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Archive for April, 2006:


Broadband-IP

Published by in general technology, voip on April 27th, 2006

What is ‘Broadband’? The definition of what ‘Broadband IP’ constitutes is fairly open to interpretation. While there are numerical definitions of what a ‘Broadband’ connection is, these numbers vary depending on the operator (and what it wants to advertise) and the nature of the service. As an example, if you are in an IM text chat session with your friend and are not exchanging rich media, does it really matter if you are on a 44kbps link or a 3mpbs link ? However, if you were in a Skype audio/video chat with a colleague, you will certainly feel the difference between a 44kbps link (choppy voice/video) and a 3mpbs link (smooth video and audio) . Therefore, the definition of ‘Broadband’ over IP is closely tied to the nature of the service that is to be delivered.Having said that, for the scope of this paper, let us assune that broadband is any data service that offers a data rate of higher than 56kbps. Practically, most wireline broadband providers start at a minimal ‘broadband’ rate of 128kbs/256kbps. While early versions of second generation wireless technologies such 1xRTT and 1xEVDO offer lower data rates, it is a safe assumption that a majority of

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UN-Geekification (or the transition from hands-on to hands-off)

Published by in corporate on April 24th, 2006

A good friend of mine made this hilarous statement: (he was referring to his corporate climb, where he recently (8 months ago) progressed from being a key architect to a ‘upper strata persona’. ….I mean, I am wearing blue shirts and black pants to work for the past !@#$ing 8 months and all that people talk to me about is c++ !! I guess it is time to get Un-geekified ! When is your un-geekification process complete ? When you can spend an entire day at office doing nothing but hitting ‘refresh’ in your inbox every 5 minutes When you can successfully attend every meeting and summarize your key action as “As I understand it, I will ensure that my people will talk to your people” When instead of saying “No, my product does not do this feature”, your natural reaction leads you to say “Based on my current understanding, which I will run by my core team, I believe this feature is part of an enhacement package for which we can positively work with you for a mutually exciting roadmap as part of our professional services initiative, assuming that this feature introduction is benefitial to both parties in a

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Striving to be the best

Published by in corporate on April 20th, 2006

One of our blog readers asked an interesting question the other day: “How to be the best” in what you do ? I guess a cliched answer would be “there is no silver bullet as an answer”. But really, this question interested me, because in work life, so many people approach us saying “they are so busy to do anything else” and that their work life is killing their personal life. These are what I consider to be the basic tenets of “striving to be the best”. Just like the United Airlines ad. puts it “Where you go in life is upto you. There is one airline that can take you there”, these thoughts can help take you to your goals: Listen – The more you listen, the more you’d learn how little you know. In my field of technology, there are so many smart people doing great things that you are always learning (and I bet that is true for any field). Talk to people, ask for their opinions, let them feel good that they are being asked for advice. They may say twenty things out of which you may not have known one Talk – Any person who

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3GPP & IMS – How real is it ?

Published by in 3gpp, mobile, voip on April 13th, 2006

I remember back in 2000s, every show you went to, people had large billboards saying ‘SIP’. At that time, H.323 proponents would make snide comments about ‘Oh it is just a marketing ploy. SIP is too immature. It is just not ready’. And they were right, then. I recently attended CTIA wireless in Vegas, and in 2006, I noticed that 3 lettered acronyms are still favored, but its not SIP. Its ‘IMS’. And this time, ‘wireline SIP vendors’ are making snide comments about ‘Oh it is just a marketing ploy. IMS SIP is too immature. It is just not ready’. And they are right, partially, at least for now. It is all really a cycle. Technology takes time to mature. In a previous article, I talked about how SIP itself has evolved into a sphagetti protocol. Now add to that, a complex IMS network and you have more confusion. In addition, you have hundreds of ‘talkers’ who really have no hands-on experience with IMS making confusing and extreme statements like ‘IMS-SIP breaks non IMS-SIP’ , or, ‘Oh ! I just need to plug in my wireline SIP application server to a CSCF and bingo ! We have a system working.

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‘Tis the Season of Surcharges & Fees

Published by in Sunil Veluvali, voip on April 8th, 2006

It’s tax season time and it’s only appropriate to discuss all things taxes, aka “surcharges” in our industry. I’ve always believed the incumbents with or without VOIP have a huge pricing power over any emerging technology that mimics what they offer. Spunky voice providers like Vonage and SunRocket can offer cut-throat prices (aka spend their venture dollars on you and me), but they will never be able to displace the incumbents for basic residential service. Besides, take a look at my all-i-want-is-9-1-1 phone bill below and decide for yourself if at&t or the US Goverment is the competition in my area! The odds are against them especially when Uncle Sam and his 50 nephews and nieces grab their share of surcharges and fees from you every month. Of course, you cannot call them taxes :-) And I don’t actually use my phone and have the service only for E-9-1-1. I think the only way to compete is to fight on the access side and the events that are transpiring in the muni networks is the way to go. The fight is still in the pipes. Voice, after all, is just another application on the network. Technology, VoIP, SIP, IMS, Marketing,

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© Arjun Roychowdhury. My personal opinions only.