MagicJack's Next Act: Disappearing Cell Phone Fees

[villager]

Source: AP

MagicJack's Next Act: Disappearing Cell Phone Fees

MagicJack's next act: Making cell phone fees disappear? Carrier applause not expected

By PETER SVENSSON AP Technology Writer

The company behind the magicJack, the cheap Internet phone gadget that's been heavily promoted on TV, has made a new version of the device that allows free calls from cell phones in the home, in a fashion that's sure to draw protest from cellular carriers.

The new magicJack uses, without permission, radio frequencies for which cellular carriers have paid billions of dollars for exclusive licenses.

YMax Corp., which is based in Palm Beach, Fla., said this week at the International Consumers Electronics Show that it plans to start selling the device in about four months for $40, the same price as the original magicJack. As before, it will provide free calls to the U.S. and Canada for one year.

The device is, in essence, a very small cellular tower for the home.

The size of a deck of cards, it plugs into a PC, which needs a broadband Internet connection. The device then detects when a compatible cell phone comes within 8 feet, and places a call to it. The user enters a short code on the phone. The phone is then linked to the magicJack, and as long as it's within range (YMax said it will cover a 3,000-square-foot home) magicJack routes the call itself, over the Internet, rather than going through the carrier's cellular tower. No minutes are subtracted from the user's account with the carrier. Any extra fees for international calls are subtracted from the user's account with magicJack, not the carrier.


According to YMax CEO Dan Borislow, the device will connect to any phone that uses the GSM standard, which in the U.S. includes phones from AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA. At a demonstration at CES, a visitor's phone with a T-Mobile account successfully placed and received calls through the magicJack. Most phones from Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp. won't connect to the device.

Borislow said the device is legal because wireless spectrum licenses don't extend into the home.

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Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=9511411

[TheEuclideanOne]

1. I am going to buy one, if for no other reason than to give a

small FUCK YOU to the cell phone companies.

[physioex]

6. Not necessarily....

The best way to get your moneys worth is to completely use your day time alloted minutes every month. And talk endlessly through the night. And it depends on if you have a data plan. The real profits are in the data and text plans now days.

[TheEuclideanOne]

7. That would mean I need friends.

There is actually a way, via Google voice to use your cell phone for the most minimum rate possible. I need to set myself up for that. Hopefully this is the last huge bill I will be paying.

[Fearless]

13. Instead... for a moment apply that logic to Medicare or USPS flat rate boxes...

It's just the consumer who gets screwed in the end.

[physioex]

16. Medicare is a whole another topic......

And I am for universal healthcare. Going back to the Post Office flat rate box and wireless plans yes they are in a sense both the same. They have actuaries figure out out what they can charge for a service knowing full well some people will use the service to the full extent and some won't so the profit is made when you don't use the service to the full extent.

[Fla Dem]

38. How will it be a FU to the cell phone companies ? You still have to purchase

their calling plans. The only $$$'s I see saving are calls (w/i 3000 ft of the device) that would have been above your cell phone carriers paid for minutes. Maybe I'm missing something. :shrug:

[HipChick]

40. It will only work with GSM phones,and then only certain types

[truedelphi]

2. I am hearing good things from casual users of these Magic Jackey thing-ees,

Nice to know that now we can bite the Cellular phone companies in the butt.

[TheEuclideanOne]

9. Same here.

[kas125]

11. Wow, really? I only know one person who got one and it

only lasted about two months before she got frustrated enough to throw the thing in the trash and go back to her old phone. She said it would let her make calls, but not receive them, and other weeks it would let her receive calls but not make them, and she finally got so tired of it that she gave up. That was about two years ago and I haven't considered getting one myself because of her experience, but maybe I should rethink that, especially this month when my kids used more minutes than our cell plan has and I'm gonna end up paying for that.

[clear eye]

17. My cable ISP provides my VoIP phone, & it's great.

Lousy information assistance though. Gives me unlimited domestic calls for a reasonable flat fee, and free features like call-waiting and caller ID, and saves my messages in my online account, so I don't need an answering machine.

I checked other VoIP plans, and though some have a lower monthly rate, they don't include things like being able to block your outgoing caller ID, like my plan does. I'm thinking of leaving the area in a year or two, and I'll probably miss it.

[tridim]

32. My ex-boss bought one for me and it was unusable.

Random 3 second pauses, random beeping, nasty software that takes lots of CPU, etc, etc, etc.

