When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Cry a Little, Laugh a Lot and Keep it UP

When people make negative reference to where you live, where you were born, your gender, lifestyle, culture, religion and other such social and personal characteristics in business, it just makes you and me realize what?

My first thought is ... for example, okay, so I am a white woman, the daughter of a protestant preacher and Vietnam War veteran, the wife of a USA government civil servant employee who works under the Department of Defense ... and I must say, it is true. On one hand, my husband tells me that I have to set my expectations for myself and my company higher than if I were a man. That's not a mystery to me.

My business partner who started Super Technologies, Inc. with me and many of the people in my company are from India, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates and Malaysia, but they are also some of the brightest, wisest, hard-working people I have ever met in my life.

I have traveled a lot in my life as a teacher, writer, entrepreneur, and business-owner with the goal to help my customers, number 1, and I do know that people do business differently in each area of the world.

But when I read something like this, after the countless 10-16 hour days that I and everyone in my company work and care for our customers, I admit for few moments that I want to cry.

But I can't. Tomorrow will be a new day.

Read the whole thread at http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-biz/2010-November/thread.html#start with search phrase: DIDX Query ... to find the following comments about www.didx.net.

> The debasement, cultural Third Worldisation, and used car salesmanship
> of the VoIP origination business presently being ascribed to DIDX in
> this thread is a real story, consisting of real thoughts by real
> people that is a useful data point from an empirical perspective.
> Everyone is, of course, free to make their own judgments and
> purchasing decisions.  However, there is clearly sufficient consensus
> around this angle on it that it's not just a figment of one
> disgruntled individual's imagination.

You can imagine after 11 years of working with a global team to help thousands of voip companies have success with easier, more flexible choice of DID and DDI ... to read such a summary...

Find me networking for business and lifetime friendships at http://www.linkedin.com/in/suzannebowen.

What about CNAM and DIDX wholesale phone numbers?

For CNAM inbound DIDX does not control CNAM inbound. DIDX can only send what we get from provider (vendor or seller) of the phone number. Whatever features come with each DID voip phone number is clearly listed in cells or fields you can see when you click on the phone number's details before buying including CNAM or No CNAM.


However, in most cases, after the sale of a NON-CNAM enabled DID voip phone number, we can ask the provider to make the Name of the registered callers only on the DIDX Buyer's customer's DID number by activating CNAM Inbound service on the number. DIDX will be charged from the provider (seller, vendor) an extra fee per month and DIDX will pass that fee onto the DIDX Buyer if ordered.
 
.. other blogs from our Super Technologies' team at http://blogs.didx.net/ and http://blog.tmcnet.com/monetizing-ip-communications/, our online magazine at http://www.techistan.com/, our iTunes channel, and DIDX podcasts. Find out how to bring new customers to your telephone company with local phone numbers from 70 countries. We are excited to be a part of helping 1000s around the world start a business, have success and connect with others via our Super Technologies' services such as DIDX, Techistan, Virtual Phoneline, CFMS or HVOIP white label business and more.

NI Shares the Love from DIDX Team for its Wholesale Telephony Member Community

Nauman is one of the coolest, smartest, most customer-loved member on our DIDX team. I like the way he shares great deals on DID phone numbers for wholesale buyers in this video. 


Did anyone see him take the lead on our company's rendition of "All We Need is Love?"



... browse some of our team's other blogs at http://blogs.didx.net and http://blog.tmcnet.com/monetizing-ip-communications/, our online magazine at http://www.techistan.com, our iTunes channel, and DIDX podcasts. Find out how to get your telephone company to offer phone numbers from around the world. You're welcome to comment, contribute, and collaborate any time. We are excited to be a part of helping 1000s around the world start a business, have success and connect with others via our Super Technologies' services such as DIDX, Techistan, Virtual Phoneline, CFMS or HVOIP white label business and more.

