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February 28, 2005

It really seems the Telecom Industry is Starting to Take Notice of Us:

So, I'm sitting here in the middle of Emerging Issues Policy Forum, and Dave Dorman, from the podium, just posed a question to the audience. He asked: "Is Jeff Pulver the new Craig McCaw?"

Yesterday someone asked if I was the next Bill Gates or Paul Allen.

Last month Dan Moffatt, the CEO of NewEdge Communications, suggested I was the new George Gilders of communications, but I don't think he meant it in a flattering kind of way. I think he meant that I was a dreamer whose dream would never be realized. I, however, am reminded of Arthur C. Clarke's Second Law: "The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible."

In Andy Abramson's recent blog about me, I'm apparently also a catalyst. That moniker is the one I find the most flattering. I make no pretenses to be the next Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Craig McCaw, George Gilders or the next anyone. I want to be the first of whatever I am or turn out to be. But to be a "catalyst" as Andy suggested -- now that is a genuine compliment! :-)

Posted by jeff at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Looks Like Andy Figured Me Out...

I just read Andy Abramson's very kind story and personal testimony about me and our VON events.

Andy, Thank you!

Posted by jeff at 09:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Emerging Issues Policy Forum - 2005

Today is day two of the 2005 edition of the Emerging Issues Policy Forum on Amelia Island, Florida.

Today is also the first time that the rain has stopped in the two days that I've been here. ;-)

When I picked up my badge yesterday afternoon, delegates were given a sweatshirt and an umbrella, a direct reflection of the weather outside.

But inside the meeting room, the dialog which evolved was pretty amazing at times and provided a great direct communication between regulators, industry, and innovators. I especially enjoyed the time spent on the panel yesterday with Tyler Van Houwelingen, CEO of Ottawa Wireless and Carl Grivner, CEO of XO Communications. When it came my time to speak, I tried out mostly new material some of which may in fact turn into key talking points of my industry perspective at Spring 2005 VON next week.

Dinner last night, while it didn't include a simulcast of the Oscars did provide a great venue to continue our discussions. FCC Chairman Powell joined the dinner and I enjoyed the opportunity to spend a few minutes catching up with him in advance of seeing him next week in San Jose.

Julia Johnson's network of friends is pretty amazing and I'm very appreciative of the invitation to spend time at her event this year. I wouldn't mind coming back next year. :-)

Posted by jeff at 09:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 27, 2005

Watching the Rain and Waves on Amelia Island

Hopefully the sun will arrive before I leave.

So far, since I’ve on Amelia, there has been nothing but wind and rain.

But the waves do look cool. :-)

Amelia Island in the rain

Posted by jeff at 08:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Update on VoIP Mission to Israel: June 12th to 15th

Our "VoIP Mission to Israel" will arrive on June 12th, with June 13th as a scheduled "off day" and our activities will take place on June 14th and 15th.

We are in the process of confirming our venues and the people with whom we will be meeting with.

My hope is to have all our entire mission details confirmed before we leave for Spring 2005 VON.

Posted by jeff at 07:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Broadband @ 70 MPH!

Last night after a very long wait at the Jacksonville Airport, I finally found a taxi to take to Amelia Island. Given the distance I had to travel, I took out my PC, launched the Verizon EVDO service and used the time to catch up on email and afterwards play a little poker. During the time I was in transit, I thought it was pretty cool that while the taxi was going at least 70 MPH, the connectivity did not miss a beat while I was playing.

Broadband in the back of a Jacksonville taxi...it just works!

Posted by jeff at 07:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 26, 2005

Jacksonville - An Airport with no Taxis!

I just arrived in Jacksonville, Flordia enroute to Amelia Island, and I'm not sure why, but after waiting around for 30 minutes, there are no taxis to be found.

On the positive side, my Verizon EVDO service is working fine and I have "Broadband" speeds while sitting on a concrete bench near the #3 taxi stand...

Posted by jeff at 08:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Working on my Industry Perspective for Spring 2005 VON

Spring 2005 VON starts in just nine days, and it continues to look as if it will be our best event...ever.

The morning of March 8, 2005 will be a special one when I open the conference and welcome: Jonathan Miller from AOL and welcome back Hossein Eslambolchi from AT&T, and FCC Chairman Michael Powell.

The Chairman will be followed by our friends: Alistair Woodman from Cisco, Jim Crowe from Level 3 and Chris Fine from Goldman Sachs.

At the moment I am in the middle of an iterative process of trying to get the messaging right for my presentation. For me this is one of the things which has become a long standing VON ritual. Over the next week, my presentation will continue to evolve until the last possible moment. but in the end, this is something which always does end up coming together.

A week from now when I am in San Jose, I will be working on putting the finishing touches on my speech.

Between now and then I still need to make a couple of trips.

Later today I will be making the first of these trips when I travel to Emerging Issues Policy Forum (EIPF): Communications Forum 2005 taking place on Amelia Island off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida.

Posted by jeff at 07:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 25, 2005

The fwdOUT Network now offers free Phone Calls into 34 Countries!

After just a month of being launched, the organic, non-commercial, fwdOUT Network now offers free phone calls into the following 34 countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Laos, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, USA, Venezuela.

At the moment there are 155 nodes online with 1651 different routes registered into these 34 countries.

Since the launch during the weekend of January 22nd, the worldwide reaction to what was once known as Bellster and renamed fwdOUT (as in "Free World DialOUT") has been at times a bit overwhelming.

While I expect there will always be a group of people who are more focused on the viability of the fwdOUT business model or how practical it is to ask someone to share a phone line with a stranger (or a friend), the reality of the situation is that fwdOUT is alive and has taken on its own organic life.

Since the launch, there have been 1336 nodes registered, 847 calls placed and 4600 calls attempted.

Posted by jeff at 09:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

FCC Releases Order on Wireless-to-Wireline Termination Tariffs:

The FCC has released an Order denying a petition by T-Mobile asking the FCC to reaffirm "that wireless termination tariffs are not a proper mechanism for establishing reciprocal compensation arrangements for the transport and termination of traffic". In so ruling, however, the FCC amended its rules on a prospective basis to prohibit the use of tariffs to impose intercarrier compensation obligations with respect to non-access CMRS traffic.

Normally, I wouldn't flag such a ruling to the VoIP community, but I think there might be more here than meets the eye. Frankly, I'm not sure exactly what insights the VoIP providers might gather from this decision which is not really on point with regard to IP-PSTN interconnection rights/obligations, but it might be worth a read and I would welcome your insights. Be forewarned, my limited analysis below gets a little convoluted, but no more convoluted than the existed, kluged world of intercarrier compensation into which some are trying to drag the VoIP providers.

While the decision is not specifically germane to those of us offering connected IP-based communications services, it seems that the FCC has some preference for negotiated rates between providers, rather than allowing carriers to rely on tariffed rates. By analogy, it would seem that the FCC would prefer that LECs negotiate interconnection rates with VoIP providers rather than simply rely on the existing, muddled, incomprehensible intercarrier compensation tariff structure, particularly the legacy access charge regime, the rules for which the VoIP industry had no involvement. The access charge rules were first established to ensure that long distance providers cover a fair share of the joint and common costs of the local loop and were preserved as legacy rules after passage of the Telecom Act in '96, but were not intended to apply to new types of intercarrier compensation arrangements that did not exist prior to passage of the Telecom Act. (For those of you keeping score, this was the reason the DC Circuit rejected the FCC rules for compensation for ISP-bound traffic -- the DC Circuit said the FCC could not rely on 251(g) of the Telecom Act, which was only intend to apply to the access rates that LECs could charge IXCs because of the existing compensation arrangements that existed prior to passage of the Telecom Act. The interconnection between two LECs for sending traffic into the Internet cloud were not subject to the access charge regime.)

In any event, the Order indicates that LECs cannot impose tariffed rates for "non-access" traffic, begging the question, "What is and is not 'access' traffic in an IP-enabled world where distance/geography is irrelevant and a local call should be treated no differently from a long distance call. The Order indicates that there was no real compensation scheme existing between wireless and wireline carriers before or after the Telecom Act, and therefore the LEC-IXC access charge regime is an inappropriate compensation model. I think there is an important analogy that IP-based communications providers could rely on, in that there also was no existing intercarrier compensation scheme for IP-to-PSTN traffic before or after the Telecom Act. Arguably, LECs should not be permitted to rely on the access charge regime to impose access charges on providers for an interconnection structure that did not exist before passage of the Telecom Act.

