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July 31, 2007
Vo3G Discussion at Fall VON
Recently our pals at Truphone had a triumph in the UK with forcing their app on a carriers network. At Fall VON in Boston on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 from 1:30pm - 2:45pm,
Dean Bubley, Founder, Disruptive Analysis
Dean Bubley, will lead the discussion on the fact that wireless broadcast is great for voice.
The session, entitled VoIP over 3G includes a great combination of enablers and providers. On the enablement side is FirstHand and Qualcomm. And for providers we have Fring and Truphone. This should be a fun session including a discussion about the issues with the wireless service providers particularly those offering EV-DO Revision A solutions.
Here are the speakers.
David Hattey, President & CEO, FirstHand Technologies
Boaz Zilberman, Founder and Chief Architect, fring
John Hannan, Director, Business Development, QUALCOMM
James Tagg, CEO, Truphone
Posted by carl at 12:22 PM | Comments (1)
July 29, 2007
A Guest Blog from Bob Emmerson
My friend Bob Emmerson responded my "What does FMC mean to you?" with this note.
Voltaire and FMC
Voltaire is reputed to have said that: “Before we converse we must define our terms.” That still sounds like good advice. From a technology perspective FMC represents the ability to move seamlessly between fixed line networks (Wi-Fi now, WiMAX in future) and cellular networks (2.5/3G). That’s doable and Divitas and a few other companies have done it. However, the market for this development will only take off when the end user perception is that of a single, ubiquitous network and that goal is work in progress. In addition, users will expect to get low-cost VoIP in urban areas: calls that are transported over the Internet — not calls that are backhauled over the network of a mobile operator.
Thus, from that perspective, FMC has a way to go and along that way there are hurdles to be overcome and roadblocks to be demolished. Mobile network operators (MNOs) have witnessed VoIP’s seismic impact on the revenues of fixed line operators and they naturally want avoid to a similar fate. One knee-jerk, roadblock reaction to this threat is alarming. At the time of writing (Q2 2007) two leading UK operators have crippled VoIP-capable handsets such as Nokia’s flagship phones, i.e. they have removed the VoIP capability.
The immediate threat to MNO revenues comes from young householders, i.e. former kids that grew up with a call phone in their hand. That’s what happened in Europe. A dual-mode phone can find Wi-Fi Access Points (APs) in the home. It’s automatic if the network is open: the access code has to be entered if it is secure, but the user will know it. Thus, you can make low-cost VoIP calls on your mobile device. But APs in hot spots and hotels are secure and they were designed for data. You load Internet Explorer — it has to be this browser — and it finds the AP, but access is only enabled by entering a code, for which you pay. Dual-mode phones have a browser but it’s not IE and until that hurdle is removed we won’t have ubiquitous access to the Net.
The issue here is ownership of the hot spots and the ability of one service provider, or a group, to create citywide coverage. Note that around 80% of all cell phone calls are made from urban areas. If it’s an Internet SP then calls will be low-cost. If it’s a MNO then they will play the UMA (Unified Mobile Access) card.
This is how it works. A mobile subscriber with an UMA-enabled, dual-mode handset moves within range of an unlicensed wireless network to which the handset is allowed to connect. Upon connecting, the handset contacts a network controller over the broadband IP access network in order to be authenticated and enable authorized access to the services on the cellular network.
This means that the MNO controls the call and charges you for the privilege and in the home environment you will not be using the service of your ISP, for which you also pay. So, caveat emptor: “let the buyer beware”.
In my book FMC isn’t a done deal although the future is rosy. At the end of the day it’s just a three-letter word and as a latter day Humpty Dumpty might say: ““When I use a word like FMC it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.”
Posted by carl at 02:56 PM | Comments (0)
July 26, 2007
How to Serve Media in the Future?
Storage is always an interesting topic to think about as the world gets ready for the new home network storage devices, I am looking forward to our discussion of Host Media Processing vs. Digital Signal Processing. At Fall VON on October 31 at 11:15.
Mike Marshyll of Mercator Capital is the moderator and he is going to have a great session. Traditionally, this has been a hardware -based solution that Texas Instruments has dominated. But MIPS are cheap these days and host media processing allows a lot of development to stay behind the scenes. Which was a recent Radisys webinar topic.
