VoIP Security gets more attention as Phil Zimmerman builds prototype of PGP VoIP.
VoIP Security in a nutshell:
Eavesdropping - Listening in / recording calls without the participant's consent.
I think it would probably be easier to for the average hacker to jack into the PSTN network as the tools are already abundant for that.
Denial-of-service (DoS) attacks -
Usually a packet storm aimed at a critical central server in the VoIP network of choice.
- SIP traditionally requires the registration of an IP address with their SIP ID or URI. Today this URI can be spoofed, that needs to get fixed and the IETF gurus are working on it.
SPIT (Spam over Internet Telephony) -
Spammers can create a spam engine that blasts a great number of calls per second.
SPIM - (Spam over Instant Messaging) - Bulk and potentially malicious spam sent to an IM user's ID. Since many of the new applications are IM/VoIP apps we need to consider this.
Caller ID Phishing
- Spammers can recreate the caller ID being sent to any one they chose, making it harder to NOT pick up the phone.
One thing is for sure, we need to work on this. Spammers are smart, it won't take them long to figure out how to make great sums of money sending junk calls to your phone.
Friday, July 29, 2005
Friday, July 22, 2005
Italy
There are few places in the world like my country, where one thing is what they say and another one is what it is.
The Ipocrisy of the Government and the few who rule the country.
We are talking about Democracy, but in reality we have an Oligarchy of few powerful companies driven by "friends"of our politicians.
This will bring Italy to complete ruin.
They are against the people, they are against economy, they are against progress, they are just "pro" themselves.
And what about Justice?
It is just an opinion and that makes it the beginning of the end.
TELECOM, ITALGAS, ENEL, FIAT.
That is the bunch of criminals driven by corrupted politicians.
And what do the people do?
THEY CALL ON THEIR MOBILE PHONES and ENJOY LIFE as long as they can.
But the waking up won't be a happy one.
The Ipocrisy of the Government and the few who rule the country.
We are talking about Democracy, but in reality we have an Oligarchy of few powerful companies driven by "friends"of our politicians.
This will bring Italy to complete ruin.
They are against the people, they are against economy, they are against progress, they are just "pro" themselves.
And what about Justice?
It is just an opinion and that makes it the beginning of the end.
TELECOM, ITALGAS, ENEL, FIAT.
That is the bunch of criminals driven by corrupted politicians.
And what do the people do?
THEY CALL ON THEIR MOBILE PHONES and ENJOY LIFE as long as they can.
But the waking up won't be a happy one.
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Andrea Bairati
Gent. Dott. Bairati,
Innanzitutto mi scuso per il leggero ritardo in cui Le scrivo.
Ma vede, ora vivo in campagna, a Sanfre', e non ho la DSL...
La ringrazio per aver dedicato parte del suo prezioso tempo ad ascoltare le mie lamentele e prontamente le faccio avere I miei commenti.
Premesso che non ho nulla contro la sua persona, anzi, se posso esprimere un giudizio lei mi e' anche simpatico, ma non pensi di essersi liberato di me con cosi' poco.
Io non desisto, e non desitero' mai.
Vede io sono una vittinma dell'educazione religiosa che mi e' stata giustamente o ingiustamente imposta nell'infanzia.
Sono vittima di quei principi che sono stati inculcati nel mio cervello in tenerissima eta' e di cui, nonostante il mio agnosticismo e la mia attuale irrilegiosita', non riesco a liberarmi.
Uno di questi e' credere nei proproi ideali e portare avanti le proprie battaglie contro tutto e contro tutti.
Lei sorridera', si', avere la DSL a Sanfre' non e' poi un grande ideale, ma non e' nella Broadband in cui io credo, e' in questa idea di progresso che vedo ingiustamente negato a chi come me decide di vivere fuori citta'.
E' la discriminazione dei cittadini dovuta al numero.
Si', noi italiani contiamo solo piu' come numero.
Numero di voti per le elezioni, numero di consumatori per I servizi.
E poco importa se si tratta di servizi di pubblica utilita', che nell'anno 2005 sono considerati essenziali nel resto del mondo civilizzato.
Quello che lei asserisce e' solo parzialmente vero.
La Telecom e' una societa' privata (ma per me non lo e' affatto, perche' a tutti gli effetti detiene il monopolio delle linee telefoniche) che pero' elargisce un Servizio pubblico e NON E' OPERA DEI POLITICI OCCUPARSI DEI SERVIZI PUBBLICI?
Vede, Il suo progetto di copertura del territorio e' encomiabile e grandioso, ma I tempi lo rendono obsoleto.
Nel campo tecnologico quello che non si fa oggi e che si rimanda a domani non serve a nulla.
Non seguire il progresso oggi non significa restare Fermi, significa andare indietro e tanto piu' il progresso tecnologico corre in fretta, tanto piu' in fretta noi stiamo arretrando.
Perche' in Europa, in Francia, in Germania, certe cose sono possibili e in Italia no?
Non penso di appartenere ad un paese di idioti, tutt'altro...
Troppa burocrazia? Puo' darsi, ma cosa si fa per combatterla?
Sono decenni che si parla dei diritti dei lavoratori.
Quello di cui non si parla sono i doveri.
Ha mai provato a fare il 187 da privato cittadino?
Lei che e' vissuto in Germania si renderebbe immediatamente conto dell'enorme dislivello.
Qui da noi la maleducazione regna sovrana, il modo migliore per disfarsi di un cliente e' o non rispondere del tutto o nel metter giu' la cornetta.
E cosa puo' un normale cittadino?
NULLA
Solo arrabbiarsi e maledire il giorno in cui e' nato in questo paese.
E' vero, c'e' di peggio, c'e' sempre la Nigeria...
Le auguro una splendida giornata
Dott. Fulvia Patrizia Broghammer
Innanzitutto mi scuso per il leggero ritardo in cui Le scrivo.
Ma vede, ora vivo in campagna, a Sanfre', e non ho la DSL...
La ringrazio per aver dedicato parte del suo prezioso tempo ad ascoltare le mie lamentele e prontamente le faccio avere I miei commenti.
Premesso che non ho nulla contro la sua persona, anzi, se posso esprimere un giudizio lei mi e' anche simpatico, ma non pensi di essersi liberato di me con cosi' poco.
Io non desisto, e non desitero' mai.
Vede io sono una vittinma dell'educazione religiosa che mi e' stata giustamente o ingiustamente imposta nell'infanzia.
Sono vittima di quei principi che sono stati inculcati nel mio cervello in tenerissima eta' e di cui, nonostante il mio agnosticismo e la mia attuale irrilegiosita', non riesco a liberarmi.
Uno di questi e' credere nei proproi ideali e portare avanti le proprie battaglie contro tutto e contro tutti.
Lei sorridera', si', avere la DSL a Sanfre' non e' poi un grande ideale, ma non e' nella Broadband in cui io credo, e' in questa idea di progresso che vedo ingiustamente negato a chi come me decide di vivere fuori citta'.
E' la discriminazione dei cittadini dovuta al numero.
Si', noi italiani contiamo solo piu' come numero.
Numero di voti per le elezioni, numero di consumatori per I servizi.
E poco importa se si tratta di servizi di pubblica utilita', che nell'anno 2005 sono considerati essenziali nel resto del mondo civilizzato.
Quello che lei asserisce e' solo parzialmente vero.
