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January 16, 2003
The Pulver Report - January 16, 2003
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In this Issue:
- Heard on the Net
- IP Telephony Jobs
- 2003: The Year of Consumer Communications
- NTIA Meeting in WDC on Feb 12th
- The Free World Dialup Challenge
- Spring 2003 VON: Early Bird Discount ends February 14th
- My favorite Gadget - the IVL TVStar
- Call for Speakers: VON Europe 2003
- Supernova 2002 Recap
- Kids on the Net: Winter 2003 Update
- pulver.com 2003 Conference Calendar
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Heard on the Net
2002 was the year of survival for many, including those inside of the IP
Communications Industry. During the first couple of weeks of 2003 it seems
that the buzz is back in VoIP and that 2003 in fact will be the year of
Consumer Communications. Things are already looking up, and I'm feeling
positive going into this year. This also looks like the year when the
Venture Community will be once again looking at the IP Communications
space and consider investing again.
The NTIA will be holding a public meeting about VoIP on February 12th
in Washington DC that is open to the public and information about
the meeting is included below. If you have a chance to attend, please
make an effort. Similar to the NTIA VoIP workshop back in September,
1998, I believe this meeting will help give the VoIP industry in the US
more visability and it will be interesting to watch and listen to how some
of the better known telecom lobbyists approach the meeting. I've heard
that the Department of Commerce recently deployed VoIP so I hope we will
be in friendly territory. :-)
- Companies on the Move:
NextVerse Networks and ECI Telecom's NGT subsidiary recently merged,
creating Veraz Networks. Veraz Networks received US$ 30 million in
recent funding.
Nokia Venture Partners recently invested US$ 4 million in
Network Inference.
Intel recently invested in TeleSym.
- People on the Move:
Graham Seabrook recently left Ridgeway Systems & Software.
Chuck Grandgent has recently left Octave Communications.
Brian Allain recently joined Ranch Networks as President.
Andre Moskal recently left SS8 Networks and joined Blueslice Networks
as CTO.
Alan Waldrip recently joined Global IP Sound as the Vice President of
Sales, Eastern Region.
Ron Bleakney recently joined Brooktrout as Senior Vice President of
Worldwide Sales.
Paul Bernard recently joined Pelago as Vice President of Finance
and Operations.
Thomas White recently left Cox Communications and joined Comcast as
Vice President - Voice Services Marketing.
Please email: people@pulver.com to report a change in your position.
Please refer to: "People on the Move" in the subject.
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IP Telephony Jobs from: ( http://pulver.com/jobs )
As your companies have job openings during 2003, please consider posting
them with pulver.com. please email: jobs@pulver.com for job posting
information.
Recent job postings (as of January 15, 2003):
- Sr. Sales Engineer - SS8 Networks
- SIP Developer - pulver.com
- Software Project Manager - pulver.com
If you are interested in pursuing this position, please visit
( http://pulver.com/jobs ) for full details.
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2003: The Year of Consumer Communications
From the middle of December 2002 thru the beginning of the year, I started
to notice the consumer and business press seemed to start caring a lot
more about VoIP than just about any other time then perhaps back in 1995
when VocalTec introduced the Internet Phone.
These days, the stories are about Voice over Broadband, rather than PC to
PC telephony, and while members of our community have discussed the
vision of what is doable and what is possible at the VON conferences over
the years, it's nice to see that some people have finally started to take
notice about our collective efforts.
For those of you who didn't read the story in last Monday's New York
Times, "Phone Calling Over Internet Is Attracting More Interest"
(see: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/06/technology/06VOIC.html ) please
take a look. Just about all of the companies referenced will be at Spring
VON and I thought the story provided good coverage of the entire VoIP
industry. There have also been related essays such as Clay Shirky's
"Customer-owned Networks: ZapMail and the Telecommunications Industry"
see: ( http://shirky.com/writings/zapmail.html ) which reiterated one
of my points from my Spring 2001 VON Industry Perspective back in Phoenix.
