Build Communities With Google's Help

Let's say your company plays in a few different spaces such as information technology, security and storage. And let's say your company has decided to build a community of interest which is dedicated to a specific subject area as you... continue reading...

CBX 2008 News and Analyis

Telx CBX has kicked off and I am going to be doing all the video reporting in about 20 minutes. Here is my quick take on the news breaking from the show so far: WBS Connect will provide telepresence service... continue reading...

Will LTE Fuel IMS?

Will LTE fuel IMS? Bob Emmerson seems to think so and he has a great point. With similar elements defined in WiMAX, LTE and IMS, the chances that carriers will have to install more and more IMS components are good.... continue reading...

Headed to Telx CBX 2008

Later this week I will be a video reporter at the Telx CBX (customer business exchange) event in New York. I always like the CBX events and am looking forward to meeting with the companies in the carrier hotel space... continue reading...

One More Reason To Vacation in the Bahamas

Recently the Bahamas Telecom Company (BTC) decided to migrate its existing countrywide wireline network to IP using Sonus and Calix gear. The move to IP will reduce the amount of equipment that needs managing and in addition, the Bahamian phone... continue reading...

Roku: The Apple of TV?

Without a doubt, the new Netflix Player by Roku set top box will become a serious contender for the title "iPod of the world of television." I haven't seen this device yet but based on what I have read... continue reading...

CBS Picks up CNET

Congratulations to CNET for being acquired by CBS for a 40% premium. I have always admired the company and I am curious to see how it changes as it becomes part of a larger media company which has so many... continue reading...

New WiMAX News Site

TMCnet grows daily with thousands of new news items and stories. As the site grows, we are always looking for ways to improve. One of these ways is to develop community pages which focus on a particular subject matter... continue reading...

Digium Picks Integrics to Power Carrier Solutions

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... continue reading...

Nortel's Joel Hackney Discusses Earnings

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... continue reading...

Interop Bound and Thanks

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... continue reading...

Ortiva Wireless Enables Mobile Streaming

Do you remember the past CEO of Cantata, Mark Zionts? He keynoted a past ITEXPO and was head of the company just before it sold to Dialogic. Since then he joined another company which he helped sell and now he... continue reading...

New TMCnet Record and New Writer

Thanks to our readers -- once again, TMCnet has hit a new record. In this case, we built a Global Online Community in conjunction with Interactive Intelligence and this community generated just under 600,000 page views in one month according... continue reading...

Dialogic Analyst/Media Day

Today I head to New York City for a Dialogic Press and Analyst day. We will be having a function this evening in Yankee Stadium which should be lots of fun. Many people have asked me to bring them some... continue reading...

Openwave Turns Service Providers into Internet Companies

For years, service providers could see their competitors coming head on. For example CLECs and VoIP providers are pretty easy to spot and entrenched telecom providers worldwide have adopted different strategies to battle these new entrants. But that was the... continue reading...

Target Service Provider Marketing by Pontis

At the recent CTIA show in Las Vegas, much of the talk centered around how service providers need to focus on generating revenue from advertising as companies like Google will be giving away many of the services they hope to... continue reading...

TiVo On the Offensive

It seems TiVo is on a roll as Dish Network has failed to to convince an appeals court to overturn a previous patent win. Dish Network could end up paying from about $100 to $200 million as a result... continue reading...

IPTV Growth

TMCnet's Eve Sullivan writes about the massive adoption rates of IPTV worldwide. Apparently IPTV services grew from 4.7 million households in 2006 to 14 million in 2007. The growth rate in Europe actually hit 250%. Here is more information... continue reading...

Podcast: Ken Lamneck - President The Americas, Tech Data

Ken Lamneck President The Americas Tech Data Distribution companies are in a great position to tell us what trends to look for in the market. What is hot? What is not and more. It is for this reason I was... continue reading...

FTTH is Needed Soon

I agree with Gary Kim that FTTH is needed, if not today, at least very soon. Unless a service provider is looking to sell out this year or next, they should be considering doing what rural Smithville Telephone did... continue reading...

Communications Developer Call for Papers

Be sure to submit your call for papers entries for the Communications Developer show which will be collocated with ITEXPO later this year in the Los Angeles, California Convention Center. The specific dates of the event will be September 16-18,... continue reading...

Bob Emmerson: TMC's European Editor

Bob Emmerson joins TMC as out European Editor. We are truly proud to have Bob join the team as he is a communications and technology veteran. Previously, Emmerson was a designer of digital control systems, a journalist, and a copywriter.... continue reading...

TMCnet Podcast Library

Sure you have an iPhone or iPod or even a PC where you like to listen to your music. But have you had a chance to listen to TMCnet's high quality podcasts as of yet? ;-) I know many... continue reading...

TMCnet Gets a Redesign

I am very happy to be the first to tell you TMCnet is in the midst of one of its largest graphical overhauls. We are very proud of our new look which emphasizes softer blue colors and shades. There are... continue reading...

Mind CTI Interview: Monica Eisinger

In the past few years there has been tremendous interest paid to VoIP and the underlying internet protocol which allows IP communications to take place. For those people who started to pay attention to the communications space in the last... continue reading...

TMCnet Hits 100 Sponsored Community Milestone

All I can say is thank you to our loyal readers who visit TMCnet frequently and our sponsors who have launched communities and channels in partnership with TMC on TMCnet. Furthermore, thanks for your loyalty and the nice testimonials many... continue reading...

TMC Growth Update

Congratulations to TMC's Kevin Kiley who was just promoted to VP of Finance. Great job Kevin. In addition I would like to thank TMC readers and our partners who have allowed us to continue our wave of growth. In the... continue reading...

AT&T Mobile TV

In May, millions of AT&T subscribers will have access to television via AT&T Wireless. Credit Qualcomm's MediFlow whose technology will be responsible for this service and expect it to compete with with a similar service from Verizon Wireless. What sorts... continue reading...

Carriers Need Advertising

I have been saying for over a decade that carriers need to explore ways to deliver enhanced services. To be fair, some companies are doing this. AT&T has done an amazing job partnering with Apple (the way I hear it,... continue reading...

Dan Miller New TMCnet Columnist

As I mentioned a while back, TMC is experiencing record growth and I promised we would maintain our high levels of quality as we grow. TMCnet currently has just under 50 worldwide columnists and most of them write daily or... continue reading...

Where is the TMC Team?

This week, we have a total of nine TMC team members traveling to industry events. Dave Rodriguez, Erik Linask and I are headed to VoiceCon while Greg Galitzine will be at VON. I am looking forward to an information packed... continue reading...

Hot News: Ixia, VPI, Wyde Voice, Google, Spirent, Sangoma, LifeSize, Aculab and more

I try not to play favorites with the news and instead of giving you my picks of the week, I defer to TMC editors who picked the following stories as some of the week's best. This week, we have a... continue reading...

Ken Camp is Available

Regular readers of my blog and attendees of TMC expos no doubt know Ken Camp. Ken is very knowledgeable in the field of information technology with special expertise in communications and security. He has written books, articles, spoken at shows... continue reading...

Yes, Telecom is Broken

Yes Peter, telecom is broken in some areas you mention but in others it seems to be doing just fine. What scares me most about the points you mention is how our politicians and regulators don't seem to care about... continue reading...

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... continue reading...

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... continue reading...

Packet8 Get's 72nd Patent

Chalk up yet one more patent for Packet8. U.S. Patent No. 7,339,604 is the company’s 72nd patent to date. The official name of the patent is "Videoconferencing Arrangement Having Multi-Purpose Digital Still Camera," and it was given on Tuesday, March... continue reading...

AT&T's Bullish Investment

AT&T is making a major telecom investment in many areas of its business. The telecom giant cites the explosion of high-speed networks, data consuming devices and the move to IP as the reason for this investment. The money is... continue reading...

TMCnet's New Vertical Communities

Over the past decade, TMCnet has become the accepted resource for news, product research and analysis in communications and technology markets - including telecom, VoIP, and contact centers. Moreover, the site has become the defacto location online where companies build... continue reading...

Podcast: Joel Hackney, Nortel

If you want some great perspective on Nortel's recent earnings as well as information on which areas of Nortel are doing best, be sure to check out this podcast interview with Joel Hackney, President of the Enterprise Solutions Group at... continue reading...

IMS News from Ericsson, Radvision and Quanta

There is a good amount of news in the IMS space these days and perhaps most exciting is Ericsson working with Beijing Netcom, a branch of China Netcom to provide an IMS platform for the Olympics. It will be... continue reading...

