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It seems that DataJack has lost their ability to link to the T-Mobile coverage map. That implies that T-MO has had a word with them about using their network, or I should say, likely NOT using their network. By clicking through to the DataJack coverage map one finds that they don't have one.

Coverage information is currently unavailable. Check back for updates soon.

There was at one time a legacy agreement in place between TMO and a company that was rolled up into or acquired by DataJack, but more than likely that was an EDGE/GPRS agreement for some other form of data service. Normally in these cases what is called a "cease and desist" letter is sent and that should be enough to cause what occurred. One can only hope that the acquiring company's executive did their homework before the buy, and didn't get stung when the TMO lawyers came to them.

This brings total skepticism on my part about the validity of the offer. While the pricing model is great, one would doubt that AT&T will sell them wholesale access at a time when their network is already massively overloaded due to iPhone users, and with anticipation of more users via the Kindle or the upcoming iPad.

My guess is some ingenious VoIP type will figure out how to mashup making telephone calls using the new form of virtual currency called Kwedit.

The story today in the New York Times about the new way to pay could be a key to many a carrier's future user base.

Ever since the iPad announcement we have seen one company after another make noise that their application is now able to make calls over 3G. First was iCall. Then along came Fring and today we have 8 x 8 making their's.

What I have yet to see though are any real time reviews that this is working perfectly in a mobile environment. My attempts with 3G VoIP are mixed. If I'm standing still and have really good connectivity the calls work, but when driving, the experience has been less than optimal. Of course this will improve, but I doubt the experience over 3G will come close to my solid experiences in Las Vegas over Clearwire using Truphone and Skype in a series of trials with nothing more than an iPod touch and the native versions of the companies applications and a Cradlepoint travel router with the Clearwire 4G USBdongle. Those experiences, when in motion, were as good as my laptop using Skype and the same 4G dongle.

Me Too, Me Also....sorry Cisco, you're not me different.

Cisco should just buy Skype or Truphone and stop being so far behind the curve. This iPhone app will be big and Cisco will be a major force to be reckoned with as usual.

So, where does this leave Avaya?

Sometimes it isn't what you say or how you say it, but what you don't say that speaks volumes. Now this may not ring true, but on the surface it does seem to insiders to be either clear as a bell or simply a matter of not reaching out and touching the right people.

In black and white, plus blue and orange, AT&T issued a call for Applications in an event called Open Call. Funny thing though. One big platform in the mobile device eco-system that makes up AT&T that's missing is Apple's iPhone platform. Another is Symbian from Nokia. Now the latter I can understand as Nokia's Series 60 Smartphones never really have caught on within AT&T other than some neutered E61 turned E62s and the E71x that is not Mobile VoIP enabled out of the box. So much for OPEN Calling.

Anyway, the lack Apple, which has the most advanced app store and app developer market in this promotional mailing is a sign. That sign is that AT&T has likely come to the conclusion that Apple customers are really Apple's at the end of the day are not friends any more. By consciously excluding the most active and forward thinking developer community speaks volumes and says "we don't want them" vs. "we need them."

The exclusion of Symbian developers, perhaps the largest in the world, is a slap in the face at Nokia. But that's nothing new for them when it comes to AT&T. For years AT&T has carried only a few of the best designed, most ergonomic and perhaps most powerful GSM products around. While other leading carriers have embraced the N and E series, AT&T has basically said, "we'll take this or that." The lack of Symbian inclusion here only furthers that position.

So much for the world of Open.

In what looks to be a breaking of the ranks at Google, a job posting hints that the Silicon Valley ad serving giant turned hardware manufacturer, will be adding sorely needed phone support.

While they're at it, the Android and Nexus one teams need to get their acts in sync too. And as a consumer electronics manufacturer now, albeit with the help to date of only HTC, they have a lot to learn about production. First off it seems that some of the Nexus One devices are not all created equally. Mine for example has a different circuitry according to some developers who have apps running on devices shipped to the east coast, meaning some apps work, and others require modifications.

Secondly the back of the phone which snaps in place doesn't have the fit and finish of similarly priced smartphones from Apple, RIM or Nokia. This "cheap" finish work takes away from the elegance in both design and function.

Designing hardware is not much different from designing a web page, so in Google's case, they need to take what they learned crafting their home page and apply it to the Nexus One. Simple. Clean. Elegant. Functional, and the same for everyone.

Back in 1974 I learned what a fax machine was. I used both a Xerox and Graphic Sciences fax machines to send press releases to the sports desks in Philadelphia. In 1976 I bought my first one from Xerox and quickly learned that the paper was the expensive part of the equation. Well a lot has changed since then, including how little some of us rely on faxes at all. Many of us inside the VoIP world have likely heard about the SIP based T.38 standard, but few understand it. Others may, like me, use scanners and emails, so while faxing may be going away for some of us, there remains a booming business around it, especially when hard copy is still required for documentation, usually when a signature or confirmation of a transaction is involved.

At IT Expo I caught up with FaxBack, a company that has taken on an interesting spin and made an old technology new again.

FaxBack’s new HTTPS Fax Platform enables fax machines and fax servers (from all vendors) to stream fax data over the Internet, with TDM level reliability, even on low quality networks. Their four components attack both the problems found with T.38 as well as brings greater use of faxing back to businesses everywhere:

The HTTPS-Enabled Fax ATA: to connect fax machines to VoIP providers over the Internet, adding features like fax image archiving and email notifications.

A (FREE) Microsoft Exchange 2010 UM Fax Connector: enabling enterprises and SMBs to connect fax to Exchange, to deliver faxes to a person’s inbox.

FaxBack’s Fax Cloud Solution: for carriers and enterprises – providing integration into virtualization environments, and client connections (fax-to-email, fax machine and Microsoft Fax) or premise-based fax server connections, over the cloud.

The “VoIP Fax Server”: Provides enterprises and SMBs with cost savings and UC integration, through a full featured and tightly integrated fax solution (HTTPS, T.30, T.38, SIP Stack, and fax server).

After talking with the founders during IT EXPO I learned that HTTPS Fax has four key differentiators over SIP T.38 which is likely why more than 40 carriers and enterprise customers are evaluating FaxBack’s HTTPS Fax Platform. It all makes sense.

Reliability: SIP T.38 is susceptible to burst packet loss. The HTTPS Fax Platform has a 30 second buffer, so a recipient could lose their Internet connect for 29 seconds, without losing the fax connection.

Security: SIP T.38 has no security provisioning when transmitted over the open internet. HTTPS [via SSL] is encrypted from point to point [crucial for healthcare (HIPAA/SOX), financial and legal institutions].

