AT&T Phone Home (or Find Your CRM System)

March 26th, 2009

My home, that is. I believe you may be in the telephone business and probably could actually call customers! –More on that later. I have enjoyed AT&T U-Verse service and would not discourage anyone from subscribing, but be VERY careful about the billing relationship. Let’s start with some good news. I have no photo or video of anyone sleeping on my couch. I will end with a high note about the lack of any need for that.

Suddenly about noon my AT&T service stopped. I thought there must be some new install in the neighborhood or some minor network issue. I had dial tone on my phone so I figured there was not some catastrophic problem. Since I rarely use it to make calls, I did not even try—that might have been a clue! All of a sudden it hit me. The threatening letters to disconnect service were to be effective about this time of the month. I had not been concerned since we had paid online within the last two weeks after some considerable confusion previously about arranging for U-Verse to be paid. I would say we have been getting threatening letters since the service was installed 7 months ago, so what was another.

But with the realization that those threatening letters could have been fulfilled, I looked up the last threatening letter and yes, it threatened that service could be discontinued, so just maybe I better call to see if this may be what happened. Well of course that was it!

AT&T has every reason to believe I am a deadbeat customer so I can certainly see the problem—NOT. Let me check, I have been an AT&T (and predecessors) customer all my life and never had a problem about paying bills. I have had the same phone number for over 30 years, not to mention a second line. I have had DSL service for years. Of course they may not recognize I also have two mobile phones from them. I am definitely a customer who could leave them and not pay at a moment’s notice. And on top of all that, they knew we had previously been having troubles getting the e-payment correct, and I later discover that this is a repeated story of others.

So there I am talking to some poor representative who has to deal with me in a state I don’t wish to be in, and now she doesn’t either. She verifies that my bill is overdue and indeed my service has been shut-off. How could this be we just paid? I was then amazed that in a few seconds she could verify that the e-payment was still incorrectly applied to my old landline account, where she found a surplus of some $230 credit. If she could discover this in less than a minute, do you think that there might be some policy to discover what accounts are being disconnected? Could anyone have discovered that AT&T did have payment but there was a billing confusion? Could it be possible to make a phone call to see if there was a problem we were aware of? Have they heard of email? Instant messaging? Text messaging? Twitter? Oh no, that is Comcast that has learned about Twitter. How about when your competition is using new service tools, that you better discover what that is about?

The final recovery: I did expect that there should be no penalty for restarting service and that was resolved without even a request. My tone of voice made that request unsaid. I was astonished that the incorrect payment could be found immediately. For clarity the origin of this whole mess is that my phone bill is paid in California (where I live) and U-Verse is paid in Illinois, I assume for everyone. I was told that some e-payments could not be arranged to them, which seems hard to believe. This must be a widespread point of confusion for customers.

I am trying to deal with the shock that restoring service could take up to 24 hours. Since this is my life line to the world, I could not imagine that something so simple could be that complicated especially when it took only a minute to discover the payment error. Towards the end of my call I did get a call center incoming call. It was then I realized that AT&T would not want to disrupt the billing of call centers to reach me. ( I blogged previously that I do not answer my legacy phone unless I see a known Caller ID.) While I was ranting to the beleaguered agent about receiving irritating calls while my service was disconnected she hung-up on me. Then MIRACULOUSLY within two minutes my service was restored.

I am supposed to be grateful that this was easily restored—and I am. Maybe I should be impressed that no one fell asleep on my couch, but AT&T this is NO way to run a business. You were supposed to get over being a monopoly long ago. Delivering somewhat state of the art services should be some sort of influence to use technology in the customer relationship part of business. Look at this one angry stupid phone that still has me cranked up. This is not the kind of animated customers a business needs. Thank-you for restoring my service in two minutes—after irritating me for a few hours and making me wonder, is anyone thinking there?

