The Pulver Report - July 30, 2003 

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     In this Issue:

   - Heard on the Net
   - IP Telephony Jobs
   - More comments on the FWD Petition
   - 9-1-1 and VoIP Technical Forum in Atlanta: August 6/7
   - Free World Dialup: 40,000 Subscribers and Counting!
   - Fall 2003 VON Conference & Expo: "Early Bird" ends August 8th
   - The Supernova Effect
   - IP Communications: Driven by Computing not Telecom
   - Carl's NARUC Summer Meeting Report - from the Carl Ford Blog
   - The Carl Ford Blog: Tipsy or Tipping Point
   - Segwaying in the Hamptons
   - GPS in Cars - The Freedom to Explore
   - Jeff's Social Experiment: I'm giving "LinkedIn" a Try
   - SIPop! 2003: September 23-25 during Fall 2003 VON
   - pulver.com 2003/04 Conference Calendar

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     Heard on the Net:

Positive momentum for IP Communications continues to grow around the
world. I'm now reading consumer and business stories appearing just about
daily which discuss the state of IP Communications and in some cases the
attempts to regulate it. The FBI recently filed ex-parte on the FWD
Petition. This in turn generated stories like: "FBI wants to tap Net
Phones." see: <http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5056424.html. Just
yesterday a reporter from US News and World Reports reached out to me for
a story they are doing on Broadband Consumer telephony. Add USN&R to the
list of publications which are covering this space. I'm also aware of
a pending story or two in the San Jose Merc and Washington Post.

I'm just waiting for the time when reporters from the major Television
networks start covering consumer IP Communications on places like the
"Today Show" and "Good Morning America" and for the time in the near
future when Jay Leno includes jokes/jabs about the space in his
monologues something similar to what he did during the "AOL / MSN
instant messaging war" during the summer of 1999.

For the first time in a very long time, I'm find myself with a pretty
busy public speaking schedule at places that range from Investment Banking
meetings,to Telco meetings, to the NYC Bar Association. I guess this is
just another sign that IP Communications is going mainstream. On Friday
morning, August 1st I will be speaking at a Verizon sponsored breakfast
debate in Washington, DC on "Should VoIP be Regulated." You can guess
which side I will be representing. :-)

I am hearing about new rounds of funding that have recently been
completed, or nearly completed. I expect to start to see announcements of
more mergers/acquisitions as the Fall season gets underway.

We are currently working on the schedule for our Wireless Internet Summit
which will be held in Santa Clara November 10/11. We will be posting
the schedule in early August.

The first issue of VON Magazine is getting ready to be published in
September. If you haven't subscribed yet, please feel free to visit:
<http://www.vonmag.com

     - People on the Move:

Jonathan Christensen recently left Microsoft and joined Facetime
Communications as  CTO and VP of Products.

David Fraley, Principal Analysts Gartner Inc, has returned from
his six month activation with the US Army returning to converged
communications research at Gartner.

Jim Murphy has recently joined Net2Phone's Cable Telephony Division as
Director of Sales for North America.

Steven Johnson recently joined Ingate Systems as President
of their wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary.

Andrew Romans recently joined sentitO Networks as Director Europe,
Middle East & Africa.

Brad Wurtz recently joined Caspian Networks As Senior Vice President
Worldwide Sales & Marketing.

Terri Albers Griffin recently joined tekVizion as President.


     To be listed in a future "People on the Move" column, please
     email: people@pulver.com to report a change in your position.
     Please refer to: "People on the Move" in the subject.

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   IP Telephony Jobs from: ( http://pulver.com/jobs )

As your company has job openings during 2003, please consider posting them
with pulver.com. Please email: jobs@pulver.com for job posting information
and fees.

Recent job postings (as of July 28, 2002):

   - Senior SIP Application Layer Designers - Montreal - Blueslice Networks
   - Director, Digital Voice Product Strategy - Cablevision

If you are interested in pursuing this position, please visit
( http://pulver.com/jobs ) for full details.

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   More comments on the FWD Petition

The FCC recently reached out to some key organizations and asked them to
comment on their perspective on both the AT&T and Free World Dialup
Petitions. These ex-parte comments make for some interesting reading.

The petition comments also provide insight as to possible future
regulatory approaches/policies which will be addressed in the US and in
the countries around the world that look to the US for thought leadership in
this space.

All of the reply comments, can be read by visiting:
http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/comsrch_v2.cgi and entering: 03-45 in
the Proceeding Box.

Reading the reply comments have helped me better understand the current
state of politics of IP Communications in Washington, D.C.

