Quack

If you ask any prominent Australian telco analyst, she will tell you of the proliferation of VOIP providers here. The pattern in Australia is that the distribution of resellers (both in VOIP and other resale) is skewed, not using the 80:20 rule, but more like the 98:2 rule. There are many many very small providers, some turning over just thousands of dollars per month.

So when a company like Vonage starts to hedge its bets and go the MVNO route, everyone else should be taking notice. (more…)

A couple of recent news items have me thinking about a possible further trend in bundling. Those Masters of the Universe at Google (mental note: write another piece about how they have changed the world) are going into the business of selling office-type applications through their Google Apps portal (also here). Are Microsoft shaking in their boots? Hard to tell.

They already have ways of selling their applications on a hosted basis. (more…)

A big splash for Telstra’s 6 months to Dec 2006 results. The spin doctors were at their best talking up the NextG network, now with speeds of “up to” 500 billion Gb, and trying to get the broader population of Australia on their side in the battle against the evil regulator (not that they really have an influence).

I wanted to comment on a few little details within the report that affect the service provider community. (more…)

The world is shrinking. I am currently in the US and able to work as if I’m at my desk at the office. As well as that, I’m in the middle of an array of family celebrations spanning several continents. It’s really a case of “if it’s Tuesday, this must be New York”.

Phone call rates continue to trend down, but roaming rates (more…)

Despite what anyone tells you, your view of mobile phone coverage is an extremely subjective thing. Whether it’s Telstra with 98% of the population covered, 90%+ of the geographic coverage, or Optus spending several hundred million to increase just 2 percentage points in their own coverage, what actually affects you (and me) most is that nasty blackspot that you pass by every day or so. (more…)