Changes: Vonage and Alcatel-Lucent reshuffle, Moto goes to pieces, and BT makes a big bet
July 31, 2008
After a fairly slow month, news finally heated up in the last few days of July with news that Vonage has replaced its interim CEO with Marc Lefar, a telecom marketing guy. Marc comes from a stint as chief 
marketing officer of Cingular Wireless. Hopefully, he’ll be able to kick up sales in his new job as the head of one of the most recognizable VoIP companies.
Alcatel-Lucent is also making changes at the top, with both CEO, Patricia Russo, and Chairman, Serge Tchuruk announcing that they will leave by years end. Pressure had been mounting due to a slump in equipment sales following the recent merger of the two companies.
Motorola is going to pieces - by design. In preparation for the possible spin off or sale of business units, Motorola reorganizing its mobile devices and Home & Networks Mobility units. Motorola posted a small net profit for the quarter an improvement over a 28 million dollar loss in the same period last year.
British Telecom has picked up Ribbit, which bills itself as Silicon Valley’s first phone company. Ribbit is a voice 2.0 company which enables developers to add voice applications to all sorts of devices and programs. BT purchased Ribbit for a whopping $105 million.
Here at Telecom Monthly, we like change - it gives us something to blabber on about.
Communichaos - Is Los Angeles Ready For The Big One?
July 30, 2008
We often hear about how important cell phones are in a disaster. When you are forced out of your home or office, or when the power fails, you can always turn to your trusty cell phone for help.
Yesterday’s 5.4 magnitude earthquake in the LA Metro area was only a moderate trembler which did very little damage. But the temporary impact on the cellular networks was profound. For hours after the quake, users trying to make mobile calls or send text messages were met with network busy signals, as millions of people attempted to contact loved ones.
Which begs the question, if Mobile networks were overwhelmed by a modest earthquake, how would they fare in a major catastrophe?
Officials are urging Californians to take yesterday’s earthquake as a warning that it is time to reevaluate their disaster preparedness. It may not be wise to assume that our cell phones will be available when the big one hits, if yesterdays wild ride was any indication about network capacity in a crisis - they won’t be. Read more
Sprint Weaves A Mobile Web
July 28, 2008
Sprint has announced the launch of a new mobile web portal. Users of the 40+ devices currently supporting “Sprint Web” will have immediate access to the new service. The selling point of Sprint Web is that it is “Adaptive” and displays content based upon your past browsing history. 
We hope that Sprint was paying attention to the negative publicity that Facebook received over its “Beacon” advertising service last year. Users don’t necessarily mind targeted content, but the thought of your service provider tracking you to deliver targeted content (and possibly ads) is a bit scary - Google deals with this balancing act as well - features vs frightening.
Would you be reluctant to let someone use the browser on your phone to search for movie times or the weather if you didn’t know what they might find on your home page? What your home page says about you could potentially be embarrassing for some people. Sprint needs to tread cautiously, to make sure that users are comfortable and that their phones don’t give away too much unintentional information about them.
When in doubt, let the user decide if they want to pick their own content groups for the home page or have Sprint decide for them. That is the only sure fire way to avoid trouble.
New web services are clearly moving toward offering more tailored content. But how much privacy will we need to give away in the process?
FreeSwitch Attempts To Punctuate Asterisk!
July 25, 2008
IT geeks have long known about the open source world of Asterisk - the inexpensive PBX alternative which allows you to build the phone system you want in the way you want. Over the last few years, Asterisk has 
developed a huge community of members who seek to build applications, create configuration schemes, bug test, and build entire PBXs, often with advanced functionality. Users are creating applications and features which match those of the major PBX manufacturers. As a result, Asterisk’s power and influence have become disruptive in the PBX market space, forcing lower costs and increasing flexibility and features among the key players. Asterisk’s owner, Digium, has made quite a business selling equipment, PCI cards, and appliances which are compatible with Asterisk.
Asterisk is well positioned to make open source main stream in the PBX space. If it looks as though nothing will stop Asterisk from taking over the phone switch market, there is always something new on the horizon. For a couple of years, a scrappy, not quite fully baked alternative to Asterisk has also been brewing in the open source world. FreeSwitch and its fledgling community is not as active as Asterisk’s and it can be much harder to figure out how to get going with FreeSwitch and get the support you need. However, due to its robustness and superior ability to scale, the FreeSwitch momentum is rapidly building. And with a stabile new build of the code promising automatic speech recognition and text to speech, FreeSwitch is clearly on the path to win developer attention.
