Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com
Spotted in the wild: Cisco’s new IP Set Top Box for AT&T’s U-verse.
I happened to be meandering in an AT&T store in San Antonio and spotted this display.
It’s bird. It’s a plane. No, it’s a Cisco IPT V set top box for AT&T’s U-verse offering.
Source: www.voip-news.com
Bye-bye, Cisco! It’s been a good run. But it’s time to go . . .
The Cisco VoIP system installed in Oakland, California, in 2003 has been removed. In its place is a new ShoreTel system. The unified communications system isn’t used by the Emergency 911 system there though.
Check out a video about the swap at Network World.
Source: www.voip-news.com
Vulnerabilities? What vulnerabilities?
That would have been the easy response for Avaya and Cisco when they were faced with a report exposing problems with their VoIP systems. But they didn’t. Instead, the company is facing them head-on, or seems to be.
According to Network World:
Avaya says it knows about the problems and is issuing advisories to customers and providing service-pack updates that address some of them. “Ongoing updates and service packs addressing this will continue to be made accessible on our support site,” an Avaya spokesman says.
Cisco is releasing software updates that address the vulnerabilities at no extra charge for customers with service contracts Nortel did not respond to questions about their response to the VoIPshield warnings.
Brava.
Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com
No, I am not doing 3G iPhone coverage today. There’s lot of other sites like Gizmodo or Engadget where you can get what you need there.
Since this is an AT&T focused blog, and and the big news today was about the 3G iPhone, I thought it was be best and most productive to talk about the importance of 3G, what it means, and where it’s going.
Blogger, Robert Scoble, did an on the street interview with John Donovan, CTO of AT&T. John is in charge of the AT&T research labs, network deployment- all the technology that gets out there. In the new position, Donovan is responsible for managing the company’s global technology direction and innovation road map, including product development, network and engineering operations. The AT&T Labs and the security and intellectual property organizations is also in his set of responsibilities.
John focused on AT&T’s plans for 3G. In the video, he talk about the eventual deployment of 350 cities, the concept of filling in the footprint from within, and the scalability of 3G.
John’s broader message was pretty simple: the more bandwidth you deploy, the more people will use it and use it in more places, hence the need for increased mobility applications.
Source: www.theregister.co.uk
Tesco has started extending its VoIP service, Tesco Internet Phone, onto mobiles, offering Wi-Fi capable handsets the chance to make free calls to other Tesco customers.
Tesco’s existing service is a pretty-standard VoIP operation, and is handled by Freshtel, the Australian VoIP specialist with a PC client. Freshtel are also providing the S60 client for the mobile version.
Putting VoIP onto a S60 phone isn’t hard - the handsets generally come with a SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) stack so the downloaded application is generally more about getting the right settings onto the phone than enabling it to use VoIP (though it may also provide branding and other capabilities).
Tesco are limiting the trial to four Nokia handsets, the N95, N81, E65 and E51, none of which are available to customers of Tesco Mobile as the MVNO is aimed at the lower end of the market. One of the problems with mobile VoIP is that those most interested in saving pennies on their phone calls don’t tend to have Wi-Fi-enabled handsets.
One feature Tesco can offer is close integration with the mobile network, so the existing mobile phone number can be used with the VoIP service, in contrast to other systems which require a separate number to be issued.
Mobile VoIP works great, when connected to Wi-Fi, but it’s becoming increasingly complicated for the user to decide which network to use. Having VoIP integrated in the handset, as on the S60 platform, makes things easier as simply hitting the green key connects over VoIP if it’s available. But with separate providers and bundled packages, using VoIP might not always be the cheapest option.
Having a single provider of both services makes a lot more sense, and hopefully that’s what Tesco, and Freshtel, will be able to offer once they complete their trials. ®
Source: andyabramson.blogs.com
I happen to always enjoy reading Ike Elliott’s analysis of companies in the VoIP space that are publicly traded. God does his microscopic analysis remind me of what we used to see from James Enck before he ran off from being simply watched by the Japanese for every move he made with the EuroTelcoBlog to greener pastures with a hedge fund where he’s been bound and gaged to the outside world.
Well no matter. For James’ silence has led to a gap that Ike does his best to fill. His analysis of Vonage is absolutely hilarious, but not because he’s wrong, but because he’s so right on and it reinforces one of my "I Told You So’s" from years past.
Vonage’s churn numbers are high, but in best guess form, I don’t think include two other types of user churn.
