lead up to CTIA in Las Vegas

We arrived in Las Vegas Monday afternoon and immediately jumped into the fray. Meetings started with Don Winters and Tom Prosia of Whitehawk Associates. Whitehawk provides consultants and subject matter expertise to Mobile Operators and other players in the wireless industry. Tom is presently working on an application which collects mobile location and feeds it to an application on the operator’s back end. Not coincidentally, Don also has a background in location based services, having served as the COO of SignalSoft a decade ago. Although we were sworn us to secrecy about the details of their current efforts, it only reenforces our view that location’s time may finally be at hand. Statements such as that are so common that taking it with a grain of salt is to be expected.

We then met Michael O’Reilly and Rich Garwood of Cellentx. Cellentx provides business development and sales support for vendors to the wireless industry. Although Cellentx has been in business for a short time, already they have received a warm reception and have many consultants under contract.

Good luck to both these companies as they develop their businesses.

We also caught up with Drew Esson of Digital Globe, purveyors of satellite imagery. Drew is another with a long history using and selling location based-services, having also done time with SignalSoft back in the day. Perhaps it’s more than a coincidence that he and Don Winters were hanging out in the same restaurant in Vegas.

Reviewing Contracts for Content and Approval

Frequently contracts for adding products, services and for changing service providers must be processed. The ability to read, understand and negotiate such contracts is essential to becoming an effective manager.

First, it is absolutely necessary to become comfortable reading contracts and understanding their meaning. Certainly contract language is not the same as that which one might use with friends or family. And it’s hardly typical of many office conversations either. But it is what it is, so just get over it. Many of the commonly used terms and phrases in contract law are the result of years of accumulated court decisions and previous contract experience. These days many contracts are the Frankensteinian products of unbridled copy and paste. (Try comparing your various roaming agreements for similarities.) Continue reading “Reviewing Contracts for Content and Approval”

NTC Member Predicts 3G Service in Thailand by Year End

David Phillips of Kordia Thailand called our attention to this article in the Bangkok Post which advocates the optimistic view that now that the 4 new members of Thailand’s National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) had been royally endorsed 3G services should expect to be launched before the end if the year. Continue reading “NTC Member Predicts 3G Service in Thailand by Year End”

Interesting Web Site for Telecoms Jobs Postings

We recently had cause to investigate 4G Wireless Jobs (Link removed due to malware), a web site offering resources for Telecoms in general and for job seekers in particular. A quick click through the site reveals industry-specific articles, commentary, HOWTOs and research on a variety of topics relating to Telecoms. Article categories include Business, Careers, Electronics, Technology and Wireless, with each category having one or more articles in various disciplines. Continue reading “Interesting Web Site for Telecoms Jobs Postings”

CAT adding MiFi hotspot Product

Over at TeleGeography Comms Update they report that CAT will begin selling the Novatel Wireless MiFi Intelligent Mobile Hotspot device for subscribers on their Rev. Ev-DO network. I wish them the best of luck with it. In our own Rev A network we’ve seen utilization skyrocket with devices such as this. Granted, our business model is “flat-rate, all you can eat”, meaning our subscribers pay one monthly amount and can then use as much data as they want. Continue reading “CAT adding MiFi hotspot Product”