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   9-1-1 and VoIP Technical Forum in Atlanta: August 6/7

The 9-1-1 industry is in need of our expertise and assistance. NENA (as in
National Emergency Number Association) is sponsoring a 9-1-1 and VoIP
technical forum,

August 6 & 7 in Atlanta, GA and they have reached out to us to help spread
the word about their event and help find the right people to attend it.

"It is vitally important that we determine what standards are needed and
what uniform processes should be developed to ensure international access
to emergency services (E9-1-1 in U.S. and Canada).

Subject matter experts are needed to determine what has been done, what is
being done and what remains to be done.

Key goals of the technical forum will be to determine past, present
and future work, which standards development organizations are and should
be involved in this work, and time lines for the work so that enhanced
9-1-1 (location & call back) is provided in a VoIP environment, both for
consumer, residential and enterprise environments.

The August 6 & 7 technical forum will be held at BellSouth
facilities. The hours of the two day forum will be 12:30 to 5:00 p.m.
August 6, and 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM., August 7.

Registration is absolutely limited to no more than 50 attendees. The FINAL
date to register is July 31, 2003. Late registrations will not be
processed and only registered persons will be permitted to attend this
forum.

This will be a technical forum, not a tutorial or similar educational
session. Those invited are technical experts in VOIP and/or 9-1-1 from
companies involved in either or both processes. Also, it is hoped that
representation will include experts involved in various standards
development organizations, both in North America and
international/world-wide.

Prior to the technical forum, contributions will be accepted from
registered participants for distribution in advance to those planning to
attend. These may cover work already completed, work in progress or future
proposals, including from standards organizations and other similar
entities or from individual companies/entities."

If you have any questions regarding this technical forum, please feel free
to directly contact Rick Jones, NENA Operations Issues Director at
815-519-7841 or email: rjones@nena.org.

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  Free World Dialup: 40,000 Subscribers and Counting!

Sometime on July 31st, Free World Dialup will hit and surpass the 40,000
subscriber mark. This will keep us on track to be at 50,000 by the time
Fall VON happens and at 75,000+ by the end of this year.

In the just the past few weeks, independent 3rd parties have setup for
free PSTN--FWD gateways in the US, UK and Netherlands. This
means that somebody can call from their cell phone in these and other
countries and dial the broadband FWD number of their friend anywhere in
the world. On top of this, the same people in these 3 countries also have
turned around and offered (for free) to terminate toll-free numbers
because of their respective commitments to the FWD community.

In theory I'd like to think that we are directly responsible now for
re-introducing the concept that finally there is such a
thing as a free phone call! :-)

FWD has had recent discussions with a many of the commercial
Voice over Broadband service providers about implementing a dialing plan
such that a customer of network "A" can freely call to/from FWD and for us
to have the same ability in return. We can accomplish this feat by peering
over the public internet. Right now this is in production with
iConnectHere and we are in Lab trials with Packet8. VoicePulse customers
can already do this because they support something called IAXTel and FWD
decided to support IAXTel a few months ago, so via IAXTel, we can pass
traffic. My hope is that by the end of Q3 we will be in lab trials with
just about everyone we reached out to. These are all by the way, free
phone calls between our respective networks.

Seperate from the Broadband players, I have also started to reach out to
a few of the Wireless Service Providers who I know to see if they will
engage me with the concept of a trial that connects a segment of their
subcriber base to the FWD Community by peering via the internet. Nobody
I've approached has said "no" yet and I am confident that I will find a
forward thinking wireless carrier who believes in the power of the
internet and would like to have some fun in the redefining what their
customers' "anywhere" minutes can reach for free.

The FWD 55555 "Welcome Phone" community continues to grow as it is staffed
by members of the Worldwide FWD community. There are people in places
like: India, Sri Lanka, Australia, Singapore, Sweden, Spain, UK, Israel,
Canada and the US. Not all 55555 calls get answered since people do have
other things to do, but one friend who answers the phone in Spain has
spoken to somebody in 22 different countries as of last week.

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 Fall 2003 VON Conference & Expo: "Early Bird" Registration ends August 8th

Our Fall 2003 VON Conference & Expo is shaping up to have our largest
number of exhibitors since Spring 2001 VON in Phoenix. The Fall Conference
sessions will be extraordinary, as worldwide demand for VoIP continues to
explode.

In fact, a remarkable group of service providers will be in Boston to
discuss their plans, including: Verizon, Vonage, Comcast, Cablevision,
Time Warner, Level 3, AT&T, MCI, Bell Canada, Telus, Sprint, Vonage, NTT,
Bredband, and SBC. Join us! There will also be a blend of voices heard
from both the Enterprise and those representing emerging/enabling next
generation technologies. I'm also excited about the Fall 2003 Telecom
Policy Summit that will be taking place on Monday September 22nd. We are
in the process of confirming all of the speakers. We are also working on
being able to offer CLE credits to all the lawyers who attend the summit.

