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How Does Verizon's New Unlimited Voice/Text and Shared Data Plan Change Your Phone Bill Budget?

By Dan Baldwin, Editor
951-251-5155 email  

Finally. One of the biggest phone companies on the planet did something that will make the life of a Southern California business owner a little easier -- or did they?

Click here to read the Verizon Wireless press release that states that they are eliminating all their different "buckets of minutes" rate plans in favor of just letting all their customers talk and text all they like for one flat monthly price.

"All you can eat" talk and text. That's gotta be a good thing, right?

If all your employees do is talk and text a lot this new plan certainly is good. Except your employees don't just "talk and text". What they seem to be doing mostly these days is "apping" it up with every data drinking phone app they can figure our how to download onto their phones.

"Cha Ching" (That's the sound of you paying for your employees' mobile data usage through Verizon's new "shared data" pricing -- which is the other half of their new pricing package.)

 

Will Your Business Wireless Phone Bill Go Up or Down?  Yes...

In effect, Verizon simply held up a mirror to its old pricing package and said, "This is the new package". Where they used to have unlimited data and metered voice and text, now they have metered data and unlimited voice and text.

To learn how this will affect business wireless phone bills I called two people I know that run business wireless expense monitoring and management companies, Moe Arnaiz from eMobus out of San Diego and Josh Lipton from Advantix out of Texas.

US Soldier Gets $16,000 Wireless Phone Bill for Data Roaming -- Is Your Phone Bill Properly Protected?

By Dan Baldwin, Editor
951-251-5155 email  

 This story from California about a US service man getting a $16,098 phone bill from his wireless cell phone company got me thinking on three different levels.

First, I thought that could easily happen to my phone bill since I have two sons about the same age as the US soldier in the story who both use their cell phones for just about everything you can think of except talking.

Second, what was the guy really doing with his phone that jacked the bill up so high and do I or any of my employees do the same thing?

Third, are there any safety measures set up on my own business wireless cell phone accounts (I use Verizon for seven business cell phones) to prevent the same sort of "bill shock" from showing up in my mailbox next month.

 

How Much Data Does the Average Employee Use or Need Every Month?

Surprisingly little I think. I honestly had no idea (nor did I seem to think I needed to care) since I still had Verizon's "unlimited" data plan on most of my businesses smart phones.

After printing out the summary pages of my business cell phone bill for the last four months I discovered that for seven business cell phones the total was under five gigs of data per month total. The range was quite large though as my own personal data use was under 200 megs a month (just 20% of one gig) while my oldest employee (over 70 years old) used seven times what I used at 1.4 gigs.

(It took me a while to discover what "business use" a desk bound 70-year old employee would have for 1.4 gigs of data usage per month. We narrowed it down to either streaming Pandora radio for several hours per day and/or the Scrabble dictionary app.)

I was somewhat relieved to discover though that even the most data hungry power users I knew (all three of my teenage kids and even my brother-in-law who's always video-Skyping his kids from the road) used under 2 gigs a month each - a lot of data but certainly manageable - I think (right?)

 

How Do You Create a $16,098 Cell Phone Bill?

So now that I've got a handle on my own business cell phone and data usage I go back to thinking, "How'd this poor US serviceman jack up his cell phone bill to over $16,000?"  Well if you read the story, it turns out the guy used 1.6 gigs of data in just six days while on leave visiting his parents.

Price Alert: No More Free Smartphone Upgrades From the Big 3; Is it Time for Wi-Fi First of Wi-Fi Only Cell Phones?

By Dan Baldwin, Editor
951-251-5155 email 

Verizon Wireless recently reported that they were following the lead of both AT&T and Sprint by charging their Southern California customers an extra fee to upgrade their mobile phones where in the past many mobile customers got a "free phone upgrade" every two years or so.

