portal. But AOL & Yahoo have Sprint PCS, BellSouth Wireless, and Arch Communications group tied up pretty good. We would have to expect both of these companies to pick up the pace not only to match Excite but to create new diversions for WAP phone customers.
PREPAID WAP PHONES AVAILABLE IN THE UK
A company called Tesco in the UK has taken a step where no other company of its kind has gone before. In the same store where you would buy meats and apples, you will find prepaid WAP phones too. They intend to put out thousands of the phones on the shelves for consumers to purchase.The suggested retail price is about $150 US. The phone will come with a $80 cash back voucher inside the box and another voucher for a free Phillips Savvy GSM phone worth about $70. Makes for a fairly good deal for a UK consumer.
Carphone Warehouse is trying to compete with offering a buy one get one free deal with the purchase of the Phillips C12 GSM phone but they are not WAP compatible. These phones have also been the nightmare of BTCellnet's recent problem with wide scale prepaid fraud scandals. On the other hand, the Phillips Savvy GSM phone is also easier to hack.
The reason retail stores can make such an offer is because they use what is called "Loss Leader Logistics". Meaning they put the burden back on the carrier or manufacturer while still making money on the product sold. It can also mean that they will sell a specific product line below cost in order to attract customers to the store to get a bargain. What you may find is a low end product being offered below cost. The trick is to get the customer in the door and once they see what is being offered for that price, they will look at the next level up from the advertised special.
Tesco's real motivation behind getting these phones out to the British public is because they will allow consumers to purchase groceries online using the WAP phone. One 2 One will be looking to follow suit later this year. Vodafone and Orange are holding out even if the demand is high. It was noted that there just isn't enough WAP phones available to the market. The competitors of BTCellnet want to see if they can back up their claims of having 500,000 WAP phones by the end of the year with phone shortages becoming so tight.
NEW YORK NEXT ON THE CELL PHONE DRIVING BAN LIST
Actually, they already passed legislation that bans the use of cellular phones while driving. In this case, it only applies to cab drivers. They are fined $150 for each offense. One official stated that they were professionals providing a service.One state assemblyman recently conducted a survey of 350 drivers and found that 53 percent would support legislation to ban cellular phone use while driving. You guessed what this means. Some of the politicians are looking to expand the current legislation to apply to all New York City drivers. It is bipartisan in the sponsors looking to introduce such laws but they have never made it into the light or have been defeated when they were debated.
I have to wonder out loud if the police were trying to enforce this law if the crime rates would go up. They would be pulling over a lot of people if this type of law was passed in such a large city.
An addendum to this particular subject with passing a law that taxi drivers must pull over when using a cellular phone. An organization called CAB WATCH has recently popped up. It is an anti crime organization that have placed around a 1000 phones with taxi drivers to report criminal activities and accidents. The organization is looking to expand on the pilot program by getting more phones out. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 2000 to 5000 phones by year's end.
The phones are programmed to only call 911. The director of the organization has asked 911 operators to record crimes and other activity to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. There are literally thousands of Cab drivers in New York with Manhattan alone boasting 12,000. That is a lot of eyes keeping watch on the citizens of New York and their safety.
The State Assembly has also passed a rule that requires the DMV to include information on causes of accidents to include if a wireless phone was in use at the time of the accident. Because the information asked is much too general in nature, it is anyone's guess as to how it will be used.
CELLULAR PHONE ADVERTISING BOMBING OUT AND MORE TO COME
Companies of all kinds are gearing up to spam your cellular phone with advertising messages that will end up annoying you as much as telemarketing and spam. The other issue at hand is privacy of the cellular phone user.The gimmick that is expected to be used is to subsidize airtime based on if you read or listen to an ad on your cellular phone. An "opt in" advertising list, if you will. Have you ever tried to remove yourself from an opt in email list? The privacy is an issue because you know that the advertising companies will be compiling information based on the cellular phone users' responses to ads and where they finally decide to take the plunge in listening or reading an ad.
The problem with this type of advertising is the same reason it failed when long distance companies tried to do it. The rates are so low, nobody will want to waste time listening or reading ads on their cellular phones to save a few pennies.
Advertising agencies and other companies that would benefit from this type of service are hyping it up to companies to use cellular phones as a medium for advertising to reach a large audience of receptive consumers. For those who decide to jump on the bandwagon and go with the hype, they may be sorely disappointed. If these companies were to conduct a market study rather than pushing a hypothetical market, they probably wouldn't see too many businesses readily jumping forward.
One ad agency even went so far as to say that consumer benefits to this type of advertising were manifold. Maybe we missed something there but what benefits do consumers get from advertising on a cellular phone? Radio stations and billboards are not enough? A majority of these ads are to be placed in voice content. How is that different from an ad being spewed from a radio station, is my question.
About half of the wireless industry is probably saying that it might be the next best thing and some others are saying that it will be the biggest bomb in history hidden behind snickering smiles. Let's face it, as cellular phone plan rates drop, there really isn't any need for anyone to want advertising on their cellular phones.
DRIVING AND CELL PHONE DISTRACTION STUDY BY REAL PEOPLE
AAA is putting out $400,000 to conduct a study on distractions by drivers. 144 vehicles in Philadelphia and Chapel Hill, NC will have cameras installed to constantly watch drivers throughout their activity while driving.The study should be completed by the end of this year. It will probably lay the ground work for the wireless industry and the politicians to battle it out whether cellular phone use while driving should be banned or not. It should be fairly interesting to note which activities are considered the most distracting.
It will look at a number of distractions to drivers and the use of cellular phones in only one of them. Conversations, eating, and other activities will be monitored. It is supposed to be very detailed to include tracking eye movement of the drivers.
We would have to note here that the AAA think tank organization is already leaning towards the theory that talking on cellular phones is a major distraction while driving. Other information will be included in this report such as data recovered from two years of data relating to car crashes.
This blurb is here to inform you of the study. Not much substance to it right now but it should finally shed some light on the subject as a whole.
EARTHVISION CELLULAR SPECIAL FOR SUBSCRIBERS
Buy any leather case or rapid car charger at regular price and get a second one for only $5 more.Buy any cellular phone battery on our site and get a leather case or rapid car charger for only $5 more.
Order any novelty telephone on our site and get a discount of 10% on the order. No Shipping & Handling on any novelty telephone order purchased based on this special offer. If you place an order that includes a novelty telephone, the entire order will be discounted by 10%. The printed order will reflect full price, but our processing will automatically deduct the 10% off the order prior to processing for payment.
Purchase a gift certificate valid for any product on our website present or added in the future, and we will give you a 10% discount on the purchase of the gift certificate.
Place a post on our online cellular phone forum during the time of this online special and we will give you an additional 5% discount on any future order you place with us in combination with any specials that we may run once this offer has expired. One post per unique visitor will be credited with the discount.
You are welcome to mix and match as needed. Demand may delay shipping on some orders if we run out of stock. This special will expire on Sunday Midnight 5/27/00. New subscribers added before 5/24/00 are welcome to take advantage of this offer. Specials cannot be combined.
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