May 2006 Archives

VoIP Institute

May 31, 2006 9:46 PM | 0 Comments
Peggy Gritt who worked for Interactive Intelligence and has spoken at a number of TMC events has gone off and founded VoIP Institute.

Here are some details from the new website which will be updated with new information frequently:

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The VoIP Institute is the first independent organization (not vendor-run) dedicated solely to the user experience. The purpose of the institute is to bring users together for sharing experiences, learning from each other, and advancing best practices.
 
Join the Voice over IP Institute to...
 
Meet - meet online and in person at local peer group meetings with other companies who are interested in or deploying voice over IP technology.
 
Advance - work with other users to develop best practices for implementation planning, system management, remote office deployments, and much more.
 
Learn - learn everything from the basics to advanced topics - from the technical to the business side of VoIP and SIP standards.
 
If you could easily find other users of voice over IP and SIP and learn how they are deploying it, applying it to their business, and managing their migrations - wouldn’t you jump at the chance to hear their best practices?
 
If you are struggling with advanced topics such as SIP standards for your IP-PBX and contact center don't you want to know if other users have saved money and how?
 
Whether you are looking at the technical aspects of specific devices or want to know how a business case is built - the VoIP Institute serves users and potential users, business and technical interests. Our regional peer groups serve as user groups for the SIP user and general VoIP user community.

NexTone

May 31, 2006 8:52 PM | 0 Comments
I have recently met with the NexTone team and am impressed with many of the initiatives they are undertaking from their university to their extensive and ever-growing interoperability lab. In addition to these positive moves the company has recently appointed Larry Schessel – an ex-Cisco IP communications veteran to the helm of CTO office of CTO under Sridhar Ramachandran who remains CTO.

A bit on Larry… Prior to joining NexTone, he served as Senior Manager at Cisco Systems for both the Service Provider and Enterprise IP Communications Business Units, where he defined SIP and H.323 product roadmaps. Previously, he served in strategic and technical management roles at Siemens. In addition he was awarded several patents for his work in next generation call processing systems.

It is good to see so much positive news coming out of the SBC market and it is worth mentioning that NexTone’s products do so much more than session management. They are doing some remarkable work in peering and even have some call centers using their products.

Om on Vonage

May 31, 2006 8:42 PM | 0 Comments
Om predicts bad things for Vonage – His readers agree. Does this make Vonage a good buying opportunity? After all, the company has so many seasoned Wall Street veterans in its ranks. Do they know something we don’t? Time will tell.

Vonage Shares

May 31, 2006 7:19 AM | 0 Comments
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Vonage will repurchase shares from underwriters if some of their customers refuse to pay. This is very unusual and speaks volumes about how the NJ based broadband phone company is trying to do what is right by their customers. Of course in the end customers that decide to hold the stock are only going to be happy if the share price increases.

Quoted in National Post

May 30, 2006 10:20 AM | 2 Comments
I was recently quoted in this article along with Jon Arnold:

Rich Tehrani, president with Technology Marketing Corporation, said Vonage remains an interesting takeover play for a foreign company that wants to establish a foothold in the United States. "It could be anybody but names such as BT and Deutsche Telekom, and maybe even France Telecom come to my mind as potential buyers."

I would say this article is overly negative but it is still good to put all the cards on the table – good or bad.

Latest News May 30th, 2006

May 30, 2006 8:58 AM | 0 Comments
I am on the road again this morning so since I wont have time to blog I thought I would give you lots of fun stuff to read in my absence.
 
For example here is a story about who is behind the Internet that has some pretty interesting points. Om has a story about Internet 2 worth reading. And it gets me thinking why if Internet 2 is so fast and was promised to be the future, why the talk of net neutrality an d having to get a second tier of internet service? Why can’t we all just have Internet 2?
 
Andy talks about shadow numbers, Aswath discusses Skype competing with iTunes. Brian McConnell talks about the rumored Apple iPhone and has good points about how difficult it is to cram all those electronics into ever shrinking devices. Corante has some thoughts on Skype users versus downloaders. Finally, Jeff talks about voice as an application.
 
