Time and Value As The Only Indicator That Counts

I had the chance to have coffee this morning with my friend Antoine RJ Wright and as usual we talked about everything under the sun.  But he mentioned something I had to write down and I wanted to share with you.  It’s something I’ve been trying to say for years but he summed it up in 3 sentences.

“ Life has 2 pieces of value based around time.  Time wasted and time gained.  If something takes time away from my life I won’t use it but if it adds time/value to my life I will use it.”
This is so simple and so true for me personally.  I won’t use services that don’t enhance, add value to my life and save me time.  I don’t like wasting that limited commodity of time.

I think this is a lesson entrepreneurs need to remember in their business.  Does your offering add value or save your customers time or does it waste their time?  Email for example allows people to send letters nearly instantly versus snail mail which takes a few days to arrive.  What do most people prefer to use?

Phone.com saves me time by allowing me to route incoming calls to the right department or person.  Hence the operator speaks to fewer people and can do other tasks.
I know this is all very simple but it’s something that sometimes we forget or lose sight of.

–

Jeb Brilliant

Phone.com

Community Manager

Change Your LinkedIn Password NOW

I wanted to suggest to all our customers and readers that you change your LinkedIn password.

LinkedIn states “We can confirm that some of the passwords that were compromised correspond to LinkedIn accounts.“

LinkedIn is also suggesting that you change your password once a quarter.  I am guilty of not changing my password regularly like most people but I highely suggest using a different password for every service you use.

I personally use a password app called 1 Password, I like it but I’m not endorsing it.  It stores my passwords and allows me via their app to access my passwords on all of my different devices, from phones to tablets as well as computers.

Please just a minute and change your LinkedIn password.  If you need help here are the steps needed to get to the page to change it.

1. Log into LinkedIn
2. Click on your name in the top right corner
3. Select Settings from the dropdown
4. From the 4 tabs on the left side of the screen more then half way down select Account
5. There should be 2 columns that appear and the second from the top in the right column is Change Password
6. You should be able to take it from here.

Good luck and it’s better to change it now then have your account hacked and have to go through the trouble of fixing it.

–

Jeb Brilliant

Phone.com

Community Manager

Time and Value As The Only Indicator That Counts

I had the chance to have coffee this morning with my friend Antoine RJ Wright and as usual we talked about everything under the sun.  But he mentioned something I had to write down and I wanted to share with you.  It’s something I’ve been trying to say for years but he summed it up in 3 sentences.

“ Life has 2 pieces of value based around time.  Time wasted and time gained.  If something takes time away from my life I won’t use it but if it adds time/value to my life I will use it.”
This is so simple and so true for me personally.  I won’t use services that don’t enhance, add value to my life and save me time.  I don’t like wasting that limited commodity of time.

I think this is a lesson entrepreneurs need to remember in their business.  Does your offering add value or save your customers time or does it waste their time?  Email for example allows people to send letters nearly instantly versus snail mail which takes a few days to arrive.  What do most people prefer to use?

Phone.com saves me time by allowing me to route incoming calls to the right department or person.  Hence the operator speaks to fewer people and can do other tasks.
I know this is all very simple but it’s something that sometimes we forget or lose sight of.

–

Jeb Brilliant

Phone.com

Community Manager

AT&T Predicts: Bye Bye Cell Phone Voice, Hello Cell Phone VoIP

Over the past year or two I’ve blogged several times about my expectations that, once cellular phone service enters the 4G data generation, we’ll rapidly see the use of VoIP clients on those phones, eliminating traditional cellular voice. Now, it turns out, even AT&T is agreeing with me.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, at an investor conference in New York a week ago, predicted that within two years cell phone companies will be offering data-only plans. “I’ll be surprised if, in the next 24 months, we don’t see people in the market place with data-only plans,” Stephenson said. “I just think that’s inevitable.”

Craftily, Stephenson didn’t actually say that AT&T itself had such data-only plans on the drawing board. But the fact is, the company does already offer such plans, primarily for tablet computers. And it’s no secret that VoIP providers, such as Phone.com, are rapidly crafting applications that effectively turn those tablets in VoIP phones, either using built-in speakers, microphones and even cameras, or using Bluetooth headsets. Indeed such applications for cell phones themselves are similarly appearing.

