In the golden year of 1999, Asterisk, a software implementation of a telephone PBX, was founded by Mark Spencer, and Super Technologies, Inc., a VoIP company, was co-founded by Rehan Allahwala and me Suzanne Bowen. But the classiest person in the IP communications industry was and is Allison Smith, AKA The Voicegal and The Voice of Asterisk. And now... she is a beautiful, strong, sultry fantasy character in the Mymero iPad game app that Floris de Vries, an engineer and entrepreneur, created. How cool is that?
See, Mark, Rehan, Allison, Floris, Michel (whom I will mention soon) and I have a few things in common. We all have industry friends, customers and vendors in dozens of countries in the west and east hemispheres. Mark and I are from pretty much the Deep South. Allison is from Canada. Floris is from the Netherlands. Rehan is from Pakistan. We each have and will continue to help shape the way the world communicates and the way it plays and works. I'm #thankful for them and what they all do.
I met Floris de Vries on one of my hipster shopping trips on Kickstarter. (I know. I am too old to be a hipster.) I introduced Floris, who also owns The Penultimate Truth Soundcloud, to Michel Vaillancourt, a Canadian VoIP entrepreneur, steampunk fiction author and greenthumb because they seemed to have some things in common. Michel likes steampunk, the Society for Creative Anachronism, table-top role-playing Games, and MMORPG gaming as well as, Hal-Con, WolfCon, NovaCon, ConSeption, DraCONis, and Steamcon. Michel conducted a Mymero adult-oriented memory game interview with Floris.
It was cool that one of Floris's Mymero memory style game of fantasy characters' Kickstarter perks was an invite to be one of the fantasy characters in his adult memory card mobile app game Mymero. I chose that perk. Allison Smith was the first person I thought of to give the making of the character. I introduced Floris and Allison.
Allison Smith's Mymero character's skills are grit, honor, wealth and persuasion. Her character is human and of the noble class. Her costume is scarlet satin with smoky black leather and jeweled embellishments. Her tattoos rock. Her lace up boots...I think some day, I'll get my Suzahdi fashion brand to make her a replica in costume custom fit and designed. When I shared with Allison that I thought she'd be perfect as a character in the game, she responded with her well-known charm and grace and humor, "Why you would give up the chance to strut around in Middle Earth Barbie wear is beyond me."
Her trusty companion Bailey stands stalwartly by her Mymero character's side. Have an iPad? You can download the Mymero game which is said to be available in December 2016 or January 2017. Have a lovely Thanksgiving past, present and future, and see you at ITEXPO Feb. 8-10, 2017 in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Jeff Pulver, father of VoIP, is the keynote for 2017 IDEA Showcase there. Cool!
May you all join Allison Smith as a star in some fantasy game someday. #Thankful!
As is often the case, former Google employees co-founded Mobvoi and are behind its Ticwatch with a focus on practical-minded and cool tech-hungry American consumers. The device has the attention of the Chinese already who appear to be impressed with the ability of its voice-activated super natural feeling text search. It empowers fans to scroll with a simple to use touch-sensitive strip. The original version responded to questions by users in Chinese. The new version responds in English also. Ask what the weather is in Mumbai, Karachi, or NYC and more; reserve a ride with Uber, and order food delivery. Keep up with real-time distance, GPS location, heart rate data, and speed, so runners, walkers, hikers, cyclists and others who need such do not have to carry their smart phone in hand nor via an uncomfortable arm-band or waist pack. The Ticwatch comfortably wraps the wrist.
At the low price of $200, it competes price-wise pretty well with the $369 Apple Watch and approximately $300 Motorola Moto 360. The Ticwatch store is actually on Ticwatch Kickstarter where the goal was $50,000 and the progress so far is over $1,000,000 in raised funds with 5,463 contributors and 17 days left in the campaign.