Posted in NextGen Telephony, Social Networking, Tech Life, Telephony | 3,678 Comments »

True Confessions on Ada Lovelace Day

March 24th, 2009

Turning individuals into icons is an interesting game. This week I revisited a biographical look at Amelia Earhart on PBS. It was informative on many levels, but one of the more striking illuminations was the role of promotion. Amelia was not the “best” woman pilot of her day, but she was the most promoted. In the same sense I wish to recognize all women in technology – but particularly, my personal bias, engineers.

When I think of women in technology I think of the sea change that I have seen in my life. It was not that long ago that a woman engineer was truly a rare sight. The sciences overall were not quite as foreign to women, and as an engineer I do feel a bond with women in engineering and appreciate the path they have chosen. Today women are still too small a minority, but we have more visible role models and a support system for bringing girls into engineering. This progress is due to the community of women in technology, not just some iconic figure. I think this is maybe the most important role for women in technology today, to help make the trail wide and welcoming for others to follow.

If I dare take the reader back to my undergrad days, I can share my personal experience, not to mention any associated guilt! I was one of the founders of a student section for the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers). We were determined to bring the reality of an engineering career to the university. We held stimulating meetings, starting with good speakers and then promoted creatively (before social networking). Our added leverage was to show racing movies at the end of the meetings (younger readers will have to imagine a world where this was not-trivial; a world before calculators and computers). And the last incentive was to offer cookies. Refreshments were served by the few women in engineering—for which we were very grateful.

Before the lynch mob forms let me clarify that this was not a relationship of coercion or expectation. We were grateful and certainly some of our success was due to this shameful exploitation of the opportunity. Today we might be clamoring about the objectification of women, but I am sure there are still plenty of traces of this long ago experience still in evidence. Women are still making what I would think are inappropriate sacrifices within engineering ranks and as students. I want to especially recognize all women in technology who have made and continue to make accommodation in ways that should not be necessary or accepted. We need each and every one of you. Press on.

Who was Ada Lovelace?

Posted in Tech Life | 12,566 Comments »

175 Million Lawyers to Work for Facebook

February 27th, 2009

They needed to do something. And they needed to do it fast. Only Facebook could seek 175 million opinions, and they are all free. Change that headline. 175 million lawyers working for free to help Facebook arrive at a Terms of Service (TOS) document. I don’t see a problem. This should lead to some great legal advice.

OK, so it could be a bit scary. Hey Facebook, could you like maybe make any references to my old girlfriend go away– and her too, if possible. She was so totally lame, she shouldn’t be allowed on Facebook. 175 million request pouring in. I really hope most don’t arrive after closing time. Maybe they should require all views to be faxed in… –to a single ancient fax machine. Hey dude, where can I find a fax machine? I got an idea for Facebook.

Maybe this is just what you deserve after a sequence of bonehead moves. I dread having a committee come up with a mission statement. What can this do? A well thought out TOS should consider the user community needs and seek a respectful, supportable and conscientious position. That would be great. I am hopeful that this public sausage-making process can address issues of concern. What would be ideal is for Facebook to set a new standard, not for process, but a TOS that can be used for all community services.

As users we routinely check the box, yes I can accept your draconian TOS if you will just let me use your services or whatever is offered. Users don’t really agree with the TOS. The system is broken. Facebook just got caught trying to break it in a most grievous manner. In some sense companies have been at the mercy of legal advice (not the 175 million kind) that may have a basis in protecting the corporation. There just have never been 175 million who are so well connected and dependent on the TOS. Well, every dog has its day, and just maybe 175 million finally with have their day.

175 Million amateur lawyers is indeed a scary thought, but let’s see if Facebook can find a sensible relationship with the user community. Maybe we can get a resulting landmark TOS from this awkward situation. This dog would be pleased and impressed with proof that social networking has the great future I think it does.

