October 2005 Archives

The Federal Communications Commission has approved the mergers of SBC with AT&T and Verizon with MCI.

According to the Commission's Web site, [the FCC]... concluded that consumers will reap the rewards of the public interest benefits that will flow from these mergers. These benefits include integration of complementary networks, which will increase efficiency and provide consumers with new services and improved network performance and reliability. The mergers will create stable, reliable U.S.-owned companies that will provide improved service to government customers and benefit national defense and homeland security. In addition, the mergers will give the companies increased economies of scale and scope, which should increase their incentives and resources to engage in basic research and development. Finally, the mergers should result in substantial cost savings, which should benefit consumers throughout the country.

TMCnet's own Robert Liu offers some excellent commentary on today's FCC news.

I apologize to regular readers of my blog that I’ve been out of pocket these past few weeks, but I was faced with a series of personal matters that among other things, precluded my ability to discuss VoIP.

Well, I’m back.

Much has happened in the last two weeks, including the regulatory approval of a pair of telecom mega-mergers (AT&T/SBC & Verizon/MCI).

There was also the just completed Internet Telephony Conference & EXPO, which attracted approximately 7,000 people to the Los Angeles Convention Center. Some of the highlights of that event included keynote speeches by former HP captain Carly Fiorina, erstwhile FCC Chairman Michael Powell, and Susan Kennedy, Commissioner, California Public Utilities Commission. I plan to publish the full text of Commissioner Kennedy’s speech in the December issue of Internet Telephony magazine. What she had to say was that good.

And I’m especially looking forward to the next installment of ITEXPO, slated for January 24–27, 2006 in Ft. Lauderdale.

Get your hotel rooms now. They’re going to go fast!

Today’s Web chatter yielded a fairly well supported rumor that the United States Department of Defense (DoD) is interested in acquiring Sprint/Nextel’s iDen network for use by Homeland Security personnel. In exchange, Sprint would get a large swath of spectrum, which they could then use to push their proposed WiMAX offering. The blog then goes on to say how Sprint’s recently announced co-marketing partnerships with a number of cable companies will lead to Sprint’s ability to resell their WiMAX service through cablecos enabling the fourth leg of the Quadruple Play. At first blush this seems like a fantastic idea, of course, it’s still a rumor, but something that bears watching.

I have to point out that one of the responses, or comments, to the blog entry blew me away. With regards to the possibilities that VoIP enables, this guy gets it. (The comment in question was posted by “StarrWulfe” on Monday, October 24 @ 16:27:46 MDT.)

There’s so much more I want to discuss, but I’ve got to get back to work in preparing my Buyer’s Guide issue. By the way, if you haven’t submitted your free listing for inclusion in the 2006 Internet Telephony Buyer’s Guide, I urge you to do so now!

The link you want is this one.

Skype has teamed with IPEVO, a Silicon Valley-based subsidiary of PChome Online specializing in Skype-enabled devices, to offer affordable Skype devices in the US through IPEVO’s Web site.

IPVEO designs and develops a wide range of easy-to-use and affordable Skype devices, including corded and cordless USB phones, speaker phones and mobile devices. PChome Online launched the first co-branded website with Skype in July 2004 in Taiwan. This collaboration helped make Taiwan one of the most successful markets for Skype. PChome-Skype has attracted 7.5M downloads and 2.4M people have registered with Skype. PChome also offers Skype’s premium services such as SkypeOut, Skype Voicemail and SkypeIn and has attracted around 200,000 paid customers throughout Taiwan since November 2004.

This just crossed the wire. Oh my.

These are interesting times indeed.

Google Inc. and Comcast Corp. are in "serious discussions" to buy a minority stake in Time Warner's America Online, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

AOL has been in discussions with both parties separately, the source said. But in recent weeks, Google and Comcast have had discussions to possibly make a joint investment in the online unit of Time Warner Inc.

AOL is also separately in talks to create a joint venture with Microsoft Corp.

Microsoft and Yahoo! announced that they will make their instant-messaging programs work together, a partnership ostensibly designed to give the combined companies more heft to compete against AOL.

The partnership, which would allow users of the two services to exchange messages seamlessly, gives the companies almost as many users (combined) as AOL has on their own. AOL’s AIM, has over 50 million unique U.S., compared to about 27 million for MSN Messenger and 22 million for Yahoo’s Messenger.

The companies said that they expect the service to start by June 2006.

On the Microsoft Web site, there’s a picture of Brad Garlinghouse, Yahoo!’s vice president of Communications Products shaking hands with Blake Irving, corporate vice president of the MSN Communication Services and Member Platform.

Mr. Garlinghouse is slated to give a keynote address at the upcoming Internet Telephony Conference & EXPO on October 24th in Los Angeles at the LA Convention Center.

Of course, that got me thinking… With all of the buzz surrounding consumer VoIP offerings merging voice and IM capabilities (from the likes of Yahoo, AOL, Google…) one realizes that it’s not much of a stretch to add voice peering to the service announced today by MSN and Yahoo!

Suddenly you have 50 million people able to see each others’ presence, able to IM each other, and able to speak to each other utilizing VoIP. That’s just the Microsoft/Yahoo! camp. Now add 50 million AOL users, and let’s not forget about the 50 million+ Skype users plus the estimated 135 million registered eBay users.

That’s a lot of VoIP. Oh my.