I expect to see some "new blood" at Fall VON as I have committed to
reaching outside of our typical circles to bring new people into VON. This
is being accomplished by a major push on the direct mail front, as well as
local and regional advertising in the greater Boston area. Our hope is
that by the time Fall VON happens, the existence of it won't be a secret
to any of the Enterprise users who job touches on supporting IP
Communications within their enterprise.

Check the conference schedule at <http://www.von.com/schedule.html.
Remember to register by August 8th to take advantage of our "early bird"
discount.

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   The Supernova Effect

When I was getting ready for Supernova 2003, I wanted to have a blog
available so I could try to blog the event in a matter consistent with how
I thought others were going to use their blogs. Turns out that in the end
while I didn't even try to keep up with the real-time blogging and "side
chatter" that was going on, I have been able to keep myself up with my own
blog and track the little things in life that were happening but not being
noticed.

For now it looks like the advent of Supernova 2003 has had an effect on me
which has transformed me into the owner of yet another blog. ;-)
If you would like to see a preview of what goes into a Pulver Report,
please feel free to drop by my blog during the month of August.
<http://192.246.69.231/jeff/personal/>. Carl Ford also recently
started a blog which is available at:
<http://192.246.69.231/carl/personal/>

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   IP Communications: Driven by Computing not Telecom

For a long time I've spoken about the convergence of the communications
and internet industries resulting in the creation of the IP Communications
industry. While there are people in the IP Communications Industry who can
trace back their roots to some parts of what is/was the Telecom space, a
true driver of IP Communications comes from the natural continuing
evolution of the computer industry. It is the computer industry (and not
the Telecom Industry) which is driving the future of IP Communications.

Consumer edge devices will become cheaper thanks to advances in Silicon
VoIP.

We have gotten to where we are today despite the fact that many
vendors have tried to replicate old hardware and older technologies
without introducing much in the form of true innovation. IP Communications
wins because Voice can be treated as an application when working with IP
networks. QoS really doesn't matter for most people. "Best efforts" is
fine for many people. IP Technologies have helped create an interesting
playing field from which a new set of players are emerging in the
communications landscape that would have never been in this space if it
wasn't for advances driven by computing.

Open protocols like SIP have helped foster the growth and drive
a new generation of people to communicate using the Internet.
While there will always be traditional players looking at IP Communication
technologies, and the disruption to their traditional business models, the
real excitement continues to be driven by the start-ups that have no
legacy to protect.

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Carl's NARUC Summer Meeting Report - from the Carl Ford Blog

Well this has been an interesting trip to Denver. The show is going on for
the rest of the week, but I need to return home.

VoIP has been the subject of a lot of discussion, but Universal and the
restructuring of it has been the most talked about item. A lot
of jabs have been poked at the FCC regarding the missing Triannual
review.

The Commission has many frustrated people who are wondering if this is
part of a greater scheme. Congress is moving monies away from the FCC
associated with Media Ownership oversight.

If emasculation was an objective, some feel it is being achieved. No
wonder the states feel empowered to look at VoIP and make their own
decisions. The issue is that the broadband deployment is an objective of
the states, but they are looking to do it by guaranteeing the ILECs
exclusivity.

The model for charging for the Universal Service fund is also the subject
of debate.

The scenario I like the best is phone numbers, but I would prefer it to be
on both assigned and unassigned numbers.

I personally would love to sponsor a contest where some of the rural areas
of concern are looked at from the view point of deploying alternate
broadband and a VOIP deployment.

To this end I am inviting anyone interested to a BOF meeting at Fall
2003 VON on Thursday lunch time. To discuss a few trial scenarios and the
ground rules for the competition.

I would like to make this a white paper and a breakout at Spring 2004 VON.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
 The Carl Ford Blog: Tipsy or Tipping Point

Business Week is all a buzz with the news that Verizon is going to lead a
charge in the broadband revolution. This can be very exciting, but I see
the fact that no wholesale strategy is mentioned as a real concern. It's
not about enabling competitors. It's about enabling applications. In
order for the new network to really be a benefit to end users, third
parties need to have access.

Now, if you tell me that this will happen because this is the goal,
that 's great. But instead I am reading very tired "Video on Demand"
thinking.  I don't want eight hundred channels, I want 8 million peers.

Verizon, as your team talks about this magnificent future, show a
commitment to IPV6, APIs and Docomo like business development. Most
importantly, guide a path that makes the end points an open retail outlet
solution. Not a closed PPOE like interface for your carefully selected
equipment.