The discussion will gain from the insight of
Herman Abel, Product Manager, Aculab;
Michael Coffee, President & Chief Executive Officer, Commetrex;
Grant Henderson, Vice President, Product Marketing, RadiSys
John Smrstik, Worldwide Business Manager, High Density & Core Infrastructure DSP Products, Texas Instruments
I am curious if anyone has other resources we should explore.
Posted by carl at 02:24 PM | Comments (0)
July 23, 2007
Virtual Identifiers
Okay, Some words of warnings.
1) My cable provider is anonymous because I have friends that work for them.
2) I am never sure whether my experiences are part of a trend or just my sad sack rotten luck in action.
Now.
I came home from my vacation and turned on the TV downstairs, and again my cable operator helped me by turning it off.
Why did they do that? Because, they dont believe my TV is in my house. They think it belongs to some one entirely different. This is the third time its happen and I am tired of it. What I really dont get is why that little credit card they have in my set top box seems to switch identities all the time.
Can anyone from Cablelabs explain how a constant becomes a variable remotely?
In the past we have order movies on this set top, been charged appropriately. My wife has wanted me to give them my voice services. And while the price appeals, I am afraid of them having control of my my entire home network. What is really strange is that when they do voice they insist on hardwiring the phone system to their stuff.
But if they screw this up this virtualization, imagine what they can do when i give them my phone number. And if memory serves me right, this fix requires a truck roll.
Imagine a problem done remotely requiring a physical fix. It sounds to me like a major OSS glitch.
Anyone got any ideas?
Posted by carl at 10:51 PM | Comments (0)
July 18, 2007
Fall VON Content is King!
I want Fall VON to rock your world.
I dont want you thinking that VON is VON anymore.
I am looking to have the show mean business to you.
The show has a predominance of wireless in it this year as well as the IPTV types.
But the show is more than any one topic.
Look at the conference below, I cant believe the topics wont interest you.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
-------------------------
8:30am - 9:00am Industry Perspective
Jeff Pulver, Founder and Chairman, pulvermedia
9:00am - 9:30am Industry Perspective
Daniel Hesse, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Embarq Corporation
9:30am - 10:00am Industry Perspective
Jeff Weber, Vice President, Product & Strategy, AT&T Operations
10:00am - 10:45am Morning Break
10:45am - 11:15am Industry Perspective
11:15am - 11:45am Industry Perspective
Paul Mankiewich, Chief Technical Officer & Chief Architect, Alcatel-Lucent
11:45am - 12:15 Industry Perspective
Christopher Fine, Vice President, Global Technology Division, Goldman, Sachs & Company
Breakout Sessions
1:30pm - 2:45pm Triple Play: What makes the Bundle Viral?
Track: Track 1: Video and IP
(M) Rory Altman, Director, Co-Founder, Altman Vilandrie & Company
Mark Kaish, VP, Voice Strategy and Development, Cox Communications
Sanjay Macwan, Executive Director, AT&T Chief Security Office, AT&T
1:30pm - 2:45pm VoIP over 3G
Track: Track 2: Wireless Mobility
Dean Bubley, Founder, Disruptive Analysis
David Hattey, President & CEO, FirstHand Technologies
John Hannan, Director, Business Development, QUALCOMM
James Tagg, CEO, Truphone
Boaz Zilberman, Founder and Chief Architect, fring
1:30pm - 2:45pm Is the Network Ready for Real-Time?
