Wireless Technologies Used Today Based on Decades of Work at Virginia Tech

Technologies used today by companies, such as Direct TV, Iridium Satellite, Bluetooth, and Globalstar, are based on satellite communications efforts started at Virginia Tech four decades ago in its Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE).

Beginning with their first NASA-funded project in 1971 and continuing through the 1990s, ECE professors Charles Bostian and Warren Stutzman led Virginia Tech's satellite communications efforts, building ground stations for global satellite communications and characterizing the propagation environment. "The work they started as members of Virginia Tech's Satellite Communications Group has impacted standards and real systems used by industry and government," says Jeff Reed, current director of Wireless@VT.

A defining moment for Virginia Tech's wireless researchers came when they started receiving major funding in 1993 from the Defense Advanced Projects Research Project Agency (DARPA). The first $1.7 million DARPA contract asked Virginia Tech to develop a revolutionary approach to wireless communications.

The Virginia Tech communications engineers combined new technologies in computer chips, antennas, and digital signal processing in a novel way, eventually allowing wireless devices to be extremely miniature, but able to adapt to interference in the radio channel. They accomplished their goals and increased the number of radio devices that could share a single radio frequency, thereby increasing the capacity of wireless users in a specific region of space.

"Companies spun out of this research," Reed said, including the first wireless communications company in Blacksburg, TSR Technologies, which later was sold to Grayson Electronics. In 1998, a second spin-off, Wireless Valley Communications Inc., was founded and later sold to Motorola for some $30 million. "People made their careers from the enabling technologies that we developed," Reed says.

In the 1990s, the wireless researchers at Virginia Tech began filing for patent after patent. Within a few years, some of the technologies they had developed included SIRCOM, an indoor channel modeling program; CELLSCOPE, a technology that identifies a person using a cellular phone; SMT, a site modeling tool for indoor communications that led to Wireless Valley Communications; Stallion, a high-performance computing device for handsets; and Interactive Video, a wireless mechanism for users to order products they see advertised on TV. All were available for licensing through Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties Inc.

In one of the first highly publicized uses of CELLSCOPE, the FBI employed it in 1995 to track down Kevin Mitnick, the nation's most-wanted computer hacker, in Raleigh, N.C. The SMT software was licensed in its introductory year to leading communications companies, including Motorola, Ericsson, Hewlett Packard, Tellans, and Mobile System International.

Some of the other wireless projects the different groups were working on then are commonplace today, such as the creation of Bluetooth technologies that enable the wireless office emerging in the 21st century; software radio for wireless communication interoperability and smart antenna technologies to eliminate co-channel interference; and advanced wireless modems to support remote computing and high-data-rate wireless access to the Internet. They also were instrumental in improving cellular communications to prevent co-channel interference, and in allowing radio waves to penetrate into buildings. In the area of intelligent transportation systems, they were working on Global Positioning Systems more than a decade before they became popular Christmas presents for directionally challenged drivers.

MPRG founder Ted Rapapport authored the first textbook on modern wireless communications, called Wireless Communications: Principles and Practice in 1996. An instant classic in academia, some 30 universities from around the world adopted its use within the first 12 months, and thousands of engineers were trained using the knowledge coming from the Virginia Tech research laboratories.

As the wireless faculty moved into the 21st century, Virginia Tech became the leading research institution in the field of cognitive radios, called a new frontier for the world of wireless communications. Cognitive radios are intelligent radios that can determine the best way to operate in any given situation. "The new cognitive radios are similar to living creatures in that they are aware of their surroundings and understand their own and other users' capabilities and the governing regulatory constraints" and address the incompatible communications problems between emergency services, says Bostian. They also hold promise for rapid deployment of emergency communication infrastructure in the event of a disaster.

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Help Your Small Business Get Ahead

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Wireless Telecom Will Likely Push Carlos Slim Past Bill Gates

Businessman Carlos Slim Helu, who goes by Carlos Slim, has already passed super-investor Warren Buffett as the 2nd richest man on the planet. Now his growing interests in wireless telecom could push Carlos Slim past even Microsoft founder Bill Gates as the richest man in the world.

