Communications

Ben West's coverage of ISCWN

While at the ISCWN in Vienna, I met Ben West of WasabiNet in St. Louis. He’s provided excellent coverage of the sessions he attended in his day-by-day posts here:

Day 1;  

Day 2;  

Day 3.

My notes from the Community Wireless Networks Summit in Vienna

As with most conferences I attend, I took most of my notes using Twitter.  Since I can't always depend on accessing old tweets, here is the entire tweet stream from the conference in one blog post.  I don't know if this is of use to anyone else, but at least I know I'll have a record of my notes that I can refer back to.

The full name of the conference was The International Summit for Community Wireless Networks (ISCWN) and it was held in Vienna on August 12-15, 2010.  See the conference website.

International Summit for Community Wireless Networks http://bit.ly/9Lp41p
Good conference Wi-Fi http://bit.ly/dkwUh2
OK, I'm finally set up to Tweet &/or blog the International Summit for Community Wireless Networks http://wirelesssummit.org
While there's plenty of broadband behind the Wi-Fi, there are very few power outlets, at least as yet.
Community Wireless conf finally getting underway
Sascha Meinwrath opening: 1/2 the participants are missing, even some who were here an hour ago, so expect stragglers, but we start.
Sascha: 80% of cash raised goes to travel allowances; 10% everything else; plus donations.
Aaron Kaplan, Funkfeuer, on TechGate facility science park estbsh'd 2001 by City; conf venue; also supports Funkfeuer
Aaron there is swimming in the old Danube - it's clean now! Also boat rental nearby!
Aaron: Funkfeuer hotspots since 2003, now reaching almost to Bratislava. Mixed mesh and P2P backbone
Sascha on previous feedback - social time is key
Jim Baller: America at the Crossroads: Greatness or Mediocrity. 15+ yrs fighting ILECs on behalf of muni's - mostly successful!
Baller: credits Broadband Coalition http://bb4us.net/  Also as key to Congress requiring FCC to do a BB Plan
Baller on the US national BB plan: We need big goals, the BB plan didn't deliver! It's goals for 2020 happening elsewhere today.
Baller: US BB Plan focuses on inches, not yards and miles.
Baller: US BB Stimulus: Awards coming quickly (9/2010 deadline): middle mile, rural first mile
Baller on Google gigabit initiative yielded 1100 muni applications and showed pent up demand
Baller: Ugly side - incumbents bigger, stronger & nastier than five yrs ago. Cable industry even nastier. Now Google is in question.
Baller: But btwn BB Plan (it's a plan), Google fiber init., $7B Stimulus goes to new parties, community BB efforts
Baller responding to Q about wireless: I'm a fiber guy, then disappointing comments on FCC being pro-wireless. Misses FCC focus :(
Baller responding to Q about Australia admits that most in US don't know what's happening in the rest of the world.  US always has excuses - "we're different."
Sascha introducing Ramon Roca, President, guifi.net Foundation, a fantastic alternative that's happening in Spain. 
Guifi runs a very large network across rural (and urban) Catalonia in Spain. http://guifi.net/
Ramon Roca: Vision for the Future. Will talk about: Why scale? and their sustainable economic model!
Ramon: Guifi has 10K+ nodes and 15 Km of networks, but still tiny compared to telco. Scale as a goal. Need growth to be sustainable.
Ramon: need sustainable model - critical mass; org issues; legal; partners. Non-profit core w/biz around.
Ramon: Demand is there; also incumbent not interested in low 40%.
Ramon on mgmt: horizontal, bi-directional & collaborative - examples from their website. Website appears to be key for communit.
Ramon on public/private: public requirements must be written: contracts, license, P2P agreements. Must be clear, and legal.
Ramon on public/private - like OS licenses, the network is considered private by govnmt. Need documents just as open src does.
Ramon facilitates integration and cooperation between diverse groups, e.g. need churches for their steeples! need public ROW access.
Ramon: Guifi license is required if you want to participate! Like GNU license, Guifi license even deals with revisions.
Ramon: Guifi license defines everything
Ramon: Guifi is also a ""public"" network in the legal sense in Spain because they had to in order to deploy some fiber.
Ramon: Guifi ROI for many: supply chain dlrs/shops, prof svcs and svc provdrs who mediate wholesale mkts.
Ramon: Catalonia is a bit ahead of Spain but w/o Guifi Osona (rural Catalonia) way behind. Now Osona ahead of rest of Spain & even the UK.
Ramon: Guifi network now 15% of BB links in Osona; and yet DSL subscription haven't dropped.
An English version of the Guifi Wireless commons license is here: http://guifi.net/WCL_EN
Ramon futures: working on fiber from farms (FFtF) cheap & easy & Gbps; always a combination.
Ramon has had fights with incumbent about ROW (even when on private property) and about access to poles. Ramon - do it! then fight.
Ramon - their main focus is to stay on private ROW, but as a public carrier they can now go after public ROW.
Ramon: stories about fights over public fiber & public ROW - everything you expect, except Guifi seems to win, espc. in rural area.
Ramon: Guifi participants getting access to public fibers laid for cameras after threaten authorities - tractor might hit camera...
Ramon concludes by emphasizing need to enlist service businesses and computer shops, e.g. 3rd party for profit businesses.
Lightning talks where individuals describe their networks.
Austin (TX) Wireless - hotspot service; wanted free Wi-Fi; customers incl coffee shops that compete with Starbucks.
Austin Wireless - other things to help venues, e.g. splash pages
Austin Wireless: splash pages useless if not totally relevant for the customer: Weather, sports, local info, Facebook links, venue.
Austin Wireless: Now making $ by providing marketing services to their venues, restaurants, coffee shops, etc.
Austin Wireless: Also does Chimpit which brings venue portal even if you're on another network.
Chambana.net joint project of IMC and Acorn IT collaborative - ~6 active people and 9 servers. Walk-in computers, media prod. lab.
Chambana.net host websites, many other IT services, but also some wireless! Small network, switching from NetBSD to OpenWRT.
Chambana.net: It sounds like their wireless net is secondary to what they do, and is currently down and being reworked.
Chambana.net: Wireless network is completely open, no splash page. Runs on donated hardware
Chambana.net runs on donations, but entire uplink is one Comcast business service. But part of a stimulus grant, so near future good
Tribal Digital Village: 19 tribes HQ in San Diego CA, only way to get Internet to reservations. sovereign nations within US, but...
Tribal Digital Village: 350 miles of P2P and P2MP links mostly license exempt; 18 bldgs
Tribal: Paid NW in parallel reaches 200 individual homes. 2/2 Mbps for $34.95 per month. Hope to reach 2000 of 2700 homes.
Tribal: 1K devices connected to net. Fiber at headend feeds an arc of P2P links. Now many gamers accessing via local centers.
Tribal: Too small and separate to think about running their own radio regulatory regimes. But not too worried about conforming :)
Djursland http://www.diirwb.net/ Rural area in Denmark; 95% can get DSL (fr 1600 exchgs). Last 5% not svc'd.
Djursland P2MP design
Djursland: NW built by volunteers
Djursland gets favorable Interent transit because the farmers drove (& control) the fiber backbone deployment.
Funkfeuer: mesh using OSLR; got help from jaap@scii.nl & friends in Berlin.
Funkfeuer: 240 roofs; financial sustainability based on hosting center revenues; Gbps uplink
Funkfeuer: slightly below mkt for hosting; TV streaming experiments; running Wi-Fi for events.
Funkfeuer: Fiber splicing is easy, if you have the expensive machine (~6000 Euros). Basically welding glass.
Funkfeuer is a closed user group. This is important for VoIP and other regulatory issues, including streaming TV to you members!
Funkfeuer Graz: like NW in Vienna; Technical Univ in Graz helped them grow fast; slower growth >2007 as 3G faster.
Funkfeuer Graz: now working to link with Bratislava (Slovokia) which could be the first international community network in EU.
Funkfeuer Graz: longest link today is 30 km which gets them 1/2 way to Bratislava (Ubiquiti radios)
Malcolm Matson knows of two networks connected (quietly) btwn Solovakia and Hungary.
Belgrade Wireless: up to 20 km links (> 50 Mbps) using corner antennas as shown in previous conf. NW now extends over 100 Km.
Belgrade: 3D corner antennas invented by Prof in Belgrade. Big focus on community events.
Belgrade: 3D Corner Antennas http://su.pr/AjXm1p - feeder for dish reflector - mixed polarization
More 3D corner antenna info here  http://su.pr/7t9990 Need to follow up on whether this remains relevant w/ MIMO using polarization.
Updates from the OLSR-NG Project - Henning Rogge (FKIE) & Aaron Kaplan (Funkfeuer.at) - history, today & futures.
OLSR-NG: 1 of 2 major mesh stds (other AODV). RFC 3626. Tonnesen PhD, Lopatic LQ & Fisheye extensions
OLSR-NG working on OLSR. Guys in Berlin starting over (BATMAN); HSLS hazy sighted link state (CUWin).
OLSR-NG session: CUWin HSLS didn't get beyond simulations
OLSR-NG: OLSR is link state - every node knows whole graph (100K entries = 4.8 MB); but MPR now off
OLSR-NG: MPRs only matter with really dense NWs, but with only 2-3 links per node, they don't pay.
OLSR-NG: ETX link quality metric used instead of basic hop count, i.e. sum of ETXs not sum of hops. But heavy compute load!
OLSR-NG bringing down compute load (now linear not exponential). 100-to-1 benefit with 400 nodes. Still Dijkstra, but optimize data.
OLSR-NG: malloc() thrashing fixed
OLSR-NG futures: soft refresh (CSN), better metrics (ETT, MIC), multipath routing (experimental), Q of layer 2 capabilities.
OLSR-NG: Henning comments on how few multi-path routing projects have made any progress... Problem: must choose whole path. very hrd
OLSR Henning: OLSRd 0.6.0 is current. Clean rewrite of routing code; smarter gateways to reduce thrashing btwn GWs.
Henning: 0.6.0 has very few (& only site-specific) bugs - very stable!
Henning on future plans: telnet/http server (done); config mgmt (stability, flexiblty.
Henning also thinking about better metrics but limited by packet format prior to OSLR v2. Many metrics in discussion in academia.
Henning responding to Q: negative about dual protocol mode to support migrations. Thinks it wold be very hard.
Henning - active developers= ~1.5 people
Henning complaining about academics who've made patches w/o consulting (thus doing stupid things) and without plans to give back.
Henning & Aaron on how plugin system makes it easy to try new things in a clean fashion.
Freifunk Berlin started 2002; then OSLR in 2003-04; 28 devices @ 2004 OS conf; PC to openWRT for embedded.
Freifunk took off in 2005 despite labeling website ""OSLR experiment"" but users wanted reliability
Freifunk can't even switch to B.A.T.M.A.N. because OSLR widely deployed
Freifunk net is now shrinking, as people who came only for bandwidth are getting DSL and 3G mobile.
Freifunk has issue of switching gateways which doesn't affect Frunkfeuer with their fixed gateways and public IPs.
guifi.net is a bunch of communities, not all interconnected. 10,300 nodes using same software, same tools and same license.
guifi.net is showing off an impressive set of tools for examining nodes, plus there's extra data that the node owner can access.
guifi.net Using MRTG http://oss.oetiker.ch/mrtg/
guifi.net is a large wireless LAN. Must search for & connect to services, like Internet access. Libraries & other offer Inet-GWs.
Île sans fil network in Montreal  http://www.ilesansfil.org/  Now 200 hotspots installed, free Internet thru portal page.
Île sans fil limits users to 7 GB/wk. 150K users registered. Each hotspot has own page. Projects: Authpuppy, WiFiDog
Wireless Toronto - captive Wi-Fi portals, started with Wifidog from ◊le sans fil.
Wireless Toronto has struggled compared to Montreal. All volunteers. Hotspots, but now adding mesh, e.g. in parks.
Wireless Toronto - no spt fr Government who started and sold a parallel NW. Hard to find location-based content for portal pages.
Wireless Toronto survives on annual fees from businesses with portals; organized as a club, not a nonprft
Wireless Toronto new mesh started with BATMAN but found OSLR more reliable. Using Open-mesh but moving to Authpuppy.
Wireless Toronto - the less you talk about Wi-Fi and the more you talk about mktg, the better you do selling business hotspots.
Wireless Toronto using AutoAP in part to just monitor what's going on, wirelessly, in their neighborhoods.
Open Wireless Networks http://consume.net in London
Consume fell out of use ~2003
OWN: nodes all clustered in London near Greenwich Park. Not 400 nodes
Good line-of-sight planning tool:  http://www.heywhatsthat.com/
Village Telco http://www.villagetelco.org/about/mobiles have brought telecom to Africa, but not Internet, yet...
Village Telco: it didn't take off
Village Telco: Built ""mesh potato"" - solar mesh device w/analog phone adapter; production units next month.
Village Telco: Mozilla is filming the project.
Village Telco: Retail cost $119
Wlan Ljubljana: http://wlan-lj.net Can't beat widespread fiber at $14/month, but each has excess capacity and willing to share.
Wlan Lj now up to 50 nodes & adding rural areas - now wlanslovenija! http://wlan-si.net entirely volunteers
Wlan Lj is clearly a group of hackers having fun, but it's not clear to me if they are really serving a need. Sustainability???
Wlan Lj has done solar nodes - 24 hr reliability but froze during the winter and wasn't restored until spring (cold on roof!).
Athen Wireless Metropolitan Network (AWMN) strtd 2002 because no DSL; open experimentat WLAN.
AWMN has some people who offer Internet access, but it's not the primary goal. Participants tend to be Univ types - young, educated.
AWMN mostly at 5.4 GHz with Linux and MikroTik routers. Islands of OSLR connected by BGP; 2505 nodes; 1100 backbone nodes.
AWMN speeds vary 11 Mbps to 150 Mbps. 730 access points. Organized by an association; events; community; no grants.
AWMN Recently, large deployments of 11n
AWMN As a local LAN, they have mirrors of many Internet services, also transliterated version of Google (Woogle), Yahoo, etc.
Richard MacKinnon of Austin Wireless follows me in the Freemium session. AW strt'd as all free, but wasn't sustainable.
MacKinnon: Austin Wireless used automation to replace 50 volunteers with 2 fulltime staff. Merchants pay to provide free access.
MacKinnon: Pull together local news for hotspot portal pages
MacKinnon: Used to charge $5/mo
MacKinnon: Integrate Facebook into portals, incent patron's to talk about the business they're visiting on their FB page. Biz value!
MacKinnon: installations were fun at 1st
MacKinnon: $55/mo buys support. Restaurants hate Wi-Fi but have to have it to be competitive. So support is key - ""power cycle box!
MacKinnon: deals with cable company; POS crdit crd installers.
MacKinnon: Ads didn't work but local ads may be coming back.
Nemanja Topovic, Belgrade Wireless, Serbia started as all volunteers. Had problems with Government (spectrum laws).
Topovic low cost svc didn't work (1 Euro/mo) as people expect full svc. Discusses many paths they've tried, unsuccessfully...
Topovic - network grew rapidly 2004-2006 but growth has stopped. Looking for a program that could restart their network.
Topovic: BGWireless not a mesh, uses high speed P2P and P2MP. Closed network.
MacKinnon suggests his biz mode for Topovic. Key is offering free svc to avoid spt issues and then find a premium svc to cover costs
MacKinnon - important to offer new paid service as something new, not as a price increase on old service.
MacKinnon: 200 customers today (and 1 & 2 yrs ago) but different group & paying more & more loyal. Free customers were least loyal.
MacKinnon user community divided: some just want Internet
Paul from NFP? talking about SW defined GNU radio work going on in the building. Available for discussions later...
Robin Chase, Meadow Networks (previously founder of Zipcar) will be evening keynote spkr - next up.
Robin Chase on tie-in of transportation and networks: financing (fuel tax moving to road tax eventually - per km!).
Chase Auto density in cities (congestion) but expense of rural rds. Moving to congestion pricing. Will need more technology...
Chase on transport costs not reflecting true costs (fuel/environment, etc.)
Chase Public-Private Partnership discussions are missing the individual. Transport tech has decided they need their own stuff.
Chase: transportation guy gets his spectrum; EMS/medical types need their own stuff- it's just comms
Chase: Transport problems: Lumpy density, congestion, financing, right pricing same problems as in comms infrastructure -> dist. NW
Chase: future for transport and comms is distributed networks
Chase focus on distributed and collaborative inputs as a path to innovation.
Chase: words to use when talking about Gov. spending: open data; open standards; open source
Chase talking about Comuto (ride sharing in France)  http://www.comuto.fr/ now has more unique users than ZipCar (& just in France).
Chase: talking about CouchSurfing: 7 yrs old; 200 countries, 71K cities; more ""beds"" than major hotel chains.
Chase on Chatroulette - built it in 3 days; but in 6 months it now gets 30M unique visitors - mindboggling!
Chase: Andrey could do ChatRoulette because platform (Pcs, Internet) was there and there was excess capacity available.
Chase on all the crazy ideas that are now iPhone apps and yet the excess capacity has fostered some incredible innovations.
Chase: People & Platforms -> Speed & Scale
Chase wants open mesh device in every car that will have to be paying congestion fees, getting traffic data
Chase wants an open platform in cars so we foster new apps we can't can't even envision now.
Chase: what if all nodes (smart grid, smart cars, smart infrastructure) were peers? and open platforms!
Chase: www.networkmusings.blogspot.com & @rmchase & rchase@alum.mit.edu
Vic Hayes of TU Delft University: Spectrum Assessment for Wi-Fi. History of FCC & license exempt spectrum and Wi-Fi market.
Hayes: FCC landmark decision 1985- license exempt; use more spectrum than required; spread spectrum tech.
Hayes: Standard CDMA history including Hedy Lamar's patent, but I learned something new - she was born in Vienna!
Hayes has some good slides to explain CDMA. I'll probably stick with my standard slides http://su.pr/1LMCYl
Hayes: FCC wanted to allow spread spectrum over wider bands but got objections so they settled on ISM because no one cared.
Hayes on attempts to get similar rules thru CEPT - succeeded in 1991 for 2.4 GHz band only and with slightly different rules.
Hayes: CEPT said only -10 dBW ERP (100 mw) and 10 mw per MHz
Hayes: because of cost of electronics, 900 MHz took off 1st (in 1989)
Hayes on how Wi-Fi 11 Mbps beat HomeRF even though the FCC permitted wideband hoppers (1998-2000). Wi-Fi faster
Hayes: 2002 FCC permits intelligent hoppers (reduce blutooth intf) & power spectral density rule (opens the way for OFDM, i.e. 11g).
Hayes: Now 5 GHz - FCC NII proceeding - Apple, Lucent, etc. release 1997. Adds 5 GHz spectrum.
Hayes: meanwhile CEPT yielded to Satellite industry and reduces pwr at 5 GHz, but add more spectrum for HIPERLANS (455 MHz).
Hayes: CEPT decides to go to WRC 2003 to make 5 GHz primary and global. US problem because NTIA refused. Took until Jan2003 to win.
Hayes: In June03 WRC 2003 allocates 455 MHz co-primary in 5 GHz band. Accepted in US & EU - still in flux in many countries.
Hayes: Once spectrum is allocated, it still must be defended (find reasons in style with current political agenda).
Hayes promoting his upcoming book: The Innovation Journey of Wi-Fi, Edited by Vic Hayes et al. to be published by Dec2010.
Clarification of 1st unlicensed spectrum was 1937 for baby monitors, etc.
Hayes: Questions about Ad Hoc mode
Rabi Karmacharya & Basanta Shrestha of OLE Nepal using wireless to deliver Internet connectivity to schools in Nepal
OLE Nepal: Initial focus (2006) was OLPC, but if you got PCs, there was still no Internet
OLE Nepal: Don't have to teach kids how to use computers - that comes naturally - but need to create content in local language.
OLE Nepal: Teachers have to be retrained, and need to realize the kids may know more about the PCs that they do.
OLE Nepal: Need network infrastructure, in schools and between schools and the Internet.
OLE Nepal: Open source, open content
OLE Nepal: 28 people on staff
OLE Nepal: First priority is a network to and btwn schools as Internet upstream is very expensive in Nepal.
OLE Nepal: One highway with fiber runs length of country in the southern lowlands (near India border). Northern areas to 8K meters!
OLE Nepal: fiber line is connected to India so Internet transit pricing has come down substantially, but still very expensive.
OLE Nepal: approaching 38 schools in six districts & 4K students connected. P2P WLAN w/ typ. 5-10 Km distances
OLE Nepal: ADSL where available, used with VLAN.
OLE Nepal: On the plains, need to find a hill to act as relay point. Sometimes >20 km links needed (example 26km).
OLE Nepal: In hilly areas, may need 3-4 relay points at remote sites (4 hr walk)
OLE Nepal: School NW have: radio; switch; & 2-3 Wi-Fi Aps; all w/UPS. Select equip. for low power! Linksys WRT54GL w/DDWRT.
OLE Nepal: MikroTik 433 AH & 411 CPE - have used this up to 26 km. Also EnGenius radios, but not reliable.
OLE Nepal: SW tools: Google Earth, Radio Mobile, mirror tst'g. Use trees as towers (cut away foliage).
Ben West of Wasabi Networks (St. Louis) has posted his Community Wireless Day 1 notes here:http://su.pr/3FG39a
Ben West's Day 2 notes include notes from the session I spoke in: http://su.pr/1DHUFi
There's a big EU network that's not here. It's Czech Freenet: http://su.pr/2qMyeE 
Whoops - and this Czech Freenet: http://su.pr/24yYU8
Future for Community Wireless Networks session lead by Aaron Kaplan and Vic Hayes. EU wired net getting better and CWN shrinking...
Future of CWN: ideas fr. grp: underserved rural areas; hacker grps want to stay that way.
CWN futures: my categories: hacker comm, social comm & svc provider. All NWs have some of each, but one tends to be primary.
CWN futures: several people object to categorizations (in general?)
CWN futures: Movement to integrate node databases fr. many diff. networks. Exchange knowledge on making node db's. Mtg in <6 mo.
CWN futures: A world node database would create a larger vision of the movement, espc. for members in individual networks.
CWN futures: some desire for turnkey node solution prompts objection from Berlin hacker community that people would stop learning.
CWN futures: Ramon (guifi) sees evolution in the discussions over past 4 yrs: more consensus, meta focus (e.g. world db).
Networking rural areas: Rantanen - Tribal NW mostly done with grant money.
Networking rural areas: Rantanen offerring his cast off equipment to Krusevac Open
Networking rural areas: Krusevac network is technically illegal under Serbian law (ISPs must be licensed w/many problems & cost).
Telecom for disaster relief - Mark Summer of Inveneo talking about wireless in Haiti after the earthquake -http://www.inveneo.org/
Mark Summer: Mountain range around Port au Prince was key
Mark Summer: so many Sat Phones came into Haiti that satellite capacity was saturated.
Mark Summer: got Ubiquiti to get stuff from distributors (in 3 days)
Summer: Kitted everything over a weekend; VSAT vendor committed 5 Mbps link if dish fixed.
Summer: Google got very high res imagery on-line within 48 hrs and updated it every few days. Open Street Maps for former streets.
Summer: got VSAT up in <24hrs
Summer: Got 3-4 radios in per day
Summer: Linked 18 NGOs at 23 locations in 3 wks; NGOs didn't want it turned off, as better than pre-disaster.
Closing keynotes just starting. Tomorrow: open spectrum alliance
Aaron Kaplan thanking many, many. Node DB SIG being set up for this coming winter.
Sascha Meinrath asking for ideas we should ponder over next yr. Answers: 1. OS physical layer (GNU radio?) - seeking FPGA designers.
Answers 2) Allison Powell (@postdocal) learned we're still not good at telling stories. She's seeking people to interview.
Answers - Rabi Karmacharya (OLE Nepal) very struck by the discussions of biz models and how NW can help in disaster recovery.
Audience comments: worried that several major networks are loosing nodes
Audience comments: Session on splicing fiber was exciting. Community radio + community fiber (+ community satellite?) !
Audience comments: Credit to Matt Rentenen for offerring to pass on older equipment. Sascha suggests an email to CWN list.
Audience comments reinforcing idea of using Wikipedia as the master list of Comm Wireless NWs + spectrum laws http://su.pr/2C3YFz
At OSA Mtg http://su.pr/2AtH5O 1st formal mtg took 1.5 hrs as bylaws are in German & English. Hopefully we'll talk spectrum soon.
OSA Mtg: @postdocal asks OSA view on net neut & suggests links with other advocacy grps. Open a rathole? Sent for email discussion.
Now in GNU radio discussion. Ah techies, > interesting than policy talk.. Getting into to USRP http://www.ettus.com/ which I already know of.
Paul Fuxjaeger on GNU radio: OFDM for 11a, 11g required substantial mods to GNU radio blocks. Also hard meet IEEE timing req.
Fuxjaeger, GNU: For 2x2 MIMO, externally sync 2 USRP2s (not w/Ettus cable!) so as to maintain 2 Gig data streams, vs 1 w/Ettus cable
Fuxjaeger: http://www.oz9aec.net has interesting GNU radio stuff, also an update on Gumstix & GNU radio! More shortly...
Fuxjaeger: http://su.pr/A899kx has the pointers for Gumstix and GNU radio
Fuxjaeger: http://su.pr/1TZZeQ is the PR for Gumstix's product Stagecoach which packages TI OMAP processors that may be used w/Ettus
Kaplan wraps up the GNU radio session w/demo pasting macro blks & receiving signal from a Ham radio in 70cm band, i.e. 420-450 MHz.

