Yesterday, the MultiService Forum (MSF) held a press conference to outline the test frameworks for GMI 2006, its bi-annual global test event to be held in October 2006. Hosted by five of the world’s largest carriers (BT, KT, NTT, Verizon, and Vodafone as well as a state-of-the-art test facility at the University of New Hampshire) the event will comprise a large-scale, real network trial of the MSF IMS-compatible (IP Multimedia System) Release 3 architecture.

The GMI 2006 event is designed to bring together dozens of carriers and vendors to test the interoperability of IMS-based infrastructure components in a real-world setting. According to the MSF, GMI 2006 will provide a test-bed for the full spectrum of hardware, processes and services needed to assemble an effective next-generation delivery platform.

The MSF hopes to demonstrate multi-vendor interoperability geared towards achieving Fixed Mobile Convergence supporting IMS.

In summary, the goals of GMI 2006 are as follows:

• To move IMS convergence from theoretical to practical;
• To address key interoperability issues before network implementation;
• Provide an industry framework for service interoperability; and
• Provide a global framework that sets the stage for worldwide adoption of IMS architectures.

For more information, interested parties can check out the MultiService Forum site.

I saw this on today's wire. Looks like Sphere Communications has finally taken the covers off its Release 5 of Sphericall. I've summarized the release below wiith a focus on what I think are the more significant elements of this news.

Sphericall 5 features communications Web Services for business application software integration, SIP trunking and expanded SIP device support, software-based call recording and Assured Services for optimizing emergency communications.

Building on standard XML and SOAP technology, Sphere now offers Sphericall Web Services which is intended to provide access to the rich communications services of the software-based Sphericall IP PBX.  A key component of Sphericall is a Software Development Kit (SDK) that delivers a platform-neutral and language-neutral set of development tools for fast, flexible and repeatable application development and integration.

The Web Services SDK is currently available and contains the Sphericall Web Service Definition Language (WSDL) specification, sample applications (including Web, PDA, and CRM applications), Sphericall IP PBX Simulator and comprehensive documentation.

Developers can request the SDK via email at SDKrequest@spherecom.com

The solution's SIP trunking capabilities enable organizations to converge voice and data onto common all-IP connections, establishing the foundation for rich communications services across enterprise boundaries.  Sphericall SIP trunking also enables Service Providers to deliver a new hybrid of hosted/premise-based IP PBX solutions to organizations that demand the highest level of control over their communications environment as well as the ability to integrate on-premise IP communications with mission-critical business applications.

Sphere also announced it certifed new devices from Grandstream and UT Starcom.

Two sets of numbers crossed my desk today. Looks like more evidence that VoIP is here to stay.

Stats from Infonetics and TIA both show significant growth.

//////////////////////

NUMBER OF VOIP SUBSCRIBERS MORE THAN TRIPLES IN 2005 REACHING 4.2 MILLION; EXPECTED TO GROW TO 18 MILLION BY 2009

Sports Web site Sportal.com is offering free calls, voice and video messages online. Sportal announced a deal with the Voice Commerce Group to stream a World Cup warm up match between Trinidad & Tobago and Iceland on Tuesday February 28, with video, voice and chat features.

The deal will see Sportal.com provide a VoIP service offering video Casts and access to live sports events, along with free PC-to-PC calls, phone calls and video and voice messaging to lets fans discuss events as they happen.

T&T finds itself in difficult Group B in this year's World Cup.

President and CEO Mike Zafirovski continued to revamp the executive suite at Nortel as he announced the appointment of Joseph Flanagan as vice president, Order Management.

Flanagan will report to Joel Hackney, senior vice president, Global Supply Chain and Quality and will be responsible for leading and standardizing the Company's business-to-business processes, and driving increased efficiencies across operations systems. Flanagan, who has global responsibilities, will work closely with Nortel's sales operations teams to ensure tight alignment with the strategic direction of sales and marketing.