1) Involuntary–that’s the user who goes deadbeat, doesn’t pay and gets cancelled.
2) The 30 day trial user who cancels.
But go beyond my speculation and note how Ike nails the Vonage team to the wall by saying elaborating on their marketing spend per user and how long it takes to "pay back." Now factor in that I used to say seven years, so Vonage has brought costs down and increased retention a tad. Whoopee….
Here’s a tip for the CFO at Vonage. You can’t make money if you never break even on a customer. And you can’t make money if they don’t stick around.
Vonage is suffering from two big problems, high cost of acquisition of customers, and limited user retention. So, how do they solve it? Ah….
1) Improve customer service. Let’s face it, as bad as the other guys are, cable MSO’s and Telcos are very responsive compared to Vonage. Pull the outsourced team back home. Create a more "customer friendly" approach.
2) Ditch the "if you leave us it will cost you money." Nothing hurts more than when someone liked you service but for whatever reason chose to cancel. Don’t charge them for that. Let them leave on a high note and THANK THEM for having been your customer. Oh, and just try to take your number with you. Horror stories about about Local Number Portability going FROM Vonage, unless you’re me, who took it away before I cancelled.
3) Improve the experience–Right now Vonage dumps calls over the public Internet. There’s not real QoS from the time the call leaves the house until it hits their gateway in, and none when it leaves to go to where the call terminates.
4) Add some features that matter. Look over this list and you’ll see not much new, other than four "Alpha" features being deployed. Anonymous number. Jingle, Jangl. No one really wants it. Softphne. Yeah, but it means a second line charge (or did when I was a subscriber). Vonage Fax-okay…so you can send a fax, but what about receiving? Shhsh…Webley/CommuniKate has had that for 10 years or more.
This list could go on and on…you see, at Vonage, it’s all about customer acquisition in their direct marketing model. They do that VERY WELL, but keeping the customer as Ike points out, that’s another story. Or maybe, the story the public really needs to know.
Source: andyabramson.blogs.com
Have you looked at the price of Cisco’s Personal Telepresence that was announced today?
$33,900 USD per seat
That’s 22 years worth of SightSpeed For Business for a ten (10) seat pack.
Granted SightSpeed is my agency’s client, but let’s get real and think about value and the budget. For every $33,900 a company can have hundreds of people inside the company using SightSpeed in the work place versus one glamour puss (CEO). Of course the IT director won’t get fired for buying Cisco, but if they tried SightSpeed to see how much use the video conferencing solution really receives they can quickly do some back of the napkin math to determine need and value to the company.
Oh. And here’s one more point. SightSpeed keeps getting better and improving what they do. All I’m seeing is that Cisco is carving up their Telepresence technology, as it drops down in price.
One has to really wonder if there’s that much difference in IP communications that’s worth an almost 300x investment when prices of technology always drop with each next generation of release. For me, the cost of Telepresence just don’t make sense (and I’m a Cisco shareholder and fan) given the ease of use, and low cost of a high quality service like SightSpeed already being on the market, plus having an award winning and proven track record clearly makes it a more than worthy option to consider.
Candidly, if I was the CFO of a company thinking of making the Telepresence investment, I’d at least want to SEE the comparison between the two with my own eyes before forking over $33,900 dollars for ONE SEAT versus $19.99 a month per seat.
Source: andyabramson.blogs.com
The other day Jonathan Greene posted about the lousy performance when it came to Broadband that he had at the Hotel Monaco in Seattle. The Monaco, like the Palomar here in San Francisco where I am for the week are both Kimpton Hotels and have a long tradition of catering to technology types on the road.
In the past I’ve always had a better than average experience at the Kimpton Hotel properties when it comes to broadband, but today, on the eve of Java One, my experience is nothing less than disappointing.
First I couldn’t log on, as the auto sign on said I wasn’t the guest in the room I was listing (wrong) and then it went on to say there wasn’t a credit card on file (wrong again as I already had checked in.) That required a call to support from ElevenWireless, the company which handles the connectivity.
After I was on, I realized the support person didn’t give me the service I was trying to activate, the more expensive ($4.95 vs. Free) service that promises higher speeds and better throughput vs. the free service.
Here’s what I found out:
Free service gave me 300 k down, and 150 k up. That’s not really broadband.
The paid service is giving me between 330k and 500k down and between 150 and 500 k up over a series of tests.
As JG says, "sorry. This isn’t broadband."
Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com
AT&T, Microsoft Corp., HTC Corp. and I-play have announced the creation of the AT&T Game Development Contest for Windows Mobile to discover the next breakthrough mobile game.