Good conference Wi-Fi

Thanks ISWCN!

 

That's especially nice as it let me upload my photos from yesterday afternoon's stroll around Vienna -- all completed in a couple of minutes while waiting for the conference registration desk to get set up.

 

International Summit for Community Wireless Networks

I'm off to Vienna to attend a conference.  Conference info is here.  On Friday afternoon, I'll be leading a session in which I hope to get useful feedback on the "freemium" business model we're using for netBlazr.

Europe has a number of community wireless networks that have been very successful.  The networks in Vienna, Berlin, Athens and Catalonia stand out in my mind.  Of course, in the US we've had active legislation that's made it hard for governments to create community network.  But the EU networks mentioned above are member-based.  They may have benefitted from government funds at some point, but they formed independent of any government effort (at least as I currently understand things).  The other issue I've observed in a number of US community networks is a reliance on grants that aren't renewed and/or on enthusiasts who eventually leave to go to grad school or otherwise move on.  Something is different in the EU networks mentioned above.  Hopefully I'll better understand this by Sunday.  :)

As is my habit, I'll be taking notes in real time using Twitter (@brough).  After the conference, I'll gather those notes into a single page for a blog post.  This is primarily for my own benefit, as it's been an extremely useful way for me to take and save notes (assuming it's an event like the ISCWN where I want to keep notes!).

Commercial use of TV White Spaces in 2 years?

One of the interesting discussions at the Wireless ISP Association meeting in St. Louis last week was around TV White Spaces.  Alex Goldman has a good summary from the WISPA point of view.  We also heard from Julius Knapp of the FCC during lunch on Thursday.

What's clear:

The FCC is going to act, in the 3rd quarter (before October 1st), on the 17 petitions for reconsideration that are pending.  While the details of their decisions will have to wait until their announcement, it's likely the final rules will allow viable commercial markets to develop.

At the same 3Q meeting they are going to adopt policies that allow multiple independent database managers to compete.  (There will be a mandatory coordination function).

My conclusions:

Once the final rules are determined, we'll see both Wi-Fi and WiMAX equipment release - in both cases by re-banding existing equipment and adapting existing antenna technology.  Over time, other products should emerge, but rebanding existing standards will happen first.  We should see products that WISPs can deploy within 2 years.

xG Technology at WISPA

xG Technology was exhibiting at the WISPA conference in St. Louis July 21-22, as they also did at the 4G Wireless Evolution conference in Miami in January.  In January, I visited their facilities in Fort Lauderdale and talked at length with their founder, Joe Bobier.  This is a company that, back in 2006, made some outrageous claims for a new kind of radio modulation.  At the time, some friends asked me to look into their claims.  I read their literature and their patent filings and concluded it couldn’t work as claimed without violating either the laws of physics or FCC regulations or both, and I wrote a blog post to that effect. Indeed my original conclusions appear to have been true. In 2006, they naively thought they could get the FCC to change specs for out-of-band signal levels.

What’s interesting is how they have completely reinvented their company. They have dropped the magic modulation ideas of 2006. Today, they are in alpha test with a mobile voice telephony system that uses conventional first order modulation.  I don’t know whether they will succeed in the market, but today’s product is at least built on credible technology, they are going after plausible customer sets, and what they’ve done is cute enough (from a techie point of view) to be worth some discussion.

Their system allows a service provider to delivery a cellular mobile voice service much like any other mobile voice service plus it can support optional data services at GPRS-like data rates.  The key difference is their system uses license-exempt spectrum in the 900 MHz band, thus avoiding big bucks for spectrum licenses.  They deal with interference from other users of the 900 MHz band by monitoring in both frequency and time and rapidly switching channels (up to 33 times/second) to avoid interfering signals.

Of course there are no standards for such a system so, while the RF technology is now very conventional, the base stations and handsets are proprietary.  They have adapted VoIP and SIP standards where possible, so their MSC is just a conventional 3rd party softswitch.  However, some of how they handle channel hopping, roaming and handoffs is inconsistent with IETF standards, so they have a SIP proxy and a DHCP proxy that together isolate their proprietary protocols (used over the air) from the rest of the system which use standard IP components and standard SIP.

I don’t know whether their business will work or not. Their current system delivers mobile voice telephony plus data at 2G speeds, but it doesn’t roam. It might be a good fixed line replacement providing city-wide cordless telephony, not unlike the PAS systems deployed in China, but with no need for spectrum licenses.  I wish them luck.

My notes from the WISPA conference in St Louis

The following is based on my Tweet stream (@brough) during the conference plus some other notes I took off-line during the Tower session (when there was no Wi-Fi).  

Brief summary:  The conference was a great success, certainly for me, but seemingly for all.

Notes from the Wireless ISP Association (WISPA) meeting
St. Louis, July 21-22, 2010

WISPA meeting scheduled to start @8:45am (20 min) but room near empty. Sleeping late in St. Louis? Conf Agenda, see http://su.pr/24Zlii near bottom.

Twitter's location service keeps telling me I'm in Berkeley CA when I'm in St. Louis. Having to reset it makes the svc less than helpful.

The 40 Mbps wireless link set up for this meeting died in last night's lightening storm. Hotel has DSL? ugh. Hope radio get fixed!

Rick Harnish speaking: WISPA has signed up ~50 new members just because people wanted to come to this meeting.

Nice to finally meet Matt Larsen after many years of seeing him on email lists. Matt comments that WISPA membership now over 400.

Steve Coran, Doug Karl, Dewayne Hendricks, Patrick Leary visionaries panel is up, but 1st the ""Did you know, shift happens"" video...

Dewayne H started as a ham (age 12, 1961), then 56kbps packet radio in 1986; went commercial 1990 - wireless Internet, mesh, early!

Doug Karl started in IT as OSU, needed Internet for off-campus folks and started P2MP wireless net.

Patrick Leary started in fiber but focus is broadband Internet and that led him into wireless (initially in Atlanta ex-urbs.

Doug Karl became advocate for WaveLAN (from NCR) radios and their use for P2MP, then an advocate for early WISPs.

Dewayne Hendricks - the gating issue is regulatory. Original NOI discussed open spectrum, no power limits! Today rules are tightening.

Doug Karl commenting on having your town put extra requirements on cable company when up for renewal.

Dewayne's mission impossible plan for spectrum - demo alternate spectrum approaches in other countries (e.g. Tonga); existence proof!

Dewayne: reinvent, repurpose mass-market stuff - Wi-Fi silicon, DOCSIS modems (use transverters!).

Dewayne is pessimistic about starting a new WISPA today. I have to have an argument with him!

Doug Karl: remember you are in the communications biz - wireless may be only part of that (don't be wireless only).

Now it’s hard to pick which of three tracks... Whitespace policy; 4G; or VoIPoW. Love policy issues, know 4G & VoIP but wish I had all PPTs.

Raja Gopal - Alvarion - pushing WiMAX. $5K for a 16e basestation today but admits in 2-4 years LTE will win. But deploy WiMAX now.

VoIPoW discussion justified by how much money can be made with voice, but need QoS and high level of service - must be dependable.

TV White space discussion: politics! politics! chg sensing requirements; still large antenna issue.

Marlon Schafer asks about eventual pollution of TVWS by home LAN devices. Jack Unger on current interference mitigation discussions.

another 3 tracks decision: Mktg; FCC's 3rd way regulation; or Fiber deployment. But the only Wi-Fi access in the Mktg room. :(

Mktg Elizabeth Bowles loves on-line but (on behalf of Forbes Mercy) pushing radio (PR & Ads) for rural WISPAs; also yard signs!

Mktg: Ken Janc, Lorex Inc, on targeted direct mail and door-to-door - expensive but can be cost effective (cost per acquisition).

Mktg: Ken Janc - at least have your installers do door hangers on next door houses when doing an install.

Elizabeth Bowles of Aristotle.Net on SEO, pay for advice if you are not found via ""broadband in <your location>"", get prof advice.

Elizabeth Bowles big proponent of video on your website - dramatically boosts response rates.

Elizabeth Bowles: mobile phone enable your website. Remember smart phones with Wi-Fi access. Unlimited mobile data is dead, so people using WiFi.

Elizabeth Bowles: need a Facebook Fan page! Twitter account; LinkedIn; YouTube, Flickr, Yelp, etc. Track and respond.

Elizabeth Bowles: Optimized press releases (select key words to get coverage) is to get on-line coverage, not local press.

Martha Huizenga of DC Access a WISP in small DC neighborhoods: pick targets; then: postcards, signs <cars, yards>, local newspapers.

Martha Huizenga postcards are the only printed media; leaves them at dry cleaners & other local stores. Rest are PDFs by email/online.

Elizabeth Bowles responding to a Q: Market Wire costs $400-$700 per release; so search optimization your release first!

Elizabeth Bowles answering Q: need 3-4 touches to get a response. Link sign, postcard, website landing page to drive touches.

Michael Calabrese of the New America Foundation is luncheon keynote - talk is focused on open spectrum and especially TVWS issues.

Michael Calabrese: big problem - Genachowski's focus on auctioning large parts of the TVWS.

Calabrese: FCC, Congress & WhiteHouse intent on auctioning everything, including 20 TV channels (after paying off TV broadcasters).

Calabrese: If 20 TV channels went, after repacking broadcasters, there wouldn't be enough TVWS for an equipment market to emerge.

Calabrese: Spectrum sharing still sailing under DC radar; he's pushing that TVWS database extend to additional bands (e.g. military?).

Calabrese: we should use the same database to allow temporary access to ""warehoused spectrum"" i.e. until spectrum holder uses it.

Calabrese: Why shouldn't WISPs have temporary access to any spectrum band that is not yet in use in their geography?

Calabrese: FCC is not nearly as aware of the WISP community as it should be. Pls visit them; write to congress; file ltr to NOI.

Network Management: Matt Larsen, Vistabeam with Butch Evans; Brian Vargyas, Baltic; Alex Phillips, HSLink; Cameron Crum, Wispmon.

Larsen favors open source. Issues: integrate related items, respect business (may have to fire specific customers), leverage tech.

Larsen on processes: Billing, Provisioning, Dispatch, NW Mgmt (core & customer), Support, CRM, CustSat, Mktg, Employee accountability.

Larsen: Vistabeam has 1700 miles of wireless backbone over 600 miles. Documentation is critical before someone goes out in the field.

Larsen: Billing Freeside, Powercode, Platypus, ... He uses Freeside.

Larsen: NMS - What's Up Gold, Nagios, Xymon; proactively call people whose service is down. Also RT for trouble tickets.

Larsen on phone system - uses Asterisk but also familiar with Tribox and others. Msg when there's an outage cuts support calls!

Larsen on documentation - uses Network View, Visio, Dude and a wiki to capture other things (e.g. details of every tower).

Larsen reevaluate your performance metrics regularly. Ditto for biz processes.

Brian Vargyas on NM Mgmt: Be proactive, not reactive; BW usage; link history - Dude, Cacti, Nagios. New Dude 4.0 (beta) on SQL DB.

Vargyas - Dude works with any SNMP enabled device, not just MikroTik devices. Any MT board can be an agent to offload central box.

Vargyas - Cacti is open src PHP-based graphing system with web GUI but no notifications. Looks at anything with SNMP OID.

Cameron Crum of Wispmon - started a WISP, needed an IT infrastructure and a way to monitor his network. Visual kind of guy.

Crum is focused on demo'ing the Wispmon product.

Butch Evans speaking on QoS and prioritizing traffic to improve customers' performance - all on MikroTik. Others use Imagestream.

Butch Evans QoS script runs at an aggregation point. QoS won't fix massive overload problems; will help schedule during congestion.

Matt Larsen uses remote power control by Digital Loggers - auto power cycle if no ping on time.

Butch Evans QoS script for MikroTik is $175. Uses IP tables; categorizes most traffic and assigns it priorities; updated as needed.

Butch Evans was trying to emulate NetEqualizer when he started on his MikroTik QoS scripts.

Off to a Tower Technology session but there is no wireless in that room, so no Tweets.

WISPA Tower tech panel - Walked after they had started so I missed the introductions - not sure who is who…

Seems everyone is using 11b or 11g as they regard selecting polarization as critical.

Jack Unger (and at least one panelist) believes narrower channels (10 MHz or 5 MHz) cause the signal to go farther.   Statement that narrower channels have less background noise to contend with, thus the signal goes farther.  Given OFDM, this doesn't make sense to me.  Need to investigate what’s really happening.

One panelist argues for regulated power as the power supplies in the MikroTik's are cheap.

One approach to power and UPS is to use 24v PoE with a central 24v DC supply and two 12v deep cycle batteries.

Everyone advocates UPS.  One guy has 8 hours for every site.

At least one guy tells his customers to buy APCs for the client site.  Tornado zone, take laptop to basement and track tornado in real time.

Weatherproofing for coaxial connections:

1. Courtesy wrap (white tape) protects connector from butyl layer
2. Butyl layer (a mastic like putty)
3. 3M Super 33+ electrical tape (3 layers, shingled down on last layer) to extend at least an inch past the butyl layer.

The Andrew website has good tutorial on weatherproofing antenna connectors.

Use DC4 dielectric grease to protect Ethernet connectors.  Note this is not clear silicon! (even though it looks similar).

Inspect everything at least once per year.

Just posted some pictures from the conference here: http://su.pr/2XQuqp  More to come (will be added to this set!).

Conf has 253 registrations and 40 vendors. Mtg will breakeven or be slightly profitable. 43 new members joined in past one(?) month.

Board Mtg.: I should look into the Ambassador's program... They're looking for members to represent WISPA at regional events.

CALEA update - WISPA spec needs 3 updates to meet new rules; complex negotiation btwn FBI & WISPA. Next issue up is IPv6.

FCC Committee efforts: TVWS (not auctions); TDWR Database (stay 30 MHz away) - problems in Boston & PR); 3650 MHz (4 rule changes).