Bandwidth Reduction: HTTPS delivers 5-1 bandwidth reduction over SIP T.38. T.38 is triple redundant, sending packets multiple times.

Simple Provisioning: Using HTTP(S) ports, no additional firewall provisioning is typically needed

So while faxing may be thought of as a thing of the past by some, FaxBack may have hit on the solution that is very true to their name that really does bring Faxing back.

Hat tip to Phil Wolff about Skype suffering yet another outage on Sunday. This is clearly a growing pains issue. When I see over 21 million users on everyday there's growth happening, and that's a good thing.

A few weeks back it was an outage tied to the App store where a tick box wasn't checked. That got fixed fast. Then about a week or so ago there was a login issue. Now today we have a services issue.

So far I have not felt the impact, as I've been able to receive calls via Skype In, dial +99 numbers for HiDef Conferencing, etc.

What's in a name? Well to some who heard the name for Apple's new tablet/slate/pad lots of emotional hemorrhaging it seems.

Sure many of us more evolved men know that some women call their feminine napkins aka tampons or "pads." There also called rags, plugs and more. But in every case, it's slang for what was commercially known as Kotex or Tampon, both brand names. Well before those came along there have note pads, drawing pads and writing pads, and we don't hear the artists, doodlers and writers screaming for blood.

Besides, Apple does have a very senior, extremely polished and experienced woman at the helm of their Corporate Communications efforts in Katie Cotton, and nothing that impacts the Apple brand ever gets by Katie.

So here's why I think iPad is a good name.

1. It's iPod with an A (I do like the letter A)

2. Us older folks grew up using pad and pencil or pen

3. Tablet was already used by Tablet PC

4. Slate was a computer brand in the past, and Slate also is linked to some Tablet PC formats

5. It's another four letter word

Yesterday i participated in a full on demo of VisiMeet, from Chicago based IOCOM, a company I met last week at IT Expo in Miami Beach. In a lot of ways what I saw reminded me of SightSpeed, a company my agency and I helped grow in stature and size (over 6x from when we first started with them) and saw them through their exit to Logitech in 2008.

Visimeet had a lot of what I call "me too." They offer pristine video conferencing. So does SightSpeed. VisiMeet offers multiparty video. So does SightSpeed. VisiMeet offers a browser based viewing capability. So does SightSpeed. VisiMeet is built for business. So is SightSpeed. They also do a lot of similar things on the server side to insure a fully synchronized calling experience. So does SightSpeed. VisiMeet has a simplistic chat facility. So does SightSpeed. The service works on Macs and Windows based PCs. So does SightSpeed. But that's where the comparison's end.

One of the features I liked was the "rejoin last meeting." Another was the ability to resize each individual's window frame. I had four VisiMeet team members up on my 24" monitor and my image was on the laptop. Then I moved people around. A third really cool feature was the ability to use multiple cameras on each participants end, and to view them at the same time. Now that's "me different."

The comparison and difference to SightSpeed prompted me to then check up on the musings of SightSpeed's former CEO Peter Csathy who is now the guiding force behind Sorenson Media. Peter took up blogging during his time at SightSpeed (with some gentle coaxing at times from me) and has used both his lawyers instincts and business acumen to leverage the finer points of social media effectively, without compromising his integrity or his company.

That was when I caught his post about copycat web sites, by Sorenson's competition. BrightCove. The more I looked at the two companies home pages the more I saw that Peter was, as usual, right. Given that Sorenson's web site was one of the first things tackled by their VP Marketing and Strategy, and my sometimes wine pal Erik Quanstrom, I started thinking back to a lot of conversations I've had with both of them and the more I looked and thought the more I realized not only was Peter correct, it seems that the giant, Brightcove, was clearly trying to "me too" the lesser known, but longer established Sorenson Media, much in the same way that ooVoo and now VisiMeet were "me also-ing" SightSpeed.

Why do I say this:

1) Layout

2) Colors, tones and effects

3) Use of similar terms, placements

4) Duplication of graphical elements (i.e. the iPhone)

5) Special Offer for Free Trial

Don't get me wrong, Brightcove is a very good platform, but its a platform that came about as a result of a changed vision, and not the original one. I remember Csathy's discussion with me just after he started with Sorenson, where he shared the Sorenson business model and longstanding company vision. It was their original one and has been the same for now some 15 years. He told me then it was a successful model.

Now let's take Brightcove, which started off in 2005 as a YouTube-type consumer-focused video content site. YouTube won that battle as Brightcove and others all have learned the hard way. Then Google bought them and no other company has really a close second since. So when that other "me too" direction failed Brightcove “evolved” by changing their business model into something completely different. Call it Brightcove 2.0. But by looking at their new website, one can only think they're being another "me too," this time though it's not "You Tube" it's Sorenson Media they're copying.

Perceptually, the market looks at Brightcove as the Goliath in the sector while Sorenson is clearly the "David." But in looking at the new Brightcove web site, it sure seems like the giant is copying the more entrenched, far deeper inside the technology veterans, who until Csathy arrived, never were bold about what they did. They just did it. That tells me that Sorenson is pushing on the gas pedal (which is always Csathy's style) on Brightcove and Brightcove is responding, feeling the heat.

So how does this come about? Well back in the day when I was working at a large ad agency and a new piece of business would come in, we would immediately ask "what were the competition doing with media? What was their creative like? What was there slogan? What was their tag line?" and many other questions. I would scour the research files, torment the research team into finding reports, news accounts, copies of ads, commercials or radio spots. I'd spend hours pouring over the most tiny detail because we didn't want our clients to be like the other guys, we wanted our clients to stand out from the crowd. You see, it was very easy for the client to say "we want to look like xxxxxxx" but it was our job to say "you want to be better than xxxxx" and get them there.

Copycat marketing doesn't make you better. Copycat marketing doesn't make you stand out. All copycat marketing does is get you blog posts like this. And to me, you don't have to be a marketing genius to do copycat marketing on the web. All you need is some basic design skills, some basic coding tools and a lack of imagination. But if a web site is the face of what the company is, and it's a copy of some competitors, then one has to wonder what else they're doing is nothing but a copy too. And in my book, that's not too BRIGHT.

It remains hilarious how Apple and Google are playing with one another over the GoogleVoice application. Rather than simply agree on how to make it work, the two are having a superpowers (I want to say super poser) standoff.

So today, Google updates their web browser based version to offer a smoother and more elegant performing functionality, according to a Reuters report.