La Telecom e' una societa' privata (ma per me non lo e' affatto, perche' a tutti gli effetti detiene il monopolio delle linee telefoniche) che pero' elargisce un Servizio pubblico e NON E' OPERA DEI POLITICI OCCUPARSI DEI SERVIZI PUBBLICI?
Vede, Il suo progetto di copertura del territorio e' encomiabile e grandioso, ma I tempi lo rendono obsoleto.
Nel campo tecnologico quello che non si fa oggi e che si rimanda a domani non serve a nulla.
Non seguire il progresso oggi non significa restare Fermi, significa andare indietro e tanto piu' il progresso tecnologico corre in fretta, tanto piu' in fretta noi stiamo arretrando.
Perche' in Europa, in Francia, in Germania, certe cose sono possibili e in Italia no?
Non penso di appartenere ad un paese di idioti, tutt'altro...
Troppa burocrazia? Puo' darsi, ma cosa si fa per combatterla?
Sono decenni che si parla dei diritti dei lavoratori.
Quello di cui non si parla sono i doveri.
Ha mai provato a fare il 187 da privato cittadino?
Lei che e' vissuto in Germania si renderebbe immediatamente conto dell'enorme dislivello.
Qui da noi la maleducazione regna sovrana, il modo migliore per disfarsi di un cliente e' o non rispondere del tutto o nel metter giu' la cornetta.
E cosa puo' un normale cittadino?
NULLA
Solo arrabbiarsi e maledire il giorno in cui e' nato in questo paese.
E' vero, c'e' di peggio, c'e' sempre la Nigeria...
Le auguro una splendida giornata
Dott. Fulvia Patrizia Broghammer
Andrea Bairati
Egregio dott. Andrea Bairati,
Se uno digita il suo nome su Google appare
Andrea Bairati :Assessore all’università, ricerca e politiche dell’innovazione della Regione Piemonte
Quello che non si dice e' che Lei e' un gran maleducato.
Questa e' la definizione che io do' di una persona (politica, al Servizio del cittadino) a cui ho scritto due email e da cui non ho ricevuto alcuna risposta.
E' vero che questo e' il classico atteggiamento del Politico dei giorni nostri.
Vede io sono cresciuta in un tempo in cui si studiava ancora "Educazione Civica" e tutti I libri di testo iniziavano con:
"Lo Stato e' al Servizio del cittadino"
Mentre oggi non si studia piu' e soprattutto non si pubblicano piu' libri di testo, perche' si dovrebbe scrivere:
"Il cittadino e' al Servizio dei Politicanti che rappresentano uno Stato che non esiste piu'".
Se si fa una radiografia della civilta' odierna (italiana) si vede che le "Opere Pubbliche" sono da un lato Stadi e Piste da sci e dall'altro, per salvare la parvenza di cultura, la costruzione di opere pubbliche che hanno nessun'altra utilita' che quella di dare lavoro a imprese che pagano profumatamente tangenti a chi le progetta...
Nonche' opere che servono a "portare voti".
Dopo decenni in cui si produce e si sviluppa cio' che produce voti, a detrimento della intelligenza e dello sviluppo culturale del cittadino, io penso che sarebbe ora di cambiare rotta, anche a costo di essere impopolari.
C'e' un progresso che va al di la' dei telefoni cellulari, delle autostrade, dei giochi olimpici.
C'e' un progresso che e' abbracciato da paesi che incentivano gli interessi culturali come la Francia.
C'e' un progresso che porta all'apertura mentale perche' favorisce I contatti con il mondo.
Questo progresso non solo non appartiene all'Italia, ma sembra che si faccia il possible per negarlo e oscurarlo.
All'indomani dell'annuncio che la Francia e la Spagna saranno le prime in Europa ad adottare il sistema IPV6 in Italia in paesi che distano 6 Km da una citta' dove esiste gia' da tempo la DSL non si parla neppure di IP dinamici, perche' il futuro della Banda Larga e' visto come qualcosa di "probabile" ma non "vicino".
E quando un cittadino osa protestare, si ignora e non si degna neppure di due righe di risposta.
Io ho un Blog su Internet che e' abbastanza frequentato, e ho anche la statistica delle visite.
Spesso ci capita qualcuno che digita "Andrea Bairati" e legge le email che le scrivo.
Lei non fa una bella figura.
Lo so che non potrebbe importarle meno, ma anche in questo appartiene alla vecchia generazione di politici.
E' vero, questo non le diminuisce lo stipendio, ma dovrebbe per lo meno diminuire la stima che lei ha di se stesso.
Io da parte mia, sono una malata di idealismo, e spero sempre che chi sa, un domani qualcosa possa succedere...
Dott. Fulvia Patrizia Broghammer
Se uno digita il suo nome su Google appare
Andrea Bairati :Assessore all’università, ricerca e politiche dell’innovazione della Regione Piemonte
Quello che non si dice e' che Lei e' un gran maleducato.
Questa e' la definizione che io do' di una persona (politica, al Servizio del cittadino) a cui ho scritto due email e da cui non ho ricevuto alcuna risposta.
E' vero che questo e' il classico atteggiamento del Politico dei giorni nostri.
Vede io sono cresciuta in un tempo in cui si studiava ancora "Educazione Civica" e tutti I libri di testo iniziavano con:
"Lo Stato e' al Servizio del cittadino"
Mentre oggi non si studia piu' e soprattutto non si pubblicano piu' libri di testo, perche' si dovrebbe scrivere:
"Il cittadino e' al Servizio dei Politicanti che rappresentano uno Stato che non esiste piu'".
Se si fa una radiografia della civilta' odierna (italiana) si vede che le "Opere Pubbliche" sono da un lato Stadi e Piste da sci e dall'altro, per salvare la parvenza di cultura, la costruzione di opere pubbliche che hanno nessun'altra utilita' che quella di dare lavoro a imprese che pagano profumatamente tangenti a chi le progetta...
Nonche' opere che servono a "portare voti".
Dopo decenni in cui si produce e si sviluppa cio' che produce voti, a detrimento della intelligenza e dello sviluppo culturale del cittadino, io penso che sarebbe ora di cambiare rotta, anche a costo di essere impopolari.
C'e' un progresso che va al di la' dei telefoni cellulari, delle autostrade, dei giochi olimpici.
C'e' un progresso che e' abbracciato da paesi che incentivano gli interessi culturali come la Francia.
C'e' un progresso che porta all'apertura mentale perche' favorisce I contatti con il mondo.
Questo progresso non solo non appartiene all'Italia, ma sembra che si faccia il possible per negarlo e oscurarlo.
All'indomani dell'annuncio che la Francia e la Spagna saranno le prime in Europa ad adottare il sistema IPV6 in Italia in paesi che distano 6 Km da una citta' dove esiste gia' da tempo la DSL non si parla neppure di IP dinamici, perche' il futuro della Banda Larga e' visto come qualcosa di "probabile" ma non "vicino".
E quando un cittadino osa protestare, si ignora e non si degna neppure di due righe di risposta.
Io ho un Blog su Internet che e' abbastanza frequentato, e ho anche la statistica delle visite.
Spesso ci capita qualcuno che digita "Andrea Bairati" e legge le email che le scrivo.
Lei non fa una bella figura.
Lo so che non potrebbe importarle meno, ma anche in questo appartiene alla vecchia generazione di politici.
E' vero, questo non le diminuisce lo stipendio, ma dovrebbe per lo meno diminuire la stima che lei ha di se stesso.
Io da parte mia, sono una malata di idealismo, e spero sempre che chi sa, un domani qualcosa possa succedere...