Track: Track 3: Voice Communication
Ann Marie Vega, Managing Principal, Global Network Services, Alcatel-Lucent
1:30pm - 2:45pm Driving Revenue and Margin Through Service Creation
Track: Track 4: Presence and Positioning
Eric Burger, Deputy Chief Technical Officer, BEA
David Jodoin, CEO, Iperia
1:30pm - 2:45pm Unconference
Track: Track 5: Unconference
2:45pm - 3:00pm Afternoon Break
Breakout Sessions
3:00pm - 4:15pm Three Screen Service Delivery
Track: Track 1: Video and IP
3:00pm - 4:15pm WiMAX, Alternative Access in a Number of Ways
Track: Track 2: Wireless Mobility
(M) Ed Vildandrie, Director, Co-Founder, Altman Vilandrie & Company
Vijay Venkateswaran, Vice President, Services Development, Mobile Satellite Ventures
3:00pm - 4:15pm The Presence Difference
Track: Track 3: Voice Communication
David Boyer, Chief Architect - Unified Communication Clients, Avaya
Joe Hildebrand, Chief Technology Officer, Jabber
3:00pm - 4:15pm Voice over Wi-Fi: Putting the Puzzle Together
Track: Track 2: Wireless Mobility
Joe Epstein, Chief Architect, Meru Networks
Robert Franzo, Director, VoIP Marketing, Broadcom
Geri Mitchell- Brown, Wi-Fi Strategist and Director of Technical Business Development, SpectraLink
Judy Racino-Farrer, Sr. Manager of Marketing and Membership, Wi-Fi Alliance
Sherman Scholten, Director of Voice Product Marketing, Cisco - Linksys
3:00pm - 4:15pm VoIP and Virtualization The new age of Service Creation
Track: Track 5: Unconference
(M) Thomas Howe, CEO, Thomas Howe Company
David Jodoin, CEO, Iperia
4:30pm - 6:00pm General Session: Wireless Mobility - What Makes Convergence Real In This Space?
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
---------------------------
9:00am - 9:30am Industry Perspective
Tero Ojanperä, Chief Technical Officer and Executive Vice President, Nokia
9:30am - 10:00am Industry Perspective
Ali Tabassi, Vice President, Technology Development, Sprint Nextel
10:00am - 10:30am Industry Perspective
Mark Spencer, CTO, Digium and Danny Windham, CEO, Digium
10:30am - 11:15am Morning Break
Breakout Sessions
11:15am - 12:30 Telco 1-2-3
Track: Track 2: Wireless Mobility
(M) Ron Gruia, Principal Analyst for Emerging Telecom, Frost & Sullivan
Martine Lapierre, Carriers Group / Executive Management Team & VP Competitive Transformation, Chief Marketing Office, Alcatel-Lucent
Michael O'Hara, General Manager, Marketing and Industry Management Communicatiosn Sector, Microsoft
11:15am - 12:30 Hosted Media Processing (HMP) vs. Digital Signal Processing (DSP) in Media Servers
Track: Track 3: Voice Communication
Herman Abel, Product Manager, Aculab
Michael Coffee, President & Chief Executive Officer, Commetrex
Grant Henderson, Vice President, Product Marketing, RadiSys
(M) Mike Myshrall, Managing Director, Mercator Capital
John Smrstik, Worldwide Business Manager, High Density & Core Infrastructure DSP Products, Texas Instruments
11:15am - 12:30 The Challenges of Putting IMS to Work
Track: Track 3: Voice Communication
(M) Tom Valovic, Program Director, VoIP Infrastructure, IDC
11:15am - 12:30 Positioning for Public New Enhancements for 911 and Other Government Services
Track: Track 4: Presence and Positioning
(M) Stefan Bewley, Senior Consultant, Altman Vilandrie & Company
Jeff Smith, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer, EdgeWater Development Group
Joe Walsh, Chief Operating Officer, Square Loop
Bob White, E9-1-1 Spatial Data Manager | GIS Instructor, State of Maine, Office of Information Technology | NENA
11:15am - 12:30 Goin' Mobile With Skype - Beep Beep
Track: Track 4: Presence and Positioning
(M) Jon Arnold, Principal, J Arnold & Associates
Stephane Marceau, CEO, MOBIVOX
Bill Tam, CEO, EQO Communications
2:00pm - 2:30pm Industry Perspective
Amol Sarva, Former CEO of Virgin Mobile and represenatitive fopr
WIRELESS FOUNDERS COALITION FOR INNOVATION
2:30pm - 3:00pm Industry Perspective
Nick Jensen, President and Chief Executive Officer, Dialogic
3:00pm - 3:30pm Industry Perspective
Darrell Jordan-Smith, Vice President, Global Communication Industry, Sun Microsystems
