Subject: [NEXTEL-1] CTIA: The Call of the Weird

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2003 07:36:00 -0500

CTIA: The Call of the Weird
03.19.03

NEW ORLEANS -- CTIA Wireless 2003 -- Ah, tradeshows!

When a man is tired of life, he's ready for tradeshows, as someone famous once
(nearly) said.

Maybe it’s the acres of gleaming white, sanitized space; maybe it’s the bad black
coffee; or maybe it’s the potent smell of BS lingering in the air like a fart at a
funeral.
But by the end of such an event your Unstrung correspondent could really do with a
laugh -- or at least something a little out of the ordinary -- to add some sparkle to the
tedium of the day.

Sadly, these things were in short supply at this year's show [ed. note: impending
military conflict will do that to ya], but it was still there if you looked closely,
especially
at the Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A - message board) booth:

Agilent gets props for showing off a cool -- and somewhat out-there -- idea for
monitoring the quality of cellular networks' radio transmission. The testing company
has developed a little black box that can be installed in a taxi or a train to constantly
send back information about how the radio network is performing as the vehicle is in
motion. Agilent reckons this will cut costs for carriers that have to send dedicated
vehicles to do this today.

Sadly, Agilent also had far and away the cheesiest act of the show at its
booth -- a 60s-styled girl group performing a little number about network
testing every 15 minutes. It was enough to drive Phil Spector out of his mind
(no, wait…).

"Doesn't this drive you up the wall, hearing this all the time?" Unstrung
asked Agilent's press representative.

"Actually, if you listen to the lyrics they're quite informative." Well, Rock On
then!

Meanwhile, Nextel Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: NXTL - message
board) managed to come up with the most uncharacteristic marketing
gimmick -- a bottle of Nextel-branded hot sauce.

Come on! We know this is New Orleans (y'all), but spicy is the last thing
that comes to mind when thinking of this dependable yet boring carrier. Next
time, can we suggest that the Nextel marketing department hands out a nice
pair of sensible shoes…

This correspondent's feet are killing him.

— Dan Jones, Senior Editor, Unstrung

http://www.unstrung.com/document.asp?doc_id=29976
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