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As the number of iPhones, and Apple’s influence in mobile market continues to grow, Cupertino company keeps thinking about how to get rid of the chokehold mobile operators have on the market.
Since getting enough spectrum to build your own mobile network is almost impossible, the next best thing for Apple will be to establish it’s own Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO).
And, as this new patent application shows, Apple is still seriously thinking about it’s own MVNO.
MVNO’s usually lease the wholesale mobile network capacity from one operator (e.g. Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile or AT&T) and then resell that capacity to it’s own customers as it’s own mobile service. To the end customer MVNO looks like a normal mobile operator, and the user has no direct connection to the carrier who’s network he is using.
Apple takes the MVNO model one step further, and wants to have contracts/relations with all the carriers. The basic idea is to create it’s own full service MVNO, with it’s own Home Location Register (a central database were all network’s customer SIM card details are stored), that will be registered and available on all carriers. The iPhone users will become clients of Apple’s MVNO and deal directly with Apple. Network operators will then be allowed/required to submit the bids for their services to Apple, which will pass the offers to the customer iPhone. Furthermore, the whole process can be done dynamically, individually for each iPhone, based on it’s location, time of day and other factors.
For example, let’s say AT&T has just upgraded it’s network in your town and has a lot of spare capacity. At the same time, T-Mobile’s network there is bursting at the seems and can barely accommodate it’s current users. Since idle network only loses money, AT&T can send a serious rate discount offer to Apple , and all iPhone users in your town now have an option to switch to AT&T at a much better rates. You get cheaper calls and data, AT&T gets to use the idle capacity and gets paid for it. Everyone, except T-Mobile, is happy.
Now imagine this happening all over the world, with carrier bids streaming in, sorted and accepted in real time, for the use of each network base station. Very soon a very efficient market will develop, and you will be able to get the best mobile service at a best possible price…
Which is great thing for you, but a nightmare for your mobile operator. That’s because network operators thrive on market inefficiencies that they can exploit, because they were granted a monopoly rights over the radio spectrum.The last thing mobile operators need is an efficient market, where they have to compete for a customer offering best service at the lowest possible price.
This is why, unless there are some regulatory changes, I think Apple’s own MVNO will remain just a dream for a long time.
It’s not like Apple just got an idea for this MVNO today. The patent application described above is just an extension of the one filed way back in 2006. This year Apple was granted a patent for the multi-carrier MVNO. It’s now 2011 and Apple is no closer to launching it’s own MVNO then it was 5 years ago, in 2006.
But here’s to keeping such a nice dream alive
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Ljubljana - Rast števila priključkov na internetno telefonijo kažejo končni podatki o kazalnikih razvoja elektronskih komunikacijskih storitev za leto 2009, ki jih je danes objavil Statistični urad RS. Število priključkov VoIP se je zadnji dve leti, odkar so na voljo ustrezni podatki, povečevalo povprečno za 50,7 odstotka na leto. Konec 2009 jih je bilo v uporabi že 280.000, kar je skoraj tretjina vseh priključkov na fiksni lokaciji, ugotavlja Vida Lipovšek s statističnega urada. Dodaja, da se je medtem uporaba klasičnih priključkov PSTN in ISDN zmanjševala.
Poll Everywhere, which specializes in instant audience feedback via text messaging, and Mobile Messenger, a technology solutions group that partners with carriers, have partnered to develop affordable, educational SMS programs. Instead of barking at students to put their phones away, teacher can instead ask them to whip out the phones for a flash quiz during class. Over 2,000 K-12 educators have signed up for the service already. As we reported last April, new studies and pilot projects show smartphones can actually make kids smarter, and as a result major foundations are zeroing in on handhelds for preschool and the primary grades. Google, Nokia, Palm, and Sony have all begun supplying handheld devices for
teaching. And thousands of new mobiles--not just smartphones but also
ever-shrinking computers--have come into use at schools in the United
States and around the world just in the past year. "Student Response Systems typically cost $1,200 per classroom," Poll Everywhere CEO Jeff Vyduna tells Fast Company. "But by using student cell phones we can now provide this type of
technology for $50 per year."
