Monetizing IP Communications - IP Communications Education Archives

Least Cost Routing Made Simpler and Less Secretive

2013-05-02T13:10:08Z

Talk to anyone involved in voice over Internet or any type of telecommunications, and the terms "termination," "routes," "minutes," and "LCR" always creep in, but like the verb "creep," it traditionally seems so secretive. I have often laughed as I ask, why is it that all these face shots of beautiful young women fill Yahoo forums, Google hangouts and Facebook pages talking about grey and white routes such as "BD PURE CLI => 0.0317$ / 2.22tk,"INDIA Gray.................. 0.0102," or "SELLING CHEAP 2126 MOROCCO AND 53 CUBA?" How do we make a choice in what seems like a totally cryptic wholesale telecom business space? Abe Haim may know.

A telecommunications veteran recommended that I interview Abe Haim, the Director of LCR Solutions, who is an expert at LCR and has been interviewed already by VoIP Users Conference. Feel free to listen to the audio podcast interview between me Suzanne Bowen and Abe Haim.

Crowd-sourced Wikipedia editors say, "In voice telecommunications, least-cost routing (LCR) is the process of selecting the path of outbound communications traffic based on cost. Within a telecoms carrier, an LCR team might periodically (monthly, weekly or even daily) choose between routes from several or even hundreds of carriers for destinations across the world. This function might also be automated by a device or software program known as a "Least Cost Router."

Mr. Haim gives no-nonsense advice and ideas such as:
1. If you buy right, you'll be able to sell right.
2. If you don't run your business by code, you're in trouble.
3. There are no favorites, and there are no secrets.

Abe Haim reiterates in the audio podcast, "If you don't run your business by code, you're in trouble. Years ago, I would get code in from guys saying 'Brazil ALL.' What does that mean ... 'Brazil ALL?' And then, we'd route to 'Brazil ALL,' and all sorts of codes didn't work. You call a vendor and say this code isn't working and that one ... oh, oh, we don't carry those codes ... I'm looking at your codes, and it says 'Brazil ALL.' What does that mean? ... Why are you telling me ALL?"

A client of Mr. Haim's recommended him on Linkedin with these words, "LCR Solutions is a great service for any small/ medium sized Voip Company to organize their rate sheets and take a step to become a bigger and more professional. Now, we know who to buy from and who to approach ... a wonderful and inspiring man 'Abe Haim'. He has been able not only to guide and put endless time and effort into our challenging situations but has shown great insight and moral support and definitely a light for the future. He is very dedicated with his work and surely gives words of wisdom; words of which I know will make me and my company work with the same ‘professionalism’. Abe is able to make one laugh but think logically and positive even at the most critical situation."

Once Mr. Haim's customers get started with the LCR Solutions, they experience an average increase of 10 - 15 % margin which is extremely important in the highly competitive world of minutes / termination trading, buying and selling. Many thanks from me Suzanne Bowen to the guys at VUC who recommended that I interview Mr. Haim and now share with you. Visit http://www.lcrsolutions.ca for more information.

What if All VoIP Carriers Were Connected Transparate Style?

2013-04-16T17:36:30Z

"What if every carrier could be in direct contact with all other carriers on this planet? Sounds like a big idea ... like what do we mean by that? I mean virtually connected via rates and targets?" Eugene Nedbailo asks at the beginning of our audio interview with him about Transparate.

People ask me, "How are you?" I also want to answer with what I am doing, why I am doing it and what if ... from there, so the concept behind Transparate is pretty refreshing and interesting. When I mentioned this to Eugene, he again replied with something unique, "This market is mostly uh ... I don't want to call it 'grey,' but it is mostly hidden, so carriers are not in touch with each other. They are trying to hide where ... not promote very well rates and targets. They don't want to lose their current customers, and people are not united in this way because we are all competitors with each other. Our idea was to make this situation more transparent."

(I can relate. I have written so many times during my careers in education and telecommunications about the value in collaborating with one's competitors. http://suzannebowen.blogspot.com/search?q=Collaboration+among+Competitors%3F+Why+not%3F)

Mr. Nedbailo says that Transparate is about the Pre Sale, the building of business cases. Customers upload rates (seller) and targets (buyer), analyse matches (positive differences between selling and buying rate), and then possibly talk, sell, or buy. Transparate's job is to link the participants, so they can be in direct contact with each other via SIP, Skype, phone number or other communication type.

He admits that the first two years of Transparate including growing pains, and I know exactly what he is talking about when I think back to the beginning of DIDX global DID marketplace, a health and nutrition business I had, and now Elegant Group Inc. Early adopters are a startup's best group of friends, no matter how critical they are, I think.

"There was time we actually spent on making experiments and doing mistakes because we've got our illusions about what it is and how should it work, but our customers gave us ... without our customers, it would just be a what if?" notes Eugene in the interview, about 6:02 into the audio podcast interview at http://didx.net/podcast/?p=episode&name=2013-04-16_transparate_2013_april.mp3.

Transparate records every change of rates and targets which builds a comparison list in accordance with the changes. The engine does nothing by itself.