Blah, blah, blah. We didn't ask to play in this regulatory quagmire. Moore's Law dragged us, and the rest of the IP-based communications community into this swamp. Hopefully we have a clearer way out...is Swamp Thing still around to save us?

Posted by jeff at 08:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Invited to Keynote the Red Herring Spring Conference in Monterey, CA

Yesterday I was invited to give one of the morning keynotes on May 18th at the Red Herring Spring conference taking place in Monterey, CA.

While I realize that this is the 'rebooted' Red Herring, I figured I would give the event a chance, so I decided to accept the offer to keynote this event.

Guess this means yet one more trip to California for 2005...

Posted by jeff at 07:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Playing the WSOP Shooting Star on March 5th at Bay 101!

With the help of my friend Phil Hellmuth, it now looks like I will be playing in the WSOP Shooting Star on March 5th at Bay 101.

This will be my first entry in a World Poker Tour event and what I hope to will be a great warm-up for my entry in July at the 2005 World Series of Poker.

Thank you Phil! :-)

Posted by jeff at 07:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Free Skype to SMS public Beta service launched

Marcus Williamson from Connectotel gave me the heads up that he launched a new (and free) Skype to SMS beta service.

I then asked him: "How much traffic are you generating?" and he wrote back:

"We started the private Beta of 'Skype to SMS' last week and had 50 users on that who generated 2000 'Skype to SMS' messages within a week. That is, messages from a Skype user to a mobile phone.

The 'SMS to Skype' service has been running as a public Beta for three weeks and has generated about 1500 'SMS to Skype' messages. That is, messages from a mobile phone to a Skype user.

Sending from 'Skype to SMS' is generally considered more interesting by end-users, but feedback from technical people suggests that 'SMS to Skype' is more innovative, because no other chat/instant message system currently allows this."

I guess Marcus was not familiar with AOL's Mobile AIM service or that a similar service is available from Yahoo! Mobile (at least in India).

As far as fun SMS services go, Google SMS is a real interesting development too.

Posted by jeff at 07:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 24, 2005

New Social Networking Tool will Debut at Spring 2005 VON!

Next week we will be introducing a new software application to help facilitate the transition from being part of a virtual community to being part of a physical community.

My hope is that with the advent of our new social networking tool, members of the Spring 2005 VON Conference Community will be able to accelerate their own face-to-face, business-to-business networking.

Posted by jeff at 05:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

2005 VoIP Mission to Israel: June 12-13 2005

I have been working on plans to organize a "VoIP Mission to Israel" in 2005. The goal of this mission is to bring members of the worldwide IP Communications Industry to the birthplace of commercial VoIP and to spent some time exploring the near term future of where the industry is headed and what we can expect over the next 10 years.

While I had fully hoped to pull this together in Tel Aviv in May on the 8th-9th, at that time I didn't know of the conflict with other events in Israel during that week.

The Mission has moved forward 30+ days and is now scheduled to take place: June 12-13, 2005.

If you would like to learn more about our 2005 VoIP Mission to Israel, please send email to: jeffp@pulver.com.

Posted by jeff at 02:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

EVDO in Washington

Yesterday I received the following email (and permission to blog it):

---

Hi Jeff --

I enjoyed reading your comments about EvDO service in Washington. You never mentioned the carrier providing you service but since Verizon Wireless is the only carrier offering it, I assume you were using our BroadbandAccess service on a PC card with your laptop.

Happy to discuss it further with you if you have questions.

Best regards, John

John H. Johnson
Verizon Wireless
Director, corporate communications
7600 Montpelier Dr.
Laurel, MD 20723

---

John, your assumption is correct. I'm a very happy Verizon Wireless subscriber who is using the EvDO service whenever I feel a need to be connected and I'm not otherwise at home or in the office. :-)

Posted by jeff at 06:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

House Hearing March 2: Competition in the Communications Marketplace: How Technology Is Changing the Structure of the Industry

VoIP will be the buzz once again in Washington, D.C. on March 2nd when the House Committee on Energy and Commerce holds their next hearing on VoIP.

While I have not been notified (yet) that I made it to their witness list, I wouldn't say no if I was selected to testify. :-)

The Hearing will be taking place at 10am on March 2nd at: 2123 Rayburn House Office Building.

Posted by jeff at 06:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 2005 Pulver Report Published

I've been writing and publishing "The Pulver Report" since August, 1996. The report used to get published at least 10 times a year.

With everything else that is going on, I'm just glad that I was able to get the February 2005 edition published and distributed yesterday morning.

Subscriptions to The Pulver Report remain free. There are around 50,000 subscribers at the moment.

Posted by jeff at 06:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 23, 2005

Jeff @ MIT: Integrated Communication - Paving pathways for Collaboration

Special thanks to Dennis Baron for the invitation to spend this morning at MIT and join the amazing group of people who are part of the meeting today at MIT.

Meeting and interacting with Dave Clark and Bob Metcalfe has been equally pretty cool. :-)

Posted by jeff at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Russia Regulating VoIP

I just heard that "...the Russian government has introduced a licensing regime for Internet-telephony service providers in the country. In future, firms offering Internet telephony will need a license."

Posted by jeff at 07:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Ham Radio Operators Played a Significant Role during Tsunami Disaster

Bangkok Post: Radio Hams Uniquely Prepared

I just ran across a story which ran in a local Thailand newspaper about the work of an Amateur Radio operator Phatandit Kulaphaichitra from Bangkok who uses a PC program called Echolink to interconnect his 2 meter ham radio with other radio amateurs via the internet using VoIP technology and how he was able to help relay emergency information during the tsunami disaster.

Phatandit is not alone in his use of Echolink. There are several applications used by ham radio operators these days that help hams speak with other hams via the internet.

I first discovered Echolink back in the summer of 2002 when I first wrote about the State of Digital Ham Radio. The underlying technology just continues to improve.

Reading stories about people like Phatandit Kulaphaichitra make me proud to be a ham radio operator and he is another great example about how one person can help make a difference. :-)

Posted by jeff at 06:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 22, 2005

Broadband in a Boston Taxi too!

O.K., this EVDO technology continues to work. I'm now in Boston in the back of a Boston Taxi on my way to Cambridge. At the moment not only am I able to catch up with my email but I'm currently getting downstream rates >300k while driving thru the tunnels in and around Boston.

This is connectivity I can get used to! :-)

Posted by jeff at 06:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Broadband Access on Delta Shuttle to Boston

I'm still getting used to the concept that one can have 'broadband' access while sitting on board a flight at a gate waiting to take off.

Hopefully one day soon Wi-Fi access will be available for domestic flights across the US.

(posted while sitting in seat 10A onboard DL 1928)

Posted by jeff at 04:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Spring 2005 VON will be widely attended by Business Press, Trade Press and Analysts

Andy Abramson recently noted: "...the Pulver team has assembled an all-star list of "A" level journalists and analysts that make it great for the exhibitors to tell their story."

Three weeks before Spring 2005 VON, reporters with the following media affiliations were confirmed to be attending Spring 2005 VON. The number of reporters covering VON will continue to grow as the event gets closer.

Media and Bloggers @ Spring 2005 VON include:

• Advanced IP Pipeline
  
• Always on Network
  
• America’s Network
  
• Business 2.0
  
• Business Week
  
• CNET News.com
  
• CommWeb
  
• EE Times
  
• Fat Pipe
  
• Flash Tech de I'Information @ Communication
  
• IDG Publications
  
• IEEE Micro Magazine
  
• IEEE Spectrum
  
• Informaticien
  
• Information Week
  
• InfoWorld
  
• Internet Telephony
  
• Internetnews.com
  
• IP Inferno
  
• IT Manager's Journal
  
• Light Reading
  
• O'Reilly Media
  
• Pipeline Publications
  
• Red Herring
  
• San Jose Business Journal
  
• San Jose Mercury News
  
• Silicon Valley Journal
  
• Telecommunications Magazine
  
• Telecommunications Reports
  
• Telephony
  
• The Economist
  
• VoIP Watch
  
• VON Magazine
  

Analysts @ Spring 2005 VON include:

• Current Analysis
  
• DellOro Group
  
• DSL Prime
  
• Forrester Research
  
• Frost & Sullivan
  
• Gartner
  
• IDC
  
• Infonetics Research
  
• In-Stat
  
• Ovum
  
• RHK
  
• Telegeography
  
• Wainhouse Research
  
• Yankee Group
  

Spring 2005 VON will be a VON to remember! :-)

Posted by jeff at 07:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Integrated Communication Workshop - February 23rd @MIT

Earlier this month I was invite to join the Integrated Communication Workshop taking place on Wednesday at MIT.

