Section K-110 - HiTech |
WiTEL®©
Computers Software | Mobile
VoIP Media
ClickFor
KudoAds-110spot
/
vMusic-Sponsors110
HomePage
|
KudoAds-100spot
|
vMusic-Sponsors100
20-20
tviNews
UpDates110
110
Top Results - Archives
110g - Teleph-on-delgreenAerial
/ MSU - the NBS Industrial School?
110g - Wireless
Cemeteries Towers Needed - 3GS DRAINS
BATTERYS
110g - Intel,
Nokia Teams Up. Advances - WiTEL
Organization.
110g- Nathan's
New Book Series - 81 years Later
(NBS)
110g - Charles
H. Portz When
does a great THOUGHT become
Patentable?
110g - Nathan
Stubblefield's FireWire | WiFi "Hot Spots:
110g - Why
FireWire and Watermelon
Patches?
110ig - What
Are Phone Numbers
Worth?
110ig - Virgin
Media's Sir Richard Branson "well done
Nathan".
110g-
Google
KnowledgeRush
110g- Extras:
RELATED ARTICLES
102g-
Sprint
Buys Virgin Mobile - Here's the
$483-million
Deal
113s - IceHouse.net
/ Stubblefield Stories - They Said
It!
110ig -
What
Are Phone Numbers
Worth?
20-20NewsUpDates
- Click for More tviNews
Stories
110 - HiTech:
The
FCC Turf War between Cable &
WiTEL®©
110
- Hi-Tech:
CableMustCarryTVCableLawUpheld
110 -
HiTech:
110
Early-exirWiTELfeesiPhoneRise /
MAY 22, 2010 /
110 -
HiTech:
FTC Clears Google Purchase Of
Mobile Ad
Service
110.09VerizonPaysFeeNameDroid
/
110
- Microsoft Timeline Windows 7
launched -
STANDBY
110s - Nathan Stubblefield,
Author -
Republished.
110g-
Google
KnowledgeRush
110-
Switzerland Boasts the World's
Highest Percentage of MAC
Users
By Edith Read
According
to Stocklytics.com,
Mac's popularity is highest in
Switzerland, with 24% of
households owning a Mac.
The site's
financial analyst, Edith Reads,
comments: MAC products are
renowned for their exceptional
performance, state-of-the-art
design and an unmatched user
experience. The discerning choice
of the Swiss underscores the
enduring allure of innovation,
making Mac a hallmark of both
sophistication and functionality
in the digital landscape.
While Macs
boast superior security and
reliability compared to their
Windows-based counterparts, they
still need to cover ground in
terms of sales. Dell, with its
primary market in the U.S.,
overshadowed the Macs by
recording an impressive revenue
of over $102.3 billion,
while the Macs generated nearly
$30 billion, constituting about
8% of Apple's total sales in
2023.
The full
story and statistics can be found
here: Switzerland
Boasts the World's Highest
Percentage of MAC Users,
Dominating at
24%.
///
107- About
author, Adria Manary
Adams
Adria
Manary Adams is the author of
several books including the
bestseller, MOMMY MAGIC.
Most importantly, she is mom to
four amazing children and Mimi to
six grandsons.
She is
presently working on a book about
her Uncle Elwin, about whom she
heard stories throughout her
childhood and wrote about in
college.
The
working title is Never Stand
Still, which she feels
incorporates her uncle's genius
mind as well as his ability to
always move forward, especially
after the many career
disappointments that he
experienced.
Adria now
lives in sunny San Diego, with
her husband Gene and their little
fur babies, who are also her
inspiration in writing a new
children's book entitled,
Bubbly Bliss and Bouncing
Banjo Find a Home.
THEY
TOLD HIM TO BE
QUIET
- by Adria
Manary Adams
When the
government tells you to be quiet,
alarm signals should go off in
your brain. Only a chosen few
know the full extent of its
power, and my uncle, Elwin
Laurence Peterson, regrettably
found out the hard
way.
During World
War II, he worked at the
Washington D.C. Navy Yard in the
optics and machine shop. While
there, he received several awards
for his contributions to the war
effort. One concern that he
became acutely aware of, was the
difficulty that all facets of the
military were experiencing in
communications. Methods of
transmitting vital information to
and from ships, submarines,
airplanes and troops on the
ground had become increasingly
problematic since the Germans
were intercepting and/or
scrambling our signals. In
exploring the situation, Elwin
realized that varying the
frequencies on which the messages
were sent would disable the enemy
from capturing our
communications. Since frequency
variation was a prominent
component of a television system
that he had conceived of in the
late 1920's, and patented in
1928, he suggested that the
government use this significant
piece of his "Transmitting System
and Apparatus," patent number
1,747,791.
He
absolutely believed that this
method would provide clear,
secured and unencumbered
communication in military
operations, thus saving many
American soldiers.
After
explaining how FM would benefit
the Navy to the manager of his
department, his
suggestion made its way up the
ranks. In handwritten notes
written by my uncle in 1945, he
states:
"I was
interviewed several times by
various officers and engineers.
At one of these interviews, a man
who worked for Edwin Armstrong
was in attendance. He had been
called in because of his claim
that Armstrong (now a Major in
the Signal Corps), had been
working on variations of
wavelengths since 1931. At that
point I informed the officers
that I was well aware of his
efforts, because I had
demonstrated my version to Mr.
Armstrong back in
Elwin Laurence
Peterson
1929 and again
in 1930, when Bell Telephone and
the Postal Telegraph Company had
requested his opinion of my
invention."
What Mr.
Peterson did not mention in this
meeting was that after seeing
these demonstrations, Edwin
Armstrong later used what he saw
to further his efforts in
transmission technology, which
eventually helped him to become
who many refer to as the "Father
of Radio". If Armstrong was to be
given this title, then Elwin
Peterson should have been
credited for being the
"Grandfather of Radio". (The
Armstrong patent was filed in
1933. Peterson's patent was
submitted in 1928, five years
earlier, and finalized in 1930,
three years before Mr.
Armstrong's.)
This act of
stealing began a sad string of
betrayals by other associates,
the government, major
corporations, and worst of all,
family members. And now another
betrayal was unfolding as these
meetings continued.
After the last
interview at the Navy Yard, Mr.
Peterson did not hear from anyone
in the department for almost a
year. Then one day he received a
formal telegram demanding his
presence at the Communications
Office at the Navy Yard that very
day."
The urgency of
the telegram seemed quite odd to
Elwin. Especially since he had
inquired about how his invention
might be used on many occasions.
However, the urgency of the
notification paled in comparison
to what he would face once he got
there.
As soon as he
walked into the office, a man
whom he had never met greeted him
with a firm handshake, a formal
greeting, and a gesture toward
the chair in front of his desk.
Elwin took the seat, noticing a
piece of paper that looked like a
contract with a pen alongside,
conveniently placed before
him.
The man began
to explain that the Navy would be
taking over his patent on
frequency modulation until the
war ended. Another man walked
into the office to join the
conversation, and quite obviously
to be a witness to Elwin's
expected signature. They both
assured him that he would be
given credit for the invention
and the Navy's use of it, which
Elwin had requested early
on.
"They said
they would be taking my patent
out of the Patent Office and all
papers about it would be kept
secret. They also told me to be
quiet. I was not to discuss
anything about what was being
agreed to."
Undoubtedly,
there should have been an
attorney present, although anyone
would have recognized the
pressure being placed on Elwin
that afternoon. The officers
continued to reassure him,
encouraging him to sign the
document.
Elwin was
hesitating. After all, he wasn't
in the Navy. He was a civilian
working for the Navy Department
and had filed this patent many
years before he started working
there. He wasn't in a position
where he was obligated to take
orders from any military officer.
So, he wondered
was this a
demand or a request?
The man behind
the desk looked at his associate
and then back to Elwin. He
continued,
"Of course you
will be paid for this significant
contribution, Mr. Peterson. The
government never takes anything
without giving what it is worth,
but the amount will be determined
later."
The room fell
silent.
A few more
minutes passed until Mr. Peterson
picked up the pen. Warily, he
signed the contract, thinking
that he was lending the rights to
his patent, and eager to do
whatever he could to save
American lives.
The next day,
his manager called him into his
office to meet another navy
officer who had been in the field
during the past year. Elwin was
surprised to hear that the
improvements made through the use
of the technology in his patent
were already in use. In his
notes, Elwin wrote,
"The officer
went on to say that my method of
communication was a complete
success. The Germans were pushed
all the way back before they
found out about the new
communication."
He was
extremely pleased to hear this
and proud that he could make such
an important contribution to
winning the war. However, the
promises made were never kept.
After the war he wrote many
letters, asking when the rights
to his patent would be returned
to him, what amount he would be
paid and how the navy planned on
giving him the credit that he
deserved.
Finally, the
Navy responded in a letter from
The Chief of the Bureau of
Ordnance, Navy Department,
confirming the contribution from
Elwin L. Peterson to the Navy, in
the field of Frequency
Modulation.
There was
never any payment from the
government, but the rights to his
patent were indeed returned in
1946. As more and more FM
stations were given licenses
post-war, Mr. Peterson hired a
lawyer to sue these stations for
infringement on his patent.
Unfortunately, none of these
stations were making money yet.
Although FM broadcasting was
surging by the end of 1941, it
declined substantially after
America entered the war at the
end of that year. Even before
Pearl Harbor, American
manufacturers began experiencing
extreme scarcities when trying to
obtain certain raw materials and
essential electronic components.
After December 7th, all
manufacturing of broadcast
equipment for civilians ceased
when President Franklin D.
Roosevelt ordered the
establishment of the War
Production Board. Its purpose was
to convert the factories of
peacetime industries into
manufacturing plants for weapons
and military
equipment.
