It was back to the keynote room for the second set of keynotes from Speech-World Conference.

First up was Inter-Tel’s Jeff Ford, that firm’s CTO and President, talking about speech technology and what enterprises might hope to gain from it. Ford echoed a point made in the morning’s keynotes, namely that we are at a critical juncture, an inflexion point in the growth of this industry.

The core technology is getting to the point where speech is becoming more reliable.

Speech technology is starting to become mainstream, and it’s changing the way businesses communicate internally and externally,” said Ford.

Historically the technology has enjoyed a poor reputation. IVRs are mocked in commercials on TV (por Espanol, aprimo numero dos…) with customers emulating DTMF tones in person (“boop…beep…boop”).

Ford continued by underscoring a number of current trends in the enterprise, including:  increased mobility (with concomitant rise in new device proliferation); distributed organizations (multiple smaller locations, increased work at home); continued emphasis on productivity enhancement and expense reduction.

Enterprises require a number of things, he said. New technology alone is not enough. Businesses are looking for solutions that offer a solid return on investment to justify capital expenditures, and enterprises are likewise looking to technology to increase revenue, decrease cost, increase efficiency, and improve customer service.

Enterprise decision makers are increasingly looking to standards, which are now more important than ever for generation of developers raised on data interoperability expectations. In today’s world, solutions must operate across multiple infrastructure (IP, TDM, Wireless….) IT JUST HAS TO WORK; to do otherwise is simply unacceptable.

Ford asked the audience, “How does speech drive business process improvement?”

We are seeing an increasing use of speech for self service applications. As speech-enabled apps proliferate, they supplement Web interfaces. Natural Language is a must for this. In the end, self-service reduces errors, reduces costs, and improves service levels.

“Speech technology clearly has the ability to make telecommunications user interfaces better,” said Ford.

He offered an example. “Speech enables you to call people by name again; I am not a number. I’m not SEVEN different numbers!”  Speech enables you to reach out and contact people, not numbers, based on presence and the user defined/user controlled call contact profile. Speech can further enhance the experience by providing meaningful responses to questions with text to speech.

Jeff Ford concluded his speech by saying, “By combining speech technology with presence management system to create a powerful enterprise communications tool, we are able to bring value to the enterprise.”

 Up next, Peter Monaco, VP of Engineering At Nuasis, spoke about the need for standards in the IP Contact Center.

One of the founders of Nuance, Monaco pressed his theme that standards are beginning to drive real business results.

The customer service challenge – multiple media types, varying customer value, multiple agents with multiple skill sets – can increasingly be addressed -- and in fact resolved -- by the use of standards-based solutions.

“Essentially we wish to improve customer service, while lowering operating costs,” said Monaco.

The call center industry is rife with customers using outdated silos of technology, and studies show they are not necessarily all that willing to change, for a variety of reasons.

IP and speech technology however, are driving the traditional disjointed call center model forward into a single unified solution. Adherence to standards – specifically IP – allows this to occur.

Hardware standards enable a software-only, horizontal application deployment model.

IP as a standard enables network convergence. Standards are also at play in the application layer, with the use of multiple standards such as VoIP, VXML, SOAP, ODBC, VXML, SIP… and the like.

By taking advantage of standards-based IP contact center solutions, the silos go away, and you are left with applications sitting on a network that are able to interact and talk to each other enabling true convergence and interoperability.

I had the opportunity to take in this morning’s keynote speeches at Speech-World Conference in Dallas, TX. After a brief introduction from Rich Tehrani, TMC’s President, Cisco’s Vickie McGovern – director of Product and Technology Marketing – IP Communications – took the stage to share her vision for speech technology and how speech is redefining communications.

The core message of the keynote was that speech can reduce the complexity associated with business communications. She touched on a variety of key elements including
Virtualization, Rich Media (focusing on personalization preferences), Natural Language (for such applications as directory services, e-mail and voicemail access, password services, communications management, and calendar management), and
Modality, Presence, and Context (a good example of which is someone calling me when I’m on another call, I respond via IM, and the response is read back to them utilizing speech technology).