As someone who was involved in the launch and success of GoogleVoice, from the GrandCentral era, I'm happy to see that no path of being blocked is stopping the team there from making sure their users can still use the service. But at the same time, there needs to be detente and that won't be coming any time soon. The launch of the Nexus One, more than even backing the Android play is the root of this. Having now had my Nexus One for a few weeks I can safely say, its no iPhone, nor is it even as robust as the Motorola Droid. On my Droid I love having the benefit of GoogleVoice, and there's no comparison to coverage and signal strength vs. the iPhone on AT&T. Hands down, the best experience I have is with the Droid.

But Google going into the handset business is at the root of the battle, with GoogleVoice nothing more than a pawn in the game of chess that the two powerhouses are playing.

What's amazing to me though is how Apple hasn't worked with the mobile operators to develop their own iVoice platform. I mean, not much inside GoogleVoice hasn't been done before. Go back in time to Webley, now called CommuniKate which for all intents and purposes, other than the hidden callback aspect of GoogleVoice does almost all that GV does, minus the transcription.

So here's the play for Apple-

1. Buy Webley/CommuniKate whose already proven voice XML/IVR is world class and patented

2. Integrate PhoneTag

3. Offer it to the carriers as a value added service

This Rethink Wireless piece supports the Apple buying technology theory.

Game over.

Last week one of the highlights at IT Expo was Startup Camp, organized by pal Larry Lisser (previously a client at Mobivox) who organized a conference within a conference. Sponsorship came via Twilio and PhoneTag but the real stars were the four new companies, including Fonolo (a client of mine and a company I hold a stake in.)

Read Fonolo's Shai Berger's account of the event.

The reason I liked Startup Camp Telephony was the rawness of the ideas. Often times I see companies at DEMO or UnderTheRadar where companies that are already polished up and ready for the stage get up and talk. Berger who has a few years of presentations now under his belt, but the other three had raw passion around the idea and it showed. One clearly had stage fright. The other had technical glitches, while the third had a great idea whose store was not unfolded until the very end of their presentation.

But it was the ideas that mattered. Those ideas showed me there's still a lot happening in voice.

While the attention to Linux isn't one of my areas of focus, I do appreciate the fact that Skype does. Just this past week they released a new Linux version. JK On The Run has the details.

There have been apps on FaceBook for a while that let you do all kind of VoIP tricks, but most of them have been basic "call me" apps. Om Malik reported that 8x8 has launched one too, but took them to task for their impersonal understanding of social media writing:

"I hate the random photo (see graphic) that’s now being displayed on my page, especially when it could easily customize it by picking one of my Facebook profile photos instead. Another bonus would be if one could place the Call Me button on fanpages as well."

While FaceBook is becoming more and more a staple in many people's online diets, given how 8x8 is focusing on the business market it likely would have made more sense to figure out how to build this kind of functionality into LinkedIn. Now that would have made them, very "me different."

The acquisition of Gizmo by GoogleVoice is starting to pay dividends.

A report from TechCrunch's fearless leader, Michael Arrington, has the GoogleVoice guys adding Click to Call to the newly minted Chrome Browser (at least on the official Windows version) and a report that GoogleVoice will have a softphone.

I'm already using Google Voice with my Gizmo softclient and inside CounterPath's XLite, Eyebeam and Bria for Mac (beta) but browser based softphones are improving so expect the new Flash or Java based one from GV to be an upgrade to the one that Gizmo also offered for a while.

An analyst report says AT&T needs to spend five billion dollars MORE to improve their wireless network to support all the data usage that they are starting to see. And people wonder why I'm, as well as Om, are saying Voice over 3G doesn't really work?

Almost two years a go, a retired former AT&T Network executive called what AT&T needed to fix the network a "seven billion dollar coat of paint" to fix things so its not like they woke up last year and realized that they had both an issue with under capacity and a backhaul problem on their hands. It was known and known very well. But like so many companies from our past, where profits over performance ruled the day, the company has forsaken the customers and reduced capital expenditures in favor of better stock performance.

Telegeography is an analyst firm that great at one thing and one thing only. The numbers. While many firms try to be all things to all companies, I don't know a firm that can be as consistent or as concise with their factual reporting. So when today's news about the decline in International calling hit their site, I knew there was more to the story.

Turns out there is.

Skype minutes are UP. Way up. And the way they are looking, it looks like 2009 had a sizable rise and from what I hear, 2010 will be even bigger.

Now here's the big caveat. As more people connect to Skype the Skype In and Out minutes will flatten but Skype overall minutes will rise.

Oh, and if you ever wondered what the Skype folks think of me, I received this video from some friends in their London office...needless to say, I'm smiling! (Warning it takes a while to load)

Longtime UK ex-pat journalist Jeremy Wagstaff, who for years was the Wall Street Journal's man in Jakarta and all points SE Asia has a very interesting take on Skype and how it will be transforming.

I see Skype in 2010 being the following:

1) The 10,000 pound gorilla in video communications

2) Dramatically expanding their place in day to day business

3) Making huge forays into Enterprise communications - possibly doing their what Microsoft has never been able to achieve

Lastly, I see more and more Skype in the daily lives of people, with one exception. Mobile. I remain unconvinced that Skype even needs a mobile play. What they need is simply connectivity to the mobile network, and not have to keep the fight going. As mobile becomes more and more IP centric, the mobile path for Skype will become much easier.

News from Broadsoft last week makes me think that the folks there have got their heads in the cloud.

Well at least that's my takeaway after reading their press release as it appears to me that all of the new Broadsoft service enhancements can reside in the cloud, not only at the switch which actually creates a cloud of sorts. I share that view because as broadband becomes more widespread there is less need for servers on location and far greater efficiencies avchieved from the ASP/Time Sharing model that the cloud really is.

Just look at Voxeo. The HD Voice Support follows Orange's announcement and the move that long ago is available from Junction Networks's OnSip between users endpoints that are capable of supporting the better sounding solution.

The QoE offering is another service I foresee others emulating and likely expanding upon, but Broadsoft gets first mover advantage here. Much like FlatPlanet and their announcement about dynamic Caller ID announced last week, many of these services are really best put in the cloud, not on premise, but few if any seem to offer any unduplicated features.

Next week at IT Expo in Miami Beach (where Broadsoft will have some folks talking but on different panels) I'll explore what it really means to be "in the clouds" with the likes of Thomas Howe, Irv Shapiro, Alec Saunders and others. Those are the folks who not only talk the talk, but are walking the walk everyday.

