August 2009 Archives

Both conferences attract a huge and robust mix of professionals, developers, early adopters, SMEs, voip companies, anything over IP companies, and more which results in exciting discussions and new innovations. When a conference only concentrates on one type of participant, the results will be the same as always. 

I'll be at ITEXPO West Sept. 1-3, 2009 in L.A. If you haven't signed up, do it now. Stay in the Westin Bonaventura right near the conference center or the Stay Hostel about a mile away, whatever is your budget. 

Save time in your calendar also to attend SUPERCOMM in Chicago, IL, scheduled Oct. 21-23, 2009. 

But consider exhibiting at both shows each year. We do at DIDX and several hundreds of others.

Check out SUPERCOMM that brings motivated, high-dollar buying power that represents billions of dollars in the marketplace! What did participants for SUPERCOMM 2007 say?
 
●51% of attendees expect their corporations' total purchases to be a direct result from the Show!
●41% of attendees do not attend any other trade show
●76% of attendees come to see new products and keep up-to-date with industry trends
●61% of attendees discuss products seen at the Show with a peer
●25% of attendees have corporate budgets exceeding $10M
●38% of attendees look for new suppliers
●50% of attendees represent service providers/network resellers

Almost 70% of their attendees represent buyers from service providers/carriers and enterprise and institution network owners. Guess what? We at DIDX encourage our clients and suppliers to exhibit, present, sponsor, and participate in every way both conferences and the others you see listed at http://www.didx.net/events.

This blog post is not about our company's service, but the high value of traveling to one location where the right people and companies are all together, ready to do business with you.

BTW, you can follow me, DIDX, SUPERCOMM, and ITEXPO on Twitter. It's a great way to stay in tune to the latest.

After ITEXPO West Sept 1-3, 2009 in Los Angeles, I plan to interview the CEO of TelecomYou, Osama Katanini on my podcast channel. The telecom business networking site offers you new opportunities that fit into your marketing efforts perfectly.  Get in on the grassroots level of a platform that is attracting telecom-related entities in every nation of the world. In just a little over a month, the site has 4000 members. You'll find groups like Rebtel and DIDX and the opportuntity to read and start your own blogs, videos, jobs, and more.

I can't help but repeat in my mind over and over Ilene Adler's references to male chauvinism or mistreatment of women, "We have to make it happen, take action, make waves, collaborate, pitch the best people to the world whether they are men or women." 

Exactly! Rather than nag, complain and cause drama, I believe in action, rational action that will innovate new empowering possibilities for everyone. So, who did I have the joy of conversation with next on DIDX podcasts? Ludymar Reveron, sales manager for IPsmarx. She does happen to be a women and an immigrant from Venezuela, but instead of crying about fewer opportunities, she took the bull by the horn, from the beginning, and is a major reason for IPSmarx Technology success today.

Listen to my conversation with Ludy on DIDX podcast. It's inspiring.

What glass ceiling?
 

Have you heard? IPsmarx Technology, oh yes, they know that we may be calling each other in the future via our DNA number, our real name, telepathy, SIP address only, or some other method of identification of the one you want to call and be called by. For now, the company is doing something very interesting! 

They offer an Enhanced Direct DID Solution Version VI which allows service providers to deliver to their customers with an affordable medium through which they can make international calls.  Through this solution, calls are routed through a landline phone or cell phone eliminating the need for your customers to have internet access or an IP phone. 

What's wrong with that? It's convenient. It's what people are comfortable with, calling a phone number, having a phone number to give out, and such. So, while it is an important part of people's identity... same time, we are all developing other technologies for providing to users in other areas that are innovative and useful. Prep for the future!

How can you take advantage and start a new telecom business or improve your current one? Keep in mind that IPsmarx has clients in 170 nations, not bad, and their clients contact my company often with good to say about IPsmarx.
 
Take advantage of this solution and address some of the most prominent challenges within the telecommunications industry!

Challenge #1
A business person has international offices and clients located all over the world and he does not want them to have to dial a long distance number in order to reach him.

Solution
With the IPsmarx Direct DID Platform, you can now offer business people many international phone numbers that are forwarded to one cell phone.

Challenge #2
A client's mother lives in another country and he does not want to have to dial an access number, PIN, and destination number every time he wants to call her.

