If you read enough market studies, they all kind of blend into each other, don’t they? Here’s what looks like a new one from ZDNet Research that sounds vaguely familiar even though the numbers are fresh. It says that worldwide revenue from the sale of VoIP equipment will reach nearly $12 billion in 2010, up from not quite $4 billion in 2005. That’s an annual growth rate of 24.7 percent. PBXes account for 46 percent of the market today, with infrastructure and residential equipment each with 27 percent. The number of residential VoIP subscribers will supposedly rise from 15.8 million in 2005 to 151.2 million by 2010, slightly north of a 57 percent increase per year. Two questions: were there really only 16 million paying VoIP customers in the whole world last year? And how many of that 2010 projection will be telcos retaining customers by going VoIP themselves?

For more information about the 2010 VoIP market:

- read this article from ZDNet

- for other predictions about VoIP revenue read this

For service providers and large enterprises that are still puzzling out VoIP peering, we’ve found what looks like a good ongoing primer. This particular issue talks about the IETF–the Internet Engineering Task Force–which sets out the technical underpinnings of the Net. In March, the IETF established a new area of development called “Real-Time Applications and Infrastructure,” where all VoIP development will fall. There are several working groups, which will eventually generate more-or-less-binding tech documents: on ENUM, on SIP and on Session PEERing for Multimedia INTerconnec–SPEERMINT. The primer has a series of good and relevant links that will probably help you understand what’s admittedly a pretty tough technical matter.

For more information about VoIP and the IETF:

- read this article on VoIPPlanet

The merger of Bellsouth and AT&T still isn’t a done deal, having been caught up in politics at the FCC. One analysis, from the excellent if somewhat erratic newsletter DSL Prime, suggests that BellSouth chairman Ed Whitacre is in no mood to let the commission shake him down–and may be willing to let the purchase get unmade. After all, changes in the stock price mean that the merger is costing his company $17 billion more that it did when the deal was announced in March. What’s more, there’s a new study that says telecom mergers don’t add any efficiencies to the market anyway.

For more information about the BellSouth/AT&T merger:

- read this article from DSL Prime

Frequent readers will detect in these pages a note of skepticism about market studies that purport to project sky-high revenue figures five or so years out. Here’s one reason why. Bank of America is in the middle of upgrading its phone infrastructure to VoIP. It’s adding 180,000 IP phones–divided among branches, offices and call centers. The project started in 2005 and won’t be done until early 2009. It’s a big project, enough to probably skew market research numbers, but it’s not unprecedented. My question: what year do these phones get counted in? If you count them all in the start year, 2005, you’re crushing the growth rate. If you count them all in the projected end year, you’re stoking growth, but it’s hardly a prediction, is it? And what market researcher has time to go back to all major projects each year and count the installations in just that year?

For more information about the BofA VoIP migration:

- read this article in ComputerWorld

Miami Ink

November 27, 2006

I am still in south Florida today the home of ITEXPO next month. I walked by Miami Ink while they were filming their series. I don’t have any photos but maybe I’ll take one later.

Blogged via wireless handheld

Vernbatim U3 Store ‘n’ Go

November 27, 2006

This time, let’s taka a look at an actual product – Verbatim’s 1GB Store ‘n’ Go U3 Smart Drive, the newest member of its award-winning family of Store ‘n’ Go USB drives.

Just the size of a pack of gum, the U3 smart drive offers a new mobile computing platform that allows you to carry smart software applications, PC settings, files and personal preferences wherever you go and to access them on any Windows XP or 2000 PC via any open USB port.

Verbatim’s Smart Drive adds a nice personal twist by including an app called U3 Launchpad, an intuitive interface that makes accessing U3 smart software and device features fast and easy. An extensive library of U3 smart applications ranging from backup, email and photo organizers to music players and graphics applications can be downloaded from
www.u3.com as well as directly from the Store ‘n’ Go U3 Launchpad.

Verbatim also includes McAfee antivirus protection.

Street Price: $99.00

www.verbatim.com/u3

Would a Cell Phone by Any Other Name Smell as Sweet?

November 27, 2006

Shakespearen apologies aside, what if the cell phone was called something else besides a cell phone?

(We call our category here  ”Mobile Phones,” for instance — as I am sure all of you are well aware.)

Well, that’s the $1 million question that an article in BusinessWeek raises.

And if the ubiquitous gadget did have the oppotunity to dial-in another name, what do you think it would be?

Now that’s where the fun starts …

VoIP Gateway clones an iPod

November 27, 2006The iPod is one of the most recognizable products due to it’s smooth exterior, elegant shape, and stylish form-factor.  So what you do get when you cross an Apple iPod with a VoIP gateway? Why the Polypower VRM0-Sxx series of course!

This VoIP gateway clones the iPod’s small size, measuring just 100×80x28mm and clones the iPod’s original white/ivory color. It includes 1 WAN + 1 LAN + 1/2 FXS + 1 FXO (option). You can use this product with a SIP-based termination service provider along with your favorite analog/cordless/DECT phone. The VRM0-Sxx features built-in QoS, T.38, auto-provisioning, and many other common features. Based out of Taiwan, this new SIP VoIP gateway features the following specs:

 · SIP Protocol

 · Codec support G.711, G.723 ,G.726, G.729A/B

 · Features : Call Forwarding, Caller ID, Call Hold, 3-way Conference Call ,Toll Bypass

 · QoS and FAX T.38 support

 · Auto Provisioning

 · Small size: 80 x 100 x 28 mm

They also have a Skype VoIP adaptor available, pictured here:

Soon they will also have a stylish IP phone available which looks like the following:

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Patently Silly

November 27, 2006I saw a recent BusinessWeek article about VoIP and Patents, and I was floored to hear that the USPTO (United States Patent & Trademark Office) has reportedly issued 2,049 patents related to VoIP. Two of the most recent patents issued were to IBM and Intel, for what they are calling a “conversations computing system” and a “digital browser phone” respectively. Is it just me or did nobody else have the foresight to patent the process of placing calls over the Internet before now? The list of companies that make calls over the Internet is huge, and while 85 or so VoIP providers are no longer part of the list, it’s still a big list. Maybe one of them should have the right to sue all the others for infringing on their patent? I wonder… And what about VocalTec? They must have submitted something to the patent office. This of course prompted me to do a Google search on “silly patents” and “crazy patents” … I never imagined how many truly “innovative” folks are out there.  And when it comes to something like United States Patent 5443036, how come I didn’t think of submitting that for approval first?

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Kagan On T-Mobile

November 27, 2006Telecom industry analyst Jeff Kagan had a few comments about the T-Mobile news that hit TMCnet today. In short, T-Mobile is starting to name names, as Ericsson and Nokia have announced that they will be providing T-Mobile with gear for their 3G deployments here in the U.S. Here’s what Jeff had to say: This is good news coming from T-Mobile about the future offerings, finally. We have been asking them for years and they have always stayed on the simpler track offering voice, paging and email. Only recently have they decided to join the competitive battle that is being waged by Cingular, Verizon and Sprint. Traditionally T-Mobile service costs less, but their offerings were less, and their network reach was less. This has not hurt them since they focused on the customers they could serve well. It looks like they are finally entering the larger wireless marketplace. Next we will see if they change their pricing as they change their service offerings. T-Mobile will spend about $2.6 billion dollars to upgrade their network.