Cellular

Comcast Corp. and three other major U.S. cable TV firms said yesterday they will begin marketing cellular-telephone service through Sprint Nextel Corp. early next year, a move analysts say temporarily leapfrogs phone company rivals such as Verizon Communications Inc. in the battle to sell bundled services to consumers. "The battle lines are drawn," said Raul Martynek, chief executive officer of Eureka/InfoHighway, a New York-based provider of telecom services for businesses. Joining Comcast in the deal with Sprint are Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Advance/Newhouse Communications, which currently reach 41 million households.

Cell phones may be the next frontier in sports media. And you thought they existed only so that your spouse could tell you to stop at the grocery on the way home. Fans have been able to check scores and statistics on their phones for years, but companies such as Sprint Nextel are taking that notion to another realm in partnership with the NFL, NASCAR and ESPN. Sprint signed a five-year, $600 million sponsorship deal with the NFL this summer and recently announced its "NFL Mobile" package.

OCEAN CITY - Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. pushed yesterday for stricter sex-offender laws in Maryland, saying he wants to increase penalties for sexually violent criminals and encourage residents to sign up for free cell-phone alerts of missing children. "Government on every level needs to err on the side of children and families," Ehrlich said during an address to the Maryland Association of Counties convention in Ocean City. "Public safety first." His speech highlighted an issue that's fast becoming central in the 2006 gubernatorial campaign.

ATLANTA - A high school junior in a central Georgia military town was suspended from school this week after refusing to end a long-distance cell phone call from his mother, an Army sergeant serving in Iraq. Kevin Francois, a 17-year-old student at Spencer High School in Columbus, Ga., was in the school cafeteria Wednesday when his mother, Sgt. 1st Class Monique Bates, called to check in with him. When Francois went outside to get better reception, he was spotted by a teacher who - pointing to a district policy against cell phone use during school hours - told him to hang up. Francois refused and was subsequently suspended for 10 days for disorderly conduct.

Cell phones are the rule, not the exception. And their slew of services has made it possible to drop a traditional landline and go strictly wireless. The rationale is cost. The typical monthly bill for wireless service ranges from $40 to $60 and includes calls within the United States, voice mail, caller ID and call waiting (some plans include regional calls only). Taxes and fees are beginning to pile up on cellular plans in some states, but they tend to be less than surcharges levied on regular phone bills.

TO HIS COLLEAGUES within Verizon Wireless, associate engineer Gregory Booze is sometimes referred to as Test Man because of the work he does for the cellular-telephone business of the nation's largest telephone company. But you might want to call him the Can-You-Hear-Me-Now? guy. Like the Verizon Wireless technician in a widely broadcast commercial, Booze, 53, is a member of the Verizon Wireless test team, a nationwide group of about 50 men and women who drive hundreds of miles and make thousands of cellular-telephone calls each working day to test the company's wireless network.

CHICAGO - U.S. Cellular Corp. drew fewer customer complaints to federal regulators in 2004 than any other mobile phone carrier, according to an analysis released yesterday by Consumers Union. U.S. Cellular, a regional company, logged 39 complaints per million customers, the analysis of records at the Federal Communications Commission found. Verizon Wireless, which posted 79 complaints per million customers, topped the national wireless companies. At the other end of the list, Cingular Wireless - which took over AT&T Wireless last year to become the nation's largest cell-phone carrier - logged 289 complaints per million customers.

Efforts by the Ehrlich administration and state lawmakers to toughen restrictions on teenage drivers moved closer to law yesterday, with action on proposals to ban cellular phone use by most motorists under 18 and toughen sanctions for drunken and drugged driving. After several days of debate, the Senate voted, 27-17, in favor of a bill by Montgomery County lawmakers to prohibit provisional-license drivers from driving while using a cellular phone. The House passed a similar version of the bill last week.

Sometime in the near future, an athlete might walk into a lab and ask for an injection that, with the prick of the needle, will bring a world of possibility. Take this and hit home runs like Barry Bonds, the athlete would be told. Take it and fly around the track like Marion Jones. This might sound like another story about steroids, back in the headlines after baseball announced Thursday that it was adopting a stricter testing policy amid calls for reform, but it's not. The topic is genetic doping.

Karen Williams and her siblings want to surprise their mother with something wonderful for Christmas, so Williams went to a Target store on a recent weekday morning to snap a picture of a television with her cell phone. The 20-inch, flat-screen Magnavox with DVD and VCR included looked like something the family could agree on, Williams said, but just in case, she sent the picture to e-mail addresses around the Northeast. "We've had arguments about this in the past," said Williams. "This way, no one can say, `That's not the one we agreed on.' " This year, cell phones are the must-have for the smart (or cautious)