The International Packet Communications Consortium (IPCC) will be participating at the final SuperComm event and in fact will hold their Annual Member Meeting in Chicago on June 6. The group will also chair a VoIP panel at the event.

IPCC President Michael Khalilian is a tireless advocate for our industry; to that end I thought I would reprint his thoughts that appeared in the Chairman’s message in the IPCC’s most recent newsletter. For more information, please visit the organization at www.packetcomm.org

Fellow IPCC Members:

We are at a very important juncture of VoIP in the industry. There is a lot of confusion about the validity of primary line replacement, enhanced services, architecture, and infrastructure requirements for VoIP/Packet Telephony. No one argues that VoIP is here to stay … the argument is does it scale and does it make money?

(Note: There are over 180M circuit switch TDM lines in North America and less than 3M VoIP lines in operation today)

The deployment challenges are not focused on regulatory issues only anymore, but are now focused on features and revenues. Also, there are new factors called “Wireless” and “Multimedia” right at the center of all the VoIP strategies.

Opportunity is knocking. Analysts are calling 2005/2006 the large scale break point for VoIP. Hundreds of CLECs are now transitioning from the UNE-P/L business to VoIP. It is about survival, and it is going to happen! Cable MSOs and 1200 independent cable companies (NCTC – Co-ops) are calling VoIP the new business and residential source of revenue and a churn buster to current satellite DBS service offerings. Wireless WiFi and convergence is becoming an opportunity and a challenge forVoIP. The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) promises to merge all VoIP services into a seamless, personalized solution. It is about changing the rules of the game … and the IPCC is on top of it!

Since we are “the technology forum working to advance VoIP over broadband cable, wireless, and wireline,” we can assist in the technical and marketing of VoIP and associated applications architectures.

Thank you to all the IPCC members and volunteers who are working with us today. It’s critical to have everyone’s participation in order for the IPCC to truly provide value to both vendors and service providers. You can help by participating in the IPCC working groups which are focused on enhancing VoIP deployments by developing white papers, etc. We are also partnering with different industry forums, including WiMax, DSL Forum, and MSF. Working together, we are creating the future of VoIP.

Michael Khalilian

Chairman and President

International Packet Communications Consortium