As noted earlier, in October 2015, Alphabet's Google boosted Mobvoi's final round of funding. The company Mobvoi is said to be worth $300 million as of August 2016. It is optimized with an English user interface and makes available features comfortable for users anywhere. Plus, the Ticwatch 2 is said to be better than Ticwatch 1 in that it supports both iOS and Android devices.
"The Google label definitely helped us in marketing, but our core advantages are AI technologies that allow machines to understand natural languages, a self-developed system and self-designed hardware," said Li, who was a Google's translation software developer before he started up Mobvoi in 2012.
There's also a Mobvoi store for apps, and the watch is designed by Miko Nenonen who is based in San Francisco. Miko Nenonen Nest, Nokia) and comes in aluminium or stainless steel bodies with an option of silicone, Italian leather or stainless steel straps and sapphire crystal on the displays of the pricier models.
DIDX wholesale marketplace and Techistan online magazine will team up to give away a Mobvoi Ticwatch 2 and custom designed Dean Winchester style Suzahdi leather jacket to be announced at Cluecon which is scheduled Aug. 8 - 11, 2016 in Chicago, Illinois. It will also give away a Mobvoi Ticwatch 2 at Illinois Institute of Technology Realtime Communications Conference scheduled October 17 - 20, 2016 and ITEXPO East Conference which is scheduled for Feb. 8 - 10, 2017 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It is an expo and conference that offers Astricon, IDEA Showcase, ChannelVision, MSP EXPO and Reseller Week where exciting exhibitors such as Xorcom, Yeastar, Voxvalley, VoIP Innovations, Vitelity, Sansay, PortaOne, Obihai, Grandstream, Flying voice, Coredial, CallCabinet, Acrobits and others will showcase products and services to partner with and purchase to see your business and life...getting better and better!
One question everyone asks, "Will Ticwatch 2 available in the USA in September 2016 have all the hardware improvements consumers expect above and beyond that of Ticwatch 1?"
]]>Michael Bibleman notes the features and gives a demo on video.
Open the app, and you're greeted by a calmly colorful screen. Browse and choose from your phone contacts. Phone them, have a video chat (high quality VGA resolution), or instant message (IM). Send attachments such as short videos, audio notes and pictures. Vippie can be integrated with Social Hub, Facebook and GTalk on mobile devices. All of this for free.
Users can place phone calls to international phone numbers at much lower rates than using standard mobile phone service.
Thousands of downloads occur each day, so no wonder there was such a crowd of mobile operators, ISPs, VoIP companies, social networking companies, and other types of telecoms and entrepreneurs crowding the VIPPIE (VoIPSwitch) booth around the corner from me (DIDX - Techistan magazine booth) and Comptel.
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Talk about uniting the Americas and making personal and business relationships among the people of these three countries (U.S.A., Mexico and Canada) easier than ever! The potential! The opportunities!
You know me and social marketing, especially anything that I believe is extremely empowering or innovative. I immediately dialed Credo Mobile headquarters from my LG Android phone, which uses Credo Mobile phone service, to see if I could interview them. Listen now to a recorded audio podcast on iTunes or DIDX between me and Credo Mobile's Haruko Kurata, VP of Product Development, and Becky Bond, their VP and Political Director.
What we talked about ...
Credo Mobile's voice and new MiFi service:
The choice to add calls from USA to Mexico and Canada to all mobile plans without adding extra cost is a result of their customer-centric approach. There is not any other mobile phone service that offers this. Credo Mobile will also add a new data product soon that enables customers with Android smart phones and the ability to "HotSpot." Becky Bond, after testing it, says that up to a total of three devices can access Internet at one time on the plan.
Credo Mobile's progressive vision and activism:
See, I asked a seventy-two-year-old neighbor of mine in Northwest Florida why he cast his presidential vote as he did. The first of many reasons he gave me include the fact that the Koch Brothers bought the company he worked for and laid him off. It took him four years to find another job. He had a wife and children to support.
