January Media Roundup

I've got a backlog of posts that I'll get to over the next few days. They're not time-sensitive news items, and I still think you'll find them of interest. Until then, here's my roundup of January media citings. It was a pretty busy month for me, and I expect to see more of the same for February.

- 2009 telecom/tech trends outlook - Backbone Magazine

- VoIP's outlook - TMCnet

- IT Expo preview/spotlight on JAA with Rich Tehrani - TMCnet

- Nortel's customer prospects - Tech Media Reports

- Nortel's partnership prospects - Fierce Telecom

- Interview with Greg Galitzine about SIP Trunking - TMCnet

- Outlook for Rogers Communications - ITWorld Canada

- 2009 Canadian telecom outlook - Tech Media Reports

- 2009 Canadian wireless operator outlook - Tech Media Reports


Circle ID picked up a post of mine about one of Nortel's bright spots, and it had some pretty strong readership:

- Nortel... the Good News: Web.Alive


I contribute Ask The Expert writeups for Tech Target's Unified Communications portal, and had one piece posted in January:

- Are we too late for VoIP?


Finally, as usual, I wrote two articles for my Service Provider Views column on TMCnet:

- Jaduka - Another Take on the Platform Play - Q&A with Jack Rynes

- VoIP: Definitely Not Dead Yet, the Sequel


Some of the above pieces require log-ins or subscriptions, and if this is problematic, let me know, as I have soft copies on file.

IT Expo Follow-Ons and Other News of Note

I'm not alone in saying that this week's IT Expo was a great success and exceeded expectations on a few levels. That's saying a lot in this economy, and it's a testament to the TMC organization, and their continued focus on a market they know very well. I was pleased to be a part of it, and can definitely say being there was worth my while.

I only had a chance to post about the Expo once, and it's been totally go-go today following up on new leads from the show and fulfilling existing client work. A lot has happened since I last posted, and am going to round up a few notable items for you now in this post.

First, some buzz around the show itself. TMC's Tom Keating had a solid round up today of commentary about how the Expo was. The headline of Tom's post made me smile, as his writeup was a nice vindication of my TMCnet columns a few weeks back proclaiming that VoIP is not dead, which sparked a healthy debate on both sides of the argument. No doubt in my mind that the IT Expo places another checkmark in the "alive" column.

Second, continuing with the IT Expo theme, TMC's Greg Galitzine posted the Best In Show winners the other day. Lots of familiar names there, and I just wanted to wave the flag to acknowledge the Canadians in the mix:

- Phybridge - best Large Enterprise Solution
- Industry Dynamics - best Large Enterprise Solution
- Pronexus - best Development Tool
- Sangoma - best Development Tool
- TelcoBridges - best Onsite Product Launch

I'm especially glad to see the first three on this list, as they were all part of the Ontario/Canada Pavilion trade delegation, which had a prominent presence on the show floor, and a ridiculously popular reception on Tuesday. I don't get to say this very often, but their initiative to support emerging Ontario tech companies is a great example of our tax dollars being put to good use!

Third, Fierce VoIP had strong coverage throughout the Expo, and it was nice seeing Doug Mohney popping in and out of the sessions. They posted a nice slideshow of the Expo, including a couple of me during my SIP Trunking presentation.

Fourth, Response Point/SMB Phone launch. Microsoft had a healthy presence during the Expo around Response Point, and they seem bound and determined to become a player in the SMB IP telephony market. Building on their launch with Packet 8 at the previous IT Expo, the news I want to focus on here is the launch of SMB Phone. Huh? Ok, SMB Phone isn't a household name, but many of you will know Erik Lagerway. Aside from his blogging activity, he's a classic serial entrepreneur, and SMB Phone is his latest venture along with partner Trent Johnsen. Erik and Trent most recently ran Shift Communications, and SMB Phone looks to be a bigger and better story. At the Expo on Monday, they announced the launch of their Digital Voice service for the Canadian SMB market. SMB Phone is solely built around the Microsoft Response Point product, and they are the first and only service provider partner to support it in Canada. For now, they have the market to themselves, and I sure hope they can lock Canada up before the space gets too crowded. Congrats, guys - nice to see you back in the game.

Fifth - Iotum's iPhone news. Gee, this Canadian theme sure is strong. Don't let the cold winters fool you - we don't just hibernate in our igloos, y'know. Iotum has been on a good roll lately with its Calliflower conferencing platform. The latest news came Tuesday, announcing their availability on the iPhone. While not an IT Expo item, it's another good news story out of Canada, and CEO Alec Saunders provides a graphic walk-through of how Calliflower works on the iPhone on his blog.

Sixth - more Apple news. Another item that got a lot of attention today was Jajah's announcement of their latest service that gives the iPod Touch the voice capability of the iPhone. Their platform provides a turnkey solution enabling any operator to offer a service for iTouch users to make calls or send SMS. It's great news for Jajah, and it helped make my day, as they were nice enough to quote me in their press release.

That's enough news for one day. Back to work now...

IT Expo - So far...

So far, so good here at the IT Expo. All told, actually, I'd say better than expected. Monday was totally go-go for me, and didn't get a chance to post at all. Others did, though, so a good starting point is,of course, Rich Tehani. Just scroll through his on-the-spot, up-to-the-minute posts, and you'll get a flavor of how well attended these sessions have been.

Other posts I've picked on so far with first impressions of the show include Andy Abramson, IPCI partner Marc Robins (yes, he's finally back blogging!), and Moshe Maier. Am sure there are plenty others, but I need to get this post done quickly before my next round of briefings.