I also enjoyed reading Bob Frankston's "VoIP is a simple idea and simply
works" see: (http://www.satn.org/archive/2003_01_05_archive.html#90150387)
as well as the "SIP is HIP" story recently published on Light Reading.
(http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?site=lightreading&doc_id=26627).
I just think it is refreshing to see the renewed interest that our
community is starting to get. While 2002 was the year of survival, it was
also the year that the seeds were planted for the communications renaissance
which is slowly unfolding.
Just for the record, I never did say that any year would be the year of
SIP. Looking at my notes, and after reviewing past issues of The Pulver
Report, my recounting of the recent history of the VoIP Industry is that
when it comes to naming the "year of:" the following is how I have
reported it since 1996:
1995 - Year of the Hobbyist
1996 - year of the Client
1997 - year of the Gateway
1998 - year of the Gatekeeper
1999 - year of the Application
2000 - year of the Softswitch
2001 - year VoIP became part of the establishment
2002 - year of Survival
2003 - year of Consumer Communications
Once might argue that 2003 should be called the year VoIP happened in the
Enterprise. And I'm sure there are lots of other things that are also
happening in parallel that also can warrant the attention.
SIP is happening. H.323 is happening. MGCP and other IP protocols are also
happening. This industry survivals and grows because "in the end the needs
of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one." (stolen from
Star Trek but it felt right.) It has been an interesting ride watching how
the IP Telephony disrupted traditional telecom and how it now is morphing
into the enterprise and into our homes. I welcome the attention that our
industry rightfully is getting and look forward to watching 2003 be
the year for the renaissance for the industry.
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NTIA Meeting in WDC on Feb 12th
The NTIA will be hosting a meeting about VoIP on February 12th in
Washington, DC. I've been invited to be on one of the panels and it looks
like it will be a very good event.
NITA MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT
( http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/press/2003/voip01092003.htm )
Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Roundtable
Wednesday, February 12, 2003, 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.
U.S. Department of Commerce
1401 Constitution Avenue, N.W. Room 4830
Washington, D.C.
(Entrance on 14th Street between Pennsylvania and Constitution Avenues,
NW)
The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information
Administration (NTIA) will host an afternoon roundtable on Wednesday,
February 12th to discuss Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and the
convergence of the Internet and the public switched telephone network. The
roundtable will include an overview of VoIP technology, including a brief
demonstration of the Commerce Department's new VoIP telephone system. The
overview will be followed by two panels of leading experts addressing the
VoIP marketplace and the policy and regulatory implications of VoIP.
The discussions will be moderated by Nancy J. Victory, Assistant Secretary
of Commerce for Communications and Information, and by the NTIA staff. The
roundtable will be webcast over the Internet. Additional information about
the roundtable and the webcast is available on the NTIA home page at:
www.ntia.doc.gov.
The roundtable will be open to the public on a first-come, first-served
basis and space is limited. To facilitate entry to the Department of
Commerce building, please have photo identification available and/or a
U.S. Government building pass, if applicable, and plan to arrive at least
one half hour ahead of the session. The roundtable is physically
accessible to people with disabilities. Any member of the public wishing
to attend and requiring special services, such as sign language
interpretation or other ancillary aids should contact Jennifer Guy at
202-482-5836 or at jguy@ntia.doc.gov.
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The Free World Dialup Challenge
Since the quiet launch of Free World Dialup (FWD) back in November, the
FWD User Community has grown to about 5,500 as of January 14th. What
didn't hit me until after launching Free World Dialup was how great
international Internet Telephony over broadband can sound in 2003. While I
would like to say its "CD Quality" it is at least "FM Stereo Quality."
During the past seven years I can appreciate that many people don't
associate VoIP with great quality and have even less expectations for a
free service that runs over the public internet. All I can say is that if
you still think that Internet Telephony "sucks", you haven't tried
Free World Dialup using broadband in 2003.
