August 2005 Archives

Worldwide service provider router and switch revenue reached $1.8 billion in the first half of 2005, up 10 percent from the first quarter, and up 24 percent year over year. This comes from Infonetics Research's just-released quarterly report, Service Provider Routers and Switches. The research firm predicts that worldwide annual revenue will reach $8.9 billion by 2008.

Cisco leads the pack in worldwide edge router revenue with 56%, followed by Juniper (21%) and Huawei (9%). Huawei’s sales reportedly more than doubled in the most recent quarter.

This morning, ShoreTel announced ShoreTel 6, the sixth generation of its distributed IP PBX voice solution. The newest ShoreTel IP PBX features an Office Anywhere feature, which is designed to support mobile users on any device in any location. ShoreTel’s latest offering features integrated software distribution, media encryption, on-net dialing, and increased support of international operations.  ShoreTel has also delivered two new telephone devices, a low-end IP phone and a 24-button programmable button box for operators and assistants.

In other news, ShoreTel announced today it has been recognized by InfoTech as the fastest growing IP PBX company in the United States. According to the recent InfoTech InfoTrack Report for Enterprise Communications, ShoreTel’s pure IP line shipments grew 96 percent between Q1’04 and Q1’05, more than any other industry vendor.

The releases follow.

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ShoreTel redefines mobility and increases options with 6th generation of its pure IP telephony platform

Trademark flexibility, manageability, and ease of use get even better; new handsets and native SIP support expand options

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – VoiceCon – August 29, 2005 – ShoreTel, Inc., the fastest growing IP PBX company in the United States and the leader in customer satisfaction, today announced ShoreTel 6, the sixth generation of its distributed IP PBX voice solution.  ShoreTel redefines telephone mobility with a new Office Anywhere feature which supports mobile users irrespective of their location and the device they are using at the moment.  ShoreTel’s exceptional management and integration capabilities get even better with integrated software distribution, media encryption, on-net dialing, and increased support of international operations.  ShoreTel has also delivered two new telephone devices, a low-end IP phone and a 24-button programmable button box for operators and assistants.

“The new Office Anywhere feature in ShoreTel 6 will be very useful to us because we have a number of people who are either working from home or traveling on any given day,” said Robert Hall, coordinator of voice and data communications at Army Corps of Engineers, Huntington District. “With Office Anywhere, we’ll only need one phone number to reach them no matter where they are. Plus, transferring a caller from your cell phone is so easy. ShoreTel 6 also solves a big problem we have in distributing software upgrades because end users don’t have administrative privileges – the new software distribution feature will save us a lot of work. In addition, the SIP interface in ShoreTel 6 is a big plus that allows us to expand our phone system beyond what ShoreTel offers, such as using a Polycom conference phone or integrating with sister districts that have other phone systems.”

The unprecedented choice and flexibility in ShoreTel 6 provides users, system administrators, and managers with the freedom to work how and where they want, without sacrificing features and functions.  An employee’s work identity and profile can be put on any device, including cell phones and PDAs, which eliminates the need for multiple phone numbers and voicemail accounts.  Customers also get more in-office options, thanks to the expansion and enhancement of ShoreTel’s unique line of ergonomic IP phones and to support for SIP-based WiFi phones.     Additionally, ShoreTel 6 has a native SIP interface that can support a wide variety of third-party applications.

“ShoreTel 6 allows the mobile professional to take the ShoreTel PBX functionality ‘on the road’ no matter the actual telephone they may have at hand,” said ShoreTel president and CEO John W. Combs.  “Our latest IP telephony system molds itself to business processes and individual work habits, enabling enterprises to work smarter and be more responsive to customers by extending the power of the ShoreTel solution to any phone.  And like its predecessors, ShoreTel 6 delivers such flexibility without complexity:  Office Anywhere is completely integrated in the basic platform and does not require a separate purchase or server.  Consequently, it is easy to deploy and offers quick return on investment – the keys to very satisfied customers.”

“Office Anywhere” emancipates business

While traditional telephony and even many VoIP platforms are constraining business virtualization, ShoreTel 6 enables it with Office Anywhere.  This groundbreaking mobility solution unleashes the full power of distributed IP telephony, letting a teleworker’s device of choice—such as cell phone or home phone—assume the identity and capabilities of the worker’s regular office extension.  For example, the caller-ID information customers and partners receive can reflect the employee’s office number instead of the mobile or home-office phone the employee is actually using to call them.

