The MoPR Blog

Yahoo! recently posted a teaser line in the featured section revealing “The Deadliest Job in America.”

I was curious so I clicked the link.  As I was waiting for the page to load, I was thinking of all the possibilities:  Alaskan crab fisherman, construction workers, high-rise window cleaners or even firefighters. I was surprised to find out that the deadliest job in America:  working on cell phone towers.

The numbers don’t lie.  RCR Wireless quoted in their article (the original piece that Yahoo! quoted from) the fatality rate at currently 183.6 deaths per 100,000 workers.  Stating that “because of the relatively small number of employees in the business compared to other industry sectors, tower climbing — which suffered five fatalities during a 12-day span this spring and seven deaths overall this year so far — may also be the most overlooked, deadliest job in the country.”

RCR Wireless also noted that National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) “estimated at that time the risk for fatal injuries among telecom tower workers ranges from 49 to 468 injury-related deaths per 100,000 employees, compared with about five deaths per 100,000 employees in all other U.S. industries.”  It’s hard to imagine going to work every day with numbers like that haunting you.

The problem?  Most blame the lack of safe anchorage as well as relying on faulty personal protection equipment.  To put it quite simply: careless working practices.  And the reason for such careless work? The rush to get expanding networks raised and updated.  And while it’s understandable that networks want to continue rapid growth, it shouldn’t be at the cost of a human life.

Currently OSHA  is working to improve workplace safety and keep awareness of the increasing death toll among wireless providers, while workers and their unions are also pushing for passage of federal regulations.  And since President Bush has even gone as far as to publicly recognize the problem, I’m anxious to see what new regulations come out in the near future.  One thing is for sure:  they need to come out sooner than later before more tower casualties occur.

So the next time you have to ask “Can you hear me NOW?” try not to get too miffed.  There are folks out there risking their lives (literally) to make that possible for you.

Text messaging hazardous to your health? It could be if you are texting and not paying attention. According to a report from Fox News, people walking while texting are ramming into walls and doorways, falling down stairs and bumping into lampposts, parked cars and garbage cans. Read the whole piece here.

Women get their game on. New research from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) reveals that forty percent of gamers are women. Additional findings in the ESA’s annual survey of consumer demographics and usage behaviors indicate that the average age of game players has risen to… 35! This research, says the ESA, shatters the stereotypical image of gaming having, say, a sole audience of slacker male teens.

Other findings of interest:

• Sixty-five percent of American households play computer and video games;
• Thirty-eight percent of American homes have a video game console;
• The average game player is 35 years old;
• One out of four gamers are over age 50;
• Women age 18 or older represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (33 percent) than boys age 17 or younger (18 percent); and,
• Forty-one percent of Americans expect to purchase one or more games this year

Generation Why. A great piece appeared in last week’s edition of Seattle Post-Intelligencer that offered tips on how to communicate with co-workers, across the enterprise and generations. From the article:

In general, boomers (1946-64) still prefer the phones they grew up with, Gen X (1965-82) is big into e-mail, while the youngest members of today’s work force, the “net generation” or the Millennials (1982-now), strongly prefer real-time communication technologies such as IMing and texting.

Interesting. Here at MoPR HQ, we sit mere feet across from each other and do we talk to each other? Yes, of course we do. But, we IM up a storm too. It just seems….easier. On the other hand, if we really want to get in touch with a reporter or writer, we usually pick up the phone to call them. It all depends on the scenario.

Frankly, we think email could be completely extinct in the coming years – many of the generation of youngsters coming up in the ranks will demand Facebook-like apps to communicate with each other and their co-workers. What do you think?

Former Googlers launch their own search site. Called Cuil [Cuil is the Gaelic word for both knowledge and hazel and rhymes with "cool"] the new site generated a ton of buzz, but has gotten tepid responses from the media and users who have actually tried it. We tried it out and were a bit perplexed on the results, but can see the site gaining users. We did like the rollover definitions and imagery that accompanied each search. Our only question… When’s the mobile version?

