August 2006 Archives

Thanks to all my readers and others who are signing up so early for Internet Telephony Conference & Expo. At this rate our conference number will double last year.

The strength of ITEXPO has always been in its superior conference program and word of this is spreading throughout the industry.

This is one of the reasons the show has the only conference guarantee in the industry. We are extremely proud of this fact and thanks to all my readers and others who are signing up early.

Please don't forget to sign up for your hotel quickly as I hear the hotels in the area are all about sold out.

Blogged via wireless handheld

I have some meetings up north and am happy to report the only blue skies are about 100 miles north of TMC - a few miles north of the University of Connecticut where I went to school. At this this rate the US will soon have a monsoon season.

Blogged via wireless handheld

Do you remember that song -- How you feelin - hot hot hot!? It was one of those weird offbeat kind of classic-pop songs (listen). I was reminded of this song recently when I heard one of the Apple laptops caught fire in Japan. As if Sony didn't have enough on its hands.

As expected, YouTube is beginning to have videos of exploding laptops which of course makes matters worse for all the companies involved.

Apple has received nine reports in the United States of the lithium-ion batteries battery packs overheating, including two consumers who received minor burns after handling overheated computers. Apple has also received reports of minor property damage, but no serious injuries have been reported.

Japan's trade ministry ordered Apple's Japan branch to report on its findings and measures to prevent future troubles by Sept. 5 or it could face a fine of up to 300,000 yen ($2,570) under Japan's consumer safety laws.

Sony and Dell also have been ordered to report on their findings after the recall was announced by the ministry.

So if you are pecking away at that laptop and there is tremendous amounts of heat in your lap it's either that steamy e-mail you just received or you better pop open that laptop and check it out carefully.

Years ago I used to read and perhaps even wrote about the fact that Microsoft would not be successful in the mobile phone business because they can't make an OS that doesn't need frequent rebooting. Years ago this was a joke in the publishing industry. Fast forward to today -- I use a Microsoft-based phone and it is great. I can open PowerPoints and Acrobat documents with ease. I can see crisp graphics and do lots of other things I can do with my laptop.

But because it is a Microsoft device -- perhaps that is unfair but certainly Microsoft devices require more reboots than devices from any other company -- I need to reboot it all the time. It really is a major drawback on a device that is also the one I use for dialing 911.

On the bright side, one of the other things my phone does well is that it plays music as well as any other music player. It is great for music -- I can listen to songs and take phone calls without interrupting my music playing.

So I have been surprised why Microsoft hasn't been more successful in the music player business -- except for the reboot problem of course.

It seems that Steve Ballmer also agrees with me and as such they have partnered with Toshiba.

Marketed under Microsoft's Zune brand, the gadget will allow users to share songs, photos, music playlists and other content through a wireless connection. One of the gadget's features will enable a person to act as a DJ while sending music to up to four other devices.

Toshiba filed papers with the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday, indicating its plan to manufacture the device for Microsoft. This agreement was confirmed by a spokesman for Microsoft on Friday.

The success of the iPod and iTunes has breathed new life into Apple and the new alliance between Apple and Intel has further allowed Apple to gain share in the consumer electronics and PC market.

Microsoft needs to be concerned about Apple because the future of the computing space seems to be the merger between CE, the web and the computer. The leader in consumer electronics is going to have a tremendous advantage in the computing environment of the future.

And this offering from Microsoft and Toshiba doesn't impress me on the surface. The world has become iPod-enabled -- cars, accessories, FM transmitters, etc.

What are Microsoft and Toshiba bringing to the table? If it is a lower cost then Apple can drop prices to compete -- if that is even needed.

The only way Microsoft can even hope to compete is to lower the cost of purchasing songs and perhaps movies. They will need to take a financial hit today to increase share because the iPod/iTunes combo is a powerful combination.

Other than that, a battery breakthrough, a link to MySpace, some sort of messaging hook are the only other things I can think of that will allow Microsoft to get ahead of Apple.

From my perspective, iTunes/iPod, Google and open source are the biggest threats to Microsoft going forward. What is your opinion?

Tom Keating has some great analysis on what is happening with Google and Skype interoperability as well as the reasoning behind the deal and who the winners and losers might be. He also has a take on entries from Russell Shaw and Andy Abramson.

Mae Kowalke also has some analysis of this story as part of a broader eBay/Google announcement/partnership.

One thing is for certain – click-to-call advertising has tremendous potential for all the businesses out there who are already using click-based ads. In addition those companies that don’t use click-to-talk are likely to try click-to-call. Examples are restaurants, local merchants, etc.

Apparently the pain and anguish being felt by VoIP providers due to the Vonage IPO didn’t affect the $33 million that SunRocket scored recently. On a separate note, Vonage seems to be hovering around $7 and this seems like the longest amount of time the company’s stock has been stationary or at least nearly stationary.

It is good to see the company form a base here (some might say anywhere to stop the mad freefall). The question is does the company have any good new to share to make the next move up and not down? From a technical perspective there is no support level below $6.50 so let’s hope for the company’s sake their next bit of news is more customers or revenue than expected.

Also – if you haven’t started using them, TMC’s news snapshot pages can come in really handy as they aggregate stock charts and company info from hundreds of sources onto a single page. Take a look at the Vonage News page for yourself.

Alternatively be sure to sign up for TMCnet news alerts which can also become keyword-based RSS feeds if you like.

Time is running out to take advantage of early-bird pricing for Internet Telephony Conference & Expo. A reminder to my blog readers that the time is now to save up to $1,000 on a registration. That, my friends is a whole bunch of iPods, SIP phones, infinity Asterisk servers (assuming you have the hardware ), and since we are heading into back-to-school season – that’ll buy you about two entry-level student-ready laptops.