The intent of the workshop is "...to understand the opportunities presented by integrated (voice-video-data) network-based communication technology, both existing and that which will become available in the next several years, for education, research and community. Our interest is in looking at those technologies that would result in a qualitative difference in the social experience among faculty, students, and staff. We will focus on areas such as research collaboration, student life and general community experience, and teaching, so that we can plan and develop IT services for the next 3-5 years. In particular, we hope to identify a set of experiments or prototype implementations with a view to understanding the impact of their broader adoption at MIT."

I'm on a panel with both Bob Metcalfe and Dave Clark.

I expect this will be a real interesting discussion tomorrow. :-)

Posted by jeff at 06:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 21, 2005

One of our Spring 2005 VON Billboards

As seen in Santa Clara, CA

Posted by jeff at 10:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

James Seng @ APRICOT 2005!

James Seng blog today details the APEET ENUM/SIP live trial that he helped drive at APRICOT 2005.

While I was invited by James to join him in Japan for the event, I declined because APRICOT 2005 took place during a week that I needed to be close to home due to the timing of the President's week school vacation in the US.

Over the weekend, LibreTel joined the demo and is offering free termination for their calls to the US and Canada.

I am looking forward to seeing James in San Jose during VON to get a first hand accounting on how everything worked out.

Posted by jeff at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Stanford Business School VoIP Case Study @ Spring 2005 VON!

On Wednesday, March 9th from: 4.15 pm to 6.00 pm (extended session), conference delegates attending Spring 2005 VON will have the very unique opportunity to experience the teaching of a Stanford Business School case study. This is something which is quite unique to the "VON Experience" and something which is just not available anywhere else!

A year ago during Spring 2004 VON in Santa Clara I met Les Vadasz and we took a walk around the exhibit floor together and spoke about the VoIP industry. Les mentioned to me that he taught a graduate class at Stanford and he shared with me some of his own personal passion for VoIP and the related regulatory policy issues.

Les mentioned to me he was thinking about publishing the first Stanford Business School Case Study about VoIP and that he wanted to include myself and Free World Dialup in it.

Our conversation lead to an invitation to visit Stanford University which I did last May when I was interviewed by a combination of: Les and professors Robert Burgelman and Philip Meza.

Last November I had the honor of being in the classroom on campus at Stanford when the case study was presented for the first time.

While on campus I extended an invitation to the professors to come to Spring 2005 VON and present their case study to the VoIP industry.

I am greatly appreciative that the professors accepted my invitation and I am looking forward to watching them present their case study on Wednesday March 9, 2005 at Spring 2005 VON. :=)

Posted by jeff at 08:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 20, 2005

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: 2005

On March 14th, the Monday after Spring 2005 VON, I will be in New York City attending the 20th Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

This will mark my 4th year of attending the annual ceremony and I will be there once again with my camera in hand to capture some of the sights of the evening.

While Vh1 does broadcast the event a week after it happens, the aired speeches are edited down (some for good reason) and not all of the musical performances are included. Words alone can not describe the excitement of just being there.

Members of the class of 2005 include:

Buddy Guy

Percy Sledge

The O'Jays

The Pretenders

U2

2005 Lifetime Achievement include: Frank Barsalona and Seymour Stein.

One thing I enjoy about being at the event is seeing so many of the friends and family members of the inductees attending the event and just enjoying the moment. A couple of years ago I was in the audience when the Talking Heads performed live for the first time in 18 years and the reason given was "so that our kids can hear what we were like." Hearing that was an amazing moment.

With U2 in the house, this will be one Hall of Fame event to remember. :-)

Posted by jeff at 08:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Emerging Issues Policy Forum (EIPF): Communications Forum 2005

Next Sunday I will be on Amelia Island, Florida attending the 2005 edition of the Emerging Issues Policy Forum.

The theme of this year's event is: "Convergence: Providing New Services and Products to Consumers."

I just reviewed a draft agenda of the event and their schedule is quite impressive. I am not aware of many other conferences that match the caliber of the participants who will be at the event on Amelia Island other than the Progress & Freedom Foundation annual event in Aspen in August.

EIPF 2005 opens with a discussion of issues lead by Bob Pepper, Chief of Policy Development, FCC together with Jeff Halpern, Sr. Research Analyst, Bernstein Research, followed by a "Federal Regulatory Outlook" by FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein which is followed by a CEO Roundtable discussion which I am speaking at together with: Carl Grivner, CEO, XO Communications and Tyler Van Houwelingen, CEO, Ottawa Wireless, Inc.

After the first CEO roundtable, there is an "Industry Reacts" panel followed by talks by Mike Gallagher, Asst. Secretary for Communication & Information, NTIA and Larissa Herda, Chairman, President & CEO, Time Warner Telecom followed by a panel of nine regulators.

Monday opens with talks by: Stan Sigman, President & CEO, Cingular Wireless and Dave Dorman, Chairman & CEO, AT&T. There are quite a number of other people scheduled to speak on Monday including: FCC Chairman Michael Powell. I'm staying at EIPF on Monday so that I can listen to the Chairman's talk and be around (at least for the start) when Jonathan Askin participates in a Policy Discussion panel.

I'm looking forward to being at my first EIPF event.

Posted by jeff at 07:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

February 19, 2005

Watching the copycats do their thing...

While it has been said, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flatter", when it happens to you, it doesn't always feel so flattering.

And according to Psychology Today, We're All Copycats - people mimic other people, so maybe this is just a natural thing.

As I look around the Blogsphere from time-to-time, it is amazing to see who offers original observations and insights and those who follow the lead of others and who on their own are (at times) very good copycats.

Personally I prefer the original, not the cheaper imitation…even if access to both are free. ;-)

Posted by jeff at 06:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Working on Catching up...

The first seven weeks of this year have been a blur to me. Between speaking engagements in various spots around the world, attending meetings regarding a few of the start-ups I’m associated with, combined on my quest to get a myself a ‘working MBA’ by putting together “learning meetings” with interesting people and the time I try to spend working on my worldwide conference business, as well as some new business ventures, there are days when I feel like I need to spend some time doing absolutely nothing and in the process recharge my personally batteries.

It is real hard for me to do “absolutely nothing”, especially when I’m obsessed in checking my email and thinking about what to blog about. These days when I’m not on airplanes I spend something like 7-10 hours a day checking email and dealing with receiving between 80-120 email an hour during the work week.

One thing that I keep on falling back on is that time is something that just goes away and it is up to people to take advantage of the time in front of us since there is no way to get it back once it passes us.

One sign of my virtual exhaustion is that I still have not published the first Pulver Report of 2005. It isn’t that I haven’t tried to make it so but other things keep on getting in the way. I hope to have the next Pulver Report sent out during the week of February 21st, while spending some time at home, working on catching up with myself. ;-)

I only have one trip scheduled in the week ahead, to be at MIT, as I’m a speaker at their “Integrated Communication Workshop.” I’m sharing a panel with Bob Metcalfe and Dave Clark exploring the near term future of communications.

Posted by jeff at 09:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

February 18, 2005

fwdOUT Status Update

fwdOUT Status Update

Number of Registered fwdOUT Nodes: 1247
Number of Nodes Online right now: 136
Number of Routes available right now: 1436
Number of Google hits on fwdOUT: 3030

To date, since launch, the fwdOUT network as seen the following activity:

Total Number of fwdOUT Call Attempts: 3541
Total Number of fwdOUT Answered Calls: 720

Posted by jeff at 11:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Breaking News: FCC Chairman Powell will be speaking at Spring 2005 VON!

I just got word that FCC Chairman Michael Powell will be speaking at Spring 2005 VON!

I am very grateful that the Chairman has chosen Spring 2005 VON to address the VoIP industry. I am looking forward to his talk.

Tuesday, March 9th will be an amazing day for the VoIP industry. :-)

Posted by jeff at 05:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Spring 2005 VON...starts in 17 Days!

In just 17 days, Spring 2005 VON will be happening in San Jose, CA.

Spring 2005 VON is shaping up to be almost double in size of what it was just a year ago when Spring 2004 VON took place in Santa Clara.

The buzz surrounding this event continues to just grow louder and I just learned that just about all of our conference hotels are sold-out. If you are planning on attending VON and still need a hotel room, please visit priceline.com or hotels.com to find a room.

Posted by jeff at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Back in New York...

