Microsoft recently announced that Teams had 115 million daily active users, up from just 20 million a year ago. Zoom had been growing rapidly before the pandemic hit (see graph below), and has seen a similar dramatic spike since March. As more and more businesses rely on these platforms – not only for video, but… Continue Reading
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FCC reduces compensation for toll-free calls
On October 7 the FCC released a new Report and Order about toll-free access charges, in response to concerns about arbitrage causing inefficiencies and excess costs in the system. I’ve written before about toll-free traffic pumping, which is one of the FCC’s concerns. They’re also seeing situations where calls are inefficiently routed from rural areas,… Continue Reading
Microsoft Teams integration announced by Metaswitch
Ever since Microsoft purchased Metaswitch, we’ve all been wondering whether we’d see closer integration between Microsoft Teams and the Metaswitch Hosted PBX / UCaaS functionality. One the one hand this seemed like an obvious plan, but we also know that Metaswitch was acquired by the Azure division within Microsoft, so this would require some cross-division… Continue Reading
Management lessons from The Last Dance
Like many others, I’ve been watching the ESPN / Netflix documentary “The Last Dance” about Michael Jordan’s time with the Chicago Bulls. I was expecting to see some great basketball footage and to hear about MJ’s dedication to his craft. What surprised me was how many useful insights Phil Jackson shared about how to coach… Continue Reading
Sherlock Holmes, his brother Mycroft and network redundancy
This past weekend my family watched the new Netflix movie Enola Holmes, which was a thoroughly entertaining story that cared little that its characters bore minimal resemblance to the “real” Holmes family. Mycroft diminished The biggest departure from the original stories was Mycroft. For those less nerdy than me, Mycroft Holmes is Sherlock’s older brother,… Continue Reading
Metaswitch’s future: Azure for Operators
When Microsoft announced its plan to acquire Metaswitch, they talked a lot about the promise of 5G, but made no significant announcements about their plans for the voice applications that are used by the majority of Metaswitch’s customer base. That changed today (September 28, 2020). Azure for Operators Today Microsoft announced a new initiative named… Continue Reading