Category: Mobile Life

In his book "Mobile as the 7th of the Mass Media" Tomi Ahonen has an interesting description of how the cellphone (I would call it 'the mobile device') changes the way people use the Internet: It moves the experience from 'being networked' to 'being connected'. It totally applies to me.

When I think back to the early days of the Internet, I was indeed networked: I specifically sat down in front of a computer to access the Internet, i.e. to get to my e-mails and to search for information. Once I got up and left the place, I was disconnected. Yes, I was networked, but not all the time.

Today, I don't go to a specific place anymore to access the network. Today, I have a mobile device and it is always connected to the Internet. I no longer open an Internet session and close it, it's just there all the time. I don't log on to check for my e-mails, an indication is already waiting on the idle screen when I look at it. When I search for something, I don't log onto the Internet and start the browser. The phone is already connected to the Internet and the browser is waiting in the background to be used again. And for that matter, so is my social network, the news and all those web 2.0 applications that allow me to see things created by my friends at the other end of the planet just seconds ago and let me put my pictures and content online as well for them to see. And all without sitting down and logging in. For me, the 'net' has become omnipresent, I am logged on 24h a day.

I haven't mentioned voice telephony so far specifically but that's because for me it's just an application running over the Internet as well these days. While I still use the circuit switched cellular network a great deal for voice calls, I most mintues are via Voice over IP now. Thanks Nokia for the great SIP implementation in the N95, it saves me a ton of money for those international calls.

But beware, being connected 24h a day does not mean that I am reachable for everyone 24h a day as well. It's a big mistake people make on both sides of the equation. Some think that once your are always connected you must be reachable. Others think you are forced into it and are thus trying to avoid it. I don't think so and I don't live it that way. With profiles that can be changed with the press of a button I decide who can reach me and who can't.

So I guess here's the difference for me between today and the past: In the past I had to decide when to connect. Today, I have to decide who can reach me at what time. I rather prefer it that way.

My new 3G online record while on vacation: My D100 3G dongle dock reported 134h online time (almost 6 days) without the network dropping the connection. Screenshot of the status page on the left. Quite stable I'd say 🙂

Yes, yes, one should go to a spa to relax but I couldn't help to notice that even in a spa there are interesting wireless things going on. Recently we went to the Linsberg spa near Vienna, newly opened a couple of months ago, a place that even the old Romans would have approved of. It's a bit outside the small village of Bad Erlach and one wouldn't expect great mobile coverage there. To my surprise, however, the ground level was well covered by all but one of the wireless networks by the antennas in sight over in the village. On the lower level, things looked a bit different, the concrete walls are probably too thick for signals to make it through.

Nevertheless, Mobilkom's GSM and UMTS networks were available with full signal strength while all other networks didn't quite make it through. Quite interesting so I had a closer look around. There is an antenna on the roof of the adjacent spa hotel so the good signal could come from there. Or it is those little boxes installed throughout the building with a "Mobilkom" sticker on it (see the pictures below)?

I can't be fully certain that those are 2G/3G repeater antennas but it pretty much looks like it. So it looks like Mobilkom has seen a business opportunity in specifically covering this location. I wonder if they are 'only' providing mobile coverage or if they are also providing the infrastructure for local communication, both fixed and mobile!?

I think it would make a lot of sense to be an end-to-end telecom/Internet provider for both employees and customers at such a place. You install your infrastructure once and get paid by several user groups. But that's all speculation on my part, of course. I think there's lots one could do with that. For example: Instead of installing a separate data infrastructure and Wi-Fi access points in the hotel for those that don't yet have a 3G USB modem one could rent out dongle docks such as the D100 to guests. Also, covering meeting rooms with Wi-Fi and backhauling it over 3G saves a lot of money as well.

So, if anyone from Mobilkom (or anyone else for this matter) is reading this and would like to comment, please do.

Quite some time ago I decided that I had to make a choice between Jaiku and Twitter, I only wanted to mingle in one. But with Jaiku not really going anywhere these days, I decided to give Twitter another try and see how that measures up with Jaiku. So if you like to connect, here we go.

I heard somewhere, but forgot exactly where, that the German C-Netz mobile network back in the 1980's was the first network that separated subscription from device via a SIM card. Since then we've come a long way and all major mobile network standards these days have implemented the concept. From my point of view this is the most important thing to foster competition between network operators.

As a frequent traveler I use lots of different SIM cards for both voice and data and I love the concept of just inserting a new SIM card into my devices when I arrive in another country or when better and cheaper offers become available.

