Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Voice Mail Messages Decline 8% in a Year

People seem to be leaving significantly fewer voice mail messages, compared to a year ago, according to an analysis by Vonage. The number of voice mail messages left on user accounts was down eight percent in July 2012 from a year ago.

Retrieved voice mail fell 14 percent among Vonage users as well,according to Vonage

EC Looks to Create Europe-Wide 5 GHz Unlicensed Frequency Band

The European Commission now is looking at ways to create a single band of shared non-licensed spectrum across the European Union, The new shared spectrum would support 
services at 5 GHz, in somewhat the same manner that Wi-Fi now is used by multiple suppliers. 

Though probably not a great candidate for mobile services, the proposed common new spectrum would be useful for mobile data offload and machine to machine services, for example. 

Kansas City Wireless ISP Offers Businesses 30 Mbps or So, Using Unlicensed Spectrum

Computers & Tele-Comm, Inc. (CTC), a wireless Internet service provider, has provided high-end network services to enterprise businesses and government clients for years in Kansas City, currently offerng speeds of about 30 Mbps, using unlicensed spectrum. 

CTC is not alone

Can Technology Replace 80 Percent of Doctor-Provided Care?

Vinod Khosla, a noted venture capitalist and co-founder of Sun Microsystems, thinks as much as 80 percent of doctor-provided care ultimately can be replaced by use of cloud-based, machine-driven mechanisms. 

Khosla might be too optimistic, but the application of massive cloud computing and machine-to-machine communications and sensors would be the foundation for such initiatives, which explains why the health vertical continues to be seen as an area ripe for innovation by developers and mobile service providers alike. 

Skype Accounts for 33% of all Cross-Border Calling Minutes

Microsoft-owned Skype  accounts for about 33 percent of all international long distance voice minutes of use, about 145 billion of the total 438 billion minutes used in 2011. Skype's share of cross-border calling will grow in 2012, in part because the base of potential users is going to grow significantly.  According to Skype CEO Tony Bates, Skype has 254 million monthly active users and is “growing somewhere around 40 percent year on year.”

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Monday, September 3, 2012

Wal-Mart Tests Mobile Checkout

Employees at Wal-Mart Stores are testing a new checkout system that allows shoppers to use their mobile phones to scan items as they walk through stores and pay at self-service kiosks, skipping the cashiers' lines. Keep in mind that it is a "scanning" application, not a "mobile payment" program. 

Wal-Mart is not proposing, at the moment, to support payment using the mobile, but only to allow the mobiles to scan items before check out, saving time at the registers since all the items already have been scanned. 

"Scan and Go" could have many of the same advantages as a mobile payment system, though. 

Wal-Mart's scanning program could allow Wal-Mart to collect data on what customers buy and how long they spend in stores, and to send shoppers coupons for competitive products in real-time as they scan items.

The program illustrates one more way mobile commerce can add value for consumers and retailers, without a formal "mobile payments" capability being added. 

T Mobile Launches "Clever Connect" Mobile VoIP in United Kingdom

Clever Connect is a new T-Mobile mobile VoIP calling service available in the United Kingdom. It is similar to “Bobsled” in the United Kingdom and Telefonica’s “TuMe.”

T-Mobile’s  Bobsled service initially allowed smart phone owners to call their Facebook friends from their mobile devices, and had expanded to provide free calls to any mobile or landline number in the United States, Canada or Puerto Rico from anywhere in the world, by using a desktop browser.

Working with Danish mobile communications company Vopium, T-Mobile in the UK created Clever Connect, available now for iOS and Android devices on the U.K. Everything Everywhere (T-Mobile parent company).

At the moment Clever Connect is only available by invitation.

Clever Connect appears to be aimed at growing T-Mobile’s out of region customer revenue, and potentially as a tool for customer acquisition, more than a way to compete with over the top mobile VoIP providers in its current areas of operation.


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