Recently a couple of acquaintances who were leaving for Europe asked me whether they could use Skype for iPhone for “free” calling. The bad news: with high data roaming charges when outside the country on “foreign” 3G/LTE carriers, using Skype for iPhone  has the potential to double the cost of their trip and create “bill shock” on returning home. The good news: put the iPhone (or iPad) in Airplane mode and take advantage of the rapid and pervasive growth of WiFi access points worldwide.

Skype for iPhone (and Skype for iPad) over 3G/LTE uses the carrier’s data, not voice, channel. At a minimum of $3.00/MB (if on a roaming data plan), one needs to make use of the stealth carrier, WiFi. And, if free WiFi is not available, use a service with a per minute connection charge without any data limit.

But how to find a WiFi access point?

Hotels, coffee shops, restaurants, airports, train stations and offices will tend to have WiFi access points. Some will be free, some will require a subscription service such as Boingo and some hotels may charge daily fees for WiFi access. Some airports will provide access via wireless services, such as T-Mobile WiFi at Frankfurt and Munich airports, at an hourly or daily rate.

One alternative, if you are a Skype user and have bought Skype credit, is to check out the availability of a Skype WiFi access point (formerly called Skype Access).

The bad news – yes it has a charge starting at US$0.06/4p/€0,05 per minute (may vary by WiFi operator) but you are only charged for connected minutes with no limits on the amount of data transmitted. Instead of being charged for 20MB of data for a 10 to 15 minute Skype call at, say, Rogers’ @$5.00/MB data roaming charge (total $100), you can pay as little as under $1.00 for the same call.

And Skype WiFi can also be used to check out Twitter, Facebook or some web browsing activity.

But where does Skype for iPhone/iPad come into play? Skype has announced the launch of an iPhone/IPad application, Skype WiFi, which will provide access to Skype WiFi access points at the same rate. Skype WiFi, the application, is available via the Apple App Store. Simply login and Skype WiFi is active; you will see a notification if you are near a supported access point – along with the charge for using the access point.

As stated by Skype WiFi Product Manager, Shadi Mahassel:

With the new Skype WiFi app, you can go online on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch (running iOS 4.1 or above with multitasking) at over 1 million WiFi hotspots around the world, including hotels, airports, train stations, convention centres, bars and restaurants. And with Skype Credit you only pay for the minutes you use. So, there’s no need to buy an hour or day WiFi voucher if you’re only looking to check your email or make a quick Skype call.

One caution: be careful to only open Skype for iPhone when you really need it; otherwise, especially if you have a large number of Skype contacts, you could drain your battery in 3 to 4 hours. (With experience to date, battery drain has not been an issue when using Skype for iPad.)

Bottom line: The service now called Skype WiFi (formerly  Skype Access) provides not only a “last resort” WiFi access service but also can significantly reduce the cost of making “otherwise free” Skype-to-Skype calls while bypassing wireless carrier roaming charges. The iOS application called Skype WiFi extends this access service to use on iPhone and iPad.

Note that from 7:00 p.m. Eastern time Friday, August 19 to 7:00 p.m. Eastern time Sunday, August 21 you can try out Skype WiFi for 60 minutes at no charge. Otherwise you will need Skype credit to use the service.

When will we be seeing a similar application for Android phones?

And with a 6GB per month data plan, I’ll continue to use Skype for iPhone or Skype for iPad on my “home” Rogers 3G/HSPA+/LTE service.

Toronto has always had this “peskily convenient” second airport, on an island in Lake Ontario a few meters from Toronto’s waterfront. Political wars have been waged over its commercial operations; endorsement for building the short bridge to the island changed the direction of a mayoral campaign a few years back (ca. 2004). So passengers must still take a two minute ferry ride from the lakeshore to get to the terminal.

Several airlines have operated short haul flights over the years, more recently often using short take-off and landing aircraft, mostly produced by Bombardier at a local aircraft production facility; these aircraft operate on many commuter airlines worldwide. The most recent Toronto City Airport passenger airline has been upstart Porter Airlines flying to cities such as Montreal, Ottawa and New York.

Today Air Canada enters the fray again, having contracted with Sky Regional Airlines to operate as Air Canada Express to Montreal, initially. A story appeared today in the Toronto Star, Plane, check. iPad, check. The pilots on this service are replacing their briefcases that carried over 50 lbs. of manuals with iPads loaded with weather and other flight information prior to the flight. One more application of the iPad as an electronic briefcase.

But there was also one interesting line from the story:

On the ground, the pilots can link up to head office with instant updates and information and even hold Skype conversations on Bluetooth equipment. But once in the air, they turn off wireless connection like other passengers, and use information that has already been downloaded.

For now they will have to operate with Skype for iPhone on the iPad and its inconvenient display format; I’m sure they would be delighted to have a version of Skype for iPad that adapts well to the iPad’s display format. But this story is interesting on several fronts:

• It’s a classic adoption of a tablet as a replacement for a briefcase loaded down with paper.
• The “green” factor: every pound counts when it comes to fuel costs; in this case the load is reduced by over 50 pounds on each flight.
• A unique application for using Skype in business activity
• Pilot documentation can be updated to the time of take-off
• Even pilots cannot operate wireless devices during a flight in Canadian airspace.

One can speculate about one question: this is a Canadian flight service operating on Canadian-built aircraft. With all those internal systems, there must be some QNX involved. Would it not be more appropriate, at some point in the future, to use a Canadian-produced PlayBook with its Canadian-developed QNX O/S to become a more interactive tablet for supporting flight operations?

Warning to the Air Canada Express pilots: to optimize battery life ensure that the Skype is closed during flights. While the iPad has a somewhat longer battery life than an iPhone, I would still take any cautionary measure that lengthens battery life during a flight.

Photo credit: The Toronto Star

Related articles

• Can you run Skype on an iPad (wiki.answers.com)
• FAA Approves iPads for Charter Pilots (cultofmac.com)

This morning I received a chat message from TechCraver’s Jason Harris asking if I would take a video call. Little did I realize that this was not going to be a normal HD Skype video call like our last one.

Jason is a fan of the Nokia N900 mobile computer which has always supported Skype voice and chat; he had just downloaded the PR 1.2 version of firmware and learned that it included support for Skype video.

So he called me; I answered on my Skype for Windows 4.2 client and found that it was initiating a Skype video call. Very shortly Jason appeared in full motion video using the N900’s front facing camera with VGA resolution. Occasionally the picture froze but quickly recovered. At my end I was using the new FREETALK Everyman HD webcam.

Here’s what impressed:

• coming from such a small device the video quality was certainly acceptable – from the Call Technical Info I was receiving him at 320 x 240 resolution
• the call was supported by the G729 voice codec, the same voice codec used by the currently available version of Skype for iPhone.
• the N900 was using a H264 video codec sending me 320 x 240 at 14 fps – obviously embedded in the new firmware (if not in earlier firmware);
• My video was also going out over the H264 video processor embedded in the Everyman HD at 160 x 120 resolution at 19 fps. When you look at the image Jason was receiving you can see why it would be at such a low resolution.
• the call was being handled at his end by T-Mobile’s 3G network

Now the Skype for Windows Call Quality Indicator was showing a poor quality network connection; that has to be a result of the 3G wireless end as I had just completed an HD video call to Europe with its demands for a minimum 1.2 Mbps upload speed.

Bottom line: For personal video calling this certainly is a good start. As mentioned in a previous post we should be seeing such calling on the iPhone (and iPad) later this year. It certainly has to open the question as to whether Skype is now developing a Skype video calling feature for Skype for iPhone (especially given the new features available in iPhone OS 4.0, such as multi-tasking). And will the new version of iPhone support H264 video codecs?

And my thanks to Jason for asking me to participate in this quasi-history making 3G mobile Skype call.

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It’s almost a week since the close of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C. – an area where I have spent a lot of time over the past thirty-six years, mostly on business but also on (ski) vacations. These Olympics turned out to be a defining moment not just for Canadian athletics but simply for bringing the country together. (Seventeen days without politicians in the headlines is an totally positive experience and a welcome relief. Leave it to the athletes to build a sense of national unity.)

A Winter Olympics record 14 Gold Medals for some really dedicated, yet enthralling, Canadian athletes (and 26 medals in total), gold medal hockey championships for both the men and women and, let me say, as never before – Canada rocks! At one point two gold medals were earned within five minutes; Canada used to wait between five Olympics to win a gold medal (well, at least, three) and none had been won when Canada hosted the 1976 Summer Games (Montreal) or the 1988 Winter Games (Calgary).

It is estimated that over 22 million Canadians (out of 34 million) watched portions of the gold medal men’s hockey game – ending dramatically with an overtime “golden” goal; it was the most watched Canadian television event ever. There’s not a Canadian now who does not know the words to O Canada! (and a government proposal this past week to change one sentence to be more “politically correct” was shot down in a hurry…)

Last fall I wrote Skype: the “Unofficial” Personal Communications Software for the 2010 Winter Olympics? where I included some background on the telecommunications infrastructure build-out for the Olympics. But what was the experience and the outcome?

Personally I stayed at home and followed the action on television and the Internet. All events were originated with HD video and 5.1 channel surround sound; CTV ran a marathon Olympics program that commenced at 9 a.m. on opening day (Feb. 12, starting with the last day of the torch run) and continued 24/7 without a break, other than for the occasional five minute newscasts, through to midnight after the closing ceremony (Feb. 28). The broadcast consortium comprised CTV, TSN, both of which are Bell Globemedia properties, and Rogers Sportsnet (and their French language counterparts) in order to have sufficient resources to cover all the events.

Decisions, Decisions! It was not a case of tuning into one station and having the network choose which events you were allowed to watch; rather the viewer had to decide which sport they wanted to watch at any one time and choose one of three or four channels running different events. For instance, in the evenings one could select between figure skating, curling and bobsled (or hockey or freestyle skiing) – or go out and buy a couple of additional TV sets to watch them all concurrently. (Now if they could all just not  run commercials at the same time, channel surfing would have been more enjoyable.)