3:30pm - 4:00pm Afternoon Break
4:00pm - 4:30pm Industry Perspective
4:30pm - 5:00pm Industry Perspective
Dr. Hamid Ahmadi, Corporate Vice President, Senior Fellow And Chief Architect, Motorola
5:00pm - 5:30pm Industry Perspective
Niels Anderskouv, Vice President, Digital Signal Processing Systems Business, Texas Instruments
Thursday, November 1, 2007
--------------------------
Breakout Sessions
9:00am - 10:15am Online Video Business Models
Track: Track 1: Video and IP
(M) Rod Randall, Senior Managing Director, Vesbridge Partners
9:00am - 10:15am Putting IMS Interoperabilty to the Test
Track: Track 2: Wireless Mobility
Andy Huckridge, Director, IMS Solutions Marketing, Spirent Communications
Duane Sword, Vice President, Product Management, Empirix-Hammer
9:00am - 10:15am The Impact of Voice Codec Proliferation
Track: Track 3: Voice Communication
9:00am - 10:15am The Growing Importance of Voice in the New World
Track: Track 4: Presence and Positioning
Danny Klein, Associate, Vesbridge Partners
9:00am - 10:15am Unconference
Track: Track 5: Unconference
10:15am - 10:30am Morning Break
Breakout Sessions
10:30am - 11:45am Digital Rights Management
Track: Track 1: Video and IP
10:30am - 11:45am Will there be such a thing as a Hardphone?
Track: Track 3: Voice Communication
Nick Delany, President, VTech Communications
Danielle Deibler, Engineering Manager, Adobe Systems
Arjun Roychowdhury, Director, IMS and Broadband Apps, Hughes Systique
10:30am - 11:45am Peer to Peer will do to VoIP, What VoIP did to the PSTN
Track: Track 3: Voice Communication
David Bryan, CEO, Sipeerior Technologies
(M) Henry Sinnreich, Architecture, Internet Communications, Adobe Systems
10:30am - 11:45am Identity Management Role in Communication Services
Track: Track 4: Presence and Positioning
Jon Peterson, Sr. Technical Industry Liaison, NeuStar
Georges Smine, Sr. Director, Product Marketing, Nominum
10:30am - 11:45am Unconference
Track: Track 5: Unconference
Breakout Sessions
1:15pm - 2:30pm FMC in the Enterprise
Track: Track 2: Wireless Mobility
1:15pm - 2:30pm Video on Demand: Will the model be more IP or TV?
Track: Track 1: Video and IP
(M) Michael Kende, Principal Consultant, Analysys Consulting
1:15pm - 2:30pm Quality of Service Strategies
Track: Track 3: Voice Communication
Alan Clark, CEO, Telchemy
Steve Des Rochers, Vice President, Solutions, Brix Networks
Loki Jorgenson, Chief Scientist, Apparent Networks
1:15pm - 2:30pm Why We Peer?
Track: Track 3: Voice Communication
Steve Heap, Chief Technical Officer, Arbinet
Eli Katz, Founder & CEO, XConnect Global Networks
Cyril Matthews, Director of Registry and Network Services, VoEX
Shrihari Pandit, President and Chief Executive Officer, Stealth Communication
Rodrigue Ullens, co-Founder & CEO, Voxbone
1:15pm - 2:30pm Unconference
Track: Track 5: Unconference
If you got this far, send me a note.
Posted by carl at 06:40 PM | Comments (0)
July 16, 2007
Call me on Ccube
Posted by carl at 05:08 PM | Comments (0)
A Real Disconnect
I am having a horrible time, believing the social network myth.
Don't get me wrong, I find that I find interesting information from much of the social networks I belong to. And I use them as a resource. But much of my life is not on the Internet its around my local community. I have a major disconnect from the need for a plumber in my area. And a pretty cool reference by a brillant thinker in Canada or Europe.
I want to understand why the Social Networks which are self organizing will be better for me that a forced geographic relationship in the world.
However contributing to the experiment I will create a listing service on Facebook for skilled craft on Facebook.
Posted by carl at 11:44 AM | Comments (1)
July 10, 2007
Its not the iPhone, its Apple
Over the weekend I went to the Apple Store in my area, and looked at the iPhone Jeff had accused me of acquiring already. To be clear. I have not purchased one, but its not due to contempt. Its just that for my personal use I have a blackberry from att and I do not see the iPhone as a good alternative to the MS Exchange server integration.