FCC Comm spent $5K in June, slightly lower than average; but advocacy and meetings are the bulk of what WISPA spends $ on.

Discussion of FCC-specific, or issue-specific, fund raising + volunteers to help engr'g (versus raising dues). Also partnering!

Steve Coran pitch at Marlon's request. (Rini-Coran is WISPA's law firm for DC politics).

Several members suggest that FCC Comm provide boilerplate that members can use to send letters to their representatives.

An aside in my twitter stream, not directly related to the WISPA meeting:
Where do telecom lobbyists come from?  There's a fantastic graph about half way down this page: http://su.pr/1tjZnZ    Hint: they used to work for congress!

Peter Stanforth, CTO, Spectrum Bridges up next on TVWS Trials. First focus on 2ndary mkts - time of day, location, freq. >10yr effort.

Stanforth has nice graphics on what TV white spaces are and how they arise. Hope to get his slides, eventually.

TVWS database administrator. Stanforth suggests we can have competition even here, and still accomplish desired results

Stanforth Summary of trials' field results in 04-186 FCC proceedings.  http://su.pr/2F9dOx

Stanfort: All TVWS trials have worked; getting 3x-5x coverage vs. 2.4 GHz systems; no interference complaints!

Stanforth: sensing unnecessary; drop antenna height limits; use fixed power limits & masks. Make DB higher fidelity than orig req'd.

Stanforth running TVWS BB antenna next to TV antenna in trials. Don't need separation! Must relax power limits and masks!

Stanforth notes that many TV stations are spraying out-of-band energy (a license violation!) but they haven't cared (so far).

Stanforth: if there are multiple database admins, they will coordinate btwn each other once each night, at least as proposed so far.

Rob Kubik of Motorola talking about FAA radars (TDWR) and DFS as basis for renewed outdoor use of 255 MHz of 5 GHz spectrum.

Kubik: experiments show 30 MHz away is ok, even in close (<35 km) to radar; combined w/DB approach should solve problem, but FCC..??

Jack Unger showing TDWR database which WISPA & Spectrum Bridge did jointly - going on-line next week. Meanwhile  http://su.pr/1Xk1SC

Stanforth showing prototype of TDWR database that will be up next week. Currently at http://su.pr/2iHAdO although that will change.

Panel on Buying and Selling WISPs. Prices seem to be from 1x to 2x revenues but many factors. Based on buyer estimate of cash flow expected after the transaction.

Across the board, panel is really cautious about any deal that involves stock or deferred cash. :)

Shiraz Moosajee's advice to buyers: plan on 20% reserve to fix problems and be sure you have 20% beyond that just in case.

Buy/Sell panel: 90-180 day clawback or true up clauses are common, with 20-25% in escrow.

Buy/Sell panel: Even if you don't plan to sell anytime soon, while growing your biz, keep revenue history, per tower.

Buy/Sell panel: Even though everyone prefers cash, very few deals are all cash (and they were fire sales).

Buy/Sell panel: Re buying small neighboring WISPS (100 subs) - frequently done with seller financing over 2-3 years. Estimate growth.

Buy/Sell panel: The smaller the network the less info you are liable to get!

Buy/Sell panel: Need transferability in all your lease agreements as buyers want assets (sellers prefer stock sale for Cap gains).

Buy/Sell panel: Sellers frequently have personal guarantees associated with corporate accts - got to know how to unravel these.

Julius Knapp  http://su.pr/9BXRJs  FCC, lunch keynote: Update on spectrum activities, but starts by hyping BB Plan.

Knapp on spectrum: ack's spectrum that's not yet built, but still pushing FCC/mobile operator's line: need more (licensed) spectrum.

Knapp promoting: spectrum dashboard; incentive auctions; more spectrum for mobile BB & for Backhaul - but this w.b. licensed. Ugh!

Knapp - only items that resonate with me: more unlicensed (Rec 5.11) and opportunistic use of spectrum NPRM (Rec 5.15) - Q3-2010.

Knapp & Ruth Milkman co-chair FCC Spectrum Task Force. Good, but he doesn't mention that FCC only controls part of the spectrum.

Knapp - Pres memo is forcing FCC & NTIA to work jointly on 500 MHz of new spectrum & Pres used words "licensed and unlicensed.

Knapp on TVWS 17 petitions for reconsideration. Expects multiple database mgs to be approved as part of this action.

Knapp acknowledges that 3650 MHz lite licensing has been a significant success, even as there is work afoot to improve things.

Knapp - TDWR protection w.b.: avoid freqs & 30 MHz guardband within 35 km. Make sure this works, so further licensing isn't required.

Knapp: the proceeding on backhaul scheduled for August 5th commissioners' meeting.

Knapp Q&A on Presidential memo suggests that ""licensed & unlicensed"" means some mix. How that's divided is to be argued...

Knapp says Aug 5th mtg will result in increased flexibility in use of spectrum for backhaul. But he wouldn't give details.

Knapp defends existing build-out reqmts. Charles Wu asks about Pt 101 licensing. A: spectrum transparency point is to find squatters.

Ray Savich of Moto describing software tools they have to help WISPs plan their businesses. These are biz tools, not just RF stuff.

Savich on ""Leased line payback calculator"" another tool to help sell WISP services.

Jay Lawrence of Gigabeam showing wireless carrier in Las Vegas who's built a wireless carrier Ethernet network using >50 1Gbps links.

xG Technology is here. Have dropped their original magical claims http://su.pr/1fBB9d for some completely conventional RF technology.

xG now has a proprietary mobile voice solution that runs on unlicensed spectrum. Not interoperable, but more a community cordless solution.

Cameron Crum of Wispmon demo'g their WISP-in-a-box IT solution including qualifying prospects against towers & terrain map. Very cute!

Crum emphasizes taking & preserving pictures of every install indoor incldg where power is connected (tell cust. how to power cycle).

Robert Olive of Wispmon is now pushing their new iPhone apps that work with Wispmon.

Nathan Stooke of WisperISP started in 2003; took a yr to breakeven; 3 yrs to make a salary; today, $2.4M revenue & 20 employees.

Stooke focus on best network and best customer service; has since taken over 15 competitors (many evolved from dial-up days).

Stooke: competitors were dial-up ISPs who entered wireless reluctantly. Diff was he wanted to build a wireless NW and he focused on svc.

Stooke: struggle to find good people; hirer slowly, carefully; some start as contractors, become employees later. He doesn’t provide benefits...

Stooke: employee training espc customer svc - one full day a month devoted to on-going training.

Stooke: run it as if you were setting up to sell it, i.e. keep it clean, fix problems, don't let them linger. Make it a showcase.

Stooke: Has a fire truck with 100' extension ladder that he got for $1K (but spent $26K getting fixed & certified) = temp tower.

Jim Murphy of NetSapiens describing their VoIP solution for WISPs - scales up, also down to system for just 10 simultaneous calls.

Murphy positioning against Asterisk (lower opex, expertise) and hosting (facilities based, more control; potentially better QoS).

Murphy also offering local virtual switch where realtime elements are local but NetSapiens handles everything else.

Now I have to leave to catch a plane, so I'll miss the final prize drawings. :( But this has definitely been worth it!! 

Thanks WISPA!!

WISPA - Wireless ISP Association meeting in St. Louis

I've just landed in St. Louis for a WISPA regional meeting that sure looks national to me.  Of course, I'm from Boston but the first person I talked to was Jim Murphy, COO of NetSapiens who had just flown in from La Jolla California. 

I'm new to the wireless ISP business but it was nice to see several familiar faces in addition to Jim (who I know from my VoIP days in the late 90s), for example, Alex Goldman, formerly of ISPCon and now writing for WISPA and Donny Smith of Jaguar Communications who I had met at FiberFete in April.

During the conference I'm be taking notes via twitter:  @brough

At eComm, then FiberFête; Live notes will be on Twitter

I arrived in San Francisco last night for the Emerging Communications Conference which begins today.  I'll be taking notes live on Twitter, not here. 

eComm runs three days and I'm hosting a panel on the US National Broadband Plan on Tuesday.  The 3rd day of eComm is entirely devoted to Augmented Reality. Unfortunately, I have a conflict and will have to miss the 3rd day.

On Wednesday and Thursday, I'll be at FiberFête in Lafayette Louisiana.  I'm extremely interested in augmented reality so I hate to miss the 3rd day of eComm, but I also have a long standing interest in telecom and Internet policy and industry structure.  What's more, I'm involved in a start up that aims to do an end run around some of the structural problems holding back broadband in the US.

Both conferences have excellent programs, but in each case it's the people who are attending, even more than the program, that are the attraction and have caused me to slice and dice my schedule this week.

For my take on the conferences, as they transpire, follow my primary Twitter feed.

Future eComm events may be invitation-only

There is an interesting post from eComm conference organizer Lee Dryburgh here.  Now that the agenda for next week's conference is nailed down, Lee is considering whether the audience for future eComm events should also be subject to selection (as speakers are today).  

From my perspective, eComm is always very special because almost all the speakers are interesting and the audience has been loaded with interesting people.  Credit for the quality of the speakers goes to Lee.  There is an eComm advisory board (to which I've occasionally contributed), but Lee is the driving force in creating the agenda full of great speakers.

If you are attending eComm next week, or have attended any eComm event, or have benefited from the rich eComm material available on the web (videos, more videos, audio, not to mention slides and photos at the "previous" tab here), you may wish to voice your opinion on open versus invitation-only.  

Lee is looking for feedback here.

One free ticket to eComm

Also, one 50% off ticket...

 I'll be at the Emerging Communications Conference, eComm Americas, beginning Monday April 19th at the San Francisco Airport Marriott.  If you're not familiar with eComm, I highly recommend it.  Interesting people, fascinating presentations, none of those trade show pitches... Check it out.

And, as organizer and moderator of Tuesday's panel discussion on the US Broadband Plan, I get one free ticket and one 50% off ticket that I can give to a friend or colleague.  If you're reading my blog, you clearly qualify.  If you are interested, send me an email - send it to my initials "rbt" at my personal domain, i.e. broughturner.com.

Structural Separation: Open for discussion, at last?

On April 1, 2003, I gave a keynote address at the Spring VON conference in San Jose.  I opened with some misdirection about a fiber project, implying it was near my home in the US.  The project, which delivered 100/100 Mbps fiber to the home for $24/month, in 1999-2000(!), was real enough.  But it was in Ulmea Sweden.  Even at that time, I had been talking for several years about the need for either: user control of first mile fiber or multiple competitors gaining open access to dark fiber in the first mile.

But whenever I used the term "structural separation" in the presence of US policy wonks, I was put down with comments like "Be serious. That could never happen in the US."  Indeed, while the idea is openly discussed in international circles, in the US, only fringe people mention structural separation.  The friendliest comment was from a communications lawyer acquaintance who advised me to avoid the words 'structural separation' if I wanted anyone to take me seriously.

So I downplayed those specific words but continued to advocate open access to dark fiber.

Good News!  The words 'structural separation' may no longer be verboten in the US.

While the US Broadband Plan avoids mention of any kind of structural reform, the topic is finally showing up in mainstream US discussions.  Harold Feld (Public Knowledge) directly mentions structural separation in his comments on the plan.  Esme Vos has slightly different views but is also "appalled that structural separation is not part of the Plan."  And when Paul Budde (admittedly an Australian) opened the topic, he prompted a vigorous discussion from Richard Bennett in his comments section.

A Long Way to Go

The US has a long way to go and the US Broadband Plan is not bold enough to get us there, but at least it is now possible to discuss a major issue in public in the US.  Let's be thankful for any step forward.

eComm Panel Discussion on the US Broadband Plan

At the Emerging Communications Conference in San Francisco next month, I'm organizing a panel discussion on the US Broadband Plan. Independent of my personal views, I've tried to get panelists with as diverse a set of views as possible.  Controversy always makes for a more interesting, and more informative, session.

Off to 4G Wireless Evolution in Miami

I'm off to Miami to attend (and speak) at the 4G Wireless Evolution conference.  Although I spent most of 2002-2008 providing technology and applications for mobile networks, my current interest is Wi-Fi, so I'm going to try and shake people up with a talk on Wi-Fi in a 4G world.  

Of course, I'll also peruse IT Expo that's co-located but, even through I spent two decades in computer telephony and have promoted Internet Telephony since 1996, it's now a distraction from all things wireless!

More explanation at some point.  Meanwhile, if you will be at 4GWE or IT Expo, please say hello.  I'll be there Wednesday morning until mid-day Friday.

My notes from eComm in Amsterdam

The first EU version of eComm was not as large as the California event, but equally worth it.  Below the photo is a copy of my notes (i.e. my warmed over Twitter stream) followed by a copy of the schedule.  I don't know if this is of much value to you, but like many things in the blog, it's a convenient way for me to keep notes on things I'm interested in.  :)

There's a copy of my presentation on SlideShare.  My photos are here.

Monday, 26-Oct-09

8:29 AM Getting organized to leave for eComm Europe 2009 in Amsterdam, http://bit.ly/TL45Q. Plan to write my notes live on Tweeter!

Wednesday, 28-Oct-09

8:39 AM Amazing - a European event that actually started at 8:30am, and there are perhaps 100 people here already with more coming in...

8:42 AM Lee Dryburgh's giving global telecom vision, but no practical issues like conf tags and Wi-Fi codes. Assumes smart folks!

8:48 AM Martin Geddes - Goodbye minutes - Hello moments. Voice & SMS revenues have peaked, now declining - but there are new opty's.

8:50 AM Martin Geddes - Describes how biz to consumer messaging could work better (& gen revenues for operator).

9:04 AM Geddes - Better Vmail: Editting APIs; HD Audio; Pers Interactions; Smarter Container; Multimedia.

9:05 AM Geddes - Integrating comm to reduce friction, e.g. Ribbit adding voice to Google Wave.

9:07 AM Geddes - Telco platform needs to provide 3 steps: connect (many ways); interact & transact (e.g. collect on enterprise behalf)

9:10 AM Geddes - Who will profit fr platform? Telcos? Salesforce+Google+Facebook? or Someone new?

9:11 AM Geddes - New Platform needed to manage complexity - Martin's focus, so far, has been Biz Process improvement

9:13 AM Geddes: Comm Stages have been: Messages, Minutes, MBs, Media, but what we need next are "Moments"

9:16 AM Geddes - 1st Q from Audience is about customer privacy. Martin thinks operators are trusted and can manage to remain trusted.

9:17 AM Geddes responds to Q about transition: Will be messy.

9:19 AM Geddes responding to Q: Are Ops really trusted or just tolerated? A: Trusted, could blow it, but generally optimistic.

9:20 AM Geddes responding to Q about moments: Moments of experience more important than moments of efficiency

9:22 AM Geddes responding to Q from Martyn Davis about regulation. A: Google exists, it can be done.

9:23 AM Bob Frankston - Need to move beyond telecom & network neutrality -- To Ambient Connectivity - where you can assume you're connected.

9:25 AM Frankston: Endpoint ID; Routing ID; independent of IP addr, Operator, anyone else - networking independent of any network

9:27 AM Frankston - rediscover the Internet, i.e. rediscover End-to-End. Some tastes - Subscriptions decouple some apps from the path

9:28 AM Frankston points out China now has ambient electricity, i.e. universal sockets that accept any international plug.

9:30 AM Frankston: Opportunities - no dependence on subscriptions, no per-pipe billing - who will provide the bit commons? What is he asking for?

9:31 AM Frankston: Talks about running our own wires, but also seeks access to common infrastructure. Networks versus networking...

9:34 AM Frankston: Internet is an experiment in economics. It's about the apps - those are the end points. Opty to rethink everything now.

9:36 AM Frankston ""Broadband"" is the lamp post model (look for keys where light is)

9:37 AM Frankston: Shift funding to infrastructure; ran out of time...

9:39 AM Frankston: responding to Q about port 80 - people use it because it works, not because they are doing client-server.

9:41 AM James Enck works for special situations capital company - opens with comments on current financial stress - amusing slides!

9:45 AM Enck: Recovery will not be to what was, but something new. US deficit far more than Obama is saying. Some EU countries there today

9:47 AM Enck is giving an amazing depressing view of our future! EU-centric, but applies world wide. I hope he has something to suggest.

9:52 AM Enck says telecom industry not as important as other global issues. But finally, he admits he's being flippant. Promising views?

9:54 AM Enck's telecom industry wish list: Awareness, Engagement, Investment, Reorientation - i.e. with future global needs.

9:55 AM Enck responding to Q about protecting Moore's law from government regulation - didn't get a simple answer...

9:57 AM Enck responding to Q: will telcos die or change? A: Not very optimistic.

10:03 AM Morten Hjerde: Phone Paradigm Shift - extended introduction to what paradigms are, using computer analogies.

10:09 AM Hjerde: Shows augmented reality browser (on your mobile device).

10:10 AM Hjerde: Communications as a medium, i.e. a stream of information, is something that translates to mobiles.

10:12 AM Hjerde: Most people still view mobile device as just phone. Paradigm shift will be to phone as medium & a life repository.

10:13 AM Hjerde: Smartphone users have made the transition - pick up phone to do other things (other than voice call). But devices are diff.

10:17 AM Julien Salanave from IDATE - Telecoms in EU in 2015. Has optimistic view of EU: EU good on fixed Broadband and now mobile BB.

10:19 AM Salanave: France using VoIP (i.e. FT); Dutch operators outsourcing their networks; Openreach, etc. - examples of EU innovation.

10:24 AM Salanave: 6 uncertainties: 1-silos, fragmented comms. 2-UltraBB availability. 3-New verticals? 4-Content optimization 5-open devices

10:25 AM Salanave: 6-open connectivity or bundles?

10:27 AM Salanave: Four possibilities... 1- Silent death. Most likely with public bailouts in some countries.

10:27 AM Salanave: #2 Market Shakeout - e.g. operators structurally separated with mix and match model for app providers

10:28 AM Salanave: #3 - Clash of the Giants - Telcos vs. Internet giants, but giants on top

10:29 AM Salanave: #4 Generative Bazaar - probably requires public infrastructure or net coops, i.e. connectivity, nothing more.

10:30 AM Salanave: DIY connectivity? Thinks we need a professional organizer but advocates Net coop.

10:31 AM Salanave: Has an argument there will be more revenue from generative bazaar... Not clear what that argument is. ??

12:09 PM - the pause in my coverage was the result of having to give my PC to the A/V crew before I spoke. I'm back in audience now.

12:21 PM Pictures are going up here: http://bit.ly/3LiFAn

12:30 PM Moray Rumney, Agilent - LTE started with a clean sheet. Constraints: spectrum, bps/Hz, # of cells

12:31 PM Rumney: Most wireless capacity gains have been due to more cell sites.

12:32 PM Rumney: Peak rates going up much more rapidly than average for optimum cell capacity - will be 90x with LTE. Ads for peak are bad!

12:34 PM Rumney: 3G/4G problem 19 frequency bands

12:35 PM Rumney: LTE Rel-8 won't actually work much better than HSPA+ in commercial deployments.

12:36 PM Rumney: Worried about single frequency intercell interference and OFDM. Also, MIMO for Wi-Fi but maybe not in cellular...

12:39 PM Rumney: Mobile broadband dilema - won't get the capacity people expect with current LTE path. Linear increase for exponential problem

12:41 PM Rumney: LTE must watch out for Wi-Fi ! Great follow up for my talk !

2:15 PM Norman Lewis describing and promoting vlume.com - promoting user control of mobile services by web aggregation of people.