Transparate is rather customized such as if a carrier or provider is selling or buying only free destinations, the engine sets an 'ignore' for anything not relevant to that business plan for those members (customers).

Since Transparate is only about Pre Sales, they have partnered with two other independent companies should the customers choose to use them. Verdecto is one ... they provide payment protection via escrow and neutral transaction services to route buyers and sellers in the wholesale telecom industry. Second, they have partnered with Digitalk's VoIP peering and routing platform. As a result, there are three aspects to the business:

1. Managing rates
2. Protecting payments
3. Routing minutes

"It's not like social networks where you have to spend hours. It's a business tool," Mr. Nedbailo says. "It is switched between two options. Option one is you go to an exchange where everything is anonymous and better service and more things being done for you. At the other end, there are free forums filled with unchecked information and with very often fake companies and 'time-wasters.' We are between because our service is not free. There is a membership fee ..."

I asked Eugene to share his thoughts on business trends whether in VoIP or other field, and he answered first with the need for mobile applications.

David Gitonga, Tech Republic writer and SMB technologist, wrote an article that was published on March 9, 2013, and his summarizes mobile applications and small businesses. When you start to look at mobile as an opportunity to create better solutions for your customers (and for your business), then you are on the right track.

Erik Linask of TMCnet says the mobile application problem is that the "small businesses add * mobile apps that engender little interaction between users and brands other than the device manufacturers."

(Take a view of Transparate interface.)

Mr. Nedbailo also mentioned that Transparate's mobile application enables members to see the list of all people they can talk to, ones they have already agreed to deals with, and people who are sending incoming requests. Transparate's next plan is to connect Transparate members who participate in an event such as ITW, PTC, ITEXPO or Mobile World Congress Barcelona, via the mobile app even while there to easily find each other physically.

By the way, my new company Elegant Group Inc includes on its team, mobile application development experts, so contact me via Linkedin or Elance for yours. We are a quiet power behind hundreds of fast-growing new companies. Thanks for the customer referrals and the audio podcast interview recommendations such as Transparate ore sales engine and PG Consultants home automation and security services, readers!

What Do you Call a Non Toll Free DID or Phone Number?

2013-04-12T15:08:27Z

One of my favorite online locations to collaborate is in my own Facebook network. It is filled with providers, developers, reviewers, early adopters and other users of IP communications, Internet security, social media, healthcare, exercise and nutrition, and more. Recently I asked this question, "s there a specific name for telephone numbers or virtual phone numbers that are not toll free besides DID, DDI, IDD and non toll free? My mind draws a blank as I am working with a team on a new Wikipedia page."

Answers came from telecommunications, open source telephony, and voice over Internet users, providers, developers, engineers, and marketing persons. I will share the results with you:

David Knell (open source developer): Phone numbers.

Ali Hadi of PROACTIVE Communication Agency: Do you mean?....1-800-CALL-INFO

Tanveer Akhtar of Alpa Foundation: Helpline

Suzanne Bowen: Good ones, David, Ali and Tanveer. I just thought of ... generic phone numbers. Make sense? Does anyone ever call them that? I've asked on Quora, too. No answers there yet.

Tanveer Akhtar of Alpa Foundation: NWD, ISDN, PSTN are also used

Harry Brelsford of SMB Nation: Not free

John Freed of the New York Times: I believe they're called toll numbers, tho I admit I haven't heard that for a long time. I think in Europe they can be called tariffed numbers but I never heard that in the USA. If you call an 800 number from Europe you get a recording, "this toll-free number will be charged at direct dial rates." But toll free numbers are direct dialed. The opposite of direct dialed is operator assisted.

Tom Michaels of 360 Networks: TNs........as in telephone numbers

Barbara McNeil, a telecommunications user and real estate professional: PRI?

Facebook, like anything online or offline is what we make of it. Some call it Farcebook, but I have my own personal, social and professional goals in using Facebook social network. I also have an ongoing plan while using it with the people who are in my network to mutually work to help each other in education, fun, quality of life, and business.

Can't wait for the next discussion on my wall or anyone's in my network!

AudioCodes' Alan Percy on SIP and Unified Communications

2013-01-29T13:56:39Z

"Folks say, 'I've got a SIP-based contact center, and I've got a SIP-based PBX. They are both SIP, so they should just be able to plug right into each other."

Right? But AudioCodes' Alan Percy says, "The answer is often 'No.' Behind all that ... the SIP specification is a product of IETF which is the Internet Engineering Task Force. It is a committee-designed protocol specification. The side effect of that is there are 2-3 different suggested ways of how to implement a feature or function ... sort of duking it out ... Sure, we'll do all three or all five ... and the specifications for the protocol are loaded with numerous ways to accomplish the same thing. Vendors who build systems may select one of these mechanisms to implement their solution to be compliant, but unfortunately, with different systems from different vendors who choose different solutions or different protocol options ... find that two systems can't communicate directly without some kind of mediation between the two of them."

