Recently in VoIP Category

Today this announcement from Brooktrout Technology came across our TMCnet news feeds:

Brooktrout Announces Environmental Directive Plans for its Voice and Fax Products

According to Brooktrout, it has released new products in its TR1000 voice processing board family that it says are "the industry's first telephony platforms that meet the European Union Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive." The release also says Brooktrout has implemented Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) labeling for its European Union products.

The RoHS Directive goes into effect in July 2006 for electrical and electronic products sold in the EU. The directive restricts the use of lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, as well as PBB and PBDE flame retardants.

This is the second recent announcement I have seen about a VoIP company's efforts to comply with RoHS (see VoIP Provider Mediatrix Announces Environmental Compliance Program). The Directive is sure to appear increasingly in business news as the July deadline approaches.

AB -- 11/7/05

TMC's Internet Telephony Conference and Expo concluded yesterday in Los Angeles. TMC (Technology Marketing Corporation) is the media company that organizes this top educational event for the VoIP industry.

As editorial director for TMCnet, I serve as a key distribution point for news and reports coming out of this (up to now) twice-yearly event. TMC is a small entrepreneurial company that was one of the pioneer publishers and educational organizations in the Internet telephony field, and in the call center industry and computer telephony field before that. Besides our VoIP events, we also publish two magazines, Internet Telephony and Customer Interaction Solutions. The TMCnet Web site is a growing online force in the communications technology space, and has just become one of the top 2,500 Web sites in the world, according to Alexa.

TMC is a frantic place to be in the weeks leading up to one of these events, and during the event itself, we live and breathe ITEXPO. For me, it's a fascinating experience, as I am responsible for turning the TMCnet Web site into an online portal focused on the news and insights streaming from an event 2,000 miles away. Along with that, I am responsible for assembling the content for a Show Daily edition of our eNews email Internet Telephony newsletter.

Having been in that position for the past week, I just wanted to direct readers to articles giving some of the highlights of Internet Telephony Conference and Expo, all of which are still available on TMCnet.

In "ITEXPO Keynote Notes: Susan Kennedy, Calif. Public Utilities Commissioner," TMC President and Editor in Chief Rich Tehrani shares notes and insights from Tuesday's keynote address by the frank and outspoken commissioner.

Another highlight from Tuesday was the speech from former HP CEO Carly Fiorina. I understand that Fiorina was very outspoken on issues of telecommunications regulation and that she also spoke frankly and emotionally during the Q&A with the audience about her experience leaving HP.

Also on Tuesday, the audience heard from Skype CEO Niklas Zennström, who discussed Skype's plans as a business, the meaning of their acquisition by eBay, and their new Skype Groups offering.

Wednesday's speech by Jim Pickrell of Brand X was particularly of interest because, as you may know, his company recently lost a Supreme Court case, in which he (and other ISPs) hoped to force cable companies to open up their networks to other providers. According to Rich Tehrani's account of the speech, "Jim says the problem here is the politicians in the White House who believe that bigger monopolies are better. Jim says we need to elect someone who believes in competition." Rich also comments on Brand X's current strategy, which involves building their own infrastructure:

"Brand X is looking to run its own wires on telephone poles. They are running a combination of cable, copper and fiber. They are using AC power in buildings to provide high speed access. Running wires increases cost, so they looked for new ways to generate revenue. Triple play is how they plan to do this."

The Wednesday keynote by former FCC chair Michael Powell was another high point of the conference. In his account of the speech, Rich calls Powell "charming" and says that Powell "thrilled conferees with humorous stories about his personal life that tied into his talk."

Ted Glanzer recounted Powell's talk in some detail in a series of articles, "Former FCC Chairman Powell: VoIP 'Unassailable'," "Michael Powell: VoIP Part of Personalization Trend," and "Former FCC Chairman Calls Universal Service Into Question."

To get an idea of the atmosphere and spirit of ITEXPO, read Rich Tehrani's blog from Wednesday, which I turned into a TMCnet article, "ITEXPO a VoIP Madhouse!" And also of great value is his wrap-up piece, "VoIP 2.0 Marches On," in which he shares the collective wisdom he gleaned from the show and its expert speakers, along with his own insights as someone who has been at the center of the IP revolution since its inception.

I just have to share the following excerpt from Rich's article, long as it is, because it seems quite striking to me:

"If there are any hurdles our industry faces it has to be the threat of regulation. This threat can come from a federal level or even a state level. Rural telephone companies do not want to lose their USF subsidies and these companies know how to lobby. Telephone companies are excellent lobbyists. They know how to work with government to exert influence.

For the most part the VoIP industry does not have this lobbying power and there is just not enough money in the VoIP space to allow us to effectively fight ILECS and rural telephone companies who could really influence politicians to place an undue burden on our market.