Poll Workers for Democracy has an aim to make sure that every eligible voter can cast a ballot that counts. It is one of the many powerful progressive programs of Credo Mobile. I have an intense interest in this program since I have been driving elderly citizens to the polls to vote for the past three elections. One probably does not realize how difficult it is for these "politically-savvy persons who just happen to be older" people to get to the polls, to be treated fairly and to be taken seriously at the polls where they have a right to vote. It feels like poll-bullying. Such a small thing that I do ... but, everytime I visit my own 70-something-year-old parents and listen to their wisdom and experience, I know I have to do this every four years.
"CredoMobile shifted its focus from "the right to vote" to forming a Super-PAC of its own and working to defeat ten of the worst tea party Republicans in the house," Becky Bond said. "Go door to door ... make phone calls ... give voters rides to the polls ... of the ten, we defeated four ..."
Becky Bond stated, "Volunteerism ... is what it takes to keep this country in the hands of the people and not corporations."
She also shared that Credo Mobile is a "social change organization with an awesome mobile phone service."
(My experience and reason for using Credo Mobile: I've been using their service because I of that very combination. I like the quality, the price and the fact that I can be a part of such practices that are important to me ... such as a more shared economy, elderly citizens' rights, and support of diplomacy instead of more costly wars at the expense of education and other domestic needs.)
Credo Mobile business:
They are now a progressive MVNO and in business for 25 years. They are also a long distance phone company, originally named Working Assets, of they still have many landline users. Hiraku mentions Credo Mobile's past Green Power and Working Assets Radio as well as their new interest of participating in a shared economy. (Shared economy examples are peer-to-peer marketplaces such as DIDX, LendingClub and Airbnb ... the last which enables New Yorkers to offer free housing for Hurricane Sandy victims.)
As political director, Becky Bond helps CREDO customers and CREDO Action members fight for progressive change in Washington, D.C. and in state capitols. She is the president of CREDO SuperPAC and serves on the board of the New Organizing Institute. Becky ran CREDO’s campaign to register more than one million voters in 2004 and the successful effort to defeat California’s Prop 23 in 2010. She was the producer of Working Assets Radio, which aired on San Francisco’s NPR affiliate KALW from 2001–2003. Before that, Becky ran a conceptual art practice in San Francisco called South to the Future. She is a Nashville native and a political science graduate of Williams College. Becky uses a bicycle as everyday transportation and hasn’t owned a car since 2006. She is proud of having been arrested twice during her tenure at CREDO—protesting the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and protesting the Keystone XL pipeline at the White House in 2011.
From Suzanne Bowen Mobile Photo Gallery |
Haruko Kurata oversees the acquisition and development of all mobile phones and related products at CREDO. Before joining CREDO, she served as Product Manager at Moderati, a mobile content provider. She worked with Qualcomm, as well as other original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and operators to create content training and provide marketing support for Qualcomm's embedded multimedia software. Haruko holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Washington and an M.S. in electrical engineering from Santa Clara University. Throughout her career in technology, she has always been one of only a handful of women—something she hopes to see change in the future. She looks forward to a day when being a woman at the Consumer Electronics Show isn't an oddity.
The original Credo Mobile press release, regarding the addition of calls from U.S. to Mexico and Canada at no extra charge in all Credo Mobile voice plans, is at PR Newswire. Visit CredoMobile, CredoAction and the CredoMobile Facebook page for more.
The recorded audio podcast interview is on DIDX and on iTunes. Complete lists of audio podcasts with Suzanne Bowen and the movers and shakers of social media for business, mobile, and IP communications worlds are at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/didx-podcasts/id322949120 and http://www.didx.net/podcast/?p=archive&cat=all. Connect with me on Linkedin where I network and collaborate with hundreds of USA and international business movers and shakers like you. (Pictured at the top of this blog post are Haruko Kurata, Credo Mobile's VP of Product Development; Becky Bond, Credo Mobile's VP and Political Director; and Suzanne Bowen, Monetizing IP Communications blogger and audio podcaster.