Have you seen the great assembly of insight and expertise from M-Trends in the report called Mobile Trends 2020? Granted I was asked to contribute my view (see page 25) but the rest of the group has some rather keen insight too.

Forget the so called "experts" on panels at CTIA and Mobile World Congress who are all representing "paid" points of view. I'd love to see the group that Rudy De Waele assembled for this report and have them at one event speaking, moderating and presenting. It is clearly one of the most well informed, insightful groups that are living the technology revolution, not simply being arm-chair quarterbacks, sitting on the sidelines pontificating about what they just "think."

I for one look forward to catching up with some of these folks in Barcelona with Rudy during Mobile World Congress.

9 to 5 Mac asks why is Apple blocking VoIP on the iPhone.

The question is asked, because it's a proven fact that on jailbroken iPhones all the apps that can't talk over 3G can talk if you use the right apps that fool the phone and the apps into thinking 3G is WiFi. When you do that, Skype, Fring, SipPhone (or whatever they call it now), Truphone and others all "work." By "work" I am saying you can place and receive calls. But having tried those calls on the iPhone (yes I have jailbroken my iPhone 3GS that I paid full price for and now have a virginal 3GS) the overall experience is not that great. Maybe if I'm standing still the calls sound good, and yes, even some when I'm in motion, but in an era of unlimited calling plans and dial around services like GoogleVoice, Truphone and even the Skype app on Nokia phones, connecting to others over the Net isn't impossible with the right gateways in place.

That said, I fully expect Skype, whose codecs and algorithms enable better quality calling than most to be throwing resources against having a 3G or 4G application out this year once Apple feels the experience is in keeping with what Apple is all about.

In my personal view Apple, like Skype and Truphone are concerned about the quality of the experience. What's good enough for geeks and early adopters is not good enough for them and while the apps, like Truphone on Nokia N and E series phones can make and place calls over 3G, as someone who has used that in various countries, over various operators 3G networks, 3G VoIP is not something I could consistently endorse as it's not really ready for prime time. Back in the day of amateur radio, many a "HAM" operator had all kinds of experimental technology available to them. Some of it eventually got commercialized. Others never made it out of their lab. I see 3G VoIP the same way. Sure there will be something there that works, but with LTE looming and Mobile WiMax growing, calling is going to be IP based, so why worry about something that is only about cheap calling, when you can focus on the future of voice.

Pal Moshe Maeir sent a few bloggers a note about his post that revealed a new offer of Dynamic Caller ID.

Om has some comments.

I spoke with Moshe about it, and right now the service is tied to his company selling SIP termination, but in my view the real value is as a cloud based telephony service where any SIP based user can make use of the service, as it would reside in the signaling path, while not touching the media (voice traffic) at all.

My call to Moshe, got him thinking.

Engadget reports that McDonalds has fired up their free WiFi network, dropping the $2.95 charge. So, along with Starbucks, where you can buy a Starbucks Gift card for $5.00, register it and never use it, so you can get free access as speeds that are glacier like over AT&T's anemic DSL network, you can now sit and work in a dining establishment where kids run around like banshees and their parents don't mind them.

Not for me. While I'm fine with the loud lounge music at Starbucks and the sultry sounds of a coffee grinder, I'll pass on the aromatic scent of vegetable oil being heated to a crisp and opt for my WiFi elsewhere.

As I wrote yesterday, the outage at 8x8 wasn't likely their fault so i was quite pleased when their PR person, Joan Citelli, sent me this note today:

Andy –

I wanted to provide you with an update/explanation of what caused 8x8’s service outage this past Tuesday.

In order to provide services to our customers from our three, redundant data centers, 8x8 utilizes several, non-contiguous Internet Protocol (IP) address blocks that are provided to us by Tier-1 Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Our service outage on January 12, 2010 was caused when an unaffiliated Tier-1 ISP interfered with the proper routing of all of these address blocks. While we were able to immediately restore service for some customers by broadcasting correct routing information via our backup data providers, the interference from the unaffiliated ISP continued for approximately four hours.

All 8x8 core software and networks continued to operate normally during the outage, but some customers were unable to reach our services. We are in the process of planning and implementing additional mechanisms to protect our customers from any similar routing interference in the future. We are also creating alternative information and communication mechanisms to more quickly communicate outage status and estimated time of repair information to our customers via our website, call centers and other communication channels should a similar issue affect our customers in the future.

Feel free to update your blog with this information.

Best wishes-

Joan

I received an email late yesterday afternoon from a reader about 8 x 8 suffering an outage. Unlike Tom Keating, who posted, I didn't post, and was relieved that their PR folks had been quickly in touch with their customers over night, explaining the situation.

In an era where no company (other than maybe the Bell Operating Companies) have everything in one NOC that does everything, this kind of stuff happens. It just seems to happen that 8 x 8 gets put under the microscope even more than Vonage whenever an outage occurs. Maybe, it's because they were one of the first into VoIP, or maybe it's because, like Vonage, they're a public company.

My instincts tell me there's more to this story than we know from their very clear notification, sent to customers:

Dear 8x8 Customer,

Today we experienced a disruption in our services that impacted your voice service. The outage appears to have been caused by a data failure with one of our underlying carriers, and we are working on identifying the root cause and why our backup services did not failover as they are designed to do.

Service has since been restored to most of our customers, and we are in the process of fully restoring service to all customers. If you are currently without service, please unplug the power connection to your 8x8 equipment, wait a few seconds, and then reconnect the power connection.

We understand the importance of providing reliable phone service to you and deeply regret the interruption this issue has caused. Delivering on and exceeding the service level goals we set for ourselves is our top priority.

We value your business and thank you for your patience.

Dan Weirich

President, 8x8, Inc. (Nasdaq: EGHT)

A not so wild report has WalMart hosting towers for Sprint/Clearwire's rollout of WiMax.

I don't think the report is that far fetched. Having experimented with Mobile WiMax last week in Las Vegas I have to say the experience on the ground and when driving around was one that I'd like to repeat.

Skype has made a strategic hire to head the unit called Skype for Business. What makes the hire strategic is the person's background with Reuters, Microsoft and VocalTec.

Given the experience David Gurle has, and the moves Skype is making, I would say that SIP, video and the business markets are their core objectives for the next two years.

You also have to expect that Screensharing and Screencasting, will increase in importance in the business market for them. I say that because, as a reader recently pointed out, Skype was just awarded a patent in that sector. Many may have missed it, as it lists eBay as the assignee, but my source tells me it belongs to Skype. It was also reported here.

