THE PULVER REPORT: March 23, 1999
In this Issue:
Heard on the Net:
- 1999 is the Year of the Application.
There were over 40 entries for the pulver.com / Dialogic / ITXC Cool Apps Contest.
1999 may very well be the \"Year of the Application\". There were
quite a few interesting applications submitted. Winners will be announced on
stage at 8.30 AM on Wednesday, April 14th at Spring '99 Voice on the Net.
- Siemens acquired Argon Networks and Castle Networks and formed Unisphere Solutions,
\"a Siemens company to target voice, data and IP Networking Solutions.\"
Please read \"target\" to mean acquire voice, data and IP networking
companies as well as provide voice, data and IP Networking solutions to customers.
Siemens recently also acquired
Redstone Communications. The Siemens acquisitions of: Argon Networks, Castle
Networks and Redstone Communications is also reinforcing the fact that the Greater
Boston
Area (the old 128 / 495) is the place to be if you are developing next generation
routers, switches and edge devices. Ericsson, Lucent, Nortel and Siemens are
all well positioned to expand into the phyiscal office space once occupied by
Digital and the others who dominated the computer industry in the 1970's and
early 80's. ( http://www.castlenetworks.com) ( http://www.argon.com ) ( http://www.redstonecom.com
) ( http://www.siemens.com )
- GTO Joins Delta Three's Network Partnership Program Delta Three, Inc. has
announced that the General Telecommunications Organization (GTO) of Oman (Sultanate
of Oman Middle East) has signed on as a member of the Delta Three Network Partnership
Program. This is a significant announcement for the Middle East. The GTO will
install Ericsson's IP Telephony Solution and connect to the Delta Three Global
Internet Telephony network, allowing the organization to provide Delta Three
Internet Telephony services that include retail calling cards, direct dial long
distance, PC-to-Phone software. Initial availability of the products is planned
for next month from the GTO website and retail outlets. ( http://www.deltathree.com
) ( http://www.ericsson.com ) ( http://www.gto.net.om )
Got News? Please feel free to email:
editor\@pulver.com. Please feel free to visit: ( http://pulver.com/news ) to
catch up with pulver.com's IP Telephony News.
Retraction re: March 10, 1999 issue of The Pulver Report \
"The statements attributed
to Louise Spergel in the March 10, 1999 issue of the Pulver Report were made
without her permission and did not represent her opinion or that of her company."
I apologize for the error.
Jeff Pulver
Jeff - What's the big deal
about Directories?
The Directory on the Net (\"DON\") space Transcends more than just
IP Telephony. A few people emailed me during the past couple of weeks wondering
what the focus of our new \"Directories on the Net\" Report ( http://pulver.com/don/subscribe.html
) and related DON Conference is going to be when it is held November 2-4, 1999.
When looking at the convergence going on in the Directory space, please keep in mind the convergence and the related opportunity is much more than just within the IP Telephony.
The topic of directories spans more spaces than Telephony and IP Addresses.
Looking at what the DON Industry consists of, one might note that there are
email directories, IP Address Directories (DNS), Dynamic IP address directories
- i.e. \"Buddy Lists\" and IRC, yellow pages, white pages, meta directories,
LDAP, IIS, ULS and related protocols.
We will also be looking at Network directories such as: NDS from Novell, Active Directory from Microsoft and the offerings from Lotus and others. Digging a little deeper we will also be looking at the PIM Industry and products including: ACT, Goldmine, Maximizer. Both Netscape and Oracle have Directory server software as well.
Going down this path, we will move
from the software vendors to the service providers and will be taking a look
at Directory Service Providers, including companies like Metro One. We will
also be taking a look at Local Number Portability and how Directories are effecting
the convergence between both the PSTN and the Internet as well as the
convergence of the Wireless/Mobile space and the Internet. The amount of territory
which we will be covering transcends a very large space and there are more than
one chasms which need to be crossed to get to the other side.
While some of the battles may have already been won, there are many more which have yet to be started and we will be tracking all of the these exciting developments in the weeks and months ahead.
Please feel free to visit: ( http://pulver.com/don/speaking.html ) if you would
like to submit a speaking proposal for this event.
The Telecom and Airline Industries
- Separated at Birth?
During the past few weeks, I've been spending maybe a bit too much time in the
air and thinking in between connecting flights at airports. The following are
some of my observations regarding the similarities between the Telecom and Airline
Industries...
1. Price of Routes do not reflect
distance traveled
Flying from New York to Nice can be cheaper than flying from Stockholm
to Nice.
Flat rate pricing does not differentiate
between 10 cents a minutes
between New York and San Francisco or 10 cents a minute between
New York and Chicago.
Distance does not matter in Airlines, Telecoms or on the Internet!
2. Industrial Revolution / Internet Revolution:
History:
1861 - Western Union completes the first transcontinental telegraph lines, along
side national Rail Roads, providing fast communications during the US Civil
War.
1876 - The Telephone is Invented.
1903 - The Airplane is Invented.
Today:
Airplanes now provide international transportation services. The \"Rights
of Way\" from the Rail Roads have been sold and this is where one finds
the Fiber being used for the Next Generation Communication Networks.
