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HP vs. Dell: Showdown at the Windows 7 upgrade corral
Here's a tale of two PC titans: HP and Dell. One executes well every quarter. The other doesn't. Both see big PC upgrade cycles ahead. Both are looking to ride... Continued »
Category: IP Telephony
November 17th, 2009
Ring Central: a virtual phone system for a 21st Century workforce
The rise of smartphones, VPN connections and even WiFi hot spots changed the way we work. No longer was it necessary to go into the office to catch up on e-mail, do some research or create presentations. However, despite the changing times, businesses still wanted to give the impression that employees are in the office when they’re receiving or making business phone calls outside the office.
Ring Central, which provides cloud-based corporate phone services, is offering a phone system that brings the best of both worlds - the flexibility of a single phone number that follows workers everywhere they go, but without having to leave the internal phone-tree system.
Ring Central is like a corporate version of Google Voice, a Web-based phone number that can be programmed to ring a cell phone, remote office line or even the home phone - but without leaving the corporate PBX-like system. That way, even if the call goes unanswered, callers still have the option of being transferred to a switchboard operator or another employee. In a statement, the company explained its services:
As the traditional office transforms and more staff are working from various remote locations, the inability to integrate distributed and mobile employees into a single business phone system results in a plethora of numbers and overall inefficient and non-professional communications. Legacy on-premise business phone systems are not only extremely expensive, but were designed for the old world of centralized office environments and before the era of Internet and mobile phones. RingCentral delivers cloud based business phone systems – RingCentral Office — that is designed for the modern mobile and distributed business world, and does so at a fraction of the cost.
A survey conducted by the company found that only about 15 percent of small- to medium-sized business employees work from a single physical location while nearly half of the employees - 45 percent - saying that they spend about 75 percent of their time conducting business away from the office.
As a guy who spends a fair amount of time working from the halls of Moscone Center, random WiFi hot spots, my own kitchen table and even a commuter train, I recognize the importance of a single phone number for people to reach me. I use a Google Voice number to stay connected but that’s certainly not tied to my physical office line. I have my own system of using Google Voice and the office line and, for it works - for the moment.
If you’re a company that has a largely mobile workforce, there is a better way. And so far, Ring Central seems to be it.
Related coverage: Business Week: 1.4 million Google Voice users, global push in the works
September 25th, 2009
AT&T cries foul to FCC, uses Google Voice to spark Net Neutrality debate
There’s a Net Neutrality battle going on and AT&T has put a double-edged sword at the feet of the FCC - and Google’s name is written all over it.
AT&T sent a letter to the FCC today, asking the regulatory agency to look into the practices of Google Voice, specifically its refusal to connect calls to certain numbers - such as adult chat lines - because they charge excessive fees. According to AT&T’s reasoning, Google is acting like a telecommunications company because it’s connecting calls. And as a telecommunications company, it’s subject to laws that prohibit a carrier from blocking access to numbers. (AT&T statement. PDF of letter from Washington Post, Techmeme)
In a rebuttal blog post, Google actually agreed with AT&T on its points about carriers that charge excessive fees. In it, , writes:
We agree with AT&T that the current carrier compensation system is badly flawed, and that the single best answer is for the FCC to take the necessary steps to fix it.
But Google is not a telecommunications company and therefore isn’t subject to those regulations. In fact, Google Voice doesn’t even work unless it’s linked to a landline or wireless phone. As a stand-alone service, it is incapable of placing and receiving phone calls. It’s a Web service.
September 9th, 2009
ShoreTel gives Skype's enterprise plans a lift
ShoreTel, a big enterprise telephony player, has just given Skype’s business plans a boost.
ShoreTel said Wednesday (statement, Skype blog, Techmeme) that it is interoperable with the beta version of Skype for SIP, which launched in March. SIP stands for Session Initiation Protocol, which is a standard for voice over Internet protocol used it corporate networks. Skype will now connect to corporate phone systems so you can Skype fixed line phones and mobiles from a traditional PBX system—your standard phone set-up.
