Conferencing

Digium Picks Integrics to Power Carrier Solutions

May 13, 2008

Perhaps one of the biggest misperceptions among those who dabble in communications is that Asterisk is only used in small business environments. The reality is that Asterisk is being used in service provider environments as well.

Of course this doesn't mean that a product which happens to work great in a small to medium business is also able to simply flip a switch to become the heart of a service provider install.

In other words Asterisk + "a variety of additions" is what Mrs. or Mr. service provider needs to use this popular open source product to power services to their customers.

In an effort to simplify the process of adding Asterisk to the service provider environment, Digium -- the company behind the world's most popular open source communications software has partnered with Integrics, the maker of Enswitch.

According to an article on the subject by TMCnet's Susan Campbell, Enswitch allows service providers to use Asterisk in order to provide, full-featured, telephone management and billing solutions, calling card integration, toll free and number translation services, voice mail, call queuing, ACD, fax to e-mail, and multi-level IVR.

I am pretty impressed with the feature-set of Enswitch. For example, they provide XML and PDF invoices for customers, wizard-based activation, simple sales tax management, web-based administration, sophisticated authentication mechanisms, shared speed dials, .csv integration, dial by name, unlimited classes of service, etc.

In fact you may be hard pressed as a carrier to find a feature that Integrics hasn't thought of.

So what does such an announcement mean to the market? Well first off, service providers are likely to feel more comfortable working with products from Integrics as they now have the Digium brand, muscle and market power behind them.

In addition, we can expect the service provider market to embrace open source at an even more rapid pace than they are already doing.

Posted in AT&T, Blackberry, Broadband, Call Center, Cisco, Conferencing, FCC, IMS, IP Communications, IPTV, ITEXPO, Nortel, Open Source, SIP, Science, Security, Technology, Unified Communications, Verizon, Video, VoIP, WiMAX, Wireless

UMAThought Leader Steve Shaw on TMCnet

May 9, 2008

Few people know more about UMA than Steve Shaw... He really lives and breathes this market. This is why I am thrilled Steve will be writing for TMCnet with a special focus on unwired mobile access or UMA.

Here is his first column -- which presents a good overview of the market and really plants the seed for future articles.

As always, we at TMCnet do our best to present our audience with the best writers in the market and we are thrilled to continue to be the primary global resource for communications and technology purchasing decision-makers.

Posted in AT&T, Apple, Avaya, Blackberry, Broadband, Call Center, Cisco, Conferencing, Consumer Electronics, FCC, IP Communications, Microsoft, Nortel, SIP, Security, Technology, Unified Communications, Verizon, Video, VoIP, Wireless

PAETEC: Success Under the Radar

May 8, 2008

Recently I traveled to San Francisco to PAETEC World, the largest of annual meetings that PAETEC has with its customers. During this cold San Francisco week, over 350 customers and well over 100 PAETEC employees spent a few days in a downtown San Francisco, CA hotel learning, exchanging ideas and networking at evening receptions.

To my knowledge I am the first analyst or reporter ever invited to this event and this fact coupled with my desire to learn more about the company made me jump on a plane to meet with the company's execs and customers.

In a keynote speech there were slides showing how much farther ahead the Company is than the competition in terms of service. At the same time, PAETEC was frank in recognizing they still have room for improvement, admitted their imperfections, and shared their plans for growth. They frankly want to change the dynamics of the industry.

Now let's sit back and think about that for a moment.

Posted in AT&T, Broadband, Call Center, Cisco, Conferencing, FCC, IP Communications, Microsoft, SIP, Security, Technology, Unified Communications, Verizon, Video, VoIP, WiMAX, Wireless

Vonage Record Quarter: Jeff Citron Interview

May 8, 2008

Vonage has done a great job this last quarter -- posting growth numbers in a slower economy. I just had a podcast interview with Jeffrey Citron where he talked about the company's growth rate and the number of new initiatives at the pure-play VoIP service provider.

Citron explains that they are pleased with their financial performance as their revenue was $225 million and this is a 15% increase from the previous year. One great bit of news is that expenses increased and adjusted operating income is now $8 million.

These results were ahead of expectations and in addition to the news on earnings, Citron was proud to explain how well-received his new products have been. Visual voicemail and unlimited international calling are some of these new items.

Moreover, the company has a new prosumer product and another called Companion which installs on your computer and works in conjunction with your phone service.

Perhaps most importantly, Vonage is becoming a double-play provider by reselling Covad broadband DSL service.

Posted in AT&T, Broadband, CRM, Call Center, Cisco, Conferencing, Consumer Electronics, E-Commerce, FCC, Google, IP Communications, Microsoft, Nortel, Open Source, Patent, Podcast, SIP, Science, Security, Technology, Unified Communications, Verizon, Video, VoIP, Vonage, Wireless

Sangoma's David Mandelstam Shares Thoughts

May 2, 2008

Sangoma's David Mandelstam always has something interesting to say so I invited him to have a podcast with me. What can you learn from listening is how well Sangoma and other communications companies are doing -- even in a slow market. In addition you can learn how communications technology really allows the world to go green.