Global IP Sound (GIPS) announced Q3 licensing deals with three leading chip manufacturers and a major handset manufacturer.

The three semiconductor companies, which include Waveplus Technology Corp. and Marvell Semiconductor, have set their sights on the rapidly growing IP phone, mobile handset, ATA, and gateway segments of the VoIP market

“We are currently on the cusp of unprecedented growth in the VoIP hardware market. If semiconductor companies and ODMs are to succeed in capturing the early market share, they must deliver products that not only provide the highest and most consistent call quality available, but also exceed the expectations of end users. GIPS is positioned to be the vendor of choice for these companies for whom quality will be the hallmark of their offerings,” said Gary P. Hermansen, President and CEO of Global IP Sound.

GIPS has been making lots of headlines lately. The Stockholm- and San Francisco-based company extended their deal with Skype, announced a partnership with Earthlink, built a SIP AV Software Development Kit (together with Pingtel and On2), turned up at the heart of AOL’s new VoIP offering… You get the picture.

Considered by many to be the de facto standard for voice processing, Global IP Sound is certainly making it known that they plan to be a serious player in the VoIP hardware space.

I came across an article on The Guardian Unlimited Web site entitled Breaking America’s Grip on the Net, which reminded me of the situation currently unfolding regarding the future of control over the Internet’s root servers. It seems that during a series of preparatory meetings, being held ahead of the World Summit on the Information Society, a group of countries including the likes of Iran, Cuba and China — bastions of freedom all — have seen fit to complain about who controls the Internet.

Apparently at issue is the stated position taken by the U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC) that they would retain indefinite control of the Internet's foundation — its "root servers" — which act as the basic directory for the whole ‘Net.

And so, representatives from Iran, Cuba, and China, together with Brazil and several African states insisted the U.S. give up control.

The U.S. refused.

According to the Guardian article, “the EU took a bold step and proposed two stark changes: a new forum that would decide public policy, and a "cooperation model" comprising governments that would be in overall charge.”

The idea proved popular, and now the world's governments are expected to agree on a deal to award themselves ultimate control. The issue will be brought up at a UN summit of world leaders next month and, according to The Guardian article, “faced with international consensus, there is little the US government can do but acquiesce.”

What does this mean for the future of the Internet? Is it a good thing or bad? Will giving control to a committee made up of a number of international members result in an environment conducive to forward motion? Or will it end up being a boondoggle? An innovation-stifling bureaucracy? How will the change in control over the Internet’s root servers affect human rights in those countries where the government stands opposed to the ideals of free speech? What effects will this have on the ability to conduct business over the Internet? And what about security? What about VoIP?

There are as many questions as there are interested parties, and when one discusses the internet, that list of interested parties is huge. Maybe this will end up being much ado about nothing, but it certainly merits scrutiny.

Elliot Noss, of Tucows describes the situation rather clearly in this article that appeared on ZDnet back in June.

Dana Blankenhorn, writing for Corante, has his own opinions on the matter.

Tayo Ajakaye, writing for THISDAY Online (African Views on Global News) also offers a through overview of the situation.

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) is scheduled to take place in Tunis, Tunisia from November 16 to 18.

XO Communications, Inc. has announced that it has interconnected with Stealth Communications' Voice Peering Fabric (VPF), the world's largest peering network that allows members to exchange voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) traffic without relying on traditional telephone networks. The VPF is a distributed Ethernet network that functions as an exchange or meet-point for VoIP traffic by allowing enterprises and service providers to establish peer-to-peer connections in a secure, quality-of-service environment.

By joining the VPF, XO will be able to take advantage of the fast growing VPF ENUM Registry and exchange VoIP traffic directly with other VPF members. In addition, for VPF members that need to deliver VoIP calls to the PSTN, XO will be able to offer VoIP Origination and Termination services nationwide through the VPF. By handing off VoIP traffic directly to XO, VPF members' traffic will be routed across the XO IP network at the highest priority and terminated to the PSTN at destinations across the United States.

The potential ramifications are huge. Imagine millions of customers who will be able to interconnect and communicate without ever having to touch the PSTN. If ever there was a death-knell for the “old way of doing business” this is it.

Hunter Newby, chief strategist at telx, writes in his November column in Internet Telephony magazine that with Microsoft (which recently acquired Teleo) Google, Yahoo!, et al potentially peering over Layer 2 Ethernet, we have reached a point in the evolution of the industry from which we shall never return.

Hunter is also playing an integral part in the upcoming VoIP Peering Summit at Internet Telephony Conference & EXPO, which is just 18 days away! The event will be held in Los Angeles at the LA Convention Center. He will be moderating several sessions and in fact helped us create these sessions. The last VoIP Peering Summit (in Miami, February 2005) was a tremendous success with standing room only crowds. I fully expect more of the same as the Summit makes its West-coast debut.

Registration is now open at the Internet Telephony Conference & EXPO Web site.

OpenPBX.org is announcing a fork from the Asterisk software PBX on their web site.  The OpenPBX.org software PBX builds on the solid foundation created by the developers of Asterisk.

The OpenPBX.org community plans to develop a robust offshoot from Asterisk building on its strengths, flexibility and user community.  Some of the planned features include modular architecture, native support for Sangoma TDM cards, integrated faxing and eventually integrated messaging.

OpenPBX.org will be community driven and released under the GPL.

Initial release of OpenPBX.org is slated for October 10, 2005.