VoIP Blog - Tehrani.com

December 29, 2006

December 29, 2006

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.

 

Many times when I write about the show I like to have a hook. For example one lucky attendee will walk away with a Harley Davidson Motorcycle and/or a Toyota FJ Cruiser (you must be present to win either. This photo idoes not represent the Harley model you could win -- but it sure looks great). I really like the design of the FJ Cruiser and when I saw one on the highway today I tried to take a photo with my phone to show you. That would have been a great show hook I thought.

 

It turns out I almost caused an accident and furthermore my camera phone has a delay of about a ½ second so I have a nice picture of my dashboard instead. :( So much for that idea.

 

Well, I figured there will be no show hook story today. That was until I learned about a car jacking in Boca Raton, Florida. Normally a car jacking is something you don't want to highlight when you are bringing thousands of attendees from around the globe to south Florida.

 

But this story has a hook and was weird and located in south Florida as the car jacker stole a car, had two accidents and then got so lost he called 911 and had the police come to his location. He actually called the 911 call center and said he committed a crime and had no idea where he was.

 

So on that note, come to south Florida in January and know full well there will be one less car jacker in the area. Most importantly book your flights and hotel rooms asap as rates are going up quickly and the hotels are selling out.

 

Oh and one last point -- bring a map -- and your own car. ;)

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. Other concessions are more important – selling high-speed internet service without the need to buy phone service. This is often called naked DSL.

 

AT&T has also agreed to provide net neutrality for a period of two years. Congress may weigh in on this issue before that time period expires however.

 

The interesting thing is that Comptel is an association devoted to fighting LECs for the benefit of CLECs. Unfortunately During the last few years this has been a losing battle as the FCC has more or less repealed the telecom act of 1996 which was meant to ensure CLECs could compete in the first place.

 

Many people have questioned the need for Comptel as they just haven’t been able to fight the RBOCs in a meaningful way. Their intentions are fantastic but the RBOCs present such a massive lobbying force, it is virtually impossible to stop them. In addition with AT&T’s lobbyists now working for the RBOCs in the old-new Ma Bell, Comptel has an even more formidable opponent.

 

The latest FCC commissioner, Robert McDowell most recently represented Comptel as an attorney. He decided not to vote on this merger because of his conflict of interest relating to his Comptel days. He realized that without his vote the commission would be deadlocked. So by recusing himself, McDowell all but ensured AT&T had to promise net neutrality to get this deal done.

 

If you remember, Ed Whitacre, now CEO of AT&T said two Halloweens ago that the pipes are his and he has the right to charge people for the pipes.

 

Now because of Comptel and McDowell doing what is best for consumers, the average US citizen has won out and VoIP and video companies are now in the position to compete effectively without the fear of getting wiped out by AT&T who could have imposed toll charges on their pipes.

 

Russell Shaw’s take.