SIP and Serve by a Foodie

Two thoughts come to mind as I look back on this weekend's dining delights. First, it is good that the Super Bowl comes once a year as I always prepare too much fried food. Second, remembering one of your better dishes is always a pleasant surprise. In preparation for eating during the Super Bowl, I deep-fried Buffalo wings, butterflied shrimp coated with Japanese Panko breadcrumbs, and cornmeal dusted oysters. The shrimp and oysters were an homage to New Orleans and served as po' boys with tartar sauce, chopped lettuce and sliced tomatoes. All good things, but the recipe of the week is a dish that finds it origins in Portugal. The Portuguese combine pork and clams in a stew like dish called Pork Alentejana. While very good, it is indeed a stew. It is usually made with a fattier cut of pork such as a pork butt that has been cooked for a couple of hours and then graced with the addition of clams. When I first combined these ingredients, I made the stew. Saturday, I purloined a pair of beautiful inch thick loin chops that I had no intention of cooking for several hours. Instead I pan roasted them, and made the tomato sauce and clams separately. The dish was excellent and thus our recipe of the week! So, while I will call it Pork Alentejana, it is only out of respect to the Portuguese as this is a fancier dinner party version. Enjoy!

Obama Speaks out on Net Neutrality

A recent YouTube posting of President Obama musing on his opinion of net neutrality shows both an understanding of the issue and an odd perception. While he clearly sees larger carriers as being opposed to net neutrality he offers an unusual defense of the issue. His opinion is that without net neutrality, we may be preventing the development of the next Google or YouTube. I seriously doubt that Google is spending energy and resources to push forward the need for net neutrality in order to make it easier for a competitor to be established. The second odd statement was that the larger carriers wanted to avoid net neutrality in order to make their wealthier customers pay more for the IP services they demand. Really? The greatest consumers of internet bandwidth are the wealthier users. I think not.

I appreciate that President Obama knows the name of his FCC Chairman, Julius Genachowski and has an awareness of the issue of net neutrality but someone needs to brief him on the real opportunities and threats associated with the issue. It has a lot more to do with consumer rights than creating new jobs and protecting access to the many Internet applications and services than soaking a few rich users.

You can view the Obama Interview and decide for yourself.

In the meantime, I am going to savor the Saints victory yesterday with one final, "Who Dat?"

See you on Wednesday.

I had hoped to have similar reviews of the SIP Trunking offerings between AT&T and Verizon. However, it is not possible without a phone call to Verizon. I didn't have time to do that so I'll go with what I got.

Verizon is clearly not serious about a SIP Trunking offering. They provide some technical and reassuring information on their website but no pricing, equipment or installation details. This is not good, as most of us know that an SMB in particular does not want to waste time sitting in a queue to speak with a sales representative. Moreover, I had hoped one of the Verizon partners might have posted the pricing but again, I could not find anything. The summary of their offering is similar to everyone else, including Broadvox. They offer unlimited local calling, discounted long distance, directory listing, E911, etc.

One unique statement was that they would provide SIP over another ISP's DIA (Dedicated Internet Access). This was interesting because AT&T, Cbeyond and others do not offer SIP unless the customer utilizes their broadband. I would have never suspected that Verizon was a BYOB IP carrier, Bring Your Own Broadband.

Being a BYOB carrier will be the wave of the future as broadband connection quality continues to improve. A direct connection is not necessary to offer a quality SIP Trunking product and as peering agreements expand in the IP community, consistent quality levels will be noted as well.  Additionally, it just makes business sense to avoid forcing a customer cancel existing agreements thereby facing potential early termination fees.

For the record, if a customer or VAR is interested in knowing our product pricing they can download the information for GO!Local, GO!Anywhere, or GO!Domestic directly from our website. Of course, that means competitors can do so as well. But, isn't that also the point. Voice communications has been a commodity for quite some time. We make no attempt to differentiate our VoIP/SIP Trunking product offering from other ITSPs based upon price. Our value proposition is our private network, SIP engineering experience and support organization.

Today, SIP Trunking is still the purview of the smaller ITSPs like Broadvox. We openly communicate and compete for this growing business. We keep an eye on companies like Comcast and Vonage and are guarded in our comments regarding their efforts. However, we still wait for the sleeping giants to awaken and enter the market with gusto. Then things will get very interesting. In the meantime, check out SIP Trunk.org for the serious players today.

Have a great weekend! Enjoy the Super Bowl and great eats!