Also see: What’s Missing from Shoretel’s Skype-for-SIP Deal
Makes sense now: eBay unloads Skype; Gets $1.9 billion in cash and keeps 35% stake
The problem: There weren’t a lot of corporate phone systems connecting to Skype. Enter ShoreTel, which has 11,000 enterprise customers. ShoreTel customers can now register for Skype for SIP. Given the need to save dough don’t be surprised if more than a few enterprises give Skype for SIP a spin.
ShoreTel customers can get inbound calls through their unified communication systems from Skype’s 400 million registered users. ShoreTel users can also use Skype to get low rates on outbound calls.
Add it up and ShoreTel’s plunge is likely to give Skype for SIP some momentum among potentially skeptical enterprise customers.
September 1st, 2009
eBay finds its Skype exit and it's probably for the best
EBay is reportedly ready to sell Skype to a group that includes Andreessen Horowitz and private equity firms. The big question is whether a sale makes sense right now.
According to the New York Times, eBay will announce a sale of Skype as early as Tuesday (Techmeme). EBay is looking for $2 billion for the unit, but the New York Times couldn’t nail down a price. TechCrunch first reported eBay’s potential sale of Skype last week. EBay announced in April that it planned to spin off Skype in an IPO.
August 25th, 2009
Frustrated developers and scrutiny of other apps: Are things falling apart at Apple's app store?
I’m probably just as tired as all of you over this matter of Apple and the Google Voice app for the iPhone. But I would like to share two related posts that I read this morning and chime in with some reaction to both.
The first, which appeared in the MacLife blog, recounted the story of an iPhone app developer team at technology consulting firm Riverturn that is plenty upset that their VoiceCentral Google Voice app was removed from iTunes on June 27 with no warning. The short - and only - answer they’ve received from Apple is that their app, which was previously approved, “duplicates features of the iPhone… and was causing confusion in the user community.” And now, it seems, the company that developed the app is on the hook for refunds for those who bought it.
Ouch. No wonder they’re upset with Apple. Talk about bad business partners.
August 24th, 2009
The Google Voice app scandal: is Apple losing control over the iPhone?
I was out of the loop last week when Apple, AT&T and Google all answered Washington’s questions surrounding the (apparent) rejection of the Google Voice app for the iPhone. Over the weekend, I had a chance to do some reading on what had gone down and, more importantly, the official statements from the three companies.
I couldn’t believe what I was reading.
Google’s statement didn’t say much because most of the good stuff was redacted. AT&T’s statement was brief, mostly repeating what it had previously said, that it had nothing to do with the fate of the Google Voice app for the iPhone. But it was Apple’s statement that was most interesting - and not because it offered the best insight into what happened with this controversial app.
Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that I’m a big Apple fan - but this time, I cannot sit here and defend the company. The answers to the questions from the Federal Communications Commission were so vague and misleading that I couldn’t believe they came from a company that prides itself on launching game-changing, cutting-edge technology. Consider some excerpts from Apple’s official answers - with my emphasis on keywords and phrases:
The application has not been approved because, as submitted for review, it appears to alter the iPhone’s distinctive user experience…
It appears to alter? In all this time, Apple hasn’t been able to determine if the app alters the iPhone experience? I might argue that the app - and so many others in the app store - actually enhances the iPhone user experience. In fact, one of the things that actually sets the iPhone apart from other smartphone copycats is the app experience.
June 22nd, 2009
Is the public debut of Google Voice just around the corner?
When I take a call on my “office number,” I usually end up giving a quick two-minute explanation of Google Voice, the company’s virtual phone service.
I hate to come across like a sales guy for any tech product but I have to say that people who call me on my Google Voice number are intrigued by the service and I tend to get pretty excited about it, as well. Seriously, it is probably one of the biggest breakthrough technologies to hit the telecommunications industry since call waiting or the arrival of the cell phone. And now, it seems that the service may be getting to roll out to the public.
