Working Anywhere

Best and Worst of Hotel WiFi

I can't say I disagree at all with Hotel Chatter's annual Hotel WiFi's Best & Worst Report at all. My favorite hotel chain, the upscale Hyatt ANDAZ is number one. I've been staying in the London Andaz practically every three months or so for the past two years and have spent many a memorable number of days there. One of the reasons is the fantastic WiFi. Same in NYC where the Andaz just opened in the Wall Street area. They use a service called interTouch, which is owned and operated by DocomoNTT out of Japan. Yup, the same folks who used to be in partnership with AT&T in the Mobile phone world many years ago.

If you notice, the major hotel groups, Marriott, Sheraton and Hilton didn't fare very well. That's because for the most part they have farmed out their WiFi to a few companies that work with the in-room entertainment suppliers and are running connectivity the most cost efficient way possible, vs. actually sitting down and figuring out how to do it right. Additionally, the capacity needed for quality WiFi, and quality Internet connectivity keeps going up, as more guests and more meeting attendees usage rises. Ten years or so the average hotel saw no more than ten percent usage per night based on the number of registered guests, so a T1 was likely more than enough. Now, that usage is north of 60 percent, and in markets like NYC, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Seattle more than likely closer to 80 percent.

Hotels, even with 20 megs of connectivity are suffering from being underpowered, and also challenged by improperly positioned WiFi access points, as well as the growing number of P2P (peer to peer) clients running on guests computers. More and more guests are also downloading music and videos using Apple's iTunes, the BBC's iPlayer and of course a few other apps for services we won't mention.

So it's more than just the WiFi, its also the size of the pipe that matters. Oh. that fits in what we won't mention.......

Well anyway, it's great to see someone is keeping score. I for one have demanded better connectivity in hotels. I treat Internet access and WiFi like hot water. If you don't have hot water, the stay is usually free. Well the same goes for me if I don't have solid access and fast speeds of at least half a meg in both directions. You have a choice in where you stay. Stay where you can have hassle a free Internet life.

Stranded? Turn To Video Conferencing

Starting in 2005 and up until their sale in 2008, my agency represented SightSpeed, one of the pioneering companies in the personal video conferencing space. Since their acquisition by the Swiss consumer electronics giant, SightSpeed has become VID on a personal level, while still maintaining a six party client for their business product, something we helped introduce for them back in 2007. The recent global travel disruption was the kind of event their past CEO and my good friend, Peter Csathy, now leading Sorenson Media, would have relished.

Csathy, was a big proponent of avoiding travel, and promoting the use of video calling to "see" his partners, team and colleagues, all from his San Diego home office. For the entire time we worked with the East Bay based company, the number of times I ever had to "go" to their office was really zero. While I dropped by a few times, every interaction that was necessary was carried on by video calling or the occasional face-to-face meeting in San Diego with Peter, as we live just a few miles apart.

As the New York Times reported yesterday, stranded travelers have turned now to video conferencing. I guess Peter and I can both say, "we told you so."

Now, lets fast-forward almost two years. Skype has taken the battle for video calling full on, and is regularly reporting how many video sessions are held by their users, on a percentage basis. Depending which set of information one uses, the number is either in the high 30 percent or low forty percent range. According to Skype’s PR folks, their users have made over 20 million minutes more video calls than normal in five days, roughly the same time it would take to make over 2000 trips to the moon, and back - or the same time as more than 2.5 million flights from London to New York

That's MASSIVE. And it’s steadily growing, even without a natural disaster. More and more people, including everyone from Oprah to the news networks, are turning to Skype to be the "carrier" in the middle for one to one video calling. Gone are the days where someone had to "look" TV ready to make a video call. You see, Skype has made video calling "personal," something SightSpeed under Csathy and his colleagues, Scott Lomond and Aron Rosenberg initiated. But sheer numbers are on Skype's side.

As I'm writing this post, some 21 million Skype users are on line (it's not even 7 AM on the west coast) and likely by the peak time of 9 AM here that number will swell to likely something closer to 25 million and maybe more (I've seen over 29 million users online at the same time.) That massive audience is not yet all webcam enabled either. So when you take the fact that roughly 40 percent of Skype's traffic today involves video calling, and then factor in the addressable audience out of some roughly 500 million Skype users, but only 1/3rd or less (my guess) have built in webcams, you can see that the upside for Skype, and the webcam manufacturers, is equally massive in the months ahead.

Now add in the news coverage around the volcano, and the realization that business continuity can be maintained face to face using video conferencing, and you'll quickly realize that for everyone in the game, from the Ciscos, Tandbergs, Polycoms, Glowpoints, Vidtels and yes, Logitech and Skype are all going to benefit from nature's untimely eruption.

Earlier this year I tabbed "2010 the year video communications explodes for Skype". I guess, I should have said "erupts."