While Asterisk may still be the darling of small and mid sized companies looking to build a phone system on the cheap, FreeSwitch is finding favor with those looking to build advanced communication services and platforms which seek to serve hundreds or thousands of users.
Of course, all of this interest in “free” can only serve to create gas for the sales departments at Nortel, Avaya, Cisco, and Shoretel, who would be quick to tell you that their systems are more robust and reliable than their upstart competitors. They might also tell you that while open source is thought of as free, the systems that Asterisk and FreeSwitch run on are not. They must still be hosted, supported, configured, and maintained, none of which is free.
At the moment, innovation is leading to lower costs across the board, whether you choose an incumbent manufacturer or build it yourself using Asterisk and FreeSwitch. And most all of the new systems support modern VoIP/SIP connections which can save you even more on your monthly telecom expenses. The choices and possibilities in the phone system market today are nearly limitless. As long as your budget, patience, and vision is unlimited as well.
Cellular Cancer Risk Advisory
July 24, 2008
Every so often, the specter of cell phone related cancers pops up in the media. While there is no conclusive data linking cell phones to cancer, some doctors are beginning to warn children and adults to limit their exposure to the electromagnetic radiation emitted from cell phones. The latest such story broke in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette yesterday.
Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, the director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and UPMC Cancer Centers has begun advising faculty and staff about the possible health risks associated with cellular phone use.
Particular concern is being placed on the cellular exposure that children receive. Their sensitive tissues, organs, and growing bodies leave them at particular risk to all sorts of environmental factors, possibly including risks from electromagnetic radiation from cell phones.
Dr. Herberman asserts: “Recently I have become aware of the growing body of literature linking long-term cell phone use to possible adverse health effects including cancer,” he said in the advisory. “Although the evidence is still controversial, I am convinced that there are sufficient data to warrant issuing an advisory to share some precautionary advice on cell phone use.”
Although 20 different groups have endorsed the advice the Pittsburgh cancer institute, the bulk of major studies related to cell phones and cancer do not show a significant increase in cancers for cell phone users. The largest of these studies tracking 420,000 cell phone users for 10 years was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in 2006 and showed no increased risk to cancer.
This is clearly an issue which requires more independent research in order to reassure a public which is rapidly turning to cellular as a primary form of communication.
Free Messaging For The iPhone
July 23, 2008
If there is one thing that I don’t like about the iPhone (and there are actually a few minor things I don’t like) it is the expensive text messaging. Texting was included with my first iPhone plan but is no longer included with the iPhone 3G plans. So, I’ve started looking for alternatives.
Here are a few options - that actually worked when we tested them (there were a few others that were either too confusing, didn’t work, or required too much set up). Keep in mind that in all of these cases, the party you are texting will need to pay the SMS rate in their cellular plan to respond to you - unless they also opt to use one of these services when they reply to you. However, chat programs are generally free. So if you can convince your friends to stay logged in to chat all day on AIM or Facebook you can both save a lot of money (see below).
The first option is to install the AOL application from the iPhone App Store. Then set up your friends as contacts, using their cellular numbers as their contact name. AOL will send the message to your friend as an SMS on their phone. The nice thing about this app is that it is tied into your AOL Instant Messenger account (AIM). So any changes that you make will show up on both the iPhone version of the app and on your desktop version. Of course, you could simply use the AOL chat feature to communicate back and forth with your buddies instead of sending the message as a text. That would save your buddy the expense of texting back to you.
If chat is an acceptable solution instead of texting, you might also consider the Facebook app. Facebook also allows you to communicate back and forth with your friends, and for a certain set of people who are constantly logged in to Facebook, a convenient way to reach them.
Another interesting option is to send a text from the web site dynadel.com using your iPhone internet browser. You simply enter the phone number and carrier of the person you are trying to reach and it sends the SMS for free.
A similar option is the DurgleSender which works just like the Dynadel.
I’m always on the lookout for ways to save money, so if you’ve got a text workaround that really works, please list it below.
AT&Tease, Where For Art Thou WiFi
July 21, 2008
AT&T is quickly becoming the company who cried “Free” one too many times. Back in May, AT&T posted a web page announcing free WiFi for iPhone users at the company’s WiFi spots nationwide, including Starbucks. Then the page was suddenly removed and announced as an error by AT&T. That is a pretty embarrassing mistake, but a mistake all the same and hardly newsworthy. Until it happened again.
