Go back to Part 1 or forward to Part 3?  

Q6: If you had problems that were found to be on the Edge / SBC device, what were they?  

Registration issues feature highly here as does ‘Firmware update required’. It’s possible that the ‘Firmware’ issue could be connected to Crash / Lock-up issues. All can be easily resolved and maybe firmware should be applied before going live; it’s all about doing your homework.   

Déjà vu strikes with the No Audio / One Way Audio again and as this is featuring strongly as a major issue it highlights the importance of testing the elements together before deploying. Results of such testing may even affect purchasing decisions of edge devices.  

Figure 5

“Having the proper release of software is very important. In some instances, the PBX is a release behind, in others it is the service provider.”  David Byrd, Broadvox  

Let’s move onto the PBX.    

Q7: If the problems were found on the PBX what were they?  

As ever, it’s always frustrating to get problems, but how easy to sort out the majority here?  

Upgrading firmware: Why not check with manufacturers first to see if there are updates for any issues that may affect SIP Trunk deployment and operation?

Codec issues: By checking what is supported by the PBX, SBC and ITSP you should be able to select the one supported by all and use that.

Registration failures: Usually typos!

 

Figure 6

No SIP licenses: Some PBXs need you to buy licenses and some don’t. Again check this out with your vendor or supplier before moving forward and ordering the SIP Trunks.  

 A lot of these issues can be avoided by taking time, talking to the ITSP for correct configuration information and entering it into the PBX in the right places. 

 “Agreed 100% – however, we still see the PBX side as the big challenge. Many different PBXs, TDM PBXs, all need different configurations based on the customer installation.” Alan Percy, AudioCodes, Inc. 

We can see the issues from all the responses so far but for this survey we wanted to throw the issues back to the audience with another question asking where they think more understanding is really needed. 

Q8: Understanding SIP is important, which most interests you?  

 Well, this surely shows that the areas that most interest people are the same areas that we need to work on to ensure that SIP Trunks get implemented right first time. 

We even went a step further and asked about what people feel they need to see more of in The SIP School’s own training program.  

Figure 7    

 The answers show that even though it’s always good to move forward and teach people about new areas such as the IMS and IPv6, it’s still the areas that people find the most vexing that need even more focus on and these are the areas that we all must get right before we can move on.

We will bear that in mind ourselves.

“Interesting, they don’t have degree programs at universities on SIP Trunking? No they have to learn on the job.”
Alan Percy, AudioCodes, Inc. 

“Why didn’t you also ask about support from the PBX vendor and the SBC vendor? And what about the System Integrator that sold and installed the system for them? “
Steven J. Johnson, Ingate Systems Inc. 

Let’s move on a little here and focus on what happens when things do go wrong. Your first port of call may be your ITSP so we asked:  

Q10: When things go wrong with the SIP Trunk provider and you talk to support staff, how do you rate their ability to fix problems?  

Figure 9

Now it’s a tough job working in support and if people at both ends of the conversation have a good technical understanding of SIP then it bodes well for a satisfactory and quick resolution but this is not always the case. The answers here I think are promising as most respondents replied that over two thirds (67.2%) of support staff were at least ‘average’ for their assistance on specific issues and some, a lot better. The other percentage just shows that there is always room for improvement.   

Of course we didn’t ask for specific incidents that support people had to deal with, all we wanted to get from this question was the customer’s view of their support experience in general.   

Remember that it is customer experiences and perceptions that can win or lose business regardless of whether the fault was actually with the provider in the first place!  

The point raised by Steve is a great one and means that we’ll expand this element of the survey next year to look at support from all those involved in the ‘total’ SIP trunk solution.  

©Copyright 2011, All rights reserved. (The SIP School)

Click to study the SIP Survey Created by The SIP School and Sponsored by Techistan Part 1, 2, and 3 at Enterprise Connect 2011 in Orlando.

“From my perspective a formal SIP certification is important and fits the standard Mitel paradigm requiring technicians to be certified on products they are installing, configuring, and/or maintaining”
Michael Craig, Director, Quality and Education Services, Mitel

“Yes…We have mandated all our field Sales Engineers achieve SIP Certification.”
Mike Uttley, Senior SE Training Consultant, Level 3 Communications

“Vendor’s and business partners who carry an industry recognized and supported SIP certification have strategic advantage over their competition.”
Mark Rawlyk, SE Director, Avaya

The SIP School™ is the issuing authority for the SSCA® Certification. This survey may be a good time to see if people want or even need a SIP Certification. So we crossed our fingers and asked:

Q11: Is an ‘official’ SIP Certification important to you?

So, [Figure 10 above] suggests that a certification is very important. One of the ‘other’ response statements was ‘it is important to our customers’. With this in mind, showing clients that your support personnel have achieved a recognizable level of skills will install a confidence in them and may even help get their business as they will have confidence that your staff have the skills to help them if issues arise. This is echoed in the comments on this page.

“Although, it rarely happens, it is common for a company that has had great difficulty getting a SIP Trunk to work to return to a TDM solution.”
David Byrd, Broadvox

So, let’s take a step back and see what we’ve found out and hopefully learned from this Survey.

