Working Anywhere

Banks And The International Business Traveler

I have just spent the better part of ninety minutes contacting a series of financial institutions to notify them that I'll be out of the country for the next week on business. This is an exercise that I do each and every trip and it's getting OLD.

Wells Fargo takes the cake for the most technology lagging of the bunch. This wasn't a surprise, but their CTO is too chicken to talk to a customer despite requests from my private banker and even a request via their PR team to hear how things can be made easier for everyone. Why? They have over 90 products spread across some 15 or more platforms, and as a business and personal customer, and one who uses a number of their services, I need to notify multiple departments (or have my private banker handle it) each time I leave the USA because as of the 1st of the year, a blanket notification stopped being any good for them. Once I made a payment to a vendor from Madrid, then another from Valencia and Wells Fargo FROZE my access for over 24 hours....and the excuse was "our departments are different" even though they had been notified, but only one department.

Next was Bank of America. It seems their systems were down for weekly maintenance (have they heard of redundancy in the banking world?) and as of six months ago, paper and pencil were banned for security reasons, so that card is not going to get used until I have a word with them tomorrow (like I have nothing better to do on a business trip.)

On the other hand, AMEX was a breeze, telling me that as a valued cardmember of many years my profile is such that their security features can detect the patterns and I'm all set. WOW...

Here's the rub. The banks all have online systems, yet not a one has an International Travel Notification engine. To me, and I bet any other global business person that's an easy notification system, the same way services like Do Not Disturb work with Google Voice and CallVantage or a service like AwayFind handles your notifications by email.

It's just technology and security has to stop being the excuse for not doing things that are for the convenience of the customer and the overall business.

Meraki Sponsors WiFi Access At San Francisco City Hall Chambers

In what should NOT be considered "Free" WiFi, Meraki, the makers of a lightweight mesh networking platform, have sponsored the deployment of WiFi inside San Francisco's City Hall, reports MuniWireless.com

To me there is a huge difference between "free" and "sponsored" even if the general public perceives it to be "free." The rationales are quite simple as the sponsored model in this case is the same as a park's beautification being underwritten by a benefactor. If the benefactor says no more, the ongoing beautification of the park stops until a new one can be found.

In the case of San Francisco, the city won't be subsidizing the WiFi anytime soon, so Meraki stepped in and in a very self serving (in a good way) developed a plan to bring greater attention to the merits and benefits of WiFi.

Well done by all, and hat tip to Esme Vos for drawing attention to this.

It's Not So Clear Anymore

The fast pass program known as Clear has had its bubble burst. As Om points out in his post, the service has gone away and in my mind it traveled much the same way as Metricom's Ricochet, a service that was also ahead of its time.

As a true road warrior (I spent less than 50 nights in my own bed in 2008) who has traversed many an airport security line, the "cut in line" offering from Clear was nothing more than a time saver. Unfortunately, for most, that wasn't enough to shell out $120 or so.

I'll miss it, because my time in airports is an extension of my work life. I tend to get to the airport earlier now than before. Not because of lines, but because of airport WiFi or the ability to use a 3G card. Finding a nice place to work, a comfortable chair like what Southwest offers, knowing I'll have in-flight WiFi on a Virgin or American Airlines flight, the use of an airport lounge with Continental, American or Virgin Atlantic or Open Skies are all part of my time planning process.

Working in virtual meet up calls, and knowing I would absolutely be past security, nestled comfortably on a floor somewhere, having a call using client Truphone or Skype or a conference call via client HiDef Conferencing were all more predictable because I could plan the time better to get through the line. What's more, as I pointed out in a comment on Om's blog, I could more easily catch an earlier flight if I arrived earlier, as in many cases SouthWest had flights almost every hour or so to San Diego from San Jose.

At the end of the day, the Clear program benefits to road warriors was clear. It gave us all more time to do more things we need to accomplish, and had greater positive economic impact on airports than the airports or the FAA/TSA could ever see clearly.

My guess is a more government based program, using the same approach won't be far off as the road warrior, frequent flier, is keeping the airports in business, not the once a year flier.

3G GSM MiFi Hits the Retail Channel

I'm a fan of the Novatel Wireless MiFi, but now are even more excited about the possibilities, as the GSM version is now available.

This video shows just what it can do.

With an unlocked one of these and prepaid data, you can wander the world and stay connected.

Technology Observations by One On The Go

Unlike McDonalds in the USA, McDonalds in France offers FREE WiFi.

They also offer better food. Fresher tasting, more garlicky fries and people who even speak English. Yes, the young person behind the counter spoke English as well as any American. That's saying something. At the McDonalds in the USA they have a hard time understanding Philadelphian or even San Diegan.

But back to the WiFi. Easy log on. Dual language navigation, offered in both French and English and a very quick and snappy logon process. Just agree to the terms and conditions and your on.

Then again, the French parking payment machines make the Sacramento Amytrak Station Parking Payment system look like something draconian. Get your ticket on the way in. Insert on the way out. Put in your credit card. Leave. And, you don't even have to read French to follow the instructions.

Bottom line, I'm still finding that while Europe tends to lag behind in when a technology is deployed, they catch up fast and quickly surpass the USA in deployment, ease of use and making something affordable.