* According to 2008 Pew: http://pewhispanic.org/files/factsheets/47.pdf
** According to 2009 CBC News: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2009/10/28/canada-emigration-c.html
There's an audio podcast interview you can listen to between me and Mr. Collins. Feel free to listen. In it we discuss:
1. Transition Networks S3280 for mobile and backhaul delivery
2. Their network of resellers in over 100 nations
3. How Transition Networks compares to competitors
4. Metro Ethernet forums
5. IEEE 1588 Timing
6. IPV6 and dual stack addressing which eliminates network address translation
7. ITU G8031 and G8032 for protection mechanisms
8. Failover
9. Bandwidth rate limiting
10. Small form factor that is easily added to the base of a cell tower
11. At 7:02 into the podcast ... a very easy to understand explanation of backhaul delivery and what is behind the scene when we make and receive cell phone calls
Listen to Mr. Jon Collins of Transition Networks explain the routing of cell phone calls over wireless networks and how the backhaul connects from the cell tower back to a cell phone whether that traffic is voice, gaming, video, or text.
Industry trivia: Transition Networks was founded in 1987 when a Ford Mustang cost $9,209, and Clive Sinclair launched his Z88 Portable Computer that weighed under two pounds. Visit Transition Networks' website at http://www.transition.com, CommunicAsia, and our AstraQom podcast channel. Let's meet up at some of the IP communications and mobile conferences that my company recommends. Last, don't forget the 2012 Wireless Backhaul Distinction Award.
]]>Here's my own experience.
Last week, my son and I entertained his children with our family bluegrass music favorites from Youtube and Boogie Maths videos on his smart phone. At a birthday party for a best friend, we couldn't remember the name of the band who sang "O-o-h Child" and found a video online with the answer, "The Five Stair Steps." I cannot even count the number of times that I and my 100s of 1000s of industry friends, customers, and vendors (via DIDX service provider networks, TMC media channels, and AstraQom social networks) have used video on a mobile devices to wirelessly share videos for elevator pitches, client testimonials, and product demos on the go. These personal, social and business activities were very important to me and them.
So, how does Avvasi's CONNEXUS fit in? As Brian Partridge, vice president of network research at Yankee Group, states, "Consumers are demanding a wide selection of broadcast-quality video on any device, at any time -- and they're willing to pay for it."
In the associated press release, Mate Prgin, president and CEO of Avvasi, states, "The growing gap between exponential bandwidth demand and shallow revenue growth is not secret, and OTT (Over the Top) video is the primary driver."
What is OTT video? It is a general term for service that is utilized over a network that is not offered by that network operator. Mr. Prgin mentions Skype as an example of OTT, and then when Verizon, a mobile operator) and Skype, an OTT voice and video service provider, partnered, they benefited from that collaboration, and so did the end-users.
Mate explains in a few words how entities participating in 4GWorld can best leverage what the Avvasi collaboration CONNEXUS has to offer:
1. Build an infrastructure that can deliver video at a certain QoA that users will pay for.
2. Use that capability to come to the negotiation table with content providers and advertisers and say, "Hey, we can do this, but that's going to cost you something. Let's do a business agreement that satisfies your requirements, our requirements, and the subscribers' requirements."
3. Grow that business in a sustainable way to get the users the quality they want on the devices they want with pricing arrangements that work for the whole value chain.
Watch and listen to video to learn more about the CONNEXUS collaboration and the ways that Avvasi has been an integral part of pioneering this and other impressive video-related technologies and services.
(A bit about Mr. Mate Prgin ... he started a video company that pioneered the IPTV Cadence for DSL networks which was purchased by Cisco in 2000.)
Meet with Avvasi this week at 4GWorld. The CEO is a presenter during the Customer Experience Panel at 3:15 PM. Other conferences they plan to participate in during the near future include London's Broadband Traffic Management in the middle of November. They have a speaker on a panel session there. Also look for them at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona February 2012.