Joe Sharkey has an update on the state of in flight WiFi in today's New York Times.

As a road warrior I choose my flights and hotels based on the broadband options available. Over the past month my trips to Northern California were 90 percent on Virgin America and only ten percent on Southwest. As an A Lister on Southwest the switch to Virgin for flights to SFO vs. using SWA was simply based on the Aircell GoGo service being available. It didn't matter that the service was free, as I've paid for it before, and would again. The difference is simple. I can get off the plane and have a clean inbox, have read current news, blog posts and tweets, and most of all, relaxed.

Getting off the plane without WiFi during the work week, especially in the month leading up to CES means the volume of email traffic, documents to write, send or review increases. This doesn't change much the first three months of the year when you have on average one trade event a month, a series of meetings, new business pitches and the usual correspondence to sort through. The hour or so in each direction to the Bay Area with WiFi connectivity is a total catch up time. That means when I get to where I'm going, I know most of what needed to be addressed has been. The difference is that instead of factoring in an extra hour or so of working before meetings.

The other factor that has to be realized by airlines without WiFi is that I now reserve those flights for weekends or lower priced later hours. The value add of WiFi for the business traveler equates directly to their bottom line. At the end of the day, I choose my hotels based on broadband, and now, when I can, I choose my flights the same way.

A very interesting web based for telephony followers called Spokn has launched out of India, that looks like a combination of GoogleVoice, Truphone and a SIP trunking provider.

Some of you will remember my Phweety, Joanna Stern, when the two of us had a voice call about 18 months ago over GoGO, back when they were saying "no way could you make a voice call" using Phweet.

Or you may recall her from her Queen of the Netbooks role at Laptop Magazine where she became one of the foremost authorities on the tiny PCs that are changing how we use them every day. Well after Laptop Joanna went to Gizmodo for a short stint before venturing out to the world of freelance writing. This week she's at CES for Engadget, but her biggest heart a flutter story has to be making her writing debut in the "Old Gray Lady." The New York Times.

The story, which tells you all you need to know about making money saving calls covers client Truphone, Fring and Skype. It's a wonderfully written piece and explains how VoIP plays a role, but has the kind of tone that your grandmother would understand. While Joanna previously appeared as the baby sitter in a video with the Times' star columnist, David Pogue, her story today pretty much tells you all why she'll always be VoIPWatch's number one Phweety.

The reports are swirling that Skype has been taken out of the Apple app store. Well I think otherwise.

Here's what I think:

1) Apple is revising its Terms and Conditions around 3G Voice.

2) Skype is preparing a 3G native application

3) The next version we see in the Apple App Store will be 3G ready for voice

4) Apple will open up the OS to permits Skype and others, like client Truphone to work over 3G

That's my feeling, but since Skype and Truphone PR folks are enroute to CES, we'll just have to wait. In the meantime if you need Skype installed on you iPhone or iPod Touch and don't have it, you can use the Truphone client and your Skype account details.

Then again, it all could just be a check box error in how the app is submitted to the App Store...Oh, yes. Human error.

After a short stint with Voxeo, Jay Phillips, perhaps one of the brightest young minds in telecom, has resurfaced with his Adhearsion blog.

I hold Jay in the same class as Thomas Howe, Alec Saunders (iotum, Calliflower), Jonathan Rosenberg (SIP, CISCO and Skype), Vincent Paquet, Craig Walker (GoogleVoice), Michael Robertson (Gizmo), James Tagg (Truphone) and Dean Elwood (Voxygen) as possessing the kind of insight which leads to changes of the game.

Give the 20 something wunderkind a read, and you'll find his skills and insight are far beyond his years.

The folks at Nerd Vittles have gotten uber geeky, and have fallen in love with how to make a marriage between Twitter and Google Voice.

But unless you have an Asterisk server, you won't need to read just how they managed to make Twitter a calling engine that fires up Google Voice to call you and your intended called party.

In my view this shows the power of API's, and is one more indicator that Google Voice is more than a call manager. It also shows that Twitter is something more than just a short form messaging solution, something Phweet first pioneered almost two years ago.

Great story in today's Wall Street Journal that explains why some walls make WiFi impenetrable due to Chicken Wire.

A Texas company has released a product called DataJAck that is promising an unlimited amount of 3G data in the USA for $39.95. To top off the offer, they are claiming no activation or termination fees and no contract, you can turn the service on and off as you wish. It would appear they are reselling the T-Mobile AWS band based on their coverage map referencing "AWS 3G Broadband." This conclusion is based on AWS being the type of spectrum (1700mghz) that T-Mobile is deploying here in the USA.

I read this very nice year in review on the Ribbit blog. It highlights all kinds of things, but after a year of being part of BT one thing we have yet to hear about is revenue and customers.

In the space Ribbit competes in companies like Voxeo, ifByPhone (a client) and Twilio are all providing services to customers who are actually paying for them. They're not simply releasing apps, running trials in beta using an API from someone or announcing partnerships.

Don't get me wrong, I love what Ribbit is doing, but being inside BT means years of efforts before the old liners there embrace what Ribbit can do.

I was in Las Vegas a few days ago and got to experience Mobile WiMax for the first time via the Sprint/Clearwire network that's been installed there.

My reaction. Think the best of WiFi and a MiFi all rolled into one.

Speeds were solid and I was able to make VoIP and Skype calls, including video, without any problem while seated inside my hotel's restaurant and from a moving car.

Couple of hiccups. First there is a lag time from when you first seek to connect that lasts up to a minute, after that, you'd think you were on a T1 or better as everything just flies. My sending of email via my Exchange server was rocket fast, but I did see some delays on the loading of web pages, so it appears there may be some proxying of port 80 traffic being done by Clearwire or Sprint, but I didn't test for that.

Regardless, with Clearwire/Sprint 4G in Las Vegas at my disposal, it will be one more wireless way to work and stay connected. As more new devices roll out, the uptake will also be greater. This new Overdrive from Sierra Wireless should help there.

You can try out WiMax in Las Vegas via Cheetah Wireless' rental program.

(Note: To be transparent, I'm a minor stakeholder in Cheetah Wireless)

When the news gets slow around the holidays you can always expect the rumor mill to be running at full tilt around the household company names.

Well, I don't think this is a rumor at all

when I read that Skype and Avaya are in talks to bring Skype into the enterprise. One reason is back on September 9 when the ShoreTel relationship with Skype was announced I wrote:

Robert Poe has detailed the top 25 advances in VoIP in 2009. Give it a read.