Following is the widely distributed Verizon statement: 

“On April 22, Verizon Wireless is implementing a $30 upgrade fee for existing customers purchasing new mobile equipment at a discounted price with a two-year contract.  This fee will help us continue to provide customers with the level of service and support they have come to expect which includes Wireless Workshops, online educational tools, and consultations with experts who provide advice and guidance on devices that are more sophisticated than ever.  While the upgrade fee is not unique to Verizon Wireless, most devices can be traded in with our green friendly trade-in program at www.verizonwireless.com/tradein as a way to save money or potentially offset the fee completely.”

It's reported that Sprint and AT&T both are charging a similar $36 fee.

 

Time for "Wi-Fi First" or "Wi-Fi Only" Employee Cell Phones?

Now I'm no revolutionary. I understand that the CEO, the Chairman of the Board and your top salespeople (and your spouse) can have any damned expensive phone and usage plan they want and, as the company owner, you're (mostly) happy to pay for it.  

But what about all those other W-2 folks hanging around your office who claim they need "smartphone mobility" to remain a critical business asset of yours?  Do they all need an exensive monthly cellular data plan and the newest phones when they spend 90% of their waking hours inside a Wi-Fi network?

Probably not. (Time to get out the savings calculator and sharpen your pencils!)

 

What's a "Wi-Fi First" or "Wi-Fi Only" Cell Phone and Where Can You Get Them?

Well just as the name would imply, "Wi-Fi first" cell phones or smart phones use "free" Wi-Fi connectivity first over "expensive" 3G/4G cellular connectivity when trying to make a phone call or data app connection. "Wi-Fi only" phones only work for cell calls or data connections when connected to a Wi-Fi network.

Where do you get them? Let's just say that phone equipment makers are not exactly falling all over themselves to bring them to market. T-Mobile actually had a solution like this called HotSpot@Home that made smartphone calls over Wi-Fi but they discontinued the service back in 2010.

Gadget Review: "Call Mynah" Easily Records Cell Phone Calls via Bluetooth, No Expensive Phone Apps Needed!

By Dan Baldwin, Editor
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If recording business phone calls is not a normal part of your day then the whole thought of recording your cell phone calls probably creeps you out. If that's the case for you just stop reading now.

If, on the other hand, recording your phone calls is actually an important part of your job description (maybe you're a journalist, lawyer, stock broker, court reporter, secret agent, etc.) then you'll be overjoyed to learn about "Call Mynah".

 

Skip the Wires, Extra Numbers or the High Cost Phone Apps

The Call Mynah device overcomes the problems inherent to other cell and smartphone call recording techniques that require a complicated advanced setup, extra cell phone numbers, expensive per minute third party phone apps or connecting extra wires that degrade audio quality. For more information about these other methods check out these links: RecordiaPro, online phone call recording app store or RadioShack.

Because Call Mynah is a Bluetooth cell phone call recorder, users maintain maximum control over the call recordings they make. Once the user records a cell phone call, the recording of the phone call only resides on the Call Mynah device until the user transfers the recording to another device using a USB connection.

Until the user chooses, the recorded phone call is never stored on the Internet or on a third-party vendor's phone call recording server where call recording "distribution accidents" can happen.

Check out the video below to see Call Mynah in action:

 

Other Office Options to Consider and How to Choose...

The Call Mynah device is produced by Intelligent Recording Limited (Philip Hill, CEO) and distributed out of the U.K. and California.  Check out their website for a long list of every conceivable type of office phone recording solution for single phones and home offices all the way up to VoIP phone servers and IP call centers.

What's right for your business call recording solutions? Give us a call.

Call recording is one of the most popular options that businesses are after when switching from their old phone system to a modern VoIP business phone system. But if all you're really after is call recording, dumping your old phone system for a new VoIP phone system might be your most expensive option.

Let us spend a bit of quality time sharing with you what all your call recording options look like and which ones our other customers have tried to failure or success! 

I specialize in helping Southern California business customers in San Diego, Orange County, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ontario and beyond. If we set you up for our free 45-minute consulting call (click here for details) we might be able to solve your problem for free!

