Interviews

Interview with Marc Bodner, CEO of Ping Mobile

admin on April 22, 2009

Marc Bodner is the Chief Executive Officer of Ping Mobile. He has broad global management and legal experience in the telecommunications and Internet sectors and success in start-up, restructuring/turnaround and growth environments. Mr. Bodner was most recently a principal of Met Capital LLC, an advisory firm focused on assisting small and mid-sized companies in the areas of strategic planning, capital formation and transformational commercial and M&A activities. Until August 2006, Mr. Bodner was President of U.S. Consumer Products for IDT Corporation’s Telecom division. Before joining IDT in 1999, he was an associate at Goldberg, Corwin & Greenberg LLP, a New York City law firm. Marc Bodner is based at Ping Mobile’s New Jersey headquarters.

Can you introduce your company ? Ping Mobile is a full-service mobile marketing and media services company, whose mission is to power the mobile phone as today’s primary social and marketing communication tool through delivery of high-value interactive content directly to mobile devices. Ping is comprised of two (2) wholly owned and fully-integrated units : Israel-based Ping Mobile Ltd. (formerly Regisoft Ltd.) and its award-winning mobile technology platform, and Pop Solutions llc, dba PING MOBILE, a U.S. mobile marketing company with a considerable client portfolio and deal pipeline, and a management team steeped in marketing and media industry knowledge and experience. Ping is headquartered in New Jersey and maintains sales offices in Los Angeles and Atlanta and an R&D facility in Israel.

interview-marc-bodner Ping Mobile’s objective is to empower brands to deliver personalized mobile marketing through leading-edge interactive technology. Ping is uniquely capable of delivering results to its clients by targeting and personalizing marketing messages utilizing behavioral intelligence, usage and redemption information and smart data. Ping facilitates commerce on behalf of its clients, and the PingRewards™ community portal is the industry’s only Internet-to-Mobile platform offering targeted promotions and discounts based on the registered user’s profile.

As a successful Mobile Marketing Agency, how do you consider Wimax Technology for your business ? We will be beneficiaries of the roll-out as it will lead to further advancement of mobile usage for a greater variety of functions. The usage of mobile internet users and WAP site views will increase, there will be more sharing and downloading of content, and media sales will accelerate.

Ben Wolff, Clearwire co-founder, recently said that his company expects “more than a hundred devices will have an embedded WiMax chipset by … Read the rest

Interview with Marc Wallis “Clear” Wimax Subscriber In Portland, Oregon

admin on March 18, 2009

“I have been using mobile service since the middle of December and home (fixed) service for about 1 month. In regards to] mobile service – I use the mobile service frequently, but not every day – and to this date, the service is not failed (ie. not been available in an area I know it should be there when I wanted to use it). now, I have come across spots that are dead – little to no signal. I’m hoping over time, they will locate and eliminate these dead zones. They only officially launched in January, so I am sure they have not tested every possible connection spot.

The only limitation I’m finding is that mobile service indoors is spotty. At my house, it’s fine indoors. At Costco, indoors, it’s fine. But at the hospital, in the waiting area (deeper inside an 8-story building) I couldn’t get a signal. I finally did get my signal up on the 7th floor, in a patient room near the window. As long as I’ve been outdoors, I’m getting good solid service in the areas that I travel.
Here is a google map that I’ve created mapping the connection speeds I’m getting at various places in my area

How has your experience been with fixed Wimax?

so far, so good, it hasn’t failed yet, in the 1 month I’ve had it. I found the location in my home with the best signal strength, connected it to a network switch that is running hard wires to some spots in my house as well as a WiFi access point. All my computers are happy. I’m getting an average of 2.0 – 2.5 Mbps when using the computers on my home network -both wired and wireless.

Do you Feel the price is right for the service that you are getting ?

Yes, it’s very cost effective. For my home service, I’m paying $30/month with no contract. If I signed up for a contract, I could save even more.
Even the mobile service, advertised at $50/month for unlimited usage, is good.

I’ve always been a mobile internet user, but have been limited to wifi hotspots. Now, I can connect anytime anywhere I want to … that’s extremely convenient for me. I could be in my car parked in the middle of a field and still get access to the internet and the things I need/want to do. … Read the rest

Interview with Sling Broadband CEO Addiel Lopez

admin on March 17, 2009

Can you briefly introduce yourself and your company?