Flanagan comes to Nortel from GE, where for the past 13 years he has held positions of increasing responsibility, culminating in the post of General Manager of Operations for GE Consumer & Industrial in EMEA. At the same time, he served as Division leader for Six Sigma.

eLEC Communications Corp.  a telecommunications holding company and the parent company of  VoIP services provider, VoX Communications Corp., today announced that it has signed a letter of intent to acquire Liberty Bell Telecom, LLC, a privately-held telecommunications company that provides local and long distance telephone service in the State of Colorado.

For more information, check out the companies' Web sites:

Vox Communications

eLec Communications

Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski said yesterday at the RBC Capital Markets Communications, Media and Technology Conference in Whistler, British Columbia that the telecom equipment maker is poised to embark on a growth story. We’re “starting at ground zero,” he said and “we have a very tall mountain to climb.”

He said the company will announce next week how it plans to spend its $1.9 billion research and development budget. Among the more promising technologies that Nortel will likely invest in are IMS, WiMAX, and IPTV.

“We have teams working on where and how we will be investing $1.9 billion,” Zafirovski said. “We have thrown a challenge for us to gain 20 points of market share, at a minimum, in anything in which we participate today.”

Business lines where Nortel trails the 20% market share figure are presumably up for reevaluation.

According to Zafirovsky, “It’s a combination of business transformation and realigning our investments to have this be an organization that has profitable growth as a key expectation.”

Regarding Nortel’s service business, Zafirovsky vowed to increase the portion of Nortel’s revenue coming from services and applications. While current estimates peg services as accounting for less than 20% of Nortel’s revenue the CEO believes it should be 50% to 100% above where it is.

Mr. Zafirovski is already making some changes. Earlier this week it was announced that George Riedel has been named chief strategy officer at Nortel. Riedel will report directly to Zafirovski, and will be responsible for leading all of its corporate strategy including business development and mergers and acquisitions.

In addition, Riedel will focus on emerging technologies, market opportunities, and strategic partnerships, and will drive all related key decision-making processes.

As of 3pm today, Nortel’s stock was up 19 cents to $2.96/share.

In November 2005, the Keep USF Fair Coalition  released its report entitled “Losing Numbers:  How America’s Most Vulnerable Consumers Could Suffer Under Universal Service Fund (USF) ‘Reform’” noting:

“The currently consumer-friendly ‘pay for what you use’ approach to funding the Universal Service Fund would be replaced under the Martin plan with a regressive, flat-fee arrangement of $1–$2 or more per phone line — regardless of whether or not consumers even make a long-distance call. For a consumer who now dials only a handful of long-distance calls per year and pays correspondingly low USF taxes, the effective tax rate under the Martin plan would soar by more than 1,000 percent on an annual basis! With low-income and elderly consumers already socked with high gas prices, the prospect of soaring winter heating bills and continued inflation in medical prescriptions, the wide range of diverse groups in the Keep USF Fair Coalition are opposing the Martin ‘numbers’ based plan.  These groups caution against balancing USF finances on the backs of the very consumers who use long-distance the least and are unable to afford phone bills that would rise under “numbers” simply in order to subsidize high-income/high-volume callers.”

Today the group announced it will present data disputing the FCC’s claims on Monday February 27..

Interested parties can join the live, telephone-based news conference and Q&A, by dialing 1-(800) 860-2442 prior to the 1:30 p.m. ET start time on February 27, 2006. (Don’t forget to ask for the USF funding crisis hoax news event. A recording will be made available on the http://www.keepUSFfair.org Web site after 6pm on the 27^th.

The release announcing the event follows. 

Consumer Group To Expose “Hoax Crisis” Being Used To Justify Higher Federal Phone Fee Tax On 43 Million American Households

Data Does Not Support Claims of Imminent Peril to USF Fee Formula; Basis Doubted for Urgency Cited by FCC Chair, Lawmakers.

WASHINGTON, D.C.//News Advisory///Radical proposals from Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin Martin and some members of Congress to change the federal Universal Service Fund (USF) phone fee in a way that would raise taxes by more than $700 million on 43 million low-income, rural, senior and minority households is based on the “hoax” that the current USF contribution system is broken and needs to be repaired, according to data that will be presented at 1:30 p.m. ET on February 27, 2006 by the Keep Universal Service Fund Fair (KUSFF) Coalition.

