Communications and Technology Blog

5 Tips for Speakers

By Peter on Wednesday, Feb 8

I'm not the best speaker. I'm still nervous and anxious before every talk, even when moderating. But I prepare for every talk...

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Tagged itexpo, radizeski

Vonage Attacks Skype with 30% Price Cut and Free App-to-App Calling & Texts

By Tom Keating on Wednesday, Feb 8

Vonage today launched new versions of their mobile app for both iOS and Android phones that feature free app-to-app calling and international...

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Tagged 3g, 4g, android, apple, free calling, ios, mobile app, mobile phone, skype, vonage, wi-fi, wireless

ITEXPO IP Communications Trade Show Continues Solid Growth

By Tom Keating on Wednesday, Feb 8

ITEXPO East 2012 in Miami was TMC's best show ever with over 200 booths and over 8,200 attendees. Conferee attendance for ITEXPO...

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Tagged austin, florida, ingate, ip communications, itexpo, miami, rich tehrani, texas

Verizon and BT Announce Cross-Network Video Calling & Telepresnce

By Tom Keating on Wednesday, Feb 8

Verizon and BT announced a deal enabling each of their respective customers initiate high-quality video conferences and telepresence sessions. I spoke...

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Tagged at&t, b2b, bt, business, cisco, interconnect, interoperability, polycom, telepresence, verizon

FCC is Busy!

By Peter on Tuesday, Feb 7

.The FCC is really busy!The FCC is still working on Inter-Carrier Compensation. It ordered Rural Call Completion.It approved TWC's $3B bid for...

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Tagged FCC, fcc, forbearance, inter-carrier compensation, spectrum, usf, white spaces

Mobile Video Conferencing and IT Expo

By Jim Machi on Tuesday, Feb 7

IT Expo East was held last week in Miami. One thing I like to do at shows is to figure out...

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Tagged Dialogic, IT Expo, mobile video, video conferencing | No Responses

Why Apple's A5 Processor is Big (Siri) + Why Doesn't Siri Support Dictating Emails?

By Tom Keating on Monday, Feb 6

According to CNet, Apple's A5 processor includes noise-reduction circuitry licensed from a start-up called Audience. Audience's technology enhances speech and works well...

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Tagged apple, audience, cnet, ios, iphone 4, iphone 4s, siri, wireless

Verizon Puts the Move on Video

By Peter on Monday, Feb 6

After Verizon's CFO sais that FiOS was a poor economic decision for the company, I would think video would not be on...

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Tagged att, cable, cableco, cellular, dish, duopoly, satellite, spectrum, tv, vz, vzw

Forget Super Wi-Fi! Go with Super Wi-Fi! Wait. What?

By Tom Keating on Friday, Feb 3

Everyone is hyping the new Super Wi-Fi standard which uses lower-frequency white spaces between television channel frequencies. These lower frequencies enable the...

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Tagged altai, altai technologies, china telecom, hong kong, itexpo, super wi-fi, wi-fi, wireless

Billionaire Gives Secrets to Startup Success

By Tom Keating on Friday, Feb 3

Sir Terry Matthews is a Welsh/Canadian high tech entrepreneur, and Wales's first billionaire. He has directly started 89 companies with an amazing...

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Tagged itexpo, keynote, mitel, newbridge networks, startup, success, terry matthews

Making Hosted UC Simple

By Peter on Thursday, Feb 2

Simple Signal sketches out Hosted UC on a napkin at ITEXPO. I guess it is that simple. ...

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Tagged hosted pbx, UC, voip

TMC Showcases the Top 40 "Newsmakers" at ITEXPO

By Tom Keating on Thursday, Feb 2

There is a lot of news (product launches, new versions) being made at TMC's ITEXPO, some of which I've already covered (Digium,...

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Tagged communications, itexpo, miami, news, telecom, voip

Rich Tehrani With ITEXPO Facts + Super Wi-Fi, M2M, StartupCamp & VC Funding

By Tom Keating on Thursday, Feb 2

Rich Tehrani gave some interesting ITEXPO facts during his keynote introductions. He also covered Super Wi-Fi, M2M, Facebook IPO causing new millionaires...