It thus behooves me to speculate on the difference between a tablet computer running, say, the forthcoming Windows 8, and an LTE-based cell phone running … ahem … a Windows Mobile 8. Seems to me if that cell phone is data only, the only real difference is the size of the screen, and the fact that you can put the cell phone in your pocket. Actually, I sport a Windows Phone 7.5 device, one that has both physical and virtual keyboards. And a mini-version of Microsoft Office. So, do I have a phone or an ultra-portable computer?

Now it’s obvious that if AT&T, and its competitors, start selling data-only instead of voice plans there’s the little issue of lost revenue from voice. In part I’d expect to see that made up in higher charges for the data, and indeed an astute observer might note that’s exactly what’s been happening in the industry over the past six months, what with data caps and the disappearance of unlimited data plans. The cellular companies, I think, are also relying on additional revenue from all those tablet users, the majority of whom these days buy their devices with Wi-Fi only.

The implications of the entire situation for business users of all sizes is also interesting. It means that a tablet, or a cell “phone” that’s data-only, can serve as an extension on a VoIP business phone system. For the small office-home office (SOHO) market, it means the businessman can travel just about anywhere and never miss his business calls, without even the need to go online to program call forwarding. For larger small businesses simply replace the word “businessman” with employee or proprietor.

And of course for those who still want the traditional desk telephone, there’s still the ATA and/or business phone with built-in VoIP capability, such as those offered by Phone.com. Plus, of course, the virtual PBX capabilities of Phone.com service, which means the desk phone, pocketable “cell” phone, and LTE-enabled tablet can all “ring” at the same time, a flexibility unheard of just a few years ago. And with Phone.com plans, there isn’t even any extra charge for the capability.

Stuart Zipper is currently a contributing editor to Communications Technology, a high tech business journalism consultant and freelancer, and the past Senior Editor of TelecomWeb news break.

AT&T Predicts: Bye Bye Cell Phone Voice, Hello Cell Phone VoIP

 

Over the past year or two I’ve blogged several times about my expectations that, once cellular phone service enters the 4G data generation, we’ll rapidly see the use of VoIP clients on those phones, eliminating traditional cellular voice. Now, it turns out, even AT&T is agreeing with me.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, at an investor conference in New York a week ago, predicted that within two years cell phone companies will be offering data-only plans. “I’ll be surprised if, in the next 24 months, we don’t see people in the market place with data-only plans,” Stephenson said. “I just think that’s inevitable.”

Craftily, Stephenson didn’t actually say that AT&T itself had such data-only plans on the drawing board. But the fact is, the company does already offer such plans, primarily for tablet computers. And it’s no secret that VoIP providers, such as Phone.com, are rapidly crafting applications that effectively turn those tablets in VoIP phones, either using built-in speakers, microphones and even cameras, or using Bluetooth headsets. Indeed such applications for cell phones themselves are similarly appearing.

It thus behooves me to speculate on the difference between a tablet computer running, say, the forthcoming Windows 8, and an LTE-based cell phone running … ahem … a Windows Mobile 8. Seems to me if that cell phone is data only, the only real difference is the size of the screen, and the fact that you can put the cell phone in your pocket. Actually, I sport a Windows Phone 7.5 device, one that has both physical and virtual keyboards. And a mini-version of Microsoft Office. So, do I have a phone or an ultra-portable computer?

Now it’s obvious that if AT&T, and its competitors, start selling data-only instead of voice plans there’s the little issue of lost revenue from voice. In part I’d expect to see that made up in higher charges for the data, and indeed an astute observer might note that’s exactly what’s been happening in the industry over the past six months, what with data caps and the disappearance of unlimited data plans. The cellular companies, I think, are also relying on additional revenue from all those tablet users, the majority of whom these days buy their devices with Wi-Fi only.

The implications of the entire situation for business users of all sizes is also interesting. It means that a tablet, or a cell “phone” that’s data-only, can serve as an extension on a VoIP business phone system. For the small office-home office (SOHO) market, it means the businessman can travel just about anywhere and never miss his business calls, without even the need to go online to program call forwarding. For larger small businesses simply replace the word “businessman” with employee or proprietor.

And of course for those who still want the traditional desk telephone, there’s still the ATA and/or business phone with built-in VoIP capability, such as those offered by Phone.com. Plus, of course, the virtual PBX capabilities of Phone.com service, which means the desk phone, pocketable “cell” phone, and LTE-enabled tablet can all “ring” at the same time, a flexibility unheard of just a few years ago. And with Phone.com plans, there isn’t even any extra charge for the capability.

