Apple keeps multi-carrier MVNO idea alive with a new patent app

 By Staska on 02 Jun 11

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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

 

If you liked the post, you might find these interesting too:

• Apple is thinking about it’s own iPhone MVNO? New patent says yes.
• Nokia to become a MVNO in Japan, helped by NTT DoCoMo
• China Mobile wants both Apple’s iPad and iPhone
• Localized iTunes stores at Starbucks for iPhone needs patent?
• China Mobile launches microSIM card to lure grey market and China Unicom iPhone 4 customers

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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.

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.

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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.

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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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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.

Consider: If I suddenly decide I want to dial you up, I have no way of knowing whether you’re busy, and you have no idea why I’m calling. We have to open Schrödinger’s box every time, having a conversation to figure out whether it’s OK to have a conversation. Plus, voice calls are emotionally high-bandwidth, which is why it’s so weirdly exhausting to be interrupted by one. (We apparently find voicemail even more excruciating: Studies show that more than a fifth of all voice messages are never listened to.)

The telephone, in other words, doesn’t provide any information about status, so we are constantly interrupting one another. The other tools at our disposal are more polite. Instant messaging lets us detect whether our friends are busy without our bugging them, and texting lets us ping one another asynchronously. (Plus, we can spend more time thinking about what we want to say.) For all the hue and cry about becoming an “always on” society, we’re actually moving away from the demand that everyone be available immediately.

1) Hosted Voice
Dial tone (POTS or IP) is not the cloud because it’s basic telephony. However, hosted voice crosses over as it represents enhanced services. Frequently described as a virtual PBX, hosted voice crosses the blurry line into the cloud. Providers include companies like Simple Signal, Packet8, and good ol' Centrex from the RBOCs--they tend to use labels like SaaS, Hosted VoIP, and Hosted UC. The basic concept is a virtual telephony solution offering advanced features typically associated with a PBX, delivered as a service.

2) Cloud Applications
Using the cloud to solve for specific applications is an approach rapidly growing in appeal. An answering service or Directory Assistance are the classic outsourced telephony apps, but now it is possible to use automated cloud services for communications enabled business processes (CEBP), and doing so does not necessarily require a new phone system. Companies such as IfbyPhone, Voxeo, and Twilio offer comprehensive tools for custom or off-the-shelf communications solutions.

With this model, an organization can voice- (or SMS-) enable sophisticated and specialized applications to update databases, initiate calls, manage contest voting, update or query databases, and much more without the need to purchase specialized equipment or capacity.

"Cloudbursting" to solve for capacity spikes also falls into this category. Traditional telephony involves capacity planning around the busiest "hour" of the busiest day of the busiest week of the year. Since many cloud services use utility pricing models, it can be cost-effective to use cloud services to manage peak demand levels or even as part of a disaster recovery plan.

3) Virtual Numbers
Virtual numbers are a simple concept, but can be tricky as it’s a voice service that requires users to obtain separate voice service. Examples of virtual number services include Ringio, OpenVBX, and Google Voice. These services provide phone numbers that route (or not) to other numbers based on user defined criteria.

Virtual numbers offer a variety of enhanced services, such as the ability to ring multiple phones, and various tools of unified communications. Virtual numbers associate the features with the numbers rather than the phones or phone systems--and promote portability and mobility. The category is fairly young, but expect significant business class innovation in this area.

Unlike most cloud models, virtual number services don't rely heavily on the Internet. In fact, virtual numbers can be combined with (or replace) traditional telephone systems and/or cell phones to create a reasonably feature-rich UC solution.

4) Private Cloud
Private clouds are where ‘the cloud’ gets hazy and offensive to many cloud purists. The cloud enabling technologies are developing and gaining the interest of many CIOs--particularly in connection with virtualization. Virtualizing internal infrastructure creates a computing ‘service’ that can be adjusted and managed easier than separate dedicated servers. Organizations that deploy private clouds leverage cloud technologies to reduce costs and increase availability and retain full control.

Organizations can realize many benefits and efficiencies with private clouds--albeit not utility pricing. Avaya, Siemens, Mitel, and NEC offer voice solutions that run in virtualized environments. This is fairly cutting edge as real time applications such as telephony were not compatible with virtualization technologies until recently.

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"Nadaljevanje gospodarske krize bo tudi v letu 2010 oviralo investicije v IT, vendar bodo težnje po zmanjšanju stroškov na račun prednosti novih in alternativnih rešitev IT pripomogle k rasti nekaterih segmentov IT. Priča smo transformaciji tržišča storitev IT kot celotnega trga IT, ki jo je kriza le še pospešila," je ugotovitve raziskave komentirala Katarina Rojko, višja analitičarka pri IDC. Največji udarec so namreč lani utrpele projektne storitve IT in manj podporne, medtem ko je segment zunanjega izvajanja rastel.

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When your carpet calls your doctor

The coming convergence of wireless communications, social networking and medicine will transform health care

Apr 8th 2010 | NEW YORK | From The Economist print edition

IS IT possible that amid all the hoopla about Apple’s iPad, one potential use has been overlooked? Larry Nathanson, head of emergency-medicine “informatics” at one of Harvard Medical School’s hospitals, has experimented with using the device in the casualty ward. He writes that “initial tests with our clinical applications went amazingly well…the EKGs look better onscreen than on paper. It was great having all of the clinical information right at the bedside to discuss with the patient.”

