VoIP Blog - Tehrani.com

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Government and Reseller VoIP: Two Hot Areas for 2005

The military is not letting up on VoIP adoption. Some huge military bigwigs will be at attendance at ITEXPO and this is the 3rd year in a row we've seen a large and growing government presence. It is probably better that I don't tell you which branches but suffice it to say that VoIP is playing a more and more important role in military and government communications and we are glad to do our part to serve our country. Another area of massive attendance growth is the reseller space where we have dedicated reseller sessions focused on this group. Resellers are doing extremely well selling VoIP and I am overwhelmed with case studies of successful VoIP installs I cant wait to share. If only I had two more hands to type with.Really these are just two areas of growth but from a dollar perspective the government will be the largest VoIP customer in 2005. Seeing this many people at a VoIP event is a great sign that spending will not level off from governmental agencies in the near future.The resellers at the show give me great confidence about the future of the market as well. Without a healthy reseller channel making money we cant support the immense amount of new VoIP companies in the space and I feel we are now in a position as an industry to grow nicely into 2005 and beyond.

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VoIP IC Revenue Skyrockets

This is amazing. Every facet of VoIP is hot from software to hardware to prepaid calling cards. You name it. Today I came upon an In-Stat release that says VoIP IC market growth will be tremendous from $137.6 million in 2003 to $938.4 million in 2008. Much of the growth will come from the integration of WiFi telephony with current cellular protocols.Here are some quick-hit stats:Similar to how quickly handset manufacturers integrated camera functionality in their products, virtually all cell phones will come integrated with Wi-Fi functionality toward the end of the forecast period.

Texas Instruments (TI) currently dominates the VoIP IC market, particularly the IP phone IC and CPE VoIP Gateway IC segments.

While several dozen vendors nominally participate in the VoIP IC market, only a handful of vendors account for the majority of shipments in each of the three main segments.The report is titled: "Hearing The Call Of Cellular: VoIP IC Market Analysis.Coincidently, we released our call for papers as well today for our VoIP Developer event and the response has been spectacular. Everyone seems to want to be part of it and I predict some new companies will be there. Companies you don't expect to be at such an event. VoIP Developer is still the world's only Voice Over IP Development event and following up on our last sold-out show, we expect this one to do even better as the buzz is already building to a feverish pitch. Hope to see you there.

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Ixia IxVoice 3.10 tests VoIP and Packet over Cable

January 10, 2005

With today's news about Comcast getting in VoIP, the question is now, who isnt in VoIP? All cable companies, ILECS, CLECS, wireless providers. Basically everyone wants a piece of the pie. Talk about timing... Companies like Ixia that are updating their testing systems for packet data over cable are in a great position. Today, Ixia announced their IxVoice 3.10 testing system supports PSTN, VoIP, MGCP, COPS and SS7 and other related protocols. Here is a portion of the Ixia IxVoice 3.10 release: IxVoice is able to fully automate Packet over Cable testing for call flow, feature verification, and performance analysis of voice networks in a scalable and distributed test framework.  Key automation features in this release include:o         New Telnet commands that can modify configuration files before runtime and then generate execution reports.  o         New Tcl script functions that allow the control external devices from within an IxVoice test scenario.  o         Ability to auto generate reports and email them to the specified recipientIxVoice also provides exhaustive functional and performance test capabilities, and support for legacy analog POTS, PSTN, and TDM interfaces, such as GR-303 and SS7, as well as support for the MGCP, COPS, SIP, and H.248/ Megaco protocols.  In addition, a wide range of SIP features have been added to Ixias IxVoice, resulting in the most complete, flexible, and automated solution available for SIP telephony testing:o         SIP over TLS with associated encrypted RTP streaming for emulating endpoints over secure connections.o         New SDP editor/ interpreter within SIP and MGCP that facilitates positive and negative testing of media stream offers /answers.o         Additional codecs to accommodate a large number of DUTs o         Variable support in a SIP text editor for negative testing and the capability for sending custom SDP texto         XML parser that enables users to parse any XML extensions in the SIP messages
The complexity of VoIP, QoS, integration with the PSTN, etc means that testing systems such as these will play a vital roll in the successful deployment of VoIP.

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Kodak EasyShare One

January 10, 2005

While there were so many interesting announcements out of CES I am positive the most important one was overlooked completely by most. For years I have been predicting that video cameras would one day be WiFi enabled and the entire video conferencing industry will grow exponentially once this happens. It was my dream, my prediction, my desire. Today that dream has come through. Not entirely but enough to say that we are heading in the right direction and the future is bright. What I mean is that WiFi enabling these cameras is only part of the equation. we now need ubiquitous WiFi networks on cruise ships, them, parks and everywhere else video conferencing can be done. You see, the reason videoconferencing doesn't take off is that there is little to see and worth seeing in our cubes and no one wants to have to dress up to video conference at home. For these reasons the market for video is outside our homes and offices. The natural first place is theme parks where families will conference with relatives who have broadband connections. The way we see people on the phone in a them park today, we will see video conferences everywhere in the future. I am sure of it. We just needed a catalyst... Something to jumpstart the market.

