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SIP Education at ITEXPO

Marc Robins is now heading up the SIP forum and as you may know, he is an industry veteran and a fellow coworker for many years. Mark was the Group Associate Publisher at TMC and responsible for educating hundreds of thousands in his long tenure in the communications media and analyst spaces.

The SIP forum is working to educate the market in a few weeks in Miami, Fl at ITEXPO.

Here is a summary of what you will learn at ITEXPO in a few weeks as part of TMC's collaboration with the SIP Forum.

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SIP Forum SIPconnect Compliance Workshop

Schedule, Speakers and Topics

DATE: FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 2008

SIP Forum SIPconnect Compliance Workshop, Room B114/115
Co-located with TMC’s Internet Telephony Conference & EXPO EAST 2008
The Miami Beach Convention Center
Miami, FL
10:00am-1:00pm

The SIP Forum is an IP communications industry association that engages in numerous activities that advance and promote SIP technology, such as the development of industry recommendations, the SIPit interoperability and testing events, special interoperability workshops, and general promotion of SIP in the industry.

One of the Forum's most important technical activities is the development of the SIPconnect Technical Recommendation -- a standards-based recommendation that provides detailed guidelines for direct IP peering and interoperability (SIP Trunking) between IP PBXs and VoIP service provider networks, and the SIPconnect Compliant Certification Program through which eligible companies can license the use of the SIP Forum's 'SIPconnect Compliant' certification mark -- the official brand of the leading standard for SIP Trunking products and services.

This special educational workshop will provide a full review of the SIPconnect Technical Recommendation, real-world insights into current SIP Trunking deployments, and a full understanding of the process and requirements of SIPconnect Compliant Certification.

Detailed Schedule:

10:00am-10:20am – Opening Remarks and Introduction: The Why and What of SIPconnect – Presenter: Marc Robins, Managing Director, SIP Forum

10:20am-10:40am -- The SIPconnect Value Proposition – Presenter: Marc Robins

10:45am-11:15am -- SIPconnect Compliance Process Overview – Presenter: Chris Gatch, CTO, Cbeyond

Topics include:

- A Discussion of the Application Process
- The Compliance Survey
- License Agreement Overview
- Discussion of the Certification Committee

11:15am-11:45am -- Lessons Learned – Presenter: Mark Enstrom, Broadsoft.

    Get real-world feedback from actual SIP Trunking/SIPconnect deployments. Topics include:

- How to use SIPconnect in your existing interoperability program to significantly reduce resource requirements
- How real-world service providers improved the economics of SIP Trunking services
- NAT/Firewall Issues
- The additional requirements needed to provide a successful SIPconnect Trunking service.

11:45am-12:00pm – Break

12:00pm-12:45pm -- SIPconnect Recommendation Deep Dive – Presenter: Chris Gatch, CTO, Cbeyond.

This session will provide a section-by-section review of the SIPconnect Technical Recommendation, with identification of key areas of interoperability and review of the latest SIPconnect Compliance survey results.

12:45pm-1:00pm—Closing Remarks and Q&A

PRESENTER BIOS

Mark Enstrom

Mark Enstrom is a telecommunications professional with almost 14 years of experience in the industry, including roles in Systems Engineering, Product Line Management and Product/Field Marketing. In these roles, Mark has been instrumental in many product introductions. As a member of the Field Marketing team at BroadSoft, he works with service providers on their go-to-market efforts for Hosted PBX, Business Trunking and SIP trunking solutions.
Before joining the Marketing team, he led the effort to define and document the SIP trunking solution, which is now BroadSoft’s fastest growing application. As BroadSoft’s representative to the SIP Forum, Mark was active with the SIPconnect Certification Committee and helped launch the SIPconnect Compliance Trademark. Prior to BroadSoft, Mark was with TTC/Acterna (now JDSU) and sentitO Networks (now Verso). Mark holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from the R. H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland.

Chris Gatch

Chris Gatch is the CTO and a founder of Cbeyond (NASDAQ: CBEY), a successful managed services provider started in 1999 and now publicly traded on the NASDAQ. Chris is responsible for Cbeyond's Engineering department as well as on-going network technology research and development. Chris has a bachelor's degree in computer engineering from Clemson University and a master's degree in the management of technology from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has served on the board of the Cisco BTS 10200 Users Group and the Service Provider Board of the International Packet Communications Consortium (IPCC). Chris has been professionally committed to VoIP technology since 1998.
Chris helped lead the formation of the SIP Forum’s Service Provider to IP PBX Interoperability Task Group for which he submitted the proposal to create. This task group produced the SIPconnect SIP Forum recommendation of which Chris was an editor along with Chris Sibley.

Marc Robins

Marc Robins currently serves as president of SIP Forum LLC (the operating U.S. subsidiary of the SIP Forum) and as the consulting managing director of the SIP Forum.

