December 2006

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Happy New Year!

December 29, 2006

This is a blog test e-mail. Due to massive traffic we had to upgrade our server and are working through myriad bugs, etc. Hopefully this will work and you will have a great new year!!

blogged via wireless handheld

I'd like to start this blog entry off by saying Happy New Year and wishing all my readers a tremendous 2007. I hope you are healthy and happy and that your family and all loved ones are as well. Having said that, I cover lots of topics on my blog and many times I focus on telecom and sometimes I get to cover weird stories that are hard to believe Other times I tie a story into a trade show like the Internet Telephony Conference & Expo (ITEXPO) taking place in 24 days -- January 23-26 at the Ft. Lauderdale Convention Center.

Posted in Broadband, CRM, Call Center, IMS, IP Communications, IPTV, ITEXPO, JITC, Personal, SIP, Security, Skype, Technology, Video, VoIP, WiMAX, Wireless

Tagged: 911, car jacking, florida, itexpo : Related Tags: south florida, florida, story, south, times

Net Neutrality Safe For Two Years

December 29, 2006

Yesterday I wrote about ensuring net neutrality and just to show you how fluid the telecom market is, today AT&T may have ensured net neutrality for all of us last night. Well at least for 24 months. The company made a number of concessions to the FCC in order to complete their merger with BellSouth. Some of the concessions have to do with freezing prices on enterprise broadband services and giving up wireless spectrum.

Posted in Broadband, Google, IMS, IP Communications, IPTV, ITEXPO, SIP, Video, VoIP, WiMAX, Wireless

Tagged: at&t, fcc, mcdowell, net neutrality, video, voip : Related Tags: comptel, neutrality, concessions, pipes, years, mcdowell

Sylantro

December 28, 2006

Sylantro has recently inked deals with China’s Huawei and Microsoft and is making a play to become more entrenched in the IMS space. They have also hired a new CEO Marco Limena and I thought this would be a great time to see what Marco is thinking about the future of Sylantro and of IMS. One trend Marco sees is real-time group media communication and I won’t steal the thunder anymore so feel free to read this interview to get the details.

Posted in IMS, VoIP

Tagged: ims, sylantro, voip : Related Tags: sylantro, marco

One Wilshire

December 28, 2006

Ensuring Net Neutrality Net neutrality advocates are scared senseless that carriers will start charging companies like Google in order for the search giant and others to have access to service provider customers. These phone companies argue they have to charge Internet companies because the increased volume of traffic generated by such organizations requires service providers to upgrade their networks at a faster clip than they normally would. Many in the Internet community fear service providers could charge certain content providers for riding their networks and not others. Providers could effectively favor their own services and moreover act as censors of the Internet. Service providers who are looking to charge companies like Google for riding on their networks may find they aren’t able to accomplish this goal as carrier hotels act as an alternate way for content providers to get to customers. Now I don't mean to trivialize the situation as there are levels of complexity I won't touch on in this article.

Posted in Broadband, IMS, IP Communications, IPTV, VoIP

Tagged: crg west, net neutrality, one wilshire : Related Tags: service providers, carrier hotels, network neutrality, riding networks, companies google, providers

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Japan Location Based Services

December 28, 2006

Tokyo is experimenting with sending highly tailored information to users based on location and interests. Users will get special offers, menus and coupons as they walk city streets. Shoppers can rent a prototype reader or get a limited service on their cell phones. The trial will run from January 21-March 10th of 2007. This could be a huge opportunity for the mobile carrier as well as an enormous business opportunity for many. Expect the location based services market to be worth billions of dollars with targeted ads driving the market.

Posted in Technology

Tagged: japan, lbs, tokyo : Related Tags: location based, based services, based, location

Royal Mail Mess

December 28, 2006

Imagine writing something that is so popular your nation’s post office has to make special plans to get hundreds of thousands of copies of it to anxiously awaiting fans. In the UK, the Royal Mail says it is beginning top plan a strategy for delivering an avalanche of Harry Potter books to fans. So far, Harry Potter books have sold over 300 million copies worldwide!

Posted in Personal

Tagged: harry potter : Related Tags: potter books, harry potter

Where Did My Luggage Go?

December 27, 2006

This is a pretty funny story only because it didn't happen to me. This is what happens when airline luggage ends up in the garbage. In this case it was a Continental flight that had its bags "misdirected."

Posted in Personal

Tagged: continental, lost luggage : Related Tags: luggage, airline

Comments

Pretexting Defense

December 26, 2006

Here is a good article on protecting yourself from people who are trying to steal your identity or pretexting. One tip -- set up online accounts to make it more difficult for data thieves to get at your precious personal information.

Posted in Technology

Tagged: pretexting : Related Tags:

Airline CRM

December 26, 2006

You I don't mean to complain about the airlines and unless I have a terrible experience somewhere I hate to specify the company name in a derogatory fashion. So suffice it to say I am sitting here -- well actually standing since there are no seats, and 20 minutes before the flight is supposed to take off I find out the flight is delayed by an "estimated" 45 minutes. Now I am not a flight or airline or airport expert but one would imagine if a flight is delayed 45 minutes the airline should know about this more than 20 minutes before takeoff. In fact I am an advocate of some bold airline somewhere offering some money back if a flight is delayed within 3 hours of departure time.