ZDNet blogger Garett Rogers pointed out in a post over the weekend that Google has reserved one million phone numbers from Level 3 Communications, an indication that it’s gearing up for a big rollout of accounts. 
Google Voice, for the unfamiliar, allows users to use a virtual number that can be programmed to ring at any number of the user’s choosing - home, office, cell or even temporarily at the in-laws place in the country where cell phone service is hit-and-miss, at best. It also allows users to send and receive SMS messages through the number and offers voicemail transcription services that can be delivered to users via e-mail or SMS text message.
In my case, I use a Google Voice number as my work number, programming it to ring simultaneously on my office, mobile and home numbers. I’ve also programmed calls to go directly to voicemail during the evening and weekend hours when I’m technically “off the clock.”
The service has been in private beta since it changed from Grand Central, the name of the company that Google acquired back in 2007, to Google Voice back in March. The service is free and Google hasn’t had much to offer in details about how it plans to monetize the service. It’s already pretty powerful but I know I’d be willing to pay extra for some premium and customization services, such as fax support or the ability to add a second phone number to the account (one for work purposes and another for friends and family.
TechCrunch reported earlier this month that Google is testing number portability as a option, which would allow users to move an existing phone number - such as the home or cell number - to Google Voice, instead of getting a fresh number and sharing that with others.
It’s tough to say when Google will unleash the service. But when it does, watch out for the mad rush of sign-ups. The service has received rave reviews and plenty of folks I’ve come across are excited about getting a Google Voice number of their own.
June 11th, 2009
U.S. CTO: Infrastructure growth needs private sector investment
The technology backbone of the United States needs a major overhaul and government alone can’t do it, the nation’s first chief technology officer said today. It’s going to take a cooperative effort, including a massive influx of “hundreds of billions” of private capital dollars, for the U.S. to catch up to its global peers.
CTO Aneesh Chopra delivered a keynote address this morning at the Consumer Electronics Association’s Digital Downtown event in New York City. The U.S., he said, is “dead last” on the global stage when it comes to the tech infrastructure and yet bandwidth usage in the U.S. is expected to increase five-fold by 2013.
“We’ve stood still while the rest of the world has caught up or exceeded us,” he said.
The U.S. is going to have to bring “all stakeholders to the table” for this discussion, he said. “We want equity, growth, application value…we have multiple public priorities, and the bulk of capital [investment]…will be a private sector endeavor.”
In his keynote, Chopra outlined the four areas, or “pillars,” of growth in need of attention: harnessing the potential for economic growth; innovation and policy reform in areas such as energy and education; increasing secure connectivity across the nation; and using “retail 2.0″ strategies in government efforts, such as in employment and social services.
April 1st, 2009
Cable’s Conundrum: Does It Need Wireless?
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The iPhone has been the object of the creation of more applications than any other platform, Comcast chief executive Brian Roberts noted on stage today at the 2009 Cable Show.
Now, Skype is available on the iPhone. Besides Skype, there are and will be other ways to use wifi and broadband Internet connections to turn handheld devices into phones – without connecting to wireless phone networks.
So what should cable do about wireless telephony?
Comcast and a few other big cable system operators are working with serial disruptor Craig McCaw to provide wireless phone services through his Clearwire broadband wireless. Cox Communications bought its own spectrum and is developing the back office and other systems needed to deliver its own wireless services, as well as working with Sprint. And smaller operators, such as St. Louis-based Suddenlink Communications, are taking a “wait-and-see” approach.
After all, a prior joint venture between big operators and Sprint, called Pivot, died. And, if Skype on an iPod Touch is all you need to have a wireless phone, why reinvent the wheel? It’ll just help sell your Internet service. As long as you make wireless access to the Internet part of what you do throughout your service territory as Cablevision Systems is doing.