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Tagged facebook, funding, ipo, itexpo, keynote, m2m, rich tehrani, startupcamp, super wi-fi, vc

New Digium IP Phones Up Close

By Tom Keating on Wednesday, Feb 1

I got to see the new Digium IP Phones up close - sort of. I ran into Digium's Steve Sokol in their...

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Tagged asterisk, digium, itexpo, voip

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Rewards Network, the Social Restaurant Hub

February 7, 2012

In the last few decades it has become apparent that all companies are for the most part limited by their imaginations. Apple was thought to be a computer company but is now a leader in music, movies and phones. Amazon went from selling books to everything – even its servers are for rent via its cloud-computing solutions. Google went from search to purchasing Motorola Mobility and is well known for being involved in many projects from solar to self-driving cars and the television space.

But an airline? Certainly they aren’t adapting to the new competitive landscape – after all, many of the airplanes we fly on in the US were built in the 1960s when the cloud was defined as an IBM System/360 mainframe.

American Airlines has been a pioneer in loyalty marketing since the AAdvantage frequent flyer program was launched in 1981 and as a result their successful marketing concept spread to many other industries from toys to greeting cards.

The airline took a page from its own book and runs an AAdvantage Dining program which allows members to earn points good for travel and other services.

Posted in Amazon, Android, Apple, E-Commerce, Facebook, Financial, Google, Marketing, Microsoft, Social Networking, Technology, Twitter

Tagged: advertising, airlines, amercan airlines, bing, facebook, frequent flyer, google, groupon, marketing, microsoft, rewards network, twitter, yelp : Related Tags: rewards network, american airlines, dollar spent, dining program, imagine potential, company

Apple's Catering to the Press is Just Smart

February 7, 2012

As a member of the press, I have had mixed experiences with companies looking for me to cover them. Quite often, a company sending me their products for review will be responsive if I have technical difficulties due to a product malfunction of some kind such as buggy firmware. This is smart business. Not all companies do this mind you.

Posted in Apple

Tagged: apple, pogue : Related Tags: david pogue, apple, reviewer, press, companies, pogue

ITEXPO Miami 2012 Day 1 Analysis

February 2, 2012

Trade shows are in fact barometers of industry sentiment and mood and to gauge what the feeling is in the technology and communications spaces I turn to Jon Arnold's blog post about the first day here at ITEXPO.
First off Jon is about as balanced as they come - even his compliments come with room for improvement weaved in. So I invite you to read his full post about the show so far - which again says a lot about where the rest of 2012 will be heading in our spaces.
Across the board, I think most people will tell you the event is working really well. The hallways are full with activity, the sessions are well attended, the content is great, and the breadth of subject matter is far too great for any human to consume.
My day was spent either in briefings or moderating, so I didn't have a chance to see any other sessions. It's too bad, since there's really strong content for me in tracks such as Cloud Communications, SIP Trunking, 4GWE, M2M - and others.

Posted in IP Communications, ITEXPO

Tagged: itexpo, jon arnold : Related Tags: sessions, think, strong, pretty, great, content

Win this Mustang at ITEXPO Miami 2012

February 1, 2012

One of you will walk away with this shiny new Ford Mustang.

The details are below and it looks stunning in person. Good luck! Remember, you have to be present at 1:45, Feb 3rd this Friday to win.

Posted in ITEXPO

Tagged: conference, itexpo, mustang, technology : Related Tags:

Great Article on Bob Metcalfe's StartupCamp Keynote in Austin

February 1, 2012

The PR Vibes newsletters are a great place to catch up on the news and gossip on industry events such as CTIA, MWC and ITEXPO. We are here at ITEXPO East 2012 in Miami and the good people at PR Vibes were nice enough to cover the last major keynote at the collocated StartupCamp which took place in Austin, Texas last fall.

Our keynoter at that show was Bob Metcalfe - a legend and a great speaker whose oratory skills are only outweighed by his massive contributions to tech and networking.

I don't want to steal thunder from Laura Borgstede and her crew so by all means check out the post right now - it is educational and informative and worth a read.

Think of it as an MBA course from a person who really knows how to start and run successful companies. Moreover - it is information from a visionary and executor - we know how rare this combo is not only in tech but in any space.

