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Is usage-based billing a necessary evil? Do telecom companies really have an issue with network congestion, or is the whole thing a regulatory red herring?
Today we have two long-time telecom IT experts who can take your questions on the technical side of the UBB discussion.
Mark Goldberg, who has more than 30 years of experience in managing, designing and implementing telecommunications carrier networks, thinks the decision is necessary in this era of all-you-can-eat Internet plans gone wild.
Ronald Gruia, Principal Analyst for Emerging Telecom at Frost & Sullivan, feels that it's a regulatory misstep that's leading Canada in the wrong direction.
Join our guests at 12 P.m. EST Tuesday for an hour online.
Ronald Gruia is the Principal Analyst for Emerging Telecom at Frost & Sullivan. His main focus areas include NGN migration strategies, IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystems), 4G (LTE, WiMAX), FMC, VoIP, Next-Gen Carrier Messaging Platforms, IPTV, Triple Play Services, IP Centrex, Enterprise Communications Systems and Unified Communications, among others. He has authored several reports and has also played a key role in strategic consulting projects in these areas.
Since joining Frost & Sullivan in February of 2001, Mr. Gruia has spoken at conferences such as Supercomm, VON, 3GSM, CTIA (IMS Summit), IMS Expo, Futurecom (Brazil), IP Comm, Fierce IPTV, Intel Communications Summit, IMS World Forum, VON Canada, IP World Canada and Comdex Canada. He also writes articles for various publications (such as IMS Magazine, VoIP Magazine, Telecommunications Magazine and Telemanagement), has appeared on Report on Business Television and TechTV (Canada), Decision TV (Brazil) and Telecom TV (UK, live from Spain), and has been quoted in publications such as Business Week, Financial Times, Forbes, Wired, API, DJ Newswire, Reuters, MarketWatch, Network World, IT Business, IT World, Los Angeles Times, San Jose Mercury News, Wireless Week, National Post, San Francisco Chronicle and CIO Magazine.
Mr.Gruia is an MIT graduate in Electrical Engineering, and has accumulated years of experience in the telecom industry, having held several roles at Nortel Networks' Enterprise Division, where he earned a U.S. patent. He fluently speaks Portuguese, Spanish and Romanian and has working knowledge of Italian and French.
Mark Goldberg has more than 30 years of international experience in strategic planning, managing, designing and implementing telecommunications carrier networks. His background includes heading the Network Services organization for one of Canada's largest long distance companies, developing the network architecture for competition in Canada, design of the US Government Voice Network, creating the business plan for Canada's Information Highway initiative, and helping international entrepreneurs launch traditional and enhanced telecommunications services.