May 2004

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Memorial Day 2004

May 28, 2004

Well, it’s Friday before Memorial Day. One more day in the office and then it’s… well, it’s actually time to rest up for the month ahead!

I’ll be hitting the road this month, crisscrossing our fine land visiting with the cicadas in Washington, D.C. (and attending a wireless broadband conference); visiting sunny Southern California (and hopefully bringing some much needed rain ahead of a potentially extreme fire season) and ending my marathon in Chicago at the end of the month (where hopefully the rains will have stopped by then).

If all this sounds like fun, I keep reminding myself that there’s still a magazine to publish and there are still looming deadlines everywhere I look.

So with that, it’s back to work, prepping for my June odyssey, and trying to close out my current issue of Internet Telephony magazine.

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Let’s not forget as we set off for this long holiday weekend that Monday is Memorial Day, and Americans all across the country should pause to remember those who served in the military and lost their lives in wartime.

This year also marks the 60th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy, when Allied forces stormed the beaches of Northern France on June 6th, 1944, at five beaches in the Normandy area codenamed: Utah Beach, Omaha Beach, Gold Beach, Juno Beach and Sword Beach.

I had the honor of visiting the World War II Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial overlooking Omaha Beach and the English Channel in Colleville-sur-Mer, France last year at this time. It’s a very impressive and humbling moment when you walk from the parking lot past the bronze statue “Spirit of American Youth” and look left.

Comcast To Offer VoIP by '06

May 26, 2004

Reuters is reporting that Comcast, the largest cable operator in the United States will offer a VoIP-based telephone service to over 40 million households as early as 2006.

Comcast is the latest cable company to jump on the VoIP bandwagon, following the likes of Time Warner, Cablevision, and Cox. Comcast is much larger than its cable rivals, with over 21 million subscribers. Comcast already serves approximately 1.2 million customers using traditional circuit-switched voice based on its acquisition of AT&T Broadband in 2002.

So in the end it looks like Michael Armstrong, the once embattled head of AT&T did indeed have a vision worth following. Armstrong had hoped to make AT&T a major player in the triple-threat of voice, video, and Internet.

Popular Telephony Launches Peerio 444: Serverless Peer to Peer VoIP

May 26, 2004

Popular Telephony, Inc., a telecommunications middleware company, today announced Peerio444, which is a VoIP application powered by serverless peer-to-peer technology.

Today’s announcement of Peerio444 marks the company’s introduction of a consumer application for serverless peer-to-peer telephony, with plans to introduce a separate, competitively priced enterprise application based on this technology by late June.

The company is offering Peerio444 as a free download and can be used to place PC-to-PC phone calls. The current version is still in preview mode as they finalize the testing process.

According to the Q&A featured on the company’s Web site, Popular Telephony is the first to integrate true peer-to-peer technology in a telephony product. The company’s technology enables Peerio444 users to place calls over a PC connection without the need for servers — something that no other company is currently offering.

Consumers using a Windows or Linux operating system can download the Peerio444 application onto their personal computers (a Mac version will be released later this year). The interface provides users with features such as voice mail, call waiting, call hold, call transfer, and plans for future applications include contact management and filter features.

Application developers can utilize the open source application and the closed Peerio444 core library to create an enhanced peer-to-peer application for voice communications, but the source code will not work in embedded systems and will be limited to PC use (x86 and PowerPC).

Rough Week For Vonage?

May 25, 2004

According to a Yankee Group press release, broadband telephony player Vonage has earned a sizable first-mover advantage in the burgeoning residential VoIP market, but that might not be enough to fight off the competition from RBOCs, Cable companies, and IXCs.

According to the release, “In a year, Vonage signed up 100,000 users, creating a level of angst among broadband providers, and renewing interest in broadband VoIP among the investment community."

“Vonage has successfully marketed itself, and its concept. The company has created a grand illusion in the marketplace,” says Lindsay Schroth, Broadband Access Technologies senior analyst. “Most service providers are not only familiar with this small, privately held company, but feel threatened by the start-up and its approach to offering telephony services.”

“However, we anticipate Vonage will become a victim of its own success. Their eventual downfall will come because the company threatens the RBOCs, IXCs, and MSOs.

Lucent to Acquire Telica

May 24, 2004

Lucent Technologies has agreed to acquire Telica, a privately held, provider of VoIP communications systems for service providers, for approximately $295 million in stock and options, plus additional employee-related cash payments.

Headquartered in Marlboro, Mass., Telica has been a recipient of numerous honors, including Internet Telephony magazine's Product of the Year award and was named one of New England's Fastest Growing Technology companies in September 2003 by Deloitte & Touche/Ernst & Young.

Telica products include the award-winning Telica Plexus 9000 Media Gateway, PLUS Signaling Gateway, and PLUS Media Gateway Controller. These products will be marketed and sold as part of Lucent’s Accelerate portfolio, which was announced last November.

According to Janet Davidson, President Integrated Network Solutions at Lucent, the transaction is about more than Voice over IP.

Global Carrier VoIP Market Up 13%

May 21, 2004

According to preliminary market analysis (first quarter, 2004) by Synergy Research Group, North American Carrier VoIP equipment sales were up 6.8 percent, while EMEA and Asia/Pacific equipment sales were up 2.7 and 2.6 percent, respectively.

All told, Synergy reports that the total global carrier VoIP market grew 13 percent over the same period last year.

In the quarter, the United States represented the largest share of the Worldwide Carrier VoIP opportunity holding a share of 54.9 percent.

The Synergy report also ranked vendors in terms of U.S. Carrier VoIP Market Share, with the following results:
Nortel.…...1
Sonus……2
Cisco….…3
Telica……4

In the EMEA region, only Cisco appears from the North American leaders. In that part of the world, the Synergy rankings yield the following results:
Cisco……...1
Siemens…..2
Verso……..3
Alcatel…….4

All in all this bodes well for the carrier market and for VoIP. Today’s numbers just further underscore my argument from yesterday’s entry that the shift from TDM to IP is well underway.

May 20, 2004

Jim Carlini is wrong.

To be honest, I never thought I'd start my blogging career on such a negative note, but there it is.

In Jim's recent article on ePrairie.com, he takes VoIP and its cheerleaders to task for overhyping the technology.

He claims that, "In certain applications, VoIP just isn't the way to go. Period."
I'm not quite sure I know what those apps are. In fact VoIP would enable many more applications than it might possibly hinder. Think Unified Communications, ad hoc conferencing, and the like.

I also take issue with Jim's assertion regarding VoIP and the reliabilty issue.

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