AOL and XM have agreed to jointly create a radio service according to the WSJ who says the new cobranded service, which hasn't been named yet, will replace the current paid service on XM's Web site and will replace AOL's current radio services -- AOL Radio and Netscape Radio.
XM receives a powerful incentive in this deal as it will be able to market to over 20 million AOL users while AOL will be able to add 70 commercial free XM channels to its 130 other channels. AOL will package these stations for their subscribers and will also have a package for non-subscribers.
My take on this is that this is a win-win strategy and we will see Sirius coming back with an announcement with probably Yahoo! Or MSN. Google will also be heavily considering whether such a launch makes sense for them. In my opinion newspaper companies will get into the act soon as well. We talk about the triple play being part voice, video and data. Radio too can be part of the mix. It is all about increasing average revenue per user or ARPU and the more services you have to offer the more revenue you make.
April 2005 Archives
A friend of mine is an excellent PR/marketing freelancer in the Maryland/DC area. He is great at building relationships with the press and has no equal at trade shows where he can lure large crowds. He is also great at strategizing and can manage a team. He has experience in contact centers and technology in general. If you are interested in seeing his resume, please drop me a line at rtehrani@tmcnet.com.
I recently came across the Radicati Market Stats & Industry Commentary and thought it worth sharing. E-mail SECURITY Worldwide email traffic will increase at an average annual rate of 21% over the next four years, totaling about 195 billion messages per day in 2009. DIRECTORY WIRELESS IDENTITY MANAGEMENT OK so let’s sum this up. Spam and phishing will become more and more of a menace, Microsoft will rake in more and more money and hotspot growth will increase nicely. Oh, one last thought -- we will all have more mailboxes to check. Will this trend ever slow I wonder?
This is the draft schedule of events for the ATA (American Teleservices Association) Regulatory event I am speaking at soon. As you can see, I will be speaking with Chris Hodges from Noble Systems, Larry Mark from SER, Jason Pace from Stratasoft, and Paul Stockford of Saddletree Research) on Monday, April 18th, 2005.
I will be addressing the future of the contact center with my esteemed panelists. I have lost of creative ideas on this subject and have promised to get my presentation to the ATA by tomorrow. Trouble is, it is an incredibly beautiful day and I am debating playing hooky today. I mean this is the first weekend we have seen sun in the northeast and it may even hit 70 degrees today. I am sure my readers in
Draft (v.7)
2005
April 17-20, 2005
Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill
Sunday, April 17
12:00 – 6:00pm Registration
12:00 - 5:00 pm Board of Directors Meeting (Lunch: 12:00 – 12:30)
12:00 – 5:00 pm Selected Committee Meetings
5:00 – 6:00 pm VIP Reception (Chapter Pres, BOD, and sponsors)
6:00 – 7:00 pm Welcome Reception (Hyatt Regency)
7:00 pm Board of Directors Dinner (Capital Grille)
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)
9:15 – 10:15 am Regulations and Federal & State Legislation (Joe Sanscrainte & Bill Brierly, and Rich Rosenblatt, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius)
10:15 -10:30 am Break
10:30 –11:30 am Business/Financial Outlook & Climate (Brandon Dobell of Credit Suisse First
11:30 – 12:30 Lunch (separate room)
12:30 – 1:30 pm Tucker Carlson (Keynote)
1:30 – 2:30 pm ATA Positions (ATA/DMA)/ Regulatory: What's Next? (Jim Conway of DMA, Mitch Roth of ATA)
2:30 – 3:00 pm Break
3:00 – 4:00 pm Consumer Affairs Perspective on Teleservices (Dr. Dale Lewison, University of Ohio, Deborah Berlyn, AARP and one other)
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 w/ Congressional Speaker (TBD)
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 or Phil Grudzinski)
6:00 – 7:30 pm Awards Gala on the Hill (SD-G50, Dirksen Bldg) – Sen. Hagel
(Honoree)
Wednesday, April 20 (On the Hill)
8:00 – 9:00 am Continental Breakfast for NFP Committee
9:00 – 9:30 am ATA Lobbying Priorities
9:30 – 10:30 am Congressional Visit Role Play
10:30 – 1:00 pm Congressional Appointments
Compliance Seminar starts at noon
