Recently in Broadband Category

I got back from Interop New York 2009 last night and was pretty excited to conduct a number of video interviews in the new TMC Newsroom set. One of the videos I was particularly excited to conduct was with Dr. Gaston Ormazabal, Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff, Verizon Labs. Gaston and the team he works with have found some SIP security flaws and are working hard to solve the problems. These discoveries leave SIP servers open to attacks which come in a number of forms such as malformed packets, out of state machine order packets and packet floods. Gaston is working on these projects with Henning Schulzrinne, the inventor of SIP at Columbia University and he is also working with researchers at NYU.

Some of the other key people working on this project are Verizon's Stu Elby, VP of Network Architecture at VZ Labs (Corporate Technology) and Flavio Bonomi, Head of Cisco Research. Cisco by the way is funding this project and is using the results of this research to develop hardware which stops attacks on SIP servers.

The video interview is below and here is a link which takes you to a page with all of the videos from Interop New York 2009. They are being added all the time so check back often.

Some tech and political discussions from Day two of the show but really day one for me

I had a great set of meetings at Interop today and the energy at the show was quite inspiring. Talk of sales gains and the potential for acquisitions were common. In many of my discussions there was concern over the current administrations direction in terms of burdening small business owners. A repeated theme was doesn't the Obama team realize small businesses do most of the hiring n this country. Why are they trying to hurt them?

A few small business owners confided in me that they aren't growing as fast as they like because their financial people have told them to set money aside for increased taxes next year as well as potential increases in healthcare and energy costs due to cap and trade.

Trends which have been consistent as of late are cloud computing, virtualization, bandwidth increases, Ethernet, and a new one, solid-state storage - an area where a few new companies have entered into.

I won't mention specific companies in this post as I don't want to correctly or incorrectly link them to political comments they don't want on the record.

Still, with all the headwinds being created by politicians, the increasing need for technology by the marketplace coupled with massive amounts of mergers and acquisitions have led us to a point in tech where companies are performing better than they have in a long time because they could be the next to get acquired and "cash out" so to speak.

In addition, VC money is beginning to flow once again and the balance of power is now heading in the direction of the entrepreneur meaning more of them will hopefully come up with ideas and start new and innovative companies.

Based on what I have heard, I am optimistic about tech in 2010 but some of my major concerns are: Will the administration continue with policies that business owners consider hostile? Will there be a war with Iran (even if the US isn't involved in it)? And will the US government continue to spend/print money until the US dollar is worthless?

I just came across this web page with some important details on ITEXPO. I mentioned the keynoters in a recent post and I still think they are one of the best combinations of thought leaders in our space. Google Voice, Sprint, Digium, Polycom, Skype and Verizon Wireless are some of the companies you will hear from at the show.

In addition there are a full eight conference tracks you cannot find anywhere else:

• Business Communications Delivery Options
• Call Center
• Developer
• Enterprise
• HD Voice
• Service Provider
• Unified Communications
• Video Communications
• TMC University Microsoft OCS

As always, we poll the collective minds of the entire TMCeditorial team and industry when we put together the conference program for TMC events and I believe this is a major differentiator. It seems like just yesterday when TMC launched our first telecom event in Atlanta, GA but it was really 1986!

What I have learned in running communications and tech conferences for 20 years is that if you continue to give your customers unsurpassed value, they come back again and again for more conferences and bring others with them.

To all of you who have attended TMC events over the years - thanks.

I really think this next show in Miami - ITEXPO East 2010 will be our best to date and I am looking forward to welcoming you personally.

Here are more details on this can't miss conference.

It is obvious television viewing is merging with the web and as such, cable companies and other triple-play providers understand they are in increasing danger of becoming providers of dumb pipes. Of course the reason carriers are adverse to this distinction has to do with more than idle cocktail party conversation -- And what do you do? "Well, my company provides stupid data pipes." How nice - I think I'll go get a drink; it was nice talking to you.

You see, carriers want to continue selling enhanced or smart services so they can charge more for each. DVR? That's $10/month. Pay-per-view that's $6.95 per movie. Applications? That's $1.99 each, etc.

But we all know this model as it applies to TV is doomed and within five years we will probably see 20-30% of television watched in the US streamed over the net. This by the way assumes there is no major catalyzing event. I for one think there will be a catalyst which will likely be Apple and/or Google rolling out some new product and/or service which makes watching TVoIP a no brainer. If this happens in the next 18 months or so, expect 30-40% of US TV to be streamed over the net in five years.

