Interview with the Grandfather of the Cell Phone Marty Cooper

The inventor of the cell phone Marty Cooper was recently interviewed in this article of CBS News in which he shared some insights on what he thinks of modern day cellphones. Cooper mentioned in the interview that "Technology has to be invisible. Transparent. Just simple. A modern cell phone in general has an instruction book that's bigger and heavier than the cell phone. That's not right."

He thinks that consumers should dictate exactly what they want from a product and not the engineer because in the end the consumer is king. It'll be interesting to see what will come of wireless communication in the future.

FedEx Releases "Smart" Wireless Devices to Automatically Track Packages

This article in CNNMoney.com highlights that FedEx will be releasing a sensor-enabled device that will allow for wirelessly fed real-time data about a package's wherebouts and conditions over the internet.

This is big news! Now this will allow for more accurate in-depth knowledge of a package's whereabouts and will not require for FedEx personnel to manually input or scan barcodes to indicate the package's location. Mark Hamm, vice president of innovation at FedEx, says "There's going to be a high level of interaction. You are going to have large player and small players plugging into the platform. That's going to be revolutionary."

What are your thoughts on the revolutionary technology?

New Mobile UC Application is Launched for in-Building Wireless

According to this article in TMC.net, iBwave has released a mobile app that makes it easy for users to capture building information and basic network information essential for indoor radio planning.

It turns a smartphone into a device that is able to capture information from the building and is able to conduct on-site surveys. What are other examples of similar devices that have been launched within the past couple of months? Interested in hearing your thoughts.

Mobile Health Initiatives Heating UP

In the past couple of days, I have received a few emails from some members of LinkedIn groups that I belong to mentioning the tremendous groundswell being generated by federal funds allocations slated for the mobile and wireless industries. This is the much heralded American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA.

A colleague in the industry forwarded me two pieces of intelligence out there. I will link you to one of them, here: This is the mHealth Initiatives cluster of target areas for growth.

Points to pull out from there:

•Drug databases
•Medical calculators
•Reference programs
•Decision support for both physicians and nurses
•Tracking (weight, blood pressure, etc.)
•Patient history accessing, managing, and documenting
•Communication managers
•Payer tools (coding, eligibility determination, etc.)

The same colleague found this bit of information and I thought it would be useful, as well:

The research firm [Pike & Fischer] predicts that wireless carriers, including AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel will become key players in the increasingly wireless-enabled telemedicine market, while smaller companies like software developers and device makers will be key acquisition targets. AT&T is likely to dominate, however, the report predicted. The firm also points to the need to control health care costs as another driver of the growing telemedicine market, while stimulus funding from ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) will lead to more remote patient monitoring services and mobile access to EHRs, according to Pike & Fischer.

New: Global Retail Executive Council

I managed to find this blog about the growth in interactivity, engagement and mobility in the retail experience when I got an email in my inbox this morning.

So I called up their executive director to find out more about it. Jim Crawford, Executive Director,Global Retail Executive Council, spoke to me while he was on his way to a meeting. The organization started up in February, right as the great dregs from the economic tsunami were washing up on the beaches of commerce and retail.

"It proved a great time to start up this association," says Crawford.

The organization serves two missions:

1. Nurturing and building on the broad and inclusive concept of what it means to be a sustainable retailer, improving the economic model for retailers, building on being able to have a sustainable relationship with consumers, and helping them grow through life cycle of interaction with the consumer through the interaction and nexus of mobile devices and technology and the shopping experience

2. Collaborating with retailers on next generation customer experiences in retail, building on changes and the evolution in the store experience using mobile

"It’s a radical game changer in the way retailers look at technology at stores," says Crawford. I agree.

We talked about how the carriers are vital to this growth but that at the same time, we are seeing huge customer-driven changes brought on by data-loving retail shoppers and end users of mobile.

More on this later, as it develops.

"Cloud-Bursting," by AT & T

Fast Company has a brief mention of the IBM and AT&T cloud computing systems that they are rolling out in the next few years.

Blue Insight by IBM and the AT&T "cloud-bursting" synaptic system will enable data to be stored elsewhere.

Fast Company talks about the security issues with other systems that might make the AT&T system an attractive offer for small businesses:

AT&T's goal seems to be to leverage its big-name status and existing business relationships to attract potential customers who may be wary of cloud computing from other providers, due to data security issues and cybercrime events like Distributed Denial of Service attacks. AT&T will roll out the service to U.S. networks first, and then onto its global data centers so it can be sold to clients around the world.

