The Wireless Wizard

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Sky-High WiFi

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JUNE 30, 2009 (on a blog hosting site that's not very friendly about exporting their data)

Most times I'm asleep before takeoff. The routine, honed after 20+ years of heavy traveling and more than two million miles in the air, is more a result of muscle memory than thought. Backpack stored in overhead - check. Newspaper and reading materials folder in seat-back pocket - check. Earbuds firmly inserted to block noise and memorized announcements - check. Turn off phone - check. Wake-up when drink cart rolls down the aisle - check. Log into WiFi to get some work done - check - WAIT - what? WiFi? Up here? Yup.

After years of isolation at 35,000' and the ability to effectively block work-related communications thanks to a lack of Internet connectivity the wall has come down - or gone way, way up, depending on your point of view. It took years before the net's reach extended outwards from the home or office but now that's pretty much routine - wireless cards, hot spots, tethering a mobile to your laptop, etc., all keep us connected when we're on the horizontal. But now the reach has gone vertical. Just last week I had sky-high WiFi. And loved it.

Most of my flying has been spread across the three major airlines thanks to relocations that took me to Dallas (American), Chicago (United), Atlanta (Delta) and L.A. (take your pick). I'd never flown Virgin America before but had tried Virgin Atlantic for a couple of hops across the pond to London and liked it so I figured it would be worth a try.

Satellite Radio Is On Life Support

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MAY 12, 2009 (on a blog hosting site that's not very friendly about exporting their data)

Biking alongside someone for hours at a time gives riders plenty of time to talk. My #1 riding buddy (and great pal) Andy and I have clocked thousands of miles together, all the while talking about business, arguing about politics, laughing about the sheer stupidities of life and generally covering a lot of ground - both literally and figuratively.

A few years ago Andy got his first satellite radio and was instantly hooked. He loved the clear sound, choice of channels and absence of advertising. My comment, as we pedaled along, puzzled him. "Enjoy it while you can. It won't last forever," I said.

As with a lot of other predictions I'm off by a few years in one direction or another. However, I'm convinced that satellite radio is currently on life support and is doomed to be a marginal product for however long it lasts - despite the opinions of Andy and millions of his fellow satellite-radio-addicted compatriots.

What Does "3G" Mean?

With the introduction of the next generation of the iPhone there are a lot of new terms being bandied about. One of them, which has been well-known for years by insiders in the wireless industry, is "3G." It can be confusing to try to figure out some of these abbreviations and especially so in the case of the iPhone - read on to find out why.

Scott Goldman - Videos

During my career I have been interviewed hundreds of times on TV, radio, webcasts and in print. Below are some videos of various media interviews with major networks and news organizations.

Scott Goldman - CNBC eBusiness - Future cell phone services

Scott Goldman - WAP Forum Interview (What your cell phone will be capable of in the near future)

Scott Goldman - NBC News Interview:

Scott Goldman - Fox News Interview:

Scott Goldman - Discussing Location Based Services

Scott Goldman - CNN eBiz Asia - Defending the WAP standard

Scott Goldman - The Wireless Wizard

Hi - I'm Scott Goldman. My Friends Call Me "The Wireless Wizard."

For years I've been conceptualizing, launching, building, operating, licensing and, in several cases, selling wireless businesses around the world. During my time in the wireless industry I've traveled to more than 20 countries to help governments and my clients, written books, magazine articles, blog posts, introductions to other people's books, given speeches, been interviewed more than 500 times (no, that's not a typo) in print, radio, TV, live webcasts and much more.

What I like to do most of all (besides cycling) is extract the productive power for myself and others from the device that seems to be in every pocket or purse, the ubiquitous cell phone. I'm not a hacker, "modder" or code warrior - instead, I like to take a cell phone as it comes out of the box and tweak it, customize it and empower it to make my life easier.

After answering countless questions about cell phones, wireless email, Internet access and everything else "tech" that didn't have wires my friends starting calling me The Wireless Wizard.

I'm the guy that people turn to and ask, "Hey, how do you do..." with their phone, Blackberry, Bluetooth device, etc. And, almost without fail, I answer those questions.

Now my intention is to answer yours. Free of charge, anytime, about any issues regarding wireless. Why? Because I believe that most people don't get a fraction of the productivity, feature use and just plain fun out of their mobile devices.

Author, Consultant, Speaker, Entrepreneur,Trainer and "Wireless Wizard"

I've been called an author, consultant, speaker, trainer and certifiable Macintosh and wireless wizard. It's been said that you do best at the things you love - but I don't love technology... I love what technology can DO for people.

Ever since I was a little kid I've been hiding wires - tucking them underneath carpets, pushing them under baseboards and generally trying to eliminate them from my life. No offense meant to the wire manufacturers of the world, but wires stink. They are restrictive, binding and limiting. My 25-year career has been dedicated to helping people improve their lives and their businesses by un-wiring themselves. In short, I want everyone to GO WIRELESS (NOTE: I just sold the domain name "GoWireless.com" for a pretty substantial amount of money. While I can't use that domain name any longer, I still want people to "go wireless.")

When I finished school (SUNY Cortland, in lovely, but freezing upstate NY) I decided that I wanted to be a radio disk jockey. I struggled to get into the very tight "personality" market for a while and became frustrated at the lack of opportunities. So, I figured that getting in through a back door would be the right approach.

During an interview with what I thought was an FM music station, the sales manager demonstrated a device that beeped when its phone number was called. I was hooked on wireless right then and there.

Thanks for spending the time to look around.

Scott Goldman
aka The Wireless Wizard

Scott Goldman - Speaker

During my career in high technology I've spoken at virtually every major industry conference - and a lot of minor ones - at least once.

