Wednesday 7 May 2008, 4:45 PM
Video Chat on the Move!
I've just had a fascinating and pleasing experience. I had a 15-minute video chat on ooVoo while riding on a bus through the Swiss countryside! First the summary - the quality was good, in fact on my end it was generally excellent, with a few minor pauses as the cellular modem changed towers or technology. The call was never dropped, in spite of those pauses. For those who want to investigate the details, I was on a bus from Solothurn to Herzogenbuchsee.
Now the details. I have a Sierra Wireless AirCard, which I have written about previously, which I use on the Swisscom cellular network. Swisscom has always done a good job in providing high quality cellular service, and they obviously are still doing so. I checked the speed after the call (on speakeasy.net/speedtest), and it was a stunning 835kbps down and 800kbps up! Now, I know that HSPA can theoretically go up to 1.8 Mbps, but I have never seen anything like these speeds before. The last time I checked it, a couple of months ago, I got around 256k each way, so Swisscom is obviously improving their service.
I used ooVoo 1.5.1.97, the latest version, and I was really impressed with the quality of the audio and video, and the fact that it did a good job of keeping up through the cellular tower changes - it was buffering the data and then played it back at high speed when the connection came up again, which probably made me look and sound like Alvin the Chipmunk on speed, but I still find that better than just tossing the data, or even worse just dropping the connection. Another thing I noticed was that even though the connection quality was obviously varying, ooVoo wasn't spending a lot of time, and causing a lot of distraction, by continually trying to adjust the video frame rate and/or resolution.
Of course, I was using my Fujitsu Lifebook S6510, still running Windows XP (SP3), with the built-in Logitech camera, and a Logitech Premium Notebook headset, connected to the built-in audio jacks (not USB).
It's SO nice when it all comes together and works well!
jw 7/5/2008
Tuesday 6 May 2008, 5:32 PM
Microsoft and the rough Diamond
Today's launch of the HTC Touch Diamond was utterly fascinating. It was also a bit of an anticlimax - some of us hacks had been tantalised by mysterious invitations to a highly exclusive event, to be held who-knows-where, but when the event finally took place at the Soho Hotel it turned out to be about as exclusive as a bendy bus.
Of course, all that intrigue at the invite-stage led to a lot of speculation that the event was to be the launch of the HTC Dream, the first Google Android phone. That was always fairly unlikely though - a release of Android this early in the year would just be too half-baked. Still, it did lead to a palpable air of disappointment when the gadget on display turned out to be little more than the latest Touch WinMob handset.
But an interesting device it is. Not for the styling - although it does look and feel nicely "quality" - and certainly not for the battery life, but rather for the choice of browser. Out goes Internet Explorer Mobile and in comes Opera. Now, a lot of WinMob-toters I speak to are Opera users anyway - they install it as soon as they get a Windows handset - but a lot of users (such as myself) stick with IE, because that's what comes with the phone.
No longer. Because of the time gap between the release of Windows Mobile 6.1 - the OS sitting on the Touch Diamond - and the release later this year of IE Mobile 6 (which looks like it'll be a real step up from the previous version), a whole generation of Windows Mobile users will be given WinMob handsets using Microsoft's biggest mobile browser rival.
First and foremost, this is yet another classic Microsoft timing-related snafu. But it also betrays the power that HTC has over Microsoft in the Windows Mobile department. There may be around 50 manufacturers rolling out Windows Mobile handsets, but HTC is by far the most prolific, and certainly the first to spring to the European market's collective mind.
In fact, the whole affair reminds me of the mysterious goings-on between Intel and Microsoft that were revealed during the whole "Vista-capable" debacle. The bottom line is, Microsoft may be a big bad behemoth, but it is clearly and utterly at the mercy of its key partners.
And when HTC chucks up the first Android handset later this year, let's see how the Windows Mobile team react. If this is as good as their planning gets, they could be in trouble.
Tuesday 6 May 2008, 6:36 AM
Wholesale Carrier Services: A Great Fillip To VoIP
The wholesale carrier services of VoIP is the means of providing IP telephony services to the users on a wholesale basis. This opens the opportunity for local service providers to offer Voice over IP services to people as they can now avail the same from the higher tiers. However, it is also possible for people to directly access VoIP services from the wholesalers as well.
