September 2008

You are browsing the archive for September 2008.

Pandora Wins Support

September 29, 2008

In grass roots fashion, Pandora, the online music genome project, urged its users (like me) to contact Congress about extending the royalty deadline. The bill passed the House. "Pandora and other Web-based radio services have been negotiating with music-industry groups for more than a year now, hoping to agree on a workable royalty structure before the existing structure bankrupted webcasters." [Dallas Morning News] Who was the biggest opponent of the bill? NAB. Go figure!

Posted in Internet, Web 2.0, social network

Tagged: NAB, online radio : Related Tags: pandora

Bandwidth isn't free

September 28, 2008

"The leaders of three of Australia's largest ISP's have declared the Net neutrality debate as solely a U.S. problem--and further, that the nation that pioneered the Internet might want to study the Australian market for clues as to how to solve the dilemma..... "The (Net neutrality) problem isn't about running out of capacity. It's a business model that's about to explode due to stress." [CNET] Basically they are saying that someone has to pay for the plumbing, which is exactly what Verizon's Ivan and AT&T's CEO were saying last year (but a lot less diplomatically).

Posted in Internet, bandwidth, broadband, cableco, telco

Tagged: bandwidth, internet, net neutrality, network management : Related Tags: think consumers, network, problem, consumers, internet

How Come VoIP isn't Killing It?

September 28, 2008

Jon Arnold makes a point: "Voice is a double-edged sword for service providers - most of their businesses are built around it, but with the advent of VoIP, it's become a commodity, and in many cases, a race to zero."

One point I make is that voice is just one app that we sell. Voice and email together are the key killer apps. But why isn't VoIP making more inroads?

I talk to many VoIP Providers and few are anywhere near where they want their numbers to be. And they are in a quandary to figure out how to increase sales.

One reason is that their isn't really a problem to fix for some people.

Posted in agents, bellsouth agent, cableco, channel, telecommunications, voip

Tagged: agents, freedomvoice, newber, selling, tca, voip : Related Tags: selling, voice, providers, sales, agents

Where's the growth?

September 28, 2008

"Global Wireless Penetration to Hit 80% in 2013, Says Portio Research" [via teleclick] If all the growth will be in Africa, China, and India, what does that mean for European and US carriers? Cellular penetration is now more than 50%.

Looking at the ARPU stat: "Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) declines to $15.80 in 2013, down from $23.20 in 2005." With debt piling up from building out 3G and now 4G networks, how do you pay it back with declining ARPU? As more folks use the network (and use more of it), upgrades are needed to meet capacity demand, including in tower backhaul. Not to mention that the cellular folks have to pay inter-carrier comp for dropping traffic on the ILEC networks. I just don't know how this will work out, specifically for the US Cellcos.

VZW will be adding debt if (when) it buys Alltel. Add in LTE roll-outs as well as FiOS construction, where does all this money come from? (DSL adds are down).

Growth is not the end all.

Posted in cellular, telco, telecommunications

Tagged: 4G, cellular, LTE, vzw : Related Tags: growth

Politics on the Internet

September 28, 2008

The first presidential debate was streamed live, which just shows you that the Internet is becoming a mainstream news and entertainment outlet. YouTube has channels for both candidates. Both parties are working the websites, forums, "social networks", etc. to get the message out and spread the word.

All of this to hit the Undecideds, because the people that HAVE decided who to vote for will not be changing their minds.

Posted in Internet, broadband, politics

Tagged: internet, politics : Related Tags: debate, people, internet

Jazinga

September 28, 2008

Jazinga launched its entry into the SMB PBX space after winning the Best of Show Award at Internet Telephony Conference & EXPO. Jazinga's box is about the size of a D-Link router, but is more that a wireless access point and QOS router. It is a full fledged, SIP-capable IP-PBX that can use IP Phones or Plain old RJ11 phones. (You know those ugly ones on your desk now).

One big selling point is the easy configuration, which comes from a consumer focus that means you don't need an IT gal or a PBX guy to set it up or manage it.

