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Andy Abramson
Interests: travel, wine, friends, blues, tech, music-jazz, dining, rock.
Recent Activity
A Lot Has Changed
Posted Dec 1, 2020 at VoIPWatch
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Voxbone Acquired by Bandwidth
Today Bandwidth announced they are acquiring Voxbone, a company I'm very familiar with from years of working with them in their early stages before becoming PE-backed. I've always admired their foresight, and recall how they always had Bandwidth in their sights, first as a customer, then wearily as a competitor, and even as a possible merger candidate. The deal makes a lot of sense, as for Bandwidth, as this removes a layer of supplier/co-opitition in North America, while expanding their footprint globally. The obvious layer it removes is the battle for the supply for telephone numbers, a service both have... Continue reading
Posted Oct 12, 2020 at VoIPWatch
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A Rose by any Other Name is Still a Rose
Posted Sep 30, 2020 at WINESCENE
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This Time, Microsoft Really Wants To Be Your Phone Company
Posted Sep 23, 2020 at VoIPWatch
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Lenovo Ideapad Duet Chromebook-The Price Is Right
Over the past few weeks I've been thinking more and more about how much tech jewelry I've been carrying around. In round numbers it's like this: Mac Book Air 2020 $1600 or Samsung Galaxy Chromebook $1000 iPad Mini w/LTE $ 700 iPhone XS $1150 One Plus 8 $ 700 That's over $3,500-$4,000 in tech I'm carrying around when I travel-and well, that's just insane. Add in headsets, chargers, battery packs, plus a nice bag, and I bet I'm not leaving the house with less than $5,000 in tech gear when I travel or even just jet around town on meetings.... Continue reading
Posted Sep 16, 2020 at VoIPWatch
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Is It Time To Rethink Wine Sales
Posted Sep 8, 2020 at WINESCENE
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The Cashless Sports Stadium Arrives
The headline on the news release read "Allegiant Stadium to make history as the first American pro sports venue to open cashless" so being a reformed sports marketing executive brought a smile to my face. It was also in a real way, a true to life dejavu for me. You see, 32 years ago when I was working with the Denver Nuggets we were one of, if not, the first arena's to incorporate credit cards at the concession stands. Back then, cash was king. You bought your beer with cash. Paid for your popcorn with dollars. You picked out merchandise... Continue reading
Posted Sep 6, 2020 at VoIPWatch
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Google Voice Adds On Going Call Takeover
Posted Sep 2, 2020 at VoIPWatch
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Dialpad Gets A Big High Five
To be always transparent, unlike many in the tech reporting or analyst world, I'm a shareholder in Dialpad and have in the past consulted on various projects and programs to the company. That means, I'm openly biased to see the company succeed. But then again, I'm supportive of the telecom industry, and never hide my affiliations or who I work with or advise. That's why when I learned this morning about the Dialpad acquisition of HighFive, I couldn't have been more ecstatic as it shows a steady path forward for the company that is really one of the few born... Continue reading
Posted Sep 1, 2020 at VoIPWatch
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The Video Calling Switchboard Has Arrived
Zoom just took the first step to create the video calling switchboard. This may not seem like a big deal, but it really is because right now, video calling and video conferencing, like encrypted communications, is a dystopia of balkanized efforts, where each provider does things their own way, and for users it means having multiple services to subscribe to and use. Not only is this unwieldy from a cost control standpoint, it is downright confusing. It's as confusing as the days of ICQ and AOL Messenger being owned and operated by AOL but not being interconnected. Now, so many... Continue reading
Posted Aug 19, 2020 at VoIPWatch
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Apple Idea of Privacy Could Be Trusted Advertising - Meet The Ad Store
Apple has made a bold move in the world of privacy. They are cutting off the IDFA at the knees. Some may call it digital castration, as John Koetsier points out in his Forbes story. But I think there's more to this. While Apple does sell ads inside the app store, Apple is really the only one of the giants - Google, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft which has never really leveraged its' own user base or platforms for ads. So here's a concept that may come true. Right now Apple has radio inside iTunes. It has TV. It has News.... Continue reading
Posted Jun 24, 2020 at VoIPWatch
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The Year That Wasn't
Posted Jun 22, 2020 at WINESCENE
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Dilemma of Being Early
