A Test of your Thinking Skills

A PRE-SCHOOL TEST FOR YOU  Which way is the bus below traveling?   To the left or to the right?

Can't make up your mind? Look carefully at the picture again.

DON't Scroll down until you have really analyzed this picture!

Still don't know? Pre-schoolers all over the United States were shown this picture and asked the same question. 92% of the pre-schooler's gave this answer. "The bus is traveling to the left."

The reason for their conclusion, you can't see the door to get on the buss!  Sometimes the easiest answer stares us right in the face!

Ever wonder what a tower climber's job is like

Folks this is pretty impressive.  Click on this link, wait for the cartoon to finish and hold on to your chair, you are not going to believe this!

Marc

AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile all claim to offer nation's 'largest 4G network'

Wow here is a shock, competing carriers making the same claim.  But if you read their fine print you realize that, if you carefully draw your circle small enough you can make any claim that you want!  For example L&W is the largest, most successful telecom consulting firm in the world!  As long as you read my fine print statement that says, "located on FM 2818 in Bryan, Texas".

Marc

Harbinger, LightSquared face investor lawsuit, $56M payment

Well it looks like troubles continue to mount for Harbinger Capital!

Last Friday, on an investor call, Phillip Falcone said, "While it is clear that the investment thesis was dead-on, going through the regulatory and political process here has been very disturbing, to say the least," Falcone said, according to the Wall Street Journal. "We are continuing to plow ahead on a number of different fronts. ... We are continuing to evaluate a number of the options we believe we have."

So let's just examine those two statements individually,  "While it is clear that the investment thesis was dead-on, going through the regulatory and political process here has been very disturbing, to say the least"  Reading this can't you imagine a White Star Line press release on April 15, 1912 saying that the maiden voyage of the Titanic was, except for that unfortunate event with that iceberg, superbly successful.  

"We are continuing to plow ahead on a number of different fronts. ... We are continuing to evaluate a number of the options we believe we have." which is clearly akin to Captain Smith on the Titanic  announcing to the passengers, "Ladies and gentlemen pay no attention to that ice on the deck, it is part of our North Atlantic cruise entertainment, please just enjoy the rest of your voyage, and by the way, drinks are on the White Star line for the rest of the trip! 

On Friday, Harbinger was sued by investors in the fund who claimed that they were misled over the "all in" investment Harbinger made in LightSquared, which has totaled more than $3 billion. Harbinger and its chief Philip Falcone "knew from the outset, or were reckless in failing to know, that LightSquared's technology interfered with GPS systems," according to the suit. The suit claims that because of LightSquared's status now, investors "stand to lose substantially all of the value of their investments." Harbinger declined to comment on the suit.

I believe that the investors are correct, do I believe they will recover their investment, not a chance!

Time will tell!

Marc

What do you get when you mate Elephants?

There seems to be a business theory going around that if Mega Corporation C mates with Mega Corporation U, the offspring of this mating process will be a new Corporation that is quick, agile, customer friendly, and provides phenomenally outstanding customer service to its customers.

Well the reality is when you mate elephants you get elephants not gazelles!  The same is true in business.  The next time you fly out of Houston on the new United Airlines remember the new elephant created is not a gazelle, in fact it isn't even an agile elephant, its more like a decrepit Mastodon!   One wonders if there might just be too much in-breeding in the airline industry these days.

If you remember the Proud Bird with the Golden Tail, that once was Continental Airlines, well you are going to be very disappointed with the new United Airline.

Such a shame, my opinion, the new United took the worst features of both airlines and created a really bad airline.   But maybe things will get better over time!

Marc

Another fascinating day of Travel in a post 9/11 world

I arrived at the airport my requisite 2 hours before flight time in Houston.  The folks who work with me think I am crazy to do this, but I don't miss many airplanes!  But the real reason I get here 2 hours early is so I have zero stress going through the security shuffle at the airport.

I have recently adopted the airline "green" initiative, as all of you know I am Mister Save the Planet, and it is really convenient to have the boarding pass on the iPhone and have one less thing to keep up with.  Been working great for the last two months.  But today in Houston things have changed again with the TSA.  Maybe it is just because this is President's day and the government employees of the TSA are just hacked off because they have to work so that we Capitalist Pigs can go on with making money and not paying our fare share of taxes.

So today I get into the line to start the security screening process bus showing my ID and placing my  electronic boarding pass on one of those new fangled electronic boarding pass readers and do my bit to save the planet.   Assuming the reader, which is powered by some fossil fuel burning power plant no doubt, actually reads your boarding pass and beeps, the TSA gate keepers ask you what your name is, which he/she just read off the reader and compared to you ID.

