 iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO | Up and coming prepaid operators Prepaid operators don't use their own network. So they'd have to use either AT&T or T-Mobile outside of the FemtoJack's range. Which means this one's gonna be T-Mobile. | |
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Karl Bode
News Guy
join:2000-03-02 | Re: Up and coming prepaid operators good call. | |
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DaveDude
No Fear
join:1999-09-01
New Jersey | Re: Up and coming prepaid operators i think its tmobile to, with ATT pushing there own femtocells, i think its going to tmobile. | |
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RockyBB
Premium
join:2005-01-31
Steamboat Springs, CO
| said by Karl Bode  :good call. there are plenty of past events that would question your knee jerk "good call." Remember that Dan Borislow's big time long distance reseller in the 1980s and early 1990s was an AT&T reseller. Also, when MJ first introduced international calling capability, he splashed the AT&T name all over his websites. Dan is a very proud guy, and having that link to AT&T would increase the credibility of his offer as well as make it available to more subscribers. It might ultimately be T-Mobile, but AFAIC it's not so obvious. | |
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Noah Vail
Son made My Avatar
Premium
join:2004-12-10
Lorton, VA
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| Re: Up and coming prepaid operators said by iansltx :MJ isn't going to partner with a regional operator on this one. That would lead to more confusion than it's worth. T-Mobile seems a sure bet to me. My post was a light attempt at humor. I was assuming that everyone would assume the obvious. Obviously, I shouldn't assume.
said by iansltx :FWIW I know there are other GSM carriers than AT&T and T-Mobile.Example: » www.westcentral.com. I was going along with the crowd in believing that none of the minor GSM operators owned their own towers. This List kind of confirmed that and revealed CinBellWireless to be the exception. After reading your post, I'm not so sure, anymore.
This Other List shows a number of GSM carriers, but it doesn't indicate who owns what. This Even More Comprehensive List, is even less help.
Looks like WCW came online in 2004. Do you know if they put up their own towers, bought someone else's or are renting the transmitter?
NV
--
In my perfect religion, a giant hole appears and sucks up all the lousy people.
I call it the Crapture. | |
| | | | | iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
·Comcast
 ·Verizon Online DSL
·AT&T Wireless Broa..
·Cricket Broadband
·Qwest.net
 ·magicjack.com
·BeeCreek Communica..
| Re: Up and coming prepaid operators Sorry, I don't get subtle humor this early in the morning 
There are plenty of GSM operators who own their own networks in the US...their own towers, transmitters, all that. Heck, Sprint doesn't own any of their towers anymore, but companies like CinBell do.
CinBell does indeed run their own network, hence the regional reach. They roam on T-Mobile outside of their home coverage area if I remember correctly.
WCW also runs their own network. They own some of their own towers, rent space off of others, and use a lot of microwave backhauls to get (a small amount of) bandwidth to more remote towers. They use Nortel equipment for most of their network, and are GSM/EDGE only at this point.
I'm pretty sure WCW has been around since before 2004, though at that point their network was TDMA or analog rather than GSM. I know the component that's where I live (former Five Star Wireless) has been around for 15+ years; the company moved from analog to TDMA, then to CDMA, then to GSM as their primary technology, though they're keeping their CDMA towers online until roaming revenue runs low.
What's interesting is that WCW owns the 850MHz band in all the markets they serve (the B side license, to be exact). AT&T owns the A side, thanks to their purchase of CellularOne-Dobson, which had purchased CellularOne-Concho earlier. So in central TX there's no EvDO on 850MHz...Verizon is at 1900 just like Sprint.
WCW is actually owned by Central Texas Telephone Cooperative, and Five Star Wireless (which served fur counties until they were merged into WCW) was a cooperative effort between three or four telephone companies, a few of them cooperatives. | |
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MIllIlITER
Premium
join:2002-03-03
1 edit |  I'd bet Sprint is carrier partner
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| | iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO | Re: I'd bet Sprint is carrier partner Definitely a GSM service. | |
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Gbcue
E.I.T.
Premium
join:2001-09-30
Santa Rosa, CA
clubs:  | Verizon LTE It could also be Verizon LTE. | |
| drkaps
join:2008-09-19
Burlingame, CA
| More MagicJack femto details There are more "details," if you can accurately call them that, in the SEC documents released by MagicJack in regards to its recent "merger" of sorts. MagicJack fans should dig through the SEC filings if they really think this company is above-board... more red flags than I've ever seen before. | |
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tshirt
Premium,MVM
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA | Re: More MagicJack femto details I wouldn't invest in them, but if the device works as proposed, in the $20-40 price range, then I might buy one.