In Google's case, picture an Android-powered set-top box with YouTube HD integration which in turn is connected to all major network programming and movies. In Apple's case, their unappreciated TV product gets a major upgrade in features and functions and perhaps links with their much-rumored tablet which like the iPod and iPhone can act as a smart remote control allowing previewing of other channels before viewing them on your main screen.

If you work for a carrier providing video with a business model which doesn't take the above into account, please stop reading, take a deep breath, update your resume and post it quickly on Monster.com. While you wait for the phone to ring, let's consider how to modify your business model to take advantage of this trend.

• You can hire lobbyists to limit net neutrality legislation which you will argue will reduce your investment in broadband which is so essential to our future. Then you slow every video packet you can find on your network. Let's face it, as much as consumers think things should be free and there should be no early termination fees on networks, in reality -- banks and companies don't invest money unless they think they are going to see a return on their investments. I have taken both sides of the argument regarding net neutrality and for the record; I am concerned that carriers have a tremendous amount of control over our networks. But at the same time we should all recognize the massive investments operators are making to provide us wired and wireless broadband. We need these carriers to make a nice return on these investments so they can continue to invest.
• You can try to strike up a deal with Google, Microsoft and/or Apple to see if you can somehow get a partnership going to ensure you can still generate revenue as consumers start streaming more and more TV.
• You can buy content. Take a look at what Comcast is doing with NBC - they will be entering a JV which gives them a 51% stake of NBC Universal which is valued by the two parties at around $30 billion.
• You can attempt to insert yourself as a middleman between web viewers and content. This in my opinion is toughest route but I hope I am wrong in thinking that carriers are not good at building entertainment portals people will gravitate towards. AT&T recently rolled out a portal called AT&T Entertainment and after being live for a few weeks Quantcast says it has roughly 46,000 US unique visitors while Alexa says it doesn't register at all. Then again, AT&T.com has a rank of 500, mostly due to webmail and this means it gets massive traffic levels as it is ranked in the top 500 sites in the world. It is subsequently tough for any sub-site of AT&T to make a major contribution to traffic generation in a few weeks.

Every time the web has become a major resource for providing a service such as shopping, auctions or music, a new player emerges to be dominant and traditional players struggle. Look at how Craigslist, Amazon, eBay and Apple have taken massive amounts of share in the spaces they now play.

TV is the next frontier and Microsoft has been in the space for years with its IPTV offering but Apple and Google are better positioned for the future based on a model which leverages the very fast and dumb pipes today's carriers provide.

How service providers adapt to this changing world of video content delivery will determine their profitability for years to come. The one certainty is this transformation is happening and rapidly. If there are acquisitions to be made to shore up carrier positions, now is probably the best time to do so as valuations in the TVoIP space are likely to only go up.

Hopefully this article has helped your company form a solid TVoIP strategy which means you can just let that phone keep ringing.

The netbook craze continues and as the devices proliferate, they can be found in places like superstores and perhaps even some local supermarkets in high tech areas of the country. San Jose, I'm looking in your direction. But does it make sense to take a computer which is really designed for thrifty consumers and stick it in an office? My vote is probably not because for a little more money you can go out and get a full-fledged laptop and in many cases this will give you more performance or as we like to say in the tech world, increased bang for the buck.

But if saving money today is paramount and you aren't as concerned about having to upgrade more quickly tomorrow, check out this article from Lance Whitney, one of the latest additions to the TMCnet team of writers. Lance describes some of the things to consider before plunging into the world of corporate netbooks.

Two other items worth mentioning are the fact I know a few people using netbooks in their offices and they are all satisfied. Furthermore, TMCnet writer Doug Mohney is a huge fan of netbooks and TLNs. Did we seriously need YAA or Yet another Acronym? What does it stand for? Why Thin and Light Notebooks of course. By the way, when I first spotted Doug with a netbook about a year ago he mentioned to me the devices are almost disposable in nature. Of course he was referring to the fact you could just pick one up at the local electronics store if yours breaks.

So the next time you are in that local grocery store in San Jose and looking for a way to save money on IT and getting rid of that five o'clock shadow, just pick up a few netbooks to go with those razor blades you just threw in the carriage.