P.S. Orange's Internet Everywhere rocks. Rapid connection. Pay as you go. Now if I can only find something like it in Spain where I'll be for the next five days, at Mobile 2.0 and then celebrating what will be the third birthday of the week with a dear friend in Madrid.

Devicescape Makes Printing Easy, Brother

Devicescape, best known for Easy WiFi, the app that makes connecting to multiple hotspot networks including Boingo, T-Mobile and if you can find one, even FON hotspots, has expanded into the connectivity to printers in a deal with Brother.

Voice Tools Summarized by The Wall Street Journal

I'd be remiss if I didn't draw attention to the story in yesterday's Wall Street Journal Online entitled One Home For Your Voice Mail.

The story led off with Google Voice, aka the service formerly knows as GrandCentral started by former clients and very good friends Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet, which remains in a very tightly controlled Google Beta. It also included GotVoice, You Mail and PhoneTag, another company run by a good friend, James Siminoff, which many may know of as Simulscribe as well as UK export, Spinvox.

The key to these services is less clutter and less diffusion with regard to your voice mail, but of the services only Google Voice goes beyond taking and transcribing the message, in really making the attempt to eliminate voice mail all together. The service tries to find you first if you want to be found.

How well does it work? Take this real world example.

I'm in London. Someone calls my USA 858 area code number or my UK number. Both point/are forwarded to Google Voice. One of my destination settings is my USA Truphone number (a 415 area code number). Google Voice routes the call to Truphone which when I'm not on WiFi forwards the call to whichever SIM happens to be inside my Nokia E71 at the time, wherever in the world I may be. Net net, I paid nothing for that international transport of the call.

To be transparent, Google Voice/GrandCentral + Truphone. Both are currently or have been agency clients, and both solve the problem of staying in touch and easily being connected.

Clearwire Gambles on Las Vegas

Mobile WiMax operator Clearwire has quietly begun offering service in Las Vegas.

Me and My Verizon MiFi

I'll admit, I'm a gadget guy, and the kind of person who just has to have the latest and greatest, then push the limits of it to the nth degree immediately upon purchase. I did that once with my Nissan 300zx back in 1995 when I bought my Z, getting to the 350 mile mark in one weekend, then taking it to the wide open highways near Banning and Palm Desert and letting the engine and turbo chargers do their thing.

Yesterday I went to the Verizon Wireless store and bought one of the new Novatel Wireless' MiFi mobile hotspot in your pocket that delivers broadband everywhere you go. Before I even left the store (and after a fast installation and activation, as well as update to Verizon's new Broadband Access 7.0 software on my Asus EEE PC 1008HA) I was up and running and making phone calls. That's right. I did a fast test right inside the Verizon Wireless store and used a T-Mobile UMA based Blackberry Curve to call first my Google Voice account, then to call a friend. Both calls sounded great.

Since Helene's flight to San Diego was delayed by heavy fog and overcast skies, I used the extra time to try out the device as I sat in the Cell Phone waiting lot by Lindbergh Field and made a few more calls. Before trying any of the calls I disabled the mobile network connectivity to T-Mobile, latched on to the hotspot and saw the WiFi and UMA indicators light up. Calls. Email, IM's and even Blackberry messenger all worked fine.

Once I got home I made a few Truphone and Skype calls using my Apple iPhone and iPod touch. All worked but had variable results, making me think that location and where you are in relation to the cell tower, how much traffic is going on at that time on the data network will have impact. One call was great, the next choppy. Still though, for $59.99 having an alternative way to call with an iPod Touch and Truphone's unlimited calling as a way to listen in on Conference Calls or via Skype to do the same and be on the beach without a cell phone is a pretty neat trick.

I'll be putting the MiFi through it's paces today with my Nokia E71 and will update my first day's experience then, but for now this is an amazing device to have if you need to share Internet access with up to 5 people. It runs on battery power, can be recharged via USB from a PC and easily fits in your pocket. Sprint is also releasing a similar unit this week.

AT&T To Expand Netbook Deals

AT&T is bullish on the netbooks. So bullish that they and the manufacturers are taking very aggressive pricing to the streets with the opportunity to buy in for $50.00, and a multi-year contract.

As someone who has the Acer Aspire One and the AT&T data service inside of it, I can attest to how snappy it is and how well it works as a light duty PC.

Does it rival the MacBook Air and a 3G card? No. But what it does do for people like me is give me something beyond a smartphone which lets me work on more complex tasks than simply emails and some lightweight apps.

The bottom line is, this sale price helps get more contracts in house which further justifies AT&T's expenditure of some 11 billion dollars to upgrade the network.

Rich Tehrani "Gets" Airborne WiFi

I've been busy playing catchup on my blog reading after what amounts to almost a full week of being in conferences and meetings in San Francisco.

The long weekend gave me time to catch up with Rich Tehrani's post about his WiFi experience on Virgin America, one I'll be having this week as I'm off to NYC for two days of meetings. It seems Rich (who may travel more than I do) had a similar feeling of enjoyment as he described the GoGo WiFi experience as "awesome."

My view is simply this. I chose to fly Virgin America this week out of Los Angeles vs. American Airlines out of San Diego for the WiFi. Getting work done on a five hour flight vs. getting off the plane during a compacted, holiday weekend led off week makes the drive to LAX worth it. What's more Virgin's All WiFi fleet vs. the Russian Roulette approach of American, United and Delta out of LAX regarding WiFi makes it a better choice out of the gate. That plus the ability to pick my seat, something American reserves only for the higher rated Frequent Fliers.

