Archive for Telecommunications

iPhone Scalping - What?

Posted in Telecommunications by jspirko on June 29th, 2007
jspirko

So while getting ready to leave my house this morning and having a cup of coffee I had the local Dallas Fox News broadcast on.  As you might imagine the new Apple iPhone was a huge topic of discussion.  As a local station the focus instead of the technology was the people (idiots in my opinion) who were camping out in the rain to wait in line and buy an iPhone.

Now this is where it got interesting, the reporter was on site at a store with about 100 odd folks in line waiting, so being a bit smarter then the average news drone he proceeded to start talking to people in line and did a quick poll of the entire group, as it turned out only 8 people were there to buy a phone for themselves.

The rest were "scalpers", now this is not like the typical ticket scalping these folks were hired guns most were paid on average 100 bucks by someone that wanted an iPhone but did not want to stand in line.  As it turns out it seems people that have the money to drop 6 bills to have one of the first iPhones also have lives and decided in mass to outsource the task.

Now as you might imagine I would never stand in a cold line to buy any gadget, see a movie, etc.  I like most people am sane and have a brain, I know that the price is going to fall and in just a few weeks you won't be able to walk across the street and not trip on an iPhone.  Star Wars Episode III was just as good when I saw it in its' second week as when the camp out morons saw it on the first day.  I have never understood the fanatical response that makes people stand in line for stuff like this.  A concert or event that can "sell out", again I won't do it but I do get it, I understand but to be the first to buy a commodity, well, not this cat.

Yet seeing this story made me thing back two decades to when I was a teen age kid with no money.  Would I have stood in the rain from for a day to buy an iPhone for a guy who paid me 100 bucks to do it?  You bet I would have, that would have been good money to stand around at a time when I was killing myself to make 5 bucks an hour (minimum wage was $3.15 back then).   In short if you stood in line to part with 600 dollars to be the first to have an iPhone I think you are a total DOLT!  However, if you are some young kid that suckered 100 plus dollars out of a dolt to lazy to stand in the line himself, I say good for you, keep it up and find as many dolts as you can before the opportunity ends.

One thing this made me wonder about though was how people would activate the iPhone, again Fox News has the answer.  Apparently you buy the phone, take it home and then you have to sign up for iTunes and active it online at a special web site with an AT&T wireless contract (minimum two years of course).  You can get the full details from the Fox Story Here.

So if you want to see a smart business people today look no further then you closest teenager, 100 bucks for a few hours in line to pay a premium for something that will drop in price and be available everywhere in just a few weeks.  It is stuff like this that really tells me the future of business is in good hands, great job kids, stick it to the man!

 

~  Jack

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Online Advertising vs Offline Advertising - Who Spends the Most?

Posted in Search Marketing, Telecommunications by jspirko on May 21st, 2007
jspirko

I was just reading the latest issue of OMMA Magazine and they have a list of the top 50 spending advertisers from 2006, there is nothing new here because ClickZ tends to publish this data every month.  Here is the March 2007 Report for example.  What I found interesting is that they broke out the top ten and showed what they spend in off line advertising.  

Now OMMA did not break it down as to what precentage of spend these advertisers spent online vs off line nor did they even directly compare the two pieces of data.  I have always wanted to really look at this aspect of budget from the largest spenders but never took the time to gather all the data.  Well with it all right there I decided to create a simple table to look at this, below are the results which may raise an eyebrow or two. 

 

Advertiser Offline Spend Online Spend % of Total Budget

Vonage $279 $185.7 39.96%
AT&T $2,038 $166.4 7.55%
Dell $591 $136.9 18.81%
Walt Disney Co $1,302 $132.7 9.25%
General Motors $2,169 $129.5 5.63%
Experian Group $54 $128.0 70.33%
Verizon Comm. $1,822 $123.4 6.34%
Apollo Group $2 $123.1 98.4%
IAC/Interactive Corp $183 $123.0 40.20%
TD Ameritrade $75 $119.8 61.50%

The above figures represent total dollars in millions
for   1-01-2006  -  12-31-2006

 

As you can see there is one big thing that stands out!  The precentage of total spend made up by online advertising has a huge variance in it.  However this is due to the total spend, not the total online spend.  Some players like AT&T spend enough to be #2 online over all but that only makes up about 7.5% of their total ad spend per year. 

Now look at Dell, their online spend is about 30 million dollars less then AT&T yet it makes up a healthy 18.8% of their total spend.  