...with Broadband access in the back of a Taxi. :-)

Posted by jeff at 06:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 17, 2005

24 hours in Palo Alto

I’ve spent the better part of the past 24 hours in and around Palo Alto, CA and managed to have 2 1/2 meals at: Il Fornaio and a 1/2 a meal at Buck's in Woodside, CA.

Overall, today was one of the better days I’ve had in quite some time. Time will tell whether or not today was in fact a GREAT day. :-)

While I was in Palo Alto, I was able to spend some quality time catching up with a few friends. I also made a few new acquaintances and in the process I was able to move forward on one of my own pet projects. I did miss out on the opportunity to bring home a photo of one of our billboards on 101 and 880 promoting Spring 2005 VON. ;-)

Today I started to miss having high-speed access whenever I went online as the Verizon Wireless EVDO service currently connects only as ‘better than dialup’ speed in and around Silicon Valley at the moment. This said, I did manage the temptation and today I didn't pay for the fee based Wi-Fi that was available from both my hotel room and from the San Jose airport.

Time to catch the redeye flight back to JFK…

Posted by jeff at 11:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Back in Palo Alto…

Since the advent of jetBlue, I’ve stopped thinking twice about commuting from New York to Silicon Valley for a meeting.

Once again, I find myself spending a night in Palo Alto.

At least it is not raining (or snowing) here tonight. ;-)

Posted by jeff at 03:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 16, 2005

Another jetBlue Afternoon...

Later today I'm taking jetBlue out to San Jose from JFK for my last scheduled visit to Silicon Valley until Spring 2005 VON.

While visting friends in Palo Alto and Mountain View, I hope to take a photo of one of our billboards to share in the blog. :-)

Posted by jeff at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Living the EVDO Lifestyle

In just a few short days, the way I access the internet, while not at home or at work has changed. While in the past I was only able to reliably access the net while in transit when I was inside of a Wi-Fi hotspot, walking around with an EVDO card means that “always on” has reached a new level.

Being able to have at least ‘better than dialup’ and mostly ‘broadband’ speeds while in transit has already contributed on an incremental basis to my productivity…although I understand there are some people at my office who enjoyed the fact that I used to be offline while in transit. ;-)

I find the user interface on my Sony Vaio laptop to be much easier to navigate and just use than the best of the best PocketPC devices and RIM devices available today in the marketplace.

When it comes to email, I happen to be a text based Luddite. I’m a firm believer in using applications like putty and pine which provides me ubiquitous access to email. Using putty/pine works well even on dialup speeds so having access to EVDO means that I’m never far away from being on email.

In the past few days I’ve taken advantage of EVDO in and around Washington, D.C., at the airport gate and at my seat on a couple of flights prior to takeoff due to flight delays as well as in the back of New York City taxis. In each case, so far, the service has worked flawlessly.

I’m currently thinking about the kinds of applications which will start to happen as the result of knowing that dependable high-speed mobile internet access is available in a metropolitan area. One immediate enhancement that I would like to see is the addition of a web browser into my car’s GPS system so that I can easily Google a location and then build a real-time route to it. I have to be believe this kind of application will become available sometime real soon.

Welcome to the EVDO Lifestyle...

Posted by jeff at 08:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

February 15, 2005

Update on E911 Trial taking place in King County, Washington

Earlier today I received the following message:

Jeff,

I'm sure you are aware that a E911 VoIP trial is ongoing in King County
(greater Seattle area). The King County 911 office along with an ILEC,
Intrado, Vonage, and others have already completed 911 calls that route to
the correct Primary PSAP, carried the correct call back number, and the
correct address information. Dynamic routing (within one hour) of "changed"
address information when a user moves locations, is the last test and is
scheduled for next week (today the information takes a week to be updated
by industry). The method is unusual and still needs to be worked through
the standards organizations but proves that 911 issues for VoIP can be
resolved by cooperation between government and interested companies. If
approved by NENA and ATIS, this method of routing 911 calls will bring
better 911 service to VoIP users in all states.

The initial coordination of this continuing successful project was started
at the VON conference in Boston more than a year ago. Inviting staff from
the Washington State Utility Commission, as well as other state regulatory
commissions, allowed for the type of communication that will build
networks and resolve just these kinds of issues in the future between
industry and the regulatory world.

Hopefully the difficult issues like E-911 cost recovery will be resolved in
the same cooperative manner. Thanks again for making it possible for state
regulators to attend both the Boston and Santa Clara VONs. I will miss the
communication between attendees. I will also miss the excellent parties.

Cheers,

Bob Williamson
Senior Member Technical Staff
Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission
Olympia, WA.

Posted by jeff at 08:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today marks 10 Years since the launch of VocalTec Internet Phone

Happy Anniversary to the VoIP Industry!

Ten years ago today, on February 15, 1995, VocalTec launched Internet Phone which in my book marked the commencement of the commercial VoIP era and the start of what has become an international, multi-billion dollar industry.

Internet Phone was an application way ahead of it’s time and it performed quite well in the era of the dial-up internet when used on a circa 1994 Windows PC. VocalTec’s original team of developers who worked on Internet Phone are some of the true pioneers of the VoIP industry who hardly get the recognition that they deserve. Personally, I would like to see these developers get all the credit they deserve. :-)

Today’s anniversary was in fact was the inspiration behind our Ten Years Back, Ten Years Forward General Session taking place on Tuesday, March 8th at Spring 2005 VON hosted by Jeffrey Carlisle, Chief, Wireline Competition Bureau, FCC.

Having watched the birth of VoIP, these days it feels as if we are started to experience the Adolesence of VoIP. I can only imagine what the next ten years may bring.

Posted by jeff at 12:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 14, 2005

My presentation @ NARUC today...

...is available for download by clicking here.

Feedback is always appreciated!

(posted using EVDO while onboard Delta Shuttle flight 1964.)

Posted by jeff at 06:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A Valentine for Vonage? Some Take Vonage to Heart; Others Clog the Arteries

Earlier this morning, Paul Kapustka emailed me about a story he posted that Vonage has complained to the FCC that competing service providers are "blocking" its Voice over IP service.

This news does not surprise me.

It appears that there is evidence that some controllers of bottleneck's might be choking the consumer's access to the Internet and stifling the consumer's ability to control their own communications experience. This is, at least of violation of Chairman Powell's conception of Net Freedom.

As I've suggested before, it would be a powerful statement if Chairman Powell were to memorialize his conception of Net Freedom before he steps down from the FCC and were to state once and for all that an entity's interference with a consumer's Net Freedom will not be tolerated. His eloquent words in support of Net Freedom will be empty rhetoric unless government takes the violators to task.

Long live the Net Freedoms!

Posted by jeff at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Verizon to Give Birth to 700 pound gorilla?

When SBC announced its intention to acquire AT&T, I noted that it was nice to see the child, now fully grown, come back to help its estranged parent, Ma Bell.

Well, now it seems that Verizon (SBC's estranged sister, separated at birth and educated in the Northeast), has decided to adopted AT&T's once school-yard rival, MCI.

As those of you who read my blog might be aware, I'm prone to the occasional biology metaphor. Perhaps the better analogy than family law, is a biology analogy to which I shall attempt a stab. It seems that both AT&T and MCI are now going through some sort of metamorphosis or in utero experience. Each has entered the parent's biological system, not as a seed or embryo, but as a fully-formed entity in its own right, probably most akin to a caterpillar entering a cocoon or a tadpole entering its larval phase (or whatever phase it enters). Having never seen such a beast cocoon, I have no idea what will emerge from the merger. I'm somewhat curious. The result may be a hetermorphic communications company which would be kinda cool. If not, a homomorphic communications company will prevail.

I'm not sure if it is the curiosity of a biologist about to witness the emergence of a new species or the repelled fascination of a rubber-necker overlooking a possible train wreck. I suspect it is more of the former. I suspect that the combination of MCI's UUNet assets and backbone and Internet heritage, might blend well with Verizon's local network and intentions for broadband, network upgrades and fiber to the home strategy.

In any event, SBC/AT&T and Verizon/MCI will undoubtedly become the 800 pound and 700 pound gorillas or the elephants in the room. I just hope there is enough room for the rest of us.

Posted by jeff at 09:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Nixon Goes to NARUC

I’m in Washington, D.C. this morning to give my own version of a “Nixon goes to China” talk at NARUC’s Winter 2005 meeting. I am hopeful that we will be able to find ‘common ground’ with many of the State Regulators and work from there.

While I’m in Washington today I also have a couple of meetings with State Regulators and an afternoon meeting on Capitol Hill.