“Wireless is a conundrum in the cable industry in how we take that first step,’’ said Roberts.
But there is really less to this conundrum than meets the ear. Because neither the Comcast nor the Cox approach is about delivering phone services. They’re not about the ear.
They’re about the eyes. How to deliver services that incorporate features that the cable operators already deliver, with television and Internet services, that they can somehow marry to voice services or even just deliver straight to handheld devices, in some unique fashion.
What that “killer application” or applications might be, no one knows. But the operators want to take from a tried-and-true playback of building the capacity so that the apps and the users will come.
Clearwire’s McCaw, on the same stage as Roberts, noted that his company has assembled more spectrum than has been put together before, in a civilized nation for civilian purposes. Cable operators will be flying Boeing 777s, he indicated, compared to the “regional jets” of rivals.
But, in the end, whatever emerges will still be based on what is inside the cable network, generally a regional infrastructure itelf.
“The most valuable asset (we) own is still the last mile to the home,’’ said Cox president Pat Esser. “Wireless does not change that.”
It, he said, would be an overlay.
March 30th, 2009
Alcatel Lucent to offer Phone 2.0 features
Alcatel-Lucent has designed a new interface that promises to bring your telephony experience - whether landline, mobile or IP - further into the 21st Century. Its new Rich Communications Manager, being unveiled today, is designed to do everything we’ve come to expect from cell phones today - things like text messaging and photo sharing - and then some.
The news comes on the heels of the debut of Google Voice, a virtual phone service that was designed around Google’s acquisition of Grand Central. Google Voice - when it’s finally opened to the general public in the coming weeks - allows users to obtain a virtual phone number that can be programmed to place and receive calls via any phone and also manage things like voicemail, contacts and even messaging from the Web portal.
March 23rd, 2009
Skype goes enterprise: It's about time
Skype on Monday announced a beta that will allow it to connect to corporate telephone networks across the globe.
Technically, Skype’s beta is dubbed Skype For SIP for Business users (statement, Skype blog, Techmeme). SIP stands for Session Initiation Protocol, which is a standard for voice over Internet protocol used it corporate networks. Simply put, Skype will now connect to corporate phone systems 
so you can Skype fixed line phones and mobiles from a traditional PBX system—your standard phone set-up.
For now, Skype’s pricing once the beta runs its course is to be determined. In the meantime, standard rates—a little more than 2 cents for most global calls—apply. However, it’s likely that the margins might be a little better than its current a few pennies here and there to call a land line setup. If not, Skype may at least get more volume if it’s an official member of the corporate network club. Skype already works with corporate hardware and integrates with Outlook and Salesforce.com, but its latest move solidifies its corporate standing and at least allows for better enterprise support.
Skype’s customer base is mostly consumer, but it has been reaching out to be more business friendly. Call quality and security have been ongoing concerns, but it’s not like Skype has been locked out of the business market—Skype calls for business happen all the time on the sly.
Here’s what this latest move means to Skype:
- Skype can go from being an ancillary product that enterprises support quietly to one integrated into phone systems;
- Click to call will be more of a reality for businesses as Skype 405 million users connect to corporate systems;
- Skype will get incremental revenue because businesses will throw business at it to save on global calling.
For the enterprise, Skype for SIP means businesses can manage Skype calls, use their existing equipment and software to route calls and buy online numbers.
And the key point:
During the beta period all calls will be charged at standard Skype rates. Further pricing details will be announced when the product is fully launched later this year.
That pricing, which is likely to be tweaked for corporations, is likely to translate into more revenue for Skype and its parent eBay, which may be looking to unload it. Perhaps eBay can use Skype to drum up more corporate business.
Also see: Plantronics aims to solve ‘last 10 feet’ problem with unified communications
March 11th, 2009
Plantronics aims to solve 'last 10 feet' problem with unified communications
Unified communications has been a topic in IT management circles for years. It’s a topic that can lead to packed houses at conferences and Cisco, Avaya, Microsoft and IBM all have extensive unified communications suites. The problem: Users.
