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The Wireless Outpost Newsletter Issue #18 Vol. 3
Wednesday, December 5, 2001
Another issue of the Wireless Outpost 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 Weekly on Wednesday.]
COOL XMAS PRESENT FOR THE GUYS. NOT PAID SPONSOR, NOT WIRELESS BUT COOL
This one is for the guys and the gals that love them. I am one of those people that is truly finicky when it comes to my ties. Generally I wear the more conservative types and I always look for silk ties as my preference. So I went online looking for some decent ties to see what I could find. Hit the mother lode with this company.
It is called Fortier Ties and his ties are unique. I spoke to the inventor of the ties, Robert Fortier and then I met him later. An older and definitely dapper gentleman with a slightly French accent. Turns out that he was from French Canada before relocating here to the US. About the ties that I spoke of before.
He is selling real silk ties for only $29.95 each! I was floored to find a quality silk tie for under $60 each. What makes them special is the knot on the tie. Know how the stripes on a tie always go the wrong way? He fixed that by creating a new type of knot to be used on ties. The knot is different enough that he actually got a patent on it. I am now a proud
owner of three of them.
No, I nor the company is getting any compensation for this article. I just know how hard it is to find a decent tie that I would really like so I wanted to share it with you all. My
recommendation is to go with the Violin Ties. I am not into classical music or anything but the patterns on the ties, especially the knot looks really cool. I found I can wear them with quite a few different suits and shirts too. Plus I get compliments on them all the time because they are that different and they look that good.
He even has a deal where he can make up ties for individual organizations. Now that is really cool! We might just have to get some made up for EVC with cell phones on them or something. But we would have to charge you extra to wear a cool tie that we had
manufactured for us.
Anyway, get on over there and take a look. I am not disappointed at all and I plan on going back for more. Take a close look at the knot on them when you get to the site too. I think you will be surprised at how creative Mr. Fortier has been with that piece of the tie. The website:
http://www.fortiertie.com/index.html
Oh yeah. They also have double tie holding tags on the inside, fellas. Very easy to toss over the shoulder while eating and keeping the inside tie cloth held in one place. I can only say that I was very impressed with them which is the reason for me putting in this article. Hope you enjoy them as much as I have and will continue to enjoy for quite a while.
NEW CELL PHONE TYPE GADGETS ON THE MARKET AND OTHERS COMING SOON
We sent Ugot (our little green man) on a mission to find us a new and refreshing wireless gadget. Once again he managed to successfully complete his mission. As his reward, we gave him a lightning bolt style
Mohawk. Actually there are two of them. One that is out there now and one that is coming out in the near future.
The devices found are the cell phone/PDA hybrid type of wireless unit. In the future, you will find Handspring's Treo cellular phone PDA. It is a cell phone mixed with a PDA that works on a palm operating system and has a miniature keyboard. The only problem is that the cellular phone piece of it only works on the GSM technology. In the US, there are only two providers of GSM service which is Cingular and Voicestream.
But Motorola has come out with a device that is similar to the Treo and it will work on the CDMA network which is the most common wireless network in the US now. It is the Motorola V200 and it can do most of what the Treo will be able to do. The difference is that the V200 is not really a PDA Cell phone hybrid so it doesn't have the PDA part included.
Never the less, the V200 is still a worthy wireless unit. It can be folded up and put into a belt holster. The phone allows for voice dialing and 3 way calling. You can plug in a headset or if the headset isn't plugged in, it will revert to the speakerphone in the back of the unit. But like the Treo, it will allow the user to also send and
receive SMS (short message service) emails of up to 160 characters. It also supports pop3 email which lets you pull email from the conventional messages from email at home or work.
The Motorola V200 is available now through Verizon and it isn't too pricey at $200. To get it at this price, you must sign up for a service plan through Verizon Wireless that is at least $35 a month. However, this is only a promotional qualification that ends in
February of 2002. Once the promotion ends, you will pay 2 cents for each message
received and 10 cents for each message sent. Otherwise, you can get on a bulk message plan that gives you 600 messages for $8.
I would buy it just because it looks pretty cool. I am into being cool because I cater to my vanity. Besides I am starting to lose track of where my receding hair line last receded and this device should draw attention to my expanding waist line instead. So check it out if you are online or even offline. It is worth a look to see what the future may hold in the wireless world for us.
