Monetizing IP Communications

"There is enough natural gas in the United States to supply the country with its energy needs for the next century", said energy advocate T. Boone Pickens.

I surveyed several in my Facebook and Linkedin business networks to get their opinion on this, so check out what some had to say.

1. "If your country would make a slow transition from using foreign oil to gas already in United States of America, I think you'd have the newest cure for terrorism. All you would need then is to replace the world's rich people's addiction to drugs made from poppy with something like um... laughter and bungee jumping?"

2. The investment brokerages and banks need to pay attention to this and start advising their clients to invest in domestic gas.

3. I always love when the little guy finally gets the attention he deserves. Remember the song "Short People." Lol.

4. Let me quote OfficialWire article: "He points to a research study by the Colorado School of Mines that puts the estimated natural gas reserves in the United States at more than 2,000 trillion cubic feet." They are quoting T. Boone Pickens here. Not to be confused with T-bone.

5. How about if we get a Saudi Arabia Asterisk Users and Business group started and maybe bring together all those who are already developing voip solutions there? This will help Saudi Arabia do more business with the outside world in something besides oil.

 

 

Q&A with Jeannie Diefenderfer

Jeannie Diefenderfer is Senior Vice President of Global Engineering and Planning for Verizon Business. Please read on to learn more about Jeannie and her participation in PTC'10.

Why are you attending PTC'10?
Verizon (and its predecessor company MCI) has supported and attended the PTC for well over 15 years. PTC provides an excellent opportunity to share ideas. I see PTC as a key conference that attracts a wide range of global senior industry representatives. I am thankful to PTC for this opportunity to present the Verizon message, meet with industry leaders and strengthen relationships around the world.

What do you expect as a result of attending PTC'10?
I expect to meet and discuss issues with industry leaders, to grow my understanding of the industry, and create new relationships with others at PTC. As a result of my participation at PTC 2010, I hope to continue Verizon awareness, to share our experiences and vision in a way that will stimulate thoughts and ideas amongst other executives and academics in this wonderful industry. I look forward to sharing our future efforts and interested to understand more about what others are seeing in their markets.

What are you going to talk about at PTC'10?
One of my key responsibilities includes the planning and engineering of Verizon's fiber to the premises (FTTP) platform which supports the award-winning FiOS Internet/Data/Voice and TV service in the United States. As such, the focus of my presentation will be U.S. domestic - showing our leading edge capabilities across the spectrum.

Point your browser to PTC'10 to find out more about the conference and expo (Jan. 17-20, 2010) whose byline is "Embracing the Cloud: Enabling Connectivity and Innovation."

Have you heard of Lleida? They are a leader in the new SMS over IP and more services. First, they are the first SMS mobile operator in Spain and a veteran member of GSMA. Second, what made me notice them was an excellent press release about their entry into the USA mobile operator market starting with Florida. We met at CTIA Wireless and Entertainment in San Diego this year where I recorded a quick interview with their CEO Sisco Sapeno on my CTIA playlist.

A final aside... really interesting that when I was interviewed this past week by Mr. Tehrani at the TMC booth, I was asked what are the latest trends in DID? Two of the trends I mentioned follow.

1. A larger and larger majority of those joining DIDX to buy and sell DID and DDI are global mobile operators. The last few were from Kenya, Singapore, and Malaysia.

2. An increasing number of those joining are also from Africa, Asia, new areas of Europe like Spain, and also those with a "market" in Asia.

3. "SMS" over IP is hot. So hot, our http://www.didx.net/api has filters for only DID that are "SMS compatible."

I'll let the readers debate why.

Remember when Xbox brought VoIP to the world of gamers in 2004? In fact, Ventrilo and Teamspeak. Wii, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 have offered VoIP clients. The following was on the official Nintendo site for only a short period of time before being pulled:

"To redeem a Nintendo DSi Download Ticket number, such as for the Nintendo DSi Speak Channel, enter the number off the Nintendo DSi Download Ticket in 'Settings and Features' off of the main Nintendo DSi Shop page, then select 'Nintendo DSi Download Ticket."

Really? Can't wait to see more. I asked my nieces and nephews their thoughts. They don't call it VoIP. They see it as simply using the game system to talk, type/chat, play the game, and most important, make new friends over the Internet.

Arrived in Chicago last night for http://www.supercomm2009.com/didx and immediately realized my Nokia E71 is lost. But now it is found, and the savior will ship it to me today. I'm sitting in the lobby of our hotel which has free WIFI, breakfast, fitness center, and shuttle to CTA station. Browsing Twitter and Facebook, answering email, and noted a new BEST PRACTICE for conferences from KoreaTech. The Vietnam International Communications Summit & Expo 2009  (scheduled for November 18-21, 2009) in Hanoi is kicking the excitement off with a writing contest. The topic is "Best Idea in Future ICT Vietnam."