It's what is available for small enterprises that excites me, because, deductively, I wonder what it is that small business is focused on doing, as a collective.

To me it seems that the small business mindset is:

1. Stay small, in order to grow quickly, virally, in other people's computers, mobile devices and applications.

2. Be outward facing all the time -- no better way to face outward than through synaptic text, data and a collective applications system.

3. Be all over the place, at scale, but small enough that people are not encumbered by your presence. See number one.

This new age of small business, social entrepreneurship, javascript:void(0)social networking and all just keeps going and going.

Tethering Works on the iPhone 3.0

Just follow simple tethering instructions for your iPhone device and you can do what many Windows Mobile people could do for a long time.

This blog will increasingly focus on how wireless devices are used and we plan to go big on this for a forum next year in Las Vegas or Chicago on the use of wireless devices for buildings.

Register for IBWS 2009 by This Friday, March 13th and Save 15%!

A reminder that as a member of the IBWS LinkedIn Group you are eligible for discounted conference registration rates!

When you register for IBWS 2009 by end of business this Friday, March 13th, you will receive a 15% discount which guarantees you a rate lower than any we are currently offering!

To register click here or call +1 888.670.8200. Be sure to mention priority code XU2159LINKEDIN

View the Agenda

Around the Web: In-Building Solutions for Safety and Real Estate

Cruising around the web today we find some useful articles that can enhance your understanding of In-Building Wireless Solutions.

Back when Anand Iyer worked for PRTM he thought RFID was a collaborative methodology that could assist growth in In-Building technologies.

But will the objectives of the IBWA compete with other location technologies like radio frequency identification (RFID) that are already being tested in similar situations? Iyer thinks that RFID is a complementary technology. "Instead of investing in a separate RFID network, you could only invest in the [RFID] tag, and have that tag talk to the in-building communication infrastructure," he says. "Shared platforms, shared infrastructure…one common network inside a building." In fact, Iyer believes that everything from energy sensors, to cellular devices, to computers could and should share the same communication infrastructure.

For that reason, you should Hear No RF Evil, See No RF Evil. Although, you can't really see RF anyway, so I'm not sure the point?

Oh, and look, another juicy Anand Iyer interview. Can't get enough of his thoughts on RF and technology, so we are putting him up here for some light reading.

Despite the ever-growing need for always-on connectivity, most commercial buildings in the U.S. have not yet adopted wireless hook-ups. Without a reliable indoor signal, we are bound by cables and have to rely on wishful thinking to keep calls online.

And it’s not just individual productivity that takes a hit when buildings are ill-equipped to handle the new-generation requirements. Public safety officials and emergency first responders are also affected by inadequate people-locating services and poor emergency communication coverage, both of which could potentially lead to compromised life-saving planning and rescue operations.

Building owners, too, encounter many disadvantages from staying with the wired way. They risk losing tenants who refuse to sign leases without WiFi capabilities, and they have difficulty tracking and consolidating data about in-building energy consumption, security, or other feeds that require frequent monitoring but reside on different IT platforms.

In-building wireless presents a leap forward in ubiquitous connectivity and mobility. While the effort has been mostly grass-roots until now, several prominent companies are banding together to promote in-building wireless and establish standards for the industry to adopt. The In-Building Wireless Alliance is one of the leaders of this coordinated movement.

Speaker Profile: Pilar Caudillo

Over the course of the next couple of months, we will be highlighting some of the speakers that will be at the In-Building Wirlesss Solutions Conference held in Vegas this May. Today I’d like to start off by introducing to you Pilar Caudillo, President and Owner of Unwired Solutions De Mexico and Exitel Telecom.

You might recognize some of the work Pilar Caudillo has done over the years when you take a look at the Torre Mayor, which is the tallest building in Latin America. Unwired Solutions actually developed the first multicarrier inbuilding project in México with Torre Mayor. Here’s an interesting clip from Daily Planet that gives an insider’s tour to Latin America’s tallest building.



Also, here’s a case study on the wireless coverage system for Torre Mayor that was recently forwarded to us.

Don’t miss your chance to see Pilar Caudillo speak at IBWS on European and Latin Market Approaches to Boosting In-Building Take-up.

BlackBerry and iPhone Pilgrims May Overload Cell Networks at Inauguration

Are you ready for your photos taken on the National Mall to arrive a few minutes or maybe an hour late? The million or so people using their cell phones to track the inauguration will put a burden on the cell providers, says a story at the International Herald Tribune.

