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May 30, 2007

Jon Arnold / Jim Glover - BDC - A VC's Perspective

On this week's podcast, Jon spoke with Jim Glover, Investment Director with BDC Venture Capital. BDC is the Business Development Bank of Canada, and is a Crown Corporation. They have a broad mandate to support small businesses, including venture capital. Jim and Jon talked about the current climate for Canadian telecom and tech companies, and the role that venture capital is playing.

Jim talked about the challenges VCs face in today's market, as startups need less money now, and also exit at lower valuations. On the positive side, Jim talked about the qualities he sees in companies that are getting funding, and noted that he sees value in companies that are able to create service platforms as opposed to singular software applications. Finally, Jim shared his thoughts on where he sees promising development,such as wireless applications.

Jim Glover is an Investment Director at BDC Venture Capital focusing solely on telecommunications investments. Prior to BDC, Jim had over 18 years experience with a major telecommunication equipment vendor, having held senior positions in product management, engineering, finance and marketing. Jim is a director at Dyaptive Systems, Navtel Communications and New Step Networks and has managed investments for BDC in Nimcat Networks, Sandvine Corporation and Sirific Wireless. He also sits on the advisory board for the University of Toronto, Master of Engineering in Telecommunications Program.

Jim holds a Bachelor of Applied Science degree from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from McMaster University.

BDC Venture Capital has invested in more than 400 different companies in the areas of life sciences, telecommunications, information technology and advanced technologies. It currently has over $430 million in venture capital assets under management.

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May 22, 2007

Jon Arnold / Stéphane Marceau - Mobivox and Mobile VoIP

On this week's podcast, Jon spoke with Stéphane Marceau, CEO of Montreal-based MOBIVOX. Stéphane was a guest last year, and with the recent launch of their service, it was a good time for an update. MOBIVOX is focused on enabling mobile calls for Skype users, and Stephane talked about the opportunity that companies like his are trying to address in this large and rapidly growing market.

Stéphane and Jon also talked about how the various features of MOBIVOX enhance the mobile Skype experience, especially voice recognition and "Voxgirl", the auto attendent who responds to your speech commands to initiate calls and see who is available on your Skype contact list. Other features discussed included conference calling on the fly, and the handoff of calls from mobile to landline without having to drop out and dial back in. Finally, Stephane talked about the Montreal tech market, and what makes it attractive for startups like MOBIVOX.

Stéphane Marceau, CEO, MOBIVOX
Stéphane Marceau brings to MOBIVOX over 12 years of senior global experience in the fields of telecom and IP. As Vice-President with Bell Canada, he built several new business lines, including the residential VoIP group. Stéphane served as VP and head of many different Bell groups - consumer strategy, e-commerce, online SME markets and – as well as led several acquisitions and partnerships. Prior to his time at Bell Canada, he advised wireless and telecom companies in Western Europe, the U.S. and Canada on Internet strategy and technology related opportunities. Stéphane is also on the board of several Montreal-based Internet startups.

Stephane holds a Master's degree in Management of Technology from the University of Waterloo and a BA in Finance from the Université du Québec à Montréal.

Posted at 06:23 PM • Comments (0)

May 21, 2007

Fabien Maisl, Thomson, with Carl Ford

Thomson’s NIS is leader in offering softswitch solutions (Cirpack) and IPTV service platforms (Smartvision) enabling telecom operators to deploy broadband telephony, IPCentrex, 4Play and Fixed-Mobile Convergence with a migration path to IMS/TISPAN architecture. Thomson’s Smartvision services platforms enable operators to offer interactive video services over fixed and mobile networks.

Both are closely integrated with Thomson’s STB, phones, modems and gateways. Thomson owns over 100 telco, broadcaster and internet service provider customers in 35 countries.

Thomson will be exhibiting in booth #201 at VON Europe Spring 2007.

Fabien Maisl is Director of Marketing and Partnerships for Thomson’s Network Intelligence Solutions, the company’s business unit developing VoIP softswitches, IPTV middleware and IMS core-network platforms. Fabien brings over 15 years of international experience in positioning and launching innovative products in the telecom market.

