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TMC Blogs: The Week in Review

January 23, 2009 11:51 AM
What was the big story this week? No doubt it was the inauguration of Barack Obama, as the 44th President of the United States and the first African-American to hold that post. Truly a historic day for our nation: a day when many people put politics aside to welcome our newest leader to his job, and judging by the crowds in Washington, D.C. this past Tuesday it was quite a welcome indeed.
 
Rich is excited. Not so much from any overtly political stance, but he's psyched that the Obama Administration appears to be well versed in technology and will likely raise the tech-level of the White House and the U.S. government in general to new heights.
 
In his recent post, Tech Change is Here, Rich notes that technology is not just a "nice to have" but a necessity that drives an organization's ability to compete.
 
Of course, with ITEXPO just 9 days away, Rich has been hard at work writing about some of the big elements of the show that will take place Feb 2-4, in Miami Beach, FL.
 
Among many other things, Rich blogged about the open source educational opportunities (Asterisk Training Details; Asterisk, Trixbox, and Switchvox Training), and the temperature differential, and he also posted an entry highlighting the series of interviews he conducted with the thought leaders who will be participating at the event (Come Meet the Thought Leaders at ITEXPO).
 
Back on the political thread... Tom posted his thoughts regarding the reported $40 Billion Broadband stimulus that the Obama Administration was proposing: President-Elect Barack Obama's $40 billion Handout Bailout to Internet Providers
 
While that was technically last week, this week saw a tremendous amount of activity in the comments section of his blog. There was some really interesting back and forth, and if you have any thoughts on our government spending $40 Billion on broadband, it's worth a look.
 
Peter Radizeski weighs in with details on the Broadband Stimulus Bill.
 
Tom also was busy doing what he does best, and that's writing about and reviewing gadgets, such as the Verizon Hub (a Web browsing, VoIP phone gadget...), the TechCrunch Touchpad, the AT&T tl7610 headset, and the HTC Touch Cruise.
 
Tony Rybczynski opened the week with a simple message: Nortel is Open for Business, underscoring the message that "Nortel plans to emerge more focused, financially sound and competitive."
 
On his SIP and Serve by a Foodie blog, Broadvox' David Byrd spoke of developments at his firm and some partnerships they announced this week ahead of their participation at ITEXPO.
 
In today's installment, Byrd also discusses the latest adventures of IP Man:
 
This week we announced interoperability with Panasonic's new NCP IP PBX and we released the new IP MAN Adventure featuring AudioCodes, episode 5. The new villainess, Echo, is scheduled for launch during the week of IT Expo. It's a fun story with an exciting storyline featuring Panasonic. Like the duck paddling on a pond, our calm exterior hides the furious effort below the water line.
 
In what's fast becoming one of my favorite features in the TMCnet blogosphere, every Monday, Byrd dishes on what he's been up to in the kitchen over the preceding weekend, in addition to providing insightful commentary on what's happening in the market. This week it was beef short ribs. Yummy.
 
Over in the Convergence Corner, Erik Linask discussed the significance of Interactive Intelligence integrating with IBM for enterprise-wide unified communications.
 
Brendan Read offered a Readerboard post on Genesys' double acquisition; Jessica Kostek covered Apple's first quarter financials as well as the "Fall of Kennedy" -- her take on Caroline Kennedy's withdrawal from consideration for the open Senate seat in NY; and Scott Bouchard vented his frustration at being unable to watch the inauguration live on CNN.
 
Hunter Newby had a pair of interesting posts this week on Skype and Internet-based VoIP Peering as well as the effects of broadband development on the economy.
 
Tsahi Levent-Levi has some great post-CES follow-up on the video solutions on display at that event, and perhaps the funniest blog post of the week, entitled The Naked Truth About Video Conferencing.
 
 

Even Microsoft Gets the Blues

January 22, 2009 2:11 PM
Add Microsoft to the ranks of companies forced to cut jobs due to the state of the economy.
 
According to a story by our own Michael Dinan, the software maker today announced major year-over-year earnings dips and a plan to cut 5,000 jobs.
 
Microsoft reportedly saw a net income decline of 11 percent, to $4.17 billion, for the quarter ended Dec. 31, as well as a 6 percent drop in earnings per share, to 47 cents.
 
About 1,400 of the 5,000 job cuts -- across R&D, marketing, sales, finance, legal, HR and IT -- will occur today, with the rest coming over the next 18 months. The layoffs are expected to help reduce operating expenses by about $1.5 billion.
 
Ever the optimist, Steve Ballmer commented:
 
While we are not immune to the effects of the economy, I am confident in the strength of our product portfolio and soundness of our approach. We will continue to manage expenses and invest in long-term opportunities to deliver value to customers and shareholders, and we will emerge an even stronger industry leader than we are today.
 
Investors apparently need some time to digest the news.
 
Microsoft's shares fell in the wake of the announcement, (down 10.5% at 2pm EST).
 
I had hoped I was mistaken when I blogged here about industry job losses.
 