(AstraQom, DIDX, Techistan, and possibly even some of TMC team will be at MWC, but I also recommend entities such as Avvasi to have a presence at 4G Wireless Evolution which is co-located with ITEXPO East in beautiful Miami Beach. I'll be there, but first, I'll do the ING Miami Beach 1/2 Marathon the Sunday before. Connect with me on Linkedin.)
Image by lalunablanca via Flickr
Written by Guest Blogger Brandon Cook, Social Media Director at PaytooYou can keep the costs under 0,20 Euro/Min for Active calling and much lower for receiving calls.
He says if anyone needs help on this to contact him at office at lcx.at."
2. From a Truphone user:
"Truphone has TWO different offerings:
- Truphone VoIP (moble apps on smartphones that do SIP VoIP over WiFi and/or 3G data)
- Truphone Local Anywhere - a multi-IMSI SIM which morphs as you travel between different countries in order that you are always 'local'
The two can work together. Probably good to get a cheap GSM travelphone.
Something like a Nokia 1661.
They can be bought, for example here in UK, for GBP 0.90 complete with headset and charger. They even have an FM radio and a built-in flashlight!
http://quidco.e2save.com/mobile-phone/payg/nokia/Nokia-1661-Black.html?tariffcode=EVERYTMOPAYG&PHPSESSID=0up0knq90dbtroi289blqnrks5 - price has gone up this week, I see.
They now cost GBP 4.95 (cash). They come with no network lock - so you can drop in any SIM."
Michael Bowen has a story to tell. "So, there I was getting ready for work this morning (naturally, I'm running behind!), when I hear a ringing tone which definitely was not my Samsung cell, Suzanne Bowen's Droid cell, or our home phone (8x8). First thought was it was Syed Murtaza Saleem calling me via Skype (with a Virtualphoneline DID and a MyDivert DID ringing to it). Naah, he knows I am usually on my way to work by now.
Michael Bowen: Come to find it was Suzanne's old Crackberry, which I have no clue how it operates. Took me fifteen solid minutes to realize it was the alarm on her Crackberry, which I couldn't shut off. Worse yet, I couldn't turn off the Crackberry. I had to settle for the "Apple-users shut-off protocol of last resort," that of unplugging the AC adapter, opening the battery compartment cover and removing the battery. The components are now safely sitting on the dryer. Since I love my wife I did NOT throw the Crackberry into the washing machine and run a cycle. :)
]]>I used a Zong SIMM from China Mobile in my Nokia E61i during the month of August 2008 while participating in ITCN Asia and visiting with every voip company, wireless company and phone company I could find from Karachi to Sialkot to Faisalabad, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar and every smaller town possible in between.
(I remember the China Mobile representatives sitting near the front of the audience listening to the keynote panel which I was a part of at ITCN Asia 2008. They were happy when I said, "Hello" in many languages including "Nihao" at the beginning of my presentation.)
The service was excellent, very clear in voice quality, and inexpensive. For example, while using it during my telecom trek through Pakistan, it cost only one USD cent per minute to call from the Zong service to a USA phone number. Remember, I was in Pakistan calling from a cell phone!
China Mobile is the world's largest telecom operator. It Zong service has over 550 million customers, more than 260 million calls per hour, and 720 million text messages each day. The service works all over Pakistan, even in the mountainous and poor areas of Northwest Pakistan that looked like no one would want to live there. I used it all over the area.
It also works outside of Pakistan, the same great service... even at the top of Mount Everest.
In addition, most mobile service companies offer only a few choices of types of service, but Zong offers hundreds of payment plans and packages to more easily and affordably match its customers' usage patterns, usage needs and types, and level of income. In the USA, that will is not common.