TMCnet Services

In an effort to allow TMCnet readers easy access to the breadth of TMCnet services such as the personalized MyTMCnet and TMCnet Mobile, TMCnet has launched a new TMCnet Services page which will allow you to instantly access the... continue reading...

AT&T U-verse Improves

Today I was perusing a press release from AT&T touting the new HD channels they will be offering in Fairfield County, Connecticut as part of their U-verse offering. This release was of special interest since this county is where... continue reading...

Building IMS Applications

TMC's Erik Linask If you are interested in learning the latest information regarding how you can build IMS or IP multimedia subsystem applications, I suggest you check out this article by Erik Linask which discusses a webinar regarding this... continue reading...

David Yedwab Live on TMCnet

You may know David Yedwab as one of the leading analysts in telecom. If you aren't aware of him, then I am glad to let you know that David is now writing for TMCnet and his columns can be found... continue reading...

Senate Passes new 911 Bill

The Senate just passed the IP-Enabled Voice Communications and Public Safety Act of 2007 which amends the Wireless Communications and Public Safety Act of 1999 to impose on IP communications service providers engaged in interstate or foreign communication a requirement... continue reading...

What Nortel Should do Now

Nortel will be cutting 2,100 jobs and shifting about one thousand more to areas which have lower costs. These actions are in response to a wider loss in the fourth quarter. The company remains optimistic about its long term future... continue reading...

Pakistan Blocks YouTube Worldwide

It is quite scary to hear that when Pakistan ordered YouTube to be blocked, they accidentally blocked the site around the world. Can you imagine what would happen if other countries start  accidentally blocking unfriendly sites worldwide? More... continue reading...

Some Webinars to Witness

If you aren't aware, it seems like my responsibility to at least mention some webinars worth attending. They happen to all be webinars that are hosted by TMC. I am going to try to attend them all. Some of the... continue reading...

Thank You Kevin Martin

It seems as if FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is the champion of the US citizen today at the FCC Forum as he seems genuinely concerned that there is discrimination taking place on the internet. Moreover he seems concerned about the... continue reading...

FCC Forum Starts This Week

This week there will be an FCC Forum in Boston where the FCC will be discussing many issues regarding the future of the internet. While the lobbying system of the US is wonderful in that it allows many to have... continue reading...

Pakistan Blocks YouTube

Remember a while back when I suggested we use YouTube as a political barometer in response to Iran blocking the video sharing site? Well, Pakistan is the latest country to join the list of YouTube blockers. More See also: Blogging... continue reading...

Skype Serves up 100 Billion Minutes

What can you say about a company that has generated 100 billion minutes of telephone traffic. Skype has been around for 4.5 years by the way making this milestone an even greater accomplishment. While these minutes were all free, it... continue reading...

Jon Arnold on Vonage

Jon Arnold has done a great job of analyzing how Vonage is doing and according to the Arnold, the latest quarter had some ups and downs. Jon spells out why Vonage may not make it into 2009 and I for... continue reading...

TMCnet Continues to Grow

Thanks once again to our loyal TMCnet readers. Because of you, TMCnet has broken more online records. In January of 2008 TMCnet experienced 38,368,961 page views (meaning total number of web pages viewed on TMCnet in January alone. The total... continue reading...

Intel's Skulltrail Motherboard

I just have to wonder if Intel's latest motherboard code named SkullTrail will be useful beyond the gaming market. The device can be outfitted with two quad-core processors and multiple graphics chips from AMD (yes, AMD) and Nvidia. Obviously the... continue reading...

Rembrandt IP Management

Some analysts are concerned that patents held by "patent troll" Rembrandt IP Management will be used successfully against cable companies and others. In cases originally spread across federal courts in Delaware, New York and Texas, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Charter... continue reading...

How Will Cable do in a Slower Economy?

One wonders how well cable companies can do in a slowing economy. Certainly if you an investor, this question is of great importance. According to this article, cable companies have fared well in past recessions but this time there... continue reading...

Regulators Reshape the Internet

It is pretty amazing to see how many separate issues are surfacing that could affect the future of the internet. The FCC and government have their plates full deciding what to do with telcos and their potentially anti-competitive practices. The... continue reading...

Increase Marketing Spend in a Recession

I just couldn't help but sharing this article about how companies who increase their marketing spend in a recession come out of it doing better than when they went into it. I am not advocating that there is a recession... continue reading...

Telco 2.0 - the Microsoft way

The following are comments from Ovum SVP, Brett Azuma on Microsoft and what they are up to in service provider communications. I thought this was worth passing along. Microsoft provided an update on its Telco 2.0 vision. The analyst telebriefing... continue reading...

Verizon's Network Upgrades

If you haven't been paying attention, you will have missed the fact that Verizon Wireless is investing like mad around the US to improve their mobile network. The quality of the wireless network was amazing to begin with and... continue reading...

Yahoo's Choices

I have mentioned in the past that Yahoo! has no choice and that it needs to seriously consider the Microsoft offer. Since that time, News Corp. has offered an alternative to Yahoo!… The media conglomerate will give some assets... continue reading...

ITEXPO East 2008 Video

If you missed ITEXPO this past month in Miami, you missed a great opportunity to meet with VARS, service providers and many companies looking to purchase IP communications products and services. I am truly humbled by the unsolicited comments... continue reading...

Mobile World Congress Key Terms

As you may know, Mobile World Congress kicks off this week and to get the ball rolling the event has put out some of the key terms you will be hearing more about this week. I have posted them here... continue reading...

Google Buying Plaxo?

Another day, another Google purchase rumor. This time it is Plaxo, the company that stores online business contact details. This company recently launched something called Pulse which allows you to decide if someone is a business or personal contact. I... continue reading...

IPTV Community

Be sure to check out the new IPTV Global Online Community on TMCNet which consists of articles on IPTV Technology, Programming News, and IPTV Deployments. A few articles of note are RealNetworks offering Envivio 4Caster Hardware, an article on... continue reading...

Is AT&T a Runaway Winner?

Is AT&T going to win the IP services wars? I get the feeling they are really doing a fine job in this regard and will only do better over time. Jon Arnold agrees and in a  recent article he talks... continue reading...

Level3 Cuts

It seems that Level3 will have some more cuts as a result of a steep loss this quarter. Over 1,000 people or 16% of the company's workforce will be getting the axe according to TheStreet.com. I was a bit surprised... continue reading...

Charlotte Wolter Joins TMCnet

I am proud to announce that Charlotte Wolter is joining our roster of TMCnet contributors and she  will be writing about the service provider space. I have been a huge fan of Charlotte -- her insight and writing and... continue reading...

TMC Welcomes Gary Kim

Please join me in welcoming Gary Kim to the TMC editorial team. As you no doubt have realized by now, TMC is doing its absolute best to provide the industry with the world's best writers and thought leaders. This news... continue reading...

700 MHz Auction Update

So far in the 700 MHz auction there have been bids totaling more that 2.4 billion and in about a month we should know who won. There were just under two thousand bids for this precious spectrum which could become... continue reading...

ITEXPO East 2008 Schedule

Here are some of the happenings this week at ITEXPO. My team is already down in Miami, making sure the new Mustang convertible is prepped and ready for the raffle Friday. I wish you luck in winning the car and... continue reading...

Have a Safe Trip to ITEXPO

I hope everyone has a safe trip down to Internet Telephony Conference & Expo. The registration numbers are trending nicely above estimates and we expect a stellar event. As always, we have done our absolute best to assemble the most... continue reading...

ITEXPO Giveaways

Here are some of he giveaways from next week's ITEXPO in Miami, FL. Will you be one of the winners? Hope you will be there to find out. Remember, you have to be present to win these prizes. Tom Keating... continue reading...

Go Directly to Jail, Do Not Pass Go

A disproportionate amount of fraud seems to have taken place in the telecom and technology fields over the last decade. Adelphia, Worldcom, Enron (remember they also had a bandwidth trading division) and many others have been caught and convicted over... continue reading...

CopperCom Close to Closing

Recently a coworker received an e-mail from CopperCom which doesn't seem to bode well for the company. It looks like the company's days are numbered. Frankly the company has been very quiet for years and has no news I could... continue reading...

SIP and Enhanced Services

Jeff Dworkin is no stranger to TMC University as he has taught numerous TMC courses at ITEXPOs over the past years. Even though Jeff is well-known to many of you what you probably are not aware of is the... continue reading...