Listen to the talk between AudioCodes' Alan Percy and me on DIDX audio podcast channel. There are more great audio podcasts there, too, with experts in VoIP, mobile, M2M, rich or unified communiations, open source telephony and social media and networking for business.

Mr. Percy will present on the topics of "Why Your Enterprise Network Needs an SBC" and "Is Microsoft Lync Living up to the Hype?" at ITEXPO East 2013 in Miami Beach. During this DIDX audio podcast interview, Alan and I discuss SIP issues, history of AudioCodes company, its products and services and why we take part in TMC's ITEXPO East and West events. Visit http://www.itexpo.comand http://www.audiocodes.com. AudioCodes is one of the many highly respected IP communications and technologies companies who sponsor, present and exhibit at ITEXPO events. We thank DIDX (ITEXPO booth 337), BlockDos, MakeItSo, GoAnimate and Elegant Group Inc for sponsoring this educational podcast available on the DIDX audio podcast channel, Podbean and iTunes.

CoreDial CEO Alan Rihm Explains Cloud Communications Podcast

2012-09-28T21:06:00Z

CoreDial is among those cool IP / cloud communications companies who are co-sponsoring the ITEXPO West All Conference Party 9:00pm at Cedar Street Courtyard – Featuring the Famous Spazmatics!! (Bring your full conference badge for entrance.) I knocked on a few doors until I found CoreDial's CEO Alan Rihm. He is a serial entrepreneur who launched CoreDial in 2005 about the same time that DIDX began. In that time the company has experienced exponential growth and is known as a highly respected disruptive force in our highly volatile communications landscape. Ask anyone, and they will tell you that Alan is a thought leader whose company is helping to lead the cloud-based communications revolution. He and I recorded our conversation about cloud communications, how even business people are social, the definition of small to large business issues and how innovators such as CoreDial turn issues into successes!

Listen to the audio podcast here --> Alan Rihm of CoreDial and me on Cloud_Communications

What is truly unique about what CoreDial offers to those who wish to take advantage of the flexibility, cost-savings, and business-efficient features is that NO software or hardware needs to be purchased. Typically, CoreDial clients are interconnects who wish to private label hosted PBX, VoIP, and SIP trunking services or managed service providers. These clients want to provide these enabling packages to their customers. Carriers (CLECs and ILECs) also can start bundling new services with their voice and data packages for more complete and evolving solutions.

I really admired the easy-to-understand way that Alan explained what cloud communications is, how it works, and how CoreDial partner programs work. (Many times in my podcasts with industry leaders, I think to myself, only the industry would understand this, but not the customers. Mr. Rihm explained everything in terms that anyone can comprehend.) This section is about 01:45.5 into the podcast.

Alan also shares more details about how CoreDial partners work them such as the huge change in the way people do business in 2012. For example, a managed email service provider discovers that all of a sudden, a local interconnect is not only selling "phone service" but also management email service and all kinds of other SMB products. Competition is really different in 2012 and forward.

Trends? We always ask what's on thought leaders' minds about any of the hot topics such as social media, business communications, M2M, mobile apps and devices, 4G, and more. Mr. Rihm noted the fact that cloud communications and technologies providers such as CoreDial are the answer to traditional technology companies. They don't have to hire new people who are privvy on the latest trends. They can just take advantage of everything hosted such as by CoreDial with no hassle.

What a great feeling to be involved in such business that actually helps to grow start-ups and to pull SMBs out of a slump because of the power of SIP (session initiation protocol) and cloud communications. No more is someone in a small rural town hampered by that remote geography. No matter what age, gender, race and other identifying human attributes, anyone can do business based from anywhere to anywhere in the world. I mentioned that I was a bit embarrassed to be talking about our work in such a fluffy way, but Alan agreed with me. We are in the right place at the right time and would love for others to get involved.

Visit with CoreDial at booth 520 and me with Elena Mercurio at DIDX booth 227 during http://www.itexpo.com from Oct. 3-5, 2012, but also around the conference center and at networking activities day and night from Oct. 2 - 5!

Their website is http://www.coredial.com.

(I couldn't help but say that another "core" company who is a great enabler of telecommunications is Kore Access. The business is an ace at zeroing right in on how to market one's services better and in a way that will get the right kind of attention from the people who need it them most. Ask for Maria Pinochet.)

ITEXPO Party Sponsor OnSIP's Mike Oeth on VAR and UC Trends

2012-09-27T15:40:55Z

This is really about OnSIP and their collaboration with others who are sponsoring the All Conference Party for ITEXPO West 2012, but first check out their OnSIP customers at http://www.onsip.com/success-stories. It is a star-studded list that includes Mozilla, Tumblr, TaskRabbit, Pandora (my favorite radio streaming service) and Cloudera!

But hold on, veryone knows what an avid proponent of active conference and exhibition activities I am. You know, the ones that enable attendees to do more than just trading business cards, visiting booths, listening to lectures and staring at Power Point presentations. I'm talking about collaborative/competitive activities such as golf or bowling, All Conference Parties, receptions, Fun Runs, and city tours of unique and innovative technology in use. These activities help people to mix and talk! ITEXPO West 2012 in Austin has an "in-the-know" collection of All Conference Party sponsors who know this to be a fact: OnSIP, DIDX, Coredial, Taqua, and Conexiant.