China Mobile Pakistan is China Mobile's first overseas subsidiary. It has a license to serve the entire country of Pakistan. The country is proving daily that it offers one of the most amazingly fast-growing mobile phone service markets on Earth. In fact, China Mobile will invest $300 million USD in Pakistan in 2010. This is the largest investment by any telecom operator in 2010 in the world to this date.
What is really incredible is that the company is responsible for over 42,000 new jobs directly in Pakistan with China Mobile or those directly leveraging China Mobile.
In conclusion, China Mobile and its Zong offers reliable, inexpensive mobile service, has created thousands of new jobs, and has invested millions of dollars in Pakistan. China Mobile and Zong are a "must watch," and if possible, a "must do business with" like Zain of the Middle East and Bharti Airtel of India. Our company is paying attention.
]]>Deep breath ... okay ...
The increased speed of access to the Internet and lower latency (delay in packet delivery or when one component is spinning its wheels on the the Internet, waiting for another component, wasted time) have enabled a revolution called the application market.
Without the network, the Blackberry RIM, virtual phone lines, iPhone; the plethora of cell phone accessories, and open source telephony applications like FreeSWITCH, Asterisk, Symbian, and Kamilio would not have accomplished as much as they have. Sure, IP PBX was and is there, but 3G has taken these tools (like RIM) and more to really change the world.
Such is the reason that 4G Wireless Evolution in Los Angeles, CTIA Enterprise & Applications in San Francisco and 4G World in Chicago, all conferences in October, need the presence of entrepreneurs, investors and developers because 4G is the next stage in network evolution.
All three are conferences scheduled for October 2010, busy month.
Many have said voIP is dead and wireless networks are nothing more than "dumb pipes?"
That is like saying that hip hop is dead and drums are nothing more than "dumb musical instrument digital interfaces."
Certain "sounds" tell me I'm receiving calls using different SIP agents on my Verizon Motorola Droid, and I can make calls with them also.
I might talk, listen, sing, argue or other things with the other person more often, thanks to the less expensive, flexibility and feature-richness of voIP. When I hear a drum beat, my body starts moving.
The instrument needs the person using it to create "magic." The "magic" wouldn't be there without the instrument. The person using the instrument is active, and active means some kind of production... economic improvement.
What have the wireless carriers invested? Billions of dollars squirreling away spectrum needed to support those "dumb" networks. In addition, they spend more billions to get new customers than they do to keep them. In other words it is more expensive to get them than to keep them. And so many of us switch from carrier to carrier several times in even a year's time, looking for the best deal and wanting to be treated well and honestly.
Spectrum and customers are the mobile carriers' investments. So, of course, they want to generate increasing revenues from those funds invested.
Again, in the business model of 2010, without the carriers, there are no mobile applications and a bunch of people with great ideas for apps, stagnate in their cognitive surplus.
In addition, more information and commerce is taking place over data and mobile Internet, a big change from the traditional PSTN teleconference, watching a Power Point presentation, facsimile, and postmail.
So, carriers spend more money on spectrum, to get ready.
Customers (consumers) want more from their wireless contract.
Businesses and entrepreneurs who create and want to sell applications and content and the customers who want to buy and use them, feel closeted from necessary access to the pipe.
It's like telling everyone, there's the party, but it is a sin to dance.
The developers have created the "electric slides," "chicken dances," "algorithm marches" and "macarenas." The drums are there, but the dancers can't have fun.
New problem for the wireless industry. More spectrum is needed. Spectrum is becoming increasingly rare. Whatever is left... who pays for it? How do they make money from it? When it's all gone, where are the alternatives?
Start asking more questions. What is driving the huge increases in data usage on mobile phones? What is there to consider in answering these questions or more that you and they out there are asking right now. And... there are questions that still haven't been asked, they will be answered, we'll find our solution. But ask the questions. No question is stupid.
You've got the drums, the person who made the drums, the thing or person who is creating the noise on the drums, the person who created the dance, and the person dancing.
Dagnamit! Let's dance!