VoIP
Latest Pulver report on VoIP
THE PULVER REPORT(TM)
Provided by: pulver.com, Inc.
The August 18, 2004 Issue:
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In this Issue:
- Heard on the Net: 2004 - The Summer of VoIP
- Looking for IP Communication Visionaries
- 2004: Most Influential Person in Communications
- VON Canada vs. VON Canada
- Last Chance to Nominate Companies for the 2004 pulver 100
- New for 2004: Charity Poker Event @ Fall 2004 VON
- Boucher: How to make friends and Influence People inside the VoIP
Industry
- A Week to Remember
- Fall 2004 VON: Updated list of Keynotes and Industry Perspectives
- pulverRadio will relaunch next month!
- pulver.com 2004/2005 Conference Calendar
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Heard on the Net: 2004 - The Summer of VoIP
The momentum surrounding the worldwide VoIP industry has not only
continued over these summer months, but has picked up considerable
steam.
For instance, last Saturday I sat down to catch some 2004 Summer Olympic
Game action and was immediately struck by AT&T's new commercials
promoting their Callvantage product and VoIP. It really amazes me to
think that in 2004 VoIP has entered the mainstream to the point where a
company like AT&T would spending such serious advertising dollars to
educate American consumers on VoIP and its benefits.
Yet another sign of the Time(s) is found in this week's Time Magazine
which contains a story on Vonage and Jeffrey Citron entitled "The
Internet is Calling".
It really is too bad that VH1 isn't producing a "Behind the Music"
story on Vonage at least then the general public would have the
opportunity to learn of Vonage's early days and the circumstances that
led to its launch.
And VoIP has certainly not spent any time out of the political headlines
this summer. Since June there has been (1) a VoIP hearing in the US
Senate, (2) another VoIP hearing in the House, and (3) a seriously
bungled markup of the Sununu VoIP Bill. In addition, the FCC hosted a
global forum on VoIP and issued the CALEA NPRM, and I learned that my
..tel application from earlier this year is essentially .dead. I have
used my blog to cover these activities on a daily basis -
- and have also included excerpts
from a number of those blog items in this Pulver Report.
As long as I am referring to my blog?I was very excited to learn that
it had been included in a recent BusinessWeek Online story entitled
"Blogging for Business".
Over the summer of 2004 a number of stealth projects/companies I have
been working to bring to fruition have moved into the beta phase. Of
these betas, the two most visible are the pulver.Communicator real-time
software product (which crosses VoIP service with cross-client Instant
Messaging functionality) and a new communications service from LibreTel
called PortofCall. For more detail regarding LibreTel, just refer to
my blog at: .
Finally, The buzz for Fall 2004 VON is already quite strong and we are
feeling the effects at pulver.com. Registration for the event is open
and NOW is the time to register to take advantage of our "early bird"
pricing (which ends at midnight on September 3rd).
Our exhibit floor has been sold out
for weeks, and in addition we just learned that our original block of
reserved hotel rooms are now sold out as well! If you are not from the
Boston area, and if you don't have relatives or friends (or friends of
friends?) with whom you can stay, NOW is the time to seek out hotel
rooms for you and your team.
Later this week I will be traveling to Aspen to attend the Progress and
Freedom Foundation's Aspen Summit 2004, which I expect will be quite an
interesting event.
At pulver.com we have begun working on our 2005 event schedule and I'm
very happy to make the following announcements:
- We will be teaming up with CES to produce the: pulver.com Consumer
VoIP Summit at CES on January 5, 2005 in Las Vegas.
- We have recently connected with the Pacific Telecommunications
Council, and have agreed to co-locate our Winter 2005 SIP Summit
(Honolulu, Hawaii January 16-18) at PTC 2005.
- Our Summer 2005 SIP Summit will once again be co-located at
Supercomm 2005, in Chicago June 6-8th.
- Plans are underway for VON Japan in Tokyo (February 2005) and VON
Australia in Sydney (August, 2005).
With so much growth in our VON events group, the opening of a second
pulver.com office was inevitable...and this past Monday we opened that
second office in Peabody, MA.
Free World Dialup's growth continues to surge in 2004, and we are now
closing in on 275,000 accounts issued.
Finally, in September VON Magazine will celebrate its first anniversary.