Jon Arnold

TMC's newest contributor is Jon Arnold. Jon is is one of the most methodical and knowledgeable people I know in the IP communications space and I have always admired him a great deal. TMC has worked with Jon for many... continue reading...

ITEXPO - Huge International Draw

As Tom Keating mentioned earlier today we are proud to announce that Internet Telephony Conference & Expo which will take place in just under a week in Miami Florida has registrations from 74 countries, a 15.6% increase over last year.... continue reading...

Important Interviews

Recently I was fortunate enough to be able to interview a number of thought leaders and others who have given me their perspectives on the communications market, the future, the entry of Google, Apple and Microsoft into the space and... continue reading...

Tech News 01/16/07

It has been a pretty big news day so far this early morning. Intel perhaps is responsible for the biggest portion of today's market movement as last night they announced earnings which were not all that bad but the stock... continue reading...

Quantcast Update 01/08

On November 6, 2007 I had a post (see bottom of post for chart) where I showed how TMC compares with other IP Communications sites. I did this by pulling numbers from Quantcast, a web service which tracks web traffic... continue reading...

Samsung Bribery News

Samsung has its hands in just so many things and subsequently it is worth sitting back and taking notice when the company is accused of setting up a slush fund and engaging in bribery. Samsung Group is easily South Korea’s... continue reading...

Service Provider Opportunities

Service providers are being extremely creative in using technology and ingenuity to launch new and enhanced services and products to keep customers and attract new ones. Some of the better ideas I have seen lately are the consumer electronics DECT... continue reading...

Google goes TV

It is tough to not think of Microsoft when you hear announement after announcment that Google is entering space after space. The latest is TV with news the company is working with Matsushita's Panasonic to develop TV which which will... continue reading...

Off to the Voice Peering Forum New York

Tomorrow I am off to the Voice Peering Forum Winter 2007 hosted by Stealth Communications. Shrihari Pandit the VPF Founder asked me to help with some video reporting which is always very exciting. If you know Hunter Newby from Telx,... continue reading...

NextPoint is Born

TMCnet’s Greg Galitzine announced the rumor on October 19th that NexTone and Reef Point were to merge. Today the news becomes real as the companies are combining to create NextPoint. Here are some quick facts and quotes according to the... continue reading...

Consumer Gadgets Eclipse Business Phones

The maddening division between consumer and business mobile devices continues to grow and as the trend picks up steam it is apparent consumers are the winners and businesspeople suffer. This is not to say the problem isn’t in some ways... continue reading...

FCC: Worry about TVoIP not Cable

As the FCC vs. Cable struggle continues, I can’t help but wonder if Chairman Kevin Martin isn’t spending too much time worrying about a problem which will be irrelevant at some point in the future.   Martin is trying to... continue reading...

COTS to the Service Provider Rescue

There was a time when service providers had to purchase massively expensive proprietary equipment in order to deploy telephone service. Class 4 and 5 switches required enormous investment and could be justified as this equipment would be depreciated over many... continue reading...

Don’t Vote Until You read This

I am unhappy to hear that 24 House Republicans are delving into the FCC’s plan to regulate the cable companies more closely. FCC Chairman Martin is acting in the best interest of consumers by fostering competition in the cable industry... continue reading...

On-Screen Caller-ID

Living in Connecticut, quite often I get to see the rest of the country or world get exciting new technologies before I do. It seems Connecticut is not the leading place for companies to roll things out. AT&T for example... continue reading...

ITEXPO East 2008 Brochure Available

I know my loyal readers have been waiting with baited breath to get a hold of the latest ITEXPO brochure. For those of you who have, consider this your very own early holiday season. Here it is… Please enjoy this... continue reading...

Ditech Networks

In the many IP communications demos I hear each year I am consistently amazed at just how good the quality of VoIP can be. With today’s wideband codecs the sound is remarkably better than the PSTN. This is especially true... continue reading...

Tellabs CEO Steps Down

RTTNews reports Tellabs President and CEO Krish Prabhu will Resign March 1, 2008. This could be good news for company’s shareholders as Tellabs is one of the most introverted companies in the communications space. Tellabs certainly ranks in the top... continue reading...

Nortel is Back

Recently it is has been a mixed ride for communications companies as those relying on tier-one service providers for the majority of their growth have been battered. Case in point is Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent who each have lost over $15... continue reading...

Quantcast

You are likely familiar with Alexa, a division of Amazon that measures website traffic. I have written about the site a number of times before. A while back I discovered a site called Quantcast which is becoming a well respected... continue reading...

Fluke

In the world of advertising the expression commonly used is “perception is reality.” Moreover companies are often branded by customers. If I say IBM, you will say mainframes. Oracle? Databases.   Sometimes I feel it is my job to help... continue reading...

Alcatel-Lucent Cuts 4,000 More

Yesterday I wrote a blog entry titled Alcatel-Lucent May Cut More based on an article from the Financial Times. Today, unfortunately there is a story from the Wall Street Journal saying the recently formed company will cut 4,000 extra jobs... continue reading...

DiVitas Networks

If you take a long walk through lower Manhattan you could very well end up in Greenwich Village, SOHO, Chinatown, Little Italy, the Meatpacking district or any other area of Manhattan bearing an interesting name and unique culture. Indeed, you... continue reading...

Comcast Customer Support

This morning I went to Wikipedia to look up the formal definition for the term ballistic. Most of us know there is a term “going ballistic” which basically means freaking out in a potentially violent manner. Wikipedia doesn’t have an... continue reading...

Which PBX Manufacturers will Survive?

The following is a sidebar to the Publisher’s Outlook Column Microsoft’s Big Unified Communications Launch in the November, 2007 issue of Unified Communications Magazine.   ---   There are many PBX companies – well over 25. I am surprised how... continue reading...

What eBay Should do with Skype

Please enjoy the unedited November 2007 Publisher’s Outlook column from Internet Telephony Magazine.   ---   OK, I was wrong. Really wrong. Over a billion dollars wrong in fact. Why? I believed eBay and Skype had a solid strategy to... continue reading...

Strategic Technologies for 2008

I was reading an article on Wireless News regarding Gartner’s top 10 strategic technologies for 2008. Here are those technologies with the analysis from Wireless News. Obviously I agree with the first two items on this list and I do... continue reading...

AT&T’s Alternative Spectrum Buy

As you likely remember, Google was pushing the FCC to ensure the winner of the 700 MHz auction permitted open access to devices. Verizon was vocal about this being a bad idea but AT&T was more quiet. Now it may... continue reading...

TMCnet Searches

I thought it would be interesting to see what people search on when they come to TMCnet. It should be noted these searches are on TMCnet proper which unfortunately at the moment does not include blogs.   These numbers should... continue reading...

Dialogic Buys Cantata

Dialogic has been gaining a great deal of momentum this past year and now this momentum has increased substantially as the company has just announced they will be acquiring Cantata. This deal gives Dialogic access to huge fax market share... continue reading...

Verizon Voyager: iPhone Killer?

With all the hoopla surrounding the iPhone it is not surprising that Verizon Wireless is touting a suite of new phones and one – the LG Electronics Voyager is being touted as an iPhone killer. The device runs on the... continue reading...

3Com and Digium News

If you haven’t been watching lately there has been lots of activity in the IP PBX and networking space from 3Com and Digium. Here is a recap.   3Com was recently purchased and a minority investor was China’s Huawei.... continue reading...

Ixia’s New President and COO

Loyal TMC readers and visitors are likely aware of Atul Bhatnagar who was a keynote speaker about two years back at ITEXPO in Los Angeles, CA. The year Atul spoke was the first time Internet Telephony Conference & Expo was... continue reading...

Hyperconnected

About a decade or so ago I ran across Tony Rybczynski (Tony Ryb to those who know him and/or cannot pronounce his last name) at the COMNET trade show in DC and was so blown away by him that I... continue reading...

Switching to Optimum Voice

This was a big week for me personally as I switched service providers. I should mention I have free VoIP accounts coming out of my ears. I often test them but I haven’t switched to any of them because to... continue reading...

Alcatel Lucent Emergency

Patricia Russo the CEO of Alcatel-Lucent reportedly has one month to turn the company around. They need to restructure desperately it seems and the board will no longer tolerate bad quarters. Russo my soon be pushed out of the company.... continue reading...

ITEXPO West 2007 Scores Big in L.A.

Here is my Publisher’s Outlook from the October 2007 Internet Telephony Magazine. It is rough and needs some editing but should give you a good idea of why you should be subscribing and reading every issue of the magazine. :)... continue reading...

