I was under the impression that VoIP funding had slowed until I received this. The company is focusing on the high-end of the service provider market according to this release. At a certain point I was concerned about the funding level VoIP companies were receiving. I as concerned about overfunding and a new bubble being formed. My “VoIP Senses” tell me we are doing OK. I haven’t seen another funding announcement recently and most every VoIP company in the market is being cautious with their money. The exception seems to be Vonage who are advertising more aggressively than Microsoft. Coincidentally, the Redmond Goliath announced a new marketing campaign today.
BIVIO ANNOUNCES $16.5 MILLION IN STRATEGIC VENTURE FUNDING
Company to Build Upon Capital Infusion from Top-Tier Investors to Support Accelerated Customer Acquisition and Revenue Growth in Hot IP Service Market
Bivio is capitalizing on a fundamental industry shift in the way network service delivery platforms are implemented. Several of the most innovative, fastest growing network applications in the areas of security, VoIP (voice over IP), multimedia, wireless and IPv6 are increasingly built as software applications running on network appliances. Next generation network appliances such as Bivio’s 2000 product family provide a standardized open architectural foundation on which new services and the long standing promise of convergence can be delivered.
Bivio’s multi-gigabit network appliances, featuring a groundbreaking architecture specifically optimized for wire-speed execution of software-based network services, is rapidly gaining wider acceptance among network equipment vendors looking for cost-effective and timely ways to deliver advanced IP services. “Several industry leading companies are excited about the capabilities Bivio provides to overcome traditional performance and flexibility barriers,” said Alex Mendez, general partner at Storm Ventures. “It is encouraging to see the market shift to an environment that supports Bivio’s vision”.
“We are enthusiastic about the additional investment from some of the most prominent and highly respected investment entities around,” said Elan Amir, president and CEO of Bivio Networks. “The commitment from these investment partners will enable us to broaden our market reach and continue to remain on the cutting edge of performance and innovation.”
“Given the extremely dynamic nature of many emerging network applications, we observe a major industry shift towards implementation of advanced network services in software,” explained Amir. “These applications require a new class of highly scalable network appliances capable of delivering deterministic multi-gigabit speeds and tunable processing power. Bivio will continue to pioneer innovative system design to allow its partners to establish market leadership in their chosen application areas.”
Bivio’s programmable network appliances are helping customers to deliver services that require deep packet processing combined with high network throughput. Based on open industry standards, Bivio fuses unmatched flexibility with uncompromising performance to enable customers to deliver the foundation of the next generation network infrastructure.
About Bivio Networks
Bivio Networks has developed the industry's first next generation packet handling platform that combines unparalleled scaling of network performance, processing power, and application agility. Bivio's product is a network appliance featuring a groundbreaking architecture specifically optimized for wire-speed execution of emerging network services that increasingly demand deep packet processing combined with high network throughput. Based on open industry standards, Bivio Networks fuses unmatched flexibility with uncompromising performance to enable its customers to overcome existing bottlenecks and deliver the foundation of the next generation network infrastructure. Headquartered in
Bivio Networks Inc., the Bivio Networks logo, Bivio 2000™ and Bivio Networks™ are trademarks of Bivio Networks Inc.
Copyright Bivio Networks, Inc. 2005. All rights reserved.
Media Contact: Marketing Contact:
Derek Kober Paul Liesenberg
Sr, Vice President VP Marketing
Neale-May & Partners Bivio Networks
650.328.5555 Ext. 126 925-924-8640
dkober@nealemay.com pliesenberg@bivio.net
Catherine Leahy
Neale-May & Partners
409 Sherman Avenue
Palo Alto,
650-328-5555 ext. 115
cleahy@nealemay.com
April 2005 Archives
Russell Shaw makes a great deal of sense with today’s blog entry titled What Adobe buying Macromedia *could* mean for VoIP. I didn’t see a VoIP connection with today’s announcement of Adobe purchasing Macromedia. I do now. Is Russell just too smart for words or is it that every company will have a VoIP strategy in the future. Maybe a bit of both. You figure if Google has one (OK this isn’t confirmed as of yet) everyone needs to have one. Or is VoIP today more like sex in high school… Everyone talks about it… A few people are doing it… And even less people are doing it well.
