So why do you care? Dose your school, church or business use wireless microphones? Many do. And most of these users have very little idea of how these things work. Or even what the 700 MHz Band is.

700 MHz is the group of former television channels that the FCC just cleared with the “Digital Television” conversion. You knew the government wasn’t just trying to get you a better television picture didn’t you. No, they wanted that spectrum so they could sell it to the wireless providers. Wireless providers Verizion and AT&T both bought parts of this spectrum.

Verizion is currently building out their new 4^th generation technology known as LTE in this spectrum. AT&T plans to start building their LTE network next year. It is assumed they will also use their 700 MHz spectrum for LTE.

So how can you find out if the wireless microphone you use operates in this spectrum? The FCC has a list on their web site of all of the registered devices that operate in this band. Click here for the Manufactures List . Note that this is the “registered” manufactures. While it is illegal to import, sell and operate unauthorized devices some have still found their way into the USA. In most cases these devices were built for other countries where the spectrum rules are different.

So you just checked your wireless microphone system and it’s on the list. What now? Well my friend you are the proud owner of useless junk. You will need to replace it. As of June 12^th 2010 it will be illegal to use it.

I want to share this with you because I don’t think most people check out what the FCC is doing and how it impacts us. My church has a wireless mic system that will need to be replaced. And of course no money in the budget for a new system. The sooner you know, the sooner you can act.

Tower Guru

This is a popular model made by Wilson Electronics. I’ve come across a couple of these units in operation. In both cases poor installation caused these units to produce interference to my network. This is why I was looking for them in the first place. All cell phone repeaters sold in the United States are supposed to be approved by the Federal Communications Commission in order to be sold legally. How ever, this means that the device can operate within the required technical requirements that the FCC has for this type of equipment. It dose not grant permission or license to anyone that purchases such a unit to operate the device.

Many companies manufacture these amplifiers. I don’t claim to understand why. I’ve talked to the engineers at Wilson and others. They seem to be honest folks trying to solve a problem. Poor cellular coverage in some place such as a rural area, a basement or a warehouse. These devices are usually rather inexpensive (less than $500.00). And if properly installed, maintained and monitored. They can provide much needed enhancement in places the cellular carrier can’t reach. But as the old saying goes “the devil is in the details”. Often these units are installed by untrained and inexperienced people. These same people lack the knowledge and equipment to verify proper installation and operation. If these units are not properly installed or fail they can become an effective cell phone jammer!

Some newer units have some smarts to try to prevent the booster from becoming a jammer. Maybe that’s why I don’t see more of these units. But with the new broadband, high speed technologies such as CDMA EV-DO, UMTS HSPA and coming soon, LTE. The networks will become increasingly susceptible to interference from these boosters.

Even if the unit is performing perfectly they can cause sever problems. Particularly in urban environments. The network and your handset are constantly measuring and comparing signals. Your phone tells the network how much power it is using and the network will tell the phone to adjust that power so other people can use the tower at the same time. These boosters make your phone lie to the network because the phone doesn’t know that its signal is going through a booster. At full power these units are 200 times more powerful than your cell phone is by itself. That will force everyone else’s phone to power up reducing their battery life, increasing interference to you, and reducing your data speeds.

The FCC rules regarding the use of cell phone boosters can be found in the FCC Rules and Regulations CFR 47 Part 22.527. If I may paraphrase for you. Only the licensee (the cell phone company that paid millions of dollars for their license) can use FCC approved boosters to enhance their signal and only their signal. These doses not grant you as a customer of a carrier a license to buy one of these units and operate it.

The inexpensive units you can find on the internet lack the ability to restrict their bandwidth to a given carrier. There are units that can do that and they are much more expensive (more than $5,000.00 each). The places (customers) where these units are installed have to have permission from the licensee to rebroadcast their signal.

As frustrating as it may be. Your best bet to improve your coverage is to call your carrier and complain. Be prepared to give details such as the time and place of your problem. Just calling up and saying my service is bad everywhere doesn’t give the engineers any info to help improve your area. Customer complaints are a primary driving factor in selecting where to spend time and money on network improvements.

” No prob, your phone is covered under warranty” I guess what this mental midget does not realize is that the cost of the device was not my main concern.  Does he not know that the picture of my Uncle Lucas falling head first into the wedding cake, while tearing off the brides dress, is a picture one cannot just be duplicated?   Doesn’t he know that I will never know how I got that phone number from that hottie at the bar, and that I do not know her name. How about the email with the instructions to a job interview that sounded better than gold?  Of course he does not know!