Marc is also the founder and Chief Technology Evangelism Officer of Robins Consulting Group (RCG), an IP Communications industry consultancy founded in 2003 that offers advisory, market intelligence and strategy development; and comprehensive marketing and communications and services for companies in the IP communications industry. RCG has also served as a producer of a number of special workshops and industry conferences.

Prior to RCG, Marc served five years as Vice President of Publications and Trade Shows, Associate Group Publisher and Group Editorial Director at TMC (Technology Marketing Corporation).  He was the co-founder, conference architect and co-chairman of TMC conferences, such as the Internet Telephony Conference & EXPO, and Communications Solutions EXPO, and also managed the operations of a number of leading industry publications -- including Internet Telephony® magazine, Customer Inter@ction Solutions®, Communications Solutions®, and Communications ASP®.
Over the course of his 25-year career, Marc has authored hundreds of articles, columns and special reports for leading telecommunications industry magazines. He continues to evangelize new IP communications technologies as a regular contributor to mainstream and business publications, and as the author of columns in various industry publications. Marc is also a frequent moderator and speaker at industry events and is a commentator for a variety of radio shows on the subject of VoIP and IP communications.

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Comcast 2.0

In December of 2004 I wrote an article titled VoIP 2.0 in Internet Telephony Magazine which focused in part on next generation devices VoIP service providers need to differentiate themselves.

Here is an excerpt from that article:

The Device Sells The Service

There are at last count over 100 VoIP service providers out there and counting. How will they differentiate themselves? Some will have the best user interface, price, quality of service, etc., but is that enough differentiation for hundreds of competitors that are effectively able to compete with one another globally? Carrier’s carriers like Level 3 and other new entrants to this market are going to be the backbone of the next generation of service provider making it easier than ever to compete in this market. The answer is simple. As VoIP becomes commoditized, many providers will look to Apple and copy the iPod model.

I am not talking about MP3 over IP. I am suggesting the development or rebranding of a device to lure customers into buying a service. When I look at my home wireless phone and compare it to my mobile phone I can’t believe they were both sold in the same century. Home phones do basically nothing, while today’s mobile phones can record calls, download and play music, boast speakerphone functionality, have built in SMS, IM and e-mail clients, can take and e-mail photos, videos, and voice messages, can operate in a walkie-talkie fashion, can support bluetooth, can be a PDA, can store thousands of contact records, can have memory expansion slots, can store appointments, a to-do list, and more. Surprisingly the prices for typical cordless phones and mobile phones aren't that different.

I believe that teenagers would give up their Xboxes this Christmas if they could buy a killer WiFi VoIP phone that let them talk for an unlimited amount of time, conference, IM, speakerphone, bluetooth, etc. I am just waiting for the brilliant service provider who brings it to market first.

Today I am happy to say that I have found the company who has come up with the killer VoIP device. It is Comcast, a cable company who is now ranked 4th in the United States in terms of providing phone service. Comcast has also released what they call an Enhanced Cordless Phone which is in a trial at the moment and will be rolled out in 2008.

What this phone does is exactly what I thought such a phone should do. It syncs with your online address book. It allows you to view and answer e-mail. It allows you to see your voicemails and listen to them in any order you choose. In other words the phone is much more like an iPhone or Simulscribe-enabled device.

I had a chance to speak with Cathy Avgiris, SVP and GM of the Comcast Voice Services Group while she was at CES in Las Vegas and she beamed with enthusiasm on the phone. She told me the next version of this product will be more PDA-like. In addition, Comcast will be partnering with other phone makers besides Vtech who is their current manufacturer.

Google eat your heart out as the good news about this cordless phone is not over. It does search. It allows you to search for generic items in a  geographic area... For example, pizza near your zip code. It allows you to then call the resulting company(ies) or if you prefer, save them to your address book for that big game on the weekend.

Avgiris consistently reminded me that her company is looking to reshape the way consumers think about cell phone service and they are absolutely doing so. Many companies I speak with talk a big game but coming out with a new consumer electronics gadget is the exact way to gain share in the IP communications service market and Comcast should be commended for their efforts. This phone is just so sticky... It will be difficult for customers to switch carriers once they get hooked.

This new phone is the new baseline for all VoIP carriers.

In case you are curious, the company who makes the web software powering this phone is based in Silicon Valley and is named Casabi.

Comcast is also up to other things such as soon to be providing universal Caller-ID service. For example while Cablevision has Caller-ID which displays on the phone and TV, Comcast is looking to one-up others by also making Caller-ID information available on the computer screen. This will likely be accessible via the company's SmartZone Communications Center which is said to be very powerful and should behave a lot like Microsoft Outlook.