Yes, when it comes to air travel I'm picky. And when it comes to in flight WiFi, it helps me decide which airlines to pick.

Hotel WiFi Access In New York Times

The New York Times Practical Traveler today has a feature on the price of staying connected that focuses on hotel WiFi and its pricing and various consumer and industry expert reactions, but it only tells part of the story, as it focused mostly on pricing.

There are four types of traveler using hotel broadband:

1) Vacation and Leisure

2) Kids and Teens

3) Travel Industry Professionals (airline, cruiseline, etc.)

4) Business Traveler

For the vacation traveler connecting to get information, light use will more and more translate to wanting free or almost free access. They'll use it to check email, stay in touch with friends, possibly upload photos, surf the web for information or to check flight schedules. Their bandwidth consumption is light.

Kids and teens use the Internet to stay in touch with their friends via Instant Messaging, check email and possibly download music or videos. Unless they're never leaving the room or hotel, their usage is moderate.

The travel industry professional will use the Internet to manage their activities, stay in touch with colleagues, make changes to travel plans, surf for local information, and likely is a moderate to heavy user of email. Their usage is moderate to light heavy.

The business traveler is the heavy user. They need to "stay connected" and the room is their office on the go. Downloading and uploading of large files, heavy email usage, Instant Messaging, voice calls, conference calling are all a part of their day (and night) and they require not only solid speeds, but a reliable connection.

As someone who falls into category 4, the business traveler, I'm not opposed to paying for quality bandwidth and connectivity. But, I want the option of both Wired and Wireless connectivity. For example, in my hotel apartment this week in London at the Metropolitan the wireless coverage goes from fair to poor depending where in the spacious and comfortable two bedroom apartment I'm located. Speeds were inconsistent and latency was high. I opted to switch to my own travel router and their wired connection and speeds went way up, latency went to near zero and the experience was like being in an office.

Too many properties fail in the last ten feet. For hotels and resorts, its not the amount of bandwidth that should be the only concern, nor how they charge for it. At the end of the day, it's the way the guest connects and how that makes the experience. If I used my wireless experience as the gauge here at the Metropolitan, I'd never stay here again. But using my Wired experience as the benchmark, and I know I'll return. It's the same way in most hotels I stay at. The wired connection usually blows away WiFi.

My advice. Carry a travel router and a spare ethernet cable.

Mail Anywhere

We've all become accustomed to getting our email anywhere we can find an Internet connection, but what about all that hard copy mail we receive?

Well thanks to Geared Travel I learned about "Earth Class Mail" a service that works a lot like PayTrust does for your bill.

Set up seems to be easy. You sign up, get your account and are provided a customer specific address that you start using as your meatspace address. (Ironically, this is exactly the kind of service I've always felt that UPS stores should set up, as well as Regus/HQ locations should offer.) The service center collects your mail, scans it down and then emails it to you. You also have access to each "envelope" that arrived and can archive or shred them as you see fit.

I currently have this done by my office, but if I was back to being a solo practitioner, services like Earth Class Mail and Paytrust would be very meaningful to me so I can continue to be working anywhere.

Arrived OK? Not Yet Landed In the USA

A very imaginative service has been developed called ArrivedOK and is in beta in many parts of the world, except the USA.

As a global nomad this kind of service is ideal for me, especially with my family and colleagues. I regularly text the word "landed" when I touch down using either SMS or the built in Blackberry Messenger to those on my Messenger Buddy List internally.

The service, which comes from a Texas company is awaiting USA carrier approval for a short code certificate, but when they get that, I imagine the service will be very useful to the frequent flier types who have to be working anywhere at any time. From my perspective, ArrivedOk will cut down on a task that for some can be time consuming or just challenging. They smartly have also included email as a notification mechanism.

Telefonica Gives Unemployed Subscribers a Break

Here's one for the USA carriers to consider. Over in Spain, mobile operator Telefonica is providing the unemployed a break on their mobile phone bills.

This is a great way to keep people on the network, versus losing them. It also helps keep their revenue constant, the carrier doesn't lose a telephone number, or the customer, plus the customer, who is likely job hunting, doesn't have a break in their ability to be reached.

I have to wonder which USA carrier will mirror this idea with unemployment reaching high levels these days due to the economy. In theory, AT&T should jump at this, but I suspect a more nimble player like Cricket or Metro PCS will be the first to make a similar offer.

EasyMeet Can't Come Soon Enough

It may only be in prototype stage, but the idea of Nokia's EasyMeet is something that is perfect for the wireless mobile worker of the future.

Wireless Moves has the details, to the concept that sounds much like Pronto from iotum, a proof of concept play that Alec Saunders introduced at DEMO a few years back that led to iotum winning a DEMO God Award.

If you watch the Easymeet Demo video, you'll see lot of similarity between the EasyMeet concept and iotum's Calliflower service which is already available today.

You can also try the beta version of easymeet online as well. The big difference is Easymeet is combining the Nokia devices and services platform, while also making the invitation media rich, while Calliflower is making the experience richer during and after the call.