Clearly, the focus of Broadvox and similar ITSPs is to promote SIP Trunking or SIP termination and origination. However, there is a larger and faster growing market in the business community for simple VoIP solutions. According to In-Stat, 41% of businesses with VoIP capability have no legacy TDM voice services, vs. 34% in 2008 and 42% of US businesses now have a VoIP solution in at least one location. Now these are interesting numbers but said another way, 59% of businesses using VoIP continue to use either TDM equipment or voice services to conduct their daily operations. While SIP Trunking offers superior routing, business continuity services, voice quality and reliability over simple VoIP, simple VoIP is easier to implement and requires less infrastructure investment. In the enterprise space, simple VoIP is used to connect between various corporate, regional and branch offices. Usually, IP voice traffic is carried along with other data associated with general business applications. At the enterprise level, an IT department can manage the service and QoS. However, when it is a small business deciding to try out VoIP, there is an ITSP involved.

The best known simple VoIP ITSPs are Vonage and Comcast. Vonage has the better marketed name but Comcast has more than triple the number of subscribers. However, in the simple VoIP business usage space, the real threats continue to be the efforts of AT&T, Verizon and other LECs. This is more because that is where the base of users resides rather than the quality of service or variety of service offerings.

Looking at AT&T as an example clearly shows it is attempting to address the lower end of the market with a variety of products. Although AT&T U-verse is intended for residential/home use, some SOHOs and SMBs are slipping under the radar and signing up for service. Next would be the Business In a Box offering followed by IP Flexible Reach. Only IP Flexible Reach is a SIP enabled product. Each of these solutions becomes more complicated and expensive as you navigate from the residential offering to the true SMB product. As noted in a previous blog, pricing for these products is not dramatically different from that of the TDM offering...yet. With AT&T interested in sunsetting its TDM network, it is positioning its primary business to make the transition from TDM to, I suspect, improved IP offerings. At present Broadvox and other ITSPs can easily beat AT&T's pricing, installation and turn-up timeframes, but expect that to change.

Today, just 17% of all businesses use IP only for their communications needs. The service providers in this space are diverse and remain without a dominant market leader as these early adopters continue to explore a variety of solutions and provide many opportunities to carriers like Broadvox. Which one of the major LECs will stop this loss of business customers first? We'll look at Verizon next.

See you on Friday.

This weekend was a bit out of the norm for me as I decided it had been some months since I researched some local eateries. The result of this is that I usually do not cook when conducting such research. However, this weekend was an exception as I both found a new dish and made one of my standards. First on Friday, we tried the new Dominoes pizza. It was much better than what I remembered from my college days but not as good as the two independent pizzerias that I frequent. The pizza was good, just not good enough. On Saturday, I wanted to have a good burger and BBQ. I went to chain called Bone Daddy's House of Smoke. I ordered an all too forgettable appetizer called a tailpipe. Its only claim to fame is that it is deep-fried. I did get a wonderful burger and my wife had a very good chicken-fried steak. I also ordered a half pound of the brisket and baby-back ribs (hey, you don't eat it all and this is research!). The brisket was nicely seasoned and smoked, albeit a touch over cooked. The ribs were a disappointment. They were barely smoked, mushy and too readily fell off the bone. A good rib should be smoked similarly to the brisket and pull cleanly away from the bone but can be bitten through while maintaining contact with the bone. The ribs were just a mess. We did enjoy the sides, lightly seasoned French fries, beans, and corn off the cob. Finally, I stopped at a Mexican grocery on the way home, El Rancho, and got a half order of Pollo Asado. Pollo Asado is a butterflied chicken marinated and grilled. It came with roasted onions, grilled jalapeños, beans and rice. The food here is intended for Mexican families and is simply prepared. On a previous visit, I ordered an assortment of tacos, which were very good. However, the Pollo Asado was well seasoned, cooked perfectly and a taste sensation. I was quite impressed. Finally, on Sunday, we had an Indian feast. I purchased a potato Samosa, Paratha and Chapati bread. Previously I had prepared a Green Curry with Chicken, Shrimp Curry and Potato and Spinach with turmeric, paneer cheese and spices. I made a quick vindaloo (using pork instead of lamb or beef) to round out the assortment. The meal was excellent! So what dish made it as the recipe of the week? I was supremely surprised by the Pollo Asado. It is easy to make and will be great addition to your assortment of chicken recipes. You can also surprise your family and friends by making an authentic Mexican street food. Remember to accompany it with my favorite sides, Guacamole, Tomato and Onion Salsa and Grilled Vegetable Salsa.  Pollo Asado, the surprise and recipe of the week!

