Simply a Grilled Cheese Sandwich and SIP

One of the simplest things to make is a grilled cheese sandwich. Yet, many of you wait until you go to a Mexican restaurant to have a quesadilla, a grilled cheese sandwich. The only difference is the use of tortillas versus sliced bread. I have chosen to provide you with a basic recipe that calls for chicken, steak or shrimp. However, I was fortunate to have grilled Cornish game hens and chopped brisket. I also add chopped jalapenos to the filling and season with a little adobo. In addition to quesadillas, I also made chicken fried steak, breakfast burrito with eggs, cheese, bacon and salsa, and pork chili verde. I guess I was in the mood for Mexican this weekend. In any event, try making a Mexican grilled cheese sandwich or Quesadilla. Enjoy!

Simply SIP

I was reading a column last week regarding things to be aware of when deploying SIP Trunking. Most of the items were the usual. However, one item in particular caught my eye and my ire. The writer stated that SIP is not yet widely available at commercially acceptable levels. In looking at the writer's business, he has focused on AT&T, Verizon and several of the larger CLECs to make his determination. Broadvox, Bandwidth.com and others would like to note that we have been providing nationwide SIP Trunking at commercially acceptable quality and availability levels for several years. We are happy to see that the ILECs are finally joining the party. In fact, there are only three differences between their service offering and ITSPs like Broadvox. They are still more expensive (but cheaper than TDM services). They continue to require dedicated broadband connections on their networks (minimum fractional T1s). And they can take up to 90 days to complete a basic installation.

Broadvox continues to support Bring Your Own Broadband (BYOB) but we now offer a wider array of broadband products for those wanting assured/managed QoS. In most cases, a small business should not have to switch their ISP in order to have quality VoIP/SIP Trunking. However, most enterprises will need a direct connection as part of their voice quality assurance and security programs. Finally, we still pride ourselves in being able to turn up new customers in 3-5 days.

While ITSPs like Broadvox have embraced SIP for years, the major ILECs are finally ready to join the party. However, an IP perspective requires greater speed, flexibility, imagination, innovation and an array of applications and services. Customization and personalization rule in the www universe. Now let's see if they can change their mindset from TDM to IP.