AT&T Adds Mobile VoIP App

IP Carrier source

AT&T smart phone customers now will be able to make international calls from their mobile devices using a VoIP app developed in conjunction with 8x8. AT&T "Call International" is a free mobile VoIP app providing international long distance calling at low, competitive rates.

Developed with and operated by 8x8, AT&T smart phone customers can use the app to make calls from the U.S. to international numbers; and when abroad, customers will benefit from the same low rates using the app over Wi-Fi . 


A list of countries and rates are available at www.att.com/callinternational.



The app provides simple, step-by-step instructions to establish an AT&T Call International account. Once established, customers can immediately make international calls through the app by either dialing directly or by accessing their existing contacts list. All calls are billed directly to the customer's credit card.


The AT&T Call International app is available now as a free download in Android Market, BlackBerry AppWorld and more. AT&T Mobile Adds VoIP-Based International Calling

Mobile VoIP About to Explode?

Mobile VoIP Forecast

Mobile VoIP subscribers will grow from 47 million in 2010 to almost 410 million by 2015, Infonetics Research forecasts. That is not a good thing for service providers.


Mobile service providers globally earn about $500 billion a year providing voice services.


In 2010, mobile operators made $13.21 per user, per year, from mobile VoIP services. That works out to about $1.10 per user, per month, demonstrating how little revenue there is to be made from over-the-top mobile VoIP services. Mobile VoIP forecast.


Consider that, even after a 20 percent decline over the last three years, monthly average mobile revenue is about $27.77 a month. That points out the complicated business impact of IP telephony and VoIP. 


So what happens if 363 million more mobile VoIP users are active by 2015? Assume the same revenue metrics for the additional 363 million mobile VoIP users, which is $13.21 per user, per year, compared to a typical payment of $27.77 a month for legacy voice services, or $333.24 a year.


If the 410 million mobile VoIP subscribers use nothing but VoIP, they would spend $131 billion less with mobile service providers than they used to.


That suggests a loss of about 26 percent of total mobile service provider revenue in four years. Mobile VoIP About to Explode?

T-Mobile USA Extends VoIP Features

T-Mobile’s Bobsled service, a VOIP-based communication platform that initially allowed smartphone owners to call their Facebook friends from their mobile device, has been expanded to provide free calls to any mobile or landline number in the U.S, Canada or Puerto Rico from anywhere in the world, simply by using their desktop browser.

The move is one more example of what normally happens in competitive markets, which is that the contestants lagging most in a market are most likely to embrace disruptive changes.

Whereas before, Bobsled would allow you to call Facebook friends from a dedicated smartphone application, the service has been adapted to give users the opportunity to call numbers in North America directly from the browser using their desktop computer and iOS or Android tablets or smartphones.

The Android/iOS version currently only supports calls direct to Facebook contacts, but that will be upgraded soon, one assumes. If an iPhone or Android user wants to make free general calls, users will need to log in through the browser interface instead of placing calls directly from the mobile.

Still, using the mobile apps, users already can make Bobsled to Bobsled calls, cross-platform between Android and iOS, and leave voicemails that show up on Facebook contacts’ walls.

It’s also possible to record a voice message and leave that pinned to someone’s wall, rather than actually talk to them.

In effect it’s a clever way for T-Mobile to potentially get onto hundreds of thousands of iPhone home screens, despite being the only major US carrier not offering the new iPhone 4S. The immediate revenue for T-Mobile is nil, of course, but the potential for mind share and awareness at least is enhanced.

"Bobsled Calling" allows users to make high quality calls to Facebook friends and any number in the United States, Canada or Puerto Rico from anywhere a user has an Internet connection, even when they phone isn't available. Bobsled

To download the application on your smartphone or tablet device, click here.

watch the video

Better Broadband a 2-Edge Sword for Mobile Service Providers

You won't find too many people arguing that Long Term Evolution, WiMAX or 4G in general is a bad thing, long term. You can find lots of people who might say the timing of the investment is an issue, that the danger of overpaying to acquire spectrum is an issue, or that protocol decisions carry some risk.

One hears less talk about the impact on voice services as lower-latency mobile broadband services are introduced. One advantage LTE offers application providers and access providers is much better latency performance, which means better real-time services performance. That means better voice and video.

But that lower latency is better for all providers of real-time services, not just the mobile broadband provider.

"Because LTE is all-IP and offers lower latency, it puts mobile calling services from OTT providers like Skype on more equal footing with existing carrier wireless voice services," says Tole Hart, Yankee Group senior analyst.

In other words, though LTE is strategic for mobile service providers, it also means a better platform for over-the-top application providers who have services requiring good latency performance.

