A busy weekend for food as usual with fried chicken on Saturday, omelets Sunday morning and Scallops with Cheese Sauce and pasta Sunday afternoon. While I have yet to share my fried chicken recipe or the omelet for that matter, the dish of the week was the scallops. A couple of years ago I was in Chile working with a distributor and had this amazing dish. It is very similar to Coquilles St. Jacques. In fact, the way I prepared it yesterday accompanied with sautéed chanterelle mushrooms moved it very much in the direction of Coquilles St. Jacques. A key difference for me is sautéing the scallops verses boiling. Also, to make it fancier, sometimes a puff pastry bowl is used as the serving dish. On Sunday, I served it nestled in Fedelini pasta. Fedelini is between angel hair pasta (capelli d'angel) and spaghetti. Anyway, it is one of two dishes that I enjoyed so well in Chile that I created my own version.  So, please enjoy Scallops with Cheese Sauce.

The State of IP

Prior to each IT Expo, TMC sends out a questionnaire to speakers asking their view of where the industry is, who the key players are, and where the industry is going. I thought that for today and Wednesday I would share my responses to the TMC questions.

Tehrani: What has the economic crisis taught you, and how has it changed your customers?

David Byrd: The economic crisis has taught Broadvox that the primary value proposition for VoIP/SIP Trunking, reducing your telecom spend, is more relevant than ever. Our customers continue to use our services and enjoy their savings. Where we see the biggest change is in our prospecting activity. Interest is up and sales cycles are shorter.

Tehrani: How is this down economy affecting your decisions to reinvest in your company or market, if at all? Where will you invest?

David Byrd: We are concerned with how we manage our growth during these times. We know that while things look good now they could turn if the economy does not exhibited its expected growth this fall. In the meantime, we are increasing our R&D of new products, expanding our provisioning organization, adding to our sales efforts and educating our reseller partner organization. We have expanded the number of webinars, added a section to our website called "Broadvox University" and permanently altered the focus of my blog to provide much needed information to our channel. We know if we invest in the channel, both they and we will see growing returns.

Tehrani: What's the strongest segment in the communications industry?

David Byrd: I can't speak for the industry as a whole. I am focused on VoIP and SIP Trunking, which is definitely one of the stronger segments. Carriers, cable companies, wireless service providers and other ITSPs are examining how to increase the use of IP communications to deliver new service and applications.

Tehrani: With the rise of smartphones and netbooks, many wireless technologies, such as Wi-Fi, appear to be poised for rapid growth. For example, we're seeing more and more airlines add in-flight Wi-Fi. In general, how widespread should Wi-Fi be, in your view?

David Byrd: More than it currently is. I recently did a blog on Mi-Fi, the portable and personal Wi-Fi. I see promise for that technology, if the pricing becomes more attractive than getting aircards. Being able to create a Wi-Fi anywhere and anytime is of interest to many others and me.

Tehrani: Which nation or region of the world will present the largest opportunity for your company in 2009/10?

David Byrd: My sales focus is the United States for SIP Trunking. However, Broadvox's wholesale business does activity in various parts of the world. Lately, I have seen more new products offerings on the wholesale side of our business in South America. South America and Asia both represent growth opportunities.

With regard to SIP Trunking, we just recently, began offering originating service out of Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Hopefully, Alaska will be added before the end of the year.