VoIP Blog - Tehrani.com

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See You in Dallas Thursday

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Packet8 Services

Packet8 has on fire with announcements lately and the newest one talks about their business class features. Here are three new features the company will offer: Virtual Office VoIP-hosted PBX service – Virtual Extensions, Metered Extensions and Toll Free Local Number Portability (LNP).

With the Virtual Extension feature, businesses can customize any number of specific extensions to function as information-only mailboxes for items such as driving directions, special promotional offers and other customer service announcements. While Virtual Extensions are not associated with a physical Virtual Office telephone, they can be forwarded to remote numbers anywhere in the world for 3.9 cents per minute in the U.S. and Canada plus applicable international rates when calling overseas. Virtual Extensions can be reached from the auto attendant, through direct inward dial (DID), and an extension call, and may be added to Virtual Office plans for $9.95 per extension per month plus a one-time activation fee of $19.95. Toll free numbers and virtual phone numbers can also be assigned to virtual extensions.

Metered Extensions enable larger companies to take advantage of Packet8's Virtual Office solution by scaling down monthly phone charges for low call volume users without sacrificing PBX functionality. Employees using Metered Extensions receive 250 minutes of calling to the US and Canada a month along with voicemail, a DID number, extension, auto attendant routing, switchboard viewing and inbound calls. Metered Extensions are priced at $19.95 per month plus 3.9 cents after the first 250 minutes, plus applicable international per minute and FET charges. A one time activation fee of $39.95 per extension applies. 

Finally, businesses can now port existing toll free numbers over to their Virtual Office service for free and continue offering clients the ability to contact them at no charge regardless of their location inside the United States or the company's location worldwide. Packet8's Toll Free Service Plan includes 100 minutes of inbound toll-free calls for $4.95 then an industry low of 3.9 cents a minute thereafter. A one time $9.95 activation fee per Packet8 toll free number applies.

My take is, FINALLY! Let’s stop focusing on price. It’s all about the services… he ones you can’t get over the PSTN. Sell the services first and tout the price last. That is the sure way to make it as a VoIP service provider.

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Drop That PDA

If you break your PDA you are out of luck, right? You have to send the device back to the manufacturer and wait for a while and hope that your data is backed up, etc. A company called AX Micro has already shipped 30,000 replacement screens in 2004 and if your device has a broken screen, working with this company could be just the ticket.

Here are the details of what they can do:

Units Repaired	Digitizer/GlassTop Repair Price Includes Labor & Part	Complete Screen Replacement Price Includes Labor & Part	Battery Replacement Price Includes Labor & Part	General Diagnosis Includes General Diagnosis
Palm Units
Palm IIIe, IIIx & IIIxe	$35.00	$45.00	N/A	$20.00
Palm VII & VIIx	$35.00	$45.00	N/A	$20.00
Palm m100 & m105	$40.00	$60.00	N/A	$20.00
Palm IIIc	$40.00	$60.00	$45.00	$20.00
Palm m500	N/A	N/A	$45.00	N/A
Palm m505	N/A	$80.00	$45.00	$20.00
Palm m515	N/A	$90.00	$45.00	$20.00
Tungsten T & T2	85.00	N/A	$50.00	N/A
Tungsten C & W	85.00	N/A	$50.00	N/A
Tungsten E	85.00	N/A	$60.00	$20.00
Palm Zire 71	85.00	N/A	$60.00	N/A
Palm Zire 72	85.00	N/A	N/A	N/A
Treo 600	N/A	N/A	$60.00	N/A
Palm V & Vx	(Click Here)	(Click Here)	(Click Here)	(Click Here)
Visor Units
Visor Deluxe, Neo, Platinum & Pro	$40.00	N/A	N/A	$20.00
Visor Prism	(Click Here)	$70.00	$45.00	N/A
Symbol Units
Symbol SPT-1500 & SPT-1550	$35.00 NOT FOR SPT-1550	$45.00 OK FOR 1500 & 1550	N/A	$20.00
Symbol SPT-1700 & SPT-1800	$70.00	N/A	N/A	N/A
Symbol PPT-2700 & PPT-2800	$70.00	N/A	N/A	N/A
Sony Clie Units
Clie S300, S320 & S360	$50.00	N/A	$50.00	$20.00
Clie 700/610 Series	(Click Here)	(Click Here)	(Click Here)	(Click Here)
Clie T, SL & SJ Series	(Click Here)	(Click Here)	(Click Here)	(Click Here)
Dell Axim Units
Axim X5	$70.00	N/A	N/A	N/A
Axim X3, X3i & X30	$80.00	N/A	N/A	N/A
iPAQ Units
iPAQ 36xx Series	N/A	$160.00	$50.00	N/A
iPAQ 38xx Series	N/A	N/A	$55.00	N/A
iPAQ 39xx Series	N/A	N/A	$55.00	N/A

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VoiceLogger Becomes Davacord

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Ebbers Guilty

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VoIP Service Out

Yesterday my CallVantage service died. I know this because I called my house from work and every time I tried, I went into voicemail. I spoke with my wife later and she told me the Internet wasn’t working fo some reason. I started to get mentally ready for calling Cablevision that night and waiting on hold for hours as they diagnose and (hopefully) fix the problem.

