Are Patents Bad for Business? -- WiFi...

Canadian networking equipment manufacturer Wi-Lan has decided to sue major Wi-Fi manufacturers for patent infringement, reports Jennifer Hagendorg in this story picked up by Advanced IP Pipeline. "This legal action against Cisco puts the industry on notice that Wi-Lan will aggressively protect its patent rights," said Sayed-Amr "Sisso" El Hamamsy, president and CEO of Wi-Lan, Calgary, Alberta, in the statement.

Tony Smith, writing for The Register details the patents at issue in his story. "...three Wi-LAN patents - one Canadian (2,064,975), the others registered in the US (5,282,222 and 5,555,268) - which cover the use of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), a technique incorporated into the 802.11g and 802.11a Wi-Fi standards." He notes that there are a total of 17 patents in question, some granted and some pending, that Wi-Lan claims "are necessary for the implementation... of WiMAX."

Dana Blankenhorn sees Wi-Lan's enforcement of its patents as an abuse writing initially here:

Smart people get together and create a standard. It's a universal standard, a free standard, non-proprietary.

Then, years later, after everyone has committed to this free standard, some hoser comes up with a patent claim and decides to shake everyone down.

and then in response to Steve Stroh, here:

My take. The use of patents as a business weapon by a company failing of its own weight is what I'm on about...

Patents are a limited right to profit from an invention for a limited time. They are a license to produce. They should not be a license to prevent. The test of a patent's worthiness should include a measure of the holder's own efforts to exploit the patent. And the transferability of patents should be limited. It's a production license, not a legal hunting license.

For his part. Steve Stroh defends Wi-Lan, commenting to Network World:

"This isn't a 'let's try to get away with extorting money' Wi-LAN really does believe that it's only fair for the wireless industry to pay them for their OFDM patent just like Qualcomm has done with CDMA."

Patrick Mannion, for this story picked up by CommsDesign interviewed Mo Shakouri, vice president of the WiMax Forum on the topic.

"We've examined their claims and found nothing,"" said Mo Shakouri, vice president of the WiMax Forum and assistant vice president of business development at Alvarion.

"They may have been able to bully smaller companies without the financial resources to fight them," said Shakouri, referring to Redline Communications. "But when they go up with the big guys [such as Intel] they're going to get killed. They're only damaging themselves; they should focus on building equipment and working better within the WiMax group."

On the one side, the argument seems to be that companies should compete on their ability to execute, building great products and running a good business. On the other hand, examples like Qualcomm abound in which enormous businesses have been created based upon revenues from inventions licensed to others. So are patents good for business or bad for business?

The problem with the "execute and run a good business" argument is that without patent protection, innovative startups would never get funding, much less have an opportunity to compete against powerhouse corporate titans like Cisco. Without patent protection to nurture small companies, an enormous engine for innovation in our economy would dissapear. Rather than be surprised or upset that a small company has the gumption to stand up for themselves and ask to be paid for their innovation, we should be applauding the "little guy" in asking to be fairly compensated. The proper time and place to address IP issues is during the standards process, not after products are shipping.

Advocating Regulation of the Internet

For some time I have been thinking about the debate on VoIP regulation and wondering how the regulators will handle peer-to-peer VoIP applications such as Skype and Peerio. Mobile Mesh pulls this snippet from Niklas Zennstrom's talk at Supernova:

"I want to talk a little about regulation. Decentralized voice over IP has an implication on regulation. The regulators have been trying to regulate this saying it's the same service, but it's not. You regulate a market that is subject to monopoly. You want to make sure consumers are protected. There is no such monopolist in voice over IP. Traditional telecom regulations will not help the market grow, will not help consumers, and will not drive regulation. You should not and you cannot apply regulations designed for network operators to software providers."

This is the crystallization that was eluding me -- the mismatch of applying a regulation model developed for network operators onto a software business. When voice is just another packet on anyone's network, what are you regulating?

Back up for a moment and look at the core social justification of regulation. There are two arguments (other than taxation...). The first is that citizens need to be protected from the activities of each other and other entities (businesses, other governments). The FDA is a good example of this first case -- it is in the common good for the government to oversee drug development and marketing so that we have safe drugs that work as advertised. The other argument is that the State should protect and administer public resources. When a telephone company runs copper wires to your home, of necessity these wires must traverse public space to connect with your private property. Given the expense of installing and managing this infrastructure, and the fact that there is a limited resource (we don't want 20 companies tearing up the streets to install cables), the government steps in to regulate the process.

VoIP does not fit either of these justifications. VoIP is merely the content that is running along the installed wires. It still makes sense to regulate the infrastructure, but not the content riding on that infrastructure. Ultimately traditional telecom regulation must transform into regulation of the IP Network -- the core infrastructure elements from the wired or unwired connections we make to the network all the way through the routers, servers, and other devices that make up this new IP world. The regulation should insure equal access, promote quality of service, provide for penalties for abuse, and tax to the extent that enforcement of these regulations must be supported.

EV-DO Sweeps America

The rumors have been thick for a week that Sprint would chase Verizon into the EV-DO rollout world. At Supercomm this week the rumor became a reality when Sprint announced a $1 billion investment to roll out the technology over the next few years, starting with selected markets later this year. Verizon has already launch their service, called BroadbandAccess, in San Diego and Washington DC and plans on delivering EV-DO services this year to about one-third of the US market.

A natural question for potential users of such a system is whether competing vendor's EV-DO offerings will interoperate. Denise Pappalardo, writing for Network World Fusion writes that "When asked if Sprint plans to team up with Verizon on a roaming agreement for EV-DO services, the carrier says it would provide benefits to users, but it has not reached such an agreement at this point."

Given the relatively slow speed of EV-DO (typically 300K to 500K) one has to wonder what the telecom giants are thinking. EV-DO may do a better job of penetrating office tower walls than mesh 802.11 networks, but as Wi-Fi continues to spread, increasingly with no access fees, consumers may prefer to wait until they arrive in range of a free hotspot rather than pay monthly access fees to a carrier.

Perhaps someone at Sprint could be troubled with the analysis of what $1 billion would buy in 802.11 gear to cover the same market areas. Since they are unlikely to make the money back with EV-DO, the would be better off providing the money to municipal governments as a tax-deductible donation and at least get a significant amount of marketing mileage for helping to close the digital divide. Anyone at Sprint listening?

VoWiFI Handsets from Samsung

I spent part of my day at Supercomm yesterday looking for Voice over Wi-Fi handsets. A few have been announced, such as the Prestige 2000W from Zyxel and Motorola's -- the one that Vonage is going to ship before the end of the year.

But I wondered whether there were any companies with shipping products today. Leave it to Samsung to have quietly released a terrific product. Called the WIP-5000M you can only get this handset in Italy today. But I was told by Gavin Bruce, a VP with Samsung US, that this beautiful device would be coming to the US by October.

Unfortunately the WIP-5000M is designed with a proprietary set of extensions to the SIP standard, insuring that it will only work with Samsung 802.11b base stations. A follow-on product, the WIP-6000, is due out next year with an open SIP software stack.

There will be two options for you to use the WIP-5000M. The industrial strength option is called OfficeServ and provides a combined TDM/VoIP PBX system.

Alternately, a SoHo market product, the SIT200EM, will be available in the US in October, providing 2 analog trunk lines and running embedded linux. Multiple WIP-5000M devices can be used simultaneously through a single "SoHo Master" base station.