You remember a while back I discussed how the real apple tax is the lack of Flash support from Apple? I further explained how virtually all websites with video have to create duplicate video formats for their content - Flash for most devices and H.264 for iPhones. It gets more complicated for a site like TMCnet which has a Flash-based media player which scrolls through article graphics when you visit the site. These graphics didn't show up at all on the iPhone and if we wanted anyone to see them on the world's fastest-growing smartphone platform we would be forced to reprogram the site.

Check out the red arrow for what I mean

Well we reprogrammed the site using jQuery/JavaScript and this allows iPhone and iPod Touch users to now see the feature graphics of the latest articles as TMC editors and designers intended. If you have any problems seeing the player on any devices/browsers please email our webmaster.

There is a wrinkle - my web team is also building some device-dependent mobile sites and at the moment, these mobile Safari browsers get redirected to a mobile site which is in the process of being  be improved.

To bypass being redirected to our mobile site just go to this URL - www.tmcnet.com/a.htm. The highlighted part is all you really need to remember. If you want the iPhone specific site without graphics and with rapid performance be sure to go to i.tmcnet.com and if you want our site dedicated to iPhone news not the device, go to iphone.tmcnet.com.

We are in the midst of a violent transformation of our communications networks which involves an immense amount of control being wrestled away from carriers and given to developers and end-users. Visit the iTunes App store or check out what is happening with free turn-by-turn GPS on an Android 2.0 device to get an idea of what I mean. The trend is not new by any means; the first time communications systems were allowed to interoperate with computer systems was in the eighties when the first Rockwell Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) systems started to communicate with IBM mainframes to give us CTI or computer telephony integration. This allowed screen pops which dipped into CRM databases allowing contact center agents to know who was calling and more than likely why. Moore's Law coupled with telephony hooks like TAPI and TSAPI from Microsoft and Novell respectively meant this capability went from costing around a million dollars to tens of thousands of a dollars just a decade later.

Enterprise communications systems have continued to open up and hosted IVR systems, application generators and APIs for DSP resource boards from companies like Dialogic and Aculab allowed greater and greater telephony transformation allowing migration from fixed-function communications systems to more open software-controlled components which could be mixed and matched in a best-of-breed fashion.

The Internet accelerated this trend with its ability to allow cloud-based solutions to be easily accessed and mashups has been a great catalyst - allowing complex data to be represented in new and more interesting ways. Today we can combine the power which we were given by companies like Dialogic and marry them with the cloud and this means anyone can now develop sophisticated applications which leverage all internet and corporate data.

And when you combine open APIs, mashups, communications and social networking in a well thought-out and integrated fashion you are able to provide levels of productivity and customer service heretofore not possible. Any corporate or government process which has friction due to communications delays between people can be lubricated by the effective use of communications technology as it intersects with APIs and rich information sets which can live anywhere.

Perhaps the most respected name in the business of voice mashups is Thomas Howe, CEO, Light and Electric. If you want to know the past, present and future of communications - especially as it pertains to the cloud, you want to speak with Thomas and get his thoughts. If you are a carrier, large enterprise, integrator or government organization, you need to pick his brain to position your organization to take advantage of the ongoing evolution of communications.

Thomas and I have spoken over the past years about how TMC would love to partner to bring his visionary thoughts (all the good stuff locked up in his grey matter) to our audience of millions of global communications and technology decision-makers.

I am happy to announce that at the next ITEXPO which takes place January 20-22, 2010 in Miami, FL you will get a chance to come and hear Thomas speak. In addition you will soon be able to benefit from webinars and screencasts which our companies will jointly participate in.

I hope to see you at the show and as always, at TMC we are looking to provide you with the absolute best information on communications and technology - allowing you to quickly learn whatever you need to further your career and meet your organization's evolving needs.

• See how British Telecom is ahead of the curve as it relates to this transformation and bought Ribbit for over $100 million to make it so.
• Here is a past podcast I had with Thomas Howe for more on his ideas.

The pace of tech acquisitions is not slowing and one area worth watching is the testing market where Ixia has recently picked up Catapult Communications to further its wireless IP performance testing strategy - especially as the company positions itself to be a leader in the LTE space. In a meeting in Ixia headquarters in southern California the company explained to me that they continue to focus on a broad range of testing areas such as Ethernet, 40/100 Gb Ethernet, devices, fiber channel, storage area networks and virtualization. And don't forget about some of the other areas the company plays in such as voice, video and data.

