Working Anywhere

More People Thinking of Working Anywhere

This survey from Intel pretty much sums up why I started this blog. With more people finding it harder and harder to disconnect, the concept of working anywhere has matured to become part of the cross over between work and life.

Esme Vos on The Nokia 770

Esme Vos chairs the MuniWireless conference series and also blogs about the whole idea of being wireless.

Catch her updated post on the Nokia 770 tablet where she liberally quotes from Om Malik and moi!

My experiences with the 770, post upgrade have been sensational, and I really like the device when I'm AFK (away from the keyboard) and relaxing on the couch.

VoIP Test Site

I found a killer VoIP test web site from VisualWare.

This is great when you're in a hotel (like I am today) or a hotspot to see if VoIP will be well supported.

In the hotel I'm at the speeds are great, but the QoS was too poor to support a really good call.

This is the kind of information which should be built into clients like SightSpeed, GizmoProject, Yahoo Messenger, AIM PhoneLine and Skype.

What's more, this gives road warriors a way to learn which hotels and hotspots are VoIP friendly and where to go.

Only In Toronto

Jon Arnold thinks the delay by Toronto Hydro Telecom on their Muni WiFi plans could only happen in Canada.

Obviously Jon Arnold has never had to deal with organizations like the California Coastal Comission or the City of Del Mar's Design Review board. The would both make the challenges that are being aired seem mild.

But this does make one wonder if some of the FUD isn't being stirred up by groups that are sympathetic to the plight of the soon to be downtrodden mobile and cable operators (yeah right).....the playing field needs to be open access like.

Build a network, let the operators put their customers on it. Just like the railways.

The Mother of All Fixed Mobile Convergence Plays

AT&T has made a move into the Muni WiFi space, meaning things are really getting very interesting.

For the longest time the MuniWiFi space was being dominated by little known startups who built things from scratch, serving as quasi integrators even though the big telcos and cable guys already had enough fiber in the ground to make the build outs really easy. They already have the rights of way, so all the municipalities have to do is make it easy and provide utility poles or places to locate the WiFI access points. For the last half a dozen years or so I have always wondered why the cable MSO's with already existing municipal relationships didn't just give this stuff to the cities? They already had the relationships and the rights of way. And certainly they have the connectivity. In a lot of ways, they just waited to long, though I do know that with Jim Tobin, an ex AOL Voice VP, now involved in strategy at Comcast, that Comcast is not totally asleep at the switch even though they still are smarting from their loss to Earthlink in their own back yard, and my home town of Philadelphia.

So to hear that AT&T is following along the path of what Google and Earthlink are already doing and is not a surprise to me. It's clearly also not a defensive move alone to simply prevent the loss of PSTN market share. It is a very offensive move that is designed to pre-empt the cable operators from further expanding their reach nto their data network suppler space, and at the same time this type of service provides a way to reduce truck rolls too. At the same time it is also partially defensive as a way to retain mobile/cellular customers. You also have to look at how Covad is moving into WiMax with Earthlink, which is trying to become a phone company with their range of offerings, but is working with WiMax as well as WiFi players.

Here's the scenario. With Muni WiFi and a wireless bridge, the high speed signals can be brought inside buildings. In high density residential neighborhoods AT&T and MetroFi just like Earthlink and Google can bring in WiFi based phone service and replace the copper connected phone lines, while giving the consumer a "walkabout" type phone that lets them have a mobile like phone both in the house and whenever they are in the WiFi cloud's footprint. Eventually all these clouds will also have some type of roaming relationships I predict.

As these deployments occur inside the house and office connectivity will be two types. WiFi from outside and broadband inside. The company that can offer devices and technology as well as solutions that let both hemisphere's work in tandem, with handoffs and handover between them, and to the Mobile world, will really be the winner.

With this move, AT&T and Metro Fi just became significant players in the Fixed Mobile Convergence world.

Skype's Not Moving The Needle for ebay

Om does his usual laser like surgery on the news, or lack of news, around Skype that came out at the earnings call yesterday. Read towards the end and you'll see that he digs into the softball like questions asked by sell side analysts.

First, I wondered if the call was available via the Skype conference bridge capabilities they recently touted that are available via VAPPs? If the call wasn't whoever is running Investor Relations and Corporate Communications at eBay should be the next target in Meg Whitman's big broom/silent broom clean up of management.

In reading over the earnings announcement it seemed eBay only streamed the call via one of the services that relies on Akamai, Raindance or Premier for the high volume bridge/webcasting features. In my view not using the technology you tout (or as client SightSpeed's CEO Peter Csathy's like to say, 'drink your own Kool-Aid' ) shows a real lack of belief in the technology. This somehow reminds me of when now Covad property GoBeam that before it was acquired by Covad and totally retooled (e.g. ... got sold by slick silver tongued devils to company that should have known better and had to be fixed) was deemed to be unreliable enough that some of their VC's didn't use the service.

In my view, Skype parent eBay should be insisting to their IR team that Skype be used as an additional channel outlet as one more proof point and validation that Skype can do more and as support for their developer program "partner."