Not to diminish any element of Ms. McGovern’s presentation – the whole keynote was compelling, and she had my attention throughout – but perhaps the highlight was the demonstration of Cisco’s upcoming Galileo product. This was the first such public demo of Galileo, pieces of which will begin shipping this fall. On the surface, the application reminded me of an application called Wildfire.

McGovern used a standard desktop phone to call into the system, and using voice commands, she navigated through her e-mail inbox, listening to messages from among others, John Chambers. The demo also showcased Ms. McGovern accessing her appointments from her Outlook Calendar.

I’m definitely looking forward to seeing more of this application in the near future.

McGovern closed by declaring a new world of communications as we enter a phase she called “communications experience convergence” where we will see an increase in business process efficiencies. Speech is redefining communications, she said, affording anywhere anytime access, and streamlining communications. Those are the key elements that speech brings to the table.

*~*~*~*

Aculab’s Mike Matthews, head of product marketing, followed McGovern to the stage. Matthews played up to his company’s position as a provider of DSP resource boards and other tools for the development community. “We don’t do solutions,” he said, “but rather, facilitate them.”

Matthews started off with a thought provoking assertion: “Speech will become redundant,” he declared.

His talk ranged across a wide variety of interesting topics, including the fact that often in technology, the most interesting and lasting technical developments are often unanticipated byproducts. He gave a good example of how Teflon was developed as a heat resistant element for NASA’s space shuttle program, but the chemical coating is perhaps best-known for its use on kitchen pans and utensils.

How many commissioned technologies actually become successful, and how many were unanticipated successes? Matthews prodded the audience, “What about speech?”

He gave a wonderful example of how technology that was used in a prison to enable inmates to have greater access to making calls to the outside world (based on a series of privileges, earned credits, and good behavior, etc…). Well, some of the technologies needed to enable that application, such as speaker verification (for authentication), and word spotting (for monitoring the content of the calls) have found their way into mainstream speech applications, proving Matthews’ assertion that “specialist partners working together with speech technology elements can result in innovative business solutions.”

He closed his discussion by addressing the reality that experience drives different approaches to old problems. For example, first-generation products are tougher to develop than subsequent revisions. Second-generation development builds on past experience, leading to more successful deployment of products.

“We need to keep working to improve the perception of speech enabled solutions,” said Matthews.

Popular Telephony made news today when they announced the commercial release of a peer-to-peer serverless communication system for SoHo customers. The solution blends the PeerioBiz soft phone and Peerio Gateway with the Skype network.

The announcement is significant for SoHo/SMBs, in that this solution essentially eliminates the need for a PBX.

Users employ the PeerioBiz softphone client, which is based on Popular Telephony’s Peerio serverless middleware. When installed across the workplace, PeerioBiz forms a telephony system ‘sans PBX’ while supporting a range of standard PBX features.

The Peerio Gateway for Skype enables customers to originate and terminate calls with Skype In/Out service or to interconnect directly with Skype users on a true peer-to-peer basis.

According to Gavin McFadyen, Director Product Management at Popular Telephony, “We worked with small business customers to identify the functionality that will be easy to use and which enables them to combine the inexpensive calling benefit of Skype with vital feature functionality of Peerio. This includes such enterprise and Centrex like features as call transfer, conferencing, call park, and others that our research showed the customers were demanding from a next generation phone system provider.”

PeerioBiz Small Business system supports more then 30 enterprise grade features usually found in standard PBX. It also includes unlimited free Voice Mail as a standard functionality.

The session controller market is one of the hottest areas in VoIP these days. Today NexTone announced a new customer, a Taiwanese operator named sparq. New customers are a sure sign of success in this business. The news release follows:

GAITHERSBURG, Md.-- May 23, 2005--NexTone Communications, the market leader in scalable session management of real-time IP services such as voice over IP (VoIP), today announced that sparq, a non-government owned Tier-one carrier based in Taiwan, has deployed two NexTone Multiprotocol Session Controllers (MSCs) and the iView Management System (iVMS) as part of its network for wholesale international VoIP services. Installed at the network edge, the MSC enables sparq to handle carrier-to-carrier interconnects without the need for the time division multiplex (TDM) based interfaces provided by media gateways.

