July 2006

You are browsing the archive for July 2006.

Quoted Recently in Mass High Tech Journal

July 31, 2006

Here is a recent article on the Universal Service Find with a quote from Yours truly. The quote is on page 2 and it is below in bold:

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"Our (and that of companies like Granite State) sustainability depends on the USF," said Stafford. "It has allowed us to put in a lot of infrastructure and continue to grow."

But, Stafford admits, determining the contribution system in light of new technologies is a challenge for the FCC. Currently, companies pay in based on a percentage of their long-distance revenue, with the current rate about 10.7 percent.

Posted in VoIP

Tagged: usf, voip : Related Tags:

Andy on Skype

July 31, 2006

Andy has interesting thoughts on Skype. Good analysis here. Perhaps Andy gets wisest as his birthday approaches??

Posted in VoIP

Tagged: skype, voip : Related Tags:

Indian Call Center Video

July 31, 2006

Here is a very funny 12 minute video (rated PG) about Indian Call Centers. Click here.

Posted in Call Center

Comments

Zultys Up and Running!

July 31, 2006

I just heard from Iain Milnes that Zultys is up and running. To quote Iain, “We are back up and running with a new lease of life and all of our sales offices globally are working normally and at full speed.” I will be checking with Iain later today and will report any interesting developments.

Posted in VoIP

Tagged: voip, zultys : Related Tags: running

Death By Chocolate

July 31, 2006

It is far better to have a music player that also acts as a phone. It is that simple. But most people wither disagree or they don’t want a clunky music playing phone – they prefer a sleep iPod Mini. Well now that Verizon Wireless has decided to carry the LG Chocolate phone – a sleekly designed model resembling a music player more than a phone, the world may be about to change. Couple this with more consumer friendly pricing and you have a recipe for some serious iPod killing chocolate.

I have heard great things about these Chocolate phones by the way.

Posted in Consumer Electronics

Tagged: chocolate, ipod, mp3, verizon wireless : Related Tags: music player, verizon wireless, phone, chocolate, music

Zultys Update

July 28, 2006

Program error!

Posted in VoIP

E-Mail as Career

July 28, 2006

I studied engineering in college and now run a trade show and publishing company -- TMC -- one of the fastest growing media companies in the world actually. So why do I feel like my job has nothing to do with media and everything to do with e-mail. Is e-mail reading my full time career now? Daily I feel like this is more and more likely to be the case. How about you?

Posted in Technology

AT&T CallVantage Lowers Price

July 28, 2006

I believe the AT&T name is worth a great deal and customers will pay a premium for the guarantee of AT&T quality. This is one of the strongest brands in corporate America. Although AT&T is marketing aggressively, their ads are so horizontal and image based that I am not sure what any of them stand for. Instead, AT&T should be promoting CallVantage aggressively and adding features and holding the line on prices.

Posted in VoIP

Tagged: at&t, callvantage, voip : Related Tags: corporate america, callvantage, brand, price

Comments

Skype Toolbars

July 27, 2006

Today Skype announced toolbars for applications like MS office and others. In my humble opinion this is one of the biggest announcements in IP communications as it integrates the largest VoIP community with a plethora of applications that hundreds of millions of people use each day.

As I have said before the ubiquity of IP intersecting with IP communications will allow us to do more and more. What makes me wonder is why this announcement wasn't made first by Vonage.

Vonage needs to be ahead of these guys and if they don't have teams of people trying to out-innovate Skype they are in trouble.

By the way toolbars are not new and VoIP toolbars are not new. Vonexus and Broadsoft are a few of the companies who have integrated toolbars and telecom.

Posted in VoIP

Tagged: broadsoft, skype, voip, vonexus : Related Tags: toolbars, skype, microsoft, company

Comments

Amtrak Acela Power Problems

July 27, 2006

The power on Amtrak Acela trains has been out for weeks meaning you need to charge all your electronics and have spare batteries if you plan on a long trip. They hope to have it fixed in a week and I feel they should be forced to refund half of every fare until they get the problem resolved.

Posted in Personal

Kazaa Pays $100 Million

July 27, 2006

Kazaa will be paying record companies $100 million dollars in damages. "Kazaa was an international engine of copyright theft which damaged the whole music sector and hampered our industry's efforts to grow a legitimate digital business," said John Kennedy, head of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), in a statement.

As those of us in the communications space know, Kazaa was developed by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the creators of Skype. These guys have to be some of the most press worthy people around -- everything they do seems to turn to gold -- and generate tons of free press.