Now the wireless companies have been offering phone data back ups for many of their devices.  Pictures, emails, texts and contact info can be backed up from a remote server, depending on the device, service provider and manufacturer.   What this means is that information is communicated to a server that is either owned or operated by the cell phone provider or the manufacture of the phone or device.  When you are on the network you have constant access to this of site storage.  If your phone becomes unusable, and you get a new phone, all the info will be sent over the towers to your new devices without worry. Or is there a reason to worry. Most recently T-Mobile found egg on their face (again), when their ever popular Sidekick brand’s server had a major failure and lost their users, pics, texts, contacts etc.  The server is owned by the manufacture of Sidekick, which is Danger/ Microsoft. Sadly most of the data cannot be restored.

So what is the answer?  Well if you are really concerned about your data being preserved, always use a micro sd card which most devices use now.  Depending on the size they cost from $10 to $50.  Many computers have a slot for these cards as well.  So any data you store on them from your phone can easily be transferred to a home computer as well. Cell phone companies will not take liability for loss for your data and their contracts are stated well on this.

First, the good stuff.  Like I said Nokia has been a real trooper when it comes to signal.  At least on their old TDMA and newer GSM phones.  The company has had it’s issues in the past with the CDMA technology though.  Nokia has had some real consumer solutions on newer models.  These include, but not limited to, email handled as text messaging.  Most Nokia products today will allow their phones to handle email as text messaging.  This is a real advantage to the consumer as most text plans are much cheaper than data plans.  You can view, reply or discard messages just like an email.  Of course it is not a Blackberry product, but if it is casual use or personal email use, this works well.  Nokia Cell Phones have one of the easiest and most consumer friendly menus in the industry as well. Nokia Phones handle pictures as good, if not better than their competitor’s phones in the same price range.

Now my opinion, and concerns regarding Nokia and their advanced cell phones.  It has been my experience that when Nokia tries to load up their cell phones with music players, and advanced features, problems occur.  One cell phone series that comes to mind is the 5300 and 5600 music phone express models that T-Mobile has and still does carry.

So as the technology war continues between cell phone manufacturing companies, and as cell phone providers make their choices on the latest and greatest, the consumer must keep focused on the products that are best for them.  I know I have said this in many articles.  The reason I have said this many times, and will continue to say this is simple.  If it does not fit your needs, it is worthless, no matter what anyone else thinks.  Select the phone that best fits your needs, find out what the free trial period is and use the heck out of it.  If it does not feel right, get the phone that does.

Written by

-Wire Wizard-

So what is HSPA 7.2? What’s it mean to you as a user? The current deployment of HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) allows a theoretical maximum download speed of 3.6 Mbps (Millions of bits per second).This assumes ideal conditions and a device capable of 3.6 Mbps or better. Rest assured you will never see 3.6 Mbps until after HSPA 7.2 unless you’re in the laboratory.

Where will you get to experience HSPA 7.2? Well if your lucky to find a cell site that can support HSPA 7.2 and it’s in the very early hours of the morning after a holiday when no one else is around you might just get lucky and see some fantastic download speeds for a mobile device. But even so don’t bet on it. Right now only 2 devices can support HSPA 7.2, the Mercury and the Quicksilver USB modems from AT&T.

Current technologies are being limited to allow multiple users access to the network. So why would an operator elect to allow a single user full bandwidth? They won’t. So yes, the network will be capable of doing 7.2 Mbps but realistically you will probably only see peeks about 4.5 Mbps. Which is still much faster than the current UMTS thru put.

There is good news for those of you, who are like me,  without HSPA 7.2 devices. As part of the upgrade to HSPA 7.2 certain network changes will allow users access to more bandwidth more of the time. So even devices that can’t support HSPA 7.2 will see some benefit.

Until AT&T has completed their roll out of HSPA 7.2 you will find some random areas of impressive improvement. But, you won’t know until you try. And even if the network has been upgraded, you may not notice much difference.  Email and web surfing can be limited by parts of the system beyond AT&T control. Such as the server bandwidth of the hosting site. Changing from 3.6 Mbps to 7.2 Mbps may be measurable but not be noticeable.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m pleased AT&T is going to deploy HSPA 7.2. Having the capability of wired LAN speeds in a mobile device is very impressive. And maybe someday I’ll need it. For now, with my limited use of email and web surfing the current HSPA deployment is fine. I will be waiting till HSPA 7.2 is deployed over a large area before I think about upgrading.

–Tower Guru–

So what is LTE? LTE stands for “Long Term Evolution”. LTE is the next generation of wireless technology. It will offer very high data rates, up to 326 Mbps (Millions of bits per second). Low latency, less than 5 mS (milli seconds) or 0.005 seconds. So you can download large amounts of data in near real time.

