Communications and Technology Blog - Tehrani.com - VoIP Archives

Two Get Prison over $4.4M in VoIP Fraud

2012-05-16T09:28:35Z

Every technology which can be used for good can be used for bad as well and that is what I couldn't help but think about when I learned a federal judge sentenced Vinod Tonangi and Harjeet Bhambhani to over a year in prison for $4.4 million in VoIP fraud. They were further ordered to serve three years of supervised release, and Tonangi owes $1.7 million in restitution.

Using companies Paradise Communications, Reach Communications and Airtel Holdings they resold wholesale telecom service which didn't exist according an article in the Wall Street Journal.

They both pleaded guilty to one count to commit wire fraud.

Unfortunately they also damaged the trust level of the wholesale telecom market - and whether this is permanent damage or not remains to be seen. I expect upstart telecom wholesalers to have to deal with more red tape to prove they are legitimate going forward.

Where the SIP Operations and Engineering Community Converge

2012-05-02T00:14:30Z

The SIP Forum has been evangelizing the SIP market for almost as long as SIP has been around and when you consider the PSTN may go away in the next decade or even less, the importance of an organization dedicated to replacement technologies becomes apparent. Moreover, the Forum will soon hold its second live event SIPNOC which will be targeted at the technical decision makers in the SIP space.

The two-day conference, which focuses on the challenges and opportunities related to the deployment of SIP-based services in global service provider networks has attracted technical leadership from MSOs and carriers from North America, South America and Europe including ADP, babyTel, Broadvox, Comcast, Cbeyond, COX Communications, Lumos Networks, iBasis, IntelliVerse, Socket Telecom, Sorenson Communications, Time Warner Cable, TDS Telecom, Telefonica International Wholesale Services, XO Communications, Uni-tel, Verizon and Vocalocity.

What many love about SIP is also what they hate - interoperability. In fact the reason for SIP to exist is to enable easy communications between carriers, enterprises, consumers and equipment providers. Many of my readers know however that the SIP irony is that you need a SIP to SIP gateway to connect some equipment correctly. All the more reason for a central organization to help facilitate standards adherence and interop.

The show will take place in Herndon, VA, June 25-27, 2012 and you can register here.

Is Skype Microsoft's Only Chance for Mobile Success?

2012-04-26T17:33:59Z

If you are looking for increased competition in the mobile space, Apple’s recent and seemingly constant record earnings are bad news. Worse yet for the competition, Apple has transcended its original position of a computer and electronics maker to become a major force in the publicly traded markets and even the US economy. Its phones are status symbols the world over and its tablet is so far ahead of the rest of the market the company can charge hundreds more and consumers will pay for these products with a smile.

So news of Microsoft losing share to in the mobile space should hardly be considered news. In fact even if the company purchased Nokia and RIM the challenge of integration would far outweigh the benefits. Sadly this would be true if both companies were given to Redmond at no charge. How bad is the situation? Well between December 2006 and December 2011 the Microsoft went from having 34% of the US market for smartphones to a paltry 5%! And all this while the smartphone market in the US has been exploding with growth.

Microsoft knows how bad things are. Sadly, they were way ahead in mobile – I used to rely on the HTC/UT Starcom Verizon XV6700 and called it the near-perfect device in March of 2006. It deserved this designation because it was truly a mobile office in your pocket.

I complained at the time that different carriers selling the same device were calling it something else and moreover there was really no branding for the device at all.

I think this phone may have been the last opportunity Microsoft needed to exploit to stay a mobile leader.

Sure, they have the relationship with Nokia but it will be a really tough sell to unseat Apple and Android at this point – unless something dramatic and unforeseen (by others) happens like Android or iOS exhibiting a massive security flaw driving users into the hands of the competition.

But Microsoft still has Skype as its last hope to attain some relevance in the smartphone space. If the software company is serious about the market and we all know they have to be, there will have to be serious handset subsidization. Even then, it is unclear it will be significant player in the market.

But a simple way to subsidize is by bundling Skype credits with phones – there is a huge arbitrage play here between what carriers charge for their voice minute bundles compared to what Skype charges.

To offset some of the cost, Microsoft will have to show ads which could be powered by Bing.

The challenge of course is voice calls are becoming less important each year as consumers use social and text as their preferred method of communications.

But the window is still open for Skype phone which is subsidized heavily – one which consumers would have to consider because the price is so low. Of course the challenge here is carriers like Verizon provide a number of phones for free with a contract such as the LG Enlighten and the Samsung Illusion. So Microsoft would have to potentially give you a free phone as well as unlimited calling or some number of minutes per month, etc. Also this strategy assumes carriers won’t mind Skype becoming the keeper of the carrier relationship. Sure, many wireless providers have partnered with Skype in the past but it is unclear if they are still happy to do so.

In short, Skype may be the last chance for Microsoft to become successful in mobile – and in the US, the subsidized approach to providing phones and service may make it very difficult to find success. Skype integration may be a better option in other countries where devices are generally purchased on their own.

I don’t want to come off as optimistic mind you – this strategy will be expensive and basically bribes consumers to take a product they don’t want. It’s worth pointing out a similar strategy in the past used by Bing to gain share from Google was a failure. But mobile is so important, the company may be forced to give the idea a shot – and if so they better start soon.

Skype may not be the only hope as Microsoft also owns a significant portion of Facebook - tight integration with this social network may be another option for Redmond to attack mobile. But it is unclear that Facebook would be willing to work exclusively or even semi-exclusively with a platform which has limited appeal - unless the price is really right.

Microsoft Working on Skype Everywhere Initiative

2012-04-20T12:37:01Z

The fact that Microsoft would want to integrate Skype everywhere shouldn't be too surprising, Office/Lync and Windows Phone are obvious areas and so is Xbox. That's why news of the company looking for engineers who can delve into the hybrid world of video games and IP communications shouldn't be too surprising.

