Doug on IP Comm

Metaswitch buys AppTrigger (or that didn’t take long).

Doug Mohney — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:27:11 +0000

Metaswitch (www.metaswitch.com) announced it is going to acquire AppTrigger (www.apptrigger.com), a provider of “Service Broker” solutions. Given that new CEO Kevin DeNuccio has barely had time to move into his new office, one wonders what other surprises the company has in store in the months to come.

DeNuccio, previously a board member with deep roots in the IP communications industry including stints as a senior VP at Cisco and CEO of Redback Networks, became CEO on February 4; the deal was announced on March 9, so do the math.

As is typical, terms of the deal weren’t announced and it’s hard to tell if MetaSwitch has decided to spend just cash on the acquisition or if a stock/cash deal took place – this is a first time deal for MetaSwitch and a much different philosophy (i.e. acquisition rather than steady organic growth) than management and the board of directors had last year.

AppTrigger’s business is enabling established applications to be provided across new networks while also bringing new services to legacy customers. From a telephony perspective, there’s a lot of different moving parts that AppTrigger puts together into one package and brings to the table, including of media, signaling, call control, and a family of APIs for developers.

For carriers moving out of legacy networks and into IP (hello! FCC talking about migrating off the PSTN, hello!), AppTrigger provides a “purpose-built” reusable software network element to manage service interaction and service composition, residing between the service layer and the converging network.

AppTrigger boasts of its Ignite platform being deployed in multiple Tier 1 networks worldwide and has 17 pre-defined applications interworking solutions ready to go.

Throw in LTE and mobile and 4G and VoIP/IMS and you get a lot of interesting ideas as to where a MetaSwitch/AppTrigger combo can go, especially when MetaSwitch can present the AppTrigger solution to its existing customer base of carriers.

Be interesting to see if other acquisitions take place in the months to come, or if this is more like a less frequent occurrence.

The emerging broadband wars

Doug Mohney — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:11:29 +0000

With members of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) flitting about dropping the broad outline of what a national broadband strategy could encompass, it is clear some service providers are much better positioned than others to live up to a goal of 100 Mbps in 100 million homes by 2020. Others are clearly scared and above it all Google has got municipalities performing cheap stunts – to borrow a phrase from Howard Stern, “Bark like a dog!”

Players who are ready to step up to the plate — See, Blair Levin, baseball analogy, wink-wink – include the cable industry and Verizon. Comcast’s Xfinity offering/marketing repackage includes a nice line about “100 Mbps soon” and they’ve nearly got all that shiny new DOCSIS 3.0 infrastructure out. Other cable companies, including Cox – my provider – are also on the DOCSIS 3.0 bandwagon, a technology capable of proving up to 600 Mbps downstream and 200 Mbps up.

Verizon’s FiOS fiber-to-the-home network is already positioned to one-up cable, however, depending on how you want to split hairs. While the company currently only sells 50 Mbps as its max speed, this is due to marketing considerations rather than actual hardware capacity in most markets. Initial FiOS deployments started with 155 Mbps gear, but shifted to GPON – Gigabit speeds, bunkie. A couple of years ago, Verizon engineers were scoping out 10GPON and wavelength-to-the-home gear for future deployments.

Needless to say, Verizon could crank 100 Mbps to most of its FiOS plant in an eye blink – and probably will about two minutes before or after a couple of cable companies start running at 100 Mbps. Again – this is one of those “We, the phone company, think this is what you need” attitudes driven by some sort of strategic thinking that is beyond me. If Steven Jobs or the Fake Steve Jobs were in charge, he’d open up the taps and steamroller the competition.

Carriers less-than-enthusiastic about 100 Mbps to the home include AT&T and Qwest. AT&T bet that fiber-to-the-neighborhood with a copper “last yard” deliver to the home would be good enough to get by, saving the company from the expense of having to trench fiber and make all that mess, but neighborhoods have not been happy with the eyesore distribution boxes necessary to successful pull of the scheme.

Qwest, well, god bless ‘em, it doesn’t have the cash for consumer broadband builds like AT&T or Verizon have done, plus it got saddled with the long-(Wiremile) end of the stick when it comes to its customers. I have this sad feeling that Qwest will ultimately end up as a ward of the U.S. government a la GM at some point because of the lack o’ cash.

