Part 3 - Google Voice: The Impact

There are a number of ways that I foresee Google Voice having a significant impact.

Will mobile telcos become a “dumb pipe”? One of the controlling assets mobile telcos have over its user base is your personal mobile number. Users are typically restricted to choosing a new mobile phone and their service provider once every 18 months. Why? Because mobile telcos (not you) own your personal mobile number throughout the contract – users only own their personal number at the end of their contract – when you can choose to “port” your number to another provider.

Splitting these services – being the provision of your personal mobile number (and the services associated with it) and the physical mobile service, Google will profoundly change the structure of this market.

Breaking the link between your personal mobile number and the service provider will fragment the mobile telcos “value chain” where they provide control your mobile number, mobile phone, contract and services. Hence:

1. If mobile telcos don’t adapt, they will become a “dumb pipe” similar to broadband services, where a key point of differentiation becomes price. Providers will be interchangeable since Google will hold your personal number.

2. Mobile telcos will be forced to implement new innovative services such as Hullomail and SpinVox(!) to compete with Google Voice. This may lead to these service providers being bought to also create differentiation between mobile telcos.

3. “Disposal” pay as you go and shorter contracts will be more popular as it will be easy to start, stop and swap mobile telcos.

4. Buying mobiles without contracts will become more common as you switch between providers on short term contracts – ebay sales of second hand phones increase over time.

5. You will not need to concern yourself with lost mobiles as you can just buy a new phone and contract with another provider.

If Google were to become a virtual mobile phone provider in the UK you would have the right to port your current mobile number to Google. This loss of control should worry mobile telcos – virtual network providers such as Virgin were a way to broaden the use of networks, Google will change the landscape profoundly.

Part 2 - Google Voice: How was it for you?

Google Voice is just great but there are a few drawbacks. More importantly there will some profound long term implications for incumbent mobile telcos (see Part 3).

The general configuration UI is very similar to that of Gmail (Inbox, Starred, History, Spam etc) with “labels” immediately below (Voicemail, SMS, Recorded, Placed etc) – maybe one day Google will be brave enough to integrate both.

Voicemails are transcribed with varying success – I assume they are using the same technology as their 411 and voice search service. This makes both voicemails and SMSs searchable using the standard Google search box. Contacts are integrated with your Gmail/Google Contacts. Local (US) calls and SMSs are free – all other calls can be paid for using Google Checkout.

Calls can be made by dialling your Google Voice number and following the series of instructions. Alternatively, you can place your call from the web app (desktop or mobile). This prompts you for a name/number and the “Phone to Ring” – which is one of your registered phones. It rings you phone initially, tells you the cost of the call and then connects you to the number requested.

This can be initiated by the desktop or through the mobile browser. (I was unable to use the Google Voice client for the G1). UK landline calls are 2 cents a minute, whilst UK mobile calls are 20 cents per minute (cheaper than my UK mobile provider). You can send an SMS message in a similar manner.

Calls received are diverted to the phone of your choice – in my instance, this is to my newly acquired $25 prepaid phone. If a call is missed it diverts to voicemail which is then transcribed and added to the Google Voice inbox. In addition, it sends the transcribed message as an SMS to your mobile.

Over the week I was in the US it was invaluable allowing me to make calls to the UK for less than my mobile telco in the UK.The only downside I see is that it is not integrated with Gmail and so voicemails are kept within the Google Voice system and are not downloadable as an MP3 – unlike Hullomail. I do forsee the ability to search the transcribed messages as being invaluable – but I cannot edit mistakes made by Google in this process.

Google Voice: One Number to Rule Them All - Part1

Since the full launch of Google Voice in the US, I have been very jealous of our American cousins.

All attempts at registering for the service failed - using Hotspot Shield I blocked my IP address and managed to logon to the service but I was then stopped in my tracks when Google asked for an American number (overseas numbers don't work) which you need to verify - "Google Voice will call your phone and prompt you to enter the following (two digit) code".

However my trip to the US helped to resolve this. A quick trip to Bestbuy to buy their cheapest prepaid mobile/cell phone -$25 for an LG 300G on Net10 with 300 free minutes.

