Sidecut Reports

If you follow this blog you know we are big fans of the way our pal Andy Abramson thinks, especially when he thinks big. Some required reading for this long weekend is Andy’s thoughtful take on “sponsored” Wi-Fi, who pays for Internet access and communications going forward — a blend of thinking as thorough as a Thanksgiving table. Take a read and digest the thinking… worth your time.

As a bit of a corollary to the post I wrote this week for my pals at GigaOM, there is the question about why aren’t MagicJack and Clearwire working together, as disruptors of the telecom status quo? MagicJack, as inventor Dan Borislaw will tell you, is making hay selling a $40 device that lets you make cheap calls over your broadband connection. And Clearwire is using WiMax to make that broadband connection cheaper.

Doesn’t the combo sound right for some of that peanut-butter/chocolate kind of hookup? It sure seems so to MagicJack’s Borislow. But so far, he says that the Clearwire folks haven’t rung his bell, despite the potential leads he might be able to provide from his customer list.

“It blows me away, the fact that they don’t call me up,” said Borislaw about Clearwire.

In their defense, the Clearwire folks are busy trialing their own version of Voice over IP, which they probably plan to charge more for than MagicJack’s $20-per-year service. Right now, Clearwire is only offering voice as a $25-per-month option in its Portland market; while Clearwire has said that its customers can use any VoIP application they choose, in previous interviews company execs like co-chairman Ben Wolff have said that they plan to offer voice services robust enough to justify the planned charges.

Sounds good — but in these economic times, MagicJack’s $20 per year might sound even better. But instead of competing, it’s gotta be at least worth a call to Borislaw to see if there’s a potential partnership, no?

Since we’re knee-deep in new report creation mode here at Sidecut central, this post isn’t going to be too long. But some news nuggets from different parts of the communications world got me to thinking… is it time for Skype and WiMax to do the peanut butter-n-chocolate thing?

One on hand, you’ve got Clearwire experimenting with VoIP handsets in Portland, Ore., the town that may yet go down as the Capital of WiMax before this is all over. On the other you’ve got Skype (and Asterisk) talking about making it easier to interact with SIP and by extension, small business phone systems.

Now throw in some Skype mobile handsets and what do we have?

Probably not anything the Clearwire folks want too badly, since they are counting on VoIP subscriptions to increase ARPU. But… imagine how interesting a WiMax service pitch would be if you got a free Skype phone as part of the signup deal. If anyone wants to continue this conversation over drinks in Vegas, I’m buying…

News of note around the ol’ Internets:

Senate Ready for DTV Delay: Sen. Rockefeller says it’s a disgrace that the DTV transition needs to be delayed. Vote is next week?

WiMax Forum Wants to Make Roaming Easier: The industry group launches a plan to help providers, device manufacturers and others synchronize WiMax services for easier roaming.

Sprint Dials Up a $2B Public Safety Plan: The good folks at Sprint have an idea about how to spend some of that stimulus cash, to build a network for public safety personnel.

Wireless Providers Want Cash, Not Conditions: Meanwhile, the big cellular telco lobbying organization, CTIA, says stimulus cash is great, but please hold the “open network” conditions, thanks.

VoIP a Winner over 4G: A study says that Voice over IP will be a big winner on 4G networks. (We agree, and plan to cover the topic in our WiMax Focus research service later this year.)

It made sense to us that small-to-medium-size businesses might be some of the early adopters of mobile WiMax services in the U.S., especially companies with “local nomads,” workers who roam a lot but in a somewhat local region (which could be covered by a single metro-area WiMax service). Seems like the Clearwire folks are thinking the same way, as evidenced by this new page touting business-specific service plans for their Portland, Ore., network.

While the in-office broadband prices seem competitive — unlimited usage with 6 Mbps/1 Mbps download/upload speeds for $75 a month — the more-compelling offer may be the “mobile shared” services which, allow for both in-office and local-roaming use. The mobile plans (which are advertised under a “coming soon” banner) will let small offices support teams of users on the same billing plan, starting at $75 a month for a shared 15 Gbytes of mobile data. According to the plan page, each additional device is $25, which theoretically makes such a service much cheaper than cellular data plans, which average about $60 a month per user for much slower speed links.

Read the rest of this entry »