Eliminate Business Phone System Wiring Nightmares with New, Static-Free DECT 6.0 Wireless Technology

By Dan Baldwin, Editor
951-251-5155 email 

If your Southern California business empire includes locations that can operate with four total voice phone lines or less (this describes almost every small, customer-facing retail business on the planet) then there are new wireless business phone systems available that you should look at if you're in the market for a new phone system.

The best thing about these new business wireless phone systems is they operate just like regular phone systems with incoming phone lines in hunt or roll-over, have intercom, auto-attendant and voicemail but largely need almost no wiring.  Because labor to install phone wiring can be very expensive, wireless business phone systems can save business owners a great deal of money.

 

Removing Voice From Your Data Network Solves Expensive Problems

A decade ago every business had two separate wired communications networks in their office that they had to pay to maintain; a phone wire network for voice communications and a data wire network for computer communications. Then someone (I can't remember who exactly) had the great idea of eliminating the cost of the phone wire network by connecting their office phone system over the data network.

That was a good idea in theory but it really didn't save small businesses much money and actually created expensive problems. The biggest problem created was poor voice phone call quality for small businesses that could not afford QoS ("quality of service") upgrades to their data networks to ensure that phone calls always got priority of data transmissions.

 

New DECT "Static Free" Wireless Technology Reinvents Cordless Business Phones

Most everyone that still has a landline in their home accesses that landline dial-tone with a cordless phone and understands the shortcomings that older cordless phone technology can bring to a phone call. Static, disconnects, interference with WiFi devices and "dead-zones" are just a few of the problems associated with the older 2.4 gHz, 900mHz and 5.8gHz.

Business phone system manufacturers seem to have selected DECT over other wireless spectrum technologies as evidenced by the AT&T SynJ^® line built for small businesses and PolyCom's KIRK Wireless Solutions build for any sized business.

The DECT technology wins over older technologies due to increased range, call clarity and extended range when using DECT repeaters.

 

How Will Your Business Incorporate DECT Wireless Phones?

The technology is built to be a modularized solution that augments your existing PBX phone system or it can entirely replace it.  If you have an existing business phone system that you'd like to get a couple more years out of contact your equipment provider to see what cordless phone option they have to offer.

New FCC Smartphone Database Cuts Thefts in Six Months But We help You Today

By Dan Baldwin, Editor
951-251-5155 email

 The FCC is announcing that they have decided to partner with the likes of AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, t-mobile and other wireless carriers to create a national database to help thwart the theft of smartphones by making them all but unsellable after a theft.

Uh ... that's good, right?  

Sure it is when the newest smartphones cost upwards of $500 or more. 

But the real cost of smartphone loss is the loss of the data ... and the person stealing your phone may be only after the data ... and the new FCC smartphone database won't do anything to prevent a thief from stealing your phone if all they want is to steal your data.

 

Don't Wait for the Feds!  Here's How to Secure Your Phone Right Now...

1. Put a password on your phone.

Sure it's a hassle to type in the name of your Aunt's dog into your phone several times a day.  But how much more trouble would it be for your friends, relatives, enemies, competitors or the government to be able to access everything on your phone from the moment they "find" it until the moment you realize it's gone?

2. Make sure whatever's on your phone is already in the cloud.

Remember this Google+ commercial from awhile back about the dad who lost all his baby pictures because he lost his cell phone? Your phone (and your desktop computer for that matter) is not meant to be a secure storage device. It's meant to be a simple endpoint to collect data and then get it instantly to a safer place.

3. Use software that "finds your phone or fries your phone"

For as little as three bucks or as much as twenty bucks you can access any number of smartphone applications that can do as little as find a lost phone in vibrate mode, turn a phone into a coldwar-type spy device and/or turn your phone into a useless plastic brick.  GadgetTrak, SeekDroid and Webroot are just three of multiple companies that specialize in giving you control over lost phones.