Office Anywhere lets employees use the Personal Call Manager to assign their office extension to an external phone.  This provides a more reliable home office environment than soft or hard IP phones that use the Internet for voice conversations.  In contrast, Office Anywhere leverages the reliability of the PSTN for voice, and the speed of DSL or cable modem connections for desktop call control, unified messaging, and other applications.  Users get the best of both worlds.

Office Anywhere enables seamless participation in workgroups, hunt groups, and contact centers, and is an excellent solution for remote ACD agents and after-hours support.  Office Anywhere also provides enterprises with a cost-effective way to pull small branch locations and home offices into the VoIP fold:  It is an integrated feature of ShoreTel 6 and does not require any additional software license, equipment purchase, or infrastructure upgrade.

“Office Anywhere is a manifestation of ShoreTel’s continued commitment to truly mobile telephony – delivering full office functionality to you no matter where you are, and making it easy to implement and use,” said Combs.

Enhanced management

ShoreTel’s IP PBX systems are renowned for their manageability, and ShoreTel 6 raises the ease-of-management bar to new heights.  Software distribution has been simplified through integration with active directory group policies, making it easy for administrators to push new installations and upgrades of the desktop Call Manager software – ShoreTel’s “personal PBX” – throughout the enterprise.

There is no need for local administrative privileges, or separate visits to each machine, and disruption to users is quite minimal.  With such a powerful and simple tool, there is less resistance to implementing updates, so administrators keep the system more current.

The IT staff can also use security capabilities in ShoreTel 6 to prevent eavesdropping in sensitive environments.  A high-performance algorithm encrypts and deciphers the RTP media stream in real time, enabling secure voice conversations to take place in real time with no noticeable latency.  

Expanded dialing options in ShoreTel 6 accommodate the needs of large, widely distributed enterprises.   On-net dialing is very flexible – for instance, it allows large customers to retain their four-digit dialing within a location yet use seven-digit dialing between sites. Dialing plan prefixes can extend across sites, and abbreviated dialing within sites is supported.

The overlapping extensions in ShoreTel 6 can help retail organizations to replicate storefronts across the country.  A particular department can have the same number in every location, streamlining access for customers, co-workers, and suppliers.  ShoreTel 6 enables companies to centralize and localize their businesses as needed and get the best of both worlds.  The enhanced dialing plan feature can also be used in multi-tenant environments and as IP Centrex solutions allowing each customer to have their own “prefix” yet share the same system.

SIP support offers choice and flexibility

Session Initiation Protocol is the designated lingua franca for establishing, modifying, and terminating multimedia sessions – such as voice calls – on IP networks.  In theory it enables mix-and-match multi-vendor environments and encourages specialization.  ShoreTel 6’s SIP interface complies strictly with the protocol’s defining standard, the IETF’s RFC 3261.

Through this native SIP interface, ShoreTel 6 will support a wide variety of SIP-based products and services, including some leading WiFi access points and phones, conference room phones, residential access devices for teleworking, domestic and international trunking services, and BRI gateways.

New IP phones

The ShoreTel 6 release is being complemented by the expansion of ShoreTel’s revolutionary line of sleek, ergonomic IP handsets.  The new additions are the ShorePhone IP110 and the ShorePhone BB24 button box.

The ShorePhone IP110 extends ShoreTel’s unique ergonomic styling to an entry-level IP phone that can be used as a desktop device but is particularly suited to dorm rooms and open areas such as break rooms, hallways, and classrooms.  The IP110 includes an Ethernet switch with PoE support, can be used as a one-way intercom, and has an optional wall-mount kit.  There are six hard keys (transfer, conference, intercom, redial, voice mail, and hold), and a 1-line, 16-character LCD display.

The ShorePhone BB24 jumps to the head of the button-box class, sometimes known as BLF, DSS or add-on model, as the first true Ethernet-based device.  Instead of attaching through proprietary daisy-chain technology, the BB24 includes an Ethernet switch with PoE and supports power forwarding for one downstream device.  The BB24 works in conjunction with the ShorePhone IP530 or IP560; up to four units can be daisy-chained together, versus only two from most other vendors. The BB24 boasts 24 programmable multi-color buttons that also provide presence information about the monitored users.  Up to six characters per button are displayed on the device’s backlit LCD display, so paper labels are a thing of the past.  The BB24 targets phone operators and assistants.

