The world, as we now know it, is changing at a terrific rate due to technology advances. 1984 was a major milestone for the telecom industry in the 20th Century. Not only because the AT&T monopoly had been broken up (although it was important), but because that was the year we were first introduced to wireless service. We can all thank William McGraw for mobile communications. His dream and persistence to make it a reality has made our lives that much easier, or difficult depending on your perspective.

What started out as a novelty to those who could afford the service, has now became the property of the masses, a multi-billion dollar industry that created well known brands such as Motorola, a pioneer in the cellular phone manufacturing industry, followed by Nokia and others.

Many of us will remember that the first cellular phones in use were fairly large and heavy to carry around, now known as the "brick" phone, with the first cellular phone being offered in 1984 by Motorola, the DynaTac 8000X with a price tag of $3,995 and weighing 2 pounds. And in 1991, the Motorola MicroTac Lite was considered the lightest phone yet and retailed at $1,000. As a credit to technology, we now carry cellular phones small enough to carry in our pockets and they cost a lot less. Look at the Star Tac or Nokia 252 phone in comparison. Not a bad run for a relatively new industry and service. The future will hold more in store for us than we may think. Some very interesting gadgets are already in testing by the manufacturers.

We can now go into rural areas, dial on our phone and not have to worry about a call being dropped with the number of towers being put up for the cellular phone user and to maintain the traffic of the ever increasing call volume. However, rural areas offer the least amount of traffic and are less cost effective to most companies, with a lack of towers available to pick up and route a cellular call being the biggest problem.

Traffic in the metro areas has grown to such an extent that towers are now being placed on buildings to accommodate the growth. Keep in mind that to put up one tower costs a whopping $150K on average. You can imagine the amount of capital laid out in the structure alone to provide cellular service.

Progression of the technology in cellular service is moving at stellar speed. Every year we find ourselves faced with the dilemma of more choices. You must choose the type of phone you want, the calling plan that works for you, and the type of network service. Not to mention the various accessories now available for cellular phones.

To some users, the cellular phone is no longer a luxury but a necessity. We use them for emergency roadside assistance, citizen patrols, faxing, business, and personal use in general. Infiltration of the cellular phone into every day life is becoming more apparent.

This in turn has created booming telecom advancements. 1987 was noted for having 1 million subscribers in America for cellular service. Five years later in 1992, there were 11 million subscribers to cellular phone service. Currently there are about 400 million cellular phone users worldwide. Out of that, the US has nearly one-quarter of the world subscriber base for cellular phones. It is projected that in 2003 there will be over 1 billion cellular phone users worldwide.

With the FCC focus on the RBOC and Cable companies seeking to enter the long distance market, and mega mergers, the wireless industry is a low priority. Deregulation of the cellular phone service will be a while in coming. The most current aspect of the wireless industry being monitored by the FCC is the auction on bandwidth used for cellular phone service. It appears as if it will be some time for this shadow to be brought into the light.

Cellular Phone Trivia

As we know, for many of us the cellular phone has become a part of our daily life. It was recently found that a number of users have now switched to using cellular service and no longer use a home telephone. A recent survey that allowed the respondents to be anonymous found some interesting responses:

38% of respondents said they use a wireless phone to call a parent or sibling every day.
40% said a wireless phone helps them to stay connected to their personal lives during work hours.
20% said that background noise gave away their location when reporting they were somewhere else.
25% said they used a wireless phone to get out of uncomfortable situations such as pretending to be on the phone or using it to call their pager.
15% revealed that they use a cellular phone while in the restroom.
10% said they used a phone in a public restroom.
2% said they have given their phones nicknames.
Generation X members are 3 times more likely to give out their mobile phone number than baby boomers.
67% of women are more likely to look through a spouse's or significant other's phone bill in search of suspicious telephone numbers.
43% of men are likely to delete a number from speed dial after an argument.

In general it was found that people use their phones for the most personal of reasons too. For instance, calling a sibling who lives in another state while having a baby?!? Or calling a fiancée to tell her to go out and look at the moon right then and there. Cellular phones are definitely keeping us connected more than ever.

How does cellular phone technology work?

Wireless communications systems provide anytime, anywhere communications. When you talk on a wireless phone, it transmits low energy radio waves to a local antenna site, which connects you with the landline or wireless location you are calling. That same antenna also sends signals back to your wireless phone. A computerized system monitors each call and ensures that the phone always receives the strongest available signal at all times. If the signal is too weak, the system does a "hand-off" to another tower of which is offering a stronger signal. This is done so fast that it is almost imperceptible to the customer.