3:13 PM Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino: CEO of tinker.it - arduino.cc makezine.com1

3:17 PM Deschamps-Sonsino: the Internet of Things - I am my devices - making those smarter - non-verbal communication via contextual info

3:18 PM Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino: CEO of tinker.it - arduino.cc makezine.com1

3:20 PM Deschamps-Sonsino: arduino.cc over 100K sold - cheap easy way to prototype w/RFID, Bluetooth, Xbee, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, GPS

3:22 PM Deschamps-Sonsino: Examples: device tweets when unborn baby kicks; RFID detects when cat is in the house; Kill-a-watt home power mon

3:24 PM Deschamps-Sonsino: New product possibilities: Guardian Twat race; Rewind; Centograph

4:06 PM Claire Boonstra co-founder of Layar is describing their augmented reality mobile application

4:10 PM Boonstra: Layar uses GPS/cell-ID, camera and data including 3rd party data via open API. 3rd parties develop layers!

4:37 PM Mark Rolston of frog design: more augmented reality plus user interactivity via the device watching what the user is doing.

4:40 PM Rolston: Discussion of Microsoft Natal project

4:43 PM Rolston: showing phone keyboard projected onto your hand and a person dialing, i.e. the MIT example I've already seen.

4:45 PM Rolston: The problem with computing is it requires computers. Frog design working to make it seamless. New affordances.

4:57 PM Peter Kaptein& Valerie ?, RoomWare - software to use mobile as remote control - demo just finished this weekend... setup probs...

5:00 PM Kaptein: Connecting people places and things - more than remote control, it knows where you are & what's possible - e.g. order lunch!

5:02 PM Peter Kaptein: The following are in same space, but different (complementary?): pachube, layar & roomware

5:07 PM Peter Kaptein: demo not working... good attempt to fill and/or recover, but demo still broken - finally 4 precious minutes gone...

5:08 PM Peter Kaptein: voice call; IVR response, then DTMF keys become remote control direction keys: 1 upper left, 2 up, 6 right 8 down, etc.

5:10 PM Peter Kaptein: Repeat demo with an Android, Now get data menu on scrren - using it to control the slides. More clear than IVR.

5:11 PM Peter Kaptein: Now we're seeing a good demo! I wonder how much the IVR approach will be used. Data approach so much better.

5:12 PM Peter Kaptein: They use Voxeo for the IVR part and gave Voxeo a pitch (as a supporter of the conference!).

5:18 PM Gerd Leonhard, MediaFuturist.com - Futurist - develops scenarios for clients for next 2-3 years and next 5 years.

5:25 PM Leonhard: Recent events - Social media passes email. video streaming (youtube) passes P2P. Ref to STL's 2-sided markets.

5:30 PM Leonhard: I've heard his points before, e.g. Music by itself has no value, the value is around it. Bundle + + +. Freemium models.

5:32 PM - to many back channels. Can deal with Google Wave right now (and it's not widely public yet). Certainly can't cope with IRC.

Thursday, 29-Oct-09

9:07 AM Jaap van Till, HAN University, NL gives outline of cooperative actions starting with a reference to Ostrom's Noble prize."

9:09 AM James Body, Telenet Research (formerly Truphone) is now working on what can be done to fill in gaps in GSM coverage."

9:33 AM Bob Sweeney, VoiceSage - focus on communications enabled business processes... Value metric is customer contacts missed."

9:38 AM My presentation from yesterday is up on SlideShare if your are interested http://bit.ly/2JWo3Z

9:39 AM @kerryritz http://bit.ly/2JWo3Z

9:43 AM Sean Park, Nauiokas Park, formerly a banker (<2006) now advisor on financial markets and platforms"

9:46 AM Park: Extends Carlota Perez to 6th paradigm which he projects will be ""Cloud Computing"" - Everything as a service.

10:03 AM Park: His website is http://nauiokaspark.com/#/home

10:06 AM Park: Advocating open APIs in banking as opposed to bank's current practice of black box closed systems.

10:19 AM Michael Jackson, Mangrove Capital, is giving a good (but very general) presentation on disruption.

10:23 AM Jackson claims biggest disruptive driver is telcos be pushed to their rightful place - as providers of tubes for the Internet.

10:33 AM James Burke, VURB, studies computing in cities - many things under rubric of Intelligent City. Augmented reality, co-working, ...

10:34 AM Burke: 100kgarages.com supports homebrew manufacturing (via outsourcing?)

10:36 AM Burke: Tons of interesting examples: Barcamps and other ""camps""; sensors networks & twitter; find your friends; recylcing; ...

11:20 AM RJ Auburn, CTO of Voxeo is talking about text, not voice! Kids don't talk on the phone, they text or IM. So the future is text.

11:39 AM David ""Lefty"" Schlesinger, LiMo Foundation asks audience # under 35? ~25% hands up. Wow. Lefty started w/computers 35 yrs ago.

11:54 AM Schlesinger: iPhone exposes problems with our assumptions, but is not indicative of what's coming next (can't even guess!)

11:57 AM Moshe Yudkowsky, Disaggregate - ""practical is a relative term"" as a lead in for a discussion of the status of speech technology

12:08 PM Yudkowsky: Good survey of speech technology. I liked his comments on data mining recorded speech.

12:14 PM Jay Phillips, creator of Adhearsion, now part of Voxeo - speaking on open source software - 1st post-scarcity economy

12:20 PM Phillips: Goal is to get ""crazy efficient"" at producing a class of applications. His lead-in to open source development tools.

12:25 PM Phillips: Java is back and here to stay, i.e. SIPMethod, Mobicents, Sailfin

12:28 PM Phillips: UniMRCP - general purpose media server!

12:35 PM Jan Linden, Global IP Solutions is on stage now, but having presentation problems...

12:39 PM Linden: Still no sound, but good video examples. Clear benefit of H.264 SVC. Description of what H.264 & SVC are.

12:50 PM Dean Bubley of Disruptive Analysis comes on stage to talk about LTE's problems providing either voice or SMS.

1:01 PM Bubley: LTE Voice - Circuit-switched fallback is so bad it looks like it was designed to force mobile operators to adopt IMS.

2:26 PM A panel discussion is getting underway: Investing in the Telecom Value Chain for a Post-Meltdown World - Moderator Introduction

2:36 PM Telecom Value Chain: James Enck (mCAPITAL), Sean Park (Nauiokas Park), Hjalmar Winbladh (Rebtel), Michael Jackson (Mangrove Capital)

2:54 PM Sean does an interesting bit on weather derivatives and frictionless brokering of weather insurance using a new Internet-based sys.

2:56 PM Jackson has good point that he doesn't buy stuff on-line in Denmark because in many cases there is no way to pay, e.g. US videos.

2:57 PM Winbladh makes the point that stores sell prepaid cards, but you can't buy Skype credits without a credit card - a big gap.

2:58 PM Panel bitching about how Telco's have a micropayment platform but have never figured out how to make them available to 3rd parties.

3:10 PM Martin Geddes talking about 2-sided markets - Covering similar material as last spring: http://blip.tv/file/1839328/1

3:16 PM Martin Geddes now on the transition from IT Svcs to Cloud Svcs. Money will be in aggregating services (definitely not infrastructure)

4:09 PM Sten Tamkivi, GM Skype Estonia - Why Skype's success? Intimate (i.e. HD/video) & free plus International LD (i.e. pays for Skype)

4:12 PM Tamkivi: 33% of Skype calls now include video; ILD volume +13% retail price -7% wholesale -4% fo rnet +4%, increasingly going mobile

4:15 PM Tamkivi: 500M minutes US-Mexico = leading calling corridor, 37% in top 30 corridors and then very, very long tail.

4:18 PM Tamkivi: US 46% video; China 24% video // US 5% IM; China 24% IM // Dev Mkt to Emerging Mkt is highest usage // Dev-Dev is 2nd

4:23 PM Tamkivi: Long talk of Dev countries wanting video while emerging mkts want IM, SMS, cheap voice - seems obvious - why dwell so long?

4:26 PM Tamkivi: 100K hours of Skype-Skype per hour; 33K hours of video calls; 12K hours of calls to landlines and mobiles (PSTN).

4:27 PM Tamkivi: Q about SIP - A: won't fix want's not broken, thus addressing interop but not worrying about stuff that works. Well stated.

4:28 PM Tamkivi: When original design was done (in 2001-2002) we couldn't have made a system that ""just worked"" using SIP - won't chg now.

4:31 PM Tamkivi: Answering Q about adding money xfer capability - experimented w/Paypal. Problems with per-countries regulation.

4:34 PM Tamkivi: Q: Will you add social networking? A: Skype is a social network already - may expose more & integrate (as did w/MySpace).

4:36 PM Tamkivi: Q about retaining P2P svc when groups become isolated. A: a bit ambiguous - always reviewing on case-by-case basis.

4:38 PM Tim Panton, PhoneFromHere.com talking about deploying SILK codec. They embed voice into websites. SILK 1st true VoIP codec vs PSTN c.

4:41 PM Panton: 1st use at gamers site. Need rich (HD) comms - using max quality level w/16 KHz sampling at half the uLaw rate

4:44 PM Panton: 2nd case is language lessions - less CPU than gamers & variable BW - quality important. So 8 KHz samples & variable rate.

4:45 PM Panton: 2nd case benefits from having network stats to feedback to codec. Getting that feedback through Asterisk was a lot of work.

4:46 PM Panton: Summary - SILK has been most flexible and better than any alternatives they've tried

4:48 PM Panton: Rspd'g to Q - They avoid transcoding at all. Always loading Java client with the right codec & parameters.

4:48 PM Panton: Haven't done a comparison of SILK with ILBC

4:49 PM Now Tim Panton starting again with a new presentation - new topic - Google Wave

4:56 PM Panton: giving examples of phone calls included in a Google Wave. Wave shows each snip with timestamp in the wave.

4:57 PM Panton: each segment listed in the Wave is in a separate audio file with a time stamp.

5:05 PM Dean Elwood, VoIP User, talking about Voice UI (voxygen.co.uk) - why it's important (customer sat.)

5:09 PM Rudolf van der Berg, Logica, on the future of Interconnect - won't get free voice anytime soon because stuck with EU regulation.

5:13 PM van der Berg: Exposing the problems with ""Calling Party Pays"" - nice to see suppt for stuff I've written about: http://bit.ly/37VhLN

5:16 PM van der Berg: Advocating Bill and Keep - refers to Internet peering and his article http://bit.ly/ILszq

5:20 PM Daniel Appelquist, Vodafone, on Social Web - he's in an R&D group - won't talk about 360 offer or widgets.

5:23 PM Appelquist: Net history - closed to open // Social networks are sep gardens today - will have to chg. Working on Soc Net platform

5:27 PM Appelquist: 71% of people are active in multiple social networks

5:29 PM Appelquist: Screen full of logos - we need this diversity, but... Shows 3 scenarios: Consolidation, fragmentation, Social Web

5:30 PM Appelquist: Advocates social web where users move btwn social apps and exchange data (under their control) - decentralized.

5:32 PM Appelquist: req. protocols - get slide deck for long lists of who is pushing what standards - special mention for OSLO Allicance

5:36 PM Stuart Henshall, Phweet: On twitter: #Callme, #SkypeMe, text me - @mgs are like ring, but may be delayed for days.

5:39 PM Henshall: Twitter provides ID and reputation, but needs nxt gen - TwitterTalk - Important for calls outside out budy list.

5:40 PM Henshall: Who has access to me? Proliferation of channels. Phweet Alpha dumped URL into stream - launches bridged call in browser.

5:41 PM Henshall: Problems - delayed receipt of tweets

5:43 PM Henshall: Location-based Phweet - signaling outside carrier; don't share #s; profile is Caller-ID - solution not limited to Twitter

5:48 PM Tjeerd Hoek, frog design, promises 10 observations on communication trends

5:52 PM eComm Hoek: 1) Being a great tool is pretty cool (& long lived - e.g. FAX & Morse code).

5:54 PM Hoek: 2) nailing the basics is hard - prototype and test, repeatedly.

5:56 PM Hoek: 3) Hardware is a commodity, or is it? Tech-tools as objects of desire. Examples of gorgeous devices.

5:58 PM Hoek: The phone is the next platform, or is it? - Dedicated devices with optimized HW & SW with one focus.

6:02 PM Hoek: How can we free the data people care about? share btwn user devices. Sharing and social beyond personal devices...

6:05 PM Hoek: Server-side processing and visualizations - showing models built from many individual's photos; then gapminder visualizations.

6:07 PM Hoek: Make it very easy to pay and people may pay!

6:09 PM Hoek: Be a Platform - open it up - change the world. Tjeerd Hoek is running over (& last talk of the day).

6:12 PM day is done. Tomorrow morning will have keynotes by both Sascha Meinrath and the Google Wave team.

Friday, 30-Oct-09

8:51 AM Cullen Jennings, Cisco, is up first today as Sascha Meinrath seems to be stuck in traffic.

8:54 AM Jennings is giving a survey of what's happened in telephony - nice talk, amusing anecdotes about support, but no new insights, yet.

8:56 AM Jennings: Oddly, codecs have gotten more expensive - need more variants, need wideband, need video - device cost goes up.

8:57 AM Jennings mentions distributed hash tables (as used by Skype) - looks like he loves the subject. So do I !

8:58 AM Jennings: Mentions P2PSIP groups attempt to standardize the use of Dist. Hash Tbles. (DHT). DHTs the opposite of Cloud Computing!

9:00 AM Jennings: Phone numbers - artificially scarce resource! Identifiers are valuable. Phone Nums will outlast the PSTN.

9:01 AM Jennings: Public ENUM co-op'd by carriers, turned into Infrastructure ENUM (where carriers control). Will people steal their # back?"

9:03 AM Jennings: Lack of royalty free codecs in holding back media in HTML. iLBC for narrowband, SILK or CELT for wideband, Theora video."

9:04 AM Jennings: H.264 SVC is great but we can't even figure out what the royalties will be, except they will be expensive. Go Theora!

9:06 AM Jennings: IETF may be able to make progress with royalty free codecs, se their Codec BOF codec@ietf.org"

9:11 AM Jennings: ENUM issue is who gets to make changes. Users or carriers.

9:13 AM Sascha Meinrath, New America Foundation, speaking with no slides - Works where technology & policy intersect. Educating Congress."

9:18 AM Meinrath: Amusing story about how we are too protected in the west (vs. visiting dev world). Righteous injuries! You can be an idiot.

9:20 AM Meinrath: Story includes local optimization (while climbing a cliff) that gets you into a position where you can't go up or down.

9:20 AM Meinrath: Pt of his story - We are at a critical juncture in telecom that will set our trajectory for decades to come.

9:23 AM Meinrath: No one is paying attention to most of the critical telcom policy battles.

9:24 AM Meinrath: Now he's gotten to spectrum policy & how our current policies are based on the latest technology of the 1930s!

9:24 AM Meinrath: Telco's spending $100M on lobbying in the US. There are only a few dozen people to lobby.

9:25 AM Meinrath: Spectrum is artificially scarce, but it is most valuable asset on many telcom companies books. Telco's want no change!

9:27 AM Meinrath: Amusing tie back to story of being frozen on a cliff wall in Turkey. 1st thought is to take no action, i.e. no risk.

9:29 AM Meinrath: Making spectrum access opportunistic (TV white spaces) is being countered by large companies - FCC frozen in inaction.

9:32 AM Meinrath: Loose coalition of public interest groups in Wash DC are fighting the good fight - and Sascha is clearly enjoying it!

9:34 AM Meinrath: Jaap raises question of commodities - Sascha: yes, new biz models scare existing players.

9:36 AM Meinrath: Same problem appears in many other policy fronts, but opportunistic spectrum access is critical for decades of progress.

9:39 AM Meinrath: Q - can you prove this is in public interest. A: poor answer in my view - based on net neutrality discussions.

9:48 AM Tom Katis, RebelVox, on what telephony would be if we designed it from scratch. Notes that even Skype is still basic telephony.

9:50 AM Katis: TV analogy - getting away from live TV (pre-recording) helped production quality. DVRs improve user convenience.

9:51 AM Katis: Voicemail should have fixed it, but didn't - requires live call to leave message and called party needs live call to listen.

9:53 AM Katis: Live is waiting on hold; Live is social anxiety; Live is often impractical (asleep, on plane, etc.). Msg'g is a relief.

9:54 AM Katis: But Msg'g not a replacement for live. Need the combination. DVRs are really buffers - buffering is what's needed.

9:57 AM Katis is setting up to give a demo - rather like this: http://bit.ly/h0u2b

10:01 AM Katis: not surprisingly, the demo on stage is not nearly as compelling as the demo in the video here: http://bit.ly/h0u2b

10:04 AM Google Wave team setting up - Lars Rasmussen & Stephanie Hannon have flown in from Sidney Australia to give talk & demo.

10:08 AM Google Wave team - apparently 6M people (including 60% of those in this room) have viewed the demo video: http://bit.ly/z6Hsm

10:12 AM Google Wave team has amusing flashes of negative reviews and a hilarious video takeoff someone did.

10:16 AM Google Wave: Now they are doing their 80 minute demo in 6 minutes. IM and email integrated with letter-by-letter type thru.

10:17 AM Google Wave: showing two people simultaneously editing the same document. Adding images (thumbnails appear in real time)

10:19 AM Google Wave: 3rd party extensions - a game has been stored within wave and Wave handles the coordination - competition in a coop tool

10:21 AM Google Wave: showing SW that syncs a map exploration using Wave API. Then show a very advanced spell checker (enormous lang. model).

10:24 AM Google Wave team now does everything in Wave: 35K accts in pre-alpha; Sept 30th - now at several 100K active users.

10:26 AM Google Wave invites going to groups that might collaborate. English only for now. 40% US, but also French, German, Spanish, ...

10:28 AM Google Wave has problem of ""Lonely Waver"" but can make a Wave public and find friends elsewhere among those who have Wave.

10:28 AM Google Wave is becoming a social networking tool. Users helping users within public waves, making friends, etc.

10:30 AM Google Wave - most Waves are private. Largest wave is 100KB (a limitation). Search for "Google Wave Extensions"

10:31 AM Google Wave example of sharing an SAP tool to build biz processes using a Wave - result goes into SAP compiler to produce result.

10:32 AM Google Wave in use by Salesforce.com who have a tool for their customers - example mobile phone company spt demo

10:37 AM Google Wave - 1st most requested is more Wave accts. 2nd is email integration where emails arrive in Wave - but on backburner.

10:37 AM Google Wave email integration would result in Wave being flooded with email. Wave can't match mature email tool.

10:38 AM Google Wave will add permissions - 3 levels: do anything; add & edit your own adds only; read only

10:40 AM Google Wave problem - hard to learn. Yes. Will users perceive enough benefit to go thru the learning curve. Initial retention good.

10:41 AM Google Wave federation ports to open today - Google and non-Google servers hosting Waves that can interop

10:42 AM Google Wave - Google voice integration is freq requested. Not sure when if can be scheduled.

10:43 AM Google Wave A to Q: Expect ecommerce - collaborative pizza ordering - coupons.

10:44 AM Google Wave Ans to Q: Wave designed for 30"" screens today, not for mobile screens, but working on a mobile version."

10:46 AM Google Wave Mobile will soon be able to add a msg to a Wave - but not experience the full intf.

10:46 AM Google Wave search for tags - needs work - not yet as simple as Google search

10:47 AM Google Wave - what about spt for other OSs? A: Wave content is very webby - need a full Web browser. Working on svr-svr protocol.

10:47 AM Google Wave - no work on std protocol for client-server yet. Maybe in 1-2 years.

10:49 AM Google Wave - any idea of offering frameworks (philosophies) like ""Getting things done""? A: focused on basics, protocols & APIs

10:50 AM Google Wave - users are developing Wave etiquette (frequently for a specific Wave) - Thinking of how to formalize this in the UI.