Firstly, there are still significant issues that arise when implementing SIP Trunks and these issues must be faced head on in order to make installations go smoothly. They have to be as clean as existing Digital and Analogue installations as that’s what the customer is used to and also expecting from all of the industry generated hype.

SIP Trunking is working in a lot of places where competent companies work together to ensure interoperability and continuity of service but looks like its hitting problems when it’s installed quickly and without careful thought for Quality of Service and ongoing service management. Customers can get exasperated when they can’t make or receive calls from their own clients and can resort to extreme measures.

Now here’s a story that should make you stop and think and I’m sure it will drive home the reasons for getting things right first time.

Vocale Ltd (the holding company for The SIP School) knows a lot of Telecommunications installation companies in the UK and one particular conversation with a CEO really shook up the notion that all is well in the move to SIP Trunks. Here’s his comment.

“I have a contact in a large service provider company that has told me, he’s never been so busy taking SIP Trunks out of customer sites and replacing them with ISDN lines”

 What on earth is that all about?

The conversation developed and it transpired that there are companies out there that don’t understand the principle of getting things right by planning, testing and monitoring installations and they are simply putting systems in, getting SIP Trunks connected, testing for Dial tone and then moving onto the next client. Customers were experiencing poor quality, dropped calls and SIP Trunks simultaneously dropping then reconnecting which caused them so many problems when trying to communicate with their own clients they simply said “Enough is enough, let’s rip everything out and go back to what works!” This frustration is mainly borne out of the lack of ownership when problems arose and installation companies pointed the finger at the ITSP who responded by blaming the installation people and guess who lost patience because they were in the middle and losing business? Yes, the client.

“It appears that many of the issues are human related and due to uneducated techies and probably a lack of good documentation by the vendors and providers.” Gary Audin, Delphi Inc

Recommendations

This survey shows clearly that issues occur during the installation and configuration of SIP Trunks and in order to make things as painless as possible for all parties involved there are some simple things that can be done and most of these can be done relatively quickly.

Firstly, it’s always wise to talk to all parties involved before moving forward. Get case studies from ITSPs and the manufacturers you are working with. Talk to their people about their installation experiences along with discussing the issues they have come across and how they overcame them. Talk to people about interoperability testing and conformance to standards and recommendations such as SIPconnect from the SIP Forum. In essence, good research and talking to people early on will help you decide which companies to work with.

If you are an enterprise looking for a SIP Trunking solution to suit your needs then ask ITSPs to respond to your business requests and see if they can cover everything you need from Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to support for the smallest of sites in the remotest of locations, even international locations. You need to ensure that everything can be covered by the ITSP and that they understand everything you need before things move closer to provisioning SIP Trunks. ITSPs should also be willing to let you trial SIP Trunking for free for a reasonable period of time. If so, then do it and test the Trunks using all the call scenarios you can think of such as call transfers, conferencing and so on. Also test the ITSP’s support people at various times of the day, why not call them at 6pm on a Friday evening and see what the response time is and the level of knowledge of the support personnel available?

When it actually comes to installation of the SIP Trunks the one thing that really stands out is the need for correct documentation that supports the configuration of the PBX and the SBC/Edge device in order to get SIP Trunks to register and work. In our own experiences we’ve found that installations go way more smoothly if educated and experienced people use documentation that is clear and easy to understand and also based on settings that have been proven to work in the combinations of equipment being configured. For example, if you are installing SIP Trunks from Verizon, connecting to an Acme Packet SBC and then into a Mitel PBX it’s important to check that these all interoperate and if so, get the configuration documentation into the hands of the installers. Again, make it easy for people to get it right the first time.

“TIA has officially endorsed The SIP School as the training provider of choice for SIP. Along with the training program, you (or your personnel) can now become officially recognized as a SIP expert by passing the SSCA® certification test.”

From the TIA website at tiaonline.org Once SIP Trunks are in and working it’s not the end of the story. To ensure they continue to operate and function at their best it’s wise to continually monitor their performance and also ensure that whenever any software upgrades are to be carried out on the PBX or SBC that these upgrades do not affect service. Again it’s wise to talk to manufacturers first before making any changes that may affect operation of the SIP Trunks. 

Conclusion

This survey has quite simply highlighted the need for all parties involved in providing a complete SIP Trunking solution to clients to work together and continually test their products and services for interoperability so that it’s not the customer’s premises that becomes the test bed.

It’s a one way street for SIP and VoIP services as people will one day be using these services exclusively. How quick this happens is up to the people providing the services.

The SIP School would like to thank all those who contributed with their valuable comments and insights.