When Microsoft integrates Skype into Xbox and bundles some free calling into the solution, what's to stop them from offering a DECT phone as well? With retail prices of DECT 6.0 phones starting at less than $20, the idea makes more and more sense.

Sure, you can use a cordless/wireless phone with Skype today but if Microsoft integrates it all seamlessly and video is added for free, what happens to the business models of Ooma, netTALK and magicJack?

And what about the cable companies, AT&T and Verizon? Sure, a Skype home phone calling solution will be inferior as it doesn't allow emergency calling due to a lack of E-911 support but still, if it is part of a bundle and has HD voice support, why pay for phone company or cable calling? Especially if it has video as well and other great Skype calling features, presence, etc.

Additionally, a benefit of the Skype purchase will be potentially becoming the phone provider for hundreds of millions of consumers. Of course Skype already has hundreds of millions of users but when I say "phone" I mean the actual physical phone, not the computer to computer experience.

Moreover, if Microsoft is successful, it will be achieving what Cisco couldn't with Umi. And remember, one of the reasons I said Umi wouldn't make it was because of Xbox Kinect. I also mentioned Skype's deal with Panasonic, Sony and others as another reason. It would be ironic if Skype and Xbox together were to fulfill the market niche Umi was looking to exploit.

The challenge for Microsoft is the tablet market - which today means iPad, is eating the video game space. So the next version of Xbox better have some really compelling features to draw the gamers back. I would think they believe tight Skype integration will be one of these features.

Comcast Lets You Text Message from your Home Phone

2012-03-28T23:01:09Z

It took about eight years but it seems like SMS has finally come to home phone service

In 2004 in a piece about VoIP 2.0 I wondered why home phone service hadn’t progressed and suggested that they allow instant messaging/SMS. It’s obvious the market would love such a solution and Comcast will be one of the first to bring it to market. In fact, now included with its ‘Xfinity Voice Unlimited Nationwide’ plan, customers get access to free text messaging from the Xfinity Mobile app for iOS and Android devices. In addition these devices the apps allow the ability to receive transcribed voicemail messages that can be read instantly. Both features also can be accessed online via the Xfinity Connect web portal.

Here is what I said eight years ago:

I am not talking about MP3 over IP. I am suggesting the development or rebranding of a device to lure customers into buying a service. When I look at my home wireless phone and compare it to my mobile phone I can’t believe they were both sold in the same century. Home phones do basically nothing, while today’s mobile phones can record calls, download and play music, boast speakerphone functionality, have built in SMS, IM and e-mail clients, can take and e-mail photos, videos, and voice messages, can operate in a walkie-talkie fashion, can support bluetooth, can be a PDA, can store thousands of contact records, can have memory expansion slots, can store appointments, a to-do list, and more. Surprisingly the prices for typical cordless phones and mobile phones aren’t that different.

I believe that teenagers would give up their Xboxes this Christmas if they could buy a killer WiFi VoIP phone that let them talk for an unlimited amount of time, conference, IM, speakerphone, bluetooth, etc. I am just waiting for the brilliant service provider who brings it to market first.

You may also recall at MWC Neustar discussed the fact they power such solutions – they said we can expect to see many more announcements like this. I know all land line carriers will feel the pressure to follow suit and soon, VoIP service and SMS will likely be as closely bundled as wireless and SMS.

Consumers Tell Mobile Carriers how to Save Millions

2012-03-22T17:42:15Z

Wireless carriers spend millions on contact center calls related to device questions from their subscribers and to lean more Amdocs recently commissioned a survey which shows that while 83% of the 2,900 consumers surveyed are aware of self-service options, only 37% of consumers use them. Why? You may think because they don't have access to a PC or perhaps they have an Apple iDevice and are afraid the answer will be in Adobe Flash and all they will see is a series of question marks.

Well, if this is what you thought, you'd be wrong on both counts. The reality is that they expect the answers to be wrong or inaccurate.

So perhaps you are thinking, social media is the solution. Nope, 75% of users did not find a satisfactory answer there.

91% of respondents requested a single repository of information which would keep them from having to rely on Google, Bing and/or another search provider.

TMCnet's Peter Bernstein goes into considerable depth, analyzing the study and making important recommendations about how to reduce call center call volume and the associated cost. Wireless service providers should really read the piece.

Monetizing the Mobile Data Explosion with Tektronix Communications

2012-03-20T19:26:10Z

Remember when you were in the engineering lab and you relied on a Tektronix oscilloscope to analyze signals? I do and I deeply craved one of my own but could never afford one. But the company once part of Tektronix, Tektronix Communications does its best to ensure that not being able to afford their products is not a reason to keep you from buying. The company provides solutions for carriers which help with pre-deployment, network operations, customer care, network and RF engineering solutions as well as business performance. You see they want to ensure the solutions you buy, pay for themselves so carriers are more likely to purchase their products than a college kid eyeing a high-quality scope.

In a recent meeting with Laurence Alexander and Samir Marwaha they shared with me the news that the company has been awarded more than 50% of the LTE monitoring opportunities worldwide partnering with more than 15 tier one carriers around the globe. The company helps its customers across multiple “technology domains” such as EUTRAN, EPC, IMS and VoLTE.

Moreover the company is assisting carriers maximize revenue per subscriber as well as ensuring commercial readiness of LTE networks. They also assist with OTT partnerships between carriers and companies who can utilize such QoS enhanced pipes like perhaps in the video space. According to Laurence this is a win/win because carriers can charge for it and consumers get a better quality service.

Moreover deep packet classification enables service providers to get a better sense of what users are doing on the network. Moreover the company’s solutions allow operators to determine network quality from a user perspective – and at this point they can even alert customer care that a problem is taking place. Quality issues are just one cause of churn but certainly a very large portion of the churn pie. This sort of solution is designed to help carriers be proactive and retain customers – even ones which just had a negative experience.

Certainly one of the reasons carriers to choose Tektronics Communications has to do with the breadth of product line starting with a product like K2Air/NSA for advanced RAN and RF performance analysis to OptiMon for deep drive RAN troubleshooting. Then there is the Iris series – traffic analyzers, session analyzers and performance intelligence solutions – all the way up to touchpoint CEM for customer experience management.