 

Stuart Zipper is currently a contributing editor to Communications Technology, a high tech business journalism consultant and freelancer, and the past Senior Editor of TelecomWeb news break.

 

IPv6 Launch Promises Better VoIP

The world is only days away from the formal launch of IPv6, the new protocol that’s destined to become the Internet standard over the next several years. June 6 has been designated by the Internet Society as the big launch day (Get it? That’s 6/6 for IPv6).

The implications of IPv6 (which stands for Internet Protocol version 6) are tremendous for just about every Internet user, VoIP … or perhaps I should say VoIPv6 … users included.

One of the biggest issues is Quality of Service (QoS). The currently-used IPv4 does not have formal QoS technology built in. The result is a series of QoS issues – latency, jitter, echo – that can seriously degrade VoIP phone service. If IP voice packets are lost or delayed at any point in the network between VoIP users the quality of the call is noticeably degraded. It only stands to reason that the further the distance between those VoIP users, the more likely one will hit one network glitch or another. International calls are particularly vulnerable, although the trade-off between the low cost of international VoIP and occasional service blips is tolerable, at least in the short term.

With IPv6, those issues will almost magically disappear because IPv6 implements QoS standards. (For the Nerdish set:  IPv6 uses QoS marking, with a traffic-class field (8 bits) in the IPv6 header and a 20-bit flow label…information I gleaned from the IPv6.com web site.)

As if that wasn’t enough other IPv6 benefits, of interest to business phone users in particular, are an architecture that’s far more difficult to hack. Communications security is, of course, of major importance to just about any business.

For now, only a small portion of the web is going to become IPv6 enabled, and in just about all cases both IPv4 and IPv6 will be supported simultaneously, for the somewhat obvious reason that there’s tons of hardware out there that won’t support the new protocol. The transition will take years, if not a decade or more. But momentum is clearly building for the transition. Last year, for instance, on World IPv6 Day more than 1,000 outfits fielded IPv6 test versions of their sites, starting with big names such as Google, Facebook and Yahoo! The group also included a handful of VoIP providers and equipment manufacturers, ranging from major industry players to garage-based VoIP hackers (and remember, some pretty big tech companies were started in garages) and bloggers.

 

Stuart Zipper is currently a contributing editor to Communications Technology, a high tech business journalism consultant and freelancer, and the past Senior Editor of TelecomWeb news break.

IPv6 Launch Promises Better VoIP

The world is only days away from the formal launch of IPv6, the new protocol that’s destined to become the Internet standard over the next several years. June 6 has been designated by the Internet Society as the big launch day (Get it? That’s 6/6 for IPv6).

The implications of IPv6 (which stands for Internet Protocol version 6) are tremendous for just about every Internet user, VoIP … or perhaps I should say VoIPv6 … users included.

One of the biggest issues is Quality of Service (QoS). The currently-used IPv4 does not have formal QoS technology built in. The result is a series of QoS issues – latency, jitter, echo – that can seriously degrade VoIP phone service. If IP voice packets are lost or delayed at any point in the network between VoIP users the quality of the call is noticeably degraded. It only stands to reason that the further the distance between those VoIP users, the more likely one will hit one network glitch or another. International calls are particularly vulnerable, although the trade-off between the low cost of international VoIP and occasional service blips is tolerable, at least in the short term.

With IPv6, those issues will almost magically disappear because IPv6 implements QoS standards. (For the Nerdish set:  IPv6 uses QoS marking, with a traffic-class field (8 bits) in the IPv6 header and a 20-bit flow label…information I gleaned from the IPv6.com web site.)

As if that wasn’t enough other IPv6 benefits, of interest to business phone users in particular, are an architecture that’s far more difficult to hack. Communications security is, of course, of major importance to just about any business.

For now, only a small portion of the web is going to become IPv6 enabled, and in just about all cases both IPv4 and IPv6 will be supported simultaneously, for the somewhat obvious reason that there’s tons of hardware out there that won’t support the new protocol. The transition will take years, if not a decade or more. But momentum is clearly building for the transition. Last year, for instance, on World IPv6 Day more than 1,000 outfits fielded IPv6 test versions of their sites, starting with big names such as Google, Facebook and Yahoo! The group also included a handful of VoIP providers and equipment manufacturers, ranging from major industry players to garage-based VoIP hackers (and remember, some pretty big tech companies were started in garages) and bloggers.

