Two days ago I centered my frustration about the lack of openness in mobile handsets with Google's new operating system, like the T-Mobile G1, in the headline "WARNING: Android devices are NOT open". But now open source wizzard Harald Welte, former Lead System Architect for OpenMoko, explains Android's shortcomings much better in his latest blog post:

To me, those things are not a big surprise. As soon as you try to get in bed with the big operators, they will require this level of control. Android is not set out to be a truly open source mobile phone platform, but it's set out to be a sandbox environment for applications.

And even with all the android code out there, I bet almost (if not all) actual devices shipping with Android and manufactured by the big handset makers will have some kind of DRM scheme for the actual code: A bootloader that verifies that you did not modify the kernel, a kernel that ensures you do not run your own native applications.

He sees Android as little more than some sandbox virtual machine environment where people can write UI apps for. Nothing that gets him excited. "I want a openness where I can touch and twist the bootloader, kernel, drivers, system-level software - and among other things, UI applications", he says. And I want that too.

To Harald most Linux handsets don't deserve their name because all the freedoms of Linux software are stripped. Linux on cell phones is "definitely not to any benefit of the user" - but only to handset maker, who can skip a pretty expensive Windows Mobile licensing fee. That brave new world makes him sick.

I guess only on Nokia Internet Tablets the Android can be as open as we whish. It's time that someone takes the source code an ports Android for them, preferably without Google spyware, as we know it from Iron, the googlefree fork version of the Chrome browser. Until now Android only runs in a virtual machine on Nokia Internet Tablets.

Labels: Android, Google, Linux, Mobile, Nokia, OpenMoko, Software, T-Mobile G1

                                      

The world is excited about Google's new operating system for mobile phones. But I am not such a big fan anymore since I talked to Rich Miner, Head of Mobile Platforms at Google. We met yesterday in Munich at the Communication World 2008 where he presented the Android. The system is not as open as I hoped. People will need to jailbreak and unlock their Android smartphones, like iPhones, if they want true freedom and make the most of them.

Of course the Android source code is free and you can develop everything based on it. But then? You don't get your new OS on that Android phone!

If you want, you can redesign the entire Android operating system and eliminate every Google function, even the kill switch for unwanted software. Our German readers at Areamobile.de are worried about their privacy, many refuse to connect to Google's servers with their location aware Android phones. But the first device on the market, T-Mobile G1, does only work with a Google account. "You must sign in to your existing GMail account before you can do ANYTHING with the phone", writes jkOnTheRun. Big brother could be watching you! Therefore it would be preferable to have the choice to get an Android phone that's free of Google. I want my own GPhone, not a Googlephone but a Goebelphone!



"That's perfectly possible", Rich Miner told me. You can do whatever you want with the source code. "But will I be able to install my own Android version on a T-Mobile G1?", I asked. "No that's not possible", he answered. "You would have to change the ROM." People cannot change the Linux kernels of the Android devices which went on sale today. They can install every additional program, but Google controls the core system on the ROM. That's against the Linux philosophy and a big difference to the other open Linux device, Openmoko. As a Linux user I am used to bake my own kernels. I remove kernel functions that I don't need to make my computer faster. Or I add new features, such as virtualization, to the kernel.

With Android devices that's not possible. Only a handful of developer devices can do that, but they are not for sale to end users. So if you want to run your own fork of the Android operating system on a cell phone, you have to get a rare developer device or become a handset producer like Motorola or HTC. That sucks! Also: The marvellous G1 is locked to T-Mobile's network in the US and doesn't work with German SIM cards.

My take: It won't take long until we see a flourishing jailbreak and unlock scene, as we already know it from the iPhone. The Android system is not really open before I can bake my own kernel for the device and use it on every network. I asked Rich Miner what Google thinks about jailbreaking the G1 and he just returned: "Why would you want to do that if you can install every software?" Unfortunately I didn't find a good answer in this moment. But I should have said something like: Because it's human to reshape devices for unintended use. It's part of our DNA since the first monkey realized that fruits are not only food, but can make a good booze if you let them mature a little longer.



Maybe Google doesn't even know what's coming their way, sometimes they are surprised at what people do with Android. That's what I learnt from my interview with Mike Jennings, Google's Android Developer Advocate, on September 17th at OSiM World in Berlin. He was astonished when I told him that I was running Android on my Nokia Internet Tablet since Juli. "That's not possible because the source code is still not free", he said. But yet there was an idiot-proof installer available on the internet.

Labels: Android, Google, Linux, Mobile, Nokia, OpenMoko, Software, T-Mobile, T-Mobile G1

                                      

Some say that Google's Android is losing its mojo after it turned out this week that only the contest winners of Google's Developer Challenge get the latest SDK, while all the others have to use an outdated version from February. I hope that this is no real issue but just Google holding back its latest version until they iron out the worst errors. If not, they would get the same error reports from the developer community over and over again.

I really believe in Android since I installed it on my Nokia N810 on July 8, 2008. It looks much better than the original Maemo Linux and the browser is a dream compared to the device's original MicroB. Although Android runs only virtualized inside of Maemo, its browser is faster than Maemo's and versatile. It fills the entire screen and gives some kind of smooth iPhone feeling to the often stubborn Linux device. Here you can see a screenshot we made for AreaMobile.de:



In the German language article I explain how to get Android running. Kudos to a user of the Internet Tablet Talk forum who goes by the name of QWERTY12! He made it all possible, you can find his installation instructions here. Although there isn't even a dedicated device on the market and the numerical keys don't work on the N810, I love to surf the web with Android. It's a wonderful preview of things to come. Some geeks even posted a video on Youtube about how to run Android on a Nokia N95, but I am not sure if it's a fake.



What I am sure about is that Android could get the best out of my Nokia N810. I use it nearly exclusively for websurfing and some casual emails, that's where the device has its flaws. Mozilla's Fennec browser could give some hope but usually it crashes in less than a minute on my N810. That's why in most cases I use a Symbian based Nokia E61i for websurfing and emailing to go. That's even more ugly but at least it works.

Labels: Android, Google, Mobile, Nokia, Software, Symbian

                                      

Qik is the latest favourite gadget of famous video bloggers like Robert Scoble, Jeff Pulver, Steve Garfield, Loren Feldman, Laura Fitton, Cali Lewis and others. They can simply switch on their mobile phone's video camera and yet they are sending live videos onto their viewers' internet browsers.

When I met with Qik's VP Marketing and co-founder Bhaskar Roy, he said that they were planning to bring these videostreams also to mobile phones. "Qik is developing a new live streaming to other mobile handsets", says Bhaskar. "You won't even need a browser to watch a livestream. We send a Realvideo stream directly to your friends' cell phones." The cell phone will not only be a camera for mobile live video streams, but also a tv set to watch them. Everyone is a sender and a receiver, because Qik plans to stream its videos in 3GP format to mobile handsets.

Well, they can stop now their development or should at least consider this blog post (just kidding!): I am already able to stream my Qik live videos as 3GP videos to mobile phones. And I am not even a techie. I just did a mashup with another hot startup in mobile space: dailyme.tv from Berlin, Germany. Here you can see a screenshot, showing a Qik video on a Nokia E61:

Screenshot from a Qik video stream on a mobile phone

Qik offers and RSS feed to every user's account which can be subscribed in dailyme.tv. So the Qik streams don't come as live videos to the phone, but they are fairly often updated. "The more often a video RSS feed is updated, the more often we send it to the phones", explained dailyme.tv CEO Michael Merz when we met this week. His service is basically a content aggregator for mobile phones. They bring tv shows and video podcasts into 3GP format which basically every mobile phone understands. So dailyme.tv is also a good way to watch video podcasts in weird formats which only an iPod can handle. The Symbian Freak wrote a good introduction into the service:

The mobile phone television service, dailyME.tv, started a TV push service just in time for the CeBIT, that automatically brings video files and podcasts to subscribers's mobile phones. DailyME is the simplest way to have mobile access to premium TV content and a wide range of Videocasts. Users have the opportunity to be their own TV manager: register, program your own TV and video channel and have it updated automatically, whenever you are online with your mobile phone (WLAN, UMTS, GPRS, HSDPA).

One can choose from a wide selection of different channels and divisions, offered by the service provider. There is no live streaming and content can be downloaded over an internet connection and currently there is only client for Symbian S60 3rd edition phones. Thanks to the unique transmission technology (patent pending) on the basis of the technologies on-hand today, an individual program can be made available for mobile phone users 24 hours per day.

A fast internet connection over Wifi or 3G is necessary for dailyme.tv. GPRS could also be used, but then you should expect longer loading times. The videos have a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels, and picture quality is reasonable at 350 Kbit with 12.5 pictures per seconds. What I like most about dailyme.tv is that they are able to transcode every video format, even the *.flv Flash videos from Qik. Over Wifi it doesn't even suck much battery. From time to time the handset connects for very short to download the latest videos. A drum sound of the Devicescape software reminds me that dailyme.tv again started a download.

I can watch the videos later in idle times while commuting. "From April on we will start to offer dailyme.tv also for Windows Mobile 5 Phone edition and Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional Edition", says Michael Merz. "Then we will send our videoclips also in WMV format." I think he should also talk to Qik, which has great XML interfaces. They already offer one click integration of their videos into Twitter, Seesmic, Mogulus, Blogger, mobuzz.tv, justin.tv and Youtube. Great names, but none of them has such a cool application for mobile video.

Disclosure: I am not on a dailyme.tv payroll. I just like their service and that it comes from Germany. Qik is also a mostly Russian company, only the head office is in Silicon Valley.

Labels: Blogger, dailyme.tv, justin.tv, Mobile, mobuzz.tv, Mogulus, Qik, Seesmic, Twitter, Web_2.0, Youtube

                                      

It was fun when I was at Hanover's computer fair CeBIT this week, and saw how German Chancellor Angela Merkel stopped by the booth of Sony Ericsson. Again she proved great repartee. With few words she made the crowd crack up laughing and the suit wearers of Sony Ericsson got long faces. Axel Kettenring, General Manager of Sony Ericsson Germany, proudly introduced the new top model Xperia X1, allegedly "a seamless blend of mobile web communication and multimedia entertainment within a distinctive design". That's what at least the press release in February said. But when our Chancellor held the touchscreen mobile phone in her hand, she only said: "Ah, like the iPhone". And again Apple could be happy for free advertising.

German Chancellor sees no difference to the iPhone

Kettenring was so puzzled, he could only say that the Xperia X1 is also great for phone calls and short messages. But you don't need a $1140 smartphone for that, and our passionate SMS writer heading of the state of Germany knows that. With pleasure she asked next: "And where do you produce?", wherupon Kettenring proudly replied "everywhere". After one second to take a breath he had to add "but in Germany" which got him a grim look from Mrs Merkel. The globalized company produces its handsets only in distant countries like Malaysia, Japan, and China.

The Chancellor's round tour over CeBIT is always a media highlight of the world's biggest electronics fair. Big hordes of photographers, TV crews and reporters followed the head of state through the exhibition halls. The eleven companies where Merkel stopped over were honored to receive her. Among them were pack leaders like Deutsche Telekom, IBM and Microsoft as well as smaller companies like Funkwerk Dabendorf or Komsa.

Also network operator Vodafone had to put up with Merkel's criticism. Germany CEO Friedrich Joussen actually wanted to proudly present a new picture search engine for mobile phones. Instead of entering a search term, you shoot a picture with the camera phone and load it on a server. In response you get information about the depicted buildings or the person photographed. With images of the Berlin Cathedral it worked flawless at CeBIT. But not with a mobile photo of Angela Merkel. "Your sought after motive is not yet in the Otello database", the Chancellor read from the display. "That's a serious void, I think", she added. Although Friedrich Joussen could play down the embarrassing situation with a laugh, he later must have bawled out his employees heavily.

