New York State officials are considering a recommendation from State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to kill a $2 billion statewide wireless radio network for emergency responders.
It might seem like the IEEE is incapable of approving any wireless standards but that isn't quite the case, because the 802.11r, roaming WiFi standard has received the stamp of approval.
The New York State Office for Technology issued a letter of default to a unit of Tyco Electronics on Friday over a $2 billion contract to build an emergency communications network, giving the company’s M/A-COM Inc 45 days to fix “significant” problems, reports Reuters.
Tyco Electronics said it was disappointed in the move and has been cooperating with the state to resolve a “few” remaining issues.
“Contrary to public allegations … Tyco Electronics has met or exceeded contractual requirements for the project and is prepared to vigorously defend that position,” the company said in a statement e-mailed to Reuters.
The default letter, which comes amid a state budget crunch, follows a recommendation last week by the New York State comptroller to stop the 20-year contract because the already delayed system was rife with problems.
New York State’s biggest-ever technology contract, awarded to the Tyco’s M/A-COM unit in 2005, is a year-and-a-half behind schedule and has suffered from technology problems, according to the office of the comptroller (See Dailywireless: NY State’s Public Service Net: Failure?).
The system was intended to ease communication among emergency responders such as firefighters and police, and was prompted by the failure of wireless emergency communications systems after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
In its default letter, the state cited equipment failures, unreliable emergency call modes and inconsistent coverage, among other problems. Under the contract, Tyco Electronics has 45 days to recertify the system as ready for use, according to the state.
If Tyco were to lose the contract, analysts have estimated the loss of the contract would reduce Tyco Electronics’ 2009 sales by about $100 million and cut earnings by 2 or 3 cents per share. Rival Motorola potentially could benefit, Citigroup analyst Jim Suva said in a research note.
It may have repercussions for the federal Integrated Wireless Network (above), a nationwide public safety network which some have characterized as mired in bureaucratic and policy pettiness. The $10 billion federal network uses M/A-Com’s digital Land Mobile Radio (LMR) and the P-25 suite of standards to tie local, state and federal public safety agencies together.
Emergency managers like to point out “lives are at sake”. But dual-use handsets that can access satellite services when cellular or police radio towers go out would have saved lives during Hurricane Katrina.
TerreStar’s tiny sat phone (left) is the size of a Blackberry and roams on AT&T’s cellular network. It features Quad-band GSM, satphone connections, GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. It will be available to North American customers in mid-2009. Spot beam satellites from Inmarsat and ICO will soon be joined by Terrestar and MSV for roaming between terrestrial repeaters.
Related Dailywireless articles include NY State’s Public Service Net: Failure?, NY State’s Wireless Net Broken?, New York State’s $1B Wireless Net, Topoff 4 Begins in Portland, FCC: What’s Wrong with 700MHz Public Service?, Public Safety: We Like 700MHz Public/Private Plan, Hearings on 700MHz Auction, TerreStar Roams with AT&T, Skyterra/MSV Get $500M, MSS: Battle Space,
The tropical storm bearing down on the Gulf Coast could be a test for the country's wireless carriers, which faced criticism and a regulatory push after Hurricane Katrina took out networks.
An unauthorized user can exploit the security hole simply by double-pressing the button to make an emergency call. That behavior brings up the owner's preferred contacts and clicking on a number provides full access to the phone's features. Clicking on an e-mail provides access to all e-mail. And clicking on a contact name provides full access to all contacts data.
Apple spokesperson Jennifer Bowcock said, "The minor iPhone security issue which surfaced this week is fixed in a software update which will be released in September."
There is a simple workaround, Bowcock said: iPhone owners can simply change the settings so double-clicking the emergency button returns a user to the home screen, which will present a password login field if password protection is turned on.
'Design Deficiency'
While an attacker must be in physical possession of the iPhone to exploit the security bug, it "highlights a fundamental design deficiency with the iPhone," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations with nCircle Network Security.
"Despite Steve Jobs from day one saying the iPhone was secure, functionality and aesthetics of the device seem to always win out over security," Storms said. A case in point, Storms said, "Apple quickly released updates to fix 3G connectivity issues this year, but consistently takes many months to release security updates."
This particular security hole -- a simple bypass of access restrictions -- was created by Apple's preference for functionality over security, he added. "Even when a user chooses to physically secure the device with a four-digit passcode, Apple has chosen to still permit the user to use some functionality," Storms said. "By selecting to perform...
That's the rumor based on an e-mail response allegedly from Apple CEO Steve Jobs to an inquiring user. The questioner forwarded the response to the Gizmodo blog, which posted the question and Jobs' purported response.
