A new way of looking at an old subject - "telephony"

What if you were new to the planet and were presented with this problem (in other words, think "NO PRECONCEPTIONS"):

"Welcome to Earth, more specifically, the the United States. We'd like your help in finding a way for us to talk to each other and exchange data remotely, regardless of where we or those we communicate with are located. All we have is this Internet network to work with. Can you help us?"

I think that after taking a look at the Internet, you would first take measures so that everyone is on broadband, and then you would come up with a software application that runs over the Internet. In other words, something that looks either like this service, FWD or this one, Skype and has a variety of handset options, including something like this Google Phone or this iPhone.

The point is, if you're starting fresh, there is little indication that you would recreate the current copper-based network PSTN (aka traditional telecom network) with captive customer service features and handsets limited to voice and tied down to physical locations. We use what we have today because it's already in place and because everyone is used to using it, not because its superior in any way.

In this fresh hypothetical, we would instead use a VOIP application running over the Internet, because that's the most efficient way to communicate, and it offers more features and benefits, in short, more value. We would likely have a large variety of application service providers lining up to compete for our VOIP business - it would be a very competitive market. And we would pick which device best suited our needs and it would just work, with little user orientation needed.

OK, so back to the alien consultant scenario with which I introduced this post. So, you're the consultant drafted to solve this problem...To frame the issue, wouldn't you ask questions like these?

1) Whom do you need to talk with? Where are they?
2) What technologies do we have to use to connect to the Internet?
3) How often do you talk on the system or use it for data?
4) What quality level for voice transmission and reception is acceptable?
5) How much do you have to spend on this service per month?
6) How much would you like to spend?

And then, in answer to your questions, you were told ...
1) about 80% of the time, I need to talk to people I know, 20% of the time, strangers will need to reach me, or I will need to call new people. I need data in all kinds of ways.
2) The Internet, and laptops, handsets and other devices that work on the Internet
3) Nearly all the time - just as I would if they were next to me, say, in the same building. I need access to all kinds of data at all times.
4) Same as if I was standing next to them, but I don't mind if the connection breaks, because I can just restart the call.
5) less than $10/month
6) I'd prefer to spend nothing at all for the calls, if that's at all possible.

Among the many challenges that any new voice telecom company faces, just as with all the companies that have taken on the large telecom companies in the past and mostly, failed, is that people change their habits a lot slower than technology changes. So new competitors trying to take advantage of what technology can provide today have to wait for the market to develop around them, even as they must compete with these 800-lb gorillas with tremendous market advantages.

It's a challenge, but I encourage you to get in the habit of looking at old industries with a new eye, because the times they are a changin'...Try to look at telecom services differently. We don't realize how many assumptions we carry inside our heads on a service that has been around with very little changes for as long as we have lived. Think about things like what is the basic service needed? what could be added to make it better? what works in other industries that we could borrow?

I think that looking at old things in new ways is a skill we are all going to have to develop, whether we like it or not.

Posted on November 05, 2007 at 03:04 PM | Comments (0)

The iMPACT of the iPhone and the iPod, Still Coming

New mobile Internet devices like the iPhone, and applications like Tucson's ERLink, will no doubt drive increased demand for the mobile Internet. It is these devices and applications that will drive the next phase of growth in metro Wi-Fi
- Ron Sege, Tropos President in Tropos Networks Monthly Newsletter - Muni Wi-Fi: "The End of the Beginning"

Amid all the wailing and gnashing of teeth about the future of municipal wireless and mesh networking, there's a different perspective afoot, if you just put your head down and listen to the drumbeats. That sound you hear in the distance is the Steve Jobs Express, coming to a town near you sometime in the next four months...

We thought the original release of the iPhone in June was a big deal. It was, of course. But watch for consumer devices that provide handheld access to Wi Fi to make a strong showing in the next six months, led by the iPod and iPhone - Christmas is coming, after all. In advance of the holiday season, Apple made a splash yesterday and today with an announcement of expansions to its line of iPods, and of course, the iPhone now has a cousin that is decoupled from the cellular network, but has Wi Fi access - the iPod Touch. Some of the best reviews I saw are here, here, and here.

The popularity of the iPod line is legendary, and the marketing savvy shown by Apple with the iPod literally put a new face on the company, moving it away from the laptop and personal computer, over towards Sony as a consumer electronics company, even towards the Recording Industry, as a legitimate player. The iPod has underscored the legend that is Steve Jobs - if anyone has the clout to change an industry, you have to think that he would. He alone saw an opportunity in the Napster mess, challenged the recording industry to get with the program, and created a marketing and economic consumer sensation with the iPod and iTunes.

