TMCnet Feature

ITEXPO (News - Alert) East is set to launch today and as the excitement builds, TMC is getting to the heart of the action with one-on-one interactions with key industry players. CEO Rich Tehrani recently spoke with Doug Mohney of HD Voice News to gain his insight on the industry and latest trends. When asked his opinion on the most significant technological advancement in the past 12 months, Mohney highlighted that service providers are finally getting serious about SIP interoperability with HD voice and video calling, and Qualcomm is now shipping HD voice capable chipsets for CDMA.

As for the biggest trend in the market segment for HD Voice News, Mohney pointed to the forward momentum for the adoption of mobile HD voice. Asked about the biggest challenge facing customers today, Mohney noted there are still a number of aspects to HD voice that vendors don’t completely understand. When asked about the impact the cloud has had on business, Mohney highlighted that hosted voice is picking up steam. As for whether or not cloud-based communications will expedite the end of the premises-based PBX (News - Alert) market, Mohney shared that cloud solutions will rule in the two-100 seat space, while the larger enterprise has additional elements to juggle in making a switch.

Social media are impacting businesses in nearly every industry and Mohney believes businesses need to be on Twitter (News - Alert), at least to see what customers are saying about them. Asked his opinion on Microsoft’s ability to emerge as a dominate player in the enterprise mobile market due to the tight integration between its mobile and desktop OS, Mohney noted the company will have to figure out how to survive the shift out of a PC-centric world to one that is completely cloud and mobile. As for his technology prediction for 2012, Mohney warns that if Google (News - Alert) isn’t more careful, Microsoft could start picking up search engine market share.

Their entire conversation follows:

What was the most significant technological advancement in the past 12 months and why?

For HD Voice, I'd say there have been two. Service providers are finally starting to get serious about SIP interoperability for HD voice and video calling, with CableLabs, Neutral Tandem (News - Alert), and Verizon all getting on board. And after years of pushing, Qualcomm says it is now shipping HD voice capable chipsets for CDMA.

What has been the biggest trend in your market segment and how is it impacting your customers?

Mobile HD voice service nearly covers Europe; there many more "haves" than "have nots," if you look at the latest coverage map from the Global Mobile Supply Association. When you roll in India, Australia, Canada, and the turn-ups in Africa, there's a lot of forward momentum. Once VoLTE goes into production, it's going to be a big shift.

What is the biggest challenge facing your customers today and how is your company helping address that challenge?

There are a lot of aspects to HD voice that many vendors don't completely understand, especially in the U.S. -- Bluetooth companies especially. HD Voice News keeps plugging away at educating people and it's starting to show in increased website visits and returning visitors.

How has the cloud impacted your business? How has it impacted your customers?

Hosted voice is starting to pick up steam, and it's the "gateway drug" for additional "as a service" offerings. 

Will cloud-based communications expedite the end of the premises-based PBX market?

I thinking in the two-100 seat space, cloud/hosted is going to rule, and you'll start to see a lot of shift from premise-based to hosted in businesses who have up to 500 seats. The offsetting factor once you go above 500 is that enterprises have money and politics (Layers 8 and 9) invested. But everyone wants to go up market and get larger customers, so I wouldn't be surprised if the Tier 1s start rolling out a mega-sized hosted offering to keep the independents at bay.

We're starting to see a lot of creative value-add and vertical market solutions for hosted. When people start talking about applying hosted solutions to the hospitality industry -- hotels, motels -- it's time to pay attention.

Does every business need a social media presence? Why or why not?

You have to be on Twitter, for no other reason than to see what your customers are saying about you and to try and fix the things that slip through the cracks. After that, it gets more complicated, depending on what type of business you have and what your objectives are.

Gigaset is an interesting example. They have a great presence on Facebook; they're promoting a brand, growing their consumer presence, and doing a lot of what I'd call "People Friendly" or social-media friendly activities.

I wouldn't recommend Gigaset's approach to someone selling high-end switches and routers. There's an entertainment factor in effective social media that I think some firms don't get, so you see them simply going through the motions to pump a message across platforms.

With Microsoft touting tight integration between its mobile and desktop OS, can it become a major competitor in the enterprise mobile market?

Microsoft needs to figure out how it will survive the shift out of a PC-centric world to a cloud/mobile world. People aren't going to pay $150-200 a pop for operating system upgrades and another $250 to $300 a pop for new software or upgrades to Office every couple of years, especially when you can get a tablet app that does nearly everything you want to do for around $10 a business app or $5-10 a month for a cloud service.

The amount of compromise Microsoft has already had to make to support other mobile OS's just so it won't lose mindshare/eyeballs in the cloud is pretty significant. You can go to Microsoft's Live Mail website and it will tell you exactly how to work with Android and Apple iThings. That has to give Steve Ballmer heartburn.

Make one technology prediction for 2012 and consider its impact.

If Google isn't more careful, Microsoft will start picking up search engine market share. A lot of people aren't happy that Google wants to start sorting through everything you do on the 'Net and make recommendations based upon without providing an opt-out mechanism. The obvious opt-out mechanism is to switch from Google's search engine to Bing.

If people start leaving the Google search engine mother ship, that throws ripples into the whole Google business model. And it's simple to switch search engines.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO East 2012, happening NOW in Miami, FL. ITEXPO offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. For more information on registering for ITEXPO registration click here.

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