However, if I did not have my blackberry already, I would be hard pressed to argue with the iPhone as a tool of communication. The Interface is fantastic. Having watched a coworkers phone, I want to give Apple kudos for the navigation and functionality. It may be weak in many areas but its generally awesome from the user interface perspective.
And that has been a weakness for our industry. You had to really want to be a user of some of these devices. My old blackberry with the two letter keys, my nokia with its bizarre spell checker --- all of them annoyed me. But the iPhone is a great small computer, and you can incidentally make phone calls.
If you were contemplating a Mac Mini, I would just move to this device.... And by the way this is the major point of this blog. Walk into Apple and about 25% of the store is dedicated to iPhone. Its an awesome marketing roll out and something that the phone industry just does not how to accomplish.
At the att store, the iPhone has a prominent window display but then is just another device. The coworker had problems with his first iPhones hard drive and Apple replaced it in no time. When I heard about the iPhone having problems getting the service established, I thought it made sense for people to go to att. But now I see that Apple has a commitment to this strategy that makes att a coat tail rider.
My sense is that att's marketshare is going to get a much bigger boost here than I expected, and if it keeps the relationship it could build it out into something even more spectacular.
This actually may be a sign of things to come for wifi devices / tablets with wireless broadband and dedicated services. If I were Sprint or Verizon, I would be looking for my device building friend.
Posted by carl at 10:11 AM | Comments (0)
July 09, 2007
Conference Calls
Is the general population now waking up to using VoIP?
Was there pent up demand for Conferening that has been waiting for the
price to be zero? Or is the demand there because ease of use has been
accomplished by ad hoc conferencing?
Is this something important?
Posted by carl at 07:34 PM | Comments (0)
July 06, 2007
Its Now Time for IPv6
Hey Folks,
Our friend John Curran the Chairman of the American Registry of Internet Numbers [ARIN], sent us a note about the shortage of IPv4 numbers and I think its time we all learn to ask for our IPv6 addresses.
All VON participants which provide Internet services (i.e. ISP's) need to be made aware of a significant upcoming Internet-wide change as we can now foresee the general end of availability (due to depletion) of the IPv4 addresses currently being used to connect new Internet
customers:
http://sev.prnewswire.com/computer-electronics/20070521/DCM02121052007-1.html
As Chair of the American Registry of Internet Numbers (ARIN), which is responsible for administration of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses in this North America region, it is crucial that each and every ISP organization is made aware of this important transition to IPv6 and that they begin to incorporate it into their planning efforts. At this time, we foresee the need for organizations that require new blocks of IP address space to be using IPv6 as soon as 2010 by present estimates.
If you can raise this message to the VON participants, it would be appreciated. I would also be willing to speak at VON event if that is the best way to get the message out (PS - If it would make you happy, I'll use the term "IPv6 Day" at least once in the presentation... :-)
The VoIP crowd has some awareness of this transition in general, but we need start sharing some specific timelines with this crowd as soon as possible.
To register for address go to ARIN for information.
For IPv6 approved equipment look here
For a list of applications go here.
For a list of current web sites using IPv6 visit here.
Posted by carl at 02:36 PM | Comments (0)
The Second half of the year Master List
Fixed Mobile Convergence
VON Europe Autumn
Video on the Net Europe
VON Israel
Fall VON
Video on the Net Fall
Mobile Security
Unified Communications
Digium Asterisk World
Fall VonDex
New Market Peering
VON Japan
Posted by carl at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)
July 05, 2007
Can VoIP Be Sexy
I’ve asked Jay Batson to be part of the unconference 5th track discussion at Fall VON. As always Jay has insight that brings some interesting points to light. Here was the start of the thread.
So here's the thing: VoIP pioneers built a lot of cool stuff. But we had all these visions about new stuff users could do. And, IMHO, most of those haven't appeared yet. What went wrong?One could make the case that:
- VoIP got co-opted by traditional and new communications service providers, who have mostly given us POTS over a new medium with a few new features, all at a new price;
- SIP suffered from this co-opting, and grew and grew and grew as it tried to replicate all the old world for the providers who were writing big checks;
- Skype showed us that making something "just work" and provide a good UI, and _give it away_ can build the biggest businesses fast;
- Open source shows us -- in _other_ domains - that it can change markets. But VoIP open source has some problems.--- Asterisk is fine, but as far as end users are concerned, it is a thing whose operation is controlled by an IT guy; it's not end-user software.