Stuart Zipper is currently a contributing editor to Communications Technology, a high tech business journalism consultant and freelancer, and the past Senior Editor of TelecomWeb news break.

Wiretapping VoIP

With VoIP rapidly displacing conventional telephony it was inevitable that the darker side – i.e. those with criminal intent – would wind up using VoIP to plot their misdeeds. That’s the bad news. The good news, especially for business VoIP users, is that it is a lot harder to eavesdrop on VoIP conversations than it is to intercept traditional telephone calls. But what’s good news for the legitimate VoIP phone service user is bad news for the cops, who have long used wiretaps as a tool to catch the bad guys.

In hopes of regaining their ability to wiretap, a little dollop of cash had been added to this year’s federal budget to set up a unit within the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), working jointly with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), to develop the technology needed to hack VoIP.  The expenditure was actually approved, and signed into law, last November. It only took four years of lobbying by law enforcement officials to get that approval (I think that’s longer than it took the original developers of VoIP technology to come up with their first working prototype).

Now it’s taken nearly five months to get the ball rolling but, over the past week, word has drifted out of Washington that the unit, dubbed the “National Domestic Communications Assistance Center,” has begun operating, with a budget of $8,244,000. That’s paying for piles of hardware and 13 folks, at least some of whom haven’t even been hired yet. A publicly available help wanted ad, for instance, had a closing date of May 2, and it typically takes weeks, if not months, for the federal hiring process to run its course. That ad seeks a hacker with experience in PacketCable (the technology used in cable modems); QChat (the walkie-talkie like technique used in push-to-talk cell phones); and T1.678 (the key standard in VoIP communications). The job, by the way, pays up to $136,771 per year.

(For the untutored, tapping conventional calls takes no more than physical access to a phone box, a couple of wires with alligator clips, and a handset. It’s currently close to impossible to intercept VoIP calls without the intervention of the VoIP switch operator, although creative hackers using packet sniffers have been known to eavesdrop on conversations by neighbors on the same cable broadband loop as they are, a little hole that’s allegedly been patched by the newer version of the technology the cable companies use.)

The FBI center, by the way, isn’t planning to do any VoIP-tapping itself. Rather it’s supposed to develop the technology needed and make it available to local and federal law enforcement agencies. The feds, in the very little they’ve revealed about the new operation, which doesn’t even have its own web site, have also been very careful to include multiple disclaimers about how the technology they develop will only be used in accordance with laws such as those requiring court orders for wiretaps.

Now here’s the guru part of this blog: If the FBI does indeed find a way to eavesdrop on VoIP, then it’s only a matter of time before the darker side gets hold of that technology. That will inevitably lead to new and even more secure VoIP technology. Which in turn will lead to new, and probably more expensive, taxpayer-funded efforts … and over and over again into the future. It’s about the same as what’s happened to data encryption technology in general.

But, after all, that’s the world we live in these days.

 

Stuart Zipper is currently a contributing editor to Communications Technology, a high tech business journalism consultant and freelancer, and the past Senior Editor of TelecomWeb news break.

Wiretapping VoIP

With VoIP rapidly displacing conventional telephony it was inevitable that the darker side – i.e. those with criminal intent – would wind up using VoIP to plot their misdeeds. That’s the bad news. The good news, especially for business VoIP users, is that it is a lot harder to eavesdrop on VoIP conversations than it is to intercept traditional telephone calls. But what’s good news for the legitimate VoIP phone service user is bad news for the cops, who have long used wiretaps as a tool to catch the bad guys.

In hopes of regaining their ability to wiretap, a little dollop of cash had been added to this year’s federal budget to set up a unit within the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), working jointly with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), to develop the technology needed to hack VoIP.  The expenditure was actually approved, and signed into law, last November. It only took four years of lobbying by law enforcement officials to get that approval (I think that’s longer than it took the original developers of VoIP technology to come up with their first working prototype).

Now it’s taken nearly five months to get the ball rolling but, over the past week, word has drifted out of Washington that the unit, dubbed the “National Domestic Communications Assistance Center,” has begun operating, with a budget of $8,244,000. That’s paying for piles of hardware and 13 folks, at least some of whom haven’t even been hired yet. A publicly available help wanted ad, for instance, had a closing date of May 2, and it typically takes weeks, if not months, for the federal hiring process to run its course. That ad seeks a hacker with experience in PacketCable (the technology used in cable modems); QChat (the walkie-talkie like technique used in push-to-talk cell phones); and T1.678 (the key standard in VoIP communications). The job, by the way, pays up to $136,771 per year.