About The SIP School
The SIP School™ is owned by Vocale Ltd and was founded in April 2000. It’s SSCA® SIP training and Certification program has become recognized as the globally accepted Certification for VoIP professionals to strive for. Organizations such as the Telecommunications Industry Association officially endorse the program and Bicsi value the program at 16 CEC credits towards their own certification.http://www.thesipschool.com/industry.html
Contact: Graham Francis, CEO graham@thesipschool.com

Details of more industry supporting companies can be found at

About Techistan
Techistan was founded on December 29, 2009, as an online news source and community of reporters and bloggers from the East and West who passionately collaborate in profiling and reviewing new technology products, people, and companies. In addition to covering startups, entrepreneurs, and inventors, Techistan reports on existing powerhouse companies that are making a difference, commercially or socially, online and/or offline. Visit the Techistan website at http://www.techistan.com/

Contact: Suzanne Bowen, VP Marketing, Editor in Chief at Techistan
suzanne@techistan.com

©Copyright 2011, All rights reserved. (The SIP School)

Click to study the SIP Survey Created by The SIP School and Sponsored by Techistan Part 1, 2, and 3 at Enterprise Connect 2011 in Orlando.

It was my first visit to Enterprise Connect (formerly known as Voicecon) as well as my first visit to Orlando. The problem was staying at the conference hotel meant I hardly saw daylight for 5 days. As it turned out, there was so much going on at the show there was no time for visiting Mickey and his friends, but anyway let’s see what I found.

There were so many announcements and press releases that I just won’t even attempt to cover them all, instead here’s a link to the Enterprise Connect PR page so check them out for yourself. This specific report is to highlight what I thought stood out at the conference and maybe even got overlooked by other PR releases.

Two ‘main’ themes ran through the show for me: Cloud Communications and SIP Trunking.

It seems that everyone is now offering (or about to offer) a cloud-based service. Check out Verizon, XO Communications, Siemens, Adtran, Mitel, and the list goes on but when various panels at the show talked about the cloud and their offerings, I sensed that the audience still needed to see more detail. It should maybe in the form of actual case studies to understand the benefits of a ‘Cloud based service’ and to be able to construct a solid business case to shift the majority of their infrastructure into another company’s hands.

Some companies simply want to keep total control of their own systems, whilst they find it hard to move away from legacy systems and applications that they rely on. Possibly the companies that will be able to take advantage of these offerings best are new companies or companies will little or no real infrastructure in place already. Let’s see if it’s all the same “talk” about the cloud next year or maybe we will see some action, some successful case studies.

SIP Trunking sessions and panel debates were very well-attended. This shows the level of interest in a technology that’s going to (slowly) replace traditional business lines. Again I was impressed by a lot of offerings from the carriers at the show.

I did particularly like the service from Verizon called BEST (Burstable Enterprise Shared Trunking). This allows a company to buy a number of SIP trunks let’s say 50 and ‘share’ them across all of their branches. For example: Some SIP trunking providers will set you up with a 50 trunk service that may give 5 branches, 10 Trunks each. With BEST, if Branch 1 starts to generate calls over their own allocation of 10, they are allowed to connect and work due to BEST. All it means is that out of the 50 SIP Trunks allocated across the company, less are available at that time to the other branches. I’m sure other providers will look at BEST and provide something similar at some point in the future.

Avaya had a massive presence at the show and of course were showing off their Avaya Flare experience on their proprietary tablet. The Avaya Keynote showed the Flare experience in action and it looked like a very effective communications tool that really helps teams work together intelligently. However, I do think that Avaya could have effectively wiped themselves out of the ‘hardware tablet’ market by announcing that the Flare experience (the actual software itself) will be available on other tablets such as the iPad later this year.

Quick question: Who will wait for it to be available on the iPad? Ok, everyone put your hands down now.

The Avaya keynote also expressed the importance of SIP. Being from The SIP School, you’ll get no disagreement from me but what was notable was the comparison to the long term development of TCP/IP on it’s way to becoming the single most important protocol out there … to how SIP is on a similar journey that may take a number of years to deliver on all of its promises.

Take the comparison of the 1^st IETF RFC document on TCP that was published in 1980 to the availability of the first Cisco Router in 1984 and then another 12 years before the Web was born thanks to Tim Berners Lee developing HTTP.

The first SIP RFC was published in 1999 and it’s only over the past few years that SIP has been effectively implemented into PBX systems, VoIP Telephones and offered as a PSTN Replacement. I guess it will be a long hard road to full adoption of SIP but hopefully worth it.

Avaya has a sibling in the shape of Skype as they are both owned by ‘Silver Lake Partners’. I mention this as I’m sure it is aiding collaboration between the two companies as I spotted a really nice feature that they are working on.

At the moment the Skype connect service allows companies to setup a Skype account, and when people contact that account, it connects the call into a corporate PBX, which of course can then be handled like any other call.

Outbound calling is a whole different story and not quite so elegant – at the moment! It seems that sometime this year you’ll be able to use an Avaya device (Flare or a Softphone for example) and browse / search the Skype directory of 500 million plus names. Find the one you want and click to call. Brilliant and bring it on soon please.

One last company I was happy to see make an announcement was our old friend snom. This company has always worked hard to produce feature rich IP phones that conform to the SIP standard and now they have entered the IP PBX space. The snom ONE plus PBX made its debut. It looks a good option for business for up to the 150 seat mark.

So to sum up, a great show, Enterprise Connect, that I encourage people to attend as the panel discussions are broad and informative, the teaching sessions are focused on what people really need to understand today and the exhibition is large with top quality exhibitors displaying products that you’ll certainly be wanting to try our for your enterprise.

