Or is social networking just another way for braggers to brag, cheaters to cheat, and stealers to steal? A drag on productivity? And the next-generation version of the dotcom bubble?

Well, I suppose it depends upon who you talk to. But it certainly is getting interesting.

While some companies in the communications space try to impress upon us how important social networking has become, and how it’s become so entwined in the fabric of our everyday lives that businesses should embrace it and leverage it whenever possible, other folks are throwing on the alarm. Recent reports decry Facebook and Twitter as workplace time drains. For example, a harmon.ie survey by market research firm uSamp says that the "proliferation of collaboration and social tools designed to increase productivity is actually costing businesses millions of dollars per year in lost productivity." And it goes on to say that more than half of workplace interruptions are due to communications tools including e-mail, instant messaging, text messaging and social networks.

Of course, this all is probably completely beside the point, as where there is money so there is momentum.

The initial public offering of LinkedIn showed there most certainly is a lot of mo on both fronts in the social networking space.

Indeed, the offering – which soared 100 percent just minutes after it hit the market – blew the roof off expectations. And, as CNN reported in the wake of the May IPO: “When the dust settled on LinkedIn's IPO on Thursday afternoon, the company was valued at $8.9 billion, making it worth more than household names like JC Penney, Electronic Arts and Chipotle.”

But if you think all this is exciting, fasten your seatbelt. The much-anticipated IPO of Facebook is expected to be in the neighborhood of $76 billion. And, pre LinkedIn IPO, some folks were putting Twitter’s value at more than $7 billion.

So what’s going on here, and what does it all mean?

Well, as I mention in my Top of Mind column in the June issue of INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine, cloud computing is enabling companies like Facebook to reach large audiences quickly and affordably. A recent New York Times article quotes Ben Horowitz, a co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, saying this: “There’s never been a company ever that has grown as fast as Groupon or Facebook, because no one could reach such a big audience so quickly.”

He goes on to say that “the ability to build a company that gets to $1 billion in revenues in less than two years is unprecedented.”

The New York Times piece goes on to report: “In the post-recession environment, young entrepreneurs are finding relatively easy access to capital, as venture capitalists open their wallets wider and a new crop of angel investors move in. Venture capital investments rose 19 percent, to $21.8 billion in 2010 – the first annual increase since the downturn, according to the National Venture Capital Association. The number of angel investors, meanwhile, surged 22 percent to 727 last year, according to data from research firm CB Insights.”

That’s all great news for investors and many folks in the tech community, of course. But is this also, as many have suggested, just irrational exuberance that could lead to the next big bust?

Maybe.

A May piece in The Economist notes that things are different now given there are a whole lot more people connected to the Internet today and given that many of the companies that crashed during the dotcom era had little or no revenues.

“In one respect the optimists are right,” The Economist piece says. “This time is indeed different, though not because the boom-and-bust cycle has miraculously disappeared. It is different because the tech bubble-in-the-making is forming largely out of sight in private markets and has a global dimension that its predecessor lacked.”

On the other hand, the piece notes that the global dimension is exactly what could bring this whole thing crashing to the ground. Noting the high valuations that some of China’s tech companies are seeing, the piece says that could lead to unrealistic valuations elsewhere. And then there are all the political risks to consider, given the sensitivity to content in China.

Is social networking a great new way now to connect with friends, family and long-lost buddies? A mechanism to drive work productivity? And the best thing to hit Silicon Valley and Wall Street in a long, long time?

Or is social networking just another way for braggers to brag, cheaters to cheat, and stealers to steal? A drag on productivity? And the next-generation version of the dotcom bubble?

Well, I suppose it depends upon who you talk to. But it certainly is getting interesting.

While some companies in the communications space try to impress upon us how important social networking has become, and how it’s become so entwined in the fabric of our everyday lives that businesses should embrace it and leverage it whenever possible, other folks are throwing on the alarm. Recent reports decry Facebook and Twitter as workplace time drains. For example, a harmon.ie survey by market research firm uSamp says that the "proliferation of collaboration and social tools designed to increase productivity is actually costing businesses millions of dollars per year in lost productivity." And it goes on to say that more than half of workplace interruptions are due to communications tools including e-mail, instant messaging, text messaging and social networks.