Pulvermania

Why do you spend tens of thousands of dollars throwing a party for complete strangers at a major trade show? So that everyone repeats your name like a mantra (pulver, pulver, pulver). And Tuesday night's blowout at Chicago's House of Blues was an enormous success if measured by that narrow criteria. Jeffrey Pulver now has groupies. One over-served woman came down the bar asking each of us whether we knew Jeff and could we introduce her to him. "I've got to meet him!" We explained that he was right down there on the dance floor holding court, and anyone could say hello... Jeff Pulver claims that it was the best Supercomm party ever and its hard to disagree. Thanks for the party Jeff!

COMDEX JUST CANCELLED

The rumor going around the show floor here is that Comdex has been cancelled for 2004... perhaps forever?

Update: Supposedly coming back in 2005 according to CRN writer Robert Faletra

Peerio Update - Real Products Real Soon

I had the opportunity to follow up on my earlier interview with Popular Telephony's CEO, Dmitry Goroshevsky here at Supercomm. Popular Telephony annouced a number of partners at the show, and I asked Dmitry about these partners and their plans to use Peerio.

Tell me a bit about the licensees you announced here at the show

Dmitry -- The first is Vontel, which manufactures a full line of SIP phones for the enterprise. They currently sell these phones with Nortel equipment. Every Vontel phone will now have Peerio installed, allowing customers to deploy without Nortel. Vontel primarily distributes their products in Europe today but is opening a distribution facility in Dallas to support the US market.

So Vontel can eliminate Nortel with Peerio?

Dmitry -- Well, their customers can -- if they want to use Vontel phones with Nortel they still can, but they don't need Nortel anymore. So it gives them independence but also opens up new markets that wouldn't have paid for expensive Nortel Gear. Similarly our second licensee announcement, Adtech, can eliminate Cisco.

Adtech is also in Europe?

Dmitry -- Yes, but they serve a very different market. The have phones with an integrated smart card device for universities, hospitals, governments. They are Cisco certified and have been seling their phones with Cisco gear. With Peerio imbedded in their phones, their customers can deploy without that expensive Cisco product. And even better, customers can create networks that mix Vontel and Adtech phones for different applications within their facilities.

You also had a service provider announcement.

Dmitry -- Atemis in France. They serve Puegeot, Renault, and Carrefours with a CRM solution for their call centers. Right now, all the calls go through a central ACD in Paris where customer data is matched to the call and routed to someone answering the phone. Atemis is using Peerio to eliminate that expensive ACD. They have integrated Peerio directly into their web-based CRM system.

Will you be making any other announcements here at Supercomm?

Dmitry -- We aren't making a formal announcement, but Logicom, the #2 telephone manufacturer in France with 30% market share will be using Peerio in a consumer product. They are building a standard DECT - wireless phone - that will have both a PSTN plug and an ethernet plug. Customers will be able to seamlessly make and receive calls with other Peerio devices and over the PSTN from the same wireless handset.

When can we expect to see all of these products?

Dmitry -- Vontel will be shipping phones by September 1st, Adtech hasn't given us a date yet and Logicom is working to ship their product by the end of this year.

Any other announcements here at Supercomm that we should know about?

Dmitry -- Our advisory board now has some fantastic people, take a look at our press release.

And when will we be able to download Peerio444 and give it a try?

Dmitry -- Soon. I don't want to say when, because we are still testing. But it will be soon. And we are getting ready to allow developers to download and play with the open source component. They still won't be able to compile, because the core won't be available yet. But at least they can look at the product and start thinking about how they want to use it in their applications.

Thanks for taking time here at Supercomm to talk

SkyPilot Flying High

Back in 2000 when SkyPilot Network was founded, the plan was to become a wireless network operator. I caught up with company CEO Mark Johnson at Supercomm to hear how that plan has changed over the past four years.

When the company's founders started looking at how to use 802.11 to provide reliable network connectivity they saw a number of problems. 802.11a was designed for line-of-site connections but in the real world buildings, trucks, trees and hills can get in the way. As the company started to develop solutions to these problems, SkyPilot realized that there was an opportunity to provide an innovative hardware product to other operators and the business plan changed. Four years later the company is now shipping real products to customers -- the first two purchase orders were from Australia and Malaysia, and test projects are underway with carriers, MSOs, ILECs and enterprise customers in the U.S.

SkyPilot's Innovation

SkyPilot provides an 802.11a based product which can reliably provide fixed wireless connections over a distance of 5-7 miles without a line-of-site installation and with line-of-site over a distance of 19-20 miles. In order to achieve this range, the company has modified the 802.11a software stack so the products are not Wi-Fi compliant. But by using standard silicon, SkyPilot is able to offer a product at practically consumer prices. In "quantity 1" the base station is just $2,499 with mesh extenders another $400 or subscriber units approximately $350. According to Johnson, no other wireless mesh network can provide this kind of range at these price points. "WiMAX is coming, but it will be years before WiMAX products can hit this price range."

But that doesn't make Johnson afraid to jump on the WiMAX bandwagon. "We'll be joining the WiMAX Forum in the next few months," Johnson stated. "We love standards, and we'll be amongst the first to ship a WiMAX product when standardized silicon becomes available." But Johnson points out that WiMAX just doesn't make economic sense today, "why spend 10 times to get the same range and performance that I can give you with 802.11a today?"

The SkyPilot system has a rare FCC exemption, allowing them to operate base stations at 10 watts, helping to provide the long range for 802.11a. The company was able to get this exemption by operating the system as a directional antenna, even though the base station provides full 360-degree coverage. SkyPilot achieves this by using an array of directional antennas, offering a system that can be flexibly mounted, and providing "self-discovery" software that helps to establish and maintain connections between the base station and mesh extender or subscriber units.

The other important innovation is in providing a synchronous connection (versus the asynchronous 802.11a standard) which improves a higher quality of service. "This is a carrier-grade solution," claims Johnson. And apparently carriers are looking at the company's products. "Two years ago carriers wouldn't touch unlicensed spectrum, but this is the only way to reach some customers economically," Johnson explained. One area of strong interest according to Johnson is from cable operators who want to provide data and voice services to the small business market, without provisioning fixed cable infrastructure.

Customer Interest

Johnson outlined some of the other opportunities for SkyPilot -- local ILECs looking to get into markets they don't currently serve, enterprise customers wanting to share bandwidth between multiple facilities, and universities looking for cost-effective distribution of data services around a campus.

Larry Dockstader of San Diego based Hispeedwireless.com was standing in the SkyPilot booth and looking at the product as I spoke with Mark Johnson. "I haven't seen anything that competes at this price point and with this kind of flexibility," Dockstader stated. "My competitors are using Motorola's Canopy which is very expensive. I can deploy this for next to nothing." I asked him if Johnson should be charging more for his products. Dockstader smiled, "probably..." Asked whether the lack of conformance to the 802.11 standards was a problem, Dockstader suggested that it was actually an advantage. "It provides an extra layer of security if you can't use standard 802.11a gear to connect."

Overall the advantages from a customer perspective? Dockstader stated, "Cost, non-line of site, closed system for security, and manageability. I want to buy the gear today!" I left as Mark started to take down details on his new customer's requirements.

Motia - Killer Antenna Tech for Wi-Fi/WiMAX

I spent half an hour with Motia's Chief Scientist, Jack Winters. Motia has a few dozen patents in the smart antenna field, and announced today an investment round that includes Intel. While Intel hasn't said they will use Motia's technology, an investment from their Communications Fund is always a good sign. And Scott Richardson, general manager of Intel's Broadband Wireless Division, is quoted as saying, "Smart antenna technology, like Motia's, could play an important role in lowering service providers' costs for installing WiMAX wireless broadband services."