T-Mobile 3G USB Stick-First Impressions

My first thoughts about T-Mobile's 3G card for USA are ... this.

1) No Mac support yet. But it is coming they promise.

2) Coverage area-very spotty so far, at least in San Diego County

3) Easy to install software for PCs. Installed quickly and fired up without issue on my Asus 1000HE Netbook. The software comes pre-loaded on the USB sitck.

Small, light. Made by Huawai, so the software for Macs won't be hard to write, as already 3 in the UK has that up and being offered.

More to come..

My New Verizon Mobile Broadband Modem is Business Grade

It's been two years or so and my love affair with the AT&T 3G network is waning. Until the 7 billion dollar network upgrade happens, those of us on the west coast California market will have to make due with the hope and prayer that that the iPhone carry crowd doesn't always bog down our uploads when we're conducting business on our AT&T powered Netbooks that one can buy at Radio Shack for $99.00 plus a data plan commitment.

When I'm in markets outside of the congestion packed LA, San Diego and San Francisco-San Jose regions the speeds are usually where they are supposed to be, like 1.5 megs down and roughly 500-700k up in Tulsa, Oklahoma when sitting at the gate for my Southwest flight to take off. But the inconsistent nature of the congestion and the two year renewal and opportunity to buy a new Aircard from Verizon for two of my accounts came around so we grabbed a couple of the newest offerings in CDMA 3G. I'm not sorry.

This week I ran a series of tests with the new card. The one that was the most impressive was a 30 minute packet loss free video call over Skype with a colleague on the Comcast network in San Francisco and another one the next day with webcasting colleague on KenRadio, Ken Rutkowski. On the Mac Book Pro and Mac Book Air the video was sharp and crisp. No wavering. The audio was pristine. Clear and without dropouts.

On my Netbooks, the audio experience was perfect, but the video was choppy.

Bottom line is given how much I travel, the Verizon card is now an essential part of my road warrior kit. Sure I'll still have AT&T and Sprint gear handy (I use the Sprint Card with a CradlePoint Router to share connections) but what I'm seeing from Verizon Wireless right now tells me their wireless broadband network is ready for business.

New Apple Wireless Gear Is Very Very VoIP Friendly

I've been using the newest versions of the Apple Time Capsule and Airport Extreme Wireless network devices for about a week now, and all I can say is WOW.

The experience once I cured a slight misconfiguration issue with my ISP (seems if you install as DHCP and connect to the Cox network the MAC address is registered) and that makes it impossible to switch to static without the help of support. Once that was solved the network showed blazing fast speeds. How fast? This fast.

34 megs down/5 megs plus up. On DOCSIS 2.0. I can hardly wait for 3.0.

This is an example of a network in my house that was rebuilt to be business grade. We had a network installed put in all new CAT 5 and CAT 6 as well as new electrical outlets (all grounded.) For the cable that brings the Cox Service to the house the tech from the cable company took time and drove the impedance loss to zero, matching and mixing things until that came along. Most of all, with the new Apple Wireless gear I have 802.11 (A/N) running on my Mac while I can create a second network for guests on the B/5 network.

Those speeds aren't pokey either, running between 5 megs and 12 megs depending on the chip set in a PC or Mac. My Asus 1000HE scores 12 megs regularly.

The hard wire network was also tuned up by my friends Chris McKewon and Steven Fairchild and their team at XCeptional Networks. These are the guys whose crews are masters at hotel broadband, like the Hotel 1000 in Seattle and the Intercontinental in Boston. We're talking EXPERTS in networking and deployment, both wired and wireless, plus VOIP.

When you think of a Home Office set up, you have to go pro. Amateur hour (i.e buying a consumer grade wireless access point) may be good for simple surfing, but when you spend hours working from home, spend the money so earning more isn't a chore. I may have gone to the Extreme edge with what's in mine, but the stats don't lie. Build it right, with proper cabling and equipment and your network can be rock solid and fast too.

New Apple Wireless Gear Is Very Very VoIP Friendly

I've been using the newest versions of the Apple Time Capsule and Airport Extreme Wireless network devices for about a week now, and all I can say is WOW.

The experience once I cured a slight misconfiguration issue with my ISP (seems if you install as DHCP and connect to the Cox network the MAC address is registered) and that makes it impossible to switch to static without the help of support. Once that was solved the network showed blazing fast speeds. How fast? This fast.

34 megs down/5 megs plus up. On DOCSIS 2.0. I can hardly wait for 3.0.

This is an example of a network in my house that was rebuilt to be business grade. We had a network installed put in all new CAT 5 and CAT 6 as well as new electrical outlets (all grounded.) For the cable that brings the Cox Service to the house the tech from the cable company took time and drove the impedance loss to zero, matching and mixing things until that came along. Most of all, with the new Apple Wireless gear I have 802.11 (A/N) running on my Mac while I can create a second network for guests on the B/5 network.

The hard wire network was also tuned up by my friends Chris McKewon and Steven Fairchild and their team at XCeptional Networks. These are the guys whose crews are masters at hotel broadband, like the Hotel 1000 in Seattle and the Intercontinental in Boston. We're talking EXPERTS in networking and deployment, both wired and wireless, plus VOIP.