(For the untutored, tapping conventional calls takes no more than physical access to a phone box, a couple of wires with alligator clips, and a handset. It’s currently close to impossible to intercept VoIP calls without the intervention of the VoIP switch operator, although creative hackers using packet sniffers have been known to eavesdrop on conversations by neighbors on the same cable broadband loop as they are, a little hole that’s allegedly been patched by the newer version of the technology the cable companies use.)

The FBI center, by the way, isn’t planning to do any VoIP-tapping itself. Rather it’s supposed to develop the technology needed and make it available to local and federal law enforcement agencies. The feds, in the very little they’ve revealed about the new operation, which doesn’t even have its own web site, have also been very careful to include multiple disclaimers about how the technology they develop will only be used in accordance with laws such as those requiring court orders for wiretaps.

Now here’s the guru part of this blog: If the FBI does indeed find a way to eavesdrop on VoIP, then it’s only a matter of time before the darker side gets hold of that technology. That will inevitably lead to new and even more secure VoIP technology. Which in turn will lead to new, and probably more expensive, taxpayer-funded efforts … and over and over again into the future. It’s about the same as what’s happened to data encryption technology in general.

But, after all, that’s the world we live in these days.

Stuart Zipper is currently a contributing editor to Communications Technology, a high tech business journalism consultant and freelancer, and the past Senior Editor of TelecomWeb news break.

Call Forwarding, A Weekend Lifesaver

Sometimes we forget some of the most basic and useful features when we focus on the complex and unique services Phone.com offers.  Things like Caller ID Routing and Call Schedules may be more exciting and flashy but some services are just lifesavers on the weekend.  

One of our customers posted on Facebook that her cable modem box died.  Her calls would have just gone to voicemail but she took advantage of our awesome customer service reps and called our 800 number from her cell phone.  She asked one of them to set up the call forwarding on her account to go to her cell phone.  She couldn’t even go online at home because her internet was out.  Of course our rep was delighted to help and she’s been able to keep up with her calls all weekend long.  Hopefully she has a new cable box today and can go back to her usual set up but until then she doesn’t have to miss out on any calls whether they be work or personal.  

My in-laws don’t use their cell phones much but when they went on vacation overseas we set up call forwarding to their cell phone in Israel so they wouldn’t miss the chance to see family and friends while they were visiting Israel.  Do you use Phone.com for any personal services like this?  Or is it just a business phone service for you?  We’re happy both ways.

–

Jeb Brilliant

Phone.com

Community Manager

Call Forwarding, A Weekend Lifesaver

Sometimes we forget some of the most basic and useful features when we focus on the complex and unique services Phone.com offers.  Things like Caller ID Routing and Call Schedules may be more exciting and flashy but some services are just lifesavers on the weekend.  

One of our customers posted on Facebook that her cable modem box died.  Her calls would have just gone to voicemail but she took advantage of our awesome customer service reps and called our 800 number from her cell phone.  She asked one of them to set up the call forwarding on her account to go to her cell phone.  She couldn’t even go online at home because her internet was out.  Of course our rep was delighted to help and she’s been able to keep up with her calls all weekend long.  Hopefully she has a new cable box today and can go back to her usual set up but until then she doesn’t have to miss out on any calls whether they be work or personal.  

My in-laws don’t use their cell phones much but when they went on vacation overseas we set up call forwarding to their cell phone in Israel so they wouldn’t miss the chance to see family and friends while they were visiting Israel.  Do you use Phone.com for any personal services like this?  Or is it just a business phone service for you?  We’re happy both ways.

–

Jeb Brilliant

Phone.com

Community Manager

The ATA Is A Pretty Remarkable Device

The ATA is a pretty remarkable device if you think about it.  It’s a consumer device that bridges the traditional phone service to the world of voice over the internet or VOIP.  It has a basic purpose that seems to be almost magical allowing users to make calls with their old traditional phone utilizing a very hi tech VOIP telephone service.  At Phone.com we encourage our customers to use an ATA with our Home Office, Enterprise and Home Phone Plus services.  

