VoIP Has an Exciting Week in Los Angeles

October 28, 2005

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