More VoIP URLS. Some interesting ones are www.aol-voip.com and www.at-t-voip.com, both of which have their contact details hidden. I suspect they are registered by the same person or corporation and I assume they aren't an agent of AT&T or AOL. Peter Nguyen from
- 11voip.com
- 32connectvoip.com
- 32connectvoip.net
- 800voip.net
- allovoip.com
- annuaire-voip.com
- annuairevoip.com
- aol-voip.com
- at-t-voip.com
- boldvoip.com
- boldvoip.net
- broadband-phone-service-voip.com
- campusvoip.net
- comcast-voip.com
- computerassociatesvoip.com
- earnmillionswithvoip.com
- envoiprive.com
- forum-voip.net
- free-month-voip-phone.com
- free-month-voip.com
- icenetvoip.com
- icenetvoip.net
- idvoip.net
- indovoip.com
- internationalvoip.net
- lgvoip.com
- localvoip.net
- mobilevoipcalls.com
- mobilevoipsolutions.com
- myvoipmail.net
- myvoipresource.com
- necvoipsupport.com
- onevoip.net
- phone-services-voip.com
- protocolvoip.com
- redevoip.com
- residential-voip.org
- sbc-voip.com
- small-business-voip.com
- small-business-voip.org
- thevoipresource.com
- tollfreevoip.net
- verizon-voip.org
- veteranvoip.com
- voip-advantage.com
- voip-broadband-phone-service.com
- voip-comparison.org
- voip-internet-phone.org
- voip-line.com
- voip-pc-phone.com
- voip-price.org
- voip-prices.com
- voip-provider-comparison.com
- voip-vendor.org
- voipandinternetphones.com
- voipbroker.com
- voipbythehour.com
- voipcalltracking.com
- voipcoders.com
- voipconsultant.net
- voipcy.com
- voipetcplus.com
- voipfreelancers.com
- voipgoglobal.com
- voipinternational.net
- voipld.net
- voiplocal.net
- voipology.net
- voiporig.com
- voiporig.net
- voiporigination.com
- voiporigination.net
- voipphoneservices.com
- voippost.com
- voiprally.com
- voiprebuild.com
- voipresellers.biz
- voipresellers.info
- voipresellers.org
- voipseek.com
- voipshieldsystems.com
- voipshieldsystems.net
- voipshieldsystems.org
- voiptollfree.net
- voipvoyage.com
- voipwholesale.net
- voyagevoip.com
- wesellvoip.net
- wirelessvoipproducts.com
- world-voip.net
- amerivoip.com
- kt-voip.com
- realcheapvoip.com
- reallycheapvoip.com
- voipcomponent.com
- voipcore.com
- voipetc.com
- voipforisp.com
- voipforisp.net
- voipforisps.com
- voipforisps.net
- voipint.net
- voippump.com
- voiptonic.com
- voipwizerd.com
- voipwizerd.net
- zjvoip.com
I just started using Answers.com and am pretty happy with it so far. It works with Wikipedia and other sources to find the answers that you need and if a term such as "VoIP Peering," isn't in it's database, it does a search for you and you can click on the various results to get the answer you are looking for.
The interface is seamless. In your web browser you just hold the Alt key and click on a word for a definition to come up. In communications where new acronyms are coined by the hour, this is a great resource. I almost forgot to mention -- when you click on a term, your results return in a new browser window.
The program can also install on a desktop, there is also a toolbar that stays at the bottom of your screen. I didn’t find these options useful as I can just save www.answers.com in my favorite's folder if I need access to its services.
The company generates revenue via Google ads.
In other dictionary news, my VoIP dictionary is now in it's second edition and now has over 10,000 terms. If you are looking for a desktop reference, you won't want to pass up on the opportunity to order it at www.voipdictionary.com.
TMC also has an exclusive agreement with www.techtionary.com. This site gives tutorials on many of today's most important technologies. These are real video/flash based tutorials that can give you volumes of information in a few minutes. If you are interested in sponsoring terms on this dictionary or licensing this dictionary for use as an internal or external resource, please contact Dave Rodriguez at drodriguez@tmcnet.com.
Two more domain names were approved by what may be one of the most powerful organizations in the technology sector -ICANN. The human resources community (I suppose Monster must be ecstatic) will now have a .jobs suffix while .travel will do the same for the travel industry. I am not sure why either of these is needed but I am probably not putting on my thinking cap. The way the Net grows it could be a matter of months before all the cool .jobs and .travel names are gone.
