google

I've been following the 700MHz spectrum auction for almost a year now, mostly because the potential is huge for the wireless industry to do something amazing with this frequency. It was uplifting to see Google get involved with their petition for openness, and then it was equally depressing when Verizon sued the FCC for taking Google to heart. Now it it is finally over...

We don't know who won yet and I am pretty eager to find out who, but it looks like the FCC have achieved their basest goal of hauling in the cash! I'm really hoping it was Google (good) and not Verizon (evil) who won. Whoever wins, I hope they use this tasty spectrum to enable us wireless consumers to consume lots, quickly, and for not very much money, because I'm pretty sure KoodoMobile isn't going to do it for me.

Read the Engadget and TechCrunch reports for some of the dirty deets.

Update: Verizon won, shoot. 

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

This is a topic near and dear to our hearts here at EQO.  As you may well know, the FCC is auctioning off a chunk of the 700MHz spectrum previously used for analog TV channels 53-59 (those channels will now be digital).  The FCC is doing this so they can make billions of dollars and their interest, as far as I can tell, is purely financial.  The 700MHz spectrum is ideal for wireless in that signals travel further and penetrate obstructions better.  The owner of this spectrum could set up low cost, high service availability, and fast wireless network that could change the face of the American wireless industry, which is generally considered a laughing stock compared to the rest of the modern wireless world.

The front runners to win this tasty bit of frequency are Verizon (evil) and Google (awesome).  Verizon would likely use the spectrum to buoy their own position in the USA by offering services only slightly better than those of their competitors with little to no improvement in usability or feature innovation.  On the other hand, Google is rumored to be planning a free (ad funded) and open wireless network that would turn the wireless industry on its head.

I'm surprised at how little press this is getting considering the magnitude of the implications, but then maybe I'm just a dreamer.  In any case, the auction begins and, sadly, we can't follow it, but Engadget will tell you all you need to know.  We should know the results in a couple of months and favorite to win, based on no personal bias whatsoever, is Google.

Long live Googletel!

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Maybe it's because our dollar is doing so well or because hockey is a way better sport than baseball, but it seems that Canada really gets wireless. This Engadget Report inspired my bold and ridiculous statement, that and I like making fun of the American dollar and I hate baseball. Canada is planning to open up a good 40MHz chunk of spectrum to newcomers for the purposes of wireless competition and innovation. Compare this with the FCC's plan to auction off spectrum for many billions of dollars, their inability to adopt Google's pleas for openness, and their concessions to monopolistic carriers like Verizon. Props to the Canadian government on this one; here's hoping this will propel the mobile industry in the Great White North, eh.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

When I heard today that Google bought Jaiku I wasn't surprised. Jaiku is my lifestreaming application of choice and their Symbian app is awesome. They clearly have a knack for UI design and likely have as much native Symbian experience as anyone out there. What with Google's recent mobile push, I immediately figured Google was after Jaiku's mobile app. I expressed this view in the office and was immediately rebuffed.

The overwhelming opinion was that Google is looking to get into lifestreaming (or activity streaming), which raises the question "Why not Twitter?". Twitter is the lifestreaming champ at the moment, thanks largely to their brilliant API, and its founder, Evan Williams, previously worked at Google after his company Blogger was acquired. I went online and found out that the very same debate was going on quite prominently on the web. Mashable asks the same questions, O'Reilly echoes my view, but an email from Jaiku pointing to an acquisition FAQ clears things up a bit:

Q: Why did Google acquire Jaiku?

A: Activity streams and mobile presence are important areas where we believe Google can add a lot of value for users. Jaiku's technology and talented team are a great addition to Google's current application and mobile teams.

Well, there you go; there are the activity steams, the mobile aspect, and Jaiku was probably cheaper. Jaiku has also closed its doors to new users indicating they are looking to improve before they scale again. Having already signed up, I am one of the lucky ones that gets to keep using the service. Personally, I don't depend on Jaiku so I don't have many friends or post many updates. I've just been using it out of curiosity and for occasional amusement. Now that Google has grand designs for it and it's a private beta, I'll probably be watching it much more closely. I welcome new friends, my id is chriseqo if you want to add me. I'll see you on JaigoogKu.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

As you may well know, the FCC is going to be auctioning off the 700MHz spectrum come January 2009. If you have not heard of this, you should really look into it seeing as it is one of the most important technology/communications issues of our era. Wired has a great FAQ on the subject.

