June 2005 Archives

I just came across this interesting news item, that Nortel was chosen to support NASA's in its endeavors going forward.

When the Space Shuttle program resumes this summer, NASA's Mission Command and Telemetry Network -- recently upgraded by Nortel -- will enable the sharing of information between the Space Shuttle Discovery, the International Space Station, and NASA's Operations Centers.

Nortel also deployed their Mobility Solution at Kennedy Space Center which will enable journalists to report their stories wirelessly. Over 2,500 reporters are expected for the launch of Discovery

There's also a bit of a personal angle here as I have always held tremendous regard for and interest in the space program. And, my first job in publishing was with the magazine NASA Tech Briefs. So telecom meets outer space, in a way. I can just hear Schwarzenegger now, "I got to get my Asterisk to Mars!"

In any event, the news item can be found here.

Lance Armstrong is one of only two American riders on the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team’s Tour de France Roster.

New York native George Hincapie will join Armstrong, but the rest of the squad looks like a roll call of the EU:

• Jose Azevedo of Portugal
• Jose Luis Rubiera, Manuel Beltran, and Benjamin Noval of Spain
• Paolo Savoldelli of Italy
• Yaroslav Popovych of Ukraine
• Pavel Padrnos of the Czech Republic.

Armstrong believes the team is built to win.

“I think we have fielded our strongest team ever with this formation,” said Armstrong. “It has many consistent elements from years past, like the Spanish armada for the climbs, strong guys like George, Pavel and Benjamin, the Giro winner in Savoldelli, plus a guy like Popo (Popovych) with a very bright future.

“I look forward to leading this team and attempting to give the great folks at Discovery a yellow jersey. I'm more motivated than ever.”

Of the eight teammates, Hincapie is the only one who has raced alongside Armstrong for all six of his Tour victories.

Paolo Savoldelli recently won his second Tour of Italy (Giro d’Italia) in the last four years.

As for the competition, Team CSC will counter Armstrong with Ivan Basso (Italy), with Bobby Julich (USA) also a potential contender.

T-Mobile has brought on two highly experienced lieutenants to support Jan Ullrich in his last chance to beat Armstrong: 2004 runner-up Andreas Klöden and 2003 third-place finisher Alexandre Vinokourov. Ullrich won the 1997 Tour and has been runner-up five times.

A reporter, interviewing Vinokourov for the team’s Web site asked if the T-Mobile team could dethrone Armstrong. The Kazakh answered, “We are going there with the intention of turning the heat on Armstrong and hopefully force him to crack. But the guy is exceptionally strong and motivated. It is hard to imagine him cracking. He will be in top form. The key is to attack Armstrong, but that is easier said than done. Nevertheless, that is what we will try to do.”

I’m looking forward to this year’s Tour, and while I’m rooting for Lance to win number 7, I’m really hoping that the sport won’t get brushed back under the rug in the U.S. after he retires.

After posting this morning's comments about Microsoft being wrong for enabling censorship in China, I had a conversation with our CTO who agreed with me that censorship and/or enabling censorhip is bad, but why pick on Microsoft alone? Another colleague forwarded some more information to me as well a few moments ago, and that led me to an article that appeared on the Industry Standard in February of last year.

The text of the article is below for your convenience. The piece was written by Scarlett Pruitt of the IDG News Service and you can find it online here.

I guess it was indeed unfair to single out one company, when many vendors stand accused of doing the same thing.

I'm also not naive, and I left Polyanna-ville a long time ago. I understand the desire -- indeed the NEED -- for businesses to extend their bottom lines and grow their customer base. That's capitalism, that's one of the key benefits of living in a democracy such as ours. But it still doesn't taste quite right.

I had no plans to climb aboard my soapbox this morning. Here's the Industry Standard piece from last February:

Tech Firms Blamed for Aiding Censorship in China

By Scarlet Pruitt, IDG News Service

While China's large online population and growing economic development represent an irresistible lure for many IT vendors, any technology they provide that helps the Chinese government impose Internet censorship makes them partially to blame for human rights abuses, a new report by Amnesty International (AI) claims.

The human rights group said in a report released last week that it "remains concerned that in their pursuit of new and lucrative markets, foreign corporations may be indirectly contributing to human rights violations or at the very least failing to give adequate consideration to the human rights implications of their investments."