In prior position, he was Product Marketing Manager with CS Telecom, Director of Marketing with Netopia Europe and Product Marketing Manager with Apple Europe. Fabien holds a master degree in networks engineering from the French National Institute of Telecommunications.

Posted at 05:32 PM • Comments (0)

Quality Concerns: Steven Rogers, Rivulet, with Bob Emmerson

Steven Rogers, founder and CEO of Rivulet Communications, responds to Bob’s opening question: “I’ve interviewed several companies in this QoS series and while the objectives are the same or very similar, the technologies employed are widely different. Can you comment on the different approaches and the lack of standards?”

Steven starts by explaining that there are simple standards based on simple prioritization mechanisms, i.e. giving real-time traffic the highest priority. However, these are software mechanisms that don’t require a standard. Rivulet’s technology is proprietary but since it involves client software in end point devices a standards-compliant infrastructure is required. Right now it can be deployed as a QoS appliance at the Enterprise premise, but the ultimate goal is to place Rivulet Technology right in an existing network endpoint, alleviating the need for additional hardware platforms. Steven explains that while Rivulet platforms are not routers or switches, they do work over an existing infrastructure that is standards compliant. And he states that Rivulet is the only scaleable end-to-end solution that can provide reliable QoS though both the Carrier and Enterprise networks.

Bob then asks why traffic prioritization isn’t enough. Steven explains how prioritization can’t scale; it breaks down as more real-time traffic is placed on the network. If too much traffic is prioritized then there is no meaningful priority. Rivulet fixes this problem by organizing the flow of real-time packets to avoid contention with other traffic at router queues.

Finally, Bob Emmerson questions the claim that the technology achieves a Bit Error Rate (BER) better than 10-9. Steven admits that the physical layer can introduce errors, which Rivulet technology cannot address. However, he goes on to say that it eliminates all packet loss that occurs at router queues, which is achieved without holding up or delaying the delivery of real-time traffic. Rivulet moves the queuing issue back to the network endpoint. The endpoint schedules the transmission of real-time packets in such a way that they do not encounter router congestion at any point in the network.

Steven Rogers - President, CEO & Founder - Rivulet Communications
Steven has over 20 years of experience in the communications industry. He is the founder and CEO of four network product companies: Cryptek, Objective Communications, Cetacean Networks, and Rivulet Communications.

His extensive background also include management and development work at Unisys, American Satellite, COMSAT Mobile Telesystems. Steven has a BSEE from Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

(To hear other podcasts in Bob Emmerson's Quality Concerns series click here.)

Posted at 05:13 PM • Comments (0)

May 17, 2007

Tomer Treves, deltathree, with Carl Ford

Carl Ford spoke to Tomer Treves from deltathree about the new joip service, and the new phone from Panasonic that will bring joip into homes around the world.

For more on joip and deltathree, visit them at booth #212 at VON Europe Spring in Stockholm next month.

Tomer Treves, Consumer Group Managing Director, deltathree, Inc.
Tomer Treves joined deltathree (NASDAQ: DDDC) in 2004 and currently serves as Consumer Group Managing Director. Mr. Treves leads the team that handles business development, sales and marketing for deltathree’s Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) products and services directed for consumers and businesses. Mr. Treves is in charge of iConnectHere, a state of the art Global Internet Phone Service, and joip, the newly formed consumer group that powers Panasonic's GLOBARANGE hybrid phone. Mr. Treves’s business development expertise combined with his experience in legal counseling, specializing in international transactions, he has helped propel deltathree to a top tier global VoIP corporation.

Mr. Treves’s knowledge and experience in various hi-tech industries has enabled him to present at conferences around the world on issues such as migrating to VoIP, the future of telecommunications, consumer VoIP marketing, launching VoIP solutions and other facets of telephony. His distinctive dedication and success in advancing company growth spans his extensive career. Prior to deltathree, Mr. Treves played pivotal roles in providing legal consultation and business development for several leading law offices in Israel.

