More Hell As Nortel Races To Zero
December 22, 2008
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
Loading ...Telecom powerhouse, Nortel, is facing a devastating series of punches, can it recover?
The Wall Street Journal reported that Nortel has sought Bankruptcy advice in the event that it is unable to complete restructuring plans. Stock price promptly plummeted (trading at press time in the 22 cent range).
That would have been bad enough, but now Nortel has received a delisting warning from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), that they must bring their average share price above $1 within the next 6 months or face being removed from the NYSE. All of this framed by a recessionary economy and a sudden drop in sales.
This has been a difficult year for Nortel and other traditional phone system manufacturers, but it was a fantastic year for cheap open source phone systems systems from Asterisk and FreeSwitch. IT departments are becoming increasingly comfortable with the features and flexibility of open source systems especially given tightening budgets.
Will Nortel be able to pull a rabbit out of the hat? Or will they fall victim to the changing economy, consumer fear, inexpensive open source alternatives, and possibly a bankruptcy court?
Major Internet Cables Severed - How Bad Is It?
December 19, 2008
(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...
3 of the 4 submarine cables carrying Internet data across the sea floor have been inexplicably severed. There has yet to be an indication of sabotage or any other malicious intent, and most user in the United States remain unaffected; however, the potential for this to become a world-wide data fiasco if the remaining cable is cut or overwhelmed remains a possibility.
Many VoIP based Call Centers in India are reporting unacceptable call quality or are completely off line. Other companies have lost their private data networks and are attempting to access the less secure public Internet. Internet speeds have been impacted sporadically around the globe.
United Kingdom network carrier, Interoute Plc, reports that 75 percent of the data traffic between Europe, America, and the Middle East has been impacted by the cuts.
Asia and the Middle East seem to have been hardest hit with over 80% of India out of service at one point. Attempts are being made to reroute traffic. It may take until the end of the year for repairs to be made.
The cuts reinforce the dependency we all have on the Internet and how fragile the world’s Internet backbone really is.
Homesource Your Call Center
December 11, 2008
(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...
No doubt about it, when auto industry executives hop aboard their private jets to beg for congressional handouts, times must be tough. The sad thing is that for most of us, there won’t be a bailout check to keep us floating. It is up to the rest of us to react to market conditions as we see fit and hope that we have done enough to save the family business.
For thousands of companies, boosting the bottom line has resulted in layoffs of employees and closing offices. More often than not, those workers are inCustomer Service. It is true that big money can be saved by shutting down a contact center, but it comes at the risk of driving away your customers and reducing your sales. Tough decisions need to be made.
There are many notable examples of companies who have ruined their reputations by making it too difficult to reach a customer service agent. In the chaos of the current economy, good customer service is a positive differential that keeps you ahead of the competition. Fortunately, there is something that can be done to lower costs and still maintain service levels. The option that I’m going to float to you today is to send your employees HOME to work! This has been an option for quite some time (often referred to as Homesourcing, Virtual Call Centers, or Remote Agents), but fear of change and loss of control have dampened the practice. However, that is beginning to change as companies attempt to cut costs by ever more creative means.
New Voice Over IP (VoIP) options make it easy and less expensive to route calls and work to remote employees than old public telephone options. In fact, some VoIP and SIP providers make the portion of calls that you place between your office and your remote agents free, further reducing the cost of virtual employees. Terminating calls to customers with Voice over IP systems (VoIP) is almost always cheaper than old school PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) options. Read more
Telecom Monthly - December: Merry Crashmas
December 5, 2008
(4 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...Editor’s Note :
Happy Holidays everyone!
Jingle bells, Wall Street smells, finance laid an egg. Oh what fun it is to watch our retirement slip away. . .
That may not be the way the song goes, but it sure did feel that way last month. It was a hard month to find something to be thankful for. December didn’t start off much better; as we were preparing this month’s newsletter word came that the United States did in fact enter into recession . . . a year ago! Well, hit me on the head and call me lumpy. I’d never have guessed what with all the layoffs and bankruptcies. I thought things were going just peachy.
Enough of my sarcasm. I’m actually quite relieved for several reasons. With the election finally behind us as well as the admission that the recession is already one year old, perhaps we can begin to move forward. Sure, this will be a really bad recession which might just extend into 2010, but the fact that we finally seem to know where everything is headed is actually a good thing. Regardless of our political views, there is little doubt that the new Congress and White House will move swiftly to deal with the economic crisis, flooding trillions of dollars into the economy. Bailout may not be a pretty word, but just think of it as your children’s children giving you a little gift.