In addition, Comcast has worked with Plaxo to develop the SmartZone address book and one-click entry for new contacts.

I have to be quite honest with my readers... If I make a prediction and identify a need in the market and a few years later, a company comes along and actually fulfills this need, I will be happy and write good things. Comcast has done an excellent job by marrying their service with consumer electronics. This is very smart and while the first generation Vtech phone is not going to be confused as an iPhone, it is just a matter of time before the form factor gets better and better.

I am extremely enthused by all the things I am hearing from Comcast in the world of communications and they should be commended for their efforts.

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Latin America VoIP Conference

We are very excited to announce that at the upcoming Internet Telephony Conference & Expo in Miami later this month, there will be a free session for resellers showing them how to best sell IP communications products and services to Latin America and the Caribbean.

Here is an overview of the session from the Reseller Solutions portion of the ITEXPO home page:

IP Telephony has been used for the past several years for bridging the islands of the Caribbean and the nations of Central and Latin America together at the service provider transport level. Now it is time to reveal how it is being used in the rapidly expanding mass market to bring small and medium business customers together. From the implementation of cost-effective IP based key systems for single locations with scattered phones in remote locations to small to medium size multi-site locations in neighboring countries, new developments have recently made the cost of IP- key system implementation go way down and the features available to the end-user customer go way up.

Jose Pardo from Allworx will be speaking at this session and I am looking forward to hearing what he has to say at the show.

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VoSKY Interview

Check out my interview with David Tang the vice president of Global Marketing at VoSKY the company who introduced me to the term Skype trunking a number of years back. VoSKY makes a number of products geared at integrating Skype into enterprise IT infrastructure in a seamless and cohesive fashion.

The interview discusses Tang's thoughts on trends in 2007, what is happening in 2008 and technologies which have changed the market.

In addition there are thoughts here on Google and Apple's entry into the market as well as what Tang will be discussing in his conference session later this month in Miami at ITEXPO.

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Huckabee and Evolution

I hate to get too into politics on this blog but I have to point to a Wired blog which discusses Mike Huckabee's denial of evolution and the fact that the earth is billions and not thousands of years old. I won't comment on it but you may if you like.

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New Obesity Drug

So here I am having lunch in front of my laptop which is why I probably decided to click on this story about a new obesity drug. What is fascinating about the approach of this drug is that it uses the marijuana effect in reverse meaning it is the anti-munchy drug.

In other words it targets the area of the brain which marijuana stimulates to make you hungry but tries to cause the exact opposite reaction.

The drug, called taranabant, is now in the final stage of the three-phase FDA-approval process.

Normally topics relating to drugs aren't part of my blog content but then again I am not sure why it is on Wired magazine's website which is where I found it in the first place.

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Electronic Reminders

If you are constantly forgetting things, you may be interested in finding a site that can help you manage your busy schedule. A short and to the point Wall Street Journal article will help you keep track of all your most important announcements. Of special interest are gottakeepup.com and ohdontforget.com.

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Second Life Real Estate Crash

The spillover from the housing crunch which was fueled by easy to acquire subprime mortgages has finally spread to other sectors of the economy. The first to be hit is the virtual world of Second Life. Unconfirmed Sources has more.

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12 GB MicroSD Card

I was waiting for a higher capacity MicroSD card as the 8GB card just wasn't enough for my needs. I thought perhaps the Consumer Electronics show would bring us a 16 GB card but I was off by 4 GB.

So today, I would like to inform you that Sandisk has released a 12 GB MicroSDHC card which is still nothing to sneeze at. In fact, the company claims and I have no reason to disagree that this is th largest capacity card for mobile phones.

I have had a conflict in the past with MicroSDHC cards as a 4 GB card did not work in an HTC XV6700 phone. Let's see if the 12 GB works in the XV6800.

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Nice Systems Win

Nice Systems recently reported multi-million dollar contracts with a number of banks.

The banks are using NICE Perform, part of NICE SmartCenter, as well as an enterprise fraud solution from Actimize, which NICE acquired in August. With NICE SmartCenter these banks will be able to gain insights into customer and employee behavior – insights which can then be used to drive key business decisions.

The goal of the implementation is to be able to uncover customer trends sooner so the bank can be proactive in providing better customer service. Certainly this is a NICE situation for bank customers.

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SIP vs. Radius

I was pretty interested to find this article by Mae Kowalke on SIP vs. Radius titled Top Five Reasons SIP is Better Than RADIUS. Radius stands for Remote Authentication Dial In User Service and is an an authentication, authorization and accounting protocol for controlling access to network resources. However, in more and more cases, a switch is being made to the newer Session Initiation Protocol.

This article contains an interview with Barry Sher of IVR Technologies and Sher does a good job of explaining the differences. As you may recall I have written about Sher and IVR Technologies before. Enjoy.

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