This morning, as Taqua CEO Eric Pratt kicked off the company's 4^th annual user group meeting in Dallas - after treating its participating partners and customers to an exciting football game yesterday  (less so for Dallas Cowboys' fans than Tennessee Titans' faithful) - his focus was entirely on ongoing collaboration between Taqua and its users, as well as between users.

As Taqua continues to focus on the next gen voice market, Pratt says the company is more intent than ever on fostering a collaborative environment between its users, including the more than 50 in attendance.

"Rob Riordan is a prime example of someone that has taken a company from where a lot of you are and taken it to new heights," said Pratt of the Nsight EVP, who also keynoted today's user conference. "He has embraced the idea of sharing his ideas with the rest of the community."

Nsight, a Green Bay, Wisconsin-based provider of wireless and wireline communications services, embodies the fundamental preached by Taqua that there will always be rural areas that will never get the attention they need from Tier 1 operators, leaving open the door for local and regional operators with an eye on providing their customers the stability few others can by partnering with a switch vendor that is financially in better shape than it has ever been.

Through its partnerships with companies like Cisco, Vodafone, Broadsoft, and Acme Packet, Taqua is enabling its customers to reach their rural customers with a service reliability larger operators are unable to offer - they are simply too large and are not able to focus on the needs of rural customers.  Quite simply, they focus on the masses, which means Taqua and its users have a clear path.

More than three years after heading down that path, a focus on North American Tier 2, 3, and 4 operators, is one which many predicted would end in failure, Pratt boasts of Taqua's growing user base, which is evidenced by the largest conference attendance to date.

"Taqua is not technology - it is the people," he said.  "The people in this room have seen it, and the reason you are here is you have seen the commitment."