"The problem for regulators is that we have really unbundled telephony from physical networks and it will be impossible to police and regulate the next generation of VoIP services that don't touch the PSTN or use a numbering plan based in the U.S . In other words, undue burden placed on the VoIP market will send customers fleeing to VoIP alternatives that are beyond government reach.

"The same thing was predicted and happened when Napster was shut down. If anything, peer to peer file sharing allowed even more efficient music sharing than Napster! The music industry and government were probably better off when Napster had a monopoly, as they could have controlled the market and slowly found a way to extract revenue from music sharing. Now with the genie out of the bottle it is difficult to stop p2p network sharing."

From all accounts, the Internet Telephony exhibition also was a huge success, with a lot of business taking place between exhibitors and customers. We saw a continuous stream of announcements from the show about new products, partnerships and relationships. They're too numerous to mention all of them, but for some of the key ones, see Johanne Torres's article from today, "VoIP Week in Review from TMCnet: VoIP News from the West," as well as blog entries from Rich Tehrani and Tom Keating.

This was indeed a big week for VoIP. But if you missed this ITEXPO, never fear! The next Internet Telephony Conference & Expo is less than 90 days away, scheduled for Jan. 24-27, 2006, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Don't miss it!

AB -- 10/28/05

Today, Mitel announced that it will be providing a wireless IP communications system for the Albeni Falls Dam, a power-generating facility in Bonner County, Idaho. The new installation will integrate the Mitel SX-200 IP Communications Platform (ICP) with SpectraLink NetLink i640 wireless telephones.

Albeni is using the new IP system to enable immediate direct communications with all employees, whether roving or desk-based. Up to now, the facility has been using a code call system, which I believe uses a public address system to page employees. Powerhouses rely heavily on mobile maintenance staff. Equipping each employee with a wireless phone should improve business communications and especially emergency communications. The SpectraLink wireless units are specially built for rugged use.

This quote from today's announcement explains some details about the new system's capabilities and Albeni's migration plan:

"The Mitel ICP systems enable a gateway to 'wireless enable' traditional PBX, safe-guarding the investment Albeni made over a 20-year period. The new integrated Mitel wireless IP solution also allows Albeni to implement a single wireless network within their facility that will support voice and data devices from a single call controller. The solution also is capable of multi-line support, walkie-talkie communications, choice of access points and supports text alerts."

Here's a great picture of the Albeni Falls Dam (courtesy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers), with the SpectraLink wireless phone tastefully superimposed:

AB -- 10/19/05

I thought this announcement was interesting, as I have not seen it covered elsewhere, and it concerns a VoIP company that is bringing its new-product development processes in line with European Union environmental directives:

Mediatrix Announces Details of Its Environmental Protection Program

Mediatrix Telecom Inc. is a Montreal, Quebec, developer of VoIP access products, gateways, routers and software. The environmental directive at issue is RoHS, Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances, designed to reduce the impact of hazardous materials in manufacture of electronic equipment sold in the EU. The directive takes effect July 1, 2006.

AB -- 10/18/05

I received a note today from TeleGeography Research pointing to its US VoIP Report as a source of useful data in advance of Vonage's expected IPO. Their announcement included the following chart showing growth in VoIP subscribers for several providers:

They also included some points excerpted from their larger study relevant to Vonage (quoted):

• Vonage was the leading voice-over-broadband (VoBB) service provider in the US at the end of the second quarter, accounting for approximately 28% of US VoBB subscribers.
• VoBB subscriptions have grown dramatically, from 440,000 in the second quarter of 2004 to 2.7 million in the second quarter of 2005.
• Annual VoBB revenues in 2004 were approximately $250 million and are expected to exceed $1 billion in 2005. In fact, VoBB growth has been so rapid that revenues in the 2nd quarter of 2005 alone exceeded annual revenues in 2004.
• Cable MSOs -- most notably Time Warner and Cablevision -- reported blistering growth in 2005, and now collectively count more subscribers than Vonage. While
• Vonage no longer dominates the market, the company's growth has been remarkable by the standards of any industry: Vonage's subscribers have more than tripled in the past 12 months.
• VoBB providers still only represent only about 3 percent of the fixed-line voice market: at the end of 2004, there were approximately 93 million residential ILEC lines in service in the United States.

For additional background, here are some recent pieces from TMCnet about the expected Vonage IPO:

Vonage IPO: What It Means For VoIP -- Rich Tehrani

Vonage IPO Makes VoIP the Top Marketplace Story -- Al Bredenberg

AB -- 10/6/05

Rich Tehrani wrote a fascinating blog entry today about the potential connection between MIT's $100-laptop program and the future possibilities for VoIP in developing countries. See his essay at:

VoIP Helps the Needy

In part, Rich writes:

" ... imagine if there was a way to get computers into the hands of more children. What would this do for the world's developing nations and how would it help children? Imagine they would now be able to compute inexpensively and have access to the Internet and also speak for free with others.