In addition to Microsoft, Ericsson this week announced plans to expand its restructuring, cutting about 5,000 jobs. This is on top of an announcement last year that the firm would eliminate 4,000 positions.
 
 

Genesys Acquires Conseros, SDE

January 22, 2009 1:41 PM
Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, an Alcatel-Lucent company today announced two acquisitions. The company has acquired German firm SDE Software Development Engineering GmbH ("SDE") as well as New Brunswick, Canada-based Conseros.
 
SDE's primary product, called Genesys Customer Interaction Portal, is a Web-based thin client software solution designed to enable service providers deliver hosted contact center capabilities, such as self-service and agent-assisted service, to enterprise customers. The portal is a key component of Genesys' hosted contact center solution strategy.
 
Conseros provides a key business application that enables enterprises to manage and distribute high volumes of work items virtually anywhere in the enterprise.

Polycom Q4 Results Announced

January 21, 2009 5:10 PM
Polycom announced their quarterly earnings today and the results were a mixed bag.
 
The Pleasanton, CA-based maker of voice and video equipment announced adjusted Q4 EPS of 42 cents, which was ahead of analysts' estimates of 40 cents.
 
The company also announced growth from its video services segment which accounted for two-thirds of consolidated net revenues at $141.7 million (this includes video communications - 54% and networks systems - 13%). The voice communications segment of the company's business accounted for 33% or $87.1 million, which is down as compared to Q407 when voice generated 37% of consolidated net revenues or $98.4 million.
 
Robert Hagerty, the firm's chairman and CEO addressed Polycom's successes in 2008 as well as the challenging economic climate and his outlook for the company into 2009:
 
We are pleased to have surpassed the $1 billion revenue mark in 2008. As the largest company in the Unified Collaboration industry, Polycom generated year-over-year growth in our Video Solutions business, illustrating the resilience of our fast-ROI video offering. With our Voice business showing more sensitivity to the economic environment, Polycom proactively took action in Q4 to reduce our operating cost structure and, as we announced earlier this month, we have implemented a restructuring plan designed to optimize our cost structure as we move into 2009
                                                 
With our rapid pace of innovation and the full breadth of our offering, we believe Polycom is the best positioned in the industry to deliver the cost-savings benefits of video adoption to our customers. Our strategic partnerships with Avaya, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, and others enable us to provide integrated solutions that capture the full benefits of Unified Collaboration. These partnerships differentiate Polycom as the solutions provider of choice for companies who describe our collaboration solution as a strategic technology investment. In spite of the challenging economy, through our leading solutions and go-to-market strategy and, of course, our improved cost structure, we expect to continue to gain strength competitively in 2009 and to deliver solid operating results.
 
.
 

Motorola, Google Cut Jobs, Will Microsoft Follow Suit?

January 15, 2009 9:01 AM
Motorola announced it will cut another 4,000 jobs this year, in addition to the 3,000 jobs that were eliminated last year.
 
In a rare move, Google also announced they were laying off employees. Google also announced they would be consolidating some office locations.
 
And, the Wall Street Journal reported that even Redmond software giant Microsoft is mulling job cuts.
 
Check out this article for the details.

Nortel: Politics, Bankruptcy and Business as Usual

January 15, 2009 8:23 AM

Rich offers some in depth analysis of the Nortel saga, with a look at the bankruptcy laws of both the US and Canada, and some history of what drove Nortel to this particular fork in the road.

 

Rich also shares his insights gleaned from a conversation with Nortel Enterprise president Joel Hackney, who in the face of all the bankruptcy reports wants to reassure customers that "Nortel is still very much in business."

 

This is obviously a very big story in our telecom world, but it extends out to the greater question of business and politics, and specifically business and politics in the Canadian landscape.

 

Our Ontario-based senior contributing editor, Brendan Read, has an article today, entitled, bluntly, Canadian Politics Would Kill Any Potential Sale of Nortel to U.S. Firms

 

Brendan writes of the struggles Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper would face if he allowed major portions of Nortel to be sold to companies south of the border, and he offers up that "Minister Tony Clement said Ottawa will provide financing to help Nortel restructure and emerge as a viable firm."

 

Brendan also provides a good amount of political background, which is useful for understanding the various angles that are in play with regard to the Nortel news.

 

Verizon Plays Down "No More Copper" Comments

January 14, 2009 8:32 AM
On second thought, we will NOT be doing away with voice over copper in seven years.
 
We like VoIP, but we love copper.
 
Clearly our executive was not supposed to say what he said to that Bloomberg reporter. Either that or the reporter got it wrong.
 
It's all a misunderstanding.
 
Nothing to see here... Move along...
 
 
Apparently Verizon is backing away from comments that their CMO John Stratton made to a Bloomberg reporter in a story that was carried by the LA Times and that I touched on in my blog on Tuesday.
 
Eric Rabe, Senior Vice President -- Media Relations has a post today on the Verizon Policy Blog basically saying that no, neither Stratton nor anyone else at Verizon believes that we will move beyond copper in seven years.
 
