Wednesday, April 28. 2010Wireless Data Development........John Linton ......where is Android going.......... and is Exetel being inexorably drawn in to an ever greater reliance on in house software development? Exetel has been working on developing MoIP apps for use on its mobile data offerings for almost two years with many frustrations and recently some increasing success. We have 'narrowed' our focus to the Symbion platform to be able to offer a solid 'product' and have pretty much got a good set of apps based on that platform. We will also offer an iPhone version when/if we can untangle the issues with Optus legal obligations to Apple which has not been possible so far although we have the software and firmware to provide these services on iPhones we haven't been able to convince Optus to let us do it. We looked at Android version of of our MoIP, SMoIP and FoIP applications but all the technical advice has been about the variety of Android 'versions' and the support issues that entails. The problem is summed up in this article: Our MoiP app has been popular with our more mature (maturer?) residential customers who helped us debug and add features to it and we will continue to do that. As we slowly build our corporate wireless business we are using 'uncopyable differentiators' to allow us to compete with the "free hardware" approaches of the carriers and the service ineptitude of the 'shops'. We also have two other unique advantages (the back end 'control room' and the ability to spread usage over multiple users) but the real advantage we are seeking is providing mobile voice and SMS services over IP which allows us to provide unmatchable per call pricing to business users. We really need to offer the services over all major handset types but our difficulties with Optus 'legals' on the iPhone (which I personally don't believe but I'm too polite to say that) and the problems with multiple Android 'versions' as spelled out in the article are major barriers.We need to resolve this issue in the shorter rather than the longer term. As a poster on a previous blog noted there are an increasing number of "gadgets" becoming available based on the Android versions and these new devices find a ready market in IT sections of large companies and this represents an opportunity for a company like Exetel. MoIP and SMoIP are not offered by any of the carriers (for all the obvious reasons) and therefore also not offered by any of the carrier's shops or distributors.Depending on any future change of view by the carriers, it is unlikely that they will ever offer MoIP or SMoIP to corporate customers - though never say never in the technology business is even more applicable than in the spy business Mr Bond. At the moment the usual reticence is evident about using MoIP by corporates even though the rebuttal that if it is ever a problem simply switch to GSM is blindingly obvious. I am of the opinion that over the balance of this year the ability to reduce a company's mobile telephone bill by a minimum of 50% will become more compelling. Perhaps I'm being too optimistic. One of the advantages, to us, of developing Android versions of the MoIP and SMoIP applications is that the large carriers simply won't do that - either because they are 'tied' to their contracts for handsets to Nokia and/or Apple or simply because the 'support' issues are almost insoluble for their methods of distribution. We will make up our mind on how to address the Android problems once we get 'finality' on how to provide our services on Apple hand sets. The issue that is really concerning me is how much additional resource our in house software development is requiring and as we take the first look at an FY2011 business plan how greatly the future budgets for R and D and in house systems development have grown over the years. This is partly inevitable because of our decision in November 2003 to 'write' all of our own software required to run the company across ten different products/services but over the past two years or so the amount of programming we are doing that is unrelated to our core systems or even our own operations continues to grow steeply. It signals a change in direction for Exetel which is neither unwelcome nor a surprise but when it is reflected in future figures it becomes clear that Exetel has diverged from the path it was on over the first five years of its existence. If my maternal grandmother was correct - a change is as good as a rest. I would really like a rest. Copyright © Exetel Pty Ltd 2010 Trackbacks
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The fragmentation currently being seen on Android is a fair point, but the best approach would appear to be to focus on the most recent release (2.1).
The information out there at the moment appears to suggest that the frenetic pace of Google releasing updates is going to slow through this year, so this would ensure maximum compatibility with new devices and older ones that have been upgraded. I'd suggest that the Exetel user base are generally fairly tech savvy, meaning that they are unlikely to be sitting on an old version of Android anyway if there is a means for them to access a newer build... Comment (1)
We have started an Android development severaltimes only to be confronted with a new version and then the multiple versions being used by different hand set manufacturers.
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A user on the whirlpool forums (Len - http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/user/12081) already has a Beta Exetel SMS app for Android... is it a good idea to liase with him and perhaps offer a financial incentive to share the work done thus far and give Exetels Android app a kick start?
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I concur with BS in that targeting the latest Android releases (2.0 and 2.1) should be sufficient, for 2 reasons.