The group specifically named technology firms Microsoft Corp., Nortel Networks Corp., Cisco Systems Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc. for deals they have done in China which AI believes have contributed to the government's ability to monitor and censor public Internet use in what it sees as a major strike against freedom of expression.

According to the report, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of people detained in China over the last year for expressing their opinions online. What's more, the Chinese government has been increasing its surveillance and monitoring of cyber cafes, Internet service providers and businesses in the country, AI said.

By the end of 2003, China had 79.5 million Internet users, 34.5 percent more than it did the previous year, making the country both a huge lure for international investment and more difficult for the government to control, AI said.

But despite the group's charges of corporate culpability, the major IT vendors named in the report refuted direct responsibility for the situation in China.

Microsoft said in a statement Monday that how its technology is used is "with the individual and ultimately not in the company's control."

Microsoft established a research center in Beijing in 1998 and signed a software development deal with the Chinese government in June 2002, pledging an investment of about US$750 million.

Cisco and Nortel also dismissed charges that they are collaborating with the Chinese government to impose Net censorship. In statements released Monday Nortel said that it "categorically rejected" the claims that it aids any government in repressing human rights and Cisco said that it "has not specifically designed any products for the Chinese government or for any regional market to block or filter content."

Sun, which recently forged a deal with the government-backed China Standard Software Co. Ltd. to provide up to 1 million licenses of its Linux-based Java Desktop System in China, was not immediately available to respond to the charges Monday.

Although the vendors have dismissed claims that they are taking part in China's Net censorship practices, AI has said that their responses as a whole have been "inadequate," especially given recent rules adopted by the United Nations (U.N.).

The U.N. Human Rights Norm for Business adopted in August 2003 states that "enterprises shall refrain from any activity which supports, solicits, or encourages States or any other entities to abuse human rights. They shall further seek to ensure that the goods and services they provide will not be used to abuse human rights."

The U.N. norm is not legally binding, but Louise Vischer, a campaigner of Amnesty International China, said Amnesty is encouraging companies to follow it.

"These companies have a much greater understanding now of how their technology is being used and they should take this into account when in discussions with the Chinese government," Vischer said. She added that the main goal is to free individuals jailed for expressing their views.

While the group is making a connection between the IT vendors' products and the curbing of free speech, the vendors themselves have been emphasizing their roles in helping the economic development of China through direct investment. Besides providing technology, some IT firms have outsourced manufacturing and research to the country.

It remains to be seen how IT vendors will measure the claimed social benefits of their investments in China with calls from right groups like Amnesty to take a stand against government practices.

After posting this morning's comments about Microsoft being wrong for enabling censorship in China, I had a conversation with our CTO who agreed with me that censorship and/or enabling censorhip is bad, but why pick on Microsoft alone? Another colleague forwarded some more information to me as well a few moments ago, and that led me to an article that appeared on the Industry Standard in February of last year.

The text of the article is below for your convenience. The piece was written by Scarlett Pruitt of the IDG News Service and you can find it online here.

I guess it was indeed unfair to single out one company, when many vendors stand accused of doing the same thing.

I'm also not naive, and I left Polyanna-ville a long time ago. I understand the desire -- indeed the NEED -- for businesses to extend their bottom lines and grow their customer base. That's capitalism, that's one of the key benefits of living in a democracy such as ours. But it still doesn't taste quite right.

I had no plans to climb aboard my soapbox this morning. Here's the Industry Standard piece from last February:

Tech Firms Blamed for Aiding Censorship in China

By Scarlet Pruitt, IDG News Service

While China's large online population and growing economic development represent an irresistible lure for many IT vendors, any technology they provide that helps the Chinese government impose Internet censorship makes them partially to blame for human rights abuses, a new report by Amnesty International (AI) claims.

The human rights group said in a report released last week that it "remains concerned that in their pursuit of new and lucrative markets, foreign corporations may be indirectly contributing to human rights violations or at the very least failing to give adequate consideration to the human rights implications of their investments."

The group specifically named technology firms Microsoft Corp., Nortel Networks Corp., Cisco Systems Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc. for deals they have done in China which AI believes have contributed to the government's ability to monitor and censor public Internet use in what it sees as a major strike against freedom of expression.