But that was only half the story. This broadcast coverage was complemented on the Internet where CTVOlympics.ca provided not only schedules and event participant information but also over 2300 hours of content, including real time streaming. Watch events live (with no commentary but lots of crowd noise and announcer pick-up) but, more interesting was that they accompanied the streaming with detailed event schedules and real time result tables so you could follow the evolution of an event towards determining the winners and where individual participants were placing, especially as the “individual performance” events proceeded.

For example, watching figure skating you knew when each skater would skate, the details of their individual programs (so you knew when a “triple lutz, double toe loop” was about to happen) and then a detailed result table (with more scoring information than I could handle in real time). Combining this while watching the telecast changed the entire event viewing experience and how I chose to watch the games. Same for the downhill skiing and those crazy snow cross events in the freestyle category, amongst all the other events.

My first exposure to Olympics ‘”saturation” coverage was watching the 1972 Munich Olympics while working in Germany. Sixteen hours a day of coverage by the German network was thought to be ground breaking at the time. But combining multi-network broadcast coverage with the Internet resulted in an entirely different and unique Olympics event viewing experience. And following my Twitter contacts during events made for a much more amusing time; it was hard to take too many of the more “cynical” tweets seriously. Unfortunately international arrangements were such that much of the CTVOlympics.ca activity could only be accessed from Canadian IP addresses. Political and copyright barriers are still an impediment to fully open international communications.

As for the effort that went into delivering the Olympics worldwide, the official telecommunications carrier Bell Canada reported:

“The Bell team rose to the extraordinary challenge of connecting the 2010 Winter Games and bringing these 17 glorious Canadian days to the billions of people watching around the world too,” said George Cope, President and CEO of Bell Canada. “The leadership role Bell played in delivering Canada’s Games drove communications innovation in this country to new heights. By exceeding the immensely high communications standards of an Olympic event, we’ve provided an incredible legacy of increased broadband connectivity for British Columbia.”

As the first telecommunications partner to deliver both wireless and wireline connectivity to an Olympic Games, Bell successfully executed all critical network and communications services at Vancouver 2010, including enhanced high-speed wireless data and fibre broadband networking, complete broadcast support, extensive Internet portal services and full network security.

The 2010 Winter Games network supported the communications needs of an estimated 250,000 visitors, almost 6,500 athletes and officials, 50,000 staff and volunteers, and more than 10,000 members of the Canadian and international media. Bell’s Olympic network delivered over 24,000 hours of broadcast coverage to more than three and a half billion viewers around the world according to the International Olympic Committee – the most in Olympic history, and a 50 per cent increase over the 2006 Winter Games in Torino and a 25 per cent increase over the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.

When a customer first drove me to his Whistler chalet in 1974, it was a bit of a nervously challenging drive on a narrow two lane “Sea-to-Sky” highway that, for one stretch, went out from a canyon wall on wooden platforms. My host had a telephone connection – two wires under his unit connected to the neighbor’s phone line – literally in open air. Today, with a few exceptions it’s a four lane, fully paved highway and Whistler is connected to the world by the most advanced communications technology available.

One outcome for the Canadian wireless telecomm market: Bell, in co-operation with Telus, has built out a full HSPA+ network reaching over 90% of the Canadian population. Canada now has three wireless carriers, the original being Rogers, offering not only HSPA+ speeds but also the Apple iPhone and three candidates capable of offering the forthcoming iPad. But this is  just one example of how building an infrastructure for the Olympics has created a much more competitive telecommunications market within Canada. And each of them has the capacity to handle the smartphone data load growth reliably, not only for iPhone/iPad but also for BlackBerry and a selection of Nokia and Android products.

The one statistic we’re missing: how much of that traffic involved Skype calling?

Bottom Line: Not only did we have a great Winter Olympics party but there is a telecommunications legacy that will help to bring this country even closer going forward.

Congratulations to VANOC, the athletes and all those businesses – and the 25,000 volunteers- who help make it happen (and so successfully).

Now to deal with my case of Olympic Withdrawal Syndrome….

Full disclosure; the author was born and raised in Canada (Ontario and Saskatchewan) and has lived in Canada (and paid the taxes) for all but three years of his life. And he remains a Saskatchewan Roughriders fan.

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At CES 2010 last month I had the opportunity to record interviews with Skype CEO Josh Silverman as well as Russ Shaw, Vice President and General Manager of Skype Mobile and EMEA, and Matt Jordan, Enterprise Business Development Manager.

In this second interview Russ Shaw covers a wide range of questions about Skype on different mobile phones, the business model that complements wireless carriers’ goals and other challenges as Skype executes on its mobile component of “Skype Everywhere”.

In the first segment Russ discusses revenues from Skype for Mobile activities, execution on the Nokia agreement and the Sony Xperia, the challenges of working in the mobile ecosystem and carrier partnerships. Russ emphasizes that Skype for Mobile’s main goal is to get usage on as many mobile devices as possible as part of the Skype Everywhere goal.

In the second segment Russ discusses Skype for BlackBerry (announced last spring but still running a beta trial), their learnings from the beta and how to ensure a positive user experience. He then goes on to explain how Skype can provide a carrier partnership business model that, based on Skype’s experience with 3, can be a complement that builds a wireless carrier’s overall business. He then provides an analogy of how O2 used a freemium model to build their business around free offerings of music; free Skype-to-Skype calling is the basis of a freemium model for carriers. We go on to discuss Skype for Android in the next segment. This is followed by asking Russ to sum up what’s ahead for Skype on mobile smartphones.

But then I ask one closing question that would really support “Skype Everywhere” in a very common user situation; I can only supplement the discussion by pointing out that, when I get into my car, a Bluetooth-enabled BlackBerry is on my belt (with my Otter Box Defender case). And, during the discussion, Canadians will learn about one more Skype service coming soon to Canada.

Bottom line: Is 2010 the year we can access our Skype contacts worldwide from the majority of smartphones? How many carriers will really catch onto the “3” business model and adopt Skype as a formal offering? And will I be able to get into my car and simply say: “Call Russ Shaw on Skype” to make a hands-free Skype call from my mobile smartphone?

Update: As mentioned above Russ talks about the success with 3 using Skype and the Skypephone. Just prior to posting I learned that 3 has now logged 1 billion minutes of Skype-to-Skype calling. In their summary notes 3 states also that “Over 2m people use internet services like Skype on 3” out of their 4 million active UK customers. (BTW, this is not the only story I have heard about how Skype is helping to maintain communications with Haiti; I have seen a few Skype video calls as television interviews as well; probably makes for another story.)

Of interest: Russ has authored an article at Connect World, Mobile operators should co-operate with application and content providers to take advantage of the mobile Internet boom, where he discusses the  issue of mobile operators working with VoIP providers to build their overall business where he supports the success with 3:

There is already some evidence that the entire discussion is based on a misconception, and that, in reality, using the Internet to make calls does not cannibalize the revenues of operators. Some operators, like Three in the UK, have already changed their business model. They are challenging their competitors by partnering with a software company, offering a popular application that allows mobile VoIP calls at no extra cost, providing their customers with a very tangible extra value and comprehensive user experience by integrating the application into a range of mobile handsets. As a result, the group of customers using these services generate 20 per cent higher margins than non-users, voice revenue being a key contribution to this. A survey undertaken in August 2009 revealed that users of this application used on average 17 percent more traditional voice minutes than non-users. Next to this, a comparatively lower churn rate and higher ARPU (average revenue per user) was one of the positive outcomes as well. [Author's bolds]

Other Skype executive interviews from CES 2010:

• Skype for Business: An Interview with Skype’s Matt Jordan
• A Conversation with Skype CEO Josh Silverman

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On a recent trip to Spain, where I turned off my BlackBerry Bold’s and iPhone’s  mobile carrier network connection except when really required, I was able to use WiFi connections at my various hotels quite effectively to keep up with my “data” activities on these devices. (Except in a situation mentioned below I used Skype on my PC for voice calls.) But there were two situations I encountered during this trip which really hit home the message that WiFi is becoming as important as mobile carrier offerings for wireless smartphone communications:

• In one instance, two Canadians, who had stealthed Skype for iPhone onto their iPhones, used a Spanish hotel’s WiFi service to make Skype voice calls between each other, almost as if their iPhones were “walkie-talkies” while on the hotel’s grounds. No roaming charges for these calls.
• In another case, I spent one night in a hotel room, in a recently renovated 8th century building, that had no landline. But it had a WiFi service available; I used Truphone on my iPhone to make a couple of voice calls. (The price of staying “legal” in Canada is not to have Skype for iPhone installed.)

The trip, combined with my WiFi experience during a March vacation trip to South Carolina, significantly reinforced my belief that WiFi is becoming the potential “stealth” carrier in the smartphone communications business. But what does that portend for the future?

Friend Andy Abramson, in a post Rumored New Apple iPod Touch Will Be Huge for VoIP, Multimedia, has pointed to the rumors of a new iPod Touch that will include a camera, a built-in microphone and 64GB of memory:

This is awesome news for the likes of Skype and client Truphone and will likely start a flood of “me too” applications from the likes of Cablevision who operates a WiFi hot zone in the New York area, Clearwire and Comcast who are chasing customers in the Portland area with WiMax and elsewhere as the WiFi capability of the iPod touch means its a mobile phone without the mobile phone bill and contract connected to it, something Jeff Belk, the former Senior VP of Strategy at Qualcomm discussed in Unstrung in February of this year.

And where does he see the disruptive uptake?

…. Within two key categories:

1) Pre-teens who need a phone but can’t afford a contract

2) Travelers who don’t need to be “always on” but want to stay in touch cost effectively.

Who benefits from this? Anyone with a travel router to sell, including Apple. Toss a travel router in your bag, and stay in a hotel with wired broadband to your room, and logging on is a snap.

As pointed out in the introduction to this post, I think I was already well into Andy’s category 2 during my Spain trip. Alec Saunders, in Will the new iPod Touch unleash VoWiFi? I’ll wait and see, sees WiFi as a “backup” to 3G network but pipes into the road warrior discussion with:

Travelling, however, is a different story.  As Andy notes, you can talk for free on WiFi when you’re travelling, versus whatever the outrageous roaming rate that your carrier might charge.  Savvy travelers use products like Truphone and Skype to avoid roaming charges.