Labels: Apple, iPhone, Mobile, Sony Ericsson, Vodafone

                                      

While I was in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress 2008, I received a message from Sean Moss-Pultz, CEO of OpenMoko, producer of the world's most open mobile phones. Their Freerunner, Neo 1973 and Dash Express devices use the open source operating system Linux and people can install every software they want on it with just an apt-get. Where other companies have a Linux kernel with a locked proprietary stack on top of it, the OpenMoko phones are open from top to bottom. You can use your own tools, compile your own kernel. Everything barring a few small drivers is open source under GNU General Public License (GPL).

In Barcelona I talked to a representative of the LiMo foundation who doesn't want to be quoted with his name. He revealed that LiMo Linux is in fact a closed shop. The only aim of the LiMo companies is to produce cheap handsets with a versatile operating system that doesn't cost them a dime. Most end users won't even notice that it's Linux because they are not allowed to install any software for „security reasons“. More open is Android of Google's Open Handset Alliance, he said, but the most open system is OpenMoko.

Read what their CEO Sean Moss-Pultz thinks about the Android and other actual developments! He has answered my interview questions by email.


What's the actual status of Openmoko?

We limited our production of handsets for developers. Our goal was to sell a small number to an enthusiastic crowd. When we sold out in 3 days, we realized that we need to build another batch of phones. From our standpoint the developers are engineers in our company. We don't have more than 10,000, currently. As the project became more noticeable we got inquiries from many different directions. So, for the next release of FreeRunner we will plan for more at the start and get ready for ramp up of consumer oriented products. The coolest thing about a Neo is what it doesn't do. It doesn't lock you out. It's a GNU/Linux computer. It does what you want.

What is the most difficult thing about building a GSM phone from scratch with Linux?

OpenMoko started as a project inside FIC (Taiwan) and has recently been turned into it's own company. So, we've had to build a open software stack, build a team, build a product, plan a future, and build a company, while everyone gets to watch.

Most of the challenges, I would say, are philosophical in nature. Not technical.

In an closed company you go through various stages of hardware development. These stages are hidden from the general public. Prototype hardware is built and passed out to a few select internal developers. Later, more hardware is built. In a pilot run. This is distributed internally to more engineers in the company. Finally, it's presented to the public like it just came out of the oven.

OpenMoko is inside out. Our prototype are shared with developers around the world. Why? because our engineers are outside the company as well as inside.

In some ways we are like a reality TV show. Showing how one builds a gadget of the future. It's like a cross of Survivor, Dirty jobs, and ice road truckers.

What can your handset do, the Neo1973? Give us some specs and tell what is so great about it, compared to normal mobile phones!

The hardware specs for the phone are on openmoko.org, but in short its a GSM phone, with GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3D graphics acceleration and accelerometers. But this is not a spec war and this is not a beauty contest. Neo branded phones unlock the hardware and unlock the software. The software on the phone, the applications you use are totally open. If you program you can change them. If you don't program you will download popular programs that others have built.

Which people do already have such a handset, the Neo1973? Can people buy it somewhere? Is it planned to be sold to the general public some day?

Our Neo 1973 has been onsale since July of 2007. We're totally sold out now and won't make anymore. Our next produce Neo FreeRunner is coming soon.

I think we primarily appeal to technologists now and will stay this way for the some time to come. But this is not at all limiting. What I find most appealing about OpenMoko is that we just have to provide the right framework for change to happen. Our community is the one that pushes the revolution. The more people that develop for this platform, the larger the target market becomes.

We've found a strong and influential niche. In the age where mass market TV advertising is dead, this is crucial. Marketing a product initially to the masses is impossible, I would argue. People have too many choices and not enough time.

OpenMoko stands out because we are different. We speak directly to the needs of an extremely creative group. Our goal is to provide them tools and inspiration so they can realize the have power to revolutionize the world. OpenMoko is a company from their community. We will amplify their voice.

How did the OpenMoko project start? Whose idea was it and who pushed it forward?

About a year and a half ago I was a product manager at First International Computer (FIC) -- a large Taiwanese OEM, charged with Defining the product roadmap for our division. I was quite limited, unfortunately, by having to create only Windows Mobile devices.

I quickly realized that it didn't need to be like this. I could step outside the box any time I liked.

The phone that I really wanted to create was the modern equivalent of the programmable calculator. A device that is simple to use, but almost infinitely extensible by the end user.

The main idea was that the driving force behind the Internet is Free and Open Software (FOSS). It's the superconductive medium that powers the Internet. Without FOSS the Internet would be trapped in 1995.

In a nutshell, OpenMoko is about spreading this technology to mobile devices. Letting people everywhere "Free your phone." It's the birth of a new Internet. Not merely a revision, not simply 2.0, but rather a connected, interconnected experience wherever you wander.
Without FOSS the mobile phone still lives in 1973.

Our first open mobile device is called the "Neo 1973". It's internet connected, location aware, and completely FOSS. In a way, I see the mobile industry as a matrix. The industry is hindered by proprietary systems and Neo is trying to tear down the walls unplug humans from the matrix and give them back their power.

I took this idea and pitched it to our senior management team with the help of Timothy Chen -- a very smart businessman. Without him, this whole project would only be another unfulfilled entry in my sketchbook.

How is Openmoko organized today? How do you include all those Linux developers worldwide? Is there a boss or a structure?

We are a fully independent company now:

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/080102/20080102005213.html?.v=1

Lots of people trying to make great open mobile devices.

What is your opinion about Android?

We support FOSS endeavors. In our philosophy, a software platform needs to be free from the iron to the eyeballs. That means FOSS code from the lowest levels that talk to hardware to the highest levels that present images to users. We hope Android moves in this direction. We encourage them to.

Is Openmoko involved with Android?

Yes. We lobby them to join the FOSS movement and release everything as source code, all the way down to the drivers like we do.

Has Openmoko been contacted by Android?

Yes.

Is Openmoko source code involved in Android?

Our source code is freely available GPL.

Maybe Android source code is involved in Openmoko?

If they posted GPL code and our community found that it was good and useful it would get used. That's what FOSS is all about. This is how FOSS gets stronger for everyone.

How does the launch of Android affect the Openmoko project?

It's rather humbling. We never expected a company like Google to endorse our concept of freeing the phone. It's also exciting because we realize that with their support of developers many new open applications will come to the FOSS platform.

Why did Harald Welte leave? He was Openmoko's "Senior Software Archtitect System Level" and we were very proud that he was from our city, Berlin.

Berlin should be proud. Harald is a great programmer and was key to getting The first phone, Neo 1973, shipped. He did a huge amount of work and is still a part of every Neo that ships.

What does this change?
(http://gnumonks.org/~laforge/weblog/2007/11/16/#20071116-leaving_openmoko)

We have our goals which Harald helped create, and we are meeting those goals and going beyond them. We are prepared because of his diligence.

How do you see mobile communications in ten years? Everything seems to "open" now. Verizon and AT&T open their network, Google bids for an open spectrum at 700 Mhz, Mobile Wimax promises more open mobile communications...

You could say there were two theories. In one theory the user pays for bandwidth (time on line) and the device (phone, set top box etc) is free. In the reverse world, bandwidth is free (like free WiFi) and people buy great devices.

In one world you pay premiums for bandwith, in the other you pay premiums for devices.

Opening the network...levels the playing field and gives people more choices. This is what Openmoko is all about.

Labels: Google, Linux, Mobile, Open Handset Alliance, OpenMoko

                                      

The Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2008 in Barcelona was a great event. Thanks to Andy Abramson and the Nokia Blog relations program I met a lot of interesting fellow bloggers. My pal Alec Saunders was so nice to make a listing of the people we met:

Some of the great people and bloggers I bumped into at the show include Stowe Boyd, Darla Mack, Jonathan Greene, Matt Miller, Alan Reiter, Oliver Starr, Bill Tam, Lubna Dajani (get that blog going, Lubna!), Esme Vos, Martin Geddes, Dean Bubley, Xen Mendelsohn, Martyn Davies, Jonathan Zar, Loren Feldman (and it was me who mistook him for Ze Frank), Markus Goebel, Jeb Brilliant, James Body, Florian Seroussi, Daniel Appelquist and of course Pat Phelan. You can read more about the show on any of their blogs.

I would like to thank especially Martyn Davies from the VOIPSA blog. He gave me great hints to prepare my interview with Fring's CEO Avi Shechter - who was so kind to say that he is a regular reader of this blog, although he doesn't always share my opinion. Also the Cellity founders Sarik Weber and Tim von Törne outed themselves as regular followers. And Michael Poppler, European region sales manager of VoIP solution provider GIPS, even jumped out of his booth when he recognized my name on the MWC badge, saying that he always wanted to get to know me.

Thank you very much for this feedback!

It was the first time in a long period that I left my cave in Berlin from where I maintain contact to the IT industry largely by internet and phone. The next opportunity to meet me is a the CeBIT trade fair in Hannover. Needless to say that I brought lots of exclusive information back home from Barcelona. I will cover it in my next blog entries. Great changes are coming and some of the most pestering problems in mobile VoIP will be solved soon. (Not only that Packet8 made their MobileTalk a free product as I always advocated.) Some companies have have discovered new business models or changed their technology, but didn't announce it yet.

Most fun was my interview with Qik's co-founder Bhaskar Roy. His company is so hot that one venture capitalist even asked me to convince Bhaskar that he wants to do Qik's second round of funding. Qik should turn down all other offers. That's certainly a great way of living: Being haunted by rich people who compete to give you their money. But Qik deserves it. You just switch on the Nokia N95 and yet your face is broadcasted on the internet. Just look at the morons on Qik's start page who still don't realize that they are online and everyone can see them! My tip from Bhaskar: Dial zero and your broadcast switches immediately into privacy mode. Too sad that my Qik interview with Cellity just disappeared. Although Bhaskar had said that I could do it in offline mode and it would be uploaded automatically from the phone the next time I connected to Qik over Wifi.

Labels: Cellity, Fring, Mobile, Mobile VoIP, Nokia, Qik

                                      

One year ago I wrote my First blog post at Markus Göbel's Tech News Comments. I am very happy how it has developed and hope to see you all at The Mobile World Congress, 11 - 14 February in Barcelona. I will be there as a reporter for AreaMobile. Please leave a comment or drop me a line if you want to meet me!

Labels: Media, Mobile, Mobile VoIP

                                      

Jon Arnold has updated his very interesting portal website IP Convergence TV. This time I also wrote a guest opinion, because to make money from mobile VoIP companies have to accept certain realities: "WiFi isn't everywhere and callback costs double".

I love the mobile use of VoIP but I still find it quite uncomfortable. That's what I point out. Especially annoying is how Skype, Fring, Truphone and other SIP based VoIP services get blocked by German 3G providers. Sorry, Dean Bubley from Disruptive Analysys! The reality looks much darker for VoIPo3G than you predict for the future. (But thanks for your regular Google ads "3G mobile Voice over IP. Analyst report: is it a threat to carriers? Or a future opportunity?". I better put a direct link to your website.)

Mobile VoIP over Wifi works only at home or in the office where I don't need it. So in my guest opinion I advocate intelligent cell phone software which automatically completes calls as callback, callthrough, Vo3G or VoWifi while the user doesn't even notice. I have already installed an example software on a Nokia E61.

Maybe if more and more people use these options, Dean's dream will come true. If everyone uses only mobile callthrough, triggered by intelligent software on the handset, the mobile network operators cannot charge any other items than the tariff's included minutes for local calls. Their voice legacy cell phone networks would become dumb pipes into the internet, the way we already see it with the 3Skypephone or iSkoot, Ringfree, Mobivox, Jajah Direct, Sipbroker, Tpad, Rebtel, Mobiletalk, etc. If mobile operators wanted to charge for international calls at all, they would have to embrace VoIPo3G and could at least charge for data, the way Dean predicts it.