Those speeds aren't pokey either, running between 5 megs and 12 megs depending on the chip set in a PC or Mac. My Asus 1000HE scores 12 megs regularly.

When you think of a Home Office set up, you have to go pro. Amateur hour (i.e buying a consumer grade wireless access point) may be good for simple surfing, but when you spend hours working from home, spend the money so earning more isn't a chore. I may have gone to the Extreme edge with what's in mine, but the stats don't lie. Build it right, with proper cabling and equipment and your network can be rock solid and fast too.

Pocket Meeting

ReadWriteWeb has the goods on a new, lightweight, screen sharing web presentation platform called PocketMeeting that looks very reasonable and sounds very good.

While the concept seems very logical, the question of business survivability has to be considered vs. WebEx. The dot.com industry is littered with web conferencing companies that are no longer around. What's amazing is none of the surviving companies ever go out to acquire the user base, which makes me wonder if any of the users are ever paying for the services. Instead I'd look more closely at the company whose technology is behind the service, GeniusRoom. At the heart they seem to have a more robust offering, providing all services in one place, but at a higher price point.

Bottom line. If you're using a free service, you end up getting what you pay for in the end. NOTHING.

Hip Work Spot Opens in London-No More Need For Starbucks

Cameron Sinclair pens a piece about a new hipster style work spot called the "Hub Pavilion" that has opened in London this week, over on the Huffington Post.

I think we are seeing the rise of the temporary office, networking "hub" and candidly think Starbucks really missed it.

For many a year I referred to Starbucks as Conference Room "S" to many. You could head over to one, and then organize a meeting. They had chairs, tables you could rearrange, couches, work desks, all that you wanted, and of course, amazing broadband from T-Mobile.

Then somewhere along the way, as their success overcame them, they lost their way. First they turned up the music. Then they turned down the temperature. Next came less and less tables. And then the final blow. Bye Bye T-Mobile and the amazing bandwidth. Hello AT&T and usually a DSL line. A slow DSL line.

These new Hub Spots though are the wave of the future in my book. Already Regus/HQ has opened a similar spot, dubbed the Business Lounge in Cupertino, CA not far from Apple's HQ. While they haven't added all the glitz and "social" components of Hub and Hub Culture, what they have both done is given the road warrior, and the "no need for an office" type of worker, a series of quiet, well decked out and useful locations to get down to work in environments that are serene and very functional.

Plus, they serve better coffee than Starbucks.

Worlds Fastest & Cheapest Broadband--In Japan

$20.00 a month for how much speed? Amazing. And they are using the same technology as the cable companies in the USA...Now put that into your smoke and pipe it Comcast, Cox, Cablevision, Charter, Time Warner, Cable Labs and Mr. President.

This is based on the new Docsis 3.0 standard from CableLabs, and if it's good enough to be "Made in Japan" we need to import that kind of thinking here in the Good Ol' US of A, dag gummit.

I mean if you wanted a broadband stimulus package to take roots, the best way to do that is to bring the price down, get more people hooked-up and connected.

Peets Coffee In Folsom California

I love finding a coffee shop that has the right mix of proper Java, comfortable seats and killer broadband. After a quick ride out to the Sacramento suburbs for some home repair shopping, we jumped into Peets for some coffee and an hour of Internet connectivity.

First, the access is Free. Second the speeds and connectivity are solid. How solid? Basically using Speedtest.net I recorded what is best described as T-1 speeds.  What I also liked was the 43 millisecond ping time. Everything I did worked and the response was super. So was the coffee.

All Google Voice Needs Is a Little More SIP and Skype's Game Changes

With the recent announcement by Skype to have an open SIP Gateway (well its in beta) the door is now wide open for a direct route of calls coming to your Google Voice number to be routed directly into the Skype SIP gateway and to ring your Skype ID. All Google Voice has to do is turn that on and become interoperable with Skype directly, the same way Nimbuzz, Truphone and others have already become.

Let me lay out what this would mean:

1. Google Voice becomes THE defacto switchboard with numbers everywhere added and sold by them. There is less to no more need for a SkypeIn number or anyone else's for that matter. Luca points out how this can be done today via Gizmo and OpenSky.

2. You no longer need to buy Skype Out. You simply bridge your calls between Google Voice making the outbound leg of the call (at lower rates than Skype) to your Skype ID. Currently I bridge from Google Voice to a Skype In Number and this works perfectly.

3. Skype has already pledged and argued for openness, what are they going to do, all of a sudden go down the path of Open being the New Closed, a point Michael Robertson of Gizmo has raised concerns about previously, who's service by the way already peers with Google Voice (thank you very much to the person who caused that to happen--Me!!!!) Robertson basically says Skype speak with forked tongue in his post on VoIPWatch earlier this year.

4. The SIP gateway play for business from Skype is designed to work with big SIP based networks. Gee, what is Google Voice if not that.

So lets think about this..400 million users on Skype or so all getting calling paid from Google. Price of calling is already down to almost nothing. Now go to a country where 3 is the carrier buy a Skype Phone, add a pay as you go data plan and receive calls for free that are bridge by Google. Ingenious. Today you can already make calls using Skype Out for now as part of your unlimited plan and pay for it . Or...tomorrow via the Web browser on the mobile phone and Google Voice's directory web page you can initiate a call to the Skype ID and it rings on your phone. At no cost to you or if you are international at really lower than Skype rates from Google Voice. Wild!!!