As you move down from Dell realize that less then 20 million dollars seperate the #3 from the #10 position with many spots only differing by a few hundred thousand dollars while the off line spend bounces like mid east oil chart.

Finally note that the lowest percentage of online spending is by General Motors (5.63%) while the highest spend if from Apollo Group (98.4%).

Now the reality is a lot could be read into these numbers and doing so would be a mistake.  Of course the online spend is close company to company because that is how they were ranked yet taking a look at how the biggest players are spending their total ad budgets is interesting and enlightening. 

So let's take a look just for fun at the top ten online advertisers in total spending ranked by percentage of total spend…

  1. Apollo Group
  2. Experian
  3. TD Ameritrade
  4. IAC/Interactive Corp
  5. Vonage
  6. Dell
  7. Walt Disney
  8. AT&T
  9. Verizon
  10. General Motors

 So what do these numbers mean to you?  What precentage of spend do your company or typical client allocated to online vs. off line sales?  More interesting, find the company with the closest percentage to your own and compare their business model, target demographic and niche to yours.

~ Jack Spirko

 

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Why Donald Trump Has a Great Blog that is Getting Even Better

Posted in Telecommunications by jspirko on May 21st, 2007
jspirko

Ok this may seem a bit odd given I just said Donald Trump's Blog sucked a few days ago.  The reality though was my post was never a slam on Trump or even his blog.  It was simply to help my readers understand what is an emerging trend in blogging - large companies jumping into blogging and then trying to blog in the same manner that they write content for traditional marketing.

Sure Trump's Blog does this but that was not the real point, the point was so do most larger companies when they start a blog.  In fact Trump's group has made some real headway on correcting this issue and I can also state that after talking to Josef Katz on Friday afternoon that more changes are on the way.  Joseph is a very smart marketer and we had a great chat about online marketing, the direction of the Trump blog and some typical marketing stuff like statistics and sales techniques.  

After chatting with Josef I decided to look anew at the Trump Blog, specificly for some of the changes I had missed recently when I stopped reading it.  Here is what I found.

1.  The articles on real estate are very good.  This may be something I have over looked because I don't really get into real estate very much.  There is a great deal of insight available some of the best is in fact from Barry Lenson who I debated with quite heavily in the comments to my orginal post.

2.  Trump does not hose over his commenter's with "nofollow links" in his comments section.  Just like our blog here you get credit for your links in your comments on the Trump Blog.  Good to know, now be responsible with this and only post legit comments but enjoy the links you get in return for them.

3.  The Trump team not only allows comments they allow some pretty negative ones and answer them with respect and fact.  That is important, if you can't allow your readers to criticize you, then your blog is a sham.   

4.  Trump is posting a LOT MORE now.  People visit the Trump Blog to hear his voice and views, he is now posting about twice a week, this alone has the blog feed back in my RSS reader.

Anyone that read my negative post about the Trump blog with out reading my blog often or from outside the world of search engine and internet marketing may have come to the conclusion that I have it in for "The Donald".  Nothing could be further from the truth, in fact I have cited the Trump blog twice in previous posts in quite a positive tone.  Those two articles were,

Donald Trump knows Web 2.0?

and

Putting Together an eLearning Program

Also when Mark Cuban called Trump a "chump" and bashed his blog and sided with Rosie O'Donnell (who nauseates me!) I defended the Trump Blog on Cubans blog, have a look at comment #108.  

In short I hope my readers can see my negative criticism on the Trump Blog for what it really was.  A lesson in blogging for corporate level executives and companies trying to make a blog as "slick" as typical marketing. 

As for the Trump team after getting a bit of information on what is coming (which I won't do Mr. Katz the disservice of leaking), I can tell you that Trump's team is on the right track.  Look for the Trump Blog to get better and better.  Mr. Katz may also be a guest on an upcoming Podcast that will soon be launched by Franklin Spirko Media, as soon as our site redesign is completed.

Remember it is easy to slam just about anyone's online efforts because there is so much to keep up with just about anyone has a hole or three you can poke at.  So try to always analyze web sites and web efforts from both view points, sure you need to spot the mistakes but look closely at the effective things as well, quite often they teach you far more. 

~ Jack Spirko

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Blow Back from my Post About the Trump Blog

Posted in Telecommunications by jspirko on May 15th, 2007
jspirko

Recently I posted about Donald Trump's Blog.  In short I said it sucks, why, read my article for the whole story but honestly I said it sucked because Trump does not post often enough and his staff does not know how to Blog.  I had two goals with this post.