But until this comes true, the mobile VoIP companies should attack the incumbents with better callthrough options, to take more and more cell phone calls out of the traditional networks and into IP. Read the full text for further explanations!

Labels: 3G, 3Skypephone, Fring, Iskoot, Jajah, Mobile, Mobile VoIP, Mobiletalk, Mobivox, Nokia, OpenMoko, Rebtel, Ringfree, SIP, Sipbroker, Skype, Tpad, Truphone, VoIP, VoIPo3G

                                      

My friend Jan Michael Hess, CEO of the Berlin-based management consultancy Mobile Economy GmbH, has just published an interesting whitepaper "How to build a profitable ad-funded M(V)NO and maximise Ad ARPU". Since he is an expert in mobile advertising and MVNOs, he decided to reengineer Blyk’s business model, share his findings and develop a number of strategy recommendations that might be valuable to Blyk as well as future ad-funded MVNOs and MNOs.

I believe that it is possible to build a profitable ad-funded MVNO. It is also possible for MNOs themselves to introduce ad-funded voice and data tariffs. You don’t necessarily need to build a new MVNO brand like Blyk to maximise Ad ARPU.

Since the actual values in Blyk’s business plan and the wholesale prices negotiated with the Host MNO Orange in the UK are secret, Hess uses his own assumptions for the parameters driving revenues, costs and profit in the whitepaper's calculation. The outcome is a very educated guess work which probably hits the spot and helps to understand the ad based MVNO business model.

Labels: Blyk, Mobile, MVNO

                                      

In the last weeks I was displeased with the state of VoIP on mobile handsets. Wifi coverage is spotty and callback services like Jajah require two phone calls at the same time, which makes them too expensive for penny pinchers like me. That's why I am a fan of callthrough applications which involve only one call leg. The call goes to a local number where a server converts it into a VoIP call. But unfortunately this needs numerous key strokes in addition to the destination number and makes callthrough a cumbersome activity.

Software like MobileTalk from Packet8 would help, but it is bound to just one VoIP provider and could be done much better. Unfortunately the underlying software from Mobilemax gets distributed only to companies and not to end users. So people have to wait until their VoIP provider of choice implements it.

But salvation is near, at least for iPhone users: RingFree let's you use every VoIP provider or even your own Asterisk / SIP server for outbound calls on Apple's "Invention of the year 2007" (according to Time Magazine). iPhone Atlas has the story:

Here, in a nutshell, is how the app works: A user registers with RingFree, entering his iPhone number and providing some other information. The user is then prompted to call a country-local number to confirm their information by entering a PIN. Once logged into the site, the user selects from a list of pre-defined VoIP providers (including VoicePulse, Gizmo Project, PhoneGnome and others) or defines his own by entering a proxy address, username and password.

After selecting or defining a provider, the user can access the Web app’s keypad, which looks something like the iPhone’s standard dialer, selects the preferred VoIP provider from a menu, and hits “Call.” The call sends a bit of JavaScript over EDGE to retrieve a local number from the VoIP provider, which the user is prompted to dial with the iPhone’s native phone application. When this number is dialed, the VoIP provider is triggered to dial the number entered in the Web app, and the call goes through.

RingFree is basically a website with a virtual dialer. It is linked to VoIP providers of choice and uses standard voice minutes to make VoIP calls. Therefore it doesn’t require any hacking or jailbreaking, nor does it require the presence of a WiFi network. Only a small amount of data is transferred over the EDGE network to signalize the call. The voice quality is reportedly good, and calls go through without too much delay so that a commentator at IntoMobile states:

Thank you for this. This is the most useful iPhone application yet. I set it up in less than 2 minutes and I made a call to Ireland using Gizmo Project. Sweet and simple. I am happy and would be jumping up and down with joy if it let me call Skypers.

That's exactly what I was looking for. RingFree is free in the first month, then it costs $30/year. You can also call Google Talk, Yahoo or MSN contacts from the iPhone. I wonder when someone will launch a similar service for other platforms, such as Symbian. It could be a great new feature for Voxalot, whose mobile callback I often use with my own VoIP providers. It costs €0.01 of data or less to establish the call, but still it demands two simultaneous phone calls.

Labels: Apple, Asterisk, Callthrough, EDGE, Gizmo Project, Google Talk, iPhone, Jajah, Mobile, Mobilemax, Mobiletalk, MSN messenger, Packet8, PhoneGnome, Ringfree, SIP, Skype, VoIP, Voxalot, Yahoo

                                      

Dear readers,

I need your help: Until Januar 25, 2008, I have to deliver an article about VoIP security to a big German economy magazine with 770.000 readers. Therefor I am looking for interesting information and interviews. One focus of the article is mobile VoIP security, but not the only one.

The magazine regularily engages me as a freelancing writer for such topics. But this time I want to unleash the power of Web 2.0 by posting this inquiry to my blog.

Do you have interesting material that could be helpful for this article? Maybe I should do an interview to you?

I am looking for speeches, presentations, whitepapers, blog post and similar stuff about VoIP security threats (wiretapping, minute stealing, man in the middle attacks, DoS attacks...) and how to prevent them (encryption, firewalls, ...). So please send me your PDF, URL, Powerpoint or Word document about the topic in the next few days!

I will read the information and then contact you for an interview. These points are interesting to me:

1. What are the most common / most dangerous / latest security threats?
2. Interesting cases of VoIP security breaches and actual hacks?
3. How to protect VoIP / mobile VoIP?

You can find my contact data here or simply post a comment to this blog entry.

Thanks a lot.

Best regards,
Markus Göbel

Labels: Media, Mobile, VoIP, Web_2.0

                                      

Maybe Packet8 heard me nagging about the high price for their Mobiletalk callthrough software, which includes no VoIP minutes. Just hours after my blog post told how great their Mobiletalk software could be if it wasn't mutilated and overpriced, Packet8 announces the launch of a no obligation, no fee trial program.

With the MobileTalk free trial program, wireless customers can download the MobileTalk application onto their mobile device and use the service at no charge until a total of $2.00 in per minute fee is reached.

The Mobiletalk software is great and now people can get to know it before they subscribe. But the one-time $9.99 activation fee for the service and a monthly fee of $9.99 for non-Packet 8 subscribers seems too much to me. Packet8 should slash the monthly fee and sell the software for $30.

After all they make their money with VoIP minutes.

Labels: Mobile, Mobiletalk, Packet8, VoIP

                                      

Last year I was nagging that "Packet8 MobileTalk could be done much better", and I was right. I could learn that now when the Israeli company Mobilemax installed for me on a cellphone the underlying software which powers Packet8's MobileTalk. It is a real mobile VoIP wonder weapon which I covered in an article for Areamobile. Companies like Truphone, Gizmo5, Wifimobile and Tpad should make its features a part of their mobile services to make them work also outside of the spare Wifi areas.

Internet telephony could be a killer application for mobile phones. But it has it quirks, shows a series of articles I wrote. In most cases you need at least a cell phone which can open mobile websites. It let's you do a mobile callback with VoIP providers like Jajah or Voxalot. After entering the phone numbers of the caller and the callee on a mobile website, a server rings up both and connects them over the internet. Of course this also costs double, but for international calls it's still cheaper than the own cell phone provider's prices. Only Wifi cell phone calls are less expensive. They only cost a few cents per minutes and often they are free. But Wifi isn't always available.

Mobilemax thus developed a software which automatically sends mobile phone calls the less expensive way over the internet whenever that's cheaper than normal calls. No need to open mobile websites on the phone or to trigger callbacks by SMS or instant messaging. The software simply sits unobtrusively in the background and automatically determines the way in which the call is connected. The user only needs to enter the number.

Establishing a call with VoIP software from Mobilemax

The program works on about 500 phones with Palm, BlackBerry, Symbian or Windows Mobile operating systems and last month it has been deployed for the first time by the US VoIP provider Packet8. Once a number has a foreign area code, the software starts to act and connects via a landline number to the server by Packet8. The server connects the telephone conversation with the other party over the VoIP network. Calls from the United States to Asia or Europe cost only a 2 to 5 US cents per minute more than the price of a local call. The American mobile operators normally charge up to three dollar minute. German companies like Running Mobile or Cellity offer similar solutions.

But the Israeli software has much more functions which the competitors lack and also Packet8 doesn't use. The program could also automatically decide to connect a phone call as a callback or over Wifi. Even VoIP calls over 3G will soon be possible, although all German mobile network operators seem to block them now I realized in some self-experiments. Mobilemax' software is a real miracle weapon for mobile VoIP and the handling is particularly pleasant, because no extra buttons have to be pressed. The software even senses in which country the user is and automatically chooses a local number for callthrough or callback. What a pity that consumers cannot have it. Mobilemax distributes the software only to companies. "We don't see ourselves providing the underlying service of the application and compete with our customers", said Mobilemax' Director of Business Development, Perry Nalevka, to me in an interview. The Packet8 customers pay $10 per month only to use it. In addition they get the VoIP telephone minutes billed.

Configuration also allows other VoIP flavours

Other companies want to follow the same business model, Nalevka said, which started as a one-touch-dialing solution for calling card users and roamers who had to use tens of access numbers, PINs and dial flows to make a call without being ripped off by the mobile operators. Six different service providers worldwide and several IPBX and enterprise mobility providers are now testing the software. So far several tens of thousands of licenses purchased.


Other companies who use it:

• Reliance - Indian provider launching in 8 countries soon.
• Gamma Telecom, UK - launched the Crosslink service targeting SMBs and enterprise users
• Tellink, Belgium - callback provider for SMBs and roamers
• Tel3, Miami FL - residential provider
• Boomering - SMB mobility & callback solutions for roamers
  

Today it supports the following configurations:

• Callthrough with PIN or PINless (CLI based).
• Roaming location based callthrough with multiple access numbers automatically selects the relevant access number according to the user's location.
• Seamless callback triggered by: DID, USSD, SMS, IP. The application triggers the callback, answers the incoming call and if needed sends the destination number.
• Dial around replacing prefixes in the dialed number (1010).
  

Further developments:

• Support additional phone models as they are released.
• Add new routes to seamlessly divert calls to: VoWIFI, Vo3G (to SIP or termination).
• Adding in-call Mobility features.

You can find more information about the software in Rich Tehrani's interview with Perry Nalevka: "MobileMax: Bullish on Fixed Mobile Convergence" (December 31, 2007).

Labels: 3G, Callthrough, Cellity, Gizmo5, Jajah, Mobile, Mobilemax, Mobiletalk, Packet8, Runningmobile, SMS, Tpad, Truphone, VoIP, Voxalot, Wifimobile

                                      

Wifimobile quits their flatrate model and goes prepay like Truphone. The move is said to be inspired by a blog post from iotum's Alec Saunders from Canada who managed to spend just $4.16 on mobile calls and roaming at the IP industry event Fall 2007 VON in Boston. Calls were handled by either TruPhone (if in a Wifi zone) or Mobivox (if not).

Wifimobile users can now set up accounts to make very cheap calls over Wi-Fi as per Truphone, and GSM Call through access as per Mobivox. The rates are competitive, such as under $0.10 per minute to India. You can find them here. The move was necessary because Wifimobile's previous flatrate model could not offer calls to many countries like India and the Middle East as it looked like this:

Only Ł15.99 €11.99 Ł7.99 Per Month

The oneFone service from WiFiMobile allows you to make unlimited* free calls to landlines in over 40 countries as well as mobile phones in certain countries including the USA. For a list of countries that you can call for free click here.

All calls to landline and mobile numbers to countries not listed here are automatically routed through your normal GSM provider. This allows us to guarantee that customers are never charged more than the set monthly line rental.

*The unlimited free calls are subject to a fair usage policy.

