Cisco has quietly released two new wireless VoIP phones - one of which is a slick new desktop phone we have been playing around with in the VoIP Supply offices. The first - the Cisco CP-7925G - is the replacement for Cisco’s CP-7921G wireless VoIP phone. According to my man Ted at UC500.com the CP-7925G comes [...]

When someone first described Fonolo to me I couldn’t fathom it. I mean…it can’t be true. A voice service that is both useful AND easy to use? But that’s just what Fonolo’s “Deep Dial” service delivers. If you’re not familiar with Shai Berger and his company Fonolo - look out - their company enables you to take control [...]

For those of you out there who celebrated a holiday and enjoyed a few days away from it all, I hope you and yours enjoyed it. I know I did. For those of you still “away from it all” I wish I was there with you - continue to enjoy. After a few day break, I [...]

Over the last two weeks we have heard from almost every corner of the VoIP industry. The executives we have interviewed are pioneers, thought leaders and visionaries that are truly shaping the future of this industry. Then there is Andy Abramson - a guy who is all three rolled into one. From his position as CEO [...]

The small medium business (SMB) and the IP PBX markets are two markets that are hotly contested these days. 3CX - purveyors of a software based Windows IP PBX for the SMB - sits at the intersection of both of these markets. Who better to discuss the Near Future of VoIP within each of [...]

Some people - really smart people - just don’t get it. Thanks to the economy there are lot’s of people - some of whom are really smart - pointing out the compensation that many of the nation’s top executives are raking in this year. Me? I could really care less how much some CEO or VP at [...]

In what has been a rather bizarre chain of events, I went from not having Internet access at home (mostly like due to our first REAL snow of the year) yesterday, to not being able to access Gmail (today…who knows). Yes, I realize that there are more important things in the world, but these two little [...]

When you hear the words VoIP you instantly think of innovation. And in order to waver the storm that will continue for most of 2009 - the VoIP industry must continue to be innovative. What better way to get a glimpse into the innovations to come in the next year, then talk to one of the [...]

With the likes of Vonage on the verge of extinction thanks to the pummeling they’ve received since the start of their operations, no one can dispute the impact cable companies have had on the VoIP industry over the last few years. But will 2009 bring a further tightening of their grip on the industry - [...]

I recently started reading the blog of Carl Weinschenk over at ITBusinessEdge after working with him on a story about Mobile VoIP. One post that caught my attention had to do with Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC), Unified Communications (UC) and whether supporters of the technology should be optimistic or pessimistic about the prospects of both [...]

If you're a company like AT&T or BT, Telstra or DT you start to look around and say, "in times like these...... what can we do to be better tomorrow."

That means you look inside, assess who's on First, and What's on Second, then look outside and say, who should I hire to make my company better and stronger and ready for 2.0. Given my history in pro sports, and having actually run a draft in my early days and staged some draft day events, I figured it would be fun to look at the players and figure out what's ahead. Some are sleepers, meaning you would expect others to be listed ahead of them. Others are known quantities who have the chops to stand out in a crowd, but as a GM trained team builder one has to look past the usual suspects and find the gems in the draft. That's what makes teams champions, not only winners.

Here's my hit list if I was the head of VoIPScout of people to take off the playing field in the first round of the draft:

1. Martin Geddes-Without question, Martin is the player to pick. His insight, foresight and ability to assess, target and pinpoint what's next are the skills the super carrier need to have or even for them to be really 2.0. Martin will be the ideal dealmaker, playmaker and most of all, the ideal out-thinker of the competition at every match. Now that BT has Ribbit, Geddes is either the Messiah for another company or the Moses to bring the promise to the promised land.

2. Thomas Howe--Mr. Mashup. He's the king and well documented here in the past for his accomplishments. He's also the former CTO of Comverse and well versed in more than just telephony. Thomas gets data. He nails business process cold. A solid two way player, Howe would be as comfortable in the executive suite as in the lab, as his infectious personality, quick mind and agile programming ability makes him a consistent high scorer.

3. Lee Dryburgh--many consider Lee the foremost authority on SS7 networks. As the father of the eComm Conference, Dryburgh has spent hours looking at the many "me different" companies out there and sees what fits where. He's a pal of Geddes so the two would be an interesting Strategy/Technical connection and a dangerous 1-2 punch. Think of Dryburgh as the midfielder who does the heavy lifting, sets up the plays and makes the team run right.

