Marketplace Magazine | The most mobile Internet

Marketplace Magazine | The most mobile Internet

Nic Beining, data product manager with Cellcom in De Pere, also saw wireless demand take off quickly.

“We launched the service in a trial market in Door County in June 2008, and we were a little unsure how it would go,” he says. “In January 2009, we launched in all areas of our market that had 3G service. It beat our wildest expectations in terms of customers requesting it and sales.”

Cellcom’s service area covers Northeast Wisconsin from Oshkosh and Manitowoc, up through Door County and the Menominee and Shawano areas and west to Wausau.

“It isn’t the fastest service or cheapest service offered in the market, but we have a niche out in the country were there isn’t DSL service,” says Beining. “It’s cheaper and faster than satellite service and much quicker than dial-up. If someone lives in metropolitan Green Bay, there are options out there. We’re not trying to compete with those people at this time.”

However, Cellcom has customers who may live in Green Bay, for instance, and have vacation property in Door County. With Cellcom’s service, they can take their broadband modem along.

“They can move anywhere within that coverage area, not like a DSL or cable modem,” he says. “This is more portable. Most of our users don’t move it around, but we find some who do like to take it with them on their boat or camper.”

Beining believes the demand for broadband will continue to increase and in many new ways.

“From a business standpoint, there’s a lot of efficiency that can come from wireless in the field,” he says. “For instance, a utility company used to have somebody visit every house to check meters. Now, all those meters wirelessly transmit usage data back to the utility. They don’t have to pay somebody to manually go out.”

Another use is bringing broadband Internet to police cars so they have instant access to criminal databases and mug shots, Beining says.

Wireless also will greatly impact education, Beining believes. “Students are required more and more to use the Internet as a research tool,” he says. “If you don’t have broadband at your home, students are at an educational disadvantage. With broadband Internet and education, it’s pretty amazing what kinds of doors that opens.”

Well played sir. Well Played.

White NBC Reporter Confronts Black Man at Tea Party Rally: 'Have You Ever Felt Uncomfortable?' | NewsBusters.org

O'DONNELL, TO MAN: There aren't a lot of African-American men at these events.

DARRYL POSTELL, LAUGHING: Right.

O'DONNELL: Have you ever felt uncomfortable?

POSTELL: No, no, these are my people, Americans.

Heavy Blanket of Snow Brings Small Game Hunting to a Halt

While the 12"+ of snow Northeast Wisconsin saw this last Wednesday was a pleasant site for many winter sports enthusiasts, it was an all to familiar sight for small game hunters. With record or near record snow falls the last couple years and perhaps another on the horizon, those who run hounds or upland game hunt will likely need to resort to hunting games on a Wii unless we get a warm up to melt drifted snow in thickets and fence lines which is a favorite hide out for cottontail and pheasants.

Unless you have seen a dog with 8" legs try to hunt in 2' of drifted snow, you may not know what I am talking referring to. While a nice blanket of 3-4" is great for hunting, much more than that proves challenging for dog and owner.

So, if Mother Nature follows my blog, can we get a little relief here?

Best McDonalds Breakfast... ever!

Image via Wikipedia

So, this past weekend I just found the best McDonalds breakfast sandwich I ever had. I really like the idea of their somewhat-new Southern Chicken and Biscuit sandwich, but found it much to dry, like I nearly choked on it. So I made the simple request to substitute the biscuits for McGriddles (small pancakes with syrup infused) and BAM! it instantly became my favorite breakfast item on the menu. So, if you're up for something a little different and very tasty, I'd recommend it. Also, the two McD's I ordered it at didn't up-charge me for the McGriddles. If you should see this on the menu soon, you now know where it came from...

Give it a whirl. I'm glad that I did.

Two observations from Saturday's Packer game...

Here are my top two observations from the game on Saturday:

1. B.J. Raji's first two plays... I was a bit concerned after Raji's
first play when he dropped back into what appeared to be pass coverage.
He ended up behind where the linebackers started, so he looked a bit
out of place for a big linemen. However, he made up for it on his
second play where he owned his side of the Bill's O-line. He manhandled
two guys and pushed them back deep into the pocket. If he keeps up with
plays like that, we should be in good shape.

2. O-Line. From my vantage point, many of the running plays in the
first half looked like they were getting stuffed at the line of
scrimmage, however I was wrong. What I wasn't realizing was that our
line consistently was pushing back the D about 5 yards each play. So
those runs that appeared to stop at the line were healthy 5-yard gains
for Mr. @RyanGrant25.

Bonus Observation: The best deal at Lambeau is the "Bottomless" popcorn for $6. Free refills although the stadium staff couldn't answer my question about whether I could bring the same tub back for each game =-)

Hopefully all of these continue into February!

What the %#&@ is RSS?

"RSS" stands for Real Simple Syndication which is a different way to say that it allows people to subscribe to updates so they don't have to visit your website to get your info. Many news organizations utilize RSS to distribute breaking news. Common programs used to view RSS is Google Reader or Microsoft Outlook. Also, RSS can be integrated into social networking sites like Facebook. Typically, sites or pages that support RSS will have an icon similar to the one above.

Check out: http://reader.google.com to get started.

Enjoy!

Social Media Day

Today I'm attending a "Become a Social Media Rockstar" event St. Norbert College. Listening to some great speakers and getting some best practices with which to move forward. Looking forward to some great stuff on my personal and Cellcom sites.