In exposing the phony “USF funding crisis,” the KUSFF data will show that the USF contribution factor has remained relatively constant over time and requires at most minor adjustments that can be accomplished without hefty increases in federal phone fees for those who make few or no long-distance calls and also are least able to pay higher phone taxes.  Among others, FCC Chairman Martin has justified his calls for an anti-consumer overhaul of USF by making unsubstantiated claims that the USF contribution formula is on the verge of collapse.  The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee will hold hearings on February 28th on the future of the USF contribution formula, which actually is on track to generate hundreds of millions of dollars more in 2006 than it did in 2005.

News event speakers will be Maureen Thompson, executive director, Keep USF Fair Coalition and representatives of member Coalition groups.

Today is Steve Jobs’ birthday.

Happy Birthday Steve!

For your birthday we give you a billion. That is, a billion songs have now been downloaded from Apple’s iTunes Music Store.

The billionth song Speed of Sound was purchased as part of Coldplay’s X&Y album by Alex Ostrovsky from West Bloomfield, Michigan and for his fortuitous timing, Alex will be rewarded with a 20-inch iMac, 10 fifth-generation iPods, and a $10,000 gift card good for any item on the iTunes Music Store. In addition, Apple will establish a scholarship to the world-renowned Juilliard School in his name to commemorate this milestone.

Regarding the milestone, the birthday boy said, “I hope that every customer, artist and music company executive takes a moment today to reflect on what we’ve achieved together during the past three years. Over one billion songs have now been legally purchased and downloaded around the globe, representing a major force against music piracy and the future of music distribution as we move from CDs to the Internet.”

Happy Birthday indeed.

Change. Growth. Evolution.

My wife and I took our children to the American Museum of Natural History in NYC this past week, and it was an interesting study of human evolution. I’m not talking about the dioramas and displays, I’m talking about the mass of humanity and the complete lack of consideration for one another. Baby strollers used as battering rams, toddlers used as lead blockers to get through the crowd, I almost felt bad for the other museum-goers. I’m only half-kidding. I’m sure students of anthropology would have a field day just observing the behavior of people who go to museums on national holidays.

On a more relevant note, I could see parallels to the VoIP industry amongst the fossils and bones of the Saurischian dinosaur exhibit (think T. Rex). For me, a walk among the bones was akin to a stroll down memory lane of vendors, service providers, magazines, and trade shows that were once the cream of the telecom crop. Life changes, and industries — much like species of flora and fauna — evolve.

As I put my March issue of INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine to bed this week, a quick glance at the topics in the Table of Contents was proof that we’ve evolved: Fixed/Mobile Convergence, Open Source Development, VoIP Peering, Enterprise Wireless… I certainly wasn’t writing about these things in our first issue of the magazine, and now these technologies are seen as critical to the future of our industry.

As the industry evolves, so do we, and in addition to launching new publications this quarter dedicated to SIP and IMS, our conference team has been hard at work building two new “in-person” offerings: IMS Expo and VoIP Demo. These two additions to our conference/exhibition stable address two very different constituencies, but still retain their roots in our desire to educate as many people as possible regarding the future of telecom.

IMS Expo, to be collocated with this fall’s Internet Telephony Conference & EXPO West (San Diego, CA October 11–13, 2006) will feature a conference program designed to educate attendees as to the how and why of IMS, while the exhibit hall portion will showcase the industry’s early leaders and the products and solutions they have on tap.

VoIP Demo addresses a more pressing need: The desire for attendees to see live demonstrations of products and services so that they might make informed purchasing decisions when it comes to VoIP technology. This event is set to take place in Santa Clara, CA from August 8–10, 2006.

We take our mission to educate our readers and conference attendees seriously. We also strive to be the single best source for providing information for decision makers looking to purchase VoIP products and services. We believe the launch of these two new conferences fulfills that mission. I hope to see you at one of these events.