Will the Telecom World be next in line to taste the thrill of disruption, led by Steve Jobs?

When they announced the release of the iPhone earlier this summer, it made a big splash, but a lot of the press necessarily talked about ATT as well, because this was a joint deal between the two companies. To get the cool device, you had to sign up for a two-year service contract with ATT. Not only was the phone $699 ($200 more than it is today, after the price cut), but also, there was the 2 years of service fees, as well as knocks on the data service quality available from ATT.

See here and here and compare the tone to the product reviews for the iPod Touch above. Sure, these are snarky pieces, but one of the main beefs about the iPhone is legitimate - it comes with a lightweight data service (ATT's EDGE network - still 2.5 G). It appears that 3G is not yet there, so EDGE will have to do for now. Or will it?

It wasn't long (early July) before we saw articles like this one, IPhone Turns Focus On Greater Wi-Fi Use By Handsets, which speculates on the potential of Wi Fi mesh networks to take on a new role supporting hand held devices.

This is indeed a ray of sunshine during some gloomy times, and we can expect even more positive reports on the potential of these networks. Networks and devices and applications go hand in hand, and they spur each other on. This trend will continue to grow and networks will be spurred on by such consumer applications and devices as - drum roll please - the iPhone.

See here and here for some positive, level headed assessments that highlight the potential of hand held devices to raise the value of these networks. These are Motorola driven articles, so still subject to a little of the Hype machine, but they do contain some good industry facts and indicators on why hand held devices could become more and more significant.

I've long held that VOIP has the potential to be the Killer App for Metropolitan Broadband. To understand better what a big challenge this represents to the Telecom Paradigm, see Fractals of Change - VoIP Over WiFi WILL Disrupt the Cellular Industry, for a good analysis piece on the disruptive impact of voice over IP - "VOIP" over Wi Fi networks.

When voice telecommunications truly becomes just another application on a broadband network, the world will have turned upside down. There is so much money in voice telecommunications, and the costs are so much less when its an IP application, that this trend will be hard to counter. In time, the tail will wag the dog. At least, that's the way it must look from the telecom industry, in their darker moments of uncertainty.

Posted on September 06, 2007 at 10:07 PM | Comments (0)

Talk, talk, talk ...when will talk REALLY be cheap?

Yeahhh!!! iPhone Day has finally arrived! Mark your calendars. Independence (from boring phones) Day has arrived a little early. Or has it?

I'm excited as the next consumer about today's events, but I can't help but be reminded of that graph in Clayton Christensen's The Innovator's Dilemma. That business classic describes in a chart how manufacturers of mature products add more and more features to keep the product price (and margins) up, until a disruptive innovator sees an opening to come in with an "inferior" product that does a few things insanely well for a much lower price, then adds quality over time as it gains market share. Instant disruption, and the mature companies disregard the disruptor because they consider it "inferior" ... until its too late.

Amid all this hoopla today, we should ask ourselves, is the iPhone the true disruptive product its claiming to be, or is it one of those feature-rich, bloated products meant to keep prices high and give ATT an edge? This has to be a marriage of convenience, where Apple gets a partner to showcase its product launch, because they are and always have been a product company. And ATT gets an exclusive on the best looking date for the high school prom, at least for a little while. ATT will use this event to pull in subscribers, because as a telecom company, its ALL about subscribers and ARPU. So its a little of both, I'd say.There will be a honeymoon, and then...well, we'll see, I guess.

Today's launch has certainly gained the attention of competing cell carriers and handset manufacturers, I'd say, but I'm a lonely voice today, daydreaming and waiting for the simple device that will let me make voice calls on a Wi Fi network really cheaply. Is it the Belkin Wi Fi phone for Skype/? With a broadband connection, there's no cheaper voice than Skype. There are more and more of these devices, and watch for the real Dual Use Phone counter punch coming later this year.

I think we need more time for this all to play out. Tons of features for lots of money? Or flat rate voice as an IP application on a ubiquitous wireless broadband network? It's a tantalizing question. I'm talking too cheap to meter, that's my vision. I daydream about commoditization. How many more consumers are out there like me? I'm looking at my total cost of ownership with a $100/month ATT plan and a $600 phone, and I'm thinking "that's a lot of dough..."

