Ahhhhh Vancouver. When you arrive from the extreme cold warnings of Toronto, the balmy 8c air (that’s 46f for our friends south of the (Canadian) border) can’t help but make you feel good. We arrived ready for the Service Provider Investment Forum (SPIF) event and our fifteen minutes of fame. The event, organized by WINBC and the Kerton Group, proved to be a very worthwhile event to attend with some very interesting companies taking part.

For Talkster, the main event at this two day forum was the presentation session, held on Friday behind closed doors in front of some 25 SPIF members. Each company was allowed a ten minute presentation plus 5 minutes for question and answer. A further five minutes behind closed doors was allotted where the panel would discuss each company as a group, provide feedback, and share their impressions. We are expecting some feedback this week. With a crowd of diverse Telco focused investors you can never expect to hit the nail on the head for all of them, but we do hope that our brief presentation will peak the interest of some, opening the door to more in depth follow-up. That’s the task this week.

Thursday afternoon and evening was for networking. The WINBC group had their regular meeting which included a panel discussion of SPIF members. The discussion was lively and the topics covered were audience driven. A very interesting format I thought, giving the audience members a way to drive a lively discussion around topics of most interest to the crowd and getting the opinions of panel members (who could not benefit from a rehearsal or notes). The panel was followed by a keynote speaker, Jason Cohenour, president and CEO of Sierra Wireless. His speech was a real insight into Sierra Wireless but also for those of us now facing some of the same challenges that Sierra and Jason have faced along the way; a real lesson in some of the basics. “Knowing who’s the boss” (your customers and distribution channels) featured strongly as did “keeping your eye on the ball and not losing sight of your core business”. Basic business requirements you may think, but when applied to the timeline of a company in the wireless space where these rules do not always flow, it gained another level of clarity. Thanks for the reminder, Jason!

We also got to meet some interesting companies like Redwood Technologies and Bight Games who were fellow presenters who also traveled to BC for SPIF, as well as also local area companies attending the event. What came up time and time again was the affirmation that Talkster’s network creates an excellent opportunity for 3rd parties that want to add elements of telephony and other person to person communications to their network. Talkster’s network, built on open standards and accessible through web services makes it easy for these companies to use our network for their application communications without having to know anything about signalling, call control and routing. Connections to PSTN, SIP and Voice Instant Messaging networks becomes possible for web programmers and application developers. We will be expanding these opportunities during 2007 and look forward to making some announcements centred around this part of our business.

Another special activity that happened because of our attendance at SPIF was the opportunity to get to know Bill Tam, Colin Quon and Jeff LaPorte, the founders of Eqo Communications. They invited us down for a tour their offices (nicknamed “Eqo Chamber” by my colleague) then to a pub nearby to talk about the industry. These are some of the nicest guys I’ve met who work in Telecom.

Thanks to WINBC and the Kerton Group for putting together a high calibre event. We look forward to more of the same.

Talkster is heading to Vancouver this Thursday and Friday (January 25-26th) to attend The Service Provider Investment Forum (SPIF). The SPIF event is hosted by the Wireless Innovation Network of British Columbia (WINBC) and The Kerton Group.

Talkster was selected from a field of telecom applicants from across Canada to present to the group as part of the event.

As the WIN-BC site explains, “SPIF is a monthly meeting of representatives from both wireless and wireline carriers, venture capital and R&D divisions from around the world. SPIF investors are focused on strategic investment and partnerships and have the pulse on wireless, telecom, and Internet - from components, devices and enabling technologies to enterprise solutions and content.”

Talkster looks forward to hearing from industry heavy-weights like Sierra Wirless CEO, Jason Cohenour, who will be delivering the day-one Keynote; and to rubbing shoulders with the representatives from the VC arms of France Telecom, DoCoMo, Telus, British Telecom, and others.

Thanks in advance to the folks at WIN-BC for organizing this event. We’ll be sure to post our impressions after the event here on the Talkster Blog, and hope that if you are also attending the event that you come by to introduce yourself and say hello.

For the details on this event, go visit WINBC’s SPIF page.

For more information about The Service Provider Investment Forum, go to:
http://www.kerton.com/papers/ServiceProviderForum.pdf

James

Talkster unveils network that consolidates the communications services people use everyday on a device they already have and take everywhere they go – the mobile phone

TORONTO, ONT – December 11, 2006 – Business mobility company Talkster Inc. today unveiled a groundbreaking voice over Internet (VoIP) network that allows users to place calls from ordinary mobile phones to traditional and next generation voice services. As an important component of the company’s forthcoming enterprise communications service, the Talkster network connects mobile phones to VoIP networks and devices without phone numbers, such as IP-PBX office phones provisioned inside a corporate IP network.