I for one felt that seven years was much too aggressive a timetable to move away from that bread and butter transport mechanism, but it says a lot that Verizon would come out so strongly to correct the perception that they were somehow turning their back on the tried and true.
 
I've pasted Eric Rabe's blog post below in full:
 
 
There's been a bit of online buzz about remarks attributed to Verizon Chief Marking Officer John Stratton in a Bloomberg interview (carried in the LA Times) at last week's Consumer Electronics Show. The story says that Verizon plans to "do away with traditional phone lines within seven years as it moves to carry all calls over the Internet."
 
Here's the background.
 
First, neither John nor anyone else here thinks that the traditional, circuit-switched phone network will be a thing of the past in seven years. What's often called the public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the world's most reliable, high quality, landline voice communications system. The Verizon traditional phone system will serve customers for a long time to come.
 
John's point was, and there's not a lot of new news here, that we see that voice can and is becoming an application called VoIP on broadband networks.
 
VoIP is a logical platform for any company wanting to break into the voice services business, and hundreds of companies have seized on this technology to do so, including every major cable TV company. However, the quality of VoIP voice calls and the reliability of VoIP networks are in no way superior to the quality and reliability provided by the Verizon PSTN network. In short, there is no logical reason for a company like Verizon, with a terrific voice network already in place, to dismantle that network and replace it with VoIP.
 
At the same time, Verizon is the foremost provider of broadband networks in the USA and a leader in providing broadband around the world. We operate much of the Internet backbone, besides providing wired broadband to 8.5 million American consumers and businesses in the Northeast, and parts of the Northwest, South and Western U.S.
 
It is clear to us that some parts of the market are moving to VoIP. So the right move for Verizon and our customers is to support transition to VoIP as we have already for many business customers and as we will do as consumer customers evolve to VoIP. You'll see us offer new VoIP products for FiOS in the future, and over time we'll do the same for customers served by other wireline and wireless technologies. This is a logical evolution that we understand and will support.
 
But don't expect the landline circuit-switched network to magically blink out in seven years. For many customers, the traditional phone network may be the best solution for years to come.
 

Hard Times as Nortel Bankruptcy Looms

January 14, 2009 8:04 AM
Rich is reporting in his blog that Nortel will file for bankruptcy today, ending the run for one of Canada's biggest corporations and one of telecom's storied companies.
 
This marks quite the fall from grace for a company that was once one of the highest-fliers of the tech boom.
 
According to a story in today's Globe and Mail:
 
Nortel easily qualified as the country's largest company at the peak of the tech boom in 2000, with a $366-billion (Canadian) market capitalization and 95,000 employees.
 
While still North America's largest telecom equipment maker, Nortel's shares were worth a total of just $192-million yesterday, and the company has 26,000 staff after a bruising series of layoffs over the past eight years.
 
Nortel stock that soared to $1,231 at the peak of the tech bubble - reflecting a recent consolidation in shares - closed yesterday at 38.5 cents on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
 
You can expect the vultures will all be out today, slamming the company's management, pointing to the series of accounting scandals that ultimately doomed this company. You'll hear all about the acquisition of Bay Networks and how that never really turned into the perfect fit that had been hoped for. Yes folks, all the news will be bad, and the blame game will be blown out of proportion.
 
Nortel still has some great technology, and a customer base and service contracts that will have the scavengers salivating.
 
Unfortunately for the many great employees of the company the end of Nortel as we know it spells something far worse.
 
The news reports today speak of breaking up the company and selling off the pieces to competitors. In such cases, some employees will be fortunate enough to stay on, but for too many others it's a time of great uncertainty and worry.
 
I have been fortunate to work with many wonderful people who represented Nortel over the past 12 years, and I hope that they fare well in the wake of whatever goes down.

5LINX Picks Up Kancharla's Wholesale Services Group

December 19, 2008 1:45 PM
5LINX Enterprises, Inc., is acquiring the Wholesale Services Group, of Kancharla Corporation, which including Business, Residential, E911, DID Services and the A-Z Origination/Termination services. These offerings will be immediately available through GLOBALINX, 5LINX's wholly owned subsidiary.
 
Kancharla will continue to offer the standalone and branded versions of its LeftSeat Billing/OSS software solution.
 
Mike Machonkin, GLOBALINX Vice President of Sales & Marketing is excited about the deal and believes that it will be good for customers and channel partners alike.
 
"With the acquisition of Kancharla's wholesale services, GLOBALINX is further demonstrating our commitment to provide our GLOBALINX Customers, Agents and Resellers with the most robust portfolio of products and services available on the market today," Machonkin said.
 

Great Explanation of Universal Service Fund

December 19, 2008 8:54 AM
Fred Goldstein, principal of Ionary Consulting (and a featured TMC columnist) has an excellent explanation of the Universal Service Fund (USF), with an insightful history of the fund as well as a good recounting of the many challenges associated with this "FCC boondoggle" as he calls it.
 
It's definitely worth the read. In these challenging economic times, it's interesting to see how this money is being spent and then judge whether or not it makes sense.
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