Alec Saunders SquawkBox

Today is the beginning of a concerted effort on my part to figure out where the soft spots are in cellular rates, here in Canada, and to exploit them.  I currently spend just north of $500 every month with Rogers using my BlackBerry.  That comprises $330 for 1750 minutes on the North American one-rate plan, which allows me to roam anywhere in the US and Canada at the same rate, plus $100 for 200M of monthly data, some minor service features, and (of course) taxes.  Because it's a business plan, and unlimited roaming, Rogers has said "no" to any notion of free evenings and weekends, or any other plan that might give you a similar break.

So…

Yesterday I cancelled the North American one-rate plan, substituting a Canada-wide 1250 minute plan for it.  The Canada-wide plan allows me to roam anywhere in Canada, but not the US. I only visit the US for a few days every other month, so this is likely not going to impact me. Price: $150.  Savings: $180. 

This morning I activated a new SIM for my Nokia N95.  I added the Rogers MegaTime 200 plan, for $39, which allows unlimited evening and weekends (starting at 5PM), plus unlimited on-network calls to Rogers customers.  In addition, I added the new MyFive promotion, which gives me unlimited calling between 5 people on any network. The people I call most are my partner Howard, my home, my parents, and my brother-in-law.  They're all in MyFive, which means I don't pay to call any of them. Cost: $10.  And, of course, the obligatory caller-ID / voice mail and data plan package: $20.

And finally, I added a TalkPlus account. The TalkPlus account was the impetus for starting down this path because, aside from its many many other benefits, TalkPlus allows me make any long distance call a local call and charges me between 1 and 3 cents per minute to call most places in the US and Canada.  This is one helluva deal compared to Rogers' 30 cents per minute. Plus, I can simply buy a pay as you go card anytime I am travelling in the US, and experience the same benefits.

At this point I've likely reduced my bill by about $100 / month. But I have many more minutes and much more data than I will every likely use.  For example, the N95 is a WiFi enabled phone as well, and I will try to make calls in my office using our WiFi hotspot and TruPhone in order to avoid burning up that precious 200 minutes of airtime that Rogers has so stingely allocated on this plan.

Next month, I will fine tune the plans after examining my bills.  My intent is for the BlackBerry to remain my mobile email device, but to shift as much of the calling traffic from it to the lower priced consumer plans as I possibly can. 

Stay tuned!

In Facebook for the Enterprise = Facebook, Dennis Howlett echoes some of the same themes articulated by Don Tapscott at last week's Enterprise 2.0.  The underlying premise of both men's arguments is that Facebook generation will wipe out the command control infrastructure in business today. 

Chatting with Schuyler Deerman on Skype the other day, we swapped observations about this phenomenon.  Schuyler noted that Facebook traffic is climbing at a phenomenal rate, and that this year's graduating class is the first "Facebook class" — where Facebook has been a part of their lives from the start of school.  The research I've done tends to bear that out.  The chart below, for instance, was created from some public data provided by Facebook themselves in March.  Amongst workforce users (those aged 25-64) Facebook use is growing at 200% of the rate that student usage is growing.  The green highlighted areas are extrapolations, from that data, showing that there may be over 7 million workforce users of Facebook today.  It could easily reach 15 million by years end.

It seems clear that as college students graduate, Facebook is providing them with a unique opportunity to maintain the network they cultivated in that environment, and transport it into the workplace.  Moreover, a significant number of those people are choosing to dramatically enlarge that network by adding wordplace friends. 

In retrospect, it's easy to draw the threads together and conclude that Facebook's decision to open the platform, coupled with their earlier decision to open the community, was a calculated move to generate this activity. 

Like many of us, Jeff Pulver has been playing with Facebook recently.  He writes:

As more and more software developers integrate their applications with Facebook, Facebook has become that much more valuable…especially when the third-party applications add to the overall end user experience. It might have been a moment of sheer Genius or Madness when the Facebook team decided to open up their APIs, but WOW!. By doing so, Facebook has moved itself up in the ecosystem and is quickly becoming something even bigger than it ever was.

Yup.  The game is transformed from "who can build the biggest social network" to "who can build the richest social networking platform".  Online services gave way to social networks which are now giving way to the social platform.  We've had inklings of this with Marc Andreesen's Ning and Marc Canter's People Aggregator, but the story today is all Facebook.  Why? Classic platform strategy dictates that applications pull platforms through.  It wasn't until there was significant momentum in Facebook that the strategy could have been executed.  The momentum didn't materialize to the same extent around prior efforts.

And like Jeff, I find myself messaging via Facebook more and more often.  It's turning me from a Blackberry user into a text messaging user. 