10:51 AM Google Wave - Q: what about user with poor links? Off-line mode? A: super-important - algorithms work equally well on flaky or offln

10:52 AM Google Wave - on poor link, stuff still arrives, just in chucks and after delay. Working on full off-line mode but will take time.

10:53 AM Google Wave Q about connecting streaming video. 6rounds has already done a video conf extension. Expect other 3rd party solutions.

10:54 AM Google Wave team pitching developers to add extensions.

10:56 AM going into a break, but expect more Google Wave after the break.to talk about Wave federation.

11:27 AM David Wang on Google Wave federation - Wave is a technology. Google Wave is a product. Federation allows diff Wave sys to intr-op.

11:28 AM David Wang - working on specs for federation, see http://waveprotocol.org/

11:30 AM Wang: Google particularly interested that other Wave-like products interoperate - pick product based on features, price, ...

11:30 AM Wang: Wave server parallel to SMTP servers.

11:31 AM Wang: Wave data model - Wave is collection of Wavelets which are group of participants, unit of concurrency; unit of federation.

11:33 AM Wang: One server owns a Wave - multiple svrs share updates. Adding a participant means adding someone who gets updates.

11:34 AM Wang: Federation works by exchanging XMPP - within a Wave server anything can be done privately.

11:35 AM Wang: Data stays on your server. Outside people only added with your permission, and only for specific waves.

11:37 AM Wang: draft protocol specs available; 40K lines of codes available as open source (Apache license, i.e. very open); also proto C-S.

11:39 AM Wang: opening federation port on WaveSandbox.com - very experimental for now. FedOne client/server very simple, to be updated.

11:39 AM Wang: Wave team seeking community participation.

11:41 AM Wang: interesting demo of GUI interface to text-based XMPP interface.

11:43 AM Wang - will open source the lion's share of Google's client and server.

11:49 AM Robert Horvitz, Open Spectrum Foundation/Alliance - of television and teraHertz - spectrum demand exploding - what mks economic sense

11:51 AM Horvitz - two legal traditions - nothing allows w/o permission or everything allowed that is not explicitly forbidden.

11:53 AM Horvitz: de-monopolize spectrum - to locales, user grps, professions, individual users & devices. ISM bands show it can work.

11:56 AM Horvitz: ""Looming spectrum crisis"" (US mobile guys want 800 MHz now) but existing economics won't spt this (telcm revenue growth 6%).

11:58 AM Horvitz - won't see 14x chg in user spending or cost of infrastructure - what is the middle ground?

12:01 PM Horvitz - interesting video of the largest screen in the world (in Las Vegas - works by projection on a canopy)

12:03 PM Horvitz: Is spectrum crisis looming - No, Cooper's law - http://bit.ly/51usH

12:05 PM Cooper's Law law: every 30 months the amount of information that can be transmitted over a given amount of radio spectrum doubles.

12:07 PM Martin Taylor, MetaSwitch, is working on voice enabling Google Wave - robot called ""Talky Talky"" conferencing also w/ transcription

12:08 PM Taylor: projects developed world in 2015 will have fixed & mobile BB with Net Neutrality, most phones smart and SIP widespread.

12:10 PM Taylor expects VoIP revolution - relationship with operator is where the biggest stakes are in play.

12:12 PM Taylor: - Right to own PSTN numbers is barrier for over-the-top providers. Expect non-mobile SIP # on mobiles - huge for EU mkt

12:14 PM Taylor interconnect complex and expensive (and with emergency svc obligation) - considerable costs

12:15 PM Taylor: visual voicemail is just an intf to a network application (V/M). A source of differentiation, but what about Google voice?

12:16 PM Taylor: QoS - is best efforts IP good enough for voice. Wideband is a major way IP is better than TDM.

12:17 PM Taylor: ease of use - pipe provider may have advantage handling setup - of course Skype did it well...

12:19 PM Taylor: Pipe owner will price voice to retain voice busines. Odds still stacked in favor of pipe owners - but be careful!

12:22 PM Stefan Agamanolis, Distance Lab (US co, he's in Scotland) Slowing Down Comms: Designs Inspired by Quality, Intimacy, & Humanity

12:23 PM Agamanolis: mobiles are like fast food - ideas for slow communications... 1) Distraction free (Phone booth used to do that).

12:27 PM Agamanolis: video of two people on phones, each in isolation tank - no smell, no touch. Sensory deprivation. Bizarre experiments.

12:29 PM Agamanolis: video of how to make phone more intimate - in bedroom, wearing a ring whose location is drawn in light on each side's bed

12:31 PM Agamanolis: Personalized interfaces - flower pot that blooms when partner far away logs into computer.

12:31 PM Agamanolis: made tilt sensing braclet which allows other party to know if you are active.

12:32 PM Agamanolis: video conferencing intf where all parties are put together in one scene with loudest talker at front - shared space.

12:34 PM Agamanolis: video of music sharing where you can listen to what nearby strangers are listening to on their headphones...

12:36 PM Agamanolis: video of sports at a distance - but ran out of time.

12:39 PM Aaron Kaplan, FunkFeuer, trends in community wireless - multiple cases in EU - open

12:40 PM Kaplan: Internet is scale free, i.e. very centralized. It's easier to connect to centralized nodes. But meshes are diff!

12:42 PM Kaplan: Nice picture of Funkfeuer network link status as of this morning. 240 nodes longest link ~40 Km; from slow to 80 Mbps.

12:44 PM Kaplan: Lots of geeks in the network, independent, meshed - we own our nodes, each has public IP addr. Users = small ISPs w/peering.

12:46 PM Kaplan: community co-location center close to Vienna IXP - leverage excess bandwidth from companies using the co-lo ctr.

12:48 PM Kaplan: similar network in Athens - 5000 nodes! Have their own internal DNS and local content and name extensions.

12:48 PM Kaplan: also Berlin, Barcelona. 70 euros for a node"

2:02 PM William Webb, Ofcom, on the use of ""junk"" spectrum - quoting the recent Microsoft funded study on Wi-Fi & open spectrum"

2:04 PM Webb: Oops, last quote was of a study by Perspective done for Ofcom.

2:05 PM Webb: projects more Wi-Fi chips than cellular chips by 2014. Indeed, mobile operators are embracing Wi-Fi off load.

2:07 PM Webb worries about congestion on Wi-Fi. UK has analog TV repeaters in 2.4 GHz band which interfere with Wi-Fi.

2:09 PM Webb: possible solutions more rules at 2.4 GHz; move to 5 GHz (but he worries about range); femtocells; cognitive radios.

2:10 PM Webb: Femtocells have strong industry support but uncertain commercial model (espc compared to Wi-Fi which works w/multi-operators).

2:11 PM Webb reporting on UK measurements btwn 10 MHz and 5 GHz - bunch of stuff down low, very little aboe 2 GHz.

2:13 PM Webb: Note that 2.4 GHz band when measured from cars is less than 1% utilization - they are usually indoors.

Note taking pause as I had to moderate my Spectrum 2.0 panel discussion with: William Webb, Phillipa Marks, Dean Bubley, Robert Horvitz and Aaron Kaplan.

4:38 PM Stefan Hopmann, Swisscom - a dinosaur that listens to its customers? Demo's click-to-call similar to other click-to-call apps...

4:43 PM Hopmann: Qs - why not standardize on some open source layer above the API so dev don't have to learn Swiss-specific APIs?

4:46 PM Colin Pons, KPN, Telephony = 80% revenue 100% profit; but VoIP is just telephony warmed over. Both will die as revenue source.

4:47 PM Pons: showing biz model canvas as invented by Alex Ostenwalder.

5:05 PM Serge Jespers, Adobe, talking about the Open Screen Project - seeking consistent runtimes on mobile to facilitate Adobe RT updates.

5:22 PM Greg Skibiski, Sense Networks, talking about DB analysis they do on carrier CDRs - Get billions of records per day.

5:26 PM Skibiski: DB for personalizing results you get - comparison with Amazon recommendation engine. - Telcos & CDRs !

5:40 PM Johanna Kollmann, Vodafone, on user interface design - starts with anthropology - oral behavior - chg'd w/writing (Walter Ong).

5:42 PM Kollmann: reading/writing in solitude until the web - IM instantaneous - blends characteristics of oral and written

6:03 PM Lee Sankey, Voxygen Limited, on NextGen Caller ID - Web browsing history linked to click-to-call Caller ID.

6:08 PM awards - most insightful speaker award - Sean Park

6:09 PM awards - most realistic speaker - Moray Rumney

6:09 PM awards - most inspirational speaker - Stefan Agamanolis

6:11 PM Communications Innovation Community Award - Andy Abramson - grabs Microphone to thank Lee for the conference.

6:13 PM Communications Innovation Community Award - Whoops they gave it to me...

6:14 PM Communications Innovation Community Award - Paul Sweeney

6:15 PM Communications Technology Award - Google Wave - Rasmussen & Hannon

6:16 PM Communications Application Award - Layar

6:17 PM Company to Watch Award - Sense Networks

6:33 PM 1800 hrs in Amsterdam; eComm has ended but there are still 25 people in the room. Time for me to power down. Bye.

==========================================================

Wednesday October 28, 2009

 

8:30:00 AM

Introduction

Hello and Welcome (Day 1)

Lee S Dryburgh, eComm Media, Inc.

8:30:00 - 8:45:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

8:45:00 AM

Keynote

Goodbye Minutes, Hello Moments

Martin Geddes, BT

8:45:00 - 9:15:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

9:15:00 AM

Session

Opportunities in Post-Telecom Connectivity

Bob Frankston, Frankston Innovating

9:15:00 - 9:30:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

9:30:00 AM

Session

Post Financial Trauma - How is the Telecom Value Chain Now Positioned?

James Enck, mCAPITAL

9:30:00 - 9:45:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

9:45:00 AM

Session

The Phone Paradigm Shift: People's Understanding and the Future

Morten Hjerde, Vodafone

9:45:00 - 10:00:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

10:00:00 AM

Session

European Telecoms 2015: Silent Death or Generative Bazaar?

Julien Salanave, IDATE

10:00:00 - 10:15:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

10:15:00 AM

Break

Morning Break

11:00:00 AM

Session

Almost all Marketing & Product Management of Telco Services is Wrong

Rudolf van der Berg, Logica

11:00:00 - 11:10:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

11:10:00 AM

Session

Technology and Biological Evolution: What This Means for Media and Communications Technologies

Tomas Rawlings, University of the West of England

11:10:00 - 11:25:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

11:25:00 AM

Session

Open Access Makes Economic Sense

Benoit Felten, Yankee Group

11:25:00 - 11:40:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

11:40:00 AM

Session

Stealth Approaches to Legislating Open Spectrum

Brough Turner, Ashtonbrooke

11:40:00 - 11:55:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

11:55:00 AM

Demo

bettie. Bridging the digital divide.

Ben Arent, Bettie

11:55:00 - 12:05:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

12:05:00 PM

Lightning Talk

Bringing Interaction and Engagement to Digital Display Advertising

Tomaz Stolfa, Marand Lab

12:05:00 - 12:10:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

12:10:00 PM

Session

LTE - Long Term Employment or Less Than Expected?

Moray Rumney, Agilent

12:10:00 - 12:30:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

12:30:00 PM

Break

Social Networking Lunch

2:00:00 PM

Session

Power to The People - Time to Seize Power

Norman Lewis, Open-Knowledge UK

2:00:00 - 2:15:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

2:15:00 PM

Panel

Are the Current Ecosystems of Wireline and Wireless Still Relevant? - Moderator Introduction

Andy Abramson, Comunicano

2:15:00 - 2:20:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

2:20:00 PM

Panel

Are the Current Wireline and Wireless Ecosystems Relevant? - Martin Geddes Introduction

Martin Geddes, BT

2:20:00 - 2:22:30 PM, Transformatorhuis

2:22:30 PM

Panel

Are the Current Wireline and Wireless Ecosystems Relevant? - Dean Bubley Introduction

Dean Bubley, Disruptive Analysis

2:22:30 - 2:25:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

2:25:00 PM

Panel

Are the Current Wireline and Wireless Ecosystems Relevant? - Moray Rumney Introduction

Moray Rumney, Agilent

2:25:00 - 2:27:30 PM, Transformatorhuis

2:27:30 PM

Panel

Are the Current Wireline and Wireless Ecosystems Relevant? - Brough Turner Introduction

Brough Turner, Ashtonbrooke

2:27:30 - 2:30:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

2:30:00 PM

Panel

Are the Current Ecosystems of Wireline and Wireless Still Relevant?

Andy Abramson, Comunicano

2:30:00 - 3:00:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

3:00:00 PM

Session

How the "Internet of Things" will Change the Way we Connect

Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, Tinker.it

3:00:00 - 3:15:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

3:15:00 PM

Break

Afternoon Break

4:00:00 PM

Session

How the Mobile Phone is Changing your Reality Forever

Claire Boonstra, Layar

4:00:00 - 4:20:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

4:20:00 PM

Keynote

Beyond the Handset: Evolving from Mobile Devices to the Ubiquitous Digital Life

Mark Rolston, frog design

4:20:00 - 4:50:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

4:50:00 PM

Demo

Using the Telephone as a Remote Control for any Physical Object - Part 1

Peter Kaptein, RoomWare

4:50:00 - 4:57:30 PM, Transformatorhuis

4:57:30 PM

Demo

Using the Telephone as a Remote Control for any Physical Object - Part 2

Valerie Ivangorodsky, Vivango

4:57:30 - 5:05:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

5:05:00 PM

Session

Telemedia Futures

Gerd Leonhard, MediaFuturist.com

5:05:00 - 5:30:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

5:30:00 PM

Session

Sell What Can't Be Copied

Chris Castiglione, University of Amsterdam

5:30:00 - 5:40:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

5:40:00 PM

Session

Enslaving Humans using Communications Technology for Fun and Profit

Thomas McCarthy-Howe, Jaduka

5:40:00 - 5:55:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

Thursday, October 29, 2009

8:30:00 AM

Introduction

Hello and Welcome (Day 2)

Norman Lewis, Open-Knowledge UK

8:30:00 - 8:45:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

8:45:00 AM

Keynote

21st Century Economics: Lessons for Telcos

Jaap van Till, HAN University, NL

8:45:00 - 9:05:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

9:05:00 AM

Session

Filling the Not-Spots - Provision of Service in No Service Areas

James Body, Truphone

9:05:00 - 9:15:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

9:15:00 AM

Session

Edge As Value - Value As Edge

Graham Brierton, Voicesage

9:15:00 - 9:30:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

9:30:00 AM

Keynote

Platforms, Markets & Bytes - the Economic Landscape of the 6th Paradigm

Sean Park, Nauiokas Park

9:30:00 - 9:50:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

9:50:00 AM

Keynote

Finding Disruption

Michael Jackson, Mangrove Capital

9:50:00 - 10:10:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

10:10:00 AM

Session

Peers in the City

James Burke, VURB

10:10:00 - 10:20:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

10:20:00 AM

Break

Morning Break

11:00:00 AM

Session

The Rise of Real-Time Text and the Demise of Voice

RJ Auburn, Voxeo

11:00:00 - 11:15:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

11:15:00 AM

Session

Where's the Desktop?

David "Lefty" Schlesinger, LiMo Foundation/ACCESS

11:15:00 - 11:30:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

11:30:00 AM

Session

The Practical Edge of Speech Technology

Moshe Yudkowsky, Disaggregate

11:30:00 - 11:45:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

11:45:00 AM

Session

Entrepreneurial Advantages with New Open-Source Technologies

Jay Phillips, Adhearsion

11:45:00 - 12:00:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

12:00:00 PM

Session

Why H.264 SVC is Transforming Video Conferencing

Jan Linden, Global IP Solutions

12:00:00 - 12:15:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

12:15:00 PM

Keynote

Is LTE being Held Hostage by Ordinary Voice Telephony?

Dean Bubley, Disruptive Analysis

12:15:00 - 12:35:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

12:35:00 PM

Break

Social Networking Lunch

2:00:00 PM

Panel

Investing in the Telecom Value Chain for a Post-Meltdown World - Moderator Introduction

James Enck, mCAPITAL

2:00:00 - 2:05:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

2:05:00 PM

Panel

Investing in the Telecom Value Chain for a Post-Meltdown World - Hjalmar Winbladh Introduction

Hjalmar Winbladh, Rebtel

2:05:00 - 2:07:30 PM, Transformatorhuis

2:07:30 PM

Panel

Investing in the Telecom Value Chain for a Post-Meltdown World - Michael Jackson Introduction

Michael Jackson, Mangrove Capital

2:07:30 - 2:10:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

2:10:00 PM

Panel

Investing in the Telecom Value Chain for a Post-Meltdown World - Investing in the Telecom Value Chain for a Post-Meltdown World - Sean Park Introduction

Sean Park, Nauiokas Park

2:10:00 - 2:12:30 PM, Transformatorhuis

2:15:00 PM

Panel

Investing in the Telecom Value Chain for a Post-Meltdown World

James Enck, mCAPITAL

2:15:00 - 2:45:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

2:45:00 PM

Session

Structural Bypass - A Simple, Proven Path to "Real Broadband"

Brough Turner, Ashtonbrooke

2:45:00 - 3:00:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

3:00:00 PM

Session

Multi Sided Markets and Cloud Computing

Martin Geddes, BT

3:00:00 - 3:15:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

3:15:00 PM

Break

Afternoon Break

4:00:00 PM

Keynote

Peace, Love & PSTN

Sten Tamkivi, Skype

4:00:00 - 4:30:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

4:30:00 PM

Session

Deploying the SILK codec, How and Why

Tim Panton, PhoneFromHere.com

4:30:00 - 4:45:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

4:45:00 PM

Demo

Googlewave - Skype - Asterisk Audio Mashup

Tim Panton, PhoneFromHere.com

4:45:00 - 4:50:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

4:50:00 PM

Lightning Talk

Defining the Voice User Experience

Dean Elwood, VoIP User

4:50:00 - 4:55:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

4:55:00 PM

Session

The Future of Interconnection

Rudolf van der Berg, Logica

4:55:00 - 5:05:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

5:05:00 PM

Session

Rise of the Social Web

Daniel Appelquist, Vodafone

5:05:00 - 5:20:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

5:20:00 PM

Session

The Emerging Telecology of Social Networks and the Status Update

Stuart Henshall, Phweet

5:20:00 - 5:30:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

5:30:00 PM

Session

Emerging Communication: Crossing all Over

Tjeerd Hoek, frog design

5:30:00 - 5:50:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

Friday, October 30, 2009

 

8:30:00 AM

Introduction

Hello and Welcome (Day 3)

Brough Turner, Ashtonbrooke

8:30:00 - 8:45:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

9:15:00 AM

Session

The Next Wave of Communications Applications

Cullen Jennings, Cisco

9:15:00 - 9:30:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

8:45:00 AM

Keynote

The Battle for Communications Justice: An Open Spectrum Manifesto

Sascha Meinrath, New America Foundation

8:45:00 - 9:15:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

9:30:00 AM

Session

What Would Telephony be Like if we Designed it Today? (with demo)

Tom Katis, RebelVox

9:30:00 - 9:45:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

9:45:00 AM

Keynote

Why Should You Care About Google Wave?

Stephanie Hannon, Google

9:45:00 - 10:00:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

10:00:00 AM

Keynote

Why Should You Care About Google Wave?

Lars Rasmussen, Google

10:00:00 - 10:15:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

10:15:00 AM

Break

Morning Break

11:00:00 AM

Session

Wave Federation: Building An Open Network

David Wang, Google

11:00:00 - 11:20:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

11:20:00 AM

Session

Opening of the Terahertz Region

Robert Horvitz, Open Spectrum Foundation/Alliance

11:20:00 - 11:35:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

11:35:00 AM

Session

Ubiquitous Voice over Broadband - is There a Future Role for the Smart Pipe?

