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VoIP Peering Keynote -- Reflections
One has to think of Metcalfe’s Law when discussing VoIP peering. Metcalfe’s Law states that the value of a network increases exponentially with the number of users that are added to the network. So n2 would represent the value of the network. Since you can’t connect to yourself the value becomes (n-1)2.
What does this mean to you? The longer you wait to join a peering network, the more value the network has to you. There has been dissent in cyberspace as some academicians have theorized that the value is not as great as Metcalfe predicted.
While I think it best to steer clear of such detailed discussions here, VoIP peering may be the perfect application for this law as the value of peering becomes infinitely greater than the alternative which is paying for minutes.
In fact, service providers, the government and enterprises are beginning to see the benefits of peering. The more networks that peer with one another, the greater the benefits to all those entities on the network.
Indeed, I think of VoIP peering as the ideal application of Metcalfe’s law in action. There is economic incentive to join a VoIP peering network and your savings grows exponentially as more users are interconnected.
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VoIP Peering Keynote Tomorrow!
I am giving a keynote at the Voice Peering Fabric or VPF tomorrow at 10:00 am. I am so excited as I will be educating hundreds on the future of VoIP peering and how it factors into the overall communications landscape. These are indeed exciting times. I hope to see you there.
I am getting up extra early as the last time I went down to the Wall Street area I got lost. You ever ask for directions in
The more I talk to others about peering the more excited I get. The interest in events like the one I am going has grown nicely and I can’t wait to see everyone. There will certainly be some excellent networking and gathering with colleagues.
You know what they say – another week another show.
The two industry heavyweights in VoIP peering are Shrihari Pandit and Hunter Newby. I am glad to be speaking at the same conference with them as they are great company to keep if you want to learn about how to peer VoIP, save money and improve call quality.
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Windows Live
The smartest thing Microsoft can do to combat Google is to come up with ways to quickly get as much Office application performance into a suite of web-based services users will love. Google has just hinted at encroaching on Microsoft’s application space and the media and financial analysts have turned on Microsoft saying they will potentially be the victim of the Google juggernaut.
The last time the industry went through this sort of change, the analysts and reporters were saying Microsoft was going to get steamrolled by the Internet. They didn’t because they reacted quickly and retooled the company. The same thing seems to be happening now as Microsoft has reacted quickly to the Google threat by launching Windows Live which is currently in Beta.
The service in its current incarnation reminds me a bit of the Google Sidebar application in that it is a flexible way to view lots of information. In this case the application lives in a web browser and is not a separate program.
I have used it for about 15 minutes and like the service as it is very flexible and allows you to build a customized page from scratch. You can select news types, stock quotes and anything else you can think of to add to your personal portal. The user interface is slick and uses AJAX for near desktop-like performance. Eventually all Microsoft software will be available as a service according to Gates. It seems the business model for these services will be a combination of advertising support and subscription fees.
They say the best defense is a good offense and this hosted portal is a great idea.
My two cents are that that the hoopla surrounding this announcement has been muted. Microsoft for all the advances and innovations it has given us has trouble exciting the markets the way it once did. In fact this announcement today is more of a reaction than a vision.
All of these things should have been done in 2000 – just after the ASP market was born. If you want to innovate you have to be first. Google still is small enough to announce things that will scare Microsoft into counter-announcing. The question is will FUD (fear uncertainty and doubt) keep people from using new Google services or will people experiment with Google apps because they are free? In the free world I think FUD doesn’t hold much water so Microsoft will have to deliver quickly on it’s vision to get people to adopt its new strategy of using live software.
Don’t ever count Microsoft out. They have tremendous critical mass in the information technology space and dislodging them from the top of the software heap is easier said than done. Even if Google doesn’t become a leader in desktop applications and services, its ability to get Microsoft to innovate rapidly is something no other company (including Microsoft) has been able to do for a number of years. For this alone we need to all thank Google.
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Song Airlines Gone
Say goodbye to Song Airlines. The airline hasn’t made money and the planes are being absorbed by Delta. This is a sad day for travelers everywhere as the planes were first-rate, the service was amazing and the experience of flying on song had to be at least 3 times better than flying on Delta.