"People from all types of jobs and different parts of society are welcome to participate by sharing their interesting ideas, no matter about future ICT products' innovation, applications and service improvement, which may lead to healthier growth of the ICT industry in Vietnam and give future development insights to the industry professionals from the end users' view points. All original works must be typed in English or Vietnamese and are submitted to the organizers no later than October 30, 2009. The winning pieces will be judged by its innovativeness and feasibility and the winners will be awarded with attractive prizes. For more information on the contest, please visit show website www.Vietnam-Comm.com."

People enjoy competition when they feel it is fairly judged. Several will be held during the expos for the Hanoi event to enhance both exhibitors' innovativeness and public participation. For instance, the competitions of booth design and most interactive booth design competition will be voted by visitors. To demonstrate appreciation to those exhibitors who showed valuable contribution to the ICT industry development in Vietnam, a few more awards of appreciation will be presented to exhibitors at the expos.

P.S. Another best practice for conferences is to fill in the descriptions of presentations of presenters in advance of the event. Even after I have asked everyone I can think of ... involved in one conference I presented at this year, to at least fill in the description of my presentation I submitted two weeks before the presentation... it still is blank.

 

H. Douglas Barber and Jeffrey Crelinsten completing white papers that examine Canada's innovation performance and culture. They surveyed 18 early-stage or start-up R&D firms in Canada. Ten were insolvent and the other 8 either merged or sold out with 5 of them profitably.

The main problems appeared be either no emphasis on sales and customer service and all emphasis on r&d development and a preoccupation with development and ideas led to fast "burn rate."  Also lack of shared goals, lack of diversity and experience on the Board, "lack of enterprise expertise amongst investors, and general lack of enterprise competence and experience."

Robin Williams once said on his Live on Broadway session, "Canada's like a loft apartment over a really great party."

Hmm... I know some very bright, fun, innovative men and women who are Canadians.

But could there also be a problem with infrastructure and especially in the area of telecommunications? I personally think it hurts that long distance calling from one area of Canada to another is still exactly that... long distance with a per minute charge. I can use my cell phone and call any number in the USA and all areas are local for me and included in my cell phone package. Listen to the CEO of Eqo (based in Canada) in a podcast of Bending the Needle with Martyn Davies discuss this reality.

My Dad was an airplane mechanic in the U.S. Navy, and when he retired, switched to automobile mechanics. (Somewhere in between he took a break with theology.) We were talking about cars last week in the middle of me making him a guinea pig in testing different mobile voip applications and instant messenger applications with voice on laptop to laptop. This conversation which I meant to record was on Truphone.

The conversation was about the history of the battle between the environment and automobiles. He's particularly interested in Ford's Ecoboost technology which led me to do some research.

In May 2009, the White House shared a new fuel engine policy in which there would need to be 35.5 miles per gallon fleet averages by year 2016. Carmakers and investors worried about the cost, of course. That's only seven years. Ford's Taurus and Lincoln MKS and MKT already have the Ecoboost engine installed for 2009 and forward. Talk is that an SVO-type Mustang is next.

On the legal side, Ford is filing to patent its Ecoboost invention and technologies.

"Green" engines are said to have been used in the most popular vehicles by German carmakers. What is Ecoboost?  It combines turbo-charging with direct fuel-injection to realize up to 20 percent better fuel economy than traditionally experienced with standard engines of the past. Some of Ford's patents for this "arena" of applications have been granted.

My Dad says he thinks we waste a bunch of energy trying to become more environmentally-friendly, but he likes how Truphone 3.0 is compatible with Skype, GoogleTalk, Yahoo, AIM Twitter, and MSN IM, and it soon will make you local very inexpensively from many areas of earth. He says, "This VoIP stuff just may make it where you don't need to get into your car or airplane as often to go anywhere because you'll already be there virtually with something like Truphone."

Bending the Needle, Fresh Air, VoIP Users Conference and Geekspeak galvanized me to start podcasting. What a choice! What a garden! What a candy store! Just download to your favorite MP3 player, go for a walk, be entertained and/or educated.

So when will you start podcasting? Everyone's doing it. Why not? It's fun. It lets you do so many things: interviews, debates, FAQs, lectures, verbal demonstrations, testimonials, commercials, and even games.

Check VOIP Music eLearning for a great list of free and paid podcasting tools. I'd like to add one more called Podcast Generator on SourceForge. It was developed and is maintained by Alberto Betella of Italy. See credits.