In addition,
the FCC instituted a freeze on
new licenses because of these
material shortages. Although the
stations that already had permits
were allowed to continue,
materials that they needed were
not available. Staffing shortages
were another problem, as many
experienced announcers, musicians
and engineers headed off to
war.
It took many
years for the resurgence of FM
broadcasting after the war. Not
only would it take time to
establish stations, the FCC
announced a proposal to move the
existing FM band of 42-50 MHz to
a new band of 88-108 MHz. The
move was to accommodate the
newest technology that would soon
take over the world of home
entertainment
the
television.
With other
major changes proposed by the
FCC, along with the fact that big
corporations like RCA already
ruled the airwaves, Elwin
Peterson had very little chance
of renewing his patent, which
expired on February 18, 1947. The
attorney who had been helping him
for many years put it this way,
"It would take an Act of Congress
to get the U.S. Patent Office to
extend this patent."
This was
largely due to the fact that
during World War I, the U.S. Navy
had nationalized the American
airwaves. When the war was over,
the political elites of
Washington wanted to make sure
that no foreign entity could gain
or regain control of America's
long-distance wireless stations
or their technologies. In an
effort to make the Navy's radio
system permanent, President
Wilson and Navy Secretary
Josephus Daniels backed a bill to
make this happen. Although this
bill did not pass in Congress,
the Navy was not
satisfied.
Two naval
officers, were especially
concerned about the radio
stations owned by the Italian
inventor and radio pioneer,
Guglielmo Marconi. Thus, plans
were put into motion to create an
all-American company that would
buy out the Marconi Wireless
Telegraph Company of America.
Yes, the U.S. government was
heavily involved in creating a
civilian business that would
eventually become a monopoly that
would prevent many entrepreneurs
and inventors from entering the
business of radio broadcasting.
In October of 1919, Admiral H. G.
Bullard and Commander S. C.
Hooper, met with the president of
General Electric, Owen D. Young,
to propose that GE purchase
American Marconi, and form its
own radio communications
subsidiary. Young agreed and
within months, he transformed
American Marconi into the Radio
Corporation of America. David
Sarnoff, an American citizen who
was the commercial manager of the
Marconi company, was chosen to be
the manager of RCA.
This was the
beginning of a fierce battle to
control the airwaves, and Sarnoff
proved to be the right man for
the job. Over the next two
decades, he would stop at nothing
to gain and maintain RCA's
complete dominance over the
American broadcasting
industry.
Sarnoff became
President in 1930, launching an
infamous reign as a corporate
bully. His tremendous prowess as
a promoter was equal only to his
cutthroat methods of making sure
that RCA reigned in the field of
broadcasting. His next quest
would be television. Nothing
would stand in his way of winning
the race toward becoming the
first company to manufacture
televisions in America. Although
a hero to his stockholders, he
became the ultimate enemy of many
small inventors, going to great
lengths to shut them down, steal
their patents, or bring them
under the umbrella of
RCA.
The history of
television is long and
complicated, with brilliant minds
around the world contributing to
its ultimate success. It was the
creation of commercial television
that brought out the greed. That
is when the "Peterson Principal"
became a threat, which will be
explained later in this
article.
Sarnoff was
among the earliest to see that
television, like radio, had
enormous potential as a medium
for entertainment as well as
communication. After researching
the leading inventors of this new
medium, he hired Vladimir
Zworkin, a fellow Russian
immigrant. Zworkin had been
working on the development of
electronic television for
Westinghouse, but executives
there did not believe it was
feasible anytime in the near
future. But after he proposed his
concept to Sarnoff, he was hired
immediately.
Having
previously bought out the
interests and patents of John
Baird, another pioneer inventor
in Scotland, and having Zworkin
under his control, David Sarnoff
thought his way was clear for RCA
to control the
industry.
But he soon
had another problem. Unknown to
him, Philo Farnsworth had already
filed a patent for television.
Through Sarnoff, Zworykin heard
about Farnsworth and his work on
television systems. After
visiting Farnsworth's lab on the
west coast, he returned home and
immediately created copies of a
piece of Farnsworth's
demonstration that he thought
would be the answer to the lack
of success he was having with his
own method. It was a video camera
tube called the image
dissector.
When Zworkin
used this to finally make his
television marketable, RCA was
sued by Farnsworth. After many
years of legal battles, RCA's
might won out and left Farnsworth
desolate.
Sarnoff was
often referred to as a robber
baron, a title that was more
appropriate than a "visionary" as
others called him. When Edwin
Armstrong was working on FM
radio, as previously mentioned,
Sarnoff also struck a deal to
push Armstrong out of the
limelight. Armstrong worked for
RCA for many years, bringing FM
under the company's brand. Later,
however, an argument ensued,
lawsuits were filed, and
Armstrong became another victim.
After five years of legal battles
and tremendous amounts of money
spent on attorneys, he committed
suicide in 1954. The resources
that seemed limitless from RCA
could never be matched by
individual inventors.
Another
casualty of the cutthroat journey
to bring television to the public
was Elwin Peterson. Long before
the issues he had in gaining the
recognition he deserved for the
invention of FM, his primary
focus was on his work on
television.
The real truth
behind the entire saga during the
development of television was
written in a pamphlet entitled,
"The Newest Marvel of Science",
which was first distributed at a
meeting for potential investors
in Ray-O-Vision. This was the
company Elwin Peterson founded
when he was ready to manufacture
televisions in 1930.
"As is true of
any great development, the
milestones of its progress are
engraved with the names of men.
In bringing television to its
present practical state, a number
of men stand out. Baird of
Scotland, Peterson, Jenkins,
Farnsworth and Alexanderson of
America, Karolus of Germany,
Zworkin of Russia, Holwek and
Dauvillier of France, and Mihaly
of Austria."
Included in
this list of tv pioneers should
have been Kenjiro Takayanagi of
Japan. He is said to have
developed the world's first
practical electronic television
in 1926. However, his market was
only Japan, so he was not
considered a competitor for the
all important American
airwaves.
At the present
time, all of the names above can
be found when researching online
or in books about the History of
Television, with the exception of
one
Elwin Laurence
Peterson.
In 1922, at
the age of sixteen, Elwin
Peterson had mentally visualized
his method of television, and
spent the next six years bringing
it into reality. He submitted a
patent application for his
Television Apparatus and System
in 1928, which was approved in
1930. He had become well known
for his work and was lauded in
the press:
From the
Washington Universal Service,
July 14, 1928, an article
states:
"A
twenty-three-year-old California
inventor, E. L. Peterson of Los
Angeles, has obtained patent
rights on a new and revolutionary
television principle, it was
revealed here today."
On July 15,
1929, The Washington Herald
reported the following about
Elwin Peterson's advancements in
television:
"The invention
embodies a wholly new and
simplified principle. The problem
of synchronization between the
distributing and receiving points
has been mastered for the first
time since wireless moving
pictures were attempted. All
obstacles to synchronization
which have retarded television in
the past have been eliminated.
The Peterson invention will make
it possible to turn a dial and
receive the picture with no more
technical knowledge than for the
operation of the
radio."
A letter from
the Secretary of State of
California, Frank C. Jordan,
dated September 24, 1931 says the
following about his patent on the
Television System and
Apparatus:
"I was
delighted to have an opportunity
to view your Ray-O-Vision
three-dimensional screen. It was
my good fortune to have with me
men high in the theatrical
profession, and they were
exceedingly interested and very
much pleased. That you have
accomplished what you set out to
do, and which seemed to be
impossible, is evident. It is one
of the most interesting and
valuable inventions of the
year
."
In a Western
Union wire from Mr. Peterson to
his partner dated September 3,
1931, he stated,
"I have had a
conference with representatives
of the Radio Corporation (of
America). They want to see a
demonstration of my screen this
month. But I do not think it is
safe."
In another
wire, he stated:
"I saw a swell
demonstration by Farnsworth. They
have nothing and we have
everything."
Unsurprisingly,
David Sarnoff had been actively
recruiting Elwin to work for RCA
during this period, but he
refused all attempts. Confident
that his method was the best,
Elwin was ready to bring his
television to market through his
own company. Thus, he began to
make plans for he and his new
wife to move from Hollywood to
New York. All of his equipment
and even his wedding gifts were
shipped to the building that his
partners had leased on Long
Island to begin
manufacturing.
A newspaper
article reported that
Ray-O-Vision would soon be
hiring. He was on top of the
world!
After arriving
in New York and checking into the
hotel, he was anxious to see the
new plant. Sadly, he was about to
experience the greatest
disappointment of his life, and
the most shocking. Although he
had not been able to reach his
partners the previous week, he
had been sent keys to the
building. He assumed they would
be at the new plant, working on
the next steps to begin the
operation. When he arrived there
were no cars, which he thought
was odd. Then he saw the chains
on the doors and a sign. He could
not believe his eyes as he walked
up to the doors. "Building seized
under court demand."
Not able to
enter the building, he returned
to Manhattan and began making
calls. His nightmare was just
beginning.
He was told
that his partners, one of whom
was his uncle, had oversold stock
in the company and were being
investigated for fraud.
Eventually they were convicted
and everything in the building
was to be sold to reimburse those
who had bought stock.
This is where
the story unravels. Who would
want to buy television equipment?
Who would even know what to do
with it? Why was there so much
secrecy behind who had purchased
the stock?
In my opinion,
RCA could have been behind this
siege to gain control of
Ray-O-Vision's equipment and my
uncle's patent, that was better
than RCA's technology. His system
enlarged and improved the
television's image. It would also
have made the television more
accessible and
affordable.
Was it a
coincidence that he was in direct
competition with RCA when the
takeover of his company occurred?
I think not.
It is my hope
that the name Elwin Laurence
Peterson will someday be included
in the list of brilliant
men
who brought this --
world-changing invention to
life.