But just like broadband penetration, Wireless VOIP feels like a slow train coming. It's days like today that seem to underscore both how far we've come, and how far we have yet to go when it comes to wireless voice.

For all the hoop-la over the offiical debut of the iPhone today (and it is exciting!), there's this lingering feeling that the consumer experience is somehow missing a certain element - a fancy package for a cell phone, sure, but what about wireless data and accessing the Internet? Sure, the image flops around when you move the phone 90 degrees - cool - but what about the limited EDGE network it runs on? So far, that looks like the principal ant at the picnic today.

For some good editorializing, be sure to check out Glenn Fleishman's columns on the release of the iPhone at Wi Fi Networking News yesterday (Why the iPhone lacks a Wi Fi Service Plan), later yesterday evening (Steve Jobs Encourages Wi Fi Mooching), and then this morning (Finding Wi Fi for an iPhone, VPN Too). Glenn provides the reader a little more focus from a wireless perspective than you can find at NYT or the technology section of your daily newspaper.

Here's some more interesting links: here (Apple's coverage), here (ATT's coverage), and here (includes a NYT You Tube video review).

As I watch the news coverage last night and today, it's fun to witness the pop culture aspect of a Steve Jobs event, even for a ... telephone. After the Macintosh, Pixar, and the iPod, we'd be fools not to pay attention to this particular product launch. But I also remember the Lisa and the Netwon - I actually was given a Newton when I did an Apple internship in my final semester at graduate business school in Spring 1994. It was neat, but a pain as well. All I can say is: "Timing is Everything," and "It sucks to be the first one at a party." I hope they got it right this time, and I sure won't be betting against them.

An unintended consequence may well be some blowback about the slow network speeds on the ATT EDGE network. Or about other things, like corporate IT compatibility. Still, despite the naysayers and the complaints, I'm predicting the iPhone will be rapidly assimilated by the first wave of early adopters (going out on a limb here, aren't I?) and that there will be more happy consumers than not - but with the Apple product, and not so much with the ATT service.

And there's the rub. "They" (wireless cellular carriers) still don't seem to get "it." (cheap voice AND high speed mobile data) "We" (everyone) want more from wireless. We need broadband. And we need mobile. Both. Now.

When Mobile Voice, Mobile Data, and Wireless Broadband really do come together, we will all sit up and take notice. And that day is coming sooner than we think. And it may well get a big kick in the pants from today's events. Let's hope so.

For one last nugget to chew on, here's yet another reference to VOIP as a killer app on wireless networks, and the threat it poses to wireless cellular carriers...GigaOM Mobile VoIP: Killer App in More Ways than One.

Happy iPhone Day! You'll remember where you were today ...

Posted on June 29, 2007 at 04:31 PM | Comments (0)

The sound you hear is the other shoe falling: Cellular Companies signing on to Wi Fi

Nokia gets aggressive on Wi-Fi - vnunet.com According to Jarkko Sairanen, vice president for strategy and planning at Nokia Technology Platforms, Nokia has "the most aggressive LAN roadmap of any manufacturer." The proof is in the pudding: Nokia has confirmed that it will no longer release business phones without Wi-Fi capability.

These plans focus on the handsets using the Series 80 operating system, and a growing number of Series 60 phones. The low cost of Wi-Fi, and the growing installed base of wireless networks in offices, will also drive future demand.

As for other wireless technologies, look for WiMax technology to be integrated as well, but it may take longer as networks will have to be upgraded to deal with the signal. And cellular data speeds will stay lower than for Wi-Fi for the foreseeable future, but Nokia hopes to have 100Mb download speeds by 2010 using enhanced high speed packet access technology.

Add this to the move by Qualcomm to join the Wi Fi Alliance last week, and you can start to connect the dots. When major cellular players like Nokia and Qualcomm get behind Wi Fi, can there still be any doubt that its ready for prime time? The other shoe has fallen, no need to wait any longer - come on in, the water's fine.

Regardless of MAN/LAN debates over Wi-Fi's use, Qualcomm joining the alliance is recognition that handset makers and cellular operators worldwide want unlicensed mobile access (UMA) in their phones, among other uses of Wi-Fi. Qualcomm's participation may make it easier for compatibility and interoperability of standards. Glenn Fleishman in Wi Fi Networking News

Posted on December 15, 2005 at 11:06 PM | Comments (0)

What's the Opposite of a Pin-Drop Network?

