LTE Get Wider Deployments

Two stories in WirelessWeek on the subject of LTE that have been covered in a few places caught my eye and demanded amplification. The first is about Verizon's Rural Program and a rural mobile operator in Tennessee, Blugrass Cellular joining the Verizon LTE enablement program. This is very smart business for both parties as it quickly … Read more

Skype Goes Pre-Paid In the UK

Engadget reports that Skype is adding Pre-Paid as a way to top off, making them look more and more like a mobile operator. They're retailing Pre-Paid cards at a slew of technology and consumer shops across the UK, much like they are already doing in Mexico. What this means is those without credit cards, or … Read more

Hanging Up on In Flight Calls

According to most recent surveys, passengers don't want in flight calling on airliners flying around the globe. That's interesting because for many years GTE (now a part of Verizon) had an in flight calling service where phones were one every row, and each first class seat had a phone. I was one of those people … Read more

The Networks Broke-Cable and Wireless

(Photo credit: Wikipedia) Hurricane Sandy proved something. Our infrastructure for communications isn't hurricane proof. As the New York Times reports on what the FCC has determeined, it seems the northeastern United States became in spots a country back in the sixties, where the only thing that seemed to work was a wired landline and one … Read more

Were You Prepared?

8×8 #latergram (Photo credit: qthrul) I was really impressed with what one of my agency's client's did when it came to communicating with their customer base surround Hurricane Sandy. Cloud communications leader, 8×8 sent out an email pointing to a web page that had a Disaster Planning document, all geared around the concept of maintaining communications … Read more

Turn iPod touch Into a Mobile Phone

freedompop (Photo credit: sam_churchill) Data MVNO FreedomPop, the carrier that rides on top of Clearwire's mobile WiMax network has released their $99 sleeve that works the iPod touch 4th Generation.  Basically, the sleeve lets you turn the iPod touch into an iPhone, so calls can be made over the FreedomPop network using softphones like CounterPath's … Read more

Getting Data in Spain for Your iPad

Vodafone Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Yoigo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)     I've been coming to Spain for the last half dozen or so years, and have long been a fan of Yoigo, the Telia – Sonera backed mobile operator, who is fourth behind Movistar, Orange and Vodafone, and feels heat from upstart MVNO MasMovil. Given … Read more

TokBox Acquired by Telefonica Digital

TokBox was acquired by Telefonica Digital. TokBox, which offered a Flash based video platform, has been toiling around the social video space for half a dozen years. Without going into their history, the move is a very interesting one for Telefonica as it puts them at odds long term with Microsoft, which counts on the … Read more