Of course, this all is probably completely beside the point, as where there is money so there is momentum.

The initial public offering of LinkedIn showed there most certainly is a lot of mo on both fronts in the social networking space.

Indeed, the offering – which soared 100 percent just minutes after it hit the market – blew the roof off expectations. And, as CNN reported in the wake of the May IPO: “When the dust settled on LinkedIn's IPO on Thursday afternoon, the company was valued at $8.9 billion, making it worth more than household names like JC Penney, Electronic Arts and Chipotle.”

But if you think all this is exciting, fasten your seatbelt. The much-anticipated IPO of Facebook is expected to be in the neighborhood of $76 billion. And, pre LinkedIn IPO, some folks were putting Twitter’s value at more than $7 billion.

So what’s going on here, and what does it all mean?

Well, as I mention in my Top of Mind column in the June issue of INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine, cloud computing is enabling companies like Facebook to reach large audiences quickly and affordably. A recent New York Times article quotes Ben Horowitz, a co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, saying this: “There’s never been a company ever that has grown as fast as Groupon or Facebook, because no one could reach such a big audience so quickly.”

He goes on to say that “the ability to build a company that gets to $1 billion in revenues in less than two years is unprecedented.”

The New York Times piece goes on to report: “In the post-recession environment, young entrepreneurs are finding relatively easy access to capital, as venture capitalists open their wallets wider and a new crop of angel investors move in. Venture capital investments rose 19 percent, to $21.8 billion in 2010 – the first annual increase since the downturn, according to the National Venture Capital Association. The number of angel investors, meanwhile, surged 22 percent to 727 last year, according to data from research firm CB Insights.”

That’s all great news for investors and many folks in the tech community, of course. But is this also, as many have suggested, just irrational exuberance that could lead to the next big bust?

Maybe.

A May piece in The Economist notes that things are different now given there are a whole lot more people connected to the Internet today and given that many of the companies that crashed during the dotcom era had little or no revenues.

“In one respect the optimists are right,” The Economist piece says. “This time is indeed different, though not because the boom-and-bust cycle has miraculously disappeared. It is different because the tech bubble-in-the-making is forming largely out of sight in private markets and has a global dimension that its predecessor lacked.”

On the other hand, the piece notes that the global dimension is exactly what could bring this whole thing crashing to the ground. Noting the high valuations that some of China’s tech companies are seeing, the piece says that could lead to unrealistic valuations elsewhere. And then there are all the political risks to consider, given the sensitivity to content in China.

While I wrote about my frustration with AT&T regarding an iPhone-related issue and mentioned my plan to get a new iPhone through Verizon, he extolled the benefits of his new HTC Thunderbolt, his ability to enjoy 4G service in some areas as a result and his comfort level with the decision of not going with a new Verizon iPhone.

While attending COMPTEL in Las Vegas recently Erik was pleased to discover that the Thunderbolt lives up to name in terms of the speeds at which it delivers data. He writes “when I activated the mobile hotpot capability … the results were nothing short of amazing, with connectivity and transfer speeds putting 3G to shame (even when you discount the volume of 3G users typically on a 3G network at a tradeshow).”

That was great, but Erik also mentions in the piece his concern as he headed back to the home office in Connecticut that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. But – good news – he goes on to say that “the Thunderbolt itself is far from mundane, still downloading and running apps and browsing the Web faster than your average mobile device.”

Better yet, he notes that Verizon’s rollout plans indicate the area around TMC headquarters is planned for LTE rollout by the end of the year and that trials may already be under way.

All of the above, Erik says, are just further proof that people considering switching to the Verizon iPhone will be well served to ponder their options before making a decision. He adds that “the biggest flaw of the Verizon iPhone is ‘it’s a 3G device in a 4G world.’ Apps are apps, and you’ll get them whether you go Android or iOS. But, speed is another story, which is why I got the Thunderbolt when it launched, knowing I was heading out to Las Vegas – a 4G market – a few days later, and could try it out immediately.”

That’s cool. It sounds like a great device and a good connectivity experience, with an even better connectivity experience to come. I would certainly follow Erik’s lead if I were a BlackBerry user or a user of just about any other device than the iPhone.

