Xfinity Voice Introduces Free Phone Calls Over WiFi

Comcast is introducing a Wi-Fi calling service that uses a subscriber's home phone number and  "Voice 2go" feature of the Xfinity Connect Mobile app.


Customers can make free domestic phone calls and send text messages at Wi-Fi hotspots.


But the app also supports mobile calling using 4G or 3G mobile data plans as well.


Customers also can send and receive text messages domestically and internationally to more than 40 countries, including Canada, Brazil, China and, soon, Mexico, Comcast says.

Xfinity Voice also now offers up to four "Personal Phone Numbers" that can be assigned to family members, and are separate from the primary account holder’s phone number. 

One example is that a child can use an iPod touch to communicate, eliminating the need to subscribe to an additional monthly mobile service plan.

These features will be coming soon to new Xfinity Voice customers, so the business model is sales of Xfinity voice lines and retention of those customers, not ancillary revenue from use of the app.

The Xfinity Connect Mobile app can be downloaded for free on the iTunes Store or Android Market as well as online through Xfinity Connect.

Sprint Changing Personal Hotspot Plans

Beginning May 18, 2012, Sprint is launching two new mobile hotspot add-ons for smart phone and tablet customers. One plan costs $19.99 a month and comes with  2 GBytes of combined 3G/4G on-network data. The other plan costs $49.99 a month for 6 GBytes of combined 3G/4G on-network data.

Additional on-network data usage above the monthly allowance is charged at $0.05 per MByte, , Sprint says

Sprint will be ending its current 5 GByte for $29.99 a month plan. Customers who currently have this mobile hotspot add-on can continue on this plan until they cancel service.

At least in part, the move is expected to entice more users to add the mobile Wi-Fi hotspot feature, since the entry-level plan costs less than previously. The larger plan, at higher cost, might be a way of resetting Sprint pricing more in line with its competition, in terms of value and price.

Verizon to Hike FiOS Speeds in June 2012?

Verizon will be raising the speed of several of their FiOS broadband tiers very soon, according to DSL Reports. Reportedly, Verizon's symmetrical 25 Mbps tier will soon be changed to 50 Mbps downstream and 25 Mbps upstream. The company's current symmetrical 35 Mbps tier will be increased to 75 Mbps downstream and 35 Mbps upstream.


Verizon also reportedly has been considering offering a 300-Mbps service that would be aimed at business customers. 


One wonders what will happen to pricing for the new tiers, though price hikes would not be unexpected. 

Uberconference Launches

Uberconference is a new audio conferencing service created by FireSpotter Labs. It offers what it hopes will be the easiest audio conferencing tool, dispensing with user PIN codes. 


Participants can just dial into the conference number and will be automatically authenticated based on their phone number.  From any computer, anyone in the call can see the names, photos, and other information of the others in the call. 


The display shows the current speaker, and the organizer has a number of helpful tools to keep the conference running smoothly, Uberconference says.  Organizers can record calls, mute participants to get rid of background noise or put “earmuffs” on people they may not want to hear part of the conversation.

Will LTE Adoption Grow Faster Than Earlier Broadband Networks?

Generally speaking, the latest consumer electronics devices, applications and services get adopted faster than older analog products. 


So it is not surprising that Strategy Analytics predicts fourth generation Long Term Evolution will be adopted faster than earlier CDMA, GSM and WCDMA and HSPA networks. 


Skeptics might argue that "faster" is a relative term. It might take eight to 10 years for massive adoption to occur.

 

Changing Revenue Metrics Always Show Industry Evolution

Back in the middle 1990s, many U.S. service providers, especially competitive local exchange carriers, began reporting usage metrics in a different way. For most of its history, "phone lines" made sense as a key metric for telcos, just as "basic video" customers made sense for cable TV operators.


But as each of those businesses began to change, different metrics were needed. For CLECs, the perceived better metric was "voice grade equivalents," since much of the revenue came from private line revenue, typically to support delivery of Internet access and voice trunks. 


You might argue that such changes also were a way of trying to refocus investor and analyst attention, but there still was a logic to the practice, as "voice lines" were starting to become less important, as broadband access revenue become more important.


In a similar way, once cable operators started selling voice and broadband access, "basic video subscribers" became less meaningful as a key metric. Instead, "revenue generating units" became more significant, although, as always, there is an effort to redirect analyst and investor attention. 


Something like that is about to happen in the mobile business, as average revenue per user becomes less important for some providers, especially Verizon Wireless, which expects to see a big shift to "revenue per account," as it introduces family plans for mobile data, and as it moves into machine-to-machine applications, where average revenue per "user" (in this case telemetry devices) is modest. 


In fact, given enough volume, M2M sensor connections, which might represent only a couple of dollars a month of revenue, will distort all the other older average revenue per user metrics that have assumed a "user" was a person with a mobile account. 


During Verizon's first quarter 2012 conference call, CFO Fran Shammo said Verizon is not disclosing total connections because "M2M is more complicated." He said the main thing for investors to focus on is that the company's revenue is increasing and it is adding more customers. 


Shared data plans likewise will require different metrics, according to a transcript of the event. As voice, messaging and mobile broadband shift, for many users, to a "shared account" basis, it will be harder to compare "device" revenue in a meaningful way. 


On current family plans for voice and data, the first device might "cost" more than a hundred dollars a month, while each additional phone might cost only scores of dollars, while stand-alone mobile broadband dongles, or personal Wi-Fi hotspot services have different revenue metrics as well. 


Those changes in "how to measure" and "what to measure" always are signs that a business is changing. 

Wireless Churn: Most Mobile Companies Lose 100% of their Customers Every 3 Years

With just a few exceptions (AT&T, Verizon Wireless and US Cellular), most mobile service providers lose enough customers each month that they must replace the equivalent of 100 percent of their customer bases at least every three years.


That also explains why mobile service providers spend so much money on advertising. Two-year contracts and family plans partly explain why some of the service providers are doing better on the churn front. Device selection also helps.