Windows Mobile games represent the fastest-growing segment of the AT&T gaming business. The AT&T Game Development Contest, launching May 1, is truly unique as it represents the first time all members of the mobile gaming ecosystem are collaborating in an effort to inspire the developer community to take mobile gaming applications to the next level.
In a May 2007 research report, Gartner Inc. forecast worldwide mobile gaming end-user revenue to reach $9.6 billion in 2011 — up significantly from the $2.9 billion realized in 2006. Gartner attributes this projected growth in mobile gaming to consumer awareness and the increase in content being developed by gaming publishers. AT&T, which has the broadest portfolio of Windows Mobile phones of any U.S. carrier, currently offers more than 2,300 on-deck mobile games and is always evaluating innovative and entertaining gaming options to offer its 71 million-plus mobile customers.
Wanna Play? Here’s All You Do:
AT&T makes it simple for its millions of customers to discover, shop and play games directly from their phones:
Gaming developers can fill out the online entry form to submit their Windows Mobile compatible game. All game entries submitted during the next three months will be reviewed and judged based on the following criteria: game-play value and quality, game uniqueness and creativity, and marketplace potential. One grand-prize winner will receive a mobile game developer contract with I-play, prime placement of the finished game on the game portal on AT&T MEdia Mall and a cash prize of $25,000.
Prizes will also be awarded to three finalists and 10 semifinalists. For complete contest details, contest entry and prize structure, visit http://developer.att.com/gamescontest. The deadline to submit an entry is July 31, 2008. The winner will be announced at CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2008 in San Francisco.
Source: andyabramson.blogs.com
Let’s face it. This is nothing new. For years one of Cisco’s channel partners has been SBC, Bell South and other now AT&T owned companies, working on the front lines as integrators as far back as at least 2001. AT&T has also been one of Cisco’s best customers, buying lots of routers. The big honking types that make it possible for all the traffic that is IP to work very smoothly.
So the latest "marketing" hook up, to sell Telepresence to the corporate market, by the two giants working together.
It’s a triple win all around if the customers buy. I predict they will. Here’s why:
1) Bandwidth will go to more places now via AT&T and their carrier partners who will insure enough pipe to make an endpoint work
2) Video conferencing technology is at a point where its no longer the fuzzy picture. It works. Look at the in room like quality of SightSpeed (client), the portable video on the Nokia N810 and yes even Skype has achieved to see just how good laptop video is. Now add in the kind of processors that Cisco’s Telepresence delivers, some fat pipe from AT&T that’s being managed from end to end and you get an experience, not simply a picture.
3) The Green Movement-nothing will propel more adoption of video conferencing than the environmental issues other than one more tied to it factor. Gas and travel. These are lynch pins to driving the acceptance.
Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com
While my focus of this blog has been on IPTV, I am starting to write and cover
stories about wireless.
I happened to be driving in between my home
and my office, stopped at the Starbucks in my neighborhood, got a cup
of Java and saw the AT&T crew there.
I knew that AT&T and Starbucks had announced the switch from
T-Mobile to AT&T, so putting 1 + 1 together, I ran to my office,
got my computer, logged on, got on the AT&T (and not the T-Mobile
network), blogged, sent some pitches out via email, and…..it just
struck a chord.
I am going to start melding AT&T / Starbucks / Apple into my
editorial mix. Oh- yes, still do IPTV. Once whole home DVR is real
its yet another ball game. And once I get U-verse Voice, then I have
an all IP home. There is plenty to do and more fun to come.
Breaking coverage included sites such as:
MacWorld (Glen Fleishman’s syndicated story)
PC World (Glen Fleishman’s syndicated story)
RV Internet (a news site for people who live in RVs, or are always on the road and need Internet access)
San Antonio Express News (where AT&T is headquartered)
Seattle Post Intelligencer (where Starbucks is headquartered)
Starbucks Gossip (yes, there really is a site by this name)
Washington Post (Glen Fleishman’s syndicated story)
WiFiNetNews (Glen Fleishman’s source story)
Source: andyabramson.blogs.com
This is an example of a channel program. Tandberg has a telepresence suite to compete with Cisco.
Tandberg though doesn’t have the sales channel strength of a Cisco, so they go to a company that has the field depth to compete. In their case, they went to a solid network equipment provider in Nortel.
Will this sell more for Tandberg? Likely, but I don’t see Nortel having the strength that Cisco has in the channel.