Here’s the unified communications blue print: Enterprises spend heavily on suites that bundle instant messaging, Web conferencing, video presence, collaboration and email so there are secure communications that enhance productivity. The reality: Those suites can be tough for users to navigate and some folks don’t quite get that PC as a phone thing. As a result, the unified communications bandwagon doesn’t quite fill up like IT execs hoped. And then we all go about our Skype, AOL and Yahoo messaging anyway.
Plantronics is aiming to alleviate some of those problems. Plantronics, which is best known in the enterprise as a headset maker, also owns a bunch of audio assets–including Altec Lansing. Simply put, Plantronics makes audio gear for everything from the iPod to the Federal Aviation Administration. And now it’s even dabbling in software to act as a unified communications traffic cop.
February 4th, 2009
The iPod Touch can become an iPhone with a Jajah VoIP app
As you might recall, I bought and then returned an iPhone 3G because my experiences with the AT&T service were so bad. A lot of readers said I made a bad decision but suddenly, I’m feeling redeemed - like I may have made a smart move.
Jajah, an Internet-telephony communications company, is announcing today the availability of an application that would turn a WiFi-connected iPod Touch into, well, an iPhone - an iPhone, that is, that doesn’t require a monthly bill and two-year service contract.
But don’t go running to the iTunes App Store in search of a Jajah app just yet. This will be a white-label app for wireless companies interested in selling a low-cost, WiFi-only VOIP service plan along with the app. Jajah expects to see the first rollout by a wireless carrier as early as this summer and thinks that monthly service plans will run in the neighborhood of $10-$20.
While Jajah CEO Trevor Healy wouldn’t say which companies might be the first to roll out it, he did say that there’s been greater interest in the service from partners in Europe and Asia than there has been from carriers in the U.S.
Before anything can happen, however, Apple has to give its OK for the release of such an application. I can’t imagine that the wireless carriers that provide phone service to the iPhone - AT&T, Orange and others - will be too happy about such an app. But would Apple be willing to squash or delay the release of such an app to keep their wireless carrier partners happy?
After all, for Apple, the app could unexpectedly drive sales of the iPod Touch. Economic conditions have changed drastically since the launch of the iPhone and, if last quarter’s sales figures were any indication, iPhone sales are also slowing. But Apple’s last quarterly report also noted that iPod sales exceeded forecasts.
While Apple doesn’t break out numbers specific to the different types of iPods it sells, the question of whether iPod Touch sales have been cannibalizing iPhone sales has been raised. For me, that was the case. And I remain convinced that the iPod Touch is the more important product for Apple’s future.
Back to Jajah, Healy doesn’t believe that his app would be a real threat to the iPhone model. Because the Jajah service only operates on WiFi, there’s truly limited phone service, compared to a mobile phone.
But he also sees potential for it to grow as a second-phone model that offers better value for specific users, such as cash-strapped college students who spend most of their time under the blanket of campus-wide WiFi, business travelers who spend a lot of time connected to hotel WiFi networks, international callers who could save money by dialing over the home WiFi connection and road warriors who spend their days ducking in and out of WiFi hotspots.
It may not be available in the U.S. yet, but when a wireless carrier does make that Jajah app available, you can bet that I’ll be one of the first iPod Touch owners to download it.
September 25th, 2008
Video: Five things to know about VoIP over wireless
Voice over IP can provide substantial savings on your telephone service by allowing you to use an IP network to make phone calls. You can also run VoIP over Wi-Fi, but you need to be aware of certain limitations. This episode of Sanity Savers for IT executives highlights the key issues to help you prepare for wireless VoIP. You can find Jason Hiner’s blog on TechRepublic.