Cisco rolled out its consumer telepresence offering this morning, unveiled under the Umi brand. The offering, which can be used with existing HDTVs, is available for pre-order today, but a price tag of $599 will probably be a little out of reach for Umi’s target market.
There are four pieces to the Cisco Umi solution: a video camera that sits on top of your HDTV, a set-top box that connects to the user’s broadband connection, a remote control for navigating the interface and making calls, and a cloud service that routes calls. The offering can deliver up to 1080p video, and connects via Wi-Fi or Ethernet.
The Umi solution is everything you might expect from a Cisco telepresence offering; the video is beautiful, of course, but the offering is pricey. The hardware costs $599, and the solution comes with an additional $24.99 monthly charge for unlimited calls.
Cisco is going into field trials with Verizon and plans to bring Umi to FiOS customers in early 2011. However, users can use Umi on any broadband network; to do 1080p video, it needs just a 3.5Mbps connection.
Since there will be a fairly limited number of consumers that have access to Umi at launch, Cisco has teamed up with Google to enable users to connect the Umi telepresence service with GTalk video chat users. Since GTalk is fairly pervasive at this point, the partnership will give early adopters at least a few friends to chat with.
The product is available for pre-order beginning today at umi.cisco.com, and beginning Oct. 18 from bestbuy.com. It will become generally available on Nov. 14 from Cisco’s Umi website, Best Buy and Magnolia Home Theater stores and the Best Buy website.
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This--part of Hsieh's overall approach to customer service and marketing--is very much connected to an idea we explored last week. Marketing is not limited to advertising. In fact, according to Hsieh, advertising by its very nature is not the most effective type of marketing available to businesses precisely because customers correctly view it as an intrusion and an interruption. But once you get a customer on the phone--to track orders, to ask questions, to interact for any reason--you have earned her attention.
The stakes are higher, of course. A poorly received TV commercial may constitute a missed opportunity but it hardly affects a customer's long-term conception of the company. When a potential consumer confronts an unhelpful and frustrating customer service experience, however, you can be sure that he will remember the encounter. This is Hsieh's point: the more personal and focused the branding experience, the stronger the impression that will be left.
Many people have speculated why Google is giving away free voice calls from Gmail. “SKYPE killer!” “A shot across the bow of Facebook!” “The beginning of the end of every non-Google social anything!” But maybe it’s just more of the same from Google. According to Google's First Quarter 2010 10-Q, 97% of revenue comes from advertising. No matter how you slice it, Google is in the advertising business, not the telephone business, or any other business for that matter. By allowing people to make phone calls out of Gmail, is it possible Google is simply trying to get people to stare at their open Gmail web pages, filled with ads? Consider this: Math Alert: Google's cost per minute of a phone call = 1.5 cents (assumption)
Google's average revenue per Adwords click = $3.00 (giant assumption, but probably not a bad one based on our experience). That means Google is making money if you click on an ad more often than once for every 200 minutes you are on a call using outbound calling from Gmail. A hug for anyone who just realized that Google is attempting to get your eyeballs on ad supported content wherever and whenever possible. Don’t be sad; it’s a fact of life that nothing is free. Here’s more:
Consider another possible benefit ($$$) to Google in exchange for “free” calls from Gmail: Let's say you are currently using a free Gmail account, but access your mail via POP or IMAP on your computer mail client (Outlook, Mac Mail, etc.) Now that you can make an occasional free call using Gmail, you might consider ditching the desktop client for the Gmail browser interface. What's that worth to Google? I'm guessing, a LOT! More math:
I received 80 emails yesterday. I read them all via Mac Mail. If I had read them in Gmail, how many ads would I have seen? 50? 100? More? Let's say 50 to be conservative. How much revenue is that for Google? Assume an average ad impression generates 1 cent for Google (which is conservative from our experience). That’s 50 cents worth of revenue to Google, or about 30 minutes of outbound calling using Gmail calling. So, if I spend less than 30 minutes a day on the phone and use Gmail, Google is cashing in on me, regardless of whether I click on an ad or not! I’m guessing, someone at Google did this math and concluded a pitch to management with a big CHA-CHING! Smile and dial, Gmail users. (But, please keep your eyes on the screen while talking!) 