The wholesale carrier services enable the growth and sustenance of a VoIP service provider of any size. These may be ISP's, calling card companies or cable providers, to name a few. These companies can very well access the termination services provided by wholesalers anywhere in the world. The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a signaling protocol that uses communication sessions for providing initiation and termination of minutes to companies that lease services from the wholesalers.
The wholesale carrier services provide unlimited access to people all around the globe. The termination service is most often accompanied with the best of the rates and very high quality routes. Several wholesale carriers also offer flexibility in the pricing of their services. These carriers offer per minute pricing options for international customers. Some of the service providers offer services with toll free origination of calls.
The VoIP carriers often demand the “best” services in terms of access and transit of voice calls. So, in order to meet the demands of a rapidly changing marketplace, the service providers have no other option but to fulfill the demands of the customers. They consequently deliver reliable, cost effective and secured solutions. As a matter of fact, the wholesale IP telephony services offer tremendous opportunities of cost savings to the customers. The IP telephony call rates get slashed to more than half, which in turn reduces the monthly expenditures on telephony. With seamless connectivity, the business users are able to connect with its various branches spread across many places, with no extra service charges. The VoIP wholesale services offer a competitive edge as they are efficient in providing a single channel to transmit data, voice and video together.
The VoIP carriers work in a 24*7*365 support system and thus grievances are met by the customer support department almost instantly. The wholesale providers depend on specific management software for billing and routing of these services to the carriers in the lower tiers. However, the resellers of such services should check for the digital transmission quality, reliability, and bandwidth that the wholesale carriers are providing to them on a 24 hrs basis.
Monday 5 May 2008, 5:04 PM
NCC Vs NBC in the emerging convergence Regulation in Nigeria
With the Federal Government of Nigeria’s consideration of merging the National Broadcasting commission and the National Communications commission, the Nigeria landscape is getting ready for convergence regulation that reflects the reality of 21st century. With the launch last week of Mobile Tv by MTN and DSTV, It is goodbye to the old order. Without the merging of these two key regulators, their functions will be over lapping. The old order of regulation does not accommodate the new realities of convergence where Telecommunications, Information technology and media are now moving into new frontiers in technology, content and media.
The concept of “convergence” is frequently used to describe the development of global information society. The process of convergence starts when previously separate technologies coming closer together as a direct consequence of the advances made in ICT. The most profound changes will probably take place as a result of the process of technological convergence of the previously separate telecommunications, cable, information, publishing and mass media industries. These industrial sectors are often referred to as ‘converging industries’. Borders that once separate them are now increasingly being blurred. Presently, we have different types of networks for telephony, broadcasting ,radio and television and they are regulated differently and usually by separate authorities. National Broadcasting commission regulates, Radio and television while National communications commission regulates telecommunications.
Convergence regulation, encompassing telecom, IT and broadcasting while Multi-sector regulation, where telecom is joined together with other infrastructural
Utilities such as electricity, gas and railroads. While Competition regulation is a broad range of different industries, where telecom is only a tiny fraction.
In my own opinion, I believe strongly that Government is trying to achieve convergence regulation though they did not clearly state it because government business always has political undertone at the detriment of excellence.
Convergence of technology is breaking new content aggregation, delivery and consumption of communication services. The major technological changes that have facilitated the convergence processes are digitalisation and computerization.
Digitalisation enables new possibilities for development and creation of services within and beyond the framework of traditional communication sectors. It is, for example, likely that services that go beyond the traditional broadcasting services, like Internet services, Mobile Tv, Triple play services will have a certain weight on the broadcasting market in the future, as demand for these services is increasing with the penetration of the ICT. When transmission capacity for end-user sites reaches that needed for transmission of video services, the Internet can be one of the platforms for interactive TV services.
Emerging new infrastructures with more capacity, developments in the traditional networks
enabling them to offer more capacity to end users, and developments in compression and
coding technologies resulting in less bandwidth requirements for audio and video services all
have diminished the technically based limitations for different networks to provide an increasing variety of different types of services. But there is still a long way to go before network capacity constraints are substantially eliminated.
Emerging new infrastructures with more capacity that can provide these new innovative services are Strong compelling reasons why the NBC and NCC Merger should be consummated soon so that they can offer regulatory policing because of the new changes in content that were formerly dedicated for specific industries can now be conveyed on a single or similar infrastructures because of the common digital form. This presents new possibilities for end users and new market potentials for producers, but it also presents
regulatory problems that have to be solved.