So what is Motia doing that has attracted Intel and Motorola as early partners? The core innovation is in adaptive algorithms that replace a single antenna with 4 antennas, using these 4 receptors to more intelligently analyze the phas and amplitude of a received signal. The gain is 10-13 db which equates to a range increase of 2-3 times, or a greater ability to penetrate obstacles like walls. All this for a technology that will cost $10 to $20 to add to a typical Wi-Fi base station.

Unlike power boosters, which must be installed both in a base station and a device receiver to obtain full benefit, just installing a smart antenna in the base station will yield the range benefit. Both the transmitted signal and received signal are optimized through this technology.

An important point for VoIP over wireless applications -- use of a smart antenna will significantly improve the quality of service within the range of the base station -- the algorithm and use of four antennas "smooths" the signal within the service area.

While there are other smart antenna systems, Motia is virtually alone in applying an analog processing algorithm, as opposed to digital signal procesisng approaches. This means that there is significantly less lag time introduced in the process of analyzing the signal. Jack Winters states he knows "...of noone else with a working chip." They have delivered engineering samples to partners and are prepared to manufacture as soon as there is an order.

Motia expects two types of products -- base stations with a smart antenna built directly into the device, marketed as long range Wi-Fi, and something that Motia is calling SEAM devices (smart external antenna modules). With a SEAM device, a consumer could replace the existing antenna and retrofit with a smart antenna, improving the devices range and quality of service. Motia hopes that there will be products available for consumers in time for the 2004 holiday season.

But WiMAX may be the bigger win, a smart antenna can help WiMAX in the higher bandwidth ranges penetrate buildings and ease configuration hassles. Motia expects that significant partnerships will take this technology into first generation WiMAX equipment in 2005.

Interview with WiMAX Forum Board Member

Here at Supercomm I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Mohammad S. Shakouri, the Chair of the marketing working group for the WiMAX Forum. Some pundits have written that the marketing for WiMAX is so good that "if they "got into politics, they could probably elect a lamp to office within weeks But Dr. Shakouri claims that he should receive no credit for the success and in fact he worries that the hype is ahead of reality. "Managing the hype and executing over the next few years are our biggest problems." But he says he understand why the market is so excited, "this is a revolutionary technology, the future is mobile broadband IP."

Dr. Shakouri is pleased that everything is coming together. He points to this morning's announcement that Motorola is joining the WiMAX Forum and says that more announcements are coming, "Samsung, Lucent, and Nortel -- at least two of these three will definitely be on board soon."

I asked him about what happened with Nokia's membership -- they were in, they were out, now they are back in again... what is the story? Dr. Shakouri explained that the Nokia division that had been a member was dissolved and so when the WiMAX membership came up for renewal, he thinks it just "fell through the cracks" as there was no one who had responsibility for focusing on the WiMAX group. But today there is a division that is focused again on WiMAX within Nokia. However he also mentioned that they have still not "formally" rejoined the WiMAX Forum, despite their public comments about rejoining.

We spent some time discussing the timeline for WiMAX. There are two tracks -- when will the standards be approved, when will there be real product rollouts. First on the standards:

802.16a was the initial standard and is for fixed broadband wireless. This was published back at the beginning of 2004. The next two standards are "d" and "e" -- with "d" WiMAX adds portability and with "e" mobility. The 802.16d standard has been approved and will be published by mid-July. The 802.16e standard is expected to be approved by the end of Q1 2005 and published in mid-2005.

On implementations, the WiMAX Forum expects to provide WiMAX certification for the first devices, with interoperability between manufacturers, by mid-2005. In the meantime, there are a set of vendors providing "pre-WiMAX" products. This are helpful to the "pioneering leaders" who are already running trials with this technology to gain expertise and ready themselves for full rollouts. Europe is leading, with British Telecom and France Telecom as two prominant service providers that are trialing pre-WiMAX equipment. Dr. Shakouri expects that there will be a few Asian service providers in trials within the next 3-4 months.

Dr. Shakouri points out that the fixed broadband wireless market is already a $400 million market and that 80% of these companies are going to switch to WiMAX. In the next 3 years, this will grow (due to WiMAX) to a $2 billion market. This is just for fixed broadband. Adding portability and mobility will give WiMAX a $10 to $20 billion market opportunity.

While Europe and Asia are leading the charge into WiMAX, the US will be a laggard. This is primarily an issue with bandwidth availability. Some of the applicable WiMAX bandwidth is used for military applications in the US. The 2.5 ghz part of the spectrum is controlled by Sprint and Nextel today (note Sprint's announcement of support for EV-DO this morning). But there are still some opportunities in the US in the license exempt spectrum - 4.9 ghz for example. Dr. Shakouri expects that it will be late 2005 before we see applications in the U.S.

The Supercomm Train

All aboard for Supercomm! The show is starting off at full speed. Jeff Pulver promises that "VoIP will be the talk of Supercomm 2004!" Given the number of announcements already out, I can't say that I blame him for his enthusiasm -- as self-serving though it may be... He has 16 companies demonstrating commercial SIP interoperability (so much for Skype's complaint that SIP is the "weak link" in VoIP). Jeff is also demonstrating the VoWLAN product WiSIP on the show floor -- as soon as I have seen it I will post my observations.

Lane Cooper has published The Story So Far From Supercomm 2004 over at Networking Pipeline. He writes about VoIP but also notes NEC's integrated transport approach to optical networking, RBN's Edge Aggregation Device, and Level 3's VPN services expansion. Ben Charney, writing for ZDNet has posted a preview of the Supercomm show. In addition to VoIP, Ben thinks the important technologies at the show will be "Lightning DSL, hot-spot cops and cheap video phones."

And as Andy Abramson writes over at VoIP Watch the story at Peerio is becoming clearer. I hope to follow up my earlier interview with Popular Telephony's CEO Dmitry Goroshevsky with an in-person interview to hear more about their plans and partners.

I have a mailbox full of press releases and exciting announcements. I am going to focus on SIP and WiMAX during the show although that won't stop me from posting interesting things I see outside those two areas. If you are at Supercomm, let me know and maybe we can share a drink at Pulver's party tomorrow night.

Rail a "Robust Market" for Wi-Fi

Wireless Jitney's headed out to the Hamptons, according to Wi-Fi Networking News, has Wi-Fi access. The same blog has news of Le Wi-Fi Bus in Paris. RCR Wireless News reports that AT&T Wireless Services has begun offering Wi-Fi services in train stations. So why, here in Silicon Valley, aren't we in the lead on Wi-Fi on our public transportation?

In August of last year the East Bay Business times reported that the Stockton-San Jose "Altamont Commuter Express" would offer free Wi-Fi and that a similar service would be available on the Sacramento to San Jose Amtrack "Capitol Corridor" line. According to the same article, BART is discussing a news-only service.

Shawn Griffin, president and chief executive of PointShot Wireless is quoted as saying "Rail is a very robust market for Wi-Fi." Despite this rosy outlook back in October of last year, the Altamont Commuter Rail now only offers Wi-Fi in a single car, through a partnership with the University of Phoenix.

So when will we see Wi-Fi on the rails here in the Bay Area?

The Need for Speed

Michael Sciannamea, writing over at the wi-fi weblog reports on a speech that Paul Marino gave at WiCon World this week. Paul is the vice president and general manager of Philips Semiconductor's business line connectivity division. Marino complains "...that the wireless industry is adding too many standards to existing technologies instead of fixing their inherent problems." The original article appears over at CommsDesign.

