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Service Providers Get Into Home Security

How do you get the triple-play to expand into the quintuple-play, etc? Easy... You add a brand new service -- home security to the mix. Quest is the first carrier to publicly promote the idea of service providers getting into the home security business.

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Peter Radizeski Joins TMCnet

TMCnet's latest blogger is Peter Radizeski. Peter is knowledgeable and not afraid to say what he thinks. He is direct and has a long history in telecom. He will will write things that ruffle feathers. His views many not always be the same as mine or of TMC's.

Having said all that, I can't be more glad to have Peter on my team and writing for TMCnet. he is well-respected and really knows his stuff. I have been fascinated by everything he has discussed or with me live or written. His blog is located at On Rad's Radar and here is his RSS feed which I just subscribed to this moment.



Here are his latest entries:

• Converged Savings
• Microsoft and SAAS
• Is Telecom Broken?
• Web Apps - IP and Privacy
• FOWA wrap-up
• FOWA Miami
• FOWA: Nokia night
• Sprinting Where?
• Widgets, Back-up, and stuff
• The FCC's Agenda

I did mention Peter in a post entitled TMCnet Continues to Grow and now that his blog is live, I thought it worth passing along the details.

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Airbone Settles Lawsuit

I must say that as an Airborne user, I really feel the product has helped me get better and avoid and/or shorten the duration of colds. Others disagree and have sued Airborne and the class-action lawsuit just settled for $23.3 million..

Here is an excerpt from a CNN article on the lawsuit:

"There's no credible evidence that what's in Airborne can prevent colds or protect you from a germy environment," said CSPI Senior nutritionist David Schardt. "Airborne is basically on overpriced, run-of-the-mill vitamin pill that's been cleverly, but deceptively, marketed."

According to the company's Web site, Airborne was created by second-grade teacher, Victoria Knight-McDowell, who "studied the benefits herbal therapies used in Eastern Medicine." The site says Airborne "boosts the immune system with seven herbal extracts and a proprietary blend of vitamins, electrolytes, amino acids and antioxidants."

I feel bad for suggesting this supplement in a past entry but I still feel this product works for me and yes, I know it is overpriced vitamins but I also think my car is overpriced.

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Rumor: Deutsche Telecom to Acquire Sprint

I don't want to predict a disaster but having Deutsche Telecom acquire Sprint doesn't make sense from the perspective of all the different network types these companies use. Sprint uses CDMA, Deutsche Telecom's T-Mobile uses GSM and Nextel uses iDEN. Oh, don't forget to add WiMAX to this mix.

It is unclear how many of the Sprint/Nextel problems were do to management problems as opposed to having to deal with two disparate network types.

Adding yet another technology to the mix seems like something only a masochist would want to do.

Oh, did I mention Merrill Lynch predicted that Deutsche Telecom will acquire Sprint? Merrill has a point from a market share perspective. I just have to ask what sort of tech/standards/integration disaster Deutsche Telecom would have on its hands if this deal happens.

See Also:

• Owner of T-Mobile may buy Sprint, analysts say
• Sprint Complaints
• Sprint Sues VoIP Firms
• Sprint Layoffs
• Rumor Mill: Google Acquiring Sprint

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Communications News March 7, 2008

My editorial team has selected the following stories as some of the most important ones of the week. Hopefully some or all of these news items will be useful to my readers.

Some of my favorite ones are how green Sony-Ericsson is, new patents for i2 Telecom and 8x8/Packet8, RingCentral's $12 million funding and Broadvox and The Amanda Company partnering.

• Is Your Business Ready for VoIP?
• Taking the First Step Toward Bandwidth Management
• Click-to-Call Benefits for the Customer and the Company
• Austin's CallTech and OnQ Solutions Declared 'Avaya Compliant
• ClearOne Ships New Automatic Digital Mixer
• Patton's CopperLink-T Ethernet Extenders
• 'Nortel, 'Polycom Empower Healthcare Through Telepresence
• RingCentral Secures $12 Million Series B Funding
• The Key Benefits of Hosted PBX
• Speakeasy Launches Hosted Communications Resource Center on TMCnet
• Hosted VoIP Provider Junction Networks Unveils New Bridging Application
• Westwood College Deploys IP PBX System From Interactive Intelligence
• Study Finds Parents Who Web Commute Can Better Balance Work and Family with Citrix Online
• Amtel's TIMS Cell Phone Software Platform
• Steps to a Smooth VoIP Phone System Implementation
• Broadvox Forms Partnership with The Amanda Company
• vHome Lite Residential VoIP Plan from VoipBar.com Helps Overseas Users Save Money on Phone Calls
• 8x8 Inc. Obtains Its 72nd Patent
• AudioCodes' Voice Over Broadband Gateway Picked by 012 Smile.Communications
• Vocio's TEM Software In Line With AOTMP Study
• Evotem University: Telecom Environment Management Program for Enterprise Telecom and IT Professionals
• The Future is Bright for IPTV, According to Research Report
• Contact Center Recording Helps Make Training More Efficient
• Wireless Backhaul Trends
• i2Telecom Issued US Patent for VoiceStick
• Wireless Mundi and Sangoma Partner to Offer Business Process Improvement Solution
• BroadSoft's IMS VoIP Platform, BroadWorks, Now Compliant with MMTel
• Gartner Report Highlights Trends and Competition Among Telecom Expense Management Firms
• ABI Research Report Shows Diminishing Time-to-Market Advantage for Mobile WiMAX
• Streamcore Sheds Light on Successful VoIP Deployments
• Sony-Ericsson Phone Declared Most Eco-Friendly