Some countries like Indian had been able to foresee the future possibilities and hence they have planned ahead.
They merged infrastructure regulation and content regulation. The new Communications Commission of India (CCI),is a regulatory framework that
facilitates the efficient utilization of available resources in different networks. The Indian communications regulator, integrates infrastructure and content regulation in one institution.
The UK is another example, in which the government united five existing regulatory bodies dealing with communications into one regulator, OFCOM, with authority in both infrastructural and content questions.
The challenges of such merger in Nigeria will be availability of highly skilled and knowledgeable helmsman to pilot the affairs of this new regulatory commission. There will be new challenges in a new way entirely because of the blurred border line between Telecommunications and Broadcasting. While the National communications was able to become the toast of the nation and a role model for regulators all over the continent was because the focused and purposeful leadership under Engr Ndukwe and his team mates.
The question is that with the Nigerian way of doing things, will they allow excellence and right judgment to reach a decision in choosing a new regulator or they will merge them with NCC still in control?
Since the movement of the convergence seems and is from telecommunications sectors,it will be more productive and more visionary to allow the telecommunications regulator to midwife the emerging convergence regulator.
Nigeria as a nation should invest more in ICT regulation training and studies to be able to consolidate its ICT successes in recent years. Convergence is shaping the present and future development of the ICT and media industries in ways
that challenge the existing institutional set-up.
Emmanuel Okoegwale
Emmanuel@mobilemarketingafrica.com
Monday 5 May 2008, 3:27 PM
Poor Mobile Banking
Poor Mobile Banking
By: Eric Everson, Founder MyMobiSafe.com
In reading the news this morning an interesting article from Fox Business News titled Mobile Banking to Transform Microfinance caught my eye. In short, the article discusses the capacity of mobile banking to penetrate the shortcomings of financial institutions as a vehicle of the poor. This article if nothing else makes me think that if mobile banking offers so much potential in terms of driving the flexibility of a mobile lifestyle, then why isn’t more being done to secure mobile banking?
As I’ve declared in the past, mobile banking’s greatest security vulnerability resides at the handset level. This means that the lack of security that most mobile handsets have lends them to incredible risk as a financial instrument. Lending from this article, how much more does targeting the lowest income demographics compound the security vulnerabilities that reside in mobile banking? By this statement I merely intend to suggest that this demographic is less likely to use the higher-end handset spectrum (which boasts better security) while they are also less likely to seek a third-party software to bolster the security shortcomings of their handsets.
The article suggests, “A new report from the global microfinance body CGAP predicts that, with the right market conditions, mobile banking could reach large numbers of poor people who are outside the formal financial system.” I do not actually disagree with this, but the issue becomes defining what comprise “the right market conditions” to truly penetrate mobile banking to such a traditionally technology adoption laggard demographic.
As a mobile security professional (with a business degree), I see a much greater need to focus on the handset level mobile security vulnerabilities that threaten the macroeconomics of mobile banking as a whole. If the overall environment of mobile banking is threatened by the gaping holes of handset level security coupled with the grave lack of handset interoperability across the global wireless industry, how will mobile banking ever gain the traction needed to become a standard conduit to the financial industry?
Let’s face it, mobile banking is a newer technology that has some major areas of opportunity with regards to security. As security is only as strong as the weakest link, mobile banking faces serious hurdles at the handset level.
Your mobile security guru,
Eric E
Eric Everson, Founder - MyMobiSafe.com
Article in Reference: http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/mobile-banking-transform-microfinance/
Monday 5 May 2008, 6:02 AM
VoIP Resellers: Backed with lucrative plans
The VoIP resellers are invaluable to most SMBs and corporate houses that do not have the desire or the inclination to make huge capital investments in telecommunication infrastructure and operations. However, despite this constraint, they would not want to forgo the cost efficiencies of Voice over IP. The best way that they can meet this objective, within their cost constraints is through the resellers of such services.
As a matter of fact, the VoIP resellers could be any business entity having a wide client base and an effective marketing team at their disposal. Any entity satisfying these two conditions can make the most of the emerging VoIP business opportunity in this domain.
The VoIP resellers are ones that sell the telephony services to end-users with support from the wholesalers and providers. As a matter of fact, the resellers lease the services from the IP providers or wholesalers who have their physical networks for termination of calls in different parts of the world. The resellers are instrumental in delivering the best services to end users– who could be either individuals or corporations.