The question: Why, since AT&T offers a plan by which users can pay an extra $30 to tether their laptops to their BlackBerry, don't Apple and AT&T offer a similar plan for iPhone 3G users?
The response: "We agree, and are discussing it with ATT." The message is signed "Steve" and includes the familiar tag, "Sent from my iPhone."
E-Mail Legit?
Gizmodo thinks the response is "legitimate-looking," but concedes "that 'Sent from my iPhone' kicker either makes this e-mail completely legitimate or illegitimate." On the other hand, Wired News engaged in a little grammatical sleuthing, noting that a message, purportedly from Jobs, posted on the MacRumors site contained a similar construction.
"We are working on some bugs which affect around two percent of the iPhones shipped, and hope to have a software update soon," the message read. Wired points out that both messages incorrectly use a comma before the "and." (A comma is appropriate to separate independent clauses; in both cases the phrases after the comma are dependent clauses.)
"I don't mean to draw a conclusion based on this nitpicky observation, but I just thought it'd be interesting to point out," Wired writer Brian Chen pointed out.
AT&T Terms of Service
Any tethering application would require a change to AT&T's terms of service. Those terms state: "Furthermore, plans (unless specifically designated for tethering usage) cannot be used for any applications that tether the device (through use of, including without limitation, connection kits, other phone/PDA-to-computer...
Hurricane Gustav, the tropical storm bearing down on the Gulf Coast, could be a test for the country’s wireless carriers, which faced criticism and a regulatory push after Hurricane Katrina took out networks.
Sprint Nextel’s Emergency Response Team, with trucks that can act as cell towers, was “caravaning down, military-style,” to the Gulf Coast on Friday. In 2007, Sprint installed permanent generators at more than 1,300 sites throughout the Southeast and Gulf Coast.
Verizon Wireless and AT&T, the main landline phone company in the region and the country’s largest wireless carrier, have added capacity and replaced some cables with optical fiber, to resist flooding.
While cell towers may survive a hurricane, their electrical power and connection to the larger network, often do not. After Katrina, the FCC sought to mandate that almost all cell sites in the U.S. have at least eight hours of backup power in the event main power fails.
But that requirement was disputed by the wireless industry association CTIA, as well as Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA. The carriers said the FCC failed to follow federal guidelines for creating new mandates and went far beyond its authority in creating the requirement. Requiring each cell site, even in areas that aren’t disaster-prone, to have its own backup power is expensive and robs them of the flexibility to deploy generators in more sensitive areas, they said.
Verizon Wireless says all of its cell sites have batteries that will power them for at least eight hours. Many of them also have generators that kick in when the batteries run down, and have fuel for five to seven days, according to the company. Of the 59 new cell sites Verizon Wireless has set up in the Gulf Coast area since the start of 2007, 85 percent have their own generators.
AT&T said its cell sites in hurricane-prone areas have generators that will power them for up to 36 hours, and it has been topping up the fuel in their tanks this week.
Sprint said it spent $59 million in 2007 to boost its hurricane preparedness, in part to install generators at 1,300 cell sites in the Southeast and on the Gulf Coast. It spent additional $140 million in the first six months this year to reinforce the network in the Gulf Coast states.
Gustav could be a communications challenge for emergency responders, who remain split up on incompatible networks. The FCC wanted to tackle that problem by setting aside radio spectrum to be operated by a private company for a national emergency network, but the spectrum band failed to find a bidder in an auction this year.
Tropical Storm Gustav was near Jamaica on Friday, and forecasters said it could hit the Louisiana coast at the beginning of next week as a major hurricane.
In related news, the 501 Tech Club and HumaniNet will present a status report on their Maps 2.0 initiative, in Portland on September 4.
The Tech Club is an initiative of NTEN with the support of the Meyer Memorial Trust. Also joining them, from Washington D.C., will be Justin Perkins, the Nonprofit Services Director of Care2, the largest online social network empowering civically active people to “make a difference.”
Dailywireless has more on emergency communications and public service communications including NY State’s Public Service Net: Failure?, Inmarsat F3 Successfully Launched, Minneapolis WiFi Breaks Even, Minneapolis Bridge Collapse & Emergency Communications, Public Service Users Talk Interop, Broadband, Hurricane/Tsuanmi Satellite Access , Katrina Telcom: One Month Later, FCC Talks Katrina and Katrina Telecomunications Report.