Cellular Phones connect to multiple transceiver sites linked to a central computer. The sites, or "cells" as they are also known, cover a range from one (1) to six (6) miles in each direction. The cells overlap one another’s coverage area and operate at different frequencies to eliminate crosstalk when transmitting from one cell to another cell. Each cell can accommodate up to 45 different voice channel receivers for the strongest signal and locks onto it. While in motion, if the signal begins to fade, the telephone will automatically switch signal frequencies or cells as necessary without operator assistance. If it fails to find an acceptable signal, it will display an "out of service" or "no service" message, indicating it has met the limit of its range and is unable to communicate any further.

Further within this book, we will get down to the meat and potatoes of what you need to know about cellular phones and you. We hope that what you read from this point on will allow you to feel that you have the information necessary to make an educated decision.

WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) Service is defined as an application environment and set of communication protocols for wireless devices designed to enable manufacturers and vendors to have technology-independent access to the Internet and advanced telephony services.

Currently this service is only available through digital carriers. Digital technology offers a much higher capacity to send data in packets to and from the Internet to the cellular phone. This technology is not owned by any specific company to date.

Although it does allow for access to the Internet, you shouldn't expect it to be the next web browser of the future. It has limitations and restrictions since a cellular phone is not a computer and has a very small memory. Rather, the phone is built with a mini browser that allows you to review stock price information, weather & entertainment news, etc. for the time being. We have yet to see any significant progress in enabling shopping online via your cellular phone. That is not to say it won't become a possibility but it will probably become more of an information gathering resource.

Nor can you use just any cellular phone with the WAP service. Depending on the phone that you have, it may require an upgrade or your purchasing a brand new phone that has the WAP capability enabled. The marketing hype for WAP phones is at this time overly high. The fact is that there is a severe shortage of WAP cellular phones. Most of the phones currently in use are referred to as "Pre-WAP" cellular phones, meaning that they do not have the software installed prior to purchase. Even now, the WAP software is evolving, leaving the initial version 1.1 almost obsolete before it is readily available to the public.

The way the WAP service works is that you open the browser on the cellular phone and your service provider sends a encrypted message to the website visited which then returns the requested information to the user. To access some WAP enabled web sites, you may be required to use your phone keypad to type in the URL and then bookmark it if you plan on visiting it again in the future. We call it "thumb typing". It is the same thing you would do with typing in a name to be stored in the memory locations for speed dialing. The cellular phone keypad has been lettered just like your home phone.

The web site is not given your cellular number although Sprint PCS was targeted for doing so. They stated they would be changing those practices. Airtouch Cellular doesn't disclose phone numbers to web sites, Bell Atlantic creates separate IP addresses, and AT&T Wireless uses random numbers to identify customers that access Internet web pages via a WAP phone.

One item to keep in mind is that the carriers do not guarantee that your cellular phone number is not embedded in a web site outside of an "affiliated" web site. Basically, they are referring to web sites that are not allied with the carrier and thus given premium space.

An interesting development on the market is the PDA/Cellular phone hybrid that manufacturers were looking to have out by the summertime of 2000. With any new product the price is a bit higher when it first rolls out but the price will always come down.

The Future of WAP

Although the WAP service has unlimited potential, it is unclear as to what the future of WAP will hold for cellular phone users. The manufactures will continue to look at WAP to try and find what cellular phone users desire in regards to information and services. Over 75% of the cellular service related companies in the world support WAP service as a viable technology. The predictions being made about WAP service use was that there would be about 100 million wireless users subscribing to WAP service by the end of 2000. The predictions were found to be far into left field. Only 1% of the predicted number of cell phone users are actually subscribing to WAP service to date.

However, the reality of WAP phone purchases has yet to set in with the carriers and manufacturers. Consumers just aren't buying the hype about WAP service. What is the current demand for such a service and what does its future look like? How about the survey suggesting that nearly 60% of wireless users don't want or need WAP service. The other 40% were divided up into seven other reasons that accounted for single digit percentages as to why they wouldn't buy WAP service. Price was the exception, however, it only accounted for 13% of those surveyed.

Leaving carriers/manufacturers with 27% of wireless users that they have to find out how if possible to lure these people into using WAP service. 4% didn't have a reason for not wanting it, 5% said it was too complicated and wasn't worth the time. The "other reasons" category came in with 9%. Then we have 4% stating that WAP didn't have info they would want or it lacks value. The remainder would fall into the category of the service not being available in their area.

