Roundtable Discussion: The Voice of the Broadband Revolution
Wednesday, January 4, 2006, 2:00pm - 3:15pm
What bundled equipment is required for the consumer to take full advantage of the broadband revolution for voice phone calls? Learn from this uniquely informed panel, representing service solutions and packaged offerings tailored to reach different market segments. Also discussed: Is VoIP as good as the existing telephone network? What are the limitations of VoIP? What's the value proposition for the consumer? How are packaging and feature functionality tied together when selling VoBB services to the consumer?
Sureel Choksi, Executive Vice President and President of Softswitch Services, Level 3 Communications
Mr. Choksi is Executive Vice President and President of Softswitch Services for Level 3 Communications, responsible for the management of Level 3’s voice and switched data products. Previously, he was Group Vice President and President of Transport & Infrastructure services, responsible for management of private line, wavelength, dark fiber and colocation services. Prior to that, Mr. Choksi was Chief Financial Officer for Level 3. Prior to being named CFO in July 2000, Mr. Choksi served as Group Vice President, Corporate Development since January 2000, and Vice President and Treasurer of Level 3 since January 1999.
Before joining Level 3 in 1997, Mr. Choksi was with TeleSoft Management, LLC, a venture capital firm, and Gleacher & Company, an investment-banking firm.
David Epstein, Co-Founder, President, BroadVoice
David Epstein is the co-founder and president of BroadVoice (www.broadvoice.com), a new kind of communications company that allows consumers and businesses to make and receive phone calls anywhere in the world using a high-speed Internet connection. BroadVoice offers lower rates and more innovative features than traditional phone companies, while providing crystal clear voice quality.
Mr. Epstein is a technology savvy entrepreneur with over 10 years of hands-on experience in the Internet service provider industry. Prior to co-founding BroadVoice, he was CEO of Connecticut Telephone, a facilities-based DSL service provider based in Hartford, Connecticut. From 1998 to 2000 he served as president of RCN’s Internet Access division – at that time the seventh largest ISP in the United States. Mr. Epstein joined RCN in 1998 when he sold them JavaNet, an Internet Service Provider that he co-founded in 1995.
Carl Ford, VP Community & Content, pulvermedia
At pulvermedia, Carl Ford is a Community Developer, looking to enable business development and customer contact between companies. He also develops the content for pulvermedia conferences and is a highly interactive program moderator. As a pulverite he serves as an advisor to several companies in various degrees. Ford's professional career includes 20 years at telecommunications companies such as Telcordia Technologies and Verizon. He has worked in positions including Costs, Operations, Marketing, Regulatory, and Product Management. His accomplishments include architecting and product-managing a carrier-grade billing mediation device for softswitches that was compatible for ILEC billing systems; and moderating the development of the pulver.com CDR for Internet Telephony, enabling VOIP gateways to be used with carrier billing systems.
Bryan Martin, Chairman & CEO, 8x8
Bryan R. Martin is Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of 8x8, Inc. A seasoned 8x8 executive with more than 15 years of service to the Company, Mr. Martin has served in a variety of corporate and engineering capacities including President, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Technical Officer and Senior Vice President, Engineering Operations. Mr. Martin holds 32 United States Patents in the fields of semiconductors, computer architecture, video processing algorithms, videophones and communications. In addition to his technical knowledge and expertise, Mr. Martin is well versed in industry and business affairs and has spoken before at numerous events. He is a member of the IEEE and Tau Beta Pi and received a B.S. and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.
Ravi Sakaria, President/Co-Founder, VoicePulse
Ravi Sakaria is a veteran technologist with over 15 years experience in the Information Technology field. An expert in the area of network engineering, his vision that Voice over IP is the catalyst for a revolution in the telecommunications industry drives VoicePulse's every day thinking. Prior to co-founding VoicePulse, Sakaria headed a successful IT consulting company, The Aiko Group. The Aiko Group focused on network engineering, Voice over IP quality of service engineering, and network security. Before heading The Aiko Group, Sakaria was Manager of Network Engineering for First Union National Bank.
Sakaria's management background, engineering education, and extensive experience in IT service organizations drives VoicePulse's focus on delivering powerful technology to consumers in an easy-to-use format.
Michael Tribolet, EVP of Operations, Vonage Holdings
Michael Tribolet oversees operations at Vonage managing system operations, system applications, carrier relations, customer care, network operations and quality assurance. Mr. Tribolet has more than 12 years experience in multi-national operations management. Most recently, Mr. Tribolet served as Vice President of Operations at Dialpad Communications overseeing the engineering and telecommunications divisions in American, Korean and Japanese operations. Prior to Dialpad, Mr. Tribolet spent nearly ten years at Data Products International where he created CyberVault and oversaw the build-out of multiple Internet telephony services including the first worldwide VoIP service, Intertel.net. Mr. Tribolet holds a bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University.