Russian WiMAX operator Enforta has announced the expansion of its wireless broadband services to an additional 13 cities in Russia thus increasing the company’s overall service area to 68 cities. In September the company will launch operations in the cities of Armavir, Artem, Birobidzhan, Vanino, Dzerzhinsk, Zlatoust, Miass, Novorossiysk, Novotroitsk, Sochi, Sterlitamak, Syzran, and Ulan-Ude.
The company says that it now operates the largest wireless broadband ‘footprint’ in Russia, servicing cities comprising 70% of Russia’s urban population.
Enforta is using Alvarion gear for its WiMAX solution in the fast growing Russian market. Alvarion’s BreezeMAX 3500 equipment, certified by the WiMAX Forum, will use the 3.400 - 3.600 GHz band. Alvarion’s local partner in Russia is Cedicom.
“The WiMAX technology continues to perform well and we are pleased with the subscriber growth”, said Lee Sparkman, Enforta’s President. “With this announcement we conclude our geographic deployments for 2008. We are now finalizing plans with our investors for an exciting 2009 that further leverages our ‘first to market’ leadership in wireless broadband services”. Enforta is adding 3 additional cities to its earlier announcement that it would launch 10 cities in the 4th quarter of 2008.
Enforta was formed in October 2003 with the objective to provide broadband services using WiMAX in Russia’s regional capitals. The Company is owned by Baring Vostok Capital Partners, Sumitomo Corporation, Bessemer Venture Partners, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. In December of 2003 Enforta acquired ZAO Prestige-Internet and in 2005 they acquired OOO Evgenia. Later in 2005 the company launched its first wireless broadband services. Enforta has the largest market share amongst Russia’s wireless broadband operators at 20-22% of the total market.
Other WiMax networks are being launched in various regions in Russia by Synterra, Start-Telecom, Comstar-UTS, and Media-Net. Summa Telecom Company, announced the launch of its own network,having been granted a large frequency resource across Russia. The first cities to be launched in are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara, Novosibirsk, and Vladivostok. Summa Telecom is owned by Russian businessman Ziyavudinu Magomedov, whose principal businesses include oil transport logistics and metals.
Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) is the largest mobile operator in Russia and CIS with over 89.64 million subscribers. Vimpelcom, Russia’s 2nd largest cell operator, is owned by Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman’s Alfa Group and Norway’s Telenor which have been locked in a court battle over expansion overseas, something Russian shareholders contend was blocked by Telenor.
The Russian State Commission of Radio Frequencies (GKRCh) plans to transfer 2300 ~ 2400 MHz (2.3 GHz) from the military to public WiMAX.
There has been a sharp increase in the number of North American employers offering telecommuting as an option, reports Telephony Magazine. According to an annual survey by WorldatWork, a global human resources association, 42% of U.S. employers said they offered a telework option, up from 30% in 2007, while in Canada, the jump was even greater, from 25% to 40%.
One reason for the increase, according to the survey, is that technology is no longer a major issue, said Rose Stanley of WorldatWork.
The rise of easy-to-use Web conferencing and collaboration programs is making it much easier for workers to operate efficiently even when they aren’t in the same physical location, Stanley said, and widely available broadband access makes use of Web-based technologies easier. Collaborative software like Webex, Go to Meeting, and Microsoft’s Live Meeting bring disparate people together and enable them to work on a single document.
Managers still are concerned about how to manage employees that aren’t in one site, however. “When we conduct polls, the responses we get are, ‘We don’t know how to manage someone we can’t see,’” Stanley said.
High gas prices make telecommuting more attractive to employees, but that doesn’t necessarily motivate employers, Stanley said.
“Honestly, from a business perspective, gas prices are not as much a factor,” Stanley said. “That doesn’t mean that senior management isn’t concerned and doesn’t see that as a definite problem. But they still run their businesses, and what they are going to react to is when it starts to affect their turnover and ability to attract employees. They won’t necessarily implement something unless they see it as a win for both.”
Telecommuters need not necessarily work from the home. A more recent extension of telecommuting is distributed work.
Distributed work entails the conduct of organizational tasks in places that extends beyond the confines of traditional offices. Remote Office Centers lease offices to individuals from multiple companies.
A Remote Office Center provide professional grade network access, phone system, security system, and mail stop. They’re generally located in areas near where people live.
On June 3, 2008, the House passed H.R. 4106 which would require agencies to develop a program allowing employees to telework at least 20 percent of every two-week work period. GSA currently provides 14 Remote Offices in the D.C. area that can be used by Federal Employees. The Oregon Telecommunity Center Project (pdf) assessed the needs of specific Oregon rural communities that can be served by telecommunity centers.
IFA Fujitsu Siemens demo'd its Amilo Mini Amilio Mini UI 3520 netbook at IFA this week, as promised .
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