The resellers play an important role in maintaining the communication link between the carriers on the one end and the end-users of the minutes on the other. As a matter of fact, they ensure that their customers receive the best facilities of high-end IP telephony at reasonable rates. The individuals are able to make long distance as well as international calls at low costs. The costs of making calls are significantly less than the traditional PSTN lines. The corporates are able to manage their communication with clients in a better and more effective manner.
Like any provider or wholesaler, the VoIP resellers play a vital role in spreading the IP services among the potential users. The reseller programs are quite lucrative; the wholesaler sells the services and products to the resellers in the garb of two such VoIP business plans or VoIP reseller plans - private label and white label. Both the plans are profitable and easy to use.
The private label reseller programs are those that come with specific branding. As a matter of fact, private label plans allow the resellers to involve branding in their products or services. They can then sell the same to the end-users. This helps the resellers in marketing their own services to the target users in a unique way. Moreover, with branding they are able to make themselves distinct from the existing brand names.
On other hand, in the white label plans, the resellers sell already branded products and services to the end users. Therefore, the businesses wanting to make their foray into reselling of “minutes” have to select the right service providers. This would ensure a high quality in the services being delivered, which the resellers can then pass on to the end users in their specific locales.
The resellers provide excellent services in a 24 x 7 x 365 environment. Plus, there is also the option of some volume based discounts and online reporting as well. Moreover, the online management of accounts and self-help tools are really very beneficial to the end-users.
Monday 5 May 2008, 6:02 AM
VoIP PBX Solutions: An Upgradation in VoIP Technology
The VoIP PBX solutions are meant for providing high-end services to corporate clients to cater to their communication needs in a more comprehensive and cost efficient manner. The service allow the customers to avail the Voice over IP networks at low costs, along with several other extra facilities. Adopting the PBX solution brings profit to organizations and so people develop their own understanding of such solutions. The deployment trend of the VoIP PBX solutions is quite heartening.
The VoIP PBX solutions are based on software that allows the corporates to have better co-ordination among branch offices of an organization and franchises based on a single platform. With its induction, the businesses are able to function more effectively and grows at an exceptional rate – thanks to the very advanced technologies that are a part of the same. In fact, there has been a significant effort to allow people access these services, abandoning all geographical barriers. This has led to the significant growth of PBX solutions.
The VoIP IP PBX solutions have reached a level of maturity as there has been several transformation as far as the technology is concerned. The latest news is that the Voice over IP technology has been converged. The VoIP PBX converges voice based digital communication to data as well as voice based communication. Here communication technology is based on packet switching and IP networks. So, this technology overcomes barriers of land and country and bring the same services at low costs to the users.
However, the VoIP PBX solution has another trend that is catching attention. This is known as centrex. Here, a local telecom provider is brought to scene as all switching takes place at this end. This high profile PBX serves as a virtual PBX in the premises of the customers. The voice, however, gets delivered from the central switch located at the service provider's exchange.
The deployment of IP PBX VoIP communication systems are based on several factors. The users look for easy methods of IP migration that does not disrupt the already existing investment. The converged Internet Protocol system are positioned in such a way that it offers connectivity, whereby IP migration becomes a very easy process. Then there are other methods where the users can avail pure IP deployment. This trend is good for small call centers and even greenfield programs.
Thus VoIP PBX gives the opportunity to handle voice and data very conveniently. There are also other services that PBX system is capable of offering. These are video communications, Internet data exchange and also other valuable services such as CRM, streaming media and supply chain automation. These services that the service providers offer can be measured using certain parameters. The call quality analysis is essential so as to determine user satisfaction. Service provider's responsibility also need to be judged so that no issues remain when it comes to performance. The service providers should also pinpoint the trouble areas so that any sort of service interruptions can be prevented.
Saturday 3 May 2008, 9:52 AM
International calling cards: calling made easier and reasonable
The international calling cards are used for making the calls in the different countries, across the world. As is evident from the name, these cards facilitate the process of calling; they can be used for long distance as well as international calls from the comfort of one's homes or offices, and that too at significantly low rates. These cards can be either disposable as well as refillable. Then there are also those that come with a special PIN printed on them; this PIN can be used to charge calls to any land line telephone bill account. These cards can either employ a prepaid credit system or credit card style system. These cards could differ in terms of the payment systems; and there are more than one way in which these cards can be used for making the desired calls. The particular specifics would in turn depend upon the telecommunication systems in a particular context.
