2600hz Mobile - Unable to add mobile device to user

[Logicwrath]

Hello,
First, is there a mobile related forum?  If yes, can I get added to it?

I activated a mobile device last night.  However, when I try to add the device to a user in SmartPBX the action is not saved.  I tried adding the device to more than one user.  In all cases the save button never actually saves the change.  Is this a bug?

Is it possible to use features like hold and transfer on the mobile device?  If yes, how is this done?

[Robert Camisa]

I'm testing with one phone. I haven't has an issue with assigning it or unassigning it to a user. What I ended up doing to make it work the way I wanted it to. I created a new user and assigned the mobile to the new user. I unassigned my DID to my desk phone. I created a call flow with my DID and sent it to a group with 2 users, my desk phone and the mobile phone. Prior to doing this when I called the mobile or desk number both devices rang. Now when my DID is called both devices ring, when the mobile number is called only the mobile device rings. There now going to the proper VM boxes as well. I'm still testing it, trying to figure out time of day in the call flow so the mobile stops ringing at a certain time when the desk DID is called. 

I had opened a ticket about transfer, the reply to my ticket is below.

We have not yet exposed managing dial code features like transfer in the UI.

The functionality exists in the backend.
Here are the docs for setting them up using API requests. (what the UI component when built will also use)
https://docs.2600hz.com/dev/applications/konami/doc/transfer/
https://docs.2600hz.com/dev/applications/crossbar/doc/metaflows/

Calls with a 2600hz mobile phone are not using some add on app but a normal direct call through the cellular network. Much better audio quality than services that have calls go through an app.
There may eventually be an app that integrates other features of kazoo on the phone like voicemail. But really that is already available using the web UI, User Portal.

[Logicwrath]

I created a brand new user and tried assigning the mobile device to it.  I get the same thing.  The Save Changes button never actually saves the device to the user.

[Robert Camisa]

That sounds like a bug, logging out of the portal and logging back in again. A few issues I've had were resolved that way. If that doesn't work, open a ticket. 

[FASTDEVICE]

Any constructive thoughts on selling mobile service? My market is small offices where the owners tend to have multiline "family" type plans that are unwilling to break these plans for native SIP integration.  What would work great for me is if the native SIP integration was portable and could be sold on top of an existing plan. Also, has anyone done a pros and cons of the features, service bundle, and how it compares to a SIP application like GrandStream's Wave?   

[esoare]

experienced this also. must be a bug.

[Logicwrath]

I ended up opening a ticket.

[Logicwrath]

As of right now, I see the following benefits for using mobile.

1. Presence
2. Call recording
3. Outbound caller ID
4. Reliability (Internet outage/power outage)
5. Call flows, inbound routing, and other misc PBX features
6. Easily add multiple inbound DID's

However, as far as replacing handsets, there are some limitations.  No hold or call transfer seem like big ones.  I also wish everything 3 digits or more got sent to 2600hz instead of 4 digits or more.

An OTT app along with this service to facilitate things like real-time call control, voicemail, BLF, and other advanced things would be great and it could be sold in the app store.  I suspect an app could be developed that would work with any Kazoo installation.  This has some revenue potential for whoever develops something.

One more thing to note is that Sprint pricing is already very low.  They are offering 4 lines unlimited for $30/each and for a limited time they are including a 5th at no additional charge.  http://prntscr.com/f3cw6r

Comcast is also providing a competing solution integrated with their voice products back ended with Verizon.  I think they are charging $45 or $65 / phone depending on which Internet/TV plan you have with them.  I believe their offering will have a pretty handy app involved as well.

I have been thinking about what types of businesses would benefit from using a cell over a wireless handset.  The lack of basic call control seems like the biggest hurdle at the moment.

[esoare]

Great, please keep us updated...rather not open a ticket on my end. 

[FASTDEVICE]

Apart from, "Reliability (Internet outage/power outage)" the other points can be accomplished with a SIP app.

Cons:
1. Can't (easily) port client with existing mobile contract.
2. Difficult to provide multiline contract discounts  
3. Competiveness on mobile plans may lead to high overage costs
4. SIP Integration cannot be sold separately for existing plans.
5. No hold or call transfer
6. 3 digits or less are not sent to 2600hz

[Logicwrath]

This was resolved.  There was some kind of issue/error when activating the device in the mobile app and a required call flow was not created.  If you see the "Repair" button in the mobile app it means something is wrong and you should press it to fix the device.  After using the repair button, the call flow that was required was recreated and now I can add the device to users.

[Darren Schreiber]

Oh my, I am a bit surprised at the lack of excitement around this product offering! Sadface!!! Seems related mostly to misinformation around it. You guys have proven yourself excellent consumers and really bad mobile business entrepreneurs LOL

OK, so let's review. Here's the opportunity you are being presented with...

Service Offering
Most people these days love their cell phones. They kind of have a relationship with it. They don't necessarily want to change it.

HOWEVER, most people also don't like paying for their cell phone. They find all sorts of ways to avoid that - from corporate discounts from their friends that they're not entitled to, to buying/selling used cell phones, to expensing their phone bill at work, and so on.

In addition, many people really don't like using their cell phone for work. There are lots of reasons for this, namely:
* Form factor of holding a cell phone for hours on end isn't great
* Call quality / audio isn't great
* Battery life
* Don't like sharing their personal cell phone number with clients/customers
* Having to manage multiple numbers to reach them
* Multiple voicemail boxes
* Bad coverage / dead spots / unreliable
* Can't use a headset easily

We've seen people attempt to solve this in a variety of ways:
* Carry two phones
* Dual SIMs (rare)
* Call-forwarding from their desk phone
* Apps on the phone that do VoIP

In general, however, none of the solutions solve the above elegantly. Until now :-)

In addition, there's not been much innovation in what the cell phone can do in regards to calls. Things like automatically tying calls to SalesForce/CRM tools, call recording, etc. have basically been absent from cell service.

This service aims to change that. You can literally use the APIs and unique callflows to fix all the above problems and offer something unique to your customers. (And soon we hope to have pre-built apps that let you do all the above automatically, but honestly with a little elbow grease you can do this now)

And at the same time, you can go to a business owner and say "hey, you realize when you let your employees expense 10 cell phones, you're paying 2-3x what you could be because they each have individual plans."

So, in theory, you can convince a business owner to do something like "offer to pay your employees cell phone bill if they use the corporate plan in full, or otherwise give them $30 toward their cell phone bill per month to choose whatever carrier they want." Many users will use the corp plan, some users will keep their own plan and just take the $30. But putting the offer on the table gives you the opportunity to show off more features, gain additional revenue, and reduce the company's cost.


Understanding the Existing Market
In the existing market, there are already business-centric cellular service offerings. They make up some 3-5% of cell phone carriers revenues. Usually they involve a sales rep from a carrier coming to your office and pitching you but it can be done on the phone, too. They try to get you to commit to, say, a "100GB plan with up to 20 cell phones included for $800/month". That works out to $40/phone and sounds pretty good. Of course, that business may, or may not, use 100GB or all 20 phones.

Whatever they don't use, the cell phone carrier (or you) pocket. This is called "breakage". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakage

If you read the quarterly reports of the carriers, you'll see that they aim, when calculating breakage into the matter, to hit a certain target revenue per phone - this is called ARPU, or Average Revenue Per User. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Average_revenue_per_user

The typical ARPU target these days is somewhere between $50-80. That's based on a lot of math they do constantly - namely they measure average network usage, network capacity, etc.

This number is probably what you want to target, too! There are lots of ways to do that.

One way, which you are seeing all over ads and TV, is advertise $40/line but require 3 or 4 lines, knowing that most people will only sign up for 1 or 2. In reality, you'll still end up averaging $50-60/line! But everyone gravitates to the low number. This is just marketing - it is not tied to revenue, and again, if you read the quarterly reports, you'll figure that out. The ARPU has not changed dramatically in the last couple years (T-Mobile caused it to tip dramatically when they first launched, and pushed everyone else the same, which helped cause Sprint to near bankruptcy, but alas, they now also need more money to keep growing and maintaining their network)



Pricing & Revenue
From a high-level, the commercials you see for $40 are kind of bogus. There are ALWAYS carrier fees, they require you to have auto-pay, they say "unlimited" but all list a throttle limit (23GB for 4 lines for example for Sprint, which is less than 6GB per line). The average allowance in reality is 5-10GB per line (about $40-80 per line in costs) with the assumption that if you have 4 lines to get the $40 you'll only have two "power users" at most, so you'll actually probably use 10-15GB across 4 devices, or 2.5GB-3.75GB average (now it's $20-$30 per phone in usage fees).