According to the report, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of people detained in China over the last year for expressing their opinions online. What's more, the Chinese government has been increasing its surveillance and monitoring of cyber cafes, Internet service providers and businesses in the country, AI said.

By the end of 2003, China had 79.5 million Internet users, 34.5 percent more than it did the previous year, making the country both a huge lure for international investment and more difficult for the government to control, AI said.

But despite the group's charges of corporate culpability, the major IT vendors named in the report refuted direct responsibility for the situation in China.

Microsoft said in a statement Monday that how its technology is used is "with the individual and ultimately not in the company's control."

Microsoft established a research center in Beijing in 1998 and signed a software development deal with the Chinese government in June 2002, pledging an investment of about US$750 million.

Cisco and Nortel also dismissed charges that they are collaborating with the Chinese government to impose Net censorship. In statements released Monday Nortel said that it "categorically rejected" the claims that it aids any government in repressing human rights and Cisco said that it "has not specifically designed any products for the Chinese government or for any regional market to block or filter content."

Sun, which recently forged a deal with the government-backed China Standard Software Co. Ltd. to provide up to 1 million licenses of its Linux-based Java Desktop System in China, was not immediately available to respond to the charges Monday.

Although the vendors have dismissed claims that they are taking part in China's Net censorship practices, AI has said that their responses as a whole have been "inadequate," especially given recent rules adopted by the United Nations (U.N.).

The U.N. Human Rights Norm for Business adopted in August 2003 states that "enterprises shall refrain from any activity which supports, solicits, or encourages States or any other entities to abuse human rights. They shall further seek to ensure that the goods and services they provide will not be used to abuse human rights."

The U.N. norm is not legally binding, but Louise Vischer, a campaigner of Amnesty International China, said Amnesty is encouraging companies to follow it.

"These companies have a much greater understanding now of how their technology is being used and they should take this into account when in discussions with the Chinese government," Vischer said. She added that the main goal is to free individuals jailed for expressing their views.

While the group is making a connection between the IT vendors' products and the curbing of free speech, the vendors themselves have been emphasizing their roles in helping the economic development of China through direct investment. Besides providing technology, some IT firms have outsourced manufacturing and research to the country.

It remains to be seen how IT vendors will measure the claimed social benefits of their investments in China with calls from right groups like Amnesty to take a stand against government practices.

Cisco Systems announced plans to boost China’s share of its outsourcing budget to 40 percent by the end of 2006.

The release quoted Jia-Bin Duh, president of Cisco’s China operations, who said it spent about $5 billion on outsourcing in China in 2004, or 25 percent of its global total. He declined to elaborate on how much the company plans to spend this year.

China is one of Cisco’s top five countries for revenue, together with the United States, Japan, Britain and Germany.

Duh said he expects “business to take off” once China launches third-generation mobile phone services, which will boost demand for Cisco technology.

China has been in the news a lot lately, what with the kerfuffle over Microsoft’s essentially enabling censorship in the Chinese version of its blogging tool.

According to Reporters Without Borders, an organization dedicated to fighting for press freedom and human rights all over the world, when a Chinese blogger attempts to post a message containing specific terms, a warning appears stating, “This message contains a banned expression, please delete this expression.”

These phrases include terms such as “democracy”, “Dalai Lama”, “Falungong”, “4 June” (the date of the Tiananmen Square massacre), “China + corruption”, or “human rights.”

It’s just not right. And Microsoft should reconsider. I know they won't. But  they should. And our government might worry less about steroids, and more about censorship.

A new report from In-Stat declares that broadband remains a bright spot  in an otherwise lagging telecom market.

According to the release announcing Common Cents: Consumer Telecom & Technology Spending, 2004-2009, although service revenues for US telcos are expected to decline through 2009, broadband generate significant revenue growth. The report posits that market penetration will grow from 28.6 percent of the population in 2004 to nearly 50 percent by the end of 2009.

"The migration from dial-up to broadband is good news for service providers, as the monthly fees for broadband will remain substantially higher than for dial-up," says Amy Cravens, In-Stat analyst. "With $13.7 billion in broadband revenues in 2004 versus $10.9 billion in dial-up revenues, broadband has already outpaced dial-up as a revenue-generating opportunity."  