Click
for more
tviStory
110--THEY
TOLD HIM TO BE
QUIET
///
Photos By
Gary Sunkin, Television Int'l
Magazine
110- Solid Rocket Motor Arrival
Celebration
LOS
ANGELES -
(October 11, 2023) Some unusual
cargo was hauled through the
streets of Exposition Park on
Wednesday, as a pair of large
space-age Solid Rocket Motors
were delivered to the California
Science Center.
Exactly
eleven years after Space Shuttle
Endeavour made its 12-mile
journey across the streets of Los
Angeles and Inglewood, the
California Science Center invited
the public to come out and watch
the arrival of two large Solid
Rocket Motors (SRMs), the next
phase of Go for Stack--the
complex, multi-phase process of
moving and lifting each of the
space shuttle components into
place for Endeavour's upcoming
awe-inspiring 20-story vertical
display. The SRMs, donated by
Northrop Grumman, are the final
elements of the space shuttle
system to arrive at the
California Science Center.
The move
of the motors is also no small
task. The rocket motors are each
116 feet long and more than 12
feet in diameter. And they both
weigh 104,000 pounds.
The SRMs
comprise the largest part of the
Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs).
During the space shuttle program,
twin 15-story reusable SRBs would
work with the space shuttle main
engine to ignite and produce more
than 6-million pounds of
thrust--the majority of what was
needed to lift a shuttle off the
launch pad.
The rocket
motors are the major components
of the twin Solid Rocket Boosters
that were used to help propel the
shuttles into space. All of the
launch components, the shuttle,
rocket boosters and a massive
external fuel tank, will be
included in the vertical display
of Endeavour at its new home in
the $400 million Samuel Oschin
Air and Space Center. When
completed, the display will be
the only vertical, launch-ready
configuration of a shuttle in the
world.
The SRMs
was transported by freeway until
the last leg of their journey to
the California Science Center.
After exiting the 110 freeway the
morning of October 11th, the
motors traveled northbound along
Figueroa Street beginning at 7:30
a.m. from 43rd Place to
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Boulevard. At 8:00 a.m. the SRMs
paused at Martin Luther King, Jr.
Boulevard before a ceremonial
"finish line" at 39th Street
at 8:45 a.m. The public was
invited to gather along Figueroa
Street from 43rd Place to
39th Street to join the
celebration and watch the
momentous arrival until 9:00
a.m.
The final
component will be the delicate
move of the shuttle itself across
Exposition Park and the use of a
crane to lift it into its
vertical display, which will
tower 200 feet into the air. The
Samuel Oschin Air and Space
Center that will house the
display will then be constructed
around it, with opening planned
in 2025.
Due to the
moving and construction process,
the space shuttle Endeavour will
be removed from public display,
meaning the last chance for
people to see the shuttle in its
current configuration will be
Dec. 31.
Click
for
tviStory
110-
Solid
Rocket Motor Arrival
Celebration
///
110-
THEY
TOLD HIM TO BE
QUIET
- by Adria
Manary Adams
110- Space
Exploration Day - California
Science Center to Begin Go for
Stack on July 20,
2023
-
California
Science Center
Foundation

Space
Shuttle Endeavour at
future
Samuel Oschin Air and Space
Center
Photo by Gary
Sunkin

Aft Skirt Installation Will
Be First Milestone toward Lifting
Space Shuttle
Endeavour into Vertical Launch
Position for New
Samuel Oschin Air and Space
Center
LOS ANGELES,
July 6, 2023 --The California
Science Center will commence Go
for Stack, the complex process of
moving and lifting each of the
space shuttle components into
place for Endeavour's upcoming,
awe-inspiring 20-story vertical
display in the future Samuel
Oschin Air and Space Center,
currently under construction.
This technically challenging feat
has never been done outside of a
NASA facility. The installation
of the two aft skirts, the base
of the solid rocket boosters,
will mark the first Go for Stack
milestone and lay the foundation
upon which the entire shuttle
stack will be built. This is the
first step in creating the
world's only display of an
authentic, 'ready-to-launch'
space shuttle system; complete
with the orbiter Endeavour, solid
rocket boosters, and external
tank.
The
roughly six-month Go for Stack
process will start with the
installation of the aft skirts,
on top of which the solid rocket
motors will
be stacked to form the
solid rocket boosters. This will
be followed by the move and lift
of the external tank, ET-94;
then, Space Shuttle Endeavour's
final move across Exposition Park
and lift into place by a large
crane; and finally, the intricate
mating of the orbiter with the
rest of the space shuttle
stack. Once finished,
Endeavour will be in a vertical
configuration towering 200-feet
tall. The Air and Space Center
building will be completed around
the full shuttle stack.
After more
than eleven years on display at
the California Science Center,
December 31, 2023 will be the
last chance to see Endeavour
on exhibit for several years
until the Samuel Oschin Air and
Space Center opens to the public.
While Endeavour is off exhibit,
the California Science Center
remains one of the largest
science centers in the nation,
with
multiple hands-on exhibit
galleries, special exhibitions,
and IMAX movies for guests to
experience.
"Endeavour
will be the star attraction of
the Samuel Oschin Air and Space
Center, a launchpad for
creativity and innovation that
will inspire future generations
of scientists, engineers and
explorers," said Jeff Rudolph,
President and CEO of the
California Science Center. "We
are grateful to be at this point
in the construction of the new
Air and Space Center, and
thrilled to start Go for Stack on
July 20 to commemorate Space
Exploration Day."
NASA-KimShiflett
With an
impressive artifact collection
integrated with hands-on
exhibits, the Samuel Oschin Air
and Space Center will be a major
expansion that will double the
Science Center's educational
exhibit space, adding 100,000
square feet and 100 new
educational exhibits. Guests of
all ages will be encouraged to
investigate scientific and
engineering principles of
atmospheric flight and the
exploration of the universe. The
Air, Shuttle, and Space Galleries
will provide a unique educational
opportunity for our Los Angeles
community and guests from around
the world, general admission
free. The Samuel Oschin Air and
Space Center is the third phase
of the California Science
Center's three-phase,
three-decade master plan to
develop one of the world's
leading science learning centers.
Building construction is
underway, and together with
artifact and exhibit
installation, is expected to take
several years.
The
California Science Center
Foundation is actively
fundraising to complete this
ambitious project with $320
million raised toward the $400
million EndeavourLA Campaign
goal. Everyone can help realize
this exciting vision and
donations at any level are
welcomed.
Click for
more
at
EndeavourLA.org
Click
for
California Science
Center
About-Samuel-Oschin-Air-and-Space-Center
///
1892-1928:
Stubblefield's
Wireless
http://anomalyinfo.com/Stories/1892-1928-stubblefields-wireless
The
Monument
(insert
picture)
The Legend:
On the campus of Murray State
College in Murray, Kentucky,
there is a stone memorial which
commemorates the day in 1902 that
Nathan B. Stubblefield first
publicly displayed a wireless
means of transmitting voices
between two
points1
.
Stubblefield's wireless telephone
was first demonstrated in 1892,
years before Guglielmo Marconi
developed his wireless telegraph;
but the demonstration on that day
had been for just one man, one
Rainey T. Wells.
Stubblefield, a farmer and
telephone repairman living in
Calloway County, Kentucky,
claimed he could send messages
through the air without wires, a
claim which attracted a huge
crowd of spectators to the front
of the Calloway County Courthouse
in Murray on January 1, 1902. At
points about two hundred feet
apart on the lawn, Stubblefield
and his son Bernard had set up
two boxes that were not connected
in any visible way. Each box was
about two feet square and
contained a telephone, through
which Stubblefield and his son
talked as if they were standing
next to each other, their voices
being perfectly audible to the
crowds gathered around each box.
It's said that his demonstration
was greeted by hoots and
snickers, causing the inventor to
angrily gather up his equipment
and leave.
However, word of the
demonstration reached the St.
Louis Post Dispatch, which then
wrote to Stubblefield to request
another demonstration. Weeks
later, the newspaper received a
simple postcard: "Have
accepted your invitation. Come to
my place any time. Nathan
Stubblefield."
The Post Dispatch reporter
arrived at the farm in the second
week of January, 1902. In the
article written after the
demonstration, the reporter
described how he traveled about a
mile from the inventor's farm and
stabbed the rods attached to the
wireless telephone into the
ground, with the result that he
could hear what Stubblefield's
son Bernard spoke and played into
the transmitter (he played his
harmonica some).
The Post Dispatch article won
Stubblefield an invitation to
demonstrate his invention in
Washington, DC. At this
demonstration one of his boxes
was placed on a steamship,
the Bartholdi, on the
Potomac River, while a number of
other boxes were positioned along
the shore at sites of the users'
choosing. Communication between
the boxes, including the one on
the ship, was fantastically
clear. Stubblefield also
demonstrated his wireless
telephone in Philadelphia and New
York that same year.
Strangely, Stubblefield never
marketed his invention, despite
applying for patents in several
different countries, and
definitely getting the patent for
his devices in Canada and the
United States. After his stunning
success in Washington, he packed
up and went home, afraid, some
said, of having his ideas stolen.
Stubblefield dropped out of the
public eye and his family left
him; he spent the remainder of
his life in seclusion in a shack
in Calloway County. On March 30,
1928, he was found dead of
starvation; the true mystery, his
reasons for not promoting his
amazing invention and claiming
his rightful place in the history
of broadcasting, passed away with
him 2
In 1930, the monument on the
campus of Murray State College
was erected in memory of Nathan
B. Stubblefield, posthumously
declaring him the "Inventor of
Radio". Before he died,
Stubblefield said of himself:
"I've lived fifty years before my
time".
Thus ends the legend of
Stubblefield's wireless
telephone
but is the legend
true?