Yankee Group forecasts smart phone penetration reaching 50 percent by the end of 2011 and 70 percent by 2013, meaning there will be more customers using their smart phones to download alternative calling apps from application providers like Skype, Vonage and Google Voice, and possibly from social communities like Facebook in the future.

The standard "advice" for mobile service providers is to enhance the value of their captive voice services. It's good advice, though strategically problematic, since the application providers will continue to enhance the value of their own services as well.

Obviously, at stake for carriers is a portion of the approximately $730.4 billion in global mobile voice service revenue. But there also will be danger from application providers who bundle text messaging with their voice services, as well.

Text messaging generates about $74.7 billion worth of revenue, and very-high profit margins.

Mobile service providers have important advantages in terms of creating bundles of services that will tend to keep customers "glued" to a basket of features including voice, text messaging and broadband access. That would be a simple adoption of the fixed-line "triple play" strategy, where the incremental cost of any one service is relatively low, in a package of three or four services.

Of course, in some markets mobile service providers might also be able to apply native quality of service mechanisms that provide meaningful experience advantages for end users, and are not available to other application providers. In other cases mobile service providers might want to sell those capabilities to third-party voice providers as a revenue-generating product.

The point is that there is no simple, fool-proof way to "firewall" a mobile voice service from more-effective application provider competition once an LTE network is in place. Bundles and quality assurance are likely to be important weapons, though.

New Skype for the iPhone

A new version of Skype for the iPhone supports voice calls over 3G. I don't know about you, but I still find voice over 3G a challenging and non-predictable experience.

A recent call I was on was flaky enough that we reverted back to the public switched network.

New Skype 2.0 app for the iPhone allows voice calls over 3G -- Engadget:

Wi-Fi-Capable Version of Skype for Smartphones Coming Later This Year

A fully-featured Android client from Skype will be available "later this year," Skype says, and that version will include video support and be usable across all mobile networks, unlike the more restricted mode Skype now finds itself using on the Apple iPhone and Verizon Droid, for example, meaning among other things that Wi-Fi support will be available.

That isn't supported today on AT&T or Verizon networks and devices, although there may be times when users are happy their Skype voice sessions on a Droid actually are laundered through the Verizon voice network, for reasons of stability and voice quality.

The move will not dramatically alter the economics of mobile voice services, at least at first. But there isn't much doubt that mobile VoIP will, over time, erode the amount of money and profit margin voice represents for the mobile industry, forcing mobile operators to change their revenue and business models, just as fixed-line operators now are having to adjust.

Half of Mobile VoIP Accounts will be Over the Top, 45% Supplied by Carriers in 2013

Over half of all the world's 288 million mobile VoIP users in 2013 will be using over-the-top mobile VoIP applications, about 45 percent will use mobile VoIP provided by mobile operators, according to researchers at In-Stat.

Not everybody agrees with that forecast. Disruptive Analysis in the past has argued that a majority of VoIP offers would be supplied directly by mobile operators or in partnership with third parties.

That basically illustrates the issue VoIP poses for fixed and mobile service providers. On one hand, VoIP is the future of voice. On the other hand, voice no longer will be a monopoly, high-margin revenue source for today's service providers.

That isn't to say voice is destined to become a complete "no incremental cost" application. Many providers will make some continuing revenue on voice, for quite some time.

It is just that VoIP represents a mixed blessing. It clearly is the future for voice. But the future of voice is that of an experience that sometimes does not require incremental fees, sometimes does; sometimes is bought as a service and often is used as an application.

On a geographic basis, mobile VoIP will be heavily biased towards the Asia Pacific region, particularly among the online mobile VoIP services.

“The near-term opportunity for mobile VoIP is closely linked with the growing success of dual-mode phones and other Wi-Fi connected devices,” says Frank Dickson, In-Stat analyst. “However, mobile VoIP still poses a direct threat to operator voice revenue and operators are navigating how to balance new opportunity with the threat.”

Ironically, Low Prices are a Barrier to Mobile VoIP

SK Telecom says it has no plans to allow its smartphone subscribers access to VoIP calling, saying it will deal a blow to its revenue, reports the Korea Herald.  That's true, but also likely unsustainable. All it would take is for Korea Telecom to allow it and SK Telecom would have to relent.

Oddly enough, it appears low prices are a problem. An SK Telecom executive says that AT&T and Verizon can afford to allow VoIP because both those carries make enough money with their broadband and voice tariffs to allow cannibalization of legacy voice revenues by VoIP.

Oddly enough, this is a case where higher prices would lead to more innovation. U.S. carriers are moving about as fast as they can to create broadband-driven revenue streams so voice can be cannibalized.

