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January 30, 2007
The Razr's Edge
Carl Icahn's according to the Wall Street Journal article is taking an active interest in Motorola.
Given Icahn and Zander sit on the Time Warner Board and that Zander has declared cost cutting measures of 3,500 jobs it maybe that Carl is along for the ride.
Then again a plan maybe starting that looks to split the company up.
Motorola has a made a number or acquistions that may be repackaged and relaunched. Specifically Symbol maybe a strong enough brand to be pulled out with various other acquistions to be a stronger player.
Posted by carl at 11:33 AM | Comments (0)
January 29, 2007
Reshaping the footprint of Verizon
From the Wall street Journal article of Verizon.
As I stated in my discussion about att's footprint, I am not sure how valuable the foot print is anymore and I think the sale to fairpoint is a good move by Verizon.
The company's landline business continues to deteriorate, however, falling 7.6% to 45.1 million domestic fixed-access lines. The losses were offset by 409,000 new high-speed Internet connections. The company continues to see broader adoption of its fiber-based product, FiOS. Costs for the fiber upgrade are expected to peak in the first quarter at 11 cents a share.
So focusing on serving the cash cow areas with new core technology is the strategy.
Posted by carl at 11:11 AM | Comments (0)
January 26, 2007
All Hail King Ludd as seen on HDTV
The wife got her way and I am now the [proud] owner of an HDTV.
I can't see all the screen due to the posts on the bed. It has a plug system that I can not seem to understand that is reducing the chances of getting the CD / DVD into it.
I am not ready to join the visual digital age.
Posted by carl at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)
January 25, 2007
Happy Days are here again?
okay follow the trend line...
eBay's Skype
Lots of reports of good news some growth stories with eBay including the knowledge that Skype is serving 8M concurrent users of its 134 M registered companies. The report also states that they have 400+ devices and 350+ software applications embedding Skype.
att
Our friends at att said they expect growth of 17% with their Internet and Wireless offerings, but pointed to savings in synergies with BellSouth as the trend impacting the bottom line the most.
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Perhaps being territory based is no longer the model. The numbers make Skype credible on a subscriber to subscriber basis. If you compare the amount of revenue that Skype has recieved to date (approx 100M) then its not even close). If the trend line on the revenue comes up, it maybe a sign that virtualization time has come for the incumbents.
Posted by carl at 11:13 AM | Comments (0)
January 24, 2007
From Islands to Continents
I met with NeuStar today.
The discussion focused on peering and what the current state of the marketplace. In the discussion it became clear that we had "crossed the chasm" of Voice over IP and that interconnection was no longer about wholesale minute pricing but direct termination between carriers.
SIP - IX is designed for this new area of interconnection. The components of it include the ability to signal routing, validate identity and traverse adverse network elements. With partners such as Acme Packet, Broadsoft, iBasis, Nextone, Sonus, Sylantro, and XO Communications this is much more robust strategy than first meets the eye.
Its a service that makes alot of sense for cable operators and others looking to benefit from IMS.
Posted by carl at 10:20 AM | Comments (0)
January 23, 2007
If you build it; they will save
According to the WSJ, EMC declared strong earnings and its easy to see why.
When I was younger, our neighbors worked for Mead and were concerned that the digital age was going to deliver on the paperless society.
My father, got them an appointment at "the Labs" where they were told that the advent of the telephone had increased the amount of paper people were using and that trend had not changed.
Now we are seeing a new era of storage. Where the files that are being stored, Voice and Video dont lend themselves to paper. I am bullish on the storage part of the world as well.
Posted by carl at 08:43 AM | Comments (0)
January 22, 2007
Eric Burger is now at BEA
Its always interesting to watch as friends join new organizations.
One place that is catching my eye alot these days is BEA Systems.
Imagine and App Server that is designed for the Enterprise using SIP as an embedded solution rather than the focus of the application.
This strikes me as our real future.
Its not cheap phone service. Its apps that just include voice.
Posted by carl at 08:38 AM | Comments (0)
January 19, 2007
Exposed to a bunch of Heroes
My wife is interested in us buying a Digital TV. To the point where I spent the money on Consumer Reports. For me I am not overly happy with HDTV. My status as a bell head luddite is assured.
I think that I get headaches from walking into the show room and looking at all these things next to each other. My wife assures me that I will not feel the same when we have one.
At the store all I see is Heros everywhere. Its a good show, but I am asking myself how was it chosen over every other show. Its not just in one franchise either.