When sparq began working with a global VoIP provider, the operator found it needed to upgrade its network to deal with interoperability issues such as SIP protocol conversion, monitoring, and network address translation (NAT). NexTone's MSC quickly solved these interoperability issues, and gives sparq a high-quality VoIP interexchange capability as well as a way to terminate calls immediately. The NexTone system also enables the operator to build out an IP infrastructure that positions it for future growth as Taiwan develops regulations for the VoIP market. With the NexTone iVMS, sparq can also analyze detailed management information and significantly reduce the overall cost of managing its network.

"After evaluating several other session border controllers, we selected NexTone's MSC because it is comprehensive and feature-rich, offers better voice quality, and the company's dedication to its customers and its response time were very impressive," said Steve Chiang, executive vice president at sparq. "NexTone shipped the system in only a few days and it was up and running within two days of its arrival. Since more and more VoIP providers have NexTone systems in their infrastructure, the MSC will enable us to capture their business and ultimately become the market leader in Taiwan for VoIP interexchange services."

Because VoIP services are very popular in Taiwan, sparq is currently using the NexTone MSC to terminate this type of traffic, and in the future will use the system to connect to more and more VoIP providers. The MSC will also enable sparq to provide VoIP and other IP services and applications, including session initiation protocol (SIP) applications, to its enterprise customers as it migrates its network traffic from TDM to IP.

"NexTone's session controller technology is perfect for operators such as sparq that are just entering the VoIP interexchange market," said Dan Dearing, vice president of marketing at NexTone. "The MSC gives operators a solution they can use immediately, but that is flexible and scalable enough to provide a growth path as they start to add more IP services and ultimately migrate to an IP infrastructure."

Nortel and IBM have joined forced in a strategic development agreement, which among other things, menas that the two companies will create a Joint Development Center in North Carolina's Research Triangle Park.

The two companies will collaborate on a variety of research projects including work on a new class of blade servers bringing IBM’s Server Technology and Nortel’s carrier-grade communications expertise together.

The complete release is below.

Nortel, IBM Sign Strategic Development Agreement to Establish Joint Development Center

Initial Focus on Business Transformation, Focused Research, and Collaborative Innovation

Armonk, NY & Toronto – – Nortel* [NYSE/TSX:NT] and IBM [NYSE: IBM] today announced the signing of an agreement designed to support customized products across a range of market segments.

As the first step in this technology, research and services relationship, the companies have established a Nortel-IBM Joint Development Center in Research Triangle Park, NC to collaborate on the design and development of new products and services.

“This agreement with IBM is a critical component of our strategy to partner for growth,” said Bill Owens, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Nortel. “Working with IBM, as one of their key partners, is a bold step forward in our efforts to transform our business by reaching an entirely new level of R&D collaboration while reducing our R&D costs, introducing products at a faster pace and serving a broad range of customers more rapidly.”

At the Nortel-IBM Joint Development Center, personnel from both companies will:

• work together to enhance and extend current products, drawing from various divisions within Nortel and IBM, to drive new revenue growth while reducing R&D costs
• collaborate on focused research on a project-by-project basis, enabling a new level of product creation by tapping the deep skills of each firm to introduce solutions more rapidly
• work together on technology, initially, a new class of blade servers – bringing together IBM’s Server Technology and Nortel’s carrier-grade communications expertise – that would meet the specific and demanding data flow, reliability and security needs required by the network equipment marketplace embracing next generation network solutions.

Nortel expects to utilize IBM engineering and technical services, for a number of projects, all aimed at broadening Nortel end-to-end broadband, Voice over IP, multimedia services and applications and wireless broadband offerings.

“Nortel is a company with a strong history of innovation. Together, we are working to reduce complexity and cost of service delivery while enabling innovation for a new set of on-demand services. This is at the core of what we do,” said Bill Zeitler, Senior Vice President and Group Executive, IBM Systems and Technology Group.

Mr. Zeitler said this agreement reinforces IBM’s strength and ability to address the Business Performance Transformation Services market opportunity on a wide range of business services across many industries. Areas that IBM can address based on its unique portfolio of technology design, system, software and consulting capabilities.

