INTERNET TELEPHONY — December 2012

WebRTC: The Next Game Changer in Communications

When that happens, things get particularly interesting for web entities like Amazon, eBay, Facebook and Google (one of the pioneers of WebRTC) that want to enable new communications options for existing online communications, he says. Edholm offers for consideration one possible scenario on this front: "So if you use Pinterest, for example, and tag something you like and there are five other Pinterest tags on that item, what can happen with WebRTC is it can allow the server to trigger real-time communications between those individuals. To do that in a server takes about 40 lines of Java script, which is really easy to write.

ITEXPO ROUNDUP

Siemens' Hummel Says Making Mobility the Default Could Help Drive UC Forward
The term unified communications has become tainted in the past decade as the industry has grappled to address a rapidly changing communications environment and appeal to businesses with integrated solutions that are at the same time fun and productive to use, Chris Hummel, chief commercial officer with Siemens Enterprise Communications, noted during his ITEXPO Austin address in October.

Sonus CEO Draws Parallels Between UC and Mobile
Unified communications is following a somewhat similar trajectory to mobile communications, Raymond P. Dolan, president and CEO at Sonus Networks, indicated during his keynote speech at the recent ITEXPO Austin event. That, of course, is somewhat encouraging, given that mobile has taken off like a rocket and is now a multibillion dollar industry, while many see UC as still sitting on the launch pad - or having taken off, but still feeling gravity's pull.

What We Did at StartUpCamp6 this Fall
Among the most popular events at TMC's ITEXPO is StartUpCamp, which is hosted by Embrase Business Consulting. StartupCamp is promoted as an evening to celebrate entrepreneurship in telecom and an opportunity to learn, network and have fun. And StartUpCamp at TMC's most recent ITEXPO in Austin, Texas, once again delivered on that promise.

Departments

The Channel
On RAD's Radar

The Insurance Lesson
There's a lot of talk about insurance in this political season. Insurance companies decide who they'll cover, like in-home owners' insurance in Florida. In health insurance, the insurance company decided not only who they'll cover, but what they'll cover. This maximizes profits for the insurance companies.

Fine-Tuning Your Channels for Success
As someone who's been in the telecom business for a long time, I've seen trends in hardware, software and applications ebb and flow like the tides. I've studied endless reports and white papers where pundits predict, analysts test and engineers introduce industry breakthroughs that all offer game-changing possibilities.

Network Infrastructure

VDSL2 Vectoring: The Next Thing in Copper Access
Just when you think the telcos have squeezed all the bandwidth they can out of existing copper, along comes the next big thing in DSL to push the capacity of twisted pair to the next level. Such is the case with a relatively new technology known as VDSL2 vectoring.

M&A Continues in Network Performance Space
The network performance space has seen a fair amount of M&A action recently, with NetScout Systems, Inc. being the latest to make a move on this front. NetScout in late October announced it had purchased ONPATH Technologies. The value of the deal, completed Oct. 1, was not disclosed.

Overcoming the Challenges of Fiber Deployment in Multi-Dwelling Units
The worldwide market for fiber-to-the-premises is estimated at more than 600 million living units. Given population density and economies of scale, the MDU category of housing has long been identified as an important growth opportunity for communication service providers.

Unified Communications

VoloMetrix Aims to Drive Productivity by Mining Interaction Data
A startup called VoloMetrix wants to make your business smarter in how it uses communications and collaboration. It offers what it calls a social enterprise intelligence tool, which is aimed at enabling businesses to leverage data inside existing communications and collaboration tools like calendars, e-mail, IM and social platforms to address top priorities more quickly and to understand how employees and teams work and interact.

A New Aspect
Aspect is a global provider of customer contact and workforce optimization solutions, and many of its customers have been with the company for decades. Over time, the company has grown a fair amount and also has moved from a hardware-focused to a software-centric posture.

Cloud & Data Center

Phone.com to Use VoodooVox Analytics Platform to Help Small Businesses Drive Sales
It is no secret that one of the attractions of cloud-based telephony for small to medium-sized businesses, particularly the exploding small office/home office sector - a.k.a. micro businesses/entrepreneurs - is the ability to use features and functionality that larger enterprises enjoy without the need to support an IT staff. This is particularly true for entities desirous of having sophisticated customer interaction analytics, but that have been hesitant to invest in them for a variety of cost-related reasons.

Wireless

Addressing Mobile Backhaul with Small Cells in Mind
Small cells are expected to multiply rapidly in the coming months and years as wireless service providers seek to strengthen mobile bandwidth capacity and fill in coverage gaps. Some wireless service providers may use as many as 10 new small cell sites for each macro cell site, according to Alcatel-Lucent, which has already deployed more than 200 mobile backhaul networks for operators around the world, and holds the No. 1 spot in terms of market share in this space, per ABI Research.

The BYOD Network: Five Strategic Moves to Ready Your Business for Next-Generation Mobility
Today, the "bring your own device' (BYOD) phenomenon is on the rise and quickly becoming a business standard. A recent study by the Aberdeen Group shows that more than seven out of 10 organizations are permitting the use of employee-owned devices for business purposes, and more are joining them every day.

Engage at Every Stage: This is the New Mobile Marketing Mandate
The mobile phone has come to represent the most pervasive channel of communications and targeted engagement on the planet with nearly 90 percent of the world's population reached. Portia Research projects over 6.5 billion mobile subscribers worldwide by the end of 2012; annual handset shipments of over 2.15 billion by 2016; and a global market projected to generate total service revenue of nearly $8 trillion over the next five years.