David Byrd
executive vice president of sales and marketing for Broadvox
Disruption Targets Currency Exchange Kiosks
Technology has resulted in massive margin compression among industry after industry. Retailers have to struggle to make money to pay their brick...
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Will It Rain for EarthLink in the Cloud?
EarthLink is really pulling out the umbrella to get it to rain in Cloud. EarthLink picked up XO's former CMO, Michael Toplisek,...
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A Lesson in Value Proposition
This came across my twitter stream this week:"Must-read for founders: A VC explains how to build a killer value proposition" on VentureBeat...
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Combatting Mobile Data
How do you offer your broadband customers mobile access? There are a couple of options. One is MVNO, reselling cellular data cards...
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Yahoo Reinvents Mobile Browser with Axis
Yahoo has taken the mobile browser and improved it dramatically by integrating search and allowing users to view results rapidly without the...
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Kickstarter, A Solution for the Patient
If you want to be involved - intimately involved with the manufacturing process behind a product you purchase then I suggest you...
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Sonos SUB Expensive but Convenient
Sonos makes a great WiFi-based sound system allowing wire-free sound in any room in your home. The only problem with this strategy...
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The Mobile VAS Ecosystem
Last week in Thailand, Dialogic held an event for our APAC customers. Although Dialogic is evolving to provide more and more...
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Say it With Skype Facebook app Wants to Be American Idol
Skype announced a new contest to find the next great music band using their Say it With Skype Facebook app, an engaging-group...
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TV to GO: Cablevision Customers Access TV Beyond the Home
Cable companies having come together to share their WiFi networks in order to compete somewhat with 3G and 4G networks are also...
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Skype v4.0.1325 Released for Apple iOS
A new version of Skype was just released to the Apple App Store. No new major features to report - just some...
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No Special Sauce
There is no special sauce.Everyone has the same technology (or will 5 minutes after you market yours).It was never about the technology.It...
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The New In Your Face Facebook Ads - Coming Soon!
After Facebook's disastrous IPO leading some to speculate Facebook's actual worth is in the $16-$24 range, it's worth examining what went wrong....
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Cellular Mayhem
Just looking at the news makes me think that the cellular industry is having a week of mayhem. Besides the mess I...
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A Day in My Brain
I was in NYC (Tribeca) this week to spend the day at a Q&A session with Seth Godin. He is a marketing...
Full Story »FUD and MOS Redux
May 25, 2012
In the original blog from 2010, VoIP was under attack by traditional carriers as suffering from poor quality and reliability. That is no longer the case. In fact, as I increased my U-verse bandwidth recently, the sales person spoke very well of the AT&T VoIP service. If I was not an employee of a VoIP provider, I might have been an eager convert.
SIP Trunking Cost Savings Redux
May 23, 2012
On Monday I discussed why it is difficult to tie a single cost savings number to transitioning your connectivity from dedicated PRIs to converged T1s or SIP Trunks. While most companies will see a savings, the amount is network dependent. However, there are identifiable savings components that can be easily quantified:
- Per line cost
- Usage cost for local inbound/outbound calling
- Domestic long distance calling
- International calling
- Toll-free inbound calling
Per line cost can be reduced by 60-80%.
SIP Trunking and Guacamole Redux
May 21, 2012
I wasn’t sure there would be a recipe of the week since I spent the weekend in Houston at a wedding. The wedding was for Malachi Threadgill who wrote a couple of my blogs on search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM). Congratulations Malachi and Natalie! Back to food… On the drive home (about 4 hours) I decided I would eat leftover Italian seasoned fried chicken and potato salad.
What's in a Word, Small?
May 18, 2012
Defining a small business is very difficult but necessary. It is particularly important when discussing the needs of a small business versus that of a large enterprise and in too many cases the line is blurred and the result is disastrous for the small business. Since many of us have sold to enterprises, we approach a needs assessment with a myriad of questions covering a slew of categories. However, if the business is “small” the number of items to check off before determining an appropriate solution should be shorter and certainly less complex.
I generally define a small business as having more than one paid employee.
I generally define a small business as having more than one paid employee.
Chicago, Chicago That Toddling Town
May 16, 2012
I am in Chicago most of this week for a myriad of different meetings. The primary one is to attend International Telecoms Week (ITW). Most of you know Broadvox as a SIP Trunking service provider but our legacy is as a carrier’s carrier or wholesale SIP Termination and Origination business. In fact, nearly a third of our wholesale business is generated by terminating traffic in the US, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and Canada.
A Sea of Change
May 14, 2012
Not one to order surf n’ turf, I surprised myself when I recommended that for Friday dinner. Gay agreed and I grilled a lobster tail and porterhouse steak, both season with Greek inspired herbs and spices. A block party was planned for Saturday and we decided to make potato salad, deviled eggs, cookies, smoked salmon, smoke cheddar cheese and grilled Italian seasoned chicken. Rain cancelled the party but the grandkids came over and helped us consume the food.
The Internet, Broadband, 4G and Jobs
May 11, 2012
As I earlier communicated this week, I listened to an economist indicate that while the Internet is creating jobs it is doing so at a pace that is far lower than those created by the manufacturing industry. While intuitively this seems true, given our role in expanding the use of the Internet and IP communications, I believe we should know what effect our daily efforts to deliver VoIP / SIP trunks is having on job creation. Interestingly, I finally, found research that quantifies the number of jobs created as a result of the interplay between the Internet, broadband and the transition from 3G to 4G on job creation. The research study, “The Employment Effects of Advances in Internet and Wireless Technology: Evaluating the Transitions from 2G to 3G and from 3G to 4G” by Robert J. Shapiro and Kevin A. Hassett offers some concrete facts, figures and analysis to quantify such job creation.
Internet Job Creation
May 9, 2012
Generating a blog three times a week that delivers information to you that is useful in conducting your business and of interest to me can be difficult. However, sometimes, like today, I come up with a very useful topic only to discover I can’t do sufficient research in the 1 hour I allow for this task and fully understand and discuss the chosen topic. We all can agree that the Internet and IP Communications has changed the way we work, communicate, entertain, travel and on and on. It is also easy to see where Internet related business is contributing to the GDP of most nations in a positive fashion.
Smoking, Frying, Grilling and Spying
May 7, 2012
On Friday I mentioned that I was smoking 28 pounds of bacon, 17 pounds of cheese and 17 pounds of salmon. That’s a lot of smoking and since it was also Cinco de Mayo weekend and that meant indulging in a lot of Tex-Mex food. While I cooked some basic breakfasts, I mostly smelled of hickory smoke the entire weekend. That is until Sunday.
Random but Pertinent Thoughts
May 4, 2012
Ericsson leads in the world of wireless.
Amazon Kindle Fire is the most sold Android tablet but sales have fallen from 4.8 million in 4Q2011 to 750,000 in 1Q2012.
SBCs and ESBCs are important to the success of VoIP and SIP with Sonus and Acme Packet leading the market.
Apple has more than a winner in the iPad. It has market dominance.