Pricing and availability

ShoreTel 6 and the new ShoreTel handsets will be available September 15, 2005.  New ShoreTel 6 systems typically range from $650 to $850 per user, depending on configuration.  Existing customers with support agreements receive this system upgrade at no cost.  The suggested retail price for additional language packs is $995.  The ShoreTel IP110 phone lists for $149, and the ShoreTel BB24 button box lists for $349.  ShoreTel products and services are available exclusively through authorized ShoreTel channel partners around the world.

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ShoreTel Recognized as Fastest Growing IP PBX Company

ShoreTel IP Line Shipments Grew 96% Between Q1’04 and Q1’05

SUNNYVALE, Calif., August 29, 2005 – ShoreTel, Inc. announced today it has been recognized by InfoTech as the fastest growing IP PBX company in the United States.  According to the recent InfoTech InfoTrack Report for Enterprise Communications, ShoreTel’s pure IP line shipments grew 96 percent between Q1’04 and Q1’05, more than any other industry vendor including Avaya, Cisco, Mitel and Nortel. Published since 1990, InfoTrack for Enterprise Communications is viewed by the provider and end-user community as the leading authoritative resource for market intelligence on converged business communications. 

The InfoTrack report also reveals that ShoreTel has moved up to 6^th place in Q1’05 in the pure IP shipment rankings.  “Pure IP deployments are now the largest segment of the converged market,” according to Frank Stinson, director at InfoTech. “ShoreTel has become the fastest growing competitor in the overall converged market since focusing on this segment exclusively.”

Steve Timmerman, ShoreTel vice president of marketing, noted, “ShoreTel continues to grow at more than twice the market rate.  Our superior product design and focus on customer satisfaction have allowed us to win larger customers and rapidly expand our channel partner base. InfoTech’s new report shows that we are on the right track.

Interactive services are the key to IPTV success in the U.S. So says a recent study conducted by Parks Associates. The report tells us that consumers interested in interactive services such as voting on game shows, targeted advertising, and gaming, represent a lucrative early market for IPTV services and applications.

According to IP Video Services: Analysis and Forecast, that group of consumers totals nearly 27 percent of all U.S. households.

This segment, as identified in Parks Associates' multinational study Global Digital Living, is highly receptive to advanced TV services.

Service providers, particularly telecom operators, could boost current revenues on their quad-play service packages (voice, data, video, and wireless) by 33 percent by adding such services as video-on-demand as well as home monitoring, gaming, and wireless broadband, resulting in a potential increase of $1.81 billion in revenues over the basic quad-play package.

The Global Digital Living project is a study of worldwide consumer technology trends and surveyed Internet households in thirteen nations: France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Canada, Taiwan, Japan, India, China, South Korea, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The worst-kept secret in the industry — that Yahoo! will be diving head-first into VoIP — is the biggest non-news news I’ve heard in a while.

Of course Yahoo! will offer VoIP! (They already offer PC-to-PC.) So will Google. So will Microsoft. If Excite were still around, I bet they’d be on the bandwagon too!

Actually isn’t Excite now part of Ask Jeeves?

In fact, there you have it. That’s MY HUGE VoIP RUMOR OF THE DAY: Ask Jeeves will someday offer a VoIP service. AJV… Ask Jeeves VoIP… Ask Jeeves to Call Someone…

While I’m at it, let me offer the following breaking news/rumors/hype: All of these entities will offer VoIP, probably wireless VoIP, someday:

• Coca Cola (VoIP: It’s the Real Thing)
• Disney (The Mouse that VoIPed)
• Apple (Think. VoIP.)
• Exxon/Mobil (Free minutes with every $200 of regular unleaded)
• Marlboro/Philip Morris (I can just see the Marlboro man with a cigarette in one hand and a dual-mode handset in the other)
• Major League Baseball (This VoIP call to the bullpen brought to you by Skype!)
• SONY (you’ll have to use a proprietary input device though)
• Nike (Just VoIP it.)
• Lexus (The world’s first luxury packet-based communications network)
• OnStar (wait… this may already be in play)
• Travelocity (Roaming Gnome Phone Home!)
• Heineken (It’s all about the VoIP)
• Paris Hilton (VoIP's hot...)

There’s dozens more.

Maybe the big hint that made people connect Yahoo! with VoIP was the fact that Yahoo!’s Brad Garlinghouse will be making the speaking rounds this Fall, speaking at several venues including addressing the largest VoIP audience ever when he delivers his keynote remarks at Internet Telephony Conference & EXPO this October.