The way it’s used is by plugging in the ATA via an ethernet cable to your modem or router if you have one and then plugging a traditional phone that uses an RJ-11 wire into the ATA.  This is an extremely simple process and should only take a minute or 2.  Then you give the new ATA a few minutes to register itself and you should have a dial tone.  The magic is that the ATA takes the user’s voice and converts it into data packets and then sends it to the person at the other end of the phone call.  This is a process that has been going on since 1995 according to Alon Cohen our CTO and the co founder of the first VOIP company.  

One of the biggest benefits of all this is savings.  A home or small business won’t need to invest in a new set of telephones, they can continue to use their older handsets and just plug them into an ATA.  If this is of any interest to you I suggest you take a look at our ATA page and if you have additional questions call our Customer Service numer (800-998-7087) day or night and our operators will be able to help you.  Please also feel free to post any questions on Facebook or Twitter and we’ll be happy to respond to you there.

–

Jeb Brilliant

Phone.com

Community Manager

The ATA Is A Pretty Remarkable Device

The ATA is a pretty remarkable device if you think about it.  It’s a consumer device that bridges the traditional phone service to the world of voice over the internet or VOIP.  It has a basic purpose that seems to be almost magical allowing users to make calls with their old traditional phone utilizing a very hi tech VOIP telephone service.  At Phone.com we encourage our customers to use an ATA with our Home Office, Enterprise and Home Phone Plus services.  

The way it’s used is by plugging in the ATA via an ethernet cable to your modem or router if you have one and then plugging a traditional phone that uses an RJ-11 wire into the ATA.  This is an extremely simple process and should only take a minute or 2.  Then you give the new ATA a few minutes to register itself and you should have a dial tone.  The magic is that the ATA takes the user’s voice and converts it into data packets and then sends it to the person at the other end of the phone call.  This is a process that has been going on since 1995 according to Alon Cohen our CTO and the co founder of the first VOIP company.  

One of the biggest benefits of all this is savings.  A home or small business won’t need to invest in a new set of telephones, they can continue to use their older handsets and just plug them into an ATA.  If this is of any interest to you I suggest you take a look at our ATA page and if you have additional questions call our Customer Service numer (800-998-7087) day or night and our operators will be able to help you.  Please also feel free to post any questions on Facebook or Twitter and we’ll be happy to respond to you there.

–

Jeb Brilliant

Phone.com

Community Manager

Wireless Broadband Could Spur Rural Business VoIP

I was listening to a roundtable discussion by some wireless Internet service provider (WISP) executives, together in Washington D.C. to lobby the Federal Communications Commission and Congress in hopes of loosening up more spectrum that they can use to provide their services, and hopefully to also prompt major changes in the way funds from the Universal Service Fund are doled out.

The executives, leaders of the trade group the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA), represent companies that provide Internet services to rural and semi-rural communities, primarily using unlicensed pieces of the radio frequency spectrum. There are about 700 such companies who are members of WISPA.

One of the arguments the WISPA folk made, which I found most interesting and highly relevant to VoIP services to both small businesses and residential customers was that currently the U.S. Government is plowing billions of dollars into subsidizing plain old telephone service (POTS), over wires, to rural communities. Indeed I’ve written many times over the years about the thousands of dollars, and on occasion even tens of thousands, spent to bring traditional analog phone service to  remote parts of the country.

WISPA’s argument is that it is far more cost efficient to provide that service wirelessly, using VoIP phone service over the broadband they can deliver. They also cite the ability to use mobile VoIP over the rapidly-deploying 4G technology called Long Term Evolution (LTE). However big incumbent landline and cellular companies, including both phone companies and multiple system operators (MSOs, commonly known as cable TV companies), aren’t interested in doing any of that in rural areas, they argue. Instead they’re content just to provide highly subsidized POTs (distances are so long that any real broadband just won’t work over copper or coaxial).

If the WISPA folk, who say there are 28 million rural homes and small businesses in the U.S. that can’t get broadband, are successful, it will open up a new world of possibilities for business phone service, such as that provided by Phone.com, that could well stimulate small business growth in rural areas.

Stuart Zipper is currently a contributing editor to Communications Technology, a high tech business journalism consultant and freelancer, and the past Senior Editor of TelecomWeb news break.

Wireless Broadband Could Spur Rural Business VoIP

I was listening to a roundtable discussion by some wireless Internet service provider (WISP) executives, together in Washington D.C. to lobby the Federal Communications Commission and Congress in hopes of loosening up more spectrum that they can use to provide their services, and hopefully to also prompt major changes in the way funds from the Universal Service Fund are doled out.