Posted by jeff at 07:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 13, 2005

Blogging from Delta Flight 1963 @ LGA

While on board and at the gate waiting for Delta flight 1963 to leave for Washington, D.C, I decided to give my EVDO connectivity at try...and it works quite well! In fact, at the moment I'm experiencing "BroadBand access" speeds delivered via the Verizon wireless network while sitting at seat 5D.

Gone are the days being at LGA airport feeling disconnected while waiting to board the Delta Shuttle. :-)

Posted by jeff at 05:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The VON Billboards are up...and getting noticed!

The Billboards promoting Spring 2005 VON are starting to get noticed in and around Silicon Valley. (Thanks for the call yesterday Andy!)

At the moment I am trying to put together a photo gallery of the billboards and their locations...so if you happen to notice one of our billboards and have a camera phone handy, please send me the digital image together with your name and the location where the picture was taken from...photo credits will be given.

Posted by jeff at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

pulver.com 2005 World Tour - Next Stop: Washington, D.C.

The pulver.com 2005 World Tour will be making a stop tonight in Washington, D.C. to be there for NARUC's Winter 2005 meetings which are currently underway at the Hyatt Hotel in Washington, D.C.

I was given 45 minutes for my presentation tomorrow afternoon. With the help of Jonathan Askin, I have been working on my own version of a "Nixon goes to China" talk to share with the State regulators who will be in the audience.

I've been looking forward to this talk ever since I received an invitation to be there.

Posted by jeff at 07:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Update: Our VoIP Mission to Israel

During the past couple of weeks, I've been working on turning an idea for a "VoIP Mission to Israel" in a reality.

It turns out that the original dates, which had our mission taking place during the week of May 8th didn't work for various reasons, including the overlap of Mother's Day in the US and observances that take place in Israel during that week. This sort of accounted for why it was relatively easy to find a venue in Tel-Aviv. ;-)

Not one to give up easily, we are looking at alternative dates. One set of dates happen to be just a week later than the original (May 15-16) and the alternative to that would have us visiting sometime either during the Summer of 2005 or late in the Fall of 2005.

On the positive side, a number of people from both the US and Canada have started contacting me about the possibility of joining our mission once the dates/venue can be confirmed...and I've had an even more positive reception from contacts in Israel.

Working from a more grounded sense of reality, as our preferred mission dates of May 15-16 are just three months away, a lot of things need to fall into place over the next week or we will have to reschedule this for a time later this year.

During 2005 a "VoIP Mission" to Israel is going to take place, at this point it is just a question of "when?" :-)

Posted by jeff at 06:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

February 12, 2005

Roscoe's First Birthday!

Earlier this week Roscoe turned 1.

Looks like he is rooting for the Mets this season.

Happy Birthday Roscoe!

Nokia 6600 camera phone

Posted by jeff at 09:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bellster fwdOUT: Three Weeks After

It has been three weeks since our launch of the peer-to-peer communications community, fwdOUT.

It turns out that it is possible in 2005 for total strangers to form a world-wide community, get together and offer each other the ability to make a local phone call in exchange for the ability to do the same thing themselves...proving that in 2005, on the internet, in the words of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, "The Love you Take is equal to the Love you Make."

Our global fwdOUT "social communications" community experiment continues on.

Number of Registered fwdOUT Nodes: 1133
Number of Nodes Online right now: 126
Number of Routes available right now: 1241
Number of Google hits on fwdOUT: 2490

While the fwdOUT community currently has the capacity in theory to deliver 668,863 calls, there will always be a mismatch between the place a given member of fwdOUT wants to be able to reach at any given moment and the availability of a node that can deliver a local call into that specific route at that given moment.

To date, since launch, the fwdOUT network as seen the following activity:

Total Number of fwdOUT Call Attempts: 2576
Total Number of fwdOUT Answered Calls: 648

Right now, fwdOUT can deliver calls to certain cities in the following 23 countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, UK, USA. Personally, I think this is pretty cool.

New routes and cities become available all the time. We now provide a route availability tool available for download from the fwdOUT FAQ. This application requires the .net framework to be installed.

Ed Guy is looking into hosting a fwdOUT BoF session at Spring 2005 VON to provide a place for some of our friends who are running fwdOUT nodes to get together and compare notes.

We are currently working on a version of fwdOUT for the worldwide ham radio community.

Posted by jeff at 09:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Pulver Order: One Year Old Today!

It was one year ago today, on February 12, 2004 that the FCC granted the “Pulver Order.” and that “Pulver” became a subject noun amongst telecom regulatory laywers in DC and around the world.

As the Internet continues to happen around the world, so does ‘end to end IP Communications.” To the extent that communication continues to evolve without the need to touch the legacy PSTN telephone network such that people that are connected to broadband internet have ways to directly communicate with each other, The Pulver Order provides clarity as to the regulatory treatment of such services in the United States and provided a model for many other regulators around the world to follow.

The past twelve months have seen the commercialization of Voice over IP shift into high gear, as well as the launch of quite a number of companies and services all focused on helping to make ‘end-to-end IP’ a reality. The FCC’s issuance of the Pulver Order helped set the tone, the pace and the future of IP Communications in motion and today there is no looking back. The Pulver Order provided the regulatory clarity needed for all of this to start to happen.

During the past year Free World Dialup continued to grow. At the moment we have more than 450,000 members from around the world. As a network, we now have well over 100 peering relationships in place with other service providers which empower our members to be able to reach millions of people around the world by taking advantage of ‘end-to-end IP.’

Given the significance The Pulver Order has had on myself, pulver.com and the IP Communication Industry, I will be forever grateful to Chairman Powell’s FCC and for the vision and courage they had for the granting of it.

I look forward to continuing to make myself available to work with the FCC, Congress and other regulatory authorities around the world as IP Communications continue to evolve.

Posted by jeff at 06:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 11, 2005

Busy week for IT Execs in Washington, D.C.

internetnews.com - IT Execs Swarm Capitol Hill

"The executives testified before Congress, met with White House and government agency officials, hosted dinners and parties and manned a small tech trade show.

As Voice over IP (define) poster boy Jeff Pulver said at a Wednesday night reception, "We've come a long way in just a year.""

And what a year it has been! :-)

Posted by jeff at 09:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm now a Verizon EVDO Subscriber...

Back in January during CES, I watched Yuki Noguchi use her Verizon EVDO service while she interviewed me for her Washington Post blog. When I asked about her experience with EVDO, it was only positive. A month later, after spending many days on the road and two days this week in a hotel which has yet to discover the benefits of offering their guests Wi-Fi access, I decided now was the time to "give EVDO a chance."

If I was trying to rationalize the cost for EVDO, for me, between the fees I pay every time I encounter a Wi-Fi hotspot that isn't free, coupled with what I've been paying so far this year in US Hotel rooms for internet access, it turns out that if EVDO works only half as well as I've heard that it does, paying $80 / month for mobile "broadband" access is the way to go and it will end up paying for itself when I am on the road (in the US) more than three nights a month.

Having the ability to go online, from practically, anywhere is priceless. :-)

Posted by jeff at 07:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

February 10, 2005

FCC takes a few more baby steps to resolve absurd inter-carrier comp rules:

The FCC released a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on several proposals to reform the muddled inter-carrier compensation regime, which currently allows for dramatically disparate treatment for originating, terminating and interconnecting traffic between carriers. As it stands, the cost of originating, terminating or interconnecting traffic varies from nothing to multiple pennies a minute, depending on the call origin, call termination, and the types of carriers interconnecting.

Bob Pepper has eloquently pointed to the following analogy that sheds light on the current insanity: You arrive at National Airport and ask the cabby for a ride to DC. He asks you where you've flown in from? You say, "Frankly, that's none of your business. I just need a lift into town." He assures you he is just following the rules and the rate will vary depending on from whence you came. It turns out, if you tell him that you've flown in from Dulles (about 20 miles away, still in Virginia but, for arguments sake, across a LATA boundary), he'll tell you the fare is $50. If you tell him you've flown in from California, he'll tell you the fare is only $20. If you tell him you've flown in from London, he'll tell you the fare is $100. Different rates for performing the exact same function.

Certainly the taxi commission, or, at least the Better Business Bureau would not allow this policy to stand. This, however, is what the world of inter-carrier comp is like, and the world into which we IP-based communications entrepreneurs and innovators have been dragged. It's clear this regime cannot survive. I know many IP-based communications providers are essentially chilled from operating in the realm of the PSTN because of the uncertainty and prospect of a usurious charge for accessing an end-user.

