Wednesday, February 21, 2007

We don't need to do that… yet.

by alec on February 21, 2007

In Matthew Gast’s I wish Apple had taken on the telcos, he writes:

The “control your customers and force feed them” model cuts against my entire experience, which is based on open systems and architectures. In theory, an upstart could design a cool GSM phone and sell it directly to end users, bypassing the control-freak middlemen telcos. I had hoped that Apple would do just that. They are the one company that could build a phone that they could sell directly to hordes of consumers without help from the carrier.

Ask a North American carrier about fixed mobile convergence and dual-mode handsets and you’re going to get an interesting answer.  “Those European carriers are mighty innovative guys, but we don’t need to do that… yet.”  Fascinating answer.  Further digging reveals that the European’s have apparently got networks operating at near capacity, which is why dual-mode WiFi devices are appealing.  Apparently we don’t yet have the problem in North America.

So I’ve been told…

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Privacy and Prejudice.

by alec on February 21, 2007

Over on the Skype Journal, Jim Courtney has written a blockbuster post titled Privacy and Prejudice: An Interruption 2.0 Manifesto for the AlwaysOn Lifestyle.  Based on his experiences using a variety of Always-On / Always-Connected devices over the last couple of months, this piece is a clarion call for a simpler user experience, and for the industry to deliver the tools to help us retain our privacy in this environment.  He concludes with:

Bottom line: I want to be able to participate in the conversations essential to my lifestyle and my business operations – when, where and how I choose. And the service(s) of choice will only rise above the noise (and become a revenue generator) when I can take back control of my life – through a focus on restoring my privacy and my prejudices to my communications activity.

Must read.

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Grand Central and SIPPhone

February 21, 2007

Grand Central and SIPPhone are announcing an interoperability agreement this morning.  Full text below.  The news, short and sweet, is that if you are a Gizmo Project and a Grand Central user, you can now use your Gizmo 747 number to receive calls from your Grand Central account.  Practically speaking, what that means is that people [...]

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Calling the kettle black

February 21, 2007

Writing as a guest for the BBC, Ottawa Law Professor Michael Geist does a good job at poking holes in the latest broadside from the US copyright lobby.   What I am referring to, of course, is last week’s release by the IIPA lobby group of their latest “Blacklist” of international copyright villains.  They accuse Canada, and [...]

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