Alec Saunders SquawkBox

Image by wilding.andrew via Flickr

For our final daily SquawkBox, we discussed these stories:

• Reports are emerging that AT&T is developing an iPhone tethering plan, but network glitches are holding it up!
• Marlin, a digital rights technology created by Sony and Samsung, is apparently ready for prime time. An open source solution, it claims to solve the problems with DRM solutions from Microsoft and Apple. Have they solved the biggest problem, the fact that consumers hate DRM?
• Vonage dodges the bullet, and refinances their $253 million in convertible debt six weeks ahead of the December 16th due date.
• And Cox Communications… raises their VoIP pricing!

James Body also gave a short recap of the Symbian Show this week in London, and we had a discussion about the future of SquawkBox.  More on that later.

On today’s Calliflower Conference Call: Dan York, James Body, Jonathan Jensen, Jeanette Fisher, Jim Courtney, and Sheryl Breuker.

 

 Squawk Box October 24 [47:45m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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First we dove into the Net Neutrality debate. It looks as if three of five FCC  commissioners will vote to sanction Comcast this Friday for throttling bit-torrent  traffic. Dissenter Bob McDowell wrote an op-ed for yesterday’s Washington Post arguing that engineers should figure a way out of this mess, not politicians.

I don’t think there’s any doubt that Comcast was throttling traffic. We talked about McDowell’s argument for a hands-off approach by the FCC, the issues around bandwidth shortages, and what’s happening outside North America.

We also talked about Vonage.  It’s been a while since they’ve really  been in the news, but they’ve been quietly cranking out announcements. They’ve announced a partial refinancing of their debt.  Up to  $215 million of their $253 million can be refinanced under an agreement they’ve  just struck, and $125 million has been committed. They have to do this because the  existing convertible notes expire Dec 12.

They’ve also announced their first patent — on virtual phone numbers.

Revenues are growing.  Losses are narrowing — last quarter they lost just $8  million.

And, they’re set to announce a new CEO.

We talked about what it would take to make Vonage a success and whether or not they might really make it.

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• Comcast Says FCC and Internet Access Principles Don’t Apply To Them

 

 Squawk Box July 29 [39:33m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This morning we wrapped up some of the big stories of the week.  We talked about traffic shaping, as new data has emerged showing that Comcast has lied to the US FCC.  We also talked about Jerry Yang’s new nightmare – Carl Icahn, and Icahn’s hostile slate of Yahoo directors. And how about the story that Vodafone has bought Danish social network Zyb. Comcast bought Plaxo earlier in the week. That’s two carriers buying two social networks in one week.  Is it a trend?  Some of our participants expressed condolensces to Vodafone customers now stuck using Zyb. 

We also touched on RIM’s about face on touch screens.  Blackberry “Thunder” is coming this fall apparently.  The Blackberry tech I am chatting with on the phone right now swears he knows nothing…

How about Facebook’s decision to ban Google Friend Connect?  Claiming that Friend Connect violates the Facebook TOS, they’ve disallowed it.  Is Facebook doing right by their users, or are they hiding out behind their terms of service in order to disadvantage a competitor?

And what about Twitter?  After breaking the china news this week, the service has returned to it’s old deadbeat dad unreliable ways. Sometimes it’s there for ya, sometimes it’s not, and ya just can’t count on it when ya need it.  European participants on the call report no problems, but we in North America are having a devil of a time.

On the call:  Jeb Brilliant, Jim Courtney, Andy Abramson, David Brown, Adam Somer, Ian Hood, Bill Volk, Eric Fisher, James Body, Jonathan Jensen, Mike Pruyn, Henry Lewkowicz

Enjoy the recording.  No SquawkBox for Monday, as it’s a holiday here in Canada.

 

 Squawk Box May 16 [38:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The chess pieces have been moving around the VoIP board for the last couple of hours.  I’ve recently gotten mail on:

• The Comcast Cablevision announcement that it has passed 1,000,000 VoIP subscribers.  Om Malik observes that this is putting pressure on the incumbent carriers, but also makes life much more difficult for Vonage.  Indeed, Cablevision operates in just a few states as compared with Vonage which is an international carrier.  Vonage stock is down again, now below $7.
• The Nortel / Microsoft announcement of a new research partnership, which, according to Microsoft VP Jeff Raikes, will ultimately result in the sale of new products and services through a joint channel.  Because it’s a research partnership, this will be a longer term play. However, public cloud presence plays, like Tello, are going to come under pressure as a result.  For now, the alliance’s focus on enterprise and carrier means that there is plenty of room to innovate, even though the stakes have just become higher.

 We live in interesting times.