When I joined Broadvox three years ago, I was not familiar with the company. Although, I had an asterisk-based PBX in my home office, I was also unfamiliar with SIP Trunking. The challenge at the time of my hiring was to establish both the company and the technology as mainstream for VARs, consultants and, of course, end-users. Over the last three years, we have developed a superb organization (see the August Newsletter) and a very robust and feature-rich product offering. In addition to SIP Trunking, Broadvox is also beginning the push to become a major player in the hosted or virtual IP PBX market place. However, the latest list we appeared on was a bit of a surprise.

Broadvox joined some established and new names in the telecom industry as one of the Coolest Service Providers. The list consisted of 75 service providers in three categories, the Heavyweights, the Innovators and the Mavericks. Broadvox made the list of the 25 Mavericks. CRN concludes that we are among the service providers that are addressing the trends and meeting the challenges of cloud computing and managed services. Yet, I wonder why we were identified as a Maverick. The Heavyweights consisted of long establish brands and large companies. However, I struggle to see the distinction between the Innovators and the Mavericks. As a group, we are all pursuing change. We each are evolving our networks and/or products to support SaaS, UC, telepresence, HD Voice, peering, managed services, etc. Not a big deal, just a question.

Earlier this week Google and Verizon announced a framework document to address net neutrality. I saw various reactions to their announcement. I believe the reaction was mixed because collaboration between these two companies was not an obvious consideration. Consequently, it emphasizes the dynamic nature of the industry today. The pairing of a telecom Heavyweight and an Internet innovator was itself innovative. The resulting framework was a bit arrogant (Google?) and self-serving (Verizon?). It was hardly what would lead the FCC and congress to abdicate their regulatory and legislative responsibilities. To that end, much more needs to done to resolve the issue of net neutrality.

It is an exciting and interesting period for our industry.

Consequently, it feels good to be declared a maverick and one of the coolest service providers. Sweet!