Telephony Online

AGENDA

Opening Address from Jaxon Lang, Vice President of Global Connectivity Solutions-Americas, ADC

Opening Keynote: Dennis Huber, Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy & Development, Embarq
Embarq, formerly the local line business of Sprint, doesn’t own wireless spectrum, isn’t launching IPTV and like most local companies is losing access lines regularly. But through innovation using both new technology and partnerships with wireless and video players, Embarq is offering a distinctive array of new services for its customers and seeing its data revenues and average revenue per user climb as a result. Dennis Huber will discuss the company’s strategy for keeping a local wireline business not only viable but able to thrive.

Is the Quad Play Your Future?
This panel will examine whether telcos must deliver on voice, data, video and wireless to succeed and survive going forward, or whether there are other strategic choices to be made first. Among the issues to be examined are:

• The risks and rewards of building a local video infrastructure
• The potential of video partnerships
• Going beyond just adding video to integrating services
• The advantages and challenges of bundling wireless services

Panelists include:

• Moderator: Bernie Arnason, Managing Partner & Founder, Pivot Media LLC
• Diane Smith, President, Avail Media
• Shannon Aylesworth, Sales Director-Major Accounts, Redback Networks
• Jaxon Lang, Vice President of Global Connectivity Solutions-Americas, ADC
• Russ Sharer, Vice President of Marketing, Occam Networks

Live Demonstration with ADC

Ethernet on Main Street
Ethernet is taking over the metro market, but will it capture Main Street as well? This panel will cover the pros, cons and complexities of business services in rural areas. Topics to be covered include:

• Advantages of Ethernet over other data offerings
• Competition in the Ethernet market
• Technology choices for delivering Ethernet
• Challenges of offering and supporting Ethernet as a service

Panelists include:

• Moderator: Ed Gubbins, Executive News Editor, Telephony
• Glenn Moore, Dir. of Marketing and Sales Operations, Cavalier Telephone
• Kevin Sheehan, CEO, Hatteras Networks
• David Wright, General Manager, Cross Telephone
• Johnny Hill, Vice President of Product Development and Management, Clearfield Inc.

VIP Lunch with Allen Oppenheimer
Learn how to value your business and how to increase its future value. Discover tools for packaging your business to make it more attractive to a buyer, for increasing sales through marketing and market research and for organizational planning. Also, learn about the practical factors involved in the Sale-of-Business Process. Allen Oppenheimer, CPA, the Founder and President of A. M. Oppenheimer, Inc., has performed Business Brokerage and Business Evaluation Services for middle-market companies. His firm specializes in the areas of business valuation, exit planning and sale-of-business for middle-market companies. 

Live Demonstration with Clearfield Inc.

Wireless to the Rescue?
As WiMAX comes to market commercially, what does it have to offer to smaller towns and rural areas? Does WiFi have a fit? How does the 700 MHz auction impact your community? This panel will address the role wireless will play as an access technology going forward.  Topics to be covered will include:

• Wireless choices for rural network operators
• The cost and risk of owning your own spectrum
• The potential for increased competition based on wireless
• How to fit wireless into a rural carrier business plan and operation

Panelists include:

• Moderator: Kevin Fitchard, Senior Editor, Telephony
• Scott Meier, WiMAX product manager, TDS Telecom
• John Celantano, President, Skyline Marketing
• Brian McCalley, Strategy and Planning, Global Engineering, IBM

Networking Break

Live Demonstration

3:45-4:45 PM

Ownership in Flux?
Consolidation might be coming to a town near you. Analysts, industry executives and associations weigh in on the shifting landscape of telco ownership, including consolidation, wireline spinoffs and the challenge of going it alone.  Among the issues to be examined are:

• What drives rural telcos to expand
• When doing it all makes sense – and when it doesn’t
• How consolidation will affect rural telcos 
• The impact of current economic conditions on expansion

Panelists include:

• Moderator: Joan Engebretson, Supplements Editor, Telephony
• Vince Vittore, Program Manager, Enabling Technologies Service Provider Group, Yankee Group
• Bill King, President and Managing Principal, JSI Capital Advisors, LLC
• Kevin McGuire, Vice President, NTCA
• Francis X. Gallagher, Jr., Managing Director, Stifel, Nicolaus  Co., Inc.

Networking Reception