There are two types of calling cards namely- stored value card as well as the remote memory card. The stored value cards comes with a pre-assigned calling amount. The balance is read by the public pay-phone machine, which is similar to ATM machines that are more in vogue. On other hand, remote-memory system uses a toll-free access number to reach the database, for checking the balance on any calling card.
Usually, the international calling cards involve pre-paid credit system, wherein the users can access the telephony services with a specific preset balance at discounted rates. Therefore, it can be said that by purchasing a card, the users purchase minutes up-front. These budget friendly and flexible cards are extremely efficient. These long distance calling cards are easy to carry as they come in the form of a small rectangular shaped plastic. The users can easily locate the cards from the online shops as well as offline grocery shops. Depending upon the calling requirement, the users can avail these pre-assigned international calling cards quite easily.
The calls are processed by gateway exchanges or switches. The international calls via VoIP technology is transmitted by cable, satellite, radio and more recently through fiber optics.
Regardless of the specific regions, the calling cards keep the users connected with the friends, business partners as well as family in a cost effective and reliable manner. Moreover, the call quality is excellent, which go a long way in increasing the popularity of the same.
The market is flooded with various calling card options. So, before availing international calling cards, the users must concentrate on the important factors such as call rates, renewability, rollover minutes, hidden fees as well as the quality of calls. They should bear in mind that the services from the well-known service providers are backed with excellent voice quality as well as cost effectiveness.
For more information, visit: http://www.icallglobe.com/calling-cards.html
Friday 2 May 2008, 12:57 PM
Pics emerge of clamshell Blackberry
Well lookee here - it seems the clamshell Blackberry is a reality.
The BoyGenius report website has some tantalising pics of the flipper, which I reckon will be a big deal for RIM. Whaddya think? Desirable? I must say it doesn't look like the slenderest device in the world...
Friday 2 May 2008, 6:23 AM
Practical Implications of VoIP Reseller Program
The VoIP reseller program is a single means of delivering low cost Voice over IP services by making use of the advantages of a fast Internet connection at home or at the workplace. VoIP makes use of the Internet to transmit calls- virtually. Since in this system, no fiber wires are brought to use and the whole operation is done through the Internet, the hassles associated with transmitting voice signals is comparatively less. In fact, the transmission charges are also low compared to any other system of telephony. This is the reason why people have shifted from their traditional telephone lines to Internet enabled calls. The easy availability of high speed Internet at a place is also beneficial for the growth of such services.
The VoIP reseller programs are made in such a way that one may not have to invest huge amount of money to become a reseller. Most often, the such programs are charged in terms of minutes offered by the resellers. In such cases, most of the termination services provided by the service providers include the necessary software and hardware for free. The resellers offer their services with facilities such as SMS callback, Web callback, caller ID, International local access numbers, international toll free access numbers, call forwarding and calling cards.
The success of VoIP reseller programs relies completely on how effectively the plans and agenda are implemented. It is essential as the customers would avail the services based on these factors. Customer satisfaction is also maximized due to the presence of a network with less of congestion and more of bandwidth. Internet being easily available allows the users to access VoIP services in all the places of the world. The virtual reseller program is the means of accessing the services of Voice Over IP at a reasonable cost. The virtual resellers provide services after leasing them from the wholesalers. The overall permutation and combination remains such that the VoIP resellers either provide these services in the brand name of the companies from whom they lease their services or offer services with their own names.
Then, there are certain services that are termed as the premium reseller programs. Under these programs, the resellers are allowed to compete with each other based on some unique features. These could be special facilities to customers such as Lead Protection Registration, technical support, marketing and sales kit, discounts on connections and other reseller discounts. The premium resellers also provide the necessary expertise to the customers for the quick installation of such services at homes or workplaces.
The resellers provide maintenance services and at the same time outsources the technical support that is required for the smooth functioning of organizations. The outsourcing of technical expertise is mainly done through wholesalers or other support companies that help in providing technical support. As Voice over IP is based on the process of conversion of analog signal to digital signal and then reconversion of the signal to analog form, its functioning is not possible without special expertise in this area. Thus, all the facilities of the VoIP reseller programs such as call forwarding, conferencing, and video calling - to name a few - depends on the availability of proper technical support.
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