Martin Taylor, MetaSwitch

11:35:00 - 11:50:00 AM, Transformatorhuis

11:50:00 AM

Session

Slowing Down Communication: Designs Inspired by Quality, Intimacy, and Humanity

Stefan Agamanolis, Distance Lab

11:50:00 - 12:05:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

12:05:00 PM

Session

Current Trends in Community Wireless Networks and Beyond

Aaron Kaplan, FunkFeuer

12:05:00 - 12:15:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

12:35:00 PM

Break

Social Networking Lunch

2:00:00 PM

Keynote

Unlicensed Spectrum: Future Regulation

Prof. William Webb, Ofcom

2:00:00 - 2:20:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

2:20:00 PM

Panel

Spectrum 2.0 - What's Really Happening? - Moderator Introduction

Brough Turner, Ashtonbrooke

2:20:00 - 2:25:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

2:25:00 PM

Panel

Spectrum 2.0 - What's Really Happening? - Dean Bubley Introduction

Dean Bubley, Disruptive Analysis

2:25:00 - 2:27:30 PM, Transformatorhuis

2:27:30 PM

Panel

Spectrum 2.0 - What's Really Happening? - Robert Horvitz Introduction

Robert Horvitz, Open Spectrum Foundation/Alliance

2:27:30 - 2:30:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

2:30:00 PM

Panel

Spectrum 2.0 - What's Really Happening? - Prof. William Webb Introduction

Prof. William Webb, Ofcom

2:30:00 - 2:32:30 PM, Transformatorhuis

2:32:30 PM

Panel

Spectrum 2.0 - What's Really Happening? - Phillipa Marks Introduction

Phillipa Marks, Plum Consulting

2:32:30 - 2:35:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

2:35:00 PM

Panel

Spectrum 2.0 - What's Really Happening? - Aaron Kaplan Introduction

Aaron Kaplan, FunkFeuer

2:35:00 - 2:37:30 PM, Transformatorhuis

2:37:30 PM

Panel

Spectrum 2.0 - What's Really Happening?

Brough Turner, Ashtonbrooke

2:37:30 - 3:05:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

3:05:00 PM

Session

When Will HD Voice Become a Reality?

Martyn Davies, Dialogic

3:05:00 - 3:20:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

3:20:00 PM

Break

Afternoon Break

4:00:00 PM

Keynote

The Myth of Spectrum Scarcity

Michael Calabrese, New America Foundation

4:00:00 - 4:20:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

4:20:00 PM

Session

How to get More Value out of Customer Interactions by Blending Online with Voice

Stefan Hopmann, Swisscom

4:20:00 - 4:35:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

4:35:00 PM

Session

Telephony is Dying, are Telco's?

Colin Pons, KPN

4:35:00 - 4:50:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

4:50:00 PM

Session

Open Screen Project: Next Generation Contextual Applications

Andrew Shorten, Adobe

4:50:00 - 5:05:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

5:05:00 PM

Session

Lifestyle Segmentation from Carrier Location and Call Data - Part 1

Greg Skibiski, Sense Networks

5:05:00 - 5:15:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

5:15:00 PM

Session

Lifestyle Segmentation from Carrier Location and Call Data - Part 2

Tony Jebara, Sense Networks & Columbia University

5:15:00 - 5:25:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

5:25:00 PM

Session

Back to the Roots? Emerging Communication Paradigms in the Context of Secondary Orality

Johanna Kollmann, Vodafone

5:25:00 - 5:40:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

5:40:00 PM

Session

Transforming CallerID into CallerContext

Lee Sankey, Voxygen Limited

5:40:00 - 5:50:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

5:50:00 PM

Session

Awards

Lee S Dryburgh, eComm Media, Inc.

5:50:00 - 6:15:00 PM, Transformatorhuis

 

Wireless tipping point! My presentation at EU eComm today

My presentation this morning was entitled "A Wireless Tipping Point, Open Spectrum Implications."

A Wireless Tipping Point, Open Spectrum Implications

View more documents from Brough Turner.

The abstract:

Are we using radio spectrum efficiently? No.

Is this likely to change? Not soon.

"Smart" radios have the potential to support much more efficient and productive use of spectrum, but spectrum regulation is a political issue with well established stakeholders. What's more, our limited experiments with commons-based spectrum management have had widely differing results: WiFi, enormous success; UltraWideBand, disappointment. WiFi's success happened in "junk" spectral bands where established players weren't interested. That will be difficult to repeat, but Brough will describe some very simple physical principals of radio propagation which, when combined with the next five years of Moore's law progress in semiconductors, suggest a path forward that's very different from TV white spaces. Indeed, the most important result of regulatory decisions on UltraWideBand and TV white spaces is they validate the concept of secondary access.

Leaving for eComm in Amsterdam - Will tweet conference talks

I'll be leaving for Amsterdam this afternoon to attend Fall eComm 2009. 

I plan to record my notes as I did at the HD Communications summit in NYC in September, i.e. I'll write my notes on Twitter in real time and then, after the conference, collate the results into one giant blog post (for my own sake as much as for yours, esteemed reader).

If you're interested in live coverage, follow my tweets at: http://twitter.com/brough

Whoever and whatever you follow, I assume the common tag people will be using (as before) will be "eComm" so that's another approach...

Shameless self-promotion:  My part in the conference:

On Wednesday morning, I'm speaking on Open Spectrum issues.  I will point out some laws of physics and emerging technology changes that, together, suggest a new, better focus for open spectrum efforts.

On Wednesday afternoon, I'm a panelist on Andy Abramson's panel, "Are current wireline and wireless eco-systems still relevant?."

And then on Friday afternoon, I'm moderating a panel that I've organized on "Spectrum 2.0 - What's really happening?"

Walled gardens have collapsed

Yesterday, Mary Meeker of Morgan Stanley gave her annual state of the economy and the Internet presentation at O'Reilly's Web 2.0 conference.  I wasn't there but her presentation is on line and it has some interesting insights.  Many others are commenting.  The one thing I'd like to draw to your attention is slide 46.

In one year (2007 -> 2008), UK users abandoned their wireless carriers' portals and went directly to numerous open mobile internet services.  I'd love to see comparable data for the US.

MassTLC Innovation Un-Conference

I'm at the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council's Innovation Un-Conference today, because the previous such conferences were clearly worth it.  This unconference series was the personal mission of Bill Warner and, as of today, it's grown extra layers beyond a straight unconference, including one-on-one mentoring sessions for entrepreneurs and a social networking site run by Eventvue.

Not surprisingly, my interactions have been all over the block, as there are plenty of interesting people here and zillions of ideas, entrepreneurs and those that cater to start ups (lawyers, investors, marketing and PR, consultants of every stripe).  There does seem to be a preponderance of social networking businesses and/or advice on using social networking to support whatever else you are doing.  While I use a variety of social networking tools, I'm more interested in infrastructure for my next company, so this is interesting but distracting.

At the last moment I decided to host a session myself (on potential business models for services delivered via wireless mesh technology).  We ended up in very far away room and the session was lightly attended (5 people total) but still a good discussion.  Other highlights of the day include hearing Donald Eastlake's pitch for Stellar Switches and talking with him about his recent standards work (Donald chaired the IEEE's 802.11s while at Motorola and still chair's the IETF's TRILL working group).  Later sessions included two on networking ideas and entrepreneurs and networking students who want to be entrepreneurs or want to work at startups. (I expect to need partners for 1-3 different businesses by early next year...).  Two people to track are Bobbie Carlton who has been running Mass Innovation Nights and Lauren Celano who is launching a biotech careers site, Propel Carrers, but is thinking more generally.  At Lauren's session I also met Rick Eichhorn, a recent Babson MBA graduate.  Rick appeared to have evaluated all of the potential career networking sites and several of us urged him to write a white paper or consumer reports like summary.  If he does, I'll certainly point to it. Unfortunately, I missed the session where Scott Kirsner apparently listed 40+ innovation networking events that happen in and around Boston.

If you live within reach of Burlington Massachusetts, I highly recommend future Mass TLC Innovation conferences.

Structural Bypass - my talk from eComm last spring

At Spring eComm 2009 in California in March, I gave a presentation entitled:  Structural Bypass - A Simple, Proven Path to "Real Broadband" that dealt with policy approaches for first mile fiber deployments.  The video has just been posted here.  Unfortunately, this is my face and the audio with my words.  The slides are not shown in the video, instead you have to look at the slides here.

My arguments focused on urban areas only, as the economics are different between urban, suburban and rural deployments.  You can't just lump together all areas in a country and draw reasonable conclusions.  Also, the only data I have is for urban areas.  And, as a simplification for this talk (I only had 15 minutes including Q&A), my metric of success was the consumer price for 100 Mbps symmetric Internet connectivity.

My points were:

• Structural separation produces better results than other approaches.
• Separation between dark fiber and everything else is more effective than separations at higher layers.
• There is a political path, which I call Structural Bypass, which has been used at least once (in Stockholm), to effectively achieve structural separation without explicitly fighting that battle.

If you are interested, I suggest you open the video in one browser tab merely for the purpose of listening to the audio.  Then view the slides in another browser tab.  The audio is of some interest, but my facial expressions are of questionable value.

eComm agenda is on-line ―Check out the speakers!

There's a fascinating agenda building for eComm in Amsterdam in October.  Here's the latest list of talks, but what's best is the set of speakers who are giving these talks.  I personally know quite a few and know of many more (who I look forward to meeting).  The group includes a preponderance of innovators -- new views on what's happening, new ideas for how to drive change.  If you don't read through this list of talks, look at the speakers list here.  Then come to Amsterdam and meet these people.

21st Century Economics: Lessons for Telcos - Umair Haque (Havas Media Lab)

Advances In Spectrum Transparency, Software Defined Radio/Cognitive Radio - Darrin M Mylet (Spectru-Station)

Almost all Marketing & Product Management of Telco Services is Wrong - Rudolf van der Berg (Logica)

Current Trends in Community Wireless Networks and Beyond - Aaron Kaplan (FunkFeuer)

Death of the Handset: Evolving from Mobile Devices to the Mobile Digital Life - Mark Rolston (frog Design)

Edge As Value - Value As Edge - Graham Brierton (Voicesage)

Enslaving Humans using Communications Technology for Fun and Profit - Thomas McCarthy-Howe (Jaduka)

Entrepreneurial Advantages with New Open-Source Technologies - Jay Phillips (Voxeo)

European Telecoms 2015: Silent Death or Generative Bazaar? - Julien Salanave (IDATE Telecoms)

Finding Disruption - Michael Jackson (Mangrove Capital)

Goodbye Minutes, Hello Moments - Martin Geddes (BT)

Google Wave - David Wang (Google)

How the "Internet of Things" will Change the Way we Connect - Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino (Tinker.it)

How to get More Value out of Customer Interactions by Blending Online with Voice - Stefan Hopmann (Swisscom)

Humans as a Service: Abstracting Communications to Reach New Applications - Todd Landry (NEC Sphere)

Is LTE being Held Hostage by Ordinary Voice Telephony? - Dean Bubley (Disruptive Analysis)

Lifestyle Segmentation from Carrier Location and Call Data - Greg Skibiski (Sense Networks)

Lifestyle Segmentation from Carrier Location and Call Data - Tony Jebara (Sense Networks)

LTE - Long Term Employment or Less Than Expected? - Moray Rumney (Agilent)

Open Access Makes Economic Sense - Benoît Felten (Yankee Group)

Open Screen Project: Next Generation Contextual Applications - Andrew Shorten (Adobe)

Opening of the Terahertz Region - Robert Horvitz (Open Spectrum Foundation)

Opportunities in Post-Telecom Connectivity - Bob Frankston (Frankston Innovating)

Post Financial Trauma - How is the Telecom Value Chain Now Positioned? - James Enck (mCapital)

Redefining Gifts in the Digital Space - Katie Lips (Little World Gifts)

Slowing Down Communication: Designs Inspired by Quality, Intimacy, and Humanity - Stefan Agamanolis (Distance Lab)

Spectrum 2.0 – What's Really Happening? - Brough Turner (Ashtonbrooke)

Stealth Approaches to Legislating Open Spectrum - Brough Turner (Ashtonbrooke)

Technology and Biological Evolution: What This Means for Media and Communications Technologies - Tomas Rawlings (University of the West of England)

Telemedia Futures - Gerd Leonhard (MediaFuturist.com)

The Emerging Telecology of Social Networks and the Status Update - Stuart Henshall (Phweet)

The Future of Interconnection - Rudolf van der Berg (Logica)

The Global Battle for Communications Justice: An Open Spectrum Manifesto - Sascha Meinrath (New America Foundation)

The Next Wave of Communications Applications - Cullen Jennings (Cisco)

The Practical Edge of Speech Technology - Moshe Yudkowsky (Disaggregate)

Ubiquitous Voice over Broadband - is There a Future Role for the Smart Pipe? - Martin Taylor (MetaSwitch)

Unlicensed Spectrum: Future Regulation - Prof. William Webb (Ofcom)

Video Killed the Telephone Czar? - Jan Linden (Global IP Solutions)

When Will HD Voice Become a Reality? - Martyn Davies (Dialogic)

What Would Telephony be Like if we Designed it Today? - Matt Ranney (RebelVox)

If you've read this far, there's a 10% discount via this registration link - register here.  And for more information, visit http://eComm.ec.  This one conference is at the top of my list for:  interesting, productive and an excellent set of contacts.

HD Summit wrapup - my twitter stream condensed

Here are my notes from  last week's HD communications Summit, i.e. my twitter stream condensed.  I've followed that with a copy of the day's schedule just in case the original on-line version disappears.  :)

Brough’s Twitter stream from the HD Communications Summit in NYC
September 15, 2009 – See http://tinyurl.com/nu843b

— Dan Berninger kicks off with a picture of Europe where Moldova is highlighted. See http://tinyurl.com/n3jst9 for Orange's PR.

— Jeff Pulver is talking about two friends in Paris who have HD voice on their triple play VoIP service and love it.

— Jeff passes a rumor that a US incumbent may launch HD on triple play in San Antonio. I wonder what he's heard. Nothing via GOOG.

—" Jeff promoting "HD Connect Now" a trade group that I know Dialogic has joined. http://hdconnectnow.org/

— Aside - Dialogic has published a white paper based on stuff I wrote last spring. http://tinyurl.com/qjsfda - needs Moldova update..

— Alan Percy of Audiocodes focuses on the problem of HD peering. It doesn't happen today! Is he volunteering to drive an effort?

— Alan Percy says VoIP peering at 2% of VoIP-to-VoIP traffic. I don't know where he got that data but it sounds plausible (or high).

—" Jan Linden of GIPS has the first audio samples of the day. Nothing new for me, but it's got me thinking about the audience today."

—" Jan Linden points out good HD also needs acoustic echo control, packet loss concealment & noise suppression - & device tweaks!"

— Mike Eastman of WYDEvoice announcing an all-software wideband audio conference bridge. http://bit.ly/1B8Y7

—" Robert Graves of ATSC Forum speaking. Are there lessons to learn from the HD TV industry? No surprise, he's a fan of Forums."

—" Robert Graves - indeed as ATSC Forum wraps up, he's available for hirer. :)"

— Robert Graves boasting about the efficiencies of HDTV spectrum usage.  But no mention of the industry resisting TV white spaces!

—" Robert Graves makes it very clear the broadcasters want to hold onto their spectrum to add new services - mobile, handheld, etc."

— Brough's HDTV summary - very political because it required FCC approval. At least we don't have that to deal with.

— Robert Graves summary - increased quality essential; all-format decode (old & new) from day one; consistent government policies.

—" Nxt up: HD Innovation Panel. Robert Messer, ABP Tech; Tobias Kemper Nimbuzz; Alan Percy, Audiocodes; Ryan Heidari, Qualcomm."

—" Robert Graves says HDTV tipping point was getting critical mass of programming, but this due to satellite, then cable! Not ATSC!"

— Tobias Kemper - turning point will be when mobile subscriber can just press the green button and get HD w/o knowing it.

—" HD Innovation Panel is thrashing around transcoding; too many coders; extra latency - Good business for Dialogic, Audiocodes, etc."

—" Ryan Heidari, Qualcomm.comments that Bluetooth has adopted HD stds but low power, low computational capacity."

— Ryan Heidari also lists five codecs approved by Bluetooth community. Sounds like too many to me!

—" 2nd HD innovators panel: Ben Lillenthal Citrix; Jim Toga, Vivox; Tim Panton, PhoneFromHere; Richard Romagnino, Voiceage"

—" Tim Panton is focused on zero install PC-based HD voice interfaces for web, facebook, etc."

—" Jim Toga focused on applications, currently at Vivox which does HD voice for gamers and in Second Life."

—" Richard Romagnino takes us back down into the mud. Codec licensing patent pools. Maybe necessary, but ugh!"

— Tim Panton says opportunity for innovation is in 3D sound - but need speakers and other consumer I/O devices

— Jim Toga - the microphone is in the iPhone is digitized at 32 KHz sampling rate. It could support really excellent telephony.

— Jeff Rodman co-founder & CTO Polycomm also starts with audio demos but promises 10 reasons people want HD voice.

— Jeff Rodman #1 Understand yr overseas team. #2 understand yr young kids. #3 it's easier - don't have to ask for repeats.

— Jeff Rodman #4 save yr energy for dancing. #5 like being there.

—" Jeff Rodman #6 enhance emergency abilities. #7 It's ""cool"" (if your old) or ""sick"" (if your young)."

— Jeff Rodman #8 no incremental cost. #9 everybody's making it. #10 Yr competitor sounds good when speaking to yr customers.

—" Jeff Rodman - responding to Q:. ""Polycom HD Voice"" is copyright, but no copyright on ""HD Voice"""

—" Rick Krupka of Uniden is focused on cordless phones. Claims, despite mobiles, cordless phones are still a hot seller."

— Rick Krupka was head of DECT Forum and is also promoting DECT 6 phones.

—" Rick Krupka gives Uniden pitch, nothing about HD yet... turns out they are ""backing into"" HD - still pitching non-HD stuff."

—" Rick Krupka - ""Conversational gain"" compares the end-to-end volume of a phone call with two people speaking live at 1 meter apart."

—" Rick Krupka - his only tie to HD is the idea that HD needs something like ""conversational gain."" Why was he invited to speak?"

—"#hdcomm Dan Petrie, SipEz; Jeff Rodman, Polycom; Dave Beckemeyer Televolution; Joyce Kim, GIPS are now on a panel ""HD in Action"""

—#hdcomm Dan Petrie was at Pingtel years ago when they tried to push wideband audio. It was way too early. No traction until 2 yrs ago.

—#hdcomm Jeff Rodman on early Picturetel experience where they needed wideband audio to make video ok - back in the mid-1980s!

—"#hdcomm Joyce Kim suggests people don't understand HD voice well enough to pay extra for it. My point: not revenue, but mkt share!"

—"#hdcomm Jeff Rodman - Polycom biz is coming from enterprise. Also large businesses understand HD now, e.g. multisite HD conferences."

—"#hdcomm Dave Beckemeyer says Svc Providers 1st Q is ""how much will people pay"" and that won't work. People won't pay extra for HD voice."

— Q: in what namespace will we make our HD calls? The panel is stumped. My answer - mobile. Tim Panton says DNS .tel.

— Chris Fine VP Goldman Sachs shows graphs that suggest IT spending has past the trough.

— Chris Fine ranks CIO priorities: Risk Reduction; Revenue Increase; Cost Reduction; Productivity Increase; everything else...

—" Chris Fine lists 7 possible scenarios for HD voice adoption, but this is just an exhaustive list. What does he believe?"

—" Chris Fine - at Goldman Sach, HD voice is being delayed while two ""large"" vendors fight over standards and interfaces."