Last week, AT&T once again posted a web page promising free WiFi with these words:
AT&T knows Wi-Fi is hot, and free Wi-Fi even hotter, which is why we are proud to offer iPhone customers free access to the nation’s largest Wi-Fi hotspot network with more than 17,000 hostspots, including Starbucks*
However, the announcement was yet another error. While someone in marketing may think that this is a brilliant move to drum up anticipation and interest, it actually borders on incompetence and threatens the credibility of a major company such as AT&T. It also begs the question, is anyone awake at the switch? Doesn’t anyone check what goes up on the web at AT&T? Can anyone just post a page repeatedly promising something and then retract it without consequence?
Clearly, AT&T has something in the works to offer Free WiFi, but after two embarrassing false launches, it is time for AT&T to put up or shut up. Or they may just find that no one believes them when the service finally launches for real.
Thank you for the Fantastic image courtesy mattcastille.com
Plumble Forward To Free Phone Calls
July 18, 2008
Once in a blue moon, a new product comes along with an idea so obvious that you just want to slap your forehead that you didn’t think of it first. For a couple of years, companies like Jajah and Skype have been offering “Free” phone service. But both still collect your credit card number and charge you for calls that you make off their networks. So they aren’t really “Free,” although they can come close if you call mostly other Jajah or Skype users.
A new beta service called Plumble offers actual free phone calls without collecting your credit card number or even your name. The service is still in a limited Beta status, so it is unclear how many countries will be supported, but it promises to remain free by inserting a short Ad during the call setup. The people you call won’t hear the Ads, just you.
When I called Plumble today, I heard a short Ad from Goog411 and then my call was completed for free. A potentially slick service when it is fully rolled out. The main domain for this site is still closed to general traffic and is in a Coming Soon state. However, there is a back door which will allow you to make some free calls. The following link allows you to call anywhere in the US and Canada for free by visiting http://www.plumble.com/G and then calling the number on the page. We’d list the number, but it might be dynamic or change, so we’d suggest that you visit the link directly.
As tired as I am of advertising in every corner of our lives, I’d gladly be exposed to a couple of short ads in exchange for free phone service. The price of long distance calls has been falling for years, but it appears to have finally hit bottom.
UPDATE 8-1-08:
The Marketing folks at Plumble wrote to let us know that they have not officially launched this service and the page that we reported about above is just for testing purposes. However, users are welcome to make free phone calls as long as the page remains available. They simply want you to know that they might take the site down at any time or change the locations which can be called and/or the length of calls.
Femtocells to the Rescue
July 17, 2008
If there is one thing that has prevented cellular networks from completely devastating traditional wired landline service, it is a lack of coverage. Particularly a difficulty receiving a signal in buildings, underground, in remote locations, or other obstructed areas.
Femtocells seek to resolve this problem by transmitting a localized signal over a specialized device that looks like a lot like a broadband router. Users with a broadband connection can set up a Femtocell and place or receive calls even if there is no local cellular coverage. This is an advantage to both the user and the cellular carrier. Users are able to enhance their coverage and carriers are able to offload calls from their cell towers and terminate the traffic over the internet.
As these things often work out, Femto devices have been hampered by a lack of standards amoung carriers and device manufacturers. The good news is that members of the Femto Forum have finally agreed on a standard for management of femtocells and hopes that they will be ready for regular use on 3G wireless networks by the end of 2008.
If femtos are made easy enough that a user can self-install them at a reasonable (or subsidized) price, Femtocells could fill a tremendous void for business and residential users everywhere.
Sprint and SK Telecom Talk In Troubled Times
July 16, 2008
SK Telecom of South Korea is at it again. They have previously attempted to buy an ownership stake in Sprint Nextel but Sprint had rejected the 5 billion dollar offer. This time around the companies are purportedly only interested in a “partnership” arrangement with a potential minority investment by SK Telecom.
This has been a rough year for Sprint Nextel which has struggled to keep and grow its customer base in the wake of the lackluster Nextel merger. The slow erosion of the traditional landline telephone business as customers switch to Cellular and Voice Over IP, has placed additional pressure on Sprint to outperform on the Cellular side. However, tough economic conditions and a gathering loss of Nextel customers has led to an over all loss of Sprint Nextel customers and has made it difficult for #3 Sprint to compete against its larger rivals AT&T and Verizon.
It is unlikely that an SK Telecom partnership or possible merger would provide the new and groundbreaking products which might change the fortunes of either company, but it would allow SK Telecom a greater presence in the United States and potentially help prop up Sprint for the next round in the telecom wars.
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