Junction Networks' OnSIP CEO Mike Oeth is in agreement with me on the premise of being in-tune to event participants' need to really interact in entertaining ways while developing business. He agreed to let me record a short conversation with him that I would like to share with you.

Click to hear audio podcast between Mike Oeth of OnSIP and Suzanne Bowen, public communications entrepreneur and DIDX co-founder.

Some highlights of our talk:

1. Listen to OnSIP IVR. It has a warm and welcoming voice. I liked it and wondered whose voice it is.

2. Some interesting trivia about Mike that I found via research:

a. He's a Harvard Economics graduate. I found that out through research. Pretty impressive!

b. OnSIP is headquartered in Manhattan.

c. Mr. Oeth is a popular speaker.

3. About OnSIP ... a hosted platform that completely replaces a PBX system, has over 15K SMB customers; most growth is through their reseller/VAR program.

4. Their VAR program does not charge per User per Phone per Extension (the most common method of VAR or even white label hosted platform services). Nice!

5. Around 05:27.9 point in the podcast, Mike explains how they work with VARs and resellers and how they are able to not charge per User per Phone per Extension like most other VoIP companies do.

6. The advantages of unified communications, voIP, and the like for educational systems such as universities and libraries, cutting cost up to 80 %. For example, why pay a higher price for unlimited calling when calls are only made from certain locations in an institution to other locations in the same institution physically or remotely. That's the beauty of SIP.

7. The power and control that unified communications gives users such as answering and making calls from many different devices and methods: cell phone, wired IP phone, soft phone on Internet device, or even web-browser based phone.

Listen to Mike share how MyOnSIP can change your work style to be more convenient and effective about the point of 14:11.7 in the podcast. It's all about "presence" when you need it to get things done efficiently.

Meet with OnSIP, DIDX and thousands of other ITEXPO West participants at the exhibition, conference, and All Conference Party. Plus, Mike Oeth is a presenter on the

"Calculating True ROI with VoIP Technology in the Cloud" Panel on ITEXPO site (Thursday, 10/4, 3 PM) at http://www.tmcnet.com/voip/conference/cloud-communications/agenda.aspx. Get the big picture at OnSIP's news area.

(A bit more about Mike Oeth ... He is the CEO of Junction Networks, creators of OnSIP and winner of a TMC 2011 Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award. Mike graduated from Harvard College in 1991 with a degree in Economics and has since become a technology veteran. He has held multiple senior level positions throughout the industry in software, telecommunications managed services, and the Internet. Mr. Oeth has served as the CTO of LivePerson, Inc | Nasdaq: LPSN |. He's been featured in the InfoWorld Magazine and has presented at public gatherings such as the CTO Forum.

Today, Mike and his team promote OnSIP, a leading hosted communications service used by over 15,000 smlpall and medium-sized businesses. Headquartered in Manhattan, OnSIP is one of the sponsors of ITEXPO West 2012 All Conference Party. )

Acme Packet SVP of Strategy Seamus Hourihan on SIP Connect, Peering, and SNCs

2012-07-25T19:47:43Z

What a delight to be educated by another industry expert
Seamus Hourihan. I was referred to Acme Packet's SVP of corporate strategy during the company's party and reception at Acme Oyster House in New Orleans the week of 2012 International CTIA Wireless conference.

Click to stream or download our discussion of a favorite travel location NOLA, the misson of Acme Packet, Wind Mobile's recent selection of Acme Packet for SIP connect, opportunities this provides, what is SIP, and what is the difference between private and public interconnects and peering.

"Mobile services supported by 4G and LTE networks are compelling in their capabilities. All access by and large is heading toward the mobile ...," says Mr. Hourihan. "... CTIA is a huge show for meeting with and gaining quality customers and vendors ... ancillary providers, press analysts ..."

The mission of Acme Packet is partly to enable mobile services and applications to be delivered in a first-class and trusted way. Acme Packet products, in this scenario, create a session delivery network, which is the overlay network to the IP transfer network that adds additional intelligence to that network. Security and high quality delivery of interactive voice, video, associated IM, and texting in the IP world are the major goal. The company Acme Packet focuses on session delivery network infrastructure (SDNs).

Seamus compares what Acme Packet does to Fedex as an overlay, priority package delivery network. With Fedex, one has airplanes, vans and people who assure delivery of packages from sender to receiver. They both offer expedited delivery and pickup options, delivery tracking, delivery guarantees, and signatures, for example. Fedex takes care of physical delivery of physical goods offline. Acme Packet takes care of online delivery of services.

The talk moves to an explanation of SIP interconnect: the setting up, modification of and termination of a voice call. Now, in the traditional telephony world, the interconnects are called TDM interconnect, but in the IP world, the most popular is the SIP interconnect. One of the many advantages of using SIP is the extreme reduction of cost, at least 50 %. Plus, it enables voice, video, documents and other media over Internet sharing and communications flexibly and with many business-enabling features.