And as the growth of LTE and VoLTE accelerates so should the opportunities for the company to assist carriers in providing better quality of service to customers. In addition, the company aims to help them find new ways to generate revenue by providing differentiated, higher quality services.

Disclosure: I am a shareholder in Tektronix Communications parent Danaher. Pictured is the graphic of Danaher's holdings in the tech, telecom and related spaces.

Ascom Wireless Test Solutions Advance to Handle Burgeoning Data Demand

2012-03-19T18:44:02Z

The number of people using their cellphone as a primary device is continuing to increase and this includes campus and corporate environments where the ease-of-use of a single device makes using a smartphone running Android, iOS or something similar the preferable corporate interface. In fact more than half of carrier data traffic is consumed from an indoor location making it important for operators to focus on ensuring signal strength is adequate in such environments.

At MWC in 2012 I spent some time with Ascom the network testing and monitoring company to learn about their partnership with iBwave Design software for in-building wireless network design. Through the partnership Ascom’s TEMS mobile network testing solutions enables engineers to use building coordinates to align their in-building presence and provide a baseline for route planning and walk testing. Moreover, the data adds to the TEMs application by allowing engineers to display antenna locations as well determining leakage caused by outside cell sites.

Moreover, the software can detect WiFi signals and help carriers determine if they want to add WiFi hotspots of their own to buildings.

While at the Ascom booth I also got a chance to see the company’s benchmarking tools for trains, cars and autonomous vehicles. Moreover I had a chance to learn how the company’s TEMS Monitor Master software allows drag-and-drop building of scripts to test end-to-end network performance. Simple things can be tested like voice calls, IVR, voice, VoIP and e-mail as well as emulating an SMS to web link. And yes, you can use it to test Apple’s Visual Voicemail.

The ruggedized RTU-5 probe (pictured) which replaces the X219 was on display in the booth and the heat-sink looking device supports up to four modems, is all solid state and is outfitted with USB ports. The probes can be scheduled to test at various intervals – let’s say during busy times, every five minutes, etc.

The company also showed me their central SIM server allowing carriers to utilize an IP network to leverage a SIM server located anywhere. In this manner, carriers can easily tests SIMS form any part of the world on its network and can subsequently see failure ratios, the number of dropped calls, dropped sessions and FTP data rates. Failures show up in red on an intuitive GUI can clicking will allow you to drill down to the test case which failed. Subsequently carriers can do a radio and/or packet trace to determine the cause of the problem.

With the advent of the 4G LTE iPad which was released just last week we can expect even more users to rely primarily on their wireless carrier network instead of WiFi. Especially since quite often, 4G may be faster than in-building WiFi solutions.

With the trend towards more powerful devices and faster networks, the timing for Ascom and their new products probably couldn’t be better.

Acme Packet University Live Blog

2012-03-15T13:10:15Z

Acme Packet is hosting their Acme Packet University at Harvard University in Cambridge. I spoke with the company's Co-Founder, CEO & President Andy Ory before the session kicked off and the topic of Sonus came up. The two companies partnered for many years and eventually Sonus reached out to Acme to purchase them however Acme had begun the filing to go public and Sonus had taken a hit to their market cap so the deal never happened.

According to Andy, the idea today is to explain to the world how complicated the SBC space is - one part switch, security device and softswitch. These are separate disciplines in most companies - making it more complicated to build a good SBC.

He then briefly outlined the future and what we will learn today - how hosted-IMS based solutions will help move the industry forward.

9:00 Session kicks off

Marianne Budnick, CMO kicked things off and set the tone for the day.

Patrick MeLampy Co-Founder and CTO began with a history of the
markets and Acme.

Net2Phone NetMeeting had problems - in part because they wouldn't work through NAT and this derailed the company.

The company started in Andy's house and the workers were day trading as well as working - this was 2000 after all.

Lots of talk of the alphabet soup of standards IP communications had to deal with until around the time of 9/11.

The partnership with Sonus Networks helped them a great deal back in the day.

People like Henry Sinnreich and Jonathon Rosenberg "hated" Acme because they didn't want the carriers to be able to control the endpoints. They were fans of a more democratized approach.

SIP trunking has a way to go and is driving our business forward.

Other opportunities: More and more CODECS, more transcoding, more operating systems, hypervisors, lawful intercept points, etc.

Patrick explains how SBCs work - as if they were transactions in a bank.

"I wish SIP were simple like IP." There are 215 RFCs, 80 Internet drafts in last 12 months alone.

The reason things are so complicated is because of vested interests and that is the way things work today. In other words, the traffic from your 4G cell phone shouldn't need to travel back to the US when you are in Europe but that is what is happening because that is how it works today.

4G phones use a different CODEC than 3G phones - transcoding gateways are cheaper to buy than adding both CODECs to 4G phones in-part because licensing prices from Qualcomm are high. These gateways make carrier networks far more complicated.

Doing nothing not an option for carriers - voice is declining in revenue while complexity is increasing. Acme is not just protecting and securing. They went from securing to allowing interoperability as SIP versions proliferated. In the future they see their role as allowing simpler deployment of voice and thereby allowing incumbents to compete with services like Google Voice.

The future is about deploying SBC and related infrastructure in the cloud in an elastic manner. The evolved packet core needs to be another access network - the role needs to be redefined.

Load balancing is important - they sell a load balancer. The important issue is he orchestration of the service across these computers. Session management in call recording and monitoring is very very important.

Andy: The complexity is increasing - we have hired 200 people in the last 18-20 months to deal with this complexity. It is very hard for people for legacy companies to deal with this problem. In a statement of potential risk for the company he said, "The challenge is things get so complex that we can't deal with the complexity either." He continued, "We don't think this will happen - this is all we are focused on."

Dan Warren Sr. Technologist with GSMA takes stage to discuss IMS implementation in the cloud.