The Rest of the
Story
The legend of
Nathan B. Stubblefield, as
presented above, is essentially
correct; Stubblefield did indeed
exist, he did demonstrate a
wireless telephone that
transmitted voices as early as
1902 (if not ten years earlier),
he did receive Canadian and U.S.
patents for a wireless telephone,
and he did indeed go into
seclusion only to eventually die
of starvation in
poverty.
What is not told of
by the legend is that
Stubblefield, in mid-1902, had
agreed to a commercial use of his
invention and was named the
'director' of the "Wireless
Telephone Company of America,"
but held no office; he received
stock in the new company in
exchange for the patent rights to
his device. His demonstration in
Philadelphia was part of the
promotion of the device, to help
sell stock in the new company.
Shortly after the Philadelphia
demonstrations, however,
Stubblefield withdrew from the
company. While the exact reasons
for this decision are unclear,
there were several events that
may have prompted the
choice.
After the
Philadelphia demonstrations, a
fellow inventor and experimenter
from that city joined the new
company. His name was A.
Frederick Collins, and he had
separately developed a wireless
telephone system that only had
superficial differences from
Stubblefield's system. Unlike
Stubblefield, however, Collins
was well-published in the
scientific journals of the time,
so his name carried more weight,
promotion-wise; after Collins
joined the company, Stubblefield
and his device lost a great deal
of his prominence in the
company's advertisements. It has
also been alleged by some that
Collins was part of a group that
conspired to steal Stubblefield's
designs, but this allegation has
not been proven.
Another strain
between Stubblefield and the
Wireless Telephone Company of
America was revealed by a letter
that Stubblefield wrote to the
secretary of the company which
clearly indicated that he felt he
was somehow being swindled by
them, and that all the company
was actually interested in was
selling stock. This seems likely,
as the company never applied for
the patents for either
Stubblefield's or Collins'
telephones, nor did the company
make any actual improvements on
the telephone systems; and in
1913 some of its officials,
including Collins, were convicted
of mail fraud.
It was after his
break with the company that
Stubblefield developed a second
version of his system, different
enough from the first that he
could legally patent it in his
own name, which he did in 1908.
Neither the design promoted by
the Wireless Telephone Company of
America nor the design patented
by Stubblefield himself were ever
commercially successful, which is
likely what finally drove the
inventor into seclusion and
poverty.
But why was a
wireless telephone not
commercially successful? The
answer depends on one important
question...
Exactly WHAT Did
Stubblefield Invent?
The claims for
Stubblefield's accomplishments
were summed up best by L.J.
Horten in 1937 when he said:
"...Nathan B. Stubblefield was
the first to discover, invent,
manufacture, and demonstrate
equipment for broadcasting and
receiving the human voice and
music by wireless. He invented
the radio". This represents the
first error generally made in
regards to Stubblefield and his
devices: there are many ways to
transmit information, of which
radio is just one.
The principles
behind Stubblefield's devices
were worked out in 1970 by Elliot
Sivowitch based on an examination
of the 1908 patents (U.S. Patent
No. 887,357, dated May 12, 1908,
Serial No. 366,544, dated April
5, 1907. Canadian Patent No.
114,737, dated October 20, 1908),
and verified in 1971 by Thomas
Hoffer based on a second
examination of the patents, as
well as an examination of the
collections of papers and photos
related to Stubblefield held at
the University of Kentucky in
Lexington and at the Chamber of
Commerce in Murray, and a
personal interview with
Stubblefield's son Bernard, the
only one of Stubblefield's
children to have been allowed to
work with and on his father's
actual wireless
telephones.
Both of
Stubblefield's designs -- the
earlier one owned and promoted by
the Wireless Telephone company,
and the later one patented in
1908 by the inventor himself --
relied on the use of the
principle of induction to
transmit sound, the first design
transmitting through the ground
from metal rod to metal rod, and
the second design transmitting
through the air from antenna to
antenna. Induction refers to the
fact that a change in a magnetic
field can create a current of
electricity, and a current of
electricity can create a change
in a magnetic field; thus a
current in one wire can produce a
current in another wire, even at
a distance; and this is indeed
the same principle by which radio
works.
Previous to
Stubblefield's telephones, other
experimenters had theorized about
the possibility of creating a
wireless communication using the
principle of induction. Samuel
F.B. Morse, inventor of the
telegraph and the "Morse Code",
had conducted experiments along
these lines as early as 1842; and
after the introduction of the
telephone and the mass laying out
of underground telephone cables,
it had been noticed that voices
would sometimes cross over from
one wire to another using the
ground inbetween as the
conductor. The earliest
documented occurrence of this I
have is in 1877, when a concert
being "broadcast" to telephones
in Saratoga Springs, New York,
from New York City was also heard
accidentally in both Providence
and Boston because of electrical
leakages between adjacent
underground telephone
wires.
But induction
transmission does differ from
radio transmission. With
induction transmissions, most of
the energy of the transmission is
confined to the vicinity of the
transmitter wire; with radio
transmissions, almost all of the
energy of the transmission is
actually transmitted. What this
means in simple terms is that
radio transmits much farther than
induction... in Stubblefield's
telephones, the design allowed
for a maximum transmission range
of only a little less than three
miles, whereas even the earliest
radio transmitters had a range of
thousands of miles.
Other Transmissions
Previous to the
creation of Stubblefield's
wireless telephones, induction
transmission was already being
demonstrated as a form of
wireless communication by
Professor Amos Dolbear of Tufts
College, Massachusetts. As early
as March 1882, Dolbear had a
telephone set-up that used phones
grounded by metal rods poked into
the earth; his transmission range
was a little less than a mile,
and he received a patent for it.
Ten years later in 1892, a man by
the name of John Stone, funded by
AT&T, made successful voice
transmissions over telephones to
ships at sea; he, too, was using
a form of induction rather than
radio broadcast to accomplish the
feat.
In 1895, Guglielmo
Marconi had developed the first
wireless system using radio as
the transmission; this first
system was just a Morse code
telegraph, but by 1900 Reginald
A. Fessenden, an American
physicist, made the first
recorded transmission of voices
by radio. This was two years
before Stubblefield's first
public demonstration, which is
the reason his supporters stress
the fact he had shown his
wireless telephone to a man named
Wells in 18923. By the time
Stubblefield patented the second
design of his wireless system in
1908, it was two years after
Fessenden had first broadcast
phonograph music by radio in
1906.
So, unfortunately
for the legend of Nathan B.
Stubblefield's wireless, he
neither invented radio, nor made
the first voice transmissions by
wireless. However, it has been
pointed out that Stubblefield's
son, Bernard, may make claim to
something almost as important in
the history of broadcasting: all
evidence supports the fact that
Bernard was the first entertainer
to play live music to a broadcast
audience.
3
1
NOTES:
Text from the
Stubblefield monument on the
campus of the Murray State
College in Murray, Kentucky,
placed in 1930. It reads
thus:
HERE IN
1902
NATHAN B. STUBBLEFIELD
1860 - 1928
INVENTOR OF RADIO -- BROADCAST
AND
RECEIVED THE HUMAN VOICE BY
WIRELESS.
HE MADE EXPERIMENTS 10 YEARS
EARLIER.
HIS HOME WAS 100 FEET
WEST.
2
NOTES:
Frank Edwards'
book, Stranger Than Science,
gives the date of the Murray
demonstration as 1892 and the
date of Stubblefield's death as
1929. These are likely incorrect
for the simple reason that the
dates given on the memorial
mentioned above is 1902 for the
Murray demonstration and 1928 for
his death, and this agrees with
my other sources. Perhaps Edwards
or his source for the story
confused the date of the Murray
demonstration for the date of
Stubblefield's 1892 demonstration
to Rainey T. Wells. Edwards also
sets the date of the
demonstration for the Post
Dispatch reporter as January 10,
1902.
Let me also note that Edwards
tries to add to the sense of
mystery surrounding
Stubblefield's device by stating
that Stubblefield's patents don't
make sense to those who examine
them, and that the inventors'
equipment and records were
missing from the scene of his
death (which he neglects to
mention was caused by
starvation), thus implying
Stubblefield was killed by
someone to get these
items.
3
NOTES:
Stubblefield's Wireless
(sources)
"A
Technological Survey of
Broadcasting's 'Pre-History,'
1876-1920", by Elliot N.
Sivowitch in the Journal of
Broadcasting, Vol. XV, No.1,
Winter 1970-1971, pg. 1-20.
"Another
'Inventor of Radio'", by L.J.
Horten in Broadcasting and
Broadcast Advertising, January 1,
1937, pg. 32. [NOTE: The
entire text of a radio broadcast
made by Horton is quoted within
the text of this article, and
this is what is referenced
here.]
"Induction,
Electric", from the World Book
Encyclopedia, Vol. 9, 1961,
pg. 178.
"Let's
hear it for Bernard
Stubblefield!", by Edward C.
Lambert in TV Guide, October 10,
1970, pg. 18-20.
"Nathan B.
Stubblefield and His Wireless
Telephone", by Thomas W. Hoffer
in the Journal of
Broadcasting, Vol. XV, No.3,
Summer 1971, pg.
317-329.
"Neglected
Genius", by Frank Edwards in his
book Stranger Than Science, 1959
Lyle Stuart, Inc., pgs.
9-11.
"Radio
Broadcast", by Joseph Nathan Kane
in his book Famous First
Facts, 1933, pg.
423.
"Radio,
History", from the World Book
Encyclopedia, Vol. 15, 1961,
pg. 87.
U.S.
Patent # 350,299: Mode of
Electric Communication, A.E.
DolBear, Oct. 5 1886. Available
online at:
http://www.google.com/patents
U.S.
Patent # 887,357: Wireless
Telephone, Nathan B.
Stubblefield, May 12 1908.