I’ve had an iPhone for a couple years now. But, as I mention in my May INTERNET TELEPHONY column, I busted my iPhone earlier this year, so need to get a new one. AT&T wouldn’t agree to let me upgrade to the new iPhone without shelling out more than $400, so my plan is to move to Verizon and its version of the iPhone when my AT&T contract expires.

As I wrote: “Under different circumstances we may have just waited for the contract to reach the point where we could upgrade with a reasonable cash infusion, but I was headed to Barcelona for Mobile World Congress the next week, so I needed a phone.

“So, we went home, where my husband dug up his old iPhone. We put my number on his new iPhone and his number on the old iPhone. That, we agreed, would allow us both to continue to use the devices with which we were most comfortable (and me to have a decent camera), Meanwhile, we would wait for our AT&T contracts to expire and, when they did, take our business to Verizon Wireless.

“Bad idea. When we plugged in the phones to recharge and sync, our entire address book disappeared. That was especially problematic for my hubby, who coaches two sports teams. So, in case he was having any second thoughts about dropping AT&T, those ideas had at this point disappeared altogether from his mind.”

The plan is still to move to Verizon and the iPhone.

The reason why I’m not checking out other smartphone options is that I have a big library of apps, movies and music from iTunes that I have invested a lot of money in and want to continue using. Not only that, but we can share that content between my Apple TV-connected television, my two Macs and our two iPhones, and have been doing so for a few years.

So, for me, the selection of my smartphone is primarily linked to the content and the apps, and not as much to the speed. But, then, I’m not as frequent a traveler as Erik; I tend to work at home a lot more and use my Wi-Fi/cable modem connectivity rather than the cellular network.

Apple has been successful in secluding me and the other two Berniers in my household to its wall garden. And, to tell you the truth, my husband, daughter and I have been pretty happy here – that is, until AT&T gave us a hard time about the upgrade.

So the plan is to move to Verizon and get its 3G version of the iPhone, which some studies have shown in tests perform on par with 4G devices.

While I wrote about my frustration with AT&T regarding an iPhone-related issue and mentioned my plan to get a new iPhone through Verizon, he extolled the benefits of his new HTC Thunderbolt, his ability to enjoy 4G service in some areas as a result and his comfort level with the decision of not going with a new Verizon iPhone.

While attending COMPTEL in Las Vegas recently Erik was pleased to discover that the Thunderbolt lives up to name in terms of the speeds at which it delivers data. He writes “when I activated the mobile hotpot capability … the results were nothing short of amazing, with connectivity and transfer speeds putting 3G to shame (even when you discount the volume of 3G users typically on a 3G network at a tradeshow).”

That was great, but Erik also mentions in the piece his concern as he headed back to the home office in Connecticut that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. But – good news – he goes on to say that “the Thunderbolt itself is far from mundane, still downloading and running apps and browsing the Web faster than your average mobile device.”

Better yet, he notes that Verizon’s rollout plans indicate the area around TMC headquarters is planned for LTE rollout by the end of the year and that trials may already be under way.

All of the above, Erik says, are just further proof that people considering switching to the Verizon iPhone will be well served to ponder their options before making a decision. He adds that “the biggest flaw of the Verizon iPhone is ‘it’s a 3G device in a 4G world.’ Apps are apps, and you’ll get them whether you go Android or iOS. But, speed is another story, which is why I got the Thunderbolt when it launched, knowing I was heading out to Las Vegas – a 4G market – a few days later, and could try it out immediately.”

That’s cool. It sounds like a great device and a good connectivity experience, with an even better connectivity experience to come. I would certainly follow Erik’s lead if I were a BlackBerry user or a user of just about any other device than the iPhone.

I’ve had an iPhone for a couple years now. But, as I mention in my May INTERNET TELEPHONY column, I busted my iPhone earlier this year, so need to get a new one. AT&T wouldn’t agree to let me upgrade to the new iPhone without shelling out more than $400, so my plan is to move to Verizon and its version of the iPhone when my AT&T contract expires.

As I wrote: “Under different circumstances we may have just waited for the contract to reach the point where we could upgrade with a reasonable cash infusion, but I was headed to Barcelona for Mobile World Congress the next week, so I needed a phone.