Dott. Fulvia Patrizia Broghammer
Arrigo Andreoni
Egregio dott. Arrigo Andreoni,
Non ho il suo indirizzo (che penso sia segretissimo) per cui le scrivo dal mio Blog, sperando che qualcuno ci capiti e legga quello che gli Italiani pensano di lei e della societa' che lei "Menareggia".
Lei non e' un politico, per cui non posso far leva sulla sua sete di voti, non ho alcuna influenza sulle nomine di alto "Manager" per cui non posso fare latenti minacce e cose del genere.
L'unica cosa a cui mi posso appellare e' il suo amor proprio e la stima che bene o male lei puo' avere di se stesso, sperando che questa non sia oscurata, come spesso accade di questi tempi, dalla sua sete di potere e di denaro.
Io penso che lei non sia uno stupido e che sia anche una persona colta, nonche' ambiziosa, se non non sarebbe arrivato dove e' arrivato.
Nei pochi momenti in cui puo' pensare di se', di quello che e', di quello che ha raggiunto, non si e' mai posto la domanda:
CHI VERAMNTE SONO?
COME MI VEDONO GLI ALTRI?
Vede, io sono una persona normale, forse anche un po ingenua nel mio idealismo e forse anche vittima della mia educazione pseudo religiosa cattolica.
Io sono agnostica, non vado in chiesa, dico peste e corna dei politici e dei religiosi, ma non riesco a liberarmi di quell'esame di coscienza a cui sono stata abituata fin dalla primissima infanzia.
Non riesco a liberarmi dalla convinzione che l'unica vera soddisfazione della vita non sono I soldi, non e' un grosso conto in banca, non e' un titolo altisonante davanti al proprio nome, ma la soddisfazione di aver fatto cio' in cui si crede, bene il proprio lavoro e il possible per portare avanti I nostri ideali.
E' vero, gli ideali non inpinguano il portafoglio, non fanno dormire sonni tranquilli, ma sono quello per cui viviamo.
Io, come tutti del resto, mi sono spesso posta la doanda:Per cosa viviamo?
Non per fare un mondo migliore, purtroppo da tempo ho capito che il mondo e' quello che e' e non cambiera', ma viviamo per fare qualcosa, e se possible qualcosa di buono e di utile.
Nel nostro piccolo o nel nostro grande.
Per cosa vive Arrigo Andreoni?
Lei dovrebbe avere una responsabilita' molto piu' grande della mia.
Perche' si e' scelto un ruolo molto piu' importante del mio.
E questa responsabilita' non e' sicuramente nello stringere accordi internazionali per dare lustro ad una compagnia e riempire le tasche di qualcuno, ma nel render un Servizio utile.
E' vero la Telecom e' una compagnia privata, ma nel momento in cui svolge un pubblico Servizio (di cui a tutti gli effetti mantiene il monopolio) ha dei precisi doveri.
Non mi venga a contare la storiella dell'atto di Ginevra del 96 e della fine del monopolio.
La TELECOM e' tutt'ora padrona delle linee telefoniche (strapagate dagli italiani) e in forza di cio' si fa pagare per ogni allaccio telefonico ben
150 Euro.
Uno dei click del mouse piu' cari di questa Italia sderenata.
Dopo l'esoso click della Telecom viene subito quello dell'Enel, Gas, Acque potabili etc...
Ora la mia domanda:
Non si vergogna Arrigo Andreoni di essere a capo di una compagnia che a tutti gli effetti e' un'associazione a delinquere, che difende gli interessi di un'oligarchia guidata in primo luogo da politici corrotti ed in secondo da portaborse di politici corrotti?
Lei lo sa cosa pensa il normale cittadino della compagnia di cui lei e' orgogliosamente a capo?
Ha mai provato a fare il 187 da privato cittadino?
La buona educazione non e' certamente una prerogativa dei dipendenti Telecom.
Cosi' pure la preparazione tecnica.
Si e' mai chiesto come funzionino le altre compagnie telefoniche al di la' del confine?
Si e' mai chiesto perche' in Italia tutto vada a catafascio?
Tutti sanno il perche', ma nessuno fa niente.
Perche' tutto sommato, le cose a certa gente vanno bene cosi'...
Non prova un po di rimorso Arrigo Andreoni?
C'e' ancora un barlume di speranza che Arrigo Andreoni riesca a vedere la realta' attraverso occhi annebbiati dal potere e dal denaro?
Io mi appello a questa speranza...
Non ho il suo indirizzo (che penso sia segretissimo) per cui le scrivo dal mio Blog, sperando che qualcuno ci capiti e legga quello che gli Italiani pensano di lei e della societa' che lei "Menareggia".
Lei non e' un politico, per cui non posso far leva sulla sua sete di voti, non ho alcuna influenza sulle nomine di alto "Manager" per cui non posso fare latenti minacce e cose del genere.
L'unica cosa a cui mi posso appellare e' il suo amor proprio e la stima che bene o male lei puo' avere di se stesso, sperando che questa non sia oscurata, come spesso accade di questi tempi, dalla sua sete di potere e di denaro.
Io penso che lei non sia uno stupido e che sia anche una persona colta, nonche' ambiziosa, se non non sarebbe arrivato dove e' arrivato.
Nei pochi momenti in cui puo' pensare di se', di quello che e', di quello che ha raggiunto, non si e' mai posto la domanda:
CHI VERAMNTE SONO?
COME MI VEDONO GLI ALTRI?
Vede, io sono una persona normale, forse anche un po ingenua nel mio idealismo e forse anche vittima della mia educazione pseudo religiosa cattolica.
Io sono agnostica, non vado in chiesa, dico peste e corna dei politici e dei religiosi, ma non riesco a liberarmi di quell'esame di coscienza a cui sono stata abituata fin dalla primissima infanzia.
Non riesco a liberarmi dalla convinzione che l'unica vera soddisfazione della vita non sono I soldi, non e' un grosso conto in banca, non e' un titolo altisonante davanti al proprio nome, ma la soddisfazione di aver fatto cio' in cui si crede, bene il proprio lavoro e il possible per portare avanti I nostri ideali.
E' vero, gli ideali non inpinguano il portafoglio, non fanno dormire sonni tranquilli, ma sono quello per cui viviamo.
Io, come tutti del resto, mi sono spesso posta la doanda:Per cosa viviamo?
Non per fare un mondo migliore, purtroppo da tempo ho capito che il mondo e' quello che e' e non cambiera', ma viviamo per fare qualcosa, e se possible qualcosa di buono e di utile.
Nel nostro piccolo o nel nostro grande.
Per cosa vive Arrigo Andreoni?
Lei dovrebbe avere una responsabilita' molto piu' grande della mia.
Perche' si e' scelto un ruolo molto piu' importante del mio.
E questa responsabilita' non e' sicuramente nello stringere accordi internazionali per dare lustro ad una compagnia e riempire le tasche di qualcuno, ma nel render un Servizio utile.
E' vero la Telecom e' una compagnia privata, ma nel momento in cui svolge un pubblico Servizio (di cui a tutti gli effetti mantiene il monopolio) ha dei precisi doveri.
Non mi venga a contare la storiella dell'atto di Ginevra del 96 e della fine del monopolio.
La TELECOM e' tutt'ora padrona delle linee telefoniche (strapagate dagli italiani) e in forza di cio' si fa pagare per ogni allaccio telefonico ben
150 Euro.
Uno dei click del mouse piu' cari di questa Italia sderenata.