A list of the IP Communications and Social Networking Celebrities I've had the honor of podcasting with:

1. Daniel-Konstantin Mierla of Kamailio (genuine OPENSER) SIP Server and Asipto

2. Graham Francis, CEO of The SIP School, 10% off compliments of DIDX, well worth

3. Michael Elfellah of Global Digitec on GPS Independency through DID and More

4. Ludymar Reveron of IPSmarx, Calling Card Business Headquarters and More

5. Harmon Wilfred of ITTelnet, Beat the Economic Meltdown

6. Ilene Adler of Vantage Communications, Gender Equality in Technology Professions

7. Sarah Dawood and Neil Christy of Cafe Headlion, be a part of their Global Marketing Library

8. John Nishimoto of Paetec, cool CLEC

9. Leif Madsen, Pioneer in Asterisk (Rock Star)

10. Allison Smith, Voice of Asterisk

11. Luca Filligheddu of Twilio and Truth in Business

12. Joel Driver, Asterisk Developer and Entrepreneur

13. Jonathan Leoung, a Social Marketing for Business Natural (No Commercial Feel)

14. Roman Khalenkov of PortaOne, Full Source Code and 24/7 NOC

15. David Mandelstam of Sangoma and Lessons in Customer Service

16. Michael Schelin of Schelcomm and Being Green

17. Maria Gomez on Colombia Business

18. Dilawar Syed of Open Silicon Valley Forum and other Entrepreneurial Empowerment Projects

19. Art Smith on MexiConnect and Local Presence for ExPats as well as Emergency Op Center

20. Carol Davids and Warren Bent on the * VoIP Conference and VoIP Lab at Illinois Institute of Technology

21. Atiq Rehman about ITCN Asia and Technology Development in Pakistan

22. My Colleague Dan Shomail at Super Technologies, Inc.

23. Anthony Minnesale and Brian West of FreeSWITCH and Cluecon

24. Jaymie Scotto of Jaymie Scotto and Associates, Virtual Marketing

25. Rabah Djanati of Teledep and Assists Customers with R&D

26. Bernd Wiegmann, Symbian Developer and Creator of TrackLoc, Punch2Go and Tandem

26. Omar Chohan of SACS International on Leveraging IP-PBX and the Blackberry Rim

 

* Sign up for the VoIP Conference at the Illinois Institute of Technology. They have a sophisticated and dynamic VoIP Lab. How exciting to be a part of IP communications education with the talent enrolled there. The conference is Oct. 25-26, 2009. You can still sponsor, too.

When one's employee or team (also in my opinion negatively known as staff or human resources) buys into its work and task area assignment, he, she or they can be trusted to work anywhere, any time and in any way. When the boss gives this type of work group access to making suggestions and changes, the company can soar financially. The enthusiasm and drive will be seen by other potential employees, customers, and suppliers. But what is needed to work anywhere, any time and in any way and how?

Wireless internet which is every other "where." See Wifi Free Spot, Open Wifi Spots, and one of my favorites, Panera. A smart phone, a netbook, and/or a laptop with wireless internet connection enabled and a cup of coffee or glass of iced tea will please the type of employee I am describing. I have always enjoyed my career history with companies where I was awarded at least a 50/50 power sharing of my work. Being able to work from home, the main office, at a conference, at Panera, or any area of WIFI or other Internet is empowering and results in new and better (creative, innovative, practical, client-enabling) ideas, processes and results.''

In fact, there is the potential with the right team for more quality business to get done.

The team also will be able to make and/or receive phone calls with SIP agents (no extra equipment) which such services as Skype, Vopium, Vippie, Virtual Phone Line, Nimbuzz, Truphone, Fring, Rebtel, mig33, and more. I have tried them all and am extremely excited about the integration of IM, SMS, and other features with some of the services.

It will be really difficult for me after over ten years of working every other "where" I want, any time, and any way, to change back to working at the same desk in the same office on the same street in the same city every day. I won't do it.

No joke! $24.99 per month for Vonage's unlimited calling to 60+ countries with calls to cellular phones excluded, and yes, India and Mexico are included... next step would be to offer phone numbers from the same countries and more:
 

The new business phone systems, the ones that sit in the clouds called hosted IP PBX and are accessible remotely via smart cellphone, netbook, laptop, desktop or other user-held equipment, are one of the biggest proponents and reason for the popularity and expectation of HD voice quality and wide band audio. In fact, HD voice quality on VoIP results in better than that of cellular or landline traditional service. It is an important factor that is driving TDM to IP migration today.

