G3/G4 Internet Service via magicJack? Stay Tuned…

“truthfreedompeace777” wrote in on this page about what peripherals the magicJack might use in the future has some interesting opinions about what might happen with peripherals. He offers a lot of speculative concepts, so I thought it sort of deserves a post of its own so that people can comment on this.

CEO Vento had great plans. According to the table at the bottom of this post based on his April 2013 speech, many of these have not been fulfilled. These are some great ideas, and while they may have been ambitious for 2013, perhaps 2014 will fair better. I really hope some of these concepts come to fruition.

Meanwhile, I’d appreciate any links to magicJack press releases, image links from reputable websites that might give us a clue about what magicJack may have up its sleeve next. Thanks truthfreedompeace777 for your perspective. I’ve linked in your comment below to the voip-info.org website you spoke about, and see only images that look exactly like my mJ+ 2014, so the images may have been changed. If you could provide links to the conference call, the MVNO information to add further substance to your speculation, it might make things interesting.

truthfreedompeace777 wrote:
Chris,here is some speculation on possible add on products/services.

• The CEO mentioned in an April conference call that magicjack would be reselling a 4G data card in the second half of 2013. This did not happen and then of course there was the mention of magicjack offering low cost internet access and/or WiFi in the future in the 2014 mj plus promotional email.I don’t know whether this will really happen but the new COO of magicjack does have a history of Sprint MVNO reselling and it seems likely that magicjack could end up offering internet service by becoming a Sprint MVNO or in some other fashion.
• If magicjack does become an MVNO then why not market a mobile phone?Although there are many MVNOs reselling Sprint service for a low cost,most of them do not have the retail store presence,known brand name,profitability or advertising money that magicjack does.And magicjack could be able to offer the lowest or close to the lowest cost mobile phone service,and/or they could also partner with other companies to include the magicjack app/service on mobile phones,tablets,laptops,tv set top boxes or maybe even in future WiFi/4g connected cars using voice activation.
• I noticed a promotional picture of a magicjack device on voip-info.org that appears different from the 2014 mj plus.It is pictured in voip-info.org articles such as “vonage vs magicjack plus”. The device shown shows the ethernet port and male usb being farther away from the top of the device making the device appear larger and is missing the “plus” word.This could just be an altered image and not the actual physical device or maybe magicjack is rebranding to simply “magicjack” rather than “magicjack plus” and has modified the device.
  We can only speculate but I do hope to see magicjack offer low cost internet service and a mobile phone or at least partner with other companies as I mentioned above.

Have a good one.

See truthfreedompeace777’s followup reply with links below.

Here’s a quote from the April 2, 2013 5pm MagicJack VocalTec Ltd. 4Q12 Investor Conference Call as provided by SeekingAlpha.com. (You’ll have to log in to read the whole of it.)

…

The new magicJack PLUS will have superior voice quality as compared to the magicJack PLUS. It will also have three times the processing power of the prior magicJack PLUS and two times in memory capacity. The new magicJack PLUS will enable consumers to make and carry two simultaneous calls at the same time and consumers will also be able to attach Wi-Fi for the new magicJack PLUS and turned it into a router or use Wi-Fi as a source to access the Internet and make calls. The new magicJack PLUS will also have two USB ports, offering consumers the ability to plug in a 4G source. And in the second half of the year, we will start reselling competitively priced 4G data card.

Finally, through the new magicJack PLUS, consumers will be able to add and connect a portable DECT phone or a cordless phone and make simultaneous calls. The new magicJack PLUS will also be a new affordable device for small business applications. It will be able to wirelessly connect up to 10 business phones in an office environment.

Turning to the magicJack APP. In late 2011, we introduced a mobile voice app for use on an iPad, an iPhone, iTouch, or an android device, as well as on a PC. It allows users to make calls on their devices when connected to Wi-Fi. The magicJack APP has excellent features, including superior voice quality and ease of use. We offer a freephone number for incoming and outgoing calls, the ability to call landline and/or other mobile phones for free, and we have live online customer care. We’re currently working to add full texting capability to that app.

The app has had over eight million activations since its launch. And we expected in the second half of 2013, we’ll begin charging a subscription service for usage of the app. And while we do not expect revenue in 2013 from sales of the app to be material, our objective is continued to grow customer base for revenue contributions for the future.

…

–Gerald Vento – President and Chief Executive Officer

     As of 2014.01.16 the below is what we know.

* Attached wifi – not sure what that means. There are currently no micro-sdio cards on the market.

** I don’t know how to physically verify this, so I’ll have to take magicJack’s word. If someone out there knows of a third-party verification of the memory and processing power differences between mJ+ 2012 and mJ+ 2014, please post.

*** The physical adapter(s) is/are present. The device’s firmware is not set to make them active.

**** Technically the app does not work unless you attach a device. That makes it less an app and more an interface.

You can’t have two simultaneous conversations on a single phone line, and CEO Vento doesn’t seem to be talking about conference calling, or he’d call it that. The 2-simultaneous-calls feature must be something that will be enabled by a USB connected peripheral. There is only one phone line on the rJ-ll phone connector, even though there could have been two (or even three), so using a two-line phone connect to the existing rJ-11 jack is out of the picture for magicJack 2014 owners. That USB-connect peripheral would probably be a two-line DECT 6.0 multi-handset system for offices. Uniden cordless phones are often incompatible with mJ+. Vtech phones have crummy battery life and like Uniden, depend on expensive, proprietary, hard-to-acquire replacement batteries. AT&T seems to be phasing out of land-line-style phone systems altogether. Panasonic is about the best cordless multi-station phone out there. Their more recent phone use standard AA rechargeable batteries, so that’s a plus. But I don’t see one out there with a USB connection to a base station. Anyway, looking forward to the possibilities, eh?