T Mobile

T HE Q: Reader Patricia Hall's effort to pay her daughter's T-Mobile bill was thwarted when sales reps at the Marley Station cellular store informed her they could only accept payment from a person who owned the account, or as an alternative, possessed the account holder's driver's license and Social Security number. "We were not asking for information on her account, only to make a payment on a particular phone number," Hall said. "I called T-Mobile the next day. The customer service representative said it was their policy, but that I could make a payment without any information on the account - but phone number - over the phone, and something about a FCC regulation."

AT&T has announced the expansion of its mobile Internet network at Aberdeen Proving Ground, extending access for advanced mobile services, devices and applications to federal government customers who work at or are visiting the post. "Demand for wireless speed is growing rapidly, and these network enhancements on the grounds of the Aberdeen Proving Grounds, a key military facility, are just the latest examples of AT&T's significant infrastructure investment in this region," said J. Michael Schweder, president of AT&T Mid-Atlantic in a press release.

A finding by the state attorney general's office suggests that Maryland law could be changed to ban cell phone towers from public school properties in Baltimore County, a state senator assured a group of residents hoping to thwart plans for a tower at Randallstown High School. It is possible to draft such legislation in a constitutionally sound format, and possibly apply it retroactively to void a contract between the school system and T-Mobile, state Sen. Bobby A. Zirkin told about a dozen residents at a community meeting this week in Randallstown.

T-Mobile USA Inc. launched its 4G LTE network in seven metropolitan areas Tuesday, including Baltimore and Washington. The wireless company, which also launched the network in Houston, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Phoenix and San Jose, Calif., said it is expected to reach 100 million Americans by midyear and 200 million by the end of the year. The deployment will complement T-Mobile's existing nationwide 4G network, the company said, with T-Mobile 4G LTE devices automatically able to transition to the nationwide network in areas where LTE has not yet launched.

SANTA ANA, Calif. - Many people who know Nicolas Jacobsen said last week that they were surprised the young man had been accused of hacking into a huge cell phone network that guards millions of private messages. Former neighbors, including some who witnessed his arrest last fall after federal agents arrived at their aging Santa Ana apartment complex, said he was just too bright to do such a thing. "He could talk about politics. He knows about the law," said Victor Gonzalez, 60, a retired construction worker.

The Howard County Board of Appeals, already fighting T-Mobile in court over the location of a cellphone tower planned for a church property, is scheduled Thursday to hear the company's bid for another western Howard location on a small farm. T-Mobile wants to build a 127-foot-tall tower on Daisy Road in Woodbine. Residents have expressed concerns, speaking out at a community meeting in April, complaining about aesthetics and questioning the need for more cell towers. The site is one of about a half-dozen where T-Mobile has proposed placing towers in western Howard County.

The families who live in the million-dollar homes along Big Branch Road in Dayton want their cell phones, but they don't want to see a cell phone tower on Ricky and Leslie Bauer's 122-acre farm 612 feet away. "I prefer not to look out my front door and see a porcupine of antennas," Big Branch resident Paul Robertson said at a standing-room-only community meeting Tuesday night at the Clarksville fire station. The meeting was packed with more than 70 opponents of the proposed 135-foot high T-Mobile pole.

With the number of people who use wireless devices growing daily, communications firms say they need more cell towers to fill coverage gaps, even in rural places. But in western Howard County, that appears to be a hard sell. For the second time in a month, rural county residents are expressing opposition to a T-Mobile plan to build a tall monopole on farm property, this time on a low-lying 10.5-acre farmette near Daisy. T-Mobile held a community information meeting on its proposal that drew about 40 people to the Glenwood Community Center on Wednesday night.

THE COOLEST thing about The T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone is what happens when it rings. The other cell phones on the block go beep-beep-beep or play an electronic bagpipe version of the "William Tell Overture," but the phone I've been testing really rings. As in "Brrrring, brrrrring." Just like an old-fashioned phone, if you're old enough to remember one. Retro ring tone aside, this $500 bleeding-edge gadget is a digital tour-de-force that combines a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) with a cell phone and wireless Internet appliance.

Retooled Sidekick phone a small step toward all-in-one, on-the-go gadget A small company in Palo Alto, Calif., with the silly name Danger (www.danger.com) is introducing the significantly improved Sidekick II, a handheld smart phone sold by T-Mobile. The original Sidekick has achieved a modest level of success among its target audience - urban twentysomething trendsetters - but hasn't enjoyed anywhere near the popular acclaim of the Palm Treo 600, today's smart phone of choice for well-heeled gadget freaks.