When I got home I noticed the pause light on the cable modem – I think it was called pause, was on. None of the other lights were on.

I learned a while back that if you press the button on top of the cable modem, you pause it and cannot get any Internet access until you press it again.

You see in my infinite wisdom, I pressed this button a year ago and waited for the device to reset. After all, I thought what other function would an unlabeled button on a cable modem have?

When I called Cablevision 12 months ago to ask what was happening, they informed me of my mistake and confirmed for me once and for all that reading the manual can indeed be useful.

Getting back to the problem at hand; I hit the button on top of the cable modem and everything was fine.

I wondered how anyone could press the button behind the TV and more importantly, why. It was at this point that I realized my Daughter Priscilla at 17 months had a look of mischief on her face. This is nothing new mind you but it was extra mischievous yesterday. Well I guess I figured that one out.

Priscilla Tehrani

My daughter is fascinated by all things electronic. She loves to press every button on every device and is especially fascinated by phones and headsets. She also loves to flip through magazines and has been doing so for many months. Must be in the genes.

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Charlotte Observer VoIP Article

I was pretty excited to see that the Charlotte Observer thought the recent Boston Globe VoIP article quoting me was good enough to run again. A few people forwarded me the link to the site. One challenge of speaking with a reporter is you never know what they are going to use in their article. If you go off on a tangent, they could take the tangent and run.

Case in point, I discussed the opportunity for a VoIP consumer electronics device to blow away the terrible cordless phones we are stuck with today. Here is my quote:

"Today's cordless phones are generally really, really terrible phones," said Rich Tehrani, who runs an Internet phone blog and trade show. Letting people use cell phones with full-color video screens, text messaging and access to games and music might be a key way to sell hybrid service, even before issues of saving money come in.

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Miami Herald VoIP Article

There is a great VoIP article in the Miami Herald today and they were nice enough to quote me. Here is an excerpt:

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Matrimonial attorney Herman H. Tarnow lives in Naples and practices law in New York City. He uses the telephone like a cellphone but avoids roaming charges by using VoIP.

Two other attorneys in his firm also telecommute across state lines, including a pregnant lawyer who is able to keep working while visiting New York once a week, Tarnow said.

Calls can ring simultaneously or sequentially from one location to another.

''You can have it call your office phone or your cellphone and transfer next to your home phone and transfer next to your vacation home,'' said industry expert Rich Tehrani, president of TMC, which three weeks ago held a packed Internet Telephony Convention & Expo in Miami.

During last summer's hurricane onslaught, the U.S. Iberia Airlines headquarters in Miami evacuated for several days, had local service provider DSLi set up VoIP lines within a day, and rerouted thousands of U.S. customer calls to Madrid.

''I called the afternoon of the prior day and they had it ready the next morning,'' said Valentin Sanchez, Iberia regional communications manager.

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If there is anything that excites me about evangelizing VoIP for so long it’s that the mainstream media is picking up on it in droves. I believe the industry has the opportunity to focus on services now, while we are in the spotlight. Whenever we talk to the press, we need to focus on services that are new and exciting and most of all useful.

The reason is obvious. If all we focus on is “VoIP is cheaper,” where will we be in two years? We will have taught the world that VoIP should be near free. While this may be good in the short term, the long-term view IMO is that VoIP service providers need to generate enough revenue so that they can keep adding new and compelling services that will keep consumers happy and reduce customer churn. Customers will pay for compelling services. We need to give these services to them.

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iPOD Shuffle Clone

The LuxPro Super Shuffle is a digital audio player from a Taiwan based company. Similar in looks and function to the Apple iPOD Shuffle (news) it adds an FM music player but lacks the famous apple AAC support. Instead it supports the Windows Media digital rights management format or DRM.

The LuxPro Super Shuffle (photo taken from site)

Apparently Apple, unhappy with the similar look and name of the new “Shuffle clone,” asked the Asian company to remove the sleek white clone from the CeBIT event. The company complied for a while and then resumed the display. One wonders if Apple has the right to stop this new company and others from developing similar looking products. Apple is a fairly litigious company and they seem to have a high success rate so perhaps this is just another situation where they will prevail.

In my opinion the shuffle isn’t such a unique looking product and will be difficult to protect. Then again the photos do look identical. Sony had an MP3 player (It played songs in the weird Sony format whose name I forgot) a while back that looked somewhat similar to the Shuffle and let's be honest… The shuffle doesn’t do much. It looks like a pack of gum and is virtually function free. Where is the display for heaven sakes? Only Apple could spin a device with almost no functionality into a must have device. Hats off to the company’s CMO.

The regular iPOD and Mini on the other hand may look more unique. Bearing all this in mind, adding an FM tuner to the device actually increases its functionality by an order of magnitude. I am curious to see if Apple will be able to keep other manufacturers from emulating its designs in international court. What do you think? Are these devices similar enough to cause confusion?

The iPOD Shuffle (photo taken from site)

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