Google Voice Moves into Mobile Arena

Looks like Google is very aggressively pushing the Google Voice product to compete with the likes of Skype, spinvox, phonetag to name a few. Today they announced the launch of Google Voice Mobile apps for blackberry and android . In fact with so many other in-house features like Gmail, Wave, calendar, docs, video etc, they can build a strong unified communication product that can compete with bigger giants like Cisco, Avaya in the communication space.

So using this app, users can actually call friends/family or colleagues, and when they receive the call, users Google voice number will show up as caller id. Once Google starts supporting number portability, this would be a killer product. Iam not sure how long they can provide this service for free. I don’t see any advertisement being planned for this feature. Again, I wouldn’t be surprised if they start showing up some ads next to voicemail, sms etc. Being in the middle of all conversation makes Google more powerful. This will give them access to all forms of communication. They are already acting as a router between consumer and information. The notion of Google being the brain of communication seems not so far fetched.

Using the mobile app, users can:
• Access your voicemail: read message transcripts, follow along with "karaoke-style" playback of messages, read SMS messages sent to your Google Voice number (even if your phone doesn't receive SMS messages) and access your call history
• Place calls that display your Google Voice number from your address book, the app dialer (Blackberry) or the native dialer (Android)
• Send SMS messages that display your Google Voice number
• Place international calls at low rates

Check out the video on how it works:


From an operator standpoint, they wouldn’t be taking Google emergence into Telco market lightly. Does it mean Google would become a Phone Company? I don’t think so. To me, Google is focused on being in the middle of the conversation. In order to be a phone company requires infrastructure and huge network investment, and iam sure that is not what Google wants to be. They are dependent on the MNO's for supporting voice and sms communication. I’m surprised why none of the operators are providing Google Voice type of features themselves.

Google Chrome OS, Excellent PR!

Look’s like Google has a way to announce new products. It’s always a huge BUZZ in the media. So today they announced another ambitious product called Google Chrome OS. There is so much written about Google Chrome OS, so for a change, instead of me being a meme writer, thought of collecting some interesting articles written by other folks. So if you would like to know more about Google Chrome OS, check out these article:

• Introducing Google Chrome OS


• Google Chrome FAQ


• GigaOm: Google Chrome OS


• Google's Chrome OS: what it means, why it matters


• Eleven Questions About Google’s Chrome OS


• No thanks Google, we've got Ubuntu


• Switched On: With Google, this is not your father's OS war


• Why Google's Chrome OS Is Not in Your Future


• How Google’s Chrome OS has deep roots in Eric Schimdt’s past

Antitrust Administration to go after Operators

According to WSJ, Department of justice has started looking into whether big Telco operators like ATT, Verizon Inc and Sprint are ignoring Antitrust laws. Look’s like obama’s administration is very aggressively pursuing antitrust enforcement.

Why should ATT,Sprint or Verizon worry about this move? Exclusivity agreements! ATT has an exclusivity agreement with Apple for iPhone, which is a bigger selling point for ATT and a drawback to most of the other operators. Though this should be good news to Verizon. However, they have their own exclusivity problems( BlackBerry storm and some other phones). Sprint has exclusivity with Palm for Palm pre.

Antitrust laws have played a bigger role in shaping the telecom sector. We all know how Ma Bell” was broken into multiple regional carriers. I guess lately the reverse is happening with big operators. AT&T merged with SBC,Cingular wireless. Verizon bought some small operators like Alltel wireless. Together, these two operators own 60% of the 274 million US wireless subscribers.

This should be good news to all the folks who are happy with their wireless service providers, and don’t want to switch their service providers for that cool handset. Be it iPhone, Palm Pre or Blackberry storm. The issue still remains as to whether these antitrust laws could be applied against these operators for exclusivity deals.

According to WJS, Here is what carriers have to say about the exclusivity:

The carriers say such exclusives enable them to take risks on expensive new smart phones and bring them to market at discounted prices. The deals limit the ability of manufacturers such as Palm, Apple and HTC Corp. to distribute their devices widely. But some analysts say those companies benefit by getting a significant share of a carrier's marketing and sales resources.

