Ian Bell the VP of marketing over at eqo (like echo) has spearheaded the launch of their new mobile-centric Skype app. It’s orange, it’s Skype-ish, it’s mobile and it’s cool.

In this interview we talk about the fund raising strategy, the history and the innovation that is eqo.

http://sipthat.com/mp3/skype/Skype-loves-eqo.mp3

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“Too many people are disconnected from their online buddies when they leave the PC behind,” said Bill Tam, CEO of EQO Communications, “Our goal is to allow the countless number of online communities worldwide to stay connected using mobile handsets and for users to, virtually, take their buddies with them.”

Using a combination of a phone-resident J2ME client and a carrier-grade standards-based signaling network, EQO bridges Skype to more than 150 million J2ME-capable mobile phones already in use worldwide. With more than 227 million downloads and tens of millions of active users, Skype is the dominant player in VoIP and Instant Messaging communications services worldwide. While the company has developed its technology to first work with Skype, EQO intends to extend peer-to-peer communications to mobile devices with other high-profile providers in the near future.

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VoIP Security is quickly becoming a major concern. In this episode I spoke with Andrew Graydon over at Borderware, also Chair of the Security Requirements Committee within VoIPSA. We talked about SIP security, identity theft, SPAM, SPIT, SPIM and what the industry is doing about it.

http://sipthat.com/mp3/Future-of-VoIP/Andrew-Graydon-Borderware-VoIP-Security.mp3

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Andrew Graydon is currently Chair of the Security Requirements Committee within VoIPSA, the industry’s first Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Security Alliance. VOIPSA is an open group of leading VoIP vendors, providers, security researchers, and thought leaders with the purpose of improving the public awareness of issues and best practices for security and privacy of Voice over IP.

In his role, Andrew and the Security Requirements Committee are tasked with defining security requirements across the wide spectrum of the VoIP ecosystem including individual VoIP building blocks, supporting security technology components (SBCs, Firewalls, etc.), architecture and network design (NAT, VPN, port security, etc.), network management, and end point access and authentication.

In addition to his position on VoIPSA, Andrew is also the CTO at Borderware, where he is responsible for leading the technology innovations at the company, ensuring their position as a leader in the messaging security field. Bringing his technical expertise and years of working worldwide with customers and technical communities, his vision, energy and enthusiasm drive BorderWare products to being the best-of-breed in messaging security. Prior to BorderWare, Andrew was the V.P. Customer Engineering at Wysdom, a privately held company which pioneered the Software Delivery Platform for wireless devices, allowing wireless telcos to enable their internal infrastructure for secure delivery of functionality to external developers. In this role he helped to internally define the technology and concepts while working with the customers and the technical community.

In his previous position as Director, Development with Origins Software Company, a startup in Boston bought by Wysdom, he architected the product and led the development team for ActiveBlueprints, a fourth generation development environment for generating N-tiered application code for mobile devices from graphical design flow diagrams.

Andrew holds a B.Sc(Hons) from Dublin City University, Ireland, in Applied Physics with specializations in Computational and Mathematical Physics.

Skype, GoogleTalk, Gizmo, and now MSN Messenger recognize why GIPs has a reputation for superior voice quality processing software. I thought it was about time we talked to the CEO of the perceived market leader. Mr. Hermansen talks about where they are focused today and also what they will be announcing shortly which includes a Video engine, whoa! Global IP Sound has been powering Skype’s voice virtually since the beginning, hear what Gary has to say about their revenues, product announcements, market penetration and future goals…this is GOOD stuff!

http://sipthat.com/mp3/Future-of-VoIP/Gary-Hermansen–CEO-GIPS.mp3

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Gary Hermansen, President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Hermansen brings to Global IP Sound over 20 years of sales and business experience from the telecommunication, Internet and semiconductor industries. In addition to his experience as CEO of Brightmail, Mr.
Hermansen was President and General Manager of Glenayre Consumer Products and held senior positions at Wireless Access, Cypress Semiconductor and Intel.

Jon Arnold and I had a good conversation about IP communications from a Canadian blogger perspective. It’s cool, check it it out!

http://vonradio.pulver.com/podcasts/VONradio-jon_arnold_erik_lagerway.mp3

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Michelle and I talked about Verizon’s broadband telephony VoIP offering VoiceWing and what the future holds for the service. It was interesting to hear her response on the possibility of VoIP on wireless handsets by leveraging the Verizon Wireless division. We also touched on competition ie, Vonage and walked through the MCI merger and the impact it is having on the VoIP department over at Verizon.

http://sipthat.com/mp3/Future-of-VoIP/Michelle-Swittenburg-VoIP-Director-Verizon-Voicewing.mp3

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Michelle Minus Swittenberg
Executive Director – Consumer VoIP
Verizon Communications – Retail Markets

Michelle Minus Swittenberg is a Director – Product Management at Verizon Communications. In this role she designed and developed Verizon’s Voice Over IP solution for consumers, VoiceWing, which launched in July 2004. She and her team have responsibility for the ongoing strategy and management of the product.