Co-operative Republic of Guyana DID phone numbers and telco trivia

http://www.didx.net has several thousand telco and voip company wholesale members with a goal to buy and sell DID and DDI phone numbers. The most recent request is for Co-operative Republic of Guyana DID phone numbers. Requesting wireless and wired telcos and voip companies with this to contact care@didx.net with Co-operative Republic of Guyana in the subject line. This is wholesale level only. See http://www.didx.net/interop to understand the terms and interop testing steps to get an instant interconnect with thousands of other service providers for origination (DID/DDI).

BTW, for the trivia buffs...
Telephone Systems in Guyana
Telephones: 110,120 main telephone lines (2005)
Telephones mobile cellular: 281,400 (2005)
General Assessment: fair system for long-distance service
Domestic: microwave radio relay network for trunk lines; fixed-line teledensity is about 15 per 100 persons; many areas still lack fixed-line telephone services; mobile-cellular teledensity reached 37 per 100 persons in 2005
International: country code - 592; tropospheric scatter to Trinidad; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)


... browse some of our team's other blogs at http://blogs.didx.net and http://blog.tmcnet.com/monetizing-ip-communications/. Find out how to get your telephone company to offer phone numbers from around the world. You're welcome to comment, contribute, and collaborate any time.

The Weekend Comes Alive at GoMobile

And I think it will do the same for you! Start by visiting the GoMobile website and listen to the music at GoMobile.

What are some of the fun things you get to do while you take the opportunity to learn something mobile new, do some new mobile business and bring out the mobile you? Be among 60,000+ participants, too.

Mobile Booth Hunt
GoMobile Moments Photo Competition
Cyberjaya GoMobile Photo Competition
Truly Asia Reality Mobile Video Contest
Raffles-Truly Asia Reality Mobile Video Contest
QR Code Contest
GoMobile Clique
GoMobile Fashion Show
Fancy a Free LG Phone?

GoMobile Team is quite sure that there are going to be lots more things happening at GoMobile 2009. Keep checking www.gomobile.my and www.clique.gomobile.my.

Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre
23 – 24 October (Fri & Sat): 11 am - 9 pm
25 October (Sun) : 11 am - 8 pm

DIDX and Virtual Phone Line are media partner for GoMobile. Are you an IP communications service provider? Join DIDX and advertise for your clients to get a Malaysia phone number while in Kuala Lumpur to ring on their cell phone or data side instant messenger. You are not a provider, but a consumer? Check with MyDivert, Jetnumbers, Tollfreeforwarding, Gizmo Project, FreeLocalNumber, or Virtual Phone Line for a Malaysia phone number to stay local while in K.L.!

... browse some of our team's other blogs at http://blogs.didx.net and http://blog.tmcnet.com/monetizing-ip-communications/. You're welcome to comment, contribute, and collaborate any time.

Smart Grid Summit at ITEXPO including Energy Management in the Home

Feel like conferences you attend have the same people and showcase the same technologies? Not ITEXPO. Smart Grid Summit at ITEXPO, Sept 1-3, 2009 is a hot new area that is driving massive participation. Check http://smart-grid.tmcnet.com/conference/west-09/.

Grid Interoperability & Standards
As reflected by The Energy Independence and Security Act, the need for a common grid architecture, where all aspects of grid communications and control are standardized uniformly is of central importance to a proper functioning Smart Grid infrastructure. In this panel, members of various international and national standards bodies spanning the full spectrum of the communications industry, together with leading solutions providers will share their insights.

Energy Management in the Home
Home energy management will be a significant opportunity brought on by the Smart Grid. There are various issues which have to be addressed in this space: if real time-time data access is needed, device interoperability, the impact of regulations on a competitive landscape, issues of who controls devices and owns the data they generate, consumer privacy.

Emerging Opportunities
When the Smart Grid is connected to the Smart Home, we will have the required infrastructure to expand past energy management into many other fields enabled by real-time two-way communications. This session will explore emerging opportunities and business models that come with ubiquitous broadband, smart metering, and critical steps to reduce our dependence on non-renewable energy sources.

