Daily Links 5/7/2012: Franken wants Administration to investigate Comcast

Diane Mastrull: Stroll sprints to keep its marketing machine growing (Philadelphia Inquirer)

SAP Brings Process Modeling to the Masses (PR Newswire)

Infonetics Research: Comcast, Verizon top Infonetics Business VoIP Services Scorecard for North America (Business Wire)

Mobile Carriers Cutting Down on Phone Subsidies: WSJ (Fox
Business)

Google infringed on some Oracle Java copyright: jury (Reuters)

AT&T Unchains Home-Security Plans
Telco Plans Trials in Dallas, Atlanta This Summer (Multichannel News)
Takes on ADT, Comcast, Verizon, anong others.

Sen. Franken Wants Obama Administration to Investigate Comcast (The Wrap)

Google makes plans to move Motorola Mobility to Chicago (Crain's Chicago Business)
No indication as to whether this would effect Moto Mobility's Horsham operations.

App will let residents zap problems to 3-1-1 (Philadelphia Daily News)

A trip to the (virtual) grocery store (Ars Technica)

Synchronoss Drops 16% Despite Q1 Beat (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

Synygy Reports Another Record-Breaking Quarter (Business Wire)



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Alteva joins Cloud Communications Alliance, partners with Microsoft and BroadSoft for hosted Unified Communications solution

When I wrote about Philadelphia-based hosted VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services provider Alteva a few months ago, I highlighted two important strategic issues the company faced. First, it had to determine how to begin moving beyond a primarily regional footprint as the industry inevitably begins to consolidate. Secondly, Alteva needed to define its strategy in the growing market for "unified communications services".
In recent weeks, Alteva took significant steps on both fronts.

In April at the Cloud Computing Expo in New York, Alteva was announced as a founding member of the Cloud Communications Alliance along with seven other companies. The network will offer nationwide peering with interconnected switches and gateways across the country to provide greater network efficiences and more HD voice connections, a common infrastructure to provide nationwide customer support, closer integration of mobile and fixed platforms, formation of a Cloud Communications Alliance 'Sandbox' which will allow the rapid rollout and customer adoption of new apps, joint product development, and other shared services. The combined companies represent more than $100 million of revenue and 100,000 customers.

On the second front, Alteva announced it was partnering with Microsoft and BroadSoft to deliver a hosted Unified Communications (UC) solution to small businesses. Alteva says it interconnects its hosted voice and messaging services with the Microsoft Communication Services product suite, including Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint and Office Communications Server (OCS). In part to reflect the emphasis on this offering, Alteva is rebranding itself as a hosted unified communications solution provider, according to Chief Sales Officer Louis Hayner. (This is reflected in their redesigned website). In addition, Alteva now has a web store where organizations with less than 25 users can evaluate and select applications.

Also, Alteva was recently awarded Unified Communications Magazine's "Product of the Year" award for 2009 for its new voice application, Alteva Vision.




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Daily Links 4/2/2010: Comcast-NBCU deal under scrutiny by Florida, other states

Eastern Tech-MAC merging (Philadelphia Business Journal)
MAC Alliance and The Eastern Technology Council Announce Agreement to Merge (Press Release)

BI Software Provider QlikTech Files for $100M IPO (Managing Automation)
2009 revenue of $157.4 million.

Comcast-NBC Universal Deal Probed by Florida Amid U.S. Review
(Bloomberg via Business Week)

Verizon Derides Cable 3DTV Efforts
(Light Reading Cable)

Comcast Owes One-Fifth of Its Value to VoIP (Seeking Alpha)

Delaware iPad lines form at 6, maybe earlier (Wilmington News Journal)




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Report: Comcast acquires VoIP firm

The blog Von is reporting that Comcast has agreed to acquire privately held VoIP provider New Global Telecom. Von cites an internal Comcast email sent by Comcast president of business services Bill Stemper. NGT, based in Golden, CO, is "one of the nation’s largest providers of wholesale hosted and trunk-based VoIP solutions", Stemper says in the email. In October of last year, Comcast acquired Chicago-area CLEC Cimco Communications. More moves had been expected by Comcast in the business telecom market.



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EchoStar, With Slingbox, May See Set-Top Box Opportunity (Dow Jones via CNNMoney.com)
Could pose a longterm competitive threat to Motorola's set-top box business, based in Horsham.


At Age 2, Verizon FiOS Evolves (Light Reading: TELCOTV NEWS ANALYSIS)
FIOS TV to move to an all-IPTV platform.


Court affirms Vonage infringed 2 Verizon patents (Reuters)
The article refers to Vonage having the highest market share in VoIP, though I think by most measurements Comcast is now considered the leader.


TCS Teams with SAP on the Launch of the 'Perfect Plant' Center of Excellence (PR Newswire via CNNMoney.com)
Center to be located in Newtown Square.


India to help build second Silicon Valley in US (The Economic Times India)
A bit of an exaggeration, perhaps. First incubation center planned for somewhere in New Jersey.


Outsourcing Works, So India Is Exporting Jobs (New York Times)


Latest Issue of BE Magazine Looks at Intelligent Transportation Systems (BusinessWire via Yahoo Finance)
On Bentley Systems' magazine.


Out of the Gate: Tyco Electronics
Tyco Electronics Shares Rise As Credit Suisse Analyst Begins Coverage at "Outperform" (Associated Press via CNNMoney.com)


SGE Announces David Tamburri as Entrepreneur in Residence (PR Newswire)
SGE is a private equity branch of Susquehanna International Group.


Safend Joins SanDisk Enterprise Solutions Technology Alliance (MarketWire)
Safend, an Israeli software security firm, has its US headquarters in Philadelphia.


Microsoft Takes Aim at Google’s Ad Supremacy (New York Times)


Penn’s Autonomous Car “Little Ben” Advances to the Semi-Finals (University of Pennsylvania Almanac)


Aria Systems Takes In-Game Billing to New Level With IBM (Marketwire)

Technology PR Sessions at 2007 PRSA Conference (Copywriting That Sells High Tech Blog)
To be held next month in Philadelphia.