I intend to spend this week looking at the offerings of AT&T and Verizon for IP services and VoIP. The blog was bit long as I had a lot of food to cover. I'll discuss AT&T U-verse, Verizon FiOS and others during the course of the week. My focus will be on the business applications as they are the ones competing with the Broadvox VoIP/SIP Trunking offering.

See you then...

I was not surprise to see we batted a big fat zero when it came to being mentioned in President Obama's State of the Union Address on Wednesday. I expected that. Given two critical factors, what the politicians and media consider the "big stuff" (wars, healthcare, terrorism, economy and jobs) and an embattled political majority party (Democratic), I figured this was not the year for discussing telecommunication issues (broadband, net neutrality, USF, etc.) on the national stage.

However, it should be noted that Julius Genachowski, FCC Chairman, did put telecommunications and the Internet on the world stage earlier the day. Although, not widely reported in the US, the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp, was commemorated on Wednesday. In his remarks where he spoke of his family's history there (his great grandmother was gassed to death along with her daughter, son-in-law, and grandson), Genachowski reminded the attendees of the role that open communications can serve in the world:

"...We know that the Nazis sought to shut off from the rest of the world the unspeakable killing that went on here. We know that for the Nazis control of the flow of information was an imperative, an SS boot on the free flow of news...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged, we must enshrine as core principles in the 21st century -- freedom of expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear, and freedom to connect.

The freedom of information is essential..."

Genachowski's comments give us further insight into his thinking and motivation and provide us with the knowledge that he does not take his role as FCC Chairman lightly. I will keep that in mind as I review his action over the coming years.

Have a good weekend.  I'll see you on Monday with another new recipe and comments on IP communications.

Tonight President Obama will give his first State of the Union Address. Most of the address will be about subjects driven by the politicians and media: The war in Afghanistan, the withdrawal from Iraq, the now on life support health care bill, the economy and job creation verses job losses. All of this is very interesting but I wonder if telecom interests will get more than a one-word mention as it did in his address to the nation last year.

Yes, telecom was referenced once out of 6,242 words. It is an odd situation where an industry that is vital to America's security, economy and future is not given a place on the national stage. Yes, over $7 billion was included in the Stimulus bill to expand broadband into un-served or underserved areas. However, in looking at the allocations made to date, there seems to be little rhyme or reason as to how areas or service providers are being selected. That is not surprising, as it will be driven by a combination of political decisions and meeting basic criteria. Moreover, simply pushing the deployment of broadband is a tactic and not a strategy. The real discussion regarding telecom must evolve into its usage and away from accessibility.

A recent study showed that where broadband is available; its adoption rate is exceeding 70%. Therefore, we know that Americans are seeing the value of broadband in the conduct of their personal or professional lives. What the study does not do, is give us an understanding as to the usage of the broadband and whether it is properly engineered to support the desired usage.

Broadband is supporting a myriad of technologies and applications across a wide range of consumer demographics. And while we can expect large service providers to develop multiple offerings, will those offerings be optimized for any given set of applications or functionality? The needs of a business user are different from those of a gamer on the same network, the time that bandwidth is needed and the amount required varies greatly between the two groups.  Additionally, as baby boomers continue to lead in the use of the internet overall (mostly due to the size of the group), other age groups are more far more varied in their approach. When I sit down with the younger members of the office, I am constantly learning about new sites and applications. I seldom adopt them, as they do not fit either a professional or a personal need for me. However, will the networks in place in ten years support the demands of the younger members of our society? Will they support the security concerns for the country as a hold? As we transition from IPv4 to IPv6, will it be every carrier and business for themselves to understand the implications and prepare for them individually?

Perhaps it is the role of the FCC to establish some type of primer or non-mandated recommendation for the timetable and requirements of these transitions. When will that discussion take place? I expect more very quickly from Julius Genachowski (FCC Chairman), Vivek Kundra (US CIO) and Aneesh Chopra (US Chief Technology Officer). The Broadvox focus is on IP communications using VoIP/SIP Trunking but our general interest is on the success of telecom across the country and around the world.