The economy may be down as well as consumer spending, but smart companies are launching creative new products to capture the few dollars remaining in consumer pockets. As an example, the smart phone market is trending down - except for Apple, which is booming thanks to a revolutionary product line. We see this across the telecom industry. Age old products are stagnant but exciting new products are still gaining market share.
The lesson is to be different, break new ground. In the wasteland that was the technology frontier, there are still a few success stories. We’ll keep our eyes open for them, we hope you’ll do the same.
Now, get out there and enjoy the holidays before the Grinch steals it from you!
- iTodd
Ho Ho Holiday Layoffs
December 5, 2008
(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...
Nothing says “Merry Christmas” like a pink slip. Yesterday, workers heard that Telecom Industry behemoth, AT&T, would layoff 4% of its workforce (12,000 people). Shudders of fear rushed down the spines of already skittish communications workers across the country.
We have been watching CNET’s Tech Layoff Scorecard with perverse curiosity since it was first posted in late October. When we noticed the huge addition of AT&T, we couldn’t help but post this link again. The telecom industry is moving into a new phase in this recession; it will be most interesting and terrifying to watch what happens through the beginning of the new year as everyone adjusts to decreased orders, increased bad debt, and a need to cut costs.
Too Zune To Phone Home?
November 26, 2008
(4 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...CNBC is reporting that Microsoft may be planning to announce a new Zune phone as soon as the Consumer 
Electronics Show in Vegas this January. As cool as that may sound to some, it could also be a big mistake for Microsoft.
For years, Microsoft has been trying to get mobile device manufacturers to use its Windows Mobile operating systems. Some are even experimenting with using Windows on possible touch screen devices. However, if Microsoft becomes a direct competitor to the handset makers it has been courting, it might just drive them away to the new Google Android platform, Symbian, or even Linux. This is a slippery slope for Microsoft, with many potential dangers.
Given Microsoft’s less than stellar history with its Zune MP3 devices, using the brand as a launching pad for mobile communications, and possibly risking its vendor relationships in the process, might not be the best plan for the future. Perhaps Microsoft should focus on making its Windows Mobile Platform more competitive with the offerings of Google and Apple and position itself as a leader in the operating system market rather than shooting itself in the foot by trying to be the next great mobile equipment manufacturer.
With any luck, Microsoft may just decided that it is too Zune to market its own smart phone.
Cisco Looking To Slash One Billion In Spending
November 26, 2008
(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5) Loading ...In yet another sign of the times, Cisco Systems is looking to slash one BILLION dollars
from its spending budget in the immeadiate term. To do this, they will shut down for one week
during the holidays. This is an unprecidented action from the networking equipment manufacturer.
Cisco is a powerhouse and a key peg for the industry. In past resessions, Cisco has always been able to position itself to gain marketshare upon recovery. The sudden and dramatic spending cut indicates that Cisco management is prepared to take the necessary steps to chart its course through the current global economic meltdown which has battered its sales and its share price.
7 More Days To Win A Free iPod Touch
November 24, 2008
(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...Have you registered to win a free iPod Touch from Telecom Monthly? Through the end of November, we are running a free promotion to give away an 8 Gig Apple iPod Touch. We aren’t selling anything and your entry costs you nothing. We just want you to sign up for our once a month email list. Just enter your email address in the forum at the top of the right column of this page. That’s all there is to it.
If you are a previously registered Telecom Monthly member, no worries, we have already added you to the contest. EVERYONE will be entered who is on our list. If you aren’t sure if you have entered, simply attempt to register in the column to your right. If you are already on the list, you’ll get an error telling you that you are already signed up.
Contest is for registered Telecom Monthly readers 18 years or older in the United States only. User will be contacted via Email on December 1st and asked for contact and shipping details. If the winner does not respond within 15 business days, an alternate winner will be drawn. No purchase necessary. Contest in good faith, Telecom Monthly not responsible for iPod beyond shipping to the winner.
Brain Based Computers Make Their Debut
November 24, 2008
(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...Chips modeled on the human brain are bring advances in speech recognition, telephony, and all sorts of specialized computers. Bring on the Terminators!
"I know you and Frank were planning to disconnect me, and I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen."
Since I was just a little iTodd, I’ve been fascinated by robots and sentient computers. The robot from Lost in Space, Rosie the robot maid from the Jetsons, R2D2 and C3PO - these were my friends and inspiration. Even the scary computers like the evil HAL 9000, from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, didn’t stop me from trying to build my own thinking machines at home. If it had screws, I would unscrew them. If it had bolts, I would unbolt it. I was after the guts of the machine, soldering iron in hand by age 12. I’d even construct fake faces and eyes for my creations, using airline tubing from my aquarium to give my machines a circulatory system. My poor mother couldn’t keep a vacuum or radio without my destroying it, and I was justifiably banished from even thinking about touching the TV. But I never managed to create anything that did more than smolder and threaten to burn down the house. I eventually gave up and moved on to other pursuits, like building haunted houses in the basement. But I never really lost my interest in cutting edge gadgets, machines, science, and computers.
