• Added over 555k VoIP subscribers during 2Q08

• Comcast ended 2Q08 with a total of 5.6 million VoIP subscribers.

• 5.6 million VoIP customer base represents 12.5% penetration of the total Comcast addressable market.

• VoIP ARPU: $39.48.

• Revenue from VoIP service increased 50% from $425 million to $640 million in the 2Q08.

• Circuit-switched phone revenue declined 96% in the 2Q08, as Comcast exits that product offering. As of 2Q08, Comcast served 10,000 circuit-switched customers.

• FT had 5 million VoIP subscribers in France as of end 2Q08. Added 346k subscribers during 2Q08

• 670k VoBB customers outside France. Poland: 176k VoIP subscribers, other European countries 494k

• VoIP represented 64% penetration into the ADSL subscriber base

• IPTV Subscribers: France 1.4m, Poland 54k, other European countries 92k.

Over $50 million worth telecom equipment that belonged to Starvox, will be sold via online auction next week on the 12th of this month. The equipment includes over 40,000 Veraz gateway ports and around 5,000 Cisco VoIP gateway ports. Cisco VoIP sales had an impact due to the second hand market way back in 2000 and 2001.

40,000 ports sounds like a lot for someone like Veraz. Looking at the average port shipment numbers of Veraz, this could represent around 10% of their quarterly VoIP sales. So the vendor could also see an impact on its revenues over the next couple of quarters.

Arcep, the French communications regulator, has published its 1Q08 report on French telecoms market. The document reveals that majority of the VoIP subscribers in the country use VoIP as the primary line. In fact a fifth of all French fixed line connections at the end of 1Q08 were VoIP-only.

Some more figures from the report: 30% of the 40 million fixed lines in the country are VoIP lines. These 30% lines account for over 40% of the fixed line minutes. Sound like a few major indicators of confidence that consumers are showing in VoIP. It is safe to conclude that at least in France the migration to VoIP is now irreversible.

Enterprise media gateway business is dominated by Cisco. My understanding is that it is a tough business to be in unless your shipments scale significantly. Would that be a fair assessment?

Scale is important and we are looking for channels to scale our business. But I think there are a number of ways you can compete. When we looked at this product category we decided to go after the SME market. Cisco has products that serve this market segment but this is where they tend to be more vulnerable. Most of the competing media gateway vendors have not done a good job targeting the SME segment. So that is where we see an opportunity.

On the other hand, the fact that there is a big player in the market validates the potential of the segment.

Yes, Cisco’s presence validates the market potential. That is the good news. But the bad news also is that they in there. They are a 900 pound gorilla that can dominate the market. We have had to put in a lot of attention into how we compete.

What is your main focus of your product differentiation?

We believe that SMEs are really looking at UC and that is an important element for us in terms of differentiation. Our gateway is engineered to efficiently handle the UC environment providing features like routing, security, QoS, and data integration.

Why do you think Cisco has not had a competitor of their strength in enterprise media gateways? They surely do not come from voice background. I think Nortel or Alcatel-Lucent might have been able to do a better job given their voice expertise. Why is Cisco dominating the market?

Developers have never been so hot in telecoms. They must be spoilt for choice given the numerous programs out there enticing them with high level voice APIs. On the other hand these high level APIs across multiple vendor platforms could give developers an opportunity to easily scale across those platforms. However I do think that too many companies are getting on the bandwagon. Particularly when the monetization of the apps developed is still an issue.

This particular announcement from Sangoma, a VoIP hardware company, is indicative of how vendors that have nothing much to do with developer programs, want to drive some marketing from this industry trend. Sangoma is trying to set up a developer network in order to ….. as I understand it ….. drive some qualified web traffic to its site.

• 1.2 million VoIP subscribers at the end of 2Q08.

• Added 90,500 new subs during 2Q08, the most active VoIP quarter so far.

• VoIP revenues increased to $134 million from pro forma revenue of $80 million in a year-ago quarter.

• VoIP represents 11.8% penetration into the overall customer base.

• 576k IPTV subscribers as of end 2Q08. Added 22k subscribers during 2Q08.

• Telefonica also has over 1.4 million pay TV subscribers in Latin America. Majority are non-IPTV subscribers. In Czech Repulic I think all the 97.9k pay TV subs are on IPTV.