The executives, leaders of the trade group the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA), represent companies that provide Internet services to rural and semi-rural communities, primarily using unlicensed pieces of the radio frequency spectrum. There are about 700 such companies who are members of WISPA.

One of the arguments the WISPA folk made, which I found most interesting and highly relevant to VoIP services to both small businesses and residential customers was that currently the U.S. Government is plowing billions of dollars into subsidizing plain old telephone service (POTS), over wires, to rural communities. Indeed I’ve written many times over the years about the thousands of dollars, and on occasion even tens of thousands, spent to bring traditional analog phone service to  remote parts of the country.

WISPA’s argument is that it is far more cost efficient to provide that service wirelessly, using VoIP phone service over the broadband they can deliver. They also cite the ability to use mobile VoIP over the rapidly-deploying 4G technology called Long Term Evolution (LTE). However big incumbent landline and cellular companies, including both phone companies and multiple system operators (MSOs, commonly known as cable TV companies), aren’t interested in doing any of that in rural areas, they argue. Instead they’re content just to provide highly subsidized POTs (distances are so long that any real broadband just won’t work over copper or coaxial).

If the WISPA folk, who say there are 28 million rural homes and small businesses in the U.S. that can’t get broadband, are successful, it will open up a new world of possibilities for business phone service, such as that provided by Phone.com, that could well stimulate small business growth in rural areas.

 

Stuart Zipper is currently a contributing editor to Communications Technology, a high tech business journalism consultant and freelancer, and the past Senior Editor of TelecomWeb news break.

 

When Did Sick Days Become Work From Home Days?

A friend of mine named James Whatley posted a question recently when he was home sick from work.  “When did sick days become work from home days?”  Is that even a question for entrepreneurs?  I can’t remember in my entire working career not working on a day I was sick.  But I think the question is, when did it become the norm?  Do CEO’s, bosses, supervisors, etc. expect you to stay on top of email or listen in on a conference call when you’re home sick?  

I think it was the release of BlackBerry in 2003 and the ability to have home wifi starting in the early 2000’s that were the downfall of sick days being days employees didn’t work.  Now you’re expected to work from home, answering email, updating reports and taking calls.  Wifi has made a large portion of this possible.  

I know when I’m sick and in bed I’m surrounded by my laptop and phone.  As a little compliment to Phone.com, when I’ve emailed our team saying I’m sick, I’ve gotten responses like, “We’ve got you covered for the day.”  It’s nice knowing I can actually take a day off to be sick and recuperate.  Though I still try to stay on top of my email and having the Phone.com app on my cell phone I’m able to make and receive work calls from bed.  As nice as it may be to take a day off to recuperate many small business owners and employees still need to work.  Maybe it’s our American work till you drop mentality but it is the way it is.  

How do you handle sick days in your company?  Let us know on Facebook or Twitter.

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Jeb Brilliant

Phone.com

Community Manager

When Did Sick Days Become Work From Home Days?

A friend of mine named James Whatley posted a question recently when he was home sick from work.  “When did sick days become work from home days?”  Is that even a question for entrepreneurs?  I can’t remember in my entire working career not working on a day I was sick.  But I think the question is, when did it become the norm?  Do CEO’s, bosses, supervisors, etc. expect you to stay on top of email or listen in on a conference call when you’re home sick?  

I think it was the release of BlackBerry in 2003 and the ability to have home wifi starting in the early 2000’s that were the downfall of sick days being days employees didn’t work.  Now you’re expected to work from home, answering email, updating reports and taking calls.  Wifi has made a large portion of this possible.  

I know when I’m sick and in bed I’m surrounded by my laptop and phone.  As a little compliment to Phone.com, when I’ve emailed our team saying I’m sick, I’ve gotten responses like, “We’ve got you covered for the day.”  It’s nice knowing I can actually take a day off to be sick and recuperate.  Though I still try to stay on top of my email and having the Phone.com app on my cell phone I’m able to make and receive work calls from bed.  As nice as it may be to take a day off to recuperate many small business owners and employees still need to work.  Maybe it’s our American work till you drop mentality but it is the way it is.  

How do you handle sick days in your company?  Let us know on Facebook or Twitter.

