Free My cell: Cellular Carterfone

Together with Jason of Brash we just filed our comments on the Cellular Carterfone.

You can view the RF&JD comments on Skype petition- or if you want a brief summary

1. Cellular handsets have become handheld computers, used for accessing information and other methods of communication in addition to voice calls. Cellular handsets have become small and powerful computers & Handsets have become our link to society and information:

2. The current cellular market is tightly controlled and oligopolistic, which results in inferior consumer offerings. We listed four examples: (i) Limiting handset features (Bluetooth/VZW, WiFi-E62, Hardly any WiFi-GSM handsets in the market. Only one Nokia N series in the market) (ii) Example 2: Slowing adoption of new consumer services such as visual voice mail (iii) Bundling handsets with service: consumers pay the same monthly service fee if they bring their own handset or get an operator ‘free’ handset and (iv) the Verizon Brew service which allows VZW to control information services and charge for content.

3. Enforcing the FCC’s existing broadband guidelines in the cellular handset market will benefit consumers and create new business opportunities. Three examples we gave: Free handsets and richer consumer offering with lower monthly service fees, First responders can get new specialized equipment or (iii) New types of Medical monitoring devices that can be developed

4. Remedy: The FCC should insist on cellular operator compliance and remove any special treatment for the wireless indsurty. This is about LESS regulation and less protection. Its about enforcing existing FCC open communication guidelines. First Enforce Carterfone principles: Devices can be offered by third parties and can not be blocked, and (ii) Operators should offer “service only” plans that do not bundle a handset with the service. Second Apply wired & broadband Net neutrality principles to Wireles.

There is only one Internet and one public IP network. Some nodes might be wired, some nodes might be wireless through the cellular network, some might be wireless through WiFi and some might use both or different networks. Same open rules and principles should apply – regardless if and end point is connected through GSM, CDMA, 80211G, 802.3 of any other technology acronym we cant pronounce.

If you want to support the Skype petition – click here to file comments with the FCC directly (it is quite easy – would not take more then a minute. Put ‘RM-11361’ in field 1. Document type is ‘Comment’ and you can type your thoughts in the bottom. Pretty straight forward)

Clarification – I was not paid to file this by Skype, Nokia or anybody else. I believe it is very important for consumers and the industry. And yes – I might be involved in one of the opportunities that will be created if FCC follows through (that is if C will not ban me from doing another startup)

Idanese – English dictionary

While both of Idan’s grandmothers have detected many more words during their visits than we have (in both English and Hebrew), here are the ones we hear consistently:

“No” – luckily, less frequent than it used to be! Accompanied by definite head shaking from side to side. This is a kid who knows what he wants! (But sometimes just saying “no” is half the fun, and he’ll then reach out to accept whatever he just refused…)

“Uo-Oh” Appropriately and frequently used

“Shoes” – we’d think this was a strange addition to his vocabulary if it wasn’t one of our friends’ daughters first words.

“Mih” – music. Said while pointing to the CD player. And not just any music – he has his favorites, of course, which unfortunately by definition now skip all the time because he’s tried putting them in the CD player on his own so many times.

“Doh” – dog! Said with a BIG smile and enthusiastic pointing whenever we pass one on the street, or when Idan sees one out the window, or even when he hears one barking in the distance. More ammunition for Ram’s campaign…

“Mama” – finally, seems pretty consistent. We’ve confused him by saying both “Mom” and “Ima,” but he seems to have settled on “Mama” for now.

“Baba” – also sometimes “Dada” (again probably not helped by our interchangeable use of Aba and Daddy).

“Car” – fairly consistent, although he’ll let a lot of them go by without comment (unlike dogs).

He entertains us with a constant stream of sentences, and words that we haven’t yet managed to attach to a particular meaning based on usage, but which he says very clearly and emphatically (he is doing his best to teach us, but we’re slow learners).

He loves bringing us books to read, especially ones with moving parts (puzzle pieces, pop-ups, and anything else he can destroy – um, we mean, play with). And he loves dancing as much as ever – we just took a great video that we’ll upload soon. He’s also a great climber, and will slide down not only the small slide in our backyard, but also the much bigger one in the playground all on his own.

He also still holds the world record for ability to soak any bib or shirt with drool in no time flat. And is a voracious eater – but luckily very active so, aside from his Buddha belly, it doesn’t seem to stick on him.

That’s the update! (C) 20007 C