"If you are launching an absolutely new product to the market, pairing up with a Tier 1 carrier gives you instant visibility and buzz and a first-rate marketing campaign," said Andy Castonguay, a wireless analyst at Yankee Group.

Paul Roth, AT&T's president of retail sales and service, told Congress last month that the billions of dollars the company invests in its network and services would be put at risk if government were to "impose intrusive restrictions on these services or the way that service providers and manufacturers collaborate on next-generation devices." Mr. Roth said there is plenty of competition and innovation in the wireless industry

Some Antitrust experts believe that it would be hard for the antitrust administration to open Sherman Act case against these operators. For now, let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope something better comes up for consumers.

Change your Google Voice Number for $10

If you are not happy with your Google Voice number and would like to change, feel lucky, Google Voice will let you do that for a small one time fee of $10. I just changed my number; paid $10 and got a number that ends with RAVI( 7284). I know some folks who changed their number without paying a penny.

Here is how you change the number, you login to your Google Voice account and next to your number, there is Change button. Once you click the change button, a popup with the following information shall be displayed:

There is a $10 one-time fee to change your Google Voice number. Here is how it works:
• Pick a new number in the area codes we have.
• Pay $10 with Google Checkout, using your credit card.
• Your new number becomes active right away.
• Calls to your old number will keep coming to your Google Voice account for three months, so you have time to tell everyone about your new number.

Also, there is a tool that will help you find the number you wanted.

Here are some results I got for my name "RAVI"

(901) 213-7284 - (901) 213-RAVI
Memphis, TN

(916) 672-8474- (916) 6RA-VI74
South Placer, CA

(916) 672-8474 - (916) 6RA-VI74
South Placer, CA

(262) 607-2845 - (262) 60R-AVI5
Williams Bay, WI

(469) XXX-7284 - (469) XXX- RAVI ( I picked this number )
Dallas, TX

BTW, your old number stays active for 90 days. So you’ve got plenty of time to notify all your contacts about your new number. Iam still waiting on Number Portability, which is gone be the game changer. For now, iam happy to have got a new local number that ends with “RAVI”.

For More info check out the following links,BoyGeniusReport and Techcrunch

MagicJack revenue more than 100 million dollar, recession?

We don’t talk about vonage anymore, its all about MagicJack now. MagicJack, the cheap internet phone gadget, using which, consumers can make unlimited calls via a USB jack. The service works by hooking up a standard home phone to the USB jack provided by magic jack. The USB jack is sold via stores like Best Buy, RadioShack and Walgreens. The price of the USB jack is $40. For the first year, unlimited calling is free. After that, its $20 a year. I remember paying more than $30 for a month for landline, and this one beats the price by a mile. The downside with the service is that you need to keep your computer powered all the time. So there is some money you pay for the computer power consumption.

The company sells about 9,000 to 10,000 units per day, and according to the Borislow, CEO of MagicJack, the company will make more than 100 million dollar revenue. Looks like recession has no impact on this company.

What is the Magic behind MagicJack service? It has its own network to support voice calling. Its parent company YMax communication is actually a CLEC (Competitive local exchange carrier). Unlike other internet phone companies who pay to get phone numbers, YMax as a CLEC doesn’t have to pay for phone numbers. ( Remember Google voice bought 1 million phone numbers via Level 3 communications) In addition, they make money via inter-carrier termination charges. Check out their YMax CLEC rates.I doubt if they generate all their revenue via inter-carrier termination charges. I guess this could be one of their cash cows. They still have to pay for Call Origination from the MagicJack phone. Don’t know how this is covered.

Who is using the service? Many older people, frequent travelers and overseas customers who want to make free cheap calls to America and Canada. They have some cool innovation up their sleeves; A Femtocell gateway that will allow consumers to use their GSM cell phone with MagicJack service and Number portability support.

For some Folks, MagicJack is a Scam and for others it’s a boon. Let me know what you guys think about MagicJack. Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down?