Graham Francis is the CEO of the SIP School and can be contacted at graham@thesipschool.com.
FollowGraham on Twitter.

Making waves at the Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC), One Source Networks shared that Orchid Cellmark, international provider of DNA testing services has selected One Source Networks as its primary voice and data communications provider for its U.S. locations. Orchid Cellmark chose OSN’s Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) to connect its four U.S. sites, which include Princeton, New Jersey; Dayton, Ohio; and Dallas, Texas. Additionally, Orchid chose OSN’s SIP trunking service to increase functionality and reduce cost.

OSN provides an innovative, single source solution to supply global communications services to large and medium enterprise clients in a highly cost-effective manner. Offering a full suite of voice and networking solutions, OSN simplifies the sourcing and delivery process by aggregating solutions from best of breed global providers through a single contract, with a single account and service team.

For more information on One Source Networks please visit, www.onesourcenetworks.com

About One Source Networks

One Source Networks (OSN) is a facilities-based, carrier agnostic network solutions provider based in San Antonio, TX. OSN delivers and manages wide area networks for large and medium enterprise clients by providing a single sourcing channel to deliver in-region solutions from over 100 suppliers around the world. OSN also provides leading facilities-based global VoIP services for its clients across their existing private or public WAN infrastructures.

The OSN network is specifically engineered to ubiquitously interoperate with top global providers, offering superior SIP services with an unmatched direct to on-net voice quality. OSN delivers all network and voice solutions to its clients under one contract, with one account and service team, on one invoice.

For One Source Networks media inquiries, please contact Jaymie Scotto & Associates at +1.866.695.3629 +1.866.695.3629 or pr@jaymiescotto.com.

About Orchid Cellmark
Orchid Cellmark (Nasdaq: ORCH) is a leading international provider of DNA testing services primarily for forensic and family relationship applications. Orchid Cellmark is one of the largest providers of forensic DNA testing services and its DNA results are used by the criminal justice system to assist with the identification of perpetrators, the exclusion of suspects and the exoneration of wrongfully convicted individuals. The company provides DNA family relationship testing to numerous child services organizations and individuals seeking to verify parentage. Orchid Cellmark also serves immigration and security authorities for DNA testing of individuals. In the agriculture field, the company provides DNA testing services for selective trait breeding. Orchid Cellmark’s strong market positions in these areas reflect the company’s accredited laboratories in the U.S. and U.K., its innovative genetic analysis technologies and expertise, and the company’s reputation for exceptional quality, reliability and customer service for nearly two decades. More information on Orchid Cellmark can be found at www.orchidcellmark.com.

Submitted and written by Ilissa Miller, Managing Partner of Jaymie Scotto & Associates.

Allison Smith: Randy?

Randy Resnick: You’re about to take part in the VoIP Users’ Conference, VUC.me.

We get together every Friday at 12 noon EST, and the conference is made possible by people like Voxeo Labs. You can check some of their latest work at Phono.com.

You’re listening to this in full audio color, thanks to the ZipDX wideband conference bridge.

We’re talking to Michael White from E4 Strategies about some sweet deals for next year that’ll be available only to VUC members, so take Allison Smith’s advice, “Look to the skies. Keep watching the skies.”

Delphi says, “I’m ??? OMG!” Listen to the conversation while you read.

Randy Resnick: There’s no need to shout, Delphi. Suzanne Bowen, I’m so happy to have you here. Thank you for coming.

Suzanne Bowen: It’s a pleasure. I really appreciate you asking me.

Randy Resnick: It’s great. I’ve been meaning to ask you for a long time. I know you follow the conferences. You’ve been kind enough to retweet stuff and write about VUC, and mention it in columns and your blogs.

You are all over the place. Before we get into what you do now, what is it with the career transformation? You were a fitness instructor, is that right?

Suzanne Bowen: Yeah, I was a fitness instructor for a while, managed a fitness center and I was a teacher for about 20 years. Those are a couple of my past careers, yes.

Randy Resnick: Right. That fitness instructor thing has got this image in my mind … let me just savor that for a second. Okay, let’s move on.

Suzanne Bowen: (Chuckles.)

Randy Resnick: The name of the company … I keep thinking I should call you “Super Woman” because why? You co-founded the company Super Technologies, also known as SuperTec which is known as the nickname of that company. I guess that is part of the domain name, right?

Suzanne Bowen: Gotcha. That’s right.

Randy Resnick: Maybe the best known is DIDX, right? Best known offering of the company. Or not?

Suzanne Bowen: I would say so definitely. People have never heard of Super Technologies or Suzanne Bowen, but they know about DIDX.

Randy Resnick: We are going to talk about this a little bit later … DIDX. I wonder if it was DID X or DIDX, I wasn’t sure. DIDX is a subject that comes up very often on the Asterisk-Biz mailing list, and I warn you that we would ask about that later. Not a big deal, but it would be interesting to hear your take on that.

Aw, that’s the other Suzanne Bowen. There is another Suzanne Bowen as well. There is either an author or actress. Obviously there are different people by that name. Anyway Suzanne, back to you.

Let’s talk a little about the beginnings of Super Technologies. So, can you tell us about that?

Romantic story?