They have recently set out to revolutionize the world of video distribution as well and one wonders what sort of empire they will build this time around.

Posted in Video, VoIP

Tagged: kazaa, skype, voip : Related Tags: thomas rasset, jammie thomas, record companies, intellectual property, kazaa, million

Comments

Q-6000

July 26, 2006

Take a look at this monster platform from Alliance Systems, the Q-6000 has quad dual core processors in a fault resilient chassis.

The system leverages the highest performing Intel E8500 chipset that supports four-way, EM64T 64-bit operation and dual-core Intel Xeon processors with a 667 MHz front side bus, hyper-threading technology, and 64 GB dual-channel DDR2 memory. Several new memory features are quite interesting such as 4-way interleaved, hot-add, memory mirroring, and memory RAID.

Using PCI-Express, the system drives throughput to the storage subsystem at a substantially higher rate than previously recognized with PCI technology. This performance is realized primarily during data transfers in storage intensive applications. Storage capabilities include up to ten Ultra320 SCSI drives using the dual-channel SCSI controller.

Posted in IMS, VoIP

Tagged: alliance, alliance systems, systems : Related Tags: memory, storage

SugarForge

July 26, 2006

SugarForge – take a look at how the CRM market is opening up its APIs. See Also: VoIP Applications Advance

Posted in CRM

VoIP Applications Advance

July 26, 2006

The next generation of IP communications applications and devices will be better than what we have seen to date. Integration is something we will see more and more of as IP allows voice, once and for all, to be integrated into the fabric of communications as well as the infrastructure of organizations, operating systems, and myriad computing environments.

It is the ubiquity of IP that makes it possible for VoIP to integrate so well with its “peers,” instant messaging and video.

In two weeks, the world’s IP communications developers will converge in Santa Clara California for the annual VoIP Developer conference, known to many as VoIP Devcon.

This particular event is exciting for the industry, as numerous key companies will be making major developer announcements and holding developer events in conjunction with the show. Avaya, for example, will hold its Developer Day on Monday, August 7th, and Ubiquity will host a solution day focusing on topics such as SOA, media server applications, and business opportunities for developers.

AOL also will have a slew of developer sessions regarding AIM Phoneline that will be worth attending - but I am under NDA, so I can’t tell you more… You will have to come to the show to learn the details.

SIP Foundry, too, will have a conference track at this show, with a total of five sessions focusing on topics from SIP user agents to SIP security and more.

Other notable event participants include AudioCodes, Cantata, Aculab, Data Connection, LignUp, Eicon, Trinity Convergence, Texas Instruments, Sangoma, Intel, and Digium. In addition, there will be networking events sponsored by Global IP Sound and Avaya.

Posted in VoIP

Tagged: voip : Related Tags: developer programs, programs companies, focusing topics, developer, companies, programs

Zultys Out of Business

July 26, 2006

Zultys Out of Business
I just read that e-mails from Zultys are being returned saying the company is out of business. I hear there was a problem with the financing. Investors decided not to back the company further. I imagine it is too soon for the poor Avaya quarter to have had an impact on Zultys funding but who knows.

Posted in VoIP

Tagged: zultys : Related Tags: ultys business, company, ultys, business

Quintumâs Survivable Tenor

July 26, 2006

Expect a new Quintum Tenor VoIP product that is fault resilient. The product ensures operability even if an IP network, or the IP PBX that controls IP phones, goes down. The phones in remote locations register with Quintum's Tenor, allowing calls to still be made over the PSTN, thus facilitating the notion of survivability.

Posted in VoIP

Tagged: quintum : Related Tags: tenor

23 Rules To Becoming An Excellent Public Speaker

July 25, 2006

I recently received this e-mail regarding my 23 rules of public speaking. I went back and reread it and it seems a bit strong but certainly I still believe all of the points I made.

What are your thoughts?

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To: Rich Tehrani
Subject: The 23 Rules To Becoming An Excellent Public Speaker

Back in 2004 you wrote this article. It is as topical today as it was then.
I follow your words, faithfully.

As chapter president for a national organization I often send people to your article on the web site and make sure they have read it, before I will entertain them coming to speak to our group.

Thanks again.

Howard Pierpont CBM CBCP
DEG Security, Compliance and Continuity Program Office - Manager
Intel Corporation

Posted in VoIP

Comments

Mitel and Proximiti

July 25, 2006

The hosted SMB space is not being ignored by Proximiti Communications and Mitel who will be jointly targeting the market with Proximiti service and Mitel equipment.