Latest ITEXPO West 2007 Photos

We have had amazing comments regarding the success of the last Internet Telephony Conference & Expo from many attendees and exhibitors. We just recently posted some more photos of the event so you can get a feel for it yourself.... continue reading...

Best of Show ITEXPO West 2007

Congratulations to the best of show winners at Internet Telephony Conference & Expo last week in Los Angeles, CA. A list follows below and here is the detailed press release.   Best Service Provider Solution Comverse (www.comverse.com) CTI Labs (www.ctigroup.com)... continue reading...

ITEXPO West 2007 News

ITEXPO West 2007 News The staggering amount of news and analysis generated from last week’s Internet Telephony Conference & Expo is mind-boggling. Thanks to all the analysts, bloggers, members of the press and everyone else who covered ITEXPO.   Here... continue reading...

Nokia Siemens Networks Interview

I have a special treat for my readers today; A podcast interview with none other than Harald Braun, Head of Convergence Operators Customer Business Team at Nokia Siemens Networks. I know you remember the terrific interview Harald gave regarding similar... continue reading...

Ovum on Alcatel-Lucent

Steven Hartley, telecoms senior analyst at Ovum comments on: Alcatel-Lucent: There may be trouble ahead.   I referred to this news yesterday and Hartley’s comments don’t overlap with mine too much so I thought they were worth sharing. ---  ... continue reading...

Single Volume Control

I have to wonder with all this video streaming around the internet if we don’t need a new way to control the volume of these various streams. When scanning for news I often will click on a news story... continue reading...

Thoughts on Alcatel-Lucent

Wow. It has been quite a week. I am sitting here in Norwalk, CT – TMC’s headquarters and feel a bit under the weather. This is not a surprise as I haven’t slept since last Friday due the super-busy schedule... continue reading...

Bloggers at ITEXPO

I have noticed this year more ITEXPO speakers have blogs than at any time in the past. We all know there are more and bloggers each day and I am excited to see how many of them are referencing their... continue reading...

Surf Communications

I recently had the opportunity to ask Ilan Weizman of Surf Communications Solutions about the evolution of the IP communications space and the direction his company is taking.   Surf develops a suite of hardware and software products that drives... continue reading...

SIP Trunking Course

SIP trunking is one of the most important growth areas in VoIP. It is something every company should be exploring as it reduces cost and complexity while allowing tremendous added flexibility.   If you are interested in learning about SIP... continue reading...

HelloSoft

I recently had the opportunity to ask Allan Johnson, vice president of business development in the wireless group at HelloSoft, about the evolution of SIP communications, wireless mobility and the direction his company is taking.   HelloSoft is a provider... continue reading...

Rich Tehrani Blooper

I came across this blooper of me during a video shoot. The thing about text is you can edit it when you screw up. Video on the other hand generally has to be perfect. Witness what happens when things go... continue reading...

Extreme Video Solutions

Affordable Telepresence I recently came across a company offering video conferencing solutions at an attractive price using a leasing model instead of a direct product sale. The company is called Extreme Video Solutions and is based in Arizona. For about... continue reading...

Google Bashing

John Battelle has some thoughts on a recent Economist article on Google which talks at length about the growing list of Google haters from telcos to television networks. According to the blog entry and article, one of the biggest challenges... continue reading...

Miss Teen South Carolina

It is all about the education. Miss Teen South Carolina hit the nail on the head when she said our education system in the United States needs to improve so as she says, US Americans can one day hope to... continue reading...

Alcatel-Lucent Changes

There are some management changes at Alcatel-Lucent consisting of COO Frank D'Amelio and President Mike Quigley leaving. Patricia Russo will remain as CEO and Etienne Fouques, who had reported to Quigley, will now lead the company's tech and strategy unit... continue reading...

Level 3 Communications

Level 3 Communications, Inc., an international communications company, operates one of the largest Internet backbones in the world, connecting 180 markets in 18 countries. The company serves a broad range of wholesale, enterprise and content customers with a comprehensive suite... continue reading...

IP Communications Education

Listen, I don’t want to overdo discussion of ITEXPO in my blog but the fact of the matter is this recent e-mail sent by my marketing team is a great document discussing what is important at the show. It is... continue reading...

Covergence

Ken Kuenzel, Founder, VP Engineering and CTO for Covergence recently chatted with me about the impact of wireless technology, and the way in which SIP has changed communications, among other topics.   Offering its customers “the edge in SIP”,... continue reading...

Reef Point

I recently had the opportunity to ask Woody Ritchey, CEO of Reef Point Systems, about the future of IP communications and the challenges his business will face over the next five years. Reef Point is a provider of IP-based fixed-mobile... continue reading...

Radisys

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Ray Adensamer of RadiSys about the evolution of the IP communicationsspace, the company’s application-enabling platforms and more.   RadiSys specializes s in developing open standards building blocks, especially in the ATCA and... continue reading...

Dialexia

I recently had the opportunity to ask Mohamed El Mohri, CTO at Dialexia Communications, about the evolution of the IP communicationsspace and the direction his company is taking.   Dialexia Communications is best known for its next generation communication software... continue reading...

TMCnet New Traffic Record

Thanks to all our readers and visitors who have allowed TMCnet to achieve a new traffic record in July 2007.   Here are the numbers:   Page Views 30,977,147 Average Visit Length 35:45 Unique Visitors 3,078,409   Page Views refers... continue reading...

Acme Packet

Kevin Mitchell, Director of Solutions Marketing for Acme Packet, gave me this exclusive interview. Take a look at what he told me about VoIP security, the impact of wireless technology, and a particularly surprising prediction on the future of communications.... continue reading...

AudioCodes Interview

Anyone in the IP communications business knows quite well that Alan Percy is one of the most well-connected and knowledgeable players in the space. Alan’s day job is Director of Business Development at AudioCodes and I swear his night... continue reading...

Hughes Systique Corp Interview

I recently had a chance to interview Arjun Roychowdhury, Director, IMS & Broadband Applications Hughes Systique Corp. Arjun will be a speaker at Internet Telephony Conference & Expo in September and I thought it worth getting his thoughts on... continue reading...

Voice Peering Growth

Last year I proclaimed it the year of VoIP peering. 2007 is becoming the year of rapid VoIP peering growth. Case in point is the Voice Peering Fabric or VPF who recently stated they have reached a 200 billion minute... continue reading...

AudioCodes Has Good Quarter

Cisco made a big splash with their earnings news today and subsequently it may be worth pointing out Audiocodes too released great numbers with growth on a year over year of 15.5%.   “AudioCodes’ second quarter financial results were highlighted... continue reading...

Cisco Beat Earnings

Cisco beat earnings by $120 million dollars and they say enterprise earnings are strong.   Scientific Atlanta also produced outstanding results for the company.   Emerging markets are growing at 40%   Here are some statements I just wrote... continue reading...

TMC White Papers

I thought you may be interested in some of the latest white papers and research brought to you by TMC and its partners: ·        VoIP that Works! ·        Fax Solutions for Service Providers and Enterprise: Integrating SIP T.38 Fax... continue reading...

Telephone System Channel

If you aren’t aware, TMC has built with its partners, the largest collection of business to business online communities in the communications and technology space. Channels are micro communities which live on the left navigation of TMCnet menus. Global Online... continue reading...

ITEXPO Weeks Away

I just can’t believe that Internet Telephony Conference & Expo is five short weeks away. I just can’t wait for September 10-12th in Los Angeles. Boy is the summer going by fast. Thankfully I read Ken Kamp’s blog where he... continue reading...

IP communications Earnings Strong

Let’s give a round of applause to 8x8, the parent company of Packet8 VoIP service. They have just announced a profitable quarter. For the first time since the Company launched its Packet8 VoIP service in November 2002, 8x8 posted GAAP... continue reading...

ActionTec

Many of us are familiar with VoSky Technologies the company behind the business class Skype gateways allowing a company to leverage the myriad benefits of Skype within their corporate communications infrastructure. If you need to catch up, I invite you... continue reading...

Spirent’s Testing 2.0

There seems to be an evolution in the testing market as these companies focus on delivering products and services enabling network equipment providers and carriers to test more services in less time. As networks become more commoditized and the... continue reading...

Mavenir Systems

Instant IMS: No IMS Required   When I decided on the sub headline for this article I realized it might be viewed as potentially controversial. How, you may be asking can one have IMS without IMS? Well there is... continue reading...