Oh but before I go, here are some interesting TMCnet headlines worth passing along.
 
Have a great day!

• Synchronoss Turns SunRocket onto ActivationNow
• Residential and SOHO Markets to Gain Advanced Capabilities with Freesc…
• Nortel on Campus in Japan" href="http://ipcommunications.tmcnet.com/hot-topics/mcp/articles/1348-nortel-campus-japan.htm">Nortel on Campus in Japan
• Microsoft, Alcatel's Joint CRM, Contact Center Offering in UAE
• SAP Opens New Global Service Center in Brazil" href="http://news.tmcnet.com/news/-sap-customer-contact-service-center-human-resources-/2006/05/30/1662104.htm">SAP Opens New Global Service Center in Brazil
• FGI Buys CRM Integrator Plaut
• ECI Chosen for BT's $75 Million Broadband Project
• CRM Facilitator Seagull Announces Results
• MobiVoIP: VoIP For Your Palm
• Webcom Announces CRM-Integrated WebSource 5.1

Net Neutrality Politics

May 27, 2006 10:15 PM | 0 Comments

It is worth reading James Seng on net neutrality politics. It is also worth mentioning that the organization that has the best lobbying and the best lobbyists and the most money generally wins the debate – in our government that is. Think about why we haven’t outlawed the sale of tobacco products in this country. Think about why the government doesn’t force car makers to increase fuel economy standards as strictly as they used to. I could go on but James hints at this and points to a Chicago Sun Times article which contains more info.

Can You Sue Me Now

May 27, 2006 4:37 AM | 1 Comment
Apparently claiming you have the least dropped calls can get you the most legal papers from the lawyers of the competition. Sprint is suing (subscription required) Cingular over their new ad campaign regarding dropped calls.

This reminds me that the last time I was on the train from Connecticut to Manhattan my phone disconnected 3 or more times. I was using Verizon Wireless by the way. Someone sitting across from me was able to speak the entire way and he was using Cingular.

Perhaps the Cingular network is now better than Verizon. I would love to hear your feedback.

Federal Excise Tax Ended

May 26, 2006 8:28 PM | 2 Comments
I am a bit late on the news here but am glad the federal excise tax is finally being ended. There has to be a better way to tax us than to micro tax everything different percentages. Hopefully ending this tax will start a chain reaction of ridiculous taxes being ended.

For example the gas guzzler tax is not one that makes sense. The tax is buying the gas and that is bad enough. Let's end that one too.

It seems odd that some things get taxed and others don't. We need a fair system that taxes everything equally so the government doesn't favor one industry over another.
 
Update:

Perhaps the one tax I would keep is on tobacco products as the goal should be to keep people healthier. I would likely institute a big tax on gambling as well (sorry Vegas, Mohegan Sun, etc).

It should be noted that there are probably 10+ better ways to reduce fuel consumption than the gas guzzler tax.

Verizon's Nancy Gofus

May 26, 2006 7:00 PM | 0 Comments
Here is a recent Executive Suite interview with Verizon's Nancy Gofus who is the Vice President of Product Management for Verizon Business. Generally these interviews don't break news but in this case it did. I hope you like it.

VoIP News This Week May 2006

May 26, 2006 6:35 PM | 0 Comments

There was a moderate amount of VoIP activity this week. AltiGen, Avaya (News - Alert), Verso, Yahoo! and Bell Canada are some of the notable companies.

Some specifics:

Avaya announced on Wednesday that it was selected to participate with nine other companies in a $4 billion U.S. Army project to upgrade voice and data communications infrastructures of the agency's bases worldwide. The Infrastructure Modernization (IMOD) contract will support the Army's Installation Information Infrastructure Modernization Program (I3MP) with a single integrated communications system that will combine voice, data, inside/outside cable plant and transmission products and services.

iBasis announced on Wednesday that it was tapped by Yahoo! to provide international call termination for the Yahoo! Messenger with Voice service. The move will enable Yahoo! to offer Yahoo! Messenger with Voice users with the ability to place and receive international PC-to-Phone calls over iBasis' global VoIP network at lower rates.

