cellular

Is Zer01 Crashing?

July 23, 2009

The deal that was supposed to save VOX Corp. (parent company is Pervasip). After Networld World questioned whether the mobile VoIP service could actually work, the company stripped data from its website (as reported by both PC World and Network World).

PC World further reported, "Earlier this week IDG News Service reported that it's unlikely that Zer01 could be technically able to offer the unlimited mobile voice and data service that it is advertising. The service, originally targeted for a July 1 launch, does not appear to be available yet. In addition, it's being marketed through a multilevel marketing program run by a company called Global Verge whose founder, Mark Petschel, in 2005 pleaded guilty to securities fraud.

Posted in cellular, voip

Is Cellular the new Crack?

July 13, 2009

Stacey at GigaOm writes about the data problem for cellular companies. On the one hand, data revenue of $40 to $60 more per month from an account seems pretty good; on the other hand, 70% of the traffic on a tower is from data cards (about 3-4% of subscribers). This seems like they should have known this.

Voice calls take up less than 10K per stream. 3G data takes up to 3MB.

Posted in broadband, cellular, telecommunications

Bells Giving Up on Landlines?

July 2, 2009

We see the consolidation in the rural landline business. Verizon has dumped unwanted regions on Hawaii Telecom, Fairport (New England), Alltel (old GTE areas like Eastern KY), and soon the Frontier deal.

Centurytel and Embarq just merger. It was May, 2006 that Sprint spun off its wireline business into Embarq. Alltel followed suit with a spin-off of its landline business to Windstream which was a merger of Valor and Alltel.

The RBOC's have tried to staunch the landline slide, but I think now that they have declared themselves wireless companies, have given up the ghost. Verizon is now advertising to consumers to cut the cord.

Posted in cellular, wireline

Transformational?

May 29, 2009

I'm watching two conversational threads right now. One about Google Wave, which as Andy Abramson writes:

I'll refer to Wave as transformational, as its not revolutionary, but moves work flow from asymmetrical to both symmetrical and asymmetrical universes simultaneously, changing how you work both in real time and offline time.

Google has built a "communications" object that is full of capabilities that creates hybrid communications that are going to be a blend of games, email, IM, blogging, wikis, and a lot more.

I haven't seen the Wave demo (see a review here), but the reactions have been nothing short of WOW, even more than when Google Voice launched.

Posted in cellular, telecommunications, voip, wireless

Alltel Assets Going to AT&T

May 11, 2009

How does this work?

"AT&T Inc said Friday it will buy the bulk of Alltel Wireless assets being divested by Verizon Communications Inc for $2.35 billion, and will sell some Centennial Communications Corp assets to Verizon Wireless for $240 million." [telecomengine]

When they say divest assets, it's suppose to increase competition. Swapping assets between the two biggest players is not what was meant. "Verizon previously had said more than 30 companies had expressed interest in the Alltel assets." I guess only one was REALLY interested.

Posted in cellular, mergers, spectrum, telco

Who Do Rumors Benefit?

May 5, 2009

I was told that when you hear rumors about a merger, it's just bankers raising a balloon to see about interest. It's there way of testing the waters so they can "earn" some money with a little M&A action. (You wonder why banking is in trouble? What do they actually produce? Nothing.

Posted in cellular, technology, telecommunications, wireless

Mobile VoIP is a Problem

April 8, 2009

There are so many mobile voice apps I cannot even keep track. Some are convoluted. Some are callback services. Some are pure packet based VoIP that eat up data usage.

Posted in apps, cellular, telecommunications, voip, wireline

Are You Still an ILEC Agent?

April 7, 2009

This from Telephony online and the Convergence Consulting Group:

The latest in an annual study of the bundled services market shows US telecom service providers are losing wireline voice customers at a faster pace and being transformed in the process into companies that will look very different from their traditional telecom roots. The Battle for the American Couch Potato: Bundling, TV, Internet, Telephone, Wireless, released this week by the Convergence Consulting Group, shows maintaining a broadband connection is increasingly important to telecom providers, as wireline voice services become much less important.

If you look at the numbers in that PDF report and you still think that the QBPP is a viable option or that the last 400K businesses in the BellSouth region will somehow see the light and convert, I have some land for you in South Florida.

I have written about this in years past: the telcos have finally hit the wall. Everything is flat or down now: TV, wireline, cellular, and broadband.