Goal One - I used the most successful person I knew that had a blog with real problems.  A blog devoid of emotion and to "salesy" if I may be permitted to create a fake word.  This was to help others who make the same mistakes.  I consult with CEOs, Presidents, etc on blogging and most make these same mistakes.  I wanted to point out these mistakes and show that even a world class billionaire was not immune to them.  The goal, make people look harder at their own blogs and be willing to see their mistakes because if someone as big as Trump made them, of course they could be doing the same thing.  

Goal Two - I was hoping that someone from Trump University would respond. Getting someone from a group like that to comment is a big success on any blog.  The results were great two staffers from Trump University responded.

One by the name of Josef Katz took my criticism in stride.  He said he had brought up some of my same concerns and was trying to effect some change and invited me to discuss this off line with him.  I have informed Mr. Katz that I am more then willing to do so if he will just tell me how to get in touch with him.  Mr. Katz is the Senior Director of Marketing at Trump University. 

The second by the name of  Barry Lenson who is an Executive Editor at Trump U.  He was less kind in his response.  He called me delusional!  I don't blame him, criticism is tough to take especially from a relatively unknown person such as myself when you are part of something with the Trump name on it.

Anyway I took both comments as a true honor to receive and wrote a very in depth response to both Mr. Katz and Mr. Lenson.  Check out the orginal post to see their comments and my response.

 

~ Jack Spirko

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P.S. - I actually think Donald Trump has a pretty good blog, despite the issues pointed out in this article.  To be fair I have since posted an article about the positives and the improvements at the Trump Blog.  That post is called,  -  Why Donald Trump Has a Great Blog that is Getting Even Better

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Using YouTube in a Product Prelaunch

Posted in Telecommunications by jspirko on April 5th, 2007
jspirko

I am currently involved in a project with Russian Martial Arts Master Val Riazanov.  Val is to say the least an interesting guy, he grew up in the Soviet Union during the height of the cold war.  He was a member of the Russian Olympic team on their Judo Squad and then spent some time in the KGB.

We are currently working on a new DVD and eBook Series called Ballistic Striking.  The series teaches you how to, you guessed it, deliver ballistic strikes.  The technique is amazing and easy to learn.  I actually let Val hit me a few times (light shots he assured me) and the effect is hard to describe.  It feels like well, getting shot, hence the name.  The pain is felt inside you and radiates from with in, it is honestly incapacitating.  It also looks like he is barely striking with any effort.

And that is our challenge.  I now have a product that I know many people would buy if they understood the massive power and the ease in learning it.   Yet we need to show potential customers the power on screen, they can't feel a shot to the stomach through their monitors. 

In other words how to we transfer the belief to the potential customer across the internet?

The solution, take my boss a brilliant British Entrepreneur (Neil Franklin), put him in body armor and film some action shots and upload them to YouTube (note: Neil is highly trained in how to take shots like this).  What you are about to see is all raw, all true with no acting and no enhancements.  Have a look then read on to learn how we are using it as a prelaunch tool.

 

Notice while basic there is a formula to the video.  It starts out with action and a guy getting hit really hard, we then show case Val's ability with the hand pad strikes.  Following that we show a piece of a monolog by Val.   This was to show the genuine and honest guy that really wants to help people.  Following that we used a scenario that showed how you can be strong and well trained and still end up against a really strong opponent that you can't harm and how ballistic striking is the solution.  Then a little trick I will share with you!  We made the final slide that shows the web address REALLY long because YouTube always goes to a generic screen at the end of the clips.

There is a ton of work to do, the site won't even really be finished until tomorrow or Saturday but I wanted to give our readers kind of an inside look at this process before everything was polished.  If you find out about updates and follow this project visit Val's Site and opt in to his email list and we will update you as new videos come out and the process evolves.  Oh and if you would be so kind as to rate the video on YouTube for us as well we would really appreciate it.  

~ Jack Spirko

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You’re Loosing Billions - Can You Hear me Now?

Posted in Business Management, Telecommunications by jspirko on March 29th, 2007
jspirko

celldudejpg.JPGMy company Cerion Optimization Services just issued press release on the impact of under optimized wireless networks to carriers, customers and investors that states that wireless network optimization could increase revenue for carriers like Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, Alltel, etc. by over 3 Billion Dollars annually.  

