David Byrd : Raven Call
David Byrd
David Byrd is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer for Raven Guru Marketing. Previously, he was the CMO and EVP of Sales for CloudRoute. Prior to CloudRoute, He was CMO at ANPI, CMO & EVP of Sales at Broadvox, VP of channels and Alliances for Telcordia and Director of eBusiness development with i2 Technologies.He has also held executive positions with Planet Hollywood Online, Hewlett-Packard, Tandem Computers, Sprint and Ericsson.
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May 2012

You are browsing the archive for May 2012.

Watch Out for that Speed Bump

May 30, 2012

In the debate over Net Neutrality and Universal Service, the idea for tiered pricing of broadband usage is often a point of contention. When I entered the debate I was against tiered pricing. However, today I hold a different view. Broadband is not a community asset.

FUD and MOS Redux

May 25, 2012

In the original blog from 2010, VoIP was under attack by traditional carriers as suffering from poor quality and reliability. That is no longer the case. In fact, as I increased my U-verse bandwidth recently, the sales person spoke very well of the AT&T VoIP service. If I was not an employee of a VoIP provider, I might have been an eager convert.

SIP Trunking Cost Savings Redux

May 23, 2012

On Monday I discussed why it is difficult to tie a single cost savings number to transitioning your connectivity from dedicated PRIs to converged T1s or SIP Trunks. While most companies will see a savings, the amount is network dependent. However, there are identifiable savings components that can be easily quantified:
  • Per line cost
  • Usage cost for local inbound/outbound calling
  • Domestic long distance calling
  • International calling
  • Toll-free inbound calling

 

Per line cost can be reduced by 60-80%.  

SIP Trunking and Guacamole Redux

May 21, 2012

I wasn’t sure there would be a recipe of the week since I spent the weekend in Houston at a wedding. The wedding was for Malachi Threadgill who wrote a couple of my blogs on search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM). Congratulations Malachi and Natalie! Back to food… On the drive home (about 4 hours) I decided I would eat leftover Italian seasoned fried chicken and potato salad.

What's in a Word, Small?

May 18, 2012

Defining a small business is very difficult but necessary. It is particularly important when discussing the needs of a small business versus that of a large enterprise and in too many cases the line is blurred and the result is disastrous for the small business. Since many of us have sold to enterprises, we approach a needs assessment with a myriad of questions covering a slew of categories. However, if the business is “small” the number of items to check off before determining an appropriate solution should be shorter and certainly less complex.
I generally define a small business as having more than one paid employee.

Chicago, Chicago That Toddling Town

May 16, 2012

I am in Chicago most of this week for a myriad of different meetings. The primary one is to attend International Telecoms Week (ITW). Most of you know Broadvox as a SIP Trunking service provider but our legacy is as a carrier’s carrier or wholesale SIP Termination and Origination business. In fact, nearly a third of our wholesale business is generated by terminating traffic in the US, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and Canada.

A Sea of Change

May 14, 2012

Not one to order surf n’ turf, I surprised myself when I recommended that for Friday dinner. Gay agreed and I grilled a lobster tail and porterhouse steak, both season with Greek inspired herbs and spices. A block party was planned for Saturday and we decided to make potato salad, deviled eggs, cookies, smoked salmon, smoke cheddar cheese and grilled Italian seasoned chicken. Rain cancelled the party but the grandkids came over and helped us consume the food.

The Internet, Broadband, 4G and Jobs

May 11, 2012

As I earlier communicated this week, I listened to an economist indicate that while the Internet is creating jobs it is doing so at a pace that is far lower than those created by the manufacturing industry. While intuitively this seems true, given our role in expanding the use of the Internet and IP communications, I believe we should know what effect our daily efforts to deliver VoIP / SIP trunks is having on job creation. Interestingly, I finally, found research that quantifies the number of jobs created as a result of the interplay between the Internet, broadband and the transition from 3G to 4G on job creation. The research study, “The Employment Effects of Advances in Internet and Wireless Technology: Evaluating the Transitions from 2G to 3G and from 3G to 4G” by Robert J. Shapiro and Kevin A. Hassett offers some concrete facts, figures and analysis to quantify such job creation.

Internet Job Creation

May 9, 2012

Generating a blog three times a week that delivers information to you that is useful in conducting your business and of interest to me can be difficult. However, sometimes, like today, I come up with a very useful topic only to discover I can’t do sufficient research in the 1 hour I allow for this task and fully understand and discuss the chosen topic. We all can agree that the Internet and IP Communications has changed the way we work, communicate, entertain, travel and on and on. It is also easy to see where Internet related business is contributing to the GDP of most nations in a positive fashion.

Smoking, Frying, Grilling and Spying

May 7, 2012

On Friday I mentioned that I was smoking 28 pounds of bacon, 17 pounds of cheese and 17 pounds of salmon. That’s a lot of smoking and since it was also Cinco de Mayo weekend and that meant indulging in a lot of Tex-Mex food. While I cooked some basic breakfasts, I mostly smelled of hickory smoke the entire weekend. That is until Sunday.

Random but Pertinent Thoughts

May 4, 2012

Ericsson leads in the world of wireless.

Amazon Kindle Fire is the most sold Android tablet but sales have fallen from 4.8 million in 4Q2011 to 750,000 in 1Q2012.

SBCs and ESBCs are important to the success of VoIP and SIP with Sonus and Acme Packet leading the market.

Apple has more than a winner in the iPad. It has market dominance.

It's a Monday, Wednesday

May 2, 2012

A few of you may have noticed there was no blog on Monday and therefore no recipe. Let’s just say my Monday started off with a few unexpected turns and writing the blog was briefly interrupted. It was a great weekend for food I cooked Cocoa Infused French toast with sautéed pears, prime rib with iceberg wedge salad and poached salmon in a creamy wine sauce with wild mushrooms and peas. Last night I made four Indian dishes, a traditional Rogan josh, butter chicken, beer braised beef with vegetables and coconut milk, chicken green masala curry with yogurt.
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