In the last months Wifimobile had to walk in the shadow of Truphone, because they offered calls to the same countries for free in a limited offer that always got extended. Calls to destinations outside these 40 countries could at least be completed as paid calls with Truphone, while Wifimobile just couldn't offer them.

As Truphone's free calls should have finished at the end of the year, Wifimobile hoped to compete on the same level with them and beat them with more VoIP features. An added enhancement is that people can register not only their cell phone but also the home or office landline for the use with Wifimobile's callthrough numbers. That brings more calls onto Wifimobile's VoIP network and makes their service usable outside of Wifi areas.

Truphone lacks such a nice callthrough feature and I am missing it, as I told in my blog post "Packet8 MobileTalk could be done much better". Wifimobile also offers real time call records, which can be viewed in a secure customer portal, and they are also currently working on an inbound solution.

But will this be enough to step out of Truphone's shadow?

It must have been a strong blow that Truphone has just announced the extension of their free calling to landlines (and some cellphones) in 40 countries until the end of February 2008, only one week after Wifimobile changed their business model. Free phone calls are still the strongest argument for the VoIP customer. Read both companies' press releases! I am quite convinced that Truphone will never charge for these calls. We can already prepare for the next extensions in March, July and December. That's how it worked in 2007.




WiFiMobile goes global with prepay VoIP and dial through service

Los Angeles California December 13th 2007 - Leading mobile VoIP provider WiFiMobile today announced that their VoIP service has changed to prepay with very competitive costs.

The company had previously charged a monthly subscription which allowed free calls to landlines in certain countries, however calls to all other worldwide destinations were barred. The introduction of a top up system now presents a global platform.

WiFiMobile’s new tariff rate has been completely revised and users can now take advantage of calls such as to India at under 10 US cents per minute. Calls to other online WiFiMobile customers are free regardless of location.

Their unique local access numbers remain in place where cheap calls can be made when no Wi-Fi access point is in range. These numbers are available in twelve countries at present with more to follow shortly. Customers can also register other numbers such as their home landline to utilise these access numbers. This combines Internet and dial through calling into just one account.

The service is available at the company’s website where their VoIP client oneFone can be downloaded instantly to any compatible Nokia E or N Series smartphone. A free $1 credit is applied to all new accounts to test the technology. Customers are also able to securely access the log in portal to view account balance, top up history and real time CDRs.

The company’s VoIP client oneFone fully supports Presence enabling users to see who is online at any time with other business features such as Call Conferencing, Call Transfer and VCC (Voice Call Continuity) coming soon.

WiFiMobile CEO says "This stretches out our potential market to places that we couldn’t touch previously. Countries such as India have over 200 million mobile users and have a huge overseas based population. Our rates are very competitive and we have the most robust VoIP client".

For further information please visit www.wifimobile.com or email pr@wifimobile.com.

WiFiMobile

Head Office:
3250 Wilshire Boulevard
9th Floor
Los Angeles
California
CA 90010

Tel: +1 310 459 3000 Ext 2

Email: pr@wifimobile.com

ABOUT WIFIMOBILE

WiFiMobile were founded in 2002 and have offices in the US and UK. In 2004 the company achieved status of a Forum Nokia S60 3rd Edition Featured Developer, one of only 23 recognized worldwide.

VoIP client oneFone is a self developed and wholly owned application and provides cheap or free long distance calls as well as converting select Nokia devices into extensions of corporate IP IBX systems. The company is poised to achieve phenomenal growth in the next year in this rapidly evolving market.




Thursday, December 20, 2007
Truphone freezes call charges until the end of February 2008

Truphone today announced that all Truphone call charges have been frozen at their current rates until February 29th 2008. For the next two months, Truphone calls will be free to landlines in 40 countries, and to mobiles in the USA, Canada and elsewhere. Using Truphone to call EU mobiles costs just 15 pence per minute or less.

Truphone call charges summary

• Free calls to landlines in 40 countries
• Free calls to cellphones USA, Canada, China, Hong Kong and Singapore
• Pay 15 pence or less to EU mobiles - and no connection charge
• Free mobile calls to other online Truphone customers
• No roaming fees: Truphone calls costs the same wherever you are
• No download cost, no monthly charge and no inbound fees
• These rates are guaranteed until February 29th 2008. Rates quoted are exclusive of VAT
• Anyone with a suitable handset can get Truphone by sending an SMS with the word 'Tru' to +44 7624 000000

Labels: Callthrough, free phone calls, iotum, Mobile, Mobiletalk, Mobivox, Packet8, Truphone, VoIP, Wifimobile

                                      

Irishman Pat Phelan, CEO of Cubic Telecom, is improving his product Maxroam. In the hype time around TechCrunch 40 competition in September 2007 we thought to see roaming prices around $0.20 in every country with this SIM card. That's not a reality yet, but not forgotten as a longer term aim. Now Cubic Telecom announced a cooperation with the folks at Global Roaming which offer a very similar SIM card, called Celtrek. The partnership will allow both companies to offer extended geographic coverage and data roaming on their existing products. Celtrek is stronger in the US market and Maxroam here in Europe.

Phoneboy Dameon Welch-Abemathy revealed an interesting detail in his post on The VoIP Weblog:

What wasn't announced in the press release, but slipped out on Pat's Jaiku stream was that the MAXroam service would soon be much cheaper in the US/Canada. Right now, it's prohibitively expensive, but Pat is saying by early 2008 the price should be about 12 cents (presuming Eurocents here). I'm not going to hold Pat to those rates, but if it's true, it does sound a fair bit better than the 1.18 Euros it now costs to receive and make calls within the USA.

Andy Abramson explains:

While their pricing isn't lower than buying local SIM cards, they do save you money if you are going from country to country, and you avoid a lot of unused minutes. They also give you the benefit of one number so friends and family can find you, making it a great gift for the student you know whose going to take a trip overseas.

Yes that's right. The pricing isn't lower than local SIM cards, but it's super convenient for frequent travellers to always have the same number on their SIM and don't have to worry too much for roaming prices. I am already playing around with a Cubic Phone from Pirelli and a Maxroam SIM card. The sound quality is fantastic while roaming on the German Vodafone network. I have a UK fixed line number for Maxroam and could also add a German number. They all would ring in whichever country I am.

The only thing that holds me back is that for Germany they only offer numbers from Hanover while I live in funky Berlin. He Pat, didn't they tell you that Hanover has the fame of being Germany's most boring city? So boring that in the 80ies and early 90ies Punks regularily gathered from all over the country to mix it up at least one time a year in their famous Chaos Days. So when I roam I will simply forward my existing Berlin number to the Maxroam UK number. As a Voipchecker I know how to do that for free, this I can save the €4.50 per month for a German Maxroam number.

Anyway, here is Cubic Telecom's press release:

Cubic Telecom and Global Roaming align forces
Alliance will focus on joint opportunities

CORK, Ireland – 30 November, 2007 – Cubic Telecom dba MAXroam and Global Roaming Inc. dba CelTrek have today announced a strategic alliance combining their marketing reach and technical know-how into a single partnership.

The partnership will allow both companies to offer extended geographic coverage and data roaming on their existing products. This is a substantial step forward for both companies in their goal to provide a single global communication platform that brings an end to the monopolistic behavior of the large cellular operators.

Pat Phelan said “I am delighted that Global Roaming has decided to partner with Cubic and I look forward to a world where anyone can call anyone at anytime without worrying about the cost.”

Florian Seroussi, CEO of Global Roaming Inc. said “This alliance gives us an opportunity to get a footprint in Europe in order to spread our ambition of offering low-cost roaming to consumers everywhere.”

Through the partnership both companies are currently actively engaged in joint proposals to large US and European enterprises and announcements on these are imminent.

ABOUT Cubic Telecom
Based in Cork, Ireland, with offices in Vancouver, Canada, Cubic Telecom is an innovative global communications company focused on introducing simple, high quality and high value telecommunications services. Its core target market is aggrieved customers across the globe who don’t understand why they can’t get value for money when making international calls while roaming.

ABOUT Global Roaming Inc.
Global Roaming, Inc, is a privately held Nevada corporation, with offices in Miami, Florida. The parent company has over 350 GSM network operator agreements covering more than 165 countries and all continents.

For further information, please contact:

Media Contact
USA
Giovanni Rodriguez,
The Conversation Group
M: +1 650 279 8415
giovanni@theconversationgroup.com

Europe
Patrick Smith, Sonus PR
T: +44 (0)20 7851 4890
M: +44 (0)7734 600553
patrick.smith@sonuspr.com

Company Contact
Cubic Telecom Limited
Pat Phelan, CEO
+353 21 425 0657
info@cubictelecom.com

Cubic Telecom Limited
Unit 1, Webworks
Eglington Street
Cork
Ireland

www.maxroam.com

Company Contact
Global Roaming Inc.
Jenny Callicott, COO
+1 305 249 3121
jenny@celtrek.com

Global Roaming Inc.
1021 Ives Dairy Road
Miami
FL, 33179
USA

www.celtrek.com

Labels: Celtrek, Cubic Telecom, Maxroam, Mobile, Roam4Free, Roaming

                                      

Google has launched a location service for Google Mobile Maps that doesn't rely on the Global Positioning System (GPS). The My Location feature locates users who don't have GPS-enabled phones based on their location to nearby cell towers. The result isn't as accurate as GPS, but it works pretty good in cities. Om Malik got located just half a block away from his real location when he checked out the service yesterday.

I wonder how much Google has to pay for that location info, because it's not free. In Germany the mobile operators charge €0.10 from third parties for every localization, and Google's new service works also here.

The disclaimer on the mobile phone explains pretty good the functionality of My Location for Google Maps:

With the My Location (beta) feature, just press [0] to move the map to your approximate location. [...] Your approximate location will appear as a flashing blue dot. If you have a GPS-enabled device, this blue dot correspondents to your GPS location. At times, and if you don't have GPS on your phone, you may see the dot surrounded by a light blue circle to indicate uncertainty about your location.

Why the uncertainty? The My Location service takes information broadcasted from nearby mobile towers to approximate your current location on the map - it's not GPS, but it comes pretty close. [...]

As part ot the My Location (beta) feature, Google Maps sends anonymous radio information back to Google servers to improve the service. You can disable / enable this and all location features by selecting from the options below.

In Germany we have a company called Qiro which does quite the same, but they are more advanced with their service. I visited them in July 2007. You can locate yourself and your buddies on a map. Qiro shows nearby movie theaters with their current program, ATM machines, Burger King restaurants, train stations, travel agencies and many more things.

Unlike Google Maps, Qiro is already based on localized online advertising. The prices for advertisers are similar to the banner ads on your web browser. This means it's cheap, between €3 and €150 for 1.000 ads. Qiro needs a razor sharp calculation to earn the money back for the localization and still make a margin.

How does Google do it?

Do they get better prices? Or do they just don't care because they are drowning in money? I guess we have to read their next stock report and look for an item called "locator info".

Labels: Google, Mobile, Qiro

                                      

When Packet8 presented last week their service MobileTalk I was fascinated, but just for some seconds. Then I thought: What a lost opportunity! It could have been such a great application, if it 1.) hadn't such an expensive basic fee, 2.) wasn't bound to one particular VoIP provider and 3.) didn't work only in the US.

The press release explains very well how it works:

Packet8 MobileTalk utilizes a downloadable software application that can currently reside on any Windows, Palm or Symbian based mobile phone to seamlessly connect international calls from the mobile phone to the Packet8 digital VoIP network. Routing these calls over the Packet8 network enables cell phone users to significantly reduce their international phone bills and maintain high international voice quality while still enjoying the convenience and flexibility of mobile calling. [...]

With Packet8 MobileTalk, subscribers won't think twice about calling Europe or Asia because instead of $1.00 to $3.00 per minute, they will be paying as little as $.02 to $.05 per minute over the Packet8 network to most destinations. With more than 340 mobile phones from any cell phone carrier currently supported, the Packet8 MobileTalk service is a vital tool for mobile business professionals and consumers. [...]