breckeven is only a few months at that price, even from home, and dirt cheap if you make "free" calls while traveling. | |
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cghh
join:2001-01-15
Milpitas, CA | Back when it was first announced... I guess they have now decided that there indeed are some legal issues with selling an unlicensed cellular transmitter, and are resolving the issue by affiliating with a licensed provider. | |
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vpoko
Premium
join:2003-07-03
Boston, MA
| Re: Back when it was first announced... said by cghh :I guess they have now decided that there indeed are some legal issues with selling an unlicensed cellular transmitter, and are resolving the issue by affiliating with a licensed provider. If the device is low-power enough not to cause interference with licensed users, why couldn't it operate under part 15? I'm not challenging what you said, I'm genuinely curious. | |
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amigo_boy
join:2005-07-22
Tempe, AZ
·Cox HSI
| Re: Back when it was first announced... said by vpoko :said by cghh :I guess they have now decided that there indeed are some legal issues with selling an unlicensed cellular transmitter, and are resolving the issue by affiliating with a licensed provider. If the device is low-power enough not to cause interference with licensed users, why couldn't it operate under part 15? I'm not challenging what you said, I'm genuinely curious. If it used that little power it would be like a 10' Bluetooth range. Some MJ users who travel a lot might like that, so they don't have to carry a headset.
MJ indicated it would be a whole-house femtocell. In that case, I think it's unavoidable that it would interfere, such as neighbors of an apartment-dwelling user. Or, the person who takes it to a public place like Starbucks or an airport?
Personally, I think everyone's wrong assuming it's a legitimate, imminent product. I don't think we'll ever see it. Dan has a history of talking about products that never appear.
I even question why a major wireless carrier would affiliate themselves with MJ. What would be the upside for the carrier? Introducing their customers to, and legitimizing MJ? Stigmatizing themselves by associating with a company that has developed a bad reputation with questionable business practices?
Something about that doesn't add up for me. It sounded somewhat realistic that MJ would release a femtocell for its infomercial "wow" factor (the clips showing average people using their cell phones to "jam it to" cellular companies). I think his idea was shot down due to threat of FCC enforcement to protect licensed spectrum. Now he's just trying to talk around it by saying it's still in the works. | |
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FemGuy
@comcast.net
| What RED FLAGS? Dr. Kaps....there were no red flags. Borislow is the most intelligent and aggressive no-nonsense CEO in telecom today. AT&T is fearful of what his company brings to the table. Rest assured, this $150 million company will be $1Billion value or buy-out within 12 months. | |
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vpoko
Premium
join:2003-07-03
Boston, MA | Re: What RED FLAGS? Off the top of my head, an anonymous poster randomly showing up to boast about a company's future stock value is a big red flag. | |
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amigo_boy
join:2005-07-22
Tempe, AZ
·Cox HSI
| said by FemGuy :
Borislow is the most intelligent and aggressive no-nonsense CEO in telecom today. I don't know what to make of him. He hasn't added any new features to MJ since its release 2-3 years. (Removed "do not disturb." And, added a 3G choice to the softphone -- on the title bar where it is easy to mistakenly choose, leading to the advertisement window being used as a tool-tip to warn users not to use that feature.).
Customers have been asking for an always-on ATA service from the beginning. Virtually nobody was asking for a femtocell. Yet, we get a vaporware femtocell.
That doesn't look very aggressive to me.
Meanwhile, competitors have begun to eat into MJ's market with serious products. Like NetTalk's combo USB/ATA device. When asked about NetTalk, Dan had an unprofessional meltdown a few months ago.
From my perspective, both MJ and VOCL were innovative leaders who established a beachead, and could have been a game-changer. But, neither could take it further. VOCL ended up being a bystander. MJ appeared to be headed toward the same fate.
I believe they joined forces to litigate a leadership position (using combined patents) they couldn't earn through actual offerings.
To me, it's hard to fathom why Dan would buy another company (which was stuck in a rut) when it seemed like his own company had fallen into a rut. It's going to be interesting to see if he exhibits more leadership than he has the past 3 years.
said by FemGuy :
AT&T is fearful of what his company brings to the table. Rest assured, this $150 million company will be $1Billion value or buy-out within 12 months.
I guess this will be the largest fallout of MJ becoming a publicly-traded corporation: stock pumping. | |
| | drkaps
join:2008-09-19
Burlingame, CA
| femguy, let's see... paying yourself $1.1 million for "good stock advice" when you are the CEO of same company... giving yourself an $8 million bonus for a year of losing $22 million on just $117 m in revenues... there's two red flags to start.
Then there's a whole bunch of "we may get sued for patent infringement" stuff in between the lines. Oh and since it's an Israel-based entity, well they just may not report all the things that a regular NASDAQ entity would report. If these things don't bother you, well go ahead and invest.
I've met Borislow personally and have interviewed him over the phone several times, and find him to be extremely knowledgeable about all things telecom. And the MagicJack equipment and network seem to work. But even simple conversations with him spend a lot of time in the grey areas of reality; and the weirdness of this whole transaction is just smells bad.
Good luck with your billion-dollar bet if that is what you believe; from here it looks like Borislow is robbing the piggy bank right now to get what he can before reality sinks in. There are reasons why companies choose to "go public" in such a fashion, and it's rarely because anyone sees a $1B payoff in the near future. | |
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commonsense
| So, why no router like Vonge? MJ price sounds good, but needing a computer to plug it into & leave on isn't my thing. Plus, I have heard complaints about the call quality. | |
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Magic Jack Partnering With Mystery Carrier For FemtoJack