NO WAY! I refuse to deal with even more unsolicited garbage! My e-mail box is overrun with crap from every corner of the planet now you are telling me that I can look forward to MORE of that in form of SIP SPAM? Arrrrgh! With SIP deployment comes the big issue regarding SIP enabled SPAM. Unsolicited IM messages coupled with Voice and Video SPAM clips could cripple a network and piss everyone in the network off to no end. SIP is going ahead regardless but those networks that put in place SIP Trust mechanisms will certainly have a greater value than those networks that do not. What are we doing about it? This last weekend I listened in as Robin Raymond - CTO of Xten and Cullen Jennings of Cisco discussed proposed solutions to the expected SIP SPAM onslaught. Once solution which I thought was especially good was one that was comprised of 3 main components: SIP Certificate Authorities, a SIP Web of Trust for all services in the network to be trusted before sending calls through the network and Payment Due for Unrecognized SIP Callers. In summary, the Certificate Authority would issue certificates to service providers who are legitimate and legal. The users of those networks would now have a user certificate under that now secure provider and the users would now be considered secure as well. If someone wanted to call your SIP phone number they would have have a secure cert issued by their provider. All components of the network they are calling from in order for the call to get through would also have to be certified as authentic. If the caller is unknown, even if they are considered secure, they would have to pay a nominal fee for that first call, e.g. 10 cents. Once the caller is ok'd by the receiving end they would be added to a white list and not have to pay to talk to you again. You would also be able to refund the amount back to the user but the merchant providing the payment services would still get their cut, which means the receiver would have to pay the extra % in order to do the refund. Of course this all goes for a header when you introduce the PSTN into the mix but existing laws regarding telemarketing etc. will pick up the slack there. There were other concepts as well but I think this one has the most promise.
May 2004 Archives
Friday [May 28] to Sunday [May 30] Xten was host to the reSIProcate Working Group with visiting engineers including Rohan Mahy and Cullen Jennings of Cisco, Jason Fischl and David Butcher of Purplecomm and Alan Hawrylyshen of Jasomi. Derek MacDonald and Robin Raymond of Xten hosted the event. There are very few SIP-wise engineers in the world. We are fortunate that the bulk of those minds are part of the reSIProcate working group. Xten has quietly become part of that group as we have made it clear in certain circles that reSIProcate is of great interest to Xten and we would like to see it become a huge success. So, we asked the working group members to make Xten's R&D offices in Vancouver the next stop. It was great to see that nearly everyone made it with the exception of Daniel from Pingtel and Robert from Dynamicsoft. There were several points covered during the working group this weekend. The group had to identify some ill-defined modules in the DUM (Dialog Usage Manager), which is used to manipulate SIP dialogs. There were also some excellent discussions with some excellent proposed solutions to existing holes in SIP security both in Identity [SIP Spam] and Encryption [Wire tapping]. All things being said the weekend was a great success and everyone want home happy, tired but happy
I would just like to thank everyone for coming once again and we look forward to the next reSIProcate session.
Xten yesterday soft-launched XTunnels a free NAT and Firewall traversal solution for SIP endpoints. Press Release to follow soon.
"A high percentage of people with dial-up are interested in high-speed data but haven't reached that point where they're ready to commit to a higher price," says Kate Griffin, an analyst at Yankee Group. "But if they can get VOIP bundled in with the high-speed data, that will spur the decision. It won't necessarily be, first you get the high-speed data and then you're a candidate for VOIP. We'll see people doing both at once" (see Broadband Growth Is Brisk).
PHILADELPHIA - C. Michael Armstrong stepped down Wednesday as chairman of Comcast Corp., a post the former AT&T chairman assumed when Comcast bought AT&T's cable division in 2002. Brian L. Roberts, Comcast's 44-year-old chief executive officer, became chairman as well. He had been scheduled to become chairman in 2005 under terms of the AT&T Broadband acquisition. Armstrong, 65, said he had accomplished the goal of getting the new board of the merged company running smoothly and seeing the systems successfully combined into a network capable of offering voice, video and data service to nearly 40 million homes. At its annual shareholders meeting Wednesday, the company talked up add-on services. Comcast, the country's largest cable company with 21.5 million subscribers, previously de-emphasized the phone service offered in former AT&T systems. But Roberts singled out Internet phone service, using voice over Internet protocol, or VOIP, technology, as a new growth area.
The Wall Street Journal today reports the Comcast Corp. is planning to offer VoIP services to 40 million households by the end of 2006. Comcast Corp., which early last year put on hold plans to aggressively market local phone services, has been testing VoIP in the western suburbs of Philadephia. “That trial ring is everything we’re going to do in 2003,” Sam Chernak, vice president of VoIP for Comcast Cable. Comcast also offers circuit-switched voice services to at least 1.4 million customers. Having recently brought new video services to market to better compete with direct satellite TV service providers, the cable companies in recent months have renewed their interest in deliver VoIP services. The most aggressive of the cablecos with VoIP has been Cablevision Systems Corp., which offers Optimum Voice across Long Island, Westchester and New York, N.Y.; New Jersey; and Connecticut service areas. Charter Communications is offering primary line VoIP service in Wausau, Wisc., and expected to launch two additional VoIP markets this year 2004, with VoIP in its top eight to 10 markets within the next several years. Cox Communications Inc. in December launched VoIP in its first market — Roanoke, Va. Time Warner Cable also is offering VoIP in several markets.
Well, it was interesting to hear the views of my fellow panelists at VON Canada on the discussion of the Future of IP Communications. I particularly enjoyed hearing from Debbie Hindus who I believe has some great ideas and insight. What I found to be even more interesting were the comments made by Skype CEO - Niklas Zennstrom during his panel presentation regarding proprietary preference over open standards in VoIP and IP Communications in general. I can't imagine why anyone would prefer to tie themselves to one vendor for anything. As Scott Petrack from eDial noted in Q&A after the final panel presentation, "..look at the mess we are in with IM, Yahoo! doesn't talk to MSN and neither talk to ICQ..". This all could have been avoided if a standard had been used. Standards are the key. Yes Skype has had 12 million downloads but how many active users do they have? Not more that a few hundred thousand is my guess. Nice enough guy, I just don't believe in his mantra. I would personally like to see a public debate on SIP versus Skype with myself and Niklas on the panel and put the theories in front of the people. If nothing else it might educate a few people. All in all the show was a success. All the right players were there and I got to see my first Jays game with Trent from Shift Networks, thanks Trent! Go Jays Go!
Although none of our crew could make it to the event our software is in action at iLabs Interop in Las Vegas. The next interop event we will be attending is SIPop! at Supercomm in Chicago June 22-24. [booth 13840O]. Get a free pass to the Supercomm exhibit floor or register online and enter Priority Registration Code "XTEN".
It's been a crazy few months here at Xten. Xten is exhibiting, sponsoring or speaking at numerous VoIP events this year and we are focused on setting a new level in expectations with SIP softphones. And if that was not enough, here is something else to chew on... -> Xten just went Public It is a very exciting time for Xten and equally as exciting for SIP!