Available online at:
http://www.google.com/patents
///
2015
110-
Lowpower WiFi
Technology
FUZHOU,
CHINA -- Rockchip, China's
leading fabless semiconductor
company and mobile SoC
solution
provider, announced today that
the new Rockchip RKi6000 world's
lowest power Wi-Fi technology
will be available for smart home
applications, including smart
plugs, intelligent access
controls, smart cameras, home
appliances, wearables, and
more.
The
RKi6000 is the new ultra-low
power Wi-Fi and memory technology
that greatly reduces power
consumption of IoT (Internet of
Things) smart devices by 85%,
allowing the use of AAA batteries
for up to 35 years and the use of
coin batteries in everyday
appliances and devices. The new
technology advances the
widespread adoption of IoT by
providing more efficient power, a
lower price, smaller size, and
the ability to use Wi-Fi for the
development of IoT
devices.
Awarded
numerous international technical
patents for the new Wi-Fi
technology, the Rockchip RKi6000
SoC (systems on chip) processor
technology sets a new
standard for Wi-Fi, with
power consumption now equal
to that of Bluetooth 4.0 LE
(Low Energy), with receiving
power consumption around 20mAh
during use, 85% lower than
standard Wi-Fi built with RF
architecture.
When
compared with the
Bluetooth/ZIGBEE
standard, Wi-Fi is more
convenient to use with the easy
Internet connection provided by
the standard Wi-Fi
infrastructure, but because of
its high power requirements,
Wi-Fi was previously unable to be
incorporated into portable
devices with an electrical
current limit.
The
RKi6000's on-chip processor and
memory technology resolves this
power issue, reducing power
consumption to make Wi-Fi equal
to Bluetooth LE, advancing
the adoption of IoT devices by
breaking Wi-Fi's power
consumption bottleneck.
Click
Rockchip
///
110-
Google releases translate App
upgrade
The
idea of a
universal translator has been a
longtime fixture in science
fiction and a welcome tool for
every language student.
This app is an advanced
mobile-translation tool,
recognizing more than three dozen
languages. But it's part of a
much bigger trend and, with
service like Microsoft's Skype
translator, turning video chats
into real-time multilingual
conversations.
With the new app, you are able to
detect the languages being spoken
so you don't even have to press
the translation button on the
phone each time you talk. It's
now so much more natural.
Google Translate has had voice
controls for a few years, but the
latest version works more
seamlessly.
In
this version, the app is supposed
to pick up who is talking based
on the language being spoken. So,
say you wanted to order a slice
of chicken pizza in Italian.
Using the app, you could walk
into a pizza parlor, and, with
your lips at an awkward proximity
to the phone's microphone, make
your request, after which a
robotic voice would spit out the
question in Italian.
Then
let's say the guy behind the
counter asks if you want extra
cheese. He could ask you that
question in Italian, and the
phone would relay it in English.
Respond "Yes" or "No" in English,
and out comes Italian again.
The
second tool is a visual
translator. People can place
signs or other text in a phone's
viewfinder, similar to the way
they take a photo, then receive
an instantaneous translation on
the screen.
Google
is one of a number of companies
trying improve and to fulfill the
promise of translation
technology. Skype, Microsoft's
video calling service, recently
announced a new feature that
simultaneously translates calls
between English and Spanish
speakers.
Google
has been doing some form of
translation since 2001. The
Google Translate app now has 90
languages and some one billion
daily users. Barak Turovsky, the
product leader for Google
Translate, said that 95 percent
of the people who use Google's
translation technology -- whether
on a phone or desktop -- live
outside the United States.
Technologically
speaking, Google Translate works
similar to Google's famous search
engine. First it uses software to
"crawl" the web in search of
documents that have been
translated between languages,
then it performs a statistical
analysis of likely
translations.
For
instance, if the computer sees
that the French word chien has
been translated to dog on
millions of occasions and in
varying contexts, it reasons that
chien probably means dog, and in
the process "learns" that
word.
The apps
conversation feature can handle
38 languages and is now
available for the first time
on iOS. The
number of languages is expected
to grow.
Click
More
tviStory
110-s90- Google
releases Translate App
upgrade
///
110-
Slim, a Major Prepaid Phone
Service
Player
Mexico's
Carlos Slim of America Movil
telecoms group, remained the
richest person on Forbes' 2013
annual ranking of billionaires
with a fortune of $73
billion.
"To
see Carlos Slim again broaden his
lead and certify himself as the
richest man in the world is a
statement that wealth truly is
global and not an American
monopoly like it sometimes felt
for many decades.
One of
the biggest U.S. prepaid company,
with just over 21 million
customers, is TracFone Wireless
Inc. The company is a subsidiary
of Mexico's America Movil, owned
by Mexican mega-billionaire
Carlos Slim, who is leveraging
his long experience in Latin
America north of the
border.
Low-cost
prepaid phone service has become
one of the hottest performers in
the U.S. wireless market. The
move toward prepaid cellphone
service in the United States is
starting to mimic a pattern that
has long been the rule in the
developing world. Prepaid
accounts for 95% of cellphone
handsets in India, 80% in Latin
America, 70% in China and 65% in
Europe, according to Chetan
Sharma, a Washington state
wireless
consultant.
Growth
is spurring a wave of
international mergers. TracFone
Wireless Inc. is acquiring Simple
Mobile of Irvine, while Deutsche
Telekom's T-Mobile plans to merge
with MetroPCS. Japan's Softbank
Corp. is buying a 70% stake in
Sprint.
Many
companies have begun to offer
upscale handsets using 4G
networks which has helped prepaid
shed its reputation for low-cost,
hard-to-track phones favored by
drug dealers on TV crime shows.
So-called burner phones are hard
to trace because their SIM cards
-- memory chips that activate the
handset -- can be store purchased
for cash, and the new owner
doesn't need to sign and be
bogged down with lengthy
contracts, phone charges they
couldn't predict, or get a credit
check.
Prepaid
has moved quickly into the
smarter phones with more
sophisticated users and is really
challenging the
market.
The
monthly cost of a prepaid phone
plan can run as low as $20 every
three months for bare-bones with
60 minutes of voice service, with
a $10 handset offered by
TracFone. Per-minute costs drop
with added usage, and unused
minutes can be banked for future
local or long-distance
calls.
TracFone
doesn't have its own network of
cell towers and electronic
spectrum. Instead, it buys excess
capacity from the big four cell
companies. "People can get the
same phone networks for less than
half the price," saidTracFone's
chief executive and founder, F.J.
Pollak.
Click
For More tviStory
110-s90-
Carlos Slim, PrePaid Phone
Player
///
110-
CPUC vs.
TracFone
Carlos Slim's TracFone under fire
as it expands in state
The
binational activist organization
Two Countries, One Voice is
calling for more California State
regulation.
TracFone
Wireless Inc. a prepaid cellular
company controlled by Mexican
billionaire Carlos Slim is taking
fire as it moves to expand in the
lucrative California market.
Regulators say TracFone should
pay the state the same fees that
other telecom firms
do.
The
Miami company is being bashed
publicly by activists on both
sides of the U.S.-Mexican border
because of what they call
monopolistic business practices
of its corporate parent, Mexico
City-based America Movil. Slim,
the company's chairman, is worth
an estimated $73 billion and tops
Forbes magazine's most recent
2013 list of the super
wealthy.
California
regulators have been
investigating TracFone for more
than three years. In early 2012
the state Public Utilities
Commission ruled that the company
violated California law by
refusing to send the state
required service fees that it
should have been collecting from
customers.
Officials
at the Public Utilities
Commission contend that TracFone
could owe them as much as $20
million. The company is appealing
the ruling to the state Court of
Appeal.
Los
Angeles County lawmakers say they
expect to introduce a bill that
would give the state more
authority to regulate prepaid
cellphone companies such as
TracFone and approve proposed
mergers in the
future.
TracFone
executive VP and general counsel
Rick Salzman said, "Our whole
program is to save people money,"
"We generally provide a
comparable service to our
competitors at a lower cost, and
it's less burdensome on the
customer as well, with no early
termination fees, no contracts
and no long-term
commitments."
He
criticized the commission's
ongoing efforts to make TracFone
collect the so-called universal
service fees that traditional
wireless and land-line carriers
bill customers and remit to the
state to fund programs for the
deaf and disabled, the poor and
rural
residents.
Most
phone companies add the fees,
which are small percentages of
the total bill, on monthly
statements. But prepaid services
"have no legal or practical way
to collect the fees" since the
minutes are bought at stores
before the calls are made,
Salzman
said.
In a
lengthy legal proceeding the
Public Utilities Commission
rejected TracFone's arguments
that it merely resells cellphone
minutes purchased from other
companies.
"TracFone
is ultimately responsible for
payment of these user fees," the
five commissioners unanimously
decided.
The
amount of back fees that TracFone
could ultimately pay will be
decided in the second phase of
the proceeding. in
2013.
In
the meantime, Salzman said, his
firm is remitting the fees under
protest.
TracFone's
attitude toward regulators
underscores the need to bolster
the Public Utilities Commission's
authority to approve or reject a
prepaid cellphone merger,
especially when the company has
been fighting efforts to require
it to collect legally required
state fees.
Click
For More tviStory
110-s90-
California Legislators invetigate
TracFone for Service
Fees
110
- Hi-Tech:
CableMustCarryTVCableLawUpheld
110CableMustCarryTVCableLawUpheld
/ May 17, 2010 / WASHINGTON (AP)
&emdash; The Supreme Court has
declined to take up a challenge
from cable television operators
to the 18-year-old requirement
that they carry local broadcast
stations on their
systems.
The justices rejected an
appeal Monday from Cablevision
Systems Corp. The court upheld a
federal "must carry" law, enacted
in 1992 when cable TV systems
faced much less competition than
they do
today.