On the other hand, every silver lining has a cloud, and I do not requote Mary Kay Ash's words to discredit cloud communications. It empowers, and Acme Packet agrees, but the company also believes, "In IP, we trust no one."

Seamus Hourihan notes security, service level agreement assurance, and regulatory compliance are crucial for operators and providers. A session border controller can get the voice traffic on to and off of high quality networks for first class service delivery. It also maximizes mobile operator customers' revenue and works to prevent terrorist or other illegal activity that can interrupt services.

The conversation switches to a term dear to telecom and mobile providers' hearts and that is "settlement." Things have changed and will continue to change. Our products and services in any industry that are sold and used today ... are very likely to become not so useful and lucrative. This is because technologies, tastes, and ways of doing business and conducting our lives ... change. Such appears to be the case of "settlement" or paying for call termination, a traditionally expected source of telecommunications income.

There is a move to a "bill and keep" model, also known as Net Payment Zero. It is more like the Internet in terms of peering. Call it exchange of traffic. Each network agrees to terminate calls from the other network at no charge. There are a few exceptions, but in this model, there are issues related to the quality of service offered to the end user. Why?

Our talk returns to Canada-based WindMobile's choice of Acme Packet for SIP connect in May 2012. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission's list of standards, technical specifications list, and system plans is at http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/eng/h_sf01375.html. For example, they are in the process of requiring SIP-based interconnects among service providers. Mr. Hourihan states that this is a hot topic among telecommunications analysts and consultants.

The next topic is that of public versus private peering. Windmobile is an example bilateral interconnect relationships with other service providers that do business in Canada. Bilateral meaning a relationship between two service providers. Such is a private peering relationship. On the other hand, there are multi-lateral private peering available such as with Xconnect. In addition, public SIP DID peering is available within the DIDXchange. With Xconnect's Global Alliance, service providers are able to bypass the PSTN to exchange VoIP traffic with over 100 networks worldwide. With DIDXchange, service providers can buy and resell as well as sell wholesale SIP DID of 55 nations among around 22,000 members.

Meet Acme Packet at the dozens of conferences and events they participate in each years such as SIP NOC, CommunicAsia, GSMA World Mobile Congress, and CTIA Wireless. Visit http://www.acmepacket.com/company/events for more opportunities. Their latest news including Telefonica Germany choice of Acme Packet Core SIP and Diameter routing solution is at http://www.acmepacket.com/company/press-releases.

I also recommend Mobility Tech Zone and ITEXPO West October 2 - 5, 2012 in Austin, as well as Asian Carriers Conference in Cebu, Philippines and 4G World in Chicago.

Of the 392 audio podcast interviews I've co-created for DIDX.net, AstraQom.com, Podbean, and other companies, some of the ones with the most hits ("listens" and "downloads") are ones in which the interviewee shares analogies such as the Acme Packet / Fedex comparision. Analogies, short stories and / or humor are the best. Seamus Hourihan did a great job with analogies in this interview. Sometimes this makes a new or difficult concept easy to understand.

What other analogies can be made regarding 4G, LTE, IP communications, and IP peering private and public services? Feel free to comment on that and regarding any debate, discussion here and on other social media platforms.

Feel free to listen to another audio podcast between Acme Packet's Seamus Hourihan and Douglas Green of Telecom Reseller at http://www.telecomreseller.com/2012/07/05/acme-packet-is-more-than-sbcs/ and also with me at http://didx.net/podcast/?p=episode&name=2012-07-25_acmepacket_ctiawireless2012_z.mp3, sponsored by DIDXchange.

Frank Talk on Telecom Fraud with Humbug Labs' Eric Klein

2012-01-26T01:11:35Z

Eric Klein, the VP of sales and marketing at Humbug Labs,is the telecom fraud expert that we interviewed in a recent podcast, sponsored by DIDX and AstraQom. He is one of the brilliant presenters scheduled for ITEXPO East 2012, specifically the Asterisk World and Cloud Communications events. Look in the ITEXPO East 2012 visitors' bag for the Humbug Labs free white paper that describes the evolution of telecom fraud. It includes a free trial code of Humbug services.

Much like business issues regarding infringment of intellectual property that I discussed with Mark Terry, companies are not prepared to prevent or to deal with telecom fraud. Most are too embarrassed to ever admit to experts when they suffer either. They lose valuable time, respect, and money which may result in lawsuits and loss of clients whose trust has been sacrificed.

Carriers often do a good job "fighting traditional telecommunications fraud," but they do not understand the idiosyncrasies of each of their business clients. Examples may include ... would the client typically incur scores of calls that are international, overnight, on the weekends and during holidays?

Humbug Labs is cloud-based, and they are set up to see any particular fraud act immediately, even when it touches the first PBX. They know and are ready for inappropriate call patterns and to stop them from reoccuring. The method that the expert company takes is different from traditional methods of protection such as firewalls or solutions just for carriers. Humbug Labs is more personalized and can be used by enterprises and businesses.

