GENBAND Perspectives 2013 Live Blog

Check out What’s on Tap for the GENBAND Perspectives Summit? by TMCnet’s Rich Steeves

See me live at 2:00 pm today here at GENBAND Perspectives 2013 where I speak on a panel “Harnessing the Power of Social Networking” in the Grand Cypress Ballroom here at the Hyatt Regecy Grand Cypress.

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I am in Orlando for GENBAND Perspectives 2013 and the show is about to begin. last night there was a poolside reception which was rained out – but the venue was able to move about 1,000 people quickly indoors where the reception continued without a hitch. OK, a few of us had some wet clothes but other than that things have gone well so far.

Drummers kick off event

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GENBAND Chairman David Walsh takes the stage. “Digital life is interactive. We are constantly interacting with it. None of it can happen without secure digital networks.” Will companies, lead, follow or get run over? They have to decide he said.

General discussion about how many new domain names are registered… How many emails are sent – how much of it is spam (hint: almost all), how many people are on the Internet, etc.

He segued into a discussion of OpenTable and Uber – apps which don’t use people but they facilitate transactions between buyers and sellers for restaurants and car services. 1 in 8 married couples met online he continued.

He made a funny telecom joke – if you got hear early, you could use SinglesAroundMe to find a date and then use Uber to get a car and OpenTable for a restaurant location – this is the new triple play. regular_smile

He also discussed WhatsApp and Viber – he uses and loves both. He mentioned these OTT services are great but not ubiquitous. GENBAND is developing tech to allow these services to be federated.

Discussion moved to WiFi – he discussed the law of wireless gravity – bits will find their way to lowest cost infrastructure as fast as possible. “Spectrum is constrained and expensive. We can use math and science to make it more efficient but it isnt as effective as fiber which you can deploy more of to add capacity.”

New York will become a carrier by converting phone booths to wireless hotspots – they will be able to become an ad agency and deliver content to various geographies and generate revenue. Hotels are also telecom carriers because networks are built where people gather and vice versa.

Discussion of how much heat is generated by data centers – they are power an water hogs (for cooling). Intertech is their partner and they provide more efficient cooling solutions.

We are beginning to see the start of cyber-warfare they also have an investment in Mandiant – the company finds and remediates problems. Also they are working with ISC8 to help find faults before they happen because quite often you find a threat 40 months after the intruder got into your network.

Devices are more valuable than ever. We want to help you [carriers] become a vital part of this evolution.

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Charlie Vogt President and CEO takes stage

Discussion of the pace of change, GENBAND success – growth, speed of growth and forecasts of future growth. 80 of top 100 service providers are their customers. They are a hug part  of Verizon FiOS, BT, Shaw, NTT, Telus and a number of other carriers. At CIBC and University of Texas at Austin – they are providing significant telecom infrastructure.

We are watching a video about how GENBAND empowers service providers and enterprises – by boosting scalability, efficiency and profitability – “Making Networks Smarter.”

$100M annually in R&D is invested by the company. Small cells, WebRTC and cloud are a few areas of these investments.

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Verizon CTO Tony Melone takes stage starts off – tech can build a better future… Together with partners we will take on societal challenges, healthcare, public safety, education, etc. Gave example of a wireless telepresence robot to allow remote students to learn. Also, “Make the world more sustainable and improve healthcare and remake entertainment with state of the art infrastructure which delivers superior experience consumers want.”

Apps have to run on secure, reliable, available infrastructure – this is the vision at Verizon. We strive to deliver this day in and day out. 4 platforms.

4G/LTE – largest footprint in US and world… We achieve speeds faster than advertised today. US is ahead of world in 4G – thanks to our competitors trying to catch us.

IP – important in everything we do

FiOS – our Quntum services offers 300 mbps to consumers – soon we will offer 1 gbps if they need it. Reminds us we constantly underestimate tech needs/growth.

Cloud: Terremark: this is an important part of our portfolio.

We built 4G on 700 mhz spectrum and will put AWS to use soon. We need more spectrum and will go out an get it as needed. He doesn’t understand why some want to limit telco access to spectrum.Explained the company is using the spectrum it acquires – it doesn’t shelve it. It is investing billions in spectrum build-out in-fact. Won’t launch before it is ready- it is not trivial to build a nationwide VoLTE/wireless VoIP network.