— Chris Fine is not hearing anything about HD voice from the large carriers.

— Chris Fine gets others at Goldman to notice HD by putting MS Communicator on their desktop and then calling them.

— Josh Bottum of Cisco talking HD voice ecosystems - expects upstart svc providers to start and become thorn in side of big guy.

—" Josh Bottum admits HD voice is low on Cisco's radar, but he expects it to be a check box and to be on >50% of their desksets soon."

— Josh Bottum says high end users are demanding HD so smaller businesses are getting HD by default. But EU different than US.

—" Mike Rude of DSPGroup makes cordless phone technology, e.g. they are in the Gigaset phones (and Uniden?)."

—" Mike Rude pushes DSPGroup. They have DECT+VoIP+Wi-Fi+ and app processor in 1 chip, for DECT phones etc. Have 70% of 4M HD devices."

—" Michael Stanford, WireEvolution; Mike Jablon, Time Warner; Tony Storella, snom; are on a panel entitled ""The HD value chain."""

—" Mike Storella of snom expects there is a lot of money to be made in HD voice - but in products and conf svcs, but not for operators"

— Tony Stankus of Gigaset gets a round of applause as they have given cordless phones to everyone at the conference.

— Mike Storella of snom complains his VARs need more education as they still don't sell HD.

—" Correction: Michael Stanford, WireEvolution; Mike Jablon, Time Warner; Tony Stankus, Gigaset; Mike Storella, snom;"

— Mike Jablon answers question about Skype - Time Warner doesn't see them as competition.

—" Mike Jablon (TimeWarner) sees reciprocal comp as an issue today, but one that will eventually go away. I sure hope he's right."

— Mike Jablon points out the cable MSOs have enough of a customer base but he estimates 3-5 yrs to make them all HD capable.

—" Candice Malmstrom, FreedomVoice; Kevin Groth, XConnect; Rodrigue Ullens, Voxbone; Dave Frankel, ZipDX; on a panel HD Interconnect."

—" Rod Ullens provides e.164 numbers in various countries, also in inum (a new non-geographic country code) registered with the ITU."

— David Frankel need to program every IP-PBX with routing for IP-accessible e.164 numbers. Big hassle - guarantees islands of VoIP.

—" David Frankel: Have to solve the directory lookup issue, for originating phone or phone system. The rest is simple."

—" David Frankel: who runs the directory? Some contenders: Intelepeer, XConnect, NetNumber, Neustar, e164.org, VPF, Verisign, others"

—" Kevin Groth, XConnect: One source of resistance is carriers unwilling to reuce their reciprocal compensation revenue. Wow!"

— Rod Ullens talks about inum (new international phone #s) and HD support. He's still in the very early stages...

— Alla Reznik of Verizon discusses a global HD deployment by a biz customer but only in their corporate HQ island. It's Verizon NJ!

— Alla Reznik claims HD needs FCC to drive adoption. VoIP regulation is mixed or regulated as PSTN voice. Should be treated as IP.

— Alla Reznik answers Q about enterprise wide HD - problems in some countries about access links; otherwise waiting for PBX upgrades.

— Alla Reznik sees early adoptor HD beginning to happen. Today and in 2010 it's still early adoptors (who are large enterprises).

—" Alla Reznik simplified mkt study says joint wire-wireless offer would be attractive, but she can't comment on any plans. (far off?)"

— Alla Reznik comes back to pushing FCC to treat VoIP as IP (not voice telephony) - presumably this gets them free of term. fees.

—" Thomas Lemaire, FT-Orange, different telco, different accent (French). But his slide deck doesn't work."

—" Thomas Lemaire has 7M VoIP subs, >680K with HD, on triple play. Note: BT also has > 500K HD subscribers. Mobile HD just launched."

— Thomas Lemaire also notes that T-Mobile Germany has announced they are launching HD service.

— Thomas Lemaire - pitch is emotional - be closer to the people you love. HD provides a better sense of intimacy.

—" Thomas Lemaire - Sagen, Thomson & Siemens are providers of CPE for HD VoIP services in France & Spain."

—" Lemaire - HD telephones have better acoustic performance, so even when calling a non-HD phone, the quality is a bit better."

—" Lemaire - fixed: France, Poland, Spain,; mobile UK, Belgium, France in 2010 plus of course its already in Moldova mobile."

— Lemaire - why not faster? Time and money - and it's a complex endeavor - much coordination...

— Lemaire frustrated that they don't have MAR-WB to G.722 adaptation (so mobiles can't talk to HD VoIP).

—" Lemaire - HD mobile initially only on 3G networks, partly for use of 3G core network, partly to induce adoption of 3G."

— Lemaire hopes AMR-WB becomes the norm. They are working on transcoding but won't be able to do it when service launches in 2010.

—" Lemaire says pressure in France is coming from CLECs, i.e. there HD program is driven by competitive threats."

— Up next: Julian Spitka of Skype (with a potential 480M registers users who might use HD)

— Julian Spitka is pushing Skype SILK coder as a royalty free codec that everyone should be using...- proposed to IETF.

— Missed reporting on my panel...

—" Next panel Doug Mohoney HDConnectNow; Rich Buchanan, Ooma; Anatoli Levine, RADVison & IMTC; Ben Arnold, Consumer Electronics Assoc."

— Ooma announces they will be launching HD voice.

— Ben Arnold makes analogy to HDTV adoption; need critical mass of device in hands of consumers (as HDTV needed content).

— Anatoli (& IMTC) is focused on HD voice and video and on pitching the IMTC. No $ in HD voice - it enables other applications.

— Rich Buchanan sees chip and product companies as benefiting from HD voice.

— Doug Mahney promotes Digium & Asterisk as beneficiaries of HD Voice either directly or indirectly.

— ooma has already provided G.722 but they use ILBC on constricted access links.

— Robert Graves from audience - HDTV: satellite went first; Cable noticed (in 2002) and broadcasters came last.

—" From audience: quality of DECT HD phones in France is so good, that even non-HD calls sound much better than normal."

—" Jake MacLeod, VP/CTO, Bechtel Comms. 31 yrs; built 110k cell sites; Jake is summarizing the conference - spkr by spkr?"

—" Jake MacLeod - I'd like to get his slides (the summary of the conference) but I don't need to hear it now, at least not this detail"

—" Jeff is planning to do an event in California next spring. He's also investigating a possible event in Europe, sooner."

Event Schedule

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

8:30 9:00	Registration / Networking
9:00 9:05	Welcome - Daniel Berninger, CEO, FWD and Executive Director, HDConnect
9:05 9:20	Jeff Pulver - CEO, pulver.com - "Accelerating the Conversion to HD"
	Step 1 - The HD Technology Roadmap
9:20 9:40	Alan Percy, Director Market Development, AudioCodes
9:40 10:00	Jan Linden, VP Engineering, Global IP Solutions
10:00 10:20	Mike Eastman, VP Sales, WYDEVoice
10:20 10:40	Case Study: Lessons Learned from SD to HDTV Robert Graves, Chairman, ATSC Forum
10:40 11:10	HD Innovations Panel - Part I: Moderator - Robert Messer, President, ABP Tech - Tobias Kemper, VP, Nimbuzz - Alan Percy, Director Business Development, AudioCodes - A. Ryan Heidari, Director Technical and Product Marketing, Qualcomm
11:10 11:40	HD Innovations Panel - Part II: Moderator - Ben Lillenthal, founder and CEO, VAPPS - Jim Toga, co-founder and VP Engineering, Vivox - Tim Panton, CEO, PhoneFromHere - Richard Romagnino, VP Business Development, VoiceAge
11:40 11:50	AM Break
	Step 2 - Triggering End User Demand
11:50 12:10	Jeff Rodman, co-founder, CTO Voice Division, Polycom
12:10 12:30	Rick Krupka, VP Business Communication Services, Uniden
12:30 1:00	HD in Action Panel: Moderator - Daniel Petrie, CEO, SIPEz - Joyce Kim, VP Marketing, Global IP Solutions - Jeff Rodman, co-founder, CTO Voice Division, Polycom - David Beckemeyer, CEO, Televolution
12:50 2:00	Lunch
2:00 2:20	Field Report: HD Voice in the Enterprise Chris Fine, VP, Goldman Sachs
	Step 3 - Toward a Fully Functioning HD Ecosystem
2:20 2:40	Josh Bottum, Director Business Development, Cisco
2:40 3:00	Mike Rude, VP Business Development, DSPGroup
3:00 3:30	The HD Value Chain Panel Moderator - Michael Stanford, WireEvolution - Michael Jablon, VP Digital Phone Strategy, Time Warner - Tony Stankus, PM Emerging Technologies,Gigaset Communications USA - Mike Storella, Director Business Development, snom
3:30 4:00	HD Carrier Interconnection Panel: Moderator - Candice Malmstrom, Dir of Marketing, FreedomVoice - Kevin Groth, VP North America, XConnect - Rodrigue Ullens, CEO, Voxbone - David Frankel, CEO, ZipDX
4:00 4:20	PM Break
	Step 4 - The Path to HD Mass Market Adoption
4:20 4:35	Alla Reznick, Dir Product Management, Global Advanced Services, Verizon
4:35 4:50	Thomas Lemaire, Director Business Development, FT-Orange
4:50 5:05	Julian Spittka, Product Manager and Sr. Engineer, Skype
5:05 5:35	Mobile HD VoIP Panel: Moderator - David Bluenstein, co-founder, The Hatchery - Brough Turner, Chief Strategy Officer, Dialogic - Diego Besprosvan, CTO, MailVision - Mahesh Makhijani, Director Technical Marketing, Qualcomm
5:35 6:05	Perspectives on HD Tipping Points Panel Moderator - Doug Mohney, Editor in Chief, HDConnectNow - Anatoli Levine, Dir Product Management, RADVISION and President, IMTC - Richard Buchanan, Chief Marketing Officer, Ooma - Ben Arnold, Sr Research Analyst, Consumer Electronics Association
6:05 6:30	Wrap-up - Jake MacLeod, VP and CTO, Bechtel Communications
6:30 7:30	Networking Reception

at HD Communications Summit in NYC

I'm at the HD Communications Summit in New York today.  I will be posting real time to my Twitter account, so if you are interested in live coverage, follow me there.

I'll be speaking near the end of the day, on a panel called Mobile VoIP.  My point is not that VoIP matters - VoIP is just a technology - but mobile is significant and will drive the tipping point for HD voice.

So far, high definition voice, i.e. wideband audio telecom, has been enabled by most IP-PBX vendors and some VoIP service providers.  There are also wideband audio telephone sets available from many providers.  But mostly these systems operate as standalone islands.  When you call someone outside your island, the audio reverts to PSTN quality.

The problem is IT directors are making the adoption decisions and their budgets have just been cut.  Even if the incremental cost of HD voice was zero, why would they sign up for more support hassles?

Once HD voice becomes possible on mobile, the adoption decision flips to individual consumers.  They make the choice when they buy their next mobile phone.  True, only one mobile operator has announced support for HD voice, and they are in Moldova.  But Orange is promising to extend this to their networks in the UK and Belgium and then to all of Europe.

Five years from now, most 3G handsets in Europe will be HD voice enabled and there will be consensus that mobile HD was the tipping point for HD voice.

Note:  The tag on Twitter and Technorati is:  hdcomms

Speaking at 4G Wireless Evolution conference next week

I'll be at 4G Wireless Evolution next week.  It's being held in Los Angeles, co-located with Internet Telephony Expo (ITEXPO West 2009).

My first session is:

TUE 9/1 - 9:00-10:15am

"Mobile Broadband- New Applications and New Business Models” (4G1-01)

ROOM #: 501A

Whether it's LTE or WiMAX or local WISPs using combinations of Wi-Fi, WiMAX and other technologies, we are on the verge of having affordable mobile broadband in the US (it's already available in the UK and Scandinavia and becoming available elsewhere in the EU). What services can be provided over the top and what services need or can benefit from operator capabilities (QoS, security, ...)? The iPhone store, Android store and similar initiatives suggest power is shifting away from the operators and into the hands of application developers and the end user. How can operators leverage their core capabilities (QoS, security, billing, customer relationships, call detail, ...) to provide applications and remain relevant to their customers?

And the second session a day later:

WED 9/2 - 8:30-9:45am

"Our G-enealogy” (4G3-01)

ROOM #: 501A

The Generations do not flash cut from one version to another so 4G should not be considered an end point, but a process. Looking at the history of cellular technology helps us gain an understanding of the converging 4G model of the world. Based on cellular technology, and the progress to date, how long will it take for Long Term Evolution (LTE) to be delivered? Where do we stand in the process of delivering wireless broadband services?

If you will be at 4GWE or ITEXPO, please say hello.

WiMAX to be a fringe technology by 2015

Recently I was interviewed by the folks at TMC because I'm giving two presentations, “Mobile Broadband – New Applications and New Business Models” and “Our G-enealogy” at the upcoming 4G Wireless Evolution conference in Los Angeles September 1st-3rd.  The first talk's subject should be clear. The second talk, "Our G-enealogy," is a high level version of my 3G-4G wireless tutorial.

In any event, they asked a bunch of questions, including my thoughts on WiMAX and I answered.  For all the Q&A see the interview, here.

eComm in Amsterdam ― shameless self promotion

I've just wrapped up a focused effort that delayed blogging and many other things.  As a result, I finally submitted the detailed description for my plenary slot at eComm Fall 2009 which will be happening in Amsterdam October 28th-30th.  My abstract is not up on the website yet, but hopefully the next few weeks will bring details on my talk and many others.  For now, let me just say my title is
   Stealth Approaches to Legislating Open Spectrum
in which I propose what I hope is a novel approach to dramatically expanding the capabilities and commercial success of license-exempt consumer devices.

This will be the first time eComm has been held in Europe but, based on the first two eComm conferences (2008 and Spring 2009), this is the meeting for the future of communications.  It's not a trade show and it's not a mass event.  Instead, it's three days of rapid paced information ― high level, insightful and non-commercial.  Even more important, the people are very, very interesting.  It's not cheap, but it costs less if you sign up now (especially if you sign up before July 21st).  What's more, because I'm such an enthusiast, and I'm on the conference's advisory board, I've been given a discount code.  For an additional 20% off type in "BroughTurner" as the eComm discount code, i.e. where the registration form says "Click here to enter a promotional code."

I hope to see you in Amsterdam in October.

Opportunity Doesn't Always Knock. Sometimes It Calls.

The mammoth telecom industry ― fixed and cellular ― is in the process of being re-written. You can stand on the side and be written into history or join with the growing community that's writing the future. Opportunities have never been so great ― to influence how humanity connects, communicates and collaborates and to profit from radical restructuring.

Highlights from eComm 2009

This year's Emerging Communications conference, eComm 2009, was the best telecom conference I've been to in ages (ever?).  Now presentations and videos from the conference are becoming available on the web.  The presentations are on SlideShare; search by speaker name or for the tag "eComm."  Here's my presentation, Structural Bypass - A simple proven path to "Real Broadband."

Brough Turner's Presentation at eComm 2009

View more presentations from eCommConf.

Videos and transcripts are also coming, although not as rapidly as I'd like (a matter of resources - one person editting and releasing 2-4 videos per week).  Here's a transcript of the Spectrum 2.0 panel that I moderated.

Videos will show up on Fora.tv, for example, here is the really cool keynote address by Ge Wang entitled "New Expressive Social Mediums on the iPhone."

For more information and pointers, subscribe to the eComm blog.

More bandwidth ― less delay, less latency

I was a little sloppy yesterday and several people have questioned my comment about latency.  I was reacting to slide by Herman Wagter of Amsterdam's Citynet in his presentation at F2C 2009.  His slide said:

Latency is the cause, bandwidth is the effect.

From his discussion it was clear he meant "Latency is the cause, bandwidth is the cure."  At the time he was talking about real-time person-to-person communications and illustrating it with a housebound person in Amsterdam who wanted to play cards with friends in other places (not nearby).  Verbally he mentioned the issue of sending large files.  In short he was addressing the real reason for high capacity Internet access links.

Why people want more "bandwidth"

It's not because they need or want to send and receive 100 Mbps of data all the time or even a significant part of the time.  The issue is delay, specifically serialization delay.  If I have a 1 Mbps upstream Internet connection and I want to send an email with a 5 MB Powerpoint file attached, it will take more than 40 seconds (5 MB ~= 40 Mbits).  On a 100 Mbps link, the same email is delayed only a fraction of a second.

Serialization delay also effects media streams, although much less.  If I want to send 500 Kbps of continuous video over that 1 Mbps uplink, serialization delay will cause added latency.  IP is a packet protocol and the 500 Kbps video stream will be broken into a stream of packets, typically ~1500 bytes (12 Kbits) each. While the serialization delay is only 12 ms on the first link, there is serialization delay on every link.  If there is another 1 mbps link at the other end, that's another 12 ms of delay.  And here, 12 ms is significant.  For a natural interaction between two people, you'd like to keep the round trip delay below 200 ms.  Nothing goes faster than the speed of light so transoceanic links introduce many 10s of ms of delay, each way.  It is very easy to eat up a 200 ms budget, so saving 12 ms at each end is significant.

Burst rate versus continuous

For me and for most people, the issue that drives demand for high speed access links is delay, not the amount of information that is to be sent or received.  Indeed, I'd love a service offered only a few Mbps average over a month, if I could be guaranteed 1 Gbps on a burst rate basis whenever I wanted.

David Weinberger is blogging F2C rather completely

And David is a expert blogger!  i.e., really good coverage.
  http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/

The first Freedom to Connect conference entry is here. 

Latency is the cause; bandwidth is the solution

Actually, what Herman Wagter of Amsterdam's Citynet said at F2C 2009 was:  latency is the cause, bandwidth is the effect.  But his explanation matched my title above.

If you are attempting to interact with other people, whether by VoIP or just playing cards together (with video) you need less than 200 milliseconds of end-to-end delay.  If it's playing cards together, with video, and you need to exchange 500 Kbps in less than 200 ms, you need a 100 Mbps pipe!

It's latency that drives the need for high bandwidth.  Most people won't fill that pipe most of the time, but they need the pipe to guarentee that what they do send gets through rapidly.

Highlights from Day 1 of F2C

Shamelessly ranked by my areas of interest...

Tim Nulty of East Central Vermont Community Fiber.  Tim is a veteran network builder and a forceful speaker, so he's happy to tell it like is.  He's also got that Yankee mix of liberal politics with extreme fiscal conservatism.  He's building fiber networks, in rural Vermont, which pay for themselves.

Ken Biba of Novarum has been measuring actual wireless networks in buildings and in cities for years.  While the detail is in a report available for purchase, the summary is that WiFi-based Muni WiFi yields significantly better performance than 3G cellular.  Interestingly coverage and reliability is right up there in selected cities, as well.  The take-away - 802.11n really rocks. I.e., the next cycle of WiFi is going to be vastly better than what he's been measuring over the past 3 years.

Ellen Miller of Sunlight Foundation was low key by comparison with Tim or Ken, but her stories were compelling - multiple instances of Internet community feedback creating the kind of information that the "open government" initiatives aspire to.

Finally, Dewayne Hendricks is always interesting.  This year he seemed more optimistic than last, presumably the result of the recent election.  In any event, here's another speaker with deep experience in building networks.

Freedom to Connect 2009 and Municipal Fiber

I'm attending F2C 2009 in Silver Spring Maryland. If you are here, please say hello.

Things are just getting started with a panel on Municipal Networks, led by Joanne Hovis, President of Columbia Telecommunications Corporation (CTC).  Panelists are:

Tim Nulty, formerly of Burlington Telecom and now running East Central Vermont Community Fiber, has tons of experience building fiber networks in low density areas (Vermont).

