What’s New

Submitted on March 2011, 01:00 pm by Scott Covell

The passing of our close friend and colleague, Brian Gottfried, was a shock to everyone who knew him. In mourning his passing, many of you expressed an interest in helping the family in some meaningful way. To that end, SBA has worked closely with Wells Fargo Advisors to establish 529 college education funds for each of Brian’s children. The funds were established through the Bright Start College Savings Program which will allow Brian’s wife, Lisa, to take advantage of the low cost investment options managed by Wells Fargo and invested in a range of Oppenheimer Funds. Directions on how you may contribute are attached. Please note that you may contribute with one check which will be divided amongst the three children with Jacob, the oldest, receiving the slightly larger portion or you may write 3 separate checks –one for each child.

Once your donation is received by Wells Fargo, a notice will be sent to me in order that I might inform Lisa of your generous contribution. You may, however, remain anonymous.

If you wish to contribute please make your checks payable to the “Wells Fargo Advisors” and write the child(ren)’s name(s) and account numbers in the memo section of the check(s). The check(s) and the instructions for deposit should be mailed directly to:

Wells Fargo Advisors

Attn: Timothy Prescott/Edward Aiello

3399 PGA Blvd. Ste #400

Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410

If you have any questions, please contact:

Timothy Prescott

Vice President – Investments

Edward Aielio

Vice President - Investments

They can both be reached at 561-691-5151 (direct) or 888-246-7564 (toll free)

Please feel free to pass along this email to anyone outside of the SBA Family.

On behalf of Lisa and the children, we would like to thank you for your support, thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.

Submitted on January 6 2009, 02:06 pm by Scott Covell

Economist Recommends $17.4 B Stimulus for Wireless Infrastructure

Since the presidential election, PCIA has communicated the importance of wireless infrastructure to President-Elect Obama’s Transition Team and leadership of the new Congress.

At the request of Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), the incoming Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, PCIA provided data on the strong economic value of wireless infrastructure deployment, identified appropriate regulatory relief in the infrastructure siting process, and suggested funding priorities for the wireless industry.

On behalf of Obama’s Transition Team, former FCC Chief Economist Dr. Alan Pearce prepared an economic analysis of the wireless industry as input to development of the infrastructure initiative economic stimulus package. Dr. Pearce relied on PCIA to provide crucial financial and other quantitative data for use in his analysis.

His resulting report, entitled “Accelerated Wireless Broadband Infrastructure Deployment: Impact on GDP & Employment in 2009 – 2010,” estimates that direct and indirect investments of $17.4B for wireless broadband infrastructure would increase GDP by 0.9 – 1.3% or $126.3B – $184.1B and create approximately 4.5million – 6.3 million jobs. The report also emphasizes that time limits should be placed on local jurisdictional review of wireless infrastructure applications and the FCC should clear the backlog of pending applications referred for NEPA review.

PCIA and its members will continue to be important contributors to the work of the new Administration and Congress as a fast-track economic stimulus package is adopted.

Submitted on 18 May 2012, 9:38 am by Fierce Wireless

LTE connections will reach 90 million by the end of 2012, according to a new study by Strategy Analytics. The report said sales of LTE-based smartphones are expanding beyond early LTE hotbeds, including the United States, South Korea and Japan, and the technology will grow to 1 billion connections by early 2017.

LTE now has overwhelming support from global operators as their 4G upgrade path, said the analyst firm. Further, the technology will account for 15 per cent of all mobile connections in 2017, putting it on a faster trajectory than any other mobile technology. Article

Submitted on 18 May 2012, 9:37 am by Fierce Wireless

German wireless carriers are in an uproar over what they said is a delay by the German telecom regulator BNA in approving their applications to deploy LTE network technology in key German cities. According to the Financial Times Deutschland, BNA is sitting on over 8,000 applications made by Vodafone, Telefónica, E-Plus and Telekom Deutschland for LTE deployments, thus resulting in significant delays in building LTE in urban German areas.

The head of Germany's telecom operators association VATM, Juergen Grützner, has written to the BNA claiming that the statutory maximum of six weeks to process an application is often being exceeded by several months.

The BNA said the issue is due to not having adequate staff assigned to the task. The agency said new software will be implemented that should help alleviate the delays.

Grützner has told VATM members that, "We expect the new president of the BNA to find a quick and pragmatic solution," according to the Financial Times Deutschland.

Having been restricted by their 800 MHz LTE licence conditions to initially provide coverage to rural areas, the operators are now keen to deploy the technology into more profitable urban and city locations.

The operators are required to obtain permission from the BNA for each microwave and base station antenna prior to installation.

For more:
- see this Financial Times Deutschland (translated via Google Translate)
- see this Telecom Paper article (sub. req.)

Submitted on 18 May 2012, 8:25 am by Wireless Week

Verizon Wireless is again going on offense against critics of the AWS deal, this time targeting MetroPCS.

Submitted on 18 May 2012, 8:22 am by Wireless Week

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Hewlett Packard is poised to eliminate as many as 30,000 jobs to compensate for dwindling demand for personal computers as more people connect to the Internet on smartphones and tablets, according to reports published Thursday. The