Doesn't look like there is much room for the carriers to move in here. TV Guide seems to think people will use their WAP phones to see which shows are airing at a specific time. The partnerships are mostly with the smaller carriers such as AT&T Wireless and Sprint PCS. None of the large carriers such as Verizon and Cingular have agreed to carry TV Guide as a service to mobile phone users to date.

With the hype, you had large corporations saying that WAP was the next best thing to sliced bread because their customers could shop using a WAP phone. Small businesses were in an uproar because they were being left out. Doesn't look like the small business has much to worry about after all.

The current trend is that only major corporations will be available to that 1% of WAP enabled consumers to shop with the WAP service. Small businesses will probably not be able to compete with larger corporations that have the available staff to maintain web sites for the purpose of using WAP service. With that in mind, diversity will probably be a limited commodity with using WAP cellular phones. The major corporations having the monopoly on WAP phone service may change in the future. There are already companies out there looking to develop software that will allow a standard web site to be automatically converted to WAP programming language. It will probably be a few more years or more before WAP enabled web pages will be within the budget of a small business.

We expect that prepaid WAP phones will also become available in the future. They are currently in development but with the shortage of cellular phones, it could be a while before we seen them being offered en masse.

WAP Phone Spam

With every new technology comes another avenue to spam consumers. WAP phones are now being targeted as the next potential channel to spam consumers. Companies are lining up in droves in the hopes of sending you their advertisements. These companies are drooling so much that an entrepreneur selling bibs should get in on the action.

At the time of this writing, it is mostly the fast food joints who are looking to get in on this run to spam WAP phones. Of course, it is the vulnerable teenagers who are the target market. Here is the strategy being rolled out. Target teenagers and they will tell their parents who will tell their friends that everyone can be spammed on their WAP phones and be happy about it.
Why would you want to get spam on your WAP phone? That should be obvious or so the online companies pushing this form of advertising would think. Getting a discount by running to your local fast food joint and showing them the coupon flashing on your WAP phone is more than enough incentive. It looks like these companies have bought into the WAP phone hype so much that it is now gospel to them.

There are three problems with this type of marketing hype. First, WAP service isn't on fire with the sales it is generating. Secondly, the number of teenagers with a WAP phone are extremely limited. Third, these companies haven't quite figured out yet that most consumers absolutely detest spam of any kind no matter what it is for or how it is sent.

We have a solution to the problem. The first being to fire the individual(s) doing the market research and analysis for being incompetent. The next order of business then would be to rewrite the business model so that spamming WAP phones wasn't the primary source of revenue or dissolve the business and chalk it up to experience. Now that sounds like a sensible plan.

Common Consumer Misperceptions

The problem that most people experience is either trying to replace an item that they feel is damaged or that wasn’t what they were expecting. We will begin with the first part of replacing a defective item.

In today’s world, the chances of getting a brand new product that is defective is somewhere around 2% of the time. Manufacturers know that customers will return damaged products, which takes up more time to conduct customer service rather than seeking out more sales. Most manufacturers have a strict quality control in place to knock down the number of defective goods sold.

With saying that, we must reiterate that a defective product is an item which wasn’t built correctly to a manufacturer’s specifications. If you buy a leather case that has single stitching and one rivet that is the manufacturer’s specifications, that does not constitute a defective product. They used lower grade materials and expended less labor costs in producing the product which was reflected in the price of the item. Do not expect to get a refund or a replacement in these situations.

Next scenario. You purchase a battery and charge it up as per the instructions in the manual that said to charge it for 24 hours. You try to use the battery and find that it doesn’t work. You go back to the retailer and they ask you a few questions. They then tell you that there is nothing they can do and you will have to pay for a new battery.

Why would you have to pay for a brand new battery that doesn’t work? Although the instructions say to charge the battery for 24 hours, most batteries will be overcharged within that time. That is a lot of electrical juice to be packing into a small battery. Warranties on cellular phone products specifically state they are a limited lifetime warranty. This boils down to saying that if the product is damaged by operator abuse, neglect, or misuse, the manufacturer is under no obligation to replace the product. The lifetime warranty applies only to the standard life of the product. A battery that is 18 months old has reached it standard lifetime and will not be eligible for replacement. The same applies to leather cases and other products.

The dreaded restocking fee. Most companies offer some kind of money back guarantee if you return a product within a specific timeframe -- no questions asked. Where you get nailed is that they often have a 20% restocking fee that is deducted from your refund.

As a retail operation, they are in business to make a profit. If they have to issue a refund there are additional expenses that they have to incur in doing so. They now have another product on their shelves that is unsold. It is taking up shelf space, diminishing their working capital (cash on hand to buy more products and advertising). You should find out what the return policy is of the company. If you are lucky, the return will cost you nothing more than the shipping and handling plus the postage expense of returning the product. Once again, don’t expect to return a product without a reason other than it wasn’t what you were expecting and get all your money back.