If you want to a great read on why conferences matter and why you should attend them as best you can, you need to take in Andy Abramson's post from yesterday morning, which set the tone nicely for the Expo. People must be taking his advice, because in spite of a gloomy economy and travel restrictions, the attendance here has been very strong. That's good news for TMC, and it's great news for Carl Ford and Scott Kargman, who partnered with TMC for their 4G wireless event, and they've been pulling in great numbers as well.

Just have time to quickly post a few images from yesterday and this morning...

This morning, I hosted a breakfast sponsored by the Ontario government and the government of Canada. It's part of their trade delegation to support Ontario based companies, and they have a pretty big pavilion on the show floor. Lots of good companies there, and the turnout this morning was great.



Last night was the Microsoft Response Point dinner. Just a handful of bloggers invited, and it was a great way to get better connected to where Microsoft is going in this space. As you can see, the Bold doesn't take great shots in low light, but this dinner really did happen...



Couldn't resist. I've never seen such an elaborate storefront for a Psychic before. Was tempted to ask what their outlook was for telecom was - maybe they know something we don't....



Shots from the show floor during the reception last night - busy, busy...







Finally, a couple of Miami views. The classic Deco hotels on Collins Ave., and the view from my room. Wish you were here....

BroadSoft Xtended Updates

Yesterday, BroadSoft issued a press release to update the market on how things are progressing with its Xtended platform. I was briefed on it earlier this week, but with all the preparations for the IT Expo and client work, I haven't had a chance to post until now.

While there was no groundbreaking news, it was a helpful update with some proof points about how the platform is gaining traction since launching in March 2008. They talked about 5 commercial deployments - Alteva, SimpleSignal, Telesphere, Unity and WorldxChange Communications - and how the Xtended developer community grown to almost 1,500. That's a lot of brainpower working on cool Web 2.0 apps, and I really like what BroadSoft is doing here. I attended their Connections event back in October, and you can get a good sense of this community from my post.

Just like the Apple Apps Store or the Android Marketplace, BroadSoft has their Xtended Marketplace, so that's where you should visit to see the specific apps and mashups they have on tap.

My favorite is the Chumby - what a great name! I saw this at Connections - very cool. It's like a bedside clock radio, but is digital and web-enabled. Sort of a cuddlier gadget to sleep with than your smartphone - which I'm sure lots of people do. I don't want to get started on how people can't bear to be "disconnected" - even when they sleep - but you have to admit, this is a great gadget. Not something you'd normally associate with BroadSoft, but get used to it. Like Cisco, they're trying very hard to create a real consumer presence, and on some levels, I like their chances.

While all this good news was welcome, one has to ask the question as to why no updates were given about their progress integrating Sylantro. Well? Isn't that the news most of us are waiting for? Let's just say they're not ready to go there yet, but there will be some news coming about their relationship with IBM.

I'd have to say that's a good sign of how BroadSoft is making inroads with enteprise communications platforms. They already have some good things going with Microsoft, and the IBM story can only mean Lotus Notes, and together, this would give them very strong coverage. Of course, Sylantro had some history with IBM as well, and I'm sure one of their challenges is consolidating these Tier 1 relationships where there was duplicate coverage.

Service Provider Views - Q&A with Jaduka

Just in time for next week's TMC IT Expo, my latest Service Provider Views column was posted this morning.

I've been big on the platform play theme in my column, and Jaduka is another company doing some great things here, especially for enterprise applications. For this column, I did a Q&A with Jaduka's President, Jack Rynes, so for a change you get to hear about platform plays first hand from a leading practitioner. You can read the column here, and if you like it, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Jack too!

And if you haven't made plans to attend the Expo - or the 4G wireless show running next door - there's still time. Aside from the extensive content and exhibitor presence, it sounds like hotel space is available and the weather is getting warmer. When it's snowing like it is today in Toronto, these things all add up to a pretty good idea. Hope to see you there.

eComm 2009 - Direct Updates from Lee Dryburgh

Am doing a fair bit of boosterism lately for conferences I'm spending time at - well, times are tough, and viral marketing is easy and cheap to do.

On Monday, Lee Dryburgh did his Squawk Box segment with Alec Saunders, so it's a good chance to hear first hand from "LeeComm" how things are coming along and what you can expect to see at eComm 2009.

The podcast was just posted late last night, but it's as timely now as it was Monday morning! It's a long listen - almost an hour - but there's lots to talk about. The eComm roster is strong, and the content will be first rate, so if disruption and innovation is your thing, this should be on your March calendar.

Lee continues to tirelessly transcribe interviews he's done with some of the presenters, and you can read these on the eComm blog. The most recent entries are interviews with Jan Linden of Global IP Solutions and Andreas Constantinou of Vision Mobile.

Flat Planet Brings VoIP to Mobility - and the IT Expo

On Friday, Israeli colleague Moshe Maier post some news on his blog that ties in nicely to TMC's IT Expo, which starts a week today. Can't wait!

Moshe's company - The Flat Planet Phone Company - has been doing its part to bring innovation and disruption to the masses with a VoIP platform that allows anyone - anyone - to become a service provider. You don't like your local telco? Now you have a choice - become your own telco. Why not?

The latest news is a LCR - Least Cost Routing - engine, that FPPC will offer now for mobile VoIP. There are lots of mobile VoIP solutions out there, but you don't see them talking about LCR. And it's great to see a mobile VoIP offering that works on all cellphones - not just smartphones. You can read the details on Moshe's blog post, as well as some follow up from Andy Abramson and Alec Saunders.

The service formally launches at the IT Expo next week, so you can expect to hear more buzz about it then. But as bloggers, we certainly don't mind getting pre-briefed now.

If you want to get more of a first-hand taste, please drop my IT Expo session next Monday at noon. With a bit of clever planning, I've managed to get Moshe added to this panel, so if mobile VoIP is on your radar, you'll want to join us.