Posted in CRM

Tagged: airline, airport, crm, delay : Related Tags: flight delayed, minutes, flight, airlines, airline, delayed

Lotus Elise

December 26, 2006

It's times like this I wish I wasn't on the naughty list.

Blogged via wireless handheld

Posted in ITEXPO

Back at the Eden Roc today

December 25, 2006

I am back at the Eden Roc today but only because all other gyms in the area are closed. The bar at the hotel has Starbucks coffee and the best bar staff around. The gym staff is hit or miss. Today I will miss again.

The weather was much better than expected but very humid.

Posted in ITEXPO

Burning Calories

December 24, 2006

My wife is from Argentina and so is Dulce de Leche. If you don't know what that is you are missing out. It is like caramel but much better. Yesterday we ate very large quantities of dulce de leche desserts.

Spirent Shake up

December 24, 2006

I just learned of a major management shakeup at testing leader Spirent. I rarely see something like this happen -- a wholesale replacement of so many managers and executives. The last year or so has been quiet for this company from a PR and marketing standpoint and many people were wondering what was going on with the company. It would seem now according to this article the company may be broken up into pieces. The testing market has a bright future but it seems this past quarter may have been underwhelming for a few players in the industry.

Posted in Broadband, Call Center, IMS, IMS, IP Communications, IPTV, SIP, Speech Technologies, Technology, Video, VoIP, WiMAX, Wireless

Tagged: spirent : Related Tags: company

Sushi Samba

December 22, 2006

There is nothing like a late sushi lunch. I hope everyone is
enjoying a wonderful holiday season. Happy Hanukah and Merry Chistmas to all.

So far the weather has been great. Not too hot or cold. Just a few clouds. Weather.com seems to predict some weather nastiness soon. Hopefuly the site is wrong.

Blogged via wireless handheld

VoIP Tutorials

December 22, 2006

Tom Cross over at TECHtionary has come up with a new best practices series - VoIP Business and Sales/Marketing Strategy Tools For Getting-In & Staying-In the VoIP Business. The offering consists of multimedia best practices tutorials to help dealers, VARs, agent, resellers and manufacturers understand the issues critical to success in VoIP. Here is the course outline:
The Top 10 Parts of IP in VoIP
1 - Voice to digital to packet transmission
2 - Optical Fiber Bandwidth
3 - Transmission Concepts - T-1 - PRI
4 - Integrated Access Services - Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation 5 - Introduction to Internet Protocol
6 - Back to basics - cabling
7 - TCP/IP and other Protocols & Layers
8 - Hardware Routers- IP, Switches-MAC & Protocols - H.228, H.323, MGCP & SIP
9 - Desktop "Softphones" and Toolbars
10 - IPBX and Hosted bringing it all together I haven’t had a chance to try the tutorial but I know from experience Tom is one of the most knowledgeable guys in the business. The graphics on TECHtionary aren’t always the best but the content sure is great.

Posted in VoIP

Tagged: voip : Related Tags: business, tutorials

Comments

Holiday Party and More

December 21, 2006

We had a great secret snowman/secret Santa gift exchange this afternoon. I got a gift certificate for Cosi a great restaurant chain with a location a stone's throw from TMC in Darien.

As you can see from this photo Rachel received a gift from someone with exceptional taste in wrapping paper. Very nice.

From there it was off to the TMC holiday party where we all had a great time. I unfortunately had to leave early as I am off to Miami for a Bar Mitzvah.

Comments

IMS Forum at ITEXPO

December 21, 2006

IMS Forum Meeting at ITEXPO Following up on the SIP trunking conference taking place at ITEXPO I wanted to bring everyone’s attention to the IMS Forum meeting also happening at the show. If you aren’t a member of the IMS Forum, you should consider joining if you are a service provider or a vendor to the IP communications market. Michael Khalilian and his team at the IMS Forum do a great job as spokespeople for the industry. Details: The IMS Forum January 2007 Meeting is being held on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 at the Broward County Convention Center in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida IMS Forum January 07 Meeting Information: Meeting Registration If you would like to attend the meeting please send an email with your contact information to Debbie Hetland Meeting Logistics Date: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 Time: 1pm - 4pm Location: Broward County Convention Center - 1950 Eisenhower Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316 Phone: (954) 765-5900 Meeting Room: 209-210 (Subject to change - Please check the front desk and reader board) Agenda
State of the industry – IMS (Guest speaker industry analysts)
IMS Forum Plugfest review and future roadmap (Certification)
IMS Forum Technical Working Group update and roadmap
IMS Forum Media and Marketing update and initiatives
IMS Forum industry partnerships update and roadmap

Posted in IMS

Tagged: ims, ims forum : Related Tags: tuesday january, forum meeting, county convention, convention center, broward county, forum

Registry Mechanic

December 21, 2006

I have had an IBM laptop at home for a few years and its performance has deteriorated over the years. I haven’t installed much new software save antivirus, adware and spyware tools. Other than that I have upgraded the OS and kept up to date with patches, etc. Anyway the performance makes the computer virtually unusable and I have spent hours, defragging and doing everything else I can think of.