Kodak EasyShare One

In my opinion that catalyst is the following camera, the Kodak EasyShare One. This is the first camera I am aware of with an optional 802.11b WiFi adapter in an SD card. This is huge. In theory it will eventually support 802.11g, WiMAX and any other standard that comes down the pike. Truth be told, this thing cant video conference as there is no way you can see the screen while looking at the lens but that misses the point. This is the first step in our journey towards mobile broadband video conferencing. Thank you Kodak for being a pioneer!

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Will PhoneGAIM Unseat Skype

January 10, 2005

When you are number one, you have a permanent bull's-eye on your back and such is the case with Skype, the company that generates a hundred thousand downloads in the time it takes some of us to have lunch. By the time I post this there will be over 50,000,000 Skype downloads. Still, not as many as McDonalds has served but impressive nonetheless and more Atkins-friendly to boot.So should it come as a surprise that Skype competitors are are lined up many-deep to try to unseat the current download champ from their lofty perch? When Tom Keating recently wrote PhoneGAIM Targets Skype, I had to stop and take notice because these guys have a great piece of software that could really legitimately challenge Skype.Tom reports that the  software allows pc to phone service but more importantly allows for free VoIP calls between IM users such as ICQ, AOL and MSN!How does Skype fight such an open system and with 50 million downloads do they even need to? We will see how the VoIP community responds to this new and more open offering and I am looking forward to seeing a new download meter appear on www.phonegaim.com.

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Is SBC Sprinting to or Away From VoIP?

January 10, 2005

There comes a time in all of our lives when we have to get from point A to point B and it is pouring rain and you left without an umbrella. Personally my least favorite rain is the small drops coupled with a high-speed wind... You know, the kind that hurts your face. If you are like me when caught in such situations, you begin to think about the benefits of sprinting to point B, versus casually walking.

Then there is that quick walk that you can do that is right about in the middle. Generally, I am a sprinter... That is until I run out of breath (which seems to come more quickly every year). What if rain drops were like VoIP customers being lost? If you are an ILEC, every defector to Vonage or CallVantage is like a rain drop. Sure, one drop or two is not a big deal but when a whole bunch of these drops (lets say hundreds or thousands or even millions) hit you, you have to decide how to get out of the storm. A company like SBC is getting hit and hit hard and their umbrella (which would be their own VoIP service) is not available at the moment yet they hope to have one soon. SBC's plans are as follows... Get VoIP rolled out ASAP and at the same time, do whatever it takes to stop losing customers. Recently a colleague of mine who has read my columns was going to switch to Vonage or CallVantage and when they called SBC, they were offered a special "all-you-can-eat" long-distance plan for under $30 per month as well as a refund on their bill going back months for a total of hundreds of dollars! He hasn't received the check yet but this is perhaps the biggest threat to VoIP I have heard from the incumbents and it seems to be a sure sign of desperation. It is not beyond these companies who crippled DSL competition in the past to do whatever it takes to kill VoIP but the question is are they too late. The answer is yes as the momentum of VoIP is too strong to be killed by a $29.95 price point. Still it is a significant day when SBC basically says, "We will not lose customers."
Lets see how this plays out. It is difficult to understand how cheap the SBC VoIP offering will be when the PSTN cost hovers around $30. So until their VoIP umbrella can be found it seems like a quick pace of walking (or is this a sprint?) is the best solution to get SBC to point B.

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Legerity Teams With Vocal on VoIP ATA

January 10, 2005

With all the new service providers rolling out VoIP service, the market for CPE equipment is on fire... Growing at alarming (meaning very good... Not the alarm that wakes you up in the morning)rates. Many companies want a piece of this growing pie. Case in point: Legerity, Inc. and VOCAL Technologies today announced that the Legerity Le88111 VoicePort product provides the voice interface solution for a new ultra low cost analog terminal adapter (ATA) from VOCAL Technologies, a leading supplier of protocol stacks and reference designs for
VoIP networks. Legerity tells me their Le88111 VoicePort product is the industry's first solution to provide complete BORSCHT functionality of a single channel FXS within a single device. The benefit being that integrating all functionality from Tip and Ring to PCM means that designs require fewer external components, which translates to a more most cost effective solution. They go on to claim that the Le88111 VoicePort provides the fastest, simplest and least expensive way to connect an analog telephone line to analog terminal adapters, or other broadband CPE equipment.

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Million Dollar Baby a Cross Between Rocky and Beaches

January 10, 2005

I saw Million Dollar Baby this weekendIf you like Rocky and Beaches, you will love this. Tips:Drop by CostcoBuy the largest container of Kleenex you can findSee movieUse Kleenex sparingly so as not to run out.

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BayPackets and Epana part 2

January 10, 2005

I wrote about BayPackets supplying VoIP technology for the Epana prepaid calling card network today and wasn't able to get these questions and answers into the last entry. The following is an e-mail interview with Ken Epps, President & CEO of BayPackets on their view of the future of prepaid calling cards:

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BayPackets Brings VoIP to EPANA Prepaid Calling Cards

January 10, 2005

While service providers were busy laughing at VoIP in the late nineties the one market that embraced VoIP and was responsible for keeping many VoIP players alive during the downturn were the prepaid calling card companies. Think about it, you have an unbranded (for the most part) service that doesn't require high levels of quality. Consumers were happy to speak so cheaply and weren't phased by dropped packets. The activity in prepaid isnt dead. In fact there seems to be lots of room for growth.. Here is a release from Epana Networks and Bay Packets about their latest collaboration to bring VoIP into the calling card business.

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