Check out the eWeek article about GoogleVoice and Gizmo. Seems the Nexus One isn't the only thing that Google is now "leaking" over.

Here's what I think.

1) Gizmo5's assets brings GoogleVoice the missing soft client on multiple platforms except the iPhone. That will have to wait. Macs, PCs, Symbian and Android will be their markets first. Symbian on the Nokia smartphones. Gizmo previously had a Truphone like app on them.

2) Gizmo's softclient becomes a lot more. Expect the Flash based Gizmo client to become embedded in Chrome and that making calls from Chrome becomes very easy.

3) On Chrome OS Netbooks, watch as Google expands the calling to integrate video. Already Google has video with Google Talk, but so does Gizmo so making it part of the operating system or browser adds a whole new dimension. SightSpeed has browser based video calling, but only inside Internet Explorer.

4) I would expect that tagging of Google Voice messages and being able to associate them to projects inside Google Apps becomes part of their roadmap.

5) Google Voice's international calling capabilities get expanded. You'll be able to add international phone numbers to be your termination numbers. You will also likely be provided the opportunity to purchase Google Voice In numbers.

6) As LTE and WiMax take hold the phone number on the device becomes less relevant. Because Google Voice and Gizmo are SIP based your email address can be called.

These and a lot more new features will play major roles with Google Voice/Gizmo simply because what's possible is what Google sets out to do. What's also clear is they don't really care about the carriers. To them the mobile operators are dumb pipes whom the customer pays for access. Everything else will be from Google.

Larry Lisser picked up on my meme from over the weekend and dubbed the growing video chat, communications and conferencing world as visual communications in a very well thought out piece.

From the earliest of days of public WiFi I have always felt the biggest players that would benefit from it were the cable operators. Seems I was right as Cablevision is proving how in the contiguous areas around New York City that their WiFi cloud is attracting users. And, they are all their already existing customers as Om Malik points out at GigaOm.

By continuing to serve their customers outside of the home, Cablevision has extended their connection and kept the customers online. They are using Cablevision service and over time will have a mobile phone running some type of mobile VoIP and I predict mobile video as long as the user is the CableVision customer. Once they have reached a certain point of saturation and predictable usage levels by their customers, my feeling is CableVision will then open the network up to day pass type roamers who find themselves in the CableVision footprint.

This is a lesson that others like Comcast should look at. Deploying WiFi right is far less expensive than 4G and can go just about anywhere there's IP connectivity. No expensive spectrum licenses, and no real challenges on where to build the towers. What's more, just about every PC and smartphone has WiFi now, so the addressable audience is already there, as there is no need for anything new. Lastly, consumer behavior is such that the market is already used to using WiFi, so the leap to use it in public is not that far.

When the book is written on why pubic WiFi failed, CableVision won't be including, as for them, it will already be a rip, roarin' success.

Let's set the record straight, for in 2010 we will begin to see some clear lines (are they battle lines) drawn when it comes to "face to face" communications over the Internet.

A post yesterday about Google's Video Chat got me thinking, and as someone who is very much into both branding and operation definitions, the time has come to really expand upon the approach I first took when SightSpeed was my agency's client (right up and through their acquisition by Logitech.)

When we were advising SightSpeed one of the core points we always set out to make was the fact that the offered "video conferencing." That meant they were delivering the highest quality available (media always recognized this in reviews) and were into delivering an all software based multi-party experience. Former CEO Peter Csathy would go to great lengths to extoll the nature of their video quality, tossing words like "pristine" around the way I open wine bottles (with great frequency and regularity), and to date, the only company to really match the level of SightSpeed's "pristine" on screen look is Skype.

Now, let's go into the lesson:

Cisco coined the term Telepresence because it wanted to separate the perception of what was poor video conferencing from the rest of the pack. That was a branding technique to own the space. Quickly others followed suit (HP with Halo, Vidyo, Tandberg, Lifesize) with their own versions of "telepresence." But let's not get confused. These are video conferencing solutions while services like TokBox, Yahoo Messenger with Video and others of their ilk are really video chat as their experience is not on par with any of the real "video conferencing" solutions. So, while many of the Flash video based services like to say they offer Video Conferencing, about the only thing they have in common is "video." And that's where Google's offering is TODAY. They use a combination of video from Vidyo and audio from client Global IP Solutions (GIPS)

Now, let's look at 2010. Video communications in the home and the office will be very different in the next decade. First I fully expect that we'll see embedded webcams in widescreen TV's by the end of the new year. Before that I fully expect that we'll see webcams that interoperate with these widescreen television monitors and I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of the major video chat/conferencing companies starts to work with one or more of the major electronic giants.

Looking a little farther down the road, I'd also expect that the likes of SightSpeed, Skype and others will interoperate with the room based systems very shortly. It's too logical. When you think of the millions of end points that both Skype and SightSpeed already have (not to mention ooVoo) you have to quickly see the roadmaps that Cisco (acquiring Tandberg) and Logitech (acquiring LifeSize) are on. Only someone who can't see would miss the obvious. The lines between video chat and video conferencing are starting to be drawn and the markets identified.

If the last ten years was the decade of the growth of Voice over IP, the next one will be for Video over IP...and now you know why I named this blog VoIPWatch.

Apple stock hit an all time high, over $200 this week. But that's just the financial story. What is really impressive is how well Apple is faring in purchase popularity in every category they compete it.

In phones.

In the desktop and laptop categories, when you consider how much more expensive their products are vs. the Windows boxes, you realize just how well they are doing.

Apple is doing this well because their products work. They look good and the require very little support. One has to also wonder how they are doing with the accessories like mice/mouse, WiFi routers (I have yet to find a consumer product that is as solid as the Airport Extreme and Airport Express for travel) or monitors.

Bottom line. Apple's demand and sell through is increasing.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) sums up fairly concisely just what is up with the status of Google Voice on the iPhone.

If Google GIVES the Nexus One to all GoogleVoice customers, with some kind of incentive to move to T-Mobile, it will initially be AT&T who suffers. Do you remember the old days when incentives were paid to consumers to "Switch" their long distance carrier by MCI and Sprint. This was back in the days of Alternative Long Distance Dialing. It ended up creeping along until Judge Greene decreed that equal access to Long Distance carriers had to apply to all Regional Bell Operating Companies. That led to divestiture. When you look at it, you don't REALLY have a choice of long distance providers you can have with your mobile phone ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, unless you use an application that lets you dial around, call back, ring back, call through, etc. All those actually add seconds to your calling time, and without unlimited plans do eat into your bundle (think Pre-Paid users.)