Which IP PBX companies offer phones that can be configured to use the (wideband) G.722 codec on internal calls? Telephone equipment from Avaya, Cisco, Grandstream, Gigaset, Polycom (the one who brands wideband audio "HD Voice" seen as synonymous with wide band audio), Snom, Aastra, AudioCodes (which brands wideband audio "HDVoIP") and others take advantage of G.722 codec (for wideband audio), as well as even higher-quality audio components.

In fact, many readers have been using wideband audio without realizing it when calling from Skype to Skype on your PC, although making a SkypeOut call to a regular phone number does not. You can tell the difference when I am using Skype to Skype or Skype to PSTN (or VoIP on other platforms with or without HD) on my DIDX podcasts.

Want to experiment with HD Voice yourself? Get a phone from one of the companies listed above, upgrade to the most recent software, and follow the directions from the HD Voice Cookbook.

Another great source of information is at http://hdconnectnow.org/resources/.

Conferences focusing on HD are ...
Oct. 14-15, 2009 in New York City http://www.hdworldshow.com/

The regular readers of this blog are used to browsing language that has a marketing flavor. How about a change? Listen and watch  Giovanni Maruzzelli share how to connect FreeSWITCH with Skype and the possibilities thereafter. Giovanni has 15 years of IT experience and 10 years' experience as consultant and entrepreneur creating, managing and advising start-up Internet companies; he has also experience as chief technology officer, trainer, lecturer and journalist on Information Technology issues. Watch videos of his presentation at Cluecon 2009 in part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.
 

Paetec* is a CLEC, but they are different. They are extremely diversified in what they have to offer SMBs and resellers: check one of the most recent TMC Internet Telephony magazines. Listen to their CEO Arunas Chesonis on video being interviewed by the Telecom Association. Paetec was voted as one of the best places to work in New York. They are now hiring a new Channel Chief. Read Phone Plus for more information.

One personal point... all our company's experience with Paetec has been excellent. From Debbie Grasso to John Nishimoto to many others in the company, we have always been treated with respect and in a collaboratively positive manner. Thanks, Paetec!

In between jobs and/or are an entrepreneur and feel stuck? Try keeping tabs on temporary job services such as on VoIP Monitor for jobs in IP communications, Simply Hired, and GigaOM. Many are with large companies such as Raytheon, Volt Information, Cisco, Mirrant, Sapphire Technologies, and Expedia. 

I'll never forget a sort of mid-life crisis I had between my English teaching years and starting a VoIP company in 1999. I was working both for about three years, very difficult while keeping homelife happy as possible same time.
 
I left teaching and signed up with Kelly Services where I worked during the day with temporary jobs that involved web editing, media intranet libraries, attorney assisting, John Deere factory inventory, CLEC order fulfillment, and even database work with hunting club and forest foliage for International Paper. This way I was able to work fulltime with our startup while getting the income needed from K.S.

I'm not sharing anything new under the sun, but simply wanted to remind readers who have lost their jobs, have had hours cut back or just want to go in a new direction... temporary jobs are interesting and sometimes decent dollars.

Just read an email newsletter from Inveneo, the organization that has since 2006, with their Certified ICT Partners have delivered solutions to more than 300 communities in 23 countries, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa, but now also in Nepal, and Bangladesh. There are now 48 Inveneo Certified ICT Partners in 16 countries. Inveneo and their partners have brought access to life-changing ICTs to more than 800,000 people in rural and underserved areas of the developing world. That is an item to brag about. 

Africa is getting popular. The number of DID requests from wholesale service providers for Kenya, South Africa, Morocco, Ghana, Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria, Namibia, Rwanda, and Republic of Congo have increased in 2009 on DIDXchange. Mobility is the key in Africa as Gary Kim wrote in the GlobalVision magazine, 2nd quarter 2009 issue. Wireless companies are joining DIDX to sell Africa phone numbers, and the most recent is Kenya. 

Companies who used to outsource some sales and customer service tasks to India and the Philippines are seriously studying a switch to Africa, Pakistan, China and eastern Europe. The accent on English is quite easy to understand especially of many Africans. Infrastructure and education are key issues in making a success of the switch-over. G. Pashal Zachary spoke about this as early as 2004 and the Global Vision magazine second quarter 2009 dedicates almost half the issue to Africa and the opportunities there.

Visit the Inveneo site for more inspiration, to donate or even to find out how to become an Inveneo Certified Partner today. Check DIDX phone number marketplace (wholesale) to join and sell DID to 12,500 providers in 170 nations and/or buy from 63 countries. Read the Global Vision magazine. Email berge@bekapublishing.com for a subscription.