Dopo l'esoso click della Telecom viene subito quello dell'Enel, Gas, Acque potabili etc...
Ora la mia domanda:
Non si vergogna Arrigo Andreoni di essere a capo di una compagnia che a tutti gli effetti e' un'associazione a delinquere, che difende gli interessi di un'oligarchia guidata in primo luogo da politici corrotti ed in secondo da portaborse di politici corrotti?
Lei lo sa cosa pensa il normale cittadino della compagnia di cui lei e' orgogliosamente a capo?
Ha mai provato a fare il 187 da privato cittadino?
La buona educazione non e' certamente una prerogativa dei dipendenti Telecom.
Cosi' pure la preparazione tecnica.
Si e' mai chiesto come funzionino le altre compagnie telefoniche al di la' del confine?
Si e' mai chiesto perche' in Italia tutto vada a catafascio?
Tutti sanno il perche', ma nessuno fa niente.
Perche' tutto sommato, le cose a certa gente vanno bene cosi'...
Non prova un po di rimorso Arrigo Andreoni?
C'e' ancora un barlume di speranza che Arrigo Andreoni riesca a vedere la realta' attraverso occhi annebbiati dal potere e dal denaro?
Io mi appello a questa speranza...
Friday, July 15, 2005
Living in the country
We finally MOVED.
Not everything, the office is still in the same place, because of the Broadband connection (in Italy you cannot have good air and good connections in the same place...we are still a little backward when it comes to Internet)
But the country in Summer has so much to offer that you can also forget to be without the Internet.
The real world is so much better than the virtual one.
So green and peaceful and relaxing...especially when you finished all you had to do (which is around 10 pm.)
Unpacking, washing, cleaning, mowing the grass, watering, removing weeds...and if you cannot finish today there is always a tomorrow with plenty of time to fill with the most colourful tasks.
But we are still in that idyllic moment in which you just see the nice of it and not the bad.
I tremble thinking when it will come the opposite...
For now let's enjoy it...
Friday, July 08, 2005
A new way of stealing
"Just when you thought the world was one big happy WiFi sharing place, someone gets arrested. Police recently charged a Florida man with a third-degree felony charge. According to this article, he allegedly accessed a WiFi network belonging to a St. Petersburg man without permission. According to the police, Benjamin Smith III was seen by Richard Dinon outside Dinon's home on the night of April 20, 2005, sitting in a parked SUV and using a laptop computer.
When Dinon went outside to deposit his trash, Smith quickly closed the laptop and tried to hide it."
Smith was not intelligent enough.
He should have just said:
I was using your server as a "Skype's supernode".
That would have made everything legal.
Unless in Russia they still do not know Skype in SPITE OF THE SKYPE'S optimistic statistics.
When Dinon went outside to deposit his trash, Smith quickly closed the laptop and tried to hide it."
Smith was not intelligent enough.
He should have just said:
I was using your server as a "Skype's supernode".
That would have made everything legal.
Unless in Russia they still do not know Skype in SPITE OF THE SKYPE'S optimistic statistics.
The meaning of Freedom
"We must not become complacent and assume that government understands our concerns while they write the rules that will shape the future of communications and the Internet. Certainly those with the money and lobbying muscle are not standing by. We have to engage. We don’t need to ask for much – just for a few certain consumer empowerment rules -- but we do need to ask."
This is written by Jeff Pulver and of course he talks about his country.
Let me talk about Italy and Europe.
"We must not become complacent and assume that government understands our concerns"
The fact is that they do not care a bit about our concerns, they PRETEND they care for the people WHO VOTED FOR THEM, but in reality, the only thing they care for is THEIR POCKETS.
"Certainly those with the money and lobbying muscle are not standing by."
And which is the easiest a fastest way to fulfil their goals:
ALL WINNING ROADS PASS THROUGH THE POLITICAL ROADS.
What is easier than share the profits with the ones who allow the business?
Until now the Internet was partially spared.
It didn't produce the wealth the politicians are used to.
Difficult to make easy millions on the NET just corrupting this or that.
But beware:
Those with the money and lobbying muscle are not standing by.
It is not true that "We don’t need to ask for much" we need to ask for all. Unless you have so little consideration for freedom to count it "not much".
"End users, innovators and entrepreneurs need an assurance that government will not tolerate any effort by any entity to unreasonably affect a consumer’s access to the Internet content and applications of her choice, and the right to attach the devices of her choice to her end of her communications pipe. The real power of the Internet rests in the ability of the consumer to reach it and control her own experience. The one rule that must apply is that last-mile network owners must not be permitted to harm consumer control and freedom."
End users need the assurance that the government will put its hands off the Internet, let it be what it was born for.
End users need the assurance that corruption stops or at least doesn't upgrade.
LET THE INTERNET be the only free place on this earth.
Globalisation is a good thing if it brings the people of the world together.
The Next generation will see the fight of the people against the monsters they elected, against the fake Democracy, for the REAL DEMOCRACY.
This is written by Jeff Pulver and of course he talks about his country.
Let me talk about Italy and Europe.
"We must not become complacent and assume that government understands our concerns"
The fact is that they do not care a bit about our concerns, they PRETEND they care for the people WHO VOTED FOR THEM, but in reality, the only thing they care for is THEIR POCKETS.
"Certainly those with the money and lobbying muscle are not standing by."
And which is the easiest a fastest way to fulfil their goals:
ALL WINNING ROADS PASS THROUGH THE POLITICAL ROADS.
What is easier than share the profits with the ones who allow the business?
Until now the Internet was partially spared.
It didn't produce the wealth the politicians are used to.
Difficult to make easy millions on the NET just corrupting this or that.
But beware:
Those with the money and lobbying muscle are not standing by.
It is not true that "We don’t need to ask for much" we need to ask for all. Unless you have so little consideration for freedom to count it "not much".
"End users, innovators and entrepreneurs need an assurance that government will not tolerate any effort by any entity to unreasonably affect a consumer’s access to the Internet content and applications of her choice, and the right to attach the devices of her choice to her end of her communications pipe. The real power of the Internet rests in the ability of the consumer to reach it and control her own experience. The one rule that must apply is that last-mile network owners must not be permitted to harm consumer control and freedom."
End users need the assurance that the government will put its hands off the Internet, let it be what it was born for.
End users need the assurance that corruption stops or at least doesn't upgrade.
LET THE INTERNET be the only free place on this earth.
Globalisation is a good thing if it brings the people of the world together.
The Next generation will see the fight of the people against the monsters they elected, against the fake Democracy, for the REAL DEMOCRACY.
Thursday, July 07, 2005
About clones
Welcome back Martin, I think my inventivity missed you.
But I guess the ones who missed you more were Skype's followers.
There is a lot of talking about the new "Skype's clone" and I will report what people say.
"Gizmo-Lacking In Support
Andy Abramson
With Gizmo, like Skype, they use one of those online systems where you enter a trouble ticket. While that may be good for some people (i.e. techies) as a business person and media member, I'm a bit more interested in having someone "talk" with me about the problem, understand the problem, and discuss the solution process."
I guess this is the usual problem: People want everything for free and even expect to have a good "help line"
Tried Gizmo yet?
Posted Jul 5, 2005, 9:55 PM ET by Ted Wallingford
Perhaps coolest of all is its developers’ insistence on open standards (SIP most notably) under the hood, the lack of which will eventually come back to bite Skype, I think. Also included are some really great features Skype doesn’t have—like call recording and a world map showing the approximate location of your call buddies.