Solution Review: How Distributed Enterprise IT Directors Solve 3G/4G Fixed Wireless Connectivity Problems

By Dan Baldwin, Editor
951-251-5155 email

 What's an IT director for a quick service restaurant ("QSR") or similar distributed enterprise company in Southern California or beyond to do when the wide area network ("WAN") solution he or she wants to implement using a low cost DSL landline solution can only reach 80% of the companies locations?

Throw a 3G cellular AirCard in a wireless router, right?  Wrong.

An aircard in a router is probably the best solution if the business location is actually a recreational vehicle - contantly on the move. AirCards are great for mobile wireless data needs be far from perfect in a fixed office environment.  So how does an IT director solve the 3G/4G connectivity problems when trying to implement a fixed wireless solution?

Call on Accel Networks, the wireless data company that "tunes in" your wireless data signals with their unique proprietary antennae like no other wireless or landline company can.

If you've tried fixed wireless using AirCards for your data network locations unreachable by DSL and couldn't solve the connectivity problem, don't give up without calling your authorized Accel Networks solution partner.

 

How and Why is Accel Networks Solution Better than Everyone Else?

How does Accel do it better than all their competitors including AT&T, Verizon and Sprint?

Listen to Jonathan Forest, VP of Accel networks explain it himself in the following short recorded interview.

 

Listen to Recording:  Click Here to Download MP3

 

 

Read Transcript:   Click Here to Download PDF

How Quick Service Restaurant & Other Distributed Enterprise IT Directors Solve 3G/4G Fixed Wireless Connectivity Problems:

Accel Network's New Cellular Broadband Antenna

February 2012A Business Phone News conversation with Jonathan Forest, Vice President of Accel Networks, about how their new Maestro cellular broadband antenna system is gaining traction with CIOs and IT directors of many quick service restaurant chains and other similar multi-location retail businesses.

 

  DB:  So let's get right to the problems that QSR (“quick service restaurant”) IT directors have. They want to power the broadband needs of their retail stores with affordable 3G or 4G fixed wireless, but they're getting killed by connectivity problems.   

Question #1.   Please describe the nature and prevalence of the connectivity problems.

  JF:   Yes.   Specifically we see in our market that broadband is certainly the desire of many of the QSR and retail customer since it's a lower cost option, and it really fits their needs; however, broadband, DSL and cable isn't really prevalent in all locations, and we see consistently approximately 10% to 20% of the market not being covered for these customers, and that's where we fit in. 

Accel provides a high-grade, premium wireless solution that provides broadband type of service at these 10% to 20% locations, and that's with 3G.

With 4G coming out, and we're launching that next month, 4G speeds will, in many ways, surpass DSL.   So, the 4G solution that customers will be experiencing will be right on par, or superior to what they are experiencing, and we fully expect the wireless services to continue expanding.

 

  DB:  Question #2.    Can you describe how does Accel's proprietary fixed wireless Maestro antenna address the problem? 

  JF:     Yes.   I would be glad to.  If you had to boil it down, Accel provides the cleanest wireless signal.  What does that mean?  What it really means is that we're trying to minimize the carrier noise, and optimize the signal.  The result is better performance.    

2:11  Accel comes from this perspective, the wireless perspective.    We do not come at this from a landline perspective.   This is crucial, and the reason is that in landline technologies, the transport, DSL, cable, T1, it's a commodity.  No matter whether provider A or provider B is offering the solution, the same result is going to happen.   DSL, the same distance from the CO (phone company “central office”), it's all the same, and with wireless it couldn't be any different. 

How Can Enterprises Safely Migrate Away from Blackberry to iPhones, Android & iPads? A Subject Matter Expert Interview

By Dan Baldwin

Blackberry outages have been well documented over the past several months as has been the outcry of unhappy Blackberry enterprise business customers.  The obvious questions begged by these headlines include:

What's preventing Blackberry customers from moving to the iPhone or the Android platform?

Does Blackberry have a monopoly on enterprise-class mobile security?

What does a migration strategy away from Blackberry look like?