The International Packet Communications Consortium (IPCC) will be participating at the final SuperComm event and in fact will hold their Annual Member Meeting in Chicago on June 6. The group will also chair a VoIP panel at the event.

IPCC President Michael Khalilian is a tireless advocate for our industry; to that end I thought I would reprint his thoughts that appeared in the Chairman’s message in the IPCC’s most recent newsletter. For more information, please visit the organization at www.packetcomm.org

Fellow IPCC Members:

We are at a very important juncture of VoIP in the industry. There is a lot of confusion about the validity of primary line replacement, enhanced services, architecture, and infrastructure requirements for VoIP/Packet Telephony. No one argues that VoIP is here to stay … the argument is does it scale and does it make money?

(Note: There are over 180M circuit switch TDM lines in North America and less than 3M VoIP lines in operation today)

The deployment challenges are not focused on regulatory issues only anymore, but are now focused on features and revenues. Also, there are new factors called “Wireless” and “Multimedia” right at the center of all the VoIP strategies.

Opportunity is knocking. Analysts are calling 2005/2006 the large scale break point for VoIP. Hundreds of CLECs are now transitioning from the UNE-P/L business to VoIP. It is about survival, and it is going to happen! Cable MSOs and 1200 independent cable companies (NCTC – Co-ops) are calling VoIP the new business and residential source of revenue and a churn buster to current satellite DBS service offerings. Wireless WiFi and convergence is becoming an opportunity and a challenge forVoIP. The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) promises to merge all VoIP services into a seamless, personalized solution. It is about changing the rules of the game … and the IPCC is on top of it!

Since we are “the technology forum working to advance VoIP over broadband cable, wireless, and wireline,” we can assist in the technical and marketing of VoIP and associated applications architectures.

Thank you to all the IPCC members and volunteers who are working with us today. It’s critical to have everyone’s participation in order for the IPCC to truly provide value to both vendors and service providers. You can help by participating in the IPCC working groups which are focused on enhancing VoIP deployments by developing white papers, etc. We are also partnering with different industry forums, including WiMax, DSL Forum, and MSF. Working together, we are creating the future of VoIP.

Michael Khalilian

Chairman and President

International Packet Communications Consortium

Here's the first of many responses I expect today regarding the FCC decision.

This from Covad -- the complete release is below.

COVAD Applauds FCC Decision to Require All VoIP Providers to Implement ''Enhanced 911'' Service

Covad Already Builds E-911 Service into All of Its Managed VoIP Phone Lines

SAN JOSE, Calif.-- May 19, 2005--Covad Communications Group, Inc. (OTCBB:COVD), a leading nationwide provider of integrated voice and data communications, today applauded the Federal Communications Commission's ruling that Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers must include enhanced 911 service to their customers. The unanimous decision came at this morning's open FCC meeting.

E-911 service pinpoints a distressed caller's location so emergency services can respond immediately. Covad provides E-911 service on all of its managed VoIP phone lines.

"Enhanced 911 (E911) services have saved countless lives since their introduction," said Jeff Ahlquist, Covad vice president, product management and development. "We recognized this when we launched Covad business-class VoIP service; making E911 a fundamental feature on every single one of our managed VoIP phone lines was crucial. Covad applauds Chairman Martin and the FCC for today's decision."

Covad uses turn-key E-911 service provided by third-party vendors. These providers work with the local phone companies and others to update end-user information in industry telephone databases such as E911 and directory listing services. Covad has built this service into its business-class managed VoIP product from the day it was introduced to the market.

"These services charge per customer," explained Ahlquist. "Because Covad's business customers often have 10-200 users at a single customer site, the cost per line for E-911 services is much lower than it would be for consumer VoIP offerings. Business-class lines also provide higher margins than consumer lines, therefore the incremental cost of E911 is much less significant."

Covad does not provide E-911 on the very small percentage of unmanaged lines that it services. "We foresee no difficulties in extending this service to the few customers we have who are on unmanaged lines," said Ahlquist.

No surprise here, but it’s official: the FCC has ruled that VoIP providers must offer access to E911 service within 120 days. That’s a nifty Thanksgiving present for someone.