The sincerest form of flattery
Martin Geddes - Telepocalypse
Well, I tried downloading Skype-clone Gizmo and making a call.
But it doesn’t work. Just hangs after trying to connect to the login server post-registration.
Remember, it’s not just free Internet telephony that counts. It’s free Internet telephony that just works.
This looks more, as we say a problem of the "handles" than a problem of the "broom".
IM VoIP Clients - Interop is Key
Eric Lagerway - SIPthat.com
Aswath has created a bit of a stir with his recent post regarding Gizmo and Pulver Communicator. Jeff Pulver had something to say about Gizmo on his blog as well. All in all I think we need to remember that the key to creating a good IP communications client will rest in the features and interop. Interop means incorporating open standards like SIP and using royalty free codecs [preferably open source]. With Video it's H.263++ [for now] and for audio it's Speex Wideband. H.263++ provides close to 264/AVC quality with the codec royalty and uses far less CPU. Speex-wb provides for excellent sound quality, so much in fact Yahoo! decided to implement it.
Om Malik, Andy Abramson and of course Stuart Henshall all had things to say about Gizmo.
Remember, when building these new IP communications clients, interop is key. If it you are not building something that will work with the open standards proposed by the IETF you are not building something that will stand the test of time. If you want to deliver something new where there is no standard, then work with someone to create it!
I would just add : There is already a H.264 that works great!
Gone Native?
Aswath Rao - Aswath Weblog
A few days back a new VoIP client, called Gizmo, was released claiming to be a Skype killer. This is closely associated with SIPPhone, which had earlier released another client called GAIM, an integrated IM and VoIP client.
First a summary of what one can do with Gizmo. It gives a nice UI to use the SIPPhone system. The first notable feature is the way it supports the voice mail. The system collects voice mail and then forwards to a specified email. This is in contrast to Skype, which hosts the messages. The second feature of note is the ability to record the conversation. Their website indicates that they have a partnership with Golbal IP Sound. Even though it is not stated on the nature of partnership, the consensus seems to be that Gizmo uses their wideband codec.
As for what concerns me, I am still sticking to H323.
I find it much better than SIP, and more versatile.
The latest versions even allows to solve the problem of the Dynamic IP without the use of a proxy and the integration of all the dream able features.
Without considering security. Which with interoperability must be one of the most considered issue.
May be it is because I am Italian.
We Italians have a tradition to be always on different opinions from the rest of the world.
We love discussions so much!
Some year ago we had somebody who even finished in Prison because He insisted the World was round and the earth rotated around the sun and not the other way.
Thanks to him another Italian discovered America...
On the other hand, Italians were not so stupids, because they found even Americans stealing their inventions and cheating the whole world.
(see "Once and for all the true story of the Telephone Invention")
Antonio Meucci invented the telephone, but still the Americans think it was one of them...
But I guess the ones who missed you more were Skype's followers.
There is a lot of talking about the new "Skype's clone" and I will report what people say.
"Gizmo-Lacking In Support
Andy Abramson
With Gizmo, like Skype, they use one of those online systems where you enter a trouble ticket. While that may be good for some people (i.e. techies) as a business person and media member, I'm a bit more interested in having someone "talk" with me about the problem, understand the problem, and discuss the solution process."
I guess this is the usual problem: People want everything for free and even expect to have a good "help line"
Tried Gizmo yet?
Posted Jul 5, 2005, 9:55 PM ET by Ted Wallingford
Perhaps coolest of all is its developers’ insistence on open standards (SIP most notably) under the hood, the lack of which will eventually come back to bite Skype, I think. Also included are some really great features Skype doesn’t have—like call recording and a world map showing the approximate location of your call buddies.
The sincerest form of flattery
Martin Geddes - Telepocalypse
Well, I tried downloading Skype-clone Gizmo and making a call.
But it doesn’t work. Just hangs after trying to connect to the login server post-registration.
Remember, it’s not just free Internet telephony that counts. It’s free Internet telephony that just works.
This looks more, as we say a problem of the "handles" than a problem of the "broom".
IM VoIP Clients - Interop is Key
Eric Lagerway - SIPthat.com
Aswath has created a bit of a stir with his recent post regarding Gizmo and Pulver Communicator. Jeff Pulver had something to say about Gizmo on his blog as well. All in all I think we need to remember that the key to creating a good IP communications client will rest in the features and interop. Interop means incorporating open standards like SIP and using royalty free codecs [preferably open source]. With Video it's H.263++ [for now] and for audio it's Speex Wideband. H.263++ provides close to 264/AVC quality with the codec royalty and uses far less CPU. Speex-wb provides for excellent sound quality, so much in fact Yahoo! decided to implement it.
Om Malik, Andy Abramson and of course Stuart Henshall all had things to say about Gizmo.
Remember, when building these new IP communications clients, interop is key. If it you are not building something that will work with the open standards proposed by the IETF you are not building something that will stand the test of time. If you want to deliver something new where there is no standard, then work with someone to create it!
I would just add : There is already a H.264 that works great!
Gone Native?
Aswath Rao - Aswath Weblog
A few days back a new VoIP client, called Gizmo, was released claiming to be a Skype killer. This is closely associated with SIPPhone, which had earlier released another client called GAIM, an integrated IM and VoIP client.
First a summary of what one can do with Gizmo. It gives a nice UI to use the SIPPhone system. The first notable feature is the way it supports the voice mail. The system collects voice mail and then forwards to a specified email. This is in contrast to Skype, which hosts the messages. The second feature of note is the ability to record the conversation. Their website indicates that they have a partnership with Golbal IP Sound. Even though it is not stated on the nature of partnership, the consensus seems to be that Gizmo uses their wideband codec.
As for what concerns me, I am still sticking to H323.
I find it much better than SIP, and more versatile.
The latest versions even allows to solve the problem of the Dynamic IP without the use of a proxy and the integration of all the dream able features.
Without considering security. Which with interoperability must be one of the most considered issue.
May be it is because I am Italian.
We Italians have a tradition to be always on different opinions from the rest of the world.
We love discussions so much!
Some year ago we had somebody who even finished in Prison because He insisted the World was round and the earth rotated around the sun and not the other way.
Thanks to him another Italian discovered America...
On the other hand, Italians were not so stupids, because they found even Americans stealing their inventions and cheating the whole world.
(see "Once and for all the true story of the Telephone Invention")
Antonio Meucci invented the telephone, but still the Americans think it was one of them...
Monday, July 04, 2005
Black or White, who cares?
If telling the truth is being boring, well welcome the boredom...
People get old and so do Nations alongside with their people, because a Nation IS its people, isn't it?
And USA and Europe are definitely getting very old.
The Latins built a huge Empire, they were very clever to organize it (Divide et Impera) they were very good soldiers, but one day, they got old without even realizing it.
Because, when you are old, time goes slower, and you do not see that well anymore.
They didn't see young generations, uncultured may be, but for that reason more alive and fighter, coming from the North.
And since they didn't see, they were unable to prevent.
Now the new comes from the South.
In Italy the growth has reached a positive number thanks to the Immigrants.
Out of three borne babies, two are black.
That means that the future generation will be of "non what they think traditional Italians".
They WILL be Italians, but they won't be like the fathers of the fathers.
Some people are outrageously enraged by it.
It is just Future, it is just History repeating itself.
And it is in the interest of the World progress.
The life must go on, black or white, who cares?
People get old and so do Nations alongside with their people, because a Nation IS its people, isn't it?
And USA and Europe are definitely getting very old.