The largest cellphone carriers, fearful that a communicative citizenry will overwhelm their networks, have taken the unusual step of asking people to limit their phone calls and to delay sending photos. The carriers are also spending millions of dollars to temporarily and substantially upgrade their networks in Washington.

Dropped calls, lost photos or delayed text messages are always a risk during spikes from sporting events and concerts. People often feel compelled to share these events with others, and that takes bandwidth.

Cellphone cameras are taking better pictures all the time, and sending those high-resolution images quickly floods the airwaves. The Obama crowd — which could exceed two million — is expected to be mostly young, just the group accustomed to staying in touch by uploading photos, blog posts and tweets on Twitter.

For those coming to pay homage to the BlackBerry-toting president, the inauguration has the potential to be a wireless Woodstock. If, that is, the networks can handle it.

"If some of these estimates come true, people should anticipate delays with regards to sending text messages or making phone calls or getting onto the Internet," said Joe Farren, spokesman for the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, an industry trade group. It has asked people to send texts rather than make phone calls (text uses less bandwidth than speech) and to send photos only after the event.

Pre Tries to Make a Run at the BlackBerry

Everybody left Palm as a wireless mobile device supplier after the iPhone came out. Now it looks like Palm is set to make at least a decent enough run at the top two competitors, Research in Motion and Apple, with the announcement at CES of the Pre smartphone.

The new operating system, called simply "Palm webOS," and previously dubbed Nova, lets users "multi-task," or use several programs at once, something previous Palm devices could not do.

The new operating system "seems to be Palm's last-ditch efforts in this space," said Kevin Burden ABI Research's mobile devices research director in a recent interview.

Palm has used its own operating system, as well as Windows Mobile, in its Treos, often giving users a choice of which operating system they prefer. The company's Centros run on the Palm OS, with the current version more than five years old.

The Inbuilding Wireless Solutions forum at The Venetian in Las Vegas will address the impact that mobile devices are having on enterprise use of wireless networks in buildings. We are very lucky this year to have Tyler Lessard from Research in Motion as a participant in the conference. He will be speaking with Wallace Wireless CEO Rob Moffat about how mobile devices are shaping business life and the use of wireless systems.

Live Tech Demonstration: Charting the Data Applications and Their Impact on Business Life and Wireless Networks

• Planning for a data fueled future by incorporating more players into the solutions methodology for wireless systems
• Using the BlackBerry as enterprise tool and implementing solutions for increased usage on 3G networks
• Managing a secure multi-user business environment through wi-fi networks and mesh technology that facilitates data flow

Speakers:

Rob Moffat, CEO, Wallace Wireless

Tyler Lessard, Director of Alliances, Research in Motion

Join our LinkedIn Group at to join the ongoing conversation. Your insights are important to us, and they help the team at Inbuilding Wireless Solutions keep the conference fresh and in tune with your business needs.

Using Wireless in Iraq

A battalion in Iraq wants to set up a VSAT system so that it can communicate with itself within a radius of 1000 feet.

Technically, this is not in a building, but I thought it was cool.

Light That Bulb Without a Wire

Wouldn't it be great if you could walk into a room, wave your hand over a switch and illuminate the entire house with bulbs that were not connected to any type of outlet or cord?

Trend Hunter picks up on the use of WiTricity at the CES this week.

I was once in a house in Latvia that had a great set up. It used light beams, kind of like lasers, I think, that controlled the dimmer for the lights. You just had to wave your hands in front of the panels and depending on the way your hands moved, that's what the lights did. A slow and careful adjustment meant that the lights would slowly dim or brighten. If you moved your hand very quickly, like a snap, the lights would go out or come on.

Wi-Fi Plan for New York's Central Park Nixed

CityRoom has the story about about a long-discussed plan to cover Central Park in a wi-fi signal. The deal is not set to go through, as the company that planned to implement the service has run out of money.

The networks were quietly shut down in October and Wi-Fi Salon is removing the equipment from the park locations, which include seven hot spots in Central Park, two in Prospect Park, and others at Washington Square, Battery, Riverside, Van Cortlandt, Pelham Bay and Flushing Meadows-Corona Parks, as well as Orchard Beach. This does not affect the privately provided free Wi-Fi at Bryant Park and other locations.

The issue seems to be that the company, Wi-Fi Salon, could not come up with sponsorship dollars to keep the project afloat. Their deal with Nokia ended in 2007, and the company still owes the city US$578.


For more up-to-date information on the In-Building Wireless Forum in Las Vegas, Nevada, please visit our web site and register. You can also join our LinkedIn discussion forum, where many executives from the Inbuilding Wireless industry are discussing improvements to the business, as well as strategies for late-2009 and 2010.