The past twelve months have been among the most exciting *ever* in the
VoIP Industry, and the September issue of VON Magazine promises to be
our biggest issue to date. If you are not yet a subscriber to VON
Magazine and would you would like to be, please visit:
.
People on the Move:
- Les Berry recently left CTTEL and joined BroadVoice as Vice President
of Customer Care.
- Jeff Key recently joined Tekelec as VP Strategy and Business
Development.
- Jason Oxman, recently left Covad Communications and has joined the
Association for Local Telecommunications Services (ALTS), as General
Counsel.
- Timothy Jasionowski has recently joined Streamdoor at CTO.
- Richard Crawford has recently joined Telution's Cable Sales Efforts
- Paul Osborn has recently joined VERITAS Software as a Senior Business
Development Manager, Network Equipment Providers - Americas.
- Eli Efrat recently left Messagevine.
- Bryan Wiener recently left Net2Phone.
- Russell Bennett recently left Avaya and joined Microsoft's Live
Communications Group.
- David Peces recently joined Verso Technologies as Area Vice President,
Mediterranean Sales.
- Dan Herman recently left Inet Technologies and joined ipNetfusion as
Eastern Regional Sales Manager.
- Shai Davidor recently left 013Barak and will be working in a company
building telecom and mobile infrastructure in Africa as its CTO.
- Kevin Nicholas has recently left BellSouth and joined The Consultant
Registry as Vice President for Case Study Services.
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Looking for IP Communication Visionaries
If you would like to help set the direction for the next pulver.com
innovation, I want to hear from you.
We are looking to increase the number of volunteers who are beta-testing
our new pulver.Communicator software client application, extending the
pool to include technical visionaries who would like an early look at
the product and who can provide us with informed and detailed feedback.
This application is one of the first to combine the exciting features of
instant messaging, presence, VoIP and social networking...all of which
are running on top of the Free World Dialup network.
If you are interested and have some time during the next few weeks we
could really use your help. Please visit
to sign-up, and be sure to
reference the Pulver Report in your form.
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2004: Most Influential Person in Communications
A friend of mine just reminded me that for the second year in a row I have
been listed on the ballot for "Most Influential Person in
Communications", an award that will be presented at the "2004 World
Communication Awards" this October in London.
To place your vote, please visit
. You will need to vote for 5
of the 50 candidates to have your vote counted, and the poll offers a
write-in option as well.
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Here is Your Last Chance to Nominate Companies for the 2004 pulver100!
Introduced in September 2002, the pulver100 includes only those PRIVATE
companies in the communications sector that have substantial real-world
deployments and that enjoy significant growth rates. Nominations are
accepted and reviewed from June to August, and the pulver100 is unveiled
in September. The 2003 pulver100 can be viewed at
.
The pulver100 seeks to recognize the companies that represent the future
of the communications ecosystem. The value chain characterized by these
companies substantially differs from the vertically-integrated telecom
model of the last century. The companies who typically make the
pulver100 have prospered in the new environment by following the
computer and networking industry model with open interfaces,
connectivity decoupled from services, and software decoupled from
hardware.
Please send your last-minute nominations for the pulver100 to
[email protected] NOW as we are wrapping up the review process this
week!
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VON Canada vs. VON Canada
A funny thing happened to us since we produced VON Canada 2004 in May.
pulver.com has been producing our VON ("Voice on the Net") events since
1997, but it was only this year that we produced our first domestic
Canadian VoIP event, VON Canada 2004 (an event that was quite a success
by all accounts, and which we are already planning to repeat in 2005
from April 19-21 in Toronto). Little did we realize at the time that we
would soon land in a bit of hot water with the country's finest medical
caretakers!
Recently we were contacted by Canada's Victorian Order of Nurses -- or
VON -- a group that provides home and community health care. VON
expressed great concern that people might confuse the name of our IP
Communications event with their own organization, and thus to stay on
good terms with the Canadian Nursing Industry we have agreed to call our
next event in Canada, "Voice on the Net Canada: 2005."
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New for 2004: Charity Poker Event @ Fall 2004 VON
I am very excited to announce that pulver.com will be kicking-off our
upcoming Fall 2004 VON event in Boston with a Charity Poker Tournament.
