Doug on IP Comm » Carrier services

Going to The Cable Show 2012 in Boston, May 21-22

Doug Mohney — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:15:40 +0000

Now that the HD Voice 2012 report is done, I’m now able to travel a bit more.

I’ll be at The Cable Show 2012 in Boston, from mid-day on Monday, May 21, through Tuesday afternoon, May 22.

The HD Voice News 2012 report is (finally) out. Whew

Doug Mohney — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:10:37 +0000

Did I ever mention that I’m Editor-in-Chief of HD Voice News? (OK, not really a joke to anyone who regularly reads this blog).

“HD Voice 2012: Proliferation” is now available at TMCnet.com. It was a much larger task to put together and edit than I anticipated, due to the rapid ramp in HD voice adoption going on around the world. You can find a description of the report here.

The net-net upshot is: HD voice has already in Europe, coming to America (“I feel good!”), and has a significant and growing presence in Asia and Africa.

With Sprint planning to introduce 3G CDMA HD voice in the US by late 2012 (and if you don’t understand what I just said, you should at least take a quick look at www.hdvoicenews.com), the pace and availability of deployments is picking up. Get excited. Buy a copy of my report. Buy two copies, give one to a friend…

Digium does hardware–services next?

Doug Mohney — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 19:13:31 +0000

Digium, the self-proclaimed “Asterisk Company,” is turning into the jack-of-all-trades company. For Enterprise Connect in Orlando this week, the company has rolled out “the first” of a family of VoIP gateways. Last month (well, more like two months ago), the company introduced its first IP phones at IT EXPO. I’m betting a cloud services offering at some point.

The new hardware are the G100 and G200 gateways, to support TDM-to-SIP and SIP-to-TDM applications (i.e. phone calls). With software based on the Asterisk “communications engine” and managed through a Digium point-and-click GUI, the gateways feature a power-saving design and “purpose-built” media processing capability via the DSP .

As you might expect, the G100 includes a single software-selectable T1/E1/PRI interface and supports up to 30 concurrent calls, while the G200 has two (2) T1/E1/PRI interfaces and supports up to 60 concurrent calls. Both models have integrated echo cancellation, a small footprint of 1U, half-width, half-depth, and no moving parts. List for the G100 is $1,195 while the G200 is $1,995. Hardware available today through a Digium distributor or integrator.

Digium’s move into more hardware begs the question as to how many other shiny products the company will roll into a VoIP hardware market already chock full of OEMs and name brands.

It’s not like there isn’t a market for VoIP hardware, mind you, given that the world is not even starting to crank into high gear to kick the TDM habit.

But hardware manufactures are starting to zag into services; Ericsson, Polycom, and ShoreTel all have rolled out cloud/hosted services, so it’s not a far-fetched idea to see Digium introduce a branded-version of Asterisk on a cloud.

New mobile service: AT&T or Verizon?

Doug Mohney — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 13:17:06 +0000

While I’ve had Sprint since forever, I’m in the process of reviewing other options. Sure I’ve got “unlimited” data, but I’ve been paying the $10 extra for WiMax, but I’ve only used it a handful of times at best. I have to pay more money to enable Wi-Fi tethering on my HTC Evo.

I don’t have strong (Sprint) cell service where I live; I was shocked to see how much better AT&T was.

And then there’s the weird software roaming glitch I encountered when I went downtown to DC. The EVO up and died in 3G, giving “Network error” but 4G worked fine when it was available. To clear the error, I had to cold boot my phone.

However, both AT&T and Verizon have the whole data cap thing – which seems to defeat the purpose of having LTE in the first place. And Verizon has had considerable hiccups with the operation of its LTE network.

Soo…I don’t know. I’ve been pleased with the AT&T 3G data service on my Apple iPad and it was a treat to be able to swap out SIM cards (see www.dougontech.com) in Iceland to enable 3G service out of the U.S. Going to LTE is likely to cause all kinds of weirdness should I have to travel overseas.

Enterprise Connect 2012 on the event schedule

Doug Mohney — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:08:21 +0000

Enterprise Connect 2012 has been added to the spring event schedule. Currently looking at a March 26 arrival with a March 27 departure.

Briefing topics and meeting schedule to be determined. For a briefing request, email moo@vegascommando.com

From Metaswitch Forum 2011–My video interview

Doug Mohney — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:10:18 +0000

My video chat with the Metaswitch PR guy

We talk about the migration from TDM to IP and why face-to-face events continue to be important.

(I’m the guy in the pink shirt, FYI).

ADTRAN beefs up Ethernet, FTTH hardware

Doug Mohney — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 19:26:04 +0000

In a pair of announcements last week, ADTRAN (www.adtran.com) added to its Carrier Ethernet portfolio and doubled the capacity of its Total Access 5000 for Active Ethernet and GPON applications.

On the Ethernet side, new solutions include:

NetVanta 868 Carrier Ethernet Access Gateway for large enterprises.
- Extending 100 – 400Mbps Ethernet services to a variety of vertical markets whose locations continue to wait for fiber installation.