Where could we say this all began? The first telecom fraud in history was 1897 when Guglielmo Marconi attempted to demonstrate his wireless radio communication systems. Someone almost immediately created a solution that was able to hack it.

Phreaking was another memorable example of phone fraud. Quite often, blind people were the most expert, perhaps because of their instinctive ability to compensate by being auditorially talented. Joe Engressia, blind and only seven years old, whistled the fourth E above a middle C (a frequency of 2600 Hertz) and discovered that it stopped the dialed phone recording. Yes, really!

Now people are phone hacking into even voicemail. How does anyone think that Murdoch and News Corps found themselves in so much hot water recently?

There are actually 400 different kinds of telecommunications fraud. Some pretty sophisticated manipulation now result in millions of dollars of arbitrage fraud that even AT&T suffered from.

Why would companies keep their PBXs and voip phones to the default password? Why enable a phone does not need voice mail with the feature of voice mail?

In the ancient days of telecommunications, phone hacking was just something fun to do, but today in 2012 and forward, it has the potential of billions of dollars. Mobs, terrorist groups, drug czars, and even some huge and highly respected businesses are involved.

Get some answers by listening to the recording of the audio interview between Humbug Labs' Eric Klein and AstraQom / DIDX's Suzanne Bowen.

The podcast URL is http://didx.net/podcast/?p=episode&name=2012-01-24_telecom_fraud_humbuglabs_itexpo.mp3.

Registration sites for the conferences where the telecom fraud sessions of Eric Klein on "What Cloud Means for Fraud Prevention" and Nir Simionovich of Humbug Labs on "Socializing Telephony Fraud" during ITEXPO East 2012?

Cloud Communications: What Cloud Means for Fraud Prevention
Feb. 1, 2012, 2:30 - 3:15 PM

Asterisk World: Socializing Telephony Fraud
Feb. 2, 2012, 1 - 1:45 PM

Interview with FiberHome International's Jason Wang on Carrier Trends

2011-06-01T18:04:42Z

Listen to the podcast and/or read the transcript with a bit of information on "optical communications" and "intelligentization."

Questions and topics and the discussion results:

1. Would you tell us a little bit about yourself, your background?

Highlights of Jason Wang's reply: FiberHome International is a subsidiary of FiberHome Group which is responsible for the oversea market developments. I am responsible for the customer pre-sales and customer support ... also marketing development, network architecture and analysis. I have worked with FiberHome for 15 years.

2. Would you tell us more about FiberHome International with anintroduction of its services?

Highlights of response: FiberHome International is a marketing company whose focus is on overseas marketing development under the FiberHome Technologies group.

FiberHome Technologies is the leading company in China in the field of optical communications and technologies. We are one of the biggest vendors in China who specialize in optical communications field ... covering optical transmission, broadband access, * optical fiber cable, and next generation package transport product.

We are the first one who started research and development of optical fiber communication in China back in the 70s. Now, our business has been extended to research and development, marketing, sales, and engineering in four major industries: fiber networking communications, data networking communications, wireless communications and ** intelligentizing applications ... We are in 78 countries worldwide.

3. Tell us about your choice to participate in CommunicAsia 2011. We've been participating in this conference since 2006.

A summary of VP Jason Wang's answer: CommunicAsia ... it is FiberHome's first time to participate. We have exported our products already to 78 countries outside China, but until now, our global sales apart from China market is still low percentage compared with our overall revenue.

We want to develop our international market currently. Through these big telecom events, in this region, we want to build our company image. We think we can take advantage of this event to demonstrate our latest technologies and products, bring more brand awareness and confidence for customers in the region.

Our goal is to develop our business in the Asia Pacific countries. What we bring to this exhibition including some newest products. It is the first time we showcase our OTA equipment 100G interface. I believe that presentation of this equipment will be a highlight in Fiberhome exhibition booths.

At this exhibition, we will review our roadmap of development of ?? technology. (Mr. Wang shares a description of ... as ?, SDH ATMs, packet switching in a single converged device ... adding the capacities of OTN with IP services and characteristics.) It can effectively avoid the shortcoming of occurrences of a hodge podge of different networks, technologies, and different types of networks.

Finally, we want to reduce carrier total cost of ownership which will enable the cost-effective service transport over optical transport platform, and it becomes the innovative solution for carriers. This assists in facing the challenges of network transition. This is something new we will bring to this exhibition. We hope our customers will know better through this exhibition about FiberHome and trust us more.

4. Giving demos such as of FiberHome International's 100G is important. Sometimes at conferences, exhibitors have only posters, but they never interact with the visitors. I read a little about you Mr. Wang on the Internet. I noticed that you have been a presenter or speaker at conferences. Please share your ideas about trends in the industry and about your company's future plans.

A summary of VP Jason Wang's answer: We think the demand for mobile bandwidth, first provisioning of versatile services with proper SLA agreements and the ability to provide any service at any place on any devices is the challenge that are facing today's carriers. Convergence of optical and IP, the development trend of carrier network ... we think future transport network will ... because we are the optical vendors ... it will be more Internet-based services-based and the more IP peer support of channel, OTS bitpipe transport section, GMPRS-based control plan, and the converged network management system.

