[February 21, 2005]

Know Thy Keynoters: Ken Epps of BayPackets

By David Sims, TMCnet CRM Alert Columnist

BayPackets CEO Ken Epps will be speaking at ITEXPO Wednesday Feb. 23 at 4:00 p.m.

Ken Epps is a veteran of over 15 years of management-level experience within the telecommunications sector. Before BayPackets Epps was senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Williams Communications where he helped shepherd the company's successful IPO.

Before Williams Epps was vice president in the communications practice for the consulting firm Emerald Solutions, and before that spent 13 years at AT&T with such jobs as assistant to the president, general manager of domestic consumer long distance, division manager of product development within the consumer communications services division, department head for network operations, senior manager of international market development and financial analyst.

In 2004 privately-held BayPackets, a provider of enhanced voice and data products for wireless, wireline and broadband operators, was named a “Top Emerging Company” in telecommunications applications/software by venture capital researchers Growthink Research.

The award noted BayPackets' Agility NSP, which enables PSTN connectivity through an SS7 interface and next-generation connectivity through a SIP interface, saying it “can be deployed as a next-generation Service Control Point or as an application server in a carrier's network.” As an open standards-based platform, the Agility NSP supports deployments of third-party applications across carrier networks.

Also in 2004 BayPackets announced that Global Crossing would use its network services platform as the carrier upgrades from circuit switched to VoIP network. The Fremont, Calif. company's Agility product was chosen to enable Global Crossing's enterprise customers to control service access and third-party billing.

BayPackets, which counts Deutsche Telecom among others as customers, is seeing increased requests for proposals from carriers that are studying how to move to VoIP. Interest is especially high in Asia-Pacific where the cost-saving service bypasses high local phone rates.

Epps was CEO in 2003 BayPackets announced the availability of its RSI Cable Call Manager product, a network-based application designed specifically for the cable market, enabling Cable Multiple Systems Operators to offer a differentiated service for residential customers.

The product allowed an individual watching a program on digital Cable TV, who gets an annoying phone call, to see a TV screen displaying the calling party's number and name "John Doe: 510-743-2500.” A pop-up screen appears displaying 6 options for the user to choose from: 1) Screen the call; 2) Answer the call; 3) Route call to predetermined number (e.g. cell phone); 4) Enter number to forward call; 5) Forward call to voicemail; 6) Reject call (e.g. unwanted solicitation). Using the TV remote control, the individual can select any of the six options to manage the call.

David Sims is contributing editor and CRM Alert columnist for TMCnet.