There is also some discussion of what parts of the world are growing fastest and who likes open source and why. Here is the podcast for more.

Posted in Broadband, Call Center, Conferencing, Microsoft, Open Source, Technology, Unified Communications, VoIP

Nortel's Joel Hackney Discusses Earnings

May 2, 2008

Nortel announced earnings today and to get more detail on the news I had a chance to speak with Joel Hackney, President of the Enterprise Solutions Group at Nortel.

Some details worth sharing... The company's net loss widened but revenue was up 11% and gross margins have been increasing for six quarters. Operating margin was just under 5% which is up from the prior year.

Overall, this interview shows that many communications companies continue to do well in a slower economy.

For more details, check out this podcast interview.

You can find more Joel Hackney interviews here.

Posted in AT&T, Apple, Avaya, Blackberry, Broadband, CRM, Call Center, Cisco, Conferencing, Consumer Electronics, E-Commerce, FCC, Google, Green, IMS, IP Communications, IPTV, ITEXPO, JITC, Microsoft, Nortel, Open Source, Patent, Personal, Podcast, Rates Technology, SIP, Science, Security, Speech Technologies, TMCnet, Technology, Unified Communications, Verizon, Video, VoIP, WiMAX, Wireless

Interop Bound and Thanks

April 27, 2008

Another year, another Interop. I am off once again across the country to Vegas where I will likely spend more time standing in line than I will sleeping. How amazing is the fact that you can build a city in the middle of nowhere and after fifty years get people from all over the world to come visit your city and spend their precious time waiting. Waiting to gamble; waiting to eat; waiting for a hotel room; waiting, waiting, waiting.

Thankfully I will have all my gadgets and gizmos and will continue to blog and email away while I wait, wait for everything.

Having said all that, although I do despise the cab line that comes with the Vegas airport I do like the fact that the airport is not too far from the strip and moreover, at least Vegas is closer to Connecticut than California is.

How is that for turning my lemons into lemonade?

Posted in AT&T, Apple, Avaya, Blackberry, Broadband, CRM, Call Center, Cisco, Conferencing, IP Communications, IPTV, Microsoft, Nortel, Open Source, Patent, Security, Skype, Speech Technologies, Technology, Unified Communications, Verizon, Video, VoIP, Vonage, Wireless, Yahoo

Headed Back From Paetec World 2008

April 24, 2008

I really had some great meetings today with Fortune class companies who are in various stages of deploying VoIP. It is always great to get to spend time with these companies and learn about their challenges and success stories. I plan to cover this more thoroughly soon.

I have an immense amount of notes I need to digest it all and post in a way that helps my readers the most. I expect to do some of this in the flight back.

Posted in AT&T, Avaya, Broadband, Cisco, Conferencing, IP Communications, SIP, Technology, Unified Communications, VoIP, Wireless

Blackberry Voice Search

April 23, 2008

TellMe just launched a new application which allows people to use their Blackberry for voice search. utilizing the TellMe speech recognition engine and Microsoft Live Search, you can have search results automatically localized if you happen to have a GPS-enabled Blackberry.

This is a pretty big deal as it brings voice and local search together and shows where the search business is headed. It also shines light on what the real reason was for Microsoft to purchase Tellme. Not that any of us are surpised of course.

What might be worth discussion however is the fact that Microsoft would support RIM with an application which makes the Blackberry more attractive.

Posted in AT&T, Apple, Avaya, Blackberry, Broadband, CRM, Call Center, Cisco, Conferencing, Consumer Electronics, E-Commerce, FCC, Google, IP Communications, Microsoft, Nortel, SIP, Security, Speech Technologies, Technology, Unified Communications, Verizon, VoIP, Vonage, Wireless, Yahoo

Danny Windham Podcast

April 18, 2008

Yesterday's podcast with Digium's CEO Danny Windham is getting a good deal of exposure and a number of people have been commenting on it to me. There is also a related article written by TMCnet's Susan Cambpell worth reading.

For more, check out Digium: Driving Revenue in an Open Source World

See Also:
PhoneFromHere.com Teams with Digium on Embedded Java Softphone 3Com Selects NETXUSA as Value-Added Distribution Partner Phybridge Intros UniPhyer Solution for IP PBX and Open Source... Critical Links Adds Features to edgeBOX 4.6 Office-in-a-Box Appliance

Posted in AT&T, Avaya, Broadband, CRM, Call Center, Cisco, Conferencing, IP Communications, Microsoft, Open Source, SIP, Technology, Unified Communications, VoIP, Wireless

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