Bottom line: users will continue to look for the combination of access and cost that serves their immediate need. While in Canada, I never run over 1GB of data on my BlackBerry Bold and have a reasonable cost voice subscription for voice calls; thus my mobile carrier costs are not a particular concern. But when I leave Canada, I will look to use any wireless service that avoids the last bastion of excessively high mobile calling costs: roaming charges.

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Ok, so the term “Net Neutrality” has different interpretations for different people. Convergence of voice, Internet and broadcast media has created an entirely new set of stakeholders with divergent issues:

• Users: they would like to exploit the Internet for all its various features: email, web browsing, viewing videos, exchanging text messages (think IM, not SMS), voice and video conversations, remote viewing of their cable TV subscription (one-to-one), researching and booking travel, researching purchases, buying goods and services … the list goes on…
• Service Providers: basically they want to simply deliver the electrons in the form of data packets; they are not media mavens, do not care about content other than security issues. They are the extension of the copper wire, coaxial cable or fiber optic strands used to deliver the content but they are not and do not want to be content producers (other than portals that help users set up and use their services).
• Content producers: fundamentally these are the talents that produce content who hope they can draw an audience. They want to be rewarded and compensated for their efforts and deserve to be at the artist, author or director level. Their traditional business models are breaking down but, in many instances, they do not have the leadership or enthusiasm to figure out the new business models for generating revenues.
• Commercial enterprises want to promote and sell their goods and services. e-Commerce is growing, especially when it comes to travel, memberships, books, legacy catalogue operations and long tail goods and services.

A recipe for conflict. Even though the legacy voice carriers never concerned themselves with the spoken words (content) of a conversation, convergence of infrastructure and content, resulting from the potential of IP-based communications technology, has been muddying up the waters when it comes to considerations of what content is delivered over the Internet. And, of course, they need additional revenue streams as they see their previous business models and associated revenues evaporate.

“Net Neutrality” has become the modern equivalent of separation of church and state; the debate centers around separation of ‘”pipes” (copper or fiber) and content. As with our gas utilities in Ontario, give us the “last mile” pipes into our homes and negotiate/deal separately for whose “gas” will be delivered through those pipes.

The Stockholm “structural bypass” model, as described by Brough Turner at eComm 2009, demonstrates “a simple proven path to ‘Real Broadband’” : 1.2 million kilometers of “dark” fiber around the city as a public utility with a low cost ($11 per month) for 100 Mbps connectivity complemented by over 300 service providers delivering content (or “lighting up” the fiber). Separation of pipes and content – one concept of “net neutrality”.

Politics and incumbent interests have presented challenges in the U.S. and Canadian markets. However, we’re starting to see some seeds being sown that hopefully will build a base of support for some level of “structural bypass”:

• US: appointment of Blair Levin, a veteran of telecomm regulation, to help coordinate the FCC’s national broadband plan. Phil Wolff at Skype Journal comments in his post, King of Broadband:
  

  Astoundingly great, ubiquitous, pervasive, cheap, uncensored, clean, accessible, fair and market-driven broadband might be possible with a national plan. A former commissioner, Levin understands the deeper tech, social, economic and political forces at play, and the players. Skype’s Chris Libertelli told FierceVoIP last year that “Levin would make an excellent FCC chairman.” (He didn’t get the job.) Blair’s a nice guy who knows the lyrics to Winnie the Pooh songs.

• Canada: at the Rogers Android launch last week I picked up vibrations that Rogers is doing and will do nothing to impede the evolution of services such as Skype onto their network. At this point, in response to my “scrum” question about Skype on Android phones sold by Rogers, Rogers Wireless CMO John Boynton stated that “it’s a Skype issue”. Further investigation has found that it is a matter of Skype establishing a business relationship with a carrier, not only to obtain Canadian numbers but also to establish the relevant physical interfaces into various Canadian PSTN carriers. It was made clear to me later by another Rogers marketing person that Rogers will do nothing to inhibit any services (as long as they do not impair their ability to deliver a quality service). And certainly they have made no issue of their customers using SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry over their network. (Walked the BlackBerry two evenings ago watching a Stanley Cup Finals game while on the dog’s evening stroll.)
• Canada: The Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC – the Canadian version of FCC) recently decided to continue its policy of not regulating “broadcast content” delivered via the Internet or mobile phones. This is a classic case of the conflict created by the differing interests of service providers and content producers. From the Ars Technica post linked above:
  

  Internet broadcasting has had a special regulatory exemption since 1999, but some cultural groups and content creators argued that it was time to apply the same standards that govern TV to Internet broadcasting. ISPs were totally opposed to the plan, which would in some ways regulate them like traditional broadcasters.

• On the same issue, The Globe and Mail quotes CRTC Chair Konrad van Finckenstein:
  

  “We do not believe that regulatory intervention is necessary at this time,” CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein said in a statement. “We found that the Internet and mobile services are acting in a complementary fashion to the traditional broadcasting system. Any intervention on our part would only get in the way of innovation.”

• Canada: Southern and eastern Ontario is seeing growth of several fiber optic initiatives where the focus is simply on building “last mile” fiber connectivity without regard to content:
  • Fifteen independent rural carries in southwestern Ontario are installing fiber-to-the home that will eventually reach even farms within two years.
  • Atria Networks has become a major supplier of fiber optic and wireless services to regions and counties surrounding the Greater Toronto Area as well as in the Ottawa region. School boards, government agencies and enterprises (including RIM) are users of what, in some cases, are multi-Gpbs services. At a press event last month Atria made a point about getting fiber to the end points for use as the customer sees appropriate for their operating needs with no limitations other than ensuring network security and operating integrity (as defined by an Acceptable Use Policy).
  • Cogeco, a major cable TV and Internet service provider across Ontario and Quebec, recently acquired Toronto Telecomm’s fiber assets within the Greater Toronto Area and established a separate business unit, Cogeco Data Services with plans for continued expansion of their high speed fiber services in the GTA.

Small signals in a world fraught not only with business issues but political agendas as well. These moves are a start but until, as we did with other utilities in past history, we can figure out a “Structural Bypass” model, there will always be challenges to obtaining “Net Neutrality” in terms of separating the “pipes” from the content.

It will be an interesting forum next week at the Canadian Telecom Summit when Skype’s Christopher Libertelli, Director of Government and Regulatory Affairs – Americas participates on a “Net Neutrality” panel along with Rogers’ Chief Strategy Officer, Mike Lee, and Dave Caputo, CEO of an infrastructure engineering company that attempts to ensure and improve quality of service, Sandvine.

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Hutchison-Whampoa’s 3 service in the UK has been the pioneer in offering Skype access and other data-based services, such as SlingPlayer, at low cost. For as little as £10 per month, one could have almost unlimited Skype calling and text messaging on the Skypephone and other selected mobile smartphones. Already 3 has said they are delivering over 1.5 million minutes of Skype-to-Skype calling per day. However, earlier this week 3 announced they were pushing the envelope for free Skype calling even further.

Effective May 1, 3 subscribers will be able to purchase a special 3G SIM card which will allow the user to download Skype software and start making calls to Skype users worldwide with no minimum monthly payment obligations. Come summer 2009, 3 will expand the availability of this offer; from the same press release:

During the summer, 3 will expand its offer making it possible for anyone with a compatible unlocked 3G handset in the UK, to take advantage of free Skype calls, whether or not their phone is from 3. Anyone that wants to talk on a mobile for free will be able to use a Skype-enabled 3 SIM to make and receive totally free Skype-to-Skype calls and to use Skype’s instant messaging (IM).

Basic cost of the SIM will be £1.99; revenue will be generated via associated pay-as-you-go or 3’s other mobile phone services contract offerings. In addition new subscribers will have to purchase one of the supported phones, such as a Skypephone 2 (or, later this year, a new Skypephone 3 which is speculated to have a QWERTY keyboard).

According to 3’s website, their focus from the beginning has been to provide services built around their purpose-built data network using the HSDPA protocol. And, of course, any VoIP-based service requires a high speed data network. However, questions remain:

• What will be the impact on handset battery life? This has been a major factor hindering the provisioning of VoIP over 3G networks.
• Will this service be available to 3’s UK customers when they are roaming in other 3 countries, such as Austria, Denmark, Italy, Sweden and Ireland?
• Which smartphones will be able to take advantage of the expanded offer coming in the summer? Does this mean i can bring my BlackBerry to the UK, buy the 3 SIM, and have free Skype-to-Skype calling while in the UK (or even other 3 countries) and using 3’s service for other calling, messaging, email and browsing requirements?

A hint of 3’s business reasoning is given further down the press release where they provide some information on existing services:

3 UK has found that regular Skype users:

• Are less likely to churn than non-Skype users
• Use more traditional voice minutes than non-Skype users in addition to calling their Skype contacts
• Use Skype IM, but also send more SMS than non-Skype users
• Are more likely to browse the internet on their mobile
• Are higher margin customers
• Are twice as likely to access social networking sites as non-Skype customers

In addition, with the support of SkypeOut calling from 3’s various Skype-enabled phones, one can expect that 3 will share with Skype revenues resulting from SkypeOut minutes generated by this change in services.

3 is also lobbying within the EU for reduced termination charges and “fair pricing for roaming”. In practice they are really pointing out, very pragmatically, that a wireless carrier can generate significant customer recruitment levels, satisfactory revenues and improved ARPU when adopting Skype support with properly structured services.

Which raises a cost advantage of 3’s obligation-free Skype-to-Skype calls and chat messaging: there are no termination charges involved. Skype’s secure peer-to-peer technology has essentially eliminated the need for termination charges along with the associated business development, call record tracking and billing infrastructure costs.