SunRocket Switch to Packet8

Yesterday I blogged about the SunRocket bankruptcy and I mentioned how although pure-play VoIP is not easy, a company like 8x8/Packet8 is doing a good job. Today I came across an article on TMCnet discussing how Packet8 is the preferred... continue reading...

SunRocket Bankrupt

I am not really so surprised by the SunRocket bankruptcy news. The company was an innovator and had some great ideas early on but for the last few years they were extremely quiet. There was little press outreach and there... continue reading...

Delicious TMCnet Stories

Here is a smattering of home made TMCnet stories, just like mom used to make. Mom’s cookies can’t compare to the brand new Tadiran trailer featured below or Cantata’s fax solutions. And you know, even if mom was the best... continue reading...

TMCnet Goes Twitter

It seems like if you are under 18 you spend a good deal of time twittering on well – Twitter. Since my typical reader is above 18 you may not be aware that Twitter is a service allowing you to... continue reading...

Cisco’s Chambers on Telecom Phase II

As I sit in a press room in Chicago eagerly awaiting John Chamber’s entrance, about 60 or so members of the media are catching up on gossip and the happenings in the industry. Cisco’s Jeff Spagnola Vice President, Worldwide Service... continue reading...

John Chambers

John Chambers the CEO of Cisco is getting ready to speak here in Chicago and John is generally one of the more dynamic speakers the industry has. Surprisingly, I haven’t heard John speak as often as I like as I... continue reading...

Shunra

Developing applications for local computers is one thing but once you factor in the latency generated by wide area networks you can significantly reduce productivity if users are forced to wait for painfully slow applications to refresh screens and provide... continue reading...

T-Mobile Fights VoIP

Update: Please note this post is regarding T-Mobile UK VoIP has obviously changed the revenue equation in the telecom space with operators now facing competitors which are smaller, nimbler and able to launch new services rapidly. In some ways these new... continue reading...

Espial

The IPTV market is forecasted to grow nicely for the foreseeable future and one company in the space who has recently gone public is Espial. As a pure-play provider of IPTV solutions Espial may be positioned nicely to take advantage... continue reading...

Taqua Success

The resurgence being seen in the IP communications space has changed or refocused the business models of countless companies. VoIP and video over IP growth seem unabated and there has been record M&A activity in the market as of late.... continue reading...

Communigate Unified Communications

I just recently demoed a complete unified communications platform based on Flash and Flex2 and all I can say is wow. Pronto! Is a complete communications media center with unified communications built-in. The application has a great user interface that... continue reading...

Ken Camp

Be sure to sign up for Internet Telephony Conference & Expo (ITEXPO) now and be part of the world’s premiere IP communications event. World-famous blogger, journalist and author Ken Camp will be there as well (Ken is there anywhere you... continue reading...

GIPS News

Global IP Solutions, the company formerly known as Global IP Sound is well known as the company providing VoiceEngine technology. Their products enable communications for millions of users each day as their technology is found in Skype, WebEx and others.... continue reading...

Communications Developer Show Daily

Here is the first show daily from the Communications Developer Conference taking place next week. Many have told me they are thrilled TMC is sponsoring such an event as there needs to be a single place the communications industry can... continue reading...

Cable Gets VoIP

Cable companies are feasting on VoIP success by the millions of customers. What an amazing job they are doing taking customers from phone companies. So far however, cable VoIP growth in the SMB space has been slow. Large phone companies... continue reading...

Hillary Clinton Champion of Net Neutrality?

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are big proponents of net neutrality and this may be the reason the big phone and cable companies have been contributing good amounts of money to at least Clinton’s campaign. Here are the details.... continue reading...

Wireless 2.0

Google, Yahoo, Skype/eBay and others are very interested in ensuring they have direct access to consumers through licensed spectrum. In fact, on March 6, 2007, Google became part of a consortium called the Coalition for 4G in America. It... continue reading...

Ed Whitacre Jr.

Congratulations to Ed Whitacre Jr. for building a great big telecommunications company from an assortment of smaller ones. Certainly in this case the sum was greater than the parts.   Ed is about to retire and he can consider this... continue reading...

Radcom QTrace

Networks are converging at breakneck speed and as they do, so does the need to search and troubleshoot calls across multiple sites and networks. According to Avi Zamir, President of Radcom, his company is starting to see the need for... continue reading...

Huawei

I recently had a meeting with Huawei executives and they have grand plans. The company is a leading Chinese equipment provider and moreover has a surprisingly large suite of products ranging from EVDO cards for laptops to WiMAX and... continue reading...

TMCnet Goes International

Today is a momentous occasion for me as TMCnet has gone international developing continent-specific editions for Latin America, Europe, Asia the Middle East and Australia. You will find these country choices on a grey horizontal bar at the top... continue reading...

GENI

The Building of the  Global Environment for Network Innovations   Many academic types are arguing we need to get rid of the existing internet and start from a clean slate to deal with the myriad issues the world now... continue reading...

Vonage to Focus on Profit

Jeffrey Citron will replace Michael Schneider as CEO of Vonage. It seems Wall Street is happy with this move as the stock price has increased somewhat on this news.   In addition the company has instituted a hiring freeze and... continue reading...

Entertainment Wars

Movie review site Fandango was snapped up today by cable company Comcast with the ultimate goal for Comcast being increased web traffic and support for a new site Fancast.com devoted to allowing consumers to watch on demand content on a... continue reading...

The FMC Border Architecture

In 1999 I had an interesting discussion at a Lucent Technologies luncheon with Arun Netravali who then headed up Bell Labs for Lucent Technology. Netravali spoke of the future of communications being an all encompassing communications skin which would have... continue reading...

Cantata Gets New CEO

You may have seen the news about Cantata hiring a new CEO and could possibly be wondering why they would do such a thing. After all, Mark Zionts was involved in building Cantata into the company it is today with... continue reading...

Unified Communications Magazine

In case you missed my past blog entries regarding SIP Magazine becoming Unified Communications Magazine, consider it official… The change has begun and we are working on the look and feel of this new publication. It should be different than... continue reading...

Cisco's Real Strengths

Cisco’s incredible strength comes from being able to leverage its strong brand and enourmous salesforce to sell virtually every sort of product in telecom and datacom. This report makes it seem like the outlook for the competition is bleak.  ... continue reading...

Arris

I recently touched base with my contacts over at Arris and asked what was up with the acquisition of Tandberg Television.   Jim Bauer, ARRIS VP Investor Relations said, "As discussed in our press release of March 8th, ARRIS has... continue reading...

MyTMCnet

Thanks to readers like you, TMCnet has been blessed with 1-2 million unique visitors every month and last month over 20 million pages were viewed on this site. We are truly grateful to our readers, sponsors and advertisers who support this... continue reading...

TMCnet Sets Page View Record

This past February 2006, TMCnet passed the 20 million page view mark for the first time ever with a total of 20,554,331 page views from a total of 1,169,160 unique visitors. I am personally thrilled with this accomplishment because it shows... continue reading...

Spirent

I recently had a chance to sit down with Andy Huckridge Director of Marketing, IMS Solutions over at Spirent Communications to discuss a variety of topics from the product line mix to thoughts on IMS. Spirent as you may... continue reading...

Cantata

Cantata is a veritable conglomerate in the communications space. The company was formed a year ago through a combination of Excel Switching and Brooktrout Technology and has product lines for developers and service providers. The company is soon celebrating... continue reading...

TMCnet Search

We are always trying to innovate here at TMC and recently we have been looking for a way to ensure TMCnet becomes even stickier than it currently is. Our goal is not only to be the primary destination for all... continue reading...

ApplianX

Aculab Launches ApplianX Product Line   Aculab has just announced a new line of appliances and the product line is so different from any products previously supplied by the company I decided to ask some questions about the new ApplianX... continue reading...

Voice Peering is Hot

At the Voice Peering Forum event here in sunny Miami Florida, the message is simple – voice peering is growing by leaps and bounds. Stealth Communications is the company who runs this event and attendees generally are people who have... continue reading...

Dialogic Cruise

I am headed to downtown Miami now where I will be on a cruise with Dialogic partners and the Dialogic team. This will conclude the Dialogic One event. The weather is pretty nice here so I expect to have a... continue reading...

FCC Still not Happy with Cable Companies

Comcast is raising rates as you can see from this article. More interesting is this quote from the article:   "One conclusion that is easy to reach is that this market is in desperate need of competition," FCC Commissioner Jonathan... continue reading...

iPhone, AT&T U-verse, Blackberry and Hosted Communications

Edgar Bronfman Jr. a record company exec speaking at CTIA is right on when he says the interface on cell phones can use drastic improvement. On average, Bronfman said, it can take a person 20 clicks to buy a... continue reading...