Off to DC to speak at the ATA about the future of contact centers. I am flying out of the Westchester airport and am pretty excited that I don't have to fight Long Island or
It works out OK as I need to rehearse the presentation and proof a volume of material and write an article for a consumer publication (more on this later).
Microsoft launched a new campaign targeted at getting more people to use Windows XP. The New York Post has an article says this campaign will tie the company over until 2006 when Longhorn (that's the code name anyway) will be delivered. The cost is under wraps and one wonders why the company decided to do this now. Are they afraid of something? Apple perhaps? Did they catch wind of Google coming out with an OS? The one good thing about all this is that by advertising technology they may increase demand for all sorts of IT products. After a first quarter that was weak for companies like Siebel and IBM, this move may be a boost in the arm the market needs.
For those of you non-bloggers out there consider yourselves lucky as something called comment spam is a nightmare for many of us trying to blog. In addition to regular spam, we have to deal with people who post comments to our blogs that are related to porn sites and gambling.
If this wasn't enough, I am now getting trackback spam and in fact I received more than 30 and possibly as many as 50 of these. Trackbacks are the way bloggers link t other sites allowing a reader to quickly see other points of view on something they are reading.
Spammers comment and trackback to sites so they can increase their search engine ranking. I am spending more and more time on blog maintenance. This is valuable time I could spend sharing valuable info with my readers.
These spammers are like the leaches of the internet and stiff penalties should exist to punish the people responsible. We need to eliminate the productivity-zapping chore of removing various types of spam.
While discussing trackbacks I should remind you that virtually all TMCnet content has trackback capability as well (spammers please ignore this part).
Lots of new VoIP URLS recently. 8x8Voip doesn't seem to be registered to someone at 8x8, the parent company of Packet8. dotcomvoip, familyvoip, ipaq-voip and showmevoip are all interesting ones.
8x8voip.com
bundlevoip.com
callusingvoip.com
connectmevoip.com
dotcomvoip.com
familyvoip.com
familyvoip.info
familyvoip.net
figarovoip.com
gprs-voip.com
helpmevoip.com
ipaq-voip.com
lookingforvoip.com
mivoipphone.com
moneytreevoip.com
myvoip-zone.com
myvoipzone.com
onepricevoip.com
onlyvoip.com
pindropvoip.com
pipevoip.com
pocketpc-voip.com
portablevoip.com
savemevoip.com
showmevoip.com
simplyvoip.biz
simplyvoip.us
smartchoicevoip.com
speedyvoip.com
spidervoip.biz
spidervoip.us
thevoip-zone.com
thevoipguy.com
thevoipjournal.com
thevoipjournalonline.com
timeforvoip.com
usatelvoip.com
usatelvoip.info
usatelvoip.net
voipdecision.com
voiper.biz
voipfortheworld.com
voiphotlist.com
voipisforme.com
voipkingdom.com
voipmagazineonline.com
voipmoneytree.com
voipphoneadapters.com
voipprovidersearch.com
voipsales.biz
voipsales.org
voipsavedme.com
voipsaveme.com
voipspectrum.com
voiptelephoney.com
voipvietnam.org
voipwifihotspots.com
wifivoipphones.com
wordsvoip.com
wordvoip.com
zipvoip.com
lessvoip.com
voipdiscussions.net
wcdmavoip.com
Lots of speaking and traveling this week. I am going to be speaking and moderating a session for the ATA on the future of the contact center on Monday in DC and on Tuesday I will be speaking for PRSourcecode to the PR community on how to more effectively work with Internet Telephony Magazine.