4. David Beckemeyer-he helped Sky Dayton with Earthlink as the co-founder and CTO, when he traveled to L.A. with a few servers. Then he created the easy to sign-up CD Rom for Earthlnk, well ahead of AOL, giving many millions of people easy access to be really on the Net. Of late he's tinkered with PhoneGnome but remains one of the key technology experts who understands both networks and software and how to make them work together. If Dryburgh is the SS7 God, Beckemeyer is the SIP productizer to grab. What he did with PhoneGnome is really widely overlooked. Using an off the shelf ATA, open source and open standards technology, he made any phone a VOIP phone with an Internet connection and delivered SIP based services in an open way, before OPEN was being evangelized.

5. Alex Kurganov, CTO of Parus Interactive, and the mind behind Webley/CommuniKate, perhaps the most feature rich virtual PBX platform on the planet that does both VoIP and PSTN seamlessly. He's also a master at IVR and Voice XML, and a martial arts master. A player that most don't know, from long time experience we know he'd be the sleeper pick in any draft, but would be an all star on any team that grabbed him.

6. Alec Saunders, co-founder of iotum. Many people forget that Alec was the guy who brought Internet Explorer to market for Microsoft. He's a marketing and product management maven, with a healthy dose of social media know how. What's more he knows how to take code, productize it and make it work for the masses. Proof point. Look what he's done with Calliflower and iotum, winning a Demo God for his dazzling on stage performance there. Saunders scores and also plays a consistent game.

7. Carl Ford-no one has more contacts in VoIP than Carl and his understanding of "whose who" makes him an ideal HR/recruiters dream team member. He knows who has done what, which engineers really wrote the code, and most of all what and who plays well with what. He's also a well versed all around communicator. He'd be an ideal component as the evangelist (ala what Dan York is doing for Voxeo) and there's very few people in telco, especially VoIP who won't take a call from Carl.

8. Stuart Henshall--A product manager with technical ability who can articulate his thoughts well, Henshall knows the ins and outs of social media or as Jeff Pulver calls it "Social Communications". He's bright, speaks very well, plays the game smartly, and is very apolitical. As such he's very good at being an all around player on a team.

9. Alan Duric--Duric is one of these great minds who architects and steers things in the right direction. He's well regarded both at the IETF and within Cablelabs, was part of Global IP Sound/Solutions efforts with iLBC then went to Camino as founder before it was acquired by Skype. Like Dryburgh, Duric is a workhorse, but needs be surrounded by a team that will take vision and work with him to make it reality. A proven player who finishes in the money.

10. Will Stofega, IDC--Will has been steadily becoming one of VoIP best analysts. He did such a good job he got promoted and moved into mobile. That only makes him a stronger candidate and a winner for someone's team in a Research or Biz Dev role. His experience at IDC and with many corporate customers gives him access and understanding. His ongoing reviews of what's coming up, what works with what and how the business models work (or don't work) makes him ideal to join a company needing a smart, no-nonesense biz dev champion.

Others to look at who may make the the top ten picks....James Enck, Jamie Siminoff, Jay Phillips and Erik Lagerway.

So--I've laid out the picks...now lets see who grabs who, and how soon!

A few days ago, USA Today ran a story that describes how more and more universities, and companies, as well as local governments are cutting the cord, ditching the land line and going mobile.

The trend is nothing unexpected, as cellular calling rates, bundle plans, rollover minutes and newer handsets every few years outweigh outmoded the PBX and desk phone approach of the landline. With more and more telework also occurring, this also means the so called "off premise extension" has been eliminated, as well as the FXO (foreign exchange) two big money makers for the landline telco that with the way cellular plans are set up in the USA no longer relevant.

But, with the cutting of the cord and the move to cellular, we have also seen something happen in business. No one can transfer a call from a mobile to another mobile phone, meaning if Party A calls Party B and Party B deems Party A is better off talking to Party C, at best Party B can do is give Party A the area code and phone number for Party C.

Mobile lacks a PBX environment because of the nature of the way the cellular network is established. The call, which originates at point A and goes to point be is a linear, straight line connection going only through the mobile operators switch. There's no way to hit the so called switch hook and simply "transfer the call" to the person who can help the calling party.

The closest thing to this I've been able to find is Broadsoft's Mobile PBX however it seems this is geared more for the enterprise than SMB, and despite it being in their line of offers, I've yet to see it being offered via any of the USA carriers, let alone any carriers around the globe so while what is needed is technically possible, how many companies and their employees actually have it available to them to use?

Then a quick search of TMC' extensive story library gave me a better picture, thanks to a Rich Tehrani penned story about OnRelay and their capabilities. But unfortunately while the service looks like it's exactly what the market needs, they don't support either the RIM Blackberry or the Apple iPhone, both of which have pretty much become the business executives handset of choice in the USA. As a matter of fact I've even watched the steady migration of some very serious long time executives migrate from a regular handset to the Berry, and now to the iPhone because of one reason unrelated to business. Their kids. Moms and Dads text with their kids (and their kids friends too) it seems and both devices let them do that quickly and easily.