Many times, I was the keynote speaker, others, a member of a panel. My talks and speeches allowed me to take on the role of evangelist for worldwide standards, spokesperson for a completely new technology (more than once) and to promote the books, consulting services, research capabilities and other aspects of the companies that I owned or partnered in.

At last count I had given speeches in more than 20 countries... there were more, I'm sure, but I just stopped counting after that.

Here are just a few of the more important ones (I stopped speaking at these events after 2001 to reduce my travel - after 2,000,000 miles flown I just got tired of it):

M-Commerce World (London, UK - Keynote), February 2001, "The Future of WAP (And How It Will Drive Mobile Commerce)"
3G – Moving Forward With Mobile (San Francisco, CA, USA), January 2001, “WAP in a 3G World”
WAPWednesday (Munich, Germany - Keynote), December 2000, “WAP – It’s More Than Mobile”
Internet World Asia (Hong Kong, China - Opening Keynote Address), November 2000, "WAP In Asia: Fact and Future"
Wall Street Journal Summit on Technology (Washington, DC, USA), October 2000, “Mobile Internet Roundtable”
Chinese Ministry of Telecommunications (Beijing, China), September 2000, “Delivering WAP Technology To China”
Unwired Universe (San Francisco, CA, USA – Keynote), July 2000, "Today's Worldwide WAP Marketplace"
WR Hambrecht Financial Analyst Conference (San Francisco, CA, USA – Keynote), June 2000, “WAP vs. The World”
Internet World UK (London, UK – Keynote), May 2000, “Moving Forward With WAP”
PCS99 – E-Commerce Workshop (New Orleans, LA, USA), September 1999, “10 Sure-Fire Ways to Kill Your E-Commerce Site Before It Even Gets Off The Ground”
Wireless Data Forum (New Orleans, LA, USA), February 1999, “Building An E-Commerce Internet Site for Wireless Businesses”
Bank of America (San Francisco, CA, USA), April 1998, “Understanding the Financial Impact of Wireless Technology On Global Telecommunications Businesses”
Federal Republic of Germany - Deutsche Bundespost, March 1989, “The Potential Impact of Interconnection Costs on Cellular Operators in Germany”
United States Department of State - International Bureau of Communications Policy, September, 1987, “Preparation for World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC) - An Analysis of the Benefits of a Common Frequency for International Paging.”
Japanese Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, November 1984, Tokyo, Japan, “An Overview of the American Frequency Coordination Process”

Scott Goldman - A Career of "Firsts"

1975 - Became the top salesperson for LIN Communications in NY, selling pagers (called "Beepers" back then because, well, all they could do was beep. Average sales were 200% of the staff average.
1978 - LIN, the first-ever paging licensee in the United States, asks me to open their first-ever branch office in Houston, Texas. Delivered cash-flow positive results with only one operational antenna.
1980 - Recruited by Radio Relay in Dallas and developed the first telemarketing program for sales of pagers. Sales skyrocket.
1982 - Joined Compucon, the premiere provider of cellular engineering and marketing research services, helping to secure licenses worth hundreds of millions of dollars for our clients.
1983 - Submitted the first-ever testimony to the FCC in a cellular comparative hearing, helping to sway the decision in favor of Rogers Radio, Inc., bought shortly thereafter by Metromedia in the first wave of their cellular buying spree.
1984 - Make history-setting presentation to the Japanese Ministry of Post and Telecommunication, helping to set the stage for first steps toward telecom deregulation.
1985 - Author the first-ever analysis of spectrum requirements for the wireless industry, helping to convince the FCC to allocate an additional 30 MHz of spectrum for cellular services.
1986 - Author "The Cooper Report", the first-ever analysis of real cellular user subscriber patterns.
1987 - Join with Marty Cooper and Arlene Harris in Chicago to develop the first-ever cellular credit card phone. The technology is developed and later sold to GTE.
1989 - Launched "The Goldman Group" and began providing strategic planning, analytical and marketing planning services to major wireless corporations including BellSouth, Ameritech, Oki, Motorola and many others.
1992 - Helped launch Optus in Australia, the first-ever competitor to the government-sanctioned monopoly (Telecom Australia). Sales, number of employees, revenues and all other measurable items hit the stratosphere within the first year.
1995 - Launched the first-ever electronic news service for the wireless industry, WirelessNOW. Ultimately sold this business to The Strategis Group, which was then sold to the Daily Mail Group of London.
1999 - Launched the first-ever web site for selling wireless phones, accessories and service, called "BuyWireless.com" (this domain name was later sold to another company that operates a similar web site now).
2000 - Wrote "Ask The Wireless Wizard" - the first-ever textbook designed for non-technical members of the industry. The book sells throughout the U.S. and Canada as a teaching aide and a companion CD is made for it with me telling stories about the industry's history, technology and future.
2001 - Recruited as the first-ever CEO of The WAP Forum, a global standards organization dedicated to making WAP a worldwide standard.
2004 - Recruited as President and COO of go2 Systems, delivering the first real-time updated directory of businesses via mobile devices.
2006 - Sold "BuyWireless.com" domain name.
2007 - Sold "GoWireless.com" domain name.
2007 - Launches "TheWirelessWizard.com", a web site dedicated to providing tips, tricks, shortcuts and answers to everday questions from non-technical cellular phone users.
2008 - Launches TextPower - a text messaging company that provides gateway, messaging and a library of vertical market software for integration with enterprise and backoffice systems. Develops "TextKey™" - the first-ever two-factor authentication tool using mobile-originated SMS in a patent-pending solution to secure web sites.
2009 - Becomes advisor to Parking In Motion - a startup addressing the parking problem by helping people navigate "the last hundred feet" to an available spot. The first time real-time parking information is delivered to mobile and navigation devices.