Dr Nathanson’s enthusiasm hints at the potential of wireless gadgets to improve health care, and to ensure more personalised treatment in particular. Pundits have long predicted that advances in genetics will usher in a golden age of individually tailored therapies. But in fact it is much lower-tech wireless devices and internet-based health software that are precipitating the mass customisation of health care, and creating entirely new business models in the process.

Wireless health is “becoming omnipresent” in hospitals, according to Kalorama Information, a market-research firm; it estimates that the market for such devices and services in America alone will grow from $2.7 billion in 2007 to $9.6 billion in 2012. Don Jones of Qualcomm, a maker of networking technology, argues that the trend speeds diagnosis and treatment, and saves doctors’ and nurses’ time. GE, an industrial giant, and Sprint, an American mobile operator, have joined forces to offer hospitals such services. GE’s Carescape software allows the secure monitoring of patients’ health via mobile phones, as does rival software from Airstrip.

Doctors are an obvious early target for wireless health. A forthcoming report by the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF), a think tank, estimates that two-thirds of American physicians already have smart-phones. Over one-third of American doctors use Epocrates, a program for mobiles and laptops which offers instant information on drug-to-drug interactions, treatment recommendations and so on. The software will soon be able to access electronic health records (EHRs) via mobiles—which the author of the CHCF’s report thinks could be “the killer application” of wireless health.

The hope is that nimble new technologies, from smart-phones to EHRs to health-monitoring devices, will empower patients and doctors, and thus improve outcomes while cutting costs. The near ubiquity of mobile phones is the chief reason to think this optimistic scenario may come true. Patients with fancy smart-phones can certainly benefit from interactive “wellness” applications that track diet, exercise and vital signs. Apple’s App Store, for example, offers thousands of health-related applications. Jitterbug, an American mobile operator that offers easy-to-use phones for the elderly, recently added more health services; rival mobile carriers are doing much the same.

But Carolyn Buck-Luce of Ernst & Young, a consultancy, points out that “mHealth” is transforming health care in poor countries as well as rich ones. Medicall Home, a Mexican outfit that provides medical consultations by mobile, already has millions of customers. Paul Meyer of Voxiva, an American technology firm that has set up mHealth systems in Rwanda and Peru, among other places, says that such schemes have been so successful in the developing world that they are now being adopted in the rich world too. His firm has helped the American government with its recent launch of Text4Baby, a public-health campaign to educate pregnant mothers (they receive free text messages with medical advice) that will soon become the biggest such effort in the world.

What is more, mobile phones are but one part of a broader wireless trend in health care that McKinsey, a consultancy, estimates may soon be worth up to $60 billion globally. Many companies are coming up with “home health” devices embedded with wireless technology. Some are overtly clinical in nature: Medtronic, a devices giant, is developing a bedside monitor that wirelessly tracks the blood sugar levels in diabetic children sleeping nearby. GE has come up with “body sensor networks”, tiny wireless devices that track the vital signs of those who wear them.

The most successful gadgets may be, as Eric Dishman of Intel puts it, “surreptitious”. His firm, a big chipmaker, is investing in devices to track the health of the elderly, such as “magic carpets” that sense erratic movements and thus can predict a fall. Continua, an industry coalition, is developing shared standards so that blood-pressure monitors and scales can wirelessly transfer readings to doctors’ offices or personal EHR services like Google Health.

All these devices and services do not just allow doctors to make more accurate diagnoses, prescribe more effective treatments and keep better track of patients’ conditions. They also allow health services to tailor treatments depending on patients’ personal preferences and behavioural foibles. Studies show, for example, that although some patients with chronic conditions are fastidious about taking pills or insulin properly, others are careless or forgetful. Some prefer efficient electronic reminders, whereas others respond best when a nurse calls home. A global consumer survey released on April 6th by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), a consultancy, finds that the elderly prefer high-quality care with lots of personal attention, whereas younger types prefer low-cost care and wellness schemes.

Many health systems, PWC’s accompanying report finds, are beginning to divide customers into different categories and customise treatments accordingly. For example, Discovery Health, a South African insurer, uses a variety of different methods to get patients with chronic diseases to follow through on their treatments, from text messages reminding them to take their pills to rewards for good behaviour.

A similar scheme run by HealthMedia, a wellness firm owned by Johnson & Johnson, a big drugs firm, uses online tools (it calls them “digital health coaches”) to help patients manage diabetes and lose weight. Its studies suggest that half of the digitally coached do lose weight, and the improved health of those with chronic conditions is worth $1,000 a year to their employers.

Virgin HealthMiles, an American rival, has taken the same idea a step further, using online social networks, through which co-workers or family members can cheer on or nag patients electronically, in order to encourage exercise or weight loss. Patients seem to like this kind of thing: one patient who suffers from ulcerative colitis, for example, has created a forum for fellow sufferers that can be accessed through an iPhone application.

All these initiatives are particularly promising because they help bring about behavioural change, normally the hardest element of any treatment. Patients often ignore doctors’ lectures, but are more inclined to listen to supportive friends and family. By the same token, doctors and nurses are not always on hand to encourage healthy behaviour, but mobile phones and other wireless gadgets can be. That is something that even personalised genetic therapies could not offer.