The release mentions a downloadable report on Wireless Network Optimization on the Cerion Website.  I read the report and found it to be a mix of high level engineering concepts along with enough information for investors that would like to better understand the impact of this issue financially.

And if 3 Billion sounds like a huge chunk of change to be loosing, according to the report Globally the loss is about 36 Billion.  I would this is enough money to even make people like Bill Gates and Michael Dell squirm.  The soulution is to optimize the networks at the core and we have been quite successful in revovering lost revenue in fact on the "About Us" page of our website we state that, "our business model has been so successful that we guarantee our initial service offering, or we refund the fee".

If you want to know more about wireless network optimization  and request a copy of the report,

~ Jack Spirko

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The Imporatance of Lead Capture

Posted in Telecommunications by jspirko on March 27th, 2007
jspirko

List building is always stated to be one of if not the most important facets of online marketing.  With out list building and lead capture for all intents more web based businesses fail to build the most important thing any business can ever build.  That is of course a customer base!

Think about it specifically if you sell information products, make most of your revenue with contextual ads or sell affiliate products you really don't have a true customer base.  Some one else is paying you to build their base for them.

Why?  Many times because they don't know how to do it themselves but mostly because they are smart and know they are building a long term asset with your efforts.  Nothing wrong with that and there is a lot of money to be made doing this.  However, if you also build a list at the same time you will find that you get to build your own base at the same time.

Take my site about Chris Daughtry for example.  The site is low tech, no fancy graphics but it ranks well in google and people love the personal voice I put into it.  Yet if I lost my ranks on the site tomorrow I still have my "base" which are 25,000 plus "members" of the site on my email list.  If I want traffic to the site, one email gets thousands of visits over several days.

You simply must build a list, do anything and everything to get real valid contact info.  Give a free report, a free product, promote the convienience, what ever it takes.  Build your base and control your destiny.  

Use automtion too!  Take a look at the upper right corner of this blog.  See the opt in form, if you join our list on this blog every time I post you get an email, just a simple notification to tell you I made a new post.  Now I don't do anthing other then post!  The blogs feed sends a ping to Aweber which I use for my list building and he system send the email for me.  

As simple and affordable as this is to do it is the number one thing I see major corporate clients not doing.  I watch them spend 20-60K on design work, thousands on advertising and then not add lead capture and incentives to visitors to opt in.  It makes no sense and can cost millions of dollars in lost revenue over time.  If you only do one thing right online, make it list building it is that important.  I would go this far, if you site/sites are not capturing leands right now, STOP do nothing more at all until you fix that,

~ Jack Spirko

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Awesome Free Conference Call Service

Posted in Telecommunications by jspirko on March 15th, 2007
jspirko

free-conferencing-logo.gifI just found what I feel is the best free conference call service on the market today.  The service is called FreeConferencing Powered by Live Office.  The service provides on demand calls for up to 250 participants.

The way the service works is simple…

  • You just sign up and are assigned a bridge number and a pin
  • You log in and get your participant pin
  • Provide the participant pin and bridge to your group
  • Tell them what time the call will begin and that’s it

You can also provide a pin for guest speakers that will let them speak when you have others muted.  There is a simple click to change button that will generate a new participant pin and guest pin anytime you want. 

There is no real downside other then your callers have to call what will be a long distance number for most callers.  There are premium upgrades available if you want to provide a toll free call.

Now if all of this was not enough there is even more, in fact more that is free.  You also get an online call manager where you can take questions from callers or block, mute or expel individual callers.  You can see how many callers you have and where they have called in from.

Cool huh?  Well I am not done it gets even better!  All you calls are also recorded free of charge and you can download them in MP3 format.  That will let you use calls for podcasting or streaming from a website or many other uses.

Until I found this service I was using FreeConference.com and it is a great service, however FreeConferencing by Live Office is a lot more powerful and flexible.  So I have a new conferencing service, if you have any need for conference calls you should check them out right away,

 ~ Jack Spirko

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Are you getting HDTV quality picture? Or are you getting ripped off?

Posted in Home Theater, Telecommunications by Ben on February 16th, 2007
Ben

Are you getting HDTV quality picture?

One of the most common mistakes (heck I made it at first too!) when buying an HDTV is not getting HDTV content.

Just because CBS shows CSI in HD doesn't mean you are getting High Definition.

It may look good on your TV because the quality is so much better than your old junky tv.  The picture is "upconverted" to look better than the old standard definition 480i picture. 