Is this a ratings rationale? A demographic? What makes it the visual of choice? My head hurts thinking about this.
She has also been suffering from a rise in size. She started with 22" than 27" and now is talking about 47". And this is for our bedroom! I think its going to block my pathway to my side of the bed. But she says it's a Flat panel so it will not be a problem, (she has not asked for a wall mount yet).
I am going to take an aspirin and lay down. But I am not going to watch TV.
Posted by carl at 04:00 PM | Comments (0)
January 18, 2007
For the last time (Please G-d) the iPhone
I am annoyed at Steve Smith and Jeff for having me waste the time to got to Steve's Blah Blah Blah iPhone piece. Shame on me.
The Wall Street Journal today reflected the controversy over the iPhone, but I am not sure they did it justice.
It's actually real simple. The real world contains 6.5 Billion people of which a small percentage 300 Million (in the US) will be able to buy 10 Million iPhones from att.
Its a controlled launch of a product in a market where 3GPP and GSM are still waiting to be implemented.
Dear Mr. Jobs, if you want to come and play in telecom we are excited to have you here. But how about building for the world's open standards and working backwards to the US rather than the other way around. Better yet ignore everything but GPRS and let the industry treat the iPhone as a Mac Mini for the hip.
I think the most logical discussion on Apples iphone is here in Business 2.0's blog.
So here is a question. If Apple wants to no longer be about computers are those assets up for sale?
Posted by carl at 08:25 AM | Comments (0)
January 17, 2007
The Real Break Up of the Bell System
Fairpoint agreed to acquire the Verizon assets serving Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
Fairpoint is using DSL to reach its rural customers. Fairpoint's Gene Johnson stated in the quarterly report call says that they are looking to take advantage of consolidation.
Fairpoint is also doing a triple play for 10,000 of its customers.
From a Verizon standpoint I get this. Don't put FIOS fiber in harms way of tractors. ;<)
From Fairpoints view I get this.
From the consumer in the area, I am not sure this is an issue as well, New England Telephone, NYNEX, Bell Atlantic, Verizon. It't just a name change... Or is it?
When I lived in an independent area the capital budget for upgrades was small. Fairpoints annual report talked about 33Million for its capital upgrades last year. With $1.7 Billion going to Verizon, I think the capital budget will be a telling symbol of service.
Posted by carl at 12:22 PM | Comments (0)
January 16, 2007
Social Networking - People Like Mobile [PLM]?
Per Gartner (via the WSJ) 63% of mobile phones sold in North America in 2007 will have Global Positions Systems [GPS]. Doing a back of the napkin SWAG on FCC reports that means that over a third of the market (over 70M US phones) are ready for GPS applications.
But who is in this third of the market. The industry seems to indicate the answer is the youth.
Look at the technology from Loopt, available from Boost Mobile. I can tell from their web site that it is not looking for People Like Me [PLM]. This is a location based service to find friends that has over 100,000 users (per the WSJ).
Sprint’s has a service called Family Locator which is closer to my needs.
But the majority of these applications are for a younger market like the spread of services on Helio and Rave Wireless.
Other services such as Socialight may or may not hit me demographically. I am very friendly with Ed Pimentel who has built the application Googaya. Underneath Googaya are some interesting tools for someone who wants to build more than a front end into other peoples solutions.
I guess my fear is abuse. If I am okay seeing “People Like Me”, I wonder if other people I am seeing like me, or like me too much, or....
You get the idea. Its cool technology but I am not sure I trust everyone who is going to use it. If I have my concerns, you can bet there are plenty of people like me. ;<)
Posted by carl at 09:51 AM | Comments (0)
January 15, 2007
A Day of Character(s) and iRony
It's the official day of celebrating Martin Luther King, and I am working on my blog for the sake of continuity.
Given that Martin Luther King, was a man trying to show that skin color was a poor criteria for carrier judgement. This article about the man that taught Apple's founder to phreak it has a delicious iRony
Here is the story about Cap'n Crunch Draper.
More iRony. Apple is born when Cap'n Crunch teaches them to make phreaker boards and takes the computer name off when it announces a closed iPhone.
I am cutting and pasting myself and Schuyler’s comments on IM
[16:46] schuylerdeerman: So, do you like the iPhone?