Looks like I'm not the only one who thinks our nation is in dire need of help from the wireLESS community.

According to this report from Reuters, several leading tech CEOs  plan to call upon Washington to free up more spectrum for the next generation of wireless applications. 

Here's the Reuters report:

Chief executive officers of some leading technology companies plan to call on Thursday for the U.S. government to find more wireless airwaves for use as new applications emerge .

The Technology CEO Council said on Wednesday it will issue a report urging Congress to order the Bush administration to analyze which airwaves are not being used best, and how they might be re-allocated.

Additionally, the organization plans to urge the Federal Communications Commission and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to consider allowing government airwaves that are underutilized to be used for other purposes.

"Our nation's wireless needs are too often governed by 1970s regulations that hinder economic progress and innovation," Motorola Inc. CEO Edward Zander said in a statement obtained by Reuters. He serves as chairman of the technology organization.

The group pushing for the changes also includes executives from Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM, Intel Corp., Dell Inc., EMC Corp. and Unisys Corp., among others.

Wireless companies have been hungry for more airwaves as they deploy new services like high-speed Internet and video content.

The executives also plan to suggest the FCC ease restrictions on wireless licenses so companies have more flexibility to use the airwaves for new services. They also will recommend making more unlicensed spectrum available that could be used for a variety of purposes.

The organization also plans to recommend Congress and regulators ensure that public safety organizations have the airwaves they need. Safety officials have complained about poor communications during disasters like the September 11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina.

The FCC is slated to start auctioning some airwaves June 29, including some airwaves that government agencies are vacating.

Other airwaves are expected to be sold in 2008 ahead of the 2009 move by U.S. television broadcasters from analog wireless airwaves to other airwaves for their digital television signals.

The Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Council and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), today announced new estimates showing FTTH deployments now passing over 3.6 million U.S. homes, an increase of almost 1 million homes in four months.

The new figures show the most rapid growth of FTTH deployment to date, with more than 230,000 additional homes passed every month.

“Typically telecom construction slows in winter months,” said Michael Render of market research firm Render, Vanderslice and Associates, which prepared the estimates.  “To see acceleration at this time of year indicates increased preference for FTTH as an infrastructure of choice.” 

The figures also show acceleration among homes connected by FTTH, which normally lags homes passed by several months.  Over the last four months, the estimate shows, homes connected with FTTH have increased by 70% — to 548,000 subscribers from 322,000.

My feeling is that any growth in broadband access is a positive. As a nation, we simply need to have better access to fatter pipes. It’s becoming an embarrassment that the United States consistently trails in broadband availability. I can’t wait to hear more news from wireless front regarding broadband wireless for the masses.

Fiber To The Home Council

Telecommunications Industry Association

Popular Telephony today announced the worldwide Beta release of PeerioBiz 1.1 - the serverless enterprise communication platform that comes loaded with business level PBX features and multi-lingual Instant Messaging (IM) all available for free download.

PeerioBiz is designed for SMB users who need a reliable, secure and scalable VoIP solution. It includes business PBX features and an enterprise IM application that are all designed to showcase the solution's overall simplicity and low cost nature.

Check out the company's Web site here.

FrontRange Solutions today announced the release of IP Office Suite - their new complete IP telephony phone system and the foundation of their Communications Management solution family.

Designed entirely in software, IP Office Suite is designed to provide IP-based telephony functionality to the SMB and distributed enterprise. According to a press announcement, FrontRange's expanding Communication Management family demonstrates a tipping point in the adoption of VoIP by proving that IP is no longer just being adopted as a 'tech' application but truly being used to improve business processes and customer satisfaction throughout the organization. Moreover, these new solutions enable the SMB and distributed enterprise to benefit from enterprise level technology without having to sacrifice enterprise level resources.

NMS Communications today announced the acquisition of Openera Technologies. Openera will become an integral part of NMS’s Mobile Applications business.

I wrote about Openera back in December. They  make IMS mobile client applications for both fixed and mobile operators, and in fact launched a P2P video sharing application when last we spoke.

