Building a Community…One Picture at a Time
@Phonebooth here.
For the folks in Raleigh that attend social media, marketing or networking events, you may have run into me recently (literally). As I am a growing brand and I anticipate making a big splash this year, I like being involved.
Most recently, you may have seen me at the Raleigh MediaLeaders event hosted by The Hive (@busybeecafe - 1/26) or at NCTA (1/29). Although I’m not the most agile person in the world, I try to make it out as much as possible and even ventured up two flights of stairs this past Monday (and won the limbo contest with the door).
I have a lot to offer and look forward to adding value to your business. Be on the lookout so we can get a picture together. This may seem small, but it actually helps me meet people with similar interests, wants and needs and that isn’t ignored. If a product has my name on it, it has to meet customer needs.
To learn more about me, visit Phonebooth.net or follow me on Twitter - @phonebooth. MORE ->
Bandwidth.com at ITEXPO and the Launch of SIPSTATION.com
The ITEXPO kicked off today and Bandwidth.com is in the building. We will have a presence at the SIP Trunk Summit, so be sure to say hello.
To track the IT EXPO in real-time, follow the #ITEXPO hashtag on Twitter.
Bandwidth’s own Sean Rivers is pictured here discussing “The Service Provider Perspective.”
Today also marks the launch of www.sipstation.com - making SIP trunks available with a few clicks. If you need SIP trunks, this is the place for you.
A high quality phone experience and the sound of silence
Have you ever had a true high quality voice experience? Before I joined the Bandwidth team, I hadn’t. I have an HDTV and understand the vast difference between HD and non-HD video, but with voice I’m only used to my mobile phone and landlines.
The first week I used Phonebooth OnDemand, I thought I was experiencing a bit of a call delay. I’d pick up the phone and hear nothing (or crickets if you prefer). At first, this was met with an awkward silence or me saying, “Are you there?” After a few calls, I realized there wasn’t an issue.
The silence was clarity.
I have a Polycom HDvoice phone as my device and, combined with Phonebooth, the voice quality is incredible. It led me to the realization that every other phone experience I’ve had was of inferior quality. It is similar to the difference between HD and non-HD television (if you’ve ever compared non-HD “black” to HD-quality black on a quality HDTV, you’ll know what I mean).
We are all used to the background hiss of silence on mobile and even landlines - but don’t let the lack of background noise of HD voice quality scare you. That’s just the sound of quality.
Bandwidth Buzz - A One Stop Shop for Customer References
If you are thinking about adding a Bandwidth offering to your business and want to hear what customers have to say, we’ve got you covered.
We’ve compiled tons of letters from happy customers that can be found all over the walls in our office. We haven’t done a great job of putting them all online…until now.
Visit www.BandwidthBuzz.com to read what customers are saying about us. We’ll continue to add new references. Thank you to all of our customers!
Bandwidth.com, Cisco, Google, Skype, & Avaya: VoIP in 2010
Alex Williams from ReadWriteWeb posted a great article on 5 Enterprise Trends to Watch for in 2010. Bandwidth.com was featured in the VoIP section, along with Cisco, Google, Avaya & Skype (we’re in good company!):
“VoIP will move deeper into the enterprise. The days of closed, siloed telephony systems are coming to an end. The freedom of web-based communications will be far more clear to the enterprise customer this year as the sheer volume of applications and features enter the market. Again, this trend in many ways stems from the move to WOA in the enterprise. The move is to the web. Voice will also heed the call.”
To read the full article, please visit ReadWriteWeb’s 5 Enterprise Trends to Watch for in 2010.
Phonebooth says: the Google Nexus One is a worthy Find-Me-Follow-Me companion
Editor’s note: Phonebooth OnDemand is the $20 phone system in the cloud – and he’s pretty opinionated, too (he even Tweets). With cool features like Find Me Follow Me, Voicemail-to-email with text transcription, and HD voice, he is feeling pretty good about himself right now (please don’t encourage him). Somehow, he got his hands – er, shelf – on a Google Nexus One.
I know a thing or two about phones, so when a Google Nexus One showed-up at the office, I thought I would give it a whirl. Look – while I love my Polycom HD desk phone family, I realize that there are some of you who just can’t be tied-down to a desk phone. That’s why I have the Find Me Follow Me feature, that can forward your office number right to your mobile phone (don’t worry, you can still use my awesome voicemail).
But, hey - that doesn’t mean I don’t have standards (I’m HD quality, after all). I don’t want my calls handed off to some second-rate dumb phone. I need smart phones, man. And so far, with apologies to my former favorite iPhone, I haven’t found a smarter phone than the Google Nexus One.