There is certainly no question that the pace of innovation in the wireless space is currently moving at breakneck (break network?) speed -- with or without standards. The Register recently reported on a 2.1 Mbps Bluetooth standard. Fierce Wireless (as reported in the unofficial bluetooth weblog had a recent rundown on Wi-Fi, ZigBee, UWB, Bluetooth, and NFC. Over at Wi-Fi Planet they are talking about MIMO, Advanced IP Pipeline has the latest on 802.11n (another name for MIMO) and of course there is the buzz around WiMAX.

So does Paul have a point? Should we stop the insanity, tell all the standards writers to go home, and make the stuff we have now work? The problem with this theory is that it assumes that the wireless standards we have now are capable of doing what we want them to do. But we are barely there. Wireless is playing catch-up with the expectations set by broadband. Wi-Fi has taken off for exactly this reason -- it supports access speeds equivalent to those that we have grown used to through ADSL and cable modem access. The consumer experience of networking is defined by speed -- regardless of whether the connection is wired or unwired. The new standards are seeking to catch wireless up to wired speeds in other venues -- 802.11n for example seeks to deliver speeds we expect in our workplace.

Of course new fixed line standards such as Uni-DSL will alter those consumer perceptions again. At 200 mbps, there will be good reasons to have fixed line netwok access for some time to come.

Apple 1, Linksys 0

Linksys is bringing rudimentary Mesh networking to consumers with their new Wireless-G Range Expander. While a few dollars cheaper, the Range Expander is nowhere near as cool as Apple's Airport Express which not only expands your network range but also provides wireless MP3 streaming and a remote USB port. According to this scoop from engadget (May 29th!) Linksys is planning two separate products for streaming audio and for adding a wireless USB port. Apple managed to get this all into one small box...

RFID in your Mobile

Dow Jones Newswire reports this morning that Nokia will be the first manufacturer to include RFID chips in their mobile phones. Dow Jones quotes Gerhard Roman, head of marketing and sales for RFID at Nokia:

"This technology enables instant corporate data capture and shows measurable productivity improvements," Roman said. In customer trials in various industries, productivity improvements became evident in six to nine months, he said.

Roman gave as an example the security industry, where guards have to file reports. Using the RFID-enabled phones, guards can simply touch the device to a tag at points along their patrol routes, which will automatically file location and time information, he said.

"This immediately increases productivity as the guard is spending less time filing paper reports and more time guarding," Roman said.  Other industries could use the technology to send invoices automatically by touching the tag, reducing the need for paper-based records.

The GreenSheet has news on how this RFID chip can be used by consumers. Nokia, Visa International, and mobile operators in South Korea, Japan, and Finland are cooperating in trials which allow consumers to use their RFID enabled phones to identify themselves for ATM and credit card transactions.

VoIP to Become Household Word

I haven't seen the word VoIP on magazines at the supermarket checkout... yet. But Jeff Pulver has been tracking the "VoIP Buzz" for awhile now and his numbers match up to my intuition -- VoIP is rapidly becoming a mainstream technology, at least as terminology. Jeff reports that as of Monday there were 2,970 news stories on Google that mentioned the word VoIP. Today Google reports 3,310. That number is likely to grow quickly with Supercomm next week.

Speaking of Supercomm, I will be blogging from Supercomm on Tuesday and Wednesday. Hope to see you there.

Back at You, Nokia...

In the 24 hours following Nokia Oyj's announcement of 5 new handsets, including the first megapixel camera, Nokia's competition has fired a deafening salvo back, including over 30 news phones and the first 2-megapixel camera phone.

Max Wang in Singapore, writing for DigiTimes broke the news of LG's 2-megapixel phone, at the Communicasia show. He writes that the SD330 phone features a built-in 2-megapixel camera, and that it "...garnered much attention at the event." In addition, LGE introduced multimedia capable models including the LP3000 and SC8000 and two new WCDMA phones, the U8100 and U8150.

At the same Communicasia show, Max reports that Samsung has launched 20 new phones. In addition, Samsung plans the launch of a 3-megapixel camera phone in addition to the 2-megapixel which they already sell in Asia. Samsung's new phone are in five categories as defined by Samsung, Flip-type, Camera phone, Trendy, Personal trendy, and Smartphone. Max includes a beautiful photo of Samsung's new Smartphone, the SGH-V500.

Finally, the busy Max Wang filed this report on 10 new phones being launched by Panasonic including their X300 Motion Video handset which comes with a pop up LCD color screen for easier filming.

Certainly a busy day at Communicasia and it speaks to the enormous competitive pressure, especially from Asia, that Nokia is now seeing in the marketplace. Perhaps Jorma should look again at the handset release schedule and reconsider the phones that have been delayed...

Alternate Route for the Last Mile

Last week we got the news that the traditional telephone companies will hold on to their key monopoly -- the last mile into your home. The Associated Press quoted Gene Kimmelman, senior director of public policy at Consumers Union (publisher of Consumer Reports magazine) as saying "This decision is the final nail in the coffin for local telephone competition." As Dan Gillmor writes, "You expected a different result?"

But wait a minute, this might actually be the best thing that ever happened for consumers and the industry.

By protecting this monopoly of the last mile of copper, the RBOCs are creating an enormous incentive for the marketplace to innovate around them. Already consumers are flocking to mobile phones as an alternative to the RBOC's fixed line piracy. As wireless technology continues to get better and better, consumers will need that last mile of copper less and less. Writer Paul Kapustka, blogging for Networking Pipeline put it this way, "traditional telcos are looking down the tunnel at the new access methods, and it's probably an oncoming train, not a light, that they see." He was referring to colleague David Haskin's article Wired-Wireless Convergence Threatens Telcos.

I was recently chatting with a silicon valley VC who told me that he gave a talk at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business and took that opportunity to survey the audience on the technologies they used to get phone calls and access the Internet. Almost all had switched to cell phones for calls and cable modems for Internet access.

Between wireless, cable, and powerline options, the industry can and will build an alternate route for the last mile.

Summer of WiMAX

I recently posted a quick definition of WiMAX as a few readers had written in with questions about this new technology. A number of recent announcements suggest to me that I should be increasing my coverage of WiMAX, and not just because some observers believe that the WiMAX Forum is so good at PR that if they "got into politics, they could probably elect a lamp to office within weeks"

No, it might really be the Summer of WiMAX. Sumner Lemon, writing for The Industry Standard reports that WiMAX is about to take off in the People's Republic of China. Intel has apparently signed an agreement with the cities of Dalian and Chengdu which are expected to be among the first in China to deploy WiMax networks.

Brad Smith, writing for WirelessWeek reported that Sari Baldauf, head of Nokia Networks, said that Nokia will rejoin the WiMAX Forum this year. Support for WiMAX from a major mobile networks vendor should hasten deployment in many areas of the world.

But the big push this summer is coming from startups. Stephen Lawson, writing for E-Commerce Times writes of TowerStream and their use of WiMAX products from Aperto networks. And Newsfactor had this report last week on Alvarion's BreezeMAX product launch. While neither Aperto not Alvarion are precisely standards based (given that the standard is not quite complete) both companies are insisting that their products are "upgradeable" to the standard.

Intel has a significant investment in WiMAX but Stephen Lawson notes that "Intel expects to integrate WiMax in its Centrino wireless chip set along with Wi-Fi beginning in late 2006, with a wide rollout in 2007." This will be great for driving the per unit cost of WiMAX down to the point where it can be found in handsets and laptops, but the excitement is starting now. I can't wait to disconnect the phone line from my house...