It is tough for carriers to compete with startups - on the Internet - many companies have to die for a few to be successful. The internet has more scale and is faster - operators also can't work together because of antitrust concerns.

What operators do well is provide full connectivity - you can call anywhere in the world with 10 digits. They do standards well also - they make ecosystems work without suppressing innovation - lots of different types of phones, etc.

SS7 networks were based on trust - but in IP world "Everyone thinks everyone else is trying to screw them" this is why we need security. My thoughts are that IP is open and more accessible to hacking - you would need a class 4 or 5 switch to hack into the SS7 network and these things would take an entire floor of a building - even if you could afford it, you couldn't run and hide with it if the cops came.

RCS is an ecosystem allowing you to have seamless messaging - started 7 years ago to compete with Skype. IMS is complex and expensive and RCS does things that Skype and Facebook does for free so business model doesnt make sense. Now, carriers have to utilize IMS because they need a viable voice service over LTE so RCS does begin to make sense.

VoLTE will be essential for 4G carriers and these network deployments will all require SBCs - in-depth discussion of how much potential there will be for Acme and SBC space in general as LTE gets rolled out. One limiting factor is VoLTE handsets which have good battery life. Then there was a chicken and egg discussion about making sure networks re ready for the handsets before the handsets become available.

11:45 am

Kevin Klett VP Product Management:

Discussion of various standards and signaling protocols - how important user experience is. Is network available - not just jitter and latency. Also a discussion of regulatory agencies and the fact that incumbent carriers have to deal with this challenge while new entrants do not.

You must control the signaling and bearer plane to ensure a secure network - to make sure you can ensure who gets on the network.
wi
Huge myth that internal threats aren't a problem - in other words you can't necessarily trust authenticated devices. Security is about keeping the network up and running. There can be damage to brand, legal implications, loss of revenue and SLAs issues. Also have to be able to keep subscribers anonymous. Signaling contains a good deal of information.

There are 6-7 variations of lawful intercept.

Contact centers are another large area of growth for the company. Traditional and IP based contact centers.

There haven't been large-scale IMS networks rolled out to date. 130+ projects in 55 countries have been deployed. The company interops with 8+ major IMS vendors.

Ron Gruia with Frost & Sullivan asks: Can you scale signaling and media independently

Andy said: Carriers want to know if you can you ride Moore's law.

Carriers wasn't to be able to decrease and increase capacity as needed. They do not want to buy all new hardware. We have worked on optimizing our solutions to run on VMWare and Zen.

We aren't dogmatic - we can do this on purpose built or custom hardware. We think this will happen - all different ways.

There is variable pricing in such a scenario where you can purchase service as needed as well as "keep in reserve" pricing for more bursty traffic.

We can disrupt our own business model - this is an advantage for us and disadvantage for the incumbent IMS providers.

This statement was in reference to the fact that the company can provide hosted services without concern regarding killing off the switching side of the house, etc. This would be a concern of larger competitors who sell more integrated solutions which are soup to nuts solutions. (On a separate note shouldn't this be soup to crackers? Why nuts?)

12:45 lunch

Andy takes the podium at lunch - he discussed how partnering in the early days with large NEMs was important to their success. This is a bit funny because I tend to agree with Andy - at least that is the sense of the market. Patrick said earlier today that technology decisions are why Acme prevailed. This reminds me of the story (excuse my paraphrasing from memory) where a bunch of people with blindfolds go into a room and try to figure out what the object in the room is - its an elephant. One person grabbed a leg and proclaimed it was a tree while another grabbed the trunk and said it was a snake. The moral - your point of view is shaped by you perspective.

Important points

Unified Service: anytime, anywhere. Like accessing Gmail anywhere.
Customers have relationships with more service providers - this will only increase.
Cloud can be centralized and dynamic around the edges
Thinks communications for SMBs will clearly move to cloud.
More federated communications will take place - like Facebook working with mobile carriers, etc. Customers may purchase OTT services but purchase quality of service and better quality connectivity from a carrier.
Slide of new devices from past 3 weeks - 8 in total see photo below.
IP = identity and privacy. We don't trust an email from the bank asking for a user name and password but we do trust the phone. As we move to IP - someone has to enable this trusted environment. All these choices require more remediation and control.
In IP we don't trust anyone.
addresses and identities are heterogeneous and will continue to be
CODECS are breeding like rabbits - Microsoft seems to be creating them at will - then went through scores of codecs from different markets, companies and standards bodies.

Discussion - what happens if there are less CODECS due to standards bodies simplifying things. Andy says no as codecs introduce complexity and degrade quality.

No matter how much bandwidth you give someone - they will find a way to overdrive it. LTE will not solve the bandwidth problem. There will continue to be more tiers, WiFi offload, small cells, etc. LTE is overburdened in theory before it is even deployed.
Some sessions more important than others. Sessions which have been paid for or are reserved - are more important.
Network/sessions needs control and manageability.
Primary lines will always have regulatory compliance E-911 and lawful intercept.
Business models will be heterogeneous - some will provide pipes others will build brands and create services. Others will partner with companies and sell access to their service infrastructure - A carrier can provide regulatory compliance - ensure calls are connected properly, etc.
IP networks will be service-enabled and must provide normalized communications.
The company is beginning to transition from an SBC company to on which provides session delivery networking. (This is in line with the company's marketing at MWC 2012 in Barcelona).
Video is the same as voice from a session delivery perspective.
One interesting point is that as sessions hop onto untrusted networks like WiFi at Starbucks - you will need SBCs to deal with the connections to keep them trusted. Reminder about how carriers are moving to WiFI offload - see my recent article on Taqua from MWC 2012.

1:40 pm

Diane Myers Infonetics:

VoIP service revenue continues to grow. Some carriers - one in China are transitioning to VoIP to save money on power consumed by their legacy equipment.

Discussion of all the vendors in the market from Sons, Radisys, GENBAND, Metaswitch, Broadsoft, AudioCdes, etc.