It's probably a task the Federal Communications Commission should have tackled 15 or 20 years ago, but we welcome the stated intention of county officials to develop a strategic plan aimed at slowing the proliferation of cell towers. Since cellular telephones rely on these ungainly structures to relay voice and text signals, they are necessary to the functioning of our society as we know it, and will remain so at least until someone comes up with a less obtrusive technology. The cell phone has become commonplace in Howard County and most other places in the industrialized world, and many of us take cell service for granted.

The Howard County Board of Appeals, already fighting T-Mobile in court over the location of a cellphone tower planned for a church property, is scheduled Thursday to hear the company's bid for another western Howard location on a small farm. T-Mobile wants to build a 127-foot-tall tower on Daisy Road in Woodbine. Residents have expressed concerns, speaking out at a community meeting in April, complaining about aesthetics and questioning the need for more cell towers. The site is one of about a half-dozen where T-Mobile has proposed placing towers in western Howard County.

How deep is corporate influence on President Barack Obama? Is there no business request so anticompetitive, so anticonsumer that the administration would be forced to say no? Should the Justice Department's antitrust division (more than 800 employees; average salary of more than $150,000) just go out of business? We're about to find out. If Obama approves AT&T's proposal to buy T-Mobile, he'll have reached a new Washington low in preventing the kind of oligopoly disaster that even conservative economists agree is bad for consumers and bad for innovation.

Free phones for passengers on AirTran , El Al Israel What's the deal? For some reason, phones are a popular freebie popping up for passengers traveling this spring. One deal from AirTran Airways and T-Mobile allows free in-flight use of a HTC HD2 phone. Passengers can check out the phone, which is set up with GoGo In-Flight and offers video features and Paramount Studios movie trailers, at the airport terminal before their flight and return it upon landing.

With the number of people who use wireless devices growing daily, communications firms say they need more cell towers to fill coverage gaps, even in rural places. But in western Howard County, that appears to be a hard sell. For the second time in a month, rural county residents are expressing opposition to a T-Mobile plan to build a tall monopole on farm property, this time on a low-lying 10.5-acre farmette near Daisy. T-Mobile held a community information meeting on its proposal that drew about 40 people to the Glenwood Community Center on Wednesday night.

The families who live in the million-dollar homes along Big Branch Road in Dayton want their cell phones, but they don't want to see a cell phone tower on Ricky and Leslie Bauer's 122-acre farm 612 feet away. "I prefer not to look out my front door and see a porcupine of antennas," Big Branch resident Paul Robertson said at a standing-room-only community meeting Tuesday night at the Clarksville fire station. The meeting was packed with more than 70 opponents of the proposed 135-foot high T-Mobile pole.

How deep is corporate influence on President Barack Obama? Is there no business request so anticompetitive, so anticonsumer that the administration would be forced to say no? Should the Justice Department's antitrust division (more than 800 employees; average salary of more than $150,000) just go out of business? We're about to find out. If Obama approves AT&T's proposal to buy T-Mobile, he'll have reached a new Washington low in preventing the kind of oligopoly disaster that even conservative economists agree is bad for consumers and bad for innovation.

Finding that the risks of building a cell phone tower near tennis courts and athletic fields at Randallstown High School were too great, the Baltimore County Board of Appeals overturned yesterday a zoning commissioner's ruling to allow the project. The three-member panel debated the proposal for about an hour before unanimously agreeing that T-Mobile should not be allowed to lease a patch of land on the high school campus to build the tower. "I don't think a school is an appropriate place for a cell tower," said Margaret M. Brassil, chairwoman of the panel considering the cell tower case.

T HE Q: Reader Patricia Hall's effort to pay her daughter's T-Mobile bill was thwarted when sales reps at the Marley Station cellular store informed her they could only accept payment from a person who owned the account, or as an alternative, possessed the account holder's driver's license and Social Security number. "We were not asking for information on her account, only to make a payment on a particular phone number," Hall said. "I called T-Mobile the next day. The customer service representative said it was their policy, but that I could make a payment without any information on the account - but phone number - over the phone, and something about a FCC regulation."

AT&T is paying millions to be the exclusive U.S. provider of Apple's much-hyped and glowingly reviewed gadget, the iPhone. It took 17-year-old George Hotz two months of work to undermine AT&T's investment. Hotz, a resident of Glen Rock, N.J., published detailed instructions online this week that he says will let iPhone owners abandon AT&T Inc.'s wireless service and use their phones on some competing cellular networks. Hotz's method, which requires a soldering gun, a steady hand and a set of obscure software tools, is one of several techniques that have emerged over the past week to break the technological locks confining the iPhone to AT&T's network.