Suzanne Bowen: I wish I could tell you something like that. Everybody would go to sleep. Anyway, I think maybe back in 1994 or 95, I was playing around a lot with the Internet because as a teacher I got an Internet account called FIRN. I was really excited about it.

Using it in my classroom … I brought a computer from home, a Tandy I had into the classroom. I got a grant and put a phone line in there and connected over dialup. Had the students talking to people, families, businesses all over the world.

We were using voice over IP also. The Vocaltec’s Internet Phone, and I’m telling you my classroom just turned upside down. Everyone could not wait to come to school every day. I got to know people involved in VoIP.

I’m not a software developer, but I’m quick to see when something will basically empower people. That is how we met different people in VoIP , for example, Rehan Allahwala.

He’s the one that I eventually started the business with in 1999.

Randy Resnick: I was trying to bring that URL up. It is S U P E R T E C dot com. I wanted to paste it into the IRC. DelphiWorld is talking about Virtualphoneline.com. I wonder if you remember … because my first memory was dialpad.com.

Suzanne Bowen: Yes, Craig Walker, yeah.

(Dit, dit, dit … sound.)

Randy Resnick: Woah, was that me? I heard a cell phone or mobile phone. Dialpad.com had … I was on the modem … you know, dialup at the time. So when we called using Dialpad, we were calling on 56K at the best. It rarely rarely worked. We’ve come a long way if you zoom forward to even to 2005 – 2010, where already most of us are on DSL or cable.

So, the dialpad.com days are over. There are a million operators out there. Let’s speak what DIDX is about because that is a wholesale operation which would be interesting to some of the people on this call.

Want to talk about how it got started?

Suzanne Bowen: Sure. A lot of our clients in the beginning were in remote areas of the world, like very much emerging. To make a phone call with PSTN, it cost about $5 per minute to call from Vietnam to the USA. Places like that and Lebanon, Pakistan, places like that.

So, we were selling dialup Internet phone adapters to people in these areas. Many of them wanted to have a local presence in a country that they were not actually physically in. Rehan got together with some of our developers and created something called VirtualPhoneLine.com.

I think we had interconnected with around 10 different carriers for phone numbers. We thought … but again, this was really Rehan’s idea. He said, “Let’s ask them if they would like to be a part of an exchange where they could automatically have an interconnect. We had already completed an interop and interconnect with each of them.

Those ten said, “Yes.”

Around the beginning of 2005, we formalized it into actual … had a webpage and everybody could log in. It’s kind of grown from there. Now, there are around 18,000 members from around 163 nations.

We’ve had our challenges but also plenty of joy.

Randy Resnick: Over the years, I have tried various services. Everybody remembers Nufone and everything that followed the “pay as you go” stuff.

This is actually a seriously professional-oriented service that has a minmum, right? You can’t just go get an account and buy one number?

Suzanne Bowen: Correct. You’ve already got lots of companies who you can buy one number from. There are also groups that have more of a wholesale approach and problem. We want to keep DIDX as wholesale because if we say, “Anyone can buy just one number or spend just 10 bucks per month, then we are actually competing with our customers.”

Randy Resnick: ZipDX is presumably one of your customers, I guess, or at least that is the type of operation of someone who needs a bunch of numbers.
 

Suzanne Bowen: Yes, I respect ZipDX, no doubt.

Think of David Frankel, well-known in the San Francisco area and around the USA for his emphasis on quality and HD sound in the ZipDX service. He shared his experience with DIDX, in particular, the excellent customer service that DIDX team member Muneeb Iqbal provided during ITEXPO West 2008 in video.

Randy Resnick: (Chuckles) A lot of people have called into the 1567 number which must come from DIDX.

Suzanne Bowen: It is likely to be a fact. I know we’ve sold millions of those 1567 numbers. They seem to be just fine. I even have a 1567 number.

Randy Resnick: I’ll have to look into that next time because everyone is complaining about that ours only starts at noon. I just changed that because people were calling in too early.

Are you interested in speaking about other products you are doing? There is even some medical stuff as I recall?

Suzanne Bowen: I don’t mind taking questions. I can say we have an awesome group of researchers and developers. They are involved in all types of open source like freeSWITCH, Kamailio, Asterisk, so we have a lot of services that are in alpha, beta … We have the HealthManagementSystem which recently won one of the Mobile Monday Peer Awards 2010.

We started an online magazine called Techistan. We have video production with a social media twist at Muntwo.com.

We have a great time promoting our customers, people in the industry even if they are not our customer, different events that we think are really important to participate in. We do that with the media channels I just mentioned. We have a really fun podcast channel. It’s at http://www.didx.net/podcast.

Some of the people who have logged into this call, we have interviewed such as Leif Madsen.

If you have more questions or anyone else, I’d love to answer.

Randy Resnick: All questions are welcome. Karl has a question.

Karl Fife: Strange, huh? It’s the beginning of the call. Hi, Suzanne. How do you work around the legal restrictions that sometimes exist in different countries?

I know, for example, we’ve looked into getting a number in Germany, but I know that they have restrictions that say you must have a physical address in order to get a geographic number.

Are you able to offer numbers in such areas, and how do you work this out?