Last Friday was my/our 25^th wedding anniversary. As I prepared to go home, I was asked several times where was I taking her to dinner. Let me make this clear, my wife would have been very disappointed if I had taken her to dinner. In almost all expensive restaurants, she notes that I could have made it better and cheaper at home. Therefore, I flew back to Dallas and on the way home from the airport bought the necessary groceries and, of course, flowers. For dinner, I grilled Prime New York strip steaks, made an heirloom tomato salad and deep fried curly-q potatoes (one of her favorites). I also opened a 1996 Bordeaux from the Haut Medoc region in France. It had been in my cellar for nearly ten years and was an absolute delight. Saturday was simpler with beef short rib sandwiches and a topping made from tomatoes, onion and horseradish. Sunday I began curing two beef briskets, one for corned beef and the other for pastrami. After which I fried a Cornish game hen and some chicken breasts. I was interested in seeing how the younger smaller chicken (Cornish game hen) compared to the older larger fryer. The game hen was more tender and flavorful, but given the higher cost will not replace the larger and cheaper chicken. The recipe for the week is Fried Chicken. I have avoided giving this recipe for the last year because frying chicken is a passion and I will admit to making it several ways. When you read the recipe, Option 1 is my preference. Option 2 is preferred by my wife as it makes for an extra crunchy crust. Therefore, it is your choice as to which you use. Finally, know this, great fried chicken consist of three things, an overnight marinade, great seasoning and properly heated oil, too hot and things will burn, too cool and the chicken will be soggy and very unhealthy. Anyway, try David's Fried Chicken and Enjoy!

Net Neutrality and Minority Concerns

Who amongst us thought that rules regarding net neutrality would cause concern among minority leaders? I was very surprised to read the following:

"Federal Communications Commission commissioner Mignon Clyburn told a minority media conference audience Jan. 22 that network neutrality is not a threat to minority advancement but smart regulation that will help avoid the "damage" done to diversity by radio and TV deregulation."

Apparently, minority leaders have differing opinions regarding net neutrality, several have cautioned that network neutrality rules could widen the digital divide by discouraging the private investment necessary to deliver broadband to minority communities that are currently without broadband or underserved.

My perspective is that doing the right thing is the best for any community. One should not accept a service with strings in order to ensure that service exists. Without net neutrality, consumers will be at risk. Proper rule making and market demand will motivate the delivery of broadband into minority, rural and economically challenged areas. We should not shortchange these consumers with bad rules in order to provide service.

Finally, it should be noted that Hispanic and black minorities trail in Internet usage from PCs but lead in Internet usage via mobile devices. Perhaps the issue minority leaders should be focusing on is the cost of access devices verses the belief that the FCC is hindering access to broadband.

See you on Wednesday!

In reviewing the sessions and talking to many of the exhibitors, it was impossible to say what was on the minds of the attendees. With regard to TMC and the event organizers, it was a little bit of this and a little bit of that. It was all things IP. Therefore, I guess the better direction for this blog is to discuss what I got out of the show.

First, the Internet service providers were out in full force. I believe I saw more ITSPs than ever exhibiting, speaking and attending the event. In addition to those that saw the Broadvox presentations and heard our comments, the number stopping by the booth was also higher than usual. We were well prepared with representatives from both our retail and wholesale groups to respond to queries for service or partnerships. I also found it interesting that all of the carriers mentioned SIP Trunking as part of their offerings.That was definitely not the case a couple of years ago.

Second, new technologies were garnering good floor and session attendance. Improved faxing using SIP products were in several booths. Also, on display were the less than $100 HD voice phones, several telepresence products and a few more hosted IP PBX offerings. Most of the technology I've discussed in previous blogs but I do think it may soon be time to devote a few paragraphs to the FAX over IP products.

Third, although not new and perhaps more of a brief annoyance rather than a buzz is the ongoing complaint about the loss of agent revenue as customers switch from PRIs to SIP Trunks. It is a reality of the changing telecommunications environment, that commission for SIP Trunks is less than that for PRIs. Given a SIP Trunk cost as much as 70% less, it only follows that the recurring commission will be less.  However, deciding not to sell or represent SIP Trunks to customers will mean the loss of all of the revenue. The market is moving to VoIP/SIP Trunking and there is little that disgruntled agents can do. Others suggest and I agree that adding a project management role to their portfolios, where they can represent a VAR/dealer selling and installing the hardware AND the carrier providing the telecom and data services, would be a good thing.