Posted in VoIP

Avaya Replaces Don Peterson

July 25, 2006

Avaya announced a profit decrease and replaced Don Peterson as CEO on the same day. Louis D’Ambrosio is the new CEO. I liked Don – he was a great guy. Unfortunately on Wall Street how nice you are rarely matters – it is all about the bottom line.

Posted in CRM, IMS, Open Source, SIP, VoIP

Tagged: asterisk, avaya, cisco, digium, peterson : Related Tags: should focus, company should, service provider, finally company, avaya, focus

VoIP Peering Web Summit

July 24, 2006

You all know what a fan of VoIP peering I am and to make sure you know how serious I am about this topic we decided our new Web Summits will feature VoIP peering as the first topic. Here is some information on this summit and how you can register to learn more about this exciting opportunity.

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On Thursday, July 27, TMC presents its first Web Summit in partnership with J Arnold & Associates. Covering VoIP Peering opportunities for service provider, this live Web event is the first in a series of Web Summits targeted at service providers. Each will focus on thought leadership from the industry's leading companies and the host, Jon Arnold, one of the IP sector's most highly-regarded analysts.

Posted in VoIP

Tagged: peering, voip, voip peering : Related Tags: arnold associates, service providers, opportunities service, peering opportunities, xconnect kayote, peering

On-Demand Call Center

July 21, 2006

As more and more call center decision makers are faced with the ability to try hosting their software, I thought it made sense to point out the fact that TMC recently unveiled a new On-Demand Call Center channel filled with information on this exciting and certainly dynamic space.

I know the CRM market is how a huge proponent of hosting and call centers aren’t that far behind. In fact the fact that Oracle/Siebel recently purchased Telephony@Work shows how important this market is to Oracle.

Larry Ellison really doesn’t miss too many trends – remember he has been a supporter of hosted CRM solutions for years.

Posted in Call Center

Comments

What is an Animation Worth?

July 21, 2006

What is an animation really worth? 100,000 words? Now that’s a lot of words. The point is it may be possible to get your customers buying VoIp products more quickly by allowing them access to animations that explain complex ideas in easy to understand graphics.

Posted in VoIP

IP Unity News

July 21, 2006

I was recently in Minnesota and when I was there I didn’t get a chance to check out the massive unified messaging deployment by IP Unity. In my recent tour of the country IP Unity kept coming up again and again as a partner to a number of companies in the service provider space. You figure communications is very important in a place like Minnesota where a few months a year it is too cold to go outside. While I was there I learned that it gets so cold they golf on a frozen lake with colored golf balls.

Posted in VoIP

ACLU

July 21, 2006

The ACLU is not too happy with the AT&T/Bellsouth merger.

Posted in VoIP

Buy Music With no DRM

July 21, 2006

DRM or digital rights management can save you a dollar every time you download a song. At least this seems to be the case as Yahoo! and Sony are offering music downloads that are DRM free but are charging $1.99 per song instead of the standard iTunes price of $.99. I think DRM is a great concept but inhibits use of content to some extent. The reason is that every user is different and some want to listen to music in multiple places on multiple devices and DRM is not as flexible as it could be.

So DRM keeps people from truly maximizing their use of the music and other content they pay for.

Here is the article that clued me into this news.

Posted in Consumer Electronics, Technology

Comments

Internet Telephony Publisherâs Outlook August 2006

July 21, 2006

Please enjoy by Publisher’s Outlook from the August issue of Internet Telephony Magazine. It was great fun to put this together as I thought back on all the places I have been to in the last few months and of course all the new people I met and old friends I have visited with.

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Hitting the Road in the Name of IP Communications

By Rich Tehrani

I am a blogger. Alas, I have been blogging less often lately. There.

Where is Rich Tehrani -- today?

July 19, 2006

I have been traveling like never before and have seen nooks and crannies of this fine country. I have seen upstate New York, Massachusetts, Florida, Ohio, South Carolina -- and that was just this morning .

Seriously though -- I am not neglecting you -- I have barely had computer time. What I do want to mention is that I am working on my Publisher's Outlook for the next issue of Internet Telephony and it should have a nice recap of what I have been up to. I hope to post it in the next 24 hours or so. Hopefully sooner or Greg and I may no longer be on talking terms.