Posted in Technology

Tagged: mechanic, registry, registry mechanic : Related Tags: registry mechanic

SIP Trunking Conference

December 21, 2006

Ingate received rave reviews from their SIP trunking session at the last ITEXPO in San iego. They are at it again and will hold a free conference titled “The SIP Trunking Series: Everything you Need to Know” at ITEXPO in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida next month. Companies who will be participating in the education so far are: Ericsson, ObjectWorld, Pingtel, ShoreTel, Sphere, BandTel, CBeyond and Levl3. Here are the details: Wednesday, January 24 – Professional Development Day Introduction to SIP Trunking and the Value Proposition The Service Provider Network Enterprise Infrastructure Architecture

Thursday, January 25 – Solutions Tracks
SIP Trunking in Latin America Case Study: Sterling Bank SIP Trunking Solutions

Friday, January 26 – Solutions Tracks
SIP Trunking Solutions

Attend one or all three days of SIP Trunking seminars.

WHERE:

Broward County Convention Center
Internet Telephony Conference & Expo
Room 114

For more information and a detailed schedule, visit www.ingate.com/SIP_Trunking_seminar.php

Pre-registration required.

Get more details on Internet Telephony Conference & Expo.

Posted in Broadband, Call Center, IP Communications, ITEXPO, SIP, VoIP

Tagged: broadband, sip trunking, voip : Related Tags: telephony conference, solutions tracks, january solutions, trunking solutions, trunking, conference

Comments

Skype Charging

December 21, 2006

Skype is beginning to charge more for services or start to charge for services which were once free. Fist there was unlimited calling to the US and Canada for $15 and now there are connection fees being added.

This is great news for the IP communications space as it raises the bar for providing service a bit. It also shows Skype is feeling pressure to generate more revenue. Expect to see Skype look for new ways to generate large amounts of revenue from its user base.

Posted in IP Communications, Skype, VoIP

Tagged: charges, fees, skype : Related Tags: charge services, skype

MySpace in Print

December 20, 2006

MySpace is experimenting with the print medium through a partnership with UK style magazine Marmalade. Marmalade’s March issue will feature cover-to-cover MySpace content submitted by users, who can submit their work here by Jan. 26. My take? This could be really big. It’s worth keeping an eye on this experiment.

Posted in Technology

Tagged: marmalade, myspace : Related Tags: myspace

FCC on Cable Competition

December 20, 2006

Greg’s update on the FCC and cable competition is certainly worth a read. This FCC ruling is good news is for the phone companies as they will have a standard set of nationwide rules to adhere to instead of a hodgepodge of disparate ones. AT&T’s Senior Vice President of Federal Relations, Bob Quinn, issued the following comments today: “The FCC has wisely determined that the pace of video competition and broadband deployment should not be held hostage to the administration of a franchising process created for monopoly cable providers. “We are heartened that the FCC, just as 9 states, has recognized that the existing local franchising process limits consumer choice and investments in broadband infrastructure. The FCC has taken steps towards streamlining the franchising process by establishing reasonable timeframes within which local franchising authorities administer their responsibilities

Posted in Broadband, IPTV, SIP, Video, VoIP, Wireless

Tagged: at&t, cable, fcc : Related Tags: franchising process, local franchising, cable competition, franchising, cable, process

Immaculate Conception

December 20, 2006

Until now I thought immaculate conception was only happening in religion and Star Wars. Now, the komodo dragon of all things has been shown to reproduce asexually. I would imagine this is huge news for the world of science and it also means the movie version of Godzilla finally makes sense. Update: The following has come to my attention. I am no religion expert and thanks to Joe Fabiano for pointing the following out.

Posted in Science

Tagged: immaculate conception, komodo dragon : Related Tags: immaculate conception, conception, immaculate, belief

Ericsson Buys Redback Networks

December 20, 2006

Ericsson is looking to compete more effectively against Alcatel Lucent by purchasing Redback Networks is an up and coming edge router player. The rapid growth in the M&A market is unprecedented these days and it seems the insatiable appetite to build larger and larger companies will never stop. Although Redback is publicly traded and could have remained a public company, many private companies need to be acquired to bring liquidity back to their investors. The IPO market is getting a bit better but until Sox regulations get less onerous, it may be a while before smaller companies look to the public markets as an alternative M&A.

Posted in Broadband, IMS, IP Communications, IPTV, SIP, Video, VoIP, Wireless

Tagged: alcatel lucent, ericsson, m&a, redback networks, sox : Related Tags: redback networks, companies, redback

Time Magazine and Net Neutrality

December 18, 2006

Time Magazine has named you and me as their person of the year but without net neutrality would this have been the case? Would we have had the ability to use sites like MySpace and YouTube or would these companies have been squeezed out due to the high tariffs the telcos and cable companies might have charged them to get priority internet service to their users (you and me). Here is interesting perspective from the Huffington Post. According to the article the service providers want the internet to be about them and not you and me.

Posted in Broadband, IP Communications, Video, VoIP

Tagged: net neutrality, person of the year, time magazine : Related Tags:

iPhone News

December 18, 2006

Greg Galitzine has a good update on what is happening with the new iPhone from not Apple but Cisco/Linksys.

