Recently in telecommunications Category

In VoIP news, M5 Networks, a Genband based hosted PBX company out of NYC, has partnered up with eXpresso, as its collaboration and file-sharing platform. The eXpresso platform is a value-add to the M5 On-Demand conferencing platform.

"The M5 Network phone system has an extensive portfolio of capabilities, but one in particular is especially harmonized with eXpresso: On-Demand Conferencing. That feature enables users to instantly host or attend conference calls on the fly, anytime, from anywhere. In combination with eXpresso, it enables live collaborative meetings where a real work-product is generated. Conventional "Web meetings" don't allow participants to contribute to documents."

It's the next evolution in VoIP -- SAAS.  But I have to ask, Shouldn't Hosted Email be the first App you host with the Voice App? Unified messaging starts with email, chat, and voice. Google Voice has done that by combining the Gmail Inbox with the Google Voicemail box (and the voicemail-to-text feature).

Jon Arnold writes, "This year's MetaSwitch Forum provided a host of proof points that service providers of all stripes can stay competitive so long as they deploy the right technology and have the right vision for serving their customers."

Time and again, the pitch is about the company and the technology. Look at automobile reviews: It isn't about the engine size, it's about the 0-60. Telecommunications needs to do the same thing.

When Aastra talks about its AastraLink Pro 160, it should be about Asterisk. The story should be similar to the Aastra CT handset story. When anyone talks about the iPhone, do they mention that it only works on GSM or do they spend time talking about all the neat things they can do with it?  Same lesson.  I think that gadgets, handsets, phones and softphones can drive VoIP penetration, if they were easy to use (which they are), easy to add apps to, and did cool, useful things (for the consumer).

Take this example: "a food-service equipment innovator, Henny Penny, has deployed several Cisco Unified Communications solutions to improve customer service, streamline operations and enhance employee collaboration. ... Cisco Unified Contact Center Express and Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express solutions are helping Henny Penny realize their business goals of getting their customers' issues solved more quickly and more simply than in the past."  The press release is kind of repetitive and vague. It should have said that Henny Penny used Cisco Unified Contact Center Express and Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express in order to improve first call resolution, which has a direct impact on Henny Penny's bottom line. In addition, both the employee and the customer have seen an increase in satisfaction. Cisco's platform is a tool. The goal is to reduce costs by resolving customer service in one call, while improving customer satisfaction. This is what UC is all about. In fact, if you ever talk to John C. Kelly, Regional Vice President of Sales, North America, at Altitude Software, that's all that he is trying to accomplish for his clients - first call resolution. It's the goal of contact centers.

Another example is this Voxeo press release, which can help Human Resources departments with task resolution (like Self-service benefits enrollment, Job hotlines, Employee surveys and Employee notification messages) and efficiency especially now with job screening. These are concrete examples of what Voxeo IVR can provide. No tech talk. Just end user benefit.

The last example today will be Sprint's UC announcement.  SIP trunking over Global MPLS network. Yawn! The release did mention Sprint's 3 global partners: Cisco for mobile integration; IBM Sametime Unified Telephony; and Microsoft's OCS 2007 R2. The only case study: Sprint's internal deployment of unified communications and its $6 million annual cost savings, visit www.sprint.com/whitepapers.

When trying to market or sell UC, forget all that tech talk and tell a story about the customer. It's all about the customer. Their pain. Your solution.

"Level3 is expanding is expanding its operations in key local markets throughout the United States. These actions are designed to provide a world class customer experience for mid-market business customers in these markets. Level 3 is launching the first phase of this initiative in the Nashville, Seattle and Washington, D.C., areas, as well as upstate New York (Buffalo, Syracuse and Rome/Utica) and Colorado (Denver, northern Colorado and Colorado Springs)." [press release]

Level3 has gone back to the Type II CLEC strategy of offering service to everyone they can touch via their own network and UNE / Special Access from the ILEC. It is pouring personnel into these markets to take on as much revenue as fast as it can. Under that plan, L3 is having face-to-face meetings with its Channel Partners.

Please join the Level 3 team at a special Partner briefing and Open House event in Buffalo, Denver, Nashville, Seattle or Washington, DC, and see why it has never been easier to link globally and connect locally. Following the briefing will be a reception where cocktails and hors d'ouvres will be provided. RSVP to your channel manager for one of the following events in your local area (2 PM local start time):

Now's the time for agents to take advantage of the push in each market. Pricing and spiffs are aligned for this market push. Here's hoping this is the turn around point for L3.