Cablevision, the nation's
fifth-largest cable TV operator,
sued the Federal Communications
Commission over its ruling that
forced Cablevision to carry the
signal of a distant home-shopping
station on its Long Island cable
systems. The federal appeals
court in New York upheld the
FCC's
determination.
Cablevision said in court
papers that "the monopolistic
nature of the cable
industry...has been replaced by
vibrant
competition."
» Don't miss a thing.
Get breaking news alerts
delivered to your
inbox.
The Obama administration
urged the court to stay out of
the case. It noted that being
carried on cable systems "remains
critical to broadcast stations'
financial viability
generally."
C-SPAN, Discovery
Communications and Time Warner
Cable filed briefs in support of
Cablevision. C-SPAN said 12
million cables homes lost all or
some access to its programming
when cable operators were forced
to make room for broadcast
stations in the
1990s.
The station, WRNN is based
in Kingston, N.Y., about 90 miles
north of New York
City.
The case is Cablevision v.
FCC, 09-901.
///
110FTCClearsGoogleAdMobile
/ FTC Clears Google Purchase Of
Mobile Ad
Service
MAY 22, 2010 / Google Inc.'s
$750 million acquisition of
mobile ad service AdMob cleared
its final hurdle Friday with a
boost from AdMob's jilted suitor,
Apple
Inc.
The Federal Trade
Commission said it unanimously
decided to approve Google's AdMob
deal mainly because of Apple's
recent push into the $600 million
mobile advertising market in the
U.S. The ruling closes a
six-month antitrust
investigation.
The emergence of another
deep-pocketed competitor eased
the FTC's concerns that Google
would be able to use AdMob as a
springboard for extending its
dominance into the nascent field
of wireless devices.
///
110Early-exirWiTELfeesiPhoneRise
/ MAY 22, 2010 / Early-exit fees
for iPhone Rise AT&T Inc. is
raising the fees it charges
buyers of the iPhone and other
smart phones if they break their
two-year contracts, while
lowering them for "dumb" phones
to better align the fees with
their real
costs.
Starting June 1,
smart-phone buyers will havae to
pay $325 for breaking their
contracts, up from $175
currently. For buyers of regular
phones, the fee is being
decreased by $25 to
$150.
The early-termination fee
goes down for every month
customers stay in their contract
- by $10 for smart phones and $4
for regular
phones. -
The changes apply only to
new contracts and renewals.
////
110.09VerizonPaysFeeNameDroid
/ Nov.
1st, 2009 / Google's
Wired-wireless Android
WiTEL®© system did
the job of putting Verizon-Lucas
& the "Droud on the map,"
says, author-performer, Troy
Cory-Stubblefield, of NBS
WiTEL®©,
The GPS
system -- with Google Android in
its corner, Verizon capitalizes
on the search giant's navigation
tools. The Droid, a rival to the
iPhone, is not only a chance for
Google and Verizon to shine, but
also troubled Motorola, which is
badly in need of a hit. (Verizon
Wireless)
"No
matter how successful the Droid
is", says Troy Cory, there is
already a winner that has earned
money off of it. Or rather, just
from the "Droid" name.
Motorola
had to license the smart phone's
name from a film company
dominated by one of the most
successful movie makers of all
time."
Yes,
Lucasfilm Ltd., of "Star Wars"
fame, owns the trademark to
Droid. When it comes to GPS car
navigation, the new Droid phone
from Verizon Wireless could
change everything.
That's
right -- from a Wireless
Telephone®© that
first hit the marketplace in
1908.
Mounted
to the windshield with an
optional holder, it provides a
voice-activated GPS system with
so much potential that mainstream
GPS companies may have to
scramble to catch up.
Someday.
It's
not quite there, however, as a
consumer-friendly navigator. But
the possibilities for the Droid
as a GPS guide as well as a smart
phone are enticing.
The
phone, which Verizon announced in
late October 2009, will go on
sale Nov. 6 for $199 (with a
two-year contract). It's the
first to be powered by Google
Inc.'s updated mobile software,
Android 2.0.
The
navigation system, which is the
software's most prominent new
feature, is included in the base
price.
With
Google in its corner, the Droid
can use the Web search giant's
excellent mapping and navigation
tools, including tracking down
addresses, finding businesses by
name, mapping routes and even
displaying real-life photos of
locales.
And
of course it's a phone, too, with
features obviously designed to
challenge the king of
telecommunications cool, Apple
Inc.'s iPhone.
FCC
WINS Victory For "Neutrality"
/
OCT 23, 2009 /
110-MicrosoftTimelineWindows
7 launched -
STANDBY
Microsoft has taken two parallel
routes in its operating systems.
One route has been for the home
user and the other has been for
the professional IT user.
The dual routes have generally
led to home versions having
greater multimedia support and
less functionality in networking
and security, and professional
versions having inferior
multimedia support and better
networking and
security.[citation
needed]
The first version of Microsoft
Windows, version 1.0, released in
November 1985, lacked a degree of
functionality and achieved little
popularity, and was to compete
with Apple's own operating
system.[citation needed]
Windows 1.0 is not a complete
operating system; rather, it
extends MS-DOS.
Microsoft Windows version 2.0 was
released in November, 1987 and
was slightly more popular than
its predecessor. Windows 2.03
(release date January 1988) had
changed the OS from tiled windows
to overlapping windows. The
result of this change led to
Apple Computer filing a suit
against Microsoft alleging
infringement on Apple's
copyrights.
110s - Nathan Stubblefield,
Author -
Republished.
/ 81
years after Nathan B.
Stubblefield's death, (NBS) --
March 28, 1928, several hundred
chapters, and sections of
unpublished NBS writings, photos,
and drawings will be published by
TVI Publication's, on various Ask
Priscilla
WebQuotes.
The
new book is all about Nathan B.
Stubblefield, Murray, Kentucky,
his family, his business
associates,"Teléph-on-délgreen,"
and NBS WiTEL®©,
the short title for the Nathan's
Wireless
Telephone®©
Organization.
"Teléph-on-délgreen,"
the college . . .
.
was founded by Nahan in 1907. It
is now the 10,000 student campus
of Murray State University,
located 50 miles from the
Mississippi River, and 192 miles
from the birthplace of Abraham
Lincoln, 1809. Just 348 miles
north, is Hannibal, the town
where the Tom Sawyer, and
Huckleberry Finn characters were
created by Mark Twain, (b: 1835
d: 1920), when Nathan was just a
boy. 200 miles west is
Louisville, the city where Thomas
Edison, (18471931) -- first
became edicted into the world of
elcctricy.
Affected by such literary works
authored within what Nathan
called . . ."the 400 mile radius
of délgreen," it was an
easy job for Nathan to put
together his first original 10
volume NBS text book set,
"Wireless Telephony," for the use
by students at his NBS industrial
college..
102s
MORE NBS "The Author
STORY
110g-
Google
KnowledgeRush
Click For More -
110-GoogleKnowlegeRush
CLICK Below FOR MORE - Related
Stories
|
READ THE VIRGIN MOBLE STORY /
102s
- CLICK
FOR MORE
108s
- Virgin Media NBS WiTEL Gallery
STORY.
102s
MORE NBS "The Author
STORY
Part of the problem has
been its partner,
Sprint,
110f - Teleph-on-delgreenAerial
/ MSU - the NBS Industrial
School?
110f -
Wireless
Cemeteries Towers Needed - 3GS
DRAINS
BATTERYS
110f -
Intel,
Nokia Teams Up.
Advances
- WiTEL Organization.
110f- Nathan's
New Book Series - 81 years Later
(NBS)
110f -
Charles
H. Portz
When
does a great THOUGHT become
Patentable?
110f -
Nathan
Stubblefield's FireWire | WiFi
"Hot Spots:
110f -
Why
FireWire and Watermelon
Patches?
110if - What
Are Phone Numbers
Worth?
110if -
Virgin
Media's Sir Richard Branson "well
done Nathan".
110f-
Google
KnowledgeRush
110g- Extras:
RELATED ARTICLES
102g-
Sprint
Buys Virgin Mobile - Here's the
$483-million
Deal
113s - IceHouse.net
/ Stubblefield
Stories
- They Said
It!
110ig -
What
Are Phone Numbers
Worth?
RETURN
TO
TOP - Click for More
tviNews
|
110is - What Are Phone Numbers
Worth? |
Can't
decide what the NBS1908 Wireless
Telephone Patent is
worth?
Here's the deal! The new crop of Wireless
Telephones arising from the world of
Teléph-on-délgreen,
Kentucky, are dizzying. But more dizzying
is why, when and who owns the NBS1908
Wireless Telephone patent, and
copyrights?"
110is - CLICK
FOR MORE 1408 STORY What Are Phone Numbers
Worth?
110is - CLICK
FOR MORE LookRadio 5801 vMovies 1908
Legacy TODAY'S LookRadio | VRA TelePlay
News Feature
|
The
LookRadio NBS1908 Legacy "The Tranfer
of Title to the Wireless
Telephone"
| 110is -
The
5802 NBS1908 Legacy "The Wireless
Telephone Bequest - Uncle
Bernie"http://www.lookradio.com/5801tcs.htm
110g - Wireless
Cemeteries Towers Needed WiTEL 3GS DRAINS
BATTERYS
110s - CLICK
FOR MORE Wireless Cemeteries Towers Needed
WiTEL 3GS DRAINS
BATTERYS
One
of the reasons the phones might not be
meeting the posted expectations, reported
the LA Times -- "is that Apple's
preproduction model tests were in
situations that rarely, if ever, reflect
the way real people use the iPhone."
Check out the page on battery performance
tests on Apple's site.