The Latins built a huge Empire, they were very clever to organize it (Divide et Impera) they were very good soldiers, but one day, they got old without even realizing it.
Because, when you are old, time goes slower, and you do not see that well anymore.
They didn't see young generations, uncultured may be, but for that reason more alive and fighter, coming from the North.
And since they didn't see, they were unable to prevent.
Now the new comes from the South.
In Italy the growth has reached a positive number thanks to the Immigrants.
Out of three borne babies, two are black.
That means that the future generation will be of "non what they think traditional Italians".
They WILL be Italians, but they won't be like the fathers of the fathers.
Some people are outrageously enraged by it.
It is just Future, it is just History repeating itself.
And it is in the interest of the World progress.
The life must go on, black or white, who cares?
ROI is the secret
See my comments in Bold. (Patrizia's)
IP telephony - why the debate? David Yip and Siân Tudor Jones investigate why UK businesses have yet to fully embrace the potential of IP telephony.
The claims
IP telephony (IPT) has been threatening to be one of the most important emerging trends in telecommunications for the last few years. IPT is the application that moves voice traffic around in the data network utilising the Voice over IP (VoIP) protocol.
These terms are often confused - VoIP has been with us for many years.
But in the beginning it was practically unusable: too expensive hardware and too lousy voice quality.
Carriers have successfully deployed international networks using VoIP to carry public telephony calls.
Just big carriers could afford expensive hardware and be well repaid charging slightly less for what cost them almost nothing (see: they buy Junk and sell Antiques)
IPT, however, has not broken the dominance of traditional voice switching systems within the enterprise space, be they
PABXs or carrier class switches providing centrex (hosted telephony) services.
Just in the very last years we began talking of application on VoIP.
Companies will like VoIP not only for the saving on telephone calls, but for what it offers and most of all for what IT WILL OFFER IN A NEAR FUTURE.
In 2003, the world's analysts were quoting '50 per cent penetration of IP telephony'. Slightly more conservative estimates placed the 50 per cent penetration threshold during 2004.
Today in 2005, the optimism has been watered down somewhat. A recent study claims that 44 per cent of corporate telephony will be IP-based by 2008. In corroboration, Gartner estimates that, by the end of 2007, traditional enterprise telephony system manufacturers will cease development of traditional systems. This suggests we are at least two years away from widespread acceptance of IPT into our corporate lives.
VoIP is still not fully ready will all the possible applications.
For example Video on IP (a good Video quality) will drive most of the corporate traffic towards VoIP.
So why is it that amongst the UK's leading organisations there is not the actual or planned widescale deployment as predicted? Why has deployment not taken off for a technology that has been around for years?
The case for change
The answers ultimately lie with the case for change.
All enterprises have a voice system in place. This has usually been developed and maintained over a number of years. It is usually reliable and costs for maintenance have reduced since deployment. It is likely that such systems are nearing full depreciation and are operating sufficiently well giving little cause for concern.
In today's governance structures, the modern enterprise will not introduce new technology without a compelling business case and ultimately cost plays a significant role.
The case for implementing IPT must then rely on tangible additional benefits.
Or at least to keep the actual benefits with the same quality at a lower cost.
To date, business flexibility, cabling simplicity and the ease of moves, adds and changes rank as the key benefits of IPT. Offset against this, the main user concerns are security within a converged network environment, VoIP quality and interoperability between voice systems.
Significantly, the user is unlikely to see any additional functionality at the basic telephony level.
Implementing IPT can be costly, even though IPT itself can appear attractively priced. Whilst it is an application sitting on a data network with user licensing structures not dissimilar to any other user-based application, what is frequently overlooked is that IPT places specific time sensitive performance demands on the data network and IP handsets are significantly more expensive than normal units.
But the price is enormously rewarded by the fact that IP to IP calls are COMPLETELY free.
In a company which has branches all over the world that means to repay the whole hardware in a very little time (one week in certain cases).
It is the same with cell phones.
To sell them they offer free traffic for the amount of the phone ($300) but everybody knows that this is a real CHEATING. (or everybody should know)
Classes of service, voice prioritisation and powered Ethernet are all demanded from the enterprise data network over and above standard user application hosting. So it's not only the legacy telephony infrastructure one has to consider but the entire data infrastructure also. If the current data infrastructure is not up to scratch, is it worth performing a complete upgrade just to add telephony?
What could be more promising than "company owned infrastructures"? With a very small investment a company can have gatekeepers that act as gatekeepers, gateways, IPphones, PBX, and could create infrastructures among all company's users, avoiding totally the TELECOMS' Monopoly...
Couldn't there be something better than this?
So, unless the enterprise is developing greenfield sites, the case for implementing IPT here and now appears weak, regardless of any views on technology maturity.
I guess the article's writer completely missed the point.
Why writing about something and not telling the real advantages?
May be this could be the reason why.
Companies do not yet know all the advantages of VoIP and the actual players on the market beware to explain...because it is convenient that they do not know...
However, making a spot investment decision is very different to making strategic choices and one must consider where the suppliers and service providers are heading before writing off IPT deployment now.
Supplier push
Many traditional enterprise telephony vendors, including Siemens, Nortel and Avaya, continue to pour their investment budgets into developing evolutionary IPT solutions, allowing the upgrading of existing equipment to provide IP functionality. This incremental approach to IPT implementation benefits the enterprise by reducing capital expenditure, protecting legacy investment and minimising deployment risk. It is obvious that investment in standard enterprise switch (PABX) technology is being reduced significantly.
Coming from the enterprise data provider end, Cisco have been developing an all-IP communications solution since 1997 and claim more than 14,500 organisations are now using their IPT offering.
According to various analysts, Cisco is the market leader in IPT enterprise sales, recently shipping their four millionth IP phone. Avaya seem to be the second placed provider with Nortel third currently.
Big suppliers have prices that only big companies can afford.
It is like the first cell phones, they were so expensive a few could pay for them, but with the lower price there arrived the number...
Public network switching providers are also developing their IPT offerings in a bid for supplying hosted solutions. Lucent, Ericsson and Nortel have invested significantly. Their strategy is less aggressive compared to the enterprise space - traditional telephony PSTN switches will be with us for many years. This development cannot be neglected by the enterprise, as IP centrex functionality emerges and provides a realistic option for a hosted IPT solution. However, network based solutions will inevitably take longer to deploy and may be years in the making.
That is one of the reasons VoIP is not widespread today.
The Bigs are in front of a dilemma:
Loosing their wonderful revenues or loosing the train of progress...
In the meantime they do and do not do...
There are various trial implementations being undertaken worldwide. Lucent have made inroads in the US carrier market as well as in Australia. Ericsson have successfully implemented within Europe.
Service provider investment
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) laid out their vision for 'Next Generation Networks' (NGN) providing carrier grade service standards relating to quality of service, reliability, scalability, simplified network operation and management. In the UK, this approach has been publicly embraced by BT and Cable & Wireless.
In April 2005, Avaya and BT jointly announced the signing of Avaya's supplier contract with BT, estimated to be worth up to £80 million over three years. Interestingly, this deal appears to support BT's immediate capability for hosted IPT solutions in the enterprise space. It is uncertain how this will sit alongside BT's current IPT offering, MMVoIP, their Cisco based service offering.
Alongside this enterprise focus, BT's major commitment to NGN comes in the shape of their 21st Century Networks (21CN) initiative. As part of a £10 billion investment, BT announced their strategic suppliers and selected Ericsson to provide the public IPT platform. This heralds the widespread availability of IP Centrex during 2008.