This week, Business Week speculated that Apple is looking to get into the mix with other prospective bidders Google and AT&T. Why is this auction so significant? Ownership of the 700MHz spectrum would allow Google or Apple to have their own wireless network and compete directly with the incumbent carriers. This would blow the American wireless industry wide open and, I think, open the door for amazing innovation in the wireless space. I find it funny that Apple would be competing against their exclusive iPhone parter in AT&T, which really lends credibility to Jeff's theory that Apple bent AT&T right over.

Now when it comes to who I want to win the auction I was really pulling for Google to trump AT&T, but that was before I heard that Apple might also bid. Now I am torn between the two tech giants, how about you?

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Yesterday TechCrunch reported that the FCC had released the auction rules for the 700MHz spectrum in their post FCC Fails To Mark Its Place in History. Indeed, GigaOm reckons that Google was awarded half a win in their battle to ensure Open Devices, Open Applications, Open Services, and Open Networks for this prized frequency band. What does it all mean? Well, the ruling in favor of only Open Devices and Open Applications is a step in the right direction for American Wireless and should ensure that the big carriers can't sell locked devices as they do on their current networks. Check out the CTIA's response to what openness there will be, bloody fascists. More importantly, what TechCrunch is alluding to with the title of their post is that the FCC missed their chance to turn the American wireless industry upside down. In not mandating Open Services and Open Networks, the FCC is basically blocking any plans Google may or may not have had for GoogleTel. Personally, I was really hoping the FCC would have the guts not to take the middle road here. A new national carrier in the form of GoogleTel would be a joy to see and could only benefit the consumer.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Esteemed EQO founder and Chief Architect Jeff LaPorte introduced me to the 700MHz debate earlier this year and I've been following it with interest ever since. To get caught up on the issues, check out this great post from Om Malik: 700MHz Explained in 10 Steps. What interested me was the knowledge that some of my favorite channels in the 52-59 range like The Score, The Food Network (Iron Chef!), and Comedy Central would be booted off the spectrum come 2009. Thank goodness for my new digital box, crisis averted...

Today I came across a flurry of notable news on the subject:

1. Engadget Mobile reports AT&T endorses open access

2. MobileCrunch reports on Google's open access plans

3. MobileCrunch reports CTIA's response to Google's open access plans

Guess where CTIA gets their money? If you guessed the close minded, innovative-less carriers of America then you guessed right. I am completely biased when it comes to the 700MHz spectrum.  I'm all for open access and anyone who truly supports it.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

During 2006, we at EQO created a great deal of technology that extends and bridges online and circuit-switched communications services to mass market mobile phones. Much of this work were extensions to patent-pending server-based distributed call management and service bridging technology that has been under development since 2003. Through out the year, we gained much valuable feedback and product input from our now quite significant user base. One of the key learnings is simplicity. This is particularly important when it comes to applications that runs on limited screen size, limited keypad, limited memory, limited computing, limited battery, and limited bandwidth devices such as mass market mobile phones.

For the past six years, if I needed to find anything on the internet, I have always used Google. For news and stock updates, I have consistently used Yahoo! News and Yahoo! Finance. But lately, I noticed that my web surfing habits have evolved.

Currently there is no functional voice communications backplane on the web. Google tried with GoogleTalk but the lack of service interworking with the regular telephone network and the existing limitations of libjingle limit the usefulness of recombined voice service applications based on GoogleTalk beta.

Yahoo! has just launched Yahoo! Messenger with Voice 7.0 with broader support for PC to phone calling. This service offers even cheaper per minute rates than SkypeOut as noted by Stuart Henshall of Skype Journal. With extensive network cores, Yahoo!, Google, and other leading web portals are in pretty good positions to establish themselves as competing communications backplanes. I would suspect that over time, Yahoo, Google / AOL, Microsoft Live, and possibly ...Skype will all offer varying capabilities of a communications 2.0 backplane.