My prediction is we will see the unbundling of Long Distance from your mobile plan, and the mobile operators will be forced to allow user to pick their long distance provider for calling. This will really help the international caller who uses their mobile phone.

Google Voice may end up being the martyr in the battle, but they will be remembered by those of us who do see and enjoy being a telecom revolutionary.

Twilio is an platform that lets developers create service much like Voxeo and client IfByPhone.

Today they whipped up a "calling card" script using their API and turned it into a Pay As You Go calling plan.

This is great for temporary housing companies and hostels where end points can be installed, but where only the user knows the code. Once you run out of Twilio credit, its gone.

Gizmodo has a very interesting piece today about consumer Internet connectivity in the USA from the major providers. In the post they point out how the broadband providers are overselling higher priced services to consumer by exaggerating what kind of pipe someone needs to download, connect or use services.

First off, we're beginning to see the strands of sending party pays billing taking hold. mask it as they want to, the ISPs are slowly moving to that kind of pricing model. Secondly, what we're seeing is the tiered pricing models that have been long written about online. The heavier user of fatter pipe is going to pay more on average per month than the occasional downloader, and that's really how the pricing is built today. The fuzzy logic being applied is if you're downloading one movie, you're downloading more. Hence you should pay more.

Currently we're not seeing any hybrid models, other than with mobile Pay As You Go Data, where you pay what you consume, and if your consumption patterns change, you can pay more (or less.)

This is where bandwidth speeds and access vs. download and upload by megabyte pricing is out of whack. As more and more moves to the cloud, consumption becomes thiner. As the ability to sideload becomes more readily available, costs to the user (and in reality the ISP) should drop as the on-net, non toll road traffic (your broadband ISP) is eliminated.

Sideloading is like FedEx, they get the data to you, but with less handling.

These broadband pricing models are flawed, but not only for the reasons Gizmodo cites, but because the whole way we are communicating now (far more cloud based, far less end point data intensive.) Yes, we're moving more data, but things like voice and even video conferencing are really small bundles compared to fat data like that which the operators move on a daily basis just to run their business. The whole model of Smart Grids and P2P technology are beginning to cross. Far more efficient ways for data to go from point a to point b are emerging. What's more, as more sits on the cloud, and as more of that is shared, there becomes less need to "download" and "upload" because the work product is sitting up there, not down here. Upload once. Work many.

When that model can be better embraced, using a toll or permission level model, then you have the right pricing schemes. Until then, we are all likely all dining at the buffet, not really getting an al a carte offering from any broadband provider.

The buzz is building around the Google Phone and the potential of Apple finally bringing out a Tablet.

My questions about the tablet are simply this:

1) Will you handle Voice Apps (Skype, Truphone, iCall) the way the iPod Touch and iPhone already do? I mean, don't you want to TELL someone what yu just read, watched or heard?

2) Will it have a front facing camera which the iPod touch and iPhone currently do not have capable of delivering an HD video stream, as well as a back side camera? This will do more for multimedia, for Skype and for SightSpeed faster than anything seen to date if it does.

3) Will it have built in 3G or 4G? It sure needs it to be like the Kindle.

4) Will it work with a BlueTooth or some Apple created wireless keyboard, headset and more?

5) Can it "talk" wirelessly to an Cinema display and be the info/multimedia hub, allowing those who use it to toss away so many other devices (phone, iPod and yes Kindle--remember there already is a Kindle app for the iPhone/iPod touch...

Oh, the possibilities this device could have, when left to Steve Jobs' team....my my. Yes, I do want one....

The rumor mill was right on, and Jajah has indeed become part of Telefonica.

Last night around 7 PM or so I caught a tweet that made me check my Blackberry. Yes indeed, there must be an outage. Then another tweet came in. Then another, and another.

All the while RIM was silent.

This is not the first time that Research In Motion was off the air and I don't mean the devices. But the reason is simple. All the people who work there use RIM devices so like the rest of the RIM user base in the Americas they couldn't be reached. What was also down was perhaps the most important aspect of the Blackberry, the app simply called Messenger. RIM's Blackberry Messenger is a blend of Instant Messaging and SMS. It works across networks and is as fast as any communications tool. It is also part of everyone's BlackBerry Data Plan, if one has installed it. So in the world of Mission Critical apps, the Blackberry Messenger plays that role.

Unfortunately, RIM's reaction time, and its statements to what I think is at least the third major outage this year has been the opposite to what a company that excels in speed should be. Here's why:

1) No real answer has been given overnight, other than confirming what everyone already has figured out

2) There isn't any official statement on the press page

3) The home page to their web site says nothing at all about the outage, not even a "We're Sorry"

4) RIM lacks a front person who communicates to the social communications world. They have zero interface with their most important constituency, the users

Sites like Crackberry and other blogs and Forums are full of loyal and very patient users, and no product is without the risk of a black out, but every time RIM goes silent they magnify the problem.

Since we no longer live in a world where tomorrow is soon enough to provide an answer, RIM needs to bring the same kind of responsiveness when it comes to letting their users know when things go wrong that their users already experience in communications. Anything short of that, they're missing what makes them what they are.

The great thing about the Internet is that you can get connected to just about everyone these days. Well this afternoon, my old friend Nick called me via his new SIP connection. It seems the new 100 meg fiber line to his winter abode has finally been connected, giving him even faster access. That means the wants and desires of so many of our world's less mature types will now be received and read faster.

Well, before we spoke, I had to make sure the usual claus of non disclosure was not in effect for holiday consulting, as it is always in the spirit of good cheer, good tidings and good wishes. This saint of a man said "of course," and he then quickly shared some of the requests he's received this year from the venture capitalists, investors and directors of many of our world's leading technology companies.

He also said he'd be dashing off in the snow a few days early this year to keep his schedule in tact....as it seems some of the requests seem to be kind of demanding......

For Google he revealed they've asked for more ads. It seems they're not done yet with buying, and they need more clicks to drive the cash. As if Google needs any more "yelp" I replied. Oh, I meant help. He promised to do his part to save the trees, by seeing what newspapers could be closed, where broadband could be enabled and to lower the price of mobile phones to under 100 with Android for all good people of the earth. With that triple play, he mused, he figured they could continue to stay ahead of dear bada Bing.

For Cisco they asked for more sales of more of the same. My reply, does Cisco ever do anything that doesn't sell more routers and switches? He promised that their holiday stocking would be full of orders of increased demand, especially from some folks in Dallas and Atlanta who it seems have been wishing and praying for more of that as well.