Without going on a limb I would say my worst Song flight was much much better than my best Delta flight. To all the flight attendants and others who worked at Song and made flying a pleasure, you will be missed.
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Tom Ridge & Ron Insana at ITEXPO in Florida
After the tremendous success of ITEXPO this past week, TMC is on a roll and VoIP 2.0 has definitely started to arrive. Of course I don’t think we are 100% there yet but we are at the start. I am just beginning to see the applications that will make companies jump to deploy VoIP not because of cost-savings but because the applications are so compelling.
Yesterday I wrote about Citrix and their new technology that will enable the next generation of VoIP 2.0 applications to be enabled. Of course Citrix is just one company striving to help the world get to VoIP 2.0 – there are countless others.
The industry’s leap from 1.0 to 2.0 is essential as we need to ensure that everyone understands that the power VoIP extends way beyond saving a buck on long-distance. It is the power of the next-generation applications that will enable us to really take this industry to the next level.
The next place where you can see VoIP 2.0 live will be in
I have been thinking about general themes our industry should be focusing on and two come to mind. The first is security as I believe that most installations of VoIP do not adequately take security considerations into account.
It is crucial that we as an industry begin to realize how important this issue is. For this reason I am happy to announce that Tom Ridge the first Secretary of Homeland Security will be giving a keynote speech.
I also believe the financial aspects of VoIP need to be better understood by all and to that end I am proud to announce that Ron Insana from CNBC will be making a presentation as well.
I figured these speakers – one a security expert and another a financial expert are the perfect people to address our audience.
If there is one thing I learned when listening to Carly Fiorina speak at the last ITEXPO it is that VoIP is now really mainstream. Carly spoke about VoIP not as an outsider but as someone who seemed to live the industry’s challenges on a daily basis. This is probably why I heard so many good things about her speech from show attendees after she spoke.
The technology, ability to change markets and struggles of VoIP are understood more widely than you might imagine and the different points of view people like Insana and Ridge will bring to ITEXPO will be amazing in my estimation.
I hope to see you all in
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Break Dancing Yoda
The buzz at TMC this morning is about Tom Keating’s blog and his post about Yoda break dancing. I could always tell Yoda had rhythm I just didn’t know he was into hip hop. Come to think of it I think I noticed a very small FUBU logo on his cane in Episode II.
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Earthlink on VoIP
I just saw Earthlink’s statement about applauding the FCC’s decision to require SBC/Verizon to offer stand-alone or naked DSL service. The statement is entitled “Victory For VoIP.” The full statement is as follows: "We applaud today's Federal Communications Commission decision that requires SBC and Verizon to offer Stand-Alone DSL as a condition for their separate merger approvals. As a result of this decision, more than 80 million consumers will now be able to take advantage of emerging Internet voice and data applications without also having to buy legacy wire-line local telephone service from their phone company. "Today's FCC decision in favor of mandatory 'net neutrality' provisions helps guarantee the rights of all consumers to access the Internet content and applications they choose.
"EarthLink strongly believes that the promise of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and other IP-enabled services is vast. By requiring consumer safeguards, the FCC is fostering more Internet competition and innovation, which will directly benefit our economy and homeland security."
After my article yesterday on SBC, I wonder if I am being too cynical. SBC CEO Ed Whitacre wouldn’t make a statement like:
How do you think they're going to get to customers? Through a broadband pipe. Cable companies have them. We have them. Now what they would like to do is use my pipes free, but I isn't going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it. So there's going to have to be some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they're using. Why should they be allowed to use my pipes?
The Internet can't be free in that sense, because we and the cable companies have made an investment and for a Google or Yahoo! or Vonage or anybody to expect to use these pipes [for] free is nuts!
If he didn’t have a plan to stop others from using his pipes for free… Would he make this statement? Why would he say this unless there is something planned to differentiate SBC services from others?
Mr. Whitacre is a seasoned executive and from what I understand, very intelligent. I just wonder how comments like this could be kept in a vacuum with no action behind them.
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