Today FWD supports a variety of SIP clients, including:
Windows Messenger (4.6/4.7), SJphone, Cisco 7960, Cisco ATA-186 and
a growing list of other popular clients.
When you have a chance, please visit: ( http://pulver.com/fwd ) and sign
up for an FWD account. If you need any help getting started with FWD, you
can feel free to email me or look for me on-line. My .NET accountID is:
jeff@pulver.com so feel free to add me to your buddy list and I'd be happy
to help/chat when possible.
Help is also available from the FWD Community. You can view the
archives of the FWD Mailing List at:
( http://listserv.pulver.com/archives/fwd.html ) then decide to subscribe
if you would like to.
As a free service, besides getting a free FWD number, depending upon your
endpoint, you also get free CallerID and free Call waiting. There is also
a community conference bridge and we are exploring the idea of offering
free voice mail. I'm currently looking for friends in the industry to
donate a SIP based service creation environment to our NOC so that the
FWD community can start to experiment with the creation of what may
help define what the "cool new services" for IP Communications really are.
"The Free World Dialup Challenge" for the readers of the Pulver Report
is to give Free World Dialup a try and give Internet Telephony a second
chance...and let me know about your experiences. 2003 will be the year
that Consumer Communications starts to shine and I appreciate your help in
helping to make this happen.
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Spring 2003 VON: Early Bird Discount ends February 14th
Spring 2003 VON ( http://www.von.com ) will be taking place March 31
to April 3rd at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, CA.
In the past few weeks I've seen a renewed sense of interest from quite a
few people and going into 2003 I've been waiting for the first opportunity
to reach out to our community and start spreading the word about Spring
2003 VON. I'm a strong believer that the communications Industry
Renaissance is already underway and those who will be contributing to it
will be at Spring 2003 VON. In fact, Spring 2003 VON is the event to
attend if you are involved in the VoIP industry.
Something new that we have implemented at Spring 2003 VON is to
introduce a special "Exhibits Only" pricing of US$ 120 (good until Feb
14th) for everyone who would like to visit the exhibit hall and network
with us on April 2nd and 3rd.
The Spring 2003 VON schedule has been finalized and it is posted to:
( http://pulver.com/von/schedule.html ). The schedule was put together
based on the feedback and suggestions of the people who were at Fall 2002
VON together by our observations as to general trends inside of the
IP Communications marketplace.
Our general session will be about "Business Models for the Next Network"
moderated by David Isenberg and Dr. Robert Pepper will be back hosting a
FCC "Town Hall" meeting. Please visit the website to review our
current sessions and the list of the scheduled Industry Perspectives.
To register for Spring 2003 VON, please visit:
( http://pulver.com/von/register.html ). Please register by February
14th if you would like to take advantage of our "Early Bird" pricing.
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My favorite Gadget - the IVL TVStar
Forget about all those other gifts - if you know anybody who has kids
or for that matter anyone who loves to sing, get them the "IVL TVStar".
It costs US$ 69.95 and the details are at:
( http://holmes.karaoke.com/itemdetail.lasso?id.item=TVSTAR ).
In fact, during my family Thanksgiving dinner and during that day, I
wasn't able to take away the microphone from any of the kids after a
giving them a quick demo. I also had trouble getting the microphone from
my brother-in-law (Farrell) once he saw it as well. This gadget has
entertained my family for the past couple of months and I'm exploring the
idea of giving it to all our speakers at Spring 2003 as a special
speaker's gift.
It is one amazing product! What is super cool is that it has a "perfect
pitch" technology so that even if you can't sing, when you use the TVStar,
you actually sound good. Heck, even I sounded ok. ;-) It comes with two
plugs - one which you use with a USB port to download additional song from
their website. (it comes loaded with 50 starter songs) and the other plug
is the A/V plug which connects to a TV/Stereo.
I ordered this product a few days after reading a Yahoo! news story
about it.
I bought the product in disbelief and now, well I'm a believer.