September 10th, 2008
News to know: Apple updates; Google antitrust; SAP; Countrywide; Patch Tuesday
Here are today’s notable headlines. You can get News To Know via email alert and RSS daily:
Ryan Naraine: Countrywide warning: Ex-employee (may have) sold customer, mortgage data
Apple: iPod, iTunes updates
- Video: Apple’s newest iPod Touch
- Apple’s iPod range – Photo Gallery
- Gallery Tour: iPod models since 2001
- If Apple really wanted to revolutionize the iPod, it would embed wireless broadband
Dana Blankenhorn: Netbooks, Chrome and the future of computing
Mary Jo Foley: Did Microsoft tech play a part in London Stock Exchange meltdown?
Robin Harris: How to archive on disk drives
Zack Whittaker: The end of the world? 
Matthew Miller: MAXroam V2 adds data roaming, US roaming and auto top off for the world traveler
Socket AM3 Phenom CPUs to debut Q1 09
Dana Blankenhorn: The new buzzword is hybrid
Paul Murphy: Reviewing an IRS web services report
July 29th, 2008
Vonage imports marketing mojo with new CEO
Vonage has named Marc Lefar CEO to replace Jeffrey Citron, the company chairman and interim chairman.
Lefar had been the chief marketing officer of Cingular Wireless and will be counted on to use some of that sales mojo to increase Vonage’s customer base and reduce churn.
More importantly the hiring of Lefar (statement) also signals that Vonage believes it’s out of the woods. Citron came off the bench in April 2007 to stabilize the company, which was crushed by lawsuits from the likes of Verizon and Sprint. The lawsuits were settled late last year. With the worst over, Vonage appears to be positioning itself for future growth.
Lefar in a statement said that his priorities are to improve customer service and experience as well as accelerate growth. Vonage has launched a Vonage Pro service designed for the prosumer market.
Vonage last week said it will raise up to $215 million in a private debt financing. Those funds will be used to pay off debt that’s due December 16.
July 28th, 2008
Verizon's wireless business shines; 'Comfortable' with FiOS adds
Verizon topped its second quarter targets Monday courtesy of a strong wireless business and executives said demand is holding up despite economic concerns.
The telecom giant reported second quarter earnings of 66 cents a share and 67 cents a share excluding integration costs. Wall Street was expecting earnings of 65 cents a share. Revenue was up 3.7 percent from a year ago to $24.1 billion, a tally that was roughly in line with expectations.
Verizon’s big story–as is the case with most quarters (statement)–was the company’s wireless business, which continues to enjoy decent subscriber growth and low churn. AT&T also had strong wireless results. The takeaway: AT&T and Verizon are taking share from other carriers, but not necessarily each other. In fact, Verizon said it hasn’t seen any defections due to AT&T’s iPhone launch (despite what you could argue is a weaker phone lineup).
Meanwhile, enterprise demand for Verizon also remained solid. The only worry was FiOS TV additions, which some analysts noted were lower than targets. Verizon said it expects additions to pick up in the third quarter and installation costs to continue to fall.
Denny Strigl, chief operating officer at Verizon, delivered a few interesting tidbits on the company’s conference call. Among them:
- There will be some “convergence” between Verizon Wireless and FiOS. An interesting nugget with no details whatsoever.
- FiOS launching in New York City (boy is that going to be a long protracted cable war with Time Warner Cable and Cablevision).
- Enterprise spending has been resilient and there’s nothing out of the ordinary. Small business is a weak spot.
By the numbers:
- Verizon added 1.5 million net customers to end the quarter with 68.7 million customers. Churn was 1.12 percent total and 0.83 percent among retail customers with revenue of $12.1 billion, up 11.8 percent from a year ago. Operating income margin was 28.6 percent, a company best.
- Wireless service revenue was up 11.6 percent from a year ago to $10.5 billion. Data revenue was up 45.3 percent from a smaller base. Here’s a look at the metrics.
