ITEXPO Blog
| The ITEXPO blog is where you can view the latest news and happenings at TMC's leading VoIP conference.

Longview IoT Boosts Energy and Wireless Efficiency

Some of the biggest challenges slowing down the adoption of IoT are security, efficient battery usage and optimized wireless communications.One company has...

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Hallmark's Simple, Inexpensive Way to Boost Customer Satisfaction

In an effort to boost margins, companies often push more users to automated solutions such as FAQs, chatbots, voice bots and anything...

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Huawei Places the World's First 5G VoNR Video Call

Huawei recently completed the world's first voice over NR (VoNR) call. The voice and video call service was made using two Huawei...

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IGEL Advances Future of Work

IGEL is a provider of a next-gen edge OS for cloud workspaces. The company’s software products include IGEL OS, IGEL UD Pocket (UDP) and Universal...

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Tata Communications and Cisco Collaborate on SD-WAN

Tata Communications and Cisco have extended their partnership to enable enterprises to transform their legacy network to a customized and secure multi-cloud...

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How to Win the 50-Year-Old China Trade War

Today and this week in-fact is historic - the left and right in the U.S. agree that we have a major trade...

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Extreme Elements Enables The Autonomous Enterprise

Extreme Networks just announced Extreme Elements which in-turn enables the autonomous network and subsequently the autonomous enterprise. In a dynamic webinar, Dan...

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Verizon Drives Stake Through Heart of Net Neutrality

January 27, 2011

My views have shifted on net neutrality over the years to the point where I firmly believe that carriers have the right to recoup investments they make in networks but at the same time I understand fully well that IP communications is dependent on traffic not being impeded by a carrier looking to promote an alternative service. Having said that, there are a number of peering points located around the US – only a few places where fiber exists in enough quantity to allow massive interconnections between hundreds of carriers, enterprises and web 2.0 companies such as Google and Facebook.

Terremark owns one facility – the NAP of the Americas in Miami, Telx owns another at 60 Hudson in New York and CoreSite at One Wilshire in Los Angeles are three of the more prominent locations in the US ”carrier hotel” market. At industry gatherings I have often asked about the possibility of Verizon or AT&T purchasing one or more companies in the space and the answer has always been that it would be bad news.

Austin, Texas Selected For ITEXPO West 2011

January 27, 2011

I have some very exciting news to share regarding ITEXPO. I alluded to it a few weeks back and now it’s here. ITEXPO West 2011 will be moving to the Austin Convention Center in Austin Texas, on September 13-15, 2011. ITEXPO was launched in San Diego, CA at the Hotel Del Coronado and moved to Long Beach and eventually Los Angeles.

If Super WiFi is A Dream, At Least I'm in Good Company

January 27, 2011

It’s no secret that both Microsoft and Google are looking at white spaces and Super WiFi as an area of growth allowing inexpensive broadband wireless signals to be transmitted over long distances.

But technology is difficult to predict – we didn’t know for sure tablets were going to cannibalize PC sales but they are and we didn’t know small, cheap hard drives were going to cut the legs out from the large, expensive hard drive market. You may know that in 1997 when I went to COMDEX and told the world TMC was going to launch a magazine called Internet Telephony – people laughed and told me it wasn’t an industry.

Ten years later after a few “overhype” phases, VoIP software maker Skype has devastated the long-distance market and is hiring by the hundred.

Sangoma Announces General Availability for NetBorder Express Gateway 4.0

January 27, 2011

Sangoma Technologies Corporation, a provider of hardware and software components that enable or enhance IP Communications Systems for both voice and data, today announced the general availability of  NetBorder Express Gateway 4.0, a major upgrade of its TDM-to-SIP Gateway software.  NetBorder Express 4.0 includes significant new functionality which extends the market reach of Sangoma channel partners in Europe, Latin America, Japan, Asia, and North America. Sangoma will be demonstrating the latest release of its NetBorder Express Gateway at ITEXPO East 2011, in Miami, Florida, February 2-4, 2011 in booth #401.

