The MVNOs Knows … Betting on SMBs … Betting on IMS

The MVNOs Knows Total Call Mobile has decided to use the aptly named Telcordia Hosted Solution for Mobile Virtual Network Operators to support the launch of its prepaid mobile phone service targeted at the expanding multi-cultural ethnic groups in the United States. Expanding? Wasn’t this country founded on multi-cultural ethnic groups or do we just live too close to the Statue of Liberty? Betting on SMBs AT&T is using a $50 gift certificate to convince small businesses that its new simplified, 12-month pricing for high-speed Internet service and consolidated communications services is an economical one-stop shop. The carrier, which apparently sees a value in the small business market that some cable operators do not, is offering a new 12-month rate for a business edition that includes a build-your-own bundle of unlimited voice services, Cingular Wireless, AT&T Unified Messaging and AT&T Yahoo! high-speed Internet all on one bill that customers can access online. Betting on IMS If you love hot acronyms, you gotta love IMS-IP Multimedia Subsystem. Certainly BridgePort Networks and Siemens Communications do. The pair announced a global reseller agreement that will see BridgePort’s NomadicONE IMS Convergence Server (ICS) integrated into the Siemens IMS/FMC (fixed-mobile convergence, of course) solution for cable, wireless and wireline operators …. BridgePort, a busy group if ever there was one, also said that Net2Phone will use its MobileVoIP convergence architecture to offer a joint landline-mobile solution. Fourth Wonder You have to love a news release that describes a company as a "telecommunications newcomer." That’s the way Truphone started its release before claiming to be "the world’s first 4G network operator" with "a software infrastructure that allows mobile phones with Wi-Fi to make calls and send SMS messages using only Wi-Fi and the Internet." The company said when a Truphone-enabled mobile handset gets carried away-OK, when it leaves the Wi-Fi range-it reconnects to the mobile network where the mobile minutes start adding up faster than losing seasons for Philadelphia sports programs. Windy Wonder Motorola, getting psyched for what’s becoming an annual visit by GlobalComm to its town Windy City of Chicago, has issued this bit of verbiage stating that it will, at the June show, "demonstrate evidence of its leadership in aligning the communications industry around open, carrier-grade common platforms, ecosystem coordination and delivering the resulting communications server products." Those that don’t revolve into that ecosystem will be cast adrift into the ether, we guess. What about Germany? Vonage America says it’s dropping per-minute fees for international landline calls to France, Ireland, Italy, Spain and the U.K. for customers buying the $24.99 per month plan and the $49.99 per month small business plan. No word from the over-the-top provider about anyone who wants to call Germany or Norway or Sweden or Belgium or …. It’s Happening SoonR This concept should send shivers down people who actually expect to hear cell phone calls. SoonR, a company based in both Silicon Valley and Denmark, has introduced SoonR Talk to enable Skype users to make calls all over the world from their mobile phones when they are away from their PC. Perhaps the folks at SoonR were just frustrated with their Vonage plans because they were still paying per-minute charges to talk to Denmark, but the company has developed a process that’s just slightly less circuitous than a taxi ride from the airport to a hotel. The service works with a person’s PC like a switchboard. Users click on the buddy with whom they wish to talk, and SoonR Talk tells the PC to call their mobile phone using SkypeOut, then instructs Skype to cal the buddy and places the user into a conference. CableVision Numbers According to sister pub CableFAX Daily, Cablevision‘s numbers continue to impress on Wall Street. In the first quarter of this year, the MSO added 450,000 RGUs, 39,000 basic subscribers, 165,000 digital subscribers, 112,000 high-speed data subscribers, and 134,000 telephony subscribers.