Odhodni promet fiksne telefonije se je tako v prvem letošnjem polletju zmanjšal za dobrih enajst odstotkov. Na drugi strani pa so uporabniki mobilnega omrežja v prvem polletju letos v letni primerjavi ustvarili 7,1 odstotka večji odhodni promet, kar je povzročil predvsem dvig prometa, omejenega na domača omrežja, saj je promet, ustvarjen s klici v tujino, ostal praktično nespremenjen. /.../ Poleg rastočega števila minut pogovorov pa se v mobilni telefoniji še bolj drastično povečuje število SMS-sporočil, kar ob mnogih ponudbah paketov mobilnih operaterjev niti ne preseneča. SMS-sporočil je bilo tako v prvem letošnjem polletju poslanih približno toliko kot v vsem letu 2008.
FriendCaller, a browser-based click-to-call voice calling service developed by the Dortmund, Germany-based startup C2Call, is once again showing that despite Skype’s monstrous market share, the game isn’t over just yet. The company is adding over 15,000 new users every day. In past three months it has added a million new subscribers for a total of 1.4 million to date. So far, these folks are making about 250,000 calls a day.
FriendCaller is a simple and barebones free phone service and in that lies its beauty. In order to make phone calls, you don’t need any special software — a 750 kilobyte Java-based soft client downloads and loads up inside a web browser. You can sign in using Facebook, but it is not necessary. FriendCaller gives you a special link (CallMe links) to share via social networks, email and instant message. Your friends can click and call you, and they don’t need to register with the service. In addition, the company has special FriendCaller apps for the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android and Facebook.
If you wish to make phone calls to external phones outside the C2Call’s footprint, you need to sign-up for an account and pay for the the calls — from the U.S. it costs about 2 cents a minute to 35 different countries. From April 2010 to early August 2010, the two-year-old C2Call had generated $2 million in revenues — showing signs that it has a business model, as long it keeps adding people and encourages them to keep talking.
CEO Martin Feuerhahn and CTO Michael Knecht started C2Call in 2008. The service is based on internally developed technology and is hosted entirely on Amazon’s cloud. It scales on an as-needed basis. FriendCaller’s early success has helped the company raise $2 million in Series A funding from original Skype investor Bill Draper of Draper Investment Company, High-Tech Gründerfonds and Klaus Wecken, co-founder of KHK Software.
Try this one out — it might pleasantly surprise you!
Updated: As per your requests, here are some more technical details from folks at C2Call:
Is the Java client open source?
No, the Java Client is our own proprietary development, but we are using open standard protocols like SIP/SDP/RTP to establish a connection between the clients.
Is the protocol for phone calls open or closed? What is the protocol?
An open protocol SIP (Session Instantiation Protocol). We can connect to our own service, but we also have a client for 3rd party SIP providers. Very soon we will also open up our network for 3rd party SIP devices like SIP soft phones or SIP-enabled mobile devices (e.g. Nokia mobile phones, with built-in SIP client)
How does the service work? Is it based on peer-to-peer topology?
It establishes a platform-independent, peer-to-peer connection through any Java-enabled Internet browser. We host a SIP compliant backend infrastructure with SIP proxy, media relay, presences service, etc. However, the actual audio connection on VoIP calls will be peer-to-peer whenever possible, which sometimes depends on the firewall/NAT. As fall back, we can always use the media relay, hosted in our back-end system.
What codec do you use?
