well as of right now, nothing is being affected to boost, however, it can change becuase as you know they are in the prepaid markets.

i saw an article http://www.boostmobile.com/about/news_release s/news_releases/040517_bcgi_youths.html that states that boost uses BCGI. "BOOST MOBILE USES bcgi PREPAID WIRELESS FOR MARKET EXPANSION OF PAY-AS-YOU-GO SERVICE FOR YOUTHS"

when i talked to other people they mentioned that there looks like there is no problem to boost mobile as of right now becuase bcgi is appealing and are requesting a stay for the injunction. if bcgi loses it looks like all of the prepaid units will be affected.

i think if bcgi went belly up then those prepaid products would have to search other billing systems. (perh...
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Thanks -- good link, from happier days :-)

Just wish I had a crystal ball to know (A) how the lawsuit will turn out and (2) if bcgi loses, whether Boost'll do some kind of prepaid licensing or just switch everyone to Premium...

well regarding A. no one knows how that lawsuit and appeal will turn out and B. no one knows if that will happen either. perhaps there will be a settlement. if infact it does get rid of all of the prepaid wireless carriers/products out there it will be a mess. (kinda like the NTP and RIMM (maker of the blackberry) situation)

Thanks again, nextel18. Please keep us up-to-date on what happens with the trial... other than seeing it in the news, I'm not sure how I'd find out. Hope you'll continue to mine your insider resources :-)

will do. i will continue to get information on it... i am also worried about rimm (research in motion) the marker of the blackberry. ☹️ another potential problem.

i spoke to some people and they have mentioned that if (and the injunction stands) BCGI doesnt re-sign an agreement/license with FREEDOM or with a licensee of FREEDOM, whoever they are, that boost will be affected.

Hey, thanks for the info, and HEY JESS, wondered when you'd chime in :-)

Well, if the ruling stands, BCGI is in it bad. If I read Yahoo's finance pages right, they earned $105m in revenue (with profits of $74m) last year, and had about $62m in cash at the end of the year, and the judgement against them is $148m now. Eeek.

The question is, is Freedom Wireless interested in driving BCGI out of business? That seems stupid, BCGI is profitable... I'd hope they'd just set up some long-term payment thing for the fines, add a per-minute charge to every minute they bill (OUCH!) and go away.

BUT BCGI could be "mean" and declare bankruptcy, particularly if FW is stupid and demand super-fast payback. Then FW would get a fraction of the ruli...
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we need to look at more then the financials becuase if their is an injunction that stands against BCGI it will be harder to do business. they could always borrow the difference that they owe for the lawsuit, however, if its an injunction against them that is worse.

doesnt really matter if you are profitiable or not becuase if you sue and you violate on a patent or patents then you should be punished, but if BCGI is the front runner of prepaid wireless, which i think according to my readings they are, then without them perhaps prepaids will be gone. (according to http://yahoo.reuters.com/financeQuoteCompanyN ewsArticle.jhtml?duid=mtfh21016_2005-10-18_19 -44-54_n18512093_newsml ) i would try to work with them and try to see by any means necc...
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You're right about the injunction. If that happens, then BCGI has no option but to go out of business... but that wouldn't be in Freedom Wireless's best interests (IMHO) because they'd get less $$$ out of licensing.

I don't *think* it'll be the end of prepaid; in the article you quote, it says: "Verizon Wireless was also a co-defendant but reached a settlement with Freedom Wireless before the trial began earlier this year."

So Verizon, at least, will be legally able to offer prepaid. Ah, Verizon: "We have the worst phones AND the worst selection of phones, but at least we cripple the functionality of features you want, such as bluetooth!" Yeah, can't wait to switch to them :-(.

Ooooops, I'm an idiot, replace "because they'd get less $$$ out of licensing." with "because they'd get less $$$ THAN THEY WOULD HAVE out of licensing." D'oh! 🙂

i hope they really do something to improve the relationship so that nothing will happen to the high growth sector in the youth or prepaid demographics.

i am not sure who is Freedom Wireless so i cant really say anything about them...

their prepaid is horrible though, and the only ones who are actually having net subscriber growth is boost mobile (nextel) and tmobile's prepaid unit. verizon isnt a competitor in this business. (the prepaid one.)