• 1.8 million VoIP subscribers as of end 2Q08.

• Added 81k or 4.8% during 2Q08.

• VoIP represents 37.6% penetration in homes passed.

• VoIP represented $169 million revenue during 2Q08.

• NTT VoIP subscribers: 6.4 million. NTT East 3.4m, NTT West 3.0m.

• J:Com: 1.4 million VoIP subscribers. Added 192k subscribers during 2Q08.

• VoIP subscribers: 3.4 million, representing 13.4% penetration of service-ready homes passed.

• Added 251,000 VoIP subscribers during the quarter.

• Continued roll out of VoIP services to SMEs. As of June 30, 2008, TWC had 16,000 commercial VoIP subscribers.

Dutch Cable MSOs have advanced the capabilities of their VoIP peering federation by hybridizing new (ENUM based) routing with the traditional (IN/C7 based) call management. The new capability, developed jointly by NSN and XConnect, essentially keeps more voice traffic within the IP cloud thus (1) eliminating PSTN interconnection fees, and (2) increasing chances of ‘HD voice quality’.

Conversions from IP to TDM/PSTN can result in call quality deterioration. If the call remains on the IP cloud end-to-end, and provided there is adequate bandwidth channel, the quality can be dramatically improved by using wideband codecs.

NSN is the primary equipment vendor to the Dutch MSOs. However their equipment has not been able to simultaneously support ENUM and IN/C7. The capability has been brought in by XConnect, which is now officially in the latest software version of NSN platform. This enables the Dutch Cable peering project to move to the next phases towards production, and also potentially allows ENUM registry based routing to spread into other NSN based networks.

With reference to VoIP, your product allows Class 5 switching via GR.303, which has been one of the ways carriers were migrating to VoIP. Why have they instead gone for over-the-top VoIP option instead of migrating Class 5 voice infrastructure to IP? And what impact has that had on your business?

Occam’s customers have varying business models and service migration strategies. While it is true some have leveraged an ‘over-the-top’ VoIP approach to primary and/or secondary voice service, many of our wireline service provider customers are actively migrating from traditional circuit based class 5 infrastructure to a softswitch model. There is still a noticeable majority of network operators that utilize GR303 but even those operators have an eye towards a pure packet softswitch model in the foreseeable future. But anyway, our BLC 6000 system can support both models from a common service-aware, Ethernet based system.

You also enable another type of Class 5 VoIP migration which is by use of access gateway in the BLC. Carriers like BT have implemented that type of migration option. Are you aware of any others that have followed this migration model?

We have numerous customers employing this approach with initial deployments ranging in size from hundreds to tens of thousands of voice lines served from our line access gateways. We have shipped well over 1 million POTS ports with our BLC systems – each of these capable of native VoIP support. In fact, every one of our POTS interface modules is in fact a native IP line access gateway – a unique differentiating feature of our access solution.

Will carriers at some point bridge their narrowband and broadband infrastructures? What about countries like France where operators do not feel such need (since broadband VoIP lines are quickly replacing pots lines)?

An excellent question. There is evidence that many carriers are doing this now. It’s arguable that one of the world’s largest networks – Verizon – has started this process by deploying FTTP with their FiOS initiative. FTTP by definition is a broadband connection. While the traffic types have not yet converged in that network, the infrastructure is being put in place to support that kind of convergence. To a smaller scale, Occam sees many Tier 2/3 service providers that are embracing a converged infrastructure and a converged traffic approach. Those operators that have migrated to IP based softswitches and are also delivering IPTV are also likely to embrace a pure packet access and aggregation infrastructure. When these two service and infrastructure strategies intersect, you have effectively bridged the narrowband and broadband domains. Occam counts many of its over 300 Tier 2/3 customers in this arena.

I have been reduced to dial-up internet for over 10 days now, which is one of the reasons why I have not blogged. Can’t stand the dial-up speed anymore.