Posted in Personal

Juniper Kills Kagoor Products

July 17, 2006

Light Reading reported that Juniper is killing its Session Border Controller products that were part of the Kagoor acquisition. In recent meetings with Acme Packet, Sansay and others, I was told that Juniper wasn't coming up in competitive bids. So to me this move isn't too surprising. Still the SBC market is growing quickly and there is a great deal of money to be made in this space.

Posted in VoIP

Tagged: sbc, session border controller : Related Tags: focus vision, basically focus, vision issue, juniper, market

Comments

Amcat

July 17, 2006

Keep an eye on Amcat. I met with the company recently and they seem to really have passion to succeed in the contact center market. The company has been around for 15 years but new management is really evolving their strategy and will likely be achieving great growth gains.

The company has roots in the predictive dialing market and they have recently evolved into a feature-rich contact center play with focus on inbound and outbound. They recently came out with an IP-PBX and will soon have tight CRM integration (they currently integrate with other CRM solutions and they will soon sell their own).

Posted in Call Center

Tagged: amcat, ip-pbx : Related Tags: contact center, company

Need a PR Job?

July 13, 2006

I just came across this job posting and thought some of my readers are likely qualified for this position and may be looking for a change.

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Job Title: Senior Public Relations Manager to Director, Corporate Communications, a new position

Company: NASDAQ traded, our client builds total-delivery solutions for voice, data and video content servers for service providers both in the US and abroad.

Location: East Bay, San Francisco Area

Reports to Vice President, Marketing

Prepared by Judith Cushman, Retained Executive Search, Contact in confidence: jcushman@jc-a.com; 425 392 8660

Our client
, a NASDAQ company, is dedicated to building total-delivery solutions for voice, data and video content services for service providers both in the US and abroad. The company designs, manufactures and markets telecommunications/network equipment worldwide. Its products allow network operators to deliver the newest telecommunication services over existing networks. In addition, it simultaneously allows these network operators to retool for converged packet-base voice (VoIP) data and video (IPTV) over copper or fiber access lines.

In 2005 the company experienced record growth, with revenues at 152 million, an increase of 56% from the previous year.

Posted in VoIP

Sony vs. Apple

July 13, 2006

Allowing Apple to take over the music throne is inexcusable. I have long admired Sony and remember when they were the company changing the way the world listened to music. The question is, will they ever regain the throne? In my opinion it will be a very tough and long road to even gain half of Apple's iPod market share.

Then again, there was a time we thought Apple was down for the count. Here is Tom's take on the matter. What's your opinion?

Posted in Consumer Electronics

Tagged: apple, sony : Related Tags: piece software, operating system, philosophies software, difference between, software, apple

Comments

It Was A Race

July 13, 2006

From the moment the red-eye flight landed this morning, I tried my best to get to the hotel quickly. I thought there was a chance I could get some sleep in an actual bed before my presentation. After the luggage arrived at baggage claim I dove out the door and got the first cab in the line. The cab driver found the Sheraton Miami Mart Hotel in no time flat.

Posted in Personal

Heading Home -- Almost

July 12, 2006

I am at the San Francisco Airport and taking a red eye flight back to Miami. I had a great trip to Silicon Valley. I love it here and can't wait to come back next month and host VoIP Developer. I am giving a presentation to a group of IP communications resellers in the morning at the Miami VoIP Sizzles.

Posted in VoIP

Tagged: resellers, voip : Related Tags:

AudioCodes Blazing Forward

July 11, 2006

In the last few months, AudioCodes has distinguished itself in the field of IP communications by acquiring and striking alliances faster than virtually anyone else. The latest big news is the Netrake Acquisition. What will result from all of this activity certainly remains to be seen but the company is becoming one stop shop for everything IP communications. And the companies they don’t buy, they partner with. I am very interested to see how the new AudioCodes does in the upcoming months.

Posted in VoIP

Comments

Mark Spencer Honored

July 10, 2006

Congratulations to Mark Spencer for being part of the 30 under 30 coolest entrepreneurs list! Many credit this article by me for bringing open source telephony into the mainstream. I humbly accept this praise as I knew Asterisk would be huge from the moment I learned about it. Now there is an entire ecosystem being built around this platform.

Posted in VoIP

Tagged: asterisk, linux, voip : Related Tags: linux support, young entrepreneurs, spencer president, asterisk industry, creator asterisk, asterisk

Driving in LA

July 6, 2006

I am traveling this week and am on vacation/work. It is a little bit of both but more of the former. California is treating me well. The weather is great but they tell me it is hotter than normal.

Posted in VoIP

Comments

Communications and Technology Blog - Tehrani.com

July 2006