Exciting new online info source

CMP Media has just launched Advanced IP Pipeline, a news and information web site covering "the latest news and trends from all points of the interconnected universe..." Here is more on what they say about themselves:

Advanced IP Pipeline is the publication for the individuals and companies who are shaping the future of communications. It delivers breaking news, product announcements, in-depth product research tools, expert advice and analysis, insights into industry trends, reviews, and hands-on how-to details. You'll get everything from news about the latest backbone service to the ins and outs of Voice over IP — and a lot of topics in between.

CMP Media is "the same company that brings you TechWeb, InformationWeek, Network Computing, InternetWeek.com, CRN, VAR Business, EE Times, CommWeb, and many other publications." Veteran networking reporter Paul Kapustka is the editor of this new site, so I expect that it will become an indispensable resource.

What me worry?

Mike Masnick over at techdirt links to this ZDNet report of the first smart phone worm, dubbed Cabir. A little scary -- it is a Symbian based worm that spreads via bluetooth... an interesting development -- proximity to a disease carrier can infect your phone. However Tuxedo Jack, posting on Slashdot points out that "This still relies on a user to open it..."

Masnick writes "...it's a noteworthy moment, and we can expect many more smartphone worms and viruses to be on their way. It won't be long until you'll need anti-virus software for your phone as well, or you may discover that your phone starts calling people in your phonebook randomly." He also expresses a healthy dose of skepticism, "Of course, with that in mind, it kind of makes you wonder if it wouldn't make sense for anti-virus firms to fan the flames of just such a virus to open up a new line of business for themselves."

It is important to note that, as John Oates at The Register put it, "Anti-virus groups received the worm from its authors but it is not yet 'in the wild'." So don't expect to pick up this infection at your next networking party, but be aware that more like this are likely to be headed our way.

Despite the fact that this is a "proof-of-concept" virus, William Hungerford over at his blog, Ouch! My Brain Hurts! points out that Symantec has already published instructions for removing the worm. Kind of lends credence to Masnick's conspiracy theory...

PC Pro in the UK interviewed Denis Zenkin, Head of Corporate Communications for virus fighter Kaspersky Labs, and obtained a lot of interesting information about the source of the virus:

'Kaspersky Labs received the very first sample of the worm from an unknown person in a message sent from an anonymous e-mail address. It could be the creator of the Cabir or at least a "proud" member of the computer underground.'

The Moscow-based company says it appears the worm was written by someone using the nickname Vallez, known to belong to an international virus writing circle called 29a.

This group has in the past been responsible for the first .Net, and 64bit Windows viruses among others.

PC Pro also points out that, "according to McAfee, mobile viruses have been with us since September 2000, with the Liberty Horse Trojan, with at least eight other Trojan, SMS and other types having been discovered to date."

Nokia Roundup

According to DigiTimes, Nokia Oyj launched their new megapixel handset in Taiwan on June 11th, just a few days ago. But the big news today for Nokia was coming out of Finland where a total of 5 new phone models (including their first "clamshells") unveiled at the Nokia Connection conference in Helsinki, Finland.

While most reports centered on the excitement of these new devices, little is been said about the five phones that Nokia is NOT shipping this year. Bloomberg.com reminded us that Nokia had previously announced (as recently as April) 40 new phones for 2004, and now will ship just 35. "We have reviewed the timings and pruned our portfolio, adding some new products and accelerating others -- and during this process, we have even killed some product plans," Jorma Ollila said in the release. Bloomberg also reports that "Competitor Samsung, the world's No. 3 handset maker, plans to unveil 50 models in its domestic market in 2004."

In addition to missing a few phones from their line-up, some of the phones they have announced will be limited in their markets. Gizmodo offers an overview of the new announcements. The article observes that of the two entry-level GSM phones, "...only the 2600, the rather plain candy bar phone, will be seeing entry here in the States, while the nice-looking folding 2650 is going to be Europe only. That really bums me out, too -- the 2650 is attractive enough to purchase just to have as a second phone."

Despite a few phones missing from their line-up and the limited markets for some phones, Jorma Ollila is confident that Nokia will regain marketshare lost in the last quarter. Brad Smith, reporting for Wireless Week, attended Nokia's annual media day and wrote that Ollila confidently told his audience "we can get back on track in terms of improving our market share. I'm sure the results will be there." However, "Ollila declined to say if there was a target date to reach the 40 percent market share, a level the world's No. 1 handset maker has yet to achieve." Regarding missing handsets, Smith reports that one of the phones which will not ship this year is the "...7700 "media phone" with mobile TV, visual radio and Internet on-the-go capabilities. The phone won't be launched as planned but instead will be used in pilot programs, two of which are occurring in Berlin and Helsinki."

Other details on the Nokia launch came from a variety of sources --

Reiter's Camera Phone Report offered details on Nokia's new 1.23 megapixel camera, with access to 3G networks and an optional external flash. The camera comes with 74 mb of memory (enough to shoot 60 minutes of video).

Andrew Orlowski, writing for The Register writes that Nokia "...expects Wi-Fi to feature in many business models next year, and some consumer models too." He also writes that "Nokia executives alluded to the cancellation of the Series 90 keyboard communicator for the first time at the event today." Perhaps they feel that the product is unnecessary given the much talked about bluetooth keyboard announced today.

Cory Doctorow, writing in his Boing Boing blog was more interested in the soft porn Rankin photos ("hot nekkid (sic) fairy chicks") used to promote Nokia's first megapixel camera phone.

A few people were dissappointed with the announcements today. Operation Gadget was dismayed that Nokia always announces phones in Europe and Asia. Suggestion: Maybe New York? He writes, "If Nokia keeps announcing products in Europe and Asia, and shipping them 3 to 6 months later in North America, they will continue to have difficulty generating momentum here for their new products."

And on a day when most of the news was positive about Nokia, you can expect the Microsoft cheerleaders over at MSMobile to have a few negative comments about their competitor. This post is way over the top, however, starting with the subject line "Nokia lies and deceives again" and continuing on to call Jorma Olila (sic) a "drunkard." No one ever said that bloggers were responsible journalists...

The 4G Buzz

First it was the articles in The Feature and elsewhere that India would skip 3G altogether and go directly to "4G" "...even though no clear 4G standard or format has yet emerged" as writer Carlo Longino points out.

Now VNU Net reporter Steve Ranger reports that "... 4G - will be a combination of 3G and WiMax technologies..." and attributes this claim to Forrester analyst Bernt Østergaard. Speaking at Forrester's GigaWorld conference in Barcelona,

He predicted that 4G will offer access at Ethernet speeds (such as 10Mbps) and integrated wireless local and wide area networking (Wan) by combining 3G and WiMax in a single handset.

Elsewhere, ZDNet UK's Graeme Wearden reported that WiMax will be key to BT's 21st Century Network project Graeme reports that BT "is already testing 802.16d in four rural locations across Britain." But WiMax won't be limited to rural areas.

In an interview with BT's Matt Beal, director of the 21st Century Network project, Wearden reports that "Beal said that WiMax wouldn't just be used to fill these rural gaps, but could also have a role in metropolitan areas." Beal "declined to elaborate further" but one might guess that Beal would be very unpopular with BT's ADSL division if he started predicting the end of the line for that technology in press interviews.