We have been unable to reach our office for the last two weeks due to Agitation 2.0 here in Kashmir. In the meantime, my home broadband connection was messed up by my service provider BSNL. For the second time they changed my username/password without any prior information. Indeed the idiots do not deem me worthy of any correspondence on the matter. Since customer service does not exist, I called an ‘insider’ who informed me about this change. Apparently the local exchange has to make an adjustment locally in order to give effect to the change in the central server. The local exchange employees, however, have not been able to report to work due to curfews and renewed vigour in protests/hartals. As a result, I have been demoted down to dial-up.

• Telio had 151.7k subscribers at end 2Q08. Total increase of 2,972 during 2Q08.

• Majority of customers (107,826) in Norway.

• Revenues: NOK 96.7 million.

• Average monthly revenue per subscriber NOK 261 same as in 1Q08.

• Added 1,600 new SMB lines during Q2. Serving 3,000 VoIP lines to the SMB market.

• Telecom Italia ended 2Q08 with 180k IPTV subscribers, an increase of 100 thousand in the quarter.

• 1.7 million VoIP subscribers as of end 2Q08, which represents 25% penetration into retail broadband access lines.

• Added 2,000 net subscriber lines in the 2Q08 and finished the quarter with more than 2.6 million lines in service.

• Average monthly customer churn declined to 3.0% in the 2nd quarter 2008 from 3.3% in the first quarter 2008.

• Marketing cost of customer acquisition: $283 per customer. Total marketing costs during the quarter: $65 million.

• 2Q08 revenues $228 million, up 11% from $206 million in the 2Q07 and up 1% sequentially. Net loss $7 million.

• ARPU: $29.04 up from $28.85 in 1Q08.

• Current cash and marketable securities and restricted cash at quarter end was $192 million.

The tremendously independent telecom policy maker of India, TRAI, has sent recommendations to DoT asking the admin guys to allow VoIP in its full form. It is likely therefore that you will finally be able to save some lawyer fees that you must have paid so far in order to understand the mind boggling complexities of VoIP regulation in India. For the market, though, I reckon the policy decision – if taken – will be at least 10 years late.

In the UK when International Simple Resale (ISR) hit the market, Ofcom put a price cap on BT. BT could not lower down its price by more than X% per year on its ISD rates. Let us do a PhD to understand why. Assuming you are regulating a market driven segment of an economy, you would ideally protect the consumer interest by strengthening the competition in the segment. That is why resellers were free to price their ISD services in the UK while BT pricing was regulated. In India, however, DoT let its former government department (BSNL, which is essentially DoT) to drop prices before the competitors could come into the market. That took the life out of several competitive measures including network migration towards VoIP.

• 193k IPTV subscribers as of end 2Q08.

• Added 39,000 IPTV subscribers in 2Q08.

• High-speed ADSL2+ scheduled to be available in up to 1,000 towns and cities. VDSL roll out in 50 cities continues.

• 1.9 million VoIP subscribers at the end of 2Q08.

• 21CN update: 100% of UK core and metro nodes interconnected.

• 282k IPTV subscribers at the end of 2Q08. Added 68k subscribers during 2Q08.

• New Home Hub launched during the quarter.

Some of your business focuses around numbering. What happens when users dial by username rather than a number in the future? What do you foresee you role in those scenarios?

A dialed address whether a series of numeric digits or a qualified name involves very similar processing. They both have rules associated with them that deal with uniqueness and appropriate lengths as well as mappings between the customer address and the routing within the networks to connect that call. A move to alphanumeric identifiers will however present challenges as it is likely that customers will want to be able to assign abbreviated versions of their contacts that will be accessible across a range of domains and to be able to search for contacts based on limited information that they have about them. The various strategies by which these will be tackled are still in early stages and Evolving Systems will continue to track these initiatives as they move forward.

Just like service providers typically charge higher tariff for a vanity number, can you make a business out of selling a vanity username in the future?

The major difference between a vanity number and username is within the complexity of identifying and tracking what are appropriate vanity usernames and ensuring that trademark owners do not have their rights infringed. Evolving Systems current products help enable network operators to differentially charge for vanity numbers and we certainly foresee those operators wishing to continue to monetize desirable identifiers in future.

It must be hard trying to sell hosted VoIP to SMEs in Europe. Which verticals have you found traction in?

Certainly some of the verticals are adopting it much more quickly. Some of the traditional business segments such as legal and accountancy firms are slower due to almost the definition of the style of their business. We have found traction among IT and media companies in particular. Recruitment consultants and travel agencies are also keen on trying VoIP. The overall response has been better than what we had expected.

