Some Gems of Wisdom from the Excel User's Conference

OK, gang, the 2005 Excel User's conference is in full swing here in
Boston. Lots of great information and good ideas going around from the
people who make applications work. There are people here from Korea,
Guam, Singapore, China, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand. I seem
to be the only one from South Carolina.
I will post more, but here a couple of the quotes so far:

"SMS was the accidental killer app." -Marc Zionts, CEO, Excel

"Think globally, but partner locally." -JC Murphy, President, Excel

"Video messaging is the sizzle around media servers, voice messaging is
the steak." -Andrew O'Brien, VP, BrookTrout

"If you want to be a telco, you shouldn't have to be a software
company." -Cork Vanderford, PDS Guam

"Politicians are beginning to see a lot of money leaving their pockets because of VoIP. The question is, what are they going to do about it?" -Rich Tehrani, Publisher, Internet Telephony Magazine

More later!

Boston Bound

I am on my way to Boston to speak to the participants at the Excel User's Conference. Can't wait to hear what they are saying about the MVNO opportunity and how they can profit from it. Also looking forward to some great seafood with my friends from Excel! Will give you an update from the conference on Wednesday. What are your plans? Please comment here.

The Hyenas Have Struck Again

In case you haven't seen it, there is yet another patent infringement lawsuit filed against startup telecom companies. In this latest chapter, Sprint is claiming that it has seven patents covering critical parts of VoIP, and is demanding that Vonage, Voiceglo and TheGlobe.com, pay up for their use of the technology.

I was most intrigued by a quote from a Sprint spokesperson as reported by Reuters.

"We are not claiming to have invented voice over packet technology but we do have patents that have facilitated the use of this technology and we will take appropriate action to protect the use of these patents."

So, let's see if we understand what Sprint is saying. They did not invent VoIP, but have filed patents covering some of its use. That is their claim? They invented nothing, but filed patents?

There was a special on Animal Planet last week about the animals of the African desert. I was particularly intrigued by the spotted hyena. This carnivorous mammal lives off the efforts of other predators. Literally, this dog doesn't hunt. Neither does it kill anything on its own. It waits for a more capable animal to make the kill, then gathers a crowd of sycophants who use their loud, raucous laughs and threatening demeanor to intimidate the real hunter into giving up part, or all, of its kill.

Sprint is the hyena of the VoIP world, but nobody is laughing except the hyenas.

Welcome to The Prepaid Press Blog

To all you readers of The Prepaid Press, welcome to our blog. As Editor, I am going to keep a blog of the things that we are doing and the issues that impact anyone involved in the prepaid industry. Please bookmark and check back often for the latest view from our vantagepoint.

SPECIAL NOTE TO NON-READERS

You better subscribe now! Scoot on over to http://www.Prepaid-Press.com/subscribe and get yourself a free subscription to the fastest growing publication in the industry.

We are often irreverent, but never irrelevant.

Oh, by the way, you are welcome to participate. In fact, we encourage you to agree, disagree, question, ask, answer and give us your views and opinions.

-Gene Retske

Can post from TREO

I can now post from my mobile, so watch out.

-gene

----
Sent from my Treo