More Google Partners

Japanese wireless carriers KDDI and NTT DoCoMo, Qualcomm, Broadcom, HTC, Intel and Texas Instruments also are said to be partners for the upcoming Google phone initiative.

Google Launches Mobile Assault

Count Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile amongst its carrier partners. Count Samsung and Motorola among its handset partners. Don't look for Symbian or Nokia support, as Google will launch a rival operating system based on Linux, integrating Gmail, mapping and optimized search.

The phones are expected to come on the market around the middle of 2008 and will feature Google software as the anchor around which third party apps also will be added.

About 25 alliance partners already are working with Google.

at&t seems to have some barriers to working with Google as a result of its Apple deal, while Verizon might still be worried about facing Google as a rival network operator. Still, Google's new push will help create a new category of mobile devices not optimized around voice, email or music, but around Web applications.

Wireless 911 Stays Up, Networks Do Not

For all the effort service providers put into 911 emergency calling service and systems, the simple fact is that both wired and wireline 911 systems will crash if there is a big enough event. The 911 system can even stay up, but might not be usable, simply because callers can't get access to the network. Everybody knows that, and the recent San Jose, Calif. earthquake simply proved it.

Thousands of mobile phone users were unable to connect calls in the hour following the 5.6 earthquake that struck the Bay Area shortly after 8 p.m. Oct 30. The reason is simple enough: networks always are under-provisioned. They are designed for a "normal" peak demand, and a large unexpected demand will simply swamp any network.

Wireless carriers said traffic spiked up to 10 times higher than normal, primarily with calls to family and friends, news outlets and emergency services.

The flood of calls also tied up at&t's landline phone service.

In a strict sense, the wireless 911 network continued to function. The problem is simply that when the access network is really congested enough that call attempts are blocked, any given call--to 911 or to any other number--simply can't be completed.

The solution? Use text messaging for non-911 calls. It doesn't tax the network as much.

New Direction for Google, Sprint, Clearwire?

The only clear and unambiguous statement one can make about Google's mobile aspirations is that mobile advertising is key to Google's future growth. Everything else is open to discussion. And even as speculation remains about Google's possible interest in owning 700 MHz spectrum or even designing its own mobile devices, new possibilities continue to arise.

Under pressure for failing to protect the business it has got, Sprint executives are likely to consider some alternative future for the WiMAX network it has been touting as its fourth-generation network. Finding some way to monetize and offload the asset are among the obvious options. Merging the WiMAX assets with Clearwire is one option, though doing so without monetizing the restructured asset won't help Sprint very much, if the attempt is to lighten the capital spending and management attention burdens.

Sprint could do so if it spun off the WiMAX network in some way. And that's where Google has yet another option. The problem with owning 700 MHz spectrum is that service can't be provided until the network is built, requiring more cash and more time. Google might not want to wait.

The WiMAX network will be commercially viable long before any 700 MHz network will. So add more more wrinkle to the "what will Google do in mobile" speculation.

At this point it also seems safe enough to assume that some sort of reference design and operating system are under development, even if Google does not itself roll out its own phone. Separately, Google also is maneuvering to get prominent play for its mobile-optimized applications on existing devices and networks. And none of the tactics and strategies are mutually exclusive. Google might do some or parts of all of them.

New Verizon Wireless Prepay Plans

Verizon Wireless today announced new INpulse prepay plans essentially customized for various lighter use or episodic use modes.The new plans, INpulse Core, INpulse Plus and INpulse Power, charge customers a daily access fee only on the days of use and include unlimited calling to Verizon Wireless customers nationwide.

INpulse Core offers daily access at 99 cents and calls at 10 cents a minute. Text messages are charged at 10 cents for each message. INpulse Plus costs $1.99 a day, on the days a user wants to talk or text, with unlimited night minutes and voice calling at five cents a minute and five-cent text messages.

INpulse Power costs $2.99, with unlimited night minutes of use and calls at two cents a minute. Text messages cost two cents each.

Customers who set up an INpulse account with an initial payment of $15 may purchase any Verizon Wireless phone (excluding smartphones, PDAs) at the same price as Verizon Wireless customers who sign a one-year customer agreement.

In addition, INpulse Core, INpulse Plus and INpulse Power customers who decide later to move to monthly postpay customer agreements may now keep their INpulse prepay phone numbers when they switch plans. INpulse account balances will be used as a credit toward the new postpay monthly customer agreement.

Verizon Wireless offers INpulse in pre-packaged plans built around three handsets, including $10 of airtime at activation. Those phones are the Samsung SCH-u340, the
Samsung SCH-a870 and the Motorola RAZR V3m.

Google Talks to Verizon and Sprint

Google is in advanced talks with Verizon Wireless to put its applications on Verizon phones, according to the Wall Street Journal. Google reportedly also is also talking to Sprint Nextel. The talks appear to center around carrier licensing of software and anoperating system that would power a Google-optimized mobile device.

Such devices are expected to cost less than similar handsets, as part of a "Google everywhere" strategy not built on handset sales or recurring service provider revenue streams.

NetZero Shuts Down VoIP Service

NetZero Voice, the VoIP-over dial-up service sold by NetZero, is being shut down by Dec. 15. Customers who want to migrate to the Packet8 service can do so for $19.95 a month.

Since 2005, NetZero had gotten only had about 12,000 subscribers, it appears. Former NetZero customers might be a mixed blessing for 8x8, though, which now focuses on VoIP services for small businesses. One has to believe most of the NetZero customers are consumers with a high value orientation, possibly similar in profile to the high-churning value customers EarthLink has to contend with.

So not only are the potential new customers outside the desired customer segment 8x8 is chasing, they probably are high churn customers as well. Time will tell.