Here is the ATA Washington Summit Schedule:
10:15 -10:30 am Break
10:30 –11:30 am Business/Financial Outlook & Climate-Brandon Dobell of Credit Suisse First Boston
11:30 – 12:30 Lunch
12:30 – 1:30 pm Keynote Address-Tucker Carlson
1:30 – 2:30 pm ATA Positions/ Regulatory: What's Next?-Jim Conway, DMA and Mitch Roth, ATA
2:30 – 3:00 pm Break
3:00 – 4:00 pm Consumer Affairs Perspective on Teleservices- Dr. Dale Lewison,
4:00 – 5:00 pm Technology Perspective/Changes we can expect-
6:00 – 7:00 pm Reception at the Hyatt
Tuesday, April 19 (Self-Determination Perspective)
8:00 – 9:00 am Continental Breakfast with Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE)
9:00 – 11:30 am Table Discussion – Working Session on Standards for Inbound
11:30 – 1:00 pm Lunch /Keynotes- Sen. Max Baucus, D-MT and Rep. Lee Terry R-NE (Sen. Baucus 1200-1230; Rep Terry 1230-1:00)
1:00 – 2:00 pm Leadership Collaboration
2:00 – 2:30 pm Break
2:30 – 4:00 pm Leadership Presentations
4:00 – 5:00 pm SRO Presentation- Lisa DeFalco,Phil Grudzinski
6:00 – 7:30 pm Awards Gala on the Hill- Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) (SD-G50, Dirksen Bldg)
Wednesday, April 20 (On the Hill)
8:00 – 9:00 am Continental Breakfast with Rep. Ted Strickland (D-OH)
8:30 – 10:00 am Not-for-Profit & Charities Breakfast (By invitation)
9:00 – 9:30 am ATA Lobbying Priorities
9:30 – 10:30 am Congressional Visit Role Play
10:30 – 1:00 pm Congressional Appointments
Sunday, April 17
12:00 – 6:00pm Registration
12:00- 5:00pm Selected Committee Meetings
6:00 – 7:00 pm Welcome Reception (Hyatt Regency)
Monday, April 18 (Current Industry Situational Perspective)
7:30 – 9:00 am Registration
8:00 – 9:00 am Continental Breakfast
9:00 – 9:15 am Opening Remarks- Stuart Discount, Chair, ATA
9:15 – 10:15 am Regulations and Federal & State Legislation Joe Sanscrainte, Call Compliance, Bill Brierly, TeleTech and Rich Rosenblatt, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
For some reason I smile when I hear that the French aren't happy with Google. I don't know why. Perhaps it is because they are complaining about it instead of developing a superior product. The French actually had a product that was essentially the internet decades early in Minitel.
When the French were unhappy with Boeing's domination, they joined up with their fellow Euro-Zone allies and came up with Airbus and thoroughly thrashed Boeing. Can the same thing happen to Google? Perhaps. I can see
The concept is certainly intriguing but I would bet on Microsoft before a new China/Euro start up. If you are interested in a bit more on this topic as well as a Star Trek reference and an insult to Chirac in a single blog entry (I tell you it's like getting to eat fries and dessert in the same meal), click here.
Some interesting commentary here on Comcast's DNS outage that was treated by the company as a general connectivity problem. Here is Irwin Lazar's discussion regarding what Comcast had on their recently:
I was able to get back on the net by using Bluetooth dial-up networking from my PowerBook through my Cingular Treo 650. Once I got connected I went to Comcast's support page and found that under the "Network Health" header, there was a terse statement stating that "All Internet Connectivity Was Down". Umm, no, just DNS was down. Reconfiguring my machines to use alternate DNS servers resolved the problem, though I suppose for the average user, DNS being down means that in effect, the Internet is down.
Of course having to use a bluetooth dial-up connection to see what the problem was and reconfiguring your devices to deal with this issue is something many of us tech-heads will naturally do. Are we making it too difficult for consumers to use technology? It's bad enough when even a cable company can't accurately tell the public what the problem is.
Lazar's story starts with a link to Russell Shaw's blog where he details problems with residential VoIP troubleshooting. These connectivity and other issues need to be solved. To all of you in the VoIP industry: please get your acts together. We need to make this stuff easy to use. We need to think like Apple, not like Linus (Torvalds that is).
