ITEXPO in San Diego Business Journal

Mike Allen does a great job with his article about Internet Telephony Conference & Expo – hopefully the first (whoops : third– Mercator Capital was second and New Telephony was first!) of many this week about ITEXPO. I just can’t wait for the event to take place. I leave for the show soon and I am looking forward to seeing TMC’s first ever IMS Expo and Call Center 2.0 events which will be collocated this week at the San Diego Convention Center.

Here are some of the excerpts from the article:

Rich Tehrani, conference chairman, said he’s expecting about 9,000 attendees and 250 exhibitors, numbers that should make the event the largest in the industry this year.

Actually the number of exhibitors is closer to 200 than 250 but the show has grown in exhibitors very nicely from the previous events. This is most exhibitors this show has ever had!

“This event will focus on the move of communications to Internet protocol,” Tehrani added. “Just as Web browsing revolutionized shopping, so, too, IP (Internet protocol) is revolutionizing communications.”

Tehrani said escalating costs with traditional telephone networks is driving many customers to Internet-based technology.

“Using technology based on the Internet is cheaper than the proprietary equipment of the old days,” he said. “Most consumers can save at least 30 percent, and if you’re doing a lot of international calling, you can save even more.”

Of course, as with any new technology, there are glitches, but the quality is always getting better, insisted Tehrani.

So true (surprise – I agree with — me) I mentioned that the personal computer celebrated 25 years of being around and we have more virus and security problems with these devices today than at any time in the past 25 years. The nature of technology it seems is to constantly evolve and improve. It can always do better.

Admittedly, Internet telephony is still in its early adapter phase, with only 5 million paid users in this country, Tehrani said. Yet when talking about all users, both paid and unpaid around the world, the number rises to more than 100 million, he said.

Many reporters see 5 million out of lets say 200 million phone lines as a small percentage. I generally don’t dispute this but perhaps I should mention the entrenched telephone system had 100 years to get to about 200 million customers – VoIP in the US has reached 5 million in just a few years. When you look at it in this light, it is very impressive.

Update: A savvy fellow TMC team-member Nick Morley reminded me we also need to factor in how much of a PSTN call is being transmitted over VoIP. Many long-distance calls as we know are carried in this manner meaning that a much larger percentage of consumers are using VoIP than the general statistics acknowledge.

By the way if you haven’t registered for the event yet – just what are you waiting for? Hope to see you there this week in sunny San Diego!

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    June 19, 2007 at 11:47 am

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    The Storefront Grant Improvement Program (SIP) was created in 1986 and is designed to enhance and revitalize older commercial neighborhoods throughout the City of San Diego. As part of a comprehensive approach to small business assistance and neighborhood revitalization, the City of San Diego will rebate small businesses or property owners as an incentive for them to improve their storefronts consistent with design standards for their commercial areas.
    The Storefront Improvement Program stimulates private investment and customer patronage in the City’s commercial districts by focusing on revitalizing building façades visible to customers, neighboring merchants, and residents.
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    The goals of the Storefront Improvement Program are to:
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