ITEXPO Blog
| The ITEXPO blog is where you can view the latest news and happenings at TMC's leading VoIP conference.
Effectively Telling Your Product's Story
One of the most interesting aspects of my career is watching the thousands of companies I have met over the years make...
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Dialogic and Cisco Round Out Day's NFV News
It’s been a busy week regarding NFV and the software telco (R)evolution. First off Dialogic had some solid thoughts on six of...
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The Big Deal about Big Data Analytics
By Greg Owens, Senior Director Customer Experience Solutions Marketing, Alcatel-Lucent
The rise of big data is causing service providers to ask some big questions: How should we store our data? How long should we keep it? What parts of it are relevant to our business? Most importantly, how do we get value from it? To turn big data into a big deal, service providers need to extract insights that can help them make smart business decisions and improve the customer experience.
The value of big data is all in what useful and actionable information it can provide. I find it exciting to see how service providers use big data analytics to gain new insights and solve complex problems. With this post, I’ll look at some new research by industry analysts and three key opportunities that big data analytics presents to service providers.
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WebRTC: The Revolution Won't Occur Without a Media Server
Next Thursday at the WebRTC Conference and Expo, I’ll present a conference keynote that might not be exactly what attendees expect...
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Software Telcos Based on NFV Want Less Equipment Provider M&A
Mergers are nothing new but about a decade ago in the telecom market they reached a fever pitch when SBC purchased AT&T...
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Linux Foundation Embedded Solutions Director's Case for Open Source and Connected Car
The car of 2013 is different from the one I learned to drive, a 1974 Ford Maverick with rear federal bumpers, aluminum...
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Business Video and Queen Lead Guitarist Brian May
"A good video can make all the difference," says Brian May (Ph.D. Astro-Physics and Queen lead guitarist). Such is true for business!Even...
Full Story »ITEXPO West 2012 Austin Show Set Up Pics
October 3, 2012The ITEXPO exhibit hall will open in a matter of hours. Here are some interesting photos worth sharing so far.
DIGITALK, the One-Stop Shop for Wholesale Carriers & Service Providers
October 3, 2012
AT ITEXPO Paul Bassa, VP Product Marketing gave me an overview of U.K.-based DIGITALK, which offers platform and application products backed by full services support, that offers provisioning, prepaid charging, payments, and carrier routing to minimize operations overheads and maximize service margins. They offer pre-sales consultancy, through installation and commissioning, to worldwide 24x7 SLAs.
They offer a mobile VoIP app on consumer side and allow service providers to white label the app and they help with the Apple iTunes app submission process. The mobile VoIP app has prepaid capabilities built-in, allowing you to simply enter a PIN to activate.
They build all their own products, including their own session border controller (SBC) and can do carrier to carrier routing, management, SIP trunking, wholesale billing, and reporting. They also have a Web API to allow you to build your own portals.
They offer a mobile VoIP app on consumer side and allow service providers to white label the app and they help with the Apple iTunes app submission process. The mobile VoIP app has prepaid capabilities built-in, allowing you to simply enter a PIN to activate.
They build all their own products, including their own session border controller (SBC) and can do carrier to carrier routing, management, SIP trunking, wholesale billing, and reporting. They also have a Web API to allow you to build your own portals.
Two New ITEXPO Giveaways Announces for Wednesday AM
October 2, 2012
Big news for ITEXPO attendees - on top of the $40k+ worth of giveaways I mentioned recently and the media giveaway, there will be two new iPad giveaways at the keynotes on Wednesday morning. One will be given out after the ShoreTel keynote and another after IBM.
Just drop business cards at the door when you enter keynote in Ballroom A, be there by 8:45 am, Wed, Oct 3rd to get a decent seat and you need to be present to win.
Here are the details of the giveaway as well as the keynotes.
Just drop business cards at the door when you enter keynote in Ballroom A, be there by 8:45 am, Wed, Oct 3rd to get a decent seat and you need to be present to win.
Here are the details of the giveaway as well as the keynotes.
Toopher Two-Factor Authentication Leverages Mobile Phone Location
October 2, 2012I met with Toopher's Josh Alexander, Co-founder & CEO to discuss their two-factor authentication platform. He explained their their two-factor authentication is drop-dead simple leveraging your mobile phone's location - pulling location data from GPS, 3G/4G triangulation, and Wi-Fi, which usually grants accuracy of at least a couple hundred feet even when indoors.