Verizon: ESPN Mobile

By now you may have heard about how ESPN will be offering video clips on Verizon’s VCast mobile network. ESPN made a go at being an MVNO but it just didn’t work out for the company. I think the deal... continue reading...

TMCnet Mobile

If you are looking for the best communications and technology news on the go be sure to check out TMCnet Mobile which will display very well on most mobile devices. The service is in alpha at the moment but seems... continue reading...

ITEXPO Comments on Video

Since Internet Telephony Conference & Expo last week – TMC has received a steady stream of testimonials unlike I have ever seen for any tech show ever. So many people have told me that ITEXPO in Ft. Lauderdale was the... continue reading...

The State of US Broadband

A few of my friends have ordered FiOS from Verizon and they seem happy to have broadband access at speeds once unavailable from phone companies. The sad thing is that even though broadband speeds are increasing in the US the... continue reading...

ITEXPO Photos and More

Here is Ari Zoldan from Launch 3 based in Garfield, NJ. His company is in the investment business - they invest in communications companies worldwide.   On this day he walked away with a great education as well as a... continue reading...

FCC, Martin and the Democrats

I thought this was an excellent article about the Democratically-controlled Congress and how they may clash with the FCC and especially Chairman Martin (read Martin’s past views on broadband competition). The article also touches on the relationship between Chairman Martin... continue reading...

Alcatel-Lucent Kicks off Internet Telephony Conference in Florida

ITEXPO Kicked off today in Ft. Lauderdale, FL with a keynote from Keith Chappell, Vice President at Alcatel-Lucent. His talk began discussing the concept of transforming services. “What do users want?” He asked.   To that he answered as follows.... continue reading...

Marc Robins and Jon Arnold Join Forces

Two esteemed consultants in the IP communications space are Marc Robins and Jon Arnold. The two have known each other for years and toyed with the idea of joining forces. It seems the time has come for this to become... continue reading...

Early AT&T IPTV Complaints

A local paper here in Connecticut is critical of AT&T IPTV because the service is expensive and does not allow individual channels to be purchased. The author suggests the FCC or state step in to force the company to offer... continue reading...

ID Needed for ITEXPO

Please make sure to bring a valid ID – passport, driver’s license, etc to ITEXPO next week. The expo takes place at the port. Yes that is where the convention center is. Homeland Security requires valid identification to get into... continue reading...

Communications in 2007

Any look at the future of any industry would not be complete without analysis of recent events. In the case of communications, 2006 seems like the transitional year of all time for a number of reasons. Next week, Jan 23-26... continue reading...

Musings: Apple, AT&T, Zultys, M&Ms, Ubiquity, Avaya

While the world is going iPhone lawsuit crazy (posts from Andy, Jeff and Aswath) there is a bit of news that seems to be under the radar but crucial. What is it you ask? It is that eBay/PayPal will start... continue reading...

Channels

One of the fastest growing areas of TMCnet is the channels program which are micro-communities of interest. These channels focus on so many topics I can’t list them all but a few of the more recent ones are here for... continue reading...

TMCnet Redesign

Today is a pretty big day for me personally. As you know, TMCnet is the world’s leading site for communications and technology information, community building, etc. In fact this past December 2006 saw our traffic reach just under 2 million... continue reading...

Sir Terry Matthews

Terry Matthews is a living legend in communications and I suppose the only person I will get to meet with a “Sir” in front of their name. For years many people have told me I must meet Terry and for... continue reading...

The AT&T/BellSouth/FCC Soap Opera

The AT&T BellSouth merger has gained FCC approval after AT&T decided to make some concessions and many are hailing this as a win for net neutrality. Below are some of the recent articles – a massive amount for a... continue reading...

Bring a Map

I'd like to start this blog entry off by saying Happy New Year :) and wishing all my readers a tremendous 2007. I hope you are healthy and happy and that your family and all loved ones are as well.... continue reading...

Net Neutrality Safe For Two Years

Yesterday I wrote about ensuring net neutrality and just to show you how fluid the telecom market is, today AT&T may have ensured net neutrality for all of us last night. Well at least for 24 months. The company... continue reading...

One Wilshire

Ensuring Net Neutrality   Net neutrality advocates are scared senseless that carriers will start charging companies like Google in order for the search giant and others to have access to service provider customers. These phone companies argue they have to... continue reading...

Spirent Shake up

I just learned of a major management shakeup at testing leader Spirent. I rarely see something like this happen -- a wholesale replacement of so many managers and executives. The last year or so has been quiet for this company... continue reading...

FCC on Cable Competition

Greg’s update on the FCC and cable competition is certainly worth a read. This FCC ruling is good news is for the phone companies as they will have a standard set of nationwide rules to adhere to instead of... continue reading...

Ericsson Buys Redback Networks

Ericsson is looking to compete more effectively against Alcatel Lucent by purchasing Redback Networks is an up and coming edge router player. The rapid growth in the M&A market is unprecedented these days and it seems the insatiable appetite to... continue reading...

Happy Holidays and Thanks!

I would like to take a moment and thank all my readers and wish you all a great holiday season and a Happy New Year. In addition I want to specifically thank you all for visiting TMCnet so frequently as... continue reading...

Saving Money on IP Communications Education

If you haven’t been watching, the early-bird deadline for conferences at Internet Telephony Conference & Expo (register) is approaching --tomorrow actually -- and we are talking about a savings of up to $1,000. The show is in 40 days so... continue reading...

Verizon Shares Falling

Why are Verizon shares falling? Well it seems the massive costs of its FIOS initiative has investors wondering if the fiber to the home strategy makes the most sense or is AT&T’s cheaper plan to use copper in the last... continue reading...

Alcatel-Lucent

I like the new Alcatel-Lucent logo. It makes me think of a cross between an airline and an ecommerce company. I do really like the way the A and L come together as one. On a separate note the new... continue reading...

Huawei Logs $11 Billion in Sales in 2006

In the first half of 2006, Huawei recorded contract sales of USD 5.2 billion, an increase of 29 per cent compared to the same period last year. The value of contract sales from international markets reached USD 3.4 billion, an... continue reading...

AT&T/BellSouth FCC Vote to Take Place

The AT&T/BellSouth merger has been deliberated by the FCC for quite some time. On October 13 of this year reports circulated about how the FCC vote was to be pushed back. It is now almost two months later and there... continue reading...

Cisco Systems Rockets Ahead, Beats all Estimates

Here is part of my Internet Telephony Magazine Publisher's Outlook December 2006:   -----------   Certainly the biggest news in recent months is that Cisco Systems, the world’s biggest vendor of computer-networking equipment, reported first-quarter 2007 net sales of $8.2... continue reading...

Showing Kevin Martin the Door

David Isenberg weighs in on FCC Chairman Kevin martin and why he should be shown the exit. Here is an excerpt:Martin's appointment to a second term as FCC Commissioner is pending Senate confirmation. I like Kevin; he's personable, he's articulate,... continue reading...

France Telecom in the Movies

The next move for telecom companies is to look outside telecomIt would seem that if cable and phone companies are set for a war, the phone companies need to hurry up and catch up in one of the areas cable... continue reading...

Verizon FiOS

It seems Verizon is making nice progress with FiOS. I am surprised to hear the company has the ability to offer 200 digital video and music channels already but then again I am not sure how many of these are... continue reading...

FCC Delays the AT&T/BellSouth Merger Again

The FCC commissioners remain deadlocked on the AT&T/BellSouth merger and although it is widely believed the merger will happen, it is the conditions placed upon the new company – employing 300,000 employees that has ye to be decided. This article... continue reading...

Cable Companies Vulnerable?

There are some very smart people in the telecom business who are betting on the cable companies as the winners in the service provider wars. Their logic goes something like this. The cable companies have relationships with content providers and... continue reading...

Aricent

As Zippy says quite well in this article, "Normally, when a new company makes its debut, Yours Truly will cross his fingers and wish good luck upon the company's uncertain future. That won't be necessary with Aricent, which comes out... continue reading...

Heading Home From Lisbon

It has been a wild week here in Lisbon at Dialogic Connections and there is so much going through my head. Will the new Dialogic be anything like the old one? Can it generate more interest in telecom? Will more... continue reading...