Posted in Social Networking, Tech Life | 1,029 Comments »

Ignorance, Innocence and Greed at Facebook

February 24th, 2009

Facebook is powered by a huge group of bright young faces, so we might expect some missteps, but they are adding up. We are already aware of malfeasance involved in the founding of Facebook. At some point in Silicon Valley we let bygones be bygones. Continued questionable actions do raise second thoughts.

Facebook could use a supply of towels to keep the youthful group a bit dryer behind the ears A gray hair or two in-house seems highly unlikely to be heeded at this point. One lesson that appears to not be learned at Facebook is the concept of business stakeholders. Customers are often given short shrift in the stakeholder pecking order. Nothing could be a bigger mistake at Facebook.

Every business owes much to customers, but none more than a social networking site. The reason I am a huge fan and bullish on Facebook, and social networking in general, is because of the role of users, the most critical of “customers” in this game. Without us, Facebook is dead. Hello Mark. –Not reduced in value or importance, but dead. I believe it is a self-correcting system. Facebook has shown this with each significant mistake. How many “mistakes” will it take?

Of course you can expect a strong reaction from some when these blunders are caught. Fortunately while most are aghast that Facebook could be out of touch, the proxy outbreak serves to put Facebook back on track. I confess to being a bit tired of the routine. This is NOT rocket science. I offer my free gray-hair advice. Facebook should have an internal mantra and it should be about the most important stakeholder. That is not the stockholder, but your stockholders will not be happy if users are allowed to migrate away from what has been a tsunami of endorsement. I can’t imagine more than ten words and it should be in front of everyone inside.

On this subject I was inspired by a thoughtful commentary on Network World, that bastion of social networking. When critical comments are appearing from far, the reach and importance of the mission should be clear. Don’t screw it up.

Posted in Product, Social Networking, Tech Life | 781 Comments »

Let Me Take a Bite from My Hat

February 5th, 2009

Magicjack is a remarkable story in some sense, and that may cause some to lose a grasp on common sense. A new story connects Magicjack to the loss of landlines in the U.S. If you are responsible for landline retention I would think you have too many other concerns to think that Magicjack is responsible for a decline in landlines. If that were the case I would think Magicjack should be more concerned.

The Magicjack bundles hardware with a network terminating solution in hopes that users will buy upgraded services. Without upgrades Magicjack can only hope most users make few calls which is a pretty good bet. If users are making all household calls in a traditional landline sense, they are probably losing money.

Long before Magicjack appeared TeleVoce offered PC-to-telephone adapters. There has not really been much change in this market opportunity, except for the TV pitch infomercials that today have a greater of finding viewers with a PC connected to broadband at home. It is easy to get excited about such an offer, but the light of day has shown that most users do not replace regular phone use with such devices. By light of day, I mean years of user behavior records of real use of PC-connected phone use.

PC-originated phone calling is not new and incoming calls are not revolutionary either. Magicjack, as much as TeleVoce, serves users who make international calls (long the stronghold of VoIP) and users who have use for an alternative to mobile for any number of reasons. Magicjack probably has recruited a new segment of users who imagine a substitute phone service. Let me just state the obvious simply. A PC with a MagicJack is not going to connect to the multiple phone jacks in a typical home. It is a personal tool, not a household solution. Let landline providers worry about real issues.

Posted in NextGen Telephony, Product, Telephony, VoIP | 873 Comments »

Marketing in the Wayback Machine

January 30th, 2009

OMG, I just wasted five minutes checking out IP Man Adventures. On some level it was clever, but mostly it seems just wrong. I don’t like to bash a sincere effort, but this is like Gates and Seinfeld– only worse. I have to give credit for being brave in hard times and making a run at the market. Count me among the shocked if this really works, but it made me write about it so let me spell their name correctly. Broadvox must really want your business.