For Mark Burris, Internet-based calling is a mixed blessing. Burris, who runs a branding and marketing business in Greensboro, N.C., is delighted because his Vonage service comes with cool features such as voicemail over the Web. Plus, it slashes about $260 a month off phone bills. The downside: glitches galore. So many calls are dropped -- as many as half -- that company employees all use their mobile phones to make outgoing calls. Burris' operations manager lately is spending upwards of a half-hour a day trying to get to the bottom of the problem. For now, "we are bearing it and going on," says Burris. But other companies and consumers taking the plunge into Internet-based calling may not be so patient.

VoIP Providers: Heeding the Call? Ouch! This article lays bare the dirty underbelly of the exciting new VOIP technology. A little harsh? Maybe, but is good to read something besides all the rah rah rah all the time about these new applications. I have heard that buzz before- residential yes, but not yet ready for business...

Still, I remember my first cell phone about 10 years ago, and I had dropped calls. And I've used the "Drop Network" to describe my cell phone service at my house even today. (names kept hidden to protect the guilty) So, if we accept such lousy service for cell phones because the price is right and they are an essential service, and we don't have any alternatives, my guess is that a sizeable chunk of the market will accept the poor service/cheap price trade off for VOIP as well. We can only hope that its service level improves faster than the "Drop Network" that I'm currently stuck with.

Posted on December 01, 2005 at 04:39 PM | Comments (0)

Calypso Wi Fi phone demo

Calypso Wireless Demos Wi-Fi-GSM-GPRS Cell Phone - Yahoo! News Just in case you were suspecting that this is all just so much hype, check out this artcile about an actual demonstration of a combo cellular VoWiFi phone by Calypso. The sound you hear is more and more consumer options marching towards us.

Posted on October 06, 2005 at 10:57 PM | Comments (0)

Bell Bottom Blues - eBay Rising

eBay's ambitious grab at Skype heralds an apogee in telecom history, the point where a blue-chip public company has finally endorsed the new generation of Internet communication. This radical, Rule-Breaking shift has been slowly developing under the surface for years. Until recently, all of the giant incumbent phone companies had fought this macro trend. They lost. Now, companies such as SBC (NYSE: SBC) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) have begun abandoning their legacy circuit-switched voice networks and branching out into flashier wireless and packet-switched data offerings in a frantic effort to stay relevant (and alive). In fifty years, we'll likely look back at this era as the evaporation of the Bell System and the birth of the broadband age.

The fear that eBay's purchase of Skype represents an unproductive and distracting foray into telecom, wholly unrelated to eBay's core Internet auction business, is a misplaced concern. Traditional telecom companies are a dying breed, and eBay isn't buying into one of them. Instead, it wants to be a new-fangled entity that allows people to communicate, connect, and transact business easily worldwide - a competency it's willing to pay billions for today.

eBay Today, eBell Tomorrow? This is perhaps the best analysis I've read on why eBay buying Skype is a big deal, maybe the biggest deal we've seen in Telecom in a long time. $2.6 Billion is, after all, not chicken feed. The rest of this blog is a vision exercise.

If you haven't tried Skype yet, I'd urge you to do so, just to get a better grip on the buzz surrounding this deal. First, you have to have a broadband connection for this to work. If your laptop lacks a built-in microphone and speaker, you'll want to buy a headset with a microphone attached for around $10. Othewise, that's all you need to turn your laptop into a free telephone. You download the free Skype software, and get a friend to do the same. Now you and your friend can talk to your hearts content over the Internet, NO MATTER WHERE THE TWO OF YOU ARE. And most of the time, its crystal clear wthout lags and skips, like with early VOIP. Move over Pin Drop Network.

And Good Bye Long Distance, Good Bye area codes, Good Bye dial tones and Good Bye monthly telephone bills (and Good Bye to all those additioinal charges and fees that are so many hidden taxes). Good Bye Moon. Voice is an IP application that will be subsidized by advertising and other services. This vision requires us to junk a lot of what we have known as standards our whole lives - telecom dogma - and it's hard work.

But it's a beautiful world, although it takes some time to get used to the idea. Who knows how long this fantasy will last, but it sure works for me. In the end, what I really like is that a broadband network is needed for this service to work; without broadband, you can't get to all these new neat applications. You're on the outside of the restaurant looking in at all this nice food, like that scene in Doctor Zhivago.... we're still early in this transition, but this is the kind of social pressure that will promote municipal wireless networks. The infrastructure is Step One. Let's get busy.