Cable & Wireless' plans for their NGN implementation include a £190 million investment to replace their 70+ carrier switches with 10 IPT soft switches. They plan to complete implementation by the middle of 2008 'ahead of BT'.
The landscape is therefore set for IP Centrex to be widely available during 2008 but, more significantly, the carriers are banking on convergence representing the future of telephony.
"The bigs will win". I do not believe it.
Major investments mean higher pricing and the same services or even less than a local provider could offer.
Don't they see that the people on the road expect better than a lousy calling center where they cannot help anybody but the one who is paid for the call?
User examples
Major deals in 2004 indicate that US enterprises are feeling less nervous and starting to embrace the possibilities of IPT. In July, Boeing Co. announced plans for an IPT rollout encompassing more than 150,000 users across 70 countries. This was topped less than three months later when Bank of America commenced a rollout to 180,000 desktops in 5,800 locations.
In the UK, IPT uptake has been smaller in scale and low key. However, one case study is often raised as the flagship for IPT - Abbey National.
Since the Abbey experience, no other multi-site IPT implementation has hit the headlines in the UK. There have been numerous single site case studies, most notably providing IPT to the RSPCA's new headquarters.
With the telephony suppliers investing significantly in IPT, the service providers committing to hosted IPT and widespread implementation in the US, why are we in the UK not fully embracing the potential?
Also here the point is missed.
The investments have been significant, otherwise we wouldn't be at this point.
So where now?
IPT technology is available now. Scalability, reliability and functionality are lesser concerns and experience suggests cost is the most significant inhibitor. A study recently commissioned by Nortel cited '48 per cent of firms unconvinced by VoIP returns'.
The common mistake has been to treat IPT as a standalone business case - it is not. IPT is part of a convergence business case requiring all data and voice infrastructure to be considered as a whole.
But it was till a little time ago.
Looking at each specific part of the convergence chain gives us the following often repeated outcomes:
Generally, migrating onto a voice ready wide area network (MPLS protocol base) will reduce bandwidth costs. However, your site router will need to be voice enabled although the bandwidth saving should cover any upgrade required.
IPT requires site local area networks (LANs) to be voice ready and, ideally, be able to support inline power to the IPT handset. Given that many UK enterprises have, over the last ten years, migrated from token ring to Ethernet and at the time were unlikely to take account of voice readiness, we encounter a major dilemma. The LANs work fine for data but need a complete replacement to support IPT - this represents significant cost.
Replacing the PABX with IPT also represents a significant cost. PABX technology is highly reliable, cheap to maintain and, because of its longevity, usually fully depreciated with minimal investment budgeted.
See above, VoIP brings the best ROI a company could dream.
And a company has to invest, hasn't it?
Based on the above it is easy to see why IPT in the UK has yet to take off.
And you can see why it WILL TAKE OFF SOONER THAN PREDICTED.
However, indefinitely writing off enterprise convergence cannot be sustained. The suppliers and service providers are slowly leaving us no choice. Beyond 2007, our PABX technology will become obsolete. Service providers will provide hosted options. Analysts predict that IPT implementation costs will decrease significantly.
Tactically we can stick our heads in the sand but strategically, planning needs to start now. It seems likely that the options and costs will become increasingly attractive and the suppliers are providing risk minimised routes to implementation.
All this points to the conclusion that a change to IPT will become beneficial and almost inevitable - it is now a matter of strategy, timing and approach.
CASE STUDY
In 2003, Abbey contracted through an outsourcing deal with BT for a new IP virtual private network (VPN) that would also deliver 1.2 million public and 750,000 internal voice calls every month. The IPT rollout covered 746 branches and data connectivity was also provided to the main offices. The core technology for voice and data was Cisco based, provided through a full rollout of BT's Multimedia VoIP to all Abbey's branches within eight months of the contract being signed. The service is operating successfully today covering over 7,000 IPT extensions.
The authors
David Yip is a director of Xantus Consulting, where he advises central government organisations and FTSE 100 companies on infrastructure and services sourcing. Siân Tudor Jones worked with Barclays Bank and AstraZeneca for a number of years before joining Xantus in 2002.
IP telephony - why the debate? David Yip and Siân Tudor Jones investigate why UK businesses have yet to fully embrace the potential of IP telephony.
The claims
IP telephony (IPT) has been threatening to be one of the most important emerging trends in telecommunications for the last few years. IPT is the application that moves voice traffic around in the data network utilising the Voice over IP (VoIP) protocol.
These terms are often confused - VoIP has been with us for many years.
But in the beginning it was practically unusable: too expensive hardware and too lousy voice quality.
Carriers have successfully deployed international networks using VoIP to carry public telephony calls.
Just big carriers could afford expensive hardware and be well repaid charging slightly less for what cost them almost nothing (see: they buy Junk and sell Antiques)
IPT, however, has not broken the dominance of traditional voice switching systems within the enterprise space, be they
PABXs or carrier class switches providing centrex (hosted telephony) services.
Just in the very last years we began talking of application on VoIP.
Companies will like VoIP not only for the saving on telephone calls, but for what it offers and most of all for what IT WILL OFFER IN A NEAR FUTURE.
In 2003, the world's analysts were quoting '50 per cent penetration of IP telephony'. Slightly more conservative estimates placed the 50 per cent penetration threshold during 2004.
Today in 2005, the optimism has been watered down somewhat. A recent study claims that 44 per cent of corporate telephony will be IP-based by 2008. In corroboration, Gartner estimates that, by the end of 2007, traditional enterprise telephony system manufacturers will cease development of traditional systems. This suggests we are at least two years away from widespread acceptance of IPT into our corporate lives.
VoIP is still not fully ready will all the possible applications.
For example Video on IP (a good Video quality) will drive most of the corporate traffic towards VoIP.
So why is it that amongst the UK's leading organisations there is not the actual or planned widescale deployment as predicted? Why has deployment not taken off for a technology that has been around for years?
The case for change
The answers ultimately lie with the case for change.
All enterprises have a voice system in place. This has usually been developed and maintained over a number of years. It is usually reliable and costs for maintenance have reduced since deployment. It is likely that such systems are nearing full depreciation and are operating sufficiently well giving little cause for concern.
In today's governance structures, the modern enterprise will not introduce new technology without a compelling business case and ultimately cost plays a significant role.
The case for implementing IPT must then rely on tangible additional benefits.
Or at least to keep the actual benefits with the same quality at a lower cost.
To date, business flexibility, cabling simplicity and the ease of moves, adds and changes rank as the key benefits of IPT. Offset against this, the main user concerns are security within a converged network environment, VoIP quality and interoperability between voice systems.
Significantly, the user is unlikely to see any additional functionality at the basic telephony level.
Implementing IPT can be costly, even though IPT itself can appear attractively priced. Whilst it is an application sitting on a data network with user licensing structures not dissimilar to any other user-based application, what is frequently overlooked is that IPT places specific time sensitive performance demands on the data network and IP handsets are significantly more expensive than normal units.
But the price is enormously rewarded by the fact that IP to IP calls are COMPLETELY free.
In a company which has branches all over the world that means to repay the whole hardware in a very little time (one week in certain cases).
It is the same with cell phones.
To sell them they offer free traffic for the amount of the phone ($300) but everybody knows that this is a real CHEATING. (or everybody should know)
Classes of service, voice prioritisation and powered Ethernet are all demanded from the enterprise data network over and above standard user application hosting. So it's not only the legacy telephony infrastructure one has to consider but the entire data infrastructure also. If the current data infrastructure is not up to scratch, is it worth performing a complete upgrade just to add telephony?