Unlike calling card, callback and other reduced-rate international mobile calling services, which require the user to dial numerous key strokes in addition to their destination number or make their calls through cumbersome software applications, Packet8 MobileTalk users can dial calls directly and natively from their mobile handset, contact list or speed dial directory with no additional keystrokes - a significant advantage when, for example, placing a call while driving. Once the destination number is dialed or selected, the Packet8 MobileTalk software application identifies the international prefix being called and redirects the call to a local Packet8 network access number. With Packet8 MobileTalk, all calls are carried to the Packet8 network over the subscriber's existing cellular voice phone service and do not require access to an expensive monthly data plan or WiFi access point. [...]

There is a one-time $9.99 activation fee for the service and a monthly fee of $9.99 for non-Packet 8 subscribers. Existing Packet8 VoIP subscribers, including subscribers with one Packet8 MobileTalk account, pay a monthly service fee of $4.99. Packet8 MobileTalk overseas calls are billed at Packet8's low international rates which can be found at http://www.packet8.net/international_services/.

That's a quite expensive monthly rent for a small piece of software. Given that there are no calls included in the recurring fee of $9.99. On top you always have to pay the per minute price for the calls, which is e. g. $0.03 to a German landline. The several Betamax companies charge only half the price, $0.015, for the same service. Or the call is free, included for instance in Voipstunt's flatrate price of € 10.00 for 120 days (roughly equivalent to $ 13.40).

I guess that people who acquire Packet8 MobileTalk suffer very strong from dialing "numerous key strokes in addition to their destination number or make their calls through cumbersome software applications". If not, $9.99 is a rip off. Taking into account that other callthrough applications like Runningmobile's cost just €19.95 (about $30). But only one time, when you buy it.

Nevertheless the functionality of Packet8 Mobile Talk is quite smart and better than other "cumbersome software applications". Perry Nalevka is Director of Business Development at the Israeli company MobileMax, which developed the software for Packet8. He explains in a comment to Pat Phelan's regarding blog entry:

1) The application sits on in the background of the phone and allows the user to use their phone normally and dial from their address book or call log

2) Supports BlackBerry, Windows, Palm and Symbian phones currently. The Java will be ready next year.

3) Calls are “caught” and routed by pre-configured parameters. In the case of Packet8 any call that begins with “011? or calls that begin with “+” that are not in the US.

Hopefully Nalevka doesn't break an NDA by telling that his company is behind Packet8's software. He mentions it also in Tom Keating's blog. So MobileTalk from Packet8 works similar to the Wifimobile application, which sits in the background of your cell phone and only kicks in when you dial an international number. Only that Wifimobile tries to establish the call over Wifi while Packet8 establishes the call over callthrough. The callthrough numbers are stored in the software, like it is at iSkoot.

Let's wait and see now when Wifimobile comes up with the same callthrough feature. They have already recognized that Wifi isn't everywhere and offer callthrough numbers in 12 countries. Much better than MobileTalk which works only in the US. Also at Wifimobile you pay only $15.99 per month and get unlimited calls to landlines in 40 countries. This feels much cheaper than Packet8's offer. The only point is that Wifimobile's application works only on Nokia smartphones and the nifty callthrough is not yet part of the software. Users still have to dial "numerous key strokes in addition to their destination number".

Which brings me to the point: Companies like Truphone, Gizmo Project, Wifimobile and the like should make callthrough numbers a part of their mobile applications to make them usable outside of Wifi.

Or couldn't Jajah strike an agreement with MobileMax and let them make a software which handles the Jajah Direct numbers? Last week they celebrated themselves for eliminating the need for computer to make Internet calls, only to present a system that's not less complicated: Now people have to dial numbers which are 24 digits long.

A similar case is Truphone: Their software does pretty much everything. It automatically updates the call forward when you insert a foreign SIM card in your cell phone while travelling. Couldn't it also hold some callthrough numbers? If the company doesn't want to set up their own numbers they could surely make an agreement with Sipbroker or Tpad. These VoIP companies have callthrough numbers in nearly every country of the world. The Truphone software could automatically "sense" which country's callthrough number to use, since it already uses a similar functionality to forward calls from Truphone number to local SIM card. If that's not so easy the Truphone software should have a button to choose the country.

Or maybe Tpad and Sipbroker should design their own callthrough softwares, a proposal I directly made in their forums. Tpad's answer from the forum admin:

I will definitely mention your idea to management, but early next year we are starting work on a Tpad Global Freephone Number (cant mention too much detail at the moment, but from what we have come up with so far it is looking pretty good).

We are aware of the German Running Mobile, but we will have to check the other sites out.

Thanks for your ideas, we respect what our forum members want and we will try our best to develope them.

A "Tpad Global Freephone Number"? Now that's even more tricky. It would address the downside of the Sipbroker which is explained in a comment to Pat Phelan's blog entry:

What would make more sense for a large player is to negotiate preferable rates for access through 00800 (international toll free) straight to their own VOIP switch. Going through sipbroker access numbers that are operated by dozens of different VOIP carriers would not lead to consistant QoS.

OK, so QoS fans should use their own numbers, although many people use the Sipbroker numbers without problems. In the forum of Sipbroker's mothership Voxalot we developed some interesting ideas.

Maybe Voxalot could design my "callthrough dream application"?

It holds all Sipbroker numbers, kicks in only when make an international call and let's me use my own VoIP providers - like a already do on Voxalot's all purpose VoIP PBX. People would always only pay a local call and the international part goes over the respective VoIP provider. The mobile application should always “sense” in which country the cell phone is situated and choose the local Sipbroker number to establish the call.

I am craving for a really comprehensive application: sitting in the background like Packet8 and always kicking in when I need it, automatically making use of the callthrough number of the country where I am. Be it Jajah's, Tpad's, Sipbroker's, Net2max' or whatever callthrough number. I am a client of all these companies anyway.

It should be a "callthrough consolidator", like Devicescape is a Wifi consolidator for mobile phones. Devicescape let's me consolidate all the Wifi hotspots for my mobile phone into just one virtual hotspot. The callthrough software should do the same with all these numbers. I would even make myself the work to copy all callthrough numbers into my account on a website. The way that I can copy all login data of different Wifi hotspots into my account on the Devicescape website. Devicescape knows them all. No hassle with Wifi configuration on my tiny phone keyboard.

Who can build a Devicescape for callthrough?

Maybe a guy from Poland, called Marek. But until now he has only sent me ideas that go in this direction. No downloadable application.

Labels: Callthrough, Devicescape, Gizmo Project, Gizmo5, Jajah, Mobile, Mobiletalk, Packet8, Runningmobile, Tpad, Truphone, VoIP, Wifimobile

                                      

Finally I could get my hands on the Apple iPhone and check it out for one day. I must say that I am not that overly impressed like others commentators. The iPhone is a real multimedia machine, a true Apple product: fancy, with sharp pictures and fat sound. But it's definitely no Jesus phone. It does some things that I am really missing on my smartphone, like seeing every Youtube film. But the iPhone also full of small bitchinesses, like a spoiled starlet.

Youtube lies behind the goggle box

To see Youtube I just tip on the icon with the old TV set and it starts directly. Unlike other smartphones the iPhone delivers the entire Youtube on the screen, not just some handpicked films, like the mobile version for Symbian does. That's great because Youtube is Television 2.0 where people decide for themselves what they wants to see. The editorial preselection on my Nokia smartphone is always wrong with it's recomendations.

On the iPhone I just enter my search word and as result I get as much films like on my desktop PC. The only problem is that the virtual keys on the touchscreen are much too small, which makes me commit many typing errors. The picture quality is great, due to the high resolution display with 160 dots per inch. To fast-forward the movie or to stop it I just have to grab on the display to make the necessary buttons appear. I did that until the fat fingers on the screen seriously inhibited my Youtube pleasure and I had to clean. The landscape format gives you a real TV feeling, especially if you like cartoons. But I don't understand why the picture stayed in landscape mode when I put the phone upright. I love the iPhone feature which makes the entire screen turn when you move the phone in this direction.



Wifi is convenient but uncomfortable

However it's indispensable to have fast Wifi internet access for Youtube. With EDGE I had to wait eternally even for websites, when I played around with the iPhone in the Berlin subway. On my 3G smartphone I am used to read the latest news there without any problems.

Of course it's great that the iPhone automatically logs into every Wifi network that it has used before. But setting up a new hotspot is horrible. The iPhone finds the network's name very fast, but then follows the input of the password which in my case consist of lower case letters, uppercase and numbers. On the damned iPhone I could only choose between uppercase an numbers. A friend of mine had the same problem when he checked the iPhone at home. The arrow key for uppercase and lower case has no effect. I just couldn't enter any lower case letters. To not go entirely nuts, I finally had to chang my Wifi password so that it consisted only of numbers. A passnumber, so to say, which I could enter easily. But that's not very safe. That's why I chose a new Wifi password directly after the iPhone test.

Cool Cover Flow

The iPhone obviously wasn't made for security savvy techno geeks, but for design fans. They will surely love such cool effects like the cover flow: Turn the iPhone into landscape format, while listening to the music, and wipe over the shown record cover. It makes the covers of all stored songs rotate until your next favourite tune appears. Looks really fancy and works better than Windows Vista, where such graphical effects often bring the entire computer to its knees. When I change from cover view to list view, the cover rotates and disappears in the backgroung. Looks quite spacy.

Fat sound, but only for expensive earphones

Also the sound of the iPhone is great with Apple's small white earphones. It's cristal clear and banged my eardrum quite hefty when I pumped up the volume too much. Too bad that these white squits always fall out off my ears and I cannot use my own earphones with the iPhone. As soon as I connect them the entire iPhone goes silent. The phone doesn't work with every earphone because Apple moved the plug more inside the device. I already have great headphones from Philips which make me look like a DJ. They have cost only 3 Euros in a department store, cover my entire ear and have a great sound too. When they get broken I will buy new ones. That happens every few months because the cables are thin, also the iPhone's. Only for the iPhone squits it's really expensive to buy new ones: at least 40 Euros at Gravis, Germany's biggest Apple dealer.

iPod and iTunes are not the same on the iPhone

To listen to the music the iPhone has two buttons which have similar names but do different things: iTunes and iPod. The first one is to buy music and the second is to listen. The iPod button hides all the functionalities we already know from the iPod MP3 player: playlist,album, genre, artist and all that stuff. Nothing has changed and that's OK since I don't have to learn anything new.

The easiest way is to use the iPhone like an iPod: organize everything beforehand in iTunes and then just synchronize it with the iPhone. But before I could to that, I had to update the iTunes software again. Nearly every week it asks me to do so.The 63 MB download and the installation took nearly half an hour this time. Again it was very important to switch off the automatic synchronization in iTunes, before plugging in the iPhone, and to use the cell phone as an external hard disk. If not, all the music had disappeared that my friends had bought and downloaded before. The laptop computer had it just overwritten.

iTunes also works wirelessly

I also could have avoided the synchronization process, because iTunes works nearly completely as a standalone application on the iPhone. But only nearly completely. I could have searched through the entire Apple music store from the iPhone and I could have bought songs over Wifi or the EDGE mobile phone network with just one click. The last used iTunes ID comes as a preset, you just have to enter the password to finish the purchase.

But why of all things the free podcasts cannot be downloaded with the mobile iTunes version? They are my favourite feature. Unlike in the PC version you just get albums and titles for sale as search results. It would be so great to download the latest TV newscast over the air to the iPhone and see it on my way. At home I never would have time anyway.