Negotiations continue on two other names already given preliminary approval: ".post" for postal services and ".mobi" targeting mobile services. More
According to the Associated Press:
A potential obstacle has been removed in Verizon's bid to acquire MCI.
Verizon has announced that it's paying $1.1 billion to acquire a 13.4 percent stake in MCI directly from the company's largest single stockholder.
Verizon and Qwest Communications have been battling for two months to win MCI -- along with its national fiber-optic network and lucrative roster of government and corporate clients.
Although Qwest's offers have been higher than Verizon's, MCI's board has rejected them out of concern about Qwest's weak financial condition.
The price Verizon is paying for MCI shares is still about 7 percent below Qwest's latest offer.
In this New York Times article, something we have written about in Customer Interaction Solutions has finally happened. Customer records were acquired by some call center workers and this information was used to withdraw money from the accounts of unsuspecting customers. In this case the company in question is CitiBank who outsourced their work to
Excerpts from the article:
Reacting to the news, a cyber law expert said the monitoring system in Indian companies needed to improve.
"This crime is a wake-up call," said Pavan Duggal, an advocate in
He said not all companies fully comply with the Indian Information Technology Act, which requires companies to introduce strict procedures for data protection.
The challenge companies have when outsourcing is how to assure the laws in other countries are on par with the
There is nothing really new in this article but it is a good overview of some of the reasons why Google may enter the VoIP space. Here is an excerpt:
The big G may be planning more than just providing email and Web searches. At first glance, it may seem odd that Google would venture into this type of business, but a closer look reveals that there is a huge market to exploit. Services based on VoIP have seen rapid growth in the past year, thanks in part to rates that are typically below what traditional phone services charge.
Of the 113 million or so traditional landlines that still use the old circuit-switched technology, about 115,000
What's in it for Google? Look at it this way.
VoIP services require little infrastructure to build and maintain, since the services run over the Internet. Low-cost, flat-rate plans are ideal revenue streams for providers minus the regulations and taxes currently charged with traditional phone service. Features such as voice mail sent as email attachments would give Google another option when promoting its Gmail service. Plus the Web-based accounts where users can track calls, change service options, or add calling features would be another advertising billboard.
Even though Google won't be the first to join the talk-over-the-Internet club, it has the muscle to compete. As with many services, price sells the service. If the big G can combine the right ingredients with a price structure below the competition, Googlians will have yet another reason to smile. That said, this might well be a reason for the company to consider its entry carefully, since vast productive capacity and low barriers to entry will invariably lead to some degree of price competition.
Jeremy Jaynes allegedly sent 10 million of spam messages a day (prosecutors presented evidence of just 53,000 illegal e-mails) and is only getting nine years in jail. Worse yet, this article infers that there is a chance the decision will be overturned on appeal! Solution to the spam problem? Simple. Let's emulate the
According to the TIA, the Comparison Between Cable and DSL Broadband Access Faster speeds are driving demand for cable modem and digital subscriber line (DSL) providers. With telephone companies becoming more aggressive in rolling out bundled DSL services and cable operators losing subscribers to direct broadcast satellite, the gap between cable and DSL narrowed in 2004 and will continue to decrease through 2008. In 2005, for example, DSL is expected to experience a greater percent growth (19.8 percent) than cable modems (17.1 percent). Despite DSL gains to 12.6 million subscribers, however, cable modems remained the dominant broadband technology in 2004, with 17 million subscribers.
According to the survey, in 2004, the number of high-speed subscribers in the United States grew by 35.4 percent to reach 32.5 million subscribers, consisting of the following access technologies: cable modem (17.0 million), DSL (12.6 million), fixed wireless (2.2 million), fiber-to-the-home (0.2 million), satellite (0.4 million), mobile wireless (3G) (0.1 million) and broadband over power line (less than 50,000).
Broadband Market To Reach 56.9 Million Subscribers By 2008
Even with fewer subscribers, DSL leads in service revenue and will grow at a 14.3 percent compound annual rate to $13.6 billion in 2008 from $8 billion in 2004. This growth will be fueled by a 14.6 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in DSL subscribership, from 12.6 million in 2004 to 21.7 million in 2008. Cable modem service revenue, on the other hand, will expand at a 6.1 percent CAGR from $8.6 billion in 2004 to $10.9 billion in 2008.
