Ed’s Telecom Alert

Folks,

Did a little research myself on IPAD 2 as I wanted to purchase 2 iPAD 2 for myself and wife. I was thinking of getting the WiFi + 3G plan. The fact there is no "unlimited plan" and AT&T and Verizon only offer usage rates gave me a pause so am holding back until I hear more on this and would love to hear your thoughts/analysis.   Here is the information I have found out.  

Keep in mind that if you get WiFi product, then you do not need to worry about this.  If you plan to get WiFi + 3G product, then it could become worrisome.   Here’s why.  Before I go on, keep in mind, signing with either AT&T or Verizon does NOT lock you to a two-year term.   So you can switch to other if u think other is cheaper in the long run. 

First check out Money’s analysis the link below.

MoneyAnalysis

Quotable quotes:

"..there are a total of eight different AT&T and Verizon plans that you can choose from, each with a different set of data caps and overage charges."

Yikes..

"A data plan with a 250 megabyte cap gets you about 1,300 Web pages, 400 photo downloads, 60 songs, 14 YouTube videos, or about an hour of Netflix videos. A 1 gigabyte plan gets you 6,500 Web pages, 2,000 photos, 300 songs, 65 YouTube videos or between three and six hours of Netflix viewing."

3 to 5 hours of Netflix movie uses up 1 GB, so don’t watch too many movies using the 3G network – better with WiFi if you can find it. 

Now more to our needs.   Why not simply just stay with WiFi only?  Can do that, but the problem is if later you see 3G turning into 4G or 6G, and would be lot faster than WiFi.  WiFi product can’t change over to WiFi + 3G; that’s why they are selling separately.   Darn.   I would love just to test WiFi, and if that does not meet my need, then upgrade to WiFi + 3G.  Nope, can’t do that – at least that’s my understanding.  If me wrong, feel free to correct me.   Also, some large cities have abundance of WiFi, then the choice would be easy.  Other cities not so plentiful so choice should be WiFi + 3G product?    If you stay home all the time, then WiFi alone should suffice if u already have wireless network at home/work. 

Sorry to digress..but here are some interesting and a bit bothersome analysis.

Let’s say you want 2 GB plan for $25 a month with AT&T. 

"A video conversation consuming 320kbps in each direction – 640kbps total – will run into the 5gb cap in 18 hours 38 minutes. That’s an average of 36 minutes per day over a 31 day month."  This one is from a Convo staff’s analysis.  

To hit the 2 GB cap, it would only take 7 hours 27 minutes. That’s a little less than 15 minutes a day. Hmm  we have 30 days a month.  AT&T and Verizon must think a day equals a month. 

Now keep in mind that is for 3G product.  Also, note 320 kbps is the low end of speed; many video phones are higher like 512 kbps which means will gobble up even more memory. 

Remember if you have access to WiFi, usage won’t count against you.  

Anyway, so if you use 3G product for browsing, viewing You Tube (just watch 10 minutes of HD video clip will use up 2 GB right there), email, texting, and watching movie, you will pay a penny more than you want to.  

Minimal use of 3G, AT&T plan is better, use lot of 3G, Verizon is better with $80 a month per 10 GB.  Yike, that may still not be enough for us deafies who will use lot of video chats.  

So what do you think, folks?    Be prolific in your thoughts.   

eyes open & thumbs up,

Ed

Long Link: 

MoneyAnalysis:
http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/11/technology/ipad_plan_cost/index.htm

Folks..

By now, one would think that issue should not be a problem for deaf/hoh, but, it still is. 

Hosp Denied Request

Quotable quotes:

"The Florida Human Relations Commission must determine whether a Hialeah hospital meets the legal definition of a public establishment so it can be determined whether it should have provided a sign-language interpreter to a deaf patient, a state appeals court ruled Tuesday."

My reaction was "What?  Seriously?"   It is a no brainer that hospital should provide interpreting service.  

"The plaintiff, Maura Mena, brought a discrimination complaint, alleging that her request for a sign-language interpreter was denied."

"The commission has made a ruling on this issue before, saying that hospitals aren’t primarily engaged in selling food, even if they have a cafeteria, and therefore don’t qualify."

Geez – looking for loopholes, huh?

"But a three-judge panel of the 1st DCA on Tuesday said whether the particular hospital is qualified depends on whether it “holds itself out as serving patrons” of the cafeteria. And that question of fact must be answered before the court can rule, the panel said, sending the case back to the Human Relations Commission to determine the answer."

It is really sad that this still happens in this enlightened age.

eyes open & thumbs up,

Ed

Long Link:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/12/29/1991985/deaf-patient-files-complaint.html

Folks..

In the near future Emergency 9-1-1 to allow texting and video streaming?  It would be way cool to be able to do that.  

More Accessible 911?

Quotable quotes:

"In a bid to bring the life-saving emergency service 911 into the 21st century, the FCC is looking at letting citizens report crimes through text messages and even stream video from their mobile phones to emergency centers."

"..911 handles more than 230 million calls a year — 70 percent of which now come from mobile phones."

"It’s not clear yet where the money will come from for the upgrades, whether they will be federal requirements states and cities must carry out or if they will simply be suggestions."

I am aware that NENA is already discussing how to utilize VRS into the infrastructure of emergency dispatch’s ability to receive emergency calls.  Whether it be from VRS providers, or create a national emergency call center just for the emergency VRS calls?  What do you think, my dear friends?  

eyes open & thumbs up,

Ed

Long Link:
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/11/fcc-911-texting/

Discriminating Folks,

Net Neutrality is an explosive issue right now.   Underlying issue is simply should Internet be regulated or continue unregulated?  Which of these two is best to preserve the Open Internet?  Should Internet providers be allowed to give preference to those people who pays the highest monthly rate?   Or the other way around, should Internet providers be allowed to block heavy users of Internet?  

These are just questions out of many in the NPRM that the FCC is asking Public and Industry.  Lot of industry responded: I counted so far 75 have responded.   NPRM is bit long, but not too difficult to read and understand. 

Open Internet

Quotable Quotes:

The underlying purpose is: "In order to promote innovation, investment, competition, and free expression, and to protect and empower consumers.."

and also this: "..that would codify the Internet Policy Statement’s four principles and strengthen them by prohibiting broadband Internet access providers from treating lawful traffic in a discriminatory manner, and by requiring providers to be transparent regarding their network management practices."

Reason for NPRM seems to be that: 

"The discussion generated by the Commission’s Open Internet proceeding appears to have narrowed disagreement on many of the key elements of the framework proposed in the NPRM:

Fifth, that in light of rapid technological and market change, enforcing high-level rules of the road through case-by-case adjudication, informed by engineering expertise, is a better policy approach than promulgating detailed, prescriptive rules that may have consequences that are difficult to foresee."

There are lot more analytical remarks from the FCC.  If you are interested, read on.  However, Net Neutrality issue is what will determine how we, the users of Internet, be able to use Internet and to what extent and what we’re not allowed to.

Unless I overlooked, I do not see any comments from deaf/hoh groups that commented.   I know that this is generally for industry, but Internet Users or non-profit/advocacy organizations certainly can comment.   I see many did like one from Hispanic group, etc.  

eyes open & thumbs up,

Ed

Open Internet Long Link: https://prodnet.www.neca.org/publicationsdocs/wwpdf/da101667.pdf

(For those who wants to know what "discriminating" means: with "ing" and used before noun, it becomes adjective and means a person having or showing refined taste or good judgment.  I mention that cuz discriminate (verb) can be conveyed as a negative term.)