I quickly registered the mobile with Net10 - really simple and I got to select my own number and area code from the comfort of my own home and the mobile registered with the network in a couple of minutes.

Back to Google Voice - completed the registration process process by entering my newly acquired mobile number and left a personalised message on my Google Voice number.

Interestingly I have discovered that with my newly acquired (prepaid?) mobile - received calls (and SMS) use up my minute tariff - as well as calls/SMS made. Bizarre.

In part two, I will quickly outline the key features I have used since set-up.

UPDATE: I have just noticed that you can use a Gizmo number - this didn't seem to be available when I first signed on. This might be useful for non Americans to register for the service.

Radio: American Style

I knew I had arrived in America when I switched on the car radio.


My standard Ford Focus rental car has a Sirius satellite radio. Just like FM but better (except underpasses where it cuts out). As with all good American radio channels it seems to be stuck in a time between 1976 and 1987 playing tracks from The Kinks, Heart, Def Leppard, AC/DC and Genesis.

Oh yes and don't forget about the balmy 72F!!

Hullomail & The Joy of Travel

For those of you who know me, I have been using Hullomail since the late of 2008 and was rather upset that TMobile felt the need to charge me for using an alternative voicemail provider whilst other mobile telcos embraced the technology. In fairness TMobile eventually removed the charges after alot of effort by Andy Munarriz over at Hullomail.

In short, Hullomail is a voicemail system with a difference. It does everything your current voicemail does and more – and all for FREE. It records your voicemails and emails these to your inbox – which opens a lot of opportunity for abuse. Have you ever left a voicemail that you subsequently regretted!! Now you can post it on the web or email it to all your friends.

If you chose to listen to a voicemail and delete it in your inbox, it also deletes it in your voicemail and vica versa (through the magic of IMAP). The biggest upside for me is my messages are in my inbox – and they aren’t deleted until I have addressed them.

But when overseas Hullomail is even better.

I set all my calls to divert and my voicemails are delivered to my inbox. Hullomail sends me a text when I have received a voicemail and in a world where internet access costs substantially less (or is free) I can pick up voicemails for nothing. And typically I email back a response to the person leaving the call – bang goes all of those overseas charges.

If you haven’t tried Hullomail yet, please do – hopefully, one day, all telcos will supply this type of service as standard – but I’m guessing they would feel a need to charge for it.

Netbooks and Wifi at 30,000 feet

Once you have had wifi, you will never go back.

What became clear very quickly is whilst a lot is made of the interactive screens and VOD on the back of airplane seats - it is best described as having a television with your own remote control at your seat. At the end of the day it is still just a passive experience.

Whilst there is no overwhelming difference between internet access on an airplane or at home/work - I did clock 200kb/sec on a download - you are physically restricted to your seat and it allows you to be somewhere completely difference. This could be twittering with your friends in a different time zone, going through your outstanding emails which you haven't got to or just catching up with news. It makes a six hour flight a valuable experience and all for the princely sum of $6.95.

In a similar manner, my trusty Asus 901 netbook was fantastic - when the person in front decided to have a sleep and put his seat down the small screen remain completely vertical. And what's more Virigin America also have power supplies under the seats, so when my battery gave up after 4 hours (on a 6 hour flight) I just plugged it in.

Fantastic, incredible - thank-you Mr Branson for showing the world how it should be done.

The Magic of TripIt

I was recently introduced to TripIt by Tara Hunt at the recent "Thinking Digital" conference in Newcastle - who described at the service as just "magic".

In essence it creates your itinery from your travel confirmations which you email to plans@tripit.com and it does the rest and much much more. To put this into context, the last time I was overwhelmed like this was when I first installed an early beta of Skype (when it was less than 3Mb) - it just worked. No more 3 page printouts of flight confirmations - just the key information that you need at check-in.

But it does so much more, it provides you with links for online check-in, weather forecasts for your destinations, directions between airports and hotels - and this is the free version. I cannot do the service enough justice but if you do any travelling I would thoroughly recommend it.