Vonage recently expanded its $24.99 plan (approx. $33/mo. with fees) to include unlimited calling to landlines in 60 countries, including India and Mexico (subject to normal residential use restrictions). The news of this reminded me that Vonage was still in business. I’ pretty sure I bet that they would be out of cash by...
business models
Google Voice Calling Hacks Provide Insight
If you’ve not been following this story, Google Voice (formerly Grand Central) offers free domestic calling via “click to call” on their site. A number of hacks have emerged over the past week or so to take advantage of this, particularly a Gizmo5 hack and Asterisk hack(s). Long story short, the Gizmo5 solution rapidly...
SabSe Technologies Acquires Jaxtr
I find it sort of interesting that I had a post about Jaxtr sitting in my drafts, from back in December 2008. Back then, the one-time darling of VoIP whose investors included some of those investing in Skype before it, had reported that it had laid off 13 workers (about 30% of its workforce)...
Another Twitter cynic
Serial CEO Peter D. Csathy says: Twitter’s revenues will pale compared to the ever-growing expenses needed to scale the service. And, my prediction is that the Twitter nation will lose steam in its passion and the bloom will be off the rose. So, Twitter — here’s a tweet in less than 140 characters —...
Twitter in the news
With Twitter Inc’s recent raise of another $35 million, bringing their total to $55 million, with an estimated valuation of $200 million to $250 million the company has been making the rounds on the wire. This AP story today, Can all that Twitters turn to gold amid the gloom? says that “Twitter intends to...
If OpenSky proves the market, will Skype cherry pick?
Microsoft created quite a reputation for letting third-party developers build apps and then either purchasing the company or copying and driving out of business those that were most successful. Skype has said they aren’t opening their network because their customers haven’t asked for it. Is that the truth, or is that just a convenient...
Michael Robertson moves beyond Skype open/closed debate
Rather than bicker over what “open” means and whether Skype is open or not, Michael Robertson has just ignored the whole thing and taken action instead. Today, Gizmo5 launched OpenSky, a SIP to Skype gateway. if you want to call a Skype user named echo123 you simply call SIP address sip:echo123@opensky.gizmo5.com The free version...
Why iPhone is not “boring”
I’ve seen several comments and posts recently suggesting that iPhone is just another boring story. I believe an historic day passed us by last week. Sure, Apple opening up the iPhone App Store received some press, but I haven’t yet read anything that really “gets” the significance of this event. There’s all kinds of...
Lessons from a VoIP Entrepreneur
This needs a lot more work, but since time is short, I may never get around to it, so here I provide the less than fully formed version. Om Malik today posted about the woes of a silicon valley VoIP startup that launched with much fanfare last year. In this post, Om says: the...
Andy and others on “free” business models
Andy Abramson refers us to Dean Bubley’s post on Pudding Media and Ike Elliott’s post on Free is Not a model and says: pretty much sums up what I’ve been saying for years on Ken Radio..about the “If It’s Free It’s Me, If I Gotta Pay It’s No Way” crowd. While on the...
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