Comments on: Mobile VoIP, the new blue hue? http://saunderslog.com/2007/11/26/mobile-voip-the-new-blue-hue/ A daily round table on the tech industry with experts and callers from all over the globe. Join us as we pick apart the news and get to the meat of what\'s happening out there. Thu, 28 Aug 2008 01:26:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Mum http://saunderslog.com/2007/11/26/mobile-voip-the-new-blue-hue/#comment-460040 Mum Tue, 27 Nov 2007 16:05:35 +0000 http://saunderslog.com/2007/11/26/mobile-voip-the-new-blue-hue/#comment-460040 Can't wait to see the new blue walls! Can’t wait to see the new blue walls!

]]> By: Alec http://saunderslog.com/2007/11/26/mobile-voip-the-new-blue-hue/#comment-459791 Alec Tue, 27 Nov 2007 11:56:22 +0000 http://saunderslog.com/2007/11/26/mobile-voip-the-new-blue-hue/#comment-459791 Hi Omfut, I agree that the user who makes outgoing calls on WiFi will drain profits from the operator for sure. The same thing is true for the high volume voice user who takes advantage of "all you can eat" plans. For example, a good friend of mine has a 3 hour commute every day, and with early unlimited evenings and weekends (a small extra charge from Bell Canada), he makes all of his west coast calls from the car. He regularly uses 3,000 minutes per month during his unlimited evenings. My only point is that voice is getting more and more competitive on mobile all the time. We're seeing (in the US) the emergence of flat rate plans, for example. Because of competitive pressure, I don't think the operators are ever going to pay attention to the Truphones of the world. They're too busy wondering how to get a leg up on the guy with the 3G license who's trying to steal their customers en masse! Hi Omfut,

I agree that the user who makes outgoing calls on WiFi will drain profits from the operator for sure. The same thing is true for the high volume voice user who takes advantage of “all you can eat” plans. For example, a good friend of mine has a 3 hour commute every day, and with early unlimited evenings and weekends (a small extra charge from Bell Canada), he makes all of his west coast calls from the car. He regularly uses 3,000 minutes per month during his unlimited evenings.

My only point is that voice is getting more and more competitive on mobile all the time. We’re seeing (in the US) the emergence of flat rate plans, for example. Because of competitive pressure, I don’t think the operators are ever going to pay attention to the Truphones of the world. They’re too busy wondering how to get a leg up on the guy with the 3G license who’s trying to steal their customers en masse!

]]> By: omfut http://saunderslog.com/2007/11/26/mobile-voip-the-new-blue-hue/#comment-459325 omfut Tue, 27 Nov 2007 04:41:18 +0000 http://saunderslog.com/2007/11/26/mobile-voip-the-new-blue-hue/#comment-459325 Alec: First of all, congratulation’s on your funding. Also, Thanks for linking my post. Wanted to clarify couple of things here: 1) fring and truphone use wireless data network for the originating leg of the voice call. In an ideal scenario, users would be charged for all outgoing call from mobile that uses operators TDM network. So if u look at these clients, they actually use either wifi or wireless data bandwidth for the originating leg of the call. And for the terminating leg, these startups may charge the user based on the type of contact the user is trying to call. If the user tries to call a contact number that belongs to a different country or state, than the call is actually terminated from the third-party company’s gateway switch bypassing completely the operator network. So my point is -this is going to drain the operator’s voice revenue. Imagine a high power user who uses more anytime voice minutes than the regular per month bucket, for every extra minute he uses, operators charges him for that. With an unlimited data plan or wifi, he could save those extra dollars being paid to the operators. Off course, this depends on the charging model of these independent startups. Operators have built the wireless data backbone to carry VAS services and not voice traffic. If voice traffic is carried using this backbone, then it’s going against the operator and not in concert with the operator. 2) I guess talkplus and mobivox don’t use wireless data backbone for voice traffic originated from mobile. It’s more like a traditional voice calling from mobile, except that the call is connected to their local switch. Alec:
First of all, congratulation’s on your funding. Also, Thanks for linking my post.
Wanted to clarify couple of things here:
1) fring and truphone use wireless data network for the originating leg of the voice call. In an ideal scenario, users would be charged for all outgoing call from mobile that uses operators TDM network. So if u look at these clients, they actually use either wifi or wireless data bandwidth for the originating leg of the call. And for the terminating leg, these startups may charge the user based on the type of contact the user is trying to call. If the user tries to call a contact number that belongs to a different country or state, than the call is actually terminated from the third-party company’s gateway switch bypassing completely the operator network. So my point is -this is going to drain the operator’s voice revenue. Imagine a high power user who uses more anytime voice minutes than the regular per month bucket, for every extra minute he uses, operators charges him for that. With an unlimited data plan or wifi, he could save those extra dollars being paid to the operators. Off course, this depends on the charging model of these independent startups.
Operators have built the wireless data backbone to carry VAS services and not voice traffic. If voice traffic is carried using this backbone, then it’s going against the operator and not in concert with the operator.
2) I guess talkplus and mobivox don’t use wireless data backbone for voice traffic originated from mobile. It’s more like a traditional voice calling from mobile, except that the call is connected to their local switch.

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