“So, we went home, where my husband dug up his old iPhone. We put my number on his new iPhone and his number on the old iPhone. That, we agreed, would allow us both to continue to use the devices with which we were most comfortable (and me to have a decent camera), Meanwhile, we would wait for our AT&T contracts to expire and, when they did, take our business to Verizon Wireless.

“Bad idea. When we plugged in the phones to recharge and sync, our entire address book disappeared. That was especially problematic for my hubby, who coaches two sports teams. So, in case he was having any second thoughts about dropping AT&T, those ideas had at this point disappeared altogether from his mind.”

The plan is still to move to Verizon and the iPhone.

The reason why I’m not checking out other smartphone options is that I have a big library of apps, movies and music from iTunes that I have invested a lot of money in and want to continue using. Not only that, but we can share that content between my Apple TV-connected television, my two Macs and our two iPhones, and have been doing so for a few years.

So, for me, the selection of my smartphone is primarily linked to the content and the apps, and not as much to the speed. But, then, I’m not as frequent a traveler as Erik; I tend to work at home a lot more and use my Wi-Fi/cable modem connectivity rather than the cellular network.

Apple has been successful in secluding me and the other two Berniers in my household to its wall garden. And, to tell you the truth, my husband, daughter and I have been pretty happy here – that is, until AT&T gave us a hard time about the upgrade.

So the plan is to move to Verizon and get its 3G version of the iPhone, which some studies have shown in tests perform on par with 4G devices.

At the end of Wednesday’s keynote extravaganza, the moderator asked keynoters what we should invest in, and Intel’s Paul Otellini talked about battery companies. He said lithium ion is not the answer; instead, consumer electronics gear in the future will be powered by silicon-based batteries.

In a separate presentation, Qualcomm’s Paul Jacobs said the company is working on a way to use wireless technology to deliver power to consumer electronics devices.

Last night a particularly interesting Nova was broadcast. It was about fractals. And it talked about how fractals play an important role in communications and could have significant impact on other fields such as medicine.

One part that I found particularly interesting was the discussion about how many years ago a ham radio operator whose landlord didn’t want a big antenna on the building resulted in the former gentleman building an antenna leveraging fractals. He found that by shaping the antenna in this way he could achieve the reach he required with a far smaller antenna. The show went on to mention that today fractal antennas are used in tens of millions of cell phones and other wireless communication devices and that, over the next 10 to 20 years, fractal technology will become even more broadly used because it's the only way to get cheaper costs and smaller size for our complex telecommunication demands.

In other fields such as health care, meanwhile, scientists have discovered that a healthy heartbeat has a distinctive fractal pattern. Identifying these signatures could in the future help cardiologists spot heart problems sooner, according to the show.

This week was a busy but exciting one. I went to a media and analyst day at ADTRAN headquarters in Huntsville, Ala., which I discovered this week is considered one of the 10 smartest cities in the world.

It’s always enjoyable to get together with the folks at ADTRAN, as well as my peers in the industry, to learn about what’s happening in the industry, what’s expected in the future, and just to touch base on a personal level.

ADTRAN had a bunch of news, about which I expect to write next week. It also took the opportunity to share its success story and invited several customers, who seemed eager to share their stories about how, as one customer put it, “rock solid” ADTRAN is as a partner.

We also ate a lot of good food and listened to a charming gentleman named Dr. O’Neal Smitherman from HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, a Huntsville-based non-profit and business incubator (which, by the way, also is an ADTRAN customer) talk about the advancements being made in human genome sequencing. He talked in part about how dropping costs for such sequencing is driving vastly larger data storage and networking needs.

I spent my first couple days in Orlando at TM Forum’s Management World of the Americas sitting in the press room meeting with more than a dozen solutions providers. Policy was a hot topic. I also asked many of the interviewees how all the recent service provider merger and acquisition action would likely impact their businesses, and whether it could lead to more M&A in the OSS/BSS space. Check out the January issue of INTERNET TELEPHONY to hear more about all of that.

After the show, I met up with my hubby and daughter to experience The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando. It was pretty cool, but I must say that computer technology has greatly changed the amusement park experience from what it was when I was kid.