In order to see real HDTV you've got to have HDTV content.  From your cable company this means you have to get the HD version of CBS and tune into that channel to watch the show.  You'll notice a clearer picture and you'll also notice you can see a wider picture than you saw before. You may also notice that when commercials come on the black bars appear on the sides of your screen.  This is because most of the commercials are in regular standard definition format not HD.

Another tell-tale sign of having your tv upconverting is that suddenly everything looks a little wider than it did before.  That's because your tv is zooming in to fit everything to the wide screen.  Sometimes people prefer to watch standard tv in this format because they don't like the black bars on the side.  I don't mind them because I'm focused on the picture, not the black bars.

Do you have the black bars?

Are you watching True HD yet?

- Ben Fitts 

This is to let Technorati know I'm an author here: My Technorati Profile

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Protect your IPod from Scratches with the Invisible Shield

Posted in iPod - MP3, Telecommunications by Ben on January 22nd, 2007
Ben

I recently bought an IPod and a new Samsung Blackjack cell phone. Both these pieces of technology cost me a few hundred bucks (each) so I wanted to protect them. I don't want them getting scratched up and beaten up. A friend recommended this product to me called ShieldZone.

These guys invented this thin material to protect helicopter blades. They call it the invisible shield. Then one day they got the idea to apply it to a ipod. It's see-through, in fact it even makes the ipod "shiny". Yet it is super strong. You can't tear it, you pretty much have to cut it. When it's on your ipod you can beat your ipod up with your car keys and yet it won't bear a scratch mark. It is really amazing stuff. Don't believe me? Watch the videos of demonstrations they've done. They take two ipods and put them in a paper bag along with some car keys. One of the ipods is protected, the other isn't. Then they shake the bag vigorously. Needless to say when they come out the one ipod is covered with scratches. The protected one looks brand new.

The only bad thing about the shield is that they are die cut with a laser to fit your equipment. So they have little holes where buttons go, where the headphone jack is, etc. You have to apply the shield yourself so it can take a couple of tries to get it to align right. In fact i might even suggest buying 2 so you can feel free to remove it and try it again.

ShieldZone also makes invisible shields for cell phones, that cover the cell phone screen and unprotected areas of the phone. They even had one for my Blackjack (which was difficult to apply, the ipod one was much easier to apply.)

I highly recommend these guys.

These are not affiliate links, just a product I think is awesome and you guys should check out.

- Ben Fitts
Custom Card Guy

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UK Residents get big broadband, cheap

Posted in Internet Access, Telecommunications by jspirko on January 19th, 2007
jspirko

OK so while I am sitting here like a sucker in the US paying about 24 bucks a month to get a true 1.5 MB connection on my DSL those of you in the UK have the ability to get a much bigger connection for a lot less money.

I just ran across this cheap broadband deal that unfortunately I can't get here in the States.  Here is what you get,

- First Month Free
- Free Wireless Router
- Free Set Up and Hardware
- Unlimited Downloads

All for about £14.95 a month!  Now before my fellow US Residents start saying that sounds a lot like AT&T or Verizon, etc.  get this your connection speed with that plan is 8MB! We here in the states have to shell out quite a bit for an 8MB connection.

They offer a variety of plans for light to heavy users but if you don't mind me saying they all beat anything I can get here in Texas.  Hopefully one day we will catch up with the rest of the world in the realm of residential broadband but until then for those of you in the UK I recommend you take a look at Home Broadband from Eclipse.

 

 ~  Jack Spirko

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Wirefly Announces the Ten Most Popular Cell Phones of 2006

Posted in Telecommunications by jspirko on January 16th, 2007
jspirko

Wirefly which is one of the largest retailers of cellular phones and service in the United States just announced the top 10 cell phones of 2006.  The top 10 in order were,

1. Cingular Wireless RAZR by Motorola (in various colors)
2. T-Mobile RAZR (in various colors)
3. Verizon Wireless RAZR (in various colors)
4. Cingular Sony Ericsson z520a/z525a video phones
5. T-Mobile Motorola v360
6. Verizon Wireless Motorola v276
7. Sprint Nextel Motorola i850
8. Sprint Nextel Motorola i710
9. Cingular Motorola v220
10. T-Mobile Samsung T309 

Wirefly's President Brian Westrick stated in the Press Release, "Given the continuing popularity of that iconic, slim Motorola phone month after month, it should come as no surprise that the top selling cell phone in 2006 was once again the Motorola RAZR,"

I would have to agree and in fact while this is a sponsored post I will tell you that I personaly carry a Motorola Black Razr with Cingular Service and my wife has a Pink Razr and my son carries a Blue Razr, all with Cingular Wireless service.  I have to also mention that I have been happier with my Razr then any of my previous phones.  