When we got to AT&T it became hard to hear. Every time he said their name the signal got flakey. To him it sounded like I had been visiting the bar, but in many more places. We decided that their wish this year was for some much needed bandwidth along with backhaul, but most of all the big request from them this year had to be for graduates from a leading university that teaches both advertising and the law, as they seem to not have any of those already. He said something about stopping off at Northwestern...on his way to the South as they seem to have a few of those this year.

For Verizon the request was for updated GPS devices. With all those maps they keep using, someone figures eventually their execs will get lost and end up in the new AT&T HQ not the old one that is now their HQ.

From Skype he revealed was the requests was for new faces in management. With some recent giant size departures and new investors its time for some new blood in new roles and some troops to be shaken up.

From Apple the request was an easy one. It was for simply, more Jobs.

For Yahoo....everything.

At that point my friend Nick said he had to feed the deer. He been keen to reduce the gas, and he's been using the new low carbon emission feed. What's more he told me that his suit's color this year may again be red, but his donning a green cap and his guide deer Rudy will have a green light.

And with that we said, to all, a good night.

Congressman Rick Boucher of Virginia is my kind of elected official. He wants us all to have 50 megs down and 20 megs up of broadband.

And as the post on DSL Reports mentions, with Docsis 3.0 coming to a cable box near you rather soon, those speeds are more than attainable. In my Sacramento California house we have 50/50 (up and down) from SureWest via FTTP and the difference between regular cable modem that we had before with Comcast and what we now have is striking. The key is not so much the speed, but the clear drop in latency, and how fast we can ping a distant server. What's more VoIP and Video calling become amazingly bright in tonal quality.

Boucher's goal isn't unattainable. It also means that we'll see a rise in push back, most likely from AT&T as their in ground network isn't quite ready for this yet, while Verizon's is.

Do you think we'll see a similar "whose network is faster" from Verizon vs. AT&T for wireline Internet connectivity, just like we have seen for wireless?

I recall once having a cigar with the founder of Free at Atelier Berger, on Rue Berger in Paris one rainy night back in 2006. As a disruptive force in telecom they have clearly been that in France.

Now they have 3G spectrum, which can't be good news for Orange and SFR.

Om has a meme on why O2/Telefonica wants to buy Jajah.

The answer is Voype.

While the holiday season is getting into full swing it is hard to believe that we're now less than a month away from the Winter Edition of IT Expo. To me it only feels like yesterday when Rich Tehrani and his team put on one of the best telecom events they ever have in Los Angeles back in September. That event, which clearly filled the giant hole that was left when VON was shuttered and then sold by their investors, who exercised their rights to take the company away from their founder, and VoIP's fearless leader/visionary, Jeff Pulver.

Well, beyond the usual cast of characters at IT Expo this year in Miami Beach, we'll see a steady stream of additional events that will continue to show why attending is so important. I've already booked flights, hotels and am contemplating a wine dinner, if I can find a BYOB establishment. I'm looking forward to the second edition of the 4G Wireless Evolution event, hosted by VON Alum, and longtime friend, Carl Ford, as that's the future, because in all practicality, VoIP is really the here and now. Tangental to that is the M2M event that Carl is also into in a big way as well.

Another event of course is Jon Arnold's SmartGrid summit. SmartGrids will be in our changing environmental era, one of the most important topics in the new decade, so Jon's work in this area certainly has to be part of the knowledge base in that transformation.--Now only if he would stop using that as his excuse for not blogging about VoIP....

But what I'm most excited about personally is the newest event that's being put on by pal Larry Lisser. It's Startup Camp. According to Larry, "over 10 startups applying to present with more on the way we hope. And as hoped, they are all quite early stage."

Larry's also collaborating very closely with "Mr. Mashup" Thomas Howe on a number of things, including a cross-over voice app contest that promises to be quite fun. Given how every Mashup is like a startup, Thomas brings keen insight to the game as well, especially from the developer's perspective.

So if you're par of a startup, this is an The IT Expo Startup Camp is really going to be, the "place to be." Knowing Larry as I do from what he did with Mobivox, literally turning the company around, and getting them on the kind of footing that led to their sale, his "startup" expertise comes from being hands on, so being a start up and applying to be one of the presenters will bring all kinds of visibility leading up to, during and after the event as Larry has put together several initiatives to expose the entrepreneurs behind them by profiling online, having them speak and also of course network at the event. Much like DEMO or GigaOm's LaunchPad, not every applicant makes it to the stage, but the five selected startups will clearly have the most visibility, including a free 'table' on the ITExpo show floor during the week. These five presenting startups will be announced by January 6th so time is running down. So if you're part of a true startup, now's the time to make your call and take action:

To register

Additionally here is the micro-site as part of the the TMC site

http://www.tmcnet.com/voip/conference/east-10/attendees/e10-startupcamp-telephony.htm

Give Charlie Stross a read on his well authored post on his blog, Charlie's Diary.

My take is simply this. If you have GoogleVoice in calling party pays environment, you can eliminate a large monthly base mobile bill for unlimited minutes, because every call is received back to you after being triggered by the data side of the phone. So put your money into a data plan instead.

By reading this, I'd say the mobile operators now have more to worry about than Apple does with Google Voice. The GooglePhone, as a 3G data device will allow Google to manage the entire calling experience. The only issue will be when the user goes outside of a 3G area.

I woke up this morning to what will be big news for anyone who knows Pat Phelan. Love, hate him, be his friend, or his competitor, but this news can only be viewed as a very self-serving decision by Pat. As part of an overall slimming down, to focus more on what's important to him, Pat has made a series of life altering decisions, and posted about it.

He's quitting.

This means that the cigarette shops and machines are all crying across the globe.

As for Pat's second decision, to hit the gym to lose weight, it will be a harder road than quitting. But knowing Pat, the next time I see him, he'll be below his posted weight, trying to sell us all on a new found diet that he's discovered, and why it has been so good for him.

The latest edition of the the annual Mobile Internet Report, from Morgan Stanley, is a must read if you make a living in mobile. I spent a few hours flipping through the decks that comprise the report and remain just amazed at the level of detail, research and on the mark insight their team has put forth yet again.

I'm fairly sure most of the more serious VC's and Angel investors will be using this as a barometer of where to put their money, at least over the first half of 2010.

Over in the UK, the ITSPA announced their annual winners at their House of Commons event.

Master analyst, Dean Bubley, has penned a post glancing into the new year about the winners and losers.

Since I know Dean well, I'm not at all surprised at most of his observations.