Posted in VoIP

Skype News

December 17, 2006

A recent perusal of Skype news shows just how much news this phone company/software provider makes on a regular basis. This week there was just so much activity it is worth mentioning it all. Of course this article would become hopelessly long if every news item from the company was analyzed so expect a sampling instead. I got to thinking about Skype news after writing this entry which talks about the competition between phone and cable companies. In the article which started me writing the entry in the first place, the author repeatedly trashes Skype saying the valuation of just fewer than 3 billion dollars was not justified. Obviously Skype has not added billions to the eBay bottom line so far.

Posted in VoIP

Tagged: bottom line, earnings, ebay, revenue, skype, stock, valuation, voip : Related Tags: start charging, cable companies, phone cable, thinking skype, skype intros, skype

AP on VoIP

December 17, 2006

Here is an in-depth article from the AP on VoIP and the struggle between telephone and cable companies. There is also talk of new and existing VoIP providers and some coverage of Vonage and Skype. I find it interesting that the author decides to mention the new Skype service where they charge $30/year for unlimited calls to the US and Canada is a bad thing for the phone companies and Vonage. As I mentioned recently it is a great thing for competitors when something free becomes $30/year. Other than this inaccuracy, the well-researched article is a good read.

Posted in VoIP

Tagged: cable, dsl, fios, phone, skype, vonage : Related Tags:

A Look inside the Call Center

December 17, 2006

What is happening in today's call center could be surmised up by a recent survey by Witness Systems discussed in this article on TMCnet. One question worth noting asks what the number one challenge is in the call center. The most popular answer is first call resolution followed by customer satisfaction and retention. Furthermore according to the survey, most call centers occasionally monitor customer interactions and it seems today's call center managers are surprised when receiving complaints about inconsistent agent response, voice tone issues and bad attitudes from customer service representatives. For more be sure to check out Witness Systems Customer Service Survey: First Call Resolution Tops List of Challenges for Contact Centers.

Posted in CRM, Call Center

Tagged: call center, crm, first call resolution, witness systems : Related Tags: witness systems, customer service, center, customer, survey

High Availability Application Servers

December 17, 2006

As service providers continue to look for new sources of revenue the role of the application server becomes clear… Provide applications with no down time while allowing seamless scalability. A recent TMC white paper addition is Solid Information Technologies entry titled: Building Next Generation Network Services - The Data Management Infrastructure. This document is a good read for those looking to deploy blade servers in an environment where applications can scale seamlessly across the blades. It is an interesting look at how to build redundant and scaleable next-gen services. If you would like to learn more, just read this article or white paper.

Posted in IP Communications

Brix Networks

December 17, 2006

Brix Networks has recently received patent number 7,058,020 covering a technique for time stamping data packets in order to measure network characteristics. This technique can be used to measure latency and jitter. VoIP and video quality will be a growing area of the IP communications market and Brix is one of a number of companies looking to associate themselves with this space. They call the market the converged service assurance solutions space but you can think of them as working to better the QoS of media on IP networks.

Posted in VoIP

Costly CRM

December 16, 2006

OK so I am using a blog as a sounding board to complain. I do this often. Perhaps this is part of my unique charm? Since the holiday season is approaching I will complain without telling you what company I am complaining about. This is my gift to them.

Posted in CRM

Tagged: bpo, computer, crm, india, outsource : Related Tags: computer purchase, cancel order, computer arrive, family member, computer, order

Kathy Johns

December 15, 2006

Heading back from Mass we were looking for a lunch place that was better than fast food you might find off the highway. The decision of course was Kathy John's restaurant in Storrs, CT located a stone's throw from the University of Connecticut (UCONN) my alma mater. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to stop by and see how the university has improved. The last time I saw it was five years ago or so and the campus was much nicer than when I was a student.

Happy Holidays and Thanks!

December 15, 2006

I would like to take a moment and thank all my readers and wish you all a great holiday season and a Happy New Year. In addition I want to specifically thank you all for visiting TMCnet so frequently as we have once again hit one million unique visitors in the month on November according to WebTrends. This is the second time this year we have done so. (Apparently our October numbers are still being run -- long story.

Posted in Broadband, CRM, Call Center, Conferencing, Consumer Electronics, IMS, IP Communications, IPTV, ITEXPO, JITC, Open Source, Personal, Rates Technology, SIP, Science, Security, Skype, Speech Technologies, Technology, Video, VoIP, WiMAX, Wireless

Tagged: alexa, communications, technology, tmcnet, webtrends : Related Tags: communications technology, happy holidays, tmcnet, thank, again, happy

Jon Shaprio: Larger Than Life

December 15, 2006

One comment I made in article a few months back has turned into a fun conversation in the industry. I called Jon Shapiro “Larger than Life.” Apparently this led to much ribbing of Jon and someone even designed a photo of Jon as larger than life. I have yet to see it but I promise to publish it if I get a hold of it. So who is Jon? If you aren’t aware, he is the founder of Alliance Systems and throughout the explosion of PC-based telephony systems his company has been a dominant supplier of boards and industrial computer systems. In the nineties before VoIP existed the exciting area in telecom was CTI or computer telephony integration where the telecom and computing worlds came together.