I WONDER IF SPRINT PCS KNOWS ABOUT THE SPAM ADVERTISEMENTS
Okay, we got an anonymous spam email claiming a free cell phone to users. A big mistake for these fools because now I am about to chew them up like a
piece of bubble gum. The first thing I discovered was that they were promoting service through Sprint PCS. Not that you would have known that by reading the email or visiting their website.
They spoofed their email address by hijacking another website's domain name. The company who originated the spam was from www.best-buyers-guide.com who it appears just
had their website shut down for spamming. Guess they will think again about doing something like that, eh?
The only reason I knew it was Sprint PCS is because of the phones they were offering and the cell phone plan promotions. The reason why they didn't note the service was Sprint PCS was for two reasons. First, you would have gone directly to Sprint PCS to purchase, and secondly, they didn't want you to report them for spamming.
They change the title all the time but the content remains the same. It says "Just follow 3 easy steps to your free cell phone. Sign up today and get free wireless web." The free wireless web was another tip-off as Sprint PCS likes to sign up trial customers on their WAP service and claim them in their numbers of people subscribed to the wireless internet.
I don't think that Sprint PCS has any knowledge of this spamming so if you should get another one, be sure to send a spam complaint to Sprint PCS and these people will be out of business real quick. The weird thing is that these people don't even have a name on their website. Instead, they immediately go into asking for all your personal info including your social
security number.
I looked over their FAQ and they constantly use "your carrier" when answering questions in the FAQ. I had to give them a thumbs down for their marketing approach not only because of the spamming but because they use the tired old promotion of "Free with all phones: 3 way calling, voice mail, call waiting, caller ID." What carrier doesn't offer all of those services anyhow? Neither are they free either. They are part of the package but you pay when you use these services.
So here is the bottom line. If ever you get spam requesting that you sign up for a cell phone plan in exchange for a free cell phone, just delete it. You don't want to put personal info on an anonymous website. Save it for the
carrier's website instead where you have some recourse should something not be right. That is why we have the "auto updating" Verizon Wireless banners on our website so you will know if something good is up and you can buy directly from them rather than us selling the service.
The funny part is how often history seems to repeat itself online. We have been around long enough to see numerous online wireless product/service companies go out of business. The biggest one was the company that was backed by all the major cell phone manufacturers and even they couldn't do it. We can do it because we are gluttons for punishment and we have been around long enough to learn from everyone else's mistakes. So why so many others think they can throw up a website in a week and make money is beyond me.
VERIZON WIRELESS NAILS MORTGAGE CELL PHONE SPAMMERS ACACIA
This issue isn't specifically focused on spam, but it does seem to be a growing problem. Remember way back when we wrote about cell phone users getting cell phone spam from a mortgage company? Well they got nailed not once but twice for spamming cellular phone subscribers.
Both Verizon cell phone users and AT&T wireless users were spammed by Acacia National Mortgage via SMS. Of course, with a typical politician's insight, it wasn't until D- NJ Rush Holt's assistant got spam that he introduced legislation against wireless spam. You know that
politicians are so in touch with the people that he had to do it.
Acacia National Mortgage settled out of court with Verizon Wireless and immediately stopped sending spam
when they got a warning letter from AT&T Wireless. As we mentioned in a previous article in this newsletter, it is the recipient who had to pay to read the spam. Verizon Wireless credited the users who got the spam from Acacia.
Another individual who heads up an anti-spam group called Whitehat stated that he had so many spam messages on his cell phone that he has filed a lawsuit of which he hopes to make a class action suit because of the increasing number of cellular phone user complaints.
The wireless industry considers spamming cell phones to be very bad news and plan on doing all they can to prevent this from happening to users. Their concern stems from the loss of revenue and profits of course, but at least they are very motivated about keeping spam out of their networks. They fear that cell phone subscribers will not sign up for SMS packages if they feel they are going to get spam on their cell phones.
Tell you what. Elect me as President and I will make it a point to ridicule every
politician out there who fails to hold a monthly meeting with the local people. Once they get the votes to get elected most of them forget about us. So let us do the same and forget about them during election time.
Maybe then we will get some politicians in office who hear the voice of the people and will fix some of these problems that we are seeing including the increase in cell phone spam. Believe me when I tell you that there are plenty of companies out there who are just dying to start sending you ads over the cell phone. I am talking in the hundreds if not thousands.
Would you like to do a mortgage refinance with that burger?