--- Microsoft hasn't really innovated in a dramatic way.
--- There is some good infrastructure open source code for SIP, but much less on the client side
--- There _is_ some good client and server code for XMPP/Jabber/Jingle.I've tried to add VoIP to my product (http://www.plumcanary.com), and even though I'm a SIP guy, it's just too hard. I've seriously considered XMPP/Jingle....
So, what happened? Did VoIP get co-opted by big-check-writing service providers, who distracted the industry away from new innovation by paying for us to re-implement the old world over IP? And if so, should we care? Should we do anything about it? If so, who will pay for doing it?
Is this a topic that is even worth talking about?
My reply....
Lets start at a basic question.Is it possible to make voip sexy, or is transport just a function in a world of communication that can't be spiced up.
An analogy would be Cars and Road. You made in the past Jay the Maserti of SIP phones. But making the call is a road. Roads are not terribly sexy. Sometimes you can admire the engineering, but rarely do you say this road is cool. Its just the pavement.
Look at this iPhone nonsense. All this noise about what you can do with it, but they never make a call in the commercial which is probably good since recent studies indicate they can't make it in real life either.
Even Skype not that the bloom is off the rose, looks like transport with a nicer interface and good engineered (transport/road). The skype devices are iPhone equivalents.
So with all that said, should we really be surprised that Telco 2.0 is not as inspiring as Web 2.0?
Any more thoughts?
Jay’s Reply
You're thinking in terms of handsets, Carl.I think what is sad to me is that VoIP hasn't simply become widely integrated into desktop computer applications.
You know how in various applications (e.g. web browsers, MS Word, etc.) URL's automatically get highlighted, and are clickable? Well, I'd like everybody's email address to be _not_ just clickable to trigger an email being sent; I'd like the click to raise a context
menu that says "Send email" or "Voice chat". In tons of applications.For this to happen:
- There needs to be code available either in open source, or built into the OS, for developers to use;
- Developers shouldn't have to build server infrastructure to supply this feature - it should just work;
- It must work through NATs without user intervention;
- It should be free for everybody to use, the way Skype is "free" (free for on-net calls, costs money for PSTN gatewayed calls);But on every point above, we (the industry) failed.
We have nothing "interesting" in VoIP because it's not accessible to the people who write software that normal people use. Why aren't 95% of people in SecondLife using VoIP to talk instead of typing? Why doesn't Basecamp have voice chat in it's collaboration portal?
Where's the ad-hoc voice chat rooms? And I keep speaking of voice - but I _should_ be saying video for all of the above.
So, I don't want voice Sexy - I just want it pervasive. And it isn't because this new idea got co-opted by the old guard. We (myself included) chased revenue from traditional telecom sources because we needed to. This meant we got co-opted, and left us in the non-VoIP-enabled software world we now live in.
Posted by carl at 12:34 PM | Comments (1)
What is Google doing at FMC?
Do you know this man ?
Google has been running Municipal WiFi networks for 2 years and with Chris Sacca, the man called the most influential businessman by the WSJ, joining the discussion we are going to the benefit of their lessons learned. Can Muni-WiFi be free by having the advertising model drive pay for the access? With GoogleMaps and Dodgeball leading the way can the model expand and make local connectivity a nationwide network.
But don’t assume, this a plav for control. Google left the access open to allow all sorts of devices to connect to the network. As for the core of the network, Google has bought an incredible amount of dark fiber and the anticipation a nationwide “GoogleNet”.
If a muni networks are going to be free are we at point where local access can be assumed for enterprises to support remote usage. Will the YouTube generation of applicaitons add to much cost to MuniWiFi’s free service.
These are only some of the answers being explored at pulvermedia’s first Fixed Mobile Convergence event September 5th - 7th in Chicago Illinois.
Posted by carl at 03:12 AM | Comments (1)