YMAX Corp., the parent company of magicJack, officially announced they will soon launch a wireless carrier agnostic femtocell product. MagicJack is a VoIP bypass service which uses a USB dongle connected to a computer and a regular phone, allowing consumers to buy landline telephone service for $19.95/year.
MagicJack has its detractors and critics, but according to YMAX, has sold “over 5 million units” at a recent rate (2009) of “200K per month.” MagicJack is available directly from www.magicjack.com or through a variety of retailers including Best Buy, Walgreens, and even 7-11.
YMAX hopes to replicate this success with a femtocell product. YMAX doesn’t offer much detail on their pending femtocell launch. There are a few interesting tidbits though. They claim the femtocell will work “with mobile phones from potentially any carrier” even including old GSM phones that aren’t currently contracted with a wireless carrier. They also claim that registered femtocell users will be able to use any magicJack femtocell (at a friend’s home or a business), after a one time registration event which automatically occurs once they are within eight feet of the magicJack femtocell. They don’t offer any pricing or firm launch date in their press release.
Femtocells route voice calls over a customer’s broadband network using IP technology. Given magicJack’s underlying technology, it’s kind of a natural progression for them to go the femtocell route. In effect they are hoping to disrupt the wireless business in much the same way they’ve done with wireline.
As we’ve noted before, the femtocell trend is far from conclusive. Previous femtocell attempts by wireless carriers have fizzled for the most part. We believe that’s partly due to their high costs. If the magicJack femtocell is priced in the same way as their magicJack, they may inject some life into this trend.
magicjack can be beat. quality is terrible and customer has to leave computer on. nothing to fear here even with femtocell
Magicjack has been a very good option for my use. I replaced vonage with the magicjack. I use it for calls to cell phones and to my family in other states.
I am a pastor and a large number of my folks do not have land lines in our area, only cell phones. The local ILEC only allows me 2 office codes as local calls without additional charges and magicjack has been a very good tool for savings.
While it is true that magicjack can be a pain sometimes becase of connectvity and lockups it has been very useful for my needs.
Driving more need and demand for broadband. I guess that's a positive spin on this.
I have a magic jack. I also have a love/hate relationship with it. Sometimes it works great and other times not so well. People on the other end cant hear me clearly and i have to resort to using my cell phone. Now, if they offer a femtocell, id definitely buy one. I get 1-2 bars with T-mobile, and 2 bars with AT&T. I get dropped in my bedroom all the time where my router is and it's such a pain in the ass. I'd hve no problem trying this product out. Just hurry up with it. I also have Google Voice which is extremely useful. This is going to get good.
This is indeed refreshing news! The pen drive has been very rapidly grabbed the technology world and their traffic is higher than what we expected .This will help them to stay connected to the outside world.