I suppose the Google-ites are chortling about Topeka, Kansas renaming their town to Google (Psst, Hey, Topeka, if any town is going to get renamed, it’ll be Mountain View, California…)

But more seriously, you’ve got municipalities setting up Facebook pages begging for Google investment and who knows what else behind the scenes. You’d think we were in the Great Depression rather than an ugly recession at some of the urgency and pleading going on to get Google to come to town and it’s only going to get worse.

Be interesting to see if The Goog actually writes a check or two, but Baltimore, seriously, come off your knees with the begging.

AstriCon 2010 coming to D.C. – Two cents on traveling

Doug Mohney — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:24:34 +0000

Digium (www.digium.com) has formally announced dates and places for AstriCon 2010. (www.astricon.net).

This year’s event will take place at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, just outside of Washington D.C., on October 26-28, 2010.

FYIs on getting to the Gaylord from local hubs

Please note travelers take my advice at their own risk – my day job is not concierge –

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)

GOOD NEWS – This is the closest airport to the Gaylord and I believe is a 30-40 minute cab ride directly from the airport, assuming no rush-hour traffic (Yes, DC natives are now laughing).

Travelers selecting this option may want to land at Reagan, take a Metro (Yellow or Blue, doesn’t matter) down to King Street station and grab a cab there over to the Gaylord.

Yellow line stops at Eisenhower Avenue and Huntington with a transfer to a cab will also work, but I cannot vouch for the availability of cab service at Eisenhower. If arriving at Huntington, go to the lower level, walk out, and there should be cabs available – the station is an “end-node,” so there’s always 4-6 cabs around to take people places.

More adventuresome travelers with light luggage could take the free King Street Trolley (http://alexandriava.gov/Trolley) from the King Street Metro down to the Potomac River Waterfront. From there, one could pick up a Water Taxi (http://www.potomacriverboatco.com/national-harbor-schedule.php) from the Alexandria Marina directly to the Gaylord. One way tickets are $8.00 and be advised that taxis leave every hour and 10 minutes or so, with the dock-to-dock time about half an hour. CHECK the website for the most up-to-date schedule.

BAD NEWS – Being a smaller airport, there aren’t that many cross-country direct flights into DCA. East Coasters from Boston and the South might want to look at US Airways, one of the primary carriers there. United frequent-fliers may be able to hub through Chicago or Denver to get to IAD, but don’t expect a cheap ticket.

Washington Dulles International (IAD)

BAD NEWS – If you’re coming from the West Coast, the “Washington” part of Dulles is anywhere from 40 minutes (if you’re really really lucky) to an hour and 20 minutes away from the Gaylord.

Look at taking a Super Shuttle or renting a car. I think there’s also a way to take a bus ride from Dulles to the closest Orange Line stop, but it’s going to be a long bus ride and then you have to navigate to switching from Orange to Blue lines so it might not be worth the cost in aspirin.

GOOD NEWS – If you have time to kill and like airplanes (Hi Mark! Hi Danny!), the Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy Center (http://www.nasm.si.edu/UdvarHazy/) is available, and there’s a shuttle bus available.

Baltimore Washington International (BWI)

GOOD NEWS – While just about the same distance (46 minutes in traffic, up to 1 hr 20 min … or more in traffic) as IAD, plane fares into BWI tend to be cheaper.

BAD NEWS – The most direct way from BWI to the Gaylord is still a car or Super Shuttle.

An alternatively creative route would be to take the train into DC to Union Station, then Metro to King Street. Amtrak or MARC both have routes and there’s a free shuttle bus between the airport and the close-by rail station.

Once at Union Station, you can take the Red Line metro over to the Green/Yellow line, and then Yellow Line to King street. Or just take a cab.

Amtrak Union Station

If you’re traveling from New York, Philadelphia, or points in between, taking the train to D.C. (Union Station) is not a bad idea. You could metro from Union Station to King Street, or simply take a cab.

An alternative route might be taking the train from points north to New Carrollton Metro stop and then getting a cab (30-40 minutes?) to the Gaylord.

Verizon Business offers local call services via VoIP

Doug Mohney — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:52:46 +0000

Adding Yet Another Not-so-New VoIP trick, Verizon Business has added local inbound calling and routing to its VoIP services — “VoIP Inbound with Local Originations.”

A local phone number can be directed to anywhere to deliver calls to either traditional or IP-based contact centers and is billed as a “cost-effective alternative” to remote call forwarding. Inbound calls can also be redistributed as needed or rerouted in case of emergency – like say a big February snow storm keeping people out of the office for 4 days…

Veolia Transportation – think SuperShuttle and ExecuCar – is the testimonial customer using the service. The new solution will replace remote call forwarding, saving money on both toll-free calls and remote call forwarding.

