Posted: June 15th, 2011
Reporting on movements in user habits towards and favoring the Morodo model is always one of the more pleasant tasks of reporting in and around our ecosystem. It is surprising however to witness a move towards WiFi where the combatants with the greatest too loose, the Mobile Network Operators, are the force for change and towards customers seeking our WiFi as part of their daily data consumption pattern. This is certainly the case in the US today. Devicescape WiFi reports 64 percent of consumers surveyed hit hot spots at least once a day. Home Wi-Fi use can help reduce data usage, but for most smartphone owners who supplement their data plan with Wi-Fi, a full 89.8 percent use Wi-Fi both at home and on the road.
Customers are moving towards WiFi as MNO continue to pursue data capping as a means to concentrate revenue back in the MNO’s favour. The report describes 72.9 percent of respondents presuming they will switch carriers if faced with data capping and further a full 80 percent will likely adjust their downloading habits if data capping is introduced by their carrier.
There is no doubt that data demand around the mobile device is growing. Earlier this year, Cisco said it expected the average mobile user to consume 1,185 MB of data per month by 2015. That’s far more than the 250 MB that AT&T claimed was used by 65 percent of its customers when the carrier switched from unlimited to tiered mobile broadband plans.
The MNO’s have failed to see the world is now a more social and connected space. It is more social in the fact all human interaction is around your social network, whether articulated through membership or not. It is a more connected world than ever before as conceivably your most valued and useful possession is your mobile handset. The convergence of these two domains (mobile and Internet) is the genesis of Morodo greatest opportunity. The opportunity exists at its greatest inflection due to the ‘time to market’ a new aspirant would face wanting to support both the socialness of the internet with the connectivity of a ubiquitous handset.
The change in attitude and thinking and the realization the world is changing was articulated clearly in Nokia’s desire to partner with Morodo offering the clever feature phone platform (S40) the network support of Morodo. Nokia can now support VoIP calling globally over this feature phone with Morodo’s network support. Nokia is now a global network operator in its own right on this platform. This model supports no payment for spectrum licensing nor is the new entrant bound by geographical boundaries and expensive support and maintenance of last mile infrastructure.
Today, supporting over 800 WiFi enabled handset MO-Call can originate calls, disruptive of incumbent mobile network operator, to destinations all over the World. Last month this technology originated calls in over 150 countries around the world.
Morodo see any ISP, broadband provider and fixed line carrier as a good fit, with the support and success of WiFi, to become a mobile originator via a Morodo white label. Morodo will support all e-commerce comers with telephone 2.0 services and monetize via affiliation and loyalty incentives. Perhaps Morodo’s first success will be borne in America as the environment seems ready and almost demands new entrants like Morodo to come and fill the void left by the sleeping and slothy MNO’s. Morodo will soon be talking to LightSquared, the operator of a complete USA solution for 4G. Morodo is hopeful of joining their ecosystem to provide a range of services from voice, video calling, Instant messaging and video messaging services under the MO-Call brand but also, ready to enable others to provide service on a white label model.
The one thing from this report , whether WiFi or the new and coming 4G, is that Morodo is able and ready to support all e-commerce websites will telephone and communications and we are in small company.
Posted: June 8th, 2011
We often look towards America to gain a litmus test of how an industry is progressing. The US folks seem to be pretty good at taking the temperature of an industry or sector and making some assumptions around its likely success and future. The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project recently reported that almost one-quarter of Internet-using American adults have made telephone calls on the Internet via a service such as Skype or Vonage. The figure showed sharp increase over the last time Pew polled people on this question though this year was the first time Pew worded the question to offer Skype [sic] as an example of such a service.
What can Morodo take away from this latest comment on the health of VoIP? The first lesson is VoIP is now being defined by the leading and well-known Brands. This is certainly good news if you are one of the well funded VoIP companies spending some advertising dollars on having your Brand as a recognized verb around your technology. The prize is there for those that execute the technology well and spend some money in support of a growing global opportunity.
The second lesson may be that as a global demographic we are now ready to absorb this new way of calling. Over the last couple of years we have all endured a financial crisis that affected us all. We are now interested in the measure of cost/utility and wanting more for less. Alternative calling (VoIP) does this very well.