After seeing a host of me-too iPhone attempts hit the market, we now have a new smartphone that many (including this Phonebooth) believe will be the next iconic mobile device. Like the iPhone, the Nexus One tightly couples powerful and differentiated hardware AND software. Apple realized first that they must control the end-to-end “whole product” to create a truly unique and step-function better user experience, and Google has embraced this strategy with the Nexus One, freeing it from the competing agendas of carriers and handset makers.
What Phonebooth loves about the Nexus One:
- Beautiful OLED screen… a step function better in brightness and clarity versus the iPhone or any other smartphone in the market today.
- Natural feeling haptics….the most elegant, natural, and appropriately responsive touch feedback of any device I’ve used.
- Seamless integration with other Google services…Gmail, Gapps, Gtalk, Gvoice, Picasa and Maps are seamlessly integrated on this device, creating the first “out-of-the-box”, unified communications mobile device experience. Wait till you are scrolling through your Contacts log and seeing Gtalk presence and Facebook status updates all integrated in a great UI….it will inspire you to start dreaming of the possibilities of unified communications (again).
- Powerful camera…. an excellent 5 megapixel camera, with flash, that easily switches to video mode with a very elegant UI.
- Gorgeous pictures gallery… I look really good in pictures, so I love the new gallery with Cooliris technology.
- Turn-by-Turn Navigation… Google’s turn by turn navigator app, linked with GoogleMaps, works very well (seriously, I tried it) and will eliminate the need for purpose-built GPS devices. When my handlers are towing a Phonebooth, we don’t want to get lost.
We could all be better… and so could the Nexus One:
- Battery life… right out of the box, the battery life on this device is definitely on the far low-end of smartphones I have used. This will likely improve with firmware and OS updates.
- Stability…. I’m still getting blue-screen-of-death-like random crashes with this device on a fairly frequent basis. Again, I expect this will improve with firmware and OS updates.
- Data network…. My NexusOne is an unlocked device – but there is great incentive to use T-Mobile’s smaller 3G footprint network, as my AT&T SIM card in the device can only connect to their 2.5G EDGE network. This is a severe limitation to my web browsing experience.
- User interface not as intuitive as iPhone… the cost of Android’s flexibility is that it is just not as intuitive as the iPhone. Finger swipes that would seem to make sense sometimes just don’t work. Also, some of the icons they’ve elected to use aren’t nearly as clear as the iPhone.
- Yahoo Mail integration… at this time, certain Yahoo Mail accounts cannot be integrated via this device. Alas, this is a Google phone.
- App Store equivalent (Google Market) not as robust, yet… while Google Market for apps is well laid out and has a decent array of content, it is not yet near the breadth and depth of the Apple App Store. I expect this to normalize over time as well.
F
inally, because I’m a SIP-based phone system, I wanted to have a little fun and see if you could run a SIP client on the Nexus one over WiFi. You can… check out SipAgent in the Android app market. Now, if my developers would just create a Phonebooth SIP softphone for Android, your Nexus One could BE your office phone. And what an office phone it would be!
How @bandwidth listens to customers on Twitter
Jeffrey L. Cohen posted a nice writeup of how @Bandwidth uses Twitter to monitor and reach out to customers. Through a team effort from multiple departments including Marketing and Customer Service, customers are provided with a better experience.
“…Social media outlets, and especially Twitter, have become a communications tool for customers to reach out to their vendors. It has become publicly acceptable to complain online about your experiences. And make sure to use the proper Twitter account in your complaint. Sometimes it is venting to feel better, while other times it is done to warn others about the experience. But from the vendor side of things, this is some of the most important listening that you do.
The following example comes Bandwidth.com, a business phone and data provider in Cary, North Carolina…”
Phonebooth How-to: Set-up Find Me, Follow Me
“Find Me, Follow Me” is a Phonebooth feature that allows one number to route to multiple phones, based on rules that you set-up. We thought about calling it “Stalk Me”, but legal didn’t like that name. This is extremely useful for mobile workforces, or for people who may want to appear to be “working” while out of the office (on your boat, at the golf course, driving in your Maserati…wherever).
Configuring Find Me, Follow Me with Phonebooth is as easy as it gets. MORE ->
Happy Holidays from Bandwidth.com!
It has been a great year for Bandwidth.com and we hope it has been a great year for you as well! In 2009, we’ve seen successful launches of Phonebooth OnDemand, FlexNetwork, and FreePBX v3.
Thank you all for your support and a special thanks to those who interact with us on our blog, our Twitter accounts (@bandwidth, @phonebooth, and @freePBX), our Facebook and other social networks.
Happy Holidays! Images after the jump. MORE ->
MIT Technology Review: Voice as an App
An excerpt from Erica Naone’s article on MIT Technology Review today…
“A new Internet protocol (IP) voice network was launched this week by Bandwidth.com of Cary, NC. The company hopes to attract businesses interested in advanced features, such as the ability to make one phone number ring several phones, but who don’t want to pay for all the old phone infrastructure. It already has one very big customer: Google Voice.”