I remember going to Disney World years ago, and my family going nuts over the incredible moving birds and totem poles in the Tiki Room. But in recent years when we’ve been at Disney, my husband and daughter just laugh and shake their heads when I try to get them to go into the Tiki Room so I can revisit these childhood memories. Moving birds and wall hangings are hokey; most people visiting amusement parks today go to see fast action images while they’re being flung around like a coin in a piggybank.

So I took my kid to the Harry Potter theme park. We all loved it, but the rides were a bit much for two out of the three of us.

I let my husband take her on Dragon Challenge, the big scary rollercoaster. And I volunteered to take her on the “family-friendly” coaster while my husband tried to recover. That worked out great, actually. It was The Forbidden Journey that did us in.

I thought it might be like the fun but tame Haunted House at Disney. But after riding it, my husband and I were so upside down that all we could do for the next hour was drink butter beer (cream soda with a butterscotch whipped topping) at The Hogs Head. The Forbidden Journey, you see, places you in a chair that flings you every which way for about three minutes while you watch fast-action clips from Harry Potter movies. Not good.

Not good for the two of us anyway. Our 10 year old loved it. So our MO from there on out was for one of us to wait in line with her and make sure she got on the ride, while the other one hung out at the ride’s exit.

For some of us who can’t deal with a lot of motion and disorienting imagery, these rides don’t make a lot of sense. But most amusement park goers probably are there for a thrill ride, and given most of these folks already have access to great technology via computer, TV, game consoles and, increasingly, 3D games, TV and movies, in their day to day lives, the parks need to kick it up a notch. And have they ever.

But for my husband and me, it’s good to be back on terra firma.

In the third quarter among the largest deal was Intel’s move to buy McAfee for $7.7 billion, which PricewaterhouseCoopers notes is the largest security deal on record. Other whoppers were Intel’s $1.4 billion purchase of mobile chip outfit Infineon Technologies; HP’s $1.5 billion acquisition of security company ArcSight and $2.3 billion effort to buy data storage firm 3PAR; and IBM’s $1.7 billion buy of Netzza, a data storage company.

PwC, which just released its quarterly M&A update for the sector, notes that while we recently saw the closing of several billion-dollar deals announced in the latter part of Q2, mid-market transactions continue to dominate. The firm expects more of the same in the mid market for the rest of 2010, with action to be prevalent in the areas of data storage, security, virtualization, and other areas related to the cloud.

Indeed, last week alone saw a handful of new action on this front.

Cbeyond contacted me late last week trumpeting the fact that it has acquired two companies – MaximumASP and Aretta Communications. The combined transaction value is approximately $40 million.

MaximumASP offers cloud services such as managed virtual servers and dedicated servers. Aretta sells cloud services such as cloud PBXs and SIP trunking. Both target U.S. SMBs.

“The acquisition of MaximumASP and Aretta Communications is an important step forward for Cbeyond’s business,” says Cbeyond CEO Jim Geiger. “We believe these acquisitions will provide significant growth opportunities, leverage our existing channels of distribution, and expand our innovative technology and expertise.”

Last week also saw the combination of hosted VoIP outfits M5 Networks (the acquirer, which it out of New York) and Geckotech (the acquiree, which is based in the Windy City).

"We have built the best delivery system and backoffice in the business and are excited to offer it to another customer base," says Dan Hoffman, president and CEO of M5 Networks.

So I was struck when a company with which I accepted a meeting recently seemed uncomfortable with the fact that I wanted to do a plain old audio interview rather than taking part in the company's multimedia demonstration of its collaboration tool.

This situation was kind of ironic for two reasons. First, you have a reporter who is covering multimedia collaboration, but doesn't actually want to collaborate beyond using the phone because it's just too hard to jump between the presentation and the Word file to take notes. Second, you have a company talking about how its collaboration tool is personalized, so users can customize it based on their own personal needs, but it is uncomfortable expressing its message without employing live conferencing capabilities.

Maybe I should just stop taking notes and record these meetings so I don't have to worry about moving between applications and doing a lot of typing. Or maybe new collaboration tools and unified communications will make it easier for me in the future to take details notes while still being able to experience a real-time multimedia presentation.