This is good news for the whole Openera team - I'd like to congratulate Joel Hughes, Openera CEO on yet another success. My feeling is he just really likes his NMS business cards.  ;)

Completion of the transaction is expected to occur within the next few weeks, for consideration of $16.4 million in stock, approximately 51 percent of which is contingent upon the continued employment of key employees of Openera over the 30-month period following the closing.

A conference call will be held on Tuesday, February 14, 2006 at 11:00 am ET to discuss the details of the announcement.  The call will be available live via the Internet by accessing the NMS Web site under the Investor Relations section.

For more information, check out the Openera or NMS Communications Web sites.

In today’s news emanating from 3GSM in Barcelona, Nortel announced aggressive plans to evolve its wireless and wireline platforms to the Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture (ATCA).

As part of its strategy to provide open, carrier grade solutions, Nortel is bringing to market a second generation, carrier grade ATCA-based platform - the Versatile Service Engine (VSE) - to support the unique market requirements of wireless, wireline and cable operators.

Nortel's Call Session Control Function (CSCF), which is in multiple global customer trials, will be the first IMS product delivered on the VSE platform, with planned commercial availability in the second quarter of 2006. Nortel intends to introduce additional IMS and core products such as the IMS Home Subscriber Server (HSS), wireline/wireless call servers (MSC) and Home Location Registers (HLR) on the VSE in 2006 and 2007.

For more information, visit the company Web site.

I just received my weekly issue of the Sage/CMB Market Pulse market research from Sage Research (the technology practice of Chadwick Martin Bailey) that explores the hottest topics and issues on the minds of the 13,000 enterprise and service provider technology professionals that make up their Technology Panel...

Fixed/Mobile convergence (FMC) is one of the early applications being deployed in realm of IMS. If the Sage data are to be believed, only 11% of the carriers surveyed believe that FMC is not worth allocating any budget. Conversely 89% of the survey respondents are spending or evaluating at least some future spend in the space. 20% of the service providers interviewed are spending up to 20% of their budget on FMC and 3% are spending 20% or more.

To me this certainly means that IMS and FMC are no mere hype. Carriers have big budgets, and when they decide to spend, well, that means someone stands to benefit.

If you’re interested in learning more about IMS, I urge you to subscribe to our latest publication, IMS Magazine.

It looks like West is into VoIP for the long haul.

The news came down today that West Interactive Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of West Corporation, has selected the Sonus IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS)-ready architecture as a component of its next generation voice network. West Interactive, which specializes in interactive voice response (IVR) services, is deploying a new VoIP network to cost-effectively increase network capacity and support the development of new revenue-generating services.

Last week West announced that it had purchased Intrado, a Colorado-based company that provides 911 operations support systems services to LECs and wireless telcos in North America.

West Interactive will be using Sonus' solution to support the deployment of a new VoIP network to cost-effectively increase network capacity and support the development of new revenue-generating services. 

West currently provides contact services to a number of Fortune 1000 companies. Sonus'  solution will provide West Corporation with the infrastructure necessary to deliver a full suite of IVR services, such as automated customer acquisition and support applications, while enabling the company to deliver feature rich services to its enterprise customers. 

Brix Networks today unveiled its new BrixVision IPTV service assurance portfolio, a comprehensive offering designed to give service providers complete visibility into the quality of video content, the underlying delivery infrastructure, and the overall customer experience. 

This solution set has been developed specifically for IPTV deployments, and the company says it delivers the unequaled service visibility that providers demand, which has been unmet by legacy test and measurement tool suppliers. 

“IPTV is a very complex and highly performance-sensitive service that places increased demands on a network.  As a result, the importance of the customer’s quality of experience has been greatly elevated,” said Kaynam Hedayat, chief technology officer at Brix Networks.

With BrixVision, service providers can perform root-cause analysis to identify IP transmission versus video quality impairments, monitor end-to-end video quality, and proactively monitor and manage their subscribers’ experience throughout the lifecycle of their services.

For more on this latest solution from Brix, please visit www.brixnet.com.