Some thoughts after reading this report. Cable companies will always have free ads on their networks so how will DSL compete with free ads? Will WiMAX or BPL or broadband over power lines make a more noticeable dent in such surveys in the future? BTW, who is using BPL? If you are, please respond to this entry as I would like to write about your experiences.
Has anyone noticed that this company is charging a fortune? It is outrageous. I am paying about $80-$100 a day for a mid-size car with NeverLost. This is in every state from
Amazingly, if you look at the receipt, there are all sorts of taxes and miscellaneous fees that are unintelligible. I feeling like I am reading a cell phone bill.
I am considering getting a portable GPS unit with an MP3 player built-in. I probably won't do it as it is yet another device to carry. On the other hand, NeverLost is costing about $10-$12 a day depending on fees and taxes so 30 days of rental will be the break even to purchase such a device.
I am on the list to get a demo unit of this GPS device which could be a NeverLost killer. Assuming they send it, I will review it and let you know how it goes.
I think this past week's podcast went really well. Much thanks to Al Bredenberg, TMCnet Editorial Director and Michelle Pasquerello, Channels Editor for making this so much fun to produce. Our first podcast focused on The National Show sponsored by NCTA, where I moderated a session. We also discussed the VoIP initiatives from AOL and MSN. We rounded out the "cast," with new fax regulations that can result in a fine of $11,000 per infraction, Canadian VoIP research and my recent trip visiting communications companies in
OK, you want to know a secret? I have never really listened to a podcast. I am perhaps not young enough or cool enough and I don't (sit down before you read this) even have an iPod. Please don't tell Steve Jobs. I don't want to annoy him. So if you are like me; too young to retire but too un-hip to have an iPod or just to know how a podcast works, then do what I do and just click here to listen to the podcast on your computer. It is just a standard MP3 file anyway.
For those of you who have asked: What is a podcast? A podcast is an audio broadcast distributed electronically. It can be automatically downloaded to an MP3 player and the term implies an iPod download. A modified RSS Reader is needed to download podcasts automatically and you must subscribe to podcasts of interest.
Here are some recent VoIP URLs that are interesting. The following service provider is buying up domains such as brazilvoipcalling.com, australiavoipcalling.com, argentinavoipcalling.com, etc.
Primus Telecommunications
25 Bridge St.
Red Bank, New Jersey
United States
I didn’t think it possible but the pace of URLs being registered with the word VoIP in them is still accelerating.
4kidsvoip.com
all-voip.info
argentinavoipcall.com
argentinavoipcalling.com
australiavoipcall.com
australiavoipcalling.com
bestratedvoip.com
bestratedvoipservice.com
brazilvoipcall.com
brazilvoipcalling.com
canadavoipcall.com
canadavoipcalling.com
chilevoipcall.com
chilevoipcalling.com
chinavoipcall.com
chinavoipcalling.com
colombiavoipcall.com
colombiavoipcalling.com
comparevoipphone.com
comparevoipphones.com
comparevoipservice.com
comparevoipservices.com
costaricavoipcall.com
costaricavoipcalling.com
cybercomvoip.com
dalevoip.com
egyptvoipcall.com
egyptvoipcalling.com
elsalvadorvoipcall.com
elsalvadorvoipcalling.com
eyeonvoip.com
francevoipcall.com
francevoipcalling.com
germanyvoipcall.com
germanyvoipcalling.com
globalvoipcommunications.com
globalvoipcommunications.info
globalvoipcommunications.net
globalvoipcommunications.org
guatemalavoipcall.com
guatemalavoipcalling.com
hawaiianvoip.com
hawaiianvoip.net
hongkongvoipcall.com
hongkongvoipcalling.com
horizonvoip.com
i2voip.com
indiavoipcall.com
indiavoipcalling.com
internationalvoipcall.com
internationalvoipcalling.com
iraqvoipcall.com
iraqvoipcalling.com
israelvoipcall.com
israelvoipcalling.com
italyvoipcall.com
italyvoipcalling.com
japanvoipcall.com
japanvoipcalling.com
lebanonvoipcall.com
lebanonvoipcalling.com
linkvoip.net
mexicovoipcall.com
mexicovoipcalling.com
myvoipitz.com
netzerovoip.net
netzerovoip.org
philippinesvoipcall.com
philippinesvoipcalling.com