Two-factor authentication is nothing new - Google for instance offers two-factor authentication by sending you a SMS to your mobile phone with a PIN to authenticate your device. Of course, I experienced an issue with Google's YouTube two-factor authentication because my house has poor cell signal and I didn't receive the SMS. Josh told me that's why there is a pretty low adoption rates of many competing two-part authentication methods.
Novus Distributes First Enhanced Media Gateway for Microsoft Lync Server 2013
October 2, 2012Novus, a boutique telecommunications and IP distributor serving value-added resellers throughout North America, announced today the distribution of Ferrari electronic’s OfficeMaster Gate media gateway featuring recently released firmware that supports the new features of the next generation Microsoft Lync Server 2013, including the IPv6 protocol. Novus is the official distributor of Ferrari electronic products for the North American market.
Ferrari electronic worked in close collaboration with the Microsoft Lync product team in Redmond, Washington to develop the new firmware for the OfficeMaster Gate media gateway and it has been rigorously tested at Microsoft over the last few months. The new firmware from Ferrari electronic was released to coincide with the availability of the Lync 2013 Preview on July 16, 2012.
“Ferrari electronic is currently the only European manufacturer of an enhanced gateway certified for Microsoft Lync Server 2010, and it’s the first manufacturer to integrate its gateway with Lync Server 2013,” said Novus Managing Partner Chris Meehan. “This creates a compelling value proposition for resellers because they can install software-based OfficeMaster Gate gateway cards now as proof of concepts and deliver a highly scalable gateway solution with a tremendous ROI to small and medium-sized businesses looking for Lync migration solutions.”
Novus offers the Ferrari electronic OfficeMaster Gate media gateway and OfficeMaster SBA survivable branch appliance to resellers in flexible configurations as either appliances or PCI boards.
“Resellers will find the licensing options particularly appealing, since they can optionally configure gateway and survivable branch appliance functionality on a single card to reduce power consumption, minimize rack space and further reduce costs while benefitting from ongoing improvements through firmware upgrades that are free of charge within the current revision,” added Meehan.
To further incentivize resellers to deploy the Lync Server 2013-ready OfficeMaster Gate media gateway, Novus is announcing a free comprehensive private training program for resellers who sign up to carry the Ferrari electronic products.
RCA Makes Android IP Phones? Who Knew?
October 2, 2012
I'm here at ITEXPO in Austin, Texas, a leading communications tradeshow, when what do my wondering eyes see? An email promotion from RCA promoting their new Android-based IP phones - the RCA IP150, RCA IP120 and the RCA IP110. Here's a screenshot of part of the email:
When I think of RCA my nostalgia kicks in and I think of two things, both of which are antiquated technologies.
One, I think of my grandparents huge TV inside a wooden frame that sat of the floor. Nowadays you hang up your flat-screen TV and the TV never touches the floor.
Two, I think back to my dad's Elvis Presley "Hound Dog" RCA record with the cool logo of dog with its mouth aimed inside the record player, similar to this Elvis vinyl record:
As a 6-year old kid I assumed the RCA dog was because the song on the record was "Hound Dog".
When I think of RCA my nostalgia kicks in and I think of two things, both of which are antiquated technologies.
One, I think of my grandparents huge TV inside a wooden frame that sat of the floor. Nowadays you hang up your flat-screen TV and the TV never touches the floor.
Two, I think back to my dad's Elvis Presley "Hound Dog" RCA record with the cool logo of dog with its mouth aimed inside the record player, similar to this Elvis vinyl record:
As a 6-year old kid I assumed the RCA dog was because the song on the record was "Hound Dog".
A Journalist Will Win a Kindle at ITEXPO in Austin This Week
October 1, 2012A note from the ITEXPO PR firm for all media and analysts I thought worth sharing:
We’re looking forward to having you join us at ITEXPO at the Austin Convention Center next week. Here are a few notes to ensure you have a great show:
- Tweet from ITEXPO and you could win a Kindle! The registered press/analyst with the most individual Tweets between October 2 and October 5 citing the hashtag #ITEXPO will win a Kindle!
More ITEXPO West 2012 Set Up
October 1, 2012
The entrance unit to the exhibit hall at ITEXPO
West 2012 in Austin is being set up and also, here is an important sign detailing tons of free communicatons and technology info at the conference.
ITEXPO West 2012 Austin Interview with TMC President
October 1, 2012
Dave Rodriguez who leads my team at TMC discusses some of the important areas worth knowing about at this week's ITEXPO here in Austin, TX.
ITEXPO West 2012 Austin Behind the Scenes
October 1, 2012
An admittedly boring behind the scenes look at how a trade show is set up. It takes days to set a big event like this up and thy can rip the whole thing down in a matter of hours.