That's according to a new report online.

Carlos Slim is the controlling shareholder of America Movil. America Movil's recent quarterly results confirm that the company is capable of capturing untapped growth in its markets and potentially moving Carlos Slim past Gates in wealth.

America Movil, through its subsidiaries, provides wireless communication services primarily in Latin America.


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Former Telecom Owner Convicted for E-Rate Scheme

A federal jury in McAllen, Texas, convicted the former president and owner of ATE TelSolutions Inc., which does business as ATE Telecom Solutions Inc. (ATETel), on seven of nine counts of wire fraud in a scheme to defraud the federal E-Rate program, the Department of Justice announced.

Rafael Adame was convicted of submitting fraudulent applications for payment onbehalf of ATE Tel to the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC). The indictment against Adame was returned on Dec. 6, 2006.

Adame was convicted of submitting fraudulent invoices for payment to the Schools and Libraries Division of USAC from December 2001 to May 2003. As a result of the scheme to defraud the E-Rate program, Adame fraudulently obtained $106,514 in payments from USAC.

"Committing fraud upon the E-Rate program harms underprivileged school districts," says Thomas Barnett, assistant attorney general in charge ofthe Justice Department's Antitrust Division. "The Antitrust Division will continue to vigorously pursue those who cheat the competitive process and steal money from this federal program."

The E-Rate program subsidizes the provision of Internet access andtelecommunications services, as well as internal computer andcommunications networks, to economically disadvantaged schools andlibraries. The program was created by Congress in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and is administered by USAC, a non-profit corporation, under the auspices of the FCC.

Adame owned and operated ATE Tel, a vendor that provided computer-related goods and services through the E-Rate program to various school districts, including Weslaco Independent School District in South Texas. Adame devised a scheme to defraud the E-Rate program through illegitimate invoices, which were transmitted via wire communications to USAC. On these invoices Adame entered fabricated data, such as false customer bill dates and false amounts for reimbursement. USAC then relied on this illegitimate information to transmit wire transfers for theindicated amount into ATE Tel's bank account. By making false representations on invoices filed with USAC, Adame received payments in excess of what was authorized and for work that was not actually performed.

The wire fraud conviction carries a maximumpenalty per count of 20 years in jail, and a $250,000 fine. Adame has not yet been sentenced.

The conviction resulted from an ongoing national investigation offraud in the E-Rate program. The trial and prosecution of this case wasconducted by the Antitrust Division's Dallas Field Office and the Federal Communications Commission's Office of Inspector General.

The Antitrust Division's ongoing investigation into fraud and anti-competitive conduct in the E-Rate program has yielded charges being filedagainst 14 individuals and 12 companies. Six companies and four individuals have either been found guilty at trial, pleaded guilty, agreed to pleadguilty, or have entered civil settlements. The defendants have collectively agreed to pay criminal fines and restitution totaling more than $40 million. Two of the individuals have each been sentenced to serve six years in prison.

Anyone with information concerning fraud or anticompetitive conduct inthe E-Rate program should contact the Dallas Field Office of the AntitrustDivision at +1-214-661-8600.

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Romantic Text Messaging On The Rise

Short, to the point, and sometimes discreet love notes are sweetening up cell phones as a result of wireless text messaging. Thirty-three percent of people surveyed say they communicate with their date or mate via text messaging in 2007, an increase of six percentage points from last year. Twenty-eight percent of users also report using text messaging to flirt.

For the fourth year, Cingular Wireless, part of AT&T, has commissioned a survey of adult cell phone users to determine how cell phones have affected their romantic lives. The survey was conducted in January 2007 by ICR (International Communications Research) among 1,006 wireless users and reveals that SMS and MMS-based communication between partners is on the rise.

