MyWireless.org

Pictured Above: Angel Rosario (President of the Staten Island Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (SIHCC)); Brian Gomez (SIHCC Treasurer); Richard Luthmann (SIHCC General Counsel); Senator Martin Golden (New York State Senate); Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (New York State Assembly); William Mehnert (SIHCC Vice President); and Rick Miranda (President of the Brooklyn Hispanic Chamber of Commerce).

Last Thursday, I joined the New York State Federation of Hispanic Chambers of Commerce in the historic Brooklyn Borough Hall as they hosted their Legislative Awards Dinner. It was a great mix of local, state and federal elected officials coming together with Latino small business owners to talk about the tools and resources they need to make these businesses continue to prosper. We heard from many community leaders from across New York and listened to examples of how technology is helping businesses, from cupcake shops to parade organizers, get their work done. Unfortunately, New York wireless consumers pay nearly 23% on average in wireless taxes and fees. That’s hardly business-friendly to those small business owners who foot the bill. The group has joined with MyWireless.org in support of the ‘Wireless Tax Fairness Act.’ If you haven’t already, we hope you’ll join us too.

Like so many of you, I’m getting fired up to watch the Super Bowl this Sunday. So when I came across this Harris Interactive study on Mashable that looked into what we think we’ll be doing with our mobile devices during the game, I wanted to check it out. Turns out nearly half of my fellow football fans plan on checking their phones at least 10 times during the big game (and with all of the Words With Friends games I have going simultaneously, I think I’ll be upwards of that).

The author makes an interesting point when he highlights the fact that most people who plan on checking their phone often don’t expect to be doing it in the middle of the game’s action. This means they’ll be checking out their phones during those big expensive commercials, so maybe it’s the mobile advertisers who might ultimately get fans’ attention. Anyway, take a look and see how you stack up. And check back with us next week to let us know how you managed your mobile device during the game, or whether the only connections you really cared about were the ones from Tom Brady or Eli Manning!

(Photo credit: Elvert Barnes, Creative Commons license.)

I don’t know about you, but I kind of feel like the holiday shopping madness actually got a little easier this past Christmas. Sure, it was a hassle trying to buy the right thing for everyone on my list, and when you combined that with the traffic and the crush of people at the malls, it could have really worn me out! But instead of getting worked up with all of the stress, I found out I had a new friend to help with my shopping: my wireless device. I used it to help me track down a couple of things online that I couldn’t find in a store I was in. I used it to find another store and get directions to it from where I was shopping at the time. And yes, I used it to find the closest coffee shop once to take a break and savor a Double Chocolate Chip Frappucino (what the heck… it might be 500 calories but after all of that shopping, I deserved it right?).

Apparently I wasn’t the only one going mobile over the holidays. The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project conducted a survey on how different people used their cell phones to make purchasing decisions over the holidays (the folks over at TechCrunch do a good job at summarizingthe findings). More than half of the people surveyed said they consulted their mobile device for information to help them decide what to buy. Not surprisingly, the younger generation relied more heavily on their phone consultations than the older shoppers. One thing I found interesting is that non-white respondents were more likely to say they used their phone to look up a product than white survey respondents. This goes along with previous findings from Pew that shows minority cell phone users are more likely than their white peers to use their mobile phones to access the Internet. In general, what I think the survey shows is what many of us are experiencing in our lives every day. Wireless makes life easier for us in a lot of different ways, helping us be more productive and efficient than ever before. It also means less-hassle holiday shopping, and who doesn’t love that!

Earlier this week, I attended a forum on broadband technology and media that was put on by The National Organization of Black Elected Legislative (NOBEL) Women in Washington, D.C. I heard some great speakers talk about the fascinating ways modern technology, including wireless, is connecting students with teachers, doctors with patients, and endangered citizens with emergency responders. There was unanimous agreement among the group that wireless adoption and use shouldn’t be discouraged by discriminatory taxation. The Mercatus Center at George Mason University posted an article this week that summarizes a new report trying to explain why cell phone taxes are so high. The answer: it’s because they pile up. When you add federal, state and local taxes and fees and lump them all on the consumer, they pile up quickly. No single tax or fee seems that outrageous to lawmakers who are looking at them narrowly. But as we talk about at MyWireless.org all the time, it’s the combination of all of the wireless taxes and fees that end up hurting the end consumer. That’s why we support the ‘Wireless Tax Fairness Act’ that would put a five-year freeze on all new state and local wireless taxes and fees.

Watch Jamie Hastings of CTIA – The Wireless Association® talk about the need for support of this bill at NOBEL Women’s conference yesterday.

From time to time we like to share some of the cool and innovative ways that wireless technology is being used in different walks of life. I just came across a story about a film crew that shot an entire feature-length movie, Olive, on a smartphone! The picture quality is unbelievable and the story includes clips of the video so you can see for yourself how good it is. It goes to show you just how versatile devices are these days, so I’m not surprised that recent research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows 35% of adult Americans own a smartphone, and the various populations that use them are more diverse than you might think. When I see a story like this one it makes me wonder just what I could do with a smartphone. How about you?

If you have something in mind or have created an artistic project using your cell phone or other wireless device, we’d like you to share it with us.

We have big news to share with you, although if you’re reading this you’ve probably already noticed! We’re proud to share our new website that we’ve actually been working on with you.

We surveyed many of our MyWireless.org site visitors to learn about the information you wanted and the way that you wanted to see it. Much of what we learned from that survey has been applied to our new site. We hope it’s even easier to find the tools and information that you’re looking for, and that we provide you the kind of content in which you’re most interested. This blog space is where we will share our thoughts and ideas about the latest trends and news about wireless, and we’re eager to hear from you about the news of the day or whatever’s on your mind that pertains to wireless. We’ll keep you posted on the latest regulations or legislation that affects your service and your bottom line, and our goal is to give you the resources and tools you need to stay informed and help make sure wireless stays affordable to you.

We can’t stress enough that this isn’t a one-way street. We really do want to hear from you too! We hope you’ll join the conversation here on our blog, and connect with us on Facebook or Twitter. 2011 was a busy year in wireless innovation, and together we were also able to make some real progress on tax relief for consumers like you when the House of Representatives passed the Wireless Tax Fairness Act in November. Now it’s on to the Senate, so there’s more to be done. We’ll keep you posted as things develop via our action alerts and here in the blog.

We hope you enjoy the new site, and wish you a Happy New Year from the team at MyWireless.org. Here’s to a great 2012!