At last fall’s Mobilize 08 Conference organized by GigaOm, 3’s Frank Meehan, Director & GM, 3G Handset and Application Group, stated (hat tip to Om for the reminder):

The Skype phone makes us more margin than any other phone in pre-paid with the exception of the iPhone. About 65 percent of the UK market is prepaid and only 5 percent of those are using data. Smartphones are not as relevant. We also have a massive churn in prepaid in all markets where prepaid exists. So we basically told people, if you spend 10 pounds a month and top it off every month, you get Skype for free. That’s driven incredible loyalty to the device. We have a huge level of top-offs and we’re seeing growth on voice and text on those devices.

3 is certainly providing wireless carrier leadership in the adoption of Skype as a mobile accessible service, demonstrating that there is a business model for the wireless carrier that not only drives subscriber recruitment but also can generate increased ARPU (and revenues) while lowering the overhead costs associated with supporting international calling. Would it be fair to also say that it has the potential to drive down international roaming charges?

Other posts:

• GigaOm: GigaOm: 3 of UK Marries Itself to Skype; Shakes Up the Mobile Market
• Andy Abramson, VoIP Watch: Skype Winning With 3? Actually It’s 3 Winning With Skype

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• Skype 101 for Carriers: A “Voice On The Web Primer” (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Accessing Skype on the iPhone and BlackBerry (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Skype COO Scott Durchslag Outlines Skype’s Mobile Strategy (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Skype Everywhere: Nokia and Skype Announce Ongoing Partnership (voiceontheweb.biz)

Note: this post has been modified and updated to reflect clarifications of issues from Skype PR.

I woke up this morning to find this message on Phil’s Skype Journal post announcing the download availability of Skype for iPhone but with one caveat:

“THIS APPLICATION IS NOT AVAILABLE IN CANADA AND THE USER WARRANTS THAT THEY CANNOT DOWNLOAD THE APPLICATION FROM CANADA.”

I can accept that some iPhone applications are not available in Canada for copyright reasons (in fact, the iTunes launch in Canada was held up for a year or so while addressing copyright issues); however, my initial skepticism centered on two issues that could be holding this up in Canada.

• Rogers, who is the only Canadian carrier with both iPhone and GSM BlackBerry, offers a Talkspot service @ $20 per month where users of supported UMA equipped BlackBerry 8×20 devices and the 8900 Curve can make calls from a Canadian location via a WiFi connection. Update: However, this is NOT the case as supported by a statement in Matt Hartley’s Globe and  Mail story this morning: “Rogers, which is the exclusive Canadian carrier for the iPhone, said it would not seek to block its customers from using the service.”
• The 911 issue: Canadian Skype Online (formerly SkypeIn) numbers are still not available in Canada due to the need to have a 911 service associated with any number. However, this is only a requirement for DID-types of services over regulated carriers. Skype for iPhone only operates over WiFi connections which are unregulated in Canada.

This morning I have had call requests from not only the U.S. but also Malaysia and observed that some Voice On The Web Public Chat participants in the U.K. are now testing it. So it appears to be available elsewhere worldwide.

However, thanks to an enquiry from the CBC to Skype PR we have an answer:

Chaim Haas, a public relations representative acting on behalf of Skype, said the application is available in every country in which the iPhone is on sale and in which Apple has an iTunes Store — with the exception of Canada.

Haas said this is because of patent-license restrictions but would not elaborate except to specify that it is a patent issue related to Skype, not Apple.

Update: in response to my enquiry to Chaim early this morning I received word that the patent-licensing issues are “codec-related”. Tom Keating reports this also on TMC’s VoIP and Gadgets blog.

Update #2: When I asked at Skype’s CTIA press conference Tuesday afternoon for a clarification of the Canadian situation, Skype COO Scott Durchslag responded that Skype is trying to clarify an “ambiguity” re the G729 codec license in Canada. He did say they hope to have this resolved “soon”.

Skype also announced Skype Lite for BlackBerry beta will be available in May. Further on in the CBC post there is mention of a limitation for Canadians that relates to Canadian 911 requirements:

The Skype application for BlackBerry will be available wherever the devices are supported, said Haas, but only customers in select countries — including the U.S. and the United Kingdom but not Canada — will be able to use the Skype Out or Skype-to-Skype services to make outgoing calls.

Canadian Blackberry users will only be able to use the version of the application for instant messaging and to receive calls from Skype users.

Canadian Skype customers, including those using the application from desktop computers, are already unable to use Skype’s “Skype In” service, which allows users to receive calls from landlines and mobile devices, because CRTC regulations require phone service operators to offer enhanced 911, which allows the operator to find the location of a caller.

In the meantime, for Canadians, here are some ways to access Skype via WiFi or carrier:

• iSkoot on BlackBerry – carrier for voice, WiFi or carrier for data – my first choice at the moment
• IM+ for Skype (iPhone, iPod Touch and BlackBerry versions) – same comment as for iSkoot – definitely my second choice
• Truphone: but may have call quality issues
• Nimbuzz: have not successfully completed a call; also issues with how they handle chat
• Fring: again call quality issues.

So the current question is: when will the “Canadian” version of Skype for iPhone become available? With chat being 90% of my Skype activity and being able to place Skype calls, when required, in other ways, it’s the “group and public chat” issue described by Dan York that I would most appreciate.

And what Canadian has a Canadian patent application or patent that is holding up full Skype access to the rest of his/her countrymen?

Related posts:

• Alec Saunders, Saunderslog: No Skype on iPhone for Canadians
• Mark Evans, Mark Evans Tech: Tired of Being a Digital Peasant!

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• Skype for iPhone coming Tuesday, says CNET (tuaw.com)
• Skype Coming to iPhone Tuesday, BlackBerry in May [Skype] (i.gizmodo.com)
• Skype is Coming to the iPhone. For Real. (mashable.com)

Having just come out from behind the rocks of West Virginia and spent all yesterday traveling, I arrived home to find that it has been confirmed that Skype will be launching an application on the iPhone tomorrow. The major point coming out of the announcement, aside from the conversation feature set, is that Skype for iPhone will require WiFi access to the Internet. A masterful stroke on Skype’s part, especially after my experience over the past ten days that involved 3200 km of driving, mostly on U.S. Interstates, and nine nights of lodging. Some key bullets to back this up:

• AT&T is just not a reliable 3G wireless network – full stop. I have reported on this previously involving trips to California and Nevada; Om confirmed it recently when he switched from iPhone and BlackBerry Bold on AT&T to Blackberry 8900 Curve on T-Mobile.
• When the best I can find is one bar (and not always) at a major tourist destination with over 2 million visitors per year, Skype could not rely on AT&T to deliver anything close to the current experience Skype and iSkoot are having on the 3 networks in nine countries.
• T-Mobile actually had more bars than AT&T on Hilton Head Island but only two at best; of course an iPhone will not work over T-Mobile.
• AT&T coverage along the Interstates varied from zero to full 3G, but with the latter only near major cities (as to be expected). It was the intermittent 2G/EDGE coverage along the Interstates that was very frustrating. (I can drive along Ontario’s major freeways with no service interruptions, whether 2G or 3G.)
• WiFi access points are becoming pervasive. Every hotel along the route was advertising high speed Internet connectivity (usually WiFi); most restaurants also had WiFi access, including one at a New York State Thruway rest stop. Our primary lodging had individual access points for each unit.
• I used my Boingo account at one overnight hotel for access without a hotel WiFi charge.

My WiFi experiences during the week (all at no additional cost):

• the major connection for both my Windows laptop and MacBook at our accommodation
• Making Skype video and voice calls from the Mac Book
• Downloading and installing the final release of SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry
• Updating iPhone applications
• Following an NHL hockey game of interest via SlingPlayer on my BlackBerry Bold using my NHL Center Ice cable subscription
• Making Skype calls and PSTN calls via Truphone for iPhone (but with echo cancellation issues on the Skype call and termination issues when calling the PSTN).
• With Boingo, avoiding additional WiFi charges at one of our overnight stops during the trip down.

Not only did WiFi make these applications possible; there were no (Rogers) roaming charges for a Canadian traveling in the U.S. At $6/MB (and when I had an AT&T signal), I limited my use on wireless GSM networks to checking GMail headers, following Twitter via SocialScope and, during our trip home, finalizing a hotel reservation as we neared our overnight destination (and this exercise involved waiting for coverage at some points as we traveled along the I-79 through West Virginia’s mountains).

Boingo will be a major benefactor of this trend; their relationships with major hotel chains, airports and restaurants contribute to this trend and provide an account that minimizes charges. Having clients on Macs, Windows PC’s, Nokia smartphones and, currently in alpha phase, BlackBerry again improves the user experience making the technology transparent to the calling protocol.

One difficulty continues with WiFi: access at high usage locations such as conventions where capacity limitations come into play.  Ultimately it reinforces that WiFi still needs to address scalability issues.

Bottom line: WiFi is stealthing its way significantly into the wireless picture for fixed point access to the Internet by road warriors. Of course its speed and robustness features are additional benefits.

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Yesterday Om put up a GigaOm post, Skype on iPhone to be released as early as next week. While it’s still an unconfirmed “exclusive” rumor (and you can safely bet the eBay PR hounds are looking for any leak source if this is a leak), it does raise the issue of what we should expect the Skype experience to be if Skype for iPhone is released (even as a beta). It also raises the question of what is happening with the overall Skype on Mobile strategy outlined earlier this year by Skype COO Scott Durchslag in a blog post.

What I can confirm is that at the CES press conference back in January, Skype COO Scott Durchslag did say in an interview that Skype was looking to have Skype for iPhone at some future unannounced date. And I did meet the Skype for iPhone product manager at Skype’s CES 2009 reception; he was relieved that he could now at least give out his title, if not details. At the same CES press conference, Skype demonstrated calls made using its Java-based Skype Lite which has been in various forms of beta since last spring.

We’ve seen several attempts at accessing Skype on an iPhone(Truphone, Nimbuzz, Fring). I have also been using iSkoot on the BlackBerry (and at times Nokia N-series) smartphones as well as IM+ for Skype on various devices. Recently I have been able to check out the Skype IM feature of Skype Lite. Using and trialing these services have provided lots of details about feature set requirements for a fully-featured Skype user experience. As a result I have established some criteria for an acceptable “Skype on Mobile” experience.