Now lets go one step further and be really disruptive. Get a Google Android G1 with Google Voice call bridging that will do the same thing as Skype on 3 and make calls using Google Voice minutes provided by Google. In those countries where the calling party pays the value remains with Google. They will work the deals ala Skype and 3 to drive the sale of more data plans (even pay as you go works great on 3 here in the UK). But with a simple app that ties your browser to your Google Voice directory you'll be able to make calls bridged between the outbound legs being made by Google Voice to your Skype ID on the SkypePhone like I do today, or to your Android G1 via whatever client they put on it that acts like VoIP but brings the call in via the cell phone's circuit switched network. With Googles clout and reach that far out weighs eBay and Skype, plus carriers are more willing to work with Google than they are with Skype, the game starts to get very interesting.

Now lets go over to your home or office and go with termination of the calls to a landline, wireline or IP line. Call it what you want to. Google Voice needs to add a SIP destination capability like they have done with Gizmo, and then all of those calls go for free to SIP end points, just as they do to DIDs of the older Circuit Switched nature. Now, if more calls go all SIP the need for DID's may drop off over time, but telephone numbers still remains important because people still call numbers so Google Voice really is the Grand Central Station of the telco world. All this creates incredible value for companies in the middle. Companies in the federation space, peering business and which are 2.0 app friendly all of a sudden become the main gatekeepers to IP voice traffic. Companies like clients VoxBone and xConnect come to mind here, as does IntelePeer and even Neustar. They keep things moving, while Google Voice does the pointing and the on-netting.

But back to Skype. Poor Skype just lost value with this. You see, Skype built a model based on claims of calls between Skype ID's being free. They have regularly claimed to be open. With SIP traffic piped in from Google Voice the lions share of the money goes to Google as Skype becomes nothing but a dumb pipe, and given what difference the amount of acquisition was for GrandCentral vs. Skype, it's clear who rang up the better deal.

So with all this, it's time to see who flinches first. Google or Skype? From where I'm sitting it seems the Three Wise Men of Google Voice (Wesley, Craig and Vincent) now have the big rig rolling along the information super-hiway with a lot of weight in the back (Google ad dollars, pipe, dark fiber, bandwidth, free ad visibility, many happy users) making it time to see what kind of Cirque de Soleil balancing act the new corporate and well manicured team running the show at Skype tries to pursue, now that they've walked blindly into the SIP alley, not at all prepared for a street fight.

P.S. For transparency sake I was a shareholder in GrandCentral. The earn out is now complete so I no longer have a "vested" interest in what they do. I've also sold my eBay stock too.

Why Wi-Fi Is The Real 4G

Martin Suter of Bel-Air Networks has penned a very strong case for why Wi-Fi is really in my view the baseline that 4G should be measured with.

One point that Martin left out of his well written and very factual account as to why WiFi is so important and a better performer than Mobile 3G data was the need for backhaul.

Backhaul is what gets the data back onto the Internet, it's the upstream tributary that the bits and bytes ride on to reach the Net to be offloaded onto the main Internet. Over the next few years we'll start seeing backhaul backlog and in my view is when you'll start to see things like first class, second class and third class mail rates being applied.

Get ready for tiered pricing, both for speed and for size. Those reasons are why we need more WiFi access, more local loop fiber rings. More local municipal fiber routes and great capacity.

T-Mobile In The USA Rolls Out A 3G USB Stick Data Play

Today T-Mobile is rolling out their version of a 3G USB data stick according to CNET and many other news sites.

Priced at $59.99 a month for 5 Gigs, you'll find that the stick works on TMO in the USA and on other 3G networks around the globe, as well as GPRS and EDGE networks where 3G coverage has yet to arrive.

The price is high when you think about it compared to other countries, but in the USA that's about the going rate but I think we're entering an era of measured access for the next few years before we see more pressure from the WiMax crowd that will help drive prices down.

Given how lightly used the T-Mobile network is right now on 3G (only Android G1 and one other handset I think run on it for data) the throughput should be better for users than what in congested areas we're seeing on AT&T's overtaxed by the Apple iPhone network until the capacity increases late in the year and early next year.

Given that some people needs better access the T-Mobile option isn't a bad one. Add this to a NetBook and you have true on the go portability but here are some caveats:

1) T-Mobile has a small 3G network in the USA at this time. While it is expanding, coverage may not be everywhere and suburban dwellers may be at a loss.

2) The package includes Hotspot services (unlimited) but remember T-Mobile has separated from Startbucks and those are now AT&T operated locations. Over time the roaming relationship will end but by then T-Mobile will have built out their 3G network so it's a long term trade off. That said, since T-Mobile turned the networks over to AT&T we are seeing much slower performance in many Starbucks locations as there is a different type of connectivity in place now.

3) There are no details yet if services like Streaming, P2P communications such as Skype or SIP traffic will be permitted but I have posed that question to T-Mobile's PR team.

While CNET has reported the following regarding pricing, nothing is visible as of this morning from T-Mobile that is more specific. I'm confident on March 25th that more of the details will emerge:

The T-Mobile WebConnect USB Laptop Stick will be available in select T-Mobile retail stores and online starting March 25. There are various pricing options available: $49.99 with a two-year contract after rebate; $99.99 with one-year contract; or $249.99 with no contract.