This will be irreversible, and the network evolution will not take place over one night. It will gradually step by step from core to metro to region and from low core to the haul and from some trial of a few carriers with general applications.

FiberHome provides the comprehensive broadband solution for all these requirements in next generation phone for the access network and the PTN ? for metro network ... also 100G OTM backbone network. As the optical fiber solution experts, we focus on optical networking technology solutions for many years.

We provide comprehensive and complete broadband full services access or optical transport solution for our customers.

This is most understanding of current trends and developments and what we plan to do.

5. After listening to this podcast, I am certain that the listeners will be wondering about contact information and ways to develop business with FiberHome International.

Answer: Visit http://www.fiberhomegroup.com/.

6. I have a big interest in international cultures and different languages. How do we say, "Thank you, and we look forward to seeing you soon"? Is that okay?

Answer: In Chinese, it would be "shay shay ajah hwoi unquolin wahmen" ... sorry. (Chuckles from Mr. Wang.)

I respond, "That's okay. So "shay shay ajah hwoi" is the "thank you" part?

Jason Wang: Yes, "thanks, everybody."

Suzanne Bowen: Thank you for humoring me. I love languages. That was very beautiful. We enjoyed talking with you. I know that many are looking forward to meeting you at CommunicAsia.

As anyone who is listening can see that CommunicAsia is the place to meet great companies and people like FiberHome International and Jason Wang.

Jason Wang: Thanks for your interview.

Connect with me Suzanne Bowen and Jason Wang, VP of FiberHome International on Linkedin and at CommunicAsia 2011!

http://www.communicasia.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/suzannebowen

A definition of optical communication, which may be a new term for some blog readers and listeners, is any form of telecommunication that uses light as the transmission medium.

The optical communication systems are composed of a transmitter, that encodes a message into an optical signal, a channel, and then carries the signal to its destination, and then to a receiver, which reproduces the message from the received optical signal.

Techniques such as semaphore lines, ship flags, smoke signals, and beacon fires were some of the earliest forms of technological optical communications. The Ancient Greeks even polished their shields to send signals during battle.

In telecommunications, Free Space Optics (FSO) is an optical communication technology that uses light propagating in *free space to transmit data between two points. The technology is useful where the physical connections by the means of fibre optic cables are impractical due to high costs or other considerations.

* "Free space" means air, outer space, vacuum, or something similar. It is the opposite of a fibre optic cable or transmission line.

** Intelligentization: an efficient means to get more from optical networking.

A link to FiberHome overview is at on Google Docs.

Video Demo: Searching for IP Communications Movers and Shakers Like you on TelecomYou

2011-05-30T19:01:45Z

Linkedin is great for discussions, groups, and connecting with professionals you know and want to know, but most of all, the recommendations feature shines above all other business/social networking platforms. Facebook is excellent because it enables us to get to know our potential and current business partners (vendors, friends, and customers). But being heavily involved in the telecommunications industry for the past 12 years, http://www.telecomyou.com holds the promise for developing business with those you currently know well, but also the movers and shakers on the other side of the world that may seem out of your touch on platforms such as Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Digg, etc.

Our company Super Technologies, Inc. and many 1000s of others who I talk with throughout the year have gained surprising successes via TelecomYou. I believe in sharing "the wealth," so I am recording short 1-2 minute demonstration videos to show how to use TelecomYou. This is the first of the series.

Cloud Computing Compliments Cold Climates

2011-01-10T18:22:04Z

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

The title's a tongue twister for your practice.

I know it's cold when certain things add to the slight clutter on my work desk or netbook bag: gloves, scarf and Burt's Bees Beeswax lip balm with clove oil. The temp in Pensacola got as low as 31 degrees Fahrenheit this morning. Shivers ... brrrrrr.

Cloud computing is a change that businesses should embrace in 2011, especially in the midst of the freezing temperatures and snow in virgin territory. Absenteeism, traffic accidents, illnesses and more negative business catastrophes increase because of the commutes still expected.

Much to the surprise of cloud computing pioneers whose companies easily continue business even in the worst weather condition because they do just about everything over the Internet in a flexible, scalable, successful manner, others still insist on everyone traveling Monday through Friday to the physical congregation at an office or the headquarters.

But voice, video, SMS, docs, conferencing, technical testing and other typical business tasks can take place in the cloud via the Internet and enable everyone to work when, where and how they wish.

According to Telappliant.com, Rob Lovell, chief executive officer at cloud computing provider ThinkGrid, claims that allowing employees to communicate from anywhere in the world means work can continue as usual, even when they are unable to make it into the office.

"Using cloud computing," Mr Lovell continued, "can remove the boundaries of the traditional workplace, while making IT costs more flexible because of the pay-as-you-go nature of internet-based services."