1. Skype Contacts: bring up a user’s complete list of Skype contacts (regardless of number of contacts); be able to find a contact by typing in the first few letters of a name, see the appropriate real time presence information; launch a Skype chat session or Skype voice call.
2. User interface: I want to look at my Skype contacts, with presence information, and be able to hit the “green” call button on the device to initiate a call to a Skype contact. Hit the red “end call” button to terminate a call. (iSkoot on BlackBerry does this.)
3. Chat messages: I want the device to be able to monitor my Skype IM activity in background, notify me of activity and bring it up at my convenience. (iSkoot on BlackBerry does this.) I also want Skype Public Chat threads maintained as a single session; Nimbuzz treats each participant in a Public Chat as separate “contact” sessions.
4. Receiving calls; I want to be able to receive Skype calls whether I am in the “Skype-enabled” application or using another smartphone application. Receiving calls on the BlackBerry or Nokia smartphone is an option with iSkoot; with any iPhone application you must be in the application to receive a Skype call.
5. Native address book integration: I want to be able to find a contact in the device’s native address book and be able to make a SkypeOut call to a selected Home/Business/Mobile/Other phone number. Truphone has always been diligent about including native address book access; iSkoot also provides this in its more recent releases.
6. Mood message update: while not critical, it is definitely desirable to be consistent with a fully featured Skype service.
7. Battery life management: I want to have minimal battery use; iSkoot demonstrates that handling all the chat and call signaling activity can drain a battery quite quickly, especially if on a WiFi connection. Using BlackBerry’s “push” API’s is one means of addressing this issue. Battery lifetime will be even more important on any potential iPhone application; battery management, including lifetime, has been one of iPhone’s weaker points.
8. Call quality. While certainly limited by the mobile networks’ and smartphones’ inherent audio bandwidth, issues such as echo cancellation and call break-up have arisen with some services. Once again this has not been an issue on iSkoot for BlackBerry calls; however, I have found these issues to occur on calls to Skype contacts via Fring and Truphone on the iPhone.
9. Network quality: I have yet to have a good 3G network experience with AT&T; I have mentioned this in the past during recent trips to California and Nevada. Om has written about it to the point where he switched to using a 8900 Curve on T-Mobile after giving up on Bold and iPhone on AT&T. My vacation location this week only has AT&T 2G service available and, even then, it is minimal reliability. (T-Mobile 2G definitely has “more bars” here.) My only recommendation here can be, if you wish great 3G reliability and reception on a BlackBerry Bold or iPhone, move to Canada and use Rogers where 3G network availability and quality has never been an issue for me.

Here is my current Skype access on mobile situation:

• iSkoot provides excellent call quality as well as chat sessions in background (including content from sessions over the previous day or two). iSkoot’s major technical downside relates to battery drain, an issue that is correctable via newer “push” API’s. Costs will vary by my smartphone location:
  • Within the Toronto local calling area: no charge for voice or data.
  • Within Canada: long distance charges (~$0.25/minute) for voice; no charge for data. It’s still cost effective to use iSkoot.
  • Outside Canada: roaming charges ($0.95/minute in U.S.; much more in Europe) plus long distance charges make iSkoot a very expensive service. Only Skype services on 3 have partially addressed this issue in all the countries served by 3.
• Truphone’s Skype access:
  • Voice: Truphone for iPhone provides unacceptable Skype call quality (serious echo cancellation issues) but can complete calls to Skype contacts over a WiFi access point. The Truphone client must be open to receive Skype voice calls. Truphone Anywhere, which requires access to the carrier’s network for voice, has the same cost considerations as listed for iSkoot above. (To give due credit, a Truphone call over WiFi this afternoon directly to one of my iPhone contacts did not have echo issues.)
  • Chat: The Truphone client can only support IM chat sessions when the Truphone client is open. The content seen comprises only those messages exchanged while in the “current” chat session; all chat sessions are closed when you leave the Truphone application; previous content is not recallable.
• Skype for Mobile (aka Skype Lite) on Nokia E71:
  • As making Skype voice calls is reliant on having carrier relationships, I can only access Skype chat activity via WiFi; in this case previous Skype chat sessions can be recalled. Skype has announced they are working with carriers in ten named countries but no other details have been provided.

While I would expect any Skype on iPhone offering would use the “Skype Lite”/iSkoot /Truphone Anywhere architecture involving use of the data channel for chat and call signaling but the inherent carrier voice channel for voice, recall that Skype Lite is basically a Java application that has been in beta for some time whereas iPhone on Skype would require a relatively new and yet-to-be-beta-tested Apple OS/X application. On the other hand, iPhone 3.0 will address some of these issues.

Bottom line – there are many issues to be addressed to have Skype on the iPhone  maintain Skype’s reputation for providing an easy-to-use, reliable, scalable consumer service. While I won’t totally discount the rumors of Skype on iPhone, my prediction for what Skype may announce next week at CTIA Wireless: carrier agreements related to using Skype Lite:

• First announced last April (as Skype for Mobile), Skype Lite is at the point where Skype needs to announce some carrier agreements to demonstrate that Skype Lite actually has carrier adoption.
• Carrier adoption is critical to the business model for generating revenue from Skype Lite.
• It would be consistent with the Skype for Mobile strategy about which Scott Durchslag blogged during the Mobile World Conference in February.
• This is a major international conference where wireless carriers and vendors do business.

We’ll be looking forward to seeing what announcements do come out next week.

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Towards the end of February there were several news reports about DoCoMo suspending their recently launched BlackBerry Bold service due to an overheating issue. In my six months of using a BlackBerry Bold I had never encountered any heating issue. But during my Toronto to San Francisco flight to eComm 2009 on Monday, March 2 that changed. I’ll get to the details but first I need to provide some background.

As reported previously I often use iSkoot or IM+ Plus for Skype (BlackBerry  version) for accessing my Skype contacts via voice or chat while away from my home office. One benefit of the BlackBerry version is that chat sessions can occur in background while using other applications. (This also applies to iSkoot for Android.) As new messages arrive, I receive a notification which provides me with an option to look at the message or continue my current foreground activity.

Early in February I attended a BlackBerry App World Developer presentation in Toronto where Tyler Lessard, RIM’s Director of ISV Alliances and Developer Relations, made the point that, in designing third party applications, developers need to “write to the device platform”, not simply to the “application”. For instance, any IM or “voice enhanced” application should include access to the native Blackberry address book as a matter of convenience; iSkoot on the BlackBerry can access the BlackBerry address book for setting up SkypeOut calls. But most importantly, RIM provides API’s such that an application can run in the background and receive data in a “push” fashion rather than requiring it poll the network frequently for data. Tyler pointed out that this approach minimizes an application’s dependence on the radio and, ultimately, battery life.

Finally, as background to this story, I should mention that, due to an allergic reaction to watch back covers, I cannot wear a watch; I use my Bold as a clock for time checks.

So what happened during my flight to SFO that resulted in a mild searing of my left hand? While at the Toronto airport waiting area I made a Skype call to Spain via iSkoot. Immediately after completing the call, it was time to board, so I simply pocketed my Bold and boarded. Once seated I turned off the Bold’s radio, more to conserve battery rather than worrying about interfering with aircraft radio.

But about two hours into the flight I pulled out my Bold to check the time and noticed that it was somewhat warm. Checked the radio settings; both GSM and WiFi were off. Checked again half an hour later when I wanted to listen to music on the Bold and all but mildly seared my hand while holding it. And, what had been a completely charged BlackBerry Bold at the beginning of the day was now showing battery level down at one-quarter. Obviously something was still active and draining the battery.

At that point I realized that I had left iSkoot running when I boarded the plane; maybe its background processing was attempting, unsuccessfully to check for my Skype messages; however, being unsuccessful resulted in frequent re-attempts. I closed iSkoot; within 15 minutes the Bold’s temperature had dropped to a point where I could hold it comfortably; an hour later it was back to ambient temperature.

I have contacted iSkoot with a suggestion that they look at:

• checking whether at least one of the Bold’s radio channels (2G/EDGE,3G or WiFi) is on before attempting to contact the network , and
• ensuring they are using RIM’s  API’s appropriately, especially with respect to their “push” feature, to reduce the heavy battery consumption I have experienced in normal use of iSkoot.

I also had SocialScope running while in flight; however, on my return flight with SocialScope open, I did not notice any heating issues. And, while I made reasonable use of my Bold during eComm 2009, I have not noticed any heating issues. Blogging colleague Jon Arnold did mention that, during phone calls, he did notice his Bold got warmer; however, it was not uncomfortably warmer. To me this was simply an indication as to how much I use text for conversations from my Bold: BlackBerry Messenger, SocialScope, iSkoot (for Skype IM and chat), email (either BlackBerry or GMail), web browsing and how little I use it for normal voice conversations.

Bottom line: if you’re writing applications for the BlackBerry, ensure you are only accessing the Internet when one of the BlackBerry’s radios is on, take advantage of the BlackBerry’s “push” feature, using the appropriate API’s to help extend battery life while using your application and check for other opportunities to “write to the device platform” as opposed to simply attempting to port an application from another platform.

Final question: does this provide a hint as to the cause of the DoCoMo problem? Is it possible that some DoCoMo-exclusive software is encountering a similar problem? To date a Google News search does not provide any mention of restoring availability of the Bold at DoCoMo.

And I’m still awaiting notification of a new build of iSkoot that addresses this issue. In the meantime make sure iSkoot is closed when turning off your BlackBerry radios (GSM/3G/EDGE and WiFi).

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Skype today published data from a recent Zobgy survey that, aside from demonstrating smartphone users’ desire to control their own phone configuration, demonstrates that a significant majority of users in the four countries surveyed (U.S., U.K., Japan and Spain) simply are still not perceiving the potential for a mobile phone handset to be considered as having additional use beyond simply making voice calls.

While I am receiving feedback from acquaintances who are saying their BlackBerry Bold or 8900 Curve has become their mobile computer (reinforcing my own experience) the survey results conclude:

• over 62% of the survey respondents do not perceive their mobile device as an extension of their computer.
• Over 70% have never downloaded an application to their mobile phone.