If you like to follow trends in the cellular market I do recommend you take a moment to read the full press release, which also provides 4 predictions made by Wirefly for trends in the cellular market, 

~ Jack Spirko

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Why does anyone pay for a conference call?

Posted in Business Management, Telecommunications by jspirko on January 15th, 2007
jspirko

Like most marketers/entrepreneurs I am a pretty busy guy.  I work a job, I am an owner of one company and a partner/owner in another one.  With this type of life, you often find yourself needing to collaborate and meet with partners, clients and coworkers.  Like most people in this world I rely on technology to stay in touch and get more done.

Recently I blogged about Google Documents and how it was helping my partners and I go though the tedious process of launching a new company.  Today I want to tell you about another free service I have been using for a very long time. (about 3 years)

The service is called Free Conference and let me just say it rocks.  The first question I get when I recommend it is always, "is it really free?".  The answer is yes, you can set up calls, schedule them and invite members all for free.  You can also set up groups that you commonly have calls with and invite groups vs. individuals to save time.  Should you make a time change to your call the system automaticly notifies all your members also, for free.

So is there any catch?  No not really, of course there are ways they make money.  First the free calls require dialing a long distance number for each caller.  They only pay their standard long distance rate so this is not some back door charge or anything.  As we all use unlimited service or broadband phone this is really no issue for our team.  But if you want an 800 toll free line that is available for a small fee per line.

The other way they make money is by selling recordings of your call in MP3 for 10 dollars a call or you can get a transcript of the call for another fee.  I can't really comment on the paid options as I have never needed to use them.  Yet for just making a call with 4-40 people I can not recommend them highly enough.

It is really amazing the amount of leverage available to small companies, I mean with Google Documents, Google Analytics and Free Conference any small company has access to free technology that many companies are paying really big bucks for. 

What other technology services that are free can you recommend for small or even large companies to leverage their efforts.

 

~ Jack Spirko

 

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Podcast On Network Neutrality

Posted in Search Marketing, Telecommunications by jspirko on January 11th, 2007
jspirko

I have written a lot about Network Neutrality here in the past, several very long articles in fact attempting to make a case for it and even taking a step back and taking an honest look at both sides of the debate.   If you would like to look at those older articles they are

If you are concernened about this issue you may wwant to listen to Web 2.0 Summit program chair John Battelle moderate a debate on net neutrality between Google VP and chief internet evangelist Vinton Cerf and Robert Pepper, who leads a team driving Cisco's global agenda for advanced technology policy. 

This debate is excellent and clearly between two individuals that really understand the issue.  The podcast is called Web 2.0 Podcast: A Debate on Net Neutrality I feel that Vinton Cerf of Google clearly won the debate but of course I must admit my bias for his side of the issue.

~ Jack Spirko

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Cell Phone Deals in the United Kingdom

Posted in Telecommunications by jspirko on January 9th, 2007
jspirko

Here at Comtech News we focus mostly on the US market but as I was digging around looking for something to post in our telecommunications news section, I ran across the opportunity to blog about Mobile360 which seems to be the United Kingdom's answer to Inphonic here in The United States.  In fact I would say those of you in The UK are privy to incentives and deals that we never see in the US.

What do I mean by that?  How about this, right now there are deals for new service that offer you one of the following choices

1.  12 Months of Free Line Rental
2.  A Free Nintendo Wii
3.  A Free Sony PSP
4.  A Free Video iPod (not some cheap little nano)
5.  A Free Xbox 360

I have never seen anyone in the US offering a free Xbox or iPod as a new buyers incentive for a cell phone!  On top of this while one year contracts are becoming very hard to find in the US most of the contracts with the above mentioned incentives were only 12 months with just a few at 18 months.

I even noticed that Mobile360 has an affiliates program and with incentives like this I may have to join and add it to some of my telecommunications websites.  They also have an amazing assortment of high tech phones, many of which we can't get at any price in the US at present time.   

All in all if you are looking for a cell phone in the United Kingdom I deffinitely recommend you check out Mobile360.

~ Jack Spirko

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