Other companies who provide such services to help business keep working no matter the weather include:

3CX IP PBX, Airespring SIP trunking and voice over Internet, Commetrex fax over Internet, Kaltura open source video platforms, Rad-Info cloud computing consulting services, Rack Space managed hosting, and others listed at http://www.tmcnet.com/voip/conference/east-11/exhibitors/e11-exhibitor-list.aspx.

One of the biggest counter-responses is that the leaders in a company do not believe that their employees will get the work done that is required from home or while traveling.

I'd like to add that the best kind of employees thrive in this atmosphere of trust, dependable work capacity, and proactiveness. I do.

Go ahead and sign up for ITEXPO East scheduled for Feb. 2-4, 2011 with many networking activities set for pre, during and post event in one of the warmest areas of the USA ... Miami Beach, Florida. These is even a Cloud Communications Summit scheduled during the Conference along with a few dozen other highly valuable co-located summits.

So, how's the weather where you are? Any snow? How much? None here yet in Pensacola, Florida. Not since February 12, 2010!

Depending on your schedule and where you are in the world, we also recommend the following events for late winter and spring 2011.
http://www.ptc.org/ptc/ PTC in Hawaii

http://www.neo-edge.com/events/event.php?fld=it&page=it_12&event=4th_Mobile_Commerce_Summit_ASIA_2011&venue=Kuala_Lumpur,_Malaysia&date=14-17_March_2011 Mobile Commerce Summit Asia in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

http://www.convergenceindia.org/ Convergence India in New Delhi

http://www.iplusc.net/ I+C Jakarta, Indonesia

http://www.ctiawireless.com/docs/2011.html CTIA Wireless, Orlando, FL.

Listen to News and Blogs While You Work

2010-11-12T15:54:22Z

What I like about Odigo which is installed for example on http://blogs.didx.net/ and http://blog.tmcnet.com/monetizing-ip-communications/ is that I can listen to news and blogs while I work on other things. If I am distracted, I just pause the news.

It's great for people who are blind or those who use English as a second language, too.

DIDX API Has Option to Filter DID that Require Special Docs

2010-09-30T16:35:55Z

One of our members on DIDXchange made a wish for ... "if we could add a filter in the method of..."

getAvailableRatedDIDSbyCountryCode

The filter would be to avoid DIDs that require documentation or ID, please see the image attached.

Something like:
NeedDocument:

$NeedDocuments = 0 : All DIDs
$NeedDocuments = 1 : All DIDs with document requirements
$NeedDocuments = 2 : All DIDs with no document requirement

Our answer immediately:
We have made you a new function "getAvailableRatedDIDSbyCountryCodeAndDocs" which is exactly same as getAvailableRatedDIDSbyCountryCode, but with a difference that it has one more argument which is for document requirements.

http://kb.didx.net/tiki-index.php?page=Get+a+list+of+available+DIDs+by+country-area+code+and+document+requirements

The reason for not touching the already existed function is that this function is mostly used among customers and sometimes the change in the function arguments or return fields not acceptable by most API users.

Please test the function and let me know if it works for you well.

(So, we ask DIDX members to test it and let us know.)

*** Some governments requires certain documentation before a DID can be purchased. All DIDX members are required to take it as their responsibility to follow the law. See http://kb.didx.net/tiki-index.php?page=Documents+Requirement.

Join the VIPeering Summit at ITEXPO West Oct. 5, 2010 at 9:30 AM. The complete conferences are in Los Angeles, California from Oct. 6-8, 2010.

..... Are you an IP communications related entrepreneur, telco of any type, wired or wireless, contact center, social or business community portal provider, conference producer and such? Join us at DIDXchange, where you will connect with thousands of telecom-related companies on the wholesale marketplace for virtual phone lines, virtual phone numbers from over 70 countries! If not, find out how to get your telephone company to offer phone numbers from around the world. Join our Twitter, podcasts and recommended events.

Special Character for Check Marks, Hex Input

2010-08-27T15:20:05Z

I needed a checkmark in a GDoc, but I noticed that WindDings is not in the font list. Bummer! A little research, for "special character for checkmarks hex input," and I found the answer: the character I want is this ✔ which is Unicode 0x2714 - but far easier to copy-paste it into your doc where you want it.

When I learn something new, I want to share it with others. Some of you reading this will think, "Ah! She didn't know that???"

But others will learn with me. Happy monetizing IP communications! Connect with me on Linkedin.

Type Currency Converter into Google Web Search

2010-07-16T20:43:19Z

Save time, open Google browser, type "currency converter," and quickly get currency conversions.

IP communications news in Honduras ...
- Millicom International Cellular (MIC) today announced that it has reached agreement with its local partner in Honduras, to gain 100% control of Celtel.
- Honduras DID voip phone numbers available on wholesale DIDX.net from the first and only Honduran company with an FCC-214 License. Some will say anyone can do that... but they didn't.
- During World Cup, Skype was offering free calls to countries participating during games. This applied to Mexico, Chile, Honduras, Uruguay, Paraguay, Spain, Brazil, Portugal and the United States.

Happy IP communications monetizing to all.