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Jaduka's New Products

Jaduka has a suite of new products/services which allow IP communications to enter the realm of web 2.0. The company has a suite of services in fact and they are worth discussing individually...

dukaDIAL lets you make phone-to-phone calls to anyone in North America for free. The concept is certainly not new but there is really no defacto leader in this space so the company could gain traction in this market. The way it works is via web form which you fill out and the calls are connected automatically.

dukaLINK Creates personal HTML hyperlinks that you can post on craigslist, Facebook, your blog or emails. The service is useful for people who want to shield their personal contact information from others while still allowing themselves to be reached.

dukaBUZZ was developed for bloggers and social media junkies who want to hear from their readers. This service is what I have referred to in the past as voice communities.

dukaBAR is a toolbar plug-in that automatically scans Web pages and converts all phone numbers into clickable links that initiate phone calls. There are other VoIP software companies doing this as well but this service does not require you to have a headset and microphone connected to your computer to make it work.

duhBATE lets you create your own presidential campaign by adding your voice to the likeness of your favorite politician (or the ones you love to hate).

The last one has some interesting possibilities as you can see below.

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Google TV Ads for Adwords

The latest industry where Google hopes to compete and subsequently keep executives at other corporations up at night is TV advertising. I came a cross a great article discussing Google's latest services in this space. In addition there is some analysis about the future of television in a Google advertising world.

What will happen, you may be wondering... On the one hand, things will get worse but on the other, they should get better. Check out the article for details.

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3-Way Chess

Everything seems to be getting more complicated these days. Office workers have to worry about e-mails, voicemails conference calls, managing their Blackberrys, etc. Even kids have it tougher than ever. They have to be able to IM with ten friends at a time, be great at video games, do many after-school activities and so on.

Perhaps the only thing which is still simple in life is board games. After all, you can play a game of Monopoly and it is pretty much the way it was 30 years ago.

So it was about time that chess become more difficult as well. In fact, we now have a new sort of chess game... 3-Way chess which allows three players to play against one another. The pieces all move how they normally do with the only difference being that pawns can take pieces in three different diagonal directions in the center of the board.

Players go in clockwise order and if two players gang up on one, it seems there is no way for the remaining player to win... Unless of course the player's last name happens to be Kasparov.

The winner of this game is the person who first places another player in check-mate.

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iPhone Gets ActiveSync

Last summer I wrote about by trip to Redmond to visit Microsoft and more specifically my thoughts on when the iPhone will get ActiveSync if ever. Here is an excerpt:

As part of the Redmond software giant’s mobility strategy, Jeff [Jeff Ressler, Director, Exchange Marketing] mentioned that ActiveSync has been licensed some device manufacturers which, of course, means the power of unified communications can be enjoyed on-the-go. I mentioned some rumors I heard about the iPhone supporting ActiveSync soon and Jeff told me he couldn’t comment. Perhaps this meant that there are serious talks with Apple in the works – he didn’t say they aren’t talking after all. Then again, Jeff could have a really great poker face. Time will tell.

I got the feeling the companies were in negotiations at the time. Confirmation of this fact comes from an interview with Terry Myerson, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Exchange.

We started talking with Apple about licensing Exchange ActiveSync before the launch of the iPhone last year. In fact, I met with Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller almost daily for a period of two weeks ironing out the details of the agreement. The result is a true collaboration between Microsoft and Apple.

We continue to compete with Apple in the computer arena and media player business. When it comes to mobile phones, Windows Mobile still delivers the premier mobile e-mail experience for Microsoft Exchange Server, by delivering the Outlook experience on a mobile phone and with the most complete support for Exchange’s many enterprise device management policies. But, we also partner with many mobile device makers – including Apple – and believe that by making Exchange an open platform, our customers and partners, ultimately, will be the beneficiaries.