Utilities and Their Smart Grid Visions
Smart Grid is a broad concept, and being so new, utilities have various visions and deployment plans. Some of this is driven by regulatory and policy issues, some is based on local market dynamics, and some is based a particular vision about sustainable or green energy initiatives. This session will explore a range of visions and best practices from utilities in various stages of Smart Grid deployment.

Demand Response on a Communications Enabled Grid
In industrial settings, Demand Response services play a central role in the efficient use of energy. Looking beyond this niche, the automation and real-time gauging of Demand Response applied to consumers in general will be, among other things, both essential to a grid supporting renewable energy sources and paramount to a reliable energy grid. This panel will include thought leaders from the leading DR service providers, DR technology vendors, and researchers to explore the new opportunities of demand response on a Smart Grid.

(Copied from the original website above.) DIDXchange is a media partner for ITEXPO West.

... browse some of our team's other blogs at http://blogs.didx.net and http://blog.tmcnet.com/monetizing-ip-communications/. You're welcome to comment, contribute, and collaborate any time.

DIDX Members' Voice Mashups and Business Models

Thomas Howe's definition of voice mashup (listed on Youtube) ... an application that is written on top of other services usually involving APIs somewhere that integrates voice with something else that makes that something else more valuable. A few of the many examples among 12,500 DIDX members of Voice Mashups are listed at...
1. http://www.didx.net/podcast
2. http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/did-ddi/
3. http://didx.net/casestudy/


... browse some of our team's other blogs at http://blogs.didx.net and http://blog.tmcnet.com/monetizing-ip-communications/. You're welcome to comment, contribute, and collaborate any time.

Interview with Joel Driver, Asterisk Developer and Entrepreneur

Joel Driver first started playing with VoIP in 1995. Today he runs one of the web's most popular call forwarding service at myDivert.com. Listen to our discussion on the DIDX podcasts.

myDivert is a hot spot for startup entrepreneurs who need a local presence in as many as 60+ countries. myDivert makes it easy for its customers to start receiving phone calls from those who are most important to them. Their business partners, potential and current customers, friends and family will make a local call that myDivert's solution will route to where its customers has chosen to forward to ... SIP, IAX2 or a cell phone or landline phone.

Joel shares his experience with a history of his business ventures, what he is doing now that he is most excited about, websites he uses the most, how he as a service provider and experienced Asterisk developer has helped DIDX to improve, and advice he gives to other service providers or carriers who want to use DIDX to buy or sell phonenumbers.

Joel of myDivert.com is a good example of quick understanding of SEM (search engine marketing) and makes good use of tools such as Facebook, blogs, Twitter and Youtube. You can find Joel to business with and learn from by "googling" "buy DID number" or visit http://www.mydivert.com


.... browse some of our team's other blogs at http://blogs.didx.net and http://blog.tmcnet.com/monetizing-ip-communications/. You're welcome to comment, contribute, and collaborate any time.

Friends become Business Partners and Vice Versa

Sometimes your friends become your customers, business partners or suppliers or vice versa. We think the world of VoIPSwitch as friends but also as inspiring innovators in IP telephony and IP communications. We met online through DIDX back in 2005, but we met Chris, Lukasz, Michel, Michael and more from VoipSwitch in person finally at ITEXPO East in Miami.



VoipSwitch and we met again at CommunicAsia 2009 in Singapore in February and had the most amazing time referring clients back and forth, helping entrepreneurs make their mash-up ideas a reality, and bringing on new global carriers to sell DID from new countries on DIDX!

Check out their video that explains how to leverage the wholesale DID marketplace on Youtube with DIDX's new API, and the great article that TMCnet editor Tim Gray edited on the DID/DDI channel.

