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> Broadband Gear Report's VoIP Alert for March 16, 2006

Up Front

Eye on the VON Conference

The Spring 2006 VON Conference & Expo — a VoIP and IP communications confab now in its 10th year — is happening this month (from the 14th-17th) at the convention center in San Jose, CA. Because the event tends to heavily attract providers like America Online, Earthlink, Qwest and Verizon and the vendors focusing on them, cable engineers haven't traditionally made the confab a true "can't-miss."

However, MSOs are indeed there at the show, as are vendors looking to offer cable engineers technologies that will help in their IP telephony rollouts over HFC nets.

Talking Voice Traffic in the Headend

The Spring VON conference boasts speakers from two major cable ops and CableLabs. Slated to chat about cable's unique abilities to compete head-on with the ILECs are Time Warner Cable Senior Director Michael Jablon, Comcast Director of Product Management John Butz and CableLabs VP of IP Technologies and Services Jean-Francois Mule.

They plan to tackle the technical issues behind managing voice traffic in the headend, and discuss how cable standards are converging within the rest of the VoIP community. They'll also consider cable's current VoIP adoption rates and customer experiences.

Hitting the Exhibits

On the show floor, plenty of products and services are on display out that will interest the HFC engineering community. Examples include:

• Convergence has teamed with Centillium Communications and Netgear to deliver a consumer and residential VoIP security solution. While the companies concede that VoIP security hasn't presented a big problem to date, they say the landscape is about to change as VoIP usage and SIP deployments move into the mainstream, making the technologies attractive targets. Their solution offers secure consumer VoIP through fully authenticated, validated and encrypted subscriber connections and comprehensive application-level perimeter security to defend an operator's infrastructure.
• Empirix is announcing the latest release of its carrier-class VoIP monitoring solution, Hammer XMS 1.5. (Three of the top six cable companies, including Cox, are already Hammer XMS customers.) According to Empirix, the new Hammer XMS now features a simplified user interface specifically designed for first-level CSRs, enabling rapid problem identification and more efficient escalation. Hammer XMS 1.5 also adds support for H.248, SIP-T, SIGTRAN and ETSI ISUP protocols.
• Minacom is highlighting its DirectQuality service level test automation solutions for VoIP, data, video, fax/modem and analog voice. The company says that cable engineers will value DirectQuality's integration with softswitches, transponders, test sets and MTAs. All is controlled from a Web-based OSS. You can try it live at www.minacom.com/web-demo.
• XO Communications is introducing its XO VoIP Origination. The service provides cable companies, broadband telephony providers and other providers with interconnection, transport and origination of local calls nationwide through a single IP connection on the XO IP network. With the ability to assign local telephone numbers from any XO market nationwide and accept local calls through a single IP connection point, ops can "eliminate the need to purchase and maintain voice gateways in markets where they offer service, enter new markets more quickly and more efficiently manage voice traffic on a nationwide basis."

For an exhibitor list and information on what other vendors are showing at VON, visit www.von.com/exhibit.html.

In the Know

A Chat With Nortel's New GM of Cable Solutions

BGR's VoIP Alert recently spoke with Tom Buttermore, Nortel's new general manager of cable solutions. He comes to Nortel with more than 20 years of experience in the cable and service provider industry, and most recently served as Adelphia's VP of engineering for voice and data operations.

Buttermore says he was blown away by Nortel's response to his former employer's RFP both from a technology and implementation standpoint — particularly because Nortel was not perceived as much of a player in the cable space a couple years ago, and then went on to win 23 contracts in a year, topped by the company's win with Comcast at the end of 2005.

BGR: Let's talk about the fact that Nortel was not necessarily viewed as a major force in the HFC space a couple years ago. What's changed?

Buttermore: Nortel has a long history with MSOs and TDM telephony, and has been delivering MSO optical transport solutions in the last five years. But what you've been noticing in the last few years is an expansion of the scope of our contribution to cable operators. As core service networks across vertical industries became increasingly similar through the adoption of IP, and carrier grade reliability takes on the dimension of a strategic imperative, Nortel is able to leverage more of our core product and service offerings, to address MSO needs with the same degree of high quality and reliability currently enjoyed by larger, more traditional carriers.

I'm referring to a wide swath of solutions from managed optical Ethernet, business continuity, wireless mesh and wireless network extension. In the last year, service convergence has also changed the scope of how we are addressing the cable space most significantly with us bringing our mobility and multimedia expertise to bear.

BGR: What about the SMB market? What are cable engineers doing right as of now? What are they doing wrong?

Buttermore: From an engineering perspective, cable engineers know exactly what needs to be done in order to address the SMB marketplace. However, MSOs are generally geared toward servicing residential subscribers. While there is no question in anyone's mind that the SMB market is very attractive, the tactical imperatives of delivering more VOD, DVR, digital simulcast, HD, residential VoIP and enhancing broadband data services consume the vast majority of resources at the present time. Addressing the SMB market also has significant implications on sales, marketing, installation, billing and customer care.

In short, it is a major investment that must be taken very seriously. This is a difficult and costly investment decision in the extremely competitive marketplace for mind (and wallet) share of the consumer.

BGR: Nortel has made some big moves lately when it comes to helping smaller cable ops move toward VoIP services. What's the strategy behind that?

Buttermore: Nortel has over 100 years of telephony experience. This company has forgotten more about telephony than most of our competitors have yet to learn. Our solution is extremely economical to deploy and smaller operators represent a valued and valuable customer base for our broad range of IP telephony offerings.

BGR: What do you see as the main technical challenges smaller cable ops face when it comes to offering comprehensive services? What can they do about it?

Buttermore: The main technical challenge for smaller operators would typically be found in staffing appropriate resources for addressing traditional telephony interconnections, network and capacity management, architecture, etc. Nortel can provide these smaller operators with a full range of managed services to ensure they can launch their VoIP service offerings with a high degree of quality, reliability and do so in a cost effective manner.

BGR: What about the quad-play? How far do you think cable engineers are from really adding wireless services in a big way?

Buttermore: Nortel has significant experience in supplying the cellular carrier industry with advanced products and services and has a clear path via IMS to integrate these services. Wireless will start out as a simple re-sale in a similar fashion to ILECs reselling satellite services. However, given Nortel's strength in the wireless markets, the transition for those operators utilizing Nortel technology will be far more straightforward than integrations utilizing competitive equipment that have less experience in the mobility space.

If history is any guide, expect cable to sign up large numbers of cellular customers under the MVNO plan and move to true convergence of services in the 2007/08 timeframes.

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