Showing that the buzz machine is just getting started, Mobile Mesh Networking reports that a Fourth Generation Mobile Forum has been created. There is a "kick-off" meeting planned for Shanghai October 11-13. This conference seems to have been organized by The Delson Group which also organizes the World Wireless Conference -- the 6th of which will be in San Francisco on May 24-27, 2005.

Good thing we didn't waste any time here in the US on 3G.

Wi-Max Quick Definition

Wi-Max is the marketing name for the IEEE 802.16 wireless networking standard. The 802.16d standard supports 300K to 2M bit/sec up to 30 miles, or 50 km to fixed points. The 802.16e standard supports mobility, bandwidth to end devices should be similar. Each WiMax base station is specified to support total data rates of up to 280 Mbps, allowing a large number of simultaneous users in each covered area. Experts expect base stations to be deployed with a maximum of a 10 mile range for good overlap. The Wi-Max Forum is the industry organization set up to promote WiMax. I will be interviewing Mo Shakouri of the WiMAX Forum at Supercomm -- send questions you'd like me to ask him -- tshelton@ipinferno.com

BT's Got the MoJo

Light Reading had a thorough summary of British Telecom's 21st Century Network program. Between that effort, an IP services backbone to replace their switched network system and BT's project Bluephone this old school telecom company seems set to be the pace car for the IP revolution.

According to Light Reading, BT will spend $1 Billion or more a year, for the next 5 years to roll out this new network infrastructure. One yellow flag for telecom watchers -- BT talked a lot to Light Reading about trials that begin in October, saying "we have a lot to learn..." from the trials. One danger -- BT spends too much time analysing this new opportunity and loses this early lead they have defined.

According to VNU Net's Dinah Greek "the first switch will bypass the core PSTN network link between two major network nodes at Woolwich and Cambridge." According to the article, "Mass migration from PSTN to the new network is planned for 2007-2009." Still seems like a long way away.

With project Bluephone, BT is targeting the handset instead of the network for radical surgery. According to Larry Garfield's article in infosync, "The Bluephone is a multi-network handset, compatible with 3G networks, traditional GSM networks, and with Wi-Fi networks, and able to transparently switch between them."

Andy Abramson in VoIP Watch observes that "These are ambitious plans, but the British Isles are not that big, there are fewer competitors. For PTT's making the switch it's much easier than where there are many players."

David Smith, in his Preoccupations blog ponders the impact for consumers:

It could change the way people use their phones and allow most people with a BT phone line to plug into broadband using computers, mobiles or other devices. It could also mean that mobiles and fixed lines become interchangeable, with the same number and bill.

BT has also been championing the "Fixed to Mobile Alliance" which certainly fits in well with their 21st Century Network plans but is bound to spook mobile only operators. Eduardo Prado in his Smart Convergence blog made the interesting claim that "Vodafone said it had declined an invitation to join, despite its recent alliance with BT." He also reported that "...an MMO2 spokesperson said, explaining why the company was not joining the new group: 'This whole alliance seems a bit biased to the fixed line world.'"

But if BT can pull it all together, on the handset and the network, this summary of this latest news over at the neuro.me.uk blog might indeed be accurate, "The future's bright, the future's IP-based!"

Wireless Broadband - It's Really about VoIP

We have seen an onslaught of announcements over the last few weeks about wireless broadband technologies from Wi-Max for Consumers as reported by Robin Arnfield for Wireless NewsFactor to the latest new acronym Wi-Bro (4G wireless in Korea) to tests by Vonage of VoIP on Verizon's EV-DO. Even Om Malik has declared "Broadband Wireless comes Back from the Dead."

But it's enough to get some observers to throw up their hands in disgust at the hype machine. Broadband Reports writes "If the marketing department behind the Wi-max standard got into politics, they could probably elect a lamp to office within weeks." And a recent study published in TelephonyOnline reports "WiMax, MobileFI no threat to DSL." The study states the belief that broadband wireless will be deployed in neighborhoods that are not currently served by fixed line broadband.

So which is it? Is wireless broadband finally coming of age? Or is it the most over-hyped technology since... social networking software?

The key to understanding why wireless broadband is going to be enormous over the next few years is in looking beyond data access and thinking about voice as an application on the network. There is an interesting use case distinction between data and voice -- most of the time when we are using data we are sitting still. Wireless connectivity gives us the flexibility to sit where we want, but we aren't moving. With voice much of the time we are in motion. Fixed broadband connectivity can bridge to local Wi-Fi stations for data use and give us sufficient flexibility. But for voice connectivity, users need a much greater range, which broadband wireless could provide.

One alternate approach is offered by LocustWorld, the Wireless Mesh, which bridges multiple wireless nodes into a seamless single network. But even with 802.11g you would have a hard time keeping a VoWLAN connection as you drive all over town. This is where the range of wireless broadband services becomes important. Newsfactor reports that Alvarion has launched a new product with a 30 mile range. This would allow you to take a VoIP phone all over town. Combined with a mesh network, you suddenly have a replacement for cellular, all over the country.

Voice will drive the economics of installing the infrastructure for broadband wireless and fixed line broadband for data will simply be collateral damage along the way.

Nokia's Stumble a Wake-Up Call?

The news is in for Nokia's market share and the news isn't good. Reuters story subtitle was "Gartner survey cites rocky relationships, lack of new models" and reports that while the overall handset market grew by 34% in the first quarter, that "the big story is in Western Europe, where Nokia has lost 10 percentage points of market share," (Gartner analyst Ben Wood).

Nokia reported that its handset sales actually increased during the period, though stating that their worldwide market share slipped to around 35%. Gartner claims that it was as low as 29%. Nokia vice president Antii Vasara attributed at least part of the drop to Nokia's policy of putting their own branding on devices, instead of helping operators to differentiate products. Analysts also point out that Nokia's product line in the period had lost ground in features and styles to their competition.

Andrew Orlowski, writing for The Register points out that Nokia's weakness is in the mid range product offerings. He writes that "Nokia's low end looks extremely competitive and its high end is faring well, despite some concern with the 3G products." But the mid range products "looks dated set alongside newer rivals" and Nokia needs to take its Series 40 phones and make them more stylish while improving useability. This is likely what Nokia had in mind when it released the 3220 with its innovative (dare I say COOL) wave messaging.

But with "carriers gravitating toward vendors that respond to their customization requests" as Derek at tech dirt points out, Nokia needed this wake-up call. A slow decline in market share might not have been the shock to the system that this kind of significant slump is likely to provide. A flurry of products shipping in the summer and fall, and a change in their willingness to cooperate with operators could easily shift the analyst reports back into a positive spin.

On all of this negative news Nokia's stock has dropped, reports CBS Marketwatch. Just three months ago the stock traded around $23 and is down to $14.33 today. If you believe that the decision makers in Espoo can turn their battleship around in the face of this crises, NOK is probably a good buy right now.

SBC and Wayport at Micky D's

Reuters reports this morning that SBC will be offering Wi-Fi at up to 6,000 McDonald's restaurants as well as providing the Internet connections for these stores. Reuters notes that SBC had previously announced plans for 20,000 hotspots in UPS stores over the next three years. The Associated Press gives SBC partner Wayport the credit that Reuters neglected, reporting that "...Wayport Inc. will deploy SBC's FreedomLink Wi-Fi service in up to 6,000 McDonald's Corp. restaurants by the end of next summer." The AP article also provided details on pricing -- you will be able to purchase unlimited Wi-Fi access via all FreedomLink locations for just $19.95 per month (and that includes the Giants baseball stadium in San Francisco, SBC Park).