Other findings from the survey include:

• Thirty-eight percent of respondents said that a date answered his or her wireless phone in the midst of a great dinner conversation while 31 percent said they had done the same.
• Twenty-eight percent have used text messaging to avoid long conversations.
• Seventeen percent reported that a wireless phone has saved them from an uncomfortable date.
• Twelve percent have used text messaging news as a conversation starter with a date or mate.
• Eight percent of respondents say they have ended a relationship over rude/offensive wireless behavior.
• Five percent of respondents have called someone else he or she was interested in from a wireless phone while on a date and seven percent reported that their date had done so.
• Six percent have judged a prospective date by the phone they use.

"Text messaging has become part of the social fabric of dating in America," says Jennifer Bowcock, director of consumer public relations for Cingular Wireless, the new AT&T. "People can text one another to make plans or even say 'I love you' when they may not have the time or ability to make a voice call. It is definitely a discreet and simple way to stay connected."

Also significant in the survey results, 59 percent of active daters use text messaging to communicate with their dates, while only 30 percent ofthose who are married, in a committed relationship or not dating do the same with their partners.

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Internet Access Revenue for Cable, Other Program Distribution Reaches $11B

Internet access revenue for cable and other program distribution increased 18 percent, from $9.4 billion in 2004 to $11.1 billion in 2005, but access revenue for Internet service providers decreased 13 percent, from $14.1 billion in 2004 to $12.2 billion in 2005, according to a new U.S. Census Bureau report.

Revenue for Internet publishing and broadcasting increased from $8.7billion in 2004 to $10.3 billion in 2005, a 19 percent rise, according to the 2005 Service Annual Survey (SAS): Information Sector Services.

The report is one in a series on economic activity in several service industries, the Census Bureau says.

Also from the report on taxable firms with employees, revenues from cellular and other wireless telecommunications rose from $126 billion in 2004 to $141 billion in 2005, an increase of 12 percent.






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'Speed Matters' Campaign to Press for High Speed Internet for All

The Communications Workers of America released a new policy paper as part of its "Speed Matters" campaign, a multi-million-dollar, strategic effort to help bring affordable, high speed Internet to all Americans.

The newest policy paper is available at http://www.speedmatters.org/ in the "to learn more" box. Also on that site is a speed test, to measure individual Internet speed, and other breaking news and information.

The report spotlights the critical need for a comprehensive national high speed broadband policy if the United States is to bring the benefits of the telecommunications revolution to all.

The United States, the country that invented the Internet, has fallen to 16th in the world in terms of access to high speed broadband, the union says.

CWA represents 700,000 workers in communications and information technology, media and cable, public service, health care and higher education, airlines and manufacturing.

"This is not surprising since we spend relatively less as a nation on telecommunications investment and we spend relatively more as consumers for slower speeds," the report says.

"High speed networks are the infrastructure of the 21st century and the U.S. needs a national policy to get all of us there," says CWA President Larry Cohen. "This is a critical public good and where markets are slow to deliver, we need to find ways to create financial incentives to speed up private sector build out. In addition, we need to ensure that all regions of the country have access to service -- including rural areas and urban communities. That's why we need a national public policy that will make sure that all Americans can benefit from high speed Internet and other 21st century advances."

Cohen notes that the recent announcement of the sale of Verizon landlines in northern New England was a step backward in terms of providing universal high speed Internet access for all. Consumers in Vermont, Maineand New Hampshire have, in effect, been abandoned in terms of gaining access to true high speed Internet and future technological advances,because only companies with a substantial rate of capitalization have theability to provide such services, he says.

CWA is advocating some bold, specific steps that the United Statesshould take to ensure that all residents have access to high speed Internet networks. These include:

* An increase in the Federal Communication Commission's definition of high speed, which now is just 200 kilobits per second, a fraction of what the rest of the world uses.

* Accurate mapping and data collection of exactly where the US is in terms of broadband availability and speed, so we know who does and who does not have access to high speed Internet today.

* Support for public/private partnerships to promote build out and to generate demand.

* Extending universal service requirements that now apply only to voice telephony to Internet services.

* Preserving an open Internet, so that all consumers can go where they want, when they want.

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