To help answer these questions, and understand the related issues, I recently spoke with Moe Arnaiz, CEO of eMOBUS, a Telecom Association subject matter expert for enterprise mobility solutions.

To learn more about how your business can effectively migrate away from Blackberry to iPhones, iPads or Android devices contact your independent telecom agent or channel sales partner and ask them about the migration strategies suggested in this interview.

Following are the questions I posed:

1.  Please give us a history of Blackberry's perceived monopoly in the mobility space for enterprise businesses.  What is Blackberry layering on top of an AT&T, Verizon or Sprint phone number that makes it "so secure" for enterprise customers?

2.  What are some of the applications being used that requires such a high level of security by enterprise customers?

3.  How is it that Apple's iOS mobile operating system and Google's Android mobile OS are so inferior to the Blackberry BES mobile operating system?

4.  What's at the crux of Blackberry's recent outages?

5.  Can enterprise mobility customers get sufficient security such that a migration away from Blackberry is conceivable?

6.  How would a migration from BES to iOS, or Android, take place?  Is it justifiable?

7.  What is eMOBUS' role in the whole MDM arena and how do enterprise mobility customers use eMOBUS along with the wireless carriers and mobile equipment manufacturers?

 

Download the Interview MP3 Audio

Click here to download the MP3 recording of the audio interview

 

Listen to the Audio Now 

 

 

Print & Read the Interview Now

Click here to download a printed copy of the interview.

 

  Dan Baldwin:  Blackberry  outages have been well documented over the past several months, as has been the outcry of unhappy Blackberry enterprise business customers. The obvious questions begged by these headlines include: 

What's preventing Blackberry customers from moving to the iPhone or the Android platform?

 Does Blackberry have a monopoly on enterprise-class mobile security?

 What does a migration strategy away from Blackberry look like?

Here to help us answer these questions and understand the related issues is Moe Arnaiz, CEO of eMOBUS, a mobility management company. eMOBUS is a carrier and device neutral mobility management company and solution provider for enterprise businesses.  Moe, thanks for speaking with us today.

Verizon Wireless is on Santa's "2011 Naughty List" for "Bill Shock"

By Dan Baldwin

It looks like Verizon Wireles is going to get a bunch of coal in its stocking this year. The question is, "Does Verizon Wireless care?"

Hard to say.

Consumer Reports unveiled its 2011 Naughty & Nice Holiday List this week and Verizon Wireless made the list.

Following is what CR reported:

"The company tells the Federal Communications Commission that it voluntarily provides ample warning to customers who seem about to exceed their monthly allotment of minutes, messages, or data, so a mandatory rule that would make it issue such alerts isn't necessary.

But we caught Verizon doing -- and admitting to -- something else.

Can Enterprise Customers Migrate From Blackberry Without Sacrificing Security?

By Dan Baldwin

Blackberry outages have been well documented over the past several months as has been the outcry of unhappy Blackberry enterprise business customers.  The obvious questions begged by these headlines include:

What's preventing Blackberry customers from moving to the iPhone or the Android platform?

Does Blackberry have a monopoly on enterprise-class mobile security?

What does a migration strategy away from Blackberry look like?

To help answer these questions, and understand the related issues, I recently spoke with Matt Coffy, Owner of Slash Wireless, a carrier and device neutral mobility device management company and solution provider for enterprise businesses.  Matt is a SME or "subject matter expert" for Business Phone News in the area of mobility management.

Following are the questions I posed:

1.  Please give us a history of Blackberry's perceived monopoly in the mobility space for enterprise businesses.  What is blackberry layering on top of an AT&T, Verizon or Sprint phone number that makes it "so secure" for enterprise customers?

2.  What are some of the applications being used that requires such a high level of security by enterprise customers?

3.  How is it that Apple's iOS mobile operating system and Google's Android mobile OS are so inferior to the Blackberry BES mobile operating system?

4.  What's at the crux of Blackberry's recent outages?