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In the year 2000 when society was in the midst of realizing how technology and the internet in particular was going to change the world, I noticed there was a need by companies and carriers to better understand the hosted communications space. There were a number of companies with very compelling business models being launched such as Congruency, the early pioneer and leader of the communication ASP movement.

Shortly after realizing the need for education in the market, TMC launched a magazine titled Communications ASP. The magazine was a hit with advertisers and readers for about six months until the VC community and the tech market as a whole seemed to turn on the term ASP" I haven't a clue to this day why the acronym wasn't accepted but it seemed to get lumped in with other technologies which were left for dead but emerged later - like "ecommerce," "VoIP" and others.

Suffice it say this publication and dozens of companies in the space were sentenced to death when funding was cut off by investors. I credit Marc Benioff, the founder of Salesforce.com, for defying gravity and keeping his ASP and the entire movement going.

This leading hosted CRM company showed Wall Street that the ASP model was a good one and now we take for granted that hosted communications and hosted everything else is something the market needs - especially in a slow economy. But now we call it "cloud-based" computing or "hosted" or "on-demand" or whatever seems to be trendy at the moment.

I was thinking about the history of ASPs during a meeting with Evolve IP's Scott Kinka, the senior vice president of network services. Kinka's company supplies hosted voice, security, UC and messaging services to companies in the U.S. During our conversation he kept mentioning call center wins and how companies are embracing hosted contact center solutions.

He in turn referenced Paul Adams, the director of product management for enhanced services at Broadsoft, the company supplying Evolve IP with equipment which allows their company to in turn provide services to their SMB, enterprise and call center customers.

I know Broadsoft very well as a major player in IP communications - their BroadWorks platform is a vital cog in the carrier machine of providing services for customers.

During a recent conversation with Adams, I asked about the company's call center strategy and he explained that they added contact center functionality about three to four years ago, and since that time they have been adding features, allowing the product to support more formal and larger centers.

Recently BroadWorks 16 expanded contact center functionality even more with the above trend being adhered to. I asked him how his company's products compare to premise or CPE equipment and he explained they are competitive with many hosted solutions but aren't focusing on the high-end centers where their needs to be a focus on blending (inbound and outbound agents coordinating calls) and multichannel routing. Interestingly, Scott goes into the sales process explaining this limitation upfront and it hasn't been a barrier to winning large deals, which he says are in the 400- to 500-seat range.

One of the advantages Broadsoft brings to the table is its integration with UC solutions and FMC. You see, Broadsoft's  end-customers get to take advantage of the latest in numerous technologies and they get it all integrated into their contact center solution.

And as agents become more informal and mobile, the company's ability to track calls while they are connected, including hold times, etc. mean that reporting becomes more accurate and call center management becomes more detailed and effective.

BroadWorks 17 is the next version in the pipeline and we can expect it to have enhanced reporting and ACD functions. A while back, Broadsoft purchased competitor Sylantro to pretty much become the 800-pound gorilla in the space. As the company continues to innovate and roll out new products, it can instantaneously upgrade the world's hosted contact center solutions provided by carriers. This is great for customers and yet another challenge for CPE vendors. But it seems there is still room to innovate on the high-end where Broadworks is not looking to compete - at least for now.

I have been a strong proponent of carriers rolling out WiFi networks as they provide another sticky service which customers are loathe to give up. Cablevision's Optimum WiFi which is a free WiFi service rolled out in much of the cable company's footprint is an example of a service which has been proven to reduce churn and is currently running at over one million minutes per day of usage.

AT&T's acquisition of Wayport and Verizon's partnership with Boingo show the carrier of the future needs to blend WiFi into their offerings. It should come as no surprise that wireless carriers are looking to WiFi networks running on unlicensed spectrum as they are being hammered by smartphones and iPod Touch devices.

The company providing the equipment which powers Cablevision's offerings is BelAir Networks and they have a product called the 100S which the cable company strings every 800 feet on their poles. They are plug-and-play devices that light up vast areas quickly. More recently they rolled out a 100SX device which also provides WiMAX.

An important point made during our conversation is how carriers are WiFi-enabling sporting and concert arenas to offset the network congestion becoming so rampant in areas where people gather.

I just had a conversation with Martin Suter the VP, Business Development at BelAir Networks about some of the exciting things happening in the space and some of the best points are captured in the video below.

You really can't have a serious discussion about WiMAX without asking Alvarion for their opinion. I did just that with Ashish Sharma who heads up Corporate Communications and Market Development for the company. Topics covered include the WiMAX business model, broadband stimulus around the globe and usage patterns of WiMAX users. I also asked about the WiMAX/LTE battle and if there needs to be a single winner. Check out the video for the answer.

Anantha Ramu of Acision spent some time discussing his company's initiatives in the world of mobile broadband. A new product the company offers allows carriers to tailor the mobile network based upon the value of the individual subscriber. By using it, carriers can ensure that at peak times, a low-value customer does not suck up all network bandwidth at the expense of high-value customers.

In addition, Anantha explained his company has a solution to gracefully allow carriers to handle 4G messaging while integrating with 3G messaging systems. He contrasts this to newer entrants in the market who come at it from a 4G/SIP-based approach which doesn't mesh well with legacy 3G solutions. Check out the video below for more.

I had a chance to speak with Doug Wolf and Kurt Steinart of Alcatel-Lucent about their ng Connect ecosystem and how this new and evolving ecosystem will tie together 4G networks with consumer electronics, telematics, digital signage and more. Another big bit of news is the recent Verizon Wireless win has opened up the door at carriers worldwide for Alcatel-Lucent. Here is the video - Kurt is on the left and Doug on the right.

Attendees shake off black swans and come to the show in large numbers

The results are in for ITEXPO West 2009. This is the second year in a row where some major black swan event took place the day before the show kicked off. Last year it was Lehman collapsing which sparked fears of a depression. This year it was wildfires and news media that hyped the incident in a manner which led many to believe the whole state was on fire.

Still, with significant headwinds, the total attendance was up 3% from last year - due to increased buyers in the exhibit hall.

Of the 6,109 in attendance, those from the enterprise comprised 28.5 percent. Service providers accounted for 26 percent. Resellers/integrators constituted 31.8 percent of attendees and developers/manufacturers made up the remaining 13.7 percent.

Thank you all for attending and also thanks to all the companies who hosted dinners and receptions. Andy Abramson and his team hosted a great "wine dinner" which coupled some of the best food you'll ever eat with a discussion of the wines being served based on his personal experience. Here is a video.

Last night I was at a media event focusing on WiMAX and 4G sponsored by Cisco and I spent some time discussing Clearwire's plans with Peter Cannistra who is in charge of market Development for the company. Peter detailed just how fast the company is rolling out towers and even mentioned New York and at least southern Connecticut will get coverage soon. I am very much looking forward to testing the service in TMC's Norwalk, CT headquarters.

One of the more interesting parts of the story is the complexity of getting fiber backhaul in New York from an "unnamed" company which Clearwire competes with.

We also had a chance to discuss the natural synergies his company enjoys with WiMAX operators which are in different territories which of course leads to the logical decision to deploy mobile roaming agreements with other operators.