June 2000

BY RICH TEHRANI

Yes I love excitement, and technology excites me. I must have the best job in the world. After all, what other occupation would allow me to explore and write about the latest and greatest products in the communications space? From CTI to Internet telephony to customer relationship management, it's up to me to stay on top of the news. At the most recent Communications Solutions EXPO in Washington, D.C., many people told me that they can feel my enthusiasm on stage, or in the various columns I write for the TMC publications they depend on to help make purchasing decisions.

Perhaps what drives me even more than the excitement I feel about helping explain the latest and greatest technology is the fact that I used to make technology selection decisions for a living, as well. I used to be an MIS director and relied on publications and trade shows to help me make purchasing decisions. Believe me, I feel your pain. My goal has always been to make you aware of products that make it easier for you to select what you need.

A few times a year, I have the pleasure of helping coordinate TMC-sponsored exhibitions that allow you to see all of the latest productivity boosting products and services under a single roof. Typically I give a 10 minute presentation where I discuss out the most crucial trends and technologies currently in the industry. At the recent Communications Solutions EXPO I decided at the last minute to ditch my entire presentation so I could focus on live demos of products and services which I thought the audience would find interesting.

LIVE DEMOS NEVER WORK
I worked with the engineers of TMC Labs who suggested I demonstrate General Magic's Portico by phone, and Qubit Technologies' Qubit, a wireless Web tablet that is truly unique and revolutionary.

Portico
Portico is a great service, similar to Wildfire's offering a few years back. Using voice recognition, Portico allows you to call your contacts, check your schedule, get stock quotes, and more. It works pretty well in a quiet environment and I've even used it successfully in noisy restaurants. But would it work in front of hundreds of people on the stage of a keynote presentation? Only time would tell.

I spent hours practicing in my house and hotel room, and hours practicing in the room where the presentation would take place. I practiced and practiced until the audio/visual team couldn't take it any more. Between the reverberation of the huge room and microphone/speaker interference and echo, adjusting the settings to perfection was challenging. We finally perfected the demo (without an audience) and I was able to read e-mail, listen to voice mail, make appointments, and much more with the telephone interface.

I took into consideration the effect of just under a thousand people in a room and knew anything could happen on stage. Worse yet, these people are the communications elite, laden with cell phones, pagers, and other communications devices. I couldn't even fathom the ringing, vibrating, and chirping sounds that would emanate from the audience. It was a live demonstrator's nightmare. Luckily, I had designed my presentation around the premise that live demos never work. (Several TMC team members told me that the demo was doomed to fail in prerecorded voice mails and e-mail that would be read to me by Portico.)

Had the presentation worked as planned, it would have been awesome -- a blend of technology and humor (hey, who else tries to educate you and keep you smiling at the same time?). As it turned out, the audience seemed to enjoy the presentation. But I guess Murphy's Law was also in the audience at my keynote. I made it through 75 percent of my demo before Portico went away and wouldn't come back after repeated attempts. All in all, Portico is very innovative and I highly recommend it to anyone who needs to be productive at work (just not on stage with a thousand people watching and listening).

Qubit
My next demo was a Web tablet called Qubit that allows wireless users to walk around their house or office while simultaneously surfing the Web. Interaction with the unit involves using a stylus instead of a mouse, a wireless keyboard, or an onscreen keyboard. The base of the unit can connect to the Net via broadband or a POTS connection, so this device should be perfect for everyone. This demo went really well although I must admit my demo of Qubit was not as in-depth as my demo of Portico. Perhaps I was a bit gun-shy. Regardless, these are both incredible products/services and I suggest you check out both. Much thanks to both companies for helping me keep the audience entertained while learning about the future of communications technology.