3. Both Industries use a Hub Architecture in certain key cities / locations.
4. The world \"Terminal\" has special meaning in both Telecoms and
in the Airline Industries as endpoints where the carrier is no longer responsible.
5. Both Industries are in the Transportation Business:
- Airlines transport physical objects including: People and Cargo
- Telecoms transport virtual objects including: Voice, Video and Data
6. Telecom \"Bucket of Minutes\" is equal to the Airline Rationing
of Frequent Flyer Miles. In some cases, Frequent Flyer Miles are earned by Minutes
Consumption (for example: One can earn Delta Frequent Flyer Miles from MCI Worldcom).
In other cases, Airlines like Delta sell pre-paid Calling Cards (The Delta-Tel
Card).
7. Internet Strategy: Dumping of Seats and Minutes
Priceline.com allows Airlines to dump Empty Seats so the airlines don't fly
around empty. The Minutes Exchange offers Telecom Operators an opportunity to
Dump Minutes in Routes where minimum quotes are not being made.
The pulver.com Test Network: Update
The pulver.com Test Network will be launched in May, 1999. I'd like to thank
those companies which have come forward and have offered to provide end points
for the protocol agnostic pulver.com IP Telephony Test Network.
While I haven't been able to respond to everybody who has expressed an interest in contributing to the network personally, I will be doing so over the next couple of weeks as we get closer to a formal announcement at Spring '99 Voice on the Net.
In addition to maintaining the
physical IP Telephony Test Network at our new office in Melville, NY, starting
with VON Europe '99 I will be allocating space on our exhibit floor at future
VON events to demonstrate Interoperability and will be inviting the vendors
who are participating
in the test network to come forward and demonstrate end to end testing from
the VON show floor and our test network in New York. The current physical design
for the Test Network in my office is still underway. The intent is to provide
free 19\" rack space for endpoints which will be connected to the public
internet and which would be available for
vendor demos and public interoperability tests. I am also open to the idea of
providing Service Providers access to the Test Network to help complement their
own in-house testing and evaluations.
Several equipment vendors have also asked me to provide them with the ability
to RAS into a private portion of the test network, and to help them to be able
to conduct ad-hoc testing within a controlled group. My intention is to purchase
the equipment needed to support this requirement as well.
The purpose of the pulver.com Test Network is to provide equipment vendors with
the opportunity to have \"public\" endpoints on the internet which
can be used for demonstration and testing purposes. With the advent of our test
network, vendors will no longer have to worry about RAS'ing into a competitors
office to conduct end to end testing or having to deal with security and firewall
issues. Hopefully, this will mean engineers will be able to follow up and perform
more end to end testing in between scheduled interoperability events. We would
welcome and are looking forward to having an open working relationship with
any and all of the IP Telephony Labs involved in doing similar work.
I'm currently looking for additional equipment vendors who would like to participate
in the test network to join in an official press release announcing the launch
of the test network at Spring '99 VON. If you are interested in being a part
of this, please email: testnetwork\@pulver.com with your contact information.
IP Telephony Vendors Target the Enterprise Space.
During the next few weeks, look for a growing number of announcements from equipment
vendors who have decided to focus some of their 1999 marketing dollars on getting
VON related technologies deployed in the Enterprise.
While I personally believe the Enterprise marketplace will be a great opportunity
after targeting service providers, one of the biggest challenges facing most
of these vendors will be their channels. In this converged economy, \"traditional\"
sales channels will most likely not work, and it most likely will require guerilla
marketing techniques and the creation of NextGen sales channels.
Update: Min-X.com, "The
Minutes Exchange"
In October 1998, Min-X.com, \"The Minutes Exchange\" was launched
to help accelerate the growth of the global IP Telephony Minutes marketplace.
Back in November 1998, we launched our first virtual trading desk - The IP Telephony
Minutes Desk.
The Minutes Exchange is a \"relationship broker\" and earns commission
on completed Minutes trades. Currently, commissions are only charged to the
Selling party.
During the past few months, Min-X.com has expanded the services offered, and
now support the ability to list co-location space wanted (or available) at telephony
hubs around the world. It will earn \"Real Estate\" type brokerage
commissions for co-location deals closed.
In addition, I'm happy to announce we now offer PSTN Service Providers the ability to \"dump minutes\". By having an inventory of international clients who need to Dump Minutes, we are able to offer special rates for various International routes from time to time. In order to be able to take advantage of these contractually cheap minutes, both parties must share a common interconnection point. If you would like more information about our Minutes Dumping services please email: pstn\@pulver.com.
Min-X.com is currently building a relationship with Tier 1 carriers who from time to time have a need to dump minutes. We are also seeking relationships with International owners of Switches who would be interested in handling the settlement and clearing of our PSTN Minutes deals.
While we currently track 67 vendors
of IP Telephony equipment, the majority of minutes brokered during the past
four months have been on equipment from only a handful of vendors. Most of the
Internet Telephony Service Providers (ITSPs) who have listed minutes requiring
proprietary equipment have seen very little interest in their minutes.
The next Min-X Dealer Meeting will be taking place on April 12th. Details regarding
the meeting are below.
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