1. It appears that Google is aware of the fragmentation issue and is encouraging manufacturers to provide an upgrade path for users on older versions. A couple of North American providers have already, or have indicated that they will, provide an upgrade path for their Android users. HTC offer an upgrade path for users who bought unbranded phones. 2. As there are already a number of readily available voip apps for Android, some free, the business case for developing an Exetel Moip app would have to rely on that app offering additional capabilities when used with added-value Exetel voip services. Such services would be of most utility to business, who when switching from GSM to Moip would be obtaining handsets with a recent Android version. Comment (1)
Thank you for the suggestion.
It could be - I will pass on the details to the person responsible. Comments (6)
For Iphone would it be worth instead separating development of a moip app to a different company / entity and make it support multiple carriers (ie: exetel, optus, telstra & others). If it can be setup to support multiple providers then apple won't be able to reject because there are already a multitude of similar apps out there. This app however would just happen to integrate particularly well with providers that have similar interfaces to exetel. If the app is good enough as a standalone, surely it just provides greater exposure of exetel to customers of other companies. I wouldn't think you could lose customers out of it, but positioned correctly you may stand to gain some.
As an aside my partner has recently changed phone providers - it came down to exetel (my provider) & TPG - TPG won in the end with their PAYG plan. Their gsm phone call costs are pretty enticing.... Comment (1)
it's surprising (frustrating perhaps) that Optus are in the way of an iPhone app happening, there are so many VoIP apps on the app store already that all work fine with Exetel (and others) over Optus supplied phone services, they seem to be stuck in the dark ages at times
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My mum (and me sometimes) says a change is as good as a holiday.
I thought 4G services didn't have a voice section, so carriers would all have to migrate to VoIP of some kind eventually? I guess it must, just vividwireless choose not to use that part. Comment (1)
What is MoIP? I assume that it is just VoIP but over a mobile data service. If that is so, why does it matter whether carriers offer MoIP applications when SIP is standardised and there are multiple applications available independently of the carrier?
For instance, on my Nexus One (Android phone), I have used sipdroid (http://sipdroid.org/) successfully (and unsuccessfully), which is an open source VoIP application for Android. Is there some special magic that turns VoIP into MoIP? Comment (1)
Yes - reliability of operation and support if something goes wrong.
I completely agree that any suitable app that any residential selects is just fine. I don't think the same situation applies when selling services to a corporate buyer. Comments (6)
Hi John,
Seems like I promoted some discussion on Android Exetel doesn't really need to develop their own SIP client, there are several options: 1) License an existing SIP client which has G729 codec support for Exetel customers. This codec is encumbered by patents so can not be supported by existing free SIP clients, however is required by Exetel servers for receiving calls. There are a few such clients available and the price should be relatively low, compared to developing your own application. They sell to individuals for around $10 - $15 2) Support existing SIP clients like Sipdroid or Sipagent through changing the Exetel VOIP servers to support other codecs, such as GSM, Speex, etc. Currently Exetel VOIP requires a 3rd party service to convert the voice data to receive calls. Recommendations for this have been made by Exetel Forum admins so this is a known technical limitation 3) Do 2) above and get your developers to contribute some changes to "Sipdroid", an open source SIP client to improve its compatibility with Exetel. This would be more of an exercise in testing and minor tweaks, not large scale development. 4) As a very last resort start from scratch and do your own thing by porting your existing MOIP all to Android. I would also recommend contacting "Len" on Whirlpool to sponsor his development of IntelliSMS - mentioned by another poster. I am using this free application to send SMS via the Exetel servers and it works well, but could still be improved with a bit more polish. Andrew Comment (1)
Andrew,
Thank you for your suggestions. We'll get in touch with you to discuss them further. Comments (6)
I'm the developer of intelliSMS. Currently it is at v0.3, and a number of users are happily using it in production. The whirlpool discussion thread is: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1380855&p=2.
My app requires Android 1.6+ because there are significant changes from 1.5 to 1.6, and I didn't bother to cater for 1.5. Even 1.6 is lacking a lot of the goodies in 2.0+ (e.g. Messaging integration is not available in 1.6), so I suspect it is a fair call to concentrate on 2.0/2.1 support. Google is expected to release 2.2 next month and some 1.5/1.6 handsets will be upgraded to 2.1 shortly. I believe this so-called fragmentation issue is only significant in the very short term. A lot of Exetel users, I believe, are already running unofficial ROMs anyway. Comment (1)
Thank you for getting in touch with us.
We will contact you later today. Comments (6)
I know Exetel is looking at Android as the next major OS to support, but what I have found surprising is that you guys haven't talked about the two big corporate and enterprise OS's, Blackberry and Windows Mobile. From my experience these two OS's are far bigger than Android is in business, so perhaps you guys will look at that as well?
I think it's a great idea to do Android though, because I think it has a bright future ahead of it. Comment (1)
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