I've been on WhatsApp for so long, I can't remember my first message or call on it. As someone who was traveling the globe on a regular basis from 2004 until early this year, overtime I found more and more people I was coming into contact with outside the USA were on the free app that did the basics better than just about anything on the planet. For the past few years I've been using Signal, which is just about the best encrypted app for text, voice and video around. I've dabbled with Silent Circle, only to find that not... Continue reading
Posted Jun 22, 2020 at VoIPWatch
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Text Fragment Linking By Google
Posted Jun 19, 2020 at VoIPWatch
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Ex Truphone -James Body's Son Sebastian Died Too Soon
Sad news department ---I was about to write a few overdue wine notes today, but I wanted to catch up on things about ClueCon and Dangerous Demos with long time Truphone exec turned Not Spot maven James Body in the UK. While VoIPWatch is not the obituary column, it is a mode of communication for now 16 years that has the eyes and attention of the VoIP and Telecom community paying attention to it. I just reached James a short few minutes ago, as he's been a friend and colleague of now over 15 years, to only be saddened to... Continue reading
Posted May 17, 2020 at VoIPWatch
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The MicroSwitch: My Analysis On The Microsoft's MetaSwitch Buy
Posted May 15, 2020 at VoIPWatch
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How Skype Fell to Zoom
Posted May 12, 2020 at VoIPWatch
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5G Delays May Be Good News. Here's Why
Posted May 1, 2020 at VoIPWatch
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2015 Domaine D'Ourea Tire Bouchon - A Surprise In Every Sip
Posted Mar 26, 2020 at WINESCENE
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Random Thoughts from A Road Warrior's Idle Mind
Life on the road is never as great as some who don't travel. Here are some observations from being on the road more than at home. Q. Why is it that the morning of daylight saving time (DST) hotel clocks are not updated the night before I go to bed. How hard is it to adjust the clock before the guest arrives, or returns for the evening during turn down service and leave a note that the clock's been adjusted so when you wake up it's the right time? A. Because the hotel staff hasn't been around long enough to... Continue reading
Posted Mar 8, 2020 at VoIPWatch
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A Tale of Two 2016 Beaumes de Venise Wines
Posted Mar 2, 2020 at WINESCENE
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What The Corona Virus Means To Business Today
The Corona virus is not being contained, and each day we read of another event being shut down or companies pulling out--with SONY and Facebook being the most recent to cancel their participation in the Game Developers Conference. Make no mistake, these are not easy decisions as sales, marketing and promotion all surround conferences, but it's the sales meetings and media launches that are hit the hardest. Hundreds of meetings with prospects. Thousands of man hours of training independent developers. Dozens of briefings with reporters, all that set the tone for what's coming next are sideswiped and pole-axed when a... Continue reading
Posted Feb 24, 2020 at VoIPWatch
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Three Reasons Why IT Expo Was Great For Me
I've been a regular attendee at IT Expo since the late 1990's and other than a flight issue one year that kept me from making my way east, I've been attending the telecom industry gathering each winter. This year's event, held in Fort Lauderdale, was one of the best ever, and felt a lot like the old days of VON. Here's my three reasons why IT Expo was so great: More people I know were there-Having been a regular at telecom shows I've gotten to know a lot of people over the years. This year at IT Expo I had... Continue reading
Posted Feb 17, 2020 at VoIPWatch
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IT Expo-The Modern Day VON Blur
It's been a long time since Jeff Pulver's VON Conference series ended. Back in the day there were at least two if not three or four or five VON's a year. Competitor, TMCNet's IT Expo ran two events as well and literally the conference circuit for VoIP and related industries felt like an every other month activity. There were others that were put on but as publications died off so too did the events. What was great though back then was you got to see your friends more often, as well as you clients. What was bad was between the... Continue reading
Posted Feb 10, 2020 at VoIPWatch
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The Why Behind Comcast's BlueFace Acquisition
A few weeks ago I was attending the PTC Conference in Honolulu for a client. The event came right on the heels of the news that Comcast had purchased the Irish softswitch company Blueface. Maybe it was the timing, and how busy things were being 5 hours off of east coast time, but I sort of chalked the purchase up to the obvious reasons to me in conversations at PTC about the buy. However, in thinking back to most of the news coverage of it, so much was focused on what Comcast said in their statements that the "obvious" wasn't... Continue reading
Posted Feb 3, 2020 at VoIPWatch
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