Suzanne Bowen: I think that is an important question, Karl. In the agreements that participants in DIDX sign off on, there is a section that states something about the responsibility of the members to follow the law. Also take a look at http://kb.didx.net and click “Documents Requirements.” “KB” as in knowledge base …

You will find a list of countries, and it shows what that particular is requiring. If you use our API or manually login and buy a DID in one of those areas, you will see a “pop-up” that will say there are some government requirements, and in order to complete the purchase, there needs to be a conversation between our team and that buyer.

Randy Resnick: You mentioned Vietnam. Are you much in Asia? Is there much activity there?

Suzanne Bowen: Absolutely. As you know, Rehan and I were the ones who co-founded this company. He’s in the East. I’m in the West. He has a strong influence and great network in the eastern part of the world.

One of the guys from Asterisk (Digium’s Greg Vance) was in a meeting with Rehan and I (shame, shame, should be “me”) at Gitex in Dubai. He stated that some at Digium felt there wasn’t much participation in open source telephony (Asterisk) in the East and there was much more in the West.

But actually, just type in “Asterisk User Group” on Yahoo!, Google, or Dogpile, and you’ll get a huge plethora of user groups such as in Malaysia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, even Afghanistan.

Randy Resnick: Wow.

Suzanne Bowen: There are really sharp developers all over as well as people who are entrepreneurs, taking advantage of open source telephony … options they can choose from.

Like … CommunicAsia (which we are a media partner for) is a big conference in the East. It takes place in Singapore around May or June each year. Many in open source telephony participate in that conference every year now. It had doubled, tripled, quadrupled its participation since the first one I attended.

I think it is because of the growth of mobile, wireless, voice over IP, whatever, you know … in China, India.

Randy Resnick: Many countries have jumped over the fixed line, and everyone is using mobile. Obviously in Africa, that is the case which has some problems with infrastructure. It is also largely the case, I guess in China because Chinese mobile accounts from what I was able to observe there in May. You can buy a SIM card cheaper than you can in Europe.

You can make calls incredibly inexpensively. So, how does that affect what you guys are doing?

More transcript from this podcast soon.

AudioCodes, who just signed on to sponsor the SBC Enterprise channel on TMCnet, have also completed the interoperability qualifications for its Mediant 3000 and Mediant 1000 Enterprise Session Border Controllers with the world-renowned Microsoft Lync Server 2010 and Microsoft Office Communications Server R2, showcasing the product capabilities with Verizon Business’ SIP Trunking service. The company tekVizion Labs conducted the product interop testing, a Microsoft Unified Communication Open Interoperability Program (UC OIP) testing partner.

Nimrod Borovsky, vice president of marketing at AudioCodes, said, “We are happy to announce another milestone in our roadmap to enable ubiquitous connectivity for Microsoft UC networks. Our Mediant family of VoIP platforms has been key to our success in delivering secure and interoperable connectivity solutions for the Microsoft environment. Enterprises can safely use our products to create a fully connected Microsoft world, supporting the evolution from TDM PBXs and PSTN networks, to IP systems and SIP Trunking services.”

The AudioCodes’ Enterprise Session Border Controllers assists enterprise customers to securely connect their Microsoft Unified Communications environment to Verizon’s SIP trunking services, and the potential for use with other SIP trunking service providers. A tekVizion certification proves interoperability and feature transparency between the Microsoft system and, for example, Verizon’s SIP trunking service.

Enterprise customers can use AudioCodes Mediant platforms to support PSTN and SIP Trunk interfaces with the same equipment, a flexibility needed by traditional and next-gen companies who have hybrid situations. It prevents the typical massive overhaul of an enterprise’s computer system or network. It enables gradual migration from expensive PSTN circuits to more scalable, flexible, and feature-filled SIP Trunking services while promoting assurance for security and interoperability.

AudioCodes’ Mediant 1000 platform is a flexible networking device, that supports many services for the Microsoft UC environment. The Mediant 1000 connects the Microsoft Lync 2010 server, Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 or Microsoft Exchange Server 2007/2010 into existing TDM PBXs, IP-PBXs or PSTN services, as well as into SIP Trunking services.

Configure it as a standalone “Basic” or “Enhanced” gateway, as well as a “Basic Hybrid Gateway (News – Alert)” or “Survivable Branch Appliance,” while also integrating necessary Microsoft software. Order it as a TDM-to-IP gateway, a Multi-Service Business Gateway, an Enterprise Session Border Controller, or a combination of any of the three. It supports up to 120 TDM-to-IP channels and 150 SBC sessions.

Benefits of the Mediant 3000:
1. Low to mid-density VoIP gateway offering scaling from 480 to 2016 channels
2. Supports high availability configuration with reliable 1+1 redundancy
3. Compact footprint (2U), ideal for small locations
4. Allows easy capacity upgrades via a software key
5. Provides multi-control protocol support: SIP, H.248, MGCP and TGCP Offers broad range of PSTN interfaces including E1, T1, T3, OC3 and STM-1
6. Enables flexible interworking between IP – TDM and IP – IP
7. Supplies a wide range of vocoders which include low Bit Rate (LBR), wireline, cellular and wideband vocoders
8. No capacity hit on most of the LBR vocoders (e.g., G.729, G.723 and AMR) Functions as an IMS Media Gateway and I-BGF network elements
9. It’s greener than traditional alternatives, too

Follow AudioCodes on Twitter and see them and other IP communications movers and shakers in person at ITEXPO conference in Miami, Florida in the late winter and Los Angeles in mid-Autumn!