To demonstrate this network capability, Talkster is offering an individual user beta service that substantially cuts the cost of international long distance and roaming, and is also the first service to enable mobile phones to call instant messenger with voice services such as MSN and Google Talk. The Talkster beta service can be used by the widest number of mobile phones without requiring software, special networks or convoluted calling methods. During this beta, calls to instant messaging services are free. People can sign up at www.talkster.com and start using the beta service today.

The Talkster beta service and the company’s international network of access points adapts to calling, long distance and roaming plans worldwide, making it possible to lower costs on any calling plan with simple direct outbound or callback calling options. Such features will be of particular value to the nearly 400 million Europeans with mobile phones in the 25 EU countries. Today these European callers can realize cost savings immediately, and stand to realize even greater savings after the enforcement of new European Union roaming regulations expected in 2007.

“Today Talkster launched its network, but soon businesses will have a comprehensive solution from Talkster to give them unprecedented control over the mobile communications services and devices their employees use,” said James Wanless, president and chief operating officer of Talkster. “The first step in rolling out this solution is unveiling this network and the capabilities and intelligence we built into it. Beyond mobile VoIP and Voice over Instant Messaging, Talkster is also demonstrating the future potential of contact presence as well as the ability to use our VoIP network for long distance and roaming cost savings that works in a truly global fashion.”

Talkster architected its VoIP and presence network with patent-pending intelligence to reduce the cost of mobility while increasing workforce productivity. The Talkster network utilizes web services to integrate and manage calling services, and to provide contact presence features – used by instant messaging services to indicate a person’s online status – to drive a dynamic contact list, features that will be enhanced in the enterprise version. When released next spring, Talkster’s fully-featured voice and text communications solution for enterprises will consolidate the many different work and personal communications services and phone numbers already being used by employees into a centrally managed, policy-based service used from a basic mobile phone.

“Talkster’s VoIP services are a good example of Voice 2.0 - the marriage of web services and telecom,” says Rebecca Swensen, research analyst for VoIP Services at IDC. “Talkster’s beta service differentiates itself from other mobile VoIP companies by using web services to increase functionality, usability in more countries, and extending service capability to a large number of mobile devices.”

The Talkster beta service is open to users worldwide at www.talkster.com. Enterprises interested in Talkster’s forthcoming enterprise service can send an email to “enterprise (at) talkster (dot) com.” Resellers and system integrators interested in adding Talkster’s enterprise mobility service to their portfolio of top-selling solutions can send a request for more information to “partners (at) talkster (dot) com.”

About Talkster
Talkster, the first service to let people place free calls from their cell phones to instant messaging services like MSN, Google Talk and Gizmo Project, consolidates the many voice-based communications services people use every day into an easy-to-use service that works from a single familiar device: the mobile phone. The Talkster beta service showcases Talkster’s Web services-based technology, the foundation for Talkster’s enterprise service offering, coming in 2007. For more information or to sign-up for the beta please visit www.talkster.com.

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Excerpted from Digital Common Sense. Originally posted by Ken Camp on 5 December 2006.

Talkster provides not just presence information on the mobile phone. They provide mobile to VoIP conversation with a variety of IM clients. They don’t look at it as VoIP. They call if Voice over IM. Ok, that’s marketing buzz and symantec hair-splitting. IM runs over IP and it’s VoIP. But being able to call a Gtalk user on a PC from the cell phone, without any new technologies on the user end, is hot stuff.

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Talkster’s debut at Voice 2.0 of its network and the ability to use virtually any mobile phone to place calls to instant messaging services with voice, such as MSN and Google, among others, was covered by CTV on 16 October 2006.

Watch as Talkster President James Wanless describes the capabilities of Talkster’s groundbreaking network:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_phUPIb0D4E]

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This story was originally posted at Startup Squad on 24 October 2006.

Talkster has a fresh outlook on providing cheap calls and reducing the complexities in contact list management. Talkster is coming into an area dominated by startups like Jajah, Rebtel, Mino, Fring, and Gtalk2VoIP, with each of them having their own unique ideas and implementation. Talkster’s own plan is to enable people to communicate using their existing devices in a much more efficient manner. Using Talkster people can call from their mobile phone to their instant messaging buddies on AOL, MSN, Google Talk, and Gizmo, for free.