WHERE THE ACTION IS
Keynotes are great and I love to be involved in them, but the real action is in the exhibit hall. What excites me more than anything are the new products being introduced in the market, and there were many announcements made throughout the event. VoIP was a major theme. Quicknet Technologies sponsored an Internet phone center that showcased many of the Internet telephony service providers in the market. Using computers that were equipped with Quicknet Technologies'  products that improve IP telephony quality and ease of use, attendees were able to compare the quality of the various Internet telephony services. The Internet telephony phone booths were swamped the entire show. Hats off to Quicknet for successfully demonstrating the Internet Phone Center at two consecutive Communications Solutions EXPOs!

Quicknet also made a product announcement that is ideal for those of you looking for a way to use Quicknet's PCMIA-based Internet PhoneCARD with a standard analog phone in multiple countries. The product is called SmartCABLE and should debut by the time you read this. Pricing will start around $49. The product will be compatible with many services including Dialpad.com, deltathree.com, Net2Phone, and others.

SERVICE PROVIDERS
There was a great deal of activity in the service provider space as well. iSoftel  unveiled the Millenia Prepaid/ Postpaid Management System (PPMS), Version 4.0, a Web-enabled Windows NT-based system that enables service providers to deliver revenue-generating prepaid and postpaid services, long-distance resale and enhanced services, all with real-time billing and fraud control capabilities.

Deploying new services (a service provider's nightmare) is made more painless with the Softool Reporting Tool that allows for object-oriented provisioning. Customers will have access to Web-based reporting tools that allow viewing of call detail records and detailed reports and general analysis.Your customers can also pay online (I wish my service providers let me do this).

DSL
DSL was in full force on the exhibit hall floor as FastComm showed SDSL interfaces as offerings in a number of the company's enterprise products, including the MetroLAN, WEB.router and the EtherFRAD. FastComm expects to be shipping these products around the time you read this issue.

FastComm was also showing the SignalPath signaling gateway, which provides seamless translation between diverse signaling protocols on a single platform. The SignalPath handles conversions for SS7, C7, NI2, and ETSI-PRI ISDN, R1, R2, and DTMF protocols, as well as providing T1/E1 rate conversion.

WIRELESS/SPEECH REC
What happens when you combine the timesaving aspects of speech rec and the rapidly growing wireless market? You get WireNix.com of course! WireNix.com is a Dallas-based technology company that made its debut at Communications Solutions EXPO in D.C. The company will create speech-enabled wireless applications based on open systems and application standards, including Wireless Application Protocol (WAP).

WireNix.com plans to develop speech-enabled applications such as location finders, contact managers, and other information retrieval services for wireless providers, ISPs, and wireless Web portals. The company has already signed a contract with WorldQuest Networks to develop wireless Web applications using WAP. Wirenix.com feels that the best place for speech rec technology is in the network, not the phone. Furthermore, convenience, ease of use, acceptance of WAP as the industry standard, and growing pressure for "hands-free" wireless devices will spur wireless networks to deploy speech-enabled applications as soon as the service providers are convinced the technology is ready. That time is now, according to WireNix.com.

DEVELOPERS
There was news on the developer front, as well. Amtelco XDS released the new XDS Infinity Series H.110 CompactPCI MC-3 Multi-Chassis Interconnect board, which provides fully dynamic switching with system communication via dual-ported RAM. The multi-chassis bus includes a total of 2,423 redundant Full Duplex connections. The non-redundant extended mode allows for system expansion of more than 4,800 non-blocking time slots between either local or off-site locations. This board utilizes dual counter rotating fiber optic rings to connect between chassis up to 2,000 meters apart. This board can also be a true H.110 Bus Master and has complete CompactPCI hot swap support. It features PCI Plug and Play, with 3.3 and 5-volt signaling supported on the PCI bus. The XDS H.110 CompactPCI MC-3 board is fully compatible with other XDS products, including the XDS MC-3 ISA, H.110 boards, along with other H.110 compliant products.