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   Segwaying in the Hamptons

I've been using my Segway around the Hamptons since early July and I've
learned that having a Segway is a great way to get to meet your
neighborhood joggers, their dogs, gawkers, etc.

I recently took my longest trip - from my home in Remsenburg to
Westhampton Beach, a trip that is about 4 1/2 miles each way.

The entire trip took about an hour and a half and while it may look like
there is no exercise going on while someone is on their Segway, trust me,
there is as I was more than a bit tired when I got home. Guess it will
take a little time to build up Segway endurance. ;-)

I placed the order for my Segway back in November, 2002 on Amazon.com and
at the time I had the opportunity to enter an essay writing contest to
receive my Segway before Christmas 2002. I tried drawing parallels between
trying to help reinvent communications and reinvent transportation but I
guess I was either off the mark or just not understood. I guess I should
have tried harder in writing the essay since I lose the contest. :-(

It wasn't until March, 2003 that I was notified that my Segway was waiting
for me and that I should complete my order. Those of you who lived
through the Winter and Spring of 2003 on the East Coast of the US might
appreciate the fact that just about every weekend was a snow-out or
wash-out and there was no real opportunity to take advantage of having a
Segway. In fact it wasn't until I saw Peter Gabrial in Concert at Jones
Beach in June and saw him ride a Segway during one of his songs did I
remember that I had a Segway of my own waiting for me...

The next day my order was completed and literally two days later the
Segway arrived and I've been segwaying ever since. One day I hope
the Segway it will have an odometer, speedometer, and an easy way to carry
a small cup of coffee but I have been enjoying my Segway "experience."

I'm not yet convinced that the Segway really will help redefine the future
of transportation, but watching the eyes of those who see it, especially
my kids, it very well may be possible that a future Segway derriviate will
in fact, for a future generation, redefine what transportation is all
about.

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   GPS in Cars - The Freedom to Explore

Ever since I had a GPS in my car I've had the liberating feeling that I
can try to get lost near my home town and not be afraid that I would
actually be lost.

I've found that the advent of GPS systems in cars liberate me to the point
where I can spend a Sunday afternoon with my family driving in
unfamiliar territory and with the comfort that no matter where we end up,
I can always route myself back home.

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   Jeff's Social Experiment: I'm giving "LinkedIn" a Try

After watching these "6 degrees of Separation" networks grow on the net,
I've decided to give LinkedIn a try. <http://www.linkedin.com.

If you would like to receive a personal invitation to join
the Jeff Pulver network on LinkedIn, please email: jeffp@pulver.com with
your request.

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   SIPop! 2003: September 23-25 during Fall 2003 VON

SIPop! 2003 <http://pulver.com/2003 will be taking place in September.
We are organizing demos on the Fall 2003 VON show floor around various
themes. The proposed demo themes include:

          * Softswitches for Carriers (was Call/Proxy Servers)
          * Enterprise IP-Centrex solutions
          * Feature servers
          * Testing tools
          * User Agents/CPE Devices
          * Network Media Servers
          * PSTN Service Providers
          * Network Boundary Traversal
          * SIP Billing solutions
          * Interworking with other protocols (was Federation)

The idea is to show your products in as many ways as possible
interacting with as many other products as possible.
Only GA products will be shown.

The next scheduled SIPop! planning conference call will be taking place on
August 19th at 2PM EST.
If you interested in participating in this year's SIPop! and joining
us on the conference call,please contact Ed Guy,
via email: edguy@pulver.com.

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pulver.com 2003/4 Conference Calendar
( http://pulver.com/conference )

     "Events for the Communications Industry" (tm)

     September
     22-25        - Fall 2003 VON Conference & Expo,
                    Hynes Convention Center, Boston, MA
                    ( http://pulver.com/von )

     September
     23-25        - SIPop! 2003,
                    Hynes Convention Center, Boston, MA
                    ( http://pulver.com/sipop )


     September 30
     - October 1  - RVC SoftEdge 2003
                    ( http://pulver.com/rvc2003 )

     November
       11-12      - 2003 Wireless Internet Summit
                    Santa Clara, CA
                    ( http://pulver.com/wirelesssummit )
     - 2004 -

January
    27-29         - IP Communication Industry Executive Summit
                    Sophia Antipolis, France

March 29
- April 1     - Spring 2004 VON Conference & Expo
                    Santa Clara, CA

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The Pulver Report to: jeff@pulver.com.

Jeff Pulver                                    Tel. +1.631.547.0800
The Pulver Report                              Fax. +1.631.396.3996
July 30, 2003                                  http://pulver.com/reports
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