Talkster also enables call from mobile phones to PSTN, VoIP, and mobile numbers for cheap rates.  I had a conference with James Wanless, COO of Toronto based Talkster, this
morning where he gave a demo of Talkster. Initial setup for Talkster is easy and all you need to do is add your contacts into your contact list located at Talkster. Talkster provides options to add instant messaging id, and PSTN/VoIP/mobile phone numbers for your friends. Once your are finished with the initial setup, you can access your Talkster account through your mobile browser like Opera Mini, and access your contacts and their IM presence status. If you view details for any of your contacts, you will get option to call them on any of the available methods including on IM, mobile, PSTN, and VoIP. Talkster takes around 5 seconds to connect the call, which is much better than what Rebtel or Mino
have to offer.

Besides the above features, Talkster also has a call-back feature using which you can take you calls on another phone instead of your mobile. As for the network usage, Talkster uses data plan while your browse your contact list and minutes plan when the call in initiated through your mobile.

Currently Talkster is in alpha phase and you can get access only on invite basis. As for the future development efforts, Talkster team is working on developing Java application to enable chat features. Talkster will also add simultaneous ring feature which sounds somewhat similar to what GrandCentral provides without the hassle of getting another number. Besides individual users, Talkster team will be looking to sell their service in corporate world which will help IT departments reduce TCO of their mobile plans and enable them to archive specific calls and IM conversations as and when needed.

Overall, Talkster is looking to provide is a contact centric approach to making calls. Once contact information is saved to your Talkster contact list, you can choose in real time which method you will use to call your friend. There is no need to use different devices to contact your friends located on different communication platforms. I think the ability of Talkster to provide a call federating service will definitely go down well with mobile consumers.

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This story originally posted on Digital Common Sense on 23 October 2006.

I’ve mentioned T@lkster (Talkster is much friendly in my view, and how I’ll type it more frequently) a couple of times. First in T@lkster - Are they Me Too or Voice 2.0? Maybe another Voice 2.0 Entrant in the Game here, I took a somewhat dim view triggered by some nice comments from Alec Saunders in T@lkster: A New Voice 2.0 Company. I wasn’t terribly impressed by what little I could see. But they responded quickly and I noted their responsiveness in How a Startup Shows they “Get It”.

I’m here to tell you my view has changed. So maybe I’m eating my words. I haven’t read the prior posts again closely at the moment. The folks at Talkster were more than just responsive to a blog post. They made it clear they want to win my support as a positive voice, and they have. They provided me an alpha account in their pre-release system so I could play a bit and see for myself. No, I won’t share screenshots. But I’ll tell you what I saw, and what I envision down the road.

Based on Alec’s intial post, I saw another minute stealer playing the international long distance arbitrage card. That’s a business model I don’t think is sustainable. What I saw under the covers is far more than that. In fact, that’s an inconsequential byproduct of what’s really coming from Talkster.

Think IM clients one step removed. Don’t think of IM as text chat. Think of IM as a means to enable voice conversations. Now think of dumping all those piggsh think clients we install from AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Skype, et al. Think federated thin client (clientless really, via the web) access to voice calls on those networks.

Today, in alpha mode, Talkster allows me, from my cell phone, to set up calls to any phone nubmer in the world, any of my Gizmo contacts, any Gtalk contact and and MSN Live Messenger client. Not text chat - a voice call. I can have the system place the call, or set it up and ring me back when the call is ready. And like my most favorite solutions, it just works.

I spent some time on the phone today with founder James Wanless, and John (sorry John, last name escapes me) talking about what they’re doing in alpha, the beta release anticipated before the end of the year, and the logner view of what Talkster is all about.

First, Talkster isn’t about arbitrage of minutes. It’s about federating all VoIM capability into a single interface. It isn’t about consumer services, although that’s a huge byproduct as well. But the Talkster team is clearly focused on presence, telepresence, and federation of multiple, disparate systems for the enterprise. Yes, that includes the evolution for many enterprises to Microsoft’s Live Communication Server at some point. While I may pan LCS today, I have no doubt Microsoft is serious about that business. Cisco’s telepresence initiative virtually assure that Microsoft will be in the game. Neither 800 pound gorilla can tolerate an outright with by the other. Talkster tells me they already have some fairly cruicial certifications from Microsoft to ensure they work together.