The third lesson and perhaps the greatest indicator of a moving continuum is the interest around Internet triggered calling, and web based communication generally. Providing services around this new paradigm demonstrates a willingness and competency to support the ‘socialness’ of the Internet. The web has always been social, it is this by design. Communication in 2011 must be interactive if it is to be sought out and used. So what is interactive communication? It is that part of the communication that adds intelligence to the thread. Morodo will support social networks and provide these portals with telephony and communication services around their interests and content. Click-to-Call will provide all who seek out an interactive sales channel and opportunity to monetize what they have and do.
The final lesson just may be that the incumbent mobile network operators, with all their combined financial power are just no match for a world of converging technology and converging competitive landscape where once friendly companions are now aggressive combatants.
Posted: April 14th, 2011
Thinking about a holiday abroad? If part of your holiday reality is keeping in touch with family and friends at home or keeping an eye on your business, whilst you are enjoying the sun, and if you keep in touch by calling or using your handset’s connection to the Internet well you may be in trouble.
A recent article by Dan Simmons of BBC Click tells a story of a woman being trapped by last year’s ash cloud in Canada. She used her mobile phone to check flight times, to see if she could get home, and when she did eventually get home it had cost her nearly £2,000.00.
Making use of voicemail while you’re away may seem sensible – but those doing so may have to pay double or even triple the international rate. The article, “Could roaming rates be about to fall?” cites T-Mobile as charging a UK customer abroad once for someone to connect to their voicemail per minute, once for the length of the message, and once for when they dial in to hear it while abroad – all at about £1.40 ($2.25) a minute in some cases. For many countries visited that could mean a total charge of more than £4 ($6.4) per minute to pick up voice messages.
The article reports last year the European Commission slapped a new cap on what it described as “abusive” charges. For example, a call from Spain to the UK used to cost up to £1 ($1.6) a minute but is now less than 40 pence.
This may be the case in and around Europe but is certainly not the case outside Europe as Mobile Network Operators scramble to recover revenue on shrinking margins in other sectors around their walled garden paradise to cover the massive cost of the Operational Overhead. An example of this was evidenced during a recent MO-Callers travels to Beijing. Upon arrival in January 2011, a SMS was received informing of the cost of making an out bound call whilst roaming was 165 pence per minute and the cost of receiving a incoming call whilst abroad was 130 pence per minute. The MO-Callers vague recollection was that this was 49 pence to make at call and 35 pence to receive a call in September 2008. This increase is very nice for any business if they can get away with this in difficult financial times when the underlying costs of service have probably dropped.
Well – at MO-Call, we do not believe this behavior puts the Customer first. MO-Call do things differently. As an alternative Mobile Network Operator supporting 2,300 handsets across the globe, our downloadable Application as-a-service allows for an outbound call to be routed to a local number when abroad thus eliminating the outbound roaming cost completely. By adding a Chinese mobile number under an existing MO-Call account, calls to a UK landline number from China amounts to 3.2 pence per minute, far more attractive I argue than £1.65 per minute!
For more information on what the guys and girls are doing at MO-Call please see www.mo-call.com. Don’t put up with outrageous mobile bills just to ruin your memories of your holiday abroad. Contact MO-Call, get prepared, and save big bucks on staying in contact with the one’s you love back at home. MO-Call are online 24/7 via online support from their website or at support@mo-call.com.
Posted: March 29th, 2011
Last week, in a definite ground shaking move, Sprint and Google announced Sprint was enabling its subscribers to use their mobile number as a Google Voice number, effectively opening the door to Google and allowing them to provide enhanced cloud/telco 2.0 functionality to Sprint subscribers and international call revenues.
Google Voice is a service currently only available in the US. Users receive a single geographic number that can be routed simultaneously to several phones and/or to the PC, with enhanced messaging features such as voice to text translation, as well as call filtering.
The Sprint/Google agreement allows a Sprint customer to adopt their Google number as their mobile number. That means only one number on a business card to service all your calling and messaging needs. What does this partnership mean? It means Sprint has effectively handed over to Google Voice all advanced call management services, as well as revenues from international calls. The service thus goes further than previous mobile/VOIP tie-ups (i.e. Verizon and 3UK with Skype), by not being restricted to particular devices and encompassing full service management.