Video is 50% of global traffic on backbone some estimate as high as 90% in not too distant future.

Gave shout out to GENBAND, Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent and others who allow them to provide more cost-effective services.

Moved to smart-home discusion – FiOS – PON – 18M homes, mid-30% penetration roughly. 150 HD channels and reminded us up to 300 mbps to the home. They will migrate the backbone from 2.5 Gbps to 40 gbps and when this happens, they can provide 1 gbps to home.

In their broadband home router – they want to add intelligence so new devices can connect quickly and then connect to the cloud without user set up. They want to mak it easier for consumers to get access to the latest technology.

They see FiOS more as a business play – allows them to enhance their investment in the asset. They are being aggressive in moving from copper to fiber. Will accelerate this move based on what they
learned in Hurricane Sandy.

“Cloud is real and growth continues… Means different things to different people.” They focus on enterprises – secure connections to cloud with a breadth of services. Managed apps and services…

Thinks their platform will be ideal for partners to build upon. This is how they want to help solve the challenges in the world.

He then showed a video – some of it is below:


We enable so much of what is possible with innovation – we shouldn’t forget how important we are – we need to continue building trust with customers – provide reliable networks etc.

M2M 40% growth – 50B devices by 2020 to be connected – partnership with QUALCOMM, Mphase – make it easy to take non-traditional devices – connect to Verizon Wireless network.

How can we make tech make the lives of our customers better and improve societal issues like healthcare.

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Tim Wagner of Samsung takes the stage to discuss the company’s transformation of the last three years – how the company has become a smartphone leader from a feature phone leader… Said no other company has done this. Largest electronics company in world… $200B organization. Selling 1,500 devices per minute.

Talked about how their commercials made their competition seem like the device was for old people – basically talking about Apple and the ads where Samsung users wet to the lines where Apple customers were waiting to buy.

Now discussed how much their social media presence has grown. Also – discussed hoe 500+ customers launched the Galaxy S4 phone at once. Around 120-125M Galaxy devices have been deployed. This doesn’t count TVs appliances, feature-phones and other devices.

Discussed Samsung SAFE for enterprise – connects device to MS Exchange and ActiveSync, on device encryption, VPN support, MDM support from AirWatch etc.

Says they have systematically defragmented Android – makes the devices consistent across carriers and form factors and price points. IT manager can test one device and add SAFE – not each device.

26 devices run SAFE today.

Gave case study examples of successes.

AA has 16,800 Galaxy Note devices – allows American Airlines to provide same level of service to top First or Business Class. Their business is transformed – no more manuals or paper tickets.

Helping customers with tech implants – heart issues – allows them to know if they have heart problems through app on phone. First tablet approved for cockpits in US. DISH Networks – reducing four-hour window, use Galaxy Note to track installers and reroute them based on success at install. Allows them to check reception from top of ladder – don’t need to go back down to test repeatedly. Can upsell and gt an electronic signature. Takes a four-hour window to potentially a 90-minute window – changes their business.

65,000 unit Galaxy win at HP.

Moved to discuss Samsung Knox – starts from metal of device to software… Allows work/life balance – keeps you from losing personal photos when enterprise wipes your device.

When turned on – looks for Samsung OS – if it doesn’t find one, it will not boot up. Worked with NSA on this – security enhanced Android. Any unapproved apps are deleted/killed. General Dynamics is selling these to the government. They decided to focus on Government realizing that other regulated industries will follow.

Also have a container for business and personal use.

We have the most number of smart devices that are out there he said.
education, healthcare, manufacturing, hospitality and other vertical solutions are their focus going forward.

Samsung and GENBAND collaboration – enhance productivity, anytime, anywhere access to data – creating “Smarter Office.” Discussed better business value.

He gave an example of allowing you to tap a phone to a tablet and being able to transfer a all from your office to your mobile device so you can listen to your conference call on the way home and spend more time with your family. Then explained they think GENBAND is the ideal partner to help them provide all this value to the market.

Samsung has an Oprah Moment – everyone in the audience gets a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 – now that is amazing!

This concludes the live blog for now – I am about to prepare for my talk in a few hours – right after the lunch break.

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