Talkster will allow entperise mobile users to see presence information for their online contacts, and make voice calls. And yes, they plan on supporting text chat too, but their focus in on voice. 2.0 style voice. Big time. It means from a handheld, a road warrior will be able to see who’s available in the enterprise and set up voice calls quickly and easily. And yes, with the rules engines running behind the scenes in VoIP networks, relevance engines like iotum, and other scenarios, the calls will always choose the cheapest possible call path.

Futures? Think about the value of adding Yahoo IM, AIM, Skype and SIP URI calling functionality. Yes, all in a single think client via the web. Using the web, from the handheld, to manage presence, IM and voice in a rich user experience.

Talkster has separated the service layer from the network layer, easing integration with existing systems. I see this supporting IMS services from carriers and VoIP providers. I see integration at a variety of levels into enterprise networks. And I see this playing in a huge way as fixed mobile convergence becomes less a pipe dream and more a reality, particularly with the SIP URI support down the road. That’s a future of seamless integration of the mobile handset into the entperprise communications network in ways we just cannot accomplish today.

If I sound bullish, let’s just say they showed me the light from their view, and it’s a strong healthy view. Are they alone? I don’t think so. Not at all. I know of at least one other company, still in quiet, stealthy mode, that does something sort of similar, but quite different - approaching the problem from a totally different, but equally compelling view. Standy by for more on that in a few weeks. I know I’ll be actively involved in testing this other approach.

For the peek I saw of the alpha test, what I heard is coming right frmo the source, and again for being responsive and completely on top of their game, kudos to the Talkster team. All I can say is I’ll be watching closely, testing, and anxiously awaiting each new feature.

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This story originally posted October 18 on Alec Saunders .Log.

The preferred attack point for cellular VoIP plays today seems to be disintermediating mobile long distance from the handset. For the last few weeks I’ve been playing with and alpha release of Talkster, a new Voice 2.0 offering which does exactly that.

Talkster’s promise is that you will be able to make inexpensive long distance calls from any mobile handset to anyplace in the world without downloading new software. Unlike Jajah, Talkster allows the call to be originated frmo the handset (without a downloaded client) which is much less expensive in Europe. Unlike Rebtel, Talkster requires no special numbers to be created and mapped. The service operates transparently. In addition, unlike either of the above services, Talkster lets you terminate your calls on literally any client you can think of — IM, a PSTN handset, or VoIP. Moreover, it gathers presence information from your contacts IM accounts to show you whether or not the recipient might be available to take that call.

To use, you simply browse to an available contact and initiate a call. You can see each user’s online presence, and then choose to make a call to that user. The first photo below shows Talkster running in the Blackberry 8700 window, with “available” presence indicated for Janice, and the Talkster helpdesk, but not Andy or Howard. What you can’t see is that Janice is reachable either on MSN, or via her home or cell phone lines, while Andy’s contact record is set to reach him on either his Gizmo project number, or his GrandCentral number.

The second photo shows the two modes that Talkster can operate in. You can have it perform a callback, the way that Jajah does, or have it initiate the call from your handset,as Rebtel requires.

Talkster came out of stealth at the recent Voice 2.0 conference in Ottawa. After CEO James Wanless’ pitch, I had a chance to catch up with him and CTO Mark Gelman at the Voice 2.0 conference. Gelman let it casually be known that one of the “hidden under the covers” features of Talkster is a web services interface, allowing the Talkster system to be driven from an application. That feature alone has tremendous potential, and the ability to make Talkster into a true long tail player in the Voice 2.0 ecosystem.

This company has a lot of promise. Watch for the open beta coming soon.

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Excerpted from a column in the Globe and Mail by Ross MacLeod. The article highlights insights from the Voice 2.0 conference held in Ottawa on 16 October 2006.

Having weathered what seems to be the worst of the post-bubble melt down, the telecom industry finds itself in relatively calm waters. Sales have largely recovered, and the necessary industry consolidation is gradually rationalizing the imbalance between supply and demand.

While traditional industry players (service providers and vendors) continue to sort themselves out, new players like Skype (Voice Over IP), Digium (Open Source Private Branch eXchanges), and Toronto Hydro Telecom (Municipal WiFi Network) are entering the industry with disruptive technologies and business models. As carriers deal with these new competitive challenges, and equipment vendors are distracted with consolidation politics, a storm is brewing that has barely begun to register on the radar of many of these traditional telecom companies. They are in the eye of a perfect storm.

Read the entire article at the Globe and Mail.

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