I grant you that it is exciting that this caliber of company is embracing VoIP, but c’mon, it’s no secret.

Every once in a while, you come across something so unique, so odd, that you simply have to shae it. Never you mind that this forum is usually reserved for VoIP news, and related banter. A friend of mine sent me a link to some pretty wacky stuff.

The link is definitely PG-rated, but I make no promises and no recommendations regarding anything else you might find on this site, but you absolutely MUST take a look at this French gentleman and his horns.

According to an item forwarded to me by Rich Tehrani, The New York State Unified Court System has apparently deployed a network of more than 350 IP video surveillance cameras. The cameras will monitor New York court facilities statewide and link to a multi-terabyte storage system.

According to TopTechNews.com, the Court’s MIS gurus see high-bandwidth video as just another stream on the IP network they built several years ago. Also supported is a 10,000-seat IP telephony network and more than 100 IP videoconferencing units. Overall, these systems save the courts about $1 million per year on various voice and video costs, and allow for advanced services such as comprehensive video surveillance.

The article goes on to describe the monitoring experience:

At the court's downtown Manhattan security command center, officers watch video on an array of flat panel displays, showing the court's most heavily trafficked sites. Through an interface that mimics Internet Explorer, an officer can expand a directory of icons, representing all courthouses and facilities.

Clicking on each icon reveals locations at each site under IP video surveillance. One click deeper, and a window is launched with a live IP video feed: a trial in session in Queens, pedestrian traffic outside the Superior Court building downtown, an empty stairwell in Buffalo.

Officers can control the zoom and pan of the cameras via mouse clicks. The windows can be tiled or arranged in a grid, giving a view into dozens of sites at once.

What’s more, the officers can use WiFi enabled PDAs to pull up the same live IP video feed as the flat panels in the command center albeit at a lower bit rate, because of the PDAs tiny screen and limited wireless bandwidth. Still, the PDAs leverage a network of more than 500 wireless access points deployed across the State.

Earlier this year, Sony Electronics announced its SNC M-Series all-in-one network cameras targeting consumers. Incorporating built-in Web servers, network interfaces and built-in microphones with bi-directional audio capabilities at prices beginning at $300, these new security cameras are designed to be used both in the corporate environment and at home.

The cameras utilize MPEG-4 and G.726 compression formats, which provides for smooth video and audio streaming over network environments, including those with limited bandwidth.

"Just as a small business owner wants to keep an eye on his or her shop, consumers are interested in keeping an eye on their homes, and the M-Series makes it possible to do this over the Internet from wherever they are," said Michael McCausland, vice president for IP Communications products at Sony Electronics. "The new cameras' attractive pricing, numerous installation options and attractive design make them appealing for a homeowner who would like to add an additional layer to their security system."

To learn more about Surveillance over IP, you should consider attending the upcoming Internet Telephony Conference & EXPO, which is being held this October 25-27 in the Los Angeles Convention Center. There, you will be able to sit in on a number of panels detailing VoIP security challenges including Surveillance over IP. It promises to be an interesting and informative few days.

I was just speaking with Rich Tehrani about the fact that we both received our stickers from our respective VoIP providers this weekend.

Rich mentioned that he needed more stickers, as AT&T only sent him one sticker, and he has multiple phones. My sticker (from Cablevision) came with instructions to affix it to my  modem.

Then it dawned on us...

Modem? If the babysitter needs to make an emergency call, and heaven forbid the phones don't work, do you honestly think she's going to run down to the basement office where I keep my computer, look behind the monitor, and see the sticker affixed to the modem and...? And what can she do anyway?

And what if my mother-in-law was watching the kids? She's from Canada (the English-speaking part), but let's say she was from Montreal or some other country where they don't speak English... What good is the note (assuming she finds the modem behind all the peripherals) going to do her?

At least Rich's provider (AT&T) had the good sense to suggest placing the sticker on the phone.

I guess all this proves is that the system isn't perfect.

But you'd think that the leaders of our fine industry could come together and decide where we need to place our stickers. If they got it right, they might just deter consumers from telling the carriers where to stick theirs.

I recently moved into a new home and with that move, I decided to take the plunge and switch to Cablevision's VoIP service Optimum Voice. No more Verizon. No more AT&T.  Of course, the first two weeks were plagued with quality issues. I couldn't believe my luck.  Here I am the editorial director of the longest running VoIP magazine and after hearing great things from my friends who actually use Cablevision's service, I get the lemon?