[16:47] alwaysoncarl: I think everybody is looking at it as a phone
[16:47] schuylerdeerman: *laughs*
[16:49] alwaysoncarl: Mac Mini
[16:49] alwaysoncarl: think of the iphone as the upgrade to a mac mini
[16:49] schuylerdeerman: *nods*
I like the apple software alot better than outlook lots of ways to organize myself that i wanted to use but i only owned a mac desktop and apple has not had a pda since merlin if you think of this as a merlin rebirth its cool. But phones are .....POTS
You cant expect sex from a phone. The nokia, the samsung, motorola, LG devices they all are pretty boring [as phones] and cool as devices.
So the bloggers on Jobs case because he did not make voice sexy. Truth is he did a nice job. Slick interface, easy to understand.
From that stand point its a joy. I just wish the cd-rom / dvd could have fit
But it could have be so much more...
A unix box on a phone and vice versa. If this system allows developers into like a mac mini....
We should all learn eclipse and get going on taking advantage of this box phone
Dear Steve
Please let asterisks be in your phone
A pbx on you cell would have all sorts of neat opporutin
You could make it so you can watch your voice mail and IVR interact, make a game to see if you can force telemarketers into an endless loop. And have the IVR menu on the iPhone show where the person is in the que. Only to hear “Go away I don’t want to talk to you.?
Seriously Steve, the iPhone does not deserve the name if you don't enable the end user to play with it.
Remember your Roots! Buy a Whistle.
Posted by carl at 09:52 AM | Comments (0)
January 13, 2007
The Delta of JetBlue
In a previous life of blogging, I was one of the first to sing JetBlue's praises.
Jet Blue has always had Delta in its sights if your read Blues Streak or any of the articles about them in the early years.
Today I want to tell you that Delta is being emulated by JetBlue.
I have ended up with damaged bags, delayed flights, but more often than not the way I feel they are resembling Delta is in the Nickle and Diming of me for every change. I had a flight credit due to my not going to CES. Its been swallowed up in their working with me on changes in my flight iternaries.
Worse yet, my Free Flight which I was going to use to bring my wife with the me to Vegas, is now an albatross on my neck. Change fees flight changes that I have to put in place due to placeholding it.
When free stuff costs its makes you feel really abused.
All of that is just flight related. Now the real issue.
JFK Terminal Six.
They are in process of constructing a new terminal at the old TWA site. But they have destroyed the parking lot, closed elevators for repairs that take you to the airtrain, had some problems with user identification on the self - checkin terminals and made the experience with personnel less friendly.
I am frequently waking up in the morning at 4 AM to take the 6 AM flight and get into the office at 9 AM. I rent a car sometimes and then I take the last flight out at 10 PM because that is the only flight I am guaranteed to get if I work a full day in our Beverly office. If I try to take an earlier flight and miss it JetBlue charges me and often the fair difference is in their favor by a considerable amount. Nickle and Dimed, I then all to often end up at the temporary terminal at JFK with no exit for folks like me who have baggage, so I am on a shuttle to get out of the maze at JFK. With 6 no longer a parking lot I take the airtrain to my car. Last night I waited 45 minutes in line to pay the parking fee (WITH EASY PASS!).
When I got home from JFK at 11:45 PM last night, I made up my mind that the train and my car would be methods of communiting to Boston for next few months.
JetBlue, has gone from the cute baby to either a terrible two or a rebellious teen treating its passengers like its parent.
I will try them again in March, if I can find a way to use my free ticket.
Maybe they will have matured with age.
Posted by carl at 11:01 AM | Comments (2)
January 12, 2007
VONAGE and Earthlink Give it another chance!
This is a role reversal between the two companies because now Vonage is bundling their VoWifi service with Earthlink. In previous years Earthlink was the reseller of Vonage.
The terms of the agreement make it so that Vonage is in charge of its own marketing. And the bundle of the service. Once again Vonage, the voice application provider is in the murky waters of looking like a traditional service provider.
While I believe they do a nice job of providing voice application features and functions, its clear the market is not getting the flexibility Vonage was intended to have.
Its hard to stay on course when you are the trail blazer.
Posted by carl at 10:14 AM | Comments (1)
January 11, 2007
Extra Extra Hear all about it
The first weekly podcast featuring
Mikey and I talking (I need to join the 12 step group for talkers called ONandON ;<))
We talk about Xbox 360 IPTV, Apples iPhone, Samsung and Qualcomm MediaFLO.
Then Rich (upbeat) Erb gives us his analysis of the stock market.
I then have a great discussion with Link Hoewig of Verizon about the increasing need for bandwidth by end points and the Verizon poliblog.
And we close (perhaps fade is a better word) with why I think Google is evil.
If some one can give us the time steps for each segement I will insert them.
As always comments are welcome.
Hear it now