Pipeline Publishing, Volume 4, Issue 5

	This Month's Issue:
	Keeping Promises

OSS NewsWatch

By Alana Grelyak

Another month has passed and we are already nearing the end of 2007, which still seems like it just began. Bundle packages are growing, prices are dropping, and companies are merging. Here is your October issue of NewsWatch, where you can read on to find out more about all of the above.

Swedish company TerraNet has developed a peer-to-peer calling system that works between mobile phones without the need of a central tower. The phones transmit to other phones up to a half-mile away. However, if there are many phones in the same area, they can network off of each other, making their calling range far larger. TerraNet has recently begun testing the system and is mostly targeting it toward undeveloped countries and desert areas that don’t have cell phone service. What’s really grand about this idea is that the service between phones is completely free. What could this mean for mobile phone carriers? If TerraNet’s technology catches on (and they already have backing from phone manufacturer Ericsson), it may mean some serious trouble, if not the possibility of extinction entirely.

As usual, the iPhone has made the news again. Apple dropped the price of the iPhone to $399, which is a $200 savings from its original sale price. Customers who bought the gadget in its first month of sales are now feeling a bit miffed at their own eagerness to own the iPhone, although the price drop has only increased sales by up to 200%. Apple has already hit the 1 million mark in unit sales well before their expected end of September projection. Apple has also announced their very first Wi-Fi capable iPod, called the “Touch.” Touch users will be able to purchase new songs away from their laptops and desktops.

Canadian wireless provider Rogers Wireless has introduced a service that allows subscribers to have two phone numbers but only one handset. Customers will also have all of the features they subscribe to on their primary line available to their second line at no extra cost. If this type of service gets picked up by more mobile carriers, customers will be able to carry only one handset for both business and personal use.

NTP, who famously sued RIM in 2006 for a patent infringement relating to BlackBerry software (and won a sum of $612.5 million), has now filed a patent-infringement suit against Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel Corp, AT&T Inc, and T-Mobile USA, who are, essentially, the top providers of mobile service in the United States. What are they suing for this time? Once again, it comes down to patent infringement. This time, NTP claims that the carriers have infringed on eight patents that relate to wireless e-mail.

Another month has passed and we are already nearing the end of 2007, which still seems like it just began.

On a similar note, Nokia is being investigated by the ITC for a possible patent infringement by its N75 3G phones. The investigation should be completed by mid-October.

The FCC has begun looking into reviewing cancellation fees that telecom and cable companies charge customers when they cancel their service. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said that the FCC should also investigate the fees that the providers charge for the cancellation of contracts pertaining to Internet, land-lines, and cable TV. The providers argue that a cap on the fees may raise the service costs. However, in a time where customers are demanding lower prices and the rates are currently dropping in response to those demands, customers may be unlikely to sign on with a company who is raising its prices instead of cutting them.

The FCC is also cracking down on mobile 911 services. The organization has proposed a fine for Alltel, U.S. Cellular, and Sprint for failing to meet coverage requirements set by the FCC in 2005, which stated that 95 percent of the mobile networks had to be capable of carrying E911 services that revealed the location the call was coming from. The fines could total up to $2.8 million.

In a time where bundle packages are becoming more and more popular with customers, Bell Canada is offering its Quebec customer-base a $25 per month savings if the customers choose to add home phone service to their Bell Bundle package.

On a similar note, NTT DoCoMo, the Japanese mobile provider, is lowering its family calling plans by 50% in order to try to stay competitive. The company estimates they’ll lose about 20 million yen with the deal but they hope to gain 5 million new customers. Of course, if anyone cancels the required two-year contract before it has expired naturally, they’ll get slapped with an early cancellation fee of almost 10,000 yen.

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