What could be more promising than "company owned infrastructures"? With a very small investment a company can have gatekeepers that act as gatekeepers, gateways, IPphones, PBX, and could create infrastructures among all company's users, avoiding totally the TELECOMS' Monopoly...
Couldn't there be something better than this?
So, unless the enterprise is developing greenfield sites, the case for implementing IPT here and now appears weak, regardless of any views on technology maturity.
I guess the article's writer completely missed the point.
Why writing about something and not telling the real advantages?
May be this could be the reason why.
Companies do not yet know all the advantages of VoIP and the actual players on the market beware to explain...because it is convenient that they do not know...
However, making a spot investment decision is very different to making strategic choices and one must consider where the suppliers and service providers are heading before writing off IPT deployment now.
Supplier push
Many traditional enterprise telephony vendors, including Siemens, Nortel and Avaya, continue to pour their investment budgets into developing evolutionary IPT solutions, allowing the upgrading of existing equipment to provide IP functionality. This incremental approach to IPT implementation benefits the enterprise by reducing capital expenditure, protecting legacy investment and minimising deployment risk. It is obvious that investment in standard enterprise switch (PABX) technology is being reduced significantly.
Coming from the enterprise data provider end, Cisco have been developing an all-IP communications solution since 1997 and claim more than 14,500 organisations are now using their IPT offering.
According to various analysts, Cisco is the market leader in IPT enterprise sales, recently shipping their four millionth IP phone. Avaya seem to be the second placed provider with Nortel third currently.
Big suppliers have prices that only big companies can afford.
It is like the first cell phones, they were so expensive a few could pay for them, but with the lower price there arrived the number...
Public network switching providers are also developing their IPT offerings in a bid for supplying hosted solutions. Lucent, Ericsson and Nortel have invested significantly. Their strategy is less aggressive compared to the enterprise space - traditional telephony PSTN switches will be with us for many years. This development cannot be neglected by the enterprise, as IP centrex functionality emerges and provides a realistic option for a hosted IPT solution. However, network based solutions will inevitably take longer to deploy and may be years in the making.
That is one of the reasons VoIP is not widespread today.
The Bigs are in front of a dilemma:
Loosing their wonderful revenues or loosing the train of progress...
In the meantime they do and do not do...
There are various trial implementations being undertaken worldwide. Lucent have made inroads in the US carrier market as well as in Australia. Ericsson have successfully implemented within Europe.
Service provider investment
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) laid out their vision for 'Next Generation Networks' (NGN) providing carrier grade service standards relating to quality of service, reliability, scalability, simplified network operation and management. In the UK, this approach has been publicly embraced by BT and Cable & Wireless.
In April 2005, Avaya and BT jointly announced the signing of Avaya's supplier contract with BT, estimated to be worth up to £80 million over three years. Interestingly, this deal appears to support BT's immediate capability for hosted IPT solutions in the enterprise space. It is uncertain how this will sit alongside BT's current IPT offering, MMVoIP, their Cisco based service offering.
Alongside this enterprise focus, BT's major commitment to NGN comes in the shape of their 21st Century Networks (21CN) initiative. As part of a £10 billion investment, BT announced their strategic suppliers and selected Ericsson to provide the public IPT platform. This heralds the widespread availability of IP Centrex during 2008.
Cable & Wireless' plans for their NGN implementation include a £190 million investment to replace their 70+ carrier switches with 10 IPT soft switches. They plan to complete implementation by the middle of 2008 'ahead of BT'.
The landscape is therefore set for IP Centrex to be widely available during 2008 but, more significantly, the carriers are banking on convergence representing the future of telephony.
"The bigs will win". I do not believe it.
Major investments mean higher pricing and the same services or even less than a local provider could offer.
Don't they see that the people on the road expect better than a lousy calling center where they cannot help anybody but the one who is paid for the call?
User examples
Major deals in 2004 indicate that US enterprises are feeling less nervous and starting to embrace the possibilities of IPT. In July, Boeing Co. announced plans for an IPT rollout encompassing more than 150,000 users across 70 countries. This was topped less than three months later when Bank of America commenced a rollout to 180,000 desktops in 5,800 locations.
In the UK, IPT uptake has been smaller in scale and low key. However, one case study is often raised as the flagship for IPT - Abbey National.
Since the Abbey experience, no other multi-site IPT implementation has hit the headlines in the UK. There have been numerous single site case studies, most notably providing IPT to the RSPCA's new headquarters.
With the telephony suppliers investing significantly in IPT, the service providers committing to hosted IPT and widespread implementation in the US, why are we in the UK not fully embracing the potential?
Also here the point is missed.
The investments have been significant, otherwise we wouldn't be at this point.
So where now?
IPT technology is available now. Scalability, reliability and functionality are lesser concerns and experience suggests cost is the most significant inhibitor. A study recently commissioned by Nortel cited '48 per cent of firms unconvinced by VoIP returns'.
The common mistake has been to treat IPT as a standalone business case - it is not. IPT is part of a convergence business case requiring all data and voice infrastructure to be considered as a whole.
But it was till a little time ago.
Looking at each specific part of the convergence chain gives us the following often repeated outcomes:
Generally, migrating onto a voice ready wide area network (MPLS protocol base) will reduce bandwidth costs. However, your site router will need to be voice enabled although the bandwidth saving should cover any upgrade required.
IPT requires site local area networks (LANs) to be voice ready and, ideally, be able to support inline power to the IPT handset. Given that many UK enterprises have, over the last ten years, migrated from token ring to Ethernet and at the time were unlikely to take account of voice readiness, we encounter a major dilemma. The LANs work fine for data but need a complete replacement to support IPT - this represents significant cost.
Replacing the PABX with IPT also represents a significant cost. PABX technology is highly reliable, cheap to maintain and, because of its longevity, usually fully depreciated with minimal investment budgeted.
See above, VoIP brings the best ROI a company could dream.
And a company has to invest, hasn't it?
Based on the above it is easy to see why IPT in the UK has yet to take off.
And you can see why it WILL TAKE OFF SOONER THAN PREDICTED.
However, indefinitely writing off enterprise convergence cannot be sustained. The suppliers and service providers are slowly leaving us no choice. Beyond 2007, our PABX technology will become obsolete. Service providers will provide hosted options. Analysts predict that IPT implementation costs will decrease significantly.
Tactically we can stick our heads in the sand but strategically, planning needs to start now. It seems likely that the options and costs will become increasingly attractive and the suppliers are providing risk minimised routes to implementation.
All this points to the conclusion that a change to IPT will become beneficial and almost inevitable - it is now a matter of strategy, timing and approach.
CASE STUDY
In 2003, Abbey contracted through an outsourcing deal with BT for a new IP virtual private network (VPN) that would also deliver 1.2 million public and 750,000 internal voice calls every month. The IPT rollout covered 746 branches and data connectivity was also provided to the main offices. The core technology for voice and data was Cisco based, provided through a full rollout of BT's Multimedia VoIP to all Abbey's branches within eight months of the contract being signed. The service is operating successfully today covering over 7,000 IPT extensions.
The authors
David Yip is a director of Xantus Consulting, where he advises central government organisations and FTSE 100 companies on infrastructure and services sourcing. Siân Tudor Jones worked with Barclays Bank and AstraZeneca for a number of years before joining Xantus in 2002.
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