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.

Row after row of white marble monuments mark the ground in remembrance of 9,386 soldiers, most of whom gave their lives during the landings and subsequent operations of World War II.

If you ever find yourself in Northern France, I urge you to make the trip to visit the cemetery at Colleville-sur-mer. It’s an experience that will stay with you forever.

And for those to whom this means anything, "Thanks."

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. It appears that with the sale of AT&T Broadband to Comcast, the wheels were in motion to make Comcast the entity that was in the end able to follow through on Armstrong’s foresight.

Ironic, isn’t it?

Still it’s a good day for our industry when 40 million people become 40 million prospects.

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). If developers are interested in creating an embedded application based on Peerio444 technology, they will need to obtain a commercial license.

Unique among the peer to peer telephony set, Peerio444 users are not limited to calling only other Peerio444 users. They may call a user of any standard VoIP application and any number — including mobile phones, 800 and international numbers — with Peerio444. To call a PSTN number, users simply enter the number into the Peerio444 interface and click on the “444” button (or enter telephone number in a command line) to connect the call.

According to Dmitry Goroshevsky, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Popular Telephony Inc., “We anticipate that within ten years there will only be peer-to-peer calls placed over the telephony network, making it the de-facto standard for next generation telecommunications. Built on open standards and inspired by the principles of true peer-to-peer computing, we expect the enabling technology behind Peerio444 to become a basic platform for peer-to-peer telecommunications. Peerio444 will be forever free to consumers and is phase one of Popular Telephony’s plan to become the leader in peer-to-peer telephony.”

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. As the incumbent service providers and MSOs offer wide- scale residential VoIP services with QoS at the same price point as Vonage, we believe the start-up will find it difficult to compete. Today, some RBOCs require their customers to subscribe to their telephony services to receive broadband. Tactics such as this, as well as the increased focus on the triple play and bundling discounts, will aggravate Vonage’s problems,” adds Schroth.

Ouch.

No wonder Vonage was upset last March when AT&T launched its CallVantage service.

In fact, it’s not been a good week for Vonage. Just last Thursday, the NY Public Service Commission ruled that Vonage, which offers competitive telephone services to New Yorkers through VoIP technology, is a telephone corporation as defined by New York State Law and, therefore, must obtain a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN).

The Commission did emphasize that while they were not interested in stifling the growth of a new technology, they were bound by their core public interest concerns, including making sure that public safety concerns and network reliability are met. So while Vonage will not be subject to economic or rate regulation, they do need to obtain authorization from the Commission to provide telephone service and must abide by certain other regulations as well.

It’s still too early to write Vonage off and relegate them to the dustbin of techno-history, but perhaps this should serve as a wake up call to Jeff Citron and his team. There’s lots of time to build on the early advantage, and with the rules of this game still in flux, Vonage may yet be able to stave off its competitors.

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. "It's about next-generation multimedia services over IP," said Davidson. "It's about revenue-producing voice, video, and data blended over IP, over wireline and wireless, to customers at their convenience."

This acquisition further underscores the transition to next-generation Voice over IP that is currently underway.

This acquisition -- Lucent's first since 2000 -- should allow the telecom equipment maker to deliver large-scale VoIP solutions to the carrier market that they serve.

"Telica has a proven VoIP portfolio and has already sold its systems to more than 50 customers in a wide range of applications and networks," said Davidson. "Their products give us a more complete, highly scalable VoIP solution and a flexible, open architecture to respond to the many different approaches our customers are taking with the evolution of their networks."

Telica has about 250 employees worldwide, with the vast majority at its headquarters in Massachusetts. Telica founder and CEO John St. Amand will remain with Lucent and oversee Telica as it becomes part of Lucent's INS business.

"In joining Lucent, we become part of a world-class networking leader with deep knowledge and relationships in the service provider industry," said Telica founder and CEO John St. Amand. "I am proud of what Telica has accomplished to this point, deploying more than 3 million ports and supporting about 4 billion minutes of use per month on our PLUS systems. As part of Lucent, we will be able to combine our strengths and our industry leading products with Lucent's broad portfolio of products, services and technology to become the leading provider of VoIP solutions to service providers throughout the world."

"We have been focused on strengthening our business in a number of areas where we see the potential for market growth, including VoIP, metro optical, broadband access and mobile high-speed data," said Bill O'Shea, Lucent's executive vice president of Corporate Strategy and Business Development. "With market conditions stabilizing, we felt the time was right to make this strategic acquisition to complement our internal development at Bell Labs. Telica is a great match in the VoIP space with its advanced, flexible architecture and its ability to serve wireline and wireless customer needs with a single solution."

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.

Have a great weekend! I’m off to the Adirondacks to volunteer some time for a children’s camp I’ve been involved in since I was a kid. The schedule calls for some maintenance work before the camp opens its doors to over 100 kids for the month of July.

This weekend promises thunderstorms and day-long rains, so I’m not too excited about that. I am however thrilled for my Golden retriever, Tuz (sounds like “booze”). He loves tearing around the woods and especially enjoys an occasional dip in the pond.

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. While it's true that VoIP deployments that were not designed for full feature redundancy and survivability can be affected by a power outage, this is no differnet than how circuit switched telecom can be affected by a backhoe accidentally digging up a fiber bundle.

If you want a fully redundant, reliable, four-or-five nines uptime VoIP system, you can have one -- you just have to pay for overengineering the solution. It's true that that adds to the total cost of the deployment, but like the old adage, you gotta pay if you wanna play.

Studies have shown that over a five or 10-year ROI period, VoIP systems generally win out over traditional systems on cost.

Note: it might be more expensive in the short term to compare VoIP to circuit switched... It may in some situations necessitate major capital expenditure, but in the end the whole world is moving to IP --failure to invest in the future will only spell doom.

As for deriving revenue while giving the voice awy for "free" there are many ways to skin that cat. VoIP may be free, but only if you consider a flat monthly rate "free." The add-on apps such as voice-mail, directory assistance, caller-ID, dial by name, etc... those are the things VoIP service providers can charge for and make money off of. (Not to mention the apps noone's even thought of yet.) Look at today's cell phone model: 40 bucks gets you 400 minutes, basic voice mail, and a few other things. If you want to add certain apps, like text messaging or enhanced billing, that's extra.

Now the part that's going to get me in trouble. Regulation. I'm of the opinion that VoIP should remain UNREGULATED for now. UNTAXED, and UN-MESSED WITH. But that's for now. I'd be guilty of having my head in the sand if I thought VoIP would remain unregulated forever. But frankly, the government gets its share off ABSOLUTLEY EVERY OTHER PRODUCT/SERVICE out there. In the end, VoIP will be ensnared too. But this is a whole 'nother discussion. Some forms of VoIP should and will remain free of regulation. Some won't.

It's simple really. VoIP is here. It's maturing, and it's going to replace and become the status quo. There's no arguing. Not a single circuit-switch vendor is digging in their heels. Just the opposite, they're all offering transitional products en route to an all-IP telephony stable of solutions. Nortel, Lucent, Alcatel, Siemens... they're all on board. And the service providers they serve are on board as well. It's just a matter of time.