Oh, I'll be writing about this! The VoIP gods will not conspire against me! I'll get to the bototm of this!

Well, one very positive, polite, professional, helpful call to customer service, and a timely dispatch of a technician to my house took care of what was ailing our phone service. Apparently there was still a POTS line attached to the house, and that was causing interference. Since then -- perfect.

Saturday's mail contained a piece of mail from Cablevision. It was the VoIP/E-911 warning sticker that I'm supposed to attach to my modem. I imagine subscribers all across the country are (and perhaps have already been) receiving these stickers. I know Rich Tehrani got his recently too.

Here's what the sticker actually says:

Your E911 service will not operate if:

• There is a power outage in your home, unless yo uhave a battery back-up connected to your modem.
• Your service is disconnected by Cablevision.
• Service to your home is interrupted.
• You move your cable modem to a new address without notifying Cablevision.

To move your cable modem to another address, you must contact Cablevision Customer Service prior to your move to ensure that E911 will continue to work properly.

Here we go. We all knew it was only a matter of time before the FCC would hear an appeal from one (or some) of the service providers offering VoIP service regarding the E911 order.  It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Nuvio today announced that it has filed an appeal of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) order requiring VoIP providers to make E911 available to their customers nationwide by the end of the year.  Because of the looming November 28, 2005 deadline, Nuvio has requested the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to expedite the schedule in the hopes of reaching a decision prior the FCC Order taking effect.

“While we share the Commission’s passion about deploying 911 service, and we have worked diligently to provide our users with 911 access, the 120-day requirement imposed by the FCC is arbitrary and capricious and without support in the record,” commented Jason Talley, president and CEO of Nuvio.  “In fact, the record clearly shows that wireless companies have been given decades to implement this type of 911 service and are still far from completion”.

“With the filing of our motion for an expedited briefing schedule, we have advised the court that it is imperative that we have a decision by November 7, 2005.  Absent that, and with the lack of direction currently given by the FCC, we will have no choice but to start suspending some users.  Our users are primarily small to medium-sized businesses, and we have to be able to notify them in advance of any service interruption,” Talley stated.

This morning, TelCove, a Pittsburgh, PA facilities-based CLEC, announced the availability of a brand-new VoIP offering. TelCove's Network VoIP Service (TNVS) is available as of today across the entire TelCove network which encompasses over 70 markets, primarily on the East coast of the United States.

Applications include a suite of follow-me services, unified communications functionality, full integration for remote workers/road warriors, and multimedia collaboration apps such as Web conferencing and document sharing.

The new TelCove service is offered at two price points/service levels: Standard Enterprise VoIP Station service and Premium Enterprise VoIP Station service.

According to Craig Drinkhall, senior vice president of product development and engineering at TelCove, “With VoIP, we can offer customers across our 70-market network both productivity gains and cost savings for all their users. Today’s announcement of our Network VoIP Service continues our delivery of next generation transport and communication services for enterprises, assisting them in multiple aspects – from productivity improvements to business continuity to management simplification and capital preservation."

TNVS uses a network-based VoIP platform ( I believe it's Broadsoft) to provide the call control and features for their customers. The company is also working with NextiraOne to fulfill the CPE component of the VoIP service, which includes network assessment, upgrades, equipment installation and maintenance.

I just got off the phone with a CLEC that's planning to offer VoIP to its entire customer base starting this Monday.

I'm sworn to secrecy by virtue of the embargo date on the news, but I thought I'd drop that little hint as a way of spreading some positive feeling about our industry going into the weekend.

Check back Monday for more on this latest VoIP offering.

VoIP Developer Conference is still abuzz. There's an hour and a half left before the Exhibit Hall comes to a close, and the final plenary session Host Media Processing Roundtable begins, and the action at registration is still hopping. Attendees continue to arrive with the hope of seeing the exhibitors before they start packing up.

According to Mark Spencer, President of Digium, “Digium is the smallest telecom company in the world that matters.”

As anyone knows, Mark Spencer is not only the president of Digium, he also created Asterisk. For those that may not know, Asterisk is an open source PBX. In Spencer’s words, Asterisk is an “open source, hybrid TDM and packet voice PBX and IVR platform with ACD functionality.”

