Following the acquisition of Jajah for $207m by Telefonica many operators are asking the question, is VoIP important to fixed line and mobile communication.
Clearly skype and truphone have for a long time been a believer in fundamental change being around the corner. While Jajah had focused on providing white label services to companies like Yahoo Messenger, powering the Voice part of the Instant Messenger is one part of the equation. Companies like skype and truphone have traditional believed a global branded operator can be build from within an application approach.
While skype started on the desktop, the sole focus of truphone from day one has been making it work on mobile devices. And now has extended it reach into GSM and 3G via its unique Local Anywhere SIM Card.
Starting with the Nokia E60′s, mobile phones have developed a long way. Yesterday, I have been very lucky to receive my first Google Android phone, a Nexus One. A long standing friend and network engineer from our US team was kind enough to bring it from the US. A person I highly value within truphone, as he has been a pioneer from day one. We spoke for a long time at my local Starbucks about mobile network operator infrastructure and as a pioneer in VoIP and mobile VoIP about the changes in network infrastructure within mobile carriers.
My mind has been around the front end of the modern “Dialer”. The dialpad when I was young was round and had 10 holes. Then came buttons. No on a smartphone it can be software, the connection protocol can vary theoretical from bluetooth, GSM, 3G, 4G, WiMax and WiFi to provide outgoing traffic. Traditional we have used the GSM SIM, however other methods in software are available.
Hence modern dialers are potentially applications like facebook. I see facebook potentially as one of the world’s largest mobile operators, due to its 350m user imprint and high daily re-login rates. As personal mobile applications become more used and smarter it is a question of time before the device can route and figure a way to channel the voice and data traffic over the most appropriate route.
Clearly in data traffic this is the case already. Once I return home my phone switches to my WiFi network (the login is automatic in this case). I prefer WiFi in this case over 3G, due to speed and reliability. No need for a femtocell in this case.
In fact in my country home 7 Ruckus WiFi base station have cost me a fortune to be able to hand-over and be covered in several hectar of my own land on WiFi. Should I have used a femtocell instead? Lot’s of trees and a huge lake needs to be covered. Potentially I am searching for a solution covering and providing WiFi or alternative access over 60 ha (land online) – 120 ha (including some parts of the lake area).
truphone as the pioneer made it possible from day one with the Nokia E60 (in fact over bluetooth with the Nokia 6680). Four years have passed. Nokia’s due to the capability of apps running in the background on Voice and SMS traffic has been the pioneer, but so far missed the boat. Not even Ovi has saved it so far. Instead iPhone’s and iPod touch and now Android has taken it all from the pioneer, as they made downloadable apps usable for a mass audiance.
In my case I enter home, my phone auto-login capability allows me to be reachable, and with presence enabled I am up and running on a voice, sms and data network I build on my own. Within the three years of Nokia E60′s launching and the Nexus One arriving, no phone had the Nokia capability. Hence my excitement today to try out the Nexus One WiFi auto-login capability with apps running in the background. It feels we have finally come of age and the network of constantly IP connected phones is going beyond the small subset of Nokia E and N – Series phones.
In my believe auto-login into different channels (like WiFi) and apps running constantly makes a lot of sense. Coupled with presence and a real mobile number (not a skype like username) makes all the difference and is a revolution. Hence I am excited to see the numbers concurrent users on the truphone network increasing and the app to go beyond its current success.
We all love FREE calls, but so far they have only been possible on a very limited number of handsets. Nokia and now Nexus One has just changed the landscape and has now the potential to go beyond exciting means of mobile communication.
Please respond with interesting comments and opinions if you are not agreeing with my analysis. Looking forward and hope I can respond to each of you.