Discussion of an IMS chart - she mentioned how difficult it is to monitor the market because the items on an IMS chart represent elements not necessarily SKUs or boxes.

SK Telecom has been very innovative in IMS, providing video, messaging, whiteboarding and more - you must check them out - they are doing IMS over wireless.

Significant grilling of analyst about a chart she showed with SBC growth continuing at a compound rate through 2016.

Others in the room said no carrier spending chart ever looks like this - going up every year.

Anther person in the room chimed in explaining that the dips in the market are impossible to predict in advance.

Diane explained how there is also a major move to the cloud by all carriers - this may have caused them to slow down decision-making in general as they determine where to spend, how much and where.

Moreover, carrier are trying to figure out where to spend as subscriber habits are changing - they may use less or more voice in the future. Carriers need to spend accordingly.

2:20 pm

Diagram with clouds - a SIP trunking discussion.

Segue into Enterprise from Carrier market

At end of 2010, under 10% (8%) of enterprise lines use SIP trunking - many companies dont use it to its capacity. Europe has less penetration. UK is farther ahead. We have many competitive carriers in the US which is why we have such great growth here.

She believes that this year it will be over 10%.

Verizon predicts massive SIP trunking growth from this year to next but she is under NDA and no matter how much the room grilled her, she wouldn't buckle.

She showed a chart of SIP trunking growth - blue portion represents North America.

Marianne Budnik introduces Zeus Kerravala of ZK Research:

Zeus: brief talk of VoIP peering - companies need to leverage employee knowledge base - determine who is available and where and when. Collaboration between organizations such as in the medical markets and universities.

UC benefits are greatest when you are mobile. Integrating information between apps for example is far more useful when you cant easily cut and paste with large screens and a mouse.

Example of mobility in the enterprise: A large waste management company has delivery personnel using mobile devices - when they see a full dumpster they take a photo and send it to sales. Sales calls to see if the company wants an unscheduled pickup.

Zeus was a video skeptic but is using it more personally now. Can organizations rebuild processes with video built in?

An enterprise video example - a smaller bank is able to compete with larger ones using tablets which record video - agents go to buildings looking for financing and take photos and videos which are sent to HQ. This speeds up the loan approval process.

Brief CEBP or communications enabled business process discussion - a travel organization who is regional had the best year in 2009. They integrated videos of different destinations on their website. They then tracked movement online of where users were looking. They then proactively reached out on a targeted basis. For example, we noticed you may be considering a trip to Aruba. Close rates went from 20% to 60%!

CEBP is like the move from mainframe to browser - users didn't know what Windows apps they wanted because they had no idea. Then they aw the GUI-based apps and the momentum started. Once enterprises see it, then they will start to deploy. There will likely be no general killer apps but perhaps vertical oriented ones like telemedicine at Johns Hopkins, etc. Mobility may be one.

Thinks SIP trunking penetration in US is under 5% and under 2% outside th US. He says vendors sell it wrong - it isnt just about cost savings. He says you should rearchitect your network when you move to SIP. You should think of how many applications you have wher the functionality is local. In other ords you don't have CRM or email in every branch - then why communications? Use WAN for distribution and buy trunk lines in data centers only.

He believes business video will be a huge market - we will see much more use of it.

Many companies reduce travel budgets in conjunction with purchasing video equipment. He says but there is huge upside - in customer service for example. Being green as a driver has come and gone - it is more about travel.

3:10 pm

People understand better with video - 200% improvement in understanding using video. Schools for example use it if you miss a class. Also used by corporate training departments - sometimes the HR department purchases - not IT. 40% increase in retention and 73% of meetings end faster when you use video.

CEBP will evolve or perhaps branch off into VEBP or video enabled business process.

Tablets will accelerate UC adoption.

Another example of CEBP - in the UK they had to renew many medical cards and couldn't do it with current staff. They put tools in to enable self-service and used chat to enable agents to deal with 4-5 people at once instead of one like the phone. They paid the integrator based on the number of transactions and allowed users to save money if they used self service. Since they had no budget they were able to use the savings to pay the contractor. They paid 4 times as much in total but considered it a win/win for all involved.

Patrick takes stage to discuss an overview of the day - the slide above shows the company's session management platform. Lots of discussion about how the company can grow - the relationship with Microsoft, Broadsoft, etc.

Conclusion

I am sure this event was a success in the eyes of the company. It gave them media exposure as well. The main takeaway was that complexity is not a constant, it is increasing and dramatically so. Moreover, SBCs will be essential in the world of 4G/LTE as carriers need branded voice service over this next-gen wireless solution.

Many analysts I spoke with believe the company has effectively gained a lead on others, keeping competitors from taking its customers. Sonus seems to be the biggest threat but the analysts want to see more positive quarters from the company before they feel confident they can take share of new business as opposed to upgrading existing equipment.

The reality of the the communications space is that SIP trunking is not slowing down - the SIP trunking sessions at ITEXPO (the first place in the world where such courses were offered) have been standing-room only for many years and as you can see from the above analyst comments we are in the very early days of this market which requires SBCs.

Then there is the LTE space which also requires SBCs - again, we are in the very early days with many carriers looking to learn from Verizon's successes and mistakes.

Finally, there is the death of PSTN - TMC has hosted many sessions on this topic at past ITEXPOs and the FCC seems dead set on sunsetting your father's and grandfather's phone network this decade. I bring up the fact that we have hosted sessions because I get the sense that the world isn't really aware that this will happen - or perhaps they don't care. This means it is either too far away for anyone to take it seriously or perhaps its like when the US tried to convert to the metric system and most Americans just wouldn't take it seriously. Perhaps prohibition is a better example - after all I am in Mass and St. Patrick's Day is around the corner.

Andy and I discussed some of the above and we both agree the trends are very positive for the market - the reality is timing is impossible to determine in any market. If I could see the future with regards to timing I would have bought Priceline in the single digits and sold it at $650.