What this survey really says is that awareness of the smartphone as a mobile computing device is still quite weak amongst the general public, especially in North America. Secondary to this finding are the results showing:

• Only 23% feel that they have more or the same level of control over their mobile device as they have over their computer.
• 67% want to be able to choose their mobile applications for themselves, rather than have their carriers choose for them.

Of course consumers want choice; the real issue here becomes the legacy microcomputer user issue of balancing:

• how much guidance does a vendor (carrier, PC manufacturer, smartphone vendor) provide driving users to “supported” or “authorized” applications against
• how aware is the consumer that they can actually have “freedom to choose” when it comes to not only smartphone applications but also personal computing applications.

The major difference from the early Windows 95 days of wanting to be on the Windows desktop and wanting to be immediately available on a smartphone is that the carrier, not the operating system developer, approves the user interface and smartphone configuration that is available on purchase of the computing device.

We have since seen the disappearance of “pre-configured” Windows desktop applications (how many PC’s have I installed over the past 15 years where I removed the AOL application?) with more practices such as the Dell Vostro line of business PC’s providing a minimal number of pre-installed desktop applications supporting use of the PC itself and no third party applications. It has become the responsibility of  the individual third party developers to generate market awareness and adoption on a PC platform.

The Apple iPhone started this trend within the smartphone consumer market. A basic iPhone has the necessary applications to use the phone for voice calls and text messaging along with a minimal number of third party applications such as Google Maps and Facebook. From this starting point, the user can then use the iPhone App store to choose applications that find the nearest Starbucks, tell you when the next TTC streetcar is coming, deliver the Toronto Globe and Mail or turn your iPhone into a musical instrument. No carrier control, no carrier revenue; over 20,000 applications available.

When looking at the BlackBerry, one again finds that it comes with a set of basic applications that support communications, either voice or text (including several IM applications). Users have long been able to add applications either via stores such as Handango with 1800 applications for the Bold, Crackberry App Store or a wide range of enterprise-specific applications. Today my BlackBerry can follow Twitter and Facebook via SocialScope, deliver my cable TV service to the device anywhere worldwide, make Skype calls via iSkoot or IM+ for Skype, follow the news on NY Times, Wall Street Journal or CNN (Globe and Mail, where are you?), stream video to the Internet (Qik) and use any Google service (Maps, News, Reader, Search, Sync, etc.).

The ability to download user-selected applications is here (certainly on my Rogers Wireless service). The real issue is that North Americans need to be made more aware of the potential of a smartphone to deliver value-added services and information. Only at that point will there be sufficient pent-up consumer demand to “free up the smartphone” from today’s level of carrier control.

According to the report the Spanish and Japanese “get it”; probably other European countries where the level of  carrier control of applications is much less than in North America also get it. The survey found almost twice as many Spanish have downloaded applications and perceive their mobile devices as an extension of their computing experience. When the awareness is there, the demand for user freedom to choose their applications and smartphone configuration will arise.

The bottom line:

• General awareness of mobile smartphones as more than a voice calling device still needs to be promoted heavily by both application developers and smartphone vendors
• Users perceive that they would want to have control over their smartphone applications if they know there is an huge range of non-telephony applications available.
• the younger generation will drive adoption through their personal social networks, in turn, making older generations aware of what can be done with a smartphone.
• Developers still need to market their applications, emphasizing the user experience, beyond simply having them available on the iPhone App Store or BlackBerry App World.

All it takes is for an individual to find one Starbucks, watch one television program remotely, see a live video of the grandchildren, read one time sensitive news report, have one business success story or make a free international Skype call via iSkoot or other Skype-enabled application to drive awareness amongst a broader public. In the end it’s all about demonstrating the satisfaction that results from an engaging user experience to build the necessary awareness.

Om Malik says “As Mobile Data Grows, People Want Wireless Carriers To Buzz Off”.

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With the evolution of smartphones incorporating both WiFi and 3G wireless support, we are also seeing the application of Voice over IP technology as providing at least one leg of a wireless call.

• iSkoot was a pioneering example, with both their support of a wide range of wireless phones, including Nokia, Android and BlackBerry (full disclosure – I use iSkoot on my BlackBerry Bold) and their Skypephone so successfully launched on 3 services in nine countries.
• Recently we have seen the evolution of Skype Lite capable of providing access to Skype on over 100 Java-enabled mobile phones (not all smart phones), including Android.
• And Truphone has been launching services on Nokia, BlackBerry and, most recently, iPhone.

The real challenge for Skype was to get carrier adoption. Certainly the 3 Skypephone experience represents a successful business model where, as disclosed at eComm 2008, royalties associated with 3’s revenues are paid to both Skype and iSkoot. Skype announced at CES that they are developing carrier relationships in ten countries, including United States, that involve deployment of the Skype Lite client . With its new management team, including a former Motorola executive, it was only a matter of time before we would start to see deeper relationships with mobile device vendors.

And, of course, this initial device vendor relationship is with a vendor who has not exactly been a significant smartphone player in North American markets, although their market penetration has been more successful in European and Asian markets. Today, Skype and Nokia have announced a partnership where Skype will become deeply embedded into Nokia’s S60 Symbian platform with the launch device being the forthcoming Nokia N97. From the press release:

The Skype experience will be part of the address book of the Nokia N97, enabling presence – seeing when Skype contacts are online – as well as instant messaging. Nokia N97 owners around the world will also be able to use 3G and WLAN to easily make and receive free Skype-to-Skype voice calls, in addition to low-cost Skype calls to landlines and mobile devices.

The pros:

• Its support of both 3G and WiFi; this has certainly played well for Truphone adoption
• It supports the device at a platform level as evidenced by the integration with the native address book and the Nokia SIP stack. Is this a full VoIP client integration?
• The initial launch device has a QWERTY keyboard, making chat sessions on the device more viable and readily adopted
• An established smartphone vendor market leader outside of North America
• Probably a software licensing revenue generator for Skype
• Opportunity to drive (and share) SkypeOut calling revenue
• It provides free, beyond a monthly flat rate for the basic carrier service, voice and chat conversations with over 40 million Skype users worldwide

The cons:

• Nokia needs to establish North American smartphone market presence in a market dominated by iPhone and BlackBerry and where carriers largely control which devices and applications are available for use over their network
• Nokia needs to demonstrate they can provide a more user friendly smartphone user experience (a la iPhone) as opposed to simply being a handheld multimedia computer.
• Nokia needs to partner with carriers who are willing to allow open access to applications in their newly announced Ovi storefront

The questions:

• Has Nokia already signed up carriers to take on the (somewhat delayed) N97 when it launches in June? Following along with a Skype strategy announced at the CES press conference, we can probably assume that the device will first be available in non-carrier dominated markets.
• Does this represent an evolution of the Skype Lite client where chat and call setup occur over the network while the more robust and readily scalable voice channel carries the voice portion of a call?
• Where are the revenue opportunities for Skype, Nokia and the carriers?
• What is the ongoing relationship between Skype and iSkoot who pioneered this carrier adoption model? This Nokia-SKype partnership is totally independent of any iSkoot participation.
• How will the Nokia-Skype partnership compete with UMA plays such as described on the Tweet in the right?

Bottom Line: Liquid communications means turning on a device and finding Skype is “just there”. A partnership with the world’s largest vendor of mobile phones with hundreds of existing carrier relationships is not to be taken lightly. Combined with the Sony Ericssson Skype panel announcement yesterday, what hand will Skype play in working with Apple (iPhone) and RIM (BlackBerry)?

Update: Andy Abramson, VoIP Watch, attended the press conference:

Basically the underlying message the Skype CEO shared was carriers who will work with Skype will pick up users who spend more money than the non-Skype using mobile phone customer, or at least they did with 3.

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• Nokia Runs Out of Synonyms for Store, Calls its App Store Ovi (mashable.com)
• Access Your Skype Contacts via Truphone (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Skype strikes deal with Nokia (news.cnet.com)
• Skype Comes to Nokia Phones (mashable.com)
• In An Effort To Become Ubiquitous, Skype Partners with Nokia (skypejournal.com)

The U.S. cell phone industry is asking its customers to only text during the inauguration ceremonies tomorrow. From the New York Times:

The largest cellphone carriers, fearful that a communicative citizenry will overwhelm their networks, have taken the unusual step of asking people to limit their phone calls and to delay sending photos. The carriers are also spending millions of dollars to temporarily and substantially upgrade their networks in Washington.

And the article goes on to request that customers delay sending photographs; they warn of delayed text messages and difficulty getting onto the (mobile) Internet.

But then all weekend I have heard CNN wanting to try out some “new technology” asking that as many of their “viewers” as possible send in photographs of “The Moment”. so that they can do a mass (Microsoft) Photosynth montage. Is this a recipe for Atlantic seaboard wireless network meltdown at noon Tuesday (EST or GMT-5)?

James Kendrick talks about his problems in San Francisco with AT&T; I experienced similar problems roaming on AT&T in Las Vegas at CES 2009 and in California back in September. At CES this was resolved only by setting my BlackBerry Bold to use just the “2G” network on the advice of an employee of a company who really would know; that tip resulted in a more stable and reliable operation. For those U.S. friends who want to experience a robust, reliable 3G GSM/HSDPA network, I invite you to move to Canada to be on Rogers. Rates may be a bit higher, but it’s always there, robust and reliable, in the advertised regions. Best proof: handling SlingPlayer for BlackBerry when driving along the 401 freeway at 100 km/hour.

Finally, first test of Barack Obama’s ability to change the U.S. government bureaucracy? His ability (and his resolve) to keep at least one of his two BlackBerries. And to save embarrassment when he next drops his BlackBerry, I would have to recommend an Otterbox Defender case.