This expansion by L3 comes after XO expanded in RDU and Charlotte markets last month.

In another pr, Level3 financing news.

I was told that when you hear rumors about a merger, it's just bankers raising a balloon to see about interest. It's there way of testing the waters so they can "earn" some money with a little M&A action.  (You wonder why banking is in trouble? What do they actually produce? Nothing. Very little value comes from companies merging. It only results in lay-offs, market share gains, and bankers pocketing millions).

This week - besides the swine flu hysteria - was the rumor that VZW would get an Apple device to sell.  AT&T and T-Mobile run on GSM like most of Europe; VZW and Sprint run on CDMA, like nowhere else.  It would be difficult to roll out one CDMA model for VZW. Anyway.... who benefits from these rumors? Well, everyone. According to John Gruber, Apple and VZW definitely benefited from the rumors. AT&T just gets added pressure to secure exclusivity on the iPhone for more than one more year. [More here]. Rumors: someone always benefits.

What's the perfect VoIP Service?

I have seen so many VoIP Providers, I can't keep track. But that also means that the VoIP providers are not doing a very good job of Messaging, Positioning and Differentiating their offerings.

The only VoIP provider I know that has married Hosted Exchange with Broadsoft is Simple Signal. It makes to me because what is UM (unified messaging) but voicemail to email - everything in one box.

Unison Offers VoIP, E-Mail, IM to SMBs in New York City

Google Voice does it as well. One inbox for Gmail and Google Voice. And GV has some nice features like a transcript of your voicemail; recording calls;

Recently, I read that a company had instituted a who-is-calling-please response into every call before th ephone rings. I love this! No more dumb dialers. No more UNKNOWN or OUT OF AREA on the Caller ID.

Quick rant: I pay Verizon $22.35 for Worksmart which includes Caller ID, but most of the time it is Unknown. WTH? How does it not even known when AT&T calls me? Or almost any other CLEC? Lazy. That's why you are losing customers.

Presence (not to be confused with tele-presence) was supposed to integrate IM/chat, email, mobile and desktop phone. I haven't seen much of that in real world implementation. (I understand why, but I'm just pointing it out).  Skype does a decent job of video, voice or chat - plus recording.

Broadsoft has allowed many ITSP's to hook to SalesForce.com. Why not offer a hosted CRM software that is married to your PBX and email offering? VoIP is just one application.

• HD Voice
• conference-on-demand (web and video)
• call blocking
• Portal as easy as AT&T CallVantage
• call logs that can match up caller ID

Obvously, the usual features are still a must-have, including:

• simultaneous ring
• find-me-follow-me
• 3-way calling
• caller ID
• voicemail
• vm-to-email
• call forwarding
• Do Not Disturb

Chime in. I would love to hear from you:

• what you are doing
• who has the best message
• are you a cutting edge ITSP

UPDATE:
M5 announced that the marriage of the M5 Genband-based Hosted PBX with SalesForce.com and Call Metrics has been a hit.

Speaking with some industry channel folks today, we got to discussing Level3. Rob Powell says it best, "The Economy Takes a Big Bite Out of Level 3". This is a company with $6B in debt compared to $4B in revenue and negative free cash flow. Everyone wondered when the BK filing woud happen.

Level3 is as much at fault as Cogent and Hurricane Electric in leading the way to pricing underwater. Plus with operational challenges they aren't creating happy customers or agents. And with the new round of layoffs, not making happy employees either.

Level 3 has posted a profit only once since 1999. With pricing dropping and economy stalled, should Jim Crowe consider filing for bankruptcy? How do they even put a dent in the debt load with revenues dropping? Operational issues are still a factor which also act as a hurdle to sales. 

As an agent, I would lose revenue if they do file BK, but the truth is, I don't see how they get out from under the mountain of debt. 

I'm seeing a lot of news in our space but not enough time to cover it all or analyze it, so here's just the headlines:

DPI (deep packet inspection) by cable being investigated by Congress. It scares the crap out of Boucher (ARS). Cox, Comcast, NebuAd  = new privacy law being debated (NYTimes).

Broadband download caps: in the news all week because apparently TWC said that without caps, they won't upgrade any more. Well, I have news for them: if they don't upgrade they will lose customers. Can you say FiOS, WiMAX, U-Verse, and now Wildblue is testing 18MB service.  ARS notes there are caps even when not explicit like TWC.  VZW and others have usage limits built into the acceptable usage policy.