Prior to this role, Michelle served in a planning role within Retail Markets, where her responsibilities included developing the strategy for Verizon’s WiFi hotspot initiative. Also during her career with Verizon and the former GTE, Michelle has held positions in Strategy and Product Management.

Michelle holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

The future of audio conferencing seems to be in good hands with Ben over at Vapps. Ben talks about their very popular XML front-end Linux based platform and also mentions their newest and very large customer whose name starts with an “A”. You will have to listen to find out who.

http://sipthat.com/mp3/Future-of-VoIP/Ben-Lilienthal-Vapps-Conferencing.mp3

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Mr. Lilienthal is experienced spotting market needs and executing successful sales and distribution strategies around them. Prior to launching Vapps in 2002, Mr. Lilienthal founded Nascent Technologies, where he identified an early opportunity for web-enabled email and solely raised the capital investment to expand the company’s sales, marketing and software development efforts. As a result, Nascent became one of the first companies to introduce the product to the marketplace and was able to gain significant market share through OEM/VAR relationships and license deals with major telecommunications companies worldwide, including France Telecom, Belgacom and Hong Kong Telecom. In May 1999, Mr. Lilienthal sold Nascent to CMGI, which was subsequently acquired by Sendmail Inc. in 2001.

I wanted to get Chris‘s feedback on some recent events including GoogleTalk, eBay/Skype and the proprietary IM scene. We had some great (uncensored) conversation about the problems with Instant Messaging today and what Chris is doing to make it right. Chris also talks about lining up the big IM vendors on a panel at Gnomedex, a very cool technocrat convention he puts on in Seattle each year.

http://sipthat.com/mp3/Chris-Pirillo-Google-Skype-IM.mp3

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Chris Pirillo, best-selling author and creator of the award-winning Lockergnome series of online publications, has found the answers to harnessing the potential of technology. Profiled by such publications as The New York Times, Fortune, and Inc. Magazine, Pirillo has made the corporate and electronic elite stand up and take notice with the technical tips and trends built into his ventures. Pirillo continues to attract hundreds of thousands of readers and viewers, including some of Silicon Valley’s highest profile innovators. He’s found advertisers in thought leaders, including Google and Microsoft.

TELEVISION: As the host, infotained on a program for TechTV
RADIO: As talent, pulled in high ratings for AM 1040 WHO

More on Chris..

Tim Burne, CEO at VegaStream provided some interesting insight into the analog VoIP market today. Apparently digitial subs have not taken over the analog market, contrary to popular opinion. Tim talked about a new product they brought to market today and also what Vegastream’s intentions are in the residential market.

http://sipthat.com/mp3/Future-of-VoIP/Tim-Burne-VegaStream-CEO-Analog-Gateways.mp3

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Since Tim joined VegaStream in 2000, Tim successfully led the company’s management buy-out from Pace Micro Technology plc and has focused on delivering robust products and developed solutions to the market. He was made CEO in 2002. Prior to VegaStream Tim built and ran
a business unit designing and prototyping infrastructure equipment for the telecom industry for APW Electronics, and retained global responsibility for NPI within the company. Earlier on in his career Tim held various positions in design, manufacturing and general management with world-class electronics and engineering companies. He has an Honours degree in Engineering from Brunel University.

Interested in hearing how WiMAX will give not only the cable and DSL providers but also the EVDO and 3G providers a run for their money? Listen to this podcast with Jeff Thompson, COO at TowerStream. Learn how 802.16e will inject mobility into VoIP and push that concept over the top. Recently ToweStream signed a deal with Vonage, I see big things for these guys in the future of VoIP and IP communications.

http://sipthat.com/mp3/Future-of-VoIP/Jeff-Thompson-TowerStream-Wimax-VoIP.mp3

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Jeff will be part of the VON panel on Thursday, September 22nd: WiMax: Wi – Yes, Wi – Not, 1:30-2:45 PM

Mr. Thompson is the co-founder and the technology/operations leader of TowerStream. Thompson has created a new model for delivering reliable bandwidth to the commercial market. By leveraging second-generation multipoint fixed wireless technology, TowerStream has built an expandable network that is 99.99% reliable. Thompson represents TowerStream in the WiMAX Forum. He is frequently quoted in media because of his expertise in WiMAX, Fixed Wireless, and 802.16.

Prior to founding TowerStream, Thompson was founder and Vice President of Operations of eFortress, a privately held ISP. Under Thompson’s leadership, eFortress became one of New England’s largest ISPs. Thompson was responsible for eFortress’ growth to 20 markets across the country and he oversaw technical integration during nine ISP acquisitions.

He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from UMASS.

Laura Nembach over at Pulver.com asked if I would provide their listeners with a preview of the session I am moderating in Boston called “Boosting Call Center Productivity”.

Here is the call:
http://vonradio.pulver.com/podcasts/VONradio-erik_lagerway_von_preview.mp3

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I used Gizmo to make the call.