NYTIMES: Vancouver Building UP, UP, UP for the Olympics

Vancouver hosts the next Winter Olympics in four years. What's going on over there in the Great White North?

[ed. note: I've never been to Vancouver, but I have a free ticket that I can't wait to use to get there. I booked it this year in the hopes I can use it before the summer comes next year.]

Preening for the Olympics, Vancouver is Building Up

An excerpt:

There has been a lot of construction going on in Vancouver in preparation for the Games — and beyond. After the Winter Games, the 16-building Olympic Village, which will house about 2,800 athletes, is to be converted into a 730-unit luxury condominium complex called Millennium Water. About half the units have already been sold, Mr. Rennie said.

A two-bedroom, 1,113-square-foot condo on the fourth floor of a Millennium Water building on Ontario Street was listed last month for 855,900 Canadian dollars ($673,937 at 1.27 Canadian dollars to the U.S. dollar). Three one-bedroom units between 584 and 686 square feet in a building on West First Avenue were listed at 464,900 to 505,900 Canadian dollars. It is possible to put 10 percent down.

Although it is only 35 miles north of the border, Vancouver looks and feels different from any city in the United States or, for that matter, Canada. With its glass-and-steel towers crowding a sweeping harbor, it could be in Asia.

Asia, indeed. The carriers in Canada are building up, too, and it seems everyone is migrating to Vancouver, because customers from all around the world are goign to be setting their phones on roam as they ply the canyons of steel and glass.

Just a what, ten hour flight from Hong Kong, you can expect mobile phone use to be sky-high during the competition. If you can't get a signal in one of those hotels, what's the outcome going to be?

And it rarely snows in Vancouver, as the article mentions. Guess what that means for winter sports? They are going to be held indoors!

We've got a panel about the use of mobile devices inside of amenity buildings. I'd love for you to check it out. We are luck also to have the participation of Eric Yapp, from Rycom, and one of the most progressive Inbuilding thinkers at a carrier in Canada, Denis Stelatus, at Telus, to talk about this very kind of thinking: What needs to happen to make Inbuilding a win-win-win-win for everyone in property, carriers, and consumers, and integrators? Should be powerful stuff.


You can leave a comment or contact me for a look at the brochure, which will be published shortly. Send me your thoughts, too. Inbuilding Wireless is growing. Where will it go?

dcrets [at] iirusa [dot] com
Douglas Crets -- Director -- InBuilding Wireless Solutions, Las Vegas

Friday Tidbyte: The Usual Suspects, Mass Communicators

Every once in a while, I sit down and try to mull over what are the dominant and enticing thoughts that have dominated the Inbuilding Wireless Solutions market. Here's what I've come up with for this Friday's Tidbytes:

Cell phones used to be for the super rich. "What's that? AT&T at 42.50? Buy, you worm! Buy, buy, buy!"

But now, I don't think you can step into a subway car in Manhattan without seeing a cell phone or an iPhone in someone's hand.

And have you ever visited India?

Personal story: In the earlier hours of the morning, a driver picked me up to take me from New Delhi to the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, a good four or five hour drive away. Along the way, the four-wheel drive truck would swerve around donkeys, cattle, wagons filled to the sky with hay, as well as formers up to their dhotis in mud as they walked through the rice fields.

As we pulled up to the railroad crossing to enter into Agra, we were met by several men selling... mobile phones, calling cards, and other things. They had it figured out, boy. What's the first thing you are going to do when you see the beautiful Taj Mahal? Call your mother!

Great pitch!

The most beautiful mausoleum in the world, and a great place for taking cell phone pictures

And though it was not respectful to use phones to make calls inside the tomb, I did see people using phones to take pictures. Outside, looking over the Ganges River, an editor at Platts who attended the tour with us was using her phone to call someone.

The same thing is true at Angkor Wat. Everyone, and I mean everyone leading tour groups through the compound at Angkor Wat in Cambodia had a small Motorola phone in his or her hand. Tourists would snap pictures with their phones. I saw a man get hit by a truck and as he was being rushed to the clinic, his friend was sitting with him in the back of the same truck calling the medics on the phone while they sped away, honking the horn like a panicked lamb.

What does this mean?Mobile phone use is not only easy and affordable, it's becoming pervasive. It's used everywhere. Everywhere. If Rick Blaine in Casablanca had had a mobile phone, he would have been using it all the time in his club, and so would Renault. There would never be any of this having to telephone from the police station, "Round up the usual suspects!"