Posted on September 30, 2005 at 10:21 PM | Comments (0)

Skype for Sale?

PBS | I, Cringely . July 28, 2005 - Skyped If you don't have Robert Cringely's blog on your list, you should add it - even I didn't have it on my list until tonight, but I went ahead and added it to the Pundits and Blogs. His blog is one of the most insightful writing on what is going on in technology and telecommunications - this article is a case in point, where Cringely details the potential purchase of Skype and examines whether it would be hype or a real business value to buy it.

Posted on July 29, 2005 at 09:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Telecom Companies, VOIP, and IPTV

Telecoms, television and the internet | The war of the wires | Economist.com I just love the Economist - some of the best writing in a periodical that you will ever see. This intriguing analysis examines the position of incumbent telecom companies with an unflinching eye. It will make you look at all the hype out there about a Triple Play in a little different light, I suspect.

Posted on July 29, 2005 at 06:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

VOIP 101 - On Skype, KaZaA, Napster and How We Deal With Change

"I knew it was over when I downloaded Skype," Michael Powell, chairman, Federal Communications Commission, explained. "When the inventors of KaZaA are distributing for free a little program that you can use to talk to anybody else, and the quality is fantastic, and it's free - it's over. The world will change now inevitably."

Fortune Magazine, February 16, 2004

How well did Michael Powell do as a fortune teller, nearly 18 months ago? Well, pretty well, it seems. According to the Skype website, which explains Skype on this page, the program has been downloaded over 142,108,423 times to date - for a company that started only in August 2003, that's a lot of progress in two short years! What kind of impact has Skype had? Well, its raised a lot of eyebrows among telecom companies and arguably influenced cable companies to begin offering VOIP services, for one.

If you haven't tried it, you should check out this tutorial and see for yourself. There is no better way to understand the potential of VOIP than to do as Michael Powell did and dip your toe in the water by downloading Skype. See for yourself.

Back to the The world will change now inevitably prediction. There is still the matter of connecting a call made on a computer to a telephone on a switched network, or vice versa, which has probably blunted much of the impact that Skype could have had to date. There is no getting around incumbent telecom companies if Skype is to be truly competitive as a telecom alternative and not just a voice IM service. And this is where it starts to resemble dragging a parachute behind a sail boat - in nautical circles, they call that a sea anchor, but I digress. So what about the impact on troubled telecoms - well this competitive shot across their bow in August 2003 caused them to gird their loins and prepare for battle with their own VOIP offer, which they had already had under development for many years, given that they are the reigning dominant force in telecom. Oh wait, there I go with my fantasies again! In fact, the telecoms were using VOIP to lower their costs and increase their margins and support their old business model. Under competitive pressure, they turned to Congress and state legislatures for regulatory relief.

Changes in technology necessitate that we update these rules if America is going to be competitive in the face of global competition. Foreign companies like Skype out of the Netherlands did not exist a few short years ago. Skype has signed up 40 million customers - 10 million in the U.S. alone. This is significant because this is a service that is siphoning traffic away from our own domestic carriers. This is a service that we cannot tax, cannot regulate, and cannot control. Make no mistake about it - even if you tried to regulate it - others would pop up to fill the void. This is the same thing that happened to the music industry when Napster was shut down. A half a dozen other peer-to-peer providers jumped up in its place. Skype was created by the founders of Napster. This underscores the need for us to update our laws so our domestic carriers that employ U.S. workers can compete in this world of global telecommunications. The investment in broadband this bill will bring is critical to our competitiveness.

From yesterday's 3-page statement of Sen. Ensign, concerning his new telecom dereg bill, alternately dubbed the Free Market Telecommunications Framework Act of 2005, or in his summary, The Broadband Investment and Consumer Choice Act. Take your pick.

So, is it an outdated regulatory framework that keeps telecom companies down? Or is it the failure to recognize and incorporate new technologies to increase the value offer to their customers? Regulations did not keep telecom companies from making a VOIP offer and scooping Skype, culture and institutional inertia did. Sure, there's no doubt that telecom reform is part of the picture. But another part of the picture is the structural change that Michael Powell alluded to, and which I highlight in my Whitepaper on Structural Change.