So, what else are DIDX and VoipSwitch doing? Co-sponsoring a Lucky Strike Bowling Party during ITEXPO West 2009 in Los Angeles! ITEXPO West is a great conference for consumers, early adopters, carriers, voip companies, ip communications companies, ip pbx vendors, wireless operators and more. It's Sept 1-3. You can sign up for free expo passes, but even better get a conference pass which includes great educational sessions, breakfast, lunch, receptions and more close proximity to others who are serious business development and procurement. Sign up at http://www.itexpo.com.

... browse some of our team's other blogs at http://blogs.didx.net and http://blog.tmcnet.com/monetizing-ip-communications/. You're welcome to comment, contribute, and collaborate any time.

Green Saves Money Virtual PBX

Interested? Listen to the DIDX podcast with Michael Schelin of ShellTel on Virtual PBX, fax to email, virtualization, shopping cart systems and the advantages of using DIDX to buy and sell wholesale DID/DDI.

Blog also posted at TMC Green Technology blog. Save money and help save the Earth.

... browse some of our team's other blogs at http://blogs.didx.net and http://blog.tmcnet.com/monetizing-ip-communications/. You're welcome to comment, contribute, and collaborate any time.

It's True, Wholesale Singapore DID, $1 Per Month

Now, that is a great deal. We met an excellent source of Singapore DID at CommunicAsia last week in Singapore.

$1 per month per number on the first 500 DID numbers. Only 10 DID purchase per DIDX account of this special deal. We want to be fair. They will sell fast, so take advantage now. Not a member of DIDX? Must be wholesale, have a softswitch and complete the DIDX interop. Sign up now.

If you are in Singapore, you can call us on +65-3108-0300 and meet up our Director of Business Development Mr. Rehan Allahwala there.

We wish you a happy successful 2009!

... browse some of our team's other blogs at http://blogs.didx.net and http://blog.tmcnet.com/monetizing-ip-communications/. You're welcome to comment, contribute, and collaborate any time.

Two Female Entrepreneurs on Direct Inward Dialing

Maria Gomez is the Customer Relations Manager and Co-Founder of GGGG Corporation. Suzanne Bowen, that's me, is the Vice President and Co-Founder of Super Technologies, Inc. in 1999 who offer the DIDXchange, the wholesale direct inward dialing marketplace. We discuss in English and Spanish what is so great about direct inward dialing, selling and buying DID on DIDX, and in particular the power of having a local presence in Colombia via a phone number.

Visit http://www.didx.net/podcast/?p=episode&name=2009-06-12_mariag_columbiadidx.mp3 at our DIDX podcast and listen.

Maria, from one end of Florida to the other... see you soon.

(I apologize to Maria and all readers for misspelling "Colombia." "Colombia" is correct. "Columbia" is wrong.)
... browse some of our team's other blogs at http://blogs.didx.net and http://blog.tmcnet.com/monetizing-ip-communications/. You're welcome to comment, contribute, and collaborate any time.

New phone numbers from Jordan and Iceland on DIDX

Wholesale IP communications can now satisfy clients who need a local presence in Jordan, Iceland as well as Beijing, China; South Korea and Japan. Check the complete list of countries' DID available at http://www.didx.net/did and more indepth information on these particular new areas at http://blogs.didx.net/2009/06/new-phone-numbers-on-wholesale-didx-of.html.

Let me backtrack because some readers are asking:
1. What is a DID? It's an acronym meaning direct inward dialing. Today we use it synonymously with the phrase "phone number." Because of voice over Internet, SIP and open source telephony such as Asterisk and FreeSWITCH and more, telephone service providers are potentially able to provide anyone a phone number from any country in the world ... to have a local presence there.

2. Why would anyone want a phone number from Jordan or Iceland if they are not living and working in one of those countries? If you want to start receiving phone calls from people in a certain city or country, you want to make it easy for them to call you. They are more likely to call you if the phone number they dial is local to them. You buy a phone number that is local to them and set it to ring to your favorite instant messenger, a SIP or IAX2 address, landline or cell phone. Ask your telephone service provider if they are using DIDX.net? If they are, you have available to you ... phone numbers from more 60 countries. If they are not, send them to http://www.didx.net/signup.

