The telecom software industry is a joke -- at least as far as big tradeshows are concerned.

For all the talk about being part of the process for the NGN, and all the talk about OSS/BSS being an integral part of IMS by way of service delivery, and all the talk about how, this time, the back office wasn't going to be an afterthought, there sure wasn't much to back it up at NXTcomm last week.

Yes, trade shows are expensive. And yes, it is hard to compete for eyes and ears when the big equipment makers and device players are banging their gongs. And yes, the TeleManagement Forum held a successful software and standards event in Nice, France, just four weeks prior. But the TMF event, through no fault of its own that I know of, is increasingly reminiscent of an enclave. I thought hardware and software were going to march into the next generation together. But it sure doesn't seem like it, given the absence of software companies at the show.

Perhaps the grumbling I have heard is true -- that the organizers of NXTcomm don't deserve a big software contingent due to past grievances and a general software malaise. But there are ways around trade show politics. Perhaps software companies should take a page from the book of Sun Microsystems. They didn't have a booth at NXTcomm, either -- they haven't had a major tradeshow booth in over two years -- but they were in at least five of them at NXTcomm talking about the work they are doing with partners.

Perhaps some software companies used the split and reunification theatrics of the TIA and USTelecom to sit this one out. Maybe they'll be back next year. And maybe I am putting too much emphasis on a single trade show, but it struck me as I sat listening to session after session, panel after panel, of hardware providers, legal and regulatory experts, and service providers talk about how they planned to solve tomorrow's challenges today, that I might be the only one who felt something was missing.

Funny thing is... nobody even asks where Telcordia is anymore. And nobody noticed that MetaSolv, Syndesis and Cramer weren't there, either, probably assuming they were represented in the booths of their new parent companies -- but Oracle, Subex-Azure and Amdocs weren’t represented, either.

I am sure they know better than I what sort of return they get on their investment in an event like that, but there is a new philosophy about one of the industry's hottest new services that might apply here. It is the philosophy adopted by service providers who deploy IPTV despite knowing the business case has not yet been made. And that philosophy is: What is the cost of not deploying IPTV?

What is the cost of not being part of the trade show circus?

E-mail me at tmcelligott@telephonyonline.com.