For the record, as impassioned as Sen. Ensign's plea is for regulatory reform to protect the multi-billion dollar telecom Goliaths from start up peer-to-peer Davids, I would be remiss if I were to fail to point out that it was the founders of KaZaA, not Napster, that founded Skype. You see, here in our market-based economy, we managed to nip the start up Napster in the bud to protect the threatened multi-billion dollar recording industry. Roxio, the CD burning software specialist, acquired Napster's assets for $5 million after the peer-to-peer pioneer declared itself bankrupt in the face of hostile regulatory and legal treatment. For an historical footnote on Napster and a description of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing, the technological leap that started us on this path, see the Testimony of Shawn Fanning from October 2000.

After Napster was, for all intents and purposes, shut down by the government, Kazaa sprang up, but this time, the file sharing entity was outside the US and beyond the reach of US regulatory and legal authorities. Call it P2P II, as described in this article, Origins of Kazaa.

Utlimately, the libertine file swapping of Kazaa evolved and made room for the organized, reasonable market-based approach of Apple's iPod and iMusic, which has already spun off the new phenomenom of Podcasting. Vive le Market!

From Napster to Kazaa, to iMusic to Skype, to Who Knows What's Next? This odyssey is the story of the inevitable change that Michael Powell described 18 months ago. The question for all those who would benefit from such innovation is how our political leaders deal with such dramatic change. A Fear orientation exagerates the downside of change (creative destruction), and leaders try to clap a lid back on Pandora's box. Faith in the wisdom of markets and innovation will move leaders to feed innovators and reward them for their pioneering work, provide stimulus to incumbents to change or fade away, and starve inefficient market behavior.

My vote is that Faith in Competition will inevitably conquer Fear of Competition - indeed, as Sen. Ensign says in his summary, "This is a service that we cannot tax, cannot regulate, and cannot control. Make no mistake about it - even if you tried to regulate it - others would pop up to fill the void." Here's hoping that our leaders draw some lessons learned from the evolution of Napster to iMusic and apply them to the telecom reform effort, so our future has more of the innovation of Skype and less of the resistance to change that we see from entrenched incumbents protecting their turf.


Posted on July 28, 2005 at 10:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A new way of staying in touch

Net Phone Zone There is a lot to read these days about VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol - telephone using the Internet) and VoWiFi (mobile telephones using wireless broadband), but what is it really like to use it to make phone calls? Moving out of the theoretical and into the practical, this author walks through a personal experience using one of the new handsets to make calls from a Hot Spot. A new perspective. While technologically feasible, it looks like VoWiFi doesn't quite make it yet on the technologically practical scale...we may have to wait for the "ease of use" factor of VoWiFi to catch up.

Posted on July 18, 2005 at 05:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

VO Wi Fi On the March

IT AsiaOne - News - Linksys pleased with VoIP's positive market reception Linksys, now a division of network equipment giant Cisco, is excited about VOIP. VOICE-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) is hot, and Linksys founder Victor Tsao has been coolly surprised by the market acceptance for the technology. Voice telephony, people talking to one another, is the quintessential "killer app," something we cannot do without. VOIP is exciting because it lowers the cost and expands the potential of voice services. Imagine getting your voicemails as files right next to your emails on your computer. Simple with VOIP. Now imagine supplementing or even replacing your cellular service with Wi Fi VOIP, a possibility that is moving rapidly to a probability as metropolitan networks are established.

Posted on July 05, 2005 at 02:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Vo Wi Fi for business (and your city too?)

Does it make sense to go fully mobile? - vnunet.com While this article talks about dual use handsets for using cellular phones and voice over Wi Fi in the enterprise, this possibility extends to using a dual use phone in your unwired city.

Imagine a cell phone that works with a cellular plan, but when in your unwired city, it transitions to make calls over the Internet, over your wireless network. This is fast moving from a possibility to a probability. One more use of a municipal wireless network.

Posted on June 29, 2005 at 09:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

VO Wi Fi calling

Rio Rancho Boasts First Metro 'VOWi-Fi' Service A good description of the the innovative uses of the new network in Rio Rancho. If you connect the dots, you can start to see the next cellular network.

Posted on June 18, 2005 at 09:31 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Mobile Voice Trumps Mobile Data

RoamAD Says Mobile VoIP Tops Mobile Data as Driver for Metro Wi-Fi June 9, 2005. Increasingly, those who put in wireless networks view voice applications - telephony - as the principle benefit.

Posted on June 09, 2005 at 02:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Voice Applications over Wireless

CIO Today - Wireless Internet - Wireless Telephony: VoIP over Wi-Fi June 9, 2005. This article has good information on the details of making phone calls over wireless networks. Recommended read!

Posted on June 09, 2005 at 02:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack