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EXCLUSIVE: MagicJack to Announce World’s Lowest-Priced Femtocell

January 6, 2010
Filed Under: in Analysis, Bleeding Edge, CES, Home Networking, Infrastructure 2.0, Interviews, Special Events, Unified Communications
Author: Mike Coop

Welcome back.

image I spent this morning with Dan Borislow and Y.W. Sing, the CEO and Vice Chairman of MagicJack.  In mid-November, I met with Dr. Sing in his Silicon Valley office for a preview of what we discussed today, enabling me to noodle on applications and show up with a raft of questions.  Dan has been talking about the femtojack for nearly a year, but I can confirm based on today’s meeting that it’s real, and it’s spectacular.

We started our discussion by revisiting some of the customer service issues MagicJack faced earlier in the company’s development.  I’d never used a MagicJack until I picked up a couple at the 2009 It Won’t Stay in Vegas party; in the year since, I’ve used mine from all over the world, providing me exactly what they advertise—seamless phone service anywhere that I had a decent Internet connection.  A year ago, I took Dan and team seriously to task for their approach to privacy during the sign-up process.  While I’d still like to see them tweak some of the verbiage in the user agreement, I can’t argue with two points Dan made to me.  First, users now receive 30 minutes of registration-free calling in a 48-hour period from first use, enabling consumers to try MagicJack without having to go through a registration process.  Second, Dan pointed out the MagicJack has never sent an advertising e-mail to any of their five million subscribers.

Think about that for a minute.

When was the last time you signed up for something, anything, and didn’t receive follow-on e-mail about, well, anything?  That’s pretty freakin’ cool.

By the way, let’s not overlook that statistic I just threw out.  Five million subscribers.  I don’t have statistics in front of me, by I have to believe that five million subs puts MagicJack comfortably in the top ten of landline phone companies in North America.

image image

Here’s another statistic for you—a billion minutes.  MagicJack subscribers currently consume one billion minutes per month.  If my math works, that’s an average of 200 minutes per MagicJack per month, or a little over three hours each.  Realistically, that’s about the amount of time I spend on my landline on a monthly basis, so it’s entirely believable that the average user might consider dumping their landline in favor of a MagicJack (the need for an always-on computer notwithstanding).  Of course, while I spend three hours a month on my landline, I spend about three hours a day on my cell phone.  Unfortunately, my cell coverage at home isn’t very reliable; even more unfortunately, my experience with T-Mobile’s UMA-based Hotspot @Home has been less than stellar, so I suffer from frequent coverage drops.

Enter the Femtojack.

image Picture the MagicJack—a USB-attached analog terminal adapter, with one end a USB jack plugged into your computer, and the other end an RJ-11 jack into which you plug a phone (or simply use your computer’s speakers and built-in microphone).  Now, remove the RJ-11 jack, replacing it with a couple of small antennae.

Voila.  Femtojack.

What’s a femtojack?  First, let’s define what a femtocell is.  Have you ever been in a situation where your cell reception was spotty or non-existent, making you yearn to be closer to a cell tower?  What if you could bring that cell tower into your home or office, all but guaranteeing you awesome cell coverage?  In effect, that’s a femtocell—a device which takes the signal from your cell phone and sends it back to the telephone network (using your computer’s Internet connection), mimicking the behavior of a cell tower.

image Initial attempts at improving cellular coverage involved cellular repeaters, which weren’t very efficient for one reason—they were merely amplifying or repeating an existing cell signal.  Meaning, if your cell signal really sucked (or was non-existent), the repeater might not work at all.  Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) has had a spotty record of success, with only one U.S. carrier of note deploying UMA; as noted above, my experience with UMA has been (to put it kindly) brutal.  Now comes the femtocell, typically sold by or in conjunction with your cellular carrier for $150-300.  Femtocells are very early in their adoption curve, and have kind of struggled to find a footing to date.

Enter Dan Borislow.  Again.

Dan’s history as a telecom rebel is well-known.  Now, he’s likely to stir up the telecom world again, with MagicJack’s announcement of their femtojack, a low-cost, easy-to-use femtocell targeted towards novice users.

How low-cost?  How about double digits?  For well less than a hundred bucks, you’ll be able to enjoy a mini cell tower in your home (or office), piggybacking your voice calls on your existing Internet connection via your computer.  The best part about it?  It just works.  The demo calls we made today offered the same quality as typical cell calls.  And, while we were in a hotel suite, Dan and Y.W. assure me that the femtojack will offer coverage throughout a 3,000 square foot home.

Sign me up!

(Part two of our interview will follow tomorrow, after MagicJack’s press release hits the wires.)

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49 responses to “EXCLUSIVE: MagicJack to Announce World’s Lowest-Priced Femtocell”

  1. EXCLUSIVE: MagicJack to Announce World’s Lowest-Priced Femtocell « #CES2010 Coverage says:
    January 6, 2010 at 6:35 pm

    [...] Furrier 6:35 pm on January 6, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply Tags: ces (52), magicjack, New (5), [...]

    Reply
  2. John Furrier says:
    January 7, 2010 at 1:17 pm

    I love this product. Bring a basestation into your home or anywhere.. simply amazing. Great stuff Mike

    Reply
  3. SiliconANGLE — Blog — MagicJack Casts a Spell on Cell Providers says:
    January 8, 2010 at 5:01 pm

    [...] and details on an exclusive story that debuted here on Silicon Angle about the new MagicJack Femtocell device has been spreading on the web like wildfire.  The word will spread.  They probably [...]

    Reply
  4. MagicJack launches ‘femtocell’ – are my trousers safe? « 3G In The Home says:
    January 8, 2010 at 11:48 pm

    [...] You can only register one handset per device, but call quality is reasonable (with about a half-second time delay), and the effective range is similar to a femtocell.  According to the inventor Y.W. Sing, a standalone version will be available in future incorporating an ARM chip to run the MagicJack software (so there will be no need for a PC – you’ll just plug the device straight into the Internet).  Further details and pictures can be found in this interview with sliconAngle. [...]

    Reply
    1. Andy Tiller says:
      January 9, 2010 at 10:20 am

      The MagicJack device has quite a few limitations that are not immediately apparent - for example once your phone is registered you can no longer send or receive SMS messages at home, or use any data services. Effectively the MagicJack device turns your sophisticated multi-function cellphone into a basic voice-only cordless telephone at home (http://tinyurl.com/yd5xqj6).

      Reply
  5. SiliconANGLE — Blog — #CES2010 Cemented the Paths of Convergence and Disruption says:
    January 11, 2010 at 7:05 pm

    [...] other major device that caught my imagination was Mike Coop’s scoop on the new FemtoJack, the next iteration of the MagicJack, a device designed to give you free phone calls.  The [...]

    Reply
  6. Getwhatyoupay4 says:
    January 12, 2010 at 7:28 am

    Spent one year hypnotized on MJ. you get what you pay for. No longer even fair quality and absolutely zero support. You are wasting time 'chatting' as they don't even keep a log on what you have done. You start from square one everytime. It's a joke and not worth your time. $20 ok if it works but guaranteed there will be issues. Ask any MJ user.

    Reply
    1. Get Over It says:
      February 17, 2010 at 7:53 pm

      You're obviously just another one of those people who expect perfection for nothing. Nobody owes you the perfection you think you are entitled to. Magic Jack is awesome if you have a decent High Speed connection and you know how to run a computer. If you do not meet these criteria then go on and suck up to the major carrier of your choice and pay through the nose. You're entitled to that too so go ahead. Maybe they can grant you the perfection you need so badly.

      Reply
  7. Facebook Pages vs. Groups « Byte of the Week says:
    January 13, 2010 at 8:30 am

    [...] One quick note from last week’s post on Magic Jack – Garrick in Minneapolis sent me a link to a fun related article: http://siliconangle.com/blog/2010/01/06/exclusive-magicjack-to-announce-worlds-lowest-priced-femtoce... [...]

    Reply
  8. Jarome Sweeney says:
    February 20, 2010 at 1:11 am

    We read this one magicJack review in particular that really got us to try the product. It basically said that while magicJack does have a few downsides, the upsides are huge! Price is so cheap, and the service is adequate. What more can you ask for?

    Reply
  9. Rickard says:
    April 12, 2010 at 4:27 am

    I got my magicJack from http://www.el-teleprodukter.com/magicjack.html and I love it so far.
    I think this i s a god way of saveing lots of money for me.

    Reply
  10. MagicJack To Disrupt Mobile Carriers Next With Sub-$100 Wireless … says:
    April 21, 2010 at 5:15 pm

    [...] SiliconAngle reports that MagicJack’s femtocell will go on sale [...]

    Reply
  11. Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins says:
    January 7, 2010 at 3:57 am

    This might just be the most disruptive news to come out of CES.

    This comment was originally posted on FriendFeed

    Reply
  12. harper says:
    January 7, 2010 at 5:57 pm

    I am not quite sure what this means – but if i can "roam" over to my femtocell (without tmobile carrying) then i am IN.

    This comment was originally posted on FriendFeed

    Reply

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