THE REVERSE OF CELL PHONE BANS IN HIGH SCHOOLS GETTING CLOSER
Did you know that the most common reason for a school to ban cell phone use is because students were using them to set up drug deals? Some parents are pressuring school officials to remove the ban because they want their children to have cell phones at school so they can call home in an emergency or to make arrangements for after school activities.
The two that I saw were New York and Michigan who are looking at reversing the ban on cell phones in high schools. I applaud the administrator in Michigan who said that the students could leave the phones in their cars during school hours. If only because they were there to learn. He also said that although the ban was not required by the state, it didn't mean the schools didn't have the option to have one in place so he would continue to encourage the ban.
In my opinion, it is a sad state of affairs in our society when we have to ban cell phone use to eliminate drug dealing among teenage students selling to other students and various other criminal elements. No school should ever be a haven for drug dealers to ply their trade. I think I recall reading where one school had confiscated 700 phones over time which were yet unclaimed by parents.
One school official said something to the effect of the reversing of the ban due to the idea drug dealing problems may not outweigh the safety of students? Is that an oxymoron there or just a moron? If drug dealing is present wouldn't that only increase the need for a cell phone for the safety of students? I must be missing something in the logic of that reasoning somewhere.
As one person pointed out, the teachers and school administrators
often look the other way if the phone is in a book bag or in a locker as long as it isn't ringing in class or being used within the inside of the school premises. That doesn't sound to me like they are being unreasonable.
But I forget myself. The criminals who are responsible for the crimes they commit didn't do it. They were arrested because they were being targeted by police or they were set up. The path of least resistance is to cow down to a vocal minority in order to keep the short term harmony. Right. My take is if the cell phone ban is to prevent drug dealing then keep it in place.
Our children have the right to a quality education in a safe environment. As taxpayers, we all pay for public education like it or not. Because of that I am not one who would stand around while a few quibbling people try to hijack the system. If we have to pay into a public resource then all of us have a say in what happens.
NOKIA, CELLULAR ONE, AND CTIA DONATE 2.3 MILLION TO NATIVE AMERICANS
If you have ever been on a reservation, you would find it to be a fairly pathetic place. Many of them are desolate with no real land suitable for farming to earn an income. Many of the people on these reservations are poverty stricken due to the conditions of their land. Now we have the wireless industry making donations to Native Americans. It leaves me quite skeptical and makes me think they are just trying to be
politically correct. Why? Let me elaborate on my question.
Why are Nokia and Cellular One donating all this equipment and service to the tribes of the Apache, Navajo, Zuni, and Hopi? All good people and I can't think of a better people to get them but still. Only about half of many reservations even have telephone service. So is it because of the problem with installing land lines makes wireless a better alternative in Arizona and New Mexico's rugged terrain? How are these people to use them if the towers located on tribal lands are so sparse?
The real deal is this one. Most tribal lands are underdeveloped because the telecom industry knows that the reservations are poverty stricken and would not make a premium customer base. So the donation that is being made is really only to allow some of the reservation residents to have access to emergency services.
The other problem for carriers and manufacturers is that under the FCC Universal Service initiative, qualifying people on the reservations can get a cellular phone and 25 months of service for $25. This is the fund that we all see on our phone bills which is allocated to subsidize rural areas in the US. Not a profitable situation for manufacturers and carriers. So is this just some type of politically correct gimmick that they can post on their records as an achievement?
I have a suspicion that the phones being donated by Nokia will be those that are the less desirable models that cannot be sold on the general market for some reason. This way they will still be able to get a tax break on the inventory that is being donated. But
it sure would look good on paper by making a donation of these phones to tribal lands. Please!
Hopefully I am wrong in my observations but I have a feeling that I will not be. If it is found that I am wrong then I will be the first to retract my statements in the article. If not, then my opinion on this donation is what I would call the cheapest form of
hypocrisy I have yet to see. I threw this article in here not because I am of Native American decent either. I did it because I thought you should see just a small picture of the stuff that goes on behind the
scenes that is being done in the guise of generosity and charity.
Oh yeah. This newsletter is starting to make us pariahs in the wireless industry too. We tend to question too much and make observations that are better left alone. I guess I could curb the bashing but these people are leaving the door wide open for it. Maybe it is I who needs the reality check. You tell me when I am off base. Until then I will consider it my duty to continue the controversy.