Thinking machines like the kind that suddenly try to overthrow the human race in countless movies are fun to ponder because they are still so far off; but they are still close enough that we can actually imagine it happening - that’s the fun of it. Researchers have been working on speech recognition, computers which are increasingly able to learn from their mistakes, and even robots which are free to roam around on their own. But none of these advances really approaches a free thinking device.
An incredibly thought provoking article in Business Week details the work of a researcher who has been building computers which are based upon the principles of the human brain. Computers are number crunchers, they do things well that involve computations. However, using computations to understand the subtleties of conversation or emotion just doesn’t work well. Which is why researcher Lloyd Watts has been building chips modeled on functions of the inner ear and cerebral cortex to solve problems that normal computers aren’t suited for.
His chips are able to discern the difference between your voice an the background noise of cars and trucks, allowing for clearer mobile communications. But that is just the beginning of what brain science may be able to do for computing and communications. IBM has reportedly been selected for a $4.9 million Pentagon grant to research the creation of intelligent computers.
Isn’t this the reason that Sarah Connor had to go back in time in the Terminator movie? She needed to stop the invention of the thinking machines which would eventually turn upon their creators and destroy the human race? I’m kidding of course, but the research of brain based devices could eventually open a myriad of ethical issues, even as it changes the way we think about the role of computers and what they can accomplish.
The Buzz On Unified Communications (UC)
November 18, 2008
(3 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5) Loading ...If you’ve been to a telecom industry trade show or read a business magazine lately, you’ve no doubt encountered the latest 
over-used buzzword: “Unified Communications,” or often just “UC” for short. But what is it? While there is no standard definition of UC, it really isn’t much of a new philosophy or idea. Unified Communications is simply the convergence of multiple applications; smushing products together to increase usability and functionality: like combining graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows to make much more compact, less gooey, and more delicious s’mores. The communications example is sending voice mail to your email box, integrating instant messages into other applications, tying your address book into all of your office systems, and make it a snap for you to contact anyone, at any time, from nearly any application. UC is just integration, it is also just part of our natural evolution as an industry. Products that do more with less overhead and expense have always been popular choices.
A year ago, everyone was talking about Voice over IP (VoIP) and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) which deliver phone calls over the Internet instead of on copper lines like traditional phone service. But it was that advance which has made Unified Communications even easier and more attractive. Today, everything is IP - your data and your voice calls - making it possible for computer companies like Microsoft and Google to begin replacing telephone companies like Lucent and AT&T as the innovators in communications.
Today, it is possible to use a single system for all of your communications needs: Phone, Fax, Email, Calendar, Address Book, Instant Message, SMS, and much more can all be integrated neatly into nearly any application you want. Want to call a client? Just click his name and select if you want to call, IM, Text, or email him. Cool. And that’s just the easy stuff.
As application developers try to one-up each other, text to speech (and speech to text, for that matter) are working their way into applications as well. Dial by speaking a name; record conversations and have them automatically emailed to you as a text document; combine individual calls on the fly to create a conference call, and then add video so everyone can see each other. Not enough? Well, let’s just add a virtual whiteboard so everyone can interact at a deeper level.
Unified Communications is a no-brainer. With or without the UC buzz, this was the direction that communications was headed. Phones were becoming PCs and PCs were becoming communications devices before anyone slapped “UC” on a trade show booth. PBXs were becoming contact centers. Microsoft was becoming a solutions provider. And Google was becoming everything. The world was a complicated mess of applications which were already in need of a little integration.
And if you think that UC doesn’t apply to you and that you’ll never see such fantastical devices in your lifetime, think again. They are here, and they are all around you. Not just for the enterprise but for consumers as well. All one needs to do is look at the new Google phone or the iPhone as an example. Voice, Messaging, Email, Photo, Internet, Games, Music, Video . . . Unified Communications is here and you can hold it in the palm of your hand. Even my grandmother can use an iPhone without having to open an instruction manual.
And just like fashion, by the time grandma knows about it, it isn’t cool anymore. So what’s the next buzzword all you marketing types will overuse next? I vote for “hyper-connected,” “uber real,” or “supercalifragilisticexpial-IP.”
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