In addition, Bell Canada, Nortel (News - Alert) and NewHeights Software introduced this week the Bell Canada Personal Communication Manager (PCM) system, a PC-based soft-client combo of voice, messaging and multimedia communications integrated into a single interface that can be used in the office or while working remotely.

It seems the industry was pretty busy all week.

By the way, I hope your holiday weekend is fantastic (hether or not you get Monday off). I hope you have a great weekend with lots of fun and relaxation. I am on a train and can't wait to get home and see the family.

Enron

May 26, 2006 7:11 AM | 0 Comments
I hope yesterday' verdict sends a powerful signal to those in a position of power in corporate America and elsewhere. We will no longer tolerate massive theft of shareholder value and the bilking of hundreds of millions from your employees.

Sunset Pics

May 25, 2006 11:02 PM | 1 Comment
Here are some sunset pictures I took today. I hope you like them. I used the autocorrect and am not sure if I improved them or not.


Amtrak Back

May 25, 2006 12:37 PM | 0 Comments
For what it's worth my train is now running and was delayed by about 2.5 hours (so they say). It seems that they made an announcement about the problem but since my car apparently doesn’t have broadcast capability we didn’t hear it. Our announcements are now being made in person.
 
My train is also the "default" train so lots of people from other trains have joined us. It isn't too noisy. Everyone seems very happy to be moving.

Andy on Vonage

May 25, 2006 11:53 AM | 0 Comments
Here are Andy's thoughts on Vonage and the IPO. He is not a believer in Vonage in the long term. I am.

He thinks Jeff Pulver could have steered the company in a better direction but since he was pushed out of Vonage he wasn't able to offer guidance. My question on this is what was wrong with Jeff Citron's guidance? He has done better in Wall Street than most people in VoIP. Right? Perhaps Andy thinks Citron doesn't know enough about telecom?

Still, I would rather see Jeff Pulver running a VoIP company than in the event business (one less competitorwink ) so I support Andy's vision of Jeff spending time consulting with Vonage and perhaps others.

Andy also infers Jeff Pulver would have made the company focus on other things besides VoIP -- perhaps new services.

It may be worth mentioning that the industry has been talking about services since Harry Newton's time -- that was back before the term or concept of IP telephony existed. Virtually all issues of Computer Telephony (Harry's magazine) talked about this from 1991-1995.

Prior to that there were the occasional mentions in Harry's Teleconnect

The net/net is that Vonage could have implemented new services if they chose to at any time. These could have differentiated them.

It is not clear that new services would have made Vonage a better company though.

In my opinion they just had an IPO too early. The IPO should have taken place in 2008.

Vonage could be an amazing investment in the long term. Remember most of their customers are fiercely loyal. When they have 5 million dollars and their marketing costs decrease how could you bet against them?

They are also a perfect acquisition target.

For the investor with a strong stomach and staying power this is a good one.

It will likely be volatile so I would buy it on the dips and potentially sell it on the spikes for a while until they start to come out with consistently good news.

I expected many to bash Vonage after the IPO and I am not surprised because they aren't a company that is poised for an IPO. They have said repeatedly that market share is more important than profit. That is a recipe for a bad IPO.

This company in the short term should not set the tone for an entire industry.

They have the brand and reputation that comes with outmarketing virtually all other companies.

That has to be worth something in the long run.

The question is what is it worth and when will the profits start?

In conclusion, Andy may be right but for the wrong reason. I think the company's market position is excellent. But perhaps the Vonage killer will be Skype or Google and not the phone companies or MSOs.

One thing is for certain -- this won't be a smooth ride. I will be checking Andy's blogs for further commentary.
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