Ran across this Macworld story, in which T-Mobile CEO Hamid Akhavan presents his “so-so, so what” thoughts about fixed-mobile VoIP. There are almost too many things wrong with this story to even count them. Here are a few of his quotes, with my commentary interspersed:
“There are all sorts of technical issues that make mobile VOIP services difficult to implement,” he said. Technical issues related to how networks pass on IP addresses of mobile users have not been completely resolved, he noted. “Take reachability, for example: How can the call come to me?”
What is this guy talking about? Seriously. SIP takes care of locating a mobile endpoint at layer 3 and above. The infrastructure can be plain-vanilla IP and wireless Ethernet. It’s not at all “difficult” to do roaming, which is what I believe he’s talking about. His comment is motivated by the underlying problem of passing calls between GSM and SIP, which is more of a political/revenue management problem than it is a technical one. The technologies exist today. What Hamid isn’t saying is that he can’t think of a reliable way not to bleed T-Mobile red in the process of implementing them. And not because they’re expensive, but because he can’t figure out how to charge for something that, in his mind, is supposed to be free. This is 1.0 thinking.
Akhavan also said emergency phone service and “always on” connectivity are also big issues, since staying online takes up bandwidth on pricey mobile networks.
Not in a bring-your-own bandwidth scenario. A WiFi-equipped T-Mobile phone wouldn’t have this problem as long as it was within range of radio ethernet. But again, with the T-Mobile Hot Spot idea failing to really gain traction, it’s clear that Akhavan has given up on the idea of a metropolitan, voice-grade WiFi build-out, as have a lot of people. As for the always-on comment, the cell network should be a backup plan, for when you take your phone on hunting trips and long drives through the middle of nowhere. Meshes and long-range WiFi (and even WiMax) radio systems can cover the urban areas, if only somebody has the balls to DO IT. Apparently, as if we didn’t realize it already, this would be an indication that T-Mobile doesn’t have those balls.
“When people talk about VOIP, they think free,” Akhavan said. “With any mobile service provided over the Internet, you’re going to need to buy a data package.”
Hamid just stated the solution and he didn’t even realize it: Stop charging stupidly extortionist fees for mobile data access, and more people will move to VoIP. More people would also subscribe to mobile data services, incidentally.
Mobile VoIP “will take a small share” of revenue generated by mobile voice services, he said.
Akhavan’s views on the technical and commercial hurdles are shared even by some of the key advocates of mobile VOIP, including Skype.
Translation: we spent billions on a network to compete against all the other dinosaur carriers because we didn’t have the foresight to recognize all the benefits of building our network using IP instead. The Skype comment almost seems like a way of trying to save face, as if somehow, if an all-IP player like Skype is frustrated with the state of things, the Hamid’s frustration will be validated. Truth is, Skype is frustrated that your network sucks, Mr. Akhavan. There’s not enough IP on your network (or any cell player’s network) to support applications that exist in the IP domain, like Skype. So when Niklas complains, he’s really complaining about YOU.
[...] Now then, remember last week when I wrote of T-Mobile CEO Hamid Akhavan: Truth is, Skype is frustrated that your network sucks, Mr. Akhavan. There’s not enough IP on your network (or any cell player’s network) to support applications that exist in the IP domain, like Skype. So when Niklas complains, he’s really complaining about YOU. [...]