Clearwire is being sued - class action status - for ETF (early termination fees) and network quality issues (can you say: false advertising on network performance?). (see here and my twitter pal @morisy).

And speaking of Caps (no, not hockey, how about Comcast battling it out with the former FCC chief's ruling that cable companies can only have a maximum of 30% of the entire market? If we applied that to telecom - and why shouldn't we? - we would have to break up Ma and Pa Bell (Verizon and AT&T). Please note: I am all for that.  Meanwhile Comcast's defense is Freedom of Speech.

Lastly, Facebook exec becomes new CEO at MySpace. Too little, too late? And Yahoo! is closing down GeoCities free hosting services, which it bought in 1999 for $3.5B. The analysis of the deal is on Fred Wilson's blog. Worthwhile read for start-ups about what VC deals look like.

There are only 3 RBOC's left: AT&T, Verizon and Qwest. In the new Fortune 500 listing, telecom has 21 companies listed. The top 2: Ma and Pa Bell. AT&T has revenue of $124B. VZ is $97B. Profit for AT&T is $12.9B, and only $6.4B for VZ. I say only because the profit is half that of AT&T. I guess building out FiOS and buying Alltel costs a few bucks. And I bet it adds a huge amount of debt. Factor in the LTE buildout (after the 2.5G and 3G upgrades) along with rumor that VZ wants to buy out Vodafone's 45% stake in Verizon Wireless. I guess the New England landline sale to Fairpoint only gave them a tax credit and less debt, no real profit.

Notice that Sprint is # 3 on the F500 list but lost $2.8B on $35B.

Qwest is #6 after Comcast and DirecTV! Qwest's $13.5 billion in revenue result in less than $1B in profit -- just $681M.  But they did better than Charter which lost $2.5B; Virgin Media that lost $1.7B; and Cablevision which lost $228M on $7.2B.

We'll see how the pricing and marketing pressure affects these numbers in three quarters.

If a business is moving to UC, how does the decision get made on the platform?

In many cases, the IT Administrator has some responsibility for the phone system (even if that means he calls the PBX vendor). When the IT Admin is tasked with replacing the phone system, what goes into that decision?

Certainly, if the admin is Cisco certified, he will be leaning towards a move to Cisco Call Manager. You don't get fired for buying Cisco. You also go with what you know.  If the admin is an MCSE, he may lean towards an OCS solution.

My guess would be that it would be difficult for a PBX vendor like Shore-Tel or Avaya to pitch their box. It's too foreign. A PBX is an unknown black box. In a business IT department, you go with what you know.  It comes down to IT being familiar with IT vendors. PBX vendors just never bridged that gap. Likely that is why VAR's and MSP's (managed service providers) are having success selling Hosted PBX solutions. IT guy to IT guy. Trust is there because they speak the same language.  Hosted solutions are a concept that an IT guy (or gal) can fathom. After all, what is a server or Exchange or Novell or the mainframe?

Keep this menatlity in mind when heading out to pitch PBX. (Don't call it that!)

There are so many mobile voice apps I cannot even keep track. Some are convoluted. Some are callback services. Some are pure packet based VoIP that eat up data usage. Others actually use up minutes.

With all the hype about Skype on the iPhone, I have to wonder why you would need it. Most cellcos offer an unlimited plan. Are you making THAT many international calls on your cell phone? How many people could that possibly be?

Don't people work in an office at all? Couldn't or more correctly shouldn't important phone calls be made at the office? Here are the benefits of calling from the office: the background noise is less, the sound of flushing toilets is minimal, and no one can overhear your conversation. Oh, yeah, HD calling! At the minimum, you have better call quality than a cell phone at the office.

I know that people travel more than I do - Rich certainly does - but how much international dialing are you doing? It would seem that any domestic calling can be done via your cell plan. Conference calls? How about Google Voice or other conference platform that dials out?

It just seems like there are so many mobile VoIP apps and not enough benefit to the caller. Also, as Gary Kim writes here, this will likely result in more expensive data plans. What Gary didn't mention is that the cellular network is based on a finite bandwidth schema. Voice calls take up less than 10K. VoIP calls have to take up at least 35k, so every VoIP call is taking up about 4 voice calls. That's a huge displacement. Add in backhaul costs that have now quadrupled and the cost structure (or more precisely the RBOC profit structure) just went out of whack.

At the end of the day, I don't understand the mobile VoIP app.