What does this mean for Morodo/MO-Call?
We have no doubt other mobile operators will be pondering their future in a world where such ‘over the top’ services are proliferating, offering much better functionality/lower costs than the network operators themselves.
What Morodo is part of and what we are seeing is a classic case of low-end disruptive innovation.
With reference to this slide from Morgan Stanley’s updated State of the Internet report, Morodo is a classic Low-End Disruptor. At stage one, the product at the low end of the market was MO-Call’s cheap International calling, which displaced traditional Telco rates and calling cards by being both cheaper and better than services offered by these incumbents. As these services improve by adding services and refining usability, volume grows which causes disruption in the market as consumers accept the innovative alternatives / substitutes.
Conclusion: This ‘over the top’ model is undoubtedly here to stay. What better way to fight Over-The-Top services than to embrace them by bringing them into the Mobile Ecosystem (via joint venture / strategic alliance or acquisition)? Over-The-Top service providers have so much to offer both fixed line and Mobile incumbents. Afterall, within any ecosystem, both parties must prosper!
Another conclusion: Difficult or not, follow your convictions.
This was an article we read about perseverance being a necessary ingredient to success.
“Just because someone announced a new product or raised more funds, that doesn’t mean your strategy is wrong. It means you need to fight harder in the marketplace. It means you need to keep fine-tuning your strategy, but not change it. “
We embellish this belief!
Posted: March 4th, 2011
Recent news of Facebook acquiring Beluga, a group messaging start-up for mobile phones must have Mobile Networks operators scratching their collective heads and wondering what next. The move signals Facebook confidence that the social network group will be the platform for conversation in the 21st Century.
The telecommunication blogger sphere is awash with news that Facebook is again showing its intent on becoming the major player in how we communicate online. Communications today takes many forms. Text, voice and video all have a role to play and Facebook have all the bases covered. Facebook’s latest purchase is consistent with it creating a ‘one stop communication platform’ acting as a unified inbox for Text, SMS, chat and e-mail where all communications is grouped together and on a single platform (@Facebook.com). What Beluga brings to the Facebook table is the ability to create groups called pods where the social group are connected via the interface and notified when another group communication is received. It is the social aspect of this platform that caught Facebook’s eye.
MNO’s see Facebook creating great value for themselves, all on the back of their network infrastructure for which Facebook, and other likeminded over the top operators, pay nothing themselves to the mobile network operator.The customer pays for a data plan but Facebook leverage their value added services and pay nothing themselves. A point of great frustration and pain for the operators!
It is Facebook’s interest in everything mobile that also has the mobile network operators worried. Facebook is creating services demanded by their customers and MNO’s must just compile and watch their previous walled gardens start to crumble about them. We soon may be all logging into all our web content by our Facebook log-in ID. The writing may be now on the preverbal, ‘garden wall.’
So what can the MNO’s do to stay relevant in this new era of online communication? The answer is simple and arguably a little selfserving. They need to partner with a Morodo type organization.
Morodo and via its collaboration with Ryerson University will soon offer a partner portal to all social networking sites for the provision of a full range of telephony services. The Mobile Network Operators, as it stands today, are made to act as dumb bit pipes for others to deliver the content and appreciate in value. The social network does not recognize geographical boundaries. This new paradigm of browser based telephony gives the mobile network operators a chance to step out of the geographical chains that have bound it and engage with the World as it has never been able to do in the past. The World is going social and with this the way we communicate is changing.
Morodo believe great value will be assigned to those who join the new ecosystem and participate in the new IP communication network. Morodo today stands ready!
Morodo’s other offering of building context awareness into their smartphone applications will assist with how the socially enabled handset learn of their environment and take advantage of location and other intelligence adding value to the social experience. With this and capabilities yet to be discovered social networks will seek out Morodo as the network enabler of choice and it would be nice to share the ride with a modern thinking MNO.
Posted: February 28th, 2011
In 2009, if you wanted to holiday in Cape Town, South Africa, there is a fair bet you would have opened your browser and browsed to Google and made a search of ‘Best Hotels in Cape Town’ or something similar. Your Google search would have returned some information to you based on a mix of natural search and paid search. You then made your selection and called or e-mailed the hotel of choice and you went on from there.
