Give Me a Break

Borrowing ABC’s John Stossel’s familiar program refrain, I’ve found myself shaking my head this week about a number of wireless issues and occurrences. Like John, each has caused me to say, “Give me a break.”

• Recently, Kansas City underwent a landline number crisis. You used to be able to dial seven numbers to any location in the greater Kansas City area, no matter which side of the state line you were on. Not anymore. If Missourians are calling a Kansas number, they have to dial the 913 area code plus seven digits. Kansans have to dial 816 to reach Missouri-side numbers. I live and work on the Kansas side. My family lives on the Missouri side. It was an inconvenience to adjust to dialing 10 digits to call my Mom who lives 20 minutes away from me. However, what really toasts me is my wireless phone. Because I purchased it several years ago from an office on the Missouri side, it doesn’t follow the same protocol. If I want to call my office or my home to pick up messages, I have to dial 10 digits. What’s worse, I have to consciously think, “I’m calling from a Missouri phone to a Kansas number.” Give me a break.

• There’s an idea floating around the FCC that perhaps spectrum licenses shouldn’t be able to be modified by bankruptcy courts. First, if a company makes a bid, it should be held to the same obligations of other businesses. You promise money. If you can’t deliver on your promises, bankruptcy court will handle your default. Second, the FCC isn’t and shouldn’t take on the role of bankruptcy judges. Give me a break.

• Last night at the gym, a woman on the Stairmaster was talking on her cellular phone while scaling her way to health. Give me a break. I don’t want anyone to hear me huffing and puffing during my workout.

• The Department of Justice and the FBI have voiced national security concerns regarding some of the international mergers, thus specifically and most recently delaying approval of the VoiceStream-Omnipoint merger. The two agencies wanted to be certain they would be able to wiretap customers in certain situations. So how many other agencies are going to have the audacity to stall wireless business progression? Give me a break.

• Wireless has been threatened by certain activists about the safety of using handsets while making calls in moving vehicles. The spring car shows unveiled developments such as on-board televisions and VCRs as well as neon telematics to be projected onto the windshield. And they think using a phone in the car is distracting? Give me a break.

• Craig McCaw plans to take over the assets of the failed Iridium system. McCaw is batting 1000 with his previous visionary efforts, most notably building out a national cellular network and successfully pumping up a flagging Nextel. Looking ahead at another potentially successful endeavor, the relieved Motorola has to be thinking, “We caught a break on this one.”