DSL figured prominantly in both the Reuters and AP reports. Reuters quoted Phil Redman of Gartner as saying that FreedomLink "...seems like more of a plan to drive more DSL business than anything else for SBC. If you hook up every store to a higher speed network connection, that's great for them. The wireless part of it is a much smaller opportunity."

The AP article quotes Ray Wilkins, President of SBC marketing and sales as saying, "The agreement will help us create the industry's most extensive Wi-Fi footprint, and illustrates how Wi-Fi provides us with a range of revenue-generating opportunities, including revenue from transport services such as DSL."

The Indianapolis Star adds an important point for those of us that are not interested in dining at McDonalds. Writer Bill Hornaday spoke with Lauren McCadney, assistant vice president of Wi-Fi strategy for SBC, who observed that "With a wireless "cloud" that extends 300 feet, users can surf the Net in McDonald's dining areas, playground areas or parking lots."

Wi-Fi Networking News reports on the business model between McDonald's, SBC, and Wayport. In a prior article Wi-Fi News had explained Wayport's "Wi-Fi World" pricing model in which venues (such as McDonald's) would pay a flat fee for wireless services and then choose their own pricing model for subscribers. Glenn Fleishman reports that "SBC hired Wayport as a managed services provider to build out their own unique FreedomLink network." So under this arrangement it would appear that SBC pays Wayport the flat fee.

But since Wayport already had McDonald's as a client, will this arrangement with SBC result in lower revenue over time for Wayport? For Wayport the question has to be what is the long term value that they provide to SBC in building and maintaining the FreedomLink network? Without a good answer to this question, SBC may find that they don't need Wayport at some point in the future, and SBC will own the primary relationship -- with the venues.

And for its part, Wayport appears to be painting themselves into a bit of a corner. Reporter Eric Griffith for Wi-Fi Planet reports that during the four years of the McDonald's contract, Wayport can't work to install Wi-Fi for any other fast food restaurants. And T-Mobile, the largest provider of hot spots in the US, recently beat out Wayport at Hyatt Hotels, one of the last remaining hotel franchises. Are Wayport's days numbered?

Dueling Lobbyists - The Fight for VoIP Regulation

The fight for the future of VoIP heated up this week with lobbyists on both sides of the regulation issue making noise in Washington. Paul Kapustka, writing in networkingpipeline, reports that the Communications Workers of America has called for telecom regulations for Voice over IP saying that they hope to protect consumers. But he observes that "...it's pretty clear who the union is really trying to protect -- big telco companies, who employ most of the union's members." In what may be a related item, the recent CWA contract with SBC "Gives Workers Access to Jobs of Future" (jobs in areas such as VoIP).

Meanwhile, Tim Richardson writing for The Register describes The Voice on the Net (VON) coalition as having members that include AT&T, Intel, MCI, Microsoft, and Skype. VON similarly warns that consumers will be hurt, but argues that the harm will come from regulation. They too are, of course, simply protecting their own business interests.

Big players on both sides means a protracted debate -- full employment for lobbyists. But who will actually look out for consumers?

Interview: Popular Telephony's CEO On Peerio, P2P, Open Source

This morning I had an opportunity to speak with Dmitry Goroshevsky, CEO of P2P VoIP vendor Popular Telephony, producer of the intriguing new Peerio444 application. Peerio has been promoted as a true "serverless" P2P VoIP telephony application and as an open source product, two important distinctions from market leader Skype. I asked Dmitry about how the product works, what his business model is, and about his open source strategy which controversially has both an open source and a proprietary component.

Let's start with an overview of your product

Dmitry I started Popular Telephony in 2001. We have built what we call "serverless telephony" -- I don't like to say P2P.

Why is that?

Dmitry Because peer-to-peer can still mean there is a server -- look at Skype, for example. It still requires that clients log on to a server in order to connect to other clients. Peerio444 is our "forever free" consumer application -- and it requires no servers.

And you have an enterprise product as well?

Dmitry We will be making announcements at Supercomm 2004 of both device manufacturers and systems integrators that are partnering with us to provide the Peerio application in embedded devices. My vision is that you will be able to go to Home Depot or WalMart and buy an IP Device that has "Peerio inside."

So the difference between the enterprise product and the consumer?

Dmitry The difference is in the embedded version. Otherwise the two products are the same. Our business model is to license technology for embedded devices. In the enterprise companies can cut substantially the cost of IP telephony by eliminating the server.

Let's talk about how you eliminate the server -- how do I create a connection with another user?

Dmitry We can't talk about exactly how it works as we have patents pending, but it is a true P2P approach where you register with the network and you can discover other users through the network. This is the really original part of our product.

Not being able to explain it, makes it hard to write about...

Dmitry (Laughs) I know, but look around on the Internet, there are a few ways of doing this that work. We have our own. The "core" is a P2P serverless engine with an open API to an addressing service. (UPDATE - Dmitry writes back to expand on this point -- "Peerio Core is definitely much more then just an address resolution. To give just a few examples - it can give you a "presence" service, or a file "save" and "retrieve" function and dozens of others. It would be all too simple if it was just an address resolution...")

So I could write my own application, say an instant messenger, and use your addressing service to avoid having a centralized server for registration?

Dmitry Exactly. There are many applications that need serverless addressing services.

So lets talk about Open Source, why make one part of the application open and one part proprietary?

Dmitry The "core" is really breakthrough, with patent protection pending. This is how we get rid of the server and we don't want to show our competitors how we do this. The rest of the application is effectively a standard SIP client, in fact we built on top of OSIP

So if I wanted to connect to a non-Peerio SIP device or gateway, I could?

Dmitry Yes, the SIP stack is completely standard. You'd need to know the IP address, of course, if it was not a Peerio device. But it is completely open to connect with other networks.

What is the license under which you are releasing the SIP client?

Dmitry I will get you an exact answer from our lawyers and the license itself will be posted in the next few days. It is a modification of a GPL license though -- you have some restrictions but can use the source for whatever you'd like, as long as your modifications are put back into the public domain.

Could I take your SIP Client and use it with some other addressing system, instead of your "core"?

Dmitry Yes, I don't know why you'd want to! But yes, you are free to do so.

Any other restrictions?

Dmitry There are restrictions with OSIP, but otherwise no, it is a pretty standard GPL agreement.

Thanks for talking with us today, we'll look forward to your announcements at Supercomm

Without a Billing System, no need to Charge for Wi-Fi

Earlier I wrote, in this blog that coffee shop operator Tully's should think of Wi-Fi the way they do bathrooms or napkins -- just a cost of doing business. An interesting set of articles out this week addresses this same issue. Bob Brewin, writing for Computerworld, had this article out yesterday: Free Wi-Fi: From burger chains to public parks and dentists. Bob reports that the Krystal Co. (425 restaurants) will add free wireless to 52 of its locations by the end of this month. CEO Fred Exum is quoted as saying that "...the company views high-speed wireless Internet access as a way to attract and retain customers." And that free access makes good business sense since, "We're in the hamburger business and if I had paid access, my managers would have to help customers with their [Wi-Fi] configuration."

The article also makes the point that the installation cost of Wi-Fi is very low, since the restaurants already have a network connection for in-store management systems. Bob writes:

David Reid, Krystal's CIO, said the company can add free Wi-Fi service "without a huge capital investment" because it piggybacks on a wired high-speed network infrastructure installed in all its stores, typically DSL or cable modem service with data rates in the 900Kbit/sec. range. These wired connections support in-store systems whose traffic is so light that the Wi-Fi service has access to about 98% of the backbone capacity.