As pointed out in the article I linked to above, “They (indie VoIP providers) were in the market space first, they have far better offerings, and much better pricing as well,” wrote TechKnow Times. “So how to kill them? Simple. Force them to have to buy a service where the traditional telephone companies can set the price. And what is one thing that the traditional phone companies still pretty much have a monopoly on? The provision of 911 service.”

The aging carriers apparently have the one thing that VoIP providers have yet to acquire, and that’s a lobby in Washington that has some measure of sway on the regulators.

I think everyone agrees that service providers need to offer their customers some sort of emergency services mechanism. But let’s not force the issue within some arbitrary, ridiculously short time frame. I’m sure we’ll see a number of companies fall by the wayside as a result of this decision. And that’s a shame.

Just saw this on the wire...  Ever the sign of a healthy industry, the acquisitions in the VoIP space continue at a torrid pace in 2005.

Here's the official release:

VoIP Inc. announced today that it has advanced $475,000 dollars and had signed a letter of intent to acquire Caerus, Inc. which includes all wholly-owned subsidiaries; Volo Communications, Inc., Caerus Networks Inc, and Caerus Billing Inc.

Under the purposed purchase terms, VoIP, Inc. will acquire 100% of the stock and assets of Caerus, Inc in exchange for the issuance of 15 million common shares of VoIP, Inc. The company has advanced Caerus, Inc. $475,000 for implementation of their newly developed Least Cost Routing engine (LCR) and the Company expects to fund an additional $275,000 dollars for LCR prior to closing.

At the core of Caerus' value proposition and industry differentiation lies in its proprietary softswitch technology. The protocol agnostic architecture enables virtually any network protocol, from legacy switches to the latest MPLS standards, to communicate with the Caerus softswitch. Shawn Lewis, Caerus' President and CEO is a well respected leader and innovator, having written the patents for the first softswitch (patent 6,614,781) and SS7 Media Gateway (patent 6,442,169). One of Mr. Lewis' many accomplishments was the sale in 1998 of XCOM Technologies, Inc., a CLEC that he co-founded, to Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ NM: LVLT - News) for common stock, options and warrants valued at $154 million dollars.

Caerus, Inc and its three subsidiaries generated revenues during calendar year 2004 that totaled 14 million dollars and based on current contracts and purchased orders, revenues are estimated to exceed 38 million for calendar year 2005.

The Volo Communications, Inc. subsidiary is the licensed facilities-based CLEC (Competitive Local Exchange Carrier) and IXC (Inter Exchange Carrier). Caerus Networks, Inc. is the technology research and development subsidiary and Caerus Billing, Inc. is the billing and mediation subsidiary.

Volo Communications is a wholesale provider of advanced telecommunications technologies and services to carriers and service providers including Inter Exchange Carriers (IXCs), CLECs, ISPs, Cable Operators and Enhanced Voice and Data Service Providers. Through the wholesale only model Caerus has positioned itself as a "carrier's carrier" and a leader in the broadband voice marketplace. Volo markets its network products and services under the VoiceOne brand name.

Caerus currently has network facilities (Network Access Points "NAPs") operating in Orlando, Atlanta, New York, Dallas and Los Angeles. A total of 22 NAPs are planned to be operational by the end of 2005 that will be capable of addressing the top 100 MSAs representing 93 percent of the domestic population.

The VoiceOne Network Operations Center (NOC) is a fully manned 24 x 7 operation and is the heartbeat of Volo Communications. The NOC is where the company monitors all aspects of the technical environment, from its nationwide OC-12 backbone to network routers, SIP proxies and numerous routing gateways, soft switches and other aspects of its VOIP infrastructure. Fully redundant technologies are deployed in a scalable network environment that enables the company to compete effectively and efficiently in the ever-evolving and demanding IP telecommunications marketplace. The VoiceOne network incorporates an advanced MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) architecture which is designed and operated to offer world-class services to carriers and service providers. VoiceOne features direct interconnection facilities with multiple LECs (Local Exchange Carriers), CLECs, IXCs, service providers, cable operators, wireless carriers and resellers.