Posted in Broadband, Call Center, IMS, IP Communications, SIP, Speech Technologies, Technology, VoIP

Tagged: alliance systems, call center, industrial computer, voip.call recording : Related Tags: alliance systems, industrial computer, systems, telecom, power, computers

Costco CRM

December 15, 2006

I have been hearing relatives, friends and just about everyone else tell me how Costco is a great place to buy electronics from as their warranty policy is amazing. You can return things apparently forever. I am no sure if this is the case but it seems everyone is buying from Costco and returning things at will. At a recent lunch with TMC team members a waiter heard us talking about technology and asked us if we could help him.

Posted in CRM

Tagged: best buy, costco, crm, return policy : Related Tags: customer service, costco, return

Comments

Happy Holidays Vonage From Skype

December 15, 2006

Today I am back on the road heading up to New England again. I am not such a fan of cold weather so I usually avoid going north when possible this close to winter. Thankfully it seems like we are having very mild weather with a high in the fifties. Lucky me. And luck is something the VoIP industry is experiencing as Skype recently decided to stop giving away free PC to phone calling in the US and Canada.

Posted in Skype

Tagged: skype, voip, vonage : Related Tags: service providers, skype decided, skype, service, vonage

Nuance: Bright Future

December 14, 2006

Mass based Nuance Communications seems to have a very bright future with strong sales of desktop, medical and call center speech systems. The company has enviable market share: 90% in desktop dictation, 80% in call centers, and 60% in health care dictation. Seems like a very distributed revenue base. I wonder how the desktop dictation market will do going forward. It seems this market is poised for growth but it seems more a problem of getting users comfortable with speech as the technology is much better than ever.

Posted in Call Center, Speech Technologies

Tagged: call center, crm, nuance, speech : Related Tags: bright future, desktop dictation, market, dictation, desktop

GlobalTouch Telecom and Cantata

December 14, 2006

I just ran into Greg Welch of GlobalTouch Telecom this week when I spoke at the VPF meeting in Los Angeles. He told me he had some news to share – some of which is now here. The company has just deployed a Cantata IMG 1010 including integrated transcoding and SS7 connectivity. GlobalTouch will use the gateway to bridge the PSTN and the IP network.

Posted in VoIP

Tagged: cantata, globaltouch, voip : Related Tags: globaltouch telecom, globaltouch

International VoIP Growth

December 14, 2006

Is international VoIP growing or shrinking? On the one hand the market is twice the size of last year but on the other the growth rate has slowed for two quarters. From my perspective there is a tremendous amount of international activity in VoIP now. Specifically there have been registrations at Internet Telephony Conference & Expo from the following countries just this week: Peru Germany Haiti Russian Federation Brazil Sri Lanka Pakistan Israel Hong Kong China (Peoples Republic) Nicaragua Columbia Mexico To date, 46 different nations are represented on the pre-registered attendee list. This is great news for the international VoIP market.

Posted in ITEXPO, VoIP

Tagged: countries, international, voip : Related Tags: international, market, growth

Comments

AT&T on VoIP

December 14, 2006

What is AT&T’s take on VoIP? Well nowadays they embrace it wholeheartedly. In fact they see VoIP as an integral part of their success going forward. They want to the be the enterprise VoIP service of choice. Did you know virtually all of AT&T’s employees use MPLS-enabled VoIP today? Neither did I. The company has a white paper on VoIP I thought you would be interested in because as you know making informed decisions requires educating yourself.

Posted in VoIP

Tagged: at&t, voip, white paper : Related Tags: white paper, white, paper

Saving Money on IP Communications Education

December 14, 2006

If you haven’t been watching, the early-bird deadline for conferences at Internet Telephony Conference & Expo (register) is approaching --tomorrow actually -- and we are talking about a savings of up to $1,000. The show is in 40 days so be sure to make your travel arrangements now as hotel prices will skyrocket soon. For many people there company foots the bill so this isn’t important. To us however, we would rather have you save some of that hard earned cash and spend it with one of the exhibitors at the show.

Posted in Broadband, Call Center, Conferencing, Google, IMS, IP Communications, IPTV, ITEXPO, Open Source, SIP, Security, Skype, Speech Technologies, Technology, Video, VoIP, Wireless

Tagged: harley davidson, itexpo, toyota : Related Tags: giving

Verizon Shares Falling

December 14, 2006

Why are Verizon shares falling? Well it seems the massive costs of its FIOS initiative has investors wondering if the fiber to the home strategy makes the most sense or is AT&T’s cheaper plan to use copper in the last mile via its U-Verse initiative a better choice?. A great concluding paragraph from a related article on TheStreet.com is worth sharing: "People were OK with FiOS until they saw the cable companies were actually doing better, not worse," says one money manager with no Verizon positions. "Winning phone customers is always a lot easier for cable companies than winning TV customers is for phone companies."

My take on all this is AT&T is doing the right thing in the short term and Verizon is doing the right thing in the long run. What am I talking about? Well simply stated copper bandwidth can be increased and increased but to a point. Sooner or later consumers are going to demand gigabytes of bandwidth to play multiple 3-dimensional games and to watch 3-D movies and to take advantage of telepresence.

