Boost Mobile going down?

[tubajon2004]

Well, today I just read here that BCGI, the company that provides wireless billing for Boost Mobile and Cingular Pay-as-you-go is being sued, and must be shut down in 90 days. I kinda freaked out, so I called CS, and they assured me that it wouldn't have any affect on my account. But really, she had no clue what was going on, and neither did the managers, so I'm assuming that what she said was just normal CS BS. Anyone else heard about this?

[YoDude]

Nothing to do with the carriers... They will just go with Freedom. The patent has to do with real time billing and not the service. Obviously Freedom will be the only game in town and will prolly cost more to use. The carriers will pass through this increase to the users and not loose any sleep. Expect higher per minute fees though.

[tubajon2004]

sweet! a post i didn't get flamed for! but really, that sucks about the minute increases, considering they just dropped them to 20c/minute peak and 10c offpeak.

[SpiralSlash]

Nothing to do with the carriers... They will just go with Freedom. The patent has to do with real time billing and not the service. Obviously Freedom will be the only game in town and will prolly cost more to use. The carriers will pass through this increase to the users and not loose any sleep. Expect higher per minute fees though.

I've heard nothing about Freedom actually providing any services... Just that they just hold the patents.

So I'm not sure sure it will be as simple as that.

[boostcare]

Another good article, but older:
http://www.wirelessweek.com/article/...sc=Departments

[ggskateboards]

so what's going to be changed here?

[boostcare]

"BCGI has been found guilty of infringing on pay-as-you-go wireless patents owned by Freedom Wireless. This means that cellular providers who use BCGI pay-as-you-go billing systems must immediately stop selling new service. For the next 90 days, as they wind down their service, they will have to pay Freedom Wireless 2.5 cents per airtime minute used PER CUSTOMER. This heralds a farewell to Cingular's Go Phone and Sprint-Nextel's Boost services, both powered by BCGI."

from:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?s...235254&tid=187

[ggskateboards]

so long boost! we'll miss your phones terribly...

actually im sure that they'll bounce right back and start from scratch, sprint's got the $$$

[scubby11]

I really don't think Boost is going anywhere.

[haryicecreamman]

I wish boost would leave so i wouldn't see luda and his *****es chirp chripin on my tv.

[madrabbitt]

"BCGI has been found guilty of infringing on pay-as-you-go wireless patents owned by Freedom Wireless. This means that cellular providers who use BCGI pay-as-you-go billing systems must immediately stop selling new service. For the next 90 days, as they wind down their service, they will have to pay Freedom Wireless 2.5 cents per airtime minute used PER CUSTOMER. This heralds a farewell to Cingular's Go Phone and Sprint-Nextel's Boost services, both powered by BCGI."

from:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?s...235254&tid=187

That article got it wrong.
BCGI cannot sell new service to new CARRIERS.

that doesnt mean the carriers using them have to stop selling the service to consumers.

[Qumahlin]

That article got it wrong.
BCGI cannot sell new service to new CARRIERS.

that doesnt mean the carriers using them have to stop selling the service to consumers.

No, your incorrect. It means EXACTLY that. They are not allowed to continue operations whatsoever unless they win their appeal

[madrabbitt]

no, the article is spun in a way that implies that BCGI's customers, ie, the carriers like cingular and boost, cannot activate any new customers during the appeal period.

Thats not true.

They can continue operations as such during this limbo period.

BCGI, however, canot sign any new contracts with new carriers, like t-mobile was looking to do (but didnt)

BCGI, and their CURRENT customers, may continue to operate as such during that 30 day period (with bcgi paying a hefty penelty for doing so, which i'm sure the carriers will make them eat)... and i'm sure their current customers are going to be looking around rather quickly for a new option for prepaid billing.

The spin of that article is making it seem like the carriers themselves are going to be doomed, and penalized, whereas thats not the case.
The carriers can continue doing what they do, they arent the ones at fault.

HOWEVER, the carrier's operations are threatened because of this, so i'm sure that if they dont plan on replacing BCGI, then i'm sure they're putting serious pressure on BCGI to un-fusk this situation rather quickly.

[roamer1]

They can continue operations as such during this limbo period.

There's certainly conflicting information.

Reuters says:

Under the injunction, wireless companies that use the BCGI prepaid wireless services must stop selling them. The companies have 90 days to continue serving current customers, during which they must pay royalties to
Freedom Wireless.

but bcgi says nothing about whether they or carriers have to stop provisioning new accounts:

The Court enjoined bcgi from offering three implementations of its U.S. service bureau, multi-frequency (MF), common channel signaling system seven (SS7), and pre-intelligent network (pre-IN), to any wireless carrier other than a licensee of Freedom Wireless, subject to a 90-day grace period. During the 90-day grace period, the defendants would be required to pay Freedom Wireless a license fee equivalent to 2.5 cents per minute of use.

Other companies, namely VeriSign (old Illuminet and friends) and Convergys, offer prepaid platforms that carriers can use, so it isn't as if carriers using bcgi have no alternative; the problem is that I don't think 90 days is anywhere near enough time to transition people over from bcgi to another platform.

IMO, both Freedom Wireless and NTP (the jerks behind the BlackBerry patent dispute) should be ashamed in the way they are using carriers' customers as pawns, by seeking injunctions that threaten to shut down services, to get royalties out of carriers.

-SC

[madrabbitt]

Quotes from other news stories seem to conflict with the reuters reports:

During the 90-day grace period, the defendants would be required to pay Freedom Wireless a license fee equivalent to 2.5 cents per minute of use. On average, bcgi currently charges its customers approximately 1 cent per minute of use, which includes a full suite of real-time billing, rating and support services using bcgi's state-of-the-art proprietary software and network.

BTW, cingular WAS named as a co-defendant, however boost/sprintel was not