Google Voice invites on the way

Couple of days back I had written about Google reserving 1 million phone numbers through Level 3 Communications. I was hoping they would launch sometime this year. Well this one was quick, Today Google officially announced that they are sending out invites to those folks who had registered earlier. Check your mails for an invite from Google Voice. If you wish to have a Google Voice number, and have not registered yet, here is the link to register

What more, Google voice would let you choose a phone number that is specific to your area code. Off course, this is based on the availability of the phone numbers.



Check out the video:

Apple sells more than 1 million 3GS iPhone’s

Apple sold more than a million 3GS phones . This should be a good news to Steve jobs, who apparently resumed his work today . I guess the numbers are based on three days after launch. Pretty impressive! In addition, around 6 million customers have downloaded the new iPhone 3.0 software in the first five days. Though iPhone 3.0 software has some issues, customers are not shying away from downloading the software.

The hype and excitement surrounding the new iPhone 3GS has not been a disappointment so far. Despite the competition from RIM Inc’s Blackberry and Palm Pre launch, iPhone has been steady with the growth.

Here is what Steve job's has to say:

“Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “With over 50,000 applications available from Apple’s revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever.”

The new iPhone 3GS has lot of powerful features. Though Nokia leads the Smartphone market with a market share of 41.2%, iPhone is catching up slowly. RIM stands second with a market share of 20% and third comes iPhone with 10.8% share. I guess there are not many enough enterprise features from iPhone to entice enterprise customers. Blackberry is kind of ruling this arena.

Here is the market share of different handset vendors for 1Q 2009 and 2008(pic courtesy, appleinsider)

Google Voice, 1 million lucky users

Google has reserved 1 million phone numbers with level 3 communications. So this should be good news to all the folks waiting to get a google voice account. Hopefully, Google will launch the service public sometime this year. With the number portability being added, Google voice definitely looks lucrative and can be a strong contenter in the voice 2.0 arena.

Here are some of the features of Google Voice:

• Call screening - Announce and screen callers
• Listen in - Listen before taking a call . It’s cool that u can listen to the voice mail being recorded and a chance to talk to the caller while he is recording his voice message.
• Block calls - Keep unwanted callers at bay . I love this feature. Now you have a way to block all those annoying telemarketers and spam calls. Lately, I have been getting so many spam calls.
• SMS - Send, receive, and store SMS
• Place calls - Call US numbers for free . Enjoy the free calls.
• Taking calls - Answer on any of your phones
• Phone routing - Phones ring based on who calls
• Forwarding phones - Add phones and decide which ring
• Conference calling - Join people into a single call
• Call record - Record calls and store them online
• Call switch - Switch phones during a call
• Mobile site - View your inbox from your mobile
• Personalize greeting - Vary greetings by caller
• Listen to voicemail - Check online or from your phone

Top news for weekend warriors

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• State Department to Twitter: Keep Iranian tweets coming


• iPhone 3G S review


• iPhone 3.0 Update: 10 Hidden Features


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Google Voice, keep your current phone number

According to Techcrunch , Google voice is planning to support Number Portability; this is definitely a good news to folks who have a Google voice account, formerly grandcentral. It’s a very ambitious move from Google. I’m not sure how they are gone achieve this big ambition. The reason for my skeptism- Google is not an operator, uses level 3 communications for number portability, which is not an operator as well. So this is where it gets interesting and tricky.

What is Number Portability?( according to wiki)
Local number portability, (LNP) for Fixed lines, and full mobile number portability (FMNP), for mobile phone lines, refers to the ability to transfer either an existing fixed-line or mobile telephone number assigned by a local exchange carrier (LEC) and reassign it to another carrier. In most cases, there are limitations to transferability with regards to geography, service area coverage and technology.

In short, Number portability helps consumers keep their current phone number and switch to any carrier of their choice. The biggest problem so far for Google Voice adoption is that consumers have already been using a certain phone number for decades, and changing that is not trivial task. There is a huge switching cost. So supporting Number Portability makes Google Voice very lucrative.

It makes me wonder what the hell the operators are doing to counter voice apps such as Google voice. It should be a no-brainer solution for them to support the same. I would love to see one of the operators support such a feature. The question really is, would I pay for such a service? Off course, I will, and iam sure lot of other folks will.