Service plans start at $59.99, which gives you 5GB of wireless data per month. If you go over that limit, you will be charged an overage fee of $0.20 per MB. To help you keep tabs on your usage and minimize overage charges, the aforementioned Connection Manager software also monitors how much data you have used and how much you have left for the month

.

My view is more broadband is always better. But given T-Mobile's experience with data elsewhere and how reliable I've found it to be, I suspect that the USA version will be just as good, wherever it may be found. In the past their HotSpot service was always the most consistent and best around from this users perspective.

Skype and SIP Equals A Takeaway of Toll Free

Somewhere over the weekend or on Monday I got a note about Skype now being interoperable with SIP.

One thought immediately crossed my mind. DEATH TO 800/Toll free numbers. Slow. Painful. Death.

You see as more and more people adopt Skype and use it to call out the one missing piece has been how in essence all Skype calls, like SIP to SIP calls are TOLL FREE.

More and more we see click to call popping up on web sites. Toss in SIP trunking which is how companies like Jaduka (now run by pal Thomas Howe) and client IfByPhone move calls using all kinds of 2.0 technology and you see a pattern emerge. Now every call is a local call. And every call from Skype to a Skype to SIP number made from Skype is a free call.

Yummy. Disruptive.

All of a sudden your commercial business name as a Skype ID becomes very valuable. Think in terms of a URL. Now your Skype ID is one too, but it's really a SIP URI in drag. Yes. I know, that's twisted, but Skype to SIP is too and it's validation of the whole concept of SIP being THE telephony platform.

This new direction from Skype (well it's not really NEW) is a boon to the VoIP federations like those started by Earthlink and Gizmo years back, and to the companies like client xConnect who are smack dab in the middle of making sure calls get to where they are supposed regardless of network.

What's more, forget all the SIP techie stuff. This is just great for people who have to call anyone.

Tales of Hotels and Bandwidth

As a regular road warrior I can’t stress enough the importance of having really solid bandwidth and decent access when you’re traveling. It may seem like a broken record, but for those of us who actually work on the road and consider hotels, coffee shops, remote work sites and friends’ houses an extension of our own office, try in this day and age of living without it.

First, you have to get past the idea that Internet access should be free. It isn’t. So get over it. And, like most things that cost real money, the better the grade of service you get may not always be at the highest price. Much of what I’ve learned about solid, dependable and reliable comes from two things. Trial and error and the willingness to spend money to be well connected.

Let me first blow through some myths that may help others save their hard earned money:

1.       All hotels with the same brand name will deliver the same experience consistently

FALSE—I’ve stayed in Marriotts, Courtyard By Marriotts, Spring Hill Suites, J.W. Marriotts and even with the same provider delivering the so called “same” experience, after the sign-on screen it remains a guessing game as to what the experience will be like once you hit the Net. I’ve stayed at Hilton’s family of properties, even two owned side by side by the same management company and no two experiences have been the same.

2.       The more expensive the chain the better the connectivity will be.
FALSE-I’ve stayed in some places like Accor’s Sofitel a hotel I love and used both their own wired and the T-Mobile Wireless network in the property. T-Mobile blows away the wired network. On the other hand in the same chain’s Pullman Bercy property in Paris, the connectivity is always better wired. Now let’s step it up to Fairmont in San Jose. In the original and older building the connectivity is never as good as the newer, all fiber tower. Why? The way the network was installed. The older network is similar to DSL, while the new fiber network literally moves things faster than any network around. Difference in download speeds can be as much as 20 megs a second. In San Francisco both the new St. Regis and Intercontinental properties have done it right, dropping in 20-50 megs of available bandwidth. However, get in the wrong end of the hall and use the hotel’s Wi-Fi network and your upload speeds will suffer. Instead pack a travel router of your own (know how to change your IP address to avoid conflicts) and make your own wireless cloud with blazing speeds and your own PUBLIC IP address that lets you use VoIP via Skype or any SIP provider (I use three including OnSip, CallCentric and a private Truphone test account) as well as Vidtel’s video with either Counterpath’s Eyebeam on the Mac or Bria on my Netbooks.

3.       Hotels don’t snoop on you.
FALSE- I was staying in the Hilton Santa Clara within the past few years and my connectivity was detected as to doing something wrong. I was on a Mac running both Mail and Entourage, each checking various email accounts using a combination of Exchange, IMAP and POP. I was also running Skype (P2P), Gizmo (SIP), SightSpeed (SIP Video) and a few other IM sessions. Then there was Flash video and audio, plus some uploading to my blog. The monitoring software kicked in and I was kicked off. A call to the provider yielded some insight, but it was obvious the folks on the other end of the line couldn’t tell what caused it. I went up a few levels and found out that it was what is best called, a false flag alert. Still it slowed me down, and cut into the work time I had before an appointment. Note to hotel operators. If you want business travelers, you better know what business travel technology is today.

4.       Consumer grade access points work just as good as the expensive ones from Cisco.
FALSE-All you have to do is go to the beach front hotel offering free Wi-Fi and compare what their D-Link or Netgear consumer grade router does when the hotel fills up vs. the high end Cisco gear found inside the Hotel 1000 in Seattle or the Intercontinental in Boston. Both properties were built the right way from the ground up and the experience proves it. In the case of hotel infrastructure, you get what you pay for too.