Mr. Treves graduated with honors from Tel Aviv University Buchman Faculty of Law with a Masters of Law, LL.M. He also holds a Bachelor of Law (with honors), LL.B from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Posted at 03:37 PM • Comments (0)

Jon Arnold / Stefan Dubowski - Talking Open Source and Web 2.0

On this week's podcast, Jon brought back Stefan Dubowski for his second segment on PPN. They did their first podcast last March, and the time was right for a return visit. Stefan is the Editor of Decima's Telemanagement magazine, one of Canada's leading telecom publications. He's a veteran industry watcher, and like Jon, attended the IT360 Conference held earlier this month in Toronto.

Jon and Stefan talked about the conference's keynote from tech guru Don Tapscott, as well as their impressions about what they saw there related to Open Source and Web 2.0. Stefan spoke at greater length about the trends he's seeing in terms of how these technologies are being adopted, as well as the reservations that larger enterprises still have around using them as a replacement for PBX systems.

Stefan Dubowski is the editor of Decima's Telemanagement, the preeminent journal of Canadian business communications technology. His expertise in the Canadian telecom landscape stems from years covering the space, first as a staff reporter at CanadaComputes.com, then as a senior writer, department editor, assistant editor and associate editor at IT World Canada’s numerous publications. Two of his articles have garnered nominations for the Kenneth R. Wilson Awards for business journalism and he received an honourable mention at the Accenture business journalism awards in 2001.

Posted at 12:36 PM • Comments (0)

May 09, 2007

Hilmar Gunnarsson / Jon Arnold - Oz and the Mobile Messaging Market

On this week's podcast, Jon spoke with Hilmar Gunarrsson, the EVP of Sales and Marketing with Montreal-based Oz Communications. Oz is one of the leading providers of mobile messaging solutions, and Hilmar provided his perspective on the state of this market. Hilmar and Jon talked about the popularity of mobile messaging in Europe, and why it has been slower to take root in North America. He sees that changing, and Hilmar discussed how mobile messaging is broadening to IM and social networking, where subscribers are looking to enjoy all of these services on their cellular phones.

Hilmar Gunnarsson – EVP, Sales and Marketing, Oz Communications
As Executive Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Hilmar drives OZ's Sales and Marketing activities; additionally he is a member of the Company's Board of Directors. Hilmar has played multiple roles within OZ since joining the company in 1999 and has been instrumental in driving the Company's growth by working closely with OZ's strategic customers and partners. Prior to joining OZ, Hilmar founded Idea, a company focusing on multimedia communications, and held senior Marketing and Product Management positions at the Bank of Iceland. Hilmar holds a Business degree from the University of Iceland.

Posted at 12:32 PM • Comments (0)

May 01, 2007

Jon Arnold / David Mandelstam - Sangoma and Open Source Telephony

On this week's podcast, Jon welcomed back David Mandelstam, President/CEO of Toronto-based Sangoma Technologies. David was a podcast guest here last March, and Jon brought him back for an update on Open Source telephony. Sangoma continues to be an innovator in this market, and David talked about their recent news to include Octasic's echo cancellation with their analog voice cards. David provided an overview of the importance of providing cost-effective carrier-grade echo cancellation for IP telephony, and how this is another step forward in how Open Source telephony is maturing to rival IP PBX. Jon and David also talked about broader market trends, including how they see Microsoft and IBM becoming key drivers of Open Source telephony adoption.

David Mandelstam, President/CEO, Sangoma Technologies

As a pioneer in the connectivity hardware and software products for telephony, Wide Area Network (WAN) and the Internet, Founder/President/CEO of Sangoma Technologies, David Mandelstam, is responsible for overall management of the Company and its future strategic direction.

David and his research and development team focuses on Sangoma’s family of AFT (Advanced Flexible Telecommunication) T1/E1/J1 voice/data cards that are engineered for today’s demanding soft PBX, IVR and VoIP applications, such as Asterisk™, Yate™, and others. They offer a new price/performance standard unparalleled in the industry that its competitors are now following.

Before starting Sangoma in 1984, David ran an engineering company and was engineering VP of an energy conservation company.

Posted at 11:39 AM • Comments (0)