And the winner is Reynold Guerrier who traveled to Miami from Haiti and provides VoIP solutions for service providers.
Blogged via wireless handheld 
January 2008 Archives
There quite a lot of activity at the giveaway which consisted of an iPod Touch and Bose SoundDock.
Blogged via wireless handheld 
Blogged via wireless handheld 
We interrupt this IP communications conference with breaking news from the Wall Street Journal which tells us that US citizens will soon be receiving tax breaks in a major way.
Specifically:
Specifically:
Congressional aides said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader John Boehner reached an "agreement in principle" in meetings last night on a bill to provide roughly $100 billion in tax rebates to a broad group of workers and about $40 billion in tax breaks for business. The details still were being vetted with lawmakers, and Democrats and their allies already were raising concerns that the agreement does not include added spending on unemployment benefits or food stamps.
The rebates would be at least $300 for anyone who earned at least $3,000 in 2007, with $300 bonuses for children. People who owe income taxes would receive gradually more, up to $600 for individuals and $1,200 for couples. The rebates would be available to those below a certain income cap, likely $75,000 adjusted gross income for individuals and $150,000 for families.
Mitel's Simon Gwatkin spoke about the definition on unified communications and discussed his past ITEXPO presentations and how the market has evolved over the years.
Topics which were discussed include SOA, stove pipe elimination, how companies should look at business process improvement and UC integration.
Blogged via wireless handheld 
Audiocodes VP of marketing spoke about SIP extensively during a keynote in which he educated the audience about how the utilization of the SIP standard reduces the need for the reliance on proprietary APIs and even allows faster development and as an added bonus, reduces development time and makes engineers happier.
And believe me... No one wants a grumpy engineer.
Blogged via wireless handheld 
Sprint certainly needs to do something to reduce churn and to become relevant to customers once again. In an increasingly commoditized business they have done little to differentiate themselves from others through either unique handsets which customers want, network quality or anything else.
Unfortunately this means the company has to compete on price which obviously isn't working out to well for the wireless carrier based on its recent financial performance.
The company has just restructured in the hopes of solving its ongoing business problems.
Paul Saleh, chief financial officer; Tim Kelly, chief marketing officer; and Mark Angelino, president, sales and distribution -- will leave the company Friday. The company said William Arendt, senior vice president and controller, will serve as acting CFO, and John Garcia, senior vice president, product development and management, will serve as acting chief marketing officer. Paget Alves, regional president for sales and distribution, will serve as acting president, sales and distribution.
A management shuffle may help but what it really needs are better devices and a really captivating ad campaign promoting these devices and convincing us they matter.
Unfortunately this means the company has to compete on price which obviously isn't working out to well for the wireless carrier based on its recent financial performance.
The company has just restructured in the hopes of solving its ongoing business problems.
Paul Saleh, chief financial officer; Tim Kelly, chief marketing officer; and Mark Angelino, president, sales and distribution -- will leave the company Friday. The company said William Arendt, senior vice president and controller, will serve as acting CFO, and John Garcia, senior vice president, product development and management, will serve as acting chief marketing officer. Paget Alves, regional president for sales and distribution, will serve as acting president, sales and distribution.
A management shuffle may help but what it really needs are better devices and a really captivating ad campaign promoting these devices and convincing us they matter.
Tony Ryb kicks off the keynotes at ITEXPO East 2008 in Miami, FL to a standing room only crowd. The director of strategic enterprise technologies for Nortel discussed hyperconnectivity as it pertains to yacht racing and enterprise interactions.
Blogged via wireless handheld 
According to the IC3 or Internet Crime Complaint Center, Vishing is simply voice phishing, a scheme whereby unsuspecting callers are directed to rogue IVR systems which are disguised as real systems from banks, credit card companies, etc.
These systems masquerade as real banks interactive voice response systems asking for confidential information.
In other words there is a relatively new way to get unsuspecting people to part with their confidential and personal information.
The requests to contact these IVR systems can come via telephone calls as well as e-mails.
According to the Wall Street Journal there is a hacker who even sells a kit which crafts e-mails which look like they come from real banks.
So now, we need to not only be concerned about clicking on web links but also calling telephone numbers.
So why is this good news? Well, there is an opportunity for a developer to come up with a system that checks phone numbers against a vishing database to ensure the number called is not fraudulent.
A second option would be to do a database dip and look up the phone number being called just as you dial. When you call Bank of America for example you expect to see the display say Bank of America. If you see "Unknown" you know you dialed a suspicious number.
These systems masquerade as real banks interactive voice response systems asking for confidential information.
In other words there is a relatively new way to get unsuspecting people to part with their confidential and personal information.
The requests to contact these IVR systems can come via telephone calls as well as e-mails.
According to the Wall Street Journal there is a hacker who even sells a kit which crafts e-mails which look like they come from real banks.
