What's in a Name?
AT&T, Regional Bell, SBC, Cingular, AT&T
Historians will tell you that "back in the good ol' days" there was AT&T, Bell Labs, and that was it.
AT&T owned everything...even the phone that was sitting on the stand or hanging on the wall.
Then came the breakup...the Fed said that AT&T was a monopoly and had to be split up into "baby Bells".
It didn't take long for the new Regional Bell companies to grow up. With the help of wireless technology, the landscape
of voice communication changed quickly and permanently...or did it?
Certainly cell phones and wireless voice and data exploded onto the scene. In the process, we have
gone through scores of smaller providers and have ended up with a handful of large cellular companies. But, the Bell
companies have not been satisfied with simply providing your phone service.
Now...the new AT&T is petitioning the FCC for permission to purchase BellSouth...which would give it
100% ownership of Cingular. Back to AT&T Wireless?
Wireless Updates
We try to cover current events as well as explaining some of the concepts of wireless technology.
If you know of a topic that you'd like to see, please let us know (info@OmniCellCommunications.com).
Discussion Topics
Please go to our "weblog" (BLOG) sites for information and comments on various issues concerning
wireless data and voice communication, and the applications and economics of changing to cellular.
Noteworthy articles from the past ...
NEXTEL and Sprint are now the same...almost!
The fact that Cingular and AT&T became the largest single service provider is now old
news. When this first happened, everyone was wondering "now what are they going to do with it?". Perhaps many
are still wondering. Change is slow...but changes are coming.
However, the new question is "how will Sprint bring the NEXTEL product under its wing?".
Sprint has, for some time now, tried to incorporate 'push-to-talk' into its product line. Although the success of this
program varied according to who you talked to, it certainly did not match the program already available from the iDEN network.
While we are still waiting for the dust to settle, it remains unclear just how Sprint will
work this totally separate network into its system. No matter what they do with the programs they offer, the advertising
they sponsor, or the innovative ways they want to use the product, they will still have two separate networks. Perhaps
a "tri-band" phone is in the future...one that will move from 850 to 1900 MHz as needed for standard voice communications
and switch to the iDEN network when 'push-to-talk' is used..
There Is Money to be Saved!
The cost of a cellular connection is coming down. While there
are no costs for 'installation', there are certain fees that must be paid to activate the service. Most handsets
are free, and the cost per month less than the 'wired' phone in our home.
Considering that there is no charge for long distance, and that most
carriers have a 'family plan' for multiple phones, savings and security begin immediately. Additionally, the home phone
sits idle for many hours per day or days per month. What better way to reduce your communication costs than to make
your home phone an extension of the mobile phone that you have anyway?
Local Number Portability (LNP)
Known now as 'porting', this concept has opened the way for
wireless technology to bring us all into the 21st Century. Now that we can put our home phone onto the same
network as our mobile phones, there can be an economical consolidation of voice and data transmission. What a concept! A home phone that you can stick in your pocket, install in the RV,
boat, or camper, or move to the condo.