Posted in Broadband, IP Communications, IPTV, Video, VoIP

Tagged: at&t, broadband, thestreet.com, verizon : Related Tags: cable companies, doing right, right thing, shares falling, making right, verizon

Google Bank

December 14, 2006

Is Google thinking of getting into the banking business? Well according to this Motley Fool article the company has done something novel with its stock options program allowing options granted after the IPO to be traded on the open market once they vest. This protects employees from a stock price meltdown and should in theory lead to happier workers. The program is not for Google executives by the way so we can’t assume this is a way for the top brass to sell stock early on bad news. Rick Munarriz makes the logical leap that this marketplace could become the underpinnings of Google Bank.

Posted in Google, Technology

Tagged: bank, google, motley fool : Related Tags: google, years, stock

Comments

Voice Communities Gain Traction

December 13, 2006

I’ve been talking about voice communities for a while and after reading this article about VoIP-enabled social networking site Speecho, it seems the trend is continuing. The Speecho.com website is different from other sites as it has a unique set up of a 36-room house, the "Speecho Mansion" with rooms each dedicated to a specific topic and group. The foreign language room, gives people the ability to speak in their native dialects, the library, for sharing research and homework with classmates, or the gym, for sports enthusiast, are just a few examples. Already realizing the immediate benefits of VoIP, Elliot Kransow, one of the brainchildren of the site, commented in a statement, "I'm already receiving thank you messages from parents, who through Speecho, have found a way to drastically cut down on their kids' telephone bills." Kransow also commented on the value of VoIP for social networking, "It may not be something one thinks about, but every person belongs to a speech community, a group of people who share the same language." I agree 100%.

Posted in VoIP

Tagged: speecho : Related Tags: social networking, voice communities, speecho

That's Two from flight %$#@&) 32

December 12, 2006

That's two bags in about an hour or so. Anyone at American Airlines aware of customer service? Hello?? Thankfully I have a blog and can vent. Other passengers are just cursing the airline. There are no airline representitives in sight.

Hopefuly this is the last entry on the matter.

Blogged via wireless handheld

Posted in ITEXPO

Just Waiting

December 12, 2006

The new American Airlines terminal at JFK is roomy and all but so far we have waited over 35 minutes with no sign of luggage and no one to speak wth. Perhaps someone at the airline reads my blog and can help. Flight 32 from LA. Help.

Now there is technical problem. They just announced it. Isn't this a new airport?

Blogged via wireless handheld

Fixing DVDs

December 12, 2006

Tom has gone through enough trouble getting his wedding video back from the land of the lost I thought I would share his escapades with you. I can't fathom how difficult it must have been for Tom to think he lost the video. I am also blown away at how much work he put into getting the data back. Now I know why he has been in such a bad mood lately PS: Poor Tom has had some bad luck. It is unusual for a DVD to fail so quickly. I wonder what the problem was. Must have been Evan's toast.

Posted in Consumer Electronics

Tagged: dvd, scratch : Related Tags:

Saw One Wilshire

December 12, 2006

I am atthe LA airport on my way back from the VPF meeting. I was at One Wilshire today the site of one of the most densely packed carrier hotels around. It was an amazing tour. Here is a photo of the building. I hope to get a chance to put some of my notes in writing soon.

Posted in IP Communications

Tagged: carrier hotel, peering, vpf : Related Tags:

Yahoo!: Turning Peanut Butter into More than Peanuts

December 11, 2006

If you haven’t heard, Yahoo! is restructuring. There is something called a peanut butter manifesto that has been circulating for months saying the company is spread too thin. As you may recall, recently Yahoo! was a big proponent of producing and distributing video content. In fact Media chief Lloyd Braun was hired to launch video content as part of Yahoo! services.

Posted in Google

Tagged: google, msn, yahoo : Related Tags: google driver, social networking, search based, peanut butter, problem yahoo, yahoo

Voice Peering Forum Latest Update

December 11, 2006

So far the Voice Peering Forum here in LA has been fun. It has been so good that I was only slightly tempted to leave the conference and go down the street to the Los Angeles Convention Center where the LA Auto Show is breaking down. Perhaps they need someone to drive one of the Ferraris off the show floor and onto a truck I wonder. Did I mention it is literally a 10 minute walk from here? Did I mention how dedicated I am to my profession? Perhaps part of the reason I need to stay in my seat is I am still working on a presentation I need to give in two hours.

Posted in VoIP

Tagged: peering, voip : Related Tags: callback solution, phone calling, voice peering, peering forum, invoice generator, callback

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Voice Peering Forum Photos

December 11, 2006

Here are shots from the event.

Posted in ITEXPO

At the Voice Peering Forum

December 11, 2006

I am here at the Voice Peering Forum in LA. Things seem to be going well. I have met a bunch of old friends and a few new people. I worked on my presentation early this morning as I am still kind of on EST.

Posted in VoIP

Tagged: voice peering, voip peering, vpf : Related Tags: peering forum, voice peering, presentation, bullets

VoIP Ban Mulled in India

December 11, 2006

I was just reading the VoIP Lowdown blog where I happened upon an entry discussing how India is losing tax revenue in telecom because of VoIP. They are considering banning it according to the entry. What is surprising, if this story is true -- is how short sighted it would be for India to ban voice over IP as the entire call center industry being offshored to India came about because of VoIP in the first place. One would imagine the benefits of having so many call centers in your country is more important to the economy than telephone revenue. Well if they ban it perhaps call centers will just find homes in other countries and leave India.

