More wireless competition?

In order to provide customers with the best possible networks, cellular giants like Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint focus on acquiring spectrum licenses to expand their network. A recent auction of almost 1,100 of these licenses that took place in Colorado has resulted in helping what may become a new national network: Frontier Wireless, a subset of EchoStar, which until recently also owned DISH Network, spent $711.8 million to acquire spectrum licenses in almost 200 cities nationwide, which puts them in the running to potentially enter into competition with the current front-runners. Because they owned DISH Network, I feel as though the company may have enough clout to really get some attention. I'll be waiting to hear what comes out of this, it could be interesting... I'm just sad they don't own DISH anymore, that could really have worked to their advantage.


Source:
http://mobile-voip.tmcnet.com/topics/mobile-communications/articles/23527-frontier-wireless-compete-with-att-verizon.htm

TextMarks

This past Saturday, I attended the Edelman Digital Bootcamp hosted by the PR Campaigns class. It was decidely a long day, but I definitely took a lot away from it, which I feel is also going to help with the project for Capstone. Not much was mentioned about communicating through mobile media, although at the end of the day, the topic was discussed briefly. I learned about a website called Text Marks, and it essentially deals with the idea of a cell phone list-serve, if you will. Text Marks owns the number "41411" and users go to them with a key buzz word-- for us, it could perhaps be "PPSA." So interested parties text "PPSA" to 41411 and whenever the user updates or comes up with a new message, everyone who has subscribed receives updates. Users only pay for the number of texts that are sent out, and subscribers only pay standard text messaging fees determined by their cell phone providers. The website is also tied to a shirt printing company, so that users see that they have an opportunity to spread the word even further by putting their information on shirts that people can wear around and therefore expose a greater number of people to the message and therefore hopefully increase the size of the list-serve. I think that this can be especially useful for our intentions in Capstone, especially DURING the event so that updates may be sent to the participants.
Hopefully this can be of some use; if not, it's really just an awesome idea!

No more HD DVDs?

According to this article that popped up on my iGoogle homepage (my most excellent discovery of the week), Toshiba won't be selling HD DVDs. Blu-ray is taking over the market, and that kind of makes me sad. I'm into tech toys and all (I'm about to get an iPhone), but I still watch some movies on VHS. Sad, I know. I'm really not looking to buy a Blu-ray compatible DVD player--that is, until they go WAY down in price), so I'm going to stock up on regular DVDs as their prices get slashed. Maybe in a few years, I'll make the switch. We'll see.

Watch out, Second Life

Okay, so I don't have an Avatar. Aside from Facebook and email, I don't really spend that much time online. But I was interested to read about another social networking site, Kaneva. It was started by Chris Klaus, the (34 year old!) founder of Internet Security Systems, or ISS, a corporation that he sold to IBM for $1.3 billion. Klaus incorporated his internet security background into the development of the site, making it more secure in the eyes of some users. Kaneva is like an interactive version of MySpace, where people can make friends with other Avatars. Overall, I found the article interesting, as I thought that Avatars were exclusive to Second Life (or at least that the name was). I still have to wonder, though--even though you can probably get into less trouble this way, haha--is this going to become the future? Because as nice as it is to sometimes stay at home, I feel as though I'm always going to choose a night spent with "real" friends over a a chat session with virtual ones.. But if this article is truly revealing the direction in which society is traveling, maybe that's just me?
http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/stories/2008/02/01/kaneva_0203.html

Digital Election?

According to AdAge Daily, the internet (come on, YouTube debates, are we really surprised???) is well on its way to becoming the prominent means for getting information on both candidates and elections. Granted, the internet is, of course, the go-to location to access a world of information (yes, corny, i know), but with the sharp rise in popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace since the 2004 elections, the way that we are interacting with candidates is changing as well. I could go to MySpace and "friend" the candidates, information about which would be linked from their campaign home page. I could also find them on MySpace and link to their campaign homepage. I think that the levels of potential involvement are helping make this feel like a more interactive election, and I personally hope that the numbers from the polls will show this in November, too.
http://adage.com/campaigntrail/article?article_id=123398

Paying for Popularity

In this article from Ad Age Digital, I read about the new social network Badoo, based in Great Britain, that has recognized our disdain for the high volumes of advertising present in the "standard" social networks, like MySpace and Facebook. Badoo offers a service called "Rise Up," charging $1, 1 pound, or 1 Euro depending on your location, per access, and has banned advertisements. I personally feel as though it shows the power of advertising--sure, you have a way of opting out of them, but then you tend to realize just how much of an effect that they truly have. Badoo would charge me a dollar per time I accessed it. If I used it as much as I use Facebook now, that could run up to $10 on a really slow day at work. I get irritated with ads sometimes, but I haven't found the ones on Facebook to be so intrusive that I would seriously consider an alternative. I'm curious to see where they'll be and how much profit they can get--in other words, how much people are affected by ads...

Even Electronics are Going Green

In keeping with the ever-popular "Go green!" movement that has recently been gaining momentum, the EPA is now working with cell phone manufacturers and service providers. An estimated 150,000,000 phones are replaced each year, an astounding amount of waste considering that many are still operable and potentially hazardous if dumped in land fills as well. Three major service providers (AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile) have joined forces with the EPA as they launch a public education campaign striving to raise awareness and get more cell phones recycled. They're primarily targeting 18-34 year olds through lifestyle and technology publications. The campaign is further targeting this demographic by creating a podcast, and the EPA is making a list of drop-off drives available as well. Sprint is also going so far as to offer customers credits on their bills for as much as $50 when they turn in their old phones to the store.
Given the target audience and message that the EPA is working to put out, in addition to their big name partners, I think that this movement will catch on and end up helping the environment. And with over 250 million cell phone customers, it has the potential to have a truly substantial impact.