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For details of my current professional services and activities see www.martingeddes.com.
September 12, 2006
OPINION://Truly scrumptious
Sometimes, I'm glad my brother came up with the slightly corny title of this humble blog. You stumble across something utterly Telepocalyptic, and you've got the volcabulary right there to describe it.
I was being badgered before the conference by an infinite number of PR folk, most of it irrelevant. (Even more of a sin: boring!) One start-up came in via the right route: Skype me with an IM, explain in 2 lines what you're about. I think you're going to be hearing a lot more about them. The next Skype? Well, we'll see -- the telcos may be a bit wiser second time round.
For those who know PhoneGnome, this does a similar function for mobile phones instead of landlines, just 100% in software. For those who don't know PhoneGnome, read on. This is a goodie.
The company is Truphone, a UK-based venture-backed company. They've done what has been anticipated for a long time, and made it (relatively) easy to turn your cell phone into a wifi phone. But with a few big twists.
Provisioning isn't Skype-easy, but it's pretty easy still. Send a text message, get one in return, click, install, set up WiFi access points.
You then dial as normal. Press the green button. NO SPECIAL APPLICATION UI. If the other user is on another Truphone device, you're through. If they're on a landline in 40-odd countries (or US/Canada cell phone), you're also through. Note: you're not a penny poorer. The price of PSTN calls is effectively zero now -- official death of the metered minute, full report at noon. Want to call Timbuktu, a high termination fee mobile or non-geographic or premium service? Deplete your pre-paid Truphone balance. Or just pay the usurious mobile rates if you insist -- instead of pressing the green button, make a charitable donation to telco shareholders using the menu.
Would Sir like to pay, or call for free?
This is fixed-mobile convergence alright, but on the user's agenda. If this takes hold and 5% of users adopt this within say 24 months, the pricing pressure will be evil.
There are some wrinkles. It currently only works on selected Nokia E series phones, targeted at enterprise users. (These have the necessary SIP stack, CPU, flexible Symbian UI, codecs, etc.). Mass-market Nokia N-series phones are in the pipeline. No doubt other manufacturers would like to have the "free phone calls" feature, too -- you can imagine it being somewhat of a disadvantage not to. (Understatement is your friend.) They're also addressing the consumer market, because their investors want that -- yet the sweet spot is probably small and medium business (who can afford the devices and will gladly bypass carrier handset distribution channels).
Speaking of which, I've been consulting to anonymous handset vendors on this topic. The day of reckoning is coming for the operators. The handsets are creating the incremental value, not the networks. The value of subsidy in effecting lock-down is decreasing. The price of handsets is falling, the number of SIM-free unlocked handsets being sold is rising. The operators will resist these devices entering their channels. Bad luck, folk will just buy them tax-free in the airports as they go on holiday. You can't compete against your customers.
Not a good day for investors in mobile operators, I'd say. Truly buggered by Truphone. Oh, and did I mention that their vision involves eroding some of those juicy SMS margins, and deploying features like voicemail to email that the operators refuse to roll out? No wonder they all look rather pleased with themselves.
PS - I'm not being paid to write this stuff, although I've grabbed a loaner Nokia E60 off them to play with the service. Watch this space for my experiences of using the beta product in the real world. This is the first arbitrage service in ages I've actually wanted to use.
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The Beginning of the End for Traditional Cellular Wireless from Fractals of Change
Martin Geddes, a smart telecom strategist (that’s not necessarily an oxymoron), has an important post about disruptive UK newcomer Truphone. The company’s service and free software take much of the cost out of cellular calling - especially internat...
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