First Coffee for 4 February, 2006

David Sims : First Coffee
David Sims
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First Coffee for 4 February, 2006

By David Sims

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The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Robert Earl Keen’s great recent album, What I Really Mean:

Great to see Martina Hingis back in action. Always a classy, respectful champion, so unlike the bratty, lying about why they pulled out of tournaments to avoid playing each other Williams sisters who followed her, Hingis (named after Martina Navratilova) has just beaten Russian phenom and world #4 Maria Sharapova to make it to the final of the Toray Pan Pacific Open.

Injuries forced Hingis out of the game a few years ago, otherwise she’d have a lot more Slam titles and the overrated Williamses, who “dominated” probably the thinnest women’s tennis field since some German lunatic took the superior Monica Seles out of action and left Steffie Graf unobstructed to pile up a gaudy record, a lot fewer.

The Williamses are yesterday’s news now, losing in the earlier rounds more frequently and dropping in the rankings as they care less and less about tennis and more about fashion, and today’s news is a rejuvenated class act from the past, Martina Hingis.

Okay, pick out the newsworthy hook in the following statement Wireless Association President and CEO Steve Largent made yesterday in response to the nomination of Robert M. McDowell to the Federal Communications Commission:

“Robert McDowell is in an excellent choice for a seat on the FCC. His considerable knowledge of the telecommunications industry and his firm belief in policies that promote free market competition make him an exceptional choice for this important post at this current time.

“We hope the Senate will act quickly on his nomination and look forward to working with him in the near future.”

What’s the salient point there? What McDowell’s going to do for VoIP? No, although that’s important, too. McDowell’s chances for Senate confirmation? Not exactly, his views on abortion aren’t going to come into play. Give up?

Steve Largent, before he was head of the Wireless Association, before he was a U.S. Congressman, was a star – and I mean really good, if he’s not in the Hall of Fame he should be – wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks, who are going for their first Super Bowl title tomorrow against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Largent, a gutty player with sweet moves, never got to play in a Super Bowl. No doubt he’ll be at the game tomorrow, watching his beloved Seahawks get their heads handed to them by the Steelers.

InstaDial is announcing that their subsidiary, InstaTelecom Inc., will now be providing 911 dialing to Canadian customers “in accordance with the CRTC decision,” according to company officials:

“InstaTelecom Inc. will provide customers with information to educate them on the differences and limitations of this 911 service and the distinctions between VoIP and a traditional landline.”

Company officials say this means InstaTelecom Inc. will provide clients with 911/e911 service limitation and safety information identifying the differences between E911 available with traditional phone service and the emergency services associated with VoIP service thusly:

When customers register for the 911 service, they must correctly identify the actual service address where they will be using the VoIP service. When dialing 911 on their phone, they will be connected to an emergency call taker who will ask the client to confirm that they are located at their registered location. Once the emergency call taker can confirm or update the service address, the emergency call taker will route the call to emergency personnel responsible for the clients’ service address.

The emergency call taker will stay on the line to ensure the client is connected to emergency personnel. If the 911 caller is not able to speak, the emergency call taker will route the call to emergency personnel responsible for the clients’ registered location. In that case, emergency personnel will be dispatched to the registered location regardless of the actual location or the location of your phone.

So when customers travel or move they must update their new location information and have broadband Internet service for 911 dialing to function properly. If a client wants to change the location where their service will be used, they must update their registered location and must provide at least ten days prior notice of their new service address in order to avoid delays and loss of emergency services.

Emergency service associated with VoIP has certain limitations, including the fact that 911 emergency dialing is only available on approved devices or equipment and upon completion of the 911 acknowledgement process. If you use other equipment, 911 may fail.

Plus 911 emergency dialing will not function if the clients’ VoIP device – SIP phone, adaptor, whatever you’re using – fails, is not configured correctly, or if the service is not working for any reason, including because of power outage, broadband internet service outage, network congestion, suspension/disconnection of service because of non-payment or late payment, or if they fail to meet the minimum technical service requirements.

So if there is a power outage, users may be required to reset or reconfigure your equipment prior to being able to use your Service, including for 911 emergency dialing purposes. In certain areas, when clients dial 911, there may be a delay before the emergency call taker is able to connect you with emergency personnel.

So, give me one good reason why you haven’t gotten Robert Earl Keen’s What I Really Mean yet. Nope, sorry, not good enough.

First CoffeeSM is hereby making an iron-clad money-back guarantee: Buy What I Really Mean, from your local CD shop, Amazon or iTunes, and if you don’t like it I’ll give you double your money back.

That’s right, double your money back. Simply drop by the house here in Istanbul and it’s yours. Be sure to watch Turkish lira exchange rates. Residents of Turkey who live west of Ankara are not eligible.

In “Global VOIP Has Arrived; Just Not As Expected!” tech research firm In-Stat throws out another crystal ball prediction that total VoIP subscribers worldwide, 16 million in 2005, will balloon to over 55 million in 2009.

But despite an impressive 62% year-over-year subscriber growth rate in 2005, InStat officials say, “few consumers have ever heard of the term ‘VoIP.’” In other words, considerable room for market growth here, friends.

“Competition in broadband access services is the key driving force behind VoIP market development,” says Keith Nissen, In-Stat analyst. “In addition, multiple waves of new entrants, ranging from broadband ISPs and cable MSOs, to Google and eBay will play significant roles.”

73 percent of all VoIP subscribers worldwide have migrated to VoIP without making a conscious buying decision to adopt the new technology, InStat found.

The report also says that in North America and Canada, cable operators are aggressively expanding their VoIP footprint, but are marketing VoIP as plain old telephone service.

In Asia, South Korea will have the highest VoIP growth rate, followed by Hong Kong and Singapore, InStat thinks, while in Europe, broadband ISPs, such as Free Telecom (France) and FastWeb (Italy) are poised to do well with “innovative consumer triple-play service bundles.”

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