But the issue with both the OnRelay and Broadsoft services are not in their capabilities, design or intent. It's in the distribution side of the house. Who sells it? Where can I get it? How can I put a company on it that doesn't have a full-time IT manager/phone manager to keep it up and running? Better yet, show me someone who has it running that matters, a point pal Dean Bubley made earlier this year. Additional digging led me to VoIP2Air, another company offering a hosted model of a Mobile PBX for users of Nokia N and E series phones or a Windows Mobile device, with what looks to be a UK market area, but their suite of services seems to be what the doctor is ordering, I just don't see a USA operator offering anything similar today though, and the dependence on 3G connectivity or WiFi also has me concerned a tad.

For a Mobile PBX to work right, it has to function where the customer won't have any real concerns. That means it will need to live within the carriers network (ala Centrex) at first simply to make the Enterprise or SMB IT folks happy, not be an over the top, early adopter play. Ergo why Verizon is doing what they are offering. Sure the solution from VoIP2Air will likely work, and work well most of the time, but the real test as Dean Bubley pointed out, is when the carriers/mobile operators themselves deploy their own version of Mobile PBX and start using it. Then, it will be ready for carriers prime time. For those of us who are daring, it means the over the top solutions will improve and improve, begin to gain some traction and act more and more like our mobile switchboard.....sort of like a GrandCentral station for calls.....

My guess is this. When Cisco, RIM, Apple, Nokia, Microsoft and a few others join hands with a few large mobile operators, form a standards cooperative of what a Mobile PBX is, then, we'll really see this. Until that happens, in the mobile world we'll have the FMC oriented Over the Top plays alive and kicking, and smart business operators finding them to use.

This video news report tells a very tragic story of how shortsighted companies have gotten in an era of staying connected.

While Quest and SkyWi may have a dispute over money, the customers of SkyWi likely paid their bills. To leave them stranded, without an option was shortsighted, and the New Mexico regulators had to step in. Thankfully.

Om call 2008 the year of Mediocrity.

Ted points to for whom the Bell tolls.

Let's start with the source of money closest to the hearts of the start ups. The VCs. Over the past 60 days I'm hearing the following "the VC's don't really have the money in the funds they represent. They have to go to the LP's (Limited Partners) to do a cash call. Some are having problems getting the money from their LPs so the deals aren't closing."

Translation-Dear Mr. Startup CEO. Yes we agreed and gave you a term sheet but we don't have the money so we can't fund you. Good luck.

Excuse me. I don't go to Nordtroms to buy a suit, try it on, have the salesman find the pants in my size, pick out a shirt, a tie, some nice cool socks, and have the tailor measure for cuffs, seat and waist alterations and then say, "oh, but I don't have the cash."

What is going on today? Hasn't anyone ever heard of bad faith negotiation? When I asked a VC I know about term sheets and deals. He said "not really" because a term sheet isn't a deal. Then I brought up the famed "no shop clause" and he said "then they'd (the VC) have a problem."

Now lets look at the Telco. They still are the "plumbers" that Ken Camp refers to in his post. As a matter of fact plumbers make a big living fixing the plumbing that's already there, but it's the pipe-fitters and steamfitters are really the ones who make the money laying new pipe under the direction of a general contractor in the big cities (and where unions remain.) Consider this scenario. The telcos commit to installing a T1 from a company like Speakeasy. But the Bell head installer is "delayed" on another job. When he does show up the "inside" guy back at the CO (Central Office) isn't around to do the "inside" test. So the install is rescheduled and that's before the SpeakEasy installer can do his part. Result the customer waits and waits. Business doesn't happen and work is slowed. But the customer still pays the same thing regardless of the install happening on the date promised or whenever the telcos got around to having the install happen. I didn't know we lived in Provence.

What ever happened to the simple fact of keeping your word?

One of the things I learned a long time ago was to say things like "no" or I'm not sure I can do that. Then I would go out and do it. Get it done and come back and say, "it's now done." In my business we do a lot of outreach. We don't promise anything. We make no guarantees. We just go out, and deliver what can be delivered. It's called underselling and over delivering. People hire us for our track record of delivering.

Om doesn't promise pageviews to his advertisers. He promises content to his readers. The readers come because the content isn't mediocre. It's good. In return the advertisers get pageviews. They buy GigaOm because the audience keeps coming back.

