James F. Booth

For more than 25 years, James Booth has provided consulting and legal services to telecommunications carriers and to enterprise companies that manage their own telecommunications networks. Since June of 2009 he has also served as General Counsel of Spread Networks, LLC, which is the industry leader in the construction and operation of low latency high speed networks. Before joining Spread he was General Counsel for OnFiber Communications, a competitive telecommunications provider, and was the sole attorney for Qwest Communications International in support of its construction of an 18,800 mile fiber optic network spanning the United States. Earlier he was lead counsel for U S WEST in its wireless and cable television ventures in the United States, Europe and Hong Kong.

Monday, April 22, 2013

The ultra-luxe cellphone

A dozen craftsmen sit in neat rows, hushed, squinting, judiciously turning minuscule titanium screws. They are assembling smartphones. After fitting all 184 parts, they buff the edges of the device, then laser-engrave their name onto a titanium plate where the SIM card goes, snapping it into place. Vertu, which has been producing premium gadgets for over a decade, began selling the Ti, an Android-based phone with a base price of $9,600, earlier this spring. Lately, the company's Church Crookham, Hampshire, England manufacturing center has been hosting customers to show off this scene: a single craftsman carefully constructing a single phone. The story behind a pricey phone can be very valuable, too. http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/11/technology/vertu-ti-phone.pr.fortune/index.html