"The combined strengths of our two companies will make us the leader in the IP telephony industry," said Steven Ivester, CEO of VoIP Inc. "This acquisition will provide us with the one of the largest Voice over IP Networks in the United States. It is one thing to have the Carrier grade network to support growth, but it is something else to have the engineering and development talent to make you the industry leader in VoIP Carrier grade networks. We are about 80% of the way through the negotiations of the definitive agreement and feel that we have most of the difficult hurtles behind us. Once the acquisition is complete our team will consist of some of the industries best and most forward thinking minds."

Came across this item from Reuters today. It's been quite a week for Vonage and 911.

FCC boss proposes 911 for Internet phones - sources

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin has proposed requiring Internet-based telephone services to offer 911 emergency services to customers by as early as the end of September, people familiar with the plan said on Wednesday.

After a few incidents where customers failed to reach emergency officials when they dialed 911, federal regulators are increasing pressure on companies to ensure those calls get routed and answered properly with location information.

The proposal would require companies like Vonage Holdings Corp. to route 911 calls directly to primary emergency lines within four months of the order being issued, the sources said, declining to be identified because the proposal is not a public record.

Martin has circulated the proposal so it could be voted at the agency's open meeting on May 19, the sources said. He would have to win the votes of two of the other three FCC commissioners for approval or work out a compromise with them.

An FCC spokesman had no immediate comment.

Companies are racing to offer Internet telephone service, known as Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP), in part because it is cheaper to operate. It requires a high-speed Internet connection and subscribers can use it wherever they have that access.

Calls to 911 with traditional telephones provide emergency service dispatchers with the caller's number and address. In contrast, VOIP providers do not all connect to the systems that route calls directly to emergency dispatchers.

Sometimes the 911 calls do not include location information and end up at office numbers that are not always answered.

Martin's proposal would cover those customers who use their VOIP service in a single location as well as others who use the service in multiple places as long as they register that location, one source said.

It was not immediately clear how the FCC would ensure VOIP providers have access to the equipment they need to route the calls to primary 911 call center lines or how the agency would enforce the requirements.

Vonage, the biggest U.S. VOIP provider with more than 500,000 subscribers, has reached deals for 911 service in areas where Verizon Communications and Qwest Communications International Inc. are the primary local phone carriers, the northeast corridor and most western states.

Vonage has been sued by two states where customers had trouble reaching 911 help, Texas and Connecticut. The state attorneys general accused the company of failing to adequately warn customers about the limitations of 911 with a VOIP phone.

According to an item from In-Stat:

"The international telecommunications industry is in the early stages of a migration to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), reports In-Stat. The big question is when will a mass migration to VoIP occur? 2005-2009 is the consumer and small business VoIP ramp-up period, and migration to VoIP will peak in the 2010-2014 time frame, the high tech market research firm says. This time frame is largely dependent on carriers' strategies for migration to the Next-Generation Network (NGN)."

I generally tend to agree that increasing amounts of residential users, small businesses, and large enterprises will become consumers of VoIP services. Noone really knows how long this will take, but I find no fault with In-Stat's assertion that we'll see a ramp-up to 2009, and even higher numbers in 2010-2014. My only beef is the assertion that VoIP will "peak."

Let me ask you, when do you think telephony will peak? When will calling your Mom on Mother's day "peak"? VoIP is not some new "thing" that will go away when people get tired of playing with it. VoIP is an enabling technology that enables "talking" over long distances. The fact that it does so much more is not the relevant point here.

2014 means nothing. When we hit global teledensity (or some mid 21st century version thereof) of 30-40-50 % then we can talk about peaking.

Still, I like the fact that In-Stat projects big things for VoIP. Who can argue with that?

AT&T today unveiled AT&T Dynamic Network Applications (DNA),an integrated portfolio of IP services that will support the next generation of business communications — from voice to conferencing, messaging, and beyond.

The first service available in the portfolio will be AT&T Voice DNA, a network-based voice over IP (VoIP) service that combines the cost and functionality benefits of a premises-based VoIP service, with the flexibility, control and reduced capital expenditures of network-based IP services. AT&T will begin rolling out this service to a limited number of customers in the coming months, and will continue to roll out service through the rest of the year.

The rest of the news release can be found here.