Just a few weeks into summer weather in New England after a protracted, cold spring and already we’re thinking ahead to fall. More specifically, it’s time to consider the Fall Voice on the Network show, which is being held Sept. 22-25 in Boston.
And if we’re talking VON, we’re talking a Network World Voice over IP Showdown, where we invite leading VoIP vendors to wrestle with the important questions of the day.
This will be our fourth Showdown at VON. In the first one in Seattle we invited some of the top IP PBX makers to argue about the merits of their various products. Then it was off to Atlanta where we had IP PBX vendors square off against IP Centrex service providers (the audience gave the debate win to the Centrex camp). And this spring we invited the core IP PBX players back to discuss just what it is that makes their products stand apart.
For the Fall VON we thought we’d somewhat revisit the idea of VoIP being delivered as a service because frankly, at the time of the earlier debate, the IP Centrex market was just gelling. Today, there are more bona fide players with real experience under their belts and paying customers.
But rather than pitting a group of these service providers against a group of equipment makers, as we’ve done previously, this time we’ll assemble a panel with both service providers and box makers, and let them each fend for themselves.
As the VoIP market matures, equipment vendors will compete not just with each other, but with incumbent local exchange carriers and hungry new upstarts peddling virtual offerings.
As such, we call on Cisco, Avaya, Nortel, GoBeam and M5 Networks to send top technical representatives to VON for the next installment of our VoIP Showdown.
While the first three players don’t need any introduction, GoBeam and M5 might be new to you. GoBeam offers what it calls a virtual PBX service through a string of local dealers, and it wholesales service through some big names such as Verizon. M5 offers what it calls a Managed Telecom Service, primarily in the New York area.
These vendors have until Aug. 25 to confirm their participation, after which we will open the door to other players.
So mark your calendars for Sept. 23 for this VoIP Showdown in Boston, and in the meantime drop me a line about the topics you would like to see us tackle.