Looking for a quick, easy speed-up for your Internet?  Try OpenDNS.  Simply log in to your router and substitute the IP addresses of their DNS servers for your ISP's DNS.  Reboot your PC's and Router.  Presto — internet pages which used to load slowly are now lickety split.

The brainchild of entrepreneur David Ulevitch, OpenDNS is a speedy, modern and secure DNS system.  Designed to be faster, outwit phishing schemes, and support applications as well, it's a clear and immediate improvement over the old system I was using.  For example:

• it can automatically correct spelling errors in site names, taking you to the domain you wanted, rather than the one you typed. Type Yahoo.cmo, and it will automatically make it Yahoo.com.
• it can be configured to block porn sites, and automatically blocks known phishing sites.
• it has HUGE DNS caches, and they're distributed all over the world on their own network.  Fast, and reliable.
• you can create shortcuts to your favorite sites or applications.  For instance, you can configure it so that when you type "call andy abramson" into your browser, it will launch Skype and call Andy.

The price?  It's all free, apparently subsidized by an advertising deal with Yahoo search. 

Today, the web is silent.  Oh, the chattering classes of bloggers will continue to comment, ridicule and converse as liberally as ever.  But the radio stations are silent.  Thousands of streaming audio stations from the tiniest to media giants like Yahoo! and MTV will either cease streaming altogether, or play static interspersed with public awareness announcements. 

Why?

They're protesting a short sighted ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board which threatens to shut down the entire Internet radio industry.  According to Lawbean:

In March, the Copyright Royalty Board announced that it would raise royalties for Internet broadcasters, moving them from a per-song rate to a per-listener rate. The increase would be made retroactive to the beginning of 2006 and would double over the next five years. After the announcement, a group of broadcasters spearheaded by National Public Radio petitioned the CRB for a rehearing, but a panel of judges denied the request less than a month later. Internet radio sites would be charged per performance of a song. A “performance” is defined as the streaming of one song to one listener; thus a station that has an average audience of 500 listeners racks up 500 “performances” for each song it plays.

Internet Radio is still a new medium with new business models associated with it.  Until recently, and option existed to simply pay a percentage of revenues as royalty, which allowed small stations to exist.  However, under the new regime it's a flat rate per listener, and it's a high flat rate as well.   According to Kurt Hanson's Radio and Internet Newsletter:

… the royalty rate decision — for the performance alone, not even including composers' royalties! — is in the in the ballpark of 100% or more of total revenues.

The new royalty rates will go into effect on July 15, 2007, retroactive to January 1, 2006.  More than a few Internet broadcasters will likely cease business on that day.  Or, they may just move offshore. If they do that, though, what that likely means is that terrestrial broadcasters who broadcast a simultaneous internet stream will cut the internet stream.  For me personally that means the loss of KMTT (Seattle's The Mountain), a favorite of mine.   

If you believe in Internet Radio, and want to save it, here's what you can do.

1. Donate to the SaveNetRadio campaign.  If you're a Facebook user, install the Causes app, join the SaveNetRadio cause, donate money and get others to join.  They're both easy!
2. If you live in the US, contact your representatives and senators.  If you don't, you can still join the Save Net Radio coalition. 
3. If you write a blog, discuss this issue.  If you don't write a blog, join the discussion on somebody else's blog.  If you prefer Facebook, join any of the nine Save Net Radio discussion groups that have been created there, and join the discussion. 

Here is a partial list of some of the media organizations participating.   

Yahoo!, Live365 stations, Rhapsody, MTV Online, AccuRadio, KCRW (Santa Monica, CA), Pandora, Radioio, DigitallyImported, RadioParadise, 3WK, myMVY, Wizard Radio, Born Again Radio, Pearadio.com, Ear.fm, WGLI (Bablylon, NY), WMUK (Kalamazoo, MI), Head-On Radio Network, Zecom/Gemz Radio, monkeygrip music cafe, KFCF (Fresno, CA), LuckySevenRadio.com, Blue Power/Guitar Speak, PNA (Oak Park, IL), 60's Chicks Radio/Seasons & Celebrations Radio, STAR 107.9, WRPS/WebRadioPugetSound, Puregold Rock 'N Roll, NeverEndingWonder Radio, RadioMilwaukee, BAGeL Radio, Gotradio/100hitz, KDUN (Reedsport, OR), GDRadio.net, KQLZ (Los Angeles, CA), XPR/KXJZ (Sacramento, CA), NiceNoise.Net, BlackLight Radio, Pure Pop 24/7, Smooth Jazz and More, Reggae Nostalgia, WCH Radio/The Wave, WYGS Southern Gospel Radio Network, BluegrassCountry.org/WAMU.org, WRAJ Internet Radio

The time to act is now.  Today.  Because in three weeks time it will be too late.

UPDATE: Here's a link to a great posting from Yahoo! Music's Ian Rogers.