VoIPWatch

This Time, Microsoft Really Wants To Be Your Phone Company

I've been a fan of Tom Krazit since his days at the original GigaOm, and my pal Om Malik introduced me to him. Tom has been "in the cloud" as a journalist from it's earliest days, and his work at Protocol Cloud has continued to be some of the most insightful and spot-on writing in journalism today. His no B.S., non-shill style of reporting is in the Om style, so when he wrote today that "Microsoft wants to be the phone company," it hit the same cord that I heard when I read Microsoft's own unveil. 

Couple this with the thoughts of another long-time VoIP/SIP/Telecom friend of over 16 years, Counterpath founder Erik Lagerway, now CEO of Vancouver startup SnapSonic, own thoughts about Azure Communications Service, my wheels really started spinning as this may, on the surface, have the usual "Microsoft ring" to it, it's a move that in reality, only Amazon or Google can come close to countering. 

My feeling is, and has been for a while, that the telecom world is in a significant state of change. With the dominance of the cloud and rise of the APIs, all coupled with the steady abandonment of the landline, and any real desire to be the phone company by the long time incumbents, AT&T, BT, Verizon, Telefonica, Orange, Telstra, and others the world over, has actually led to a Grand Canyon wide gap that is screaming be filled. Add to that the current desire of those same legacy carriers to be mobile-first, information service providers to all, and of course, the delivery medium of television content has in turn created a wide-open market for the rise of the new telco.

That's something Microsoft, Google, and Facebook are all pursuing in different ways. And with collaboration now a centerpiece of communications, and more modern services from ZOOM, with ZOOMphone, Dialpad with super-smart voice AI, and a whole host of others, are rapidly carving out their niches in telecom. In essence, they are picking up the ball of  innovation, a place where the old school guys stopped venturing, back about the time Bell Labs died off.

While UCaaS was the hot zone for the last ten years or so, and it's why so much money and investment fueled that sector, its no longer as molten like. Microsoft, the perennial champion of being the second mover, has decided not to be another UCaaS player, but instead to become the CPaaS giant. As Krazit pointed out, this can't be good for Twilio, which had the lead. To me, this spells more significant challenges for Plivo, Vonage (Nexmo), and others who don't have specific niches carved out that can ride atop the Azure cloud+ Communications Services offering.

Why? Azure may be the most widely deployed cloud. If not, they are likely neck and neck with Google. Unlike AWS, they can provide richer and deeper integration into the rest of Microsoft's applications and platforms-all in a single architecture, not via APIs and webhooks. Second is TEAMS, Microsoft's collaboration platform that is out-innovating Zoom and Google Meet at every turn. Much like what Facebook does where the mimic and copy new cutting edge ideas and services to create a new feature, Microsoft copies the best of the rest and then blows it out.

For years I have been somewhat critical of Microsoft and how they bastardized Skype to a nothing burger in telecom, taking a very forward-thinking service and turning into nothing but a very pedestrian VoIP play. But that is a part of a past era, the Steve Ballmer one. With Azure Communications Services, Microsoft has taken dead-on aim at both Twilio and AWS, collapsing the what the two do into one API platform. 

In turn, Microsoft is offering telecom and web developers a whole new playground to develop next-generation services and solution sets. That playground will further enable anyone who needs to make some type of call, voice, or video, send a message, SMS, MMS, or in-app text, and hook into services like those of CRM providers, tables, databases, or even content, in a more knitted together environment.

Game On!

Other coverage by TechCrunch

Lenovo Ideapad Duet Chromebook-The Price Is Right

Over the past few weeks I've been thinking more and more about how much tech jewelry I've been carrying around. In round numbers it's like this:

Mac Book Air 2020        $1600 or Samsung Galaxy Chromebook $1000

iPad Mini  w/LTE           $ 700

iPhone XS                        $1150

One Plus 8                       $ 700

That's over  $3,500-$4,000 in tech I'm carrying around when I travel-and well, that's just insane. Add in headsets, chargers, battery packs, plus a nice bag, and I bet I'm not leaving the house with less than $5,000 in tech gear when I travel or even just jet around town on meetings. Something had to give. 

