Stacey Higginbotham
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Wednesday, February 27, 2008 |
9:01 AM PT |
A new report from ABI Research hits the rather obvious note that customers are loyal to good service, not a particular carrier. As geographic boundaries for telco services erode thanks to unlimited wireless pricing plans and potential femtocell deployments, services and service are key. ABI Research Vice President Stuart Carlaw in the report states that:
“[W]ith a very conservative uptake of new innovative services enabled by femtocell solutions, it could take as much as five years before carriers go into the black following the trials on femtocell solutions. It is important to put this into context: nearly 75% of consumers in developments buy the solutions of more than two services. It is apparent that creating services beyond the go-to-market, cheap voice strategy will be crucial. And this will enable marketers to push the femtocell beyond the early adopters.”
It’s just another reminder that while folks out on the bleeding edge may be keen to wirelessly stream data from their laptops to their PCs, and Gen Y and those younger than them are more comfortable texting than talking, for the majority of the people out there paying a telco or cable provider, cheap, quality voice for less is what they want. Build that, and they will come. Keep it working, and they will stay.
Jaxtr Ends Beta, Begins Selling Ads:
Social voice startup Jaxtr has reached 10 million users, doubling its user base in less than three months. The company has also announced the end of its beta and the beginning of revenue, with ads running on the Jaxtr Cafe site. The site essentially turns Jaxtr from an widget-based mobile VoIP platform into a one-stop shop for social voice and text messaging that can be delivered to a mobile phone without the user giving out his or her phone number.
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Om Malik
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Monday, February 25, 2008 |
5:50 PM PT |
The ingress and egress of executives at Skype has given us much to write about, especially the changes in the C-suite. Niklas Zennstrom (co-founder) left a few months ago and was replaced by interim CEO Michael van Swaaij who is now being replaced by Josh Silverman, currently CEO of Shopping.com, another eBay company.
Silverman faces some interesting challenges - he needs to figure out how to grow the revenues. Skype has seen a sharp increase in Skype-to-Skype minutes. He is making the right noises and is going to be moving to Estonia to spend time at what I personally think is the “heart” of the Skype operation. (Update: We are told this move to Estonia is temporary, about two-to-three months. )
I’m the new guy, and have a lot to learn. To really understand Skype’s cultural and technological DNA, my number one priority is to do a lot of listening and learning. With my wife and kids about to begin their adventure in Estonia as well… As chief executive, I’m stepping into a flight deck first captained by co-founder Niklas Zennström and latterly interim CEO Michael van Swaaij. Both of whom have done great, meaningful things with this company. I don’t yet have the right to expect your enthusiastic two thumbs up. But as we go further on this journey together, I plan to earn it.”
Stacey Higginbotham
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Monday, February 25, 2008 |
7:09 AM PT |
Stacey Higginbotham
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Friday, February 22, 2008 |
11:57 AM PT |
Nokia is uncertain about the future of UMA and may not develop any more dual-band handsets for the standard, according to George Fry, director of technology alignment for the Finnish company. “We’re not seeing use diminishing, but we are seeing deployments level off,” Fry said earlier this week at the Personal Computing and Communications Association meeting.
Fry said that in cases in which an operator such as T-Mobile is trying to fill holes in its coverage without spending more to build out the network, UMA makes sense. But he said he wasn’t aware of any new deployments in the last six months or so. Indeed UMA, a standard that allows for secure hand-off between a cellular and fixed network, has proved somewhat polarizing.
Continue »
Daniel Berninger
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Monday, February 18, 2008 |
12:00 AM PT |
A transformation continues to gain momentum in telecom, with software innovation displacing big iron as the primary source of competitive advantage. But in order to have a telco-free nirvana, the infocom industry needs to produce compelling devices that go beyond features and functionality already available from the telcos. Continue »
Stacey Higginbotham
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Thursday, February 14, 2008 |
5:53 AM PT |
Paul Kapustka
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Tuesday, February 12, 2008 |
3:00 PM PT |
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:
- Internet video use is here to stay, and will only increase going forward
- Bundling services with devices is yesterday’s strategy
- Legislators and regulators are right to be concerned about the potential for monopolistic practices by AT&T, Verizon and cable companies
- Net Neutrality violations could be handled better by the FTC than the FCC
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Om Malik
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Monday, February 11, 2008 |
12:14 PM PT |
Verizon’s VoIP patents have become a lucrative source of income for the second-largest phone company in the U.S. After squeezing out $120 million from Vonage, the company has been filing patent infringement lawsuits against all comers — from tiny startups to cable giants like Cox. Today Verizon went after Charter Communications.
On the flip side, VoIP Inc., an Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based VoIP provider with a questionable business outlook, is almost out of gas. They owe Verizon about $8 million related to the settlement the two companies agreed to last year. As Fierce VoIP points out.
Unless Verizon believes in fairies, this money is as good as gone because the stock price is now at $0.008, creditors are already in the courts for big debts and VoIP Inc. is admitting it expects to have to write off its only real asset, its network business.
Convicted felon Steve Ivester was involved with VoIP Inc. during its early days when it was making a transition from tea company to Vonage competitor. Over the past 12 months, VoIP Inc.’s stock has tanked — from over $8 a share to less than a penny.
Stacey Higginbotham
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Monday, February 11, 2008 |
6:23 AM PT |
