BrandX at ITEXPO

I am pretty excited to meet Brand X’s Jim Pickrell as he speaks at ITEXPO next week. As the head of a small ISP Jim Pickrell fought to open up cable networks to competing ISPs. He lost his case in court but that hasn’t burned out the fire in him. He remains vehement that smaller ISPs should be able to have the same advantages as the big boys. Quoting Mr. Pickrell, he says “Without a ruling in their favor, these smaller ISPs and telcos will have no way to survive”

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BrandX Internet CEO to Keynote at INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO Fall 2005

Company at the Center of Battle vs. California Courts to Uphold Line Leasing Laws for ISPs.

NORWALK, CT (October 13, 2005) — Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC®) announced today that Jim Pickrell, CEO of California ISP BrandX Internet, has agreed to deliver a keynote address at its INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO Fall 2005, on October 24-27, 2005 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Mr. Pickrell’s address will take place Wednesday October 26th at 8:00am PDT. Registration for the conference is now open at http://www.itexpo.com.

INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO, held since 1999, is the world’s largest and best-attended VoIP trade show. Last February, TMC’s INTERNET TELEPHONY attracted over 6,200 buyers and sellers of IP Telephony products and services. For this upcoming October show, TMC projects total attendance to exceed 7,500.

Mr. Pickrell has been fighting in Federal Court battling FCC regulators, who want to allow the Cable and Telephone monopolies to lock out all competing Internet Providers.  In the case “Brand X v. FCC” the Supreme Court endorsed the FCC’s position.  As regulators try to shut down the independent ISPs, those who desire to remain in business will have to look at other options.. Jim’s keynote address Wednesday morning will give other service providers ideas for thriving without needing to lease their lines from RBOCs and cable giants.

“Under the Bush administration the FCC undertook to reverse the competitive requirements of the Telecom Act.  We challenged the Bush policy at the Supreme Court and lost.  It looks like the result is that all local internet providers are going to be locked out from the telecom networks.

This policy is a disaster for competition.  If we don’t have access to cable or telephone networks, how can a local Internet Provider connect to customers to provide service?

This Supreme Court decision is terrible for consumers too, because in order to buy high speed services, they are also required to buy telephone services which they often don’t need or want, and in many areas, there is no choice of providers.  The result is a situation where the cheapest high speed internet you can get in Los Angeles is about $60.  That’s 2 to 3 times what people pay in Korea or Canada where services are unbundled and competition exists.  And in Korea you get a service that is ten times faster too.

Meanwhile all the local companies are being forced out of the market.

We believe the only solution is to go head to head with the monopolies, and start building our own residential access network.

We have launched a pilot project within the city of Santa Monica.  The idea is to put in our own wires on telephone poles belonging to Edison, and sell high speed internet for $20 a month.

If we spend all this money on construction, we need to look at additional sources of revenue to help cover the cost.  That is why the subject of Internet Telephony is of such interest to us here at Brand X Internet.  We have registered as a CLEC and are quite serious about providing our customers a complete alternative to the poor service and high prices they get from SBC and Verizon.”

“For all of the Skypes, AOLs and SBCs of the world, there are hundreds of local providers like BrandX service a loyal following of consumers and businesses who rely on their service," said Rich Tehrani, TMC President and Conference Chairman for INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO. “Jim Pickrell has taken up the battle on behalf these providers in California to ensure they can compete on as equal a footing as possible with the telecom giants. Without a ruling in their favor, these smaller ISPs and telcos will have no way to survive.”

In addition to Mr. Pickrell’s address, the conference features keynotes by former HP CEO Carly Fiorina, Former FCC Chairman Michael Powell, Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom and executives from AOL, Yahoo!, Cisco, Microsoft, NEC, Nortel, Digium, Toshiba, Ericsson, Lucent Technologies, Juniper Networks, Aculab, Vonexus, Siemens, Inter-Tel, Deloitte & Touche, BrandX and Interactive Intelligence.

Registration for the conference and trade show is now open:
http://www.itexpo.com. Vendors interested in exhibiting or sponsoring should contact Dave Rodriguez immediately at 1-203-852-6800, ext. 146 or e-mail [email protected].

Press inquiries regarding Jim Pickrell’s address can be directed to Mostafa Razzak at 23-31 Communications: (646) 442-3361, [email protected].

About TMC®

Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC) publishes two print magazines:
Customer Interaction Solutions, and Internet Telephony; five digital publications, SIP Magazine, Speech-World, WiFi Telephony Magazine, VoIP Developer, WiMAX Magazine; and the online publications TMCnet, Planet PDA Magazine, WiFi Revolution, Alternative Power and BiometriTech. TMC is also the first publisher to test new products in its own on-site laboratories, TMC Labs. TMC also produces The VoIP Developer Conference, Speech-World Conference, IP Contact Center Summit and The Global Call Center Outsourcing Summit. TMCnet publishes more than 20 topical online newsletters. For more information about TMC, visit http://www.tmcnet.com.

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