After consulting with Mr. Chromebook, Kevin Tofel, who I consider my go to expert on all things Chromebooks, I decided to make a small $300 purchase of a Lenovo Duet Tablet, that's fully loaded with 128GB of memory and comes with a stand and keyboard. Yes, I also have a 10" iPad Pro, but my keyboard has been acting up, is out of warranty, and would be about $160 to buy a replacement. And, given how Google GSuite and how Android apps run on Chromebooks, I figured I could  do everything I need to do on the Duet and my One Plus 8, though I will still take along my iPhone as it has both AT&T and Verizon on it, while the One Plus has T-Mobile. But if I only took along the One Plus I'd be at the $1000 mark, not over $3500. 

Plus, I'm lightening my load, carrying a smaller bag and figuring I'll be more productive. You gotta admit, with the switch, the price is right.                

The Cashless Sports Stadium Arrives

The headline on the news release read "Allegiant Stadium to make history as the first American pro sports venue to open cashless" so being a reformed sports marketing executive brought a smile to my face. It was also in a real way, a true to life dejavu for me. You see, 32 years ago when I was working with the Denver Nuggets we were one of, if not, the first arena's to incorporate credit cards at the concession stands.

Back then, cash was king. You bought your beer with cash. Paid for your popcorn with dollars. You picked out merchandise at the stands and handed over ones, fives, tens and twenties. But at the now long gone McNichols Arena here the Nuggets played we were going with credit cards too. Back then we were in negotiations with both Pepsi and Coke for the pouring rights in the building. One of the "big" ideas that co-owner Andy Shlenker had--to this day he was in my mind one of the brightest and most creative executives in sports--was to bring in the fast food brands into the arena and have greater sales as a way to get people to eat more of what they already like, and in turn increase the per caps (per person spending). It was a novel idea. A real first.

But one of the catches with Pepsi was they wanted their spin off brands that became YUM Brands-Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut to take credit cards. So, we said, sure. We turned to our concessions partner, ARA who earlier had suggested the same idea. But getting credit card machines to work inside an arena was not an easy feat back in the late 80's. It started with the fact that the goal was to speed people through the lines, not make them wait longer.

Phone lines wouldn't do it. They take to long. So how did we do it? With a satellite and microwave link. It was a bit of a workaround but microwave link would send the data to a terminal hub, that would approve the credit card. The satellite link would send the data back to the cashier. This all took only a few seconds in theory, but it did work.

Now, with 5G this idea is made easier. So much easier. And more reliable.

Google Voice Adds On Going Call Takeover

Google Voice, originally Grand Central, continues to be around and used by many people. While Google doesn't put the same effort behind it as they are with Meet, it remains a very useful and viable front end number for many people who have multiple phone number, or devices, when they wish to be reached. For many, it's the second number, often used by people who don't want to give out their personal cell or home phone, but still want to be reached by customers.

Today, with one of their iOS updates that they regularly produce, and without much fanfare, they keep adding features found in many of the UCaaS offerings from the brands we hear about everyday. One today that popped up was in call takeover, where a call may be on one device, say your iPad and you want to continue talking on your iPhone. I'm guessing this is also available on Android too, and where it really helps is if you're on a call on a deskphone and want to go take the call and get going. While this feature has been available from other UCaaS providers it hasn't been there for Google Voice users. 

When you add in that functionality to Google Voice's recent Google Fi integration, you have an interesting proposition that the traditional USA mobile operators don't offer. That being the ability to direct a call using Google Voice to a landline, and then pull the call back to your mobile device and get going by moving the call over to the smartphone. They way you do that is you either could take or originate a call on your Google Voice number on a desk phone or tablet at home or at the office, and then using the new On Going Call Takeover function, pick it up on you smartphone and leave the house or office without ending the call in progress.