–

Jeb Brilliant

Phone.com

Community Manager

Text To App, Email And Phone Is Great For Trade Shows

I attend a handful of trade shows every year and I’m on the way home from one right now.  Sitting in the shuttle on the freeway in traffic I was thinking what I wanted to write about today and it hit me, I’d share with you my favorite feature for trade shows, SMS forwarded to your phone as a text, email as well as arriving in our Mobile Office app.  

Most trade shows have some issue or another with connectivity, whether it be bad wifi, no cellular coverage or just not enough bandwidth to handle the calls and data that we tend to over work the network with at these events.  Sometimes I can make calls and sometimes I can’t.  Sometimes the internet works and other times it won’t.  Sometimes even text messaging doesn’t work.  But usually if I use all 3 I’ll get a message pushed through to me one way or another.  

So my favorite feature of Phone.com‘s during trade shows is our SMS.  When someone sends me a text message on my Phone.com number I get it as an SMS on my cell phone but additionally it also arrives as an email and in the Mobile Office app as a text.  So I always get my messages.  I get it multiple times but I’m just happy to get it.  That might be annoying regularly but it always makes me happy when I’m at a trade show.  

One other thing, you can respond to your incoming text messages from within your phone’s native text messaging application.  Just respond to the SMS they sent you that we forwarded to you and it will be sent to the receipient showing that it was sent from your Phone.com number.  This is something I’ve been doing for ages with Phone.com’s text messaging service and it works perfectly.  

Do you have any trade show tips you want to share?  I’d love to hear from you, comment on our Facebook page or on Twitter.

–

Jeb Brilliant

Phone.com

Community Manager

Text To App, Email And Phone Is Great For Trade Shows

I attend a handful of trade shows every year and I’m on the way home from one right now.  Sitting in the shuttle on the freeway in traffic I was thinking what I wanted to write about today and it hit me, I’d share with you my favorite feature for trade shows, SMS forwarded to your phone as a text, email as well as arriving in our Mobile Office app.  

Most trade shows have some issue or another with connectivity, whether it be bad wifi, no cellular coverage or just not enough bandwidth to handle the calls and data that we tend to over work the network with at these events.  Sometimes I can make calls and sometimes I can’t.  Sometimes the internet works and other times it won’t.  Sometimes even text messaging doesn’t work.  But usually if I use all 3 I’ll get a message pushed through to me one way or another.  

So my favorite feature of Phone.com‘s during trade shows is our SMS.  When someone sends me a text message on my Phone.com number I get it as an SMS on my cell phone but additionally it also arrives as an email and in the Mobile Office app as a text.  So I always get my messages.  I get it multiple times but I’m just happy to get it.  That might be annoying regularly but it always makes me happy when I’m at a trade show.  

One other thing, you can respond to your incoming text messages from within your phone’s native text messaging application.  Just respond to the SMS they sent you that we forwarded to you and it will be sent to the receipient showing that it was sent from your Phone.com number.  This is something I’ve been doing for ages with Phone.com’s text messaging service and it works perfectly.  

Do you have any trade show tips you want to share?  I’d love to hear from you, comment on our Facebook page or on Twitter.

–

Jeb Brilliant

Phone.com

Community Manager

Don’t Get Scammed For Your Mobile Number, Like I Did

 

I wanted to warn you all about a scam I almost fell for this morning.  I saw a bunch of friends on Facebook all had posts saying they signed up for a summer promotion from Ray-Ban to get free sunglasses.  I know it sounded too good to be true but come on, it was all over Facebook, how could it be a scam?  

As I filled out the form I should have known, it asked for my home address and mobile number.  That all seemed normal except for the fact that I put in my Phone.com number into the mobile section and it bounced it and said it needed an actual cell phone number.  That’s when I should have been alerted but I wasn’t, I was a sucker and put my actual mobile number in. Silly me I know. I should have known that if they were being so pushy about actually getting a real mobile number, something was up, but my lust for free sunglasses got the better of me and I hit submit.  Then I saw the next screen with the small print saying I was going to be signed up for a $10/month bidding and ringtone service.  UHHH, I’ve been scammed and I’m a sucker.  All in the name of eyewear.  I took a screenshot and here’s the fine print.  Hopefully I didn’t finish the signup process or they honor the STOP sms I’ll send.  

I wanted to alert you to this in hopes that you won’t fall for it like I did.  If you have already let me know and if you’re already getting text messages.

 

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Jeb Brilliant

Phone.com

Community Manager