But SIP trunking growth around the world should provide a solid market for sales for the next decade and at some point the other two trends should be in full swing as well.

Regardless of whether I am a shareholder of a company or not I do my best to report fairly.

So I want to also point out some concerns that are worth taking seriously. The biggest challenge in the carrier space could come from a consortium of competitors working together to take share from Acme. It is difficult to determine which vendors would take part in such an alliance but the need for growth is certainly there from virtually every incumbent provider. Andy mentioned the experience/expertise/core competency may not exist at other companies but what if a Chinese vendor or two was to jump into such an alliance as well by providing cheap labor and products? Sure it may be unlikely but worth considering.

In the enterprise and SMB space, Acme is far from a household name - so there is lots of opportunity for any or all the small players in the market to take share.

And the argument that Acme has to win this market because they are dominant on the high end may not be the case because as you may recall, when IBM owned the mainframe market, DEC took over the SMB space. In other words, a market lead in one segment does not guarantee success in all segments. PR, marketing and press will help determine where the marketshare will go. And the SMB space is not as complex so this is another factor in favor of the competition.

One of the biggest fears of the analyst community was standards and CODEC consolidation - but Andy says this complexity is something he would like to see lessen. Analysts seem to think the more complexity, the better for Acme and they could be correct but there is a bewildering hodgepodge of standards - what other industry has a standard such as SIP but then has to sell SIP gateways so disparate SIP solutions can communicate with one another?

I'm not a financial analyst and trying to determine how a company will perform on a quarter by quarter basis may be one of the most challenging jobs there is. But I see macro trends and I agree with the the bullish analysts who see this sector performing well. Moreover as Acme becomes more of a partner with its customers as opposed to a box pusher and moreover moves into the cloud, there are significant opportunities for the company to continue to command a large share of a growing market.

But by the same token a company that isn't a household name in a market leaves room for the rest of the field to grow.

But after a day of grilling company execs the analysts seem satisfied that Acme Packet is in a good position over the long haul and as one financial analyst said to me - they seem to have a mote around their business.

Disclosure: I am an Acme Packet shareholder

Broadvox Shows Big Ambitions With New Hire

2012-03-13T13:03:26Z

Broadvox just announced that Bruce Chatterley the former MegaPath President and Speakeasy CEO will become the President and CEO of the company. Chatterley has distinguished himself by growing Speakeasy and eventually selling it to Best Buy in 2007 and more recently integrating MegaPath, Covad and Speakeasy.

Broadvox is an innovative company – they were early in the sip trunking space and made a name for themselves quickly. They haven’t been afraid to acquire to grow and this move is designed to take the company to the next level. It is worth noting that Andre Temnorod will continue in his role as Chairman of the Board allowing him to focus on the network, technology and new services while Chatterley will focus more on the business side.

To learn more I conducted the following email interview with Bruce which should give some solid insight on where Broadvox is headed:

Congratulations on the new position - What attracted you to Broadvox? Solid company and products for growth. Over $100 million in revenue, with strong financial metrics. Very good technology platforms. Strong, diverse and national customer base. Broad range of businesses from wholesale to SMBs to enterprise customers.

How will you change the company? We are working on the answer to that question now. However, I think a winning formula will be strong and leading product innovation, a customer-centric culture that creates raving fans, a strong and committed leadership team, and constantly evolving core competencies in sales, channels, and marketing.

Where do you expect it to be in five years? The company will be known as a critical partner to helping VoIP Carriers/Application Service Providers and business customers succeed. We will be fast growing, lead the industry in innovating new technologies, and have a stronger and even more diverse customer base.

Do you intend to continue acquiring? Our priority is quality organic growth. Once we have our growth formula up and performing, we will opportunistically look to acquisitions to augment and enhance that growth engine.

Do you have ambitions to grow the company internationally? Right now there is a lot of market share to be gained domestically. While we do have some international opportunities in our wholesale VOIP Carrier and Application Service Provider segment along with a few international law firms, we’ll probably stay focused on the US for the foreseeable future.

Will current customers see a change as a result of your addition? I hope our current customers see an acceleration of positive incremental change. Continual positive change will take the form of new solutions to help them succeed, progressively higher performance bars for customer service, and better access to our solutions through an expanded set of channels, both direct and partners.

How will Broadvox continue to differentiate itself in the competitive telecom field? We’ll differentiate by our product innovation, our nimbleness, our ability to serve customers better than our competitors, and our expanded channel capacity. We’ll also differentiate by being an extremely financially sound partner that will be here over the long haul.

Taqua Leverages WiFi, Introduces Backhaul Product at MWC 2012

2012-03-10T22:59:49Z

Taqua has a made a name for itself serving carriers of all sizes with products like the T7000 for wireless and wireline switching, the T7100 for media management, trunking and peering as well as the TCS6100 for small cell and voice messaging services over 4G/LTE.

At Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona I had a chance to speak with Payam Maveddat the company’s EVP of Product Line Management about the fact that carriers have become very interested in WiFi solutions. A frequent discussion at the show in fact was that carriers who wouldn’t even discuss WiFi with you a few years back are now actively asking for the technology to help alleviate the spectrum crunch they are all facing.

Maveddat explained that his customers are happy that they can leverage VoLTE, VoWiFi and femtocells with the company’s solutions. In addition he highlighted the company’s Android VoIP client that works with the company’s TCS6100. The app actively shuts down the wireless radio when it detects an active WiFi network and subsequently uses WiFi for not only the voice but for SMS communications. He says this solution works well for carriers who want to augment femtocells or even for carriers who can’t afford them.

I asked if he thought such a solution would ever be released by Apple – remember that Apple more tightly controls its device features and functions so a third-party couldn’t release such functionality with current levels of OS access. He thought over time that Apple would release such functionality and I tend to agree as carrier pressure to minimize spectrum usage will likely reach a fever pitch and if they don’t do anything, the impending spectrum crunch will affect all Apple users on 3G and 4G networks.