So, any steps, even just an additional further inquiry (with some indication that the regime should move more to a peering model) by the FCC, is a positive step. But this is just the latest in a long line of Further Inquiries ad nauseum.

We had been led to believe that the FCC was going to release a very positive Order concurrent with the Further Notice, which would have relieved some of the inequity, some of the veil of uncertainty. Reports and our ex parte meetings with the FCC indicated that the Commission seemed inclined to allow providers to create a "virtual local presence", which would have provided the additional certainty the IP-communications industry needed to ensure that it would not get hit with an outrageous access charge fee just for touching the PSTN. The access rates currently charged by last-mile access providers are completely unjustified (and could not be sustained but for the fact that they still have monopoly control over the end-user access pipe for the origination and termination of traffic). The FCC has indicated a desire to move in the direction of eliminating or at least lowering these rates. The FCC ruling could have, at least, found that the rate should mirror the local "recip comp" rate - an order of magnitue lower than even the lowest access charge rates. The Commission, however, could not muster three votes to verify that result today.

For now, originating and terminating carriers will likely continue to argue that they are justified in gauging those that want to connect to the PSTN and bring innovative services to consumers without the advantage of control over the last-mile access pipe. For now, American consumers might be denied many of the benefits that IP-communications can offer - at least to the extent that providers are afraid of the prospect of unfair access charges.

Posted by jeff at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Worldwide Buzz for Spring 2005 VON Continues to Grow...

The worldwide VoIP Industry will be at Spring 2005 VON when the doors open in less than four weeks. The 230+ exhibitors in our "Sold Out" exhibit hall represent our largest exhibit hall...ever! The Spring 2005 VON conference sessions are growing back to the size we experienced during our 'glory days' of 1998-2001.

While we are actively marketing Spring 2005 VON using various channels around the United States and Canada, it is the strong word-of-mouth buzz that is bringing in delegates from around the world. So far, there are delegates registered from 3334 countries including: Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Puerto Rico, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovenija, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Ukraine, USA, UK and Venezuela.

The registered delegates in San Jose are all part of the VoIP Ecosystem that make up our VON events. There will be people representing just about all aspects of the VoIP food chain.

Today is the day that our VON Billboards are scheduled to appear at various strategic intersections on 101 around the Bay Area. I'm trying out these billboards to do everything possible to make sure that when VON comes to town the week of March 7th, people around Silicon Valley will know that VoIP has arrived.

Momentum for both the upcoming Voice on the Net Canada 2005 and VON Europe 2005 are also strong.

Note: Vendors who are interested in exhibiting at Fall 2005 VON should consider signing up now. The VON Sales team is projecting that the exhibit hall at Fall 2005 VON will be close to sold-out before we arrive in San Jose for the commencement of Spring 2005 VON.

Posted by jeff at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Garden State: Soundtrack - Now Playing in my car...

Last month during my trips to PTC'05 and to our Executive Summit in France, I discovered the music from the film "Garden State" when flying on Delta and listening to their January in-flight programming for their channel 12.

I've since moved the musical experience to my car and for the past couple of weeks (when I've been home), I've been enjoying the soundtrack from the movie "Garden State." (look for the music samples at the bottom of the linked page on Amazon.)

This sound track was well thought out and does not contain the usual assortment of songs one would expect on a movie soundtrack. I've especially enjoyed discovering for myself: Colin Hay: I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You', Nick Drake and his song "One Of These Things First" and rediscovering "The Only Living Boy In New York" by Simon & Garfunkel.

Posted by jeff at 07:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Knowledge@Wharton: On VoIP

The Outlook for VoIP: Regulatory Battles and New Competition

Posted by jeff at 07:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 09, 2005

Back from Washington…and the end of a very long day

This morning I arrived at JFK around 4am on the other end of a redeye flight from Long Beach, CA. Later this morning I made the trek to Washington, D.C. to attend the 2005 Internet Caucus Tech Event & Reception.

Tonight’s event brought together quite a number of policymakers, staffers, industry executives and public interest advocates. There seemed to be more people attending this year than last year.

During the reception I enjoyed the opportunity to catch up with quite a number of people, including Gary Shapiro from CEA/CES.

I fully support the efforts of the Internet Caucus and look forward to the possibility of being a part of their 2006 event.

Posted by jeff at 11:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

IP Communication Industry Anniversaries to Remember in February

February is a historic month in the history of VoIP and IP Communications.

February 12th will mark the one year anniversary of the FCC’s issuance of The Pulver Order .

February 15th will mark the 10 year anniversary of VocalTec’s launch of Internet Phone, an event which in my calendar marks the commercial commencement of the worldwide IP Communications Industry.

Posted by jeff at 09:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

2005 Internet Caucus Tech Event & Reception in DC today

The 2005 Internet Caucus Tech Event & Reception takes place today in Washington, D.C. from 5-7 pm.

Think "High School Science Fair" but instead of demos of "Volcanoes with Flowing Lava" to the faculty and students and parents of a high school, there will be companies showcasing technology innovations to: members of Congress, their staff, people from various Gov't agencies as well as people from the Washington High Tech community.

pulver.com will be one of the companies demonstrating technology innovations at the reception today.

Maybe next year we will find a way to link IP Communications with Volcanoes with Flowing Lava...

Posted by jeff at 08:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 08, 2005

Free Wi-Fi @ Longbeach Airport!

After spending a couple of days in a hotel that did not know how to spell "Wi-Fi", it feels great again to be in a place where Wi-Fi is freely available.

Posted by jeff at 11:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Congressional Joint Tax Committee suggests a VoIP and Broadband Tax:

We spent some time last week lobbying the Administration and Congress against a Congressional Joint Tax Committee proposal that might attempt to impose a $2 Billion tax on VoIP or an $11 Billion tax on Broadband. It seems that this is going to be year of severe budget shortfalls at the municipal, state and Federal levels. I've mentioned in prior blog postings, the efforts by some municipalities and states to fill their coffers through taxing VoIP.

First came the City of Santa Monica, (where I happen to be right now) with its indication that it would begin to tax VoIP -- this in the wake of the FCC's decision that VoIP is strictly a Federal issue. Then, two weeks ago, South Carolina threw out the Net, attempting to tax me for a service on which I derive or generate NO revenue in South Carolina. They've assured us that we don't owe the tax, but that we have to go through the administrative burden of filing as so with the State. I can't imagine if the other 30,000 US jurisdictions and the 200+ countries around the world ask for similar administrative compliance. Even if I don't have to pay a penny in actual taxes (after all, 5% of Free is still nothing), the administrative burden, alone, will chill my continued deployment of free global communications services.

And last week, Congress flags that it would consider the prospect of making up Federal revenue shortfalls by extending the Spanish-American War Excise tax to VoIP or Broadband. I thought that Congress just made quite clear that it had no intention of extending taxes to the Internet and the applications that ride it.

I think we've had a very favorable read from both the Administration and the Congress, that taxing the nascent VoIP industry is not a worthwhile means to make up lost revenue. I think enough folks in government recognize the value of encouraging VoIP, allowing the industry to spur economic growth and not killing it off by siphoning away initial revenue.

Posted by jeff at 09:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An Introduction is…

…an Endorsement!

Something to think about when you are asked to make an introduction on behalf of someone who you hardly know...

Posted by jeff at 07:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Worldwide VoIP Buzz Grows Louder!

Recent stories in the business and consumer press have continued to help increase the worldwide VoIP Buzz.

At the moment, Google shows: 18 million web hits and 5,190 News hits on the term VoIP.

This represents an incremental increase of 300,000+ web hits since I last checked on January 3rd.

Posted by jeff at 06:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 07, 2005

There are some hotels that have not yet discovered Wi-Fi...

...and I'm staying at one of them tonight in Santa Monica. ;-)

In fact, it has been quite some time since I last stayed at a hotel in Santa Monica. I think the last time was 1992.

Back in the days when I used to develope applications for the Quarterdeck platforms, I used to make the trek out to Santa Monica in August for the annual Quarterdeck Developers Conference. The venue at the time was the Santa Monica Lowes Beach Hotel and I would have to say that the people at Quarterdeck went out of their way to make sure that their developer community had a good time at their conferences.

Those were some very interesting times...

I wonder what ever happened to Terry Myers and Stanton Kaye?