What has been your unique selling point in trying to win business away from the incumbent Eircom?

We have a fiber based network. For business customers we offer both fiber and DSL access. In the residential segment we have laid fiber to the home, and we have just started offering 50mbps service. That is winning a lot of business away from the incumbents that are trying to sell their traditional leased line and premise-based PBX services. We also have our own transatlantic fiber infrastructure to support our growth in IP services.

What is the plan for the residential market?

We are focusing on the housing development projects and have over 80% penetration there. We are planning to offer triple play services there including IPTV.

Which vendors are you working with for IPTV and VoIP?

I am putting up one of my papers for free download. I had hoped to make it available using a wiki pluggin for Movable Type so that the readers would be able to edit it. I have been looking for such a pluggin but have not found it.

The reason such a paper is an ideal wiki material is because the selection of companies inside this paper is subjective. The selection and the justification for that selection represents purely my own personal opinion and judgement. I have tried to weed out the 10 most influential companies in VoIP over the last 13 years.

Download by clicking here.

By the way, if you are a web developer, it could be a good idea to write a wiki pluggin for MT or Wordpress, which enables a blogger to select some of the blogs ... opening them up for editing by readers.

The idea of a wiki pluggin for MT turned out to be a self-inspiration. I have not blogged any creative ideas for long. But like the IP traffic, they travel in bursts. Incidentally we had a 2 hour break – first one in the last 4 days – from a curfew that was imposed on us for not eating a balanced diet. So perhaps that little break provided the requisite vent. I promise to move my non-veg political opinions onto my personal blog, away from the politically correct audience here.

So the idea ..…. I have come across simple hardware devices that plug into your TV antenna ports and let the user toggle between two different service providers. I am not sure if you have too. Anyway what we should have is a software interface to such a toggle device whose UI is the first thing that flashes on your TV when you switch it on. The UI should then give you a choice to select the service provider of your choice. For instance you could choose between AT&T U-Verse and Comcast. This software switching can be done using a remote control while as hardware switching is inconvenient.

A longer term developmental roadmap could have a residential gateway (that incorporates hybrid IP/Legacy STB) integrate this toggle and the associated software interface. Or if you have one of those futuristic TVs with STBs inside then that is even better. You could have a separate OS for the TV with desktop like icons having shortcuts of various different TV service providers. You could then choose more freely.

Toggling serves a purpose because IPTV in some countries will be used as a secondary service like in the UK. It is something additional and not a primary TV service.

Talking about creative ideas, here is a third idea of the day: A hardware add-on that can be plugged into an IAD (through an Ethernet port) serving as a base station for a DECT phone. That is what I thought SiTel had announced recently. However SiTel is a chip company and I should have known better. The Netherlands based company announced a DECT chip that can be placed in existing IAD applications with telephone connections.

Modem manufacturers have been shipping IADs and cable modems with DECT base stations for quite some time now. Thomson has shipped more than 1 million DSL+DECT to BT for its residential VoIP offering. Starting later this year, BT will be sourcing its DECT enabled IAD from a Germany based vendor in addition. The Germany based vendor uses SiTel chip. SiTel expects about a million of their DECT VoIP chips to be integrated inside IADs by the end of this year. Majority of these IADs will land inside residential customers in Germany.

I think you could make a business out of developing a module on top of Asterisk that enables wholesale hosted PBX services. Asterisk is not only being used for retail hosted PBX but also wholesale hosted PBX as well. I think the privately brandable hosted PBX services of Vox Communications use Asterisk as the underlying platform. But I am not 100% sure.

Vox must have developed in-house the software that lets them offer smaller service providers a privately branded hosted PBX services. Imagine if they license that piece of software out to other wholesalers as well. That is the creative idea of the day. Sylantro and Broadsoft have made some dollars selling such software. The fact that the developer starts with an open source feature server gives a significant advantage to a newcomer. Such a software is easily extendable – conceptually – across other areas as well. For instance you could do a module (on top of an open source CRM platform) that enables wholesale hosted call center services as well. The difference of course is that the developer is leveraging open source platforms and has good chances of monetizing the solution.