In 2011, if you want to holiday in Cape Town, South Africa you now jump online, log in to your social network, probably Facebook, and ask your social group, ‘ Hey guys – who has holidayed in South Africa? Can anyone recommend a great Hotel to stay? The way in which we search and get information today is different from yesterday. Who we depended on for our content yesterday is different from who we get our content form today. Value is being created and shifted away from traditional providers and towards those who can provide platform support for social networks around content (media) delivered to the social network and shared by its members.
What is the value of a Social Network today then and what about its future value? Does the defining lines of what a Social Network is, merge with the activities of a mobile network operator or behemoth like ‘Over the Top provider,’ Google?
In a recent report by Ovum’s Eden Zoller, he stated, ‘’Facebook is shaping up to be a strong competitor to mobile operators that are in danger of underestimating the threat it poses.’’ The report goes on to say Facebook is much more than a social network and is better viewed as an increasingly rich platform for communications and content. Facebook wants to integrate with everything and be the main way that people consume and share information, anywhere and on any device.”
The caution to Mobile Network Operators and others being spoken of here is the understanding that all this very valuable content needs to be transferred and shared within the social group and it is the ability to provide a network that can readily interface with IP networked groups like Facebook will be valuable going forward. So what of the MNO’s? They have networks that do not readily interface with what the social set are doing today and further content, once the domain of the MNO’s are now being created by all and shared within these groups for free.
Morodo collaboration with Ryerson University announced in November 2010 is all about offering a communication platform via open API to Member Communities / social network groups. These groups will be communities within themselves where content and contact information is provisioned moving and shaping new habits of communication. This report is not surprising to Morodo and only gives us reason to smile and press ahead with our plans.
Posted: February 24th, 2011
In our quest to raise funding, the management team of Morodo is often asked what differentiates Morodo from Skype? There are a number of things today and this post highlights some of these differences.
Recently at Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, Spain, Skype announced that they’ve made deals with mobile operators to get more users access to Skype VoIP services. The Mobile Partner Program aims to bring Skype to mobile users in markets with low 3G broadband penetrations. The new program uses a purpose built client/server solution for operators to enable Skype use on a broad range of handsets that is optimized for optimal bandwidth usage.
What does this mean? It means where there is available bandwidth Mobile Network Operators are happy that users, with a select number of smart phones & feature phones (100 in total) and a downloadable Skype application, to use the available bandwidth on the GSM network for Skype calling.
What does this mean for Morodo? We admire Skype for all the ‘trail blazing’ they are doing in promoting the alternative and cheaper calling model of VoIP. Morodo supports this technology across a much larger number of Smartphone platforms but also across all network operators. If it is valuable for Skype supporting one 3G bearer only how much value does it assign to Morodo who support all 3G networks with their 3G enable VoIP applications?
We are also happy with the Skype MNO relationship as the Mobile Network Operators are allowing behaviors to be learned by a new group of users to their customers to the benefits of VoIP calling. It also educates the user that voice & SMS are applications that other service providers can (and do) offer. The greater the exposure to and recognition of the value of an alternative network, the greater value assigned to Morodo. It is the ability to originate and terminate a voice call that remains the ‘cash cow’ for the telephony industry. MO-Call understands and does this better than anyone else. The MO-Call service is agnostic of transmission bear type therefore, if your MO-Call 3G VoIP call failed or was of poor quality you would simply choose another MO-Call calling mode to place your call.
Morodo’s motto is “any time, anywhere, on any handset (2,300 supported and growing), across any network (700 – 800 network across the globe) over any transmission bearer (voice & data), MO-Call will work to save you money”!
Posted: February 9th, 2011
Seven days ago Cellular News published an article which set out O2′s plan to deploy additional WiFi hotspots in the UK allowing free access from connected devices, to access (et al) Mobile VoIP services. On 8th February the same source confirms the claim that WiFi as an access technology is increasing in popularity.
802.11ac is a new Wi-Fi technology standard developed to provide Gigabit speeds. In-Stat, forecasts that the impact of this new standard will be equally as fast, as it will push shipments of 802.11ac-enabled devices from 0 in 2011 to nearly 1 billion by 2015.