I am sure some ad agency could explain how this is off target from a purely marketing perspective. Just in the context of marketing VoIP, this seems old. Of course there are still customers in the dark, so to speak, but a cartoon campaign to target contracts with legacy carriers charging too much seems very old. A business that is still targeting minute rates may be old enough and that may be the story– We have an old business concept chasing cost of minutes and we are looking for someone who has missed the last TEN years of telephony! I can’t tell for sure if this is a sad statement about their target customer, or a sad statement about the business model. I felt like I was in some time warp trying to guess what year it was, and trying to imagine how a target audience would respond. I hope for the sake of Broadvox that there is still an appropriate sales target in 2009.

Posted in NextGen Telephony, Telephony, VoIP | 1,527 Comments »

VON Mission Impossible

January 21st, 2009

I have not paid much attention to whatever is going on with VON after Jeff Pulver separated ways. There was always some understandable tension with institutional participants (bill-paying power) and revolutionaries. Now I see the revolution is over at VON. There is more evidence of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic than any embrace of what the IP revolution is about where it meets telephony . I clicked on an email link to an article pretending that so-called pure play VoIP is no threat to carriers. I was forced to click to see what this could possibly be about.

Apparently MagicJack, Skype, et. al. have not much to do with real people talking to each other. Every argument has some position that makes it rational, but you have to stretch a bit to find such position that is not crumbling under foot. I choked when I read the analyst quote, “What [the pure plays] offer is not a replacement for full residential phone service.” I wonder who pays for that kind of analysis? OK, I don’t really.

Now I am a customer so one might call me a hypocrite. I have AT&T U-verse, mostly to dump Comcast cable. It is my vote for the future. I do get to keep my legacy phone number as part of the bundle and I am forced to have unlimited national calling. If you like a good laugh you can look up my listed legacy number and call. I won’t answer. That is really a great product. One I really do not need.

So-called full residential service is a dinosaur, a buggy whip. How can I say this? I think I blogged about this recently even. We are not living in an interrupt based telephone call culture. Has anyone at phone carriers noticed this? Anyone know how many calls end in conversation? Anyone see the trend over the last X years? For years the carriers did well with widows’ investments. Maybe they can still eek out some phone traffic from the same widows. The only thing AT&T can be “proud of” is that I appear to be paying for my legacy phone. IF they gave me some option to only send voice mail to an online account, that would be just fine, and not for long. Almost no one calls me or anyone on my 30 year old legacy phone number. Hello?– this is not value. It is not a good product. It is an accident of history. Keep rearranging those deck chairs, but I think you will notice your feet getting wet.

Posted in NextGen Telephony, Skype, Tech Life, Telephony, VoIP | 3,693 Comments »

Random Sightings at CES – My Last Word

January 19th, 2009

The internet radio market now has numerous entrants. I stopped at the Myine Electronics booth to see a useful entry level variation. I like that they have created a versatile but low cost radio that works without any PC interaction. They displayed another variation that was entered into the last gadget standing competition. The Abbee product mines FM radio and reduces songs to MP3 format while removing ads and DJ talk. DRM has been messing with users long enough. It is time to respect fair use and get on with the future of digital media.

While I confess to not following mobile innovations too closely I did talk to the representatives for Peek who have a text-only device with unlimited mobile email and text messaging. Seemingly a bit off the mainstream, the rationale is that for $20/month unlimited text and email has a very strong appeal. I can’t argue with the premise, but I could not readily identify the target market. Also in crossing the North Hall (one place I did not cover completely, saving myself from every megawatt booming car audio system) I discovered StepLabs with some impressive hands-free mobile phone audio solutions. They have a great implementation of DSP technology in a visor mounted mic that blocks out audio not coming from the driver. It was also good to see Voiceonthego.com who offer email by voice to mobile users.

I have been aware of the value of bone conduction for hearing, but never experienced it personally. AudioBone offered demo units to appreciate the technology. Since it enables hearing below the ear drum, it has great value for the hearing impaired. They were promoting bone conduction headsets for outdoor activities such as bike riding. It also is remarkable in underwater uses. The virtue for bike riders is that your ears are open for hearing your environment. All those virtues aside I found the volume with modest amplification was quite low. Only in covering my ears did the audio seem of adequate volume, which undermines a main virtue.