Mobile VoIP is a sensitive issue for SK Telecom precisely because its tariffs are low. "Mobile VoIP will destroy our profit-making structure," Lee Soon-kun, senior vice president of SK Telecom, says. At the same time, Korean mobile providers face mounting pressure to lower tariffs on legacy calling.

Under the "per-second" scheme, which will take effect on March 1, 2010the carrier will charge for every second, instead of every 10 seconds. Under the current system, consumers have to pay for a full 10-seconds of calls, even if they have not been connected for all of that time.

The revamp is expected to lead to a tariff cut of 700 won and 800 won per subscriber on average, SK Telecom said, adding that all of its 25 million subscribers would be able to save a combined 201 billion won ($1.8 million) a year.

SK's move put its rivals KT and LG Telecom under growing pressure to follow suit.

Broadband prices that are too low--basically unable to support the entire cost of running a mobile network--would seem to be a problem for widespread mobile VoIP in the Korean market.

Unlimited Skype Calling on Verizon Smartphones in March 2010

Starting in March 2010, all Verizon Wireless customers with smartphones and a data plan) will be able to make and receive unlimited Skype-to-Skype voice calls to any user in the world over its 3G network, which is something that AT&T users have been able to do since last autumn.

From right to left,  John Stratton, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless, and Josh Silverman, Skype's CEO, announcing their strategic relationship to bring Skype to Verizon Wireless smartphones during a press conference at the 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

60% of Calls are Video-Enabled on fring in W. Europ

After just two months, video over Internet calls account for more than 40 percent of fring's global call traffic, on devices capable of doing so, and more than 60 percent of its call traffic throughout Western Europe, where fring mobile video call usage doubles the leading PC-based video call services, fring says.

Fring launched the world’s first interoperable service between mobile video users of fring and Skype last November, enabling users to conduct video calls to other fring users as well as with Skype users using aWi-Fi or 3G mobile Iternet connection.

The majority of fring's mobile video calls are international.

Keep in mind that fring only works on devices running the Symbian or Apple mobile operating systems, including all Symbian 9.2 and 9.3 Nokia devices including the E71N95, N95 8G, N83, N97, 5800 and other Nokia touch-screen S60 devices and the iPhone and iPod touch.

Truphone Becomes a Mobile Service Provider

These days, any company that really wants to become a mobile service provider can do so. Recently Mitel, a provider fo business phone systems and solutions, became a mobile service provider to deliver turnkey communications solutions for its business customers.

Now Truphone has launched "Truphone Local Anywhere," allowing local mobile calling initially in the United States and the United Kingdom, using a subscriber information module (SIM) approach. Addtional markets, including European countries, Australia, Hong Kong and South Africa, will be added in 2010.

Initially, the service will be most valuable for U.K. mobile users who want to call the United States, but the service soon will extended across Europe and other markets U.K. callers may frequently wish to reach.

The new service offers mobile users local rates for voice, data and text services for all countries where Truphone establishes operations, all on a single SIM.

In conjunction with the launch of Truphone Local Anywhere, the company announced it has become a mobile virtual network operator in the United Kingdom.

Truphone Local Anywhere eliminates the need for users to swap SIM cards, juggle multiple mobile devices or use complex dial-back systems in efforts to avoid costly roaming charges.

Vonage World Mobile Launches

Users of the iPhone, BlackBerry and iPod touch can subscribe to Vonage World Mobile, a new global calling feature available for "Vonage Mobile," Vonage's mobile calling application. Vonage World Mobile provides customers with unlimited mobile international calls to over 60 countries for one flat monthly rate when calling from their mobile device.

The service works on cellular or Wi-Fi (iPhone), just Wi-Fi for the touch and only using mobile spectrum for the BlackBerry.

Current Vonage World residential customers will receive a 40 percent per month discount on their home service when they buy Vonage World Mobile.

Vonage World Mobile costs $24.99/month and is available as a free download at www.vonage.com and the iTunes App Store.

Google Phone: Will Second Time be the Charm?

Remember Zer01 Mobile, the mobile virtual network enabler, which says it "is the first mobile virtual enabler company to offer true mobile voice over IP services at a carrier level?" I don't mean "remember" as in, "they're gone," but only in the sense that you might not have heard quite so much about them since they switched business plans and became an MVNE rather than a retail provider.

At their original unveiling, some of us thought the most interesting angle about Zer01 was the way it went about providing voice services, at that time not a classic mobile virtual network operator,. but as something else. Up to this point, MVNOs essentially have bought capacity from some underlying carrier and then rebranded and resold those services under their own names.