Verizon is planning on rolling out LTE starting this year in several cities. I wish them success. The LTE standard hasn’t been approved yet and handset developers are not promising to have anything until sometime in 2010. Until the networks are rolled out expect a patchwork of LTE hotspots. Early adopters and gadget freaks be on the lookout for the new and fast LTE devices. Expect most of the first offerings will probably look very much like older units. After all how many ways can you make an air card?

AT&T has also committed to deploying LTE. But they don’t plan on starting until 2010. They will deploy HPSA 7.2 as a bridge technology while the LTE standard is finalized and the early bugs get worked out.

The LTE standard may not yet be fully approved but equipment manufactures like Ericsson, Nokia and Motorola have been developing the network equipment. The network will be completely IP based. It will use OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access) just like Wi-Fi. Plus it is backwardly compatible with GSM, CdmaOne, CDMA-2000, W-CDMA (UMTS). So expect the early networks to rely heavily on the legacy network infrastructure. In other words, don’t expect to see the super fast speeds until the LTE networks are fully rolled out. Most Probably, 2011 or 2012.

-Tower Guru-

T-Mobile. This company has also been in my sights, as the mid stream company, in identity crises as well.  What do they stand for?  Who is their customer?  They have also lost momentum from the same period of last year.  At least T-Mobile has managed to get exclusive handsets.  The problem they face could be their network and the ability it has to support these devices.  Their price point is also not the lowest when adding these data rich phones.  They have encouraged customers to compare their monthly bills to see that T-Mobile is a better value.  However, with data prices are very much aligned with the “big boys” in monthly cost verses total national coverage,  and is a big question mark.

The Great Divide! We now see a new player coming in called ClearWire,  a  company that has promised to blow the doors of speed and communications with a technology called WiMax.  We also see Sprint buying Virgin mobile to fluff and stuff their already money rich prepaid Boost Wireless and the word on the street is that MetroPCS is positioned to be bought by Prepaid carrier Cricket Wireless.  So it continues with the high tech providers getting more advanced with technology and the unlimited low end wireless carriers stoking bigger volumes of sub prime subscribers to feather their pockets.

In closing my thought is this.  Cell phone companies need to either “get it” or “forget it” I also wonder if the “suits” at wireless companies have been following the news on what has happened to the auto industry’s “blind to the needs” of consumers?

Written by   -Wire Wizard-

A couple of other interesting facts are these;

• When MetroPCs lowered their plans their stock dropped about 40%.   This makes the climate for a buy out by Cricket, even more palatable.
• Sprint is rumored to sell of it’s entire Nextel branding and customer base as well.  It has not been substantiated, however, it appears that the cost of operating the Iden network and Nextel is a minus, verses a plus
• And finally, let’s look at the big picture.  The number of players in the wireless industry has shrunk again.  The notion that only 6 major players will be left in the USA is getting closer.  This has been talked about for a few years now.

The industry has been challenged and has been changing like a Lava Lamp.  Stay tuned for the next article on these changes.

Written by

-Wire Wizard-

I will say this.  According to the article it says  “50% of the marketers feel that their organization is not culturally or organizationally aligned around the customer, and business practices, billing policies and personnel are not customer friendly”.  So why doesn’t anything change?  Simple.  The wireless companies do not care!  Hey, your on a 2 year contract, don’t like it?  TOO SAD TOO BAD!!

So are there any safe havens for the customer?  After all, the next carrier probably has the same attitude.  Well once again I visit the reality factors.

First I would like to take a look at wireless providers that have no contracts.  Ok, these seem to be the ones that are for pre paid services like Boost and Cricket.  But the reality is they must perform to their expectations, as they cannot hold you “hostage” like the others.  They do not give the most up to date data and advanced phones, but that is not what they are supposed to be.   Look at it this way; If you went in to a McDonalds restaurant, you would not expect fillet mignon.  You would expect consistency for the price and the service that any of these locations would give you, whether in California or North Carolina.   The same is said about your cell phone service.

So what is your recourse for contracted wireless service that promises the world to you with the most advanced phones?   Find out what their trial period is and use the heck out of it.  This is the time period you can try the phone service and make a full refund of equipment and break ties of any contract.  It usually 2 weeks to 30 days.  I cannot stress this enough.  If the service does not perform like fillet mignon in this time period, do not send it back to the chef in expectations of a better steak after the point of no return. And to the wireless providers that are trying to bamboozle the consumer;  the FCC, FTC and States Attorney’s offices have you in their sights.  You have had a great ride, but the day of reckoning is coming fast!!

– Written by Wire Wizard-

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