For retailers and consumers, there is a two way street in what is considered to be an ethical practice. Someone earned a paycheck by sending the item to you and that expense has to be covered. It is almost like going "Dutch" on a date. You both agree to split the cost.

Cellular Phone Myths and Scare Tactics

CELL PHONE SPARKS GAS STATION FIRE AND KILLS CUSTOMER

A man in the Philippines dies by fire. He was using his cellular phone while pumping gas. The spark ignited a gasoline fire killing the man almost instantly as he was turned into a human torch. Have you heard of this story on the Internet? It was one that is has been circulating for some time now and turned into a legend. Which is part of the reason that the law was passed by some gasoline companies because they took it at face value.

Here is the fact. The story is simply untrue. Nokia was curious about the story. They did a run down on it and found the man in the Philippines that was supposedly burned to death. He stated that he was very surprised to learn that he had been killed by fire and had no idea how the story even got started or who started it.

The manufacturers of cellular phones are required to print in their manuals that using a cellular phone near explosive & flammable materials may cause a fire due to a spark. Even though the possibility is remote, they are required to print it by some European countries.

In all the years of cellular phones being available, there is not one documented case of a cellular phone starting a fire while in use at a gas station. A Star Tac cellular phone uses 3.6 volts, less than what it takes to power a Walkman radio with 9 volt batteries. [We must make note to take caution nonetheless with regards to Lithium Ion batteries.]

CELL PHONES CAUSE CANCER

Next on the list. Cellular phones cause cancer. A very controversial issue but we are going to publish it anyhow. Some of you may have read about the cellular phones causing cancer and/or memory loss story circulating around for a while. The problems with those studies thus far are the following: The researcher who presented the results was taken to task for not allowing his peers to review his work prior to releasing. No checks or balances were in place. We are human and we make mistakes after all. Next, it appears as if the researcher has a beef with his former employer because they would not allow him to conduct other research projects.

Then media sensationalism jumps on the band wagon. From our understanding, they tested some of the older model phones that were first in use in the wireless industry and tested them so that they offered maximum RF transmissions to prove their point. They failed to mention that the newer digital phones offer the least amount of RF transmissions which has significantly decreased over the past 10 years, and that they tested the phones like they did the exploding GM truck, and that cellular phones have evolved to the point of RF (radio frequency) transmissions becoming less and less with each passing year in technology.

You have those that would say there is nothing to prove that cell phones don't cause cancer. How can you disprove something if it doesn't happen? Many of the scientific principles used today including those that made the existence of computers possible are based on theories not facts. None of these theories have been disproven.

The original studies available came from a disgruntled employee and from universities that the former employee had persuaded to conduct and publish results that were not recognized by the scientific community as valid.

Some of the points made by the wireless industry was the failure of these parties mentioned above to define the difference in ionizing and non ionizing radiation, lack of repeatable laboratory results, and what specific absorption rates really mean. As it stands right now, none of the studies conducted have been officially recognized by the scientific community since they violated proper scientific protocol which requires consistent results (being the same over and over again) on multiple tests.

We have seen material on another study stating that cellular phone RF exposure actually increased memory when tested on humans. Which contradicts the studies conducted by the other researching party.

Then we have a report from the Journal of American Medical Association and another one from the New England Journal of Medicine. Result: No links found on cell phone use and cancer.

The study (done on people and not rats) suggests that there does not appear to be any connection of cancer being linked to cell phone use, so says a Dr. Inskip of the National Cancer Institute. Then we have someone from the American Health Foundation and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Yes, it also talks about the bio-cellular temperature change as being normal. (insignificant?) The tests conducted used a control group of cell phone users who had brain cancer and those who didn't. They even went so far as to make sure that both groups used their cell phones for the same number of years and used them daily for a specific number of hours.

Another one is being conducted right now by the International Agency for Research on Cancer to determine the long term effects of using a cell phone. Due in 2003. That study should help put it to rest once and for all.

It also says the studies further support the idea that the fears may have been exaggerated. Then you have information on SAR values. There is a problem with that info too since it is a bit misleading to consumers.

What is not explained to you about SAR values is this fact. When the FCC decided to set the power limit for digital phones, they went out and found very prominent experts in many relevant fields and asked them to consult, and decide what they thought a safe power level would be.