Here are some hotels I like that have given me a great business grade experience over the past few years:

Seattle WA- Hotel 1000-without a doubt the smartest of the smart hotels.

Scottsdale, AZ – Courtyard By Marriott– Mayo Clinic

San Jose, CA – Fairmont San Jose

San Francisco-Intercontinental on Howard Street, as well as he St. Regis and W San Francisco.

Philadelphia, PA – Sofitel Philadelphia, Courtyard By Marriott on 13^th Street, Marriott Airport, Embassy Suites on the Parkway

New York City- Sofitel New York and The London

Miami FL – Hyatt’s Hotel Victor and the Renaissance Eden Roc

Las Vegas, NV – Palazzo Hotel and Casino, Renaissance Hotel, L’Hotel at Mandalay Bay

Chicago, IL – Fairmont Chicago

London England-The Andaz and the Metropolitan Hotels

London Heathrow Airport-The Yotel in terminal 4. For the money, best deal going.

Paris France Sofitel (now Pullman) Bercy

Valence France – Novatel Valence Sud

Montpellier France – Sofitel Montpellier (may now be Pullman brand)

Lyon France – Sofitel Place Bellecour

Beaune France – Novatel Beaune

Munich Germany – Hotel Kempenski Munich Airport and Sofitel Munich Bayerpost

Lisbon Portugal - Hotel Heritage Av Liberdade

Madrid Spain-The Urban Hotel

Barcelona Spain Hesperia Presidente and Hotel Prestige Paseo de Gracia

Valencia Spain-Palau de la Mar

 Bottom line. Be selective. You wouldn’t accept poor water pressure from your shower and stay at the hotel again if you like to take long, hot, and rejuvenating showers when on the road. You wouldn’t accept slow delivery of lousy tasting food from room service, so why accept anything less with your hotel broadband.

Confessions of A NetBook Junkie

I have to admit that I’m a Netbook Junkie.

Ever since I first laid eyes on a “black beauty,” that little capsule of joy, all 7 inches of Linux packing, Skype weilding, Firefox ready and Thunderbird enabled, I was hooked. I was so hooked I bought my first one in France, only to find of course it had a French keyboard (duh) so said jonesin’ wasn’t satisfied until a model, with a USA keyboard was found and imported from Taiwan. Yes, those of us who are hooked, will go to any length to get our fix. But that was a “white wonder” and even though it satisfied my need for a fix, I just had to find a “black” beauty. And I did. Like the “white wonder” it was also an Asus 701.

Then came the Asus 901s in Linux and Windows. I ordered both. Then the 1000H too, also in both flavors, as the bigger they got the more potent the jonesin’ became. I had to have them all.

The came the rivals. The Acers. The MSIs. Lenovos. Dells. HPs. Samsungs, GigaBytes and more.

I quickly grabbed one, then another, then another. Buying importing, I even had a taste of a converted Linux to Windows Acer Aspire One for myself, then one for my wife. She was hooked too. All of a sudden the homeless Asus Linux devices found new homes with her staff who became hooked as well. When it came time for holiday presents and Bar Mitzvah gifts, we opted to give three teens their entry to the world of Netbook Nirvana. And yes, they too are hooked each with their own Acer Aspire One “Blue Bombers.”

You see, the Netbooks are so small, and do so much, and so easily, for you that deciding which one is best for you is the biggest challenge. 8.9” or 10.1” whichever the size the addiction is there.

What’s my favorite? That’s tough. On one hand it’s my “blue” Acer Aspire One with built in 3G that you can only buy through RadioShack. Great for on the go rocket fast data connectivity in the USA but I have yet to figure out if it is unlocked or not. Then there is my Asus S101, perhaps the most gorgeous of the bunch, but that’s been rivaled by the new “blue magic” from Asus too. It’s the Asus 1000HE with the more potent, faster acting and smoother running N280 from Intel that also has a 9.5 hour, but very compact battery which I’ve also nicknamed “blue.”  With it comes amazing audio that really rocks. Plus an amazing built in Super Hybrid Engine overclocker, smooth WiFi connectivity and it sure works great with VoIP and Video confencing too.  Just add a 3G USB stick and your “flyin high.”

My wife has her own special Netbook too. It’s a GigaByte M912  nicknamed “Gigi” which was obtained via the most reliable “dealer” in the Netbook business for only the best “imported” and really special “high end stuff,” the great folks at Dynamism.

But like a real junkie, I’ve always wanted more (and in reality had it all the time.) It’s my Flybook V5. But given the price point and what it has inside, it’s not really a Netbook, its an amazing work of laptop engineering, in a class by itself…The Flybook really does fly and boy does that satisfy anyone’s NetBook lust. Even my wife’s. While mine is Silver, her’s is of course Gold. And yes to complete the story, the “Flybooks” even have nicknames. “Fly” for mine and “Flyette” for hers.

Hooked? You bet. But still as good as they are, none really replaces Mackie. None of the four of mine ranging from Air, to the two Pros or iMac. But Mac Addiction is something even more. It’s religious like perhaps rivaled only by those with BlackBerries, I mean, “crackberries.”