... browse some of our team's other blogs at http://blogs.didx.net and http://blog.tmcnet.com/monetizing-ip-communications/. You're welcome to comment, contribute, and collaborate any time.

Buenaventura, Buga, Cartago, Palmira and Tulua, DID de Colombia en DIDX

Buenaventura, Buga, Cartago, Palmira and Tulua, DID de Colombia en DIDX...

... browse some of our team's other blogs at http://blogs.didx.net and http://blog.tmcnet.com/monetizing-ip-communications/. You're welcome to comment, contribute, and collaborate any time.

Closing your VoIP Company, Have Some Integrity

FCC says VoIP companies cannot just shut down without reasonable notice. Many are angry about this, believing this is just one more instance where a government department is interfering with the public Internet and entrepreneurship in general, but a quality company, whether VoIP-related or not should do the right thing when they know they have to go out of business; give a notice and even better, help their wholesale and retail clients through the transition as in for example, LNP.

Examples are Digilinea suddenly was not available via phone, email or any method of communication. They appeared to be such a strong company. They had an excellent customer service team. Something must have gone wrong, but when they "disappeared" with no notice, it hurt a few dozen thousand wholesale clients and millions of end-users. There are other companies who have done almost the same, and when we, the IP communications industry tried to port their numbers to other qualified providers, they were not helpful and in some cases, threatened all of us. WT hmm... O?

A company who did the right thing was I3 Networks. Their CEO informed everyone with plenty of advance notice and did everything he could to help all clients to have the smoothest transition possible when it had to close shop. That's integrity.

... browse some of our team's other blogs at http://blogs.didx.net and http://blog.tmcnet.com/monetizing-ip-communications/. You're welcome to comment, contribute, and collaborate any time.

Blackberry Numero Uno for 2008

Though Apple Inc.’s iPhone topped Research in Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry as the domestic smartphone leader for the last half of 2008, RIM has climbed back to the No. 1 position. The BlackBerry Curve was the No. 1 selling smartphone in the United States in the first quarter of 2009. Get more info.

Digging into my archives of case studies and articles on innovative www.didx.net members, I found DIDX Members Leverage the Blackberry.

"One recent client SACS, an international steel trading company with 14 locations worldwide and 200 business clients, already had a Cisco unified communications backbone for their IP PBX with integration of RIM (Research in Motion) Blackberry MVS (Mobility Voice Suite)."

... browse some of our team's other blogs at http://blogs.didx.net and http://blog.tmcnet.com/monetizing-ip-communications/. You're welcome to comment, contribute, and collaborate any time.

El Salvador Cell Phone Service Requested

Hello to you, highly valued readers, with more expertise in the following areas that I can even imagine,

A friend is looking for a system where people can call in from a cell phone line in El Salvador. Their call would be answered by inputting a PIN #.

Then they could have an option to listen to voice mail prompts--questions or multiple choice, respond and playback their recording. If these files could be saved as .wav files that would be best.

A second option would be to be put through to someone else on the line to speak to directly, i.e., have a conversation.

Much of this technology is already used in call centers, except for the conference calling feature (being able to talk to one or more people at the same time). Again, conference calling technology exists and most likely uses VOIP.

They know that the readers of this blog, various companies offer all of these things and the DIDX lines (for El Salvador), right? Looking for your comments and directions! You can comment on this blog, on my Facebook page, email suzanne@didx.net, or call me.

Praise that Makes a VoIP Company's Heart Warm

I am copying an email that I just received where a wholesale client (industry giant) of DIDX is recommending an industry friend to use DIDX. I have replaced the actual name of the company they refer with "Company X" and left out the name of our lovely current client.

Here we go...