Google and Gigabit to the home – It smells funny

Doug Mohney — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 21:31:33 +0000

Google (www.google.com) says they’re going to invest in an “experimental” gigabit to the home network for anywhere between 50,000 to 500,000 subscribers. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this the same Google that said they were going to bid on 700 MHz wireless spectrum a couple of years ago?

Let’s look at the details on this vague and puffy blog piece–

1) Google says they’re going to have a “small number’ of trial locations across the U.S.

2) It plans to offer service at a “competitive price” to “at least” 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people – that’s a factor of TEN variance.

3) It’s all an experiment to generate next gen apps, new ways to build fiber networks, and how to teach the grubby phone companies a better way to do business

OK, I’m making up the last part, but seriously, it’s getting rights-of-way and digging ditches. Verizon and others have figured out how to put down fiber to the curb and to the home, so how is Google going to “learn something new” here?

4) It will supposedly be an “open access” network to give users the choice of multiple service providers and be managed in an open, non-discriminatory and transparent way.

5) Here’s the kicker for me: “We’re putting out a request for information (RFI) to help identify interested communities. We welcome responses from local government, as well as members of the public.”

Add on that The Goog hasn’t said how much MONEY (cash) it will invest in this “experiment” and you get a verrrrry interesting fishing expedition.

Let me speculate how this goes–

1) The Goog will “select” townships offering free rights-of-way and potentially some of that FCC broadband build out cash. Anyone expecting Google to actually p-a-y for right-of-way is probably out of luck.

2) Looking to 1), I would expect a rural build out or two or three. And a lot of splash, waiving of the American Flag, big speech, marching bands, etc.

3) Fat chance on an urban build out with the potential exception of one place – San Francisco. Comcast is the dominant home broadband provider and AT&T just hasn’t gotten its act together to deploy higher speed service beyond hyped-up DSL.

I could see Google playing some Jedi mind tricks in/on one of the San Fran municipalities — “This is the broadband you’ve been looking for…” and try to shake AT&T out of its penny-wise/pound-foolish lethargic approach to home service.

Will this play work to shame providers into more/better/faster speeds? Verizon should feel pretty secure with FiOS and AT&T just doesn’t care.

FYI for the techies out there – later deployments of Verizon FiOS (like those going into my neighborhood) use GPON (Gigabit Ethernet PON) technology, so if Verizon wants to pull a media stunt to counter Google’s hype, it could (in theory) offer Gigabit speeds to the home in newer deployments overnight

Of course, GigE to the house translates to what you put on the backend network and doesn’t THAT make for some interesting network discussions?

Rumor mill – SUPERCOMM dead (again)?

Doug Mohney — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:03:53 +0000

Is SUPERCOMM dead again?

I just got a “Deep Throat” style phone call that said just that. It is not clear if SUPERCOMM will be re-organized/re-named into Yet Another Event, if USTA and TIA have (yet again) split over philosophical differences, or if someone just wants to re-brand the event because they are bored.

If the assertion is true, this would be the latest ugly saga between the big phone companies and telecom equipment manufacturers dating back nearly a decade.

After all, once upon a time, there was a successful show called SUPERCOMM held every June in Chicago. By most accounts, the USTA would supply the keynote speakers and TIA would pay the majority of the bills through its exhibiting members.

Unfortunately, USTA and TIA couldn’t agree on how to run the show, so there was a big messy divorce and SUPERCOMM split into two shows by the different organizations. The show run by TIA became GLOBALCOMM while the USTA tried to run its own show in Vegas in the spring, but nobody showed up.

After no shows at USTA’s show and GLOBALCOMM seeing declined attendance and exhibits — when you have to invite the ditch diggers to fill space, it is obvious – the two, like Heidi Fleiss and Tom Sizemore on “Celebrity Rehab,” appeared to reach an amicable agreement to get back together for SUPERCOMM.

Until, according to more word on the street, USTA unilaterally decided in April 2009 to uproot the SUPERCOMM 2009 from a June date to October — thereby pissing off numerous vendors who had already made commitments for travel, hospitality, and other arrangements.

Needless to say, if USTA and TIA have split once again, it shouldn’t be a great surprise to anyone and now leads to an interesting situation where there may or may not be a need for a telecom trade show with USTA and TIA both involved… but you’d have to be crazy to do so, given the drama history.