So now, we need to not only be concerned about clicking on web links but also calling telephone numbers.
So why is this good news? Well, there is an opportunity for a developer to come up with a system that checks phone numbers against a vishing database to ensure the number called is not fraudulent.
A second option would be to do a database dip and look up the phone number being called just as you dial. When you call Bank of America for example you expect to see the display say Bank of America. If you see "Unknown" you know you dialed a suspicious number.
There has been a good deal of news coming out of ITEXPO so far this week and I would like to tell you I have been able to digest it all but clearly there was just too many things happening for any one person to absorb quickly.
Today is going to be a huge day with keynotes from Tony Rybczynski from Nortel at 9:45 this morning. Tony is one of the most knowledgeable and approachable communications experts I know and he has a gift for putting complex concepts in simple thoughts. You can read his blog here. Oh and you should know that friends and people without spell-check affectionately know him as Tony "Ryb."
Sharone Ben Levi of AudioCodes will keynote next and one of the reason's his perspective is important is the fact that AudioCodes works with numerous communications companies on product development and design due to the nature of their business. This allows AudioCodes and Sharone to have insight into the industry's future which can be very valuable to the rest of us.
Rounding out the Keynotes and leading up to the exhibit hall open is Simon Gwatkin of Mitel. Simon is funny and engaging and if we are lucky he will be in one of his moods where he will be able to educate us and make us launch at the same time. Oh and of course there is just something great about rounding out your keynotes with an English accent.
To learn more about the show's latest news, be sure to read the show dailies and the expo news page.
I have listed the show dailies which have run so far below:
A few of the recent news items from the news page above are as follows:
Today is going to be a huge day with keynotes from Tony Rybczynski from Nortel at 9:45 this morning. Tony is one of the most knowledgeable and approachable communications experts I know and he has a gift for putting complex concepts in simple thoughts. You can read his blog here. Oh and you should know that friends and people without spell-check affectionately know him as Tony "Ryb."Sharone Ben Levi of AudioCodes will keynote next and one of the reason's his perspective is important is the fact that AudioCodes works with numerous communications companies on product development and design due to the nature of their business. This allows AudioCodes and Sharone to have insight into the industry's future which can be very valuable to the rest of us.Rounding out the Keynotes and leading up to the exhibit hall open is Simon Gwatkin of Mitel. Simon is funny and engaging and if we are lucky he will be in one of his moods where he will be able to educate us and make us launch at the same time. Oh and of course there is just something great about rounding out your keynotes with an English accent.To learn more about the show's latest news, be sure to read the show dailies and the expo news page.
I have listed the show dailies which have run so far below:
A few of the recent news items from the news page above are as follows:
- Allworx Announces New 9200 IP-Phone Series at ITEXPO
- Allworx Enhances Channel Programs
- Cbeyond Experts to Present SIPconnect Sessions at ITEXPO East 2008
- VoIP Network Test Solutions Provider Packet Island Demonstrating its Distributed Ethereal 'Sniffer' at ITEXPO
- Clarus Systems and IQ Services Highlight VoIP and UC Collaboration at ITEXPO
- Ring Carrier To Demonstrate Solutions at ITEXPO
- HD Video Conferencing at ITEXPO East 2008
- Epygi Technologies to Exhibit VoIP Solutions at ITEXPO
- Reseller Day at ITEXPO Adds New Session Focusing on Telecommunication Needs of Caribbean Island Nations
- KS Telecom to Launch IP PBX and IP SIP Phone Lines at 2008 ITExpo
Thanks to all attendees, exhibitors and sponsors for making the show so energetic throughout day 1. Wow! I can't believe what a great day we all had. The deal making was fantastic to see and bodes well for communications in 2008.
Thanks all for the nice comments and the presentations will be available online after the show.
Blogged via wireless handheld
Jazinga makes a SOHO PBX and just came out of stealth mode. Their target is 15 users or less. Their appliance has a firewall and router built-in and Gordon Wade the company's VP of sales and bizdev tells me you can install their appliance in minutes. Cost is under 1000 dollars.
The system has Adobe Flex-based wizards that help with user addition, phone provisioning, auto-attendant set-up with drag and drop IVR and more.
The product has been in R&D for over a year and their are advanced unified communications functions built-in.
The company will through VARs and consider OEMing to hardware companies.
Blogged via wireless handheld
Here are a few shots I snapped while walking around after the exhibit hall opened.
Blogged via wireless handheld 
Check out these shots of the Excel bus which they own and use as part of their marketing. This is a great addition to the show.
Blogged via wireless handheld 
Verizon's Les Goldman discusses the potential and complexity (see slide below) which make VoIP an opportunity and a challenge. IP communications problem solving is expensive and requires the right tools and expertise.
Mobility compounds the problems according to Goldman. This is because there is yet another service provider involved when you go mobile.
Blogged via wireless handheld 