You have to love it! Thanks to your votes, William is to become a Cell Phone Beauty Queen. The first male to be presented as such. We have broken the gender barrier! This is going to be real good. I can't wait for it to happen. When the results came in, William took it with good grace if with a red face. He has agreed to do it since you have spoken.
So far we haven't gotten a date out of him yet so we won't know which month it is going to happen but he promised to do it in 2002. If you believe him, it will be his first foray into cross dressing. I get to pick the ensemble that he will wear for the photo shoot too. Two photos of him are going to be featured on our website. If we are lucky, I can find a nice yellow dress with a floral pattern on it. When is it that you aren't supposed to wear white shoes again. Is it before or after Labor day?
This is going to make history with our company. We can write this up in his biography as the most
embarrassing moment of a CEO. He did inform me that he would never put this on his resume though. I don't think I would either. But what a good sport he is for doing this for us. There is one condition that he has set on doing this. I can only send an email out to our subscribers the day before his wonderful photos are to be posted for the whole world to see.
If you should request it, I will even set up a fan club for him at
fanclub@cellularphonenews.com
in the near future. Don't bother asking him out on any dates as he is already married. Speaking of which, I think I will recruit his wife to make sure we get him dressed up nice and pretty for the photos. Make sure that when the photos are posted, everyone sends him an email telling him how beautiful he is as a Cell Phone BQ! I have nominated him for
February. If you think he should do it then send him an email on it. Let's get him posted on there real soon.
SPECIAL OFFER ON NOKIA 51XX/61XX LEATHER CELL PHONE CASES & VERIZON PREPAID
We are going to be doing our year end inventory soon so a special offer is necessary to help reduce some inventory. Right now you can buy 2 leather cases for the Nokia 51XX/61XX non flip phones for $5. Somehow we got a triple order in and the shelf space is worth
a lot more to us than keeping these items in overstock. To take advantage of this offer put in the code NL500 in the referrer box. That is all there is to it. Offer will expire in 3 weeks from the date of
receipt of this newsletter.
By the way, if you are looking for prepaid service, Verizon Wireless has an excellent deal going on right now. Just give us credit by clicking on the banner on our prepaid page at
http://www.earthvisioncellular.com/prepaid.html
and off you go. Look for their free up program offering a tri mode 2135 phone. They have a rebate offer and the phone is relatively inexpensive. For $100, you get 1000 bonus weekend minutes (that rollover with continued active service), the phone, $30 rebate, and a $15 airtime card. Their holiday promotional offer runs out on Jan 4th, 2002, but it would make for a good Christmas present.
AND ANOTHER INVITATION FOR US TO SELL DISPOSABLE CELLULAR PHONES
Here we go again with another invitation to join in on the disposable cellular phone craze that is about to hit the market. Of course we got an email on it but they probably didn't expect us to thoroughly review their website info. The first red flag was when I saw that they originally stated a 1st quarter rollout in 2001.
The next item that threw me off was their claim to use an analog network. As far as I know, analog networks are becoming harder and harder to come by for activating service. But I looked further on and saw that they plan on using over the air activation which is generally more palatable to carriers who would offer analog service.
This one had a deal where you had to buy and dispose of the initial phone but the second phone was rechargeable. Not sure if I get that one. But it did say that the battery could be easily replaced and the airtime was active for 6 months. Now whether this is just more hype or not, I can't say. But I think it is probably more hype.
Only because they say it will be 30 to 60 days before it is rolled out in their email. Well, and they were already selling AT&T prepaid wireless service. Sorry folks but I will always recommend that people go with Verizon Wireless or Cingular as their carrier of choice if only because they are the largest carriers.
Besides AT&T doesn't know if they want GSM technology or if they want to sell off more of their company to a foreign entity to help keep them out of bankruptcy. Even we can't keep up with AT&T wireless and what they are going to do next. That and they really need to work on their coverage areas.
So if you hear more about people getting ready to become distributors of some type of disposable cell phone, don't hold your breath on it. We know of only two companies that are making any real effort at making them available and out of those two, we are betting
the one on the west coast will be the first to hit the starting line.
We haven't heard from them in a while so we will see about getting an update and then getting back to you on it. If we get permission, we will even release their name so you can check them out for yourself. Even the true blue journalists reading our
measly little newsletter might find this other company to be quite interesting.
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when you aren't looking. 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.