- The FiOS business was more mixed. Verizon added 176,000 new FiOS TV subscribers for 1.4 million by the end of the quarter. Judging from my mail from Comcast, the competition to recover lost customers to Verizon is intense. Verizon added 187,000 new FiOS Internet customers to end the quarter with 2 million. Consumer broadband and video revenue topped $1 billion, up 52.9 percent from a year ago.
- Verizon’s broadband fiber-to-the-premises network passed 11 million and 9.6 million premises, respectively.
- Total broadband connections, which includes flagging DSL accounts, were 8.3 million, a net increase of 54,000 over the first quarter 2008.
- Verizon Business had revenue of $5.3 billion in the second quarter, up .9 percent from a year ago. Global enterprise revenue was up 1.7 percent to $4 billion. Revenue from IP, managed services, Ethernet and optical ring services grew at an 18.7 percent clip.
June 22nd, 2008
The harsh reality of suburban broadband
Like millions of other Americans and many of New York City’s “bridge and tunnel” crowd, I live in the ‘burbs. While I do a great deal of travel for my full time job, I am also classified as a “mobile” employee, so I’m not formally attached to an office — I’ve been issued a company laptop and they pay my monthly broadband, cellular and phone bills, which are in the form of an AT&T Callvantage VOIP account.
Currently, I’m a cable modem subscriber. I pay approximately $65.00 per month for Optimum Online’s boost plan, which gives you up to 5Mbps/30Mbps in theoretical upstream and downstream bandwidth. In practice, however, I’ve become accustomed to a number of service interruptions, where my broadband can go down for hours at a time, and days where the local XBOX kiddies and torrenters are clearly over-saturating the network. But I tolerate this because I have very few options for broadband in my immediate area.
Recently, I got a note from my employer that they would only cover part of the cost of what I was currently paying for my broadband — so I’d have to eat the rest of the bill myself. Well, in order to try to bring my costs down, I investigated the possibility of either ratcheting my cable plan down, which would cut 15 bucks a month, or going with an alternate broadband method, Verizon DSL. Verizon DSL costs $40 a month in my area, so that would just about exactly cover the costs.
Of course, what I really wanted was FIOS. For about the same or a little less than what I was currently paying Optimum Online for, I could get fiber optics direct into the house. I could stop paying DirecTV my $100 plus per month in subscriber bills, get HDTV content and super high speed Internet at the same time, for less of the cost of my cable modem connection and satellite dish.
The reality of the situation, however, is completely different from the Star Trek technology that Verizon says we’re all going to be getting soon.
In the suburban northern New Jersey town that I live in, we have telephony infrastructure that is absolutely ancient. This is par for the course for many communities all over the United States. We have copper wire dating back to the 1950’s, with junction boxes to match. Most of our telephone wiring is on good ‘ol telephone poles, a lot of them still made out of wood. Now, understand that I don’t live in Mayberry — I live a whole 30 minutes driving time and eight miles from Midtown Manhattan, and I can get to a Yankees game or the Belmont section of the Bronx (my favorite NYC Italian dining destination) in about 20-25 minutes if there isn’t any traffic.
To make matters worse, we’ve got a shortage of Central Offices and POPs in suburbia. I may happen to live in a really nice town where our yearly real estate taxes are out the ying yang, but the closest CO to my house is in Englewood, NJ, and that’s 17,000 feet away as the crow flies. Fiber? HA! They’d have to string it on the existing telephone poles or start jackhammering the streets — and I hardly think my town would go for that, given how obstructive they’ve been to simple matters like not allowing the abundant local Orthodox Jews to run something simple as a string eruv demarcation line on the telephone posts to symbolically partition their community. So fiber optics? I suspect that is going to take a very, very long time before we see anything like that.