This cost effectiveness leads many to wonder why companies are charging so much for wi-fi access. A recent Register article by Jan Libbenga reports Wi-Fi hotspots simply too expensive. Jan reports on a recent study by Germany's Scientific Institute for Communication Services (or WIK Wissenschaftliches Institut fur Kommunikationsdienste). The study concludes that Wi-Fi hotspots serve the needs of only a small number of customers and that as a result, they are unlikely to be profitable. Part of the problem, WIK's paper says, is that the cost for access is so high that patrons won't use the service.

So at the same time that Krystal is finding it very inexpensive to offer Wi-Fi hotspots in its restaurants, WIK is claiming that it is too expensive to offer such services for the small number of people interested in paying the (high) cost to use them.

A thought provoking post to the Wireless Unleashed blog, entitled The Economics of Connectivity looks at the cost of deploying wi-fi within a broader context. Kevin Werbach writes

One of the key differences between traditional wireless networks and unlicensed systems such as WiFi is the way they distribute costs. It's not just a question of cheaper or more expensive. Who pays, for what, and at what point can determine adoption patterns more than the aggregate level of spending.

He goes on to look at the differences in the expense that a centralized infrastructure like traditional broadcast media incurs in setting up a station, vs. the cost of localized Wi-Fi networks.

So the question that ought to be asked, especially in the light of the Cometa Networks Shutdown, is whether or not the economics of a centralized wireless network provider make sense, not whether the economics of Wi-Fi in general make sense. Tully's can afford a wireless hub and a DSL line in each of its stores. But can they afford to have security, authentication, and a billing layer on top? The centralized infrastructure requires the investment that makes Wi-Fi so expensive. Reduced to its simplest form, the billing system is the expense that creates a need to bill for the service... Eliminate one and you eliminate the other.

VoIP - For Love or Money?

Jeff Pulver complains that We Need to Stop the VoIP Hype. He is concerned that the only thing that gets repeated with any frequency about VoIP in the mainstream media is the "cheaper calling" message... but the problem, he says, is that VoIP really isn't about cheaper calling. Andy Abramson takes up the banner on his blog, VoIP Watch saying, "Jeff Pulver is right, its time to stop the hype..." and writes that IP Telephony is "...about next generation services and being able to do more things in different ways." He goes on to list some of the services he gets from VoIP that he doesn't get from POTS.

Who is the Customer

But the missing element from this analysis is in understanding who the customer is for VoIP. For a mass consumer audience, there is no question that VoIP is more expensive than POTS. And less reliable, and more complicated to install and use... and pointless since (let's face it) MOST consumers rarely dial a long distance number much less an international number. And they don't need conference calling, sending their calls to alternate phone numbers, local DIDs in far away cities...

The near term customer for VoIP is either a business or a "pro-sumer" (professional consumer) who wants or maybe even needs all of these additional features that VoIP has to offer. And for this kind of customer, price really is the important issue. $25,000 for a PBX in my office? Which can only give me a fraction of the features that VoIP can offer today? No question, advantage VoIP.

Why People Accept Change

Change is hard. It takes time, money, and thought. For most people, it is more interesting to spend the afternoon with their children than to install a new business phone system. Geeks excepted -- we will install new technology just for the love of the technology. But most people update technology either to save time or to save money. If VoIP can't do one of these two things, it will never cross the chasm.

Perhaps by "hype" what Jeff Pulver should really be focused on is the hype of believing that VoIP will see rapid adoption by tens of millions of consumers.

Business use of VoIP

The near term customer for VoIP is the business user that already has features (through business PBX systems) similar to those available through VoIP. John McClure of DigiTimes writes that Computex Vendors Push IP Telephony with VoIP Gateways. This special report to eWeek details vendors at the Computex show in Taiwan that are releasing new VoIP related products -- targeted for sales to business customers. Similarly, Ben Chamy at CNET's News.com reports Dipping Costs to Fuel Corporate VoIP Growth. Corporate spending on VoIP will rise from this year's expected $1 billion to $5.5 billion by 2008, Ben reports. Craig McGuire of Internet News writes SMBs Seen as Fertile for VoIP Growth.

People often make the mistake of believing that their own needs and interests are representative of the average consumer. This is particularly untrue of technologists, thinking about new technology. We should be honest with ourselves, until it is as easy (or easier) to install, configure, and use as plain old telephone service, most consumers will not be interested in VoIP. That is the hype gap that we should be fighting.

IP Inferno

I have been working on a new project, IP Inferno in which I attempt a new approach to the blog editorial model. Blogs seem to fall into two broad categories, either (a) regurgitated, if idiosyncratic, news feed or (b) the personal voice of the blogger (as interesting as that might be). With IP Inferno I am trying something new -- attempting a roundup of the news and comment on a particular topic, albeit with an editorial slant. I was inspired by a publication called The Week which describes itself this way:

The Week is a witty, informative, important, and completely indispensable digest of the best reporting and writing from the U.S. and international press. In just 40 pages, it will bring you up to date on what’s happening at home and abroad, and what the experts are saying about it.

With IP Inferno I aspire to this formula but with the narrow topic of advanced IP applications such as VoIP, Wi-Fi, and Wi-Max. Why "IP Inferno" as a title? IP is the inferno that is burning down the traditional telecommunications industry... Enjoy!

Palm vs. Symbian -- Sony picks Symbian

Sony provided confirmation this week that the PDA market is in decline. This is especially bad news for Palm, which has never made the transition to a true smart phone profile. Bill Snyder writes in The Street that Sony's move has "put additional pressure on PalmSource to increase revenue from its smart phone business." And he goes on to report that smart phones currently contribute 25% of the company's revenue. But here he is referring to PDAs with phone technology integrated. Consumers are looking for a different form factor for the device, not just additional features integrated into the still bulky Palm profile.

Is Palm Finished?

The more interesting detail of this announcement is buried in the comment that Bill Snyder reports Todd Kurt (of Gartner) having made about Sony's future plans:

But Sony likely won't develop [future] devices around the PalmSource operating system, Kort said. For some time there was confusion about why the company was using the PalmSource software in its PDAs while Sony Ericsson phones were built around Symbian's rival operating system, he noted. "It looks like they finally made a decision."

It would seem that Sony doesn't believe that Palm has the ability to address the smart phone market. Jay Wrolstad, writing for Newsfactor reports on the comments of IDC analyst Dave Linsalata:

"This is a sign that smartphones are co-opting the basic PIM function of PDAs and drawing more customers to a single device that delivers voice and data capabilities,"

CNET News.com reports on new research from canalsys.com showing Nokia continuing to lead in the smart phone market and showing Symbian with 90% market share in Europe and almost 60% market share outside Europe. Of particular interest in this report is the table which shows Q1 2004 sales against the year ago Q1 2003 sales. PalmOne shipped fewer devices worldwide, dropping from 1.09 million a year ago to 995,000 this year. This decline comes in a market that is still growing strongly -- shipments from all vendors increased from 4.2 million to 5.9 million. This kinds of declines tend to accelerate as a vendor loses traction, and the loss of Sony will certainly hurt in the quarters ahead.

Bloggers Weigh In

Not much sympathy from bloggers. Om Malik writes "The only thing that is left to drive a stake through Palm’s heart is defection of Treo to Pocket PC." Marc Canter writes that he had been counting on Sony to buy Palm but now "...I wonder if this will still happen." It looks like some dark days ahead for Palm.