Monday, May 12, 2008

Seeking new cable tech; VON is gone, baby, gone

By Efrain Viscarolasaga

One of the godfathers of broadband communications is looking to spawn some godchildren, and he is putting up $200,000 per year to help the effort.

Rouzbeh Yassini, credited with the invention of the cable modem, has established a $200,000 grant program for post-graduate entrepreneurs to help them develop new applications aimed at fulfilling what he calls the full promise of broadband communications. The grants are being offered through Yassini's Broadband Knowledge Center on Newbury Street in Boston, and applications for the first of four $50,000 grants are being accepted now through early July.

To help sift through the applicants, Yassini has also established an advisory board consisting of heavy hitters in the broadband community, including: Chris Bowick, CTO of Cox Communications; Marwan Fawaz, CTO of Charter Communications; Dave Fellows, executive fellow at Comcast; as well as representatives from broadband providers Time Warner, Cablevision and Rogers Cable.

The grant will allow entrepreneurs to focus on innovation, said Yassini, rather than on the economics and logistics of starting a company from scratch before a technology is fully developed.

"The idea is to solve the problems of innovation for the entrepreneur before he starts looking at commercialization," he said.

While the first awardee will be announced in September, Yassini expects to go through the process four times a year for the next five years.

Why von didn't last

I don't like to pull the "I told you so" card too often, but in this particular case I will make an exception.

Last fall, in the wake of Pulvermedia's fall Voice on the Net (VON) expo in Boston, I wrote a story that, among other things, implied that the trade show had lost some of its relevance. Personally, I thought it was a fair piece, and even gave Pulvermedia credit for providing a forum for local companies to make international connections.

Days later I was contacted by Pulvermedia PR representatives, demanding that I explain myself. Their sources, of course, had told them it was one of the most successful shows ever, though they would not provide attendance or revenue numbers. What's more, they questioned my reporting, fairness and accuracy.

Six months later, it appears Pulvermedia has hit on some bad times and, in hindsight, the situation validates the comments I received on the show floor.

Rumors have been circulating for weeks that the empire built on the promise of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) was on the downslide and could cease operations. Pulvermedia's Connecticut-based investor, TICC Capital Group, which invested $10.6 million in the company, listed it as a "complete writedown" in its recent annual report, and reported that Pulvermedia expected a "sudden and dramatic decline in projected revenues and earnings for the coming year."

One reason for the decline, as noted in the report: "The likelihood of a recession is also having a dramatic impact on the number of attendees at the company's shows."

What's more, company founder and VoIP evangelist Jeff Pulver resigned from the company's board two weeks ago, offering no explanation. And our public relations friends at Pulvermedia offered little in the way of details. "Pulvermedia is currently undergoing a restructuring," said a spokesman via e-mail.

VON Magazine also appears to be on hold. The magazine's website is unavailable as of this writing, and its editor-in-chief, Doug Mohney, has been writing for Fierce VoIP.

At least two local companies I contacted are also in the dark about their investments with Pulvermedia for future events, such as trade shows and webinars. Both wished to remain anonymous, but said executives at Pulvermedia have been less than responsive to inquiries about the state of future events.

Despite the personal defense of my previous piece, the possible demise of VON and Pulvermedia is disappointing. I have only met Pulver a couple of times, but it seems to me the man saw an opportunity he believed in and jumped on it. When all is said and done, Pulvermedia will be seen as a success in promoting VoIP and a victim of its own success, losing relevance as the technology it promoted became so commoditized that promotion became unnecessary.

We should all be so lucky.