Overall however, Microsoft knows cooperation and collaboration among diverse companies – from technology to hardware to content providers is becoming more commonplace. In today's world, open innovation and collaboration is simply smart business; in tomorrow's, it will be an absolute necessity.

This move is great for Apple but it will certainly show the shortcomings of ActiveSync. By this I mean that the software works well but is a battery hog. I carry spare batteries with my Windows Mobile 6 device and most people will probably not want to go through this hassle.

Apple may not have thought this problem through as the battery life of the iPhone is not great to begin with. Adding ActiveSync will likely make the iPhone a better device but you will want to have spare external batteries around if you get lots of e-mail.

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NEC, Microsoft, HP Labs and Comcast News

I was traveling yesterday and I didn't get a chance to communicate with my blog readers in the detail I would normally like to give. This morning I decided to share all the news that caught my eye from last night and this morning.


NEC VT800


The first up is the the new NEC VT800 which I thought was interesting as it is a network-ready video projector for around $1,000. Apparently the Ethernet port just manages the device... Too bad -- I thought for sure you could run presentations over your LAN with this nifty addition.

Hopefully this will change in the future and NEC will see fit to have this or a future device IP communications enabled so you could have one way video presentations from remote locations.

More from PCMAG and engadget

Steve Ballmer

Steve Ballmer is in the news and shares his views that Google is the company they need to beat and how he will do everything in his power to catch the search leader. In addition, he threw some jabs at Apple and get this... Said the MacBook Air lacked half the features of a PC.

Somehow I think there will soon be a new Apple ad about these comments.

More from InfoWorld and Reuters

HP Labs

HP spends $3.6 billion each year in R&D. A staggering amount to be sure. The big news here is that the 600 employees performing this work will now work on 20 to 30 projects instead of 150. In other words the company will be betting really big in a fewer number of areas.

Assuming the company is able to make the right bets we can expect innovation at HP to really soar and companies like Kodak who are looking to take the company on in the laser printer business should be scared.

More from AP

Call Center Jobs Increasing

There are some call centers closing but at the same time a number of new call centers have been opening around the world. In a slowing US economy it is great to see companies like Comcast adding hundreds of jobs in the Livermore, California area.

The new campus site is an existing lot of 26 acres that will house about 1,000 employees. Comcast will be the sole tenant in a three building campus that comprise 220,000 square feet. One building will be used for a new 500+ seat customer service center, which will replace Comcast's existing call center on Nissen Drive in Livermore. The other two buildings will house the company's expanding Livermore technical operations team and the regional office staff currently based in San Ramon.

A net of 200 jobs is expected.

More from a press release

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Hunter Newby Leaves Telx

For those of you who know Hunter Newby, you are aware is one of the more knowledgeable people in our industry. Hunter is especially well-versed in areas like net neutrality, fiber deployment and not surprisingly carrier hotels.

I know many of the customers of Telx and they tell me frequently that Hunter is the main reason they enjoyed (and even started) working with the company.

Over time of course the various Telx facilities in New York, Atlanta and other areas grew not just because of the personality of the Telx team but because they offered carrier hotel space where the majority of providers were located.

As Hunter has said in the past... Carrier hotels with access to massive amounts of fiber are like waterfront property.

Hunter recently informed me he will no longer be at Telx and soon in fact he will be starting a new venture. Here is an excerpt of a letter I received last night:

Ten years is a long time to be with one company in this industry. The truth is that telx has constantly evolved and changed so it was really not the same company for all of that time. Change is inevitable. The early success of telx was based on creating its own change and in effect it evolved to define the standard in the Meet-Me interconnection business.

From its roots in pre-paid calling cards the business shifted in to switch partitioning and wholesale international minutes arbitrage. The first colocation deal for one rack was done in late 1998. The first direct network to network interconnection with no local loop was run in 1999. The first CBX was held in 2002. In 2004 telx bought an entire Carrier Hotel. The rest is history. An amazing and powerful history!

I have many people to thank for my success - all of you. Without you there would have been no community, no ecosystem, no network-effect. All of these elements were critical and you each played a part and for that I am forever grateful and proud.

I begin my new venture next week and there will be a public announcement about it. I will also forward the announcement along to my contact list once it is released. Going forward you can use hunternewby@gmail.com or my new mobile 646 732 4300 to contact me. I prefer email as many of you know.

The good news is that Hunter will continue to provide his invaluable content to TMC and TMCnet in the future. Stay tuned for news on what he is up to.

In the mean time, you can brush up on Hunter's thoughts by checking out some of his past articles.

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