US Teen Mobile Market? Hot but saturated. The number of teen cellular subscribers in the US surpassed 16 million in 2007- up 12% from 2006 – but growth is stagnating, according to a report from market research consultancy MultiMedia Intelligence (MMI).

Despite this increase, wireless penetration rates for teens (12-17) are approaching saturation, primarily because the teen market is not a multiple-handset demographic, MMI said.
However, teens teach their older counterparts, including their parents, how to use their handsets and value-added services, adding to the average revenue per user (ARPU) of older demographics. (ARPU, or average revenue per user, is the amount of monthly operator revenue received from each individual subscriber.)

Moreover, “teen ARPU has been growing higher than that of the overall market. Teens simply use their phones to do more, from text messaging to purchasing premium content,” according to the report.

Text messaging marketing: It seems to work. A new online survey from the Direct Marketing Association reveals that text messaging is by far the most often cited mobile marketing method — accounting for 70 percent of consumer mobile marketing responses compared to a 41 percent response rate to surveys and a 30 percent response rate for e-mail offers.

According to the report, mobile marketing will continue growing into a multi-billion dollar industry as more mobile phone users are “enticed by falling prices to purchase data plans and broadband enabled devices.”

Single (never married) respondents were the most likely of all groups to respond to mobile marketing appeals; overall, higher-income respondents making more than $60,000 per year were more likely to respond to mobile offers.

City signs text messaging deal. According to The Olympian Newspaper, city officials in Olympia, Wash., have signed a licensing agreement with Txtwire to “provide text messaging services as a way to improve communication with the public.”

The city will roll out the service with the Parks and Recreation Department, by sending text messages out on items such as cancellations in city league softball games.

The service is completely voluntary and free – minus carrier text charges.

Local school officials signed on last year and use text messaging to alert parents about school closures and other emergencies, says the Olympian.

Txtwire’s customers range from schools and cities wanting to get simple text messages out to faculty, students and parents [e.g., school is closed due to snowstorm] to more complex marketing programs for restaurants who want to offer promo deals such as text coupons.

Symbian and Google BFF? According to Reuters, Symbian might expand its collaboration with Google to the operating system level as it moves to grant free and open access to its software platform. Symbian currently uses Google applications such as maps and search engines on its platforms. Reuters says the collaboration could be “on the application level or on the more fundamental operating system level.”

We’ll keep our eyes on this one.

Client update: Talkster Launches Calling Application on Facebook. MoPR client Talkster launched Talkster Phone Party this week, giving Facebook users a fun and easy way to set up and manage free Talkster long distance, international, and group conference calls, directly from their Facebook profile pages. Talkster Phone Party can be downloaded from Facebook here.

Talkster’s Phone Party Application aims to give the more than 80 million active Facebook users one more way to have fun, keep in touch, and get to know one another even better. For more information visit Talkster via the Web from your mobile phone or from your iPhone.

Bag the airport line. As if airline travel was rough enough, how many times have you had to remove your laptop from the laptop bag and set it into a bin? It’s a pain and all it does is slow down the line – in front of you as well as behind you.

Help might be on the way.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) recently announced plans to implement new security procedures that will allow travelers to pass through security checkpoints without having to remove their laptops from their cases. They also issued a request to laptop bag manufacturers to create “checkpoint friendly” laptop bags to help speed up security lines, allowing passengers to get to their departure gates in a timely manner.

Mobile Edge recently unveiled three innovative checkpoint friendly laptop cases designed to help move traveling computer users through airport luggage checks more quickly. With these cases, airport screeners can X-Ray a traveler’s laptop while still it’s still inside the bag. The new cases from Mobile Edge have been tested and meet the new guidelines for carry-on luggage.

The new ScanFast Collection consists of a backpack, a briefcase and a messenger bag, all designed to conveniently open for airport screeners and help speed travelers through the X-Ray screening process.