In what may be the biggest news pertaining to the FCC since Kevin Martin was selected to lead the commission,
I suspect
I woke up around 6:00 AM to CNBC where they were talking about how IBM killed the global markets because they preannounced that they will miss their numbers and weren’t so optimistic about the future. Interestingly on my recent
Where is Rich Tehrani speaking? Everywhere it seems. And I love it. I can’t wait to discuss the growth of the speech market. What many people don’t realize is that speech technologies are changing the way business operates. It not only reduces the need to offshore, many VoIP providers are considering speech as a way to differentiate their offerings from one another.
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 Benchmarks for Creating Successful Speech Automation Solutions Wednesday, April 27, 2005 10:00 -11:00 am (Pacific Time) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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I will be hosting a webinar with PRSourceCode on Tuesday, April 19th at 12:00 Noon. PR professionals can learn how to present ideas to myself and fellow TMC team members. This will be a good opportunity for many of the PR people that want to learn how to increase the number of editorial opportunities we take advantage of here at TMC.
There are a lot of secrets to getting press. Sign up for the webinar if you want to learn them and engage in a dialogue.
See you (virtually) there!
Perhaps the biggest news in the VoIP space, ever is this announcement. I have been saying for a while that these devices need to be under $100 for consumer adoption. 8x8 did a very smart thing with this announcement:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
8x8 SLASHES PRICE OF PACKET8 VIDEOPHONE TO $99
Available direct to consumers at www.packet8.net, the newly-priced Packet8 VideoPhone is being sold with a two year service plan which includes unlimited voice and video calls worldwide to another Packet8 Videophone as well as unlimited local and long distance voice-only calls to any phone number in the U.S. or Canada. The $19.95 per month, 24 month service plan carries an early termination fee of $299. Existing Packet8 VideoPhone subscribers will see a decrease in their monthly service of $10 beginning with their May 1 billing statement.
Motivated by over 12 months of consistently positive user reports and outstanding technology reviews, 8x8 decided on an aggressive price reduction strategy to accelerate the rate at which consumers are subscribing to the Packet8 VideoPhone service, the first and still the only broadband consumer videophone solution on the market today.
"We believe that by dramatically lowering the cost of entry, we will diminish the hurdle facing consumers who have shown strong interest in purchasing our broadband videophone but are precluded from doing so because of the price," said 8x8 Chairman & CEO Bryan Martin. "Once we get our technology into the hands of more consumers, we feel confident its appeal will take hold and bring about the critical mass necessary to make videophone conversations an everyday experience."
Since its introduction in June 2004, the Packet8 VideoPhone has been recognized in numerous business and industry publications including the Wall St. Journal, The New York Times, the San Jose Mercury News and Laptop Magazine. Some of the season's most popular television shows - Alias, King of Queens, Will and Grace, Third Watch and Law and Order SVU - have incorporated the VideoPhone on their sets and in the plots of various episodes.
"8x8 has established itself as a leader in videophone technology and, as such, we feel compelled to reach out aggressively to consumers with the message that voice and video communication is here to stay," continued Martin. "Though other companies have talked about marketing videophones, none have taken an active role in promoting the technology to this generation of broadband internet users."
The $99 VideoPhone offer is good while supplies last. In addition to this one-time purchase price, new subscribers will be charged an initial $29.95 activation fee, a $19.95 per month service fee, applicable taxes and a monthly $1.50 regulatory recovery fee, a new fee being introduced on all Packet8 phone numbers effective May 1, 2005.
About 8x8, Inc.
VoIP (voice over internet protocol) service provider 8x8, Inc. offers internet-based telephony solutions (www.packet8.net) for individual residential and business users as well as small to medium sized business organizations. In addition to regular Packet8 VoIP service plans, priced as low as $19.95 per month for unlimited anytime calling to the U.S. and Canada, 8x8 now offers the Packet8 DV 326 VideoPhone, the industry's first stand alone broadband consumer videophone. Packet8 Virtual Office, 8x8's VoIP system for small to medium sized businesses, is a hosted PBX solution comprised of powerful business class features.
I have had a number of questions about when TMC Labs will be taking applications for their annual Internet Telephony Magazine Innovation Award. The deadline is rapidly approaching so please apply now for TMC’s most prestigious award.