Listen to other IP communications, social networking, and “doing good for the world” experts also on DIDX podcasts.

Trying to do more than you can possibly accomplish in January 2011? Want to keep the family satisfied and network and develop business for your powerhouse telecommunications company? Sign up to sponsor, exhibit and participate in other ways at PTC scheduled January 16-19, 2011.  Bring your family and let them enjoy 101 absolutely fun activities while you network at the conference.

Meet with CEOs and other industry leaders such as Bill Barney of Pacnet, David Storrie of Nucleus Connect, Mark Rigolle of O3B, Nongluck , Reza Hajebi of Yahoo!, Ihab Tarazi of Verizon, Rehan Allahwala of DIDX, and Mark Taylor of Level3.  Diamond sponsors include TaTa Communications and Rogers. Airtel, Ciena, Infinera, O3b Networks and Pacnet are platinum sponsors. Some of the exhibitors are Adva, Calix, Capacity Magazine, Cordell, Edison Carrier Solutions, Optelian, Redcom, Sansay, Suttle and Zhone. Enjoy a slideshow of pictures during 2009 of some of these companies and more taken by Techistan and DIDX media team members.

Watch Vinod Kumar, CEO of TaTa Communications on on the migration of TaTa’s legacy services of voice over to IP and its wholesale strategy during the 2009 PTC.

Back to the family, see a comprehensive listing of restaurants in Honolulu, Oahu area and consider the Hale Koa or Hilton Hawaiian as the best for lodging and convenience to the conference itself. Our Techistan team has taken families to the Waikiki Aquarium, the Farmers’ Markets, and even learned to surf with the North Shore Girls.

Solution helps ensure E911 legislative compliance for organizations using Microsoft Lync Server 2010.

Montreal, QC – November 17, 2010 – 911 Enable, a division of Connexon Telecom, Inc., today announced that its E911 call routing solution for Microsoft Lync Server 2010 is now publicly available. 911 Enable adapted its award-winning Emergency Routing Service (ERS) to offer one of the industry’s first E911 call routing solutions that interoperates with the native E911 capabilities of Lync Server 2010.

The ERS is an E911 SIP trunking service that provides organizations with connectivity to Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) across the United States. When 911 is dialed, the ERS routes the emergency call and the caller’s accurate location information to the appropriate local PSAP. It helps organizations meet their state and local E911 regulations, ensures on-site security are notified of all emergency situations, and supports off-campus users in a manner that is both elegant and simple to manage.

“The release of Microsoft Lync is an exciting milestone in the world of unified communications,” said Lev Deich, Director of 911 Enable. “911 Enable is pleased that our ERS is one of the first E911 call routing solutions to work with Lync Server 2010. By deploying the ERS, organizations can take advantage of Lync Server 2010’s native E911 functionality and ensure their users receive unparalleled E911 support.”

“Microsoft is pleased to be working with 911 Enable in delivering customers a comprehensive E911 solution,” said Kirk Gregersen, senior director of product management, Microsoft Lync. “The combination of 911 Enable’s Emergency Routing Service and Lync’s native location functionality for both on-campus and remote employees will provide a complete, end-to-end solution that meets the needs of our mutual customers.”

Enquire about 911 Enable’s solutions by calling 1-877-862-2835 or visiting www.911enable.com/microsoft. You can also register for 911 Enable’s upcoming webinar “E911 for Microsoft Lync” at http://911enable.com/invitations/20092010microsoft/invitation_20_09_2010_microsoft.html.

About 911 Enable
911 Enable, a division of Connexon Telecom Inc., is the industry-leading provider of E911 solutions for IP-PBX systems, having deployed its solutions in organizations of all sizes across the US and Canada. 911 Enable offers the largest E911 coverage in the industry and leverages this connectivity to bring breakthrough location management technologies to the IP telephony market. Custom solutions for today’s leading IP telephony vendors help to ensure quick and easy integration. For more information about 911 Enable, call 1-877-862-2835 or visit www.911enable.com.

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their registered owners.

ITEXPO East will be like a candy store of every technological flavor you could wish for: 4G Wireless Evolution, M2M, SmartGrid, SocialCRM, Cloud Communications, SIP Forum, VIPeering, Business Video and more! It is scheduled in

Watch a great example, of the excitement, such as Andy Goodwin of Vitelity at ITEXPO in 2010 regarding his SMS service on DIDs, wrapping the user experience around the SMS product. No need to even code in API. He was showing the service on an iPad!

Listen to Steven Johnson of Ingate about the free SIP Trunking certificate, workshop and instruction on the DIDX podcast.