Posted in VoIP

Tagged: ban, india, voip : Related Tags: callback solution, people doing, phone calling, millions dollars, invoice generator, callback

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Borat on Branding and Positioning

December 9, 2006

We often get to see very smart engineers launch companies which design great products and services only to see these companies languish or fail. You see, engineers are terrible marketers. As a matter of disclosure I too am an engineer and some ways this perhaps uniquely qualifies me as a critic of my colleagues. The problem is companies led by technical people generally look for immediate and infinitely measurable ROI when they spend marketing dollars so when it comes to positioning, branding and thought leadership they just don't understand how to gauge ROI. So instead they focus entire marketing budgets on events, pay per click and lead generation with no thought to what the leads they capture think of their company.

Posted in Technology

Tagged: borat, branding, kazakhstan, positioning : Related Tags: country kazakhstan, branding positioning, entire country, kazakhstan sasha, terrible marketers, positioning

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Marathons and Heart Attacks

December 9, 2006

Here is a story on the linking of marathons and heat attacks. After years in which almost no deaths were attributed to heart attacks in major US major marathons, at least six runners have died in 2006. It seems the heart may be shocked and at least temporarily traumatized after a marathon. The doctor's interviewed in the article seem to suggest training for the marathon is great but advise you watch the marathon from home. Any lingering problem with your heart will obviously be amplified on race day. Thankfully I now have one more reason to avoid marathoning.

Posted in Personal

Tagged: heart attack, marathon : Related Tags: heart attacks, heart, marathon, years, marathons, attacks

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Alcatel-Lucent

December 9, 2006

I like the new Alcatel-Lucent logo. It makes me think of a cross between an airline and an ecommerce company. I do really like the way the A and L come together as one. On a separate note the new company's credit rating was reduced to junk by Fitch ratings.

Posted in Broadband, CRM, Call Center, Conferencing, IMS, IP Communications, IPTV, SIP, Security, Speech Technologies, Technology, Video, VoIP, WiMAX, Wireless

Tagged: alcatel-lucent, ims : Related Tags: alcatel lucent, carrier consolidation, fitch ratings, company, alcatel, fitch

VoIP Subscribers at $2.6 Billion

December 8, 2006

VoIP subscribers grew 18 percent in third quarter to 8.2 million. VoIP subscribers have doubled from last year. VoIP revenues for the second quarter were up about two and a half times -- $732 million across the United States, compared with a year-ago level of $298 million. Vonage remained the biggest provider with 1.95 million subscribers, followed again by Time Warner Inc.'s cable TV business at 1.64 million.

Posted in VoIP

Tagged: comcast, time warner, voip, vonage : Related Tags: million subscribers, million, subscribers, quarter, billion

Pretexting OK by Investors

December 8, 2006

HP seems to have gotten through the pretexting scandal unscathed -- paying $14.5 million to settle a civil claim revolving around the issue. HP shares have actually gained around 9 percent since the probe was disclosed in a regulatory filing, but fell 28 cents to $39.86 Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. "It looks like they got off pretty easy, and that this is actually going to be a good thing for HP," said Roger Kay, who follows the company as president of market research firm Endpoint Technologies Associates. "It looks like they're in control of their destiny and have put at least some of this behind them." The vast majority of the settlement -- $13.5 million -- will fund state and local investigations into privacy rights and intellectual property violations, according to the lawsuit and settlement filed simultaneously in Santa Clara County Superior Court. Apparently HP has been extremely cooperative and this issue seems to be largely behind the company. HP CEO Mark Hurd said in a statement that the company is "committed to ensuring that HP regains its standing as a global leader in corporate ethics and responsibility." The agreement did not include a finding of liability against HP. From my perspective the low fine amount seems like a minimal deterrent against this sort of behavior in the future.

Posted in Security, Technology

Tagged: hp, pretexting : Related Tags: pretexting, company

I am not Driving

December 8, 2006

Since I am not driving I get a chance to catch up on e-mail and blog a bit. I have a few unfinished articles I may get to finish on this trip. Apparently McDonalds on I95 has a brand new look by the way. There is much more red/orange/yellow. Other than that it is cold -- freezing here in CT. It was about 19 degrees in Stratford. I saw a few flurries a while back but skies are more blue as we enter Milford.

Posted in Personal

Tagged: i95, mcdonalds, snow, stratford : Related Tags:

Travel Travel Everywhere

December 8, 2006

Today I head up to northern New England. The big debate is whether to take my car which has no snow tires. I am in the mood to drive at this point and am hardly very around to drive my car. I miss it. The car is currently equipped with sports tires. I know from painful experience these things do not work in the snow. I need to get snow tires – hopefully this weekend. If I do drive and it does snow I promise to have some great crash pictures for you by tomorrow. Cross your fingers.

Posted in Personal

Tagged: new england, snow, snow tires : Related Tags: tires, drive

Huawei Logs $11 Billion in Sales in 2006

December 7, 2006

In the first half of 2006, Huawei recorded contract sales of USD 5.2 billion, an increase of 29 per cent compared to the same period last year. The value of contract sales from international markets reached USD 3.4 billion, an increase of 36 per cent over the same period in 2005. The international market represented 65 per cent of total contract sales generated in the first half of this year. Huawei sees its future in IMS and FMC and they believe their growth rate will continue. The company is proud to say they have been granted over 2,500 to date.