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Call for Speakers - VON Europe 2003
We have just started working on the schedule and sessions for
VON Europe 2003 which will be taking place June 9-12 in London.
Please feel free to email:
"call for speakers" is open now and the deadline for submitting speaking
proposals is February 14th.
Please feel free to submit your speaking proposal to:
( http://pulver.com/speak/submit.html ).
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Supernova 2002 Recap
On December 9-10 in Palo Alto, CA, over 120 technology industry leaders
gathered at Supernova 2002 to discuss the impacts of decentralizing
technologies such as Web services, WiFi, Weblogs, and broadband media.
Supernova is a joint production of pulver.com and technology analyst
Kevin Werbach, former FCC Counsel for New Technology Policy and former
editor of Esther Dyson's Release 1.0. It focuses on the distributed
future of software, communications, and media.
Supernova 2002 was perhaps the most interactive technology conference
ever. In addition to the lively audience participation, dozens of
attendees posted to the Web and commented live through the on-site
wireless network. Discussions ranged from the value of collaboration
software to the social consequences of pervasive wireless connectivity to
the potential of new residential broadband technologies. Speakers
included Lotus founder Mitch Kapor, Google co-founder Sergey Brin,
visionary author Howard Rheingold, Macromedia CTO Jeremy Allaire, and
Microsoft's top Silicon Valley executive Dan'l Lewin. Despite the
difficult market environment, the atmosphere was electric, both during
the formal sessions and informal hallway discussions. Participants
agreed that the theme of decentralization provides uniquely valuable
insights into emerging trends and business opportunities.
Werbach announced that Supernova 2003 will be held in June in the
Washington, DC area. More details will be available soon.
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Kids on the Net: Winter 2003 Update
During the past few months my twin sons, Dylan and Jake, have started to
grow up on the internet and for the first time have started to become
active on a message board helping others with questions about Yu-Gi-Oh!
While they are not active on email or instant messaging yet (they are
still 8 years old), their obsession with checking a website and looking
for answers or replies seems to be a familiar scene in my family.
In particular they have had fun supporting other kids on the gametalk.com
website answering questions about: "Yu-Gi-Oh! Eternal Duelist Soul."
According to my kids when I ask them about Gametalk.com in their words:
"Gametalk is a web site with a lot of information about games. You can ask
questions and some people will answer them."
"Gametalk is really fun!! Everyone with a game console should try it."
Also, both Dylan and Jake recently had to do a research project for their
respective 3rd grade classes. Jake was assigned "Seahorses" and Dylan
was assigned "The Renaissance." From what I can remember, back in 3rd
grade I most likely looked up things in my parents encyclopedia. But my
kids without even thinking twice about it just said "I will google it" and
they did. Google helped lead them to the information they needed for their
research reports.
I asked Dylan how he could look up Renaissance if he couldn't spell
it and he told me he didn't have to know how to exactly spell it - Google
helped with the spelling...and he was right! :-)
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pulver.com 2003 Conference Calendar
( http://pulver.com/conference )
"Events for the Communications Industry" (tm)
March 31
- April 3rd - Spring 2003 VON, San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, CA
( http://pulver.com/von ).
March 31
- April 2 - Spring 2003 Location Based Services Summit,
San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, CA
( http://pulver.com/lbs )
April 1-3 - FastNet Futures
San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, CA
( http://www.dslprime.com )
April 29
- May 1 - Spring 2003 SIP Summit
Las Vegas, NV
June 9-12 - VON Europe 2003,
Olympia Conference Centre, London, UK
( http://pulver.com/europe2003 )
June 9-12 - Presence and Instant Messaging 2003
Olympia Conference Centre, London, UK
September
22-25 - Fall 2003 VON, Hynes Convention Center,
Boston, MA
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The Pulver Report to: jeff@pulver.com.
Jeff Pulver Tel. +1.631.547.0800
The Pulver Report Fax. +1.631.396.3996
January 16, 2003 http://pulver.com/reports
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