Zer01 Mobile did something different. It leveraged intercarrier connection rights to essentially roam on other 3G GSM networks. It's the same sort of business arrangements mobile providers create when they want their own subscribers to use other networks where the home network does not actually have infrastructure.

By such mechanisms, Zer01 Mobile essentially was able to create a VoIP offering using the data connection only, with no need to buy wholesale voice minutes.

At the time Zer01 Mobile launched, at least some of us found the approach intriguing, though we were not then, and probably are not now, convinced the company would be first to really make a wild success of the approach.

So that's where a new Google-branded phone might just make sense. Nobody knows now whether Google is, or is not, readying its own branded phone. But one thing is clear: Google posseses the carrier interconnection rights it would need to create such an IP-only phone that relies completely on 3G bandwidth for all services.

So Google might not be frontally competing with any other service providers, or necessarily with any other mobile phone or smartphone providers, in the sense that it could bring to market a "data only" device that relies solely on the data connection to handle all voice functions.

There might be occasional quality issues, for the same reason there might occasionally be quality issues for any data services running on any mobile network that is at peak load. Over time those issues can be resolved.

Ability to prioritize voice packets clearly would help, but it is not clear whether that will be permissible, going forwad, because of possible network neutrality rules. If ever there was a good reason for prioritizing bits, maintaining the quality of voice conversations on an all-data network would be one of the best.

It's all conjecture at this point: the Google phone, the method of providing service and voice prioritization. But there is a possibility that something Zer01 Mobile cleverly devised might succeed in a very-big way if Google were to do anything similar.

fring Now Available for Android

Pingo Launches Smartphone-Based Global Calling Service

Pingo, the prepaid international calling service from iBasis, now has released a smartphone application enabling simple international calling from a wide variety of smartphones, including the iPhone, Blackberry, Treo and phones using operating systems such as Nokia Symbian, Windows Mobile and Google Android.

"Pingo EZ Dial" automatically syncs with the mobile's address book, so dialing happens the way it always does, but the Pingo client recognizes that an international number is being called and routes the call using the Pingo network.

EZ Dial users don’t dial access numbers, PIN codes or change their calling behavior in any way and does not require users to connect to Wi-Fi. Users will consume domestic or local airtime minutes of use, but incur no global calling charges from their mobile provider.

Users go to the Pingo Web site (http://www.pingo.com) to sign up for a prepaid account. Users of iPhone devices can download the client for free from the Applie App Store. Users of other phones simply enter a phone number and Pingo sends out a text message with a hot link that initiates the over-the-air client download.

Pingo thinks the move is important since more calls are being initiated from mobile handsets these days, so more global calling also is being initiated from handsets.

Users with feature phones can get the same low rates, but will have to dial a local access number, since those phones cannot download the EZ Dial client.

All of that will change as Long Term Evolution or WiMAX networks become more ubiquitous, since all devices operating on those networks will be data devices able to download clients.

In many ways, the Pingo mobile calling capability is a reflection of the broader shift to mobile-originated and terminated calling. Pingo long has been a huge supplier of white label wholesale services to other retail providers, and most of those providers were wired network providers.

Since the U.S. market is by far one of the largest global markets in the world, mobile support is important for any company that makes a living from international voice traffic. Also, mobile origination is more important in the U.S. market, since the ratio of origination to termiantion is about three to one outbound compared to inbound, says Jayesh Patel, iBasis VP. "Most countries don't have that sort of  imbalance."

Recently, iBasis has noted more use of its calling plans by business users as well, so EZ Dial is offered in a business account version that allows easier administrative setup and call tracking.

T-Mobile Ultimately will Allow Skype over 3G

Despite understanable teeth gnashing over T-Mobile's blocking of Skype when using the 3G network, T-Mobile ultimately will allow it, either because customer pressure forces them to do so, or because European Union regulators do so.

http://oqlz.com/t-mobile-mobile-voip-integration-inevitable/

IP Voice Innovation Lags Text, Despite GoogleVoice

One is hard pressed to point to new voice apps, beyond integrated text messaging, find-me, follow-up or visual voice mail, that have become mass market IP voice applications. Dialing from a directory or "click to dial" are helpful, but the bigger changes so far are a simple switch to VoIP in place of plain old telephone service.

The next trend is IP voice on mobile devices, where it has to this point been seen in a "voice from PCs or telephone adapters" scenario.

Contrast that with the pace of development in text-based communications, ranging from text messaging to instant messaging to email to blogging to tweeting. One is tempted to conclude that voice innovation is hampered in part because of its relative complexity, relative incremental cost and an underlying shift in the direction of text communications (messaging) overall.