Posted in PBX, smb, voip

Tagged: ip-pbx, jazinga, voip : Related Tags: access point, wireless access, jazinga, router, phones, point

FTC Red Flag Rules

September 26, 2008

As businesses increasingly rely on technology to store and maintain data, including customer records, the risk of identity theft also is increasing. The Federal Trade Commission ("FTC"), together with federal banking regulatory agencies and the National Credit Union Administration, has adopted new regulations intended to combat identity theft. Known as the Red Flag Rules, these new regulations require financial institutions and creditors to develop and implement a written identity theft prevention program to identify and combat identity theft in connection with new and existing customer accounts.

If you are an operator that provides service in advance of payment, then your company is a "creditor" because your company regularly extends, renews or continues credit or defers payment for goods or services. The Red Flag Rules apply to each "covered account," which is a customer account involving multiple payments or transactions for which there is a foreseeable risk of identity theft.

Posted in FTC, privacy

Tagged: ftc, privacy, red flag : Related Tags: identity theft, protection program, customer protection, identify theft, board directors, program

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Keynoting for ADTRAN & XO

September 25, 2008

I'll be in Ft. Lauderdale on Oct. 21 Oct. 23 to keynote a partner luncheon for ADTRAN and XO. The content is based on where the indirect channel is heading in the next couple of years and what the value proposition is for both kinds of resellers - telecom agents and hardware VAR's. How many times will I say Converged? XO is giving every attendee a copy of my book, SELLECOM.

Posted in channel, expo, xo

Tagged: keynote : Related Tags:

Dialogic Partner event

September 25, 2008

Jeff Dworkin, Enterprise Segment Manager at Dialogic, sat down with me at IT Expo West to talk about Dialogic's re-focus on the channel. There are two groups that Dialogic is reaching out to: the system integrators and the development community.

Dialogic is launching a new Reseller Program in January 2009, which they will build a community around (in the social media sense with blogs). I guess you could say that the partner event on Oct.

Posted in PBX, channel

Tagged: dialogic, fax-over-ip : Related Tags: partner event, dialogic, event

Best Kept Sprint Secret

September 23, 2008

Here's something to do: surf over to Sprint.com and try to find any wireline services. After 5 minutes of searching Business Services, navigation takes you to Nextel.com for Sprint's MPLS offering. On that page, you can find info about MPLS, VPN, IP Convergence, and Internet Access. Yesterday, Sprint gave a presentation to re-affirm to agents that Sprint was still in the wireline game.

Posted in telco, telecommunications, wireline

Tagged: mpls, sprint, wireline : Related Tags: sprint still, sprint, wireline

Cisco is Jabbering

September 20, 2008

In 2007, Cisco integrated Jabber components into its conferencing platform. Today, Cisco buys Jabber, "an open-source IM and presence protocol used by Google Talk and Gizmo, for an undisclosed sum". On our panel at IT Expo, The Role of Apps in VoIP, we talked about Gen Y not liking to talk on the phone. My conclusion is that you will need to incorporate XMPP and XML to enable chat, instant messaging, SMS messaging to IP phone - all to communicate with employees, customers, vendors - without talking on a phone.

Posted in apps, im/chat, mergers, voip, xmpp

Tagged: chat, cisco, jabber : Related Tags: phone, cisco

Congrats to Thomas Howe

September 18, 2008

Thomas Howe has been wandering around IT Expo. Last night he won the Broadsoft Xtended Voice Mashup Contest with Disaster Dispatcher, "a voice mashup that integrates Twitter, BroadWorks and RSS feeds to provide a one-window communications tool for emergency operators. By keeping all data in one window, emergency personnel can analyze the collection of information after the emergency to optimize response procedures." Congrats, Thomas!

Posted in broadsoft, voip

Tagged: broadsoft, mashup, thomas howe, twitter : Related Tags: congrats thomas, voice mashup, thomas, emergency

Art of Peering

September 17, 2008

When I wrote about peering breaking down back in April, Dan Golding at Tier1 gave me a beat down in his newsletter. I chose not to respond at the time. Ars points us to a white paper on the Art of Peering written by Mr. Norton of Equinix. Dan Caruso reminded me to mention it.