Enhancements that provide Sangoma partners with a greater coverage area for worldwide deployments include support for:

BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) Adds Microsoft Lync Support

January 27, 2011

According to BlackBerry's BlackBerry Enterprise Server Add-on product website, support for Microsoft Lync is coming soon. In the footnotes it says "Support for Microsoft Lync Server will be available in an upcoming BlackBerry Enterprise Server Service Pack." It will be released as part of BES 5.0.3 which is still in beta. BES 5.0.3 was expected to be released in Q4 last year, so 5.0.3 should be released any day now. Notable new features include:

  • Support for Microsoft's Office Communications Server 2007 R2 and Lync Server 2010
  • Support for Microsoft Office 2010 file attachments
  • Support for Microsoft Hyper-V 2008 R2 virtualization platform
Microsoft is participating at ITEXPO next week and some Lync partners as well, so I'm sure there will be some Microsoft Lync-related announcements made at the show.

Google and SayNow, What it Means To Telecom

January 26, 2011

The search leader made the acquisition in part to gain social network traction as well as to become entrenched as a communications API and service provider

Many surmise that part of the reason Larry Page is taking over the CEO role at Google has to do with the need to compete more effectively against Facebook whose growth in page views is nothing short of staggering. In the pursuit to keep up and surpass the social networking juggernaut, the search leader is throwing as many ideas as it can against the wall hoping something will stick. There was the launch of Google Buzz in February 2010 which has strong integration into the Google Reader.

Silver Lake on Tech, Jobs and Growth

January 26, 2011

Silver Lake Partners has a portfolio of companies worth $30B including Skype, Avaya, IPC, Groupon, Zynga and Sunguard and in a recent interview with the WSJ's Alan Murray, CEO Glenn Hutchins discusses how well the US technology market is doing in terms of job growth. In addition he mentioned how much construction is being done to create data centers to support the dramatic growth in information technology in the US and abroad.



Next week at ITEXPO in Miami, you'll get to meet with the communications and tech community - many of the companies are part of the Silver Lake family in fact. I am really looking forward to being there and speaking with these companies myself and hope to see you there.



Getting to Know ITEXPO Participants

January 24, 2011

AT TMC, we painstakingly attempt to ensure you know as much about the participating companies at our events as possible before the conference so you can get a sense of who is there, where there expertise lies and if they may have something of value to offer you as you look to make purchasing decisions in the world of technology and communications. As a result we survey ITEXPO speakers and exhibitors before the event and ask questions which can help you connect with thought leaders you believe might be of assistance at the event.

Not everyone answers but we do send the questions to hundreds of companies and they seem to trickle in each day. Here is the list of people and companies who responded to my questions and links to their answers. I truly hope you find it useful.

Oh and one note you should know...



My Conversation With Chairman Kevin Martin Re: ITEXPO

January 24, 2011

As I got off the phone with former FCC Chairman Kevin Martin today after discussing his upcoming keynote, I couldn't help to feel great that ITEXPO will be one of the most exciting events of the year with respect to communications and technology. You see, when FCC Chairmen are no longer working in their government-appointed position, they are able to speak quite freely regarding the issues which have tremendous implications on virtually every aspect of tech and our lives. I say "our lives" because today connectivity has become an integral part of living in a modern, uber-connected world.

In a conversation I just had with the Chairman (the title is for life) we had a chance to touch on some of the issues he will discuss onstage, next week at ITEXPO in Miami, FL. Most likely this session will be in a Q&A format where I will be posing questions.

While the questions haven't been formalized, you can tentatively expect us to devote time to network neutrality, 4G/LTE, wireless spectrum allocation and usage, the small cell market (femto, pico, etc) and other important issues which govern our everyday usage of tech.

At ITEXPO, this one session is just one example of crucial perspective you cannot get from virtually anywhere else because, like I said, the Chairman has tremendous freedom to speak his mind.





-50F With Wind Chill. Escape to ITEXPO in Miami

January 24, 2011

You know I would never stoop to reminding you about the weather to persuade you to attend what I believe to the be the best tech and telecom conference in the world - OK, maybe I would.

So I was driving along this morning on the way to work and noticed I couldn't feel any of my fingers. I decided to check to make sure I was wearing gloves. I was. Then I realized I couldn't feel any of my toes and yes I had shoes on.



I then looked at the temperature reading and it said one degree.