Alec Saunders SquawkBox

On today’s SquawkBox we hosted Joe Sipher of Pinger.  It was a pretty interesting call.

Until today I really thought of Pinger as being an audio substitute for text messaging.  Not so!  Their Pinger Voicemail sounds way cool! Does your voicemail system let you reply to voice mail with another voice message?  Notify you with a text message when a new voicemail has arrived and take you directly to that message when you dial in?

Enjoy the call, and see you Monday for more SquawkBox fun and excitement!

 

 Squawk Box April 11 - Guest Joe Sipher [36:45m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Yesterday I made a call to the Ted Mahal (Rogers HQ) to discuss my wireless data bill for February and March.  I made two short trips - one to Spain and one to California - and used my BlackBerry to receive about 10M of data in that time.  Total bill: $415. Mystified at how my bill could be so large, given that AT&T (the US carrier) provides US residents with unlimited data for $35/month, and Telefonica and Vodafone (the Spanish carriers) have similar programs, I called Rogers to discuss.

It was a surprising call.

Surprise #1: I explained the situation to the rep, who promptly knocked $185 off the bill without question.  He also offered to allow me to speak with the supervisor if I wanted to ask for more.  I declined, having been burnt on that one previously.

I then asked what products Rogers offered in order to make it possible for international travellers to travel without getting killed on the roaming charges — noting that I already use unlocked phones and local SIMs in order to keep my voice charges as low as possible.  A few minutes of rooting around at his end turned up no results for any kind of truly international data roaming plan, and then…

Surprise #2: … a surprising confession.  “Sir, Canada has some of the worst data rates in the world.  Our carriers just don’t seem to be able to offer the same rate programs as others.  I wish I could help you more.”

It certainly looks as if Rogers is 100% aware of the customer disatisfaction with data rates. Moreover, they’ve moved to implement a customer retention program for those that have the temerity to actually phone and ask for satisfaction.

Next time you get a big data bill, give them a call.  Your friendly neighborhood Rogers rep may just help you out.

I’ve been following Pinger for a little while, and this morning we’ll have Joe Sipher, CEO, as our guest on SquawkBox. Pinger’s value proposition is built around sending short voice messages to mobile phones, much like SMS text messages. It’s generate considerable interest, especially in the arts community.

So join us at 11 AM as we chat with Joe, and learn what his company’s products do, how they work, and why they’re so popular.

Digium founder Mark Spencer got up in Toronto a couple of days ago and gave a speech in which he said that Asterisk was “boring”.  Applications are where the action is these days, said Mark.  I’m sure someone on the Digium PR team must have burst an aneurysm over this one.  It’s definitely not “on message” for the founder of a company to call its flagship technology boring.

But you know, Mark’s right.  Not only that, Asterisk as a boring technology is the best possible outcome for the industry.  Windows is boring too!  (Note to Mac Fanboi’s — the Mac is definitely not boring.  I just want to make that clear.) The point is this — when the platform ceases to be the story, the real end user innovation can start.  Let me repeat that: when the platform ceases to be the story, the real end user innovation can start.

The best part?  There are even a few folks in some of those older telecom companies — from the telecom industry’s cretaceous period, if you will — that understand this too.  A couple of years ago I had dinner in San Jose with the CTO of an unnamed sauro-PBX manufacturer, who confided in me that the best thing that had happened to the industry in years was Asterisk.  Why?  Because the faster that Asterisk commoditized the call control layer in his company, the faster they could get on to doing the exciting stuff — the applications.

So yeah, Asterisk is boring.  And we should all love it for that reason.