Dialogic Connections 2006 Analysis

Perhaps the most important takeaway from the Dialogic Connections event taking place this week in Lisbon, Portugal is that Nick Jensen the President and CEO of Dialogic has a strong vision for where the company is headed. Nick states emphatically... continue reading...

Femtocell Definition

According to Mae Kowalke, femtocells are small cellular base stations that provide enhanced coverage at the far edge of the network. They will enable wireless providers and others perhaps to provide services such as IPTV and definitely FMC.Perhaps most importantly... continue reading...

Net Neutrality – Who Gives a Sh&*^%$T?

Seriously people don’t care. Excuse the profanity but I can’t believe it. At the last ITEXPO I asked hundreds of people in the keynote how many people cared about net neutrality and out of somewhere around 500-700 people, 2 or... continue reading...

VoIP Planet on ITEXPO

Here is a great write up on Internet Telephony Conference & Expo from Mark Miller over at VoIP Planet. What I like about Mark’s piece is that it is a great overview of many of the events that took place... continue reading...

$1.27 Billion in VoIP Support Services Revenue by 2010

A sign of a healthy market is one in which there is lots of money being made. IDC reports that the VoIP services market will be growing at a phenomenal rate. I was blown away to discover they predict VoIP... continue reading...

AudioCodes Allows IP Communications Developers to Explore New Worlds

When designing telecom applications you have to be part clairvoyant. The reason of course is you need to try to figure out what coders you need to support your customer. It is tough to know sometimes who your customer will... continue reading...

Talk About the Ultimate IP Communications Experience

As I sit here at ITEXPO in a session I am moderating titled how to make money selling VoIP with a number of resellers from around the world there is an IMS EXPO keynote session kicking off while conference sessions... continue reading...

FCC: AT&T Now Guards the Cheese

Many people think one of the best things the FCC ever did was to put someone associated with COMPTEL on the commission. In my conversations at every level of the telecom industry, executives tell me consistently they think the FCC... continue reading...

Get the Full IP Communications Experience

I can't help but feel like a proud parent as we get ready for this week's ITEXPO. The team I work with have absolutely outdone themselves and the scope of this event is beyond my imagination. To think this show... continue reading...

Nice Write-Up on ITEXPO

I just got the latest Mercator Capital newsletter and was delighted to see a well-written article on TMC’s upcoming Internet Telephony show. First though a plug on Mercator Capital:Mercator Capital is a privately-held investment bank focused on mergers & acquisitions,... continue reading...

ITEXPO Preview on New Telephony

Here is a pre-show write-up on ITEXPO I just saw on New Telephony. Good stuff. In a pre-show meeting yesterday I was just blown away at how much content there is at this show. Certainly if you have been following... continue reading...

IP Communications Investments

Recently a reporter called me to ask what the best investments are today in the communications space. I thought about this question for a while and these are my thoughts. What do you think?I hope to connect with many of... continue reading...

UTStarcom FMC

UTStarcom is hosting a symposium at our upcoming ITEXPO on FMC. The Symposium will be held on Thursday in the Pavilion Theater on the show floor from 11:30 – 1:00 and again on Friday 1:00 – 2:30. This session is... continue reading...

NXTComm

I just heard that USTA and TIA announced TelecomNext 2007, which was planned for Las Vegas on March 18-20, 2007, will not be taking place. Instead, the two organizations are putting on NXTComm, taking place in Chicago, June 18-21, 2007.... continue reading...

Dialogic Back After 7 Years

This Dialogic will be about IP not TDMIf you have been in the telecom business for five years or more you know the large shadow cast over the industry by Dialogic. In the mid-nineties the computer telephony/CTI market was booming... continue reading...

Webinar News

There are a ton of things going on at TMC and one of the most exciting is our web seminar program where we educate decision-makers on some of the latest and most important topics in the world of IP communications... continue reading...

Quintuple Play

I have been noticing more and more service providers registering for ITEXPO and I believe many of them are interested in figuring out how to provide many services beyond just VoIP. That leads one naturally to providing broadband access, television,... continue reading...

IPTV Conference

IPTV ConferenceI have been getting lots of positive feedback about TMC partnering with Fierce Markets to launch an IPTV conference next week at Internet Telephony Conference & Expo. Here are some of the topics that will be discussed at... continue reading...

ITEXPO Special Attractions

There are officially 11 days until Internet Telephony Conference & Expo West 2006 so I thought it made sense to let my readers know everything that is going on at the show. There is just so much fantastic content and... continue reading...

AT&T Dismisses VoIP

I meet lots of companies that tell me they are in stealth mode. Generally speaking companies who believe they should run in stealth mode end up out of money and sold as distressed assets. Sometimes these corporations do get purchased... continue reading...

Google Earth Update

Google, Google Maps and Google Earth are separate services but I see them getting more closely aligned over time. This announcement about Google Earth now supporting multimedia features shows the search giant is not taking its numerous eyes off any... continue reading...

Primal Solutions

Consider a typical tax return. If you own a home and have a mortgage you may be able to deduct interest payments -- at least in the US (oh and by the way this article is not meant to provide... continue reading...

NetSapiens

 Big VoIP Revenue for Small Potato ProvidersLocated just a few miles from the San Diego Convention Center the home of the upcoming Internet Telephony Conference & Expo is NetSapiens a company making the lives of smaller service providers much easier.I... continue reading...

Rodopi Software

Recently I had a chance to travel to Southern California and see the many companies that make up the IP communications market of the state. Two things I noticed about Southern California are the food is still great out there... continue reading...

Apple TV

I used to think Yahoo! would be a major threat in the broadband TV space but lately have come to believe Apple is must better positioned because of their overwhelming breadth of products in the consumer entertainment space. Apple is... continue reading...

Lower Broadband Customer Service Costs

Sorry for the self-promotion here but I haven't had a chance to share this with you --the news of a webinar teaching service providers how to lower the costs of broadband customer service. It takes place tomorrow so feel free... continue reading...

V2oIP Quality Alliance

The V2oIP Quality Alliance launched this week -- the goal of which is to increase the quality of voice over IP phone calls. Many of the people I spoke with in the organization would prefer the organization be called the... continue reading...

ITEXPO Attendance Update

I had a chance to look at the attendees from the last 2 days who signed up for ITEXPO and remain amazed at the global reach of this event. As you know TMC has a global reach with a North... continue reading...

Pretexting – The Good, Bad and Ugly

In recent days pretexting has become a mainstream term in newspapers and blogs around the world. Admittedly pretexting is a term that most people are not familiar with and most are shocked when they learn what it is. Pretexting is... continue reading...

Speaking at ITEXPO Ft. Lauderdale 2007

I have been getting lots of questions about how people can speak at this show – which promises – as usual to be the best-attended IP communications show in the world. As usual we have a call for papers process... continue reading...

Alcatel and Lucent Approve Merger

The Alcatel and Lucent merger was just approved despite rumors to the contrary. The price -- 10.8 billion dollars."As we have said from the start, the primary driver of this combination is to create long-term value for shareowners, customers, and... continue reading...

Nortel’s Future

With the rumblings in the market and out Alcatel and Lucent possibly calling things off, it might be a good time to look to Canada and see how Nortel is doing and what they plan for their future. I just... continue reading...

Alcatel and Lucent No Deal?

A flurry of articles are now out there in cyberspace hinting that Alcatel and Lucent may not merge after all. The telecom market seems to have already responded to this deal and competitors have been repositioning themselves to compete with... continue reading...

TMC in Stamford Advocate

TMC was featured on the front page of the business section of the Stamford Advocate newspaper today. It was also in the Hartford Courant (at least online – I am not sure if it made the printed version on Sunday)... continue reading...

Tier One Service Providers Worldwide

I have never seen so many registrations form Tier one service providers at any previous TMC event. This Internet Telephony Conference & Expo this October will have a massive showing of Tier 1 and smaller providers. In addition we are... continue reading...

ITEXPO – Early Bird

Time is running out to take advantage of early-bird pricing for Internet Telephony Conference & Expo. A reminder to my blog readers that the time is now to save up to $1,000 on a registration. That, my friends is a... continue reading...

ITEXPO – Unbelievable Sign-ups

Today alone has been an incredible day with virtually all of the top tier service providers, cable companies and a number of government entities with massive purchasing power signing up for Internet Telephony Conference & Expo. It has been an... continue reading...

Latest Communications Solutions

Here is the latest look of the Communications Solutions website. I hope you like it.... continue reading...

Phone Companies Get an FCC Spanking

A number of consumer advocacy groups and others have trying to encourage the FCC and government to put a stop to the consolidation of service providers that is taking place. They argue the old AT&T is being rebuilt and the... continue reading...