Dirk van der Woude, from Amsterdam's CitiNet, to talk about the Amsterdam's municipal fiber to the home project..

Lev Gonick, CIO Case Western Reserve, who was a key player in creating a 4000 mile fiber network for Cleveland and northeast Ohio under a community organization called OneCommunity.

Bill Schrier, CTO for Seattle, which is starting a fiber project, but already has it's own electric power utility.  (Although Bill implies they have had to drag their utility brethren into this).

What's interesting is the discussion on the chat backchannel is not about muni vs. commercial, but wireless versus fiber.

Tim Nulty has a strong argument that wireless is excellent for mobility, but not economical for fixed access.  In rural Vermont, a WiMAX network would cost $35M if you could get access to the spectrum (which is being horded by others).  Fiber would cost $70M but has 50 times the capacity and several times the revenue potential versus the wireless approach.  Further, if you deploy wireless as an addon after you have the fiber network (and the customer support infrastructure), the incremental cost is dramitcally less (perhaps $10M) and you get enough incremental revenue to get a good return on investment.  IN other words, you make more money if you do fiber first.  Tim's key to success is to get as near complete deployment as possible - something that is possible in areas where the incumbents are going.  Second, he goes for community ventures as a way to qualify for muncipal bonds.

Skype wideband codec now open to all developers

At eComm 2009 this afternoon,Jonathan Christensen, Skype General Manager for Audio and Video announced that Skype will open their wideband audio algorithms for public use.  The blogsphere was pre-briefed under embargo, so multiple people have already written this up.  But it's a pleasure to see Jonathan presenting things live.

Skype was the first significant company to deploy wideband audio telephony.  As a result, with Skype it feels like you are in the same room as the person you are talking to.  The algorithm they are releasing is called Silk.  It reproduces 50 Hz to 12,500 Hz audio signals versus traditional telephony at 300 Hz to 3000 Hz.

Skype is making this codec available to third parties royalty free.  That's important as many (most) audio codecs are encumbered with all sorts of patent royalties.  The Silk codec is what's currently used in Skype v4 and it appears there will be a string of related announcements from partners, today and tomorrow.

In response to a question from the audience, Jonathan makes it clear that Skype's direction is to open up as much as they can, in order to seed the market and accelerate the spread of Skype.

Note:  this is binary distribution, not source code or a description of the algorithm.  On the other hand, Skype is hoping to get this algorithm on as many processors and chip sets as possible.  As a result, they are open to working with anyone that has a business case for a port.

More cloud-based telephony services

One thing (of many) that struck me during this morning's session at eComm 2009 was multiple companies going after cloud-based communications platform services.  Three which had their public launch announcements today were Grid.com, Tropo.com from Voxeo and Mobivox.  They're not the first to tackle this area and they each have a somewhat different focus, but there's a clear interest in producing Web 2.0 service platforms that developers can use to access communications services without hassle.

Grid.com is from a couple of developers who were frustrated that they could mash up an application quickly but then had to spend months getting SMS short codes and other communications services.

 

Tropo.com is an offshoot of Voxeo and makes the underlying Voxeo platform services available to Web 2.0 developers.

 

Similarly, Mobivox has launched a cloud services platform based on the platform they build for the Mobivox service.

There is certainly room for someone to get this right.  On the other hand, there must be a dozen companies going after portions of this space.  The first round were telephony calling platforms like CallFire, Angel.com and five9.com focused on allowing developers to access traditional calling, switching and IVR platforms - call centers and business process automation were early targets.  It will be interesting to watch the evolving focus of this new round of entrants.

I'm off to the Emerging Communications Conference in San Francisco

It's snowing in Boston and my American flight has been cancelled but Virgin America claims their 8:35am flight is going to leave on time.  So here I am in the Virgin gate area.  Wish me luck.

At this point there are a ton of people I'm hoping to hook up with at eComm 2009.  The agenda looks really good.  And, of course I'm looking forward to good discussions around two favorite policy topics: broadband access and wireless spectrum.

My talk on Wednesday is: Structural Bypass: A simple, proven path to “Real Broadband.”

While the US struggles to define "broadband," high speed Internet access (100 Mbps & above) is widely available at modest cost in several countries and quite a few more cities. So far, US political discussion has largely neglected these successes. Brough will point out what's common among diverse international success stories and propose a path for the US that has proven to work elsewhere, despite established monopolies and political processes dominated by vested interests.

On Thursday, I've organized a panel entitled:  Spectrum 2.0 - What's really happening?

WiFi, UltraWideBand and now TV White Spaces represent new commons-based approaches to radio spectrum regulation. While some advocate commons-based approaches for all wireless spectrum, that's hardly acceptable to broadcasters or the mobile phone industry. By questioning a diverse panel of industry experts, we will expose the roots of today's controversy - technical, commercial and political - and see what's likely to occur over the next two to five years and in the long term.

The panelists are top notch:  Richard Bennett, Maura Corbett, Peter Ecclesine, Darrin Mylet and Richard Whitt.

If you're attending, please say hello.

Rate speakers - Interesting new website SpeakerRate

If you are attending eComm 2009 this week, please consider rating my presentation on SpeakerRate.  It's entitled "Structural Bypass" and you can rate me here.  

 

The SpeakerRate website just came out of stealth mode a few weeks ago.  It looks like a service I'd use and refer to, so I wish them luck.

Wireless Tutorial slides posted

The slides we used for our four part Wireless Tutorial at the 4G Wireless Evolution conference in Miami last week are now up on the web.

History and Evolution of Mobile Radio

Part One covers the history of mobile wireless from the earliest days

to the latest 4G technology.

Part one is also available as a webinar recorded in 3 sections last fall.

IEEE Wireless Ethernet Keeps Going and Growing

Part two covers the IEEE wireless systems:  WiFi, WiMAX and more...

Mobile Broadband: New Applications and New Business Models

Part three covers emerging world of mobile broadband access and some of the applications it enables.

White Spaces and Open spectrum Issues

Finally, part four focuses on Open spectrum and the recent decision by the FCC to permit unlicensed devices to operate on unoccupied TV channels - the so called TV White Spaces.  In the end, there's alot more that will be possible eventually...

Wireless Tutorial - 2G, 3G, 4G and beyond - in Miami today

I'm in Miami for the 4G Wireless Evolution conference which is being held in conjunction with Internet Telephony Expo.  Fanny Mlinarsky and I are kicking off the conference with a comprehensive wireless tutorial starting at 10:30 this morning.  So no pictures of Miami Beach or warm weather until after our all day event is complete.

4G Wireless Evolution, IT Expo next week; eComm and F2C in March

Up coming conferences:

On Monday, Fanny Mlinarsky and I will be giving an all day Wireless Tutorial (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) at the 4G Wireless Evolution conference in Miami.  Since the shows are co-located, I'll also be at Internet Telephony Expo East 2009, Monday through Wednesday (Feb. 2-4).  If you will be in Miami for either show and want to connect, send me an email.

Then, March 3-5, I'll be at eComm 2009 in San Francisco (discount tickets available through the end of the day today).

And at the end of the month, I'll be at Freedom to Connect (F2C) in Silver Spring, Maryland -- policy discussions inside the Washington DC beltway!

Again, if you are attending any of these shows and want to connect, send me an email.

Sasha Meinrath has a good explanation of "Interference Temperature"

Sasha Meinrath is Research Director for the New America Foundation's Wireless Futures Program and will be one of the speakers at eComm 2009.  I've just read his comments in a recent interview by Lee Dryburgh on the eComm blog.  Sasha has a particularly good explanation of an arcane concept, interference temperature.

Why does this matter?  It's one way to open up otherwise assigned radio spectrum to new uses without impeding existing uses.  The FCC made an attempt to float the idea in 2003 but after much comment (and pressure from those with existing licenses), they backed off in May 2007.  It's still a good idea, so perhaps Sasha's explanation will help get it back on the table.

The second one that we've been fighting for, and have lost thus far, is what's called "Interference Temperature," which is that, in the same way, at a rock concert people in the audience can whisper, or yell for that matter, and not be disruptive to the concert itself, we want to see very low powered usage <permitted> on occupied channels.

The idea is, if you're sitting next to a 100,000-watt television transmitter and you want to utilize a device to connect your laptop computer to your television, fifteen feet away, you should be allowed to do that in the same space.

Thank you Sasha.  That beats all the gobbeldygook spouted between 2003 and 2007.

I look forward to talking with Sasha at eComm 2009 in San Francisco in March.

Where's the money in Communications for 2009 & beyond?

Sorry, no magic answer.  But I look forward to eComm 2009 to provide a lot of ideas in the first week of March.  The speaker lineup is posted and the list is both impressive and diverse.  Like last year, the format is a single track with a veritable firehose of information, mostly in 15 minute and 5 minute talks.

Based on last year and what I know of the speakers on this year's list, it fair to say Lee Dryburgh has done an excellent job of picking interesting and bleeding edge speakers.  I'm also on the speakes' list and I have to say I'm working hard to make sure my 15 minutes lives up to expectations.

Even though this is a terrible time for conferences, eComm has signed up an impressive list of sponsors.  The facility (The San Francisco Airport Marriott Hotel) is larger this year and so there is still room for additional attendees, but early bird prices end this week.  Also the extra 20% off you can get my mentioning my name ends this Friday, so if you are thinking of attending sign up this week.

So here's the deal, if you mention my name you get 20% off.  More specifically, if you enter the promo code "BroughTurner" (case-sensitive) at the appropriate point during registration, you'll get 20% off the registration fee.

Own (or control) your Internet access

Apparently IT conversations has just made the presentation "Own the Network" that I gave at eComm last March more readily available as I've gotten three emails about it in the past 72 hours and notice that Michael Graves just mentioned my presentation in a blog post about US broadband policy.

IT Conversations summary of the presentation is short and to the point:

Brough Turner says, “Don’t fight for anything above dark fiber.” Changes in telecom tend to happen on a decade's time scale so be careful what you ask for - it will be with you for a long time. His proposal for improving internet communications in the United States is based on the paradigm of owning the dark fiber ourselves or controlling who lights the dark fiber that comes into our homes.

He describes models from Quebec and Sweden of condominium fiber and municipal fiber, and gives Sweden as the example of a successful model because of their dark fiber widely available. Telephony is not a natural monopoly as that is defined. With dark fiber widely available in a condominium or municipal model, independent ISP’s can compete and customers can control who lights their dark fiber.

The whole talk was 14 minutes (with pre-roll and intro the IT conversations clip is 16 minutes).  There were also some slides, most pictures, which complement the audio but are not essential.

Best conference bet for 2009 ― eComm 2009, March 3-5, San Francisco

I attended a number of conferences in 2008, both interesting and not so interesting.  One conference stands out, for the range of interesting speakers and the variety of interesting people I met.  That was the first Emerging Communications Conference, eComm 2008, organized by Lee Dryburgh.  Many of talks from this conference are available on Slideshare and as podcasts on IT Conversations.

eComm 2009 is scheduled to take place at the San Fransico Airport Marriott, March 3-5, 2009.  I highly recommend you check it out.

This is not a trade show with vendors hawking today's products and multiple tracks full of vendor product pitches. 

Presenters have been chosen for the quality of their proposals:  is it new?  is it disruptive?  what will the audience learn?  (As an adviser, I've been in on those discussions).  Like last year, the format is one track spread over three days, with 15 minute presentations, 5 minute lightning presentations, panel discussions and social time.  It all adds up to a veritable fire hose of information.

There's a list of speakers here.  Major topics for 2009 (so far) include:

* Mobile Social Networking (MoSoSo)
* Open Handsets & the Open Ecosystem
* Both Voice and Video Evolution
* Convergence of Media with Personal Communications
* Open Spectrum
* Open Communication Platforms
* Leveraging Cloud Computing
* Social Computing
* Towards 4G Wireless
* P2P and Decentralization of Telecoms
* Communications enabling business processes, especially B2C
* New Forms of Contactability and Connectability
* Emerging Markets

And last, but by no means least, if you mention my name you get 20% off.  More specifically, if you enter the promo code "BroughTurner" (case-sensitive) at the appropriate point during registration, you'll get 20% off the registration fee.  This works now, while early bird rates are in effect, and I'm told it will also work right up to the last minute ("late", not on-site registration), although then it's 20% off the full conference rate, and only if the event is not sold out!

I hope to see you there.

Skype - SIP integration, officially, at last

Stefan Oberg ― Skype's VP & GM for Telecom ― gave the keynote at AstriCon this morning and announced official support by Skype for interoperation with Asterisk open source PBXs.  This is significant!

 

One of the major complaints about Skype is it’s a closed system.  Skype provides PSTN connectivity (SkypeOut and SkypeIn) but no way to connect to other VoIP services.  Of course 3^rd parties have been providing work arounds, but until now there’s been nothing from Skype provoking major complaints from some in the community (see this letter from Gizmo Project founder Michael Robertson).

The Skype-Asterisk deal announced this morning means Skype is officially supporting multi-channel connectivity to an open source SIP platform.  That in turn means an Asterisk box can function as a gateway between Skype and any other SIP-based system, inlcuding Gizmo.  If the Asterisk box is used as a gateway, the Asterisk dial plan adapts between Skype names, SIP URIs and PSTN numbers.  It’s early days, but this looks like a significant win for every VoIP community.  It’s also likely to provide a boost to Skype’s efforts to attract business users.

They announced an early beta program starting today, to be followed by a public beta and, presumably, a stable release at some point.  The additions to Asterisk will be licensed code available from Digium at a price and the Skype-specific code will not be open, but Mark Spencer, CEO of Digium and founder of Asterisk, suggested the connectivity code would be licensed much as G.729 code is today.  (G.729 code requires a license, not for the software, but for to cover royalties to patent holders).

We’ll await further details, but this looks to be very significant.  Stay tuned.

eComm 2009

The eComm 2009 website is live.

As some of you already know, the date was picked through a feedback process conducted on Facebook.  It's March 3-5, 2009 in California.

I attend a lot of conferences and trade shows and, as I look back at the past year, the most interesting conference I attended was eComm 2008.  Typically conference organizers start with a list of sponsors and/or exhibitors and then do their best to build an interesting conference, given their primary objective of facilitating sponsors' and exhibitors' promotional efforts.

For eComm, Lee Dryburgh (the principal organizer behind eComm), started with an idea ― emerging communications ― then went after speakers who had something relevant to say and were known to be good at saying it, finally he sought sponsors and attendees interested in discussing emerging communications.  The result was a really interesting set of talks and a fascinating set of people in attendence.

If you are at all interested in where communications is going, subscribe to the eComm 2009 blog and think about attending eComm 2009.

Attending AstriCon in Phoenix

I’ve just arrived in Phoenix to attend AstriCon, the Asterisk open-source PBX convention.  While I’ve roughly followed various open-source telephony movements (Asterisk, sipX/SIPFoundry, Freeswitch, YATE, OpenSIPS), my focus has been on mobile networks and mobile applications for several years now.  So I need a quick catch up and AstriCon looks to be a great way to start.

If you are attending AstriCon and want to meet, send me an email (the handle is “rbt” and the domain is nmss.com) or call my mobile 617 285 0433.

Off to LA for IT Expo and Communications Developer Conference

I'll be at Internet Telephony Expo West in Los Angeles beginning late morning tomorrow.  I have a few meetings scheduled tomorrow afternoon and two presentations later in the show.  NMS also has a booth on the show floor where I should be when I'm not otherwise engaged.

At 9am on Wednesday, I'm giving a Wireless Tutorial (3G, 4G and beyond).  Caution:  it's nearly two hours and goes into mobile communications in some depth!

Then on Thursday at 1pm, I'm on a panel, Exploring Next-Generation Video Standards, with Jeff Van Dyke (of Dialogic, and formerly of Snowshore).

So far those are my only commitments, but there many people I hope to catch up with.  If you want to meet, send me an email (rbt at NMSS dot com) or call my mobile (617-285-0433).

PS:  Next week I'll be at AstriCon in Phoenix (actually Glendale, AZ), Tuesday-Thursday, if by chance you'll be in Phoenix.

Off for three days in Loma Linda California

I'm leaving (very) early in the morning for Gordon Cook's meeting on the Architecture and Economics of IP Networks, a.k.a. the Cook-In.  It looks like a full schedule, some people I know and many others I know only via email.  This should be very good.

A few Notes from eComm

Three days of rapid pace content, mostly 15 minute segments with no overruns!  Presentation were mostly high level, focused on industry insight and direction.  Almost all were good or very good and some were excellent.  Almost no pure product pitches.  And, most important, tons of interesting people.  In fact it appears there were ~220 people and perhaps as many as 250 who attended at least part of the event.

In short, one of the best events I've attended.

I was completely immersed, and besides the WiFi was misconfigured the first day, so I didn't attempt blogging.  Others have done a great job.  Technorati has a good list.  Andy Abramson has a rundown of early media coverage although Google News has more of course.

The credit for making it all happen goes to Lee Dryburgh.  Thank you!

Above photo thanks to James Duncan Davidson.

Other pictures here and here and here and here and then there are some videos here.

Two weeks in California — eComm, VON and other meetings

I'm leaving for northern California early tomorrow (Tuesday) to participate in eComm 2008 in Mountain View March 12-14 and then Spring VON.x in San Jose March 17-20.  I'll be back in the office Friday March 20th.

At eComm 2008, I'm speaking on Thursday and moderating on Friday:

• Thursday, 10:20am:  Own the Network — A Radical Approach to Internet Connectivity
• Friday, 2:00pm:   Panel: What Will Drive Wireless Innovation?

The Weekend

Most of my weekend is uncommitted, as yet...  suggestions?

Then at VON, I'm speaking on Tuesday and Wednesday and running a session in the "Unconference."

• Tuesday, time uncertain...:  Unconference session: Rethinking Broadband Internet Connectivity
• Tuesday, 2:50pm:  Panelist in Content Delivery over Alternative Wireless Architectures
• Wednesday, 4:00pm:  Speaking on Wireless Mobility Trends

If you are attending either of these events or live in or are otherwise in the area and interested in meeting, please send me an email using "rbt", i.e. my initials, at nmss.com.

Woman in High Tech — Is it getting better?

Woman's Radio News has a great interview with Dr. Dawn Nafus about her upcoming appearance at eComm 2008.

Dawn Nafus, Ph.D., an anthropologist at Intel, discusses why a technology company would have an anthropologist on staff, and exactly what she does for them. Dawn will be speaking at the eComm Conference being held March 12 - 14, 2008 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. Her topic will be “Context Aware Technologies” and how they can assist different cultures and countries around the world.

About 4:30 minutes into the interview, Pat Lynch asks Dr. Nafus why there are only a few women on the program at eComm and indeed at most high tech conferences.  She doesn't have a simple answer but she does point out it's a myth that women's position in high tech is getting better gradually over time, at least in Silicon Valley.  Silicon Valley is very young in the grand scheme of things, it has little or no history.  And yet, it has reproduced the male dominated culture that was a characteristic of older industries.  Now older industries are improving at a greater rate than high tech.

I just recently read Herman Goldstine's classic history of the early days of computing, The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann.  Interestingly, some women play key roles, not just Ada Byron (Lady Lovelace), but multiple women during and after WWII.  And when I think back to the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) that I joined as a student in the early 1970s, there were more women involved in programming, and the mathematical side of the computer industry than in traditional industries.  Also my first part time job was with a small company where 25% of the software staff (1 out of 4) were women.  :-)

Recent counts by VC Christine Herron of women at high tech conferences range from 13% to 18%.  Many old line industries have changed.  But not high tech?

I look forward to hearing Dr. Nafus speak on "Context Aware Technologies" at eComm this coming week.  Hopefully I'll also get a chance to talk with her, as she mentioned some references to recent literature on women in high tech.