Posted in Internet

Tagged: peering : Related Tags: peering

IT Expo Update I

September 17, 2008

At Andy's wine dinner at Roy's last night, the first wine was a 1999 Pinot Gris that was Excellent! And the first Pinot Noir (2001 Siltstone Oregon Pinot Noir from Oregon) was very good. Even the chardonnay was nice (and I am not a Chard guy).

My panel this morning with Unity Business Networks, Telesphere Networks, and Aptela had a full room as we discussed deploying hosted PBX. The pitfalls and pain of the deployment. The stickiness too.

Posted in conferences, expo

Tagged: IT EXPO, it expo west : Related Tags: pinot

Largest Press Room Ever

September 16, 2008

Here at Room 502B at the IT Expo West, we have the largest press room ever! Ten columnists / bloggers lined up with desks and laptops and eleven tables for people to hold meetings.

Posted in TMC, conferences, expo

Tagged: it expo west : Related Tags: largest press

Social Networking Blundering

September 15, 2008

Speaking with a buddy this morning about MySpace and Facebook where people add so many personal things. The HR Director at his company Googles each applicant and checks their social networking profiles. Drunk or other improper photos relegate your resume to the shredder. Here's 12 Photo blunders that have gotten folks in trouble. I'm sure there are many more. Peter Shankman, author and PR guy, likes openness in people's profiles. But is there a line? Would you hire someone who's profile contained 450 bikini photos? (I probably would if I was hiring sales folks How about lovie-dovie photos? Or other types that are not family portrait type content?

Posted in social network

Tagged: facebook, myspace : Related Tags: social networking, photos

What a Crazy Wall St. Monday

September 15, 2008

As we start Monday, we learn that Lehman Bros. filed for BK, AIG needs to re-structure (and needs another $40B! after raising $20B) and Merrill Lynch gets bought by BoA for $50B. This follows on the heels of last week's Freddie Mac and Fannie May take over by the Fed.

Interesting note from USA Today, " When Bank of America balked at buying Lehman, the government urged it to buy Merrill instead."

Oh, and Ike smashed much of Houston, but oil still dropped below $100 per barrel.

Posted in off topic, politics

Tagged: bankruptcy, banks, rant : Related Tags: banking disaster, years, still, banking

Newber

September 12, 2008

FreedomVoice unvieled Newber at CTIA. It is the beta version of the first location-aware business number. Newber Beta is an application that resides in the iPhone as a fully functional second line and uses positioning technology to locate and seamlessly transfer calls to nearby landlines, even during an in-progress call.

Newber Beta delivers an independent number that can be assigned to any phone, sparing the caller the task of dialing multiple numbers for mobile, home, work, etc. Newber Beta also allows a person to take business calls on their private phone without giving out personal information.

A highly anticipated capability of the commercial release is "Contact Finder".

Posted in apps, cellular, voip

Tagged: anywhere, freedomvoice, iphone, newber, voip : Related Tags: business calls, newber, phone, business, calls, iphone

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Click to Give

September 11, 2008

I was reminded this week about a few websites to click to give:
The Animal Rescue site, where you click to have sponsors pay to feed a rescued animal.The Red Cross spends about $50M per Hurricane. We are on Ike, so they have spend a few hundred million. Help out by giving $10, especially with Ike about to batter Texas.The Breast Cancer site lets you click to have a sponsor pay for a Mammogram. Also, the fine folks (like my wife) who have spent 3 days walking 60 miles in the Susan B. Komen's 3 Day Cancer Walk could use $10 also.These are feel good things and half of them don't cost you anything but a click.

Posted in off topic

Tagged: web apps : Related Tags: click

iPhone

September 11, 2008

Can we stop with all the iPhone talk? Sheesh! Out of about 300 blog posts on my Google Reader today about 75% mention that cell phone that you can only get in a blood contract with the Evil Empire. Enough already. There's plenty of other stuff to write about.