In my early 50′s youth when I was delivering afternoon newspapers in somewhat remote Saskatoon, Saskatchewan I always tried to be at one customer’s home at 4:30. Why? At that time the only television viewable came via high rooftop antennae from transmitters far away (~400 miles) near Minot, North Dakota. If atmospheric conditions were favorable my customer would let me watch half an hour of a kid’s program (probably Howdy Doody); most of the time we got to watch it masked by a snowy blizzard of faint reception. Getting any type of television reception at that time and location was, at best, a challenge and an adventure.

Fast forward 55 years to this past week’s 2009 New Years day afternoon. While riding as a passenger in our car, we sped along Ontario’s main 401 freeway as I watched the CBC Sports color telecast of the third period of the NHL Winter Hockey Classic (live from Wrigley Field) on my BlackBerry Bold. It was one more test to carry out during the public beta of SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry.

I viewed all the action in full color; equally as impressive was the quality of the stereo sound (which “swells” out well beyond the device). The only frame freezing probably occurred as my BlackBerry switched between cell tower sites. Otherwise I was experiencing a crisp picture with sharp colors and clear sound coming from my home cable TV box. Talk about convergence – a Rogers cable TV signal being transmitted back out over Rogers High Speed Internet to a BlackBerry Bold via Rogers 3G wireless.

I have provided the detailed basic requirements for using SlingPlayer for BlackBerry Mobile on my recent Web Worker Daily post: “A New BlackBerry Experience Goes Beta: SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry” along with a history of SlingMedia’s hardware and software products. Note especially that it requires a version 4.5 firmware upgrade of any BlackBerry 8×20. While it works via a WiFi connection on all supported devices, over a 3G HSDPA network (Rogers, AT&T and T-Mobile in North America)  it only works currently on the BlackBerry Bold.

Over the past 15 months I have been using SlingPlayer Mobile for Symbian on a Nokia N95-1 over WiFi connections. It has been a consistently reliable experience over that period; it also provided me with some benchmarks for testing the BlackBerry version’s user interface and video/audio quality. Here are some of the experiences I have had with SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry on my BlackBerry Bold 9000 over the past few days of beta trials:

• a rock concert on HDNet where percussion, guitar chords and voice cover a wide audio frequency range
• a rebroadcast of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas eve concert on PBS where over 200 voices, soloists and the orchestra provide an excellent source for testing the clarity of audio as well as the resolution of the video
• several sports events, including fast moving football and hockey action as a test for shadowing and pixelation
• Oprah Winfrey making Skype High Quality Video calls

In all cases the experience on the Bold took full advantage of the Bold’s processor power, network speed, native stereo audio and its widely acclaimed “stunning” color display. Simply stated, I became immersed in the programs I was watching to the point where the experience was transparent to the underlying technology. My only negative was more physiological than technical: I found full “playing surface” views of sports events could cause a bit of dizziness due to focusing on all the action within the Bold’s display size; holding the device further away from my eyes addressed this issue.

While I had some excellent viewing and listening experiences, a few comments:

• instead of a full visual representation of the cable box remote control, the remote control buttons are represented on a menu bar across the bottom of the screen. Note that in addition to the icons on the menu bar, one can “fast-track” to an item using the keyboard (for instance, M=Menu, O=Power On/Off, etc.)
• scrolling across any of the three menu bars is done via the BlackBerry’s trackball.
• audio comes out by default over the Bold’s speakers without the need to click on the “speaker” button
• the “Favorites” menu bar picks up your “Favorites” channels stored via SlingPlayer for Windows¹
• changing channels may cause a video freeze up for 10-20 seconds; this is an issue SlingMedia is trying to minimize.
• no apparent viewing experience difference whether using either a WiFi or 3G connection
• needs a bar to display volume level when using the BlackBerry’s volume +/- buttons
• switches readily between a full screen video and a display that incorporates one of three menu bars
• needs to “reconnect” if you switch to another BlackBerry application while viewing (SlingPlayer application remains open in background but disconnects from the source); the “reconnect” time is 5 to 15 seconds.
• battery life on the Bold for continuous reception of a broadcast via WiFi is about 2-1/2 to 3 hours.; it’s probably shorter on other 8xx0 models.
• I have also been able to get SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry beta working on a BlackBerry 8820 over WiFi where, once again, it provided an excellent true reproduction of the video signal within the limitations of the 8820′s video and audio hardware.
• it can also be used to operate the PVR on my cable TV set-top box.
• latency: at midnight New Year’s Eve, SlingPlayer for BlackBerry Mobile rang in the new year seven seconds after the broadcast version directly connected to a cable service.
• you can almost read those real time scoreboard bars that appear across the top of the screen during football and hockey broadcasts.

And, for now for those not able to take advantage of SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry due to its current specifications:

• it works over a GSM/EDGE connection on unsupported BlackBerry 8xx0 devices; however, SlingMedia does not guarantee the resulting performance. This is really an application for 3G or faster wireless networks only; an attempt to connect my Bold in a rural area where there was only EDGE wireless failed.
• once SlingMedia releases this HSDPA version of SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry they will look at doing a version that runs over Verizon’s, Bell Mobility’s and Telus’s 3G EV-DO network

A suggestion for RIM: SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry demonstrates the full potential of the Bold’s and Javelin’s video display. Let’s hope that newer versions of their firmware can achieve the same level of high quality video on the YouTube player and other video applications supported by these devices.

If you have both a SlingBox and one of the supported BlackBerries, upgrade your firmware (where necessary) and give SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry a try (U.S., Canada, U.K.). Sling Media is now looking for feedback from its targeted user public.

With over 500 channels to choose from, at any location worldwide where I can find a WiFi or (unlimited data plan) 3G HSDPA connection, television broadcast viewing has come a long way from having, in a fixed location, a single channel available only when atmospheric conditions permit.

SlingPlayer for BlackBerry has significant potential for business road warriors; in addition to the entertainment aspect, it also provides immediate access to “breaking news” and business broadcasts from taxis, airports, coffee shops, restaurants (mind your etiquette, however). For those states considering legislation prohibiting texting while driving, they may also want to include viewing videos as a potential distraction.

And this is an application I don’t expect to see on an iPhone any time soon.

(I would have put up a screen capture; however, the video does not make it to the BlackBerry screen capture programs I employ, including PC desktop programs.)

¹SlingMedia’s remotely stored “Favorites” feature will be supported by a future version of SlingPlayer for Mac.

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Several years ago, while skiing at Whistler, a member of our party broke her leg in the most remote (but still in-bounds) glacier (Blackcomb Glacier) with only one route in and out. Having cell phone access resulted in having the ski patrol on the scene within about five minutes and timely removal from the mountain to the hospital. It was critical that the cell phone rf sensitivity in this somewhat remote location was sufficient to make a call.

The past couple of weekends has found me in Ontario’s summer cottage areas north of Toronto where distance, remoteness and low population density can provide significant challenges to a mobile phone’s usefulness and service availability in emergencies. With no landline Internet connections available I left my laptop at home and tested the bounds of what I could follow simply using mobile devices. Amongst the issues I encountered were:

• Battery: how long is battery life and how easily can you replace a battery
• Rf sensitivity: can I make a phone call with weak connectivity (<1 bar)
• Real time navigation: can I follow my progress in a boat as the boat moves along.

In my case I was traveling with both a Blackberry 8820 and iPhone 3G, each connected to the Rogers GSM 3G/EDGE network. The 8820 could only use EDGE for data but the voice channel was the same for both. My experiences:

• Battery Life: the Blackberry was the clear winner requiring much less frequent charging (if at all) in a 2- to 3-day trip. But Blackberry is reknown for its battery management features; if desired as backup, you can take along charged replacement batteries.
• Rf sensitivity: this one really surprised me but also says a lot about the iPhone 3G connection problems being reported. I was at a location on a small lake 6 km by air southwest of Gravenhurst, Ontario (location of the nearest tower) with less that one bar of reception and attempted to make phone calls. The iPhone came up with a screen announcing that it could not make a voice call while, sitting in the same seat, the Blackberry had no problems making a voice call – all over the same Rogers network via the same Rogers cell tower. Amongst the group I was visiting two other Verizon-enabled Blackberries could make calls through the local equidistant Telus cell tower while another person with an iPhone also could not make calls through the Rogers tower. As further affirmation of the Blackberry’s superior rf sensitivity, when I drove into this location, the Blackberry was receiving updated Google Maps data (over EDGE) right up until I reached my destination.
• Real time marine navigation: We also experienced some boat trips on Muskoka Lake, which is laden with many islands, bays and inlets, both large and small. On this popular lake with many cottagers there is good-to-excellent Rogers 3G coverage. Let’s just say that on our first trip the boat’s driver did not know the exact location of a marina we were seeking out. What I found was that while the satellite view of Google Maps on the Blackberry could provide very helpful location and direction information in real time, Google Maps on the iPhone could only provide occasional “static” information but not effectively track one’s progress. On the other hand it has been known that iPhone is not capable of the real time navigation critical to the resolution of our situation. Asking a local cottager got us headed in the right direction towards the location of the marina but having real time navigation in Google Maps made it a significantly easier to reach our destination. As would be expected Google Maps does not provide complete marine navigation information such as depth isobars, underwater rock locations, etc. but, knowing the main channels, it became a critical support tool as we found our way.

My conclusions:

• The 3G connectivity issues being reported for the iPhone probably involve both the rf sensitivity issue I experienced as well as carrier issues. By maintaining internal design control of the Blackberry’s rf circuitry, RIM has brought into play 11 years of experience in developing wireless products. Contrary to other reports that attempt to lay the blame for iPhone 3G connectivity problems solely on the networks, the iPhone’s device engineering, reportedly using a third party 3G chip, is a contributing issue to the problem. (During my time as a research physicist involving the design of rf detection circuitry, the rf sensitivity issue was a critical factor in detecting ¹³C signals using magnetic resonance spectroscopy for determining the molecular structure of drugs and other chemical formulations.)
• Real time navigation is just not viable on the iPhone. Pretty Google Maps but if they cannot track your progress in real time, not a big help. Especially when you’re lost on a lake with as many islands and inlets as Muskoka Lake. iPhone’s GPS can find me the nearest five Tim Hortons locations but combine my boating experience with the repeatedly reported inability of the iPhone to multi-task effectively and you have to come to the conclusion the iPhone is simply lacking in processing speed to perform true on-the-go navigation.
• And on long trips, away from a source for recharging, take along a couple of spare batteries.