Ted doesn't promise crap in his work as an IT consultant. He promises the job will be done right and knows he won't get paid if it's not done right. His business grows because he gets the job done.

The changes that are needed to go from mediocre to good aren't hard to make, but I'll contend that most people really don't know the difference between great and good, let alone mediocre.

Think of it this way. Many people have bought Chryslers because the sales person said "this is a wonderful car for you, sir." If Chryslers were so wonderful would they have needed two bailouts in our lifetime? That's not mediocre. That's pathetic.

Many of the pundits are all basically saying the same thing about VoIP.

Some are calling it dead. Others are saying it's changing. I'm saying that things like VoIP, SIP, etc. are terms for what has become the foundation level building blocks for the 21st century communication.

Some call the notion of a discussion a rehash of things we've all be saying. I say, we're entering the era where communications as we know it begins to change and is also a needed change. We're wel beyond the era of POTS based mentality. For example, how many people use phone company supplied voice mail. I don't mean, have it take a message, which it does well. But for many of us, we use the number that was called and just return the call as we want real time interaction, not voice mail tag. For me, I get few voicemail messages. My calls are either a) scheduled b) triggered from an IM session c) a result of a Twitter exchange d) a result of an email exchange e) those that are random are screened first by either CallVantage, GrandCentral or Webley f) Caller ID has gotten to the point where I know whose calling. While this isn't everyone's behavior, for the connected types it is more and more the norm. Many people just don't listen to VM, but they use SimulScribe or SpinVox to text them the message also.

Next is the growing use of cell phones. People don't want to play tag so they give out their cell number as their primary reach me number. What's missing is the 2.0 services from the cell phone networks, not the interest. Instead of lock me in contracts, carriers need to offer "lock me in services." The kind of services that Alec and Jeff and Ken and Jon and everyone else loves to use, but we all have to go over the top to find them. I'm talking Speech based calling from Mobivox, WiFi based calling from Truphone, roaming services from MaxRoam and SIM4Travel, etc.

At home, I'd rather take a call over my desktop or laptop connected to a Polycom mini speakerphone or right on my Polycom desk phone. The call is higher quality because the HD technology is there. Services like HighDef Conferencing and Calliflower make the call not only sound better, but provide a richer group calling experience.

Marrying these kinds of services together is the era we're entering. It's not about VoIP or SIP or Skype, its about the experience, and that experience is going to be three types. Business, social and personal. Buzzspeak is VoIP, SIP, Skype.

To me, the winds of change are evident. Call me the Revalator, but it is time for a change.

If you know anything about VoIP, you know that your networks performance is paramount to a quality calling experience. This is where our next interview in the series is coming from. Steve Wong is the VP of Marketing for ClearSight Networks. ClearSight Networks an analysis and monitoring solutions provider who is in the business of ensuring [...]

For a company still at the angel round, Fonolo continues to garner the kind of attention that consumer brands crave to be awarded.

This time it was from trendspotting Springwise, an 8,000+ person early "things to watch, things to know about" organization.

I haven’t written much commentary of late, due to the Near Future of VoIP series, but this morning I caught Om Malik’s piece on the bleak future of telecom via Techmeme. The story reminded me that - contrary to Om’s statements - telecom does have a bright future. It’s not, however, in the way we once [...]

With applications like Palringo, Truphone, Nimbuzz, Fring all available in the iPhone/iPod App Store seeing that the sales of iPod Touch devices being so strong, makes my heart a flutter.

I too bought two of these in the last few weeks, one for myself and one as a gift for my wife. I see the 2nd Generation iPod Touch as being the sleeper product of the year. It's capabilities rival the iphone, and since you can use almost all the apps (minus the GPS other than Palringo which works with WiFi locations too) the market for iPhone app sales just grew.

Over in Korea where WiMax has been up and running under the WiBro monicker, we read that a standard for voice services has been set up, and that KT (Korea Telecom) is gearing up to deploy it.

This news is excellent news for the Voice Service provider industry as it gives them a standard to follow and to work with. It also shows just how quickly WiMax is moving compared to WiFi which only this year has adopted and ratified a real VoIP protocol, something that slowed down the adoption of muni-WiFi.

By having a standard, and a giant in KT already embracing it, Voice over WiMax actually has a future. For Clear, here in the USA, it opens the doors to service providers who can offer a voice carrier something different a chance to sell something new.

In my mind, if I was looking to be different from the regular cellular based mobile operators I would be looking at IVR and Speech Recognition first. With the way the laws are going here in the USA it wouldn't be simply value added. It would be selling an essential service to a new market with a true difference. This is ideal for client Mobivox and their MobivoxPL platform.