Welcome to the last episode of Olly and the Guru (for now). This is the one that ties it all together (sort of) and creates what we think is a viable option for the future of telecommunications. There’s obviously flaws here and there, but for the most part, I think this train of thought could become reality.

We ended last week, if you recall, with the admission that Google is the world’s most well-known content provider

What do you think? Are we way off base here, or do you think that this *could* really happen? Would you want it to?

 4:52:33 PM: who is also in bed with most
cellphone manufacturers

 4:52:41 PM: and addressing the mobile dept
quite well

 4:52:47 PM: kinda

 4:52:57 PM: so what if
my T-Mo handset could roam between 1.) Hotspots 2.) Wimax (either sprint or
someone elses) and 3.) Google

 4:53:07 PM: or my
sprint handset

 4:53:13 PM: or, even
better, MY GOOGLE HANDSET

 4:53:17 PM: ew no

 4:53:19 PM: no google handset

 4:53:32 PM: haha

 4:53:45 PM: "Thank for you checking
your voicemail. Stay tuned to hear your messages after a word from our sponsors"

 4:53:46 PM: you and I
may not like it, but a Google branded smartphone would sell like hotcakes I bet

 4:53:48 PM: no thanks.

 4:54:01 PM: yeah, but
for people who want it on the cheap, that’s the way to go

 4:54:11 PM: "Welcome
to Google VM Beta" lol

 4:54:13 PM: ‘"You’re calling Sarah,
brought to you by Summer’s Eve"

 4:54:16 PM: hahahhahahaha

 4:54:31 PM: what if I could choose the ads
people had to listen to before they call me

 4:54:38 PM: kinda like mobile adsense?

 4:54:45 PM: or adwords or whatever

 4:54:49 PM: what if
they were based on the content of your conversation, kind of like gmail is now

 4:55:07 PM: if I talk alot about
cellphones, you’d hear/see a Wirefly ad

 4:55:25 PM: or I could sell myself

 4:55:27 PM: so you get
off the phone, and you get an MMS for Pampers because your girl was asking you
to pick up diapers at the store

 4:55:33 PM: lol

 4:55:43 PM: a market kinda like blogs

 4:55:51 PM: yep

 4:55:59 PM: I get paid more on my ads
because I talk over 3k min.month

 4:56:21 PM: you get paid squat or have
generic ads cause you only talk 450 min

 4:56:32 PM: think
about the fact that to sign up for gmail right now, you need to give Google
your phone number… kind of makes you think, eh?

 4:56:48 PM: creepy

 4:56:51 PM: glad I didn’t

 4:56:55 PM: haha

 4:56:59 PM: not that they don’t have it
somehow anyways

 4:57:08 PM: yep, I’m
not all for conspiracy theories, but Google has always creeped me out as a
company in some ways

 4:57:18 PM: but that’s
a whole nother topic

 4:57:19 PM: lol

 4:57:27 PM: also look at stuff like Nokia
Maps announced today, and amAze

 4:57:30 PM: ad-supported GPS

 4:57:45 PM: exactly

 4:57:47 PM: and there’s some way to do GPS
off WiFi

 4:57:53 PM: apparently it gets the location
quicker

 4:57:59 PM: I need to find that article

 4:58:13 PM: or look at
the fact that eBay, an auction company, now owns Skype, a communications
company… marketing and communications are more intersected now then they ever
have been

 4:58:25 PM: true

 4:58:28 PM: ads used
to be passive, but now they are a part of our interactive life

 4:58:30 PM: and Gtalk and Google checkout

 4:58:45 PM: yep

 4:58:54 PM: here’s a
scenario for you:

 5:01:39 PM: You make a
call on your MoIP handset… it reaches out and grabs whatever network is
available… you make a call, talk for a while, and get off the call… you get
an MMS about the new car that you were talking to your friend about… in that
MMS is a link to the dealership local to you… you click that dealership, and
a friendly salesmen comes up on your video phone… you make an appointment to
test drive the car with that person… when you logoff, you get an SMS reminder
for the appointment automatically. You
make another call, but this time its for some very private business, so you
tell your phone to prefer the T-Mobile WiMAX that you pay for, so you know that
it’s private and ad-free…

 5:02:27 PM: The ad
network, in that scenario, becomes like a local call — it’s free… while the
private call becomes like a long distance — you still have to pay a service
charge for it

 5:02:29 PM: or something
like that

 5:02:34 PM: oooooh

 5:02:39 PM: man, too
many possibilities and my head is going to explode lol

 5:02:40 PM: all available, though, from the
same company

 5:02:44 PM: yep

 5:02:59 PM: so just
like I can get ad supported email from Yahoo free, but ad free email with
extras for a fee

 5:03:02 PM: you pay $40/month for 400min.
of personal time and unlimited ad-supported time

 5:03:07 PM: yep

 5:03:15 PM: that’s nuts

 5:03:33 PM: hell we
should pitch this to T-Mobile right now

 5:03:37 PM: I’m down

 5:03:39 PM: but patent
it first

 5:03:41 PM: you get the contact

 5:03:45 PM: oh for sure

 5:03:49 PM: have them
buy the patent then I can live on an island somewhere

 5:05:30 PM: I think
T-Mobile is already moving this way though… consider that I still to this day
have unlimited UMA on my account (since the trial)…

 5:05:36 PM: really?

 5:05:43 PM: yeah, they
never removed it

 5:05:55 PM: so I could
use my own network at home for free calls with a UMA handset

 5:06:15 PM: did you get to keep the phone?

 5:06:18 PM: not that I
care particularly since I don’t call people from home that often, and I have a
ton of minutes

 5:06:35 PM: no, had to
send the phone back

 5:07:33 PM: it didn’t
work that well at my house because my router was ancient, but it worked
flawlessly handing off from GSM to a T-mo hotspot

 5:09:02 PM: what UMA
does for T-Mo too is take the strain off of them having to worry about GSM
deployment

 5:09:16 PM: GSM and 3G

 5:09:24 PM: in the
future, as we see the spectrum getting smaller, that’s important

 5:09:29 PM: yep

 5:10:33 PM: the only problem I still see
though is

United States

coverage

 5:11:50 PM: not too
much of an issue I don’t think… the 3G network is still important, because
it’s the backup for the boonies where WiMAX and WiFi aren’t feasible… but
citywide WiFi is a reality in a bunch of cities now (San Fran, Chicago, even
downtown Seattle soon)

 5:12:19 PM: But if 3G
is sitting as the backup, then spectrum gobbling isn’t an issue anymore

 5:12:42 PM: T-mo HAS
to do something like that because VZW and Cingy have all the spectrum right
now… they have to innovate to get around it

 5:13:52 PM: another flaw I could see is
that VZW and Cingy are snapping up content deals like no other

 5:13:58 PM: VZW just got ESPN Mobile

 5:14:01 PM: They could
have a phone that was setup for primarily WiFi, but had 3G on 1700/2100 and
good ‘ole GSM sitting on the backside (kind of like how Analog sat on the
backside of everything for so long, though few used it)

 5:14:02 PM: Cingy’s got MySpace

 5:14:14 PM: yeah, and
T-Mo needs to get on it

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