Here are the details as they currently are evolving:
TITLE: Best Bet for the Cure: Charity Poker Tournament No Limit Texas
Hold 'em Tournament to benefit the Diabetes Research Institute and the
Barton Center underwritten by pulver.com in association with Fall 2004
VON.
WHEN: Sunday, October 17th noon-6pm; final table(s) for top finishers
(with added celebrities) on Sunday evening (7:30-?).
Agenda: Sunday October 17th
-----------------------------------------------------
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM: Sign in
11:30 AM - 12:00 PM: No Limit Tutorial
12:00 PM - 6:00 PM: Tournament Play
6:00 PM - 7:15 PM: Dinner and Reception
7:30 PM - ??? : Final Tables with Celebrities
-----------------------------------------------------
WHERE: Hynes Convention Center, Boston, MA (2nd Floor, Exhibit Hall D).
WHO MAY PLAY: Anyone 18 and over can enter. Buy-in donations are $300
(much of it will be tax-deductible). We will allow unlimited re-buys for
the first hour. We are trying to determine how to reach out to likely
participants beyond the community of people who will be part of Fall
2004 VON (such as Boston-area poker enthusiasts, as well as supporters
of Diabetes charities). We expect to have a few hundred players. Any
help in spreading the word of this new event would be appreciated.
CELEBRITY PARTICIPATION: We intend to line up a few celebrities. In
addition to having Phil Hellmuth, arguably the best tournament hold 'em
player in the world, serving as Master of Ceremonies, we've got John
Ratzenberger (formerly "Cliff" from Cheers) who should offer local
Boston color. Other celebs have been invited, including some big shots
in the telecom and political arenas.
PRIZES: While still evolving (and open to contributions), prizes will
likely include:
- Entry into the night-time celebrity tournament;
- Vegas style 500 chip sets with aluminum cases;
- IP-related equipment and services;
- Buy-ins to National Poker Tournaments.
SPONSORS: Corporate sponsorships are still available. We will accept
most creative sponsorship ideas. If interested, please contact Jonathan
Askin via email: [email protected].
Even if you don't normally play poker, your support in helping spread
the word of this event would be greatly appreciated.
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Boucher: How to make friends and Influence People inside the VoIP
Industry
Last week, Congressman Boucher contributed to Larry Lessig's blog,
noting that "Congress will begin the difficult process of rewriting the
Telecommunications Act of 1996." Mr. Boucher sees this broad rewrite as
a foregone conclusion and "as an enormously valuable opportunity to
fashion new federal guidelines for the era of Internet-based
communications."
Frankly, I think Congress had that very opportunity this year, and, but
for some last-minute caving to certain corporate special interests who
have done little, to date, to promote VoIP, we could have seen Congress
take some very positive first steps towards creating the proper
regulatory environment to give Wall Street the certainty and comfort it
needs to invest in IP communications, and to give innovators the proper
assurances and incentives to deploy new networks, technologies, services
and applications. Instead, we've got to wait for a new Congress, a new
FCC, and new players with new hands out and new demands. Even
Congressman Boucher's core constituency, the Bell Companies, would have
liked to see a simple Federal preemption on VoIP. Instead, we are left
in this netherland of uncertainty where the states, the Feds, the
companies, Wall Street and consumers still have no clear sense about
jurisdictional boundaries and regulatory authority as it relates to the
nascent IP communications industry.
I am disappointed that certain johnny-come-lately special interests are
just now jumping on the VoIP bandwagon, and using it as an excuse to
rewrite the entire Telecom Act and refight battles that the IP
innovators should not be dragged into -- such as the battles between
ILECs and CLECs, between the Bells and cable, between rural and urban
centers, between the states and the Feds. We had a golden opportunity
this year, thanks to the targeted visions of Senator Sununu and
Congressman Pickering to get some properly circumscribed deregulation
and Federal preemption (without having to revisit the historic telecom
wars) to ensure that innovators could comfortably innovate and get
funding for new IP-based applications and services. Instead, too many
chefs, bowing to their own limited constituencies, special interests,
and the entrenched power structure, took what was a simple opportunity
to free IP-communications from legacy regulation in an effort to promote
agendas that have next to nothing to do with empowering consumers or
realizing the full promise of IP communications. In the Senate, we saw
an absurd add-on to the Sununu Bill, in what could only be described as
a "midnight massacre" to bring positive VoIP legislation. In one fell
swoop, the Dorgan amendment turned an otherwise good bill into an
illogical bill that no IP enthusiast could support. In fact, the Bill as
passed with the Dorgan amendment would impose legacy telecom regulations
and charges to X-box Live. Surely, that could not have been anyone's
intention. On the house side, we saw a clear bill by Congressman
Pickering get muddied by a second bill offered by Congressmen Stearns
and Boucher that would have hid behind VoIP deregulation to free the
Bells from their promises made during the passage of the Telecom Act of
'96. I don't have a major stake in the battles between the ILECs and
CLECs and Cable Companies, but it is a shame that we, the IP community
are being used as bargaining chips in that war, and, for this year at
least, have become collateral damage in a war to which we were never
party.
