ISPCON Buzz

Plenty happened at ISPCON—we'll be writing about it for weeks—but here are some news items that stand out.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [October 27, 2005]

People
Many of the industry gurus who used to be independent are now working for various equipment companies. It's likely that you already know that Jack Unger is working for NextPhase Wireless (see Wireless Guru Named Chief Engineer at NextPhase; Company Taps into Technology Expert Jack Unger to Raise the Bar in Providing Wireless Solutions). We'll be talking to the company soon about high bandwidth radios.

Wireless Tech Radio's Jim Sutton has joined Trango Broadband in a sales position.

Steve Stroh has found a nifty-sounding job at SKYTILITY where he is their senior research analyst. They've got some interesting plans, but, unfortunately, we promised not to tell.

The folks from Front Porch were present as conference attendees (for more on the company, see Christopher Knight's old writeup, Making the Most of Your ISP Real Estate: Front Porch Communications).

Technology
The people at anti-spyware vendor ParetoLogic said that spam may be defeated, but spyware will remain for a very simple reason. "Spyware is profitable."

Sanswire Networks is almost ready to deploy its first statellite, an unmanned airship that will fly at 65,000 feet, carrying several thousand pounds of equipment, with LOS to an area "the size of Texas." We'll have more details when a stratellite is actually in the air and carrying commercial traffic.

Plymouth, Ind.-based ImageStream, a router maker, was recommended to us by an ISPCON board member who is also an ISP.

We have for several years recommended that ISPs that are small- and medium-sized businesses take advantage of the opportunity of working with large companies that have been successful in Europe but are only now arriving in the U.S. We spoke with Scotsman Joe McPhillips who is personally setting up the operations of European security provider Netintelligence in the U.S. He can be reached through the company's contact page. Its ISP solutions (pricing not disclosed) allow administrators to set policies and review usage and threat data. The system is designed for both residential and business users.

Press
For the first time in years, we chatted with two international journalists, both freelancers. Elizabeth Biddlecombe was reporting for premium website Total Telecom (subscriptions £100 to £400) so her article on Covad president Hoffman's keynote is unavailable. She reports for a variety of English publications. Ryoji Koike reports on U.S. technology for a variety of Japanese publications, and was particularly interested in WiMax and VoIP.

Conclusion
As to the overall theme of ISPCON, it was that ISPs should look to applications, services, because businesses operating in those areas are flourishing.

— End