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WSJ Article on Price of International Calls

WSJ has an article on ways to bypass high prices for international calls from mobiles. One of the players mentioned is AwakeTel.  Not mentioned but similar is Baratomobile.  The calls to fixed lines using these services are generally well priced for the convenience of calling from a mobile phone. But some of the charges to mobiles vary wildly.  Awaketel charges US$0.27 per minute to call a German mobile number from the United States. Baratomobile charges US$0.62 for the same call.  That is probably still cheaper than a US mobile carriers standard rates but a trap for the unwary.

Hampsters to Charge Digital Economy

The title of this post makes a big claim. Can it be backed up. Take a look here and see the world's first Hamster phone charger. Very funny!

BBC Online Television

The BBC is still mooting the idea of putting its television content online as reported here and on many other sites.  Some might suggest it has been a long time coming but such a service would be very welcome if they sell it outside the UK where they have a huge potential market with ex-pats and non Brits who value their self made programming. BBC Prime just doesn't cut it and BBC World can be had free on the Net.

Legal file sharing with Play Louder

Legal file sharing with PlayLouder.  An interesting business model whereby user buy a broadband connection and legal file sharing with other on-net users is included.

Broadband - Vision Thing

According to the Nortel CEO, the USA needs the "vision thing" when it comes to broadband.

More Skype Stats

Reuters has extracted a few more stats from Skype during an interview with the co-founder. According to Janus Friis, Skype's users are  "...44 percent in Europe, 29 percent in Asia, 13 percent in North America and 10 percent in South America."  Skype users by country are here.

Friis also said "We're investing heavily in our infrastructure", which is a bit contrary to the line they have run in the past about very low costs. We know Google is investing in infrastructure, such as dark fibre, but Skype "investing heavily" in infrastructure would be a new turn.

Loose Google Talk

The LA Times has reported Google plans to launch an IM service, with voice capabilities, tomorrow. What would be interesting is the first of the IM crowd to actually match Skype and switch minutes back into the PSTN.  Yahoo's new service didn't offer anything new and no compelling reason to switch. Will Google's service add something new or do something better in their inimitable way?

If you can't wait until the launch try here to connect.

France Telecom

ZDNET's  French site is reporting that France Telecom plans to extend its range of fixed network unmetered telephony options to compete with VoIP offers. This is a company which only several years ago fiercely resisted offering unmetered dial-up.  To be fair top management has changed significantly since then and FT now makes money instead of ploughing billions into loss making foreign investments and 3G licences.

Wifi Radio (Acoustic Enery)

Acoustic Engery has released a Wifi radio. No need to have the computer switched on to listen to webcasts.  It links into the net via your home wifi network.  There is a write up here.

A little expensive at nearly £200 but I would be very handy device.

Google and PI

Google is cryptically raising cash. The Search Engine Company is issuing an additional 14,159,265 shares. Add a leading 3 and the numbers are 3.14159265, or Pi - the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle. Or the most direct route to buying Skype or, more likely, setting up their own backbone network. Google exchanges traffic directly with over 30 telco networks. Their service is so compelling the carriers line up to peer but they are probably paying transit to at least a couple of carriers.  Control of their own network would reduce these charges and enable Google to move into more bandwidth hungry services using video and so forth.