Here's how Apple reports it tested battery
life for surfing the Web over 3G:
Internet over 3G tests were conducted over
a 1900MHz 3G network using dedicated web
and mail servers, browsing snapshot
versions of 20 popular web pages, and
receiving mail once an hour. All settings
were default except: Call Forwarding was
turned on; the Wi-Fi feature Ask to Join
Networks and Auto-Brightness were turned
off. Wi-Fi was enabled but not associated
with a network.
David Sarno points out that "the S in 3GS
may stand for many things on this device
-- "sexy," "speed," "sweet" -- but it
certainly doesn't stand for "stamina."
This, um, bonus "iDrain" feature of the
battery, as David writes, is proving to be
something of an Achilles' heel for the
device. The company's suggestions on how
to preserve battery life include, in
essence, turning off the very features
that make an iPhone an iPhone, including
the faster 3G network itself.
Most folks who whip out their iPhones to
check something on the Web don't typically
go into settings to forward calls and shut
off auto-brightness and the Ask to Join
Network features. Nor do they typically
have a consistent signal or dedicated Web
and mail server.
The day the 3GS was released, iFixit.com
dismantled the device and found that its
battery offered only a minimal increase
over its predecessor:
Apple promises improved battery life with
the 3GS. The battery is listed as 3.7V and
4.51 Whr. This comes out to 1219 mAh,
compared to 1150 mAh on the 3G. That's
only a 6% increase.
David goes into greater detail on why
packing sufficient power in limited space
for better battery life is such a
dilemma.
Until that is resolved, I suppose most of
us will just have to keep staking out the
nearest outlets and pull up a piece of
carpet to keep connected while traveling.
110s - CLICK
FOR MORE Wireless Cemeteries Towers Needed
WiTEL 3GS DRAINS
BATTERYS
110ig - Virgin
Media's Sir Richard Branson
"welldoneNathan - Motorola 800 in 1985.
110is - Virgin Media's pictures Sir
Richard Branson holding a Motorola 800 in
1985.
110is
- Here
at Virgin Media and Virgin Mobile we want
to say "well done Nathan and happy 100th
anniversary!"
"The
most appealing element of
the NBS WITEL®©
organization founded in 1892," says P.C.
Stubblefield," are Kids." The opportunity
to tap into the demographics of kids
around the world in their middle and high
school years is exciting. "They have never
heard of NBS nor have they had a
chance to
become addicted to "Teléph-on-délgreen"
- and the jobs it has created in the
mobile WITEL®© industry
since the first "GREEN" school/college
(Teléph-on-délgreen) was
founded."
110is
- CLICK
FOR MORE NBS WiTEL VIRGIN
PHOTOS
110is - The
Bunny Box. tviNews 1507 CTIA WIRELESS
2008, April 1-3, 2008. Las Vegas
Convention Center. Sir Richard Branson, of
Virgin Group will deliver the opening show
keynote address at 9 a.m. on April 1 in
the Barron Room at the Las Vegas
Hilton.
The
"Bunny Box" and "Femtocell" routers.
110is - CLICK
FOR MORE tviNews 1507
STORY
"As more and
more people drop their telephone land
lines, every home or office will need an
antenna tower somewhere around the
premises, say Troy Cory, of TVInews.
The Wireless
Telephone industry is facing a great
RF pick-up challenge: poor Wireless
Telephone. Troy says, "a Prison Cell
has about the same cellular coverage as
most residences do. DURING
THE NAB MEETINGS, THE BIG TALK WAS "The
FCC Winners. "
110s - CLICK
FOR MORE tviNews 1808
STORY
110g - Intel,
Nokia Teams Up. Advances the dreams of the
WiTEL Organization.
110g - Intel,
Nokia Teams Up. Advances the dreams of the
WiTEL
Organization.
/ June 24, 2009,
Intel
and Nokia team up to create a computer
mobile device to enhance the NBS
WiTEL marketplace.
As
the original 1907 NBS Wireless
Telephone®©
Organization join forces with the
WTQCA to speed up the marriage of the
Wireless Telephone®©
with Computers. Troy Cory, the CEO of
the NBS WiTEL®©
Organization says he "has high hopes
that his new partners will help re-define
a new WiTEL mobile platform beyond
today's so-called cellphone and
laptop with USB plug-ins.
110is - CLICK
FOR MORE tviNews Intel, Nokia
STORY
It
is obvious that as the NBS Wireless
Telephone®© --
becomes ever more like computers, by the
addition of a "Magic Jack" plugged into
the USB port of a computer, the two HiTech
giants in both communications and
computing have come together to join in
the advancement of the NBS
WiTEL®© evolution, to
hasten the process of developing the
effects and elements of the NBS
WiTEL®© first Service
Marked over 100 years ago.
Intel
Corp., the world's largest maker of
computer chips, and Nokia Corp., which has
a 40% share of the Wireless
Telephone®© handset
market, say they will work together to
create a new mobile computing platform to
validate the reasons for owning a
Wireless Telephone®©
assigned a WiTEL phone number for
easy to use personal broadcasting," says
Troy Cory, CEO of the NBS Wireless
Telephone®©
Organization.
Dan
Fost from San Francisco reported that the
companies did not release many specifics
about the deal, other than to say they
hope to develop products "to define a new
mobile platform beyond today's smart
phones, notebooks and netbooks."
"Cellphones
need powerful computers inside," Anand
Chandrasekher, senior vice president and
general manager of Intel's ultra mobility
group, said Tuesday. "It's natural,
therefore, that the leaders in computing
and communications come together."
The
move was hailed as a major step for Intel,
which has struggled to cash in on the
fast-growing demand for cellphones.
"Everybody who sells chips is keen to get
into the handset market," said Joseph
Byrne, senior analyst with the Linley
Group, a semiconductor research and
analysis consultant in Mountain View.
"More than a billion units ship every
year, much more than PCs."
Although
Intel and Nokia did not discuss specific
products, analysts presume they have their
sights on creating a gadget, as opposed to
retooling phones now on the market.
"Whatever
product we see come out of this
partnership is probably not something we
can see for one to two years," said Kevin
Burden, practice director for mobile
devices at ABI Research, an analyst firm
in New York. "These are two companies with
tremendous scale, tremendous research and
development budgets, and they have the
potential of building something new,
something revolutionary down the road. We
don't know what that is."
Burden
predicts that a new category of machine,
known as smart books or mobile Internet
devices, may yet evolve. Nokia already
tried its hand with its N810 Internet
tablet, a 5-inch device announced in 2007,
offering a small keyboard and constant
cellular connectivity. Instead, Burden
said, inexpensive laptops known as
netbooks took off, and Nokia went back to
the drawing board.
Similarly,
Intel had stalled in earlier efforts aimed
at expanding from personal computers into
the fast-growing field of mobile devices.
It sold its unit that made mobile chips
for $600 million in 2006.
The
time was not right earlier, executives for
the two companies said in a conference
call in mid-June 2009. "This is the time,"
said Kai Oistamo, Nokia executive vice
president for devices. "The mobile and
computing industries are coming
together."
The
Intel-Nokia alliance would compete with
chip makers Broadcom Corp. of Irvine and
Qualcomm Inc. of San Diego, which are
setting their sights on selling chips for
similar devices, Burden said.
Cory
stated that, "what would make the deal
really operational, would be an alliance
with the WiTEL Quality Control
Authority, (WTQCA) -- that would help
control the WiTEL phone number
assignment around the globe." It was in
1902, when the NBS WiTEL organization,
and its founder, Nathan B. Stubblefield,
"first set their sights on selling
wireless telephone numbers to the users of
the early-day NBS WiTEL devices,
including those folks standy in the
historical 1902 photos," -- said Cory.
Those pictured with NBS are: Houston,
co-founder of GE, Nikola Tesla, Collins,
the leaders of Westinghouse and AT&T.
110is - CLICgK
FOR MORE tviNews Intel, Nokia
STORY
110g- Nathan's
New Book Series - 81 years Later
(NBS)
110s - Nathan's
New Book Series - 81 years after Nathan B.
Stubblefield's death, (NBS) -- March 28,
1928,
. . .
Several hundred chapters, and sections of
unpublished NBS writings, photos, and
drawings will be published by TVI
Publication's, on
various
Ask
Priscilla
WebQuotes
The
new book is all about Nathan B.
Stubblefield, Murray, Kentucky, his
family, his business
associates,"Teléph-on-délgreen,"
and the Wireless
Telephone®© Organization,
(now known as: NBS
WiTEL®©).
"Teléph-on-délgreen,"
the college Nathan founded in 1907, is now
the campus of Murray State University,
located 25 miles from the Mississippi
River, and 192 miles from the birthplace
of Abraham Lincoln, 1809. Just 348 miles
north, is Hannibal, the town where the Tom
Sawyer, and Huckleberry Finn characters
were created by Mark Twain, (b: 1835 d:
1920), when Nathan was just a boy.
110s - CLICK
FOR MORE Nathan's New Book Series - 81
years LATER, (NBS) -- March 28, 1928,
110s - CLICK
FOR MORE nbsLegal.net.
More PDF Files NBS WiTEL Org
Inventions
1885-LightingDevice-nbs
1888-Telephone-nbs
1898-EarthBattery-nbs
1908-WirelessTelephone-nbs
1912-FlyingMachine-bbs
1921-DraftingTab-bbs
110g - Charles
H. Portz When
does a great THOUGHT become a
patentable invention? Should a Patent be
tangible or a
formula?
110s - Charles
H. Portz When
does a great THOUGHT become a
patentable invention? Should a Patent be
tangible or a
formula?
That was a
question easier to answer when Thomas
Edison came up with the lightbulb and
Nathan B. Stubblefield handed the world
the mobile Wireless
Telephone®©. Those two
hard-end products clearly fit with old
ideas of what it meant to invent something
physical under the USPTO laws between the
years of 1878, and 1905. In those years
copyrights, trademarks came first, then
patents. When once Registered, they were
filed with the international bureau in
Berne Switzerland.