It was a nightmare. Probably one of the worst products I've ever experienced in 39 years of life.

[physioex]

3. How is this different from what they are offering now?

Ok so you plug your $20 cordless phone from Kmart to their current technology. The only difference is the way data is being transferred from the phone to the computer. Too much marketing. Yaaawn.......

[lapfog_1]

8. You use your cell phone.

I'm guessing that this only works for phone calls that you place. And the phone number that the person you call sees is likely the phone number assigned to the VOIP "magic-jack" line. They simply intercept the phone signal when you place a call and become the "cell" for that phone for the duration of the call. More convenient than hunting down that cordless. Just keep your cell phone with you in the house... and don't pay for the airtime.

Cute idea.

[clear eye]

18. Kinda defeats the purpose of a cell phone, doesn't it?

Unless you've got a notebook pc & someplace other than your home w/ a broadband connection, you'd be limited to using it in your home. If you did use it outside your home, you'd be breaking the law. If you were in a crowded area, all the other cell phones w/i 8' would get called by the gizmo at the same time yours did. In an Internet cafe, for instance, the other folks would complain almost immediately, and you'd end up in front of a judge.

[RC]

4. I think that last sentence may be in error.

"Borislow said the device is legal because wireless spectrum licenses don't extend into the home."

[lapfog_1]

5. Not to mention that the wattage of the "magic-jack"

is probably in the "unlicensed" range (much like wifi).

Still, even if "unlicensed" I think the FCC would take a dim view of this (not to mention that the cell corporations are probably speed dialing their congress people to change the law to make this illegal should the phone companies not win in court).

[truedelphi]

10. The cell phone companies break the law every day of the week.

For instance in Marin County California, the cell companies are supposed to petition the County and sometimes the town or city, whenever they want to put in new antennae. Yet they perseist in just putting the damn antennae up whenever and wherever they want.

[avaistheone1]

12. I have a Magic Jack and it works very well.

About one in ten calls in bad - which is pretty great considering the price of the Magic Jack.

All and all I am a very happer camper and recommmend it. As luck would have it I have a T-Mobile cell so I hope to try out their new device for cell phone calls.

[Michigan-Arizona]

35. Mine work's very well to & I love it

My brother has had his for around 6 month's & he love's it. A different brother bought one & found out it can't be used with Huges satelite internet so he had to take it back.

[avaistheone1]

14. Actually some of those cell phone frequencies sold very cheaply when they were first auctioned off

by the government. As I recall many went for as little as $25,000 just about twenty or so odd years ago.

[Blasphemer]

15. I'm not a fan of the Magic Jack

Call quality is definitely inferior. They also block usage of other conference services which has made them useless for business and work related calling. I'm not a phone person (I ditched my cell phone for good and nothing could make me start using it again), but when I do use the phone, I stick to the landline or Skype (which is also problematic as far as quality and call dropping but it's convenient when I'm at my computer).

[NJCher]

33. really?

I find my MagicJack to be of very high sound quality. Of course, this is compared to cell phone quality, which is all I was using before.

I had a Verizon landline for a few months last year but found I made about one call a month on it, so it wasn't worth it.

Cher

[katkat]

19. free business 411

Sort of related, don't forget free 411 via 1-800-GOOG-411 from google for business phone numbers. This works 95% of the time for me, and with Verizon charging $1.25 a pop for 411, has significantly reduced my phone bill.

[Unca Jim]

23. My home cordless phone...

has a GOOG-411 button on it. It's awesome and handy when I don't want to fire up a computer to search for a number.

[elifino]

20. I work from home

My land line was out for two weeks, DSL still worked. I went to Radio Shack bought a Magicjack, purchased a phone number for the unit and used it to send and receive faxes. I work as a Tech Support for Computers for my company, most problems with Magicjack are most likely computer related. I did not purchase the unit to replace my land line or cell phone, but as a means to continue to work from home when my land line is out.
Yes, DSL can work even if the land line will not, as long as the line is shorted and not cut.

[katkat]

25. elifino faxing with no phone line or fax machine

maxemail.com is very good for faxes with no fax machine. I have used it for several years. If you can scan it in, you can fax it with no machine. Incoming faxes wind up in your inbox in printable/viewable form.

[Ian David]

21. I'll buy one of those. My cellphone company has been screwing me for years.

Now I can at least give them a little back.

[brooklynite]

30. "screwing you for years"?...and you're still with them why?