Solution
Instead of dialing an access number and then the destination, this client can have a local number that is forwarded directly to his mother's phone so he will only have to dial one local number anytime he wants to call her. Service providers can offer this service with IPsmarx' Direct DID Platform.

Challenge #3
A call center in India needs to have toll-free phone numbers for their customers in the US and UK to dial.

Solution
With the IPsmarx Direct DID Platform, service providers can offer a toll free number that is forwarded to a call center in a different country.

To celebrate their new solution release, IPsmarx is offering a limited time promotion from now until September 4th, 2009, where you will receive $2000 off when purchasing this solution or 15% off the purchase of an add-on module.
 
To learn more about our Direct DID solution or if you have any questions, please your account manager at http://www.ipsmarx.com.

Look for my next blog on their Sales Manager Ludy Reveron in which we have a conversation recorded to podcast about her life since immigrating to the USA.

Remember Aplio and Net2phone? Immerse yourself in Internet telephony history with Haider Ali. Rehan Allahwala (inventor of DIDX and Virtual Phone Line) and I (vice president of Super Technologies and DIDX) interviewed Haider who is a house-hold name in technology in the Middle East and Pakistan. We took advantage of the press room at CommunicAsia in Singapore 2009 where we were media partner. The video interview is on Youtube.

Back in the mid '90s, early technology adopters, both technically savvy and not, became interested in internet telephony. (I was one where I used Vocaltec's Internet Phone in my 8th grade middle school English classroom to augment reading, writing, and speaking in standard English.) 

Haider Ali had a friend who told him about Net2phone, to make calls over the Internet cheap, like 30 cents per minutes, Haider went to New York to meet Jordan Katz about this. Haider Ali was a key Internet telephony leader who later championed Aplio phone and other VoIP solutions, the advantages and opportunities that Internet telephony made available. 

Being a media partner for global IP communications is rewarding because of the history we discover everywhere and are able to share with you. 

Related websites: 
http://www.communicasia.com 
http://www.didx.net/events http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Aplio+Announces+Availability+of+Aplio/Phone+1.5;+Internet+Telephone...-a021076064

Check Dataweek in South Africa for the article. Myths he debunks:

1. VoIP voice quality is substandard

2. More bandwidth automatically means better voice quality

3. VoIP does not pay for itself

4. VoIP too energy-hungry

5. VoIP phones are not yet truly interoperable

6. VoIP is full of security loopholes

7. VoIP is only for techies and freaks!

South Africa DID are available on Tollfreeforwarding, DIDX, VoipSwitch, Gizmo5 to name a few.

The award-winning hotel's guestrooms come with Cisco hospitality telecom solution, including two line VOIP phones with color touch screens, direct inward dial numbers, complimentary DSL and wireless service. "The entire system is run through new Cat VI cabling, providing the clearest quality sound and fastest internet speeds. Each room is also equipped with Bose stereo systems and 37" HD flat-panel LCD monitors with tele-adapters allowing guests to plug in and play their own personal music, movies or television shows off of their MP3 devices or laptops."

Direct inward dial phone numbers could be available soon from as many as 60 countries. Read more on Pr.com.

4G Wireless Evolution Visionaries (Sept 1-3, 2009 in Los Angeles) Include:
Bill Goodman
Director of the Converged Services Architecture
Verizon
Session: Enabling the App Store:The Network Operators Perspective

Shawn Molodow
Director, Market Development
Clearwire
Session: Beyond the Phone: Mobile Internet Devices

Mark Pecen
V.P. Network Architecture
Research in Motion
Session: Beyond the Phone: Mobile Internet Devices

Paul Vroomen
CEO
Sandbridge Technologies
Session: Does Your 4G Device Communicate or Compute

Kenneth Gawelek
Worldwide Head of WiMAX
Cisco
Session: Stimulating Rural WiMAX

Register to be part of the 4G Wireless Evolution Community.
Use Discount code CMTY and save an additional 15% off  current prices.  Don't miss out on gaining a better of understanding of these
critical issues. 

Register for 4GWE and save 15%.
Gather together 5 colleagues and attend this conference for under $1,000 each. Register today.

Important Links: 
Download Complete Brochure

Agenda At-a-Glance

Conference Agenda Released

New Videos Posted

Registration Open

Dates and Times

Hotel and Travel

Why Attend?