Posted in Broadband, IMS, IP Communications, IPTV, Technology, VoIP

Tagged: fmc, huawei, ims, sip : Related Tags: contract sales, billion increase, sales, contract, huawei, billion

YouTube Relations as Political Barometer

December 7, 2006

I find recent YouTube news is a great way to see how countries look at technology and the internet. On the one hand a Japanese group feels YouTube must rein in copyright violations. The group goes on to say YouTube – now owned by Google – needs to have safeguards in place before videos are uploaded to the massive video database site. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Iran, has decided to ban YouTube altogether. Yes, you can no longer access the site from Iran.

Posted in Broadband, Technology

Tagged: copyright, google, iran, japan, youtube : Related Tags: youtube, access, country

AT&T/BellSouth FCC Vote to Take Place

December 7, 2006

The AT&T/BellSouth merger has been deliberated by the FCC for quite some time. On October 13 of this year reports circulated about how the FCC vote was to be pushed back. It is now almost two months later and there may be an end to the deadlock. As you may recall Commissioner Robert McDowell was not voting due to a conflict of interest. As you may recall Robert McDowell worked for COMPTEL an association who was publicly against the merger.

Posted in Broadband, IMS, IP Communications, IPTV, Skype, Technology, Video, VoIP, WiMAX, Wireless

Tagged: at&t, bellsouth, fcc, mcdowell : Related Tags: robert mcdowell, mcdowell, merger

Road Warrior Must Have

December 6, 2006

What is one of the coolest and simplest products to give a road warrior this holiday season? It is a device that could power up a cell phone or blackberry from any airplane seat without the need for a power jack. Is such a thing possible you may ask? You must be wondering if I lost my mind. I haven’t. This nifty gadget converts the audio stream going to each seat in an airplane to minute amounts of electricity you can use to power a device via a USB port. Very very smart idea.

Posted in Consumer Electronics

Tagged: blackberry, consumer electronics, gadget, usb : Related Tags: power

Whoops

December 5, 2006

Imagine my surprise when a man came to the bar and asked the bartender to unplug his laptop. Thankfully I didn't PhotoShop anyone. It always pays to be patient. Anyway I am on a cramped plane and couldn't use my computer if I wanted to. It is tough enough to read a paper or use my phone's keyboard.

Blogged via wireless handheld

Posted in ITEXPO

At the Bar in Canada

December 5, 2006

I am heading back from Canada now and haven’t seen my office in weeks. This may be the longest time I have been away. Amazingly we have hired at least 4 if not 5 people while I was away. I can't wait to connect with the new team members.

Posted in Personal

Yahoo! VoIP Peering

December 5, 2006

I just had a chance to catch the news about Yahoo!'s latest VoIP peering announcement with VSNL and Teleglobe. Incidentally I am speaking next week at the Voice Peering Forum event in LA. Hope to see you there!

Posted in VoIP

Tagged: voice peering, voip peering, vpf, yahoo! : Related Tags: peering

Optical Travel Mice; Roller Skates on Ice

December 4, 2006

The poor quality photo below is a great reason for my photo blogging credentials to be revoked! It's funny how sometimes technology used to solve a problem solves nothing but creates a larger problem. In this case my optical mice -- I have several I travel with that just don't work in hotels anymore. Hotels have become so pseudo trendy with desks which have glass tops or black matte finishes on them. Either way my optical mice don't work which begs the question, why did I switch in the first place? Weren't these optical mice supposed to work on any surface? Maybe the technology market in general should be more careful with promises it (we) make.

Posted in VoIP

Tagged: mice, opical, opical mice : Related Tags: guarantee quality, roller skates, optical, quality

Customs is Closed

December 4, 2006

Well this is a fine way to start a trip. Customs in Canada is closed and it is just before 10:00 am. Thankfully fellow passengers are in a good mood and cracking some great jokes. One coworker suggested we knock.

Blogged via wireless handheld

Posted in ITEXPO

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Web 2.0 and Terror

December 3, 2006

The New York Times has a long article on how behind the tech curve US spy agencies are. They need a technology upgrade. Apparently they need spy software 2.0. I read the first page and then was forced to finish up an article for Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine.

Posted in Technology

Tagged: new york times, terror, web 2.0 : Related Tags: article

Israel Technology

December 3, 2006

For many of us in communications we know Israel plays a vital role in our sector. Much of VoIP innovation and technology comes from this small country. What you may not realize is how many other high tech industries and companies are thriving in this small country. Here is a great article detailing Israel’s need to be a leader in technology. Also examined are the country’s failures such as the Lavi jet fighter that proved to be too costly for Israel. It turns out however this turn of events was positive for Israel as the hundreds of engineers who worked on this project were the key to the many other tech companies that have thrived in Israel ever since.

Posted in Technology, VoIP

Tagged: israel, lavi, vocaltec, voip : Related Tags: israel, technology, country

Communications and Technology Blog - Tehrani.com

December 2006