rural

Have you ever noticed that your old flip phone held its charge for days, even weeks sometimes, but a half-hour spent surfing the Web or watching a video on your new smartphone and the battery is dead?

You aren't alone. As cell phones get more sophisticated, all those bells and whistles come at the cost of heavy power consumption. Sure, we all like the convenience of hitting Google on the go or getting turn-by-turn navigation on our smartphones, but when the battery life is drained almost instantaneously, those new features become a drag.

In this week's Ask Maggie … Read more

A solar-charged light might seem like just another green gadget to the average American, but for families in rural Africa, it could prove revolutionary.

Product design consultancy Plus Minus Design is vying to replace unsustainable and potentially dangerous lanterns in the homes of off-grid Africans with the Solar Pebble. Engineered with the economic constraints of developing-world citizens in mind, the Solar Pebble will provide one hour of LED light for every two hours of charge, and will cost only $2.70 to manufacture.

Plus Minus Design, based in Leeds, U.K., was founded by three undergraduate students at the University of Leeds. While studying product design and engineering, Adam Robinson, Henry James, and Tom Eales were given the opportunity to work with SolarAid, a charity in the U.K.

SolarAid, which works to fight poverty and climate change, worked with the students to develop a solar-powered alternative to kerosene lanterns. Those lanterns, commonly used in rural Africa, draw 20 percent of an average Malawian family's income, SolarAid said, and pose respiratory health problems, as well as create fire hazards. … Read more

AT&T said it will pay $2.35 billion in cash to buy the bulk of the Alltel Wireless assets that Verizon Communications must divest as part of its acquisition of Alltel, the company announced Friday.

As part of the deal, AT&T will get wireless spectrum licenses, network assets, and 1.5 million subscribers in 79 service areas.

Verizon Wireless was required to sell assets in parts of 18 different states as a condition for getting regulatory approval to buy Alltel. The Verizon-Alltel deal, valued at $28.1 billion, was announced in June 2008, and closed in January this year. … Read more

LAS VEGAS--The new 4G wireless broadband network that Verizon Wireless plans to launch in 2010 could be rural America's answer to its broadband access prayers. But extending the network to every nook and cranny in the U.S. will likely take years.

Tony Melone, senior vice president and chief technology officer for Verizon Wireless, said during an interview at the CTIA Wireless 2009 tradeshow here Wednesday that the new 4G network that the company is building will blanket the entire continental United States, including the far corners of rural America.

"The licenses we bought in the 700MHz auction … Read more

Rural cell phone carriers want to put an end to exclusive deals between carriers and handset makers.

On Tuesday, the Rural Cellular Association, a group of more than 80 small and rural wireless providers, filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission to investigate and adopt rules that would prohibit exclusivity arrangements between wireless carriers and cell phone manufacturers. In its petition the group said that these arrangements were unfair and stifled customer choice. The group also believes these deals decrease competition and violate the 1996 Telecommunications Act.

The most prominent example of such a deal is the Apple iPhone. … Read more