No joke! Check out CouponCraze.com.

Broadband penetration in the US is approximately 89%; whereas, according to the market research firm comScore report shows overall rural penetration sits at 75%. There's still a divide. How do the new Broadband Stimulus Funds fit in here? Check SUPERCOMM for actual sessions regarding this and sign up to sponsor, present, exhibit, or participate in this Oct. 21-23, 2009 conference in Chicago.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture released a study on Aug. 18, 2009 Tuesday that linked economic success in rural areas to the level of broadband Internet access. What are the indicators and causes? Employment growth, non-farm earnings, access to online educational opportunities, telemedicine, and telehealth.

Entrepreneurs in rural areas have a better chance at being noticed with access to the Internet. Home-based jobs and call center type careers are new opportunities. 

I recently posted in another blog, "We've not even touched the edge of what's possible. Who knows what mind-blowing, life-improving innovations lurk in the minds of those in remote and rural areas, emerging countries, third world countries, developing countries? A shameless plug for two conferences to consider whose discussion will include this very important topic: ITU Telecom World 2009 and Ukraine's Telecommunications without Borders Form."
 

Telus does a good job giving simple description and definition to different call forwarding features.

Apple is talking to Verizon about a device that will do everything?

"The English language teaching course book called 'English Out There - Intermediate TD4' enables schools, teachers and students to use the internet's free social networks and free internet telephony to make their English learning much more interactive, motivating, practical and inexpensive.

Not only does the first social media English course book challenge publishing convention (though not the latest research) about how people actually learn a second language; the methodology it applies also drastically lowers the financial barrier for millions of schools, teachers and students around the world who would like to integrate highly valuable native speaker practice into every single lesson for free."

(Copied from http://www.prleap.com/pr/138779/. Please read the rest of the article there.)

Social media and internet telephony are also a great combination for improving how one uses one's first language also. That is the real reason I first became interested in voIP and social online media (although it wasn't called that... back then) in 1995. I was a middle school English for eighth grade level in Century, Florida where this was needed, used even back then in my classroom every day and it was very effective... effective enough to help the George W. Carver Middle School raise its score to above average and in the top two schools in the Escambia County on the Florida Writes! exam.  Effective enough to help increase percentage of homework completed, number of books read, and better attendance.

Interesting, very interesting.

Rehan Allahwala, CEO of Super Technologies, Inc. and inventor of DIDX and Virtual Phone Line, Greg Vance, of Digium, and I were kind of "think tanking"  in the CommunicAsia conference press room where we thought it would be quiet. Loud in there, but not as loud as the conference exhibition areas, so...

The discussion begins with Asterisk training programs needed in the India, Pakistan and Bangladesh region because of the extreme fertility and plethora of talented engineers. From there, we hear of the need for training partners in the complete APEC region from eastern to western and from northern to southern parts of Asia. Perhaps collaborations at a reasonable price for DCAP certification among universities and Digium? Remember, this is just brainstorming... and "no one is asking for free lunch," says Rehan.

With MCSE (Microsoft Certified Engineer) completion at $100, something similarly priced, even stripped down if needed would grow the kind of talent that can embrace Asterisk and from there monetize. Nothing wrong with monetizing. It's how people pay their bills and take care of their families.

Imagine, the more engineers certified from those regions and anywhere, the more "cards" would sell. Worldwide companies are already outsourcing to the Indo-Pak and Bangladeshi region for open source knowledgeable engineers.

A salary of $300 - $500 per month will buy in Pakistan, India or Bangladesh what $3000 - $4000 per month might buy in California. Enough said. 

Watch the video on Youtube and do your own brainstorming about increasing innovation with Asterisk, freeSWITCH and other open source telephony tools and applications.

Why Cluecon? Bogdan Andrei Iancu discusses the excitment of meeting with developers at Cluecon. Load balancing started as an idea at Cluecon 2008. This year Bogdan spoke on the success of that project in presentation. He summarizes this in the video, posted to Youtube.

Would you like to learn more? Visit 4-5 channels on IRC, webinar programs once per month, mailing list and more. Check http://www.opensips.org. See http://www.cluecon.com and http://www.freeswitch.org for more information about open source development, telephony related.