Last I heard there were four national cell companies, plus regional ones.

[rg302200]

22. Think about the long-term consequences of this

As Democrats we should be working to keep Americans employed, something that Cell phone companies do on a large scale. For example look at the big 4 wireless companies; Verizon Wireless employees 87,000 + people, AT&T 70,000 people (most of whom are members of the Communications Workers of American, CWA Union) T-Mobile 36,000 employees and Sprint-Nextel 56,000 employees. Although this device does not work with Verizon and Sprint I mention them here due to the simple fact that they are large-scale employers and how long do you think it will be before you can use this device on their networks? I gave up a career in education to work for a wireless company because the pay is substantially better as are the benefits and retirement package (that's right the pay at a wireless company is better than the pay of a teacher in a public school system). I don't understand the publics hate for cell phone companies especially when you choose to own a mobile phone, we are not a determined need, say like the electric companies, we are instead a simple convenience item. I have worked for my company for years and I can honestly say that I have never witnessed my company "screwing" over customers, in fact cell phone companies treat their customers a lot better than some other companies because they need those customers in order to be a viable and successful company. If people start using these devices how long will it be before the cell phone companies simply start getting rid of their employees?

[proud2BlibKansan]

24. I live in Sprint's home town

Their world headquarters is located here. And I know probably 100 former Sprint employees who would disagree with you.

I do understand your point though and have no intention of giving up my cell phone.

[katkat]

27. cell phone

I have a cell phone purely as a safety measure if I get stuck on the road somewhere or when I go walking (I'm an old crone); it is not a convenience item to me.

Verizon Wireless customer service is terrible, staffed by ignorant people who don't care a jot. Perhaps as an employee, you do not encounter your own company's customer service. Verizon landline customer service is terrible also. I called them 3 times last week for info to evaluate changing my plan, and got three different answers about how I was being charged, and a complete lack of interest in determining what the correct information was.

Somehow I am not motivated to save these people's jobs. In fact, I hope companies with terrible customer service go into the tank.

[NashVegas]

31. Guess What? Too Late

Thinking of long-term consequences is something thoughtful people in every industry have BEGGED for with each new technological miracle.

You can't just let the buck slide and slide and slide and go "hey, wait, stop" when it comes to your desk.

[Xithras]

37. All technologies are transient.

From buggy whips to cellphones, every technological innovation eventually gets supplanted by something else. In the mid 90's, tens of thousands of Americans had jobs as dial-up ISP's. Then the telcos and cablecoms started offering broadband, and the dialup companies largely went out of business. Despite the mass layoffs, few would argue that we should have stuck with dial-up.

I don't think this device presents any particular threat to the cell providers, but a technology WILL eventually come along that puts them out of business. That's just reality.

As for people getting screwed...compare services and prices of American cellphone users against cell users almost anywhere else in the world and you'll see how we're getting screwed. We have the most expensive cellular networks in the first world.

[Richard D]

26. T-mobile at lease . . .

. . . has a reasonably priced plan for unlimited calls, text messages and internet time, rendering this into the "nice idea I wish was around a long time ago when it would have saved me a lot of money" category.

[BadgerKid]

28. Eight feet -- sounds like bluetooth. n/t

[Paulie]

34. Yep, especially given you type in a pairing code. N/t

[brooklynite]

29. I;ve received more SPAM for the MagicJack than any other product...

...and I have never exceeded my cell phone minutes

[Better Today]

36. I've heard the magic Jack is nothing but crap. It's like the VOIP

stuff. I had one client call me and it was a strange sort of in and out reception, asked if she was on a cell on the edges of its range, she said no, it was her new VOIP phone. It was awful.

Anyway, I was looking into the magic jack thingy and the google for complaints was long and there are a lot of unhappy folks with it.

[HipChick]

39. I have 2 of them...they suck...I've since moved to other VOIP

not a problem

[Blasphemer]

41. What do you use? nt

[clear eye]

42. Other VoIP services can be superb.

I've got one and for a reasonable flat fee every month, I get unlimited domestic calling, free features like call waiting & caller ID, and a virtual answering machine that saves my voice messages to an online account.

The call quality is indistinguishable from today's land lines.

[LWolf]

43. My mother just replaced

her land line with a magicjack. I'll be checking in with her over the next few months to see how she likes it.

I'm assuming that, for this new version, a cell phone could still work in the home if the computer was turned off...during a power outage, for example?