According to Frank Dickson, Vice President of Research, “The goal of 802.11ac is to provide data speeds much faster than 802.11n, with speeds of around 1Gbps. The timing for 802.11ac approval is to have a draft standard created by 2011 and have the first 802.11ac products out by the end of 2012. The technology behind 802.11ac has not been finalized. However, it will likely involve bonding four or even eight channels together and some tweaks to the modulation scheme.”
The research also reveals some attractive findings:
* Mobile devices with Wi-Fi will still dominate shipments. In 2015, shipments of mobile phones with embedded Wi-Fi are projected to approach 800 million.
* By 2015, In-Stat projects that 100% of mobile hotspot shipments will be 802.11ac-enabled.
* E-readers Wi-Fi attach rates will increase from 3% in 2009 to 90% by 2015.
* In 2012, Wi-Fi automotive shipments will reach nearly 20 million.
At Morodo, we see that consumers are demanding faster WiFi access and this is great news for Mobile VoIP providers like Morodo. With bigger WiFi hotspots coverage and much faster data speeds VoIP users are able to enjoy more all new features that VoIP services are offering.
The growth in devices having access to WiFi hotspots is phenomenal. This is just another reason why Mobile VoIP is growth industry over the next decade and beyond.
Posted: February 7th, 2011
Recently published article in Cellular News released the fact that the next several years are expected to be transformational for mobile operators and other associated players. They have to find the best solution how to respond to a forecast of nearly 139 million mobile VoIP users by 2014.
“Mobile VoIP is gaining real market presence with usage rates climbing rapidly,” says Amy Cravens, Market Analyst. “As it becomes further incorporated into other mobile apps, specifically social networking apps, the realm of potential use is expected to broaden. This has created a great deal of jockeying among mobile VoIP players trying to develop market share and mobile operators trying to determine the best response to this potentially disruptive service offering.”
The article shows some interesting research details:
- Mobile operators will gradually remove barriers to mobile VoIP usage, however, will remain guarded in how these services are introduced.
- In-Stat’s consumer survey showed that T-Mobile subscribers had the greatest incidence of mobile VoIP usage; nearly twice that of total respondents.
- Total 2014 revenues will be split between the EMEA (39%), Asia/Pacific (32%), North America (21%), and the rest of the world (8%).
- Because mobile VoIP is portable, users can bring the benefits of VoIP with them when traveling abroad and avoid the expensive roaming fees that mobile operators charge.
Morodo has for some time recognised these trends. Mobile Network Operators have always behaved to maintain walled gardens over a service that is inherently social. As innovation moves to the software and social era, service providers like Morodo are competitively positioned to offer socially driven services that consumers want.
Morodo is in a growth industry and we are looking forward to the journey ahead!
Posted: February 6th, 2011
Some who know Morodo may suggest we are opinionated concerning what Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) need to do to amend their business models and practices to maximise stakeholder value in this dynamically changing environment. The article from Fierce wireless suggests those changes need to be made immediately and is corroborated by a recent study commissioned by Tellabs and produced by Analysys Mason. The study predicts North American mobile network operators (MNOs) will lose profitability from 2013 onwards. While the article is lite on advice on how to correct the decline past cost cutting and adding intelligence into their Networks, Morodo believes the following represents a good start.
1. Spend less on physical infrastructure. Group together to share infrastructure costs and push more to the application layer in Software.
2. Set an acceptable acquisition cost per customer and stick to it. Pursuing customer growth at any price will not work.
3. Be selective in the services you offer and offer a great service. Do not try to be “everything to everyone”.
4. Keep tariffs as simple as possible.
5. Know those customers who are your most profitable.
6. Leverage the benefits of the internet to reduce costs.
Morodo embraces all of these principals and did so since inception. We have no physical Telecoms hardware (other than for servers) in our network. Our telecoms switches are in Software. We own all parts of the business and have designed and developed all our key internal systems around the internet from our Customer Relationship Management system (CRM) to provisioning and internal reporting systems. Morodo is focused on Voice and SMS (as cash cows in the industry) and has only (1) rate sheet in the entire business (for simplicity). Our CRM system tells us our most profitable customers and they are our first focus. Our network is completely redundant, fully scalable and will increase in value as data demands increase.
The Morodo Team will ensure that smart network topology and leveraging what is around and free is why we will prosper in these times of technological change.