Addiel Lopez founder of Sling Broadband, North America’s Largest Privately Held Wimax Internet Service Provider. A Results-oriented CEO and investor of several successful start-up telecommunications companies, 8yr career in professional telecommunications sales & marketing.
Sling Broadband offers South Florida’s most reliable wireless broadband network, committed in building and delivering a new alternative to traditional high speed internet. With speeds up to 1.25gbps Wimax is the newest replacement to traditional telephone company broadband. Sling Broadband’s Backbone network is reliable, redundant and robust, featuring 10G inter connectivity with leading global Tier-1 backbone providers, including; AT&T, Level (3), Global Crossing, and Cogent, as well as over 250 direct peering relationships.

How does Sling plan on attacking the Wimax market?

By expanding our wireless our network to 23 Major markets in 2-5 years, and identifying new application layers on our network; thus stimulating innovative new products.

What is Sling’s competitive edge over its potential competitors ?

Our size and natural network resources! ; These advantages only magnify our ability to switch focus and move in nimble fashion.

How long will it be before wimax will becomes a household name?

Intel’s adoption of the wimax chipset into their new centrino platform will pave the road for residential wimax mass market acceptance.

What challenges do you see for sling in the short term? Long term?

“Spectrum” it takes an incredible amount of capital to purchase these rights and then the added cost of deployment. Our long term challenges seem to revolve around capacity and subscriber density.

Can you tell us more about the wireless network you are deploying in the city of Hollywood, Florida?

Sling Broadband has partnered with Johnson Controls and local city government in deploying the first hybrid public safety / public access wi-fi network; of its kind in our South Florida market

What are your thoughts on the Stimulus package and its impact on the wireless industry?

Rapid growth of overnight WISP’s in many U.S markets. And a sudden boom in rural broadband coverage
What will the digital landscape look like in the US in the next 3 years ?

The digital transition and stimulus package will allow our broadband ecosystem the ability to catch up to the global wireless standards.

Will wimax and LTE become a battle to the finish line? Or do you see them co-existing?

Co-Existing 100%…. “Interoperability” is key! Proprietary … Read the rest

Interview with Michael Deboer from SpecEx, the “Ebay of Spectrum”

admin on January 7, 2009

specex

Can you briefly introduce yourself and your company ?

Sure. My name is Michael DeBoer, a Marketing Manager for a company called Spectrum Bridge. What we’ve done is develop an online marketplace which brings together buyers and sellers of licensed spectrum and generally leverages the advantages of the secondary spectrum market.

Can you tell us how the spectrum market is organized between the primary and secondary Market ?

The markets could be compared to the real estate industry. In order to make a purchase on the primary market, you’d have to buy a new home from a builder or developer. If you then sold the house a few years down the road, you’d be selling it on the secondary market, and the person buying your house would be buying on the secondary market. In the spectrum business, the primary market is the one we are most familiar hearing about; 700 MHz, AWS-3, cellular and PCS auctions: i.e. getting spectrum directly from the FCC [ Federal Communications Commission ].

The secondary market is where, to me, the more exciting moving and shaking takes place. It was solidified in 2003 when the FCC adopted new regulations which allow spectrum to be bought, sold or leased to third-parties. It was called the Secondary Market Initiative. On top of opening up a new market for reselling spectrum assets, the new rules also opened up the possibility for a company like ours to exist.

A secondary market transaction would be defined as one in which the license transferred or leased was not acquired directly from the FCC, rather it was acquired from a current holder. That being said, the secondary market is what ensures businesses can still get spectrum they need, even without forking over billions of dollars to win spectrum in a major FCC auction.

And how Spectrum Bridge is adding value into it ?

What we’ve created is a marketplace called SpecEx as a resource where people can find out what frequencies are available on the secondary market; basically leveraging the FCC rules to establish a viable and beneficial market for everyone. We make it easy to market your excess spectrum or find spectrum for sale with a few clicks of your mouse. It’s a lot like how the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) works for houses.

Let’s say you’re a utility company or government agency who would like to buy some … Read the rest