The research tells us that:

• Total consumer spending on communication services, including local voice, long distance, cable TV, dial-up, and broadband was $114.8 billion in 2004.
  
• By 2009, broadband services will generate $15 billion more per year than dial-up.
  
• 35 percent of the respondents currently purchase multiple services from a single provider.

The report explores which services will contribute to a decline in US consumer telecom spending, as well as which services are expected to continue to grow. The report also explores consumer demand for voice services, video services, and Internet services, including revenue forecasts through 2009. For more on this report, please click here. 

According to a report from  ABI Research, chinese telecom giant Huawei is growing faster than a speeding bullet, and is able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Well, sort of...

The latest study from ABI Research's Asia bureau, "Huawei: On the Road to Becoming a Leading International Equipment Supplier", analyzes the firm's businesses, its culture and its major strategies, as well as providing an overview of the company's principal products, its financial data, business focus and target markets at different stages.

The report goes on to say that Huawei is China's largest domestic telecommunications equipment supplier in terms of revenue. In 2004, the growth of Huawei's contract sales reached a four-year high, with a rate of 41%. Along with the strong growth, the company enjoys high operating and profit margins, which reached 18% and 16% respectively in 2004.

ABP is once again playing host at their VoIP Sizzles in Dallas VoIP VAR conference for open systems next month, from July 20–22. 

ABP is a national technology distributor that markets SIP-based VoIP solutions via Resellers. The Dallas, TX-based firm is actively growing a network of professional resellers seeking to integrate VoIP solutions using “Best of Breed” components as opposed to a single manufacturer’s solution.

ABP’s conference is open to data, networking, and telecom resellers that want to become professional players in the VoIP space. Last year this event drew about 100 resellers from across the United States, plus a significant number of Resellers from Latin America and the Caribbean. This year plans call for the event to double in size and the conference will have even more to offer to new Resellers that are planning to focus on VoIP or add a VoIP practice.

Robert Messer, president and founder of ABP, is excited about the return of VoIP Sizzles in Dallas. “My vision is that with this relatively ‘intimate’ event we actually see new resellers being born or converted from audience to active players in the field. ABP is working with passion on making resellers successful and is heavily investing into the reseller channel.”

The VoIP Sizzles in Dallas event features a Reseller Training Track “ABP VoIP Foundation,” an executive track focusing on the business side, a Technology Track, and an Exhibit Hall. The two-day event is designed to give resellers a full grasp of VoIP business opportunities, a technology overview, peer to peer networking and training in a very short time and at minimum cost.

ABP’s reseller training has grown nationwide with ABP’s online resource www.SIPtrain.com. Resellers can visit the VoIP Foundation Track at the event to get a first taste of what needs to be learned and how many people should get trained and then join one of the SIPTrain classes locally at a later time.

Keynote speakers at the event will be Dr. Jack Bacon; Rich Tehrani — President of TMC and Editor in Chief of Internet Telephony Magazine; Mark Spencer — President of Digium and Founder and Developer of Asterisk the Open Source IPBX; and Robert Messer — President and Founder of ABP Technology.

Dr. Jack Bacon is a futurist, author, and technological historian who will illustrate how VoIP and SIP have all the key elements that futurists seek when trying to identify the drivers of major societal shifts from among all the candidate innovations of an era. Dr. Bacon is a veteran practitioner in some of this generation’s most famous emerging technologies (including artificial intelligence, controlled thermonuclear fusion, factory automation, the electronic office, global networks, and the international conquest of space) and is a speaker who knows how to bring the big picture into focus.

Rich Tehrani will highlight the tremendous progress of VoIP in the last few years and talk about the “Killer Applications” that are helping Resellers convince their customers that its time to migrate to VoIP.

Mark Spencer will show how Open Standards and Open Source have put the power in the hands of the Reseller.

ABP has put together a very impressive portfolio of products, services and training for their reseller community and VoIP Sizzles in Dallas should be a great even to join for any new reseller.

The event is limited to 200 resellers so if your interested, please hurry to sign up.