Working @ Home in the New York Times

I've been telecommuting all my work life. From 1974-76 it was to call reporters before or after going to high school, and when I wasn't in the office. From 1976 to 1988 a good part of my work was done at home or in ice rinks and meeting rooms around my college and office work life with the Philadelphia Flyers. Only for the period I was in Denver in 1988 did I actually only work in the office or when calling on clients, and of course at the arena. From 1989-91 in the ad agency world, I was a remote, field executive. I had a fax machine, a Fed Ex account and a calling card, plus my own AMEX card. Then in late 1992 after leaving the world of The Upper Deck Company, where I spent two years in an office or on the road, I decided to work permanently from home.

Today, the New York Times has a first person account that pretty much sums up how to work at home, and not worry about it. It is a very accurate account and one that not only I can relate to, but which echoes a lot of the same thoughts I've shared with others who will be entering the work at home life.

My entire company is a work at home business. Over 30 people work from their homes, some locally stop by my house for meetings in addition to my personal assistants who keep the house organized when I travel. We use online tools like Yammer, Basecamp, Skype, HiDef Conferencing, Google Docs, Salesforce.com and more to stay in touch, on the same page. So, when I look at my office, I see the USA Map. I don't see miles between us, only the distance of a laptop or now even an iPad. If you don't look at things that way, you'll never work virtually, nor have any virtual workers. You see. Working as a telecommuter is all a state of mind.

Some Additional Thinking On Caller ID Spoofing

A couple of more thoughts why spoofing is bad:

1) If you have a dial in voice mail system you now need to have secondary password

2) If you set up a custom voice mail or outbound ringtone for a person and someone spoofs the number they hear that message

3) It is too easy for a Visher (voice phishing scammer) to call up and impersonate a bank and gain access to your personal details.

Got any others? Post them in the comments!

House of Representatives Slaps Down Caller ID Spoofing

Following the US Senate's recent actions, the House of Representatives have concurred on banning Caller ID spoofing. The combined bill now will go to the FCC to define how to enact the legislation.

The text of the House bill is available here.

New NetComm 3G/WiFi Router To Rival MifI

Novatel Wireless has some competition on their hands and it's coming like a thunder from down under. NetComm, a leading player in Australia, recently revealed their portable, credit card size traveling hotspot, or as we like to say, a PocketSpot.

Given the specs are in metric measurement with some quick math it appears the NetCom PocketSpot is lighter and thiner than the Novatel MiFi, and that means it will tuck in just nicely behind my iPad in it's new snappy case.

Voice News Slowing Down? Watch it Pick Up Again-eComm is Coming In A Week

Over the past few weeks the news around VoIP has pretty much been slow, boring and not at all exciting unless I want to be accused of touting my own clients that is like Truphone who was first on the iPad--but I leave that to others to write first assuming they like the story. Hence why you've seen less posts is simply most of the stories haven't been "cool."

Sure there's been news, but for that kind of coverage you can rely on the tried and trusty folks at TMCnet.com and a few other news sites for the regular coverage of what's new on an almost daily basis. That's their job and right now I'd say those outlets have the market cornered. But's its the independent blogs who uncover the stories and usually figure out the angles first. Even pal and client Alec Saunders has been slow on the keyboard of late, hunkering down and focusing on Calliflower. Mr. Mashup, Thomas Howe too has not seen a major news break in a while, with almost a month going by since he shared his views with the world. Larry Lisser, who has become one heck of a blogger who sees how company's can make money and understands monitization very well, too has been rather quiet. So has the always crispy Mr. Blog.

But all that will change very soon, as the big stories of what's going to be hot in Voice for the balance of the year will be heard starting on April 19th in Burlingame, CA at eComm, the event I not only look forward to, but supply my company's services to for free. Why? eComm is truly the community event for all facets of emerging communications. And if you're not there, shame on you, as it will be where new ideas, or ideas that people have had big ideas for years now come together. This is where the proven commodities in voice have shown off their "what's next" for the past few years, dating back to eTel, the O'Reilly conference which spawned eComm. So if you haven't already booked your space at eComm, now's the time. And to help, if you use the promo code "voipwatch" you'll save 10 percent.

Oh, and if you're a blogger who wants to cover eComm, send me a note and my team will look your blog over and grant appropriate bloggers a media credential too. You see, unlike some conferences and events, eComm is blogger friendly from the get go.

Becoming The Work @ Home Expert

It seems of of late I've branched out from talking to reporters about what works in technology to how to work remotely. You may have seen the recent issue of Inc magazine, right smack dab at the start of the cover story about the virtual company.

Then along came Fox Business and the need for even more "how to" tips for working virtual. The tips include "how to eliminate cord clutter," "choosing a desk chair," and "storage solutions."

I've been working from home for over 20 years, and even when I had an office to go to back in the early 90s, I still did work from home as the day usually began before the drive to the office and never ended when I left. But now, more and more people are not only "working" from home, they're running business from home and in the home. All it takes is a laptop, a good phone line and a place to work.

The work world is changing and that means a whole new redefinition about what work means and where work gets done.