ITEXPO East is the conference in the first quarter of 2011 that providers, operators, developers, educators, and other types of companies who are in the space of the colocated events at ITEXPO east … SHOULD exhibit. Schedule your booth now and be included in many networking opportunities and great treatment by the TMC team. Thousands will be participating in ITEXPO from government and private markets, wholesale provision, reseller channels, early adopters … it is a grand mix! The type that fosters real business development, learning and new opportunities for everyone.

Watch team members from many groups talk about what they are doing at ITEXPO such as the Los Angeles Police Department, CEO of VoIPSwitch, CTO of MobileMax, Cisco and IPTV, Jeremy Wadhams on Asterisk and Yahoo!, GotVoice Vice President, and a giving a car away at ITEXPO.

Techistan is a press agent for ITEXPO. Visit the complete list of media partners, corporate sponsors at http://www.tmcnet.com/voip/conference/east-11/exhibitors/e11-event-sponsors.htm. Sign up to participate at http://www.itexpo.com.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, — Everybody intuitively knows the Middle East, Gulf Nations and North Africa is becoming a wireless connected society.

In fact, in 1998, the founders of Techistan participated in a MENA area conference that was a symphony of cell phones engaged by thousands of users.
 
The firm evidence came, when Pyramid Research released figures that mobile subscribers in Africa and Middle East are expected to quadruple from 8.9 million in 2009 to 37.9 million in 2014. Indeed, Mobile Broadband has been the fastest-growing segment of the telecom market in the region.
 
As the region’s mobile subscribers grow, so does the need for wireless connectivity.
 
New players need to understand better how to target the right markets and know the challenges as of the mobile broadband segment.
 
In light of this, the Neoedge Telecoms & Research is setting up the Mobile Broadband for Emerging Markets, which brings together those interested in knowing the right options for their target markets and moreso, to develop these mobile broadband options.
 
The Chair for Day One will be Ali Sagheian who is the Chief Analyst at Teyf Sharif Consultants in Iran will be speaking about the Mobile Broadband landscape and how it looks in the emerging markets. “Part of our esteemed Chairman’s presentation will be the evaluation of the demand level of mobile broadband and likewise analysing its effects in the telecommunications business.”, says Eric Yang, Neoedge Telecom Business Consultant – Africa & Middle East. His slot entitled, “Understanding the Landscape of Mobile Broadband in the Emerging Markets” will be delivered right after his opening speech.
 
“The conference on Mobile Broadband for Emerging Markets on 18-19 January 2011 is a way to share knowledge and information across the region’s old and new players,” says Yang. “It’s about understanding your market for a successful planning and implementation of what broadband options and services to offer to them.”
 
Zain product manager and marketing manager of broadband Babiker Ramadan will show the delegates on how to monetise the mobile broadband services and choosing the right business model that fits the organisation. Assessment of profit margins pertaining to the type of mobile broadband services that is provided to the market will also be presented.
 
Trends impacting the growth of mobile broadband.
 
Examining ways to attract consumers into using mobile broadband could be through a number of competitive and exciting mobile broadband packages. The revolving issues in the mobile broadband business cases will be discussed through a brainstorming session and followed by a panel discussion which will be moderated by US Cellular’s Sebastian Thalanany. Solutions to the common mobile broadband issues will be addressed and the ways to take advantage of the market’s high interest will be addressed effectively. Yang advises that, “mobile broadband provides a lot of good business opportunities and involving the players in a conference will encourage high level insights on how and what are the best options to provide to a specific target market.”
 
The current mobile broadband options and trends will be given a thorough comparative analysis.  HSPA, HSPA+, LTE, EDGE, WiMAX, Femtocells and more will be analysed in regard to the services that best fit an emerging market.
 
“There is a specific option of mobile broadband tailored to your market’s demands and needs,” says Yang. The carefully researched agenda of the event will bring about high-calibre presentations and business models from the plenary speakers in the three-day event.
 
Neoedge Telecoms & Research often conducts its research involving the major players from the mobile network operators, consultants, analysts and technology providers to get a balanced outcome as regards to content thus making a detailed and impactful agenda. Upcoming events by Neoedge will be on Mobile VAS in Growth Markets 2010, 4thMobile Commerce Summit ASIA 2011 and Africa Financial Summit 2011.
 
-Ends-
 
Neoedge Pte. Ltd, TELECOMS & IT
Neoedge is a business media company that aims to serve the corporate world with integrity and excellence by providing cutting edge business intelligences and creating high value networking opportunities. Neoedge identifies pressing issues that the corporate world is facing. Neoedge events are developed based on careful and original research including extensive and direct interactions with potential participants in the market. Neoedge events are distinguished by delivering premier value to customers in a sustainable means. Neoedge is your long term corporate business partner. For more information about Neoedge www.neo-edge.com
Headquartered in Singapore with Rep Office in Beijing, Neoedge has been organising premier events all around the world including in Hamburg, Dubai, Accra, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Mumbai, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Perth, Manila, Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Shanghai etc.
 
For more information contact:
Eugene Azucena
Marketing Manager – Telecoms and Strategic Management
Neoedge Pte. Ltd
DID: +65 6557 9185 FAX: +65 6557 9188
eugene@neo-edge.comMOBILE BROADBAND FOR EMERGING MARKETS: http://www.neo-edge.com/mbroadband