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
Welcome to Marc's Blog. - From time to time you will find comments, opinions, and discussions related to various topics of interest to me, and some of them may even be relative to the Wireless Industry. Let us hear from you! - Marc
Monday, February 20, 2012
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
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
Saturday, February 18, 2012
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.
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
Monday, January 23, 2012
Swimming Eagle of Baton Rouge
You just don't get to see this very often, watch to the end and enjoy the awesomeness of this bird!
Thanks to a great friend from my days at Aramco for sending this!
Marc
Thanks to a great friend from my days at Aramco for sending this!
Marc
Saturday, January 21, 2012
"ITS A CRISIS SOMEONE IS GOING TO DIE IF WE DON'T ACT NOW!
Apparently LightSquared lobbyists have been unsuccessful in getting the laws of physics repealed, and have now shifted to the "Its a crisis, someone is going to die if we don't act now" tactic to attempt to entice the FCC to rule in their favor.
In an article in Urgent Communications Jeff Carlisle, LightSquared’s executive vice president for regulatory affairs and public policy, warned the public safety industry, “The satellite company, in and of itself, is not sustainable over the long term — we know that,” Carlisle said. “It’s too small of a market to support the capital investment needed to launch a new satellite every 15 years. This is why you see a lot of satellite companies that have gone through restructuring.” he then goes on to warn, "As long as we have a viable business, we will always be committed to our public-safety solutions,” . . . “We’ve got cutting-edge technology that nobody else has, and we’ll continue to be committed to that. Hopefully, we’ll be able to find our way through this thicket and make sure that this capability will be provided into the future.” One presumes that Carlisle was referring to the push to talk satellite service that public safety agencies sometimes depend on, but but if you carefully read Carlisle's comments I am not sure that is what he means at all.
But none the less, the message is clear, LightSquared is clearly using the "ITS A CRISIS someone is going to die if we don't act now" tactic in an attempt to coerce the public safety industry and their unions to lobby for LightSquared.
In reality, LightSquared has lost the technical argument (the facts), lost the legal argument, and has now entered the speak loudly an forcefully part of their campaign to get their spectrum repurposed!
I know LightSquared doesn't particularly like to answer practical questions about its network deployment but here are two questions, relative to the push to talk satellite argument they are now making, I am posing to LightSquared:
1. How is the low powered push to talk satellite system used by public safety going to co-exist in a high powered (relatively) terrestrial based LTE network, without having those pesky laws of physic's repealed?
2. When LightSquared's terrestrial network is fully deployed and operational why would LightSquared continue to invest millions every 15 years to launch a new satellite to support a market that LightSquared has admitted is ". . . too small of a market to support the capital investment needed to launch a new satellite every 15 years."?
Marc
In an article in Urgent Communications Jeff Carlisle, LightSquared’s executive vice president for regulatory affairs and public policy, warned the public safety industry, “The satellite company, in and of itself, is not sustainable over the long term — we know that,” Carlisle said. “It’s too small of a market to support the capital investment needed to launch a new satellite every 15 years. This is why you see a lot of satellite companies that have gone through restructuring.” he then goes on to warn, "As long as we have a viable business, we will always be committed to our public-safety solutions,” . . . “We’ve got cutting-edge technology that nobody else has, and we’ll continue to be committed to that. Hopefully, we’ll be able to find our way through this thicket and make sure that this capability will be provided into the future.” One presumes that Carlisle was referring to the push to talk satellite service that public safety agencies sometimes depend on, but but if you carefully read Carlisle's comments I am not sure that is what he means at all.
But none the less, the message is clear, LightSquared is clearly using the "ITS A CRISIS someone is going to die if we don't act now" tactic in an attempt to coerce the public safety industry and their unions to lobby for LightSquared.
In reality, LightSquared has lost the technical argument (the facts), lost the legal argument, and has now entered the speak loudly an forcefully part of their campaign to get their spectrum repurposed!
I know LightSquared doesn't particularly like to answer practical questions about its network deployment but here are two questions, relative to the push to talk satellite argument they are now making, I am posing to LightSquared:
1. How is the low powered push to talk satellite system used by public safety going to co-exist in a high powered (relatively) terrestrial based LTE network, without having those pesky laws of physic's repealed?
2. When LightSquared's terrestrial network is fully deployed and operational why would LightSquared continue to invest millions every 15 years to launch a new satellite to support a market that LightSquared has admitted is ". . . too small of a market to support the capital investment needed to launch a new satellite every 15 years."?
Marc
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