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A Week to Remember...
June 2004 provided me with a number of remarkable weeks, with Von Europe
2004 filling the whole of the 2nd week of the month, and my testimonies
at New York City Hall (June 15th) and before the US Senate Commerce
Committee (June 16) significantly highlighting the 3rd week. None of
that, however prepared me for the blur that was the 4th week of June.
It all started on June 20th, Father's Day, a low-key day that I spent
with my family in New York.
Monday the 21st found me in Chicago for Pulver.com's SIP Summit 2004,
which was co-located with both Supercomm 2004 and SIPop! 2004. I
delivered a Keynote Address that day at Telephony's VoIP for Service
Providers Conference, and then made the rounds at the various events.
On Tuesday the 22nd I welcomed our SIP Summit 2004 delegates, walked the
show floor, spent a few seconds with FCC Chairman Michael Powell before
his Keynote Address, and ended the day hosting a Pulver Report party at
Chicago's House of Blues! Without stretching the limits of hyperbole I
can easily say that this year's SuperComm party was one of the best we
have ever held! And don't take my word for it...take the word of the
various attendees who have written comments to my blog and who have
written of the party in their own on-line publications and blogs (many
of which are, of course, linked to in my blog):
.
On Wednesday -- June 23rd -- I learned that I was one of "150 Tech
Executives" invited by The White House to attend an address by President
Bush, to be given at the Department of Commerce in Washington the
following day. So a quick change of plans: I was scheduled to fly out
to the West Coast for SuperNova 2004, but when your President calls...
I have met many celebrities over the years, and it is always a bit of a
thrill to exchange words with famous faces. To shake the hand of a
United States President, though, whatever your politics, can only be
described as a bit...surreal. During the President's speech I sat in
the 2nd Row, snapping a few innocuous photos
http://192.246.69.231/jeff/personal/archives/000919.html>, and
afterwards I was able to not only shake the President's hand but to get
his autograph as well. It was an experience I will never forget, and
the capper on what was already an unforgettable week.
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Fall 2004 VON: Updated list of Keynotes and Industry Perspectives
There will be over 300 different speakers at the Fall 2004 VON
Conference. The conference schedule continues to get updated on a daily
basis.
The updated confirmed list of Keynotes and Industry Perspectives at our
event include senior executives from industry and Government: (FCC, US
Senate, Acme Packet, AT&T, Audiocodes, Avaya, Brooktrout, Callipso,
Cisco Systems, Convedia, Excel Switching, Freescale Semiconductor,
Goldman Sachs, Jasomi Networks, Level 3, Lucent, Microsoft, Netrake,
Netport Networks, NMS Communications, Nortel Networks, Polycom,
pulver.com, Rinde Associates, Siemens, Sonus, Verizon, Webmessenger)
Fall 2004 VON Keynotes and Industry Perspectives:
Chairman Michael Powell, FCC
Senator John Sununu, New Hampshire
- Jim Hourihan, VP, Acme Packet
- Cathy Martine, Senior Vice President, Internet Telephony, AT&T
- Shabtai Adlersberg, CEO & President, AudioCodes
- Denzil Samuels, VP, Service Provider Division, Avaya
- Eric Giler, CEO/Founder, Brooktrout
- Deb Lenart, President & CEO, Callipso
- Charles Giancarlo, Sr. VP & CTO, Cisco Systems
- Peter Briscoe, President & CEO, Convedia
- Marc Zionts, CEO, Excel Swtiching
- Dr. Robert Pepper, Chief, Office of Plans and Policy, FCC
- Dr. Claudine Simson, VP & CTO, Freescale Semiconductor
- Christopher Fine, Vice President, Goldman Sachs
- Todd Simpson, COO, Jasomi Networks
- Jack Waters, EVP, CTO & President Voice Technologies, Level(3)
Communications
- Stef Van Aarle, VP, LWS Marketing& Strategy VP, Lucent Technologies
- Anoop Gupta, Corporate VP, Real-Time Collaboration Bus. Unit, Microsoft