Dialogic, Ingate team for PBX SIP trunking

Doug Mohney — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:54:55 +0000

Among the news I’m catching up on from IT EXPO East 2010 is the team up between Dialogic and Ingate to build Ingate’s SIP Trunking software module into a new enterprise border element designed to connect “virtually any” (well, it is virtual…) SIP trunk with virtually any PBX.

Goodness is expected in seamless SIP trunk deployments in legacy TDM and hybrid PBX environments, as well as new SIP-based PBX systems. Ingate’s SIP trunking software module provides enterprise session border control (SBC) along with advanced routing capabilities for connecting SIP trunks to enterprise networks and branch offices by using Ingate’s proxy-based traversal and security technology. The software is also designed to resolve interop issues between service provider SIP services and the SIP-based systems being deployed inside corporate data networks.

Dialogic’s contribution is media gateway technologies to provide the protocols and interfaces necessary to connect to a wide variety of legacy phone and network equipment, both TDM and IP. The new enterprise border element from Dialogic will combine the functions normally found in a media gateway and an enterprise session border controller into a single product.

Dialogic plans to make a first set of enterprise border elements available later this year, with configurations offering SIP trunking, legacy PBX connectivity through the usual suspects (PRI/E1/T1 and ISDN BRI).

Optimum Lightpath goes 40 Gig

Doug Mohney — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:33:34 +0000

Cable provider Optimum Lightpath is now offering 40 Gigabit optical transport to its customers and offers hints that it will up speeds further in the “foreseeable future.”

No big surprise that financial traders were highlighted in the press release among the users in Optimum’s footprint needing high-bandwidth and “extremely low latency.” Customers are expected to tap into 40 gigabit optical to consolidate multiple 10 gigabit links for improved network operations, get more bandwidth and speed, and have a path to move from 40G to 100G “when the need arises.”

The platform – not named in the press release – is based on WDM and “positioned” to support 40 Gig Ethernet when it is standardized.

Metaswitch moves CEOs to “drive next phase of growth” Uh hmm…

Doug Mohney — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:42:40 +0000

Metaswitch has shuffled around its leadership, moving board member/”successful industry executive” Kevin DeNuccio into the CEO role, while promoting John Lazar upward as Chairman.

The move is being touted as creating the best possible leadership team for the “next phase of the company’s evolution” – which would indicate to me that Metaswitch is looking to do more than simple organic growth moving forward.

DeNuccio’s street creds being pumped include stints at Redback Networks (bought by Ericcson), Cisco Systems, and the company formerly known as Bell Atlantic – Verizon to you Millennial kids out there. At Redback’s CEO, he grew the company and got it bought by Ericsson for $2.1 billion. Over at Cisco, he grew the worldwide service provider division from a $500 million, 500 person organization to $4 billion and 4,000 employees in a span of four years.

Maybe Mr. DeNuccio wants to add an IPO to his resume?

DeNuccio has been on the company’s board as an independent director since December 2008, so he’s had a ringside seat to both Metaswitch’s assets and the industry’s relative stagnation. Can’t hurt that Nortel took a nose dive, either.

Metaswitch founder and former Chairman Ian Ferguson is “extremely enthusiastic” about the changes and will stay on the board in his capacity of the company’s Employee Benefit Trust.

Digium Switchvox gets upgraded

Doug Mohney — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:02:40 +0000

Yes Virginia, there was more than the Digium AsteriskExchange store announcement at IT EXPO last week. Digium also announced Switchvox SMB 4.5.

Switchvox SMB 4.5 adds on Phone Feature Packs for Polycom handsets, enabling users to directly access things such as call recording, visual voicemail, a searchable company directory and call parking lots directly on a Polycom handset, something that has made Polycom very happy.

New features beyond the Phone Feature Packs include support for distinctive ringtones for different types of calls, extension failover to a backup Switchvox SMB server, support for multiple extensions on a single hand set. Also included in Switchbox SMB 4.5 are support for user profiles to provide caller information such as photo, extension, title and location; flexible language support in English, UK English, Italian, Castilian Spanish and LatAm Spanish, including sound packs including audio prompts.

Network junkies will appreciate Digium adding SNMP for monitoring into Switchvox 4.5.

Current Switchvox owners with a software subscription get SMB 4.5 free of charge while Phone Feature Packs are available for $30 per phone.