Sony in a continuing relationship with GlowPoint, announced earlier today the availability of the new IVE (pronounced "Ivy") or Instant Video Everywhere service. The announcement heralds the latest move in Sony's IP communications strategy, specifically focusing on video. In March, I had the chance to check out Sony's IPELA launch. Today's announcement had me excited as well. I plan to keep a close eye on what Sony and GlowPoint will do as they evolve their product line and make good on a rather interetsing roadmap over the course of the next little while. I urge you to do the same.

The release follows below.

Sony and GlowPoint Team Up on ''Instant Video Everywhere'' IP-Based Communication Service

PARK RIDGE, N.J. & HILLSIDE, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 1, 2005--Sony Electronics and GlowPoint, Inc. (NASDAQ: GLOW - News) today announced the availability of Sony's IVE or "Instant Video Everywhere" service powered by GlowPoint, the first comprehensive IP-based video communications solution that can be used any place where there is broadband access.

Sony's IVE service, powered by GlowPoint, enables users to conduct "face-to-face" video conversations with colleagues, friends and family as easily as using a telephone. The IVE (pronounced "ivy") service portfolio has been developed to extend across multiple Sony product lines, moving beyond the conference room and typical videoconferencing equipment to desktop or laptop computers and other video-enabled devices.

Sony's IVE Business service, available now, is the first offering in the IVE portfolio. It is designed to meet the needs of office-based business professionals.

Sony's new IVE Mobile service, scheduled to debut at Infocomm beginning June 8, is focused on video communications capabilities for telecommuters, home office workers and business travelers in the U.S. and around the world. IVE Mobile will offer exclusive, feature-rich capabilities including one-click access to a live IVE Video Operator. Advanced registration is immediately available at www.sonyive.com.

Additional IVE offerings include Sony's IVE Home service, targeted to deliver a broad range of consumer-based video communication solutions.

"We've created an engaging communications experience, allowing people to interact wherever they are," said Michael McCausland, vice president of visual communications at Sony Electronics. "Using the power of IP-based video, we have teamed up with GlowPoint to expand video communications beyond the conference room to where people actually conduct business - at their desks, in their home offices or on the road. Sony's new IVE service is a key element of our vision to transform communications by integrating and interconnecting people, locations, devices and content in real-time over unlimited distances with an unsurpassed level of quality."

While fully integrated for use with Sony's state-of-the-art IPELA(TM) visual communications product line, the IVE service is an open standards solution that is operable for all companies using IP-enabled videoconferencing equipment, regardless of product manufacturer.

"This is more than a video communications product and service," said David Trachtenberg, president and CEO of GlowPoint. "It is a video-enabled community that truly delivers on the promise of anytime, anywhere face-to-face communications. This is the first in a series of IVE solutions offered by Sony and powered by GlowPoint that will ultimately change the way people communicate in their jobs and their everyday lives - whether at work, in a home office, airport lounge, hotel room or coffee shop."

Sony's IVE service incorporates GlowPoint's "All You Can See" Unlimited Video Calling plans and patent-pending interactive video communications features, including access to live Sony "000" Video Operators and "Lisa," the IVE Video Call Assistant, as well as innovative applications such as Video Call Mailboxes and Direct-Dial Video Numbers. Customers of Sony's IVE service will also have access to exclusive Sony content.

For example, users can dial "S-O-N-Y" (7669) to reach the IVE Video Portal for instant access to video previews of feature films, special promotions for new Sony products, IVE service updates, video customer service and more. These features are integrated into the IVE service to create a consistent customer experience from wherever video communications are occurring.

IVE Mobile: Taking IP Video on the Road

Sony's IVE Mobile service is a software-based personal video solution for virtually "anywhere, anytime" communications over a broadband connection.

The service makes placing a video call from out of the office as easy and spontaneous as placing a cellular phone call. The architecture, designed and powered by GlowPoint, is based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), and creates an easy-to-use customer experience with embedded firewall traversal and a self-configuring installation process. The SIP-based device enables the solution to leverage other SIP-based products providing future integration opportunities with instant messaging and presence capabilities.

The personal video solution leverages the industry's first fully deployed production SIP to H.323 gateway that was recently installed in the GlowPoint core IP network. This technology enables any user of Sony's IVE Mobile SIP client to see or talk to virtually any other visual communications client using either traditional conference room H.323 or legacy ISDN (H.320) video systems, a landline, cellular or even a 3G phone.

