by Kevin FitchardFebruary 19th, 2010
Mobile World Congress always produces a flood of product releases as the world’s mobile vendors and developers save their big guns for the world’s largest wireless trade show. While we can’t cover ever product release at the show, here are some of the more interesting ones that caught our eye: (more…)
Related Topics: 3G/4G, All Stories, Mobile Apps, Smart Grids, Unified Communications, WiMAX, Wireless |
by Ed GubbinsDecember 23rd, 2009
Genband’s bid for Nortel’s carrier VoIP equipment business — if it succeeds — could give the vendor a more direct relationship with the world’s largest carriers than it currently enjoys through its major vendor partners. But the deal could also be seen as further solidification of the VOIP equipment space as the domain of specialist suppliers, according to Elisabeth Rainge, IDC’s director of NGN operations.
“Clearly, given Genband’s acquisitions of assets from NSN, Alcatel-Lucent and others in the past few years, it makes sense that those larger players wouldn’t have a strong interest in taking on the Nortel CVAS VoIP asset,” Rainge said in an email. “For better or for worse, what we’re seeing with this move — assuming it goes through — is that 
VoIP infrastructure is a market for experts. No longer is it the expertise or possibly even the bread and butter, of the traditional telecom network equipment vendors. This is partly an acknowledgement that voice is an application and partly an outcome of the state of voice infrastructure for the largest operators. In a nutshell, the IP transformation is not only underway but today’s reality. To build on IP networks means treating voice as an application.”
Acquiring assets from major vendors and using them to create products that major vendors want has been key to Genband’s success, though the novel strategy is not an easy one to pull off. Likewise, integrating Nortel’s products with its own will be no small task for Genband, Rainge said, especially since the latter’s existing portfolio is already packed with gear from previous acquisitions.
“Genband has a continuing, and now expanding challenge in product portfolio management. I don’t envy their sales team with so many acquired product lines in the fold, especially for long-lived investments such as we see in the TDM-VoIP space,” Rainge said. “There is no doubt that Genband already offers and supports many voice infrastructure solutions. In taking on the Nortel assets, Genband will need to work to position itself as a product company with its own mission rather than a caretaker of a variety of products.”
One bright side for Genband: The shedding of similar assets from major vendors means the company is unlikely to enter a bidding war for Nortel’s business with much larger rivals.
Related Topics: All Stories, Business Services, Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC), IMS, IP/NGN, Unified Communications, VoIP |
by Rich KarpinskiDecember 4th, 2009
So this week Adtran invited press and analysts down to Huntsville, Ala., for a debriefing on upcoming announcements and a tour, of among other things, its manufacturing facilities that build and assemble enterprise and carrier equipment here on U.S. soil, right in-house.
The company does ship high-volume manufacturing off-shore to contract manufacturing partners, but says managing first-runs and rush jobs locally — with its engineers and designers right in the next building — can actually save money when all costs are accounted for. Further, it gives the company insights into its own products that it claims competitors lack.
U.S-based manufacturing is so rare these days, we thought we would share a look. (more…)
Related Topics: 3G/4G, All Stories, Broadband/FTTX, Business Services, Carrier Ethernet, IPTV, Optical, Residential Services, Telecom Jobs, Unified Communications |
by Rich KarpinskiDecember 4th, 2009
Adtran this week opened up the doors to its Huntsville, Ala., headquarters to press and analysts to talk about a range of topics spanning its enterprise and carrier businesses.
On the service provider side of the house, the focus was on helping carriers drive IP and Ethernet ever deeper into the network while using Adtran’s multi-access platforms to affordably serve the mix of copper and fiber and TDM and Ethernet environments that are the reality today for most carriers.
Also on the agenda: opportunities in mobile backhaul, especially moving from bundled T1s to something more flexible, affordable and Ethernet-based; thoughts on broadband stimulus, national broadband and other funding scenarios; and the potential for blurring the unified communications lines between enterprise and carrier.
Plus: a tour of its on-campus manufacturing operations — a unique resource in an industry in which most manufacturing off-shored and outsourced. (more…)
Related Topics: 3G/4G, All Stories, Broadband/FTTX, Business Services, Carrier Ethernet, Optical, Unified Communications, VoIP |
by Ed GubbinsNovember 16th, 2009
The 2% drop projected this year for the US for wireline business data services market is the first decline In-Stat has seen in more than a decade of covering the sector.
Spending on wireline data services (which doesn’t include managed services such as hosted VoIP in In-Stat’s coverage) should stabilize next year before rebounding, reaching $25 billion by 2012 after dropping to $22.4 billion this year.
“Ethernet Services and IP VPN services are among the lone bright spots in the market,” In-Stat analyst David Lemelin said.
