Cell Phone Law Warnings Start in Philadelphia, Real Tickets Start in December
Philadelphia has begun issuing warning tickets to those breaking the city's new cell phone law. On December 1, those tickets will be real, costing violators up to a maximum of $300. The new legislation, which was signed into law by Mayor Michael Nutter in April, prohibits those who are operating vehicles, even skateboards, rollerblades or scooters, from using a handheld cell phone. Violators face fines ranging from $150 to $300, or $75 if they waive their right to contest the violation. Philadelphia City Councilmen Bill Green, Bill Greenlee and Frank Rizzo sponsored the legislation, which was unanimously approved by City Council. (Philadelphia Business Journal, 11/2/2009)

Comcast Launches its High-Speed 2go 4G Service in Philadelphia
Comcast Corp. launched its high-speed wireless data service in its home town of Philadelphia recently under the name Comcast High-Speed 2go. The cable-television, Internet, phone and media company plans to market the service to its high-speed Internet customers as a way of enabling them to stay online outside their homes.

"Over time, we'd love to enable all of our products and services for customers to enjoy and consume outside the home," said Cathy Avgiris, Comcast's senior vice president and general manager for wireless and voice services. Philadelphia is the third major market in which Comcast has rolled out the service, which uses a 4G wireless network owned by Kirkland, Wash.-based Clearwire Corp.

Clearwire was formed last November when a previous version of the company combined its next-generation wireless assets with those of Sprint Nextel Corp. and got a $3.2 billion investment from Comcast and four other companies — Time Warner Cable Inc., Bright House Networks LLC, Google Inc. and Intel Corp.

Comcast invested $1.05 billion in Clearwire as part of that deal. It subsequently had to take a charge of $600 million before taxes, or $378 million and 13 cents per fully diluted share after taxes, in the fourth quarter of last year to write down the value of that investment. (Philadelphia Business Journal, 11/4/2009)

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