At the end I was really happy when I could download my favourite podcast to a laptop computer and synchronize it with the iPhone: Dance Department, number 112. One hour of finest electronic dance music. Every week another world famous DJ spins the turntables. This week it's Ferry Corsten who also did great remixes for Moby and U2. The download is free of course. My favourite iPhone button is located at the bottom right of iTunes. It's name is "Further". When I touch, it all the content comes in neatly ordered: albums, audio books, compilations, composers, genres and also podcasts. That way I can find my favourite programs easily.

But I had to look for this button quite a long time.

Labels: 3G, Apple, EDGE, iPhone, Mobile, Smartphone, Youtube

                                      

I am really looking forward to next Monday when the software development kit (SDK) for Android, the new operating system from Google for mobile handsets, comes out. Hopefully that brings answers.

When they launched the Android last Monday there was very much buzz but few to be seen. Valleywag pretends to have screenshots of the first Googlephone app, but that's not very much of an information.

On tuesday I interviewed Florian Seiche, Vice President Europe of HTC, the most important smart phone producer in Google's Open Handset Alliance. But whenever I digged deeper he said that we have to "wait till monday when the SDK comes out".

At least he could tell me that Android has nothing to do with Openmoko or other Linux versions for smartphones. No Openmoko developers worked for the Android, no code sharing or whatever. Before I had the suspicion that Google's new mobile OS was in fact powered by the community solution Openmoko.

But that's not the case. Even Sean Moss-Pultz, initiator of Openmoko and responsible hardware product manager at First International Computer (FIC), doesn't have much knowledge about the Android, he told me in an email. He doesn't know the code yet and is waiting for something to compare.

So let's wait for Monday, November 12, 2007! That`s the real Google Phone day.

Labels: Google, HTC, Linux, Mobile, Open Handset Alliance, OpenMoko

                                      

So the Google Phone is out and the first reactions are not too good. At least at GigaOM there is more criticism than kudos. Nobody wants to hype the new product, nearly everyone is nagging. Since Google's shares are worth more than 700 dollars it's not cool anymore to be a Google fanboy.

I got an invitation to the same press call like Om, but unfortunately it started when my workday ended. May other journalist cover the story. Also it seems that the press call was not very much of a pleasure. "They completely dodged my question about how does it reconcile with other mobile linux efforts which are backed by none other than partners like Motorola", writes Om Malik.

Personally I like very much what he tells about Android, Google's new mobile phone plattform:

What is Android? A fully integrated mobile “software stack” that consists of an operating system, middleware, user-friendly interface and applications. It will be made available under one of the most progressive, developer-friendly open-source licenses, which gives mobile operators and device manufacturers significant freedom and flexibility to design products. Next week, the Alliance will release an early access software development kit to provide developers with the tools necessary to create innovative and compelling applications for the platform.

Does anybody know if this has something to do with OpenMOKO, the other open Linux cell phone platform? Maybe Android is just the same?

How open is Android compared to OpenMOKO?

The latter let's you manipulate everything to the very core of the mobile phone functions. Yet now there are thousands of great free Linux programs running on the OpenMOKO devices. I would love to see this kind of openness backed by heavy weights like Google and the other mentioned companies.

I hope that Android is as open as the Open Handset Alliance's website says:

Android was built from the ground-up to enable developers to create compelling mobile applications that take full advantage of all a handset has to offer. It is built to be truly open. For example, an application could call upon any of the phone's core functionality such as making calls, sending text messages, or using the camera, allowing developers to create richer and more cohesive experiences for users. Android is built on the open Linux Kernel. Furthermore, it utilizes a custom virtual machine that has been designed to optimize memory and hardware resources in a mobile environment. Android will be open source; it can be liberally extended to incorporate new cutting edge technologies as they emerge. The platform will continue to evolve as the developer community works together to build innovative mobile applications.

All applications are created equal

Android does not differentiate between the phone's core applications and third-party applications. They can all be built to have equal access to a phone's capabilities providing users with a broad spectrum of applications and services. With devices built on the Android Platform, users will be able to fully tailor the phone to their interests. They can swap out the phone's homescreen, the style of the dialer, or any of the applications. They can even instruct their phones to use their favorite photo viewing application to handle the viewing of all photos.

I think GigaOM's reader rohit understands it right:

i think this is a much bigger potential play at replacing the whole mobile phone software stack and aimed at making it truly an information appliance. think of it as an IP-services led “phone” design, not a telco-call based device.

It's a Linux for phones! You can do everything with it, if it's really open. I already wonder how it cooperates with Google's Ubiquisys femtocells. It annoys very much that my cell phone is not as open and flexible as my PC. Give me a command line to my cell phone and I will be happy!

Or, as commentator David Jacobs puts it:

Being an open system, hackers will have a field day with this and it could get some serious traction among the geek community who are so frustrated with the iPhone limitations.

Here you can get more quotes from Android's developers:

"Even A teenager in the basement and a senior designer in a big company - they have the same chance", says the film. That would be great because I don’t want just a Google Phone. I want many different of them for different purposes. That’s why I think the OS approach is great. The iPhone just isn’t enough anymore. It’s so 2007.

I got the offer to do interviews to John Wang, Chief Marketing Officer of Google's hardware producer HTC, and Florian Seiche, Vice President Europe of HTC, tomorrow. Let's see if that will answer my open questions.

Labels: Devices, Google, HTC, Mobile, Motorola, Open Handset Alliance, OpenMoko, Software

                                      

Many commentators didn't realize that the 3Skypephone doesn't really do mobile VoIP. Even my friends at Areamobile thought at first that a 3G data flatrate would be necessary to use it. It was quite easy to get this false impression as the press release only said:

29th October 2007 – Skype, the global Internet communications company and 3, the mobile operator, have launched a new affordable handset that lets you make free Skype to Skype calls and send free Skype instant messages from your mobile phone to other Skype users no matter where they are.

The 3 Skypephone is a fully-featured 3G Internet phone with Skype built-in. In addition to Skype calls the phone makes conventional calls and can be used to access 3’s broad range of other internet services.

3 customers using the 3 Skypephone will be able to make Skype calls and send instant messages on the move with the push of a button. This is the first time an operator has offered a mass market device which is tailor-made for free calling over the internet from a mobile. Now, all of Skype’s 246 million registered can be reached for free with the 3 Skypephone. ...

No more technical details were given. But the mobile Skype calls on the 3Skypephone are basically GSM phone calls, since it's the iSkoot service which is powering them. The day after the launch iSkoot could send out their own press release:

„CAMBRIDGE, MA – October 30, 2007 – iSkoot today announced that it has been selected by Skype to help power the 3 Skypephone – the first ever mass-market Skype-enabled mobile handset. ..."

This means that Skype calls from the 3Skypephone aren't 3G VoIP calls. They are GSM calls from the phone to the 3-iSkoot server, which then cannels them over the fixed line internet to Skype. The data connection is only used to show the presence of the Skype buddies.

The 3Skypephone doesnt really do any mobile VoIP, since it uses Skype only in the fixed line part of the call. The bad voice quality, that for instance Luca critizes, is not because of unreliable 3G coverage. Possible causes are the low sound quality of the GSM codecs or transcoding issues at a gateway level. Yet still iSkoot is a nifty solution to guarantee Skype coverage nearly everywhere.

That's also why their FAQ list says:

Q: Will it work on 2G, 2.5G& 3G networks?
A: Wherever you have coverage in the UK, Skype will work. If you can make a normal voice call, you will be able to make a Skype Call.

Now it's also obvious why the technology doesn't work outside of the 3 network: It relies on free on net calls from the 3Skypephone to the 3-iSkoot server. Luca said that "if you are roaming (in Italy in some places you are under Tim coverage and not 3) Skype calls don’t work".

The 3Skypephone is no new invention but just another marketing skin for iSkoot. Take that TIME magazine if you want to elect your next "Invention Of the Year". ;)

Labels: 3G, 3Skypephone, Iskoot, Mobile, Roaming, Skype, VoIP

                                      

The web based callback operator Jajah starts to offer real VoIP calls over a 3G HSDPA cell phone network in Japan. That's funny since it undermines their own "Smash your headset" campaign which Jajah uses to attack competitor Skype. But Jajah's press department again did a great job of reality distortion so that bloggers and old school media didn't realize the the contradiction. I already covered the topic for the German news website Areamobile where I now work more often.

Normally people have to pay double at Jajah. After they enter their own number and the callee's number on a web site or in a mobile phone, Jajah's server establishes two phone calls to connect them. That's not always the cheapest option, compared to calling cards or pure play VoIP, and has nearly nothing to do with mobile internet telephony. Jajah uses VoIP only in the backend to connect the calls. The callers just need a normal PSTN or cell phone to start a Jajah conversation. But now Jajah starts to change these rules with a new operation in Japan. The per minute price gets cheaper by eliminating the double calls and Jajah does more or less the same like Truphone.

The Japanese company Emobile will be the first mobile operator in this country to offer VoIP over HSDPA. The start is scheduled for October 18, 2007, and the application has been developed by Jajah for the "One Alpha" devices of Emobile, which until now were data only and could not make phone calls. The phone calls go over the Jajah network and cost per minute about 9.7 Euro cents to Japanese cell phones and 1.4 Euro cents to the PSTN. Emobile makes its money by charging a flatrate tariff for the VoIP and other data usage. Emergency calls or calls to free numbers are not possible, as we already know it from other VoIP providers. The VoIP application comes preinstalled on new devices, or can be installed on existing devices, and the customer only needs to sign up with Jajah, which gets him a 300 Yen (1.80 Euro cents) call credit.

I would really like to know more about this application, but the information is spare. Jajah did not send out an own press release and their public relations people don't know more either, I learned from emails and phone calls. The big question is how the new Jajah VoIP application looks from inside and if it's the first outcome of the recent investment by Intel. Jajah's co-founder, Roman Scharf, said in May 2007 on this occasion: "The deeper Jajah can be embedded into Intel solutions, the better for customers everywhere. It is our intention to bring a best-of-class, next generation solution to the market which can be embedded and optimized for any computing device." Fellow blogger Moshe Maeir then explained in his blog posts "Jajah gets $20m and Intel’s patents" and "Behind the scenes of the Intel, Jajah deal" how Jajah's access to Intel's patent portfolio helps to embed Jajah's telephony functions at the chip level of mobile phones.

Maybe that's what's happening now with Emobile? The birth of a new mobile VoIP hardware?

The funny part is that you have to connect a HEADSET to the "One Alpha" device from Emobile, which runs Windows Mobile 6.0, to make a Jajah call. That's so ironic since Jajah is badgering their opponent Skype yet for months with a campaign under the claim "If you liked Skype, You'll love Jajah". It makes fun of the fact that Skype users are tied to their PC and have to use a headset to make a call. "Jajah is revolutionary because it lets you make free and low-cost global calls using your everyday mobile or landline phone," said Roman Scharf in the regarding press release. "Services like Skype require headsets, software downloads and sometimes other technical equipment, making them way too hard for the everyday consumer to use."

With the new VoIP service from Emobile Jajah works exactly the same way. But at least nobody has to pay double for a phone call.

Labels: 3G, Devices, Emobile, HSDPA, Jajah, Mobile, Skype, Truphone, VoIP

                                      

Please don't think that I am obsessed with Cubic Telecom's Maxroam. But one more thing has to be added. CEO Pat Phelan says that his company made a big mistake this week. I guess that refers to the wrong prices they communicated to their customers. Cubic Telecom sold more than 1,000 SIM cards in the first weekend of pre-sale, says their public relations agency. But now even the New York Times had to apologize to their readers for a very positive article about Maxroam that suddendly appeared wrong in great parts:

This review got an awful lot of people excited.

There's only one problem: those were the wrong rates. The Cubic phone still saves you money, but not as much as I wrote.
...

The company's Web site hadn't yet gone public. I asked its chief executive several times if I could see the Web site in his beta form, but he never did give me access.

So I sent him a list of sample calls I wanted his per-minute prices for. He returned the list with his prices filled in. They were incredibly low, around one-tenth the price you'd pay T-Mobile or AT&T.

