Behind the Scenes at General Telecom

General Telecom services are accompanied by standard delivery & implementation schedules, backed by guaranteed SLAs. We are focused on rapid execution so you can realize revenue quickly — and, we want to beat our own delivery commitments where ever possible. Here’s an excellent example:

General Telecom recently met the acute needs of an IPartition customer seeking rapid implementation in order to expand services to their customers. Their IPartition service order was placed at 11 a.m. EST on a Friday. This was the first commercial service order we had received for our new IPartition service, and our team began working diligently through the interconnection and configuration files needed for this first commercial implementation. The result? Fifteen hours later (at 2 a.m. on Saturday), our IPartition customer began running traffic. In this case, speed-to-market was critical for our customer — so, the General Telecom NOC, Engineering and Account Management teams worked behind the scenes to exceed our SLA commitments and meet a customer’s need.

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Phone+ VoIP Enters Neutral Zone: Interconnection Providers Launch More Carrier-Agnostic Peering Options — focus on General Telecom’s IPartition.
Phone+ UNE-P Resellers: It's Your Move
Internet Telephony Hosted NAT Transversal Unlocks VoIP Offerings.
Xchange NGT Unwraps New Version of Wholesale VoIP.
FatPipe Switch Niche, Niche Mix, Switch Mix. A highlight of outsourced switching services, including General Telecom’s full-service TDM-to-IP suite.

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The FCC and UNE Regulation: Paving the Way for Rapid VoIP Adoption?

In July, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the current administration refused to appeal a lower court decision that overturned key FCC rules governing Unbundled Network Elements (UNE). Basically, UNEs are leased by ILECs to alternate providers such as CLECs at wholesale tariff pricing (based on TELRIC) and this ruling allows the ILECs to set their own pricing for these elements in a less regulated environment. The FCC has vowed to issue new rules in the near future to avoid a regulatory vacuum, but what these new rules will look like is anybody’s guess. This is a complex area with a spider-web of repercussions that has taken hundreds of pages to illustrate, but ultimately, the ILECs got what they wanted. At least, initially. In the short term, the ILECs can increase the UNE pricing, and derive profit or drive away competition for traditional services. However, depending on how the ILECs play it, in the long-term this may harm ILECs as higher UNE-pricing may feed the fire for a quicker transition to next generation services like VoIP. Why? The removal of UNE rules may have opened the door for the FCC to further its long-standing policy to keep the internet and possibly VoIP highly unregulated and to possibly declare a federal preemption of VoIP from sate regulation (note: the recent actions in Congress dictate this may take quite a bit of time).

But how do these actions, or rather inactions, affect VoIP? By its inaction, the FCC may have made traditional access to customers more expensive for alternative providers, which may mean less available and less attractive traditional choices for customers. Conversely, by its actions thus far, the FCC has helped to pave the way for an alternative service to become available and attractive to these customers. The FCC can continue to foster new services by providing a light regulatory touch to VoIP. If the FCC exempts VoIP from the traditional regulatory framework (both federal and state), alternate providers may rush to VoIP to service their customers. And as broadband enters into more and more homes, there may be more and more calls that completely bypass the ILECs networks altogether by utilizing computer-to-computer or IP-phone-to-IP-phone calls. So thanks to the FCC, the ILECs may have the right to increase prices for network access, and also possibly thanks to the FCC, alternate providers may be able to completely bypass the ILECs network. The end result could be a proliferation of VoIP and more competitive choices for customers.

For more information from the FCC, please visit www.fcc.gov/voip. For various opinions on the rulings, read any trade magazine in the market today. For questions or comments, please contact solutions@gentel.net.

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Upcoming Speaking Engagements

Comptel/Ascent Miami
Dates: Sept 12-15, 2004
www.comptelascent.org/events/miami-fall04
Fontainebleau Hilton in Miami Beach, FL.

The Comptel/Ascent show is an anticipated event — this year’s fall show has an expanded (and sold-out) exhibit floor along with special sessions on IP-based technology. Rich Grange, Pres/CEO of NGT will be speaking as part of an unconventional panel of VoIP visionaries about “Leveraging a Wholesale Model for Effective VoIP Delivery”. The session is on Tuesday, September 14th from 9:45-10:45am. In addition, representatives from all of our product lines will be available to discuss how New Global Telecom/General Telecom can assist with your needs. To meet with us at the show, please email sales@gentel.net or call 303-239-1025.