For $11.4 million ShoreTel gets an enterprise mobility platform that will enable users to communicate on any device at any location and using any network.

Bringing mobility into the fold is important for companies like ShoreTel given smartphones, laptops and, increasingly, tablets are becoming the key tools employed by business users. With the Agito acquisition in its pocket, ShoreTel will be able to provide PBX functionality on a variety of popular wireless endpoints including the BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad, and Nokia and Windows Mobile smartphones.

As discussed in the October issue of Unified Communications Magazine, which should post on TMCnet by the end of this month, Synergy Research's latest data reported in the quarter shows ShoreTel grew market share once again in the June quarter to 8.2 percent in the U.S. pure IP market and 5.6 percent of the U.S. IP telephony market. ShoreTel sold approximately 96,000 end user licenses in the quarter, with more than 800 new customers added in that period.

The company is making gains both in the U.S. and abroad by going up market, and winning more and larger contracts.

ShoreTel started out selling to small businesses, but now also has medium and large enterprise users. The target is opportunities involving between 20 and 10,000 users. It recently sold it first contact center in EMEA in excess of 1,000 lines.

International now represents 10 percent of ShoreTel's business, and that's growing. The company has seen the best success in Australia and Europe. As part of its most recently reported quarterly financials ShoreTel revealed it had record high international revenues of $5 million - about 12 percent of four quarter total revenues. That represents a 130 percent year-over-year increase.

ShoreTel wins and retains customers by delivering what Gavin says are simple and straightforward solutions to their unified communications problems.

"The whole notion of brilliant simplicity is what we focus on," he says.

While the move to 4G networks would at first glance seem to indicate wireless service providers should have adequate capacity to meet mobile bandwidth demands for years to come, sources at the CTIA show earlier this month in San Francisco told me that those networks will be flooded quickly by mounting usage and bandwidth-hungry applications like video.

Dave Gibbons, Opanga CEO, was among the sources who told me this. Opanga at CTIA was demonstrating its video delivery optimization solution, which prepositions content on end devices. That way, service providers will be able to offer customers the content of their choice for something like $1 a month, and preposition that content on devices so networks don't get overloaded, he said.

"We just think that has to happen," he said, adding that it is now in trials with service providers in the Americas.

Another company, Eden Rock Communications, sells a real-time coordinated multimode resource optimization solution called Eden-NETT. It's a controller that talks to thousands of base stations to get information about what's happening on each channel, Chaz Immendorf, president and CEO, told me. He said that allows the company's solution to deliver to wireless service providers a map of how best to allocate radiofrequency at any time. This solution can provide capacity improvements on the order of 40 percent for LTE networks, he added.

It was fun to see many of the folks with whom I've had existing relationships, and a pleasure to meet many new sources. And it's always nice to meet sources face to face to learn about exciting new products and services, and to get an extra dose of positive energy.

ITEXPO, and all the collocated events with it, provided a significant breadth of interests and topics. But the key themes that I saw based on my interviews and the sessions I covered were cloud computing, LTE, multi-channel customer care, multimedia phones, policy-based networking, social networking for business, unified communications and collaboration, video solutions, wireless backhaul. Another consistent theme was just the proliferation of connected devices (which often ties into the category of M2M) and what they mean for networks and our culture.

One of the events at ITEXPO that really energized me, and seemed to do the same for the audience, was the standing room-only StartUp Camp 2, in which five startups presented their business plans to a group of panelists and the audience.

The exhibit floor also had a lot of good energy, and got off to a great start Tuesday night as a flurry of attendees filled the aisles and booths.

While I certainly enjoyed ITEXPO, and all of the folks I met with there said they did too, there was one individual who didn't have such a great time this week - my dog, Rosie. That's because my sweet little border collie has become accustomed to having me at home.

But this week she had to spend some time in her crate. She willingly goes into the crate and doesn't seem to mind it much, but after the fifth day she'd apparently had enough. Rosie tried to escape.

She did pretty well too, having managed to pry several of the metal bars of the crate open. Rosie is ok, but it got me thinking that perhaps Rosie and other pups like her might benefit from an application that would allow pet owners to remotely monitor and let out their pets.