Ending on a personal note is something I will rarely do. However, today is my 25^th wedding anniversary. It is quite an accomplishment to make 25 years in a marriage. So, I did leave the show early in order to get home in time for dinner, a small concession to an important day.

See you on Monday with more on food and IP technology. Enjoy!

I am attending IT Expo in Miami this week and participating in three panel discussions. I know mostly what I will be talking about but I wonder what will be the leading topics of the show. Last year Nortel, SIP, Apple and a few other items drove the two shows. It will be interesting to see what will drive this show.

What then am I focused on for 2010?

1.       Selling SIP Trunks - in addition to being our primary retail product, it simply makes sense in a difficult economy to sell a product that reduces business expenses, improves productivity and positions the company to take advantage of future real time telecom applications.

2.       The FCC - two topics remain at top of mind. How will net neutrality be defined and new rules established in 2010? Second is USF. Will the rules change on who has to pay? Will the way the money is allocated be impacted? With the Democrats in charge, can the FCC avoid the Yen/Yang of political thought?

3.       Is this the year of Video Conferencing or will telecommuting workers insist on being able to work in less than business casual attire?

4.       Broadband, Broadband, Broadband

5.       Competition and Market shapers - who will have the greater impact? Will it be AT&T, Verizon, Google or Cisco? Will the action assist us in growing market share such as Avaya's announcement regarding Nortel? They are moving more strongly towards SIP related products. That accelerates market adoption and growth, which is good for Broadvox. Will it be Google Voice, which has the potential to devalue our offering accelerating the need to expand and develop new peering relationships?

These and more will be what I will evaluate over the next few days.

More on Friday.

It's been a couple of weeks since I last wrote this blog. The amount of travel and such to start the year was a bit overwhelming and I found time to be a commodity in short supply. I decided I would rather not write the blog than provide something that wasn't my best. Of course, you missed some great food but I will make up for that beginning today. Over the weekend, I had apple smoked buffalo wings. They are the same as regular wings but lightly smoked prior to frying. They were good but I prefer the original style. On Saturday, we had Alaskan King Crab Quiche and Beef Stroganoff made from beef short ribs. Ahhh, they were both excellent. Finally, for the games on Sunday, I made gumbo. The gumbo included chicken, andouille sausage, crawfish, shrimp and crab. The flavor was a knockout. However, the number of ingredients and cooking process was rather arduous. Therefore, in thinking about what worked well this weekend and was recipe ready, I have selected the Alaskan King Crab Quiche as the recipe of the week. We have enjoyed it for over twenty years and, in fact, it was the first dish ever prepared for me by my then future wife. We made a few changes to it to make it our own. I think you will enjoy it!

The Beginning or the End of Competition

AT&T has asked the FCC for a date to enable it to shut down its TDM/PSTN. We have been pointing out for years that the LECs have been carrying more and more traffic using IP every year. AT&T in asking for permission to turn off its PSTN infrastructure is inferring that its investment in IP and mobile is nearly ready for prime time. Will it mean the end of competition as I have read by other bloggers? No. It will certainly change the landscape. When the 900 pound gorilla decides to take a place at the table, then everyone's meal is at risk. However, the LECs, will still be too big and inflexible to take away our business. It will be interesting to see what services AT&T will provide over their IP and mobile networks. It will be even more interesting to see what pricing results. Given their interest in mobility, they are now engaged in a price war with Verizon. As they drive down mobile prices, it places pressure on Sprint and T-Mobile to reduce their prices as well. In the mobile space, AT&T and Verizon are competing with little attention paid to it by the FCC. Once they decided to move into IP, I do not think the regulatory environment will be quite so laissez faire. Moreover, Broadvox and other ITSPs will not go quietly. We are continuing to upgrade our networks, evolve existing products and pricing, and create new offerings.

We will do just fine when AT&T is allowed to move to a single more cost effective network infrastructure. The culture of their company will remain the same. They will still eat only beef and potatoes. In our world, real ITSPs eat quiche.

See you on Wednesday.