But when his Web site (maxroam.com) finally went live, the same day my review appeared, readers immediately started sending me e-mail—sometimes very angry e-mail—letting me know that the Cubic prices online did not match the examples in my story.
...

At first, I thought that he must have been quoting me prices in Euro cents rather than American cents. That would explain about half the discrepancy.

But no, the prices online don't match what he quoted me, even in Euros. (Furthermore, the list I'd sent him included the T-Mobile and AT&T prices for all those sample calls in dollars. I assumed he'd know I wanted a comparison of apples to apples.)

So I wrote him just after the first reader complaints came in. "This has been set up too quickly this morning," he wrote back. "Pricing model will be fixed for tomorrow AM. Just an error from a rushing web designer, sorry."

Whew. Crisis averted.

Except the next day, there was no change to the prices. I wrote him again. This time, he replied: "This error was totally down to an error or miscommunication by our company. We have, however, decided to completely honor this error and update our prices accordingly. These new rates will be lodged today. We apologize for this and error and would like to thank you for bringing it to our attention."

Crisis averted?

Well, sort of. As far as I could tell, he planned to post the super-low prices he'd originally quoted me—but only for the country examples I'd supplied! Those were no longer representative samples; they were artificial samples to match my review.

And besides: he never did, in fact, change those prices (Bahamas, Russia, Greece, Iraq, and so on). They're still higher than what he originally told me.

That's not good, even for a startup company. It shouldn't have happened. Still Cubic Telecom has great features. New York Times' David Pogue lists them:

One of them, for example, lets you choose up to 50 phone numbers for your single phone, in cities all over the world. The idea is that your friends in other countries can now call you for the price of what, for them, is a local call. The Cubic phone is also a Wi-Fi phone, meaning that you can make unlimited calls around the world for a flat monthly fee when you're in Wi-Fi hot spots. And finally, Cubic's higher prices are still much better than most cellphones' international roaming rates. On average, then, it looks like the Cubic card saves you between 25 and 75 percent off the big carriers' rates. Not 90 percent, as I reported.

Journalists don't like it to be fooled. It makes them look stupid to their readers. Cubic Telecom's Sean O'Mahony has more explanations:

We've had lots of great comments from customers and we've made quite a few mistakes as well.

The biggest one was our rate sheet. A couple of times we posted the wrong one so people were confused about whether it was in euros or dollars. We also garnered the attention of David Pogue over at the NY Times who corrected his original piece. Of course Andy Abramson was onto the bandwagon immediately.

I say it's been a funny week because you'd think from all the comments from the "intelligentsia" that we were out to fool people. Our rates are public. They are good and they are honest. If you can find a better deal somewhere else then by all means buy that service.

Hat tips to Andy Abramson for reading that much media that he found the New York Times' correction. See also David Pogue's update article "Cubic Telecom Kerfluffle: The Final Chapter?" from October 6, 2007!

Labels: Cubic Telecom, Maxroam, Mobile, Roaming

                                      

UPDATE:
On tuesday, October 2nd 2007, Maxroam has fixed their rate calculator. It doesn't say anymore that you can call to wherever in the world for just €0.35 when roaming in Germany. Now different prices apply for each country.

---

After Maxroam went live last week and sold 573 SIM cards on the first day, a big discussion broke out that you could also follow in the comments to my blog. People couldn't believe that when roaming in Germany you can call to wherever in the world for just €0.35. It sounds too good to be true. An anonymous poster even said:

Pat. If you are reading this please fix your rate calculator. If its correct than I will sign up but I promise you that you are going to lose a lot of money from me since I will be calling cuba for several hours a day and I know that there is no way you can cover the termination charges if you charge me based on the website. I work in the telecom industry and know what is and is not real. Please get of the correct rates.

But today the Maxroam rate calculator still says the same: €0.35 to wherever. I cannot verify the real rates either since I don't have a Maxroam SIM yet. Another poster, who calls himself Satphoneguy, commented last night:

I called and spoke to Pat Phelan on the phone today. There is definatly a bug in the rate calculator. He is working on it. For now I would not trust any of the rates to be accurate.

Soon we shall know what the actual rates look like.

I am not really sure if that comment is trustworthy, since Maxroam has to deal with "nasty comments over the last few days from corners seemingly jealous of maybe a tiny bit of growth for this fledgling company". That's how Cubic Telecom's CEO Pat Phelan calls it. He even put up a "new living room policy" to deal with annoying comments on his blog, not allowing them anymore.

From my desk in Berlin I am not yet able to verify what's true and what's not in Maxroam's rates and the commentators criticism. So I beg your pardon if perhaps I copied wrong prices from Maxroam's website. But one thing is for sure: Cubic Telecom is working day and night to complete the product. Pat Phelan even made an exclusive announcement on my blog:

I will give this to you exclusively here. We will have 15-20c USA roaming in next quarter, we will have MAXroam TO MAXroam regardless of country for under 20c in under 5 months, full triggering of call without the callback and global data roaming in under 6 months,this is not the end of a product this is just the beginning.

We intend to change the mobile infrastructure and bring the customer back to the centre. We could launch UK mobile sims with just a flight to the Isle Of Man but we don't want to be just a reseller, you know my personal experience of this business if I thought UK, Lichtenstein, Estonia was a better model I would have just become a reseller and resold the best model possible.

I also note that you commentors are anonymous whilst my phone is on the front page of my blog.

We really appreciate all your feedback.
thanks

So these are the "15 to 20 cents" prices we read about in the articles around TC40. Stay tuned for more to come! I will try hard to get more verified information and to write soon a review of Maxroam.

Labels: Cubic Telecom, Maxroam, Mobile, Roam4Free, Roaming

                                      

UPDATE:
On tuesday, October 2nd 2007, Maxroam has fixed their rate calculator. It doesn't say anymore that you can call to wherever in the world for just €0.35 when roaming in Germany. Now different prices apply for each country.

---

Cubic Telecom's Maxroam went live today and I really like the prices for this international SIM card. Making a call to wherever in the world costs €0.35 if you are in Germany. There is no difference between countries. The entire world costs the same €0.35. Receiving calls costs in most cases nearly the same like making them. CEO Pat Phelan says:

Well we want to give back value, we wont pinch on pennies, We will give you the best quality voice services possible, we wont be the absolute rock bottom prices.

Well I hope so, because I don't understand why calls from the USA cost €1.18. Why this big difference?

But still that's much cheaper than the up to $3.65 which AT&T would charge, as you can learn from this insightful article "A Cellphone Without Borders" in today's New York Times. Now I am very courious to get to know Cubic Telecom's Wifi VoIP prices.


NOTE:
Please read also my update blog post "Cubic Telecom's Maxroam stirs up emotions".

Labels: Cubic Telecom, Maxroam, Mobile, VoIP

                                      

Since I cannot attend personally the launch of the free mobile phone calls MVNO Blyk that is being held in these very minutes in London, I can only present the press release. I also got a Powerpoint presentation as PDF that explains more comprehensively how the advertising sponsored MVNO works.

Before becoming a customer you have to fill in a long questionnaire about your consumption preferences. Later you get advertising in every SMS you receive from a friend. Apparently before every phone call you have to answer questions like "Which of these celebs are you the most like: Eva Longoria, Penélope Cruz, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, ... ?" and Blyk recommends you the adequate L'Oreal lipstick.

That makes me wonder what happens to customers who don't look similar to super models. Are they not allowed to talk?


Reference: Press Announcement
Release Date: 24 September, 2007

Blyk goes live
The world’s first advertising funded mobile network for 16-24 year olds launches in the UK

London, 24 September, 2007 - Blyk, the new mobile network for 16 to 24 year olds today announced the launch of its UK service. The announcement was made by the company founders Pekka Ala-Pietilä and Antti Öhrling at a press launch event in London this morning. Blyk is an invitation-only mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that links young people with brands they like and gives them free texts and minutes every month.

For brands, Blyk is an innovative, new media channel, providing direct access to the 16-24 year old market; enabling them to create awareness, build relationships and drive sales to this hard to reach audience. Since its conception early last year, Blyk has been undertaking extensive research in the UK with user group studies and live user trials. These have helped to make the offering extremely compelling for young people and advertisers alike.

Pekka Ala-Pietilä said: “We have spent the last year developing a unique, robust advertising content engine and whilst the technology we are using is incredibly advanced, the main premise of Blyk is driven by 3 basic principles – ease of use, interaction and relevance of the communications.”

Blyk understands the importance of relevancy in communication and has built its system to enable this. By means of profile questions at sign-up and ongoing SMS polling during membership Blyk Media enables brands to target messages like no other medium. Response rates have also been exceptionally high, with some testers reportedly missing the service at the end of the trial.

Further to this Öhrling said: “We found that what is 90% familiar and 10% new leads to the best user experience. So, the Blyk communications formats are based on the most dominant and most familiar pattern among 16-24s: Getting a message and responding to it. Both picture and text.”

Brands will be able to engage Blyk members in question/response type interactions. For members these interactions are free. For advertisers all responses and interactions by members are tracked, giving great accountability to the campaign.

“We found throughout our research that this simple, familiar type of interaction leads to tremendous response rates. “ says Öhrling. Speaking at the network’s launch in London today, Pekka Ala-Pietilä said:

“Our free offer is 217 texts and 43 minutes every month and this could mean no more phone bills for up to 4.5 million young people in the UK - with no contract. We have the brands that want to speak to them too, with more than 40 already signed up for the launch. This group represents almost every industry sector there is.”

“It’s going to spread because, at the heart of it, it’s got a creative idea. A mobile phone network that’s funded by advertising; that’s something you want to tell people about. Fundamentally it’s the interaction that young people do most on their mobile phone: receiving and responding to a message.” says Antti Öhrling.

About Blyk

Blyk is the new mobile network for 16 – 24s that’s funded by advertising. Blyk links young people with brands they like and gives them free texts and minutes every month. Blyk was co-founded in 2006 by Pekka Ala- Pietilä and Antti Öhrling and has offices in Helsinki, Finland and London, UK. Blyk is now operating in the UK, with other European markets to follow.
For more information, visit about.blyk.com.

ENDS


Notes to Editors:

Invitations to join Blyk will be sent out over the next few weeks via channels targeted to reach 16-24 year olds.

For further information, please contact:
UK Trade media:
Karen Keany
The Practice, telephone +44 (0) 20 7812 0662/mobile +44 (0) 7989 429 367
Karen@thepractice.org.uk

UK Consumer media:
Rax Lakhani
Splendid Communications, telephone +44 (0) 20 7324 7200
rax@splendidcomms.com

International media:
Irene Nyberg-Jarventaus
Blyk, +44 (0) 7747 844 854
irene@blyk.com

Blyk limited
Registered office:
4 th Floor
80 Leadenhal Street
London EC3A 3HA
Registration number: 05778607

Labels: Blyk, free phone calls, Mobile, Nokia

                                      

The Norwegian mobile VoIP company Vyke seems to urge for an own reliable network. Today's news is that they have signed a letter of intent to acquire a USA based VoIP network service provider. The Acquisition is subject to due diligence which is ongoing and final approval by the Board of Vyke. Sounds quite interesting. But who is it?

The Target is a VoIP service provider headquartered in the US with additional offices in China. Its VoIP network, comprised of over 50 international points of presence, delivers approximately 25 million minutes per month of VoIP call traffic and has a total estimated capacity of approximately 60 million minutes per month.

The Acquisition, if completed, would provide Vyke with a vertically consolidated VoIP network presence in key geographical regions such as South East Asia and Africa, allowing Vyke to increase its services and lower associated costs of service supply in these regions. The Target's complementary VoIP network will provide Vyke with approximately 80% more total call handling capacity.

A further announcement with further details will be made later, following the due diligence and definite deciscion about the acquisition.