As a side benefit, WiFi is more efficient than 3G and 4G as it doesn’t need to transmit as far – so if Apple was to enable this sort of solution, many users – especially heavy talkers using its 3G and 4G iPhones would likely experience a bump in battery life.

At MWC, the company also released a non-line-of-site backhaul solution for picocells and WiFi hotspots which have a range of between 300M and 2.5 kilometers. The current solution named the W-Series has throughput in the 70 Mbps range with a product roadmap which takes it into the hundreds of Mbps.

This sort of product may be the ideal lamp post solution allowing carriers to rapidly and inexpensively provide access in areas where microwave or fiber backhaul solutions are impractical. The company explains that each small cell site is connected by Ethernet to a Taqua Remote Backhaul Module over licensed but underutilized and inexpensive spectrum to its Hub Backhaul Module. Moreover, management of hundreds of clusters can be done over a single user interface.

As you might have guessed the technology powering the backhaul is OFDM and MIMO and can work in multiple bands from 2 to 4 GHz.

It has been great to see how the company has innovated over the years and the conversation with Payam shows how Taqua is certainly addressing carrier pain points by allowing them to reduce spectrum congestion.

Vocalocity: One Cloud Provider's Path to Growth

2012-03-10T18:36:07Z

Cloud computing providers are all the rage these days and cloud communications is no exception. Witness the growth of 8x8 as well as the M&A interest in the space evidenced by the recent acquisition of M5 Networks by ShoreTel and the acquisition of Aptela by Vocalocity.

I recently had a chance to speak with Wain Kellum the CEO Vocalocity to get a sense of how his company is differentiating itself from other hosted/cloud providers in the space. First off the combined company has over 15,000 customers and over 100,000 network endpoints.

The main takeaway from the conversation to me is that voice is increasingly becoming a service integration and enhancement game. In other words cloud-based dial tone is necessary but only a very small piece of what customers will come to expect from cloud communications companies.

In fact Kellum told me the company adds new innovations each quarter for the same price. While we expect continuous upgrades from computer companies like Microsoft, Apple and Google’s Android – this focus on increased innovation has become a bigger deal in telecom as the cloud has become more important.

Salesforce often will tell you that a reason to purchase service from them is to avoid the disruption and compatibility issues inherent in typical premise-based upgrades. From an IT department’s perspective, what could be better than coming in on a Monday morning and learning that your software-as- a-service solution has been upgraded automatically. Premise-based upgrades typically required IT teams to come in on weekends and often these upgrades needed to be rolled back because they in-turn cause other compatibility issues.

And this of course explains why often, many organizations run old software – a few versions behind the current one because they don’t want to be on the bleeding edge of the product upgrade cycle.

So what sorts of innovations can a cloud-based communications provider provide? One which Vocalocity employs is checking the IP address of phone calls every five seconds and in the case of an outage, transferring the call to a backup number like a cell phone.

In addition the company has integration into standard CRM and accounting systems as well as integration in the insurance space through a recently announced integration with eAgent an online insurance and document management company. Accounting integration with solutions such as NetSuite, Quickbooks and Sage allows customers to see the payment history of companies when they are on the phone. This could be quite useful as not only an aid to the collections process but to ensure sales isn’t spending excess time selling to customers who aren’t paying their current bills.

The company also has big data analytics capabilities allowing companies to determine which workers are less productive and which customers are consuming the most agent time.

Wain also went into a story about an ice storm which hit Atlanta, where the company has its headquarters and he said the company ran seamlessly – employees could take and receive calls from home and he was able to manage everything from his iPhone. He said, none of his customers knew the city was shut down.

One of the interesting areas of growth he sees is enabling hybrid systems where the hosted solution sits in the background and connects multiple branches or offices. Using ATA adapters he explains that legacy phones become a “poor man’s SIP phone.” The hosted solution he explains can also be used as the redundant service.

The company’s backend systems consist of using multiple cloud vendors and federation at the call level. Customer calls are lumped into small clusters and can be transitioned to another area of the country as a result of a catastrophic problem in one location.

The company plans to continue to acquire and thinks there is an opportunity to buy a number of hosted providers who aren’t innovating and then rolling the customers over into their platform. They have no plans to go public at the moment and don’t need to raise money but may consider getting financing if they find a very large acquisition target.

Recently I opined about future acquisitions that will take place in the cloud market in response to the ShoreTel M5 merger and focused on the CPE companies like Cisco and Avaya. It should be clear to all of us that the cloud players too are looking to grow through M&A and companies like Vocalocity, 8x8 and others are obviously not standing still.

7 Wireless Data Cap Winners

2012-03-07T14:06:58Z

Yesterday I outlined 7 Wireless Data Cap Losers and today I thought I would explore the flipside – in other words, who might win as a result of carriers becoming far stingier with their bandwidth allotments. After all, devices are becoming far more powerful and quad-core tablets and smartphones could become the norm by the middle of next year if not sooner. So with all this power and limited supply of bandwidth, how might user behavior change?

Here is my list of the 7 wireless data cap winners.