Casio drafted the UNLV Cheer Leaders to present a fast moving show for visitors to experiment with their new cameras with burst mode feature that allows up to 60 frames per second. This will certainly allow you to find the photo that you wanted for that action shot. More interesting was a brand new feature they call Dynamic Photo. There were only prototypes and pricing is not announced. Better than a blue screen in some ways, you can use this feature to insert action into alternative scenes. A photo they were showing, for example, showed your little leaguer batting in a major league stadium. It is a clever Photoshop feature in your camera. Point and shoot seems so yesterday.

A trend that seemed more real than prior renditions was the movement toward every variation of file backup. I think that so many users have seen the risks up close, the market may be ready. With the numerous alternatives available there must be something that works for almost any user. I am going to try the goclickfree.com DVD-only backup which looks like a very clever concept. I talked to CMS Products with quite a line-up of solutions, but wherever you turned at the show someone was promoting a backup methodology.

One of the few booths with frequent crowding was the Road Mice booth (redliointeractive.com) where they showed remarkably accurate (and licensed) wireless car model mice. A pricy but interesting concept was shown with the nPower PEG which will charge your portable battery device using the energy generating by walking.

Greening of Technology
We have been talking about green and making steps for years. As a people we are still finding our way, but I see evidence of real utility. Now we can find real green products. One of my Intel conversations was about the latest wake mechanism called Remote Wake Technology. This will allow PCs to shift into a lowest power mode yet be able to wake up to incoming events. I don’t know if it will be widely implemented and adopted but I hope so—check it out.

The whole question of what to do is still the biggest green/carbon issue as far as I am concerned. I had some good conversations that lead me to think we are beginning to come to grips with reality. I enjoyed speaking with Engaged Recycling, best known for the website http://myboneyard.com/. I was impresssed talking about modeling in this world of social responsibility with Planet Metrics who are clearly expert in the segment.

Even the expanded use of netbooks should reduce power consumption by personal computing devices. I saw some smart power strips that make practical good sense, coming soon from Tricklestar. The Ecobutton is also a great concept to click when you walk away to set power down.

In closing I should add I appreciated Koss showing the football playoff game and providing wireless headsets for all to listen as well. As attendees and the show ran out of energy on the last day (Sunday) it was a welcome respite for feet and mind. That is more than enough of my public rambling on CES 2009. You will have to track me down for any more stories from Las Vegas.

Posted in Tech Life | 924 Comments »

Tripping on Telephony at CES

January 15th, 2009

Most telephony new products are about mobile, but I pay almost no attention to every kind of accessory or feature for your mobile phone. No need to hear from me since the mobile mainstream is covered in many places—see Palm in the news. I still use a Palm IIIc (occasionally) and liked the work they did on the human interface, so I hope the new phone is as good as claimed. We know the mobile world needs plenty of advances in that category. Read about it elsewhere.

Of course, VoIP is on my view screen, but there is not much new to report. Try as you might, I don’t think there was a Skype phone anywhere except under the counter, which was a trend started last year. By changing management frequently no one can be responsible for where there should be embarrassment and concern at Skype. Partners are long ago lost in the dust bin. At least they did have a press conference promising new directions and an evening party. It’s good being king. I hope it works out.

The two VoIP consumer plays at CES live in a space I can’t quite imagine. Both Ooma and MagicJack have product and company strengths that defy logic and economics. Ooma has a pending DECT phone with features that I conceived of years ago, then as an open platform. Maybe someday that could happen, but no matter what evolution comes to pass I see a huge money pit that will be difficult to escape from. Too little too late, but they still look cool.

MagicJack has pulled off a significant integration of technology and network, but I don’t see where a business model based on upgrade revenue can work well. The first premise of selling to the most cost-sensitive users and then selling upgrades seems a contradiction. At least Ooma requires an entry fee that establishes some financial commitment. The greater fool theory of investment requires an environment of “irrational exuberance,” which seems quite unlikely in the foreseeable future for both of these companies.