"As a current user of videoconferencing, I thought it would be interesting to be one of the first users of IVE Mobile," stated Helene Dublisky, CIO of Infilaw, a Florida-based consortium of Independent Law Schools. "But I didn't anticipate just how much it would change the way I communicate using video. We are a geographically dispersed group with a broad range of technical skills. With IVE Mobile, we're able to easily initiate face-to-face communications with business associates and friends whenever and wherever we want."

Sony's IVE Mobile service will also be available as a bundled offering for IVE Business customers using Sony PCS-TL50 desktop videoconferencing systems. The combined solution will provide customers the ability to un-dock their laptop computer and, using innovative "Follow Me" video technology, be contacted at the same 10-digit direct dial video number they use at their desk while traveling away from the office.

The services are already in use at select customer sites across the U.S. and at Sony offices nationwide. The services are also available for demonstration at Sony interactive product showrooms in major U.S. cities.

Sony's IVE Business and IVE Mobile services will be demonstrated in Las Vegas from June 8 to June 10 during the Infocomm industry conference in a special IVE Cafe at booth 3084 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

More information about the entire suite of Sony's IVE services, powered by GlowPoint, including an interactive product tour and pricing information, is available at www.sonyive.com.

Newport Networks announced this morning it is expanding its organization with new offices in Frisco, Texas. Newport likewise announced the availability of Release 2.0 of its 1460 session border controller software.

Release 2.0 of its 1460 Session Border Controller adds geographic service resilience, link aggregation (802.3-2002) capabilities, and a series of enhancements designed to deliver carrier-class reliability, bandwidth utilization and profitability.

“Service providers now require the same predictability, reliability and profitability as the PSTN for voice and multimedia over IP,” says Terry Matthews, Chairman of Newport Networks. “It’s time for vendors to step up and help providers succeed with new packet-based services. The U.S. market is absolutely ready for a session border controller of this caliber.  Newport is here to raise the bar.”

I visited with David Vant and Steve Baechle of Newport Networks who shared some of the details that the 1460 provides:

Geographic Service Resilience:  With this latest release, the 1460 session border controller delivers true geographic resilience, safeguarding against both node and network failure. Two1460s in different locations can automatically assume traffic from one another in the event of disaster scenarios, router failure or extended power outages.  Automatic switchover of traffic is performed, avoiding service disruption and providing disaster recovery capabilities on a par with the PSTN.

Link Aggregation to Bolster Reliability:  The 1460 includes Link Aggregation (802.3-2002) functionality, commonly deployed in routers.  This optimizes the flow of traffic across 8 physical links, allowing traffic to continue to flow even in the event of a link failure, vastly improving service reliability.

Regulatory Compliance:  The 1460 solution complies with CALEA and Emergency 911 mandates.  In keeping with requirements, Lawful Intercept is performed without the end-users’ knowledge and monitored details are delivered in real-time over secure interfaces to the law enforcement agency. These features are added in such a way that call processing performance is not impacted.

VLAN Support for Premium Services:  The 1460 architecture allows service providers to establish SIP-based Virtual LANs (VLANs) between their network core and customer sites with extensive traffic policing capabilities, enabling guaranteed performance and optimal bandwidth utilization. VLAN capabilities can also be applied on the trunking side to ensure optimum physical interface utilization while policing at the VLAN level enforces peering agreements

“Policing” Profitability: The Release 2.0 software includes expanded traffic policing capabilities for regulating bandwidth across multiple customer connections. Precise media policing on a per connection basis gives providers the granular control of bandwidth utilization needed to accurately design and consistently meet Service Level Agreements (SLAs).  Meanwhile signaling policing limits the effects of signaling Denial of Service attacks on the core network.

Session Admission Control (SAC): Allows bandwidth and session type (e.g., voice, instant messaging, and video) limits to be set for corporate groups and individual users. Additionally, “Anti-tromboning” (or Media Release), for use among end-users behind a main corporate IP address, allows internal VoIP calls to take place within the corporate network with only the signaling traffic sent to the session border controller. This minimizes congestion in the public access network.

Release 2.0 of the Newport Networks 1460 session border controller will ship in the North American and international markets through third quarter 2005.