Labels: Mobile, VoIP, Vyke

                                      

OK, the embargo is over. For one and a half hours I already had the press release but wasn't allow to tell. But now, finally, Roam4Free's Pat Phelan has revealed at TechCrunch 40 his new product Maxroam. TechCrunch is blogging live from the presentation:

Cubic Telecom is creating a global Mobile Virtual Network (MVNO). The company aims to drastically reduce international calling rates by lowering mobile roaming and call charges. Founder Pat Phelan “wants a world in which anyone can pick up their mobile phone wherever they are and call anyone in any country for as long as they like without worrying about the price.” Product launch is today. “Maxroam” allows you to add numbers to the SIM. Essentially calls are routed from one number in each place. Every call on the mobile becomes a local call.

Later you can find the per minute prices here. Up to now the web page still says "Rates published later today" or "HTTP/1.1 500 Server Error". Sometimes a price shows up, but this is just a place holder. They are obviously working on it.


EMBARGO – 20:00 Irish/UK Time (19:00UTC / 12:00 PST), Monday 17th September 2007

IRISH STARTUP INTRODUCES THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL MOBILE PHONE SERVICE THAT ELIMINATES EXTORTIONATE ROAMING CHARGES

• “All Global Calls Are Local Calls” with Cubic Telecom’s Mobile Phone Solution
• Company Unveils Both Product and Vision at First Annual TechCrunch40

CORK, Ireland, and SAN FRANCISCO, California. – (TechCrunch40) – September 17, 2007 – Cubic Telecom today unveiled what many industry watchers are calling the world’s first true global phone. Presenting at TechCrunch40 in San Francisco before an 800-plus crowd of hi-tech entrepreneurs, journalists and other industry influencers, the company announced Cubic Mobile, a mobile phone package that effectively turns ‘global calls into local calls’. Cubic Mobile dramatically reduces costs for both callers and recipients of mobile phone calls when roaming internationally.

Cubic designed the product for several large markets of consumers who are looking for ways to reduce the cost of international telephony: (1) the growing population of émigrés who buy pre-paid calling cards to call friends and family overseas; (2) travellers who are looking for ways to reduce the costs of roaming on traditional packages; and (3) globally distributed teams – commercial, not-for-profit, and governmental organisations – that are all seeking better ways to manage the cost of global calls.

“You often hear that the world is flat, so why not telephony,” said Cubic CEO and co-founder Pat Phelan. “We are living in a world where more and more people need to make phone calls across borders and while travelling. Our mantra is ‘all global calls should be local calls’, and we have built a product that can do that.”

Pat Phelan said “It’s great to be at TechCrunch40. Seven hundred companies from around the world applied to launch their products at this event. We were one of forty chosen, and are the only Irish company presenting. For us, this is an exceptional opportunity”.

Cubic Mobile is a dual-band GSM/Wi-Fi phone that comes with several major innovations enabling callers to make and receive low-cost calls around the planet, wherever they roam:

• MAXroam: the world’s first universal SIM card, offering consumers the best country-to-country phone rates anywhere. The MAXroam SIM, which can also be purchased separately, is a major breakthrough, and the result of years of negotiations with GSM carriers around the world.

• As many phone numbers as you like: full PBX functionality on the handset. Consumers get a single phone number, but can create multiple permanent local numbers for themselves - up to 50 - anywhere around the globe. All calls are forwarded to their Cubic Mobile phone, no matter where the calls originate, at the best rates for the callers.

• All Voice over IP (VoIP) calls within the Cubic network are free. All Cubic Mobile customers get a short code that they can use to make free VoIP calls to any other customer on the Cubic network. This is an especially attractive feature to families who live across borders and globally distributed companies and workgroups.

Cubic Mobile has been designed by a team with extensive experience in consumer and wireless technologies. It also has the ability to route a call to the lowest cost network available, whether it is GSM or Wi-Fi. “It’s consumer friendly in many ways, said Pat Phelan. “It is friendly in its utter simplicity, but also friendly in its ability to also ensure that you and your callers are always getting the lowest rates”.

Pricing and Availability
• Cubic Mobile, which comes in two models, will be available from October 1st at www.cubictelecom.com. The basic model will sell for EUR99.95 and a Windows Mobile version at EUR159.95 (both handsets come with a MAXroam SIM included and an initial EUR5 calling credit).

• MAXroam, which operates on any unlocked GSM phone, can be purchased separately for EUR29.99 (with an initial EUR5 calling credit) and is available on September 24th at www.maxroam.com.

-ENDS-


ABOUT Cubic Telecom
Based in Cork, Ireland, with offices in Vancouver, Cubic Telecom is an innovative global communications company focused on introducing simple, high quality and high value telecommunications services. Its core target market is aggrieved customers across the globe who don’t understand why they can’t get value for money when making international calls and roaming. Renowned global telecommunications entrepreneur and thought-leader Pat Phelan founded Cubic Telecom in 2005. Pat wants a world in which anyone can pick up their mobile phone wherever they are and call anyone in any country for as long as they like without worrying about the price.

Cubic Telecom is working towards free speech.
www.cubictelecom.com

ABOUT TechCrunch40
TechCrunch40 features forty of the hottest new startups from around the world, who will announce and demo their products over a two day period. And they don’t pay a cent to do this. They are selected to participate based on merit alone. In fact, the organisers offer a $50,000 cash prize for the best product and line up other in-kind services and awards from a group of corporate sponsors. The selected companies are decided by an amazing group of experts who help recommend the final startups to present at TechCrunch40. And they will also participate at the conference - they’ll watch company presentations and discuss the merits of each with robust audience participation. Confirmed industry experts include Marc Andreessen (Co-founder, Ning), Chris Anderson (Editor-In-Chief, Wired Magazine), Ryan Block (Editor-In-Chief, Engadget), Roelof Botha (Partner, Sequoia Capital), Ron Conway (angel investor and advisor), Mark Cuban (Founder, HDNet), Caterina Fake (Co-founder, Flickr), Brad Garlinghouse (SVP,Communications & Communities, Yahoo!), MC Hammer (Musical Artist and Advisor, DanceJam), Sarah Lacy (reporter and author), Loďc Le Meur (entrepreneur, LeWeb organizer and blogger), Om Malik (Founder, GigaOm), Marissa Mayer (VP, Search Products & User Experience, Google), Rajeev Motwani (Professor, Stanford University), Robert Scoble (Scobleizer and Podtech), and Dave Winer (Scripting News).

Photography:
Pictured are Sean O'Mahony (left), Chief Commercial Officer, and Pat Phelan, Chief Operating Officer, of Cubic Telecom, which today announced its plans to dramatically reduce international global roaming charges.

For further information, please contact:

Media Contact (Europe)
Comit Communications & Marketing
Keith Martin
Tel. +353 1 215 7675
kmartin@comitmarketing.com
www.comitmarketing.com

Media Contact (North America)
The Conversation Group
Giovanni Rodriguez
Tel. +1-650-279-8415
Giovanni@theconversationgroup.com
www.theconversationgroup.com

Company Contact
Cubic Telecom Limited
Pat Phelan, CEO
Tel. +353 21 425 0657
info@cubictelecom.com
Cubic Telecom Limited
Unit 1, Webworks
Eglinton Street
Cork
Ireland
Tel: +353 21 425 0657
Website: www.cubictelecom.com
Pat Phelan’s Blog: blog.roam4free.ie

Labels: Maxroam, Mobile, Roam4Free, VoIP

                                      

I just got a phone call from the UK. Blyk, the ad-supported MVNO, will launch next monday, 24th September 2007. They wanted me to interview the co-founders, Pekka Ala-Pietilä, former president of Nokia, and Antti Öhrling at their press conference in London.

The new virtual operator is targeting 16 to 24 year olds. Blyk rents airtime from Orange and uses technology from Nokia Siemens Networks to deliver free calls, sponsored by advertisers like Buena Vista, Coca-Cola, I-play Mobile Gaming, L’Oreal Paris, StepStone and Yell.com, says TechCrunch UK.

Unfortunately I cannot go personally, but I told Ewan MacLeod, blogger at SMS Text News, to ask a question in my name. I would like to know if they are in contact with Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of the airline easyJet and other successful low cost product ventures. He told me three months ago that his brand easyMobile would come back with free mobile calls sponsored by advertising.

Labels: Blyk, easyMobile, free phone calls, Mobile, MVNO, Nokia

                                      

Do you remember my post "Google is the real telco disruptor" from july?

Well, it seems that the story could become even more interesting with another player entering the 700 MHz wireless spectrum auction that many didn't have on their list: Apple might also bid for that "bech front property" spectrum, suggests a BusinessWeek article called "Apple Eyes the Wireless Auction".

Taking into account this possible development many pieces of the puzzle would fall into their place. Why is the iPod touch such a cool device, an iPhone without phone? Why did Apple cut the price for the iPhone so soon and drastically?

In Germany the association eco, alliance of 330 big internet companies, hailed already last week the new device by saying "Wifi iPod makes mobile internet a mass market" in a press release. They are fed up with the slow acceptation of mobile internet service on Germany because the incumbent mobile operators keep 3G data prices high and accept only walled gardens on their devices.

"T Zones, Web-n-walk und Vodafone Live all try to keep away the user from the free and open internet", says eco director Harald A. Summa. "Exactly this policy of closed networks has so far prevented the breaktrough of the mobile internet to a mass market. The success of iTunes and Youtube shows that the users know much better than the operators what they really want." The new iPod touch offers direct Wifi access to iTunes and Youtube, circumventing the closed networks of the mobile operators.

So, let's just imagine that the iPhone never planned to sell millions. Maybe it's real purpose is just to create buzz for the new iPods? The iPod touch has every feature that you like from the iPhone. It only misses the annoying part of the phone: A 60 dollar per month cell phone contract. New iPods could work without that contract, using the 700 MHz spectrum, suggests the article in BusinessWeek:

Signals at the 700Mhz spectrum, for example, could provide far faster Internet access than today's cellular or even Wi-Fi networks, and the signals can easily pass through buildings and work glitch-free, even in lousy weather.

Still, even the possibility of an Apple bid is intriguing. For starters, it would mean Apple would no longer need to rely on a phone company to deliver songs, TV shows, and other digital fare purchased at its iTunes Music Store. As it is, the major complaint of iPhone shoppers isn't with the phone, but with the pokey Net access from Apple's exclusive U.S. partner, AT&T (T).

If it owned its own spectrum, Apple could provide the network service itself, possibly for far less than the $1,440 iPhone owners must now fork out over the course of the cheapest two-year contract. For example, Apple could hold down costs by letting users choose a Net telephony program such as Skype rather than develop its own voice software, say analysts.

Apple might even be able to give away network service for free, and make its money off services such as iTunes and possibly by selling subscribers advertising space.

Indeed, cutting out the carrier would probably be in sync with Steve Jobs' view of the world. Before striking the iPhone deal with AT&T, he publicly dissed phone companies as little more than "orifices"—good only for providing dumb pipes to deliver more innovative companies' more innovative services.

"Apple is the most anti-carrier company there is," says the former Apple executive. "They're probably already frustrated with AT&T. If they put a few billion behind this, they could build a kick-ass network." Indeed, on Sept. 5, Apple announced a new iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store so consumers can buy songs at wireless hotspots, something they can't do on AT&T's network. And Jobs made a point of noting Wi-Fi is faster not only than the so-called 2.5G EDGE network, but also than 3G cellular networks.

A very convincing argumentation that matches perfectly with what eco said. That's also the reason why I had to copy such a long passage of the original article. (Sorry for that!) Hopefully it's not only intentionally leaked hot air to lift Apple's stock price.

Labels: Apple, Broadband, free phone calls, Google, iPhone, iPod, Mobile, Skype, T-Mobile, Vodafone, VoIP