BroadSoft for Act!

Forget the hype about "voice mashups," the integration of communications capabilities with applications. The idea is about as simple as mating the BroadSoft call control and feature set with the Act! customer management application.

The VoIP AddOn developed by C3IP seamlessly integrates ACT! with BroadSoft’s BroadWorks platform Basically, BroadWorks users now can access those features directly from Act!

That means the ability to "click to dial" from the database, automatic logging of calls and screen pops on inbound calls, for example. So far, voice mashups largely have been developed as a way to improve the efficiency or effectiveness of current business processes.

That's just the way such innovations are introduced, because in a business context there has to be some measurable benefit on either cost or revenue fronts. The easiest way to demonstrate such effects is to "save money" or "save time" doing things that already must be done.

It will be a while before people start to redesign whole processes in light of ubiquitous communications embedded inside the applications themselves.

EarthCaller: Free U.S. Calling

EarthCaller (http://earthcaller.com), a new PC-to-phone service developed by Jaduka that allows its users to call any landline in the U.S. market for free, has been launched.

EarthCaller is said to run the calls over the Public Switched Telephone Network, with obvious call quality benefits. That's really a teaser for international calling, offered on a prepaid basis.

EarthCaller currently is PC-compatible at the moment.

Service Providers Don't Know Much About Customers

About 62 percent of global network service providers (telcos) say they do not today have enough information about how their customers behave, according to a new study commissioned by Apertio.

About 76 percent of respondents say customer profiling is important, closely followed by identity management. (64 percent of respondents say that is important. That sort of knowledge is important since 67 percent of respondents say "personalization of services" is a key revenue opportunity for IP and data services

The situation won't be too surprising to anybody who has been in the service provider industry long enough. The problem arguably is easier to deal with in the IP realm, but even there network service providers might not have access to as much granular data as IP application providers do.

Some observers continue to think that demographic information is helpful, and it is, up to a point. More significant, others think, is actual user behavior expressed in application use, and what users do inside those applications. Since telcos and cable companies don't have much useful information on their customer demographic profiles, ability to capture clickstreams, when legal, is much more useful.

That's another reason why the drive to capture Internet access account is so important. It isn't simply that broadband access is becoming the foundation service for a landline services provider, it is that the ability to personalize a user experience comes from knowledge about clickstreams, not calling patterns or street addresses.

Auction Starts Jan. 24

Bidding begins Jan. 24 for the 700-MHz spectrum that will, among other things, allow creation of a new broadband network with significant open access requirements for devices and applications. The auction also will allow some regional players to acquire new spectrum on a local basis, either to fill in a national footprint or to serve some new local need. The biggest unknown is whether Google will place an initial minimum bid only, and then watch other bidders increase their bids to win the auction, or make some move to try to win the spectrum.

Under FCC rules, the identities of daily bidders will be kept secret although bid amounts will be posted on the agency's Web site on a daily basis. So we'll know soon enough.

Most observers saay the requirement to support any technically compliant device on the C block national network, as well as any lawful applications, has contributed to a recent "embrace" by Verizon and at&t Wireless of open-network policies even on the existing mobile networks.

At least so far, many observers say Verizon Wireless is the most motivated bidder as it needs additional spectrum more than at&t, for example. Some think at&t will look to the regional allotments in other blocks as a way of filling in its footprint.

at&t launches VoIP in Detroit

At&t says it will soon launch VoIP for U-verse customers. The service has been launched in the Detroit market. The service is a replacement for traditional landline service and is priced accordingly.

A $40 monthly fee provides unlimited domestic calling while a $20 a month plan provides 1,000 long distance minutes. The service includes an online call manager portal, unified messaging, click to call from the TV, and simultaneous ring of up to four separate telephone numbers.

So the long march towards VoIP by dominant telcos begins. As just about everybody now recognizes, VoIP will in some cases represent an incremental change in user behavior, in some cases a replacement for traditional calling and in some cases a better way to do traditional calling with a better user experience.

Pretty soon we'll start to get some insight into the ways VoIP helps traditional telcos, in addition to representing a threat to established revenue streams. Without widespread fiber-to-customer networks and a complete shut-off of traditional time division multiplex infrastructure, it will be hard to say for certain.

But Verizon executives think they will save operating expense when they are able to shut off the TDM voice network and shift everything over to IP.

Employees Spend $693.50 Calling and Texting When Abroad

Global U.S. enterprise travelers spend about $693.50 on an 11-day trip, about 12 times more than the average monthly wireless bill, according to a new survey conduced by Harris Interactive and sponsore dby Brightroam.

“The study shows that 15 percent of employees make at least one international trip per year, which translates into costs of more than $950,000 annually per 10,000 employees," says Jeff Wilson, Brightroam general managers. Voice accounts for about 80 percent of the charges while data charges for Web browsing or testing represent 20 percent of total roaming charges.

About 62 percent of calls are made directly for business purposes while the balance of calls are personal, at 38 percent. Cell phones account for half of the devices being used to make those calls while 29 percent are originated from landlines.

The average number of calls is nine to 10 calls a day. About half of business users have smart phones rather than traditional wireless phones, the survey finds.

About four out of five companies surveyed say cell phones or smartphones are the primary communication tool used when employees travel internationally and 57 percent of all calls made on a trip are made on these devices. Users also are more likely to use a cell phone rather than a land line phone whether they are calling locally, to another country or calling back to the United States from abroad, the survey finds. If not using their cell phone, 60 percent will use a calling card and half will use the hotel phone.

Half of calls are placed back to the United States while 40 percent are local calls within the country traveled to.

Wireless Open Access Watch

With a change of presidential administration, and the high possibility that the White House will be occupied by a Democrat, all bets are off where it comes to the composition, leadership and therefore direction of Federal Communications Commission policy. But it is fair to say that a more heavily regulated approach is likely if Democrats win the White House. Incumbent tier one U.S. telcos won't like that. For other reasons, cable industry leaders will be happy as well. Competitive providers might well think their chances improve as well.

So it might be all that significant that Commissioner Michael Copps, a Democratic member of the FCC, seems to want to give incumbent wireless providers a bit of time to make good on their recent pledges to move towards more open networks, allowing any devices or applications compliant with their networks to be used.

That's an obvious counterweight to any thinking by an eventual owner of a new national broadband network that construction and activation of that similarly open network should be built as slowly as legally possible, essentially "warehousing" spectrum as long as possible. The motivation obviously is to extend the life of current revenue models as long as possible.

Pressure to keep those promises about openness on the Verizon and at&t Wireless networks will remain high if Democrats win the White House. In fact, pressure to open up wireless networks more than before is likely unstoppable if Republicans retain the White House as well. The 700-MHz auction rules about openness were pushed through by a Republican FCC chairman and the market seems to be shifting inevitably in the direction of open devices because of the market force exerted by the Apple iPhone and Google, in any case.

Dominant wireless carriers really would prefer not to deal with more openness. But it appears they no longer have a choice. That's going to be good for some new handset providers, application developers and end users, both consumer and business.

Bidden or unbidden, openness is coming.