THE LIGHTER SIDE
There were also many great drawings at the show, from $100,000 worth of Rockwell equipment to a $5,000 gift certificate from Quintus. We also gave away two Palm VIIs, ten Handspring Visors and five digital cameras. But the prize everyone was waiting for was a brand new Jeep Cherokee Sport, sponsored by Cincom. Quicknet employee Mike Downey was the lucky winner. As it turns out, other members of Quicknet told me Mike was badly in need of a new car. Also, he and his girlfriend had been dating for a year and were celebrating their anniversary. Upon winning the Jeep, he invited his girlfriend to fly to D.C. and drive cross-country together back San Fransisco -- Quicknet's home.

It's really great to help people make technology purchasing decisions that help them in their career but it's even better to see them leave TMC events winning great prizes. Obviously, I am very happy with the career choice I made. I am even happier to say that over 13,000 attendees and exhibitors left Communications Solutions EXPO smiling and happy with the show. The expo and communications markets are both growing rapidly and I am happy to be in a position to keep you informed on the latest advancements in the market. I must confess, this job sure beats putting out fires.

One of the most incredible areas of growth in communications is Internet telephony. Last year, we launched the first Internet Telephony Conference & Expo, not knowing what to expect. Space is limited in the beautiful Hotel del Coronado, so we had designed the event to be small and highly focused. We planned on a total of 1,500 participants. You can imagine that we were blown away when the final numbers came in at over 2,300 -- more than 50 percent over the attendance we expected!

The exhibitors were also blown away and this year, on October 4-6, Internet Telephony Conference & Expo will grow by a full 100 percent in exhibit hall booth space. This means that you will have more than twice as many products and services to evaluate and choose from in the exhibit hall. We should have expected it. What other communications event promises an exhibit hall overlooking the pounding turquoise surf of the Pacific Ocean while you peruse the latest products from the major movers and shakers in the VoIP market? The exhibitor list reads like a who's who of IP telephony: Cisco, Lucent, Alcatel, Marconi, Natural Microsystems, Motorola, Quicknet Technologies, Nortel Networks, and many more will be there. You should be, too.

AN IDEAL VENUE
The concept behind this event was to design a show that not only has the most comprehensive and objective conference track and complete exhibitor list but also an ideal venue. Whether you are single or have a family with 10 children, there is no better place to be than San Diego at the end of an event. We have designed Internet Telephony Conference & Expo to end on Friday. Plan ahead and have your friends or family fly in Thursday night, spend the day exploring all there is to see and when the show is over on Friday afternoon, you too can enjoy the wonders of San Diego all weekend!

From shopping in Old Town, to visiting the San Diego Zoo with your family, San Diego has something for everyone. Sea World and LEGOLAND California are sure crowd-pleasers for children, and San Diego's Gas Lamp district has some of the best nightlife I have ever experienced. Come to this event, learn about the technology, but make sure to bring your friends or family, you won't regret it.

CONFERENCE PROGRAM
As always, you can expect the conference program of this event to be the best in the industry. These extremely educational and informative sessions are designed by the editors of Communications Solutions and Internet Telephony magazines, as well as the engineers of TMC Labs.

The entire conference track has changed this year and you can expect sessions on the following topics: Service Provider, Corporate/Enterprise, Developer/Reseller and General/Special Interest. Session topics will range from fax over IP and telecommuting over IP to ASP opportunities, IP telephony VPNs, cable telephony, and voice over power lines. Please visit www.itexpo.com for details.

Perhaps the best news I can share with you is that if you act now, you can save a great deal of money. If you are interested in the conference track, you can save over $300 dollars by registering prior to July 25. If you are interested in the exhibit hall, be sure to register early, as registration for the exhibit hall is free until July 25 and will increase to $399 after August 25. Avoid the long lines and register today at www.itexpo.com. Coronado is one of the most beautiful and sought after resort locations in the country, and the Hotel del Coronado is equally inviting, boasting former guests who include Ronald Reagan, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, and Charles Lindbergh. All this and the hottest VoIP event in the country. What are you waiting for? Sign up today!