Before every iPhone defender jumps on the bandwagon, I appreciate many of the iPhone’s features. It’s a great device for personal voice communications and and one way information delivery such as browsing activity and even receiving email (via GMail). But, it’s not up to the capabilities and standards of the Blackberry line when it comes to needing robust communications and processing horsepower.

Bottom line: everybody worries about 911 access for providing emergency communications. But when you travel into more remote, weakly serviced areas you want the most robust mobile device for maintaining reliably effective voice and data communications when emergencies arise. In this case I want a Blackberry, thank you.

(Note: Nokia N95 testing is yet to occur due to limitations on the number of SIM’s immediately available.)

Tags: Blackberry, iPhone, 3G, Rogers, Telus, Verizon, Research in Motion

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With RIM’s annual WES event starting later today we started to see announcements Monday about a new Blackberry and a new VC fund for mobile applications.

Blackberry Bold is definitely a major smartphone enhancement from the current Pearl, Curve and, most notably, 88×0 lines. Reading through the new specs, the Blackberry Bold addresses several issues that have been of concern in the past:

• triband 3G support extends support to GPRS/EDGE/HDSPA networks
• “push button” WiFI setup to readily access “protected” WiFi access points
• significantly improved multimedia support – overall (streaming) video performance, iTunes synchronization, new media player, improved display
• and, while they’re still working on it prior to the Blackberry Bold’s summer release, a new web browser.

Amongst the new specs:

• faster processor (@ 624 MHz, the fastest Blackberry)
• 128MB internal Flash memory but also 1GB on-board storage memory
  • expandable to 16GB via MicroSD/SDHC slot
• 2 megapixel camera
• GPS with Blackberry Maps
• Blackberry MediaSync to transfer media from iTunes
• half-VGA “ultra-bright” display (480 x 320)
• higher capacity battery:

Of particular note; it maintains the traditional QWERTY keyboard with ergonomic improvements – a key Blackberry defining feature relative to iPhone — and is its “trackball ergonomics” their response to iPhone’s touch screen?

With its newly enhanced, high performance browser and high-resolution, ultra-bright display, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone gives users an on-the-go web browsing experience with desktop-style depiction. The trackball mimics a mouse, making it easy to navigate sites in “Page View” or “Column View” or to zoom in on specific parts of a web page, while various emulation settings allow users to choose between the full desktop-style HTML content and layout or the mobile version. Attachments can also now be downloaded from within the browser and there is support for watching streaming videos (RTSP – real-time streaming protocol).

While the official press release talks about it as a “business” smartphone, Crackberry.com reports from the WES preview day:

Target Market? There’s been a lot of talk about the target market for the 9000/BlackBerry Bold. The basic confusion to date is that it looks a bit “enterprisey”, but has a camera built-in which historically screams consumer device. What it comes down to is that RIM didn’t have an enterprise/consumer target in mind with the BlackBerry Bold. The real goal here was to build a high-end device that was the ultimate BlackBerry to date… the BlackBerry on Juice (err..Steroids)… putting WiFi/GPS/3G into one unit with a Speeeedy Processor and some More Memory. So there’s no target market per se, but there is an Appeal…and the BlackBerry Bold is going to Appeal to BOTH Enterprise and Consumers. It’ll appeal to the Business Executive and it will appeal to us Gadgetholics who just HAVE to have the best device on the market.

In addition it appears that iPhone is not the only smartphone getting VC funding support for applications. Yesterday RBC Financial, Thomson Reuters and RIM announced the Blackberry Partners Fund – $150 million “to invest in mobile applications and services for the BlackBerry® platform and other mobile platforms”. Toronto’s JLA Ventures, who have been involved in startups for over ten years, is a co-manager of the fund along with RBC Financial. Long time personal acquaintance Rick Segal of JLA talks about the fund and JLA’s role; also Rick is interviewed by VentureBeat. Rick emphasizes that mobile applications only make business sense if they run on multiple mobile platforms, including Blackberry, and that only JLA and RBC Financial will make the funding decisions with no role for RIM.

Looking forward to using iSkoot and IM+ for Skype on the Blackberry Bold. While the Blackberry Bold represents advances in device resource issues, there are still the carrier issues of network capacity, mobile VoIP call quality and unlimited data plan availability to be addressed before we see a reliable mobile VoIP client running on a smartphone.

Tags: RIM, Blackberry, Blackberry Bold, Blackberry Partners Fund, Rick Segal, JLA Ventures, RBC Financial, iSkoot, IM+ for Skype

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Normally when I head out on the road, I find a hotel with a free Internet connection and, if it’s wired, use my Linksys Travel Router to create a wireless access point so that I can run not only my PC but also my Nokia N800 and N95 over WiFi. This combination gives me world wide access to telephony, not only over Skype but also Truphone (N95) and GTalk (N800). I should also mention that a six-outlet, surge protected power bar is constantly in my luggage.

Andy at VoIP Watch, a self-confessed Global Nomad, has provided, in his Working Anywhere blog, the “Complete Guide for Hotel Managers” when hosting the technologically-enabled road warrior as a hotel guest. But I’m surprised he overlooked the need for an in-room wine cellar complete with “Shiraz on Tap”!

In reserving my room for the Skype Developers Conference next week, I did find a new hotel service: Hilton Hotels now offer their new “Stay Connected @ Hilton program available for $12.95 plus tax per 24 hour period. Includes wireless high Speed Internet Access, Unlimited Local Calls and Unlimited Long Distance Calls within the Continental US.” Looks like VoIP and Internet connectivity for the rest of the world that does not lug along their PC and associated hardware. (Included with the basic room rate is wired high speed Internet).

A resort with which I have had an affiliation for several years has seen their once very profitable long distance revenue drop off by 95% over the past few years due to both mobile phones and guest-triggered VoIP use in the hotel room. Seems like Hilton has figured out a way to recover some of that revenue from at least the non-technologically enabled.

.. in the UK at least. Today, as one partner participating in the 3 X-Series service announcement by Hutchison Whampoa’s 3 Group, Skype has announced its first truly mobile offering where Skype users can make “free” Skype-to-Skype calls on a mobile phone. Starting December 1, 3 Group will launch a new flat fee mobile broadband Internet service in the UK. In the press release related to this announcement Skype CEO Niklas Zennström said:

With 3, I am very proud to say that for the first time, our users can now try out making Skype calls on the move using a mobile phone. We always want to delight our users by letting them try out new ways of keeping in touch. This is a real milestone for Skype because now you can use Skype beyond the PC, no matter where you happen to be.

CIO Now has an excellent detailed description of the impact for Skype; the key points being:

• 3 Group will launch the new X-Series service December 1 in the U.K. and roll it out to the other countries in which 3 Group operates (including Ireland, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Israel, Australia and Hong Kong) in early 2007.
• While it will be a flat-fee mobile broadband Internet service, no pricing has yet been announced.
• Initially it will only offer Skype-to-Skype calls; however SkypeOut and SkypeIn services will become available “next year”.
• It will require the much-anticipated Skype for Symbian client to run on the Nokia N73 multimedia personal communicator which will be offered as one of two handset offerings for the service.

The X-series service will also provide:

• Sling Player to watch your (home) cable TV on your mobile phone.
• Instant Messaging with text messaging via Windows Live Messenger or Yahoo Messenger.
• Mobile eBay connectivity
• Access, via Orb Networks, to the digital content that users have stored or accessed on their PC at home, including music files, playlists, digital photos and videos.
• Mobile Google

My comments:

• A flat fee service that includes a data plan is the only way Skype will make economic sense for users given the amount of “data” and associated overhead involved with Skype’s packets. Will this be the trigger that has other wireless carriers consider flat fee data plan services which could potentially cannibalize their legacy (GSM) wireless phone services?
• 3 Group will apparently be using the 3.5G HSDPA data protocol for this service. Do the costs associated with this protocol provide reduced carrier costs such that flat fee data plans become economically viable?
• As the Nokia N73 is the only device that will include Skype, it confirms that an initial Skype for Symbian client has to be available in December.
• In the web-based collateral (free registration may be required) that includes an interview with Niklas, there is only mention of Skype calls and Skype presence. Specifically there is no mention of text chat. (Will Skype IM suffer a split personality on some mobile devices?) Yet chat will be available in the X-Series Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger services.
• As for Mobile Skype evolution, it appears that Skype for Symbian will initially lack the full IM (presence plus text chat), SkypeIn and SkypeOut features of Skype Mobile for Windows.
• Latency has always been an issue for mobile VoIP using 2.xG data services; VoIP-based push-to-talk services on 2G can have up to 8 second latency. While my contact network tells me that 3G speeds resolve that issue, it will be interesting to monitor if there remain any latency issues.
• Sling is obviously about to announce a Sling Player for Symbian which I look forward to also trying out.
• When can we expect similar full featured services in North America from Rogers, Cingular and T-Mobile?

I close with this quote from Niklas’ interview produced by Cantos, 3 Group’s video public relations agency

Q. So what’s in this for Skype?

A. Over the last three years, we have changed the way people communicate with one another. We also want to continue to delight our users by innovating new ways to communicate, so this offering is the first major offering to bring Skype to a mobile phone, which makes it possible for the 136 million Skype users to use Skype when they’re on the go, on their mobile phone, so they no longer have to sit in front of their PC. That’s a major step for us. Over time, we also intend to improve this offer to include other Skype services. We start with the Skype calling between Skype users, online presence and the contact list. Over time, we hope to also offer Skype Out, Skype In, chat features, and other Skype services.

Interesting times are ahead for the evolution of Skype on mobile services. 3 X-Series is certainly a viable model for mobile Web and VoIP services going forward. Now the challenge is to make this type of service truly available to all 136 million Skype users worldwide – not just the millions who have access to a 3 service!

P.S.: my thanks to SparkPR for providing the 3 X-Series release in advance.

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