- Brian Forbes, VP of Business Development, Netrake
- Sir Terry Matthews, Chairman & CEO, Newport/Mitel Networks
- Brough Turner, SVP & CTO, NMS Communications
- Al Safarikas, VP, Service Provider Mktg., Wireline Networks,
Nortel Networks
- John Yoakum, Emerging Opportunities, Nortel Networks
- Sunil Bhalla, Sr. VP & GM of Voice Communications, Polycom
- myself - Jeff Pulver, CEO, pulver.com
- Joe Rinde, President, Rinde Associates
- Joseph Licata, President, Enterprise Networks Division,
Siemens Information & Communication Networks
- Hassan Ahmed, President & CEO, Sonus Networks
- Michael Hassett, Sr. VP, Retail Markets Product Management, Verizon
Communications
- Val Babajov, President & CEO, Webmessenger
If you are planning on attending and would like to take advantage of our
current "early bird" pricing, now would be a great time to register for
the conference.
"Early Bird" pricing ends on September 3rd.
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pulverRadio will relaunch next month!
Since the end of last year I have been working to get pulverRadio back
on the air, and I am happy to announce that the end of this endeavor is
now in plain sight. In September, pulverRadio will bow once again, this
time behind a new format which has not yet been heard in the radio
industry.
The new pulverRadio format, which I have loosely defined as "progressive
rock radio", will take listeners back to a time when commercial radio
stations experimented regularly with their formats...to a time before
the cookie-cutter corporate look-n-feel that the vast majority of radio
stations suffer from these days. One key aspect of our format will be
to go deep with the artists whose music we choose to play, offering
great album tracks that for some reason never seem to make it onto the
air. We will also work to develop 'ultimate segues', looking for ways
to logically -- and perhaps not so logically -- bring artists together.
PulverRadio will aim to create bridges...bridges between the rock music
of the past we have come to love and the rock music of today (and
tomorrow) that we could come to love...bridges between artists who share
similar influences, approaches, sounds, artistic sensibilities, etc.
In envisioning this incarnation of pulverRadio I often found myself
reflecting on the radio stations I once loved. One station in
particular, 102.7 WNEW-FM in New York -- a true pioneer of 70s rock
radio -- kept coming to mind, and as a result I have contacted some of
the folks who worked to make that great station what it once was (and,
sadly, is no longer). I have received great encouragement from these
ex-WNEWers, and once we launch I hope to get a few of these voices back
on the air -- perhaps to guest voice-track a program, or to provide a
stream -- via pulverRadio, and to thus share their voices with a new
generation of radio listeners.
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pulver.com 2004/05 Conference Calendar
"Events for the Communications Industry" (tm)
2004
October
17 Charity Poker Event, Boston, MA
18-21 - Fall 2004 VON Conference & Expo,
Hynes Convention Center,
Boston, MA
October
18-21 - VON Enterprise Forum
2005
January
5 - pulver.com Consumer VoIP Summit @ CES
16-18 - Winter 2005 SIP Summit - Honolulu, Hawaii
24-26 - Annual IP Communications Industry Executive Summit -
Sophia Antipolis, France
February
(TBA) - VON Japan 2005 - Tokyo, Japan
March
7-10 - Spring 2005 VON - San Jose, CA
April
19-21 - Voice on the Net Canada 2005 - Toronto, Canada
May
23-26 - VON Europe 2005 - Stockholm, Sweden
June
6-8 - Summer 2005 SIP Summit - Chicago, IL
August
(TBA) - VON Australia 2005 - Sydney, Australia
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Pulver Report to: [email protected].
Jeff Pulver Tel. +1.631.961.8951
The Pulver Report Fax. +1.631.396.3996
August 18, 2004 http://pulver.com/reports
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(c) 2004 pulver.com, Inc., All Rights Reserved.
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Posted by Craig at August 18, 2004 08:54 PM