For the last two months once you convinced them you were you that was the end of the boarding pass, ID exam and you could put the ID and Boarding pass away, pick up the requisite number of plastic bins and start the process of taking off your shoes, your belt, emptying your pockets of all change, handkerchief, combs, business cards, pins and car keys and carefully put them in one of your carry ons while simultaneously taking out any liquids you might have in your bag, putting them in the right size baggie, then waiting for your bags to be sucked into the X-ray machine and to then be directed to either the Porno Scanner or the regular security ionization chamber.

But today if you had an electronic boarding pass, because you were serious about saving the planet as you all know I am, you were told,  by the TSA agent "hold on their fellow, where is your boarding pass?"  Me, "Uh sir it is on my phone that is now in my carry on, that has just been sucked into the x-ray machine and is patiently waiting on the other side of the scanner for me to pick it up!" TSA, "well you can't go through these machines (the scanners) without one of us looking at your boarding pass."  Me, " the guy already checked my boarding pass and ID".  TSA, "which guy?".  Me, "uh (looking around and pointing), that guy right there."  TSA, "uh okay, go ahead!"  And Shazam I am waived through the Porno scanner, and sent over to my now very lonely bag and computer case.  But boy do I now feel safer for having such a crack crew of government employees securing our airways!

Lesson learned, from now on screw the planet, I am printing the paper boarding pass, to hell with this green technology!

And because I get to the airport 2 hours before take off I am stress free and had time to do this post!

Marc

700 MHz Awarded to Public Safety - Now What?

Lumped into this weeks Payroll Tax Cut bill was an allocation of the long contested 10 MHz of spectrum referred to as the 700 MHz D Block.  The future of the D block has been in limbo since the 2008 spectrum auctions, but  this week Congress and the Obama Administration finally passed legislation that allocated the D Block to Public Safety for the construction of a nationwide LTE network.    Congress also kicked in an additional $7 billion of tax payer dollars to build the network and another $300 million for R&D for the network.

But you can be sure, that much like ObamaCare, there are sill many unknowns.  And public safety representatives are already saying $7 Billion isn't enough!  No one has yet thought or talked about where the money will come from to operate and maintain the system (but that money has to come from only one source and that is the US Taxpayer)  and nobody yet knows who is in charge of planning, designing, and managing the network buildout and operation.

However I am sure that this topic will dominate next weeks discussion at IWCE and for many months to come in the various halls of the lobbyist and equipment manufacturers who will no doubt play a major role in shaping the success of the network.

I expect the Public Safety Industry hasn't seen this much excitement since the 800 Re-banding plan was announced a few years ago.  BTW, anyone know how re-banding is going?  It's finished, right?

Marc

Upper 700 MHz Band Plan - The Public Safety D Block

The Public Safety D Block is actually two 5 MHz blocks of spectrum in the Upper 700 MHz band between 758 MHz to 763 MHz and 788 MHz to 793 MHz as shown below:

The LightSquared Whine Continues as the Commission suspends their waiver to use the 1.6 GHz band

After a very long and very public battle the Federal Communications Commission finally agreed that the laws of physics indeed could not be repealed, even with Obama's magical powers, and notified LightSquared that their waiver to use the 1.6 GHz spectrum will be suspended indefinitely thus ending LightSquared's plan to build a wholesale terrestrial based LTE network in the 1.6 GHz band. 


The surprise in this announcement is that the Commission actually did the right thing and went against the political pressure of LightSquared.   


But don't think that just because the FCC has ruled that this is the last you will hear from LightSquared.  Within hours of the announcement by the Commission, LightSquared launched their,  "we have been a victim of pure politics" campaign.    


Jeff Carlisle, LightSquared’s executive vice president for regulatory affairs and public policy, wrote on the company’s blog this week that the GPS industry had apparently become “too big to fail,” seeking protection from the federal government for its own mistakes.

“GPS manufacturers have been selling devices that listen into frequencies outside of their assigned spectrum band — namely into LightSquared’s licensed band,” Mr. Carlisle wrote. “The GPS industry has leveraged years of insider relationships and massive lobbying dollars to make sure that they don’t have to fix the problem they created.”

LightSquared's whine continued threatening legal acton and ramping up its lobbying efforts to attempt to gain access to spectrum for their network through a spectrum swap with federal agencies.  

The saga continues but never underestimate the power of having powerful friends (the President of the United States) as an investor in your company trying to make a $20 + billion spectrum play!  

Marc