Friday, June 20, 2008

MassNetComms appoints carrier rep to council chairman

By Efrain Viscarolasaga

In an effort to expand its reach and keep up with a shifting telecommunications industry, the Massachusetts Network Communications Council has elected a new executive management team, for the first time placing a carrier representative in the lead seat.

Steve Krom, vice president and general manager of AT&T Corp.’s wireless unit in New England, has been appointed to the lead role as chairman of the council. He is joined by new vice-chairman Ofer Gneezy, CEO of Burlington-based iBasis Inc., and two new at-large committee members in former Groove Mobile Inc. CEO Eric Giler and former Broadbus Technologies Inc. CEO Vin Bisceglia.

Krom takes over for outgoing chairman E.Y. Snowden, CEO of Acton-based Tatara Systems Inc., who will remain as a committee member.

While the turnover was scheduled — the council appoints a new chairman every two years — this was the first time the organization has not followed the usual chain of command and had the vice chairman move to the top post. 

“Instead of going through the natural succession, we had to rethink our strategy,” said Mark Horan, executive director of MassNetComms. “Traditionally we’ve been very focused on the infrastructure of the network, but there have been big changes in the industry, with a lot of focus on wireless technologies and the application layer, so we were looking to reflect that.”

The appointments, said Horan, represent the change the council has seen in its 200-company membership. Wireless operators are represented by Krom (AT&T) and Gneezy (iBasis). Giler, a former chairman from 1998 to 2000, represents both the wireless application side as former CEO of Groove Mobile, as well as the infrastructure side as the former CEO of Dedham-based Brooktrout Technology Inc. Bisceglia comes from the video applications side, as the former CEO of Boxborough-based Broadbus, which was acquired by Motorola Inc. in 2006.

However, shedding the “infrastructure only” moniker the council has developed over the past 15 years and attracting the region’s young, new communications technology developers may take time. According to David Chang, co-founder of Mobicious Inc. in Needham, a maker of mobile applications such as SnapMyLife, a photo-sharing platform, the council’s shift is certainly needed, albeit a little late.

“Increasing MassNetComms’ focus on the wireless and application side makes sense given the current market trends, although in some respects, the move is a little late and lags behind recent trends in new venture capital investment,” Chang said.

However, Chang added that if the council incorporated a more consumer-focused element, more companies would most certainly join. That, said Horan, is the crux of the council’s new strategy. “There’s a whole world of wireless application developers out there that we can help grow and we haven’t traditionally embraced them and we need to,” he said.