TMCnet Whitepapers

Our new TMCnet whitepapers are generating quite a bit of interest and I thought I would share this with my readers. There is some very good content in the library and I had a chance to read a few of... continue reading...

Google WiFi

Few companies strike fear in the heart of Microsoft and the incumbent telephone companies like Google. Analysts and journalists seem to delight in asking the software leader and the companies comprising the new AT&T how they will fend off the... continue reading...

Sprint Interview

Here is the partially edited interview I had with Tony Krueck, VP of Product Development at Sprint. This was a great interview for me as I really learned a great deal about what Sprint is up to and how they are... continue reading...

Eicon Networks Buys Intel Dialogic Division

As I have been writing about for a few months, the Dialogic Division of Intel has been sold. Eicon Networks is the buyer and I am looking forward to finding out more details and sharing them with you.This is potentially... continue reading...

UTStarcom IPTV

Here is some positive news about UTStarcom IPTV deployments in China. China telecom will be deploying IPTV to 51,000 users a significant number leaving lots of opportunity for future growth.... continue reading...

A CNBC Morning

This morning on CNBC I woke up to talk about net neutrality and an analyst who said Google makes a good buy regardless of what happens with net neutrality. From net neutrality the program went on to Comcast customer service... continue reading...

Catching up

With all my travel lately I have been neglecting my blogging. I figured I would get right back into the swing of things with some links to interesting articles.You hear me discuss building communities all the time. Well Electronic Arts... continue reading...

Nortel and Huawei

Here is the latest on Nortel and Huawei and how they may work together going forward. This is after they killed a joint venture. I am still wondering why Huawei is not making a bigger splash in the US. They... continue reading...

ReefPoint

Great news for the IP communications market. ReefPoint Systems a big player in IP communications security -- focusing on FMC, IMS and UMA. The company has received $21 million in VC funding from American Capital and will soon announce a... continue reading...

Stories of Interest

Here are recent stories of interest. My favorite has to be Survey: IPods More Popular Than Beer followed by QUALCOMM's VoIP news and of course how often do I get to talk about JFK. The VoiceGenie news is old but... continue reading...

Verizon's Nancy Gofus

Here is a recent Executive Suite interview with Verizon's Nancy Gofus who is the Vice President of Product Management for Verizon Business. Generally these interviews don't break news but in this case it did. I hope you like it.... continue reading...

Triple Play Symposium

People keep asking me about the Triple Play Symposium. Here are the dates:June 13 – Dallas, Texas - Omni Dallas Park West HotelJune 15 – Boston, Massachusetts - Waltham Conference CenterJune 21 – Paris, France - INSTITUT DE FRANCE, Hôtel... continue reading...

Asia Telecom M&A

I while back I wrote about the M&A market in telecom and I didn't factor in the Asian players into my analysis. So in order to be balanced, I decided to get a perspective from someone who is intimately involved... continue reading...

TMCnet breaks One Million Unique Visitors

I just landed and checked e-mail and one of the first messages I saw is that TMCnet broke one million filtered unique visitors in the month of April 2006.I was really hoping April would be the month we reached this... continue reading...

Triple-Play Symposium

Service providers from around the word are signing up for the second annual Triple-Play Symposium. TMC is a title sponsor of this event – The symposium is being hosted by Netcentrex and iPlay3. Light Reading and host of other media... continue reading...

TV Community

Microsoft has recently had a patent approved in an area that allows communities to be built around TV content. The idea is to be able to click on a link in a program and go to a chatroom.The same idea... continue reading...

Cable Telephony

Look no further than this article to see just how hot cable telephony is getting. Recently, Comcast showed a threefold increase in profits, largely lifted by the increases in high-speed Internet and digital phone subscriptions.In the US, phone companies are... continue reading...

Channels

Be sure to check out the TMCnet channels when you get a moment… Think of them as micro-publications on various topics. There are a number of new ones here and there are XML feeds on the channels if you would... continue reading...

Channels

Be sure to check out the TMCnet channels when you get a moment… Think of them as micro-publications on various topics. There are a number of new ones here and there are XML feeds on the channels if you would... continue reading...

TMCnet Video: part 2

Here is the release on TMC video – I have had many questions on this today. We are very excited to get this rolling.-----------Critical Mention Launches ClipSyndicate, a 'One Stop Shop' For Web Site Publishers to Syndicate Video News Segments... continue reading...

Save The Internet

I received an e-mail below from freepress.net pushing me to savetheinternet.com. The e-mail and site are intended to save net neutrality. With all the talk on this topic I expected the savetheinternet domain to have huge traffic. I checked to... continue reading...

Million Customer VoIP Club

A few weeks back I had a chance to meet with Arris in Georgia. The company specializes in cable telephony and triple-play/broadband solutions. Arris and Nortel are both supplying equipment to UPC Broadband in Western Europe. This is important because... continue reading...

IMS Party at GlobalComm

We are about to announce details of our annual Supercomm – whoops – GlobalComm party that we put on with the IPCC. This is now the third year of this party. Last year it was at Sears Tower, the year... continue reading...

Veoh

The WSJ is reporting that Michael Eisner is joining the board of Veoh Networks a company that is going to stream TV over the Internet. Mr. Eisner said Veoh is one of five or six media investments he has made... continue reading...

Sorry about that

Sorry about the whole not blogging thing today. I had meant to see the accountant and sign the tax documents a few weeks back but as luck would have it today was the day I saw him. In addition --... continue reading...

Vodafone Could Buy Vonage

Recent reports point to the fact that Vodafone may be targeting fixed line telephony as a way to allow it to offer bundled services. The wireless leader is a global powerhouse and needs to find a way to compete with... continue reading...

Alcatel may Purchase Lucent

According to Greg Galitzine, Alcatel could pick Lucent up and in the process create an entity that has more sales than Cisco. If the two companies do merge, they will create an IMS and IPTV monster. In addition the wireless... continue reading...

GenBand

Be on the lookout for General Bandwidth to change their name. They are now six years old, will become GenBand and focus on the SIP and IMS markets. For years, Internet Telephony’s Greg Galitzine has already been using GenBand in... continue reading...

Directory Assistance Comes to VoIP

For years I have written about how service providers have been charging the public for a non-service. What I mean is charging for the unlisted or non-published service. I think I have been writing about the topic for eight years... continue reading...

TMC News Snapshots

Here is a new service from TMCnet – News Snapshots™ that will allow you to have a single page to go to keep track of important companies and topics in communications and technology. Bill Gates even gets a page. A... continue reading...

PPLive and Net Neutrality

I was a bit harsh when I said it was game over for the LECs in a recent blog entry about content providers providing a Tivo-like service that prerecords a number of programs so as to simulate live TV. This... continue reading...

Game Over for LECs

I have been meaning top read this article for a few weeks. It is the Verizon view on network neutrality and there are some good points made by the telecom giant. But here is a thought that hasn’t come up... continue reading...

Nokia Predicts Massive IMS Growth

According to this article Nokia thinks the IMS market will be huge. There are a number of reasons including the need for more revenue creation opportunities and services. Services like mobile video and fixed mobile convergence are discussed in the... continue reading...

NexTone on IMS

I have gotten more than one comment (see the bottom of the page) from people who tell me that IMS will enable service providers to lock in customers and provide walled gardens, in effect keeping customers hostage. Not everyone shares... continue reading...

IMS Forum

The IPCC announced they will be changing their name and altering their coverage to IMS becoming the IMS Forum. Michael Khalilian and his team at the IPCC have done an amazing job for the VoIP industry. The association started as... continue reading...

VoIP Trends

I have now been asked three times in one day what the trends were from the last Internet Telephony Conference & Expo last week in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. I would have to say that the fixed mobile convergence and IMS... continue reading...

What is happening in VoIP

If there is a single trend I have observed this week it is that VoIP is really happening. I spent a good deal of time interviewing companies exhibiting at the Internet Telephony show and they told me that the buyers... continue reading...

SIP Magazine is Here

SIP Magazine is here! Thanks to all of you that helped make this publication possible incuding my fellow TMC team members and those of you in the industry that helped support this new magazine. :) On to IMS Magazine which... continue reading...

Asterisk's Mark Spencer Speaks

The keynotes at Internet Telephony Conference & Expo keynotes kicked off today, the first day of this four-day event, with Mark Spencer of Digium/Asterisk to a huge audience.  Mark started his talk by saying that his company runs VoIP on... continue reading...