By the same token you must be at StartupCamp here at ITEXPO at 4:00 pm in room B217 of the Miami Beach Convention Center to hear Sir Terry Matthews speak on Thursday, February 2nd. Sir Terry is an awesome speaker as well - he is the perfectly blend of entrepreneur and visionary having been involved in over 70 companies.

StartupCamp has a lot of energy (maybe not as much as Sir Terry - that is a high standard after all) and is a "can't miss."

Location:Jackie Gleason Dr,Miami Beach,United States

Posted in ITEXPO

Tagged: itexpo : Related Tags: miami beach, startupcamp, terry, itexpo, miami, great

ITEXPO East 2012 Exhibit Hall Coming Together

February 1, 2012

The exhibit hall is coming together nicely here at ITEXPO in Miami. It opens in a few hours. We hope to see you here soon.

Posted in ITEXPO

Tagged: itexpo : Related Tags: coming together

Digium Has New Phones. Now an Ecosystem Play

February 1, 2012

Today at ITEXPO Digium announced three new phones and Tom Keating is really impressed based on his post today. But what really caught my attention is not the obvious - which is that companies are increasingly expanding into new markets. Its that Digium is adding custom features to their phones which can access core PBX functions for not only Asterisk but Switchvox.

So what we have here ladies and gentlemen is an ecosystem play - like the Apple app store or Facebook apps, etc. Open APIs are allowing companies to leverage the development efforts of a community for mutual benefit.

And boy is this great news for Digium - after all don't the developers LOVE Digium? Yes they do.

So the question is how closed will the D40, D50 and D70 phones be? And will other phones just pale in comparison or have equal access? We will have to wait and see if the community warms up to the D series of IP-phones or not.

Posted in ITEXPO

Tagged: asterisk, communications, digium, ip-pbx, itexpo, phones : Related Tags: phones, digium

Microsoft Leverages New Google Data Sharing Policy

February 1, 2012

Microsoft comes out swinging at Google - saying the search leader has changed its policies to make your personal data more valuable to advertisers. While this is obviously true, the goal of all companies is to make more money and since Google makes most of theirs through showing ads, this data-sharing change makes lots of sense - right?

The first question which comes to mind of course is did you ever think we would get to a point where Microsoft would be calling out Google for being evil?

What this shows is how important search and the cloud are to Microsoft. The cloud is the future and MS needs to figure out how to compete more effectively in a non shrink-wrapped world.

Will this ad campaign be successful? Possibly but only if Microsoft backs it up with an online and TV campaign.

Redmond's timing is good as there is an increased focus on privacy with an article in the New York Times even equating the Facebook IPO today with selling of your privacy.

The bottom line is Microsoft could have a solid strategy here to paint Google into an anti-privacy "we are evil" box.

Posted in Microsoft

Tagged: advertising, google, microsoft, search : Related Tags: microsoft, google, privacy

Creative Destruction Sometimes Leads to Sabotage and Suicide

February 1, 2012

While Silicon Valley welcomes the fantastic news of a Facebook IPO today and the countless millionaires it will create it is worth reflecting on creative destruction thriving in the business world where new generations of companies win at the expense of the old.

In a way the iPad is the evolution of computing where the PC market led by Apple and IBM destroyed the Wang word processor and the typewriter before it. If Wang invented a tablet it would have a green screen and be character based - not too user friendly.

Still, for workers who have to deal with job loss and declining working conditions as a result of such transitions it is a tough challenge. Suicides and Sabotage are detailed in this article titled LA Times: Layoffs, Sabotage and Suicides?

There is a common theme here and it is that information work is still in demand while tasks involving manual labor are on the decline.

This is a similar transition the US faced when we moved from blacksmiths making horseshoes to factory workers putting fenders on cars.

The challenge we have is there are tens of millions of people who didn't grow up in the electronic age - they have to immerse themselves in tech if they want a chance at getting a piece of the booming new high-tech economy.

Everyone needs a safety net and spending an hour a day after work to become technically savvy is just like buying a career insurance policy.

In a former life I was in IT and my job was to train people how to use computers - I can tell you that at around age 40 - the brain seems to go through a transformation where it becomes difficult to learn tech. So really, whatever you do for a living,
you really owe it to yourself to learn as much about technology as you can.

Posted in Facebook

Tagged: facebook, google : Related Tags: creative destruction, learn, sabotage

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Communications and Technology Blog - Tehrani.com