The FCC then divided that by 10, and that's the actual standard to which cell phones must comply. Meaning that the SAR value comparisons on cell phones are pretty much useless since cell phones are designed with a safety level that has been set at ten times higher than what the experts said was acceptable. (Some analog phones have even lower SAR values than digital phones.)

However, if you are concerned that future lab tests that are officially recognized by the scientific community will show that cellular phones can cause cancer, you can always get the proverbial hands-free kit. As you can see, this accessory is a very handy item with multiple uses. Not be confused with an ear bud hands free devices which is said to be even worse than just having a phone next to your head.

In case you are thinking of buying one of those radiation shields that we have claimed to be purely fraudulent in all sense of the practice. The FCC recently just busted a couple or three companies for misleading claims stating that these devices deflected or reduced radiation exposure from cellular phones.

RESULTS OF OUR TEST ON CELL PHONE HAZARDS

We recently decided that we too needed to get on the sensationalism bandwagon like 20/20. Therefore we decided to conduct our own study and examine the test results. In our studies, we used actual human subjects and no animals were harmed (like rats). Please see below:

We used both an analog phone and a digital phone. For the purposes of this exercise, we tested them with both the antenna up and the antenna down. In all four testing conditions, we found that the results were consistent. In addition, we had our results independently confirmed.

Although we did not have our peers examine the results, we did have them independently confirmed by cellular phone users within the general public. Which will also prove our results to be valid which will be shown shortly.

We tested two phones. The Motorola 650e Flip Phone and the Ericsson KH688 Digital phone. We started with the analog phone. We had the subject take the cellular phone into their right hand. At which time they were instructed to hold the cellular phone about 1.5 feet from their head. The phone was being held slightly above eyebrow level. We then instructed the subject to bring the phone close to their forehead in a rapid motion. This same process was repeated six times.

We then tested another subject with the antenna up. We repeated the process once again with using six attempts as the guideline. The process was duplicated with the digital phone that we have mentioned above. Noting that the digital phone had a fixed antenna to further diversify our testing conditions.

The results were consistent in all 18 attempts in that the subject claimed to suffer an acute headache with no apparent effect of memory loss noted. We in turn had our test validated by asking cellular phone users to confirm that our test would in fact create the same results that we had discovered.

I would supply the names of our subjects for your validation. However, I too was a test subject and I seem to have forgotten their names.

Final Test Analysis:

Repeatedly banging a cellular phone against your forehead can cause an acute headache and ....

This is at least one study with proven results about the hazards of cellular phones. And we certainly agree that conducting such a test can be compared to the hype of cellular phone hazards in the real world by the media. Absolutely no value whatsoever. Test Study conducted by the wonderful people at EarthVision Cellular and an honorable mention to the people who assisted in validating the study.

CELL PHONES SET OFF FIRE/SMOKE ALARMS

Moving right along. Okay, as cellular phone users we can't use our cellular phones anywhere at anytime. Or so it is starting to seem. Out of etiquette, we can't use them in restaurants or other public places. For safety reasons, we can't use them while driving down the road. We can't use them on an airplane [although at high altitudes it wouldn't work anyhow but we are referring to the time that you are still at the gate waiting for other passengers to board]. Seems kind of harsh to cellular phone users, doesn't it? But look at it this way, we have rules and laws to make it easier to co-exist with one another. Now we can't use them at the gas stations since they may cause a fire. Then come the hotels telling us that we can't use our cellular phones.

Why would that be, you may ask. Well in the old days when smoke alarms were more crude and used tons of solder and our ancient cellular phones of old used higher RF frequency, the solder acted as an antenna. Which sometimes set off the smoke alarms in hotels. The hotels posting these warnings are of course stating that it isn't a gimmick to drive up phone usage and getting customers to pay the surcharges. 10 years ago, we would have been able to buy that. What they neglect to mention is that most hotels now have newer model alarm systems, and that cellular phones have evolved to a point of bringing the RF transmission to very low levels. We spoke to a former GM of 5 star hotels who told us that phone surcharges at hotels were big revenue for them.

Finally, there is no proof in recent years that cellular phones have set off smoke alarms in the rooms. The manufacturers suggest not doing it just in case. The manufacturers always cover their bases in stating that something may happen no matter how remote for legality purposes.

However, we must make it clear that smoke alarms in hallways and common areas of a hotel are not the same as in your room. There may be a higher possibility of setting off a smoke alarm although minimal. And if that happened then the chances of the smoke alarm being defective would be pretty good. Anything that transmits an RF frequency could trigger a smoke alarm. That is like saying "Don't use your microwave within 1000 feet of your smoke detector or you could trigger the alarm."

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