IM (Instant Messaging) / chat has been around for a long time. Before AIM (AOL Instant Messenger, 1997) and ICQ (Internet Chat Query, 1996), there was the command line function ‘chat’ on unix (early 1980s) which evolved into IRC (Internet Relay Chat,1988); and for the VMS (Virtual Memory System) crowd there was phone (sometime in […]
Critical thinking is the objective analysis of facts to form a judgment. If I were to sum up the one skill I think has helped me throughout my career, it would be hard to find a better one than critical thinking. Unfortunately, we live in a world where opinions and facts are treated with equal weight, […]
I’m asked this question surprisingly often, “Alan, what is it that you do?” My stock answer is, “I wander the world helping people.” Which generally results in a wry smile from those who know me; else a questioning or annoyed look from someone who was expecting a straightforward answer to a straightforward question. When I […]
There are 3 principle reasons why analysts are wrong on many aspects of telecoms, because they: Believe the AR (Analyst Relations) / CFO (Chief Financial Officer) spin on the numbers and happily repeat them in their research notes. Its reportage and linear prediction on the story / spin given. Many industry analysts are ex-reporters, the trade […]
When Tyntec bought from Iris Wireless its peering agreement with Syniverse and SAP, one of only three contracts in existence, they opened up the old boys club of carrier interconnect in the US. Now tyntec are proposing to address one of the other dysfunctions of the US market by making long code A2P SMS work […]
The robustness of the A2P SMS market has surprised me, granted many analysts have been predicting its decline for the past 3-5 years, however, its continues to grow. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve seen a number of things start to point towards the corner could be in sight. Personal experience (its always very […]
I’ve not attended MWC (Mobile World Congress) for quite a few years, and I’ll not be at MWC 2017. I reviewed back in 2015 some of the reasons in this weblog, MWC is Broken. For this year, you’ll likely see most of the usual faces, but for many of the vendors there will be fewer demos […]
Amara’s Law states, “We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.” Another way of looking at this law is the cognitive biases of attention-bias, confirmation-bias and herd-instinct; which tend to make new ideas overly popular with fanciful claims believed on when benefits can be […]
The phone number is quite a useful identity, most internet-based communication services like Whatsapp use the telephone number identity today because it also provides a handy multi factor authentication capability. Put simply, you possess something (e.g. a mobile phone #), you know something (e.g. a password), and the emerging one of inherence (unique things of […]
Its that time of year again, the annual pilgrimage to avoid being robbed in Barcelona, and compare 4 or 5 vendors’ radio access networks (RAN) at MWC (Mobile World Congress). Beyond the RAN and its deployment, which the industry does very well, the rest of the stuff at MWC is poorly thought through marketing drivel […]