@jbtaylor on tech

Two law school professors -- one from UNC and one from Duke -- have penned an opinion piece running in this morning's News & Observer which urges North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper to join the U.S. Department of Justice's lawsuit to block AT&T's proposed takeover of T-Mobile.

The professors teach antitrust law and don't mince words:

As professors who devote much of our time to teaching antitrust to North Carolina's future attorneys, we have a particular interest in seeing the proper application of the antitrust laws. And we both agree that the merger would create an entity with monopoly power and should be stopped. This is indeed an easy call, and we urge North Carolina's attorney general to join the effort to stop it.

A little over a year ago, in November 2009, Sprint launched Sprint 4G in North Carolina. We're got 4G in metro Charlotte, including Huntersville, Monroe, Indian Trail, Mint Hill, Matthews, Gastonia, Mt. Holly, Harrisburg, Davidson and Cornelius.

In the Triad, we're in my hometown of Winston-Salem. We're also in Greensboro, High Point, Lexington, Clemmons, Thomasville, Trinity, Asheboro, Archdale, Jamestown, Kernersville, Reidsville, Burlington and Mebane.

In the Triangle, of course, we're in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and Cary. But we're also in Carrboro, Hillsborough, Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina (which is my favorite hyphenated place name in N.C. next to my hometown), Wake Forest, Garner, Knightdale and Morrisville.

Yesterday, our friends at Verizon announced plans to begin offering 4G in North Carolina, but their coverage will be limited at first. They will cover metro Charlotte, plus RDU -- the Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

We offer the country's largest selection of 4G capable devices -- we have 11 currently for sale -- including two phones: the HTC EVO 4G and the Samsung Epic 4G. Verizon, for its part, is following the same path we did in 2008 when we began our formal 4G rollout. (They will only sell modems at first, not phones. The phones will come "later in 2011" we're told.)

So if you live Charlotte, or you work at RDU, Verizon is now giving you a new 4G choice in North Carolina. But if you want a 4G phone and access to 4G coverage in the places where most North Carolinians live and work, Sprint remains a better choice.

I also think the pricing decision Verizon made is worth noting. They will sell you a 5MB a month plan for $50, which sounds great, except most 4G users consume more data than that. Our partners at Clearwire point out that their average customer uses 7MB a month. 7MB a month from Verizon will cost you $70 a month.

Verizon is offering a 10MB a month plan for $80.

At Sprint, we offer a 3G/4G Mobile Broadband Plan for $60 per month. The key difference -- it's UNLIMITED 4G use and 5 GB of 3G use each month.

We also offer a 4G Mobile Broadband Plan for $50 per month which includes unlimited 4G use.

While it's clear Verizon has a huge marketing budget to throw at their 4G offering, they will have to expand their network and device portfolio, and match our pricing offer to compete with us in North Carolina.

Meanwhile, people of the Triad and Triangle, if you're a Verizon customer, head to Charlotte for a Panthers game or drive to RDU for a flight if you want to use 4G. Or switch to Sprint.

Due to Hurricane Earl, the National Hurricane Center has issued a hurricane watch and tropical storm watch for portions of my home state -- North Carolina.

From Surf City, N.C. north to Cape Fear, there's a Tropical Storm Watch, meaning tropical storm conditions are expected.

From Cape Fear north to Duck, N.C., including the Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds, there is a Hurricane Watch in place, meaning hurricane conditions are expected.

Our network team in Eastern North Carolina is taking the steps our team in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands took just days earlier because of Earl. They are fueling up our permanent generators at our cell sites and network switches and pre-staging additional portable generators elsewhere across the region.

Elsewhere on the East Coast, our team is standing by as the forecasters make their determination for the rest of the Atlantic Coast. The National Hurricane Center's current guidance is that people, "from Virginia Northward to New England should monitor the progress of Earl."

That's sound advice.

I've lived through several serious storms which have hit the state over the years -- Hugo and Fran were the worst in my parts of the state -- but relatives were impacted by Floyd. In all these cases, flooding was the main culprit and our family lived several hundred miles from the beach.

Sprint also offers the following hurricane preparation tips:

• Keep your wireless phone and backup batteries charged, but be aware that an interruption of wireline and commercial power could affect wireless calls. 
• If possible, get extra batteries and charge them. 
• In times of commercial power outages, a car adapter for your wireless phone should enable you to recharge the battery. 
• Keep phones and necessary accessories in a sealed plastic bag to avoid water damage. 
• Load family and emergency numbers into your wireless phone. 
• Use your Sprint camera phone to take digital pictures or video of your property and valuables before the storm hits. Upload the images to your personal pictures inbox on www.sprint.com so you have "before" pictures in the event of any storm damage. 
• Wireless networks sometimes experience heavy traffic during emergency events, so remember to use Nextel Direct Connect(R) or send a text message. 

For more information about Sprint hurricane preparation efforts, or to learn what you can do to prepare in an emergency situation, visit: www.sprint.com/hurricaneinformation.