Just for kicks, I decided to order a Verizon Online DSL account. Granted, the provisioning was extremely easy — I ordered it online, and within a few days, they sent me my modem device, line filters, and notified me that my service was activated. Over this last weekend, I decided to give it a whirl. As you can see, when you are more than a few thousand feet away from a CO, you get some major performance degradation, and is a far cry from the 1.5Mbps they advertise. Oh, I’m sure there are parts of the country where people are getting super fast SDSL and ADSL lines and getting effective bandwidth in the multiples of megabits, but this isn’t Northern California or the Pacific Northwest where the infrastructure is pretty new, or in a major city where you can run abundant dark fiber or new copper from underneath the streets into a multiplexer box that serves an entire high-rise. But I won’t be dumping my Optimum Online account anytime soon.
Are you stuck in Suburban broadband hell? Talk Back and let me know.
The postings and opinions on this blog are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.
June 16th, 2008
Survey: WiMax may have enterprise mojo; Unified communications interest (and confusion) abounds
There’s interest among CIOs and technology executives to deploy WiMax and 57 percent of those surveyed are evaluating or piloting unified communications technology, but few have deployed it, according to a report from Forrester Research.
The report, which examines the state of enterprise networks, has a few interesting takeaways.
First up, unified communications has generated interest, but there’s a gap between deployment and the sales pitch. One potential problem: Unified communications is a murky term that vendors–Microsoft, Cisco, Nortel and a bunch of others–yap about, but the average bear can’t define. More than half of those surveyed said there was confusion over the business value for unified communications.
For the record here’s the official unified communications definition (TechRepublic resources):
The realtime redirection of a voice, text or e-mail message to the device closest to the intended recipient at any given time. For example, voice calls to desk phones could be routed to the user’s cellphone when required. E-mail intended for a desktop mailbox could be sent to the user’s PDA or turned into speech for a phone message.
Sounds great, but the messaging is messy amid all the banter about so-called “solutions.” Toss in the fact that every vendor wants you to standardize on its platform and things get muddy quickly.
That confusion is brought out in the Forrester report. For instance, 57 percent of those surveyed are evaluating or piloting unified communications, but only 11 percent have already deployed. There are 16 percent that are rolling unified communications out at their companies. The rub: 55 percent of respondents are confused about the value of unified communications.
Anyone that has been to a unified communications panel or listened to various vendor pitches isn’t surprised by that statement.
Among other notable items:
WiMax may have some enterprise mojo. Only 9 percent of those surveyed have deployed WiMax, but 54 percent of firms say they are interested in the technology. Wireless email or BlackBerry (65 percent of respondents) and personalized contacts and calendar (66 percent) top the list of mobile application priorities.
95 percent say cost savings were an important reason why they were using managed telecom services. Simplifying operational management got 51 percent of the vote.
55 percent of respondents said savings was a very important factor in deploying international wide-area network services.
Cisco dominates IP audio, Web conferencing and video conferencing. Among those surveyed, 40 percent have deployed IP infrastructure already and 29 percent close to installing. When installing IP PBX infrastructure 62 percent of respondents cite Cisco as the vendor of choice with 23 percent citing Avaya and Nortel.
30 percent of companies plan to automate call centers in the next two years with 34 percent considering automation, but don’t have concrete plans in place.
April 25th, 2008
Vonage refinances debt; Off of deathwatch
Vonage isn’t out of the liquidity woods yet, but on Friday the company took a big step in the right direction.
Vonage said in a statement Friday that it signed a letter of intent “with a third party financing source” to provide $215 million in private debt financing. The move allows the company to repay or redeem its convertible notes, which were going to be put back to Vonage on Dec. 16.
If the convertible bonds were put back to Vonage (all resources) it would have needed to come up with $253 million. The problem: Vonage only had $190 million in cash on hand.
The company said it would offer more details on its first quarter earnings conference call on May 8.
Citigroup analyst Michael Rollins upped his rating on Vonage from buy to hold on the news. He noted that while Vonage was “not out of the woods” it is a “step forward nevertheless.”
What’s unclear is how much this new financing will cost Vonage. It is doubtful that the financing will come cheap.
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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