NetVanta 850 Carrier Ethernet Access Gateway for infrastructure backhaul.
- Extending 50 – 100Mbps Ethernet backhaul services to service both cell site and DSLAM backhaul in response to 4G and residential broadband initiatives.

Total Access^® 1424S-CE Carrier Ethernet Access Gateway for remote offices.
- Extending both 10 and 100Mbps Ethernet services to far-flung branch offices.

The Total Access 5000 is now capable of supporting 5,376 GPON subscribers and 504 Active Ethernet subscribers per chassis. ADTRAN has also added a new family of universe ONTs which provide auto-sensing support for both Active Ethernet and GPON.

I will likely hear more about both these products at Metaswitch Forum in Vegas next week.

Reminder–Taking briefings at Metaswitch Forum in October

Doug Mohney — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 15:08:14 +0000

I’ll be at Metaswitch Forum in Las Vegas from October 3 through October 6, so if you’re looking for an opportunity to brief face-to-face, this is it.

Coordination through the Metaswitch press people (Engage PR) is suggested, but not required.

There’s also an invite-only event where to go out to Mike Tyson’s house at 3:30 AM in the morning and try to see his tiger.

And now, for something completely different on SBCs and PR firms…

Doug Mohney — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 15:35:41 +0000

Anyone who KNOWS me, really knows me, knows that I get annoyed at PR firms. I thought I had mellowed in my old age and really hadn’t been set off. Then I get an email today…

SBC leader Acme Packet (www.acmepacket.com) used to have a very good PR firm. I got regular briefings at trade shows from the product manager(s) when I was writing for VON and the other publications I was associated with, occasionally got quality time with senior level executives who provided further insight into the thinking and personality of the company.

About a year ago, Acme switched PR firms. And suddenly everything just stopped.

No press releases, no regular briefings, na-da.

If memory serves, the last time I had a briefing with Acme was probably a year ago, at Metaswitch Forum. I met with Acme’s new VP of Marketing, complained that 1) the new PR firm had sent out some generic pitch written by a just-out-of-college “associate” that made it sound like I didn’t know the first thing about Acme and 2) Then stopped sending me press releases at all.

Fast forward to today. I get an email from one of the execs of above-mentioned PR firm who wants to set up a briefing with Acme because a few weeks ago I wrote a story about Metaswitch’s (www.metaswitch.com) Permeta SBC and now wants to have a “conversation.”

And…“We know we haven’t had the opportunity to speak with you in awhile, apologies for that in advance.”

NO, you didn’t CREATE the opportunity, so now you’re starting cold after Acme has done a whole bunch of things to build up the company over the past year. Newsworthy things. Things that would have been appropriate for at least two of the publications I contribute to.

Acme Packet is no slouch. I would wager they are paying anywhere between $5,000 to $10,000 (or more) per month for this PR firm to represent them. So let’s break this down–

1) When new PR first gets the account a year ago, it gets a rookie wage-slave to send out some lame-ass pitch in an email blast, rather than taking 5 minutes to make a list of people who have written about Acme over the past 24 months and then taking a more personal approach.

I may not love Microsoft, but its PR firm does its homework in spades. Never would have done a bush-league stunt in the first place.

2) After a month, it becomes clear I’m not getting press release in email. I complain. NOthing happens.

3) Today, I get an email that comes over/occurs because I’ve written a story about Metaswitch’s entry in to the SBC marketplace.

I start writing about potential competitors to Acme and suddenly the PR firm wants to offer a “conversation.” After a year.

Hmm, in the time since Acme Packet’s PR firm has set up a briefing or sent out a press release NEARLY A YEAR, the company has–

a) Been named by Fortune among the world’s 100 fastest growing public traded companies

b) Added some executives, changed others (Congrats on the promotion Seamus! Your PR firm didn’t tell me…)

c) Racked up all kinds of record revenue and earnings over the past number of quarters

d) Expanded its headquarters

e) Enhanced its platforms to do hardware-based transcoding

f) Adding new high-end-carrier grade platforms…

g….

Seriously, do I have to go on? Acme Packet has obviously done a lot of things since October 2010.

Emailing press releases and making an occasional phone call/inquiry to writers is what PR firms are supposed to do.

Showing up at my doorstep because I write something about a potential competitor’s entry into the marketplace after a year doesn’t win anyone any points.

*** UPDATE at 2:45 PM ET***

PR is as much about ongoing relationships as it is about news. I’m not talking about fancy dinners or brown-nosing, I’m talking about a level of comfort and steady involvement/engagement between a PR firm and the media.

Metaswitch Forum 2011–The Power of "M”–but what about JAMES BOND?!?

Doug Mohney — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 19:55:24 +0000

Theme for the upcoming Metaswitch Forum 2011 in Las Vegas is: The Power of “M.”

Uh hmm.

Now I’m nothing but an uncivilized American, but even I know that when we talk about the power of “M,” we’re talking James Bond’s “M.” Even Wikipedia has “M” listed as James Bond!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M_%28James_Bond%29

Take your pick, either old-school Bernard Lee M or new school Dame Judi Dench.

I prefer the new school M because she’s never taken any guff from Brosnan or Craig, but it’s a very, very narrow divide, since Bernard Lee is a tough act to follow.