Cable companies have deployed WiFi throughout the US thanks to technology from companies like BelAir Networks – now part of Ericsson. And in order to use these networks, cable companies simply ask that you continue to use their services – at least for now. So the move made by AT&T and soon others to reduce available wireless bandwidth will no doubt have consumers thinking twice before cutting their cable cords and potentially switching to FiOS or U-verse.
Hotel WiFi networks generally aren’t that great and quite often are eclipsed by the speed of 4G and even 3G and potentially 2G networks. The worst part of it all is you can’t tell just how bad a hotel WiFi network is until you pay for it – a frustrating situation for business travelers to deal with. But still, hotels will likely see increases in WiFi usage which one hopes will lead them to spend more money on their bandwidth.
Boingo/iPass should be beneficiaries of wireless bandwidth caps as both services allow users to quickly access a number of global WiFi networks available in many airports and other areas of high foot traffic. Many companies will likely see subscriptions to these services as a great alternative to relying fully on Verizon, AT&T and others. I have used both services and they are both quite useful.
Starbucks will become that much more desirable to users looking to escape bandwidth caps from carriers and we can expect users to wait till they are near the ubiquitous coffee shop before downloading large attachments, photos, etc. Ditto for McDonalds and other establishments offering free wireless bandwidth.
Slacker Radio has the ability to download hours of music on numerous stations allowing a customer to suck up content over WiFi, listen and then sync favorites and disliked content when on a WiFi network. For $9.95/month Slacker Premium Radio lets you download 25 stations worth of content and fill your favorite device with music which you can enjoy offline.
Sirius XM Radio saw a huge threat from Pandora and other streaming radio stations but in a world where listening to excess music could actually slow everything else you do down, we can expect users to explore options. And one of these is satellite radio which uses no bandwidth at all – just a satellite antenna.
Apple iTunes loses revenue to streaming radio apps like Spotify and Slacker because both services allow users to play specific music on demand meaning they don’t need to purchase individual songs. But when the bandwidth is no longer all you can eat, it becomes cheaper to buy than to rent from the cloud. Advantage Apple iTunes and Amazon MP3 downloads.

http://blog.tmcnet.com/mt/mt.cgi?__mode=view&_type=entry&blog_id=13

The 7 Wireless Data Cap Losers

2012-03-06T23:08:46Z

We are in uncharted territory when it comes to mobility as this year we will see a slew of productivity-boosting 4G, quad-core smartphones like the Ascend 4D Quad from Huawei which I saw at Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona, Spain. Moreover, while devices get more powerful, we will only want to do more with them and quite often this means relying on wireless networks from carriers.

The only problem is these providers are rapidly running out of bandwidth and this means they have decided the best course of action is to cap users and slow their connections once they hit a certain threshold. Their other strategy is to just charge for bandwidth being used.

This latter method of charging will eventually lead to data use bill shock. This means we can expect to see the viral spreading of news related to parents being faced with a $5,000 bill because their child viewed 2,000 YouTube videos in a month.

There is nothing worse than that nail-biting feeling you get when you try to end that important video call before your carrier starts to throttle your bandwidth

So without further ado, here are the top 7 losers who will be hurt by wireless bandwidth caps:

Cloud vendors – all of them. Regardless of business model, you will soon start to lose one of the fastest growing markets you have – mobile users. The carriers will tell you that a small fraction of users are hogging most of the bandwidth but that just may be because the majority of users have slower devices and/or haven’t discovered the really bandwidth hungry apps which they will rely on in the future. And we know that most users aren’t on 4G yet – when they do migrate they will use more data, more quickly. You want me to name names of companies who will be hurt? OK, Amazon EC2 – as so many other services rely on the leading ecommerce and cloud hosting site as well as Dropbox and of course iCloud.
Desktop sharing companies like OnLive Desktop, GoToMeeting, LogMeIn, etc. Much of the appeal of using these service has to do with working remotely and having the full functionality of being in the office. To some degree, these services actually minimize bandwidth use because if you download a huge photo and view it – you only see a compressed rendering of the photo on your tablets screen. This of course will all change because as screens get more resolution, the amount of bandwidth use will grow.
Video Streaming companies such as Hulu, YouTube and Netflix are obvious casualties – and as more tablets are sold, the problem gets bigger. And yes, video is a huge bandwidth hog.
Audio Streaming Companies like Pandora, Spotify, etc. Sure audio consumes less bandwidth than video but with streaming radio – users have a tendency to just set it and forget it.
Social networking sites to some degree have an issue but for many functions such as tweeting and/or posting status updates which don’t include video, limited bandwidth shouldn’t be an issue. But one has to wonder about how the ecosystem of apps which enrich social networks – let’s say Twitpic for example could feel a slight pinch because users may be afraid to do anything which bandwidth-hungry because they may exceed their monthly allotment of bits. Graphics-rich Pinterest may see some pain as well.
Apple could potentially have a problem as well but the company does seem to be immune to most challenges which should hurt it like the advent of $199 tablets. The challenge for Apple is newer devices tend to have advancements screen resolution – in fact the next iPad is rumored to be called the HD, not the iPad 3. Guess what? All those pixels need to be filled with information and the more pixels you have, the more bandwidth you suck. The same is of course true for Google, Motorola, Samsung, HTC and the rest of the market. Smartphones aren’t immune to this problem either so a Samsung Galaxy Note just went from a device which can straddle the smartphone/tablet market to one which could cause users to go over their data plans more quickly.
Finally, corporations have the most to lose as they purchase all these fancy tech tools for their workers with the expectation of ROI which is usually calculated based on stable metrics. And now users are going to be in a situation where at a certain point, their telepresence calls start to have jitter and latency because they are over their bit allotment for the month. And the issue will be difficult to predict in advance as a Slingbox user could eat up a month’s worth of bandwidth in a week or even a few days.

In short, bandwidth caps may cause great pain for users over time and wireless carriers should be very careful as their policy changes begin to change end-user behavior.

Metaswitch Brings SBCs to the Cloud

2012-02-22T17:12:42Z

Metaswitch is relatively new to the SBC game but they already have been thinking of ways of taking session border controllers and making them more flexible and scalable. To that end the company has put its Perimeta SBC in the cloud allowing it to run on COTS servers with a variety of hypervisors.

According to Steve Gleave, VP of Marketing at Metaswitch, "The arguments for separating signaling and media functions in a session border controller are now well understood. The commercial benefits of running session border control on COTS platforms are also clear. So moving the signaling control function into the cloud, and leveraging the economies of generic server platforms and inherent system redundancy is a logical progression. By detaching SBC licenses from physically deployed platforms, operators can be sure that there are "no SBC licenses left behind" when integrated appliances max out before purchased license limits are reached"

The company will be demonstrating their new SBC functionality running on the Amazon EC2 Elastic Compute Cloud at MWC next week in Barcelona. I hope to see it running there.