photo credit: Verizon to Pay $93.5 M

Verizon Wireless has agreed to pay $93.5 Million to the US government. According to an article written by Brad Reed, ITWorldCanada, the original complaint was filed against Verizon in 2007. MCI (starting in 1999) began overcharging the government by “submitting invoices for payment to the United States for certain surcharges … that it is prohibited from charging the United States under Federal Acquisition Regulations … and the FTS 2001 contract.” Since Verizon and MCI merged in 2006, the courts found Verizon liable for MCI’s actions.

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photo credit: ITU Mobile Usage Chart

An unbelievable 2/3 of the planet’s population uses cell phones. At the end of 2009, 4.6 billion people were cell phone subscribers. This is up from 1 billion users in 2002. Even in developing countries the number of cell phone users was up to 50% of the population.

67% of all people on Earth use cell phones!

The ITU (International Telecommunications Union) predicted we would reach 5 billion cell phone subscribers by the end of 2010. (See my blog 5 Billion Cell Phone Subscribers in 2010.) And according to the ITU, the cost for cell phone service has become less expensive, dropping by about 15% globally between 2008 and 2009.

Also included in this report were statistics for Internet usage. While cell phone subscriptions are rising rapidly, Internet access is not rising as rapidly. At the end of 2009, 25.9% of the population had broadband Internet access. Compared to the 67% using cell phones, Internet access isn’t spreading as quickly. The exception to these statistics is China, which accounts for about one third of people in developing countries with Internet Access.

I have said it before. The trend is for people to ditch their land line phones in favor of only having cell phone service. With the dropping prices from the major cell phone service providers, it only makes sense to keep the mobile phones over the stationary land lines. (See my blog New MagicJack for Cell Phones.) And with the growing popularity of Smartphones that provide effective Internet access, I see the numbers of cell phone subscribers rising even more rapidly.

photo credit: Jammed Cell Phone

The FCC not only regulates cell phone signal boosters, but also regulates the cell phone signal jammers. The way the law reads now, jammers can only be sold to federal authorities. In October, the US Senate passed the Safe Prison Act, allowing prisons to apply to deploy a cell phone jammer to block wireless coverage in the prison. This holds true for state prisons as well as federal prisons. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: Boys vs Girls on cell phones?

How boys and girls differ in using their cell phones may start as early as middle school. Sheila Cotten, a sociologist at University of Alabama at Birmingham, asked 1,000 middle school students to describe the ways they use their cell phones. The poll results gave Ms. Cotten some surprises. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: Is the network strong enough?

Smartphones and other data-intensive devices have been taking down the service provider networks right and left. With more and more Smartphones (Droids and iPhones) being sold, cell phone service providers are understandably concerned. But not Verizon…. Read the rest of this entry »