This is a huge deal because in many parts of the world there aren't telephones or even telephone lines. Many children don't even understand the concept of the telephone. What if we could get them to access the web, allow them to compose documents, blog and talk for free? What an amazing world that would be. What an exciting place to live. What a more interconnected planet we would live on."

This reminds me of the fascinating story of "The Hole in the Wall," which I heard about a couple of years ago.

Sugata Mitra, a computer scientist in India, decided to place a computer with a high-speed Internet connection in a hole in the wall that separated the high-tech company he worked for from the slum next door. He found that the kids from the neighborhood, who had never seen a computer, very quickly figured out how to use it and how to perform complexe tasks over the Internet. The last I heard, he was institutinga program making public-access computers available in poor neighborhoods in many areas of India.

One of the incidents I recall from the story was that a reporter asked one of the kids how he learned to use a computer so well, and the kid answered, 'What's a computer?'

AB -- 10/3/05

A contact send me a release today describing a large VoIP project recently completed by Dartmouth College. Described as "one of the largest VoIP systems completed so far at a four-year college," the 7,000-phone job was done by Networked Information Systems (NIS), a Cisco partner in Woburn, Mass.

I'm a little puzzled by the release. On the one hand, the release is dated today (Sept. 27, 2005) and I haven't seen this story reported on previously. On the other hand, the release indicates that the installation has been operational since the beginning of Dartmouth's school year, so I don't think this story should have been any secret.

In any case, I thought I would publish the announcement here in full since it doesn't seem to have been made public anywhere else:

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NIS Completes 7,000 Phone VoIP Project at Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College staff and students will enjoy state-of-the-art voice and data communications this year thanks to a 7,000 phone IP telephony project by Networked Information Systems.

Woburn, Mass., September 27, 2005 – When faculty, staff and students arrived at Dartmouth College this fall they were greeted by a campus-wide Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone system, courtesy of Networked Information Systems (NIS), Woburn, Mass. The 7,000 phone system – one of the largest deployed by a private, four-year college – will enable Dartmouth to reduce its telecommunications costs while increasing the flexibility and productivity of faculty, staff and students.

“We’re happy to have played a role in helping Dartmouth College deploy an advanced IP telephony system that merges voice and data traffic over the same backbone,” said NIS Co-CEO Robert Murphy. “We deployed a highly flexible  infrastructure that will enable Dartmouth to deploy a wide range of voice and data applications that will be attractive to students and faculty alike.”

Dartmouth College administrators decided to undertake the project two years ago. “Our old TDM PBX was nearing the end of its useful life,” said Robert Johnson, Director of  Voice and Data Converged Systems at Dartmouth College. “We decided that voice traffic could be provided more strategically and cost-effectively by converging our voice and data networks,” said Johnson.

“Dartmouth already had a Cisco Systems data network in place, and that made the transition to a fully converged network relatively straightforward,” said Murphy. “We installed nearly 200 additional Cisco switches with Power Over Ethernet to ensure voice availability during a power outage, and we made sure that within the converged network voice had priority over data. In addition, we installed a 7,000-user voice mail system supported by five Microsoft Exchange Servers and a high-end Cisco Unity Server. The new voice mail system has dramatically reduced the maintenance and support outlays they endured with their old system.”

Another benefit to Dartmouth was the reduced cost and complexity of moves, adds and changes (MACs), which plague every plain old telephone system (POTS) administrator. With a VoIP system in place, Dartmouth’s network administrator can easily accommodate hundreds of student, faculty and staff relocations in a simple point and click environment on a PC. In the past, technicians had to visit individual dorms and offices to make such changes.

Johnson, who managed the VoIP deployment for Dartmouth, is pleased with the results of the two-year project. He advises managers in similar situations to do their homework and choose an implementation partner with a strong track-record and the highest certification levels in the technologies they will be integrating.

“Initially we had some concerns about the quality of service and reliability we could expect from a VoIP network,” said Johnson. “But Cisco was fairly mature in this market, so we ran some production pilots with NIS to ensure that our network could support a ‘five-nines’ application like voice, and then deployed the system in stages over a two-year period to avoid disrupting faculty, staff and students during the school year. Throughout the project, NIS provided the necessary mix of flexibility and expertise that enabled us to meet our goals. They truly believed in the technology and the concept of partnering.”

Networked Information Systems is one of the fastest growing information technology solution providers in the world. NIS provides a broad range of IT infrastructure products and services built atop the leading technology platforms in enterprise systems, storage management and data communications. Solutions include IP communications, network infrastructure, systems and storage infrastructure, security, messaging, remote computing, and IT support.

Cisco and Cisco Systems are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the US and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.

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AB -- 9/27/05