"I want to make an introduction to Suzanne who is the CEO of DIDx. See: http://www.didx.net. This is who we uses for our callin numbers and I highly recommend them as a solution for your company. Here's what I can say about her/them.

We have had a multi-year relationship with them and they are trustworthy.
Suzanne is very responsive to our needs.
Their web portal is superior to any other DID providers.
They have broad availability of numbers.
They have a real time API which makes it efficient to purchase and assign DIDs.

I recommend you work directly with them for your DID needs."

Besides friends and family, the above is what I live for... working hard/smart with our team to be productive and see the rewards gained by our clients and have them refer others to us! We love you, "industry giant."

... browse some of our team's other blogs at http://blogs.didx.net and http://blog.tmcnet.com/monetizing-ip-communications/. You're welcome to comment, contribute, and collaborate any time.

Globalize local communications = Followo Communications' Mantra

Yesterday I was showing a colleague how to tether his Nokia E61i to his laptop. This was my answer to his: "I can't work. I don't have any Internet."

;-)

Problem solved! Next, we both conferenced with a new DIDXchange (an electronic wholesale marketplace for buying and selling of DID/DDI) member* Charles Lu. He has been a part of the global Asterisk developers' community for several years. His company Softele is based in Canada.

What stood out to me in our conversation was Charles' collection of words into an interesting phrase, basically his mantra, his mission... globalize local communications.

With Followo service, clients get to:

1. Assign a DID from city in another country to a local home or mobile phone.

2. Assign a DID that is local to family, friends, potential customers in a city in another country.

3. Take the DIDs (phone numbers) while traveling and avoid overseas roaming charges.

4. Choose the most cost-effective phone to answer incoming calls: mobile phone, home phone, softphone, VoIP hard phone.

5. Change the "ring to" anytime as often as needed.

6. Ring 2 phones at once.

7. No contract, pay as you go.

Charles' team speaks English and Mandarin, both with a clearly understood accent. The target market will be China, Canada, USA and Pakistan where millions of people speak both languages, are very mobile, and need local presence in an area on Earth that they are not physically in that varies by the day even.

For now, watch for Followo service roll out before the New Year January 26, 2009!

* (At first I placed a comma between the words "member" and "Charles" and then realized that "Charles Lu" is essential to the sentence; therefore, no comma is needed.)

Direct Inward Termination, Common Telephony Search Keyword

Just noticed that the key words phrase "Direct Inward Termination" is being used more and more in searches that land on my blogs, so I asked several to explain what it's all about. I'll add more answers as I get them in the coming year. This blog is meant to be INTERACTIVE and COLLABORATIVE. ;-)

John Cirner of TalkMotion: Suzanne, in the 15 or so years I worked in the PBX hardware industry we would associate "direct inward termination" as the programmed association of a DID number to a specific device. Applications such as DID to fax machine or DID to system port (or modems in the old days) for remote programming interface, would be common applications.

Delwar Hossain Khan, member of Freedom2Speak and Ecomm: "I have not dealt with telecom for years now but as far as I remember DID is an old telecom term, referring 2 a particular feature of PABX system, when caller seizes a trunk port, gets a 2nd dial tone and connects with the destination number(usually a Pabx extension port).

If we consider the international telecom network as one PABX system, this could be a simplified explanation.

Submitted by Michael Bowen, running coach for Emerald Coast Racing Team.
Glossary on Higher Ground, Inc. web site:

DID (DIRECT INWARD DIALING)
A combination of features between the central office of the telephone company and the PBX. It allows a party calling into a PBX to be directly connected to a station associated to the number dialed, without the assistance of the operator.

http://www.highergroundinc.com/site/us/... ... http://www.highergroundinc.com/site/us/support/glossary.php?cat=105&sub=5&supportid=4&alpha=D


... browse some of our team's other blogs at http://blogs.didx.net and http://blog.tmcnet.com/monetizing-ip-communications/. You're welcome to comment, contribute, and collaborate any time.