The platform is:

• Fully open source
• Supports TDM
• Supports VoIP (SIP, H.323, SCCP, etc…)
• Supports PBX features
• Supports IVR
• Supports ACD call queuing; and
• Supports basic call features as well as advanced call features.

In explaining why people might consider open source in general -- and Asterislk specifically --  for telecom Spencer explained that there are a number of reasons to do so:

“Lower cost; large market of highly technical people who can contribute to the project; high demand for customization of phone systems; biz models that facilitate the adoption of open source solutions,” he said.

Open source also allows resellers and integrators the ability to add value to existing phone systems. This enables better branding opportunities, more margin for reseller, etc.

Spencer went on to describe a whole series of different development strategies for developers who wish to use the Asterisk platform to deliver interesting new communications applications.

The final day of the 2005 VoIP Developer conference began with keynotes from Michael Stanford, Director, VoIP Strategy, Digital Enterprise Group at Intel and Mark Spencer, President of Digium, which at first glanced may seem an unlikely pair to share a single stage. However beyond the first assumption, it’s clear that both speakers represent equally innovative companies, and that both play an increasingly critical role in future development of VoIP.

Michael Stanford’s presentation, Trends in VoIP Development, was a detailed look into the current and future events shaping our industry.

Stanford began by saying that the VoIP revolution marches on. In 2005 VoIP phones crossed over in terms of new sales. This means that as many VoIP phones are being sold today as TDM phones into new deployments. This of course does not mean there are already more VoIP phones deployed, but simply that the rate of new deployments is tilted in favor of the newer technology. As a matter of reference, according to the keynote speaker, Avaya claims to have crossed over in 2004.

“VoIP is old news,” said Stanford. “Long Live SoIP, or Services over IP.” He went on to explain that VoIP is merely the first drop in the coming deluge, the first significant application over IP, and that we have already moved beyond simply seeking to offer cheap minutes.

Continuing to identify trends, Stanford spoke of how open networks, open source, and standard environments all come together to accelerate innovation. Still he cautioned, “regulation continues to be a wild card, and perhaps even the primary determinant of where voice technology will go.”

Stanford fashioned a timeline of significant VoIP events of the past year.

In February, the FCC ruled that Internet-based VoIP is an unregulated information service. In that month BT also launched their service Fusion. In March BEA launched their WebLogic communications platform, which takes a familiar development environment and puts it on top of IMS so developers can create innovative communications applications. IBM too offers something similar. In May, the FCC issued its E911 warning requirement for VoIP. In June, Microsoft launched its Communicator 2005, and recently in July the Japanese government was noted as urging the end of PSTN by 2007, essentially in response to an ITU initiative to determine the next-generation network by 2008. If Japan succeeds and their version of the next-generation network is viable, it may serve as a wonderful example, which would be a boon to Japanese companies.

Stanford offered a veritable laundry list of promising numbers from a variety of research analysts. Cell phone lines are far outstripping fixed lines globally. Dual mode shipments are slated to grow beyond 100 million units shipped by 2010. Data-capable phones will overtake voice-only phones by 2008. (Today’s conventional wisdom dictates that virtually all cell phones will be smart phones soon, yet there is starting to be some pushback from the cell phone industry. People want simplicity, and perhaps the increasing amount of services may stall sales.)

Broadband subscriptions are growing, with an expected 300 million broadband users globally expected by 2008. To keep up with service evolution and advent of IPTV, as well as other applications, we will need 10MB+ by 2008.

Stanford told the audience that while VoIP demands the highest QoS of the expected applications, it requires perhaps the least bandwidth. “Once you are provisioned for VoIP,” he said, “you can add other applications simply by adding more bandwidth.”

Stanford mentioned that WiMAX field trials have begun with over 100 trials being conducted globally today. He expects to see notebook integration by next year, and the first WiMAX phones and mobile network rollout by 2008. By 2008-10 we should see global network rollout.

Stanford wrapped up his presentation by reminding everyone that VoIP is the beachhead to services over IP, and that the technologies underlying VoIP (RTP, SIP QoS, IMS…) support more than just voice. VoIP is the baseline feature that opens the door to new services such as wideband audio, video, IM, push to talk, presence, document sharing, rich collaboration, and the further rapid innovation of new features and service combinations.

The opportunity, according to Stanford, is New Services and New applications. SoIP. Services over IP. Any access connects you to any service. Opportunities abound for developers.

“VoIP has enormous power to change the way we work,” he said.