One area discussed by Kelly is the fact that this acquisition allows Agilent's customers to purchase a suite of complimentary testing equipment and moreover, through this move - Ixia becomes a far more international company and furthermore has a much larger focus on the carrier space. Also, Ixia Fusion allows customers to use open APIs to access Agilent and Ixia testing solutions. This by the way is pretty similar to how Oracle is integrating many of the companies it acquires - they also call their middleware Fusion.

In January of this year I asked if Eric Schmidt is cozying up to President Obama to protect a Google Monopoly. I took some flak for the post but the reality is the reality - the company seems to be taking over every facet of tech from book readers to voice to video to unified communications to cloud computing to photo sharing to video serving to office applications. Should I go on? How about turn-by-turn GPS?

OK, I'll stop but that won't stop others like the Chicago Tribune from picking up where I left off and asking serious questions such as whether Google's ability to use its revenue from its monopoly position in search to wipe away competition in other industries is fair or not.

Recently I commented about how Verizon's doubling of its early termination fee to $350 makes sense as the company needs to keep investing in ensuring its network is the best in the US. I may be the only person who appreciates having a fee go up as evidenced by the noise from journalists which is not subsiding. One of my favorite writers and video producers, David Pogue of The New York Times comments today that Verizon is gouging and has a plethora of ideas the company can implement to save consumers money.

Pogue has the following and very interesting comment to share:

Why wouldn't it be a hugely profitable move to start pitching yourself as the GOOD cell company, the one that actually LIKES its customers?

Verizon has some of the best customer service in the country. It has the best network by far. Everyone seems to want to switch to Verizon if they were to carry the iPhone for example. This is because the company has made absolutely massive investments where the competition has cut corners on a relative basis.

So perhaps the most succinct question to pose is what is the cost of being on the best network, having the fastest data download speeds and the least dropped calls? For many, there is no price tag too high to pay for these features and parting with an additional $5/month for phantom data charges and even more for high termination fees is fair.

I look at Verizon Wireless like I look at BMW. Both tout relatively low prices to start. But if you purchase a 328i, metallic paint will cost you $550. Cruise control costs $2,400! Navigation (which Google now gives away) is $2,100, and 19" wheels will cost you over $5,000!

If you think BMWs make some of the best cars around, you hold your nose and pay. Ditto for Verizon Wireless.

Verizon has always been the most restrictive carrier around and they locked down Bluetooth on their devices for many years except for pairing with a headset. Likewise, GPS has been locked down on most devices unless you purchased VZ Navigator for a minimum of $9.99/month or $2.99/day.

But as a customer, these annoyances and high fees were balanced by consistent spending of billions of dollars on wireless and now fiber networks.

Users should keep in mind they can always switch to AT&T, T-Mobile or Sprint if they think Verizon Wireless service isn't worth the extra money.

In fact the massive defection away from Sprint shows consumers consider more than price when it comes to making phone/network purchase decisions. In fact, I would say from a pricing perspective, Sprint may be the most customer friendly company around. I would posit that if AT&T Mobility didn't have the iPhone, consumers would be fleeing from them as well.

The iPhone threw Verizon for a loop and as predicted it is getting clobbered because it did not have the foresight to work with Apple when it had the chance.

So now, the enemy of its enemy is Google and Verizon is allowing a number of new Android phones on its network. They will get a cut of ad revenue by doing this but they are giving up virtually all services which they used to be able to charge for. Google just gave away turn-by-turn GPS for example meaning Verizon can no longer charge $10/month for the same service.

Moreover, Google will roll out dozens of new services which will be ad supported. Verizon will not be able to launch competing services as we all know a carrier can't compete with a software company.

In a moment, Verizon went from being the most closed network in the US to perhaps the most open and there is a cost associated with this move. Again, this is all pro-consumer behavior.

In fact, it seems at this point Verizon has leapfrogged AT&T in terms of openness. Especially when you consider the restrictive policing of the App Store by Apple/AT&T. Anyone who has seen the rich applications and joyous battery-sucking multitasking available on a jailbroken iPhone understands how users are being penalized by Big Brother Apple/AT&T.

So the full question to those upset with Verizon's fees should be, would you pay more for the best network and the most open ecosystem where you can take advantage of the best applications and service values around without the worry of a nanny telling you what you can and can't do?

The author switched from Verizon to AT&T because he wanted an iPhone. For about a year he carried around a Verizon phone for voice and an AT&T phone for data but that proved cumbersome and now he experiences dropped calls and other network snafus which he didn't deal with on Verizon Wireless. He not so secretly despises the App Store Nanny.