I am really jazzed about this event because we have some of the best speakers we have ever had at our ITEXPO conferences and the breadth and depth of knowledge you will receive over the course of a few days is almost beyond explanation.

It should be noted that TMC has also partnered with other groups to make our already top-ranked conference program even better.

Remember finally that TMC remains the only conference company in IP communications to guarantee your conference registration.

By the way -- we have yet to have a single person take us up on this guarantee (even after thousands of conferees) and we are proud of this fact.

For your hard-earned conference dollars you should just say NO to Industry Per/Sales-spectives.

Here are some of the companies presenting in San Diego

8x8 Acme Packet Aculab Alcatel AT&T Audiocodes Avaya Baypackets
Broadsoft Cisco Systems Citel Covad Dash911 DecisionOne   Deloitte
Digium DiTech Networks Eicon Networks Envox Equinix Forum Communications Global IP Sound Global Touch IDC  In-Stat IntelliCom Analytics Inter-tel Iotum Iperia Iwatsu Jon Arnold & Associates Juniper Kayote Lucent Technologies Microsoft Mitel Motorola NEC Net2Phone Neustar NexTone NMS Nortel Paetec   Pingtel
Quintum RNKVoIP Samsung Sangoma Sentito Siemens Sonus Spectralink Stealth Communications Sun MicroSysytems SunRocket Switch & Data Talkswitch Telchemy The Eastern Management Group Tier1 Research Toshiba U4EA Unimax Verizon Vertical VoIP Inc. VoIP Shield Vox XO Communications Zultys

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Take a look at this list of conference tracks/workshops on the program:

Service Provider Solutions
Voice Peering Workshop
IMS Expo (Colocated event)
IPTV Evolution Workshop presented by FierceMarkets
Mobility Summit
WiFi Telephony Summit
Regulation
Conferencing and Collaboration
Large Enterprise Deployment Workshop
VoIP for SMB
Enterprise/Government Solutions
TMC University IP PBX Certification Courses
Call Center 2.0 (Colocated conference)
IP Communications Development
SIP Workshop
Open Source Summit
Asterisk Training
VoIP Security for Consumer/User

I hope to see you at the event October 10-13, 2006 at the San Diego Convention Center.

A number of consumer advocacy groups and others have trying to encourage the FCC and government to put a stop to the consolidation of service providers that is taking place. They argue the old AT&T is being rebuilt and the telecom industry is heading in the wrong direction.

In response the FCC has publicly commented that there is more competition that ever from cable companies as well as wireless and satellite providers.

But the FCC’s comments about an abundance of competition seems to have been put to the test recently as Verizon has announced a new broadband surcharge. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, last weekend, Verizon began emailing its roughly six million high-speed Internet subscribers, informing them they would no longer be charged the Universal Service Fund fee -- which was $1.25 or $2.83 a month, depending on speed of service. But it went on to say that it was instituting a "supplier surcharge" of $1.20 or $2.70 a month beginning Aug. 26.

Many point to this new fee as evidence there is a lack of real broadband competition in the market and they further argue the timing of this increase – just as the FCC decided broadband subscribers no longer had to pay into the Universal Service Fund, is especially sneaky.

It is for this reason the FCC decided to send a “letter of inquiry” to Verizon in order to ascertain the reasoning behind the surcharge. The letter is the first step toward a formal investigation. Verizon said it decided to impose the new fee on all Internet subscribers because of increased costs of providing service to customers who only buy high-speed Internet. Verizon strongly disputed the idea that it hadn't been upfront with consumers about the new charge and said its timing was designed to minimize the impact on consumers, who won't see their bills change significantly.

From my vantage point it is bizarre that the FCC needs to step in and protect consumers. The following statement perhaps explains the point best:

"The commission takes its obligation to protect consumers very seriously," said FCC spokesman David Fiske. "Consumers must be provided with clear and nonmisleading information so they may accurately access the services for which they are being charged and the costs associated with those services."

Let’s put aside the fact that the term nonmisleading is something most people have never heard before – I imagine when most people encounter the term, they get the same confused feeling they get when trying to decipher the fees and taxes on their current phone bills.

The FCC’s actions are admirable. The question is why are they necessary?

If we truly have competition why would Verizon and SBC – who just recently dropped their $2.97 “regulatory cost recover fee,” not be allowed to charge fees to their heart’s content? After all Federal Express and other shippers routine add fuel surcharges to packages their customers ship.

If all of the above-mentioned companies are publicly traded and they have an obligation to shareholders to increase profit, what business is it of the FCC to step in and police the increased fees being charged? After all, isn’t it obvious that Skype, cable companies, Vonage and other VoIP companies are wreaking havoc on the bottom line of Verizon, AT&T and others?

This is the exact irony the public should be thinking about as on the one hand the FCC is allowing large-scale mergers to decrease broadband competition but on the other hand is trying to make sure the companies in the new telecom landscape don’t take advantage of their newfound power.

One has to wonder if the problem is to allow all the mergers in the first place. It would seem that as fewer and fewer real alternatives exist in the market we will need the FCC to step and protect consumers ever-more often. It is worth pointing out that the above scenario is exactly what consumer groups have been afraid of. Perhaps it is worth taking a breath and listening to what these groups and others are saying before we proceed to eliminate more broadband competitors from the market.

In 43 days, Internet Telephony Conference & Expo takes place in San Diego, California. This arena will be the ultimate stage for the debate about the future of telecom. There will be content for service providers helping them find new ways to generate revenue such as the IPTV Summit. There will further be sessions focused on how cable companies can maximize revenue with IP communications. The industry’s richest conference offering will allow you to take advantage of IP communications to generate more revenue at a time when revenue is most crucial to your company’s future.