Working Anywhere

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

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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.”

Alec Saunders on Working Anywhere

It's becoming easier and easier to work from anywhere.

Pal Alec Saunders is keeping up with things from his vacation time share in on the Mexican Riviera near Cancun.

Take heed of his comments as he's he's now eared the status of Jedi Knight in the Society of Working Anywhere gang.

Why A Local Number is Important

To me, local telephone numbers in different countries have become important.

With the local numbers, the managing of my calls, being reachable to my friends and business colleagues in different countries has been made easier. What's more, the concept of always being a local or as Truphone's CEO Geraldine Wilson likes to say in interviews when referencing their upcoming "Local Anywhere" service, "Be global. Appear local."

It's important for a few reasons:

1) When making reservations a local number casts the impression that you can be reached more easily. This is especially important for restaurants that like to confirm the booking after the reservation is made, and again day of your scheduled visit.

2) Your friends in different countries don't have to make international calls any more so they call you more often.

3) You can point SIP DIDs to other SIP end points like a SIP client such as EyeBeam or Bria, or to a SIP box like Jazinga or Talkswitch, or to SIP phones or a SIP service like OnSIP.com and the traffic is free to you, plus you can manage your voice mail, all in one place.

4) With some ingenuity you can point the SIP traffic to an unlimited international calling plan like those from Vonage, inPhonex, CallCentric, etc. and know exactly what your paying to reach you on a land line.

5) With even more ingenuity you can point your inbound traffic to GoogleVoice like I do, and then place return calls via that same service to anyone internationally at very low rates (lower than Skype Craig Walker tells me) by dialing in and returning the calls.

6) And with total cleverness, the combination of GoogleVoice and Truphone means that I can receive calls via GoogleVoice, have one of my destinations that is dialed by GV my Truphone number and then have Truphone forward the calls to me on WiFi or to my GSM number whereever I may be at the time usually for free.

Now granted I'm paying about a total of $20.00 a month for the three country DIDs, but the savings is massive compared to that. I make a local call on my mobiles for anywhere from a few pennies a minute to those numbers. That's all. Granted I have SIMs in every country, but with what I've done my costs and my ability to be reached is plain SIMPLE.

Orange Internet Everywhere

In France mobile operator Orange has launched a true pay as you go data plan named appropriately “Internet Everywhere” that combines WiFi access to their nationwide network of hotspots with 3G data over their cutting edge HSUPA/HSDPA network.

How it works is very easy. You buy one 3G data USB stick at a mobile retailer, in my case, FNAC. You install the software (note on a PC it does disable Windows and internal on board WiFi on most laptops but that can be fixed easily). They give you a SIM with a French mobile number (which means the service is SMS capable) and two hours of usage credit.

To use the service you simply log on, buy the amount of credit you plan to use over a 15 day period (for me its six hour blocks at 25 Euros per whack) and start to surf.

Of course there are a few caveats:

1) VoIP is prohibited

2) P2P is prohibited (this means Skype)

3) No streaming.

I can live with this as I can find other access where I can do all that.

For me, this is web and email, some IM and that’s about it. Oh, one more caveat. You have to remember to mail in a form by French post, showing your French address. Agian, for me, no problem. I have an office in Paris that receives local mail for me.

Why Truphone Is An Essential For Me

Outright my agency represents Truphone for various communications and strategy, so yes, I’m biased. But like so many companies that have become a client, I was using the service first and realized that the potential of using it in certain situations would make Truphone an essential part of my road warrior lifestyle.

For the past few years my visits to our winemaker friends, Sylvain and Desiree Fadat and their charming village home in Montpeyroux, France where their world class winery, Domaine d’Aupilhac is, always resulted in a hotel stay for my wife and I, much to the chagrin of our always more than generous friends who have many guest rooms (and more coming soon) where we could stay. But with the deployment of WiFi in the main house, not only in the winery offices, a stay in the house has become “just like home” now.

You see, where the house is, seems to fall in the middle of a coverage hole. SFR works in one part of the house. Bouygues in  another, but Orange is only visible outside on the back landing. Enter WiFi and Truphone.

Not only were my calls back to the States clear as a bell, but calls returned to me reached me seamlessly on my Nokia E90. For one call I used the Apple iPhone and again the call experience on my end was flawless. Beyond the cost savings (yes I do pay for my usage) via the TruSaver plan was what is best described as “piece of mind.” No worrying about long distance rate. No worrying about the calls being connected. Everything worked as promised. On my Nokia E90 (or N95) and on my wife’s N95, we have constant connectivity, find me and follow as Truphone routes the calls to the GSM numbers we have in France or to any mobile number in any GSM country when the SIM  is installed.

Given the WiFi network I’ll be at the winery more and staying over, eliminating a hotel bill, and a drive. This means I can taste more wines, not have to curtail my enthusiasm for the wines, and not have a WiFi bill. When you add all this up, Truphone isn’t just saving me cell minutes, it’s saving me hundreds of dollars a day in hotel, gas and parking charges too, and enabling me to have more fun!