Amongst all the burning wrecks of the voice over IP startup scene, is it possible that a $40 device hawked on late-night TV may be emerging as one of the biggest VoIP success stories ever? If you believe founder Dan Borislow, that is what is happening with his idea called MagicJack, a simple USB-based VoIP device that Borislow claims will generate $100 million in revenue this year, a market momentum that may spark an initial public offering to help fund his ambitious expansion plans. Continue »
Like all the other geeks in attendance, I couldn’t help myself from letting out an audible “whooo” when Google showed off an Android phone demo Wednesday that linked Street View to a compass (see video below). Sure it was just a demo, but watching the virtual-reality performance of photo-maps linked to hand motions shows how cool new applications could be when they start by running on a high-end mobile phone.
Delivering lots of cool new apps is the promise of Android, the open source mobile OS project from Google. With a much-improved iPhone-ish look and feel, the base Android platform seems ready for prime time and on schedule to launch somewhere, sometime, later this year. But I still see three big problems for Android apps that could keep the add-on market small for the foreseeable future. Continue »
Now we know why none of the major carriers showed up for Thursday’s open FCC meeting at Stanford University: Who wants to take on Larry Lessig, the lion of Net Neutrality, in his own den?
Class was in session when Stanford law prof Lessig delivered a powerful lecture on the need for neutral networks, telling the assembled FCC chairman and commissioners to their faces that they were part of a 10-year-long failure by the agency to “make a clear statement of policy” about how infractions against the open, end-to-end connectivity of the Internet would be policed or enforced.
Lessig’s key points — which included the assertion that the historic openness of the Internet has been the key to its economic boom — are important to record, since they are very likely to become key talking points for Net Neutrality proponents as the battle over potential neutrality regulation heats up during the current congressional session. But the lack of a viable opponent in the arena made for a somewhat lukewarm event, with more than half the auditorium’s reported 716 seats going empty. Those who were present cheered mightily for Lessig, while only issuing soft “boos” for Republican FCC commissioners Robert McDowell and Deborah Tate, whose brief remarks basically indicated their opposition to any Net Neutrality regulations.
Ding! The second round of the Net Neutrality battle officially started today, with Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey’s introduction of H.R. 5353, a bill supporters are calling the “Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008.” Detractors, of course, will call it many other things, including a revival of 2006-era attempts to write Net Neutrality concepts into law. But a quick read-through of the official document shows a few twists, including some provisions for easing of video franchising laws, that may win some previous detractors over to the Net Neutrality side.
In addition to the video-franchising language, perhaps the most surprising thing about the bill is its timing — most telecom policy insiders doubt that any such legislation will pass until after the presidential election, since there doesn’t seem to be a wide consensus or support for the ideas it contains. But Markey’s somewhat expected bill — co-sponsored by Republican Chip Pickering of Mississippi — rolls the Net Neutrality ball back onto the court after basically being sidelined since the fall of 2006.
Given its proximity to the Broomfield, Colo., headquarters of Level 3, there’s always a good chance that the Silicon Flatirons telecom conference will get a visit from Jim Crowe, Level 3’s CEO. He made the short drive up Hwy. 36 on Monday afternoon for a well-reasoned talk about long-term trends in communications that had several key takeaways, among them:
BOULDER, Colo. — FCC commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said Sunday that he and the agency will “definitely look into the allegations” of rumored shadowy deals that may have led to the collapse of Frontline Wireless and the apparent failure of the “D” Block segment to attract a minimum reserve bid in the ongoing 700 MHz spectrum auction.
First reported by Harold WFeld on the WetMachine blog, the rumor that machinations by Morgan O’Brien of Cyren Call fame may have helped to scuttle the plans of Frontline Wireless — perhaps the most likely bidder on the mixed-use D Block bandwidth — is something Adelstein is taking seriously, following what he called the “great disappointment” of the apparent failure of any winning bid for the D Block spectrum.
Adelstein’s pledge to look more deeply into the matter came during a question-and-answer period following his participation in panel discussions here at the Silicon Flatirons conference, one of the nation’s top telecom policy gatherings.
Ribbit, the Mountain View, Calif.-based startup aiming to help developers unite voice with web applications, is scheduled to announce its own voice-web entry Monday, a service called Amphibian that will give users the ability to blend traditional telephony services with a wide range of web-based options.
Due out in the second quarter of 2008, Amphibian is slated to be shown live at the Demo conference Tuesday morning, according to the Ribbit folks who gave us a quick heads-up before preparing for their moment in the startup sun. Amphibian’s promised features — which include the ability to redirect a cell call into Skype, Google Talk, MSN or into a web-based voice mail application — may not seem particularly groundbreaking to anyone familiar with other VoIP-based web services. But viewed as a loss leader for Ribbit’s API, Amphibian might be the first product evangelist who actually made the company some money to boot.
DigitalBridge Communications, a provider of WiMAX-based broadband-to-rural communities, announced a $20 million Series B round of financing Monday, showing that some investors believe there might be gold to mine in them thar rural broadband markets. The new funding (which PE Hub says is closer to $23 million) joins the $17 million or so the company had raised previously. DigitalBridge CEO Kelley Dunne, contacted via phone Monday night, said the latest round should let the company “fully fund” its planned rollout to 15 markets, beyond its current list of served communities that includes the Idaho locales of Rexburg and Pocatello, along with Missoula, Mon., and Washington, Ind.
Dunne, a telecom veteran who spent time both at a CLEC and at Verizon, said that capital expenditures for a WiMAX provider today are “about one-tenth” of the costs that a wireline CLEC might need. Combining WiMAX with low-cost fiber agreements and easy-to-install customer-premise gear from Alvarion is a recipe that is already producing cash-flow-positive results in Rexburg, Dunne said.
After talking earlier this week about the speed bumps that U.S. WiMAX deployment faces, it only seemed proper to take a ride in the WiMAX-equipped vehicles that Motorola and Intel revved up at CES.
I will geek out a bit after the jump, but the bottom line is that Wednesday’s brief broadband cruise provided public proof that mobile WiMAX works pretty much just like extended-range Wi-Fi, or maybe more like a cellular 3G network, does. But there are still too many loose ends — including incomplete equipment rollouts at the chip and device level, and uncertain provider plans — to guarantee widespread WiMAX availability in this country anytime soon.
On the optimist side, it is always fun to find new technologies that let you make Skype calls from a car while watching “Hillary crying” videos on YouTube. Sometimes broadband reporting is fun. Continue »
Frontline Wireless is apparently out of the 700 MHz auction, according to reports from RCR Wireless and the New York Times, as well as an email note from our telecom analyst pals at Stifel, Nicolaus. According to the reports, the startup, which counted former FCC chairman Reed Hundt and VC John Doerr among its backers, apparently couldn’t raise enough money for the deposit required to participate in the upcoming auction.
The quick take: Good news for incumbents Verizon and AT&T, who no longer have to bid against Frontline for spectrum. Some might say Frontline’s fate was sealed this summer when the FCC issued rules for the auction that didn’t quite mesh with Frontline’s plans. Others, like the Stifel, Nicolaus gang (whose research is primarily targeted at large investors), note that it is neither easy nor cheap to build new national networks, and of course, there is no guarantee of profitability.
Because of “quiet period” rules governing entities participating in the auction, Hundt said he could not talk about the matter when contacted via email.