Internet Telephony
Dates: Oct 4-7th, 2004
www.tmcnet.com/itexpo
Los Angeles, CA.

Rich Grange, Pres/CEO will be speaking at the Fall Internet Telephony show. The panel discussion, titled “Introduction to Hosted VoIP: Service Provider” will cover the features and functionality of Hosted VoIP or IP Centrex solutions, and is scheduled for Tuesday, October 5th.

United States Telecommunications Association (USTA)
Dates: Oct 9-13, 2004
www.ustelecom04.com/conference04
Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, NV.

At the annual United States Telecommunications Association (USTA) convention, Telecom ’04, Rich Grange will be part of a panel session titled “OSS on Steroids: Mastering the New Operations Framework” where panel experts will share tips on how to introduce VoIP services into a legacy environment and still ensure smooth integration into existing OSS and billing systems.

If you'd like to meet with General Telecom at any of these shows, please send an email to sales@gentel.net call 303-239-1025.

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Additional Upcoming Events

Race for the Mesas 5K Run & Walk
Date: Aug 29th, 2004
www.ngt.com/race4themesas
Lion’s Park, Golden, CO.

New Global Telecom is sponsoring Race for the Mesas 5K Run & Walk coming up on Sunday, Aug 29th. The race benefits the Table Mountains Conservation Fund which is dedicated to acquiring and preserving the North and South Table Mountains in Golden as Open Space. If you’re in Colorado, do come partake in this local event that precedes the 7th Annual Mesas Music Fest, a full day celebration of Open Space.


Vortex
Dates: Oct 4-6th, 2004
www.idgexecforums.com/vortex2/index.html
Bacara Resort & Spa in Santa Barbara, CA.

Fall VON 2004
Dates: Oct 18-21st, 2004
www.pulver.com/von/index.html
Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA.


Next Generation Networks
Dates: Nov 1-5th, 2004
www.bcr.com/ngn
Marriott Copley Place in Boston, MA.

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How can I integrate multiple vendors/platforms and still satisfy their specific signaling and CDR formats?

Many switchless resellers experience the need to integrate vendor solutions for effective delivery – and this problem is becoming more and more common. Experienced outsourced providers, like General Telecom, can provide a variety of solutions to help ease these integrations. To handle custom signaling needs or formats between vendors, ask your providers if they can implement screening and masking controls, or if they are able to activate field suppression controls. Often, this can resolve the problem. A simple solution such as VoIP Direct enables protocol interworking – VoIP Direct converts H.323 to SS7. CDR formats can be equally challenging, especially if you are seeking to implement LEC billing – ask your provider if they have the solutions or contact General Telecom to learn about our solutions. Outsourced providers are always seeking interoperability solutions, and General Telecom has recently expanded services to provide a full-service portfolio of TDM-to-IP, IP-to-IP and TDM-to-TDM service. For more information on how General Telecom can help you, contact solutions@gentel.net or call 303-239-1025.

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How to Stay on Top of Rapid Industry Changes
The telecom industry has been through - and continues to move its way through - rapid changes that are revolutionizing the technology platforms, the regulatory environment, and the consolidation and hybridization of players in the field – it’s a dizzying effect! Now, more than ever, it’s critical to stay abreast of these changes. In order to stay in top form, we recommend three ways to get involved and learn what is happening – attend tradeshows, read industry newsletters, and join a virtual community.

We’ve found that networking with peers is critical for success. The attendance at existing tradeshows and the proliferation of new VoIP-focused tradeshows is a perfect example of how our industry is getting together in order to get up-to-speed. For a list of upcoming shows, see the Upcoming Events in this issue.
For those avid readers, there are numerous newsletters, online magazines, and hardcopy trade magazines available that focus on specific areas of our industry and provide insight, opinions and the facts. In our General Telecom In the News section, we list a few of the top service provider magazines. For the more adventurous, there are even industry-pundit BLOG sites (one employee’s favorite is www.isen.com/blog).

Another way to stay in touch is to participate in a virtual community. Typically, your vendors are a great resource for industry contacts and many maintain user groups or other online bulletin boards to enable customer-to-customer conversations. For example, General Telecom maintains the Global Village which includes a rolodex of carriers and providers all over the world.

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