Packet 8 was there representing the mainstream of VoIP, but like many exhibitors had plenty of time to talk to anyone who ventured by. A few other vendors were in evidence with small/medium office contributions. I did not recall seeing the Teligent phone system (by CSI Design) before. It looks like another in a long line of interesting products, but with no means to penetrate the small business market.

The one telephony play of interest was Newber. There have been various alternate or virtual phone number plays in the past and I think it remains a good area for innovation. Newber allows you to use a virtual number to control separate business and personal calls on a single mobile phone– now on iPhone. A fairly simple concept that should have many users, especially if it can work without subscribing to their more comprehensive VoIP hosted solutions.. It also has a location aware function so that calls can be auto-routed to the phone you are near. Pretty cool.

The most under-exploited telephone capability is text messaging. Unfortunately it is mostly locked up in proprietary islands and costly use cases. Cherple looks to have broken through this land of silos. Especially attractive is the consumer solution that allows text messages to be originated on the Internet and sentwithout cost to any US phone. Phones can respond, subject to the user’s text plan cost. This would be a winner in any market where it is possible. I see a big upside for this venture.

Posted in Skype, Tech Life, Telephony, VoIP | 845 Comments »

A Subdued CES 2009

January 13th, 2009

As I usually do, I walked every inch of the CES floor (well almost) and found it not much different than other CES shows, except it sure was easier walking. Not ever did I take a different aisle to avoid a crowd, nor I was jostled much, and there was little need for zigging and zagging down the aisles. From this attendees view that was not bad, but certainly the reduced traffic is sign of the economic times. Still there is no better place to get a handle on the consumer tech industry.

An advantage that I enjoyed was the ability to engage in useful extended conversations with product managers and engineers. Since my life has shifted to more of a software focus I miss tracking hardware evolution from an insider view. I had two longer conversations with Intel engineers, one on wireless and another about platform issues.

Wireless has been an evolving story for some time and now we are pushing into reality for wirelessly moving video around your house. While it is obvious why we may want this, I have to question how much we should be pushing wireless especially at higher frequencies. I am no Chicken Little about this, but there is no question we don’t know a lot. The newer high speed solution uses two frequencies and needs the high frequency for maximum bandwidth. While there are built-in algorithms for allocating the transmission, I would like some choice of selecting a preferred frequency, but this would be an acknowledgement that it just might be important.

I was far more impressed with flat wiring alternatives for moving data. Two vendors were at CES. I did not get into all the details, but I was very impressed with the concept. If you have not seen this imagine being able to wire (essentially anything) just like using wallboard tape. Spackle over and paint like no one was ever there—I think that is the deal? Here is where it should be trivial to mention the two companies I saw at CES. I have no sample, no business card, brochure or any schwag to make that easy. Even worse, it is not easy to find in the CES Show Directory. After some research I see Southwire as one of the company’s with their product Flatwire. The wire is available in modest spool sizes for do-it-yourself projects.

My other enlightening conversation with an Intel engineer was about platforms. Intel was trying to show how the different platforms are to be used, I think to be especially sure that consumers don’t adopt Atom-based solutions for all computing! The industry has never been completely integrated from hardware (processors, etc.) to software (Microsoft mostly), but this is keeping users from the best exploitation of the technology available. There are several dimensions to getting the most from available technology. The quad processor offers plenty of technical advantages, but how can apps and you take the best advantage? You can’t really, but it can get better. We have been sold multi-threading for some time, but this is a new dimension—IF you could actually effectively use four processors. It is a problem for each app, but of more interest to me is how could the O.S. best serve users? Unfortunately I think there is a lot of theory and capability, but I don’t think it will soon be exploited fully. And, yes, the Atom processor was everywhere, but it is not the only processor being used for various netbook products.

Posted in Product, Tech Life | 1,379 Comments »

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