Evidentce of this is the heap of SIM cards I've decommissioned over the last couple of months as shown on the picture on left:

• Two years ago, SimplyTel in Germany, a MVNO of T-Mobile started a pretty good voice minute offer for the time. Unfortunately, they haven't kept pace with others and there is still a good data option missing. Also, they've started to introduce a 1 or 2 euro fee per month if the SIM is not used which bugged me since I used one in the block heater of the car for incoming calls only and the other one in a mobile I give to visiting friends from abroad. Now that their accounts have reached 0, I've retired them and replaced them with SIM cards from other MVNO's.

• The AT&T SIM: This one's a forced retirement as I haven't been in the US for 6 months and the SIM has probably been deactivated already by AT&T.

• The YESSS SIM: About 18 months ago, YESSS started a prepaid mobile broadband offer in Austria with a validity time of 12 months. In the meantime the year has expired and I have made good use of the offer. Now, however, I've replaced the SIM with one from A1, as they have started a similar offer in the meantime and their network has a wider reach.

• The A1 SIM: This is the SIM I replaced the YESSS SIM with. Adding a further GB worth of data traffic is 5 euros more expensive than buying another SIM card for 15 euros that already includes a GB worth of traffic. A bit strange but then I don't really care if I buy a top-up voucher or a new SIM.

• The WIND SIM: This Italian SIM card was deactivated and I haven't quite been able to figure out why. I went to a WIND store but there they could not really help me and told me to call the hotline. I decided it was faster to dump the SIM and buy a new one instead. Much less trouble than to discuss the matter over the phone with a helpdesk lady.

So in short: SIM cards = Power to the consumer!

This week I was in Graz/Austria for a couple of days and stayed in a place where I have already been a long time ago. Well, actually it was only 5 or 6 years ago but from a connectivity point of view, it could not have been more different. It must have been 2003/2004 and at the time, my Siemens S45 mobile phone with an O2 UK prepaid SIM connected me to the Internet with a couple of kbits/s. Quite a treat with a notebook. These days, a dongle dock and an E220 HSPA USB modem connected all my devices at multi-megabit speeds to the Internet and a prepaid data SIM from Mobilkom Austria (A1) makes it affordable. We have definitely come a long way since then!

It must have been 10 years ago when I first heard that soon we will be able to pay with our mobile phone at vending machines in train stations and other places. However, until today I've never seen it anywhere. And now this: In the Austrian countryside I've seen the vending machine shown in the picture on the left where you can actually pay with your (Austrian) mobile phone and if you are subscribed to paybox.at.

It works as follows: You send an SMS with the code of the vending machine to the SMS number shown on the vending machine. After a couple of seconds, the machine displays our paybox balance that you can then use to get that candy bar, soft drink or cigarette pack. Nice, simple and works with every phone.

What I haven't quite figured out yet is how much the service costs per transaction. I've had a look at the paybox web site but I couldn't find anything. The yearly subscription is 19 euros, which I think is a bit high for mass market adoption. But there are other applications as well such as money transfers, paying for parking in major cities and paying for high way tools.

The paybox website also mentions that when having a post paid mobile subscription with one of the major Austrian network operators, the paybox yearly subscription fee is already inclusive. In that case no registration seems to be required and that candy bar is yours without any additional steps to be taken before using it the first time. A very beneficial cooperation for both paybox and the mobile network operators. I wonder how paybox managed to bring them all into the boat!?

Also, this means that paybox enabled vending machines must be connected to the Internet, or some sort of Intranet. So I guess there are some synergy effects, such as the vending machine being able to report when it runs out of candy bars so it is only serviced when it is really necessary. I wonder how the vending machine is connected. GPRS maybe?

Very nice to see how 3G coverage has become pretty much ubiquitous in Austria these days. I am on vacation at the moment in Styria (Austria) for some skiing. When the sun goes down at 5 p.m. you feel like at the end of the world in that little outback village where I am staying, the feeling heightened by the use of a firewood oven for warmth. Small village or not, but it is covered by three UMTS networks and my 3G dongle dock in the corner creates a Wi-Fi bubble for the notebooks and other Wi-Fi devices. Even in the ski resort 15 minutes away by car, 3G is everywhere.

Good to see these operators do not think it's not economical to deploy 3G almost everywhere in the country, despite the countryside not being very densely populated. And that's not only true near skiing resorts but also elsewhere without any tourist attractions nearby where I happen to be from time to time.

Back to the vacation thread: It's nice to be able to start the block heater of my car at the top of the mountain with a phone call before the final run into the valley. Wouldn't that be a nice scenario for a BMW or Mercedes TV spot to advertise their next car Internet connectivity package? Only to be topped by making a Wi-Fi hotspot out of the car. Just park it in front of your hut or hotel and fire up your notebook…

And now back to the oven to throw in some more firewood.