The holidays were full of food, glorious food. While I apologize for the length of time without a blog or a recipe, I'll make up for in the weeks to come. First food...the holidays began with more homemade bacon, ham and Gravlax. I also felt that after last year's French Onion Soup misstep, I should make that in a proper fashion. For Christmas, there was herb crusted standing rib roast, lasagna and turkey soup. It was the first time I have ever made turkey soup without roasting a turkey. In brief, my wife and I saw a special on 22-pound fresh turkey the day after Christmas we could not refuse. We decided to give it to my stepdaughter. I roasted the back and one wing for our soup. I gave the rest an overnight brine and roasted it for delivery to her the next day. We celebrated New Years Eve with lobster. The opening course was lobster bisque, followed by lobster ravioli in a light curry corn sauce and the final course was butter-poached lobster with leeks and crispy fingerling potatoes. All of this was done using one whole lobster and a tail. Finally, yesterday, we had trout stuffed with Alaskan king crab and lobster butter. So with all of that, what is the recipe of the week? We go all the way back to the beginning with French Onion Soup. This time I remain true to the original concept with the only change being my use of Marsala wine instead of sherry. I find it less harsh and more to my palate. Enjoy!

2010 and Telecom

Broadvox is planning to announce several new products to enhance our SIP Trunking offering. I hope that they will be received well by our channel and customer markets. We will continue to innovate in order to maintain our position as a leading service provider of IP communications.

With regard to the industry or telecom as a whole, we should see the impact of Avaya's acquisition of Nortel's enterprise products, more action by the FCC on Net Neutrality and the USF, and additional allocation of the telecom stimulus funds for expanding broadband. I also want to spend some additional time reviewing the efforts of our OEM partners as they release new IP PBXs, IADs and phones. Early indications point towards a very exciting year.

Happy New Year! See you on Wednesday!

My new smoker and I have been having one heck of an affair. Someone said over the weekend that all I am doing is smoking food. That is not entirely true. I have been smoking nearly every weekend as I learn the particulars of the smoker. Controlling the heat and moisture is key to this. Learning the subtleties of the smoker during different outdoor temperatures and conditions is very important. However, I also made eat other things. In fact, the recipe of the week is Fettuccine with Ham and Cream Sauce, which I fixed on Saturday. It is a cross between the Italian version with pancetta and the American version with bacon. I used ham because I have a whole ham that I want to eat, serve and finish this holiday season. The recipe is simple, quick and very tasty. Make Fettuccine with Ham and Cream Sauce during the holidays and your family or significant other will be very happy. Enjoy!

Broadband for Christmas

$182 million out of a $7.2 billion stimulus program to increase broadband in rural communities was awarded last week by the US government. The awards were surprisingly small but kept a promise to push some of the funds out prior to the end of the year.

Vice President Joe Biden made the announcement at a metal fabrication company in Dawsonville, Georgia. I am clearly in the dark as to why that location was selected. Biden announced that the North Georgia Network Cooperative would receive a $33.5 million grant.

The US lags the developed nations in both broadband coverage and speed. Additionally, we are among those with the highest cost. The $7.2 billion program may not address sped and cost but it should improve access for individuals and most importantly businesses. The US must remain competitive with other international businesses that have access to broadband that can support better supply chain management solutions and converged services, video, voice and data.

The initial awards will fund 18 projects in 17 states. Over the next 75 days, $2 billion in grants and loans will be awarded. Ultimately, this will expand the IP Communications market for Broadvox and other ITSPs.

I am going to be busy the rest of the week with Christmas and family. I will see you again next Monday.

Merry Christmas!

The last blog noted that the infrastructure required for IP Communications uses far fewer resources than similarly sized TDM networks. A Broadvox data center requires less power, construction materials, air conditioning and space than a Verizon central office switching center. Therefore, transitioning to VoIP/SIP Trunking is a key step in being a good steward of the earth.

The most common defense for the IP ecosystem being green has been that it allows for more telecommuters and provides more features and benefits to those workers. Two years ago, the Consumer Electronics Association commissioned a study that identified 3.9 million American workers telecommuted.  At that time, it was estimated those workers saved 840 million gallons of gas per year, resulting in the prevention of 14 million tons of CO2 emissions. Obviously, all of those numbers have changed since the publication of the study in September of 2007. Moreover, the technology supported by IP communications has expanded as well.

The successful deployment of telepresence conferencing should increase the number of telecommuters and decrease the number people flying to various meetings. Moreover, the obvious savings is fuel consumption but there are several additional positive impacts on the environment as well:

·         Telecommuters use less paper than their office counterparts

·         Telecommuters require less business office space reducing the amount of construction materials, land and heating and air conditioning

·         Telecommuters tend to drive less in general than workers that commute. This is thought to be a result of not having to leave the home to conduct work every morning

·         Telecommuters tend to leverage their personal equipment in the performance of their jobs requiring fewer computers, printers and fax machines

·         Telecommuters contribute to reducing traffic congestion, thereby improving commuting times and reducing fuel consumption for everyone

It is very clear that the increase in market penetration of IP communications will help the environment and reduce green house gases. Being a green technology feels pretty good.