Spending on IP VPN services among small and medium businesses should grow 150% between last year and 2012, In-Stat said. And spending on Ethernet services among healthcare firms should triple in that time.
Related Topics: All Stories, Business Services, Carrier Ethernet, Unified Communications |
by Rich KarpinskiNovember 9th, 2009
Shortly after the launch by Cisco of a slew of new unified communications and collaborative technologies earlier today, I was able to touch base with a company executive for some additional insights into the service provider impact of its moves.
Cisco emphasized its long-term focus of working closely with service providers and highlighted some new products likely to be delivered with the help of operators.
But perhaps the day’s most interesting new product, a hosted e-mail offering dubbed WebEx Mail that will not only compete but emulate some of the protocols within Microsoft Exchange, will be delivered solely as a cloud service directly by Cisco — at least for the time being. (more…)
Related Topics: All Stories, Business Services, Cloud Computing, Unified Communications |
by Ed GubbinsNovember 3rd, 2009
Windstream (NYSE: WIN) CEO Jeff Gardner told me this summer that he wanted to increase the company’s revenue from business customers from about a third of its total revenue to half over the next five years. Today’s acquisition of privately held CLEC NuVox could cut that down to more like two years. (more…)
Related Topics: All Stories, Broadband/FTTX, Business Services, Carrier Ethernet, Unified Communications, VoIP |
by Sarah ReedyFebruary 2nd, 2009
Barely one week after it was announced, Verizon Wireless today made a slew of announcements regarding updates to its Hub device, a touch-screen home phone system that includes voice-over IP and a widget-based interface for accessing Web applications, including contact list management, text messaging, calendars and turn-by-turn directions. The product has been in the pipeline for some time now, and Verizon promised more features to come, including VCast music and videos specific to the Hub. Music wasn’t on the list today, but several niche videos will be made available to Hub users (apparently mostly women in the kitchen, based on the announcements): (more…)
Related Topics: All Stories, Unified Communications, VoIP, Wireless |
by Kevin FitchardApril 9th, 2008
The former CEO of a struggling operator is now taking over the board of a struggling vendor. It’s probably crossed more than a few of your minds that Dave Dorman played none too small a role in SBC’s acquisition of AT&T, which eventually took his former company’s venerable moniker before he retired. Now as chairman of Motorola, he’ll oversee Moto’s split into two entities: one focused solely on handsets and the other on a diverse array of carrier, enterprise, government and consumer equipment. (more…)
Related Topics: All Stories, Broadband/FTTX, IPTV, Regulation, Unified Communications, WiMAX, Wireless |
by Kevin FitchardJanuary 7th, 2008
LAS VEGAS – Yep, after delivering the keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show eight times since 1994, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates is giving up his annual role as technology seer for a life focused on his charitable foundation. If you hadn’t heard, Bill Gates is retiring from Microsoft, and he’s going out with a little humor. At CES he spoofed his rather eccentric and geeky personality with a video in which he called everyone from Bono to Hillary Clinton looking for some activity to occupy his time (to see the keynote Webcast see Microsoft’s Press Pass page).
Starting next year, we’ll have to listen to someone else’s vision of technology at CES. Maybe it’s blasphemous to say, but I think it’s for the best. Gates and Microsoft haven’t exactly been on the cutting edge of innovation of late. The company sells an awful lot of software, but the average person on the street stopped getting excited about the newest release of Windows in about 1995.
Frankly the most spectacular jumps in consumer electronics in recent years have not come from Microsoft. Apple gave us the portable digital music player. Microsoft gave us the Xbox, but only after Sony and Nintendo turned the game console into a massive global market. And in a technology closer to home, Microsoft’s probing into the mobile space has been mediocre at best–Palm invented the smartphone, while RIM and Apple perfected it for the enterprise and the consumer, respectively.
Sound like I’m Microsoft bashing? Perhaps I am a bit. But I’m not criticizing the company or its business model. It makes great products (well, some are greater than others) that people buy by the boatload. But it’s been quite some time since Microsoft came up with the next big thing. Just look at what Gates and Microsoft cohorts preached from the CES pulpit: social media, home networking, even video sharing. It looks neato, but it’s hardly a new gospel. We’ve been seeing the same stuff presented at conferences for years.
Maybe that’s the value of Gates’ keynotes. Just as Microsoft’s software might allow it to turn a cutting-edge innovation into a mass-market phenomenom, maybe Gates’ keynotes validate those innovations to the industry at large. If you saw Bill talk it up at CES, then you know the technology has legs. But maybe it’s time the keynote was delivered by a true visionary in the technology world instead of the industry’s most successful reactionary.
Keep tuned to Unfiltered this week. Associate Editor Sarah Reedy and I will be making daily updates to the blog.
Related Topics: All Stories, Broadband/FTTX, IPTV, Unified Communications, Wireless |