I just thought I'd throw that out there for our readers who are developers. If you like the idea, you have my permission to take it. Just remember to send me and Rosie the solution when it's ready for beta.

VoIP, video, broadband, and mobile services and capabilities are creating great new functionality for business users and consumers. That can translate into new opportunities for incumbent network operators, competitive carriers and over-the-top application providers to introduce new offerings, capture new customers and, potentially, grow ARPU.

A recent Harris Interactive online study suggests that new entrants like Facetime now have the opportunity to dominate the market. About 56 percent of adults are looking to switch the way they make international calls and 43 percent of those individuals indicate they would switch to using their mobile phone to make those calls, according to the U.S. survey, conducted between Sept. 1 and 3, which included 2,258 adults. Of the adults who said they would switch to their mobile phone, 19 percent suggested they would switch to using special long-distance packages, 16 percent would switch to using their mobile phone using regular carrier calling rates; and 11 percent talked about their interest in using a VoIP service or application.

"The message seems clear, consumers want to change their existing provider and change to calling from a mobile hand set," says Andreas Bernstrom, CEO of Rebtel, which sponsored the report.

 And that indicates there's significant opportunity for new service providers of both voice and video services to capture a majority of the U.S. consumer market, he says.

Of course new technologies and networks don't always translate into more money and new growth - at least not for everybody. And they can create a lot of uncertainty for all players in the market as those players, and regulators and legislators, decide on the different models for network engineering, pricing and setting other requirements for new networks and services.

As many of the readers of the publication keenly understand, it can be a huge challenge for newcomers to come up with innovative approaches; find the funding that will enable them to bring them to market and sustain them until they are self sustaining; get the necessary legal, technical, marketing and distribution requirements in place; and then capture and keep enough of the customers that will allow them generate enough margin to enable their businesses grow and become profitable.

Meanwhile, for incumbent service providers - which typically have more assets and have had the experience of addressing new technologies and changing business models over the years - the industry's move to IP-based communications and the open application creation model that has recently emerged are viewed both as an opportunity and a threat.

These companies have existing network assets and customers they are paying for, deriving revenues from, and fighting to protect. At the same time, network owners need figure out how to contend with all this new bandwidth-loving traffic, which is putting an ever-greater load on public networks. That is pushing those that own these networks to invest in new infrastructure so they can bump up their capacity, and better manage bandwidth and real-time application considerations like latency and jitter. The question is, what kind of solutions will help these companies move forward to support more, and more high-margin, services and not set them up for losses, as bandwidth pricing trends are not tracking at the same rate as are bandwidth demands - far from it, in fact.

Another major question for all involved is to what kind of control network owners will be able to have over their own networks, and how it will impact them and their competitors.

At the same time, there's a big question mark as to how remote and rural customers services will be supported over time given the federal government's national broadband initiatives and the fact that IP-to-IP federations are moving traffic - and dollars - away from the public switched telephone network.

Pointing to Sprint's recent PIN announcement as just one example of services that are enabling VoIP providers to bypass the PSTN, Tom Skidmore, regional sales director of of BillSoft Inc., recently noted that while this may be a positive development for the VoIP space, it only complicates things for Washington regulators who have long been trying to figure out how to contend with the Universal Service Fund's "death spiral".

That said, while there's a great amount of new opportunity out there for companies in the IP communications space, there are also many challenges for both IP service providers, and those that are working with them and other interested parties to create the physical and legal infrastructure to support all of this.

It's a delicate balance.

I mentioned in the blog that an anonymous reader had e-mailed me some comments about the product and indicated that when you figure in $2,000 for tablet and $1,750 for the Flare application, the total solution cost $3,750. However, as I also noted, TMC's Rich Tehrani today reported the tablet's street price is $1,500 to $2,000.

This post you're reading is just to set the record straight, in case anybody is confused about the pricing. Deborah Kline, Avaya's senior manager of public relations, this afternoon confirmed to me that the street price will be around $2,000 for both the Avaya Flare Experience and Desktop Video Device.

"Until we make the software available as a standalone product, there is no individual, software vs hardware pricing," Kline e-mailed me. "So you are correct in citing what Rich said - $2000 street for both."

Get it? Got it? Good.