Source: www.voip-news.com

When traveling abroad for business, it can get quite pricey to use your cell phone for international calls. But you don’t have to incur heavy fees and charges for using your phone out of your calling area. Instead, you can tap into VoIP and WiFi networks for less expensive alternatives.

Business Week had a great article on this, and how it is the wave of the future for mobile calling . . .

Here’s a snippet:

By 2011 the number of mobile VoIP users around the world may rise to 100 million from 7 million in 2007, according to ON World, a consulting firm based in San Diego. ON World estimates that in 2011, mobile VoIP voice services may generate $33.7 billion, up from $516 million in 2006, the most recent year for which the figure is available. If that sounds like a breakneck pace, consider the growth trajectory for Jajah, a provider of wireless VoIP, which had 10 million users in April—a fivefold increase in just a year.

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

I’ve used WiFi on the Heathrow Express that works with T-Mobile (and gotten the bill for it for 12 minutes of use each time) so I’m happy to see that a company called WiFi Rail is hoping to offer the same kind of service on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) here in the USA.

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

1. Select the "attwifi" network from the available wireless networks list on your laptop or wireless device.

2. Launch your browser and enter your AT&T High Speed Internet master account user and password.

Username example: jsmith@sbcglobal.net

Forgot your password? Call 1-877-288-3755

3. Now you’re ready to take care of business.

AT&T High Speed Internet service subscription includes complimentary Wi-Fi access in over 17,000 Hot Spot locations, including Starbucks with select speeds. Click here to find one near you.

Purchase or upgrade your AT&T High Speed Internet and get connected today.

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

Esme Vos and I were having coffee in San Francisco a week or so back when she revealed her idea that would solve San Francisco, and many other cities Muni WiFi woes.

Now why does this make sense versus the stupid concept of what I labeled Homeless Wireless two years or so back when Earthlink and the various cities followed some consultants lead on how to best deploy WiFi?

Simple. It works best indoors. The model Earthlink was following was great if you were:

a) On the street

b) Ten to fifteen feet inside a building

c) No Higher than the second floor of most buildings

Last time I checked, cities like San Francisco and Philadelphia were building all kinds of new office towers (have you seen the Comcast Tower in Philadelphia?) Well there’s no way the Earthlink model would have worked there.

Esme’s model, which takes into account the many arcane and "interesting" laws in San Francisco is simple. Pass a law.

Now here’s the great thing. Give the coffee shop operators an annual credit against their taxes for the cost of a 1.5 meg DSL line and a router. Let’s see, that’s about $300 a year, versus the millions it would cost to build out the system that never came to be.

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

Earthlink is bagging it in Philadelphia and wants to take their equipment home. Damn carpetbaggers. But, I recall saying at a past MuniWiFi event that given what I know about the politicians in my home town I’m not surprised at the deal that was done and the problems that are arising from it.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life it’s you can’t fight City Hall, and when you toss in telco influence on City Hall, you really can’t fight them at all, as this is the result. The telco’s have figured out how to keep City Hall on their side and despite all the good that Muni WiFi could bring, there has never really been buy in across the board.

Now here’s an interesting idea on how to do WiFi from TelAlaska. Make the local businesses supply it. Funny thing, my good friend in the industry Esme Vos had the same idea.

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

I’m sad to report that Philadelphia is losing their WiFi.

Esme Vos has the news..I’m sure there’s going to be more to the story.

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

I was picking some friends up at San Diego International Airport this past Thursday and took my Mac Book Air along as I knew they might be delayed. Having experienced their anemic speeds before in the East Terminal where SouthWest flies, and in the West Terminal when flying US Air and Jet Blue, I was expecting nothing more than at best a few hundred K speeds.

Wrong. They were blazing fast. I got speeds of over 10 megs down and close to 20 megs up, indicating that someone has taken the service offering way, way up. That’s smart, and being that’s it’s free, a very good move.

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

If you own and use an Apple iPhone there’s isn’t a Boingo Mobile client for it, but now can have free WiFi access on your iPhone in 28 airports which Boingo operates in, and get it for free.

The catch? You have to watch a 15 second ad.

As someone who uses Boingo just about everywhere, and is a true fan, it seems worth it. The ads are powered by JiWire, which wants to be the Google of mobile ad serving.

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

According to news site, MacRumors.com, AT&T is giving free WiFi access to iPhone users just by entering in your cell phone number.

I can’t substantiate this because I am already an AT&T customer on the U-verse side, so I get free WiFi by default.

See story and photo here.

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

The downloading of music at Starbucks was tested last year in a few markets. That was with T-Mobile. Then the music stopped. Market expansion stopped.

Now the rumor making the rounds is that iPhone customers can get online for free at AT&T Hotspots which will include Starbucks by year’s end.

So let’s connect the dots.

1. Apple iTunes is the platform

2. AT&T is the carrier

3. Yahoo is the ad sales agent

Yahoo and Apple are not even close to ever mentioned in the same breath. AT&T is partners for on ramp with Yahoo, though that relationship is always described as tenuous at best. But back to this model.

Yahoo has Yahoo Music, but you don’t see that being the platform (or at least not yet.) Why was that not part of the deal? Simple. AT&T is making more money via Apple long term with the iPhone, so now you add in downloads and a cut of the action, with Yahoo doing what they do better than Apple or AT&T. Sell ads.

So, imagine free music downloads, ad supported, no cost to access, but you need to be an AT&T customer with your iPhone or iPod.

Sell more ads. Sell more coffee. Sell more iPhones.

Game. Set. Match.

P.S. Who is left out of the deal? Microsoft.

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

Years ago, Joe the Beerman would lead cheers in the stands of The Spectrum, my work home for 15 years basically, when I worked in PR for both the Philadelphia Wings, and then fan development for the Philadelphia Flyers before it was called Fan Development.

Esme Vos is WiFi’s cheerleader, and yesterday she posted about what will happen in the city of Bern, Switzerland during the Football Championships this summer. WiFi for free, subsidized by a local energy company, a media company and a leading ISP. It’s part community service, part ad driven revenue and a big part, proof of concept.

It’s also a very good idea.

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

Hot on the heels of the PhoneBoy discovery about iSkoot, and all the corrective action the iSkoot team has taken, comes another interesting post.

This post, from Martin Sauter of Germany, shows that G711 VoIP over WiFi can be snagged.