Posted in cellular

Tagged: iphone, rant : Related Tags:

FCC Grants Reporting Forbearance

September 10, 2008

SERVICE QUALITY, CUSTOMER SATISFACTION, INFRASTRUCTURE AND OPERATING DATA GATHERING. Granted forbearance from legacy reporting and accounting requirements. Seeks comment on industry - wide reporting. (Dkt No.

Posted in FCC, broadband, telco

Tagged: fcc, forbearance : Related Tags: service quality, management information, armis service, system armis, information system, reports

Best Use of the Internet

September 9, 2008

Right now, I find that besides blogging, email and research, the best use of the Internet right now is Hurricane tracking.

Posted in Internet

Tele-Presence versus Video Conferencing

September 8, 2008

Andy Abramson writes about how video conferencing from a client company like SightSpeed is better than Cisco's Tele-Presence. On Sept. 22, Brian Carroll is having a tele-seminar on "Email vs. Phone vs.

Posted in communications, sales and selling, tele-presence, telecommunications, video

Tagged: cisco, sales, sightspeed, tele-presence, video conferencing : Related Tags: video conferencing, networks conferencing, internet connection, great america, america networks, phone

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Creating Telecom Union

September 5, 2008

A handful of telecom agents got together in Vegas in Feb. at the Channel Partner Expo to discuss the formation of an association by and for agents. Little did we know the trouble we would cause. You see, there are already three agent associations.

Posted in channel, organizations, telecommunications

Tagged: tca, telecom agent association : Related Tags: agents, agent, profit, telecom, channel

Network Management, DPI, Whatever

September 4, 2008

Here's the thing that most folks don't understand. The main responsibility, duty, and sanction of Congress and any Federal Agency (like the FTC and FCC) is to protect the Consumer. The end user. Remember it is By and For the People.

Posted in FCC, Internet, bandwidth, cableco, politics

Tagged: cableco, dpi, duopoly, net neutrality, network management, politics, rant : Related Tags: network management, trouble expensive, congress, network, understand, industry

Intro to Peering

September 3, 2008

In response to my earlier peering post, ARS has a great article on peering and transit. The difference between peering and transit is at the heart of the Tier 1 debate.

Posted in Internet

Tagged: peering, transit : Related Tags: peering transit, peering

Travel or Virtual?

September 3, 2008

Teleconferencing: The New Air Travel
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/brendan-collins/keeping-it-clean/teleconferencing-new-air-travel

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Fake FCC Sites

September 2, 2008

Bad enough the FCC makes bonehead decisions, but now you have to worry that you may be getting a fake site set up by phishers. (Maybe they would do a better job ?)

Dear Members: As I am sure you are aware, FY 2008 Regulatory Fees must be paid to the FCC no later than September 25, 2008. Coincidentally, someone has set up 2 fake FCC websites to intercept financial data from companies paying FCC fees.

I want to add that the FCC form 477 for Broadband counst is due, um, today.

The law firm below has discovered two fake FCC websites floating around for annual payments - trying to intercept company info.

Posted in FCC

Tagged: fcc, phishing : Related Tags:

I hate this guy

September 2, 2008

I hate seeing this guy. And I get it all the time in the ordering system at one of the ILEC's. "Sorry you spent 30 minutes inputting all that data that I won't save. Bye now. ... Oh, and start over!"

And this company is an ASP?! I wouldn't even let it host my clients apps, let alone manage/run them.

Posted in bellsouth agent

Tagged: agents, apps, bellsouth : Related Tags:

Do You Work on Encrypted VoIP?

September 2, 2008

I am on Peter Shankman's HARO list. This morning there is a UK reporter from Future Intelligence looking for anyone working on Encrypted VoIP in Europe. (Deadline is 9/15). The Editor, Peter Warren, is looking for: "I am looking for any companies that are working in this area and would be very interested in talking to them about why and what they think the opportunities are."

We all know that Skype has some kind of encryption present (AES?), but still has a CALEA back-door.

There is the Zfone project.

Posted in security, voip

Tagged: haro, security, voip : Related Tags: level security, security, looking

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On Rad's Radar?

September 2008