So, you can easily be price competitive if you use the same marketing slang as everyone else. This is no different than VoIP so I do not know why this scares you guys so much! You probably offer "unlimited trunks" or similar non-sense marketing terms, with a strict terms & conditions preventing anything that might chew through minutes, thus you don't ACTUALLY expect someone to use unlimited service. Or you set caps. Same deal here.


Management
The big advantage with our service is it lets you play - thanks to the new throttle controls (which is what took us so long to release). You can sell "unlimited" for example but throttle the user's speed really low after 3 or 4GB and call it network or service management, which is accurate - you're preventing a service hog in an account. Or you can let the corporate user pay the actual costs, teach them how to use the tools, and let them make the decision themselves.

Many many corporate managers are control freaks and LOVE the ability to decide who can be a bandwidth hog and who can't - impacting their bill and service quality. The transparency is unparalleled.

Features
As of right now, I see the following benefits for using mobile:
1. Presence across all devices
2. Call recording
3. Outbound caller ID
4. Reliability (Internet outage/power outage)
5. Call flows, inbound routing, and other misc PBX features
6. Easily add multiple inbound DID's
7. WebHooks / WebSockets integration allowing sync'ing with CRMs/operator console/etc.
8. One number across multiple devices OR two numbers across multiple devices
9. Single bill / cost for multiple phones (give them a home phone for "free"!)
10. One provider to call for help
11. Support for data devices (tablets, hotspots) and backup services (failover to internet)
12. Pooling of data/minutes/SMS/MMS across all devices
13. Low per-device fee, so you can have multiple cell phones or devices active if you wish
14. Call transfer can be done via star codes on the cell phone

I agree that an OTT app along with this service to facilitate things like real-time call control, voicemail, BLF, and other advanced things would be great and it could be sold in the app store.  I suspect an app could be developed that would work with any Kazoo installation.  This has some revenue potential for whoever develops something.

Don't fall for advertising
You wrote: "One more thing to note is that Sprint pricing is already very low.  They are offering 4 lines unlimited for $30/each and for a limited time they are including a 5th at no additional charge.  http://prntscr.com/f3cw6r

You literally screenshot an ad that, had you screenshot the rest, says that:
a) This offer is for 6 months
b) It requires 4 lines on auto-pay
c) It has a cap of 23GB data, it's not unlimited!!! There's no such thing as unlimited. Ever.
d) They add a $2.90/line admin fee and various misc surcharges
e) After 6 months, the rate goes to $60 + $40 + $30 + $30 (or $160 for 4 or $40 per device)

Future
You wrote: "I have been thinking about what types of businesses would benefit from using a cell over a wireless handset.  The lack of basic call control seems like the biggest hurdle at the moment."

I agree. The faster we can now tie in a few key features that are business-centric and a 2nd line/phone number, the better. That will be our target now. Once we have that, this will be a big deal.

Summary
My suspicion is with some creative marketing, you can sell 5-10 handsets with 5GB each for 400-600 in revenue.

Your cost would be between $15 and $40 per handset.

You'd be billing $60-80 per handset.

Your selling point would be single number multi-device, or dual number at some point, plus management app, transparency, bundle in internet failover or other package items and integration with CRM/call recording apps, plus reduced costs for the corporation over allowing employees to expense individual phones.

Users don't have to give up their phones - works with Verizon and Sprint existing cell phones that are off contract (the contract part will always be a sticking point).

[Darren Schreiber]

I'd like to find out what the issue was that caused this at it's root, seems to be happening during the activation cycle.

Also to clarify your comment, the "Repair" button is always there. It's a last-ditch effort to just fix things if they go wrong / recreate broken callflows.

[Logicwrath]

After I clicked the repair button, it went away and I don't see it anymore in the UI.

[Logicwrath]

I was thinking more about the possibility of a call control app.  The issue with that is Sprint does not allow data and phone calls at the same time.  If there was a call control app it would not work over the cell data while the call was in progress.  I suspect wifi would work.