Posted by jeff at 09:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Another jetBlue Morning…

Once again I find myself sitting at what has become a familiar table at NYSG inside the jetBlue terminal at JFK. I expect that one day many more airlines will follow the lead of jetBlue and provide free Wi-Fi in their terminals and DirecTV like services in the seats of their planes. Until then, there is is always jetBlue. :-)

Posted by jeff at 05:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Pennsylvania has defined VoIP as a "telecommunications service" for tax purposes

In Pennsylvania, VoIP has recently been defined as a "telecommunications service" in order to apply state and local sales tax.

While the US States can't regulate VoIP, there seems to be no barrier for them to tax it. ;-)

Posted by jeff at 04:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

fwdOUT Status Update:

Number of Registered fwdOUT Nodes: 989
Number of Nodes Online right now: 110
Number of Routes available right now: 979
Number of Google hits on fwdOUT: 321

Posted by jeff at 04:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

February 06, 2005

VoIP Story in U.S. News & World Report

U.S. News & World Report: Dialing for fewer dollars

Posted by jeff at 09:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Another week on the road ahead…

Tomorrow will be another jetBlue day as I will be flying to Long Beach for meetings in the greater Los Angeles area on Monday and Tuesday followed by a trip on Wednesday to Washington, D.C to attend the 2005 Internet Caucus Tech Event & Reception.

At least I can count on being at my desk in my Long Island office on Thursday…

Posted by jeff at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

First VoIP Hearings of 2005 in Washington DC takes place on Wednesday...

Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet
February 9, 2005
2123 Rayburn House Office Building
09:30 AM

"How Internet Protocol-Enabled Services are Changing the Face of Communications: A View from Technology Companies"

While the formal witness list has not yet been posted, I understand that it will include hardware companies: Alcatel, Motorola, Qualcom and Siemens.

While I was in DC last week I heard this hearing will be followed with another hearing specifically on IP voice.

My hope is that I am invited to participate in the House IP Voice hearing. :-)

Posted by jeff at 09:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

2005 VoIP Mission to Israel: Taking place Week of May 8th!

During the past week I started working on the preliminary details regarding a possible "VoIP Mission to Israel" and we are now committed to helping to make this happen!

The dates surrounding our visit are not fixed yet (other than "Week of May 8th"), but I expect to announce the formal dates once we finalize our discussions with the chosen venue and work out the operational logistical information.

The goal of this mission is to bring members of the worldwide IP Communications Industry to the birthplace of commercial VoIP and to spent some time exploring the near term future of where the industry is headed and what we can expect over the next 10 years.

If you are interested in joining this "VoIP Mission" and/or would be in a position to help to recruit others who would be interested in joining us, please drop me a line.

Posted by jeff at 07:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 05, 2005

Mets Open Spring Training on March 3rd...

For the past couple of weeks I have been undecided on whether or not to renew my Mets season tickets. On Friday I ended up making the commitment to join the 2005 Mets season ticket holders line and for me this wasn't an easy decision.

While the Mets have tried their best to make the 2005 Mets a version much different than the 2004 edition, money alone can not make a team. The new superstars who realize that there is no I in “team” hopefully will be able to contribute to the growth of the team. But right now, the players who make up the team known as "The Mets" still need to find themselves and once they do that, from there they maybe can become 'a team.'

It might take more than a season of playing together for this to happen, if it can at all.

I knew that I would be regretful if the Mets had a GREAT year and I didn't opt-in for my tickets. Unfortunately the Mets box office does not offer 'bad season insurance' just in case the 2005 Mets end up being no better than the 2004 Mets. ;-)

I'm not sure how long into the 2005 campaign it will take for the real Mets team to emerge. Hopefully they will learn how to win again.

I still hold out hope for the Red Sox to continue their own winning ways in 2005.

Posted by jeff at 04:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Long Island Business News story on BellsterfwdOUT

Long Island Business News: Pulver ushers in 'Napster' for phone members (Subcription required).

"...Independent telecom analyst David Isenberg said that to his knowledge there are no legal barriers to the use of Bellster

"I'm not aware of any legal issues," he said. "Unlike a lot of consumer equipment, I don't know of any service agreement on the telephone network that says you can't forward calls. I don't think there's any fine print."

Isenberg, based in Cos Cob, Conn., also raised the possibility that Bellster could "mutate" into a disruptive technology.

"The law of unintended consequences looms large," he said."

Posted by jeff at 04:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

AOL will be at Spring 2005 VON!

It seems that others have started to notice that Jonathan Miller, Chairman and CEO, America Online, Inc. will be speaking at Spring 2005 VON. I am looking forward to his presentation at VON.

The positive buzz surrounding Spring 2005 VON just continues to grow! :-)

While I was in DC this week, I dropped by AOL, caught up with some of my contacts there, and worked on the logistics associated with Mr. Miller's visit to Spring 2005 VON.

AOL does have some pretty amazing people working there these days.

Posted by jeff at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Poker will return at Fall 2005 VON in Boston

Based on our success of our first charity poker event that we held at Fall 2004 VON, I had been looking forward to hosting another one at Spring 2005 VON.

It turns out that in the county of San Jose, there is a rule that states that no more than 50 "live" poker tables can be active at any given moment and the week of Spring 2005 VON, happens to overlap with the World Poker Tour's visit to Bay 101.

We tried to work with the local authorities on getting a variance for our charity event and were told "NO!" quite a few times.

So...look for our next Charity Poker event to take place on Sunday September 18th in Boston.

Posted by jeff at 09:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

BellsterfwdOUT: After Two Weeks - Still Misunderstood and Growing...

BellsterfwdOUT (as in Free World DialOUT) is in the process of helping to build a series of 'community' bridges between end-to-end IP networks and 'public' networks, which include both PSTN and cellular.

fwdOUT is a 'social communications' experiment and so far the two week results have been quite encouraging.

There are some people in the blogsphere who don't understand the drivers of fwdOUT (they never asked me directly) but yet they feel a need to blog a comment on what they think is going on, even if they are not in the know of what is really happening. This aspect of the blogsphere continues to be a source of my own personal amusement. :-)

So, for the record, fwdOUT is a free, non-commercial directory service that does offer access to a global, personal, 'phone-patch' like network, where the community of people offering the service all have access to the same. In some ways we are treating internet access providers as providers of just 'dumb pipes' and we are helping to connect people with people via our directory service.

We believe in 'disruptive communications' and the evolution of 'end-to-end' IP and are looking at ways to leverage these phenomena in ways which have not happened yet.

At the moment there are some fwdOUT nodes currently servicing hundreds/thousand(s) of local users. (think Universities). So while we have "only" 107 connected nodes on-line at the moment, the number of people being served by these nodes are already in the thousands (and possibility tens of thousands) range.

As the number of fwdOUT nodes continue to grow, the fwdOUT Network starts to become able to deliver much more in terms of absolute communication possibilities. We are in the process of building a parallel platform for future communication experimentation.

fwdOUT is not a US focused project but rather an international one. The majority of routes available right now are to non-US destinations. The majority of active fwdOUT nodes are non-US nodes connecting with other non-US nodes. This isn't about "toll by-pass." This is about connecting end-points with end-points.

The people from around the world who have been signing up to run a fwdOUT node are in sync with our balanced approached to sharing local, personal communication platforms.

Our developer team has been working on reducing the barriers to entry for new fwdOUT nodes to get online and I expect to have news about this prior to Spring 2005 VON in San Jose.

fwdOUT: Two weeks old and two weeks strong!

Posted by jeff at 07:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 04, 2005

Free World DialOUT (fwdOUT) Status Update:

Number of Registered fwdOUT Nodes: 937
Number of Nodes Online right now: 106
Number of Routes available right now: 965
Number of Google hits on fwdOUT: 134

Online routes include access to cities in: 24 Countries
(Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, UK, USA)

The fwdOUT team is currently working on ways to make it easier (and much less costly) for new nodes to become available. :-)

Posted by jeff at 11:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Catch up day in Washington, D.C.

VoIP is live and well in and around Washington, D.C.

Today is the first of a few planned trips during this month to catch up on the 'state' of VoIP in DC from both a Capitol Hill perspective.

pulver.com will be back in DC at the 2005 Internet Caucus Tech Event & Reception on February 9th and I will be giving a keynote at the Winter 2005 NARUC Meeting on February 14th.

Posted by jeff at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fast Net Futures 2005: March 7-9 in San Jose

Dave Burstein's 2005 edition of Fast Net will be co-located with Spring 2005 VON and will be taking place March 7-9th.

From DSL Prime:

"March 8 at Fast Net in San Jose: 100 megabit DSL, both upstream and down, from both Metalink and Ikanos. March 9, Gigabit EPON from UTStarcom. Inside IPTV with the people creating it. The best of Wall Street. Cioffi's latest. Some of the most imaginative thinkers. Be There."