In reading the transcript which Om linked to, only one question seemed
to focus on Skype, with the rest about eBay overall. One reason is the
lack of telecom sector analysts on the call or asked to pose a
question. If eBay wanted to receive support for their Skype acquisition
and its performance to date it won't come from the Internet economy
analysts or banking types, it will come from the telecom sector sell
side folks who know how to look at the numbers and what to ask.

Now back to Om's point about softball questions. The way the earnings call occur is usually rather straightforward. The analysts call into a conference bridge and their names, and company affiliations are requested by a moderator, who usually works with a member of the public company's Investor Relations team. The moderator and company contact either talk on a separate line or use an IM like client to keep each other apprised of the number of callers, who is on the call, who to queue up for questions and so forth. The moderator, once told whom to select, unmutes the analyst and says for example, "James Enck from Daiwa Securities has our first question......" and off Mr. Enck goes to ask a question that is fielded by one of the company executives.

This is much akin to talk radio where a producer asks your name, and the question you have before you go on the air, and just like talk radio, the questions raised and the analysts chosen are rarely unknown quantities by the time a company like eBay has reached their market maturity level as they have. As a result the analysts who may be known to ask the tough questions, rarely gets called on, and instead the known "name" analysts receives the nod. In some cases the analysts actually talk the afternoon before the morning call, after market close with the CFO or IR Director to get a sense for what is coming down on the call and to provide perspective. Talk to three or four of these folks and the company has a pretty good idea of where the call will go, and how to position things, as well as how to respond. While the calls questions are not scripted, there is usually a rehearsal the day before the call, to make sure everything flows that involves the company's team, minus the analysts, but the job of the IR Director and sometimes an outside advisor is to play the devils advocate and ask the hard questions to sharpen up the delivery, as well as to highlight the good points and delivery.

Since Om tossed out the first pitch, calling the questions softball, I'm hoping when he finally gets his chance to spend time with Meg, that his hardball questions get answered, and I hope she doesn't hide behind the skirt of the publicly disclosed numbers and tells him, and us, what is really going on with Skype.

Until eBay begins to get the questions, input and opinions from the telecom analysts, Skype will be only a "one question" kind of discussion point on the eBay earnings call, but then again, maybe that's all they really deserve.

Skype WiFi Phones Due Out

I just heard that Skype plans to offer four WiFi phones that will help consumers become more unteathered. The phones are made by:
Belkin, Edge-Core, NETGEAR WiFi Phone for Skype and SMC. They are all similarly labeled Wi-Fi Phone for Skype which has to be one of the smartest marketing moves of the year over at Skype to have them all called the same thing, but one that will only make it harder at retail for consumers to buy due to lack of any brand differentiation other than packaging.

Unfotunately, the phones remain only useful with open hotspots and do not provide the ability to be used on services supplied by T-Mobile, Boingo or The Cloud.

If you want to use your WiFi with a carrier and be able to make free phone calls, then the Nokia Tablet 770, with the 2006 OS and Gizmo Project or Google Talk (but I have not been able to get this to work yet) is the answer. The Nokia Tablet 770 has a browser that lets you log onto the hotspot first, then authenticate the device with the Gizmo or GTalk service.

Skype WiFi Phones Due Out

I just heard that Skype plans to offer four WiFi phones that will help consumers become more unteathered. The phones are made by:
Belkin, Edge-Core, NETGEAR WiFi Phone for Skype and SMC. They are all similarly labeled Wi-Fi Phone for Skype which has to be one of the smartest marketing moves of the year over at Skype to have them all called the same thing, but one that will only make it harder at retail for consumers to buy due to lack of any brand differentiation other than packaging.

Unfotunately, the phones remain only useful with open hotspots and do not provide the ability to be used on services supplied by T-Mobile, Boingo or The Cloud.

If you want to use your WiFi with a carrier and be able to make free phone calls, then the Nokia Tablet 770, with the 2006 OS and Gizmo Project or Google Talk (but I have not been able to get this to work yet) is the answer. The Nokia Tablet 770 has a browser that lets you log onto the hotspot first, then authenticate the device with the Gizmo or GTalk service.

Mossberg on The Nokia 770

I have to wonder if Walt reviewed the 770 with the 2006 operating system or the 2005. I tend to agree with him if it was the 2005, but the 2006 OS is a major step up (faster and smoother) and since he didn't mention Gizmo or Google Talk, I am further thinking the 2005 was the model he tested. I have had a problem setting up a POP3 email but that will get finalized soon I hope.

From my experiments tonight with Gizmo Project and Oboe, the MP3Tunes.com locker access program, both on the 770, makes the Internet Tablet from Nokia Rock!!!

Earthlink Phone Service Goes Retail

I had a chance to visit with EarthLink's VP Steve Howe last week and check out the one month blitz San Francisco retail location.
Playing with EarthLink's Line Powered VOIP and going through their web portal conjured up feelings of AOL Total Talk and AT&T's CallVantage but with a more true to SIP based calling service, building upon Earthlink's true to the Internet values approach of old.

This video from C:NET gives a very good overview to the EarthLink offering that is very feature rich and worth taking a look at.

The store at One Front Street in SF is a neat idea and moves to Seattle next.....