See you on Monday with another new recipe. Have a great weekend!

When I first began to study whether SIP Trunking was part of improving the ecosystem, I encountered a rather well written article stating that VoIP was not a green technology. I accepted this position until recently when I realized the logic was flawed. The initial point revolved around the components of the technology. It is true that VoIP/SIP Trunking requires an array of servers and sophisticated electronics. Data centers are rooms built with raised floors, dual AC feeds, battery plants and diesel powered generators. None of these things evokes green technologies. Moreover, the disposal of computers and electronic components can be difficult and often ignored. Improper disposal can contaminate our environment with mercury, cadmium, flame-retardants and lead from CRTs and TVs. All of this reflects badly on VoIP/SIP Trunking...right?

That was where I was wrong. Consider this. We believe that a hybrid automobile is green or greener than a non-hybrid. We accept this belief because we compare the hybrid that may still use gasoline, processed plastics, rubber wheels, potentially environment contaminating electronics with the automobile that has no elements of green technology. The electric motors or solar charged batteries of the hybrid make it greener than the non-hybrid.

Using the same reasoning, SIP Trunking is greener than the existing TDM technologies. The servers used to operate an IP network use less energy, require less cooling and are less massive than the central offices and tandem routers they are replacing. The carbon footprint of a traditional central office complex is much greater than that of a similarly sized (traffic capacity) Broadvox data center. A comparison of the equipment and technologies is quite surprising. The cost and materials to build a TDM switching center exceed those of a data center by more than 2:1. The reduction in energy use for power and cooling can be up to 40%. The improvement is so significant that IP communications should immediately claim the position of green communications services.

Therefore, in addition to potential savings of up to 70% on telecom cost, a business concerned about its impact on the environment should consider transitioning to SIP Trunking to demonstrate their good earth citizenship status. Companies with green initiatives should be a target of our VARs and agents. This is clearly a market IP communications can service proudly.

Additional reasons as to why the IP ecosystem is green on Friday. See you then.

What a weekend for food. It began with Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches on Friday, BLT's on Saturday and a smoked food festival on Sunday. For the Cheesesteak, I shop at Asian markets where they thinly slice rib eye beef for Shabu Shabu and other dishes. It is perfect for lovers of Philly Cheesesteak. I decided to make my own bacon last week and prepared that on Saturday. I procured five slabs of bacon and prepared two in a wet cure and three in a dry cure. I smoke half with applewood and the other half with hickory. I must say I prefer applewood to hickory and dry cure to wet. Preparing bacon is very simple. The challenge is keeping the heat down when you smoke it. My new smoker meets the challenge quite well as it stayed around 80^o for the entire three hours. I also smoked salmon and prepared Gravlax, a cured salmon. Sunday was the day to share my smoked sausages, turkey, ham and salmon. And after the kids finished playing with my trains and racecars, I served the Gravlax. I made mine without weighting it as I like the lighter texture. It is very similar to smoked salmon, just without the smoke. The recipe of the week is the Gravlax, as it requires no special equipment (fancy smoker) or special skill. It requires only patience during the time to cure. Enjoy!

Performance Reviews

Last week I conducted performance reviews for most members of the Broadvox marketing and sales team. While many think performance reviews are for determining salary increases, I find them particularly useful as a communications tool. Years ago, I developed the habit of having the employee fill out the manager's portion of the form. This self-appraisal gives me the opportunity to see how the employee sees him or herself. Sometimes they can be too modest or overconfident. However, even that provides me with additional insight into their personalities. A performance review allows both the manager and the employee a chance to comprehend individual, organizational and company goals. It also permits the employee to suggest areas of improvement. I do my best to insure that the employee gains a measure of satisfaction in being honest about their work, work habits and impact on the group and customers. Performance reviews need not be a chore or a time for confrontation. If they are used to punish or communicate problems for the first time, then the manager needs to consider better periodic feedback mechanisms.

I will not assume everyone is happy after their review but I will maintain the objective that we each have a better perception of the other's tasks and work environment. Building an effective business team requires diligence and concern. If the proper balance is achieved then success should be the by-product.

See you on Wednesday.