Register today for Fast Net 2005.

Posted by jeff at 08:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bellster / fwdOUT story in Business Week

BusinessWeek: TEA, Sympathy, and Free Calls

fwdOUT receives a vote of confidence from BusinessWeek. :-)

Posted by jeff at 07:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 03, 2005

pulver.com “2005 World Tour” visits Reston, VA

Earlier today I was one of the guest speakers at an AT&T Wholesale sales meeting which took place at the Hyatt Regency in Reston, VA. I really enjoyed the speaking opportunity and the chance to catch up with some of the people who have been long-time supporters of the VON events.

Tonight I’m once again back in Washington, D.C., staying at one of my favorite hotels in D.C.

Posted by jeff at 10:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Latest fwdOUT Status Update:

Number of Threatened Lawsuits: 0
Number of Registered Bellster Nodes: 899
Number of Nodes Online right now: 100
Number of Routes available right now: 882
Number of Google hits on fwdOUT: 15

Posted by jeff at 03:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It’s Groundhog Day…Again (sort of)

This morning is repeating itself with yesterday. Just like yesterday I find myself getting ready to leave my home for a trip at a time when even I am normally still sleeping.

Today I’m leaving for Dulles, VA for meetings today in and around Reston, VA.

Tonight I will be in Washington, D.C. and catching up with the VON Coalition.

Posted by jeff at 03:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

How do you go from BELLSTER -->fwdOUT in 8 simple steps?

BELLSTER --> FELLSTER --> FELLSTET -->FELLSTUT --> FELLSOUT --> FELLDOUT -->FEWDOUT --> FWDOUT

I have agreed to change the name of Bellster to fwdOUT. As the owner of several trademarks, including VON and FWD, I understand a company's desire to zealously protect a trademark.

So why fwdOUT?

You can't imagine the lengthy list of names we plowed through en route to fwdOUT. In the final analysis, I thought fwdOUT made sense for several reasons. First of all, what is the service? It is "forwarding (fwd) out" to the local PSTN. Second, the product really is true to the original intention of FWD, when I first envisioned it some ten years ago. Ten years ago, however, the technology could not support the concept. Then open source happened, and more specifically Asterisk, and the original concept is now technologically viable. So, to some extent fwdOUT is the culmination of ten years of technological developments that has allowed us to realize the original intention behind FWD version 1.0.

I have some lingering concerns that fwdOUT will be mistaken for FWD, an entirely distinct project of mine. But I guess that is my own ministerial concern at this point.

For now, enjoy the viral potential of fwdOUT, and let's see how we might change the global communications landscape.

I intend to replace references to Bellster with references to fwdOUT and redirect all inquiries to www.fwdout.net. An interesting question remains: How do I replace all the references to Bellster with references to fwdOUT on all the websites, blogs and online chats on the Internet? At last count, Bellster amassed 112,000 google hits during its first week in operation. Talk about your universal search and replace!

Posted by jeff at 12:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 02, 2005

Back at 55 Cambridge Parkway...

Back in the mid to late 1980’s, I used to be a frequent visitor to Lotus Development Corp whose corporate headquarters were at: 55 Cambridge Parkway in Cambridge, MA. For a period of time, Lotus was my home away from home and still today I miss the Lotus I once knew.

Back when Lotus was home for spreadsheet innovation, it was a real fun place to visit and work at, and they used to throw a great Developers conference. In fact, our VON Events were initially designed around my impressions of attending the Lotus Developer Conferences from 1986-1992. The VON parties grew from the fun that Lotus used to share with their customer parties during their annual Lotus Week events.

All these years later I find myself once again in the lobby of the Royal Sonesta Hotel, connected to: 55 Cambridge Parkway, waiting for my first meeting of the day. :-)

Posted by jeff at 07:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Back on the Road...

After spending a couple of days this week in the pulver.com office on Long Island, I'm "on the road again" the rest of the week with day trips scheduled for: MA, VA and DC.

This morning I'm flying up to Boston on one of the first flights of the day from LGA.

Posted by jeff at 04:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Spring 2005 VON Conference Schedule Update

Spring 2005 VON is now less than 5 weeks away. The industry trade show for VoIP is taking place March 7-10, at the San Jose Convention Center in California.

I am especially excited to announce that Jonathan Miller, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of America Online Inc, has joined the line up of Industry Perspectives at the Spring 2005 VON Conference. Other confirmed Industry Perspectives include:

- Jeff Pulver, CEO, pulver.com
- Jonathan Miller, CEO, America Online, Inc.
- Robert Pepper, Chief of Policy Development, FCC
- Hossein Eslambolchi, CTO, CIO, President GNTs, AT&T
- Eugene Roman, Group President, Systems & Technology, Bell Canada
- Dick Notebaert, Chairman & CEO, Qwest Communications International
- James Crowe, CEO, Level 3 Communications
- Christopher Fine, Vice President, Goldman Sachs
- Micky Tsui, VP & GM, Communication Systems Division, Avaya
- Les Vadasz
- Stewart Alsop, General Partner, New Enterprise Associates
- Michael Gallagher, Assistant Secretary of Commerce, US Dept of Commerce
- Alistair Woodman, Senior Director, Office of the CTO, Cisco Systems
- Susan Kennedy, Commissioner, California PUC
- Stephan Beckert, Director of Research, TeleGeography
- Chris Gilbert, CEO, IPWireless
- John Yoakum, Emerging Opportunities, Nortel Networks
- Henry Sinnreich, Distiguished Member of Engineering, MCI
- Richard Shockey, Strategic Technologies Initiatives, NeuStar
- Douglas Van Houweling, President and CEO, Internet2
- Mark Spencer, President, Digium/Asterisk

There’s still time to register if you haven’t done so already. But be quick – and do make your travel plans as soon as you can – accomodations are getting tight in San Jose.

Hope to see you in San Jose!

Posted by jeff at 12:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 01, 2005

A day in the Blogsphere…

I believe that Aswath understands what Bellster is about.

Om is still trying to figure us out. ;-)

The Bellster team understands that asterisk “is not for broke techno-lightweights” and that the cost of distance calling is nothing like it used to be.

Om wrote:

"However, there is an economic reality most over look. The current long distance prices are much lower than local rates. If you don't believe me, then check your phone bill. It costs more to make calls from San Francisco to Palo Alto, then it does from San Francisco to London. Even VoIP calls are so microscopically cheap, that I don't see the economic value to it.

This is an idea which has been tried before and in the early 1990s, a whole industry cropped up around it."

and we wonder out loud: “Does he realize that we were the ones who did this for the first time back in 1995?" and then we ask: "and it has to be economically viable to be used?”

Bellster is a platform for innovation. This will become more obvious over time.

Bellster has enough routes available at the moment where it can now reach over 10% the world’s population after only a week!

Free World Dialup (“FWD”) is viable, at least as a loss leader for other products and services. but, FWD can only reach a tiny percentage of the population.

On the other hand, can FWD is easily used by 3% of the world's population where as Bellster is probably limited to maybe 0.0002% (or less) unless someone buys a turnkey system.

---

Tuesday Bellster update:

Number of Registered Bellster Nodes: 859
Number of Nodes Online right now: 102
Number of Routes available right now: 907

According to Google, there are now: 116,000 hits on the term "Bellster."

Posted by jeff at 11:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Om Malik on Bellster

Om Malik on Broadband: The Bellster Bellyache

Sometimes it is better being misunderstood.

Posted by jeff at 06:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

VoIP in Prague

The Prague Post: Phoning For Free

Posted by jeff at 06:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

VoIP Mission to Israel: May 8-9, 2005

February 15th will mark the 10 year anniversary of VocalTec's introduction of IPhone and the commercial commencement of the IP Communications Revolution.

With respect to VocalTec and to the very many other Israeli companies responsible for helping to make VoIP happen over the years, I have started working on plans to organize a "VoIP Mission to Israel" which is tentatively scheduled to take place May 8-9th.

The goal of this mission is to bring members of the worldwide IP Communications Industry to the birthplace of commercial VoIP and to spent some time exploring the near term future of where the industry is headed and what we can expect over the next 10 years. I do hope some of our friends from Washington, D.C. would be able to join us.

If you are interested in joining this "VoIP Mission" and/or would be in a position to help to recruit others who would be interested in joining us, please drop me a line.

This "VoIP Mission" has been a 5 year 'work-in-progress' and something that I would like to see happen in 2005.

Posted by jeff at 12:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)