While Google Voice has not seen the kind of traction that Meet is seeing,  and while Fi is a niche player in mobile, the steady path of merging all the voice services together is apparently going on at Google, just without much fanfare.

While my travel internationally has ground to a halt due to the Corona virus, Google Voice has remained an alternative number for me, just as it has since it's start, as well as being a public facing number too.  It's value proposition from the start has been, one number for life, that can reach you on any other number. Now, it's one number that can truly reach you on almost any device, including SIP enabled phones and speakerphones. 

My feeling is that as more people work from home, and want some division between home phone, personal mobile phone and their work phone, that Google Voice is a viable option, with more features and more outlets coming. Google is far from treating voice as an amenity, and see's it as a core part of GSuite, but hasn't played out their entire hand just yet with it.

Dialpad Gets A Big High Five

To be always transparent, unlike many in the tech reporting or analyst world, I'm a shareholder in Dialpad and have in the past consulted on various projects and programs to the company. That means, I'm openly biased to see the company succeed. But then again, I'm supportive of the telecom industry, and never hide my affiliations or who I work with or advise.

That's why when I learned this morning about the Dialpad acquisition of HighFive, I couldn't have been more ecstatic as it shows a steady path forward for the company that is really one of the few born in the cloud, and buyers of born in the cloud technology, out there.

Often you hear of some company being acquired. Usually its for gap filling, market position, revenue or a team of people to make the business look better.  This purchase does all that and more because as growth oriented as Dialpad has been since their start, they have done it with a very lean team, and a core group of people who keep it going, growing and more. The Talk IQ acquisition two years back set them on a smart path around AI, and while companies like Chorus.AI or Grain, sell similar add-on services, they are plug ins, not a core part of the business. At Dialpad, the TalkIQ integration is woven inside the entire service--phone, conferencing and obviously soon in video. (i.e. Martin Geddes-HyperVoice hat tip circa 2012).

But why buy High Five? Beyond what has been reported already there's a lot more here:

1. Google lineage of staff
2. Understanding of Cloud Native technology
3. Deepening of the team-Vincent, Brian and John plus Craig all have been the product, ops and management team. The Talk IQ team added significant smarts and depth, this adds even more skill sets and greater depth. As a former sports team executive who learned all about TEAM building from the great Flyers GM, Keith Allen, having depth and talent who can all play together is never easy. This group can and does.
4. Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) is cheaper to buy than to give up equity to investors. As a shareholder who sees that Video is clearly where the market is going, this adds customers who already like the video service. Add in UberConference and Dialpad to those customers and its a multiple win for Dialpad and the shareholders as it increases value of the business. Customers, and revenue per seat are how businesses are bought. IP value is added in, so is team but value comes from what money is coming in the door.
5. Doing Voice right isn't easy. Doing video right, is even harder. Dialpad picks up a video team that's proven. 
6. If video is hard. Getting hardware right is even more complicated. I remember working with the Skype team on their video hardware debut. HighFive has proven they can design, source and supply gear that works WITH THEIR SERVICE. 
7. This means people can't say "you don't offer..." vs, Zoom or Cisco.

Long time VoIP and Cloud exec Jeff Bonforte, while at Yahoo Voice, once remarked he would never be in the hardware business. Well for video to be done right, hardware with cameras and speakerphones is a necessary part of the game. So for Dialpad, HighFive brings them all types of hardware smarts, that integrates into the service natively, not as an add on.

As someone who has been using UberConference video from about the time it was an internal idea, and recalling a video call one fall night while in San Francisco with CEO, Craig Walker who was in Singapore on a local SIM card, and I was on my way to an upscale pizza place, I remember how video at Dialpad started. To say, "you've come along way, baby" is an understatement. With HighFive in the house, you've just moved from a having a "we too" product, to a being serious player to Zoom, WebEx and Teams, as a top flight provider who has cloud, customers, convenience and a cool offering.

Yes, I'm biased, but having been around telecom now for 20 years, this deal rings like money in the bank.