110s - CLICK
FOR MORE - Charles H. Portz
When
does a great THOUGHT become a
patentable invention?
|
110s - CLICK
FOR MORE. Q. Can pharmaceutical
formulas
110g - Nathan
Stubblefield's FireWire and WiFi "Hot
Spots:
Why FireWire and Watermelon
Patches?
110s - Nathan Stubblefield's FireWire and
WiFi "Hot Spots:
Why FireWire and Watermelon Patches? |
110s - Answer: Because it was the
green "hot spot" patches where Nathan
placed his aerial rods around his 86 acres
to create the WiFi and WiMAX 187
Teléph-on-délgreen
phenominum. |
110s - CLICK
FOR MORE PhotoS: Nikola Tesla & Nathan
- 1902 STORY
|
110s - CLICK
FOR MORE FireWire - Watermelon
STORY.
110s - Teleph-on-delgreen
Aerial - Today's Beam - Murray State
University, Kentucky?
110s - Teleph-on-delgreenAerial
/ Why NBS FireWire and Watermelon
Patches? Because it was the green
patches where Nathan placed his aerial
rods around his 86 acres to create the
WiFi and WiMAX 187
Teléph-on-délgreen
Aerial - Antenna phenominum.
CLICK FOR MORE NBS PhotoS:
Nikola Tesla & Nathan -
1902.
   
110g-Extra RELATED ARTICLES
100iif - Can
I Become a YES Man or a YES
Ma'am?
100iif - Can
I Become a Yes Community tviNews
Contributor?
105iis - What
Holy land States Are Biblical Nations |
MAP?
105iis - Was
James, The Step Brother of
Jesus?
YES More
106iis - Can
you mix Wine, Women, Business and Song?
Katrina
112iis - Are
The Kurds Non-Arab
Muslims?
117iis - A
Gary Sunkin LAX
Report
113s - Icehouse.net//stubblefield
Stories - They Said
It!
113s - CLICK
FOR MORE They Said it! Search Results FROM
Icehouse: Stubblefield
Pages on Nathan Stubblefield and
earth batteries. ... Next Page. E-Mail
john1@ icehouse.net.
construction.gif (7901 bytes) GOOGLE -
icehouse.net/john34/stubblefield.html
- 28k
- Cached
- Similar
pages
113is - Stubblefield
Cell We do not know the secret of
the earth charge as Nathan
Stubblefield determined it.
Others since his time have observed
fluctuations at certain times of the
...
102g-
Sprint
Buys Virgin Mobile - Sprint Nextel to buy
Virgin Mobile USA - Here's the
$483-million
Deal
102s
- Sprint BuysVirgin Mobile - Sprint Nextel
to buy Virgin Mobile USA - Here's the
$483-million Deal
August 1, 2009 -- As Sprint Nextel Corp.,
the nation's third-largest wireless
provider, made an offer to buy Virgin
Moble, reported Troy Cory-Stubblefield,
CEO of NBS WiTEL®©.
Virgin Mobile is the sixth-largest
provider of prepaid cellphone services,
with 5.2 million customers, and the
second-largest "virtual network" provider
-- meaning it uses another company's
network to transmit its calls.
British billionaire Richard Branson's
Virgin Group owns 28.3% of Virgin Mobile.
SK Telecom has a 15% stake that it
received as part of the Helio deal.
Sprint is the third-largest of the four
major wireless carriers, which together
control about 90% of the cellphone market.
It trails AT&T Mobility and Verizon
Wireless; T-Mobile USA is fourth.
The Overland Park, Kan.-based company
reported a loss of $384 million, or 13
cents per share, in the three months ended
June 30. That's larger than its loss of
$344 million, or 12 cents per share, a
year ago.
Sprint's revenue fell 10 percent to $8.14
billion from $9.06 billion a year ago.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had
expected a loss of 2 cents per share on
lower revenue of $8.12 billion. Analysts
typically exclude one-time items from
their earnings estimates. The company
didn't report an adjusted earnings figure
that excludes one-time items.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. The AP news agency
reported on July 29th, 2009, that Sprint
Nextel Corp. was buying Virgin Mobile USA
Inc. for $483 million, further narrowing
the range of consumer choices for prepaid
cellphone service.
Sprint said it would pay $5.50 for each
Virgin Mobile share and assume up to $205
million in debt. Payment will be mostly in
Sprint shares. The Overland Park, Kan.,
company already owns 13.1% of Virgin
Mobile, which operates its cellphone
service over Sprint's
network.
108is - CLICK
FOR MORE VIRGIN Sir Branson
STORY.
108is - CLICK
FOR MORE 108s
- Virgin Media NBS WiTEL Gallery
STORY-
108is - CLICK
FOR MORE 110s
- SMART90 Virgin STORY-
102s
- Virgin
Mobile. - Recognizes the Mobil
Inventor
NBS
New Book Series to be Published. March 16,
2009 /
81
years after Nathan B. Stubblefield's
death, (NBS) -- March 28, 1928, several
hundred chapters, and sections of
unpublished NBS writings, photos, and
drawings will be published by TVI
Publication's, on various Ask Priscilla
WebQuotes.
The
new book is all about Nathan B.
Stubblefield, Murray, Kentucky, his
family, his business
associates,"Teléph-on-délgreen,"
and NBS WiTEL®©, the short
title for the Nathan's Wireless
Telephone®©
Organization.
"Teléph-on-délgreen," the
college . . . .
Nathan
founded in 1907, is now the 10,000 student
campus of Murray State University, located
50 miles from the Mississippi River, and
192 miles from the birthplace of Abraham
Lincoln, 1809. Just 348 miles north, is
Hannibal, the town where the Tom Sawyer,
and Huckleberry Finn characters were
created by Mark Twain, (b: 1835 d: 1920),
when Nathan was just a boy. 200 miles west
is Louisville, the city where Thomas
Edison, (18471931) -- first became edicted
into the world of
elcctricy.
Affected by such literary works authored
within what Nathan called . .
.
"the
400 mile radius of délgreen," it
was an easy job for Nathan to put together
his first original 10 volume NBS text book
set, "Wireless Telephony," for the use by
students at his NBS industrial
college.
Virgin Mobile shares were up 25% on
Tuesday, jumping $1.07 to close at $5.28.
The company went public in October 2007 at
$15 a share. Sprint climbed 4 cents to
close at $4.59.
Virgin Mobile as the sixth-largest
provider of prepaid cellphone services,
with 5.2 million customers, it lags far
behind industry leader Tracfone Wireless
Inc., which has 12.5 million subscribers,
and it has been locked in a price war this
year while losing customers.
Prepaid Calling Plans
Prepaid plans were pioneered largely by
Virgin Mobile and other mobile virtual
network operators, which used
pay-as-you-go and inexpensive monthly
plans as the hallmark of their competitive
strategy.
But such operators have had a particularly
difficult time in the U.S. making a
business by leasing wireless spectrum from
the four major providers and then
competing with them. Such labels as
Disney, ESPN and Amp'd Mobile have fallen
as the network owners ramped up their own
prepaid efforts.
The virtual network model has been more
successful in Europe, where regulations
encourage competition.
"Virgin has been having difficulty getting
traction in an increasingly competitive
prepaid environment in recent quarters,"
Stifel Nicolaus analyst Christopher King
wrote in a report Tuesday.
|
102s
- CLICK
FOR MORE 108s
- Virgin Media NBS WiTEL Gallery
STORY.
Part of the problem has been its
partner, Sprint,
--which unveiled a $50-a-month plan
for its prepaid Boost service in January,
undercutting Virgin Mobile's $80-a-month
offering. King noted that Virgin Mobile
launched a $49.99 monthly plan in April,
but Tracfone recently unveiled a
$45-a-month plan of its own.
The number of prepaid cellphone providers
has been shrinking as bigger players buy
up smaller rivals. A year ago, for
instance, Virgin Mobile bought Helio, a
small Westwood joint venture between
EarthLink Inc. and South Korean cellphone
carrier SK Telecom.
Helio brought to market an upscale device
that brought the advanced features of
South Korean cellphones to the U.S.
market.
Virgin Mobile felt compelled to sell
because
its
customer base was declining, the prepaid
space is getting much more competitive,
and it faced a $100-million debt maturity
at the end of next year that "we do not
believe it had enough free cash flow to
pay off," analyst Walter Piecyk of Pali
Research wrote in a report.
Dan Schulman, chief executive of Virgin
Mobile USA, is slated to run the combined
companies' prepaid services
operations.
The deal is subject to regulatory
approval
-- and the approval of Virgin Mobile's
shareholders. Sprint
said the deal, which it expects to
complete late this year or in early 2010,
should enable it to make further inroads
into the fast-growing market for prepaid
cellphone service.
"Prepaid is growing at an unprecedented
rate with consumers keenly focused on
value," Sprint Chief Executive Dan Hesse
said. "Virgin Mobile is an iconic brand in
the marketplace that will complement our
Boost Mobile brand."
|
102s
- CLICK
FOR MORE VIRGIN Sir Branson
STORY.
|
102s
- CLICK
FOR MORE 102s
- Virgin Media NBS WiTEL Gallery
STORY-
|
102s
- CLICK
FOR MORE 110s
- SMART90 Virgin STORY-
Section
05h -
Regulatory
Seizure of Personal Property . . . Is it
OK? Click
for More
116i - For
NBS100 TeleComunication Study - Regulatory
Frequency Seizure Editors Notes
Reviews
/
Editorial / vChart Editorial
Calendar / Events Calendar
/
*
110g
RETURN TO SECTION TOP - Click for More
tviNews
|