We use iLBC, Speex, uLaw, aLaw, GSM codecs
Skype today launched Skype Connect, a VoIP service that enables enterprises to connect and use Skype for a corporate telecommunications. The company is leveraging its original consumer voice and video service to ride the wave of IP convergence in a fight for business dollars against the likes of heavyweights such as Avaya and Cisco. Previously in beta since March 2009, Skype Connect 1.0 works with private branch exchange (PBX) and Unified Communications solutions. Enterprises pay a monthly fee of $6.95 per line while outgoing calls to landlines and mobiles are charged at SkypeOut rates that start at 2.1 cents per minute. Incoming Skype calls are free.
So why the official big move into corporate telephony? For the past half-dozen years, Skype has prepared itself ahead of the world’s migration towards packet-based communications, starting with its successful consumer offerings. Consumers, however, are more apt to use Skype’s free services such as online voice calling and video chat. Out of 560 million registered users of Skype, only 8.1 million are paying customers on a monthly basis, so corporate customers will boost revenue potential. And last week’s news of making phone calls through Google’s Gmail can’t have gone unnoticed by Skype — while Gmail calls aren’t yet available for Google Apps customers, it’s only a matter of time before Google joins Skype in actively pursuing business budgets with increased corporate features.
For Skype to appeal to the business world, it has to go beyond what the original Skype Connect offered. When it first launched in beta last year, the service was looked upon by some as a simplified and lower-featured version of Skype for Asterisk and essentially just a way for Skype to offer low-cost calling minutes to corporate customers. Now Skype Connect clients can integrate “click to call” button on a corporate website for customers to tap and get connected to call center, for example. IT organizations can manage a Skype-powered PBX from any web-connected computer through a browser and the Skype Manager application. And eventually — sooner rather than later if Cisco does indeed purchase Skype as Om noted last night– video-conferencing and other value-add features could become further unified within Skype Connect.
Skype says the beta Connect service has attracted more than 2,400 global customers, and it has added real-time, dedicated customer support through Skype chat. Skype Connect is also certified to work with SIP-enabled PBX systems from Avaya, Cisco (scsco), SIPFoundry, ShoreTel, Siemens and Freetalk, to name a few, and is also supported on older PBX gateways such as those from VoSKY, AudioCodes and Grandstream.
I’ve been out of the enterprise world for a few years now, so I’m curious: who’s ready for Skype to become the corporate phone system? And is anyone else thinking of how the mobile-empowered workforce might benefit from true Skype integration on enterprise handets?
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Report: The Enterprise Videoconference Lanscape, 2010 – 2015
Google could soon launch a voice-calling feature within Google Chat that resembles the user interface used in Google Voice.
(Credit:
CNET)
Google could be ready to turn Gmail into a communications hub by adding the ability to make phone calls from the Google Chat interface. CNET has learned that Google is testing a Web-based service within Gmail that will allow users to place phone calls from their in-boxes. It's launched from the Google Chat window on the lower left-hand side of a Gmail page and allows users to place and receive calls from within their contacts through a user interface that strongly resembles the one used in Google Voice. Google has been edging in this direction for some time. Google Talk was released years ago as a VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) desktop client, and it has also spent a lot of time and money evangelizing Google Voice, a service that transcribes voice mails and allows users to have one phone number that rings multiple phones.
The call history screen on Google's new Web-based voice calling application.
(Credit:
CNET)
But a Web-based VOIP client--which is what the new service appears to be--is another matter entirely. This is the likely culmination of Google's work to integrate Gizmo5's similar product, which it acquired late last year, into its arsenal. Hints that such a service was coming first surfaced in June on the Google Operating System blog, which is not affiliated with Google. It's not clear if Google Voice will be changing, or whether this new service is a completely separate offering. The user interfaces appear the same--for example, the same icons are used to label missed calls or placed calls--but Google Voice is not a VoIP service. Users of the new chat/phone call service aren't required to have a Google Voice account, and calls placed to U.S. or Canadian numbers will be free, with discounts on international calls as compared to standard rates. Skype is the obvious target of such an application, but there are lots of companies that make both desktop-based and Web-based VoIP clients. "Google is always testing new features and products, but we have nothing specific to announce right now," a Google representative said.
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By Staska on 02 Jun 11
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