That isn't to say such voice innovation will not occur; simply that it apparently is harder than innovation in the messaging arena.

http://symbianapplications.info/battle-of-the-google-voice-iphone-apps-voicecentral-vs-gv-mobile/

MobileTalk: Really Easy

Right now, there are a couple issues users face when using VoIP from a mobile phone. In some cases, carriers might interfere with that sort of thing. Not that they do, but they can. Verizon Wireless PC card owners know their terms of service actually prohibits VoIP and even use of the air card from a "home" location. Not that I've ever met anybody who had trouble with either of those two clauses. But the clauses and the rules exist, in case Verizon Wireless does want to enforce them.

So anything that makes VoIP easier or does not risk infringement of an ISP's terms of service is welcome. That's not to say Mobivox or Jajah, for example, are hard to use. No harder than dialing an access number, really.

But 8x8's Packet8 MobileTalk arguably is even easier.Packet8 MobileTalk uses a downloadable software application that can currently reside on any Windows, Palm or Symbian based mobile phone. The app works in the background.

Packet8 MobileTalk users can dial calls directly and natively from their mobile handset, contact list or speed dial directory with no additional keystrokes.

Once a destination number is dialed or selected, the Packet8 MobileTalk software application identifies the international prefix being called and redirects the call to a local Packet8 network access number.

That's it.

You download the MobileTalk app, then make calls as usual. When an international number is dialed, MobileTalk automatically redirects the call to a local access number, which uses the 8X8 VoIP network to complete the call.

Packet8 MobileTalk is currently available for Windows Mobile, Symbian, and BlackBerry phones, and is expected for Java phones in soon.

Sign up now and the activation fee is waived. There is no monthly recurring charge.

As this data from Sound Partners suggests, more minutes of use are going to shift to mobile VoIP, as this forecast suggests will be the case in western Europe.

Mobile VoIP Proliferates

One wonders how long mobile carriers will wait before launching their own lower-cost global calling plans. At some point they will. The only issue is how much market share they are willing to tolerate losing to VoIP providers before they counterattack. Raketu is the latest contestant in the business calling space, by virtue of its compatibility with RIM BlackBerry devices.

What is emerging now is the IP equivalent of "over the top long distance" calling plans that used to be prevalent in the U.S. market. Under such plans, created in large part for reasons of regulatory compliance, users selected one provider for local calling and then another provider for long distance. At one point, one could not select one's local voice carrier for that purpose.

So you see the business effect: a regulatory framework creates an entire "long distance calling" business. It lasts for a while, as competition knocks prices way down. Then, at some point, regulators decide markets are competitive enough to allow the local phone companies back into long distance.

And then the independent long distance industry collapses.

VoIP over mobile, indeed VoIP itself, is headed for such a day of reckoning, at least for that portion of its use as a substitute for landline or wireless calling. Nobody knows when the day will come. It might come carrier by carrier. But at some point, mobile and wired service providers are going to reach a point where it makes sense to offer much-lower global calling from their existing services and devices.

That isn't to say independents will not gain share and build businesses in the short term. Nor is it to say VoIP features embedded into other experiences are likewise susceptible to telco repositioning and pricing. It is to say that past telco responses to regulatory and technologiccal change offer some obvious clues about what they will do in the future.

As scale players, they tend to ignore new threats and markets until some critical mass or clear strategic interest emerges. Then they move, and fairly quickly. They'll do so again.

Packet 8 Mobile VoIP Trial Program Launched

8x8, provider of Packet8 voice and video services, has launched a no-obligation, no-fee trial program that lets customers of any U.S. based wireless carrier experience the dialing simplicity and call quality of the Packet8 MobileTalk mobile VoIP international calling service at no charge.

Wireless customers can download the MobileTalk application onto their mobile device and use the service at no charge until a total of $2.00 in per minute fees is reached. Packet8 MobileTalk service offers rates of $.02 to $.05 per minute for most locations in Europe and Asia.

Users can dial calls directly and natively from their mobile handset, contact list or speed dial directory without the additional keystrokes required by calling card and other reduced rate international calling services. Once the destination number is dialed or selected, the Packet8 MobileTalk software application identifies the international prefix being called and redirects the call to a local Packet8 network access number.

Over 450 Windows, Palm, RIM and Symbian-based mobile phone models, including the entire family of Blackberry phones running version 4.0 of the operating system and above and 25 Nokia models running the Symbian OS, are supported by the Packet8 MobileTalk service.

The plan requires a one-time $9.99 activation fee for the service and a monthly fee of $9.99 for non-Packet 8 subscribers.

Mobile VoIP is growing, no doubt, as shown by this Sound Track Partners forecast.