The Big Apps: Miami's Double Whammy – The "Meet Me" Series Ends its Tour in South Florida (Miami)

By Hunter Newby

Since its original carrier hotel feature for the Meet Me series in March of 2004, the two major network interconnection properties in Miami remain the NAP of the Americas and 36 N.E. 2nd Street. The properties house the critical mass of metro and long haul fiber and all the applications that come above it, in and out of the city.

Over time these sites and their respective roles in the marketplace and global networking community have only become more relevant and necessary.

The New World Tower property also plays a significant role, especially in the realm of the legacy voice networks, and as time passes and the industry evolves, it will become clearer which technologies and networks will succeed. A great deal of that success has to do with which carriers possess and properly market the "right" services.

Miami is an interesting market for transport and VoIP services because it is both an international carrier network gateway between North and Latin America and also a densely populated metro area with several businesses located there.

The two dimensions play off of each other to a certain extent as it relates to Latin American-based businesses with an office in Miami that are looking for local phone numbers and service based out of their home country. This unique situation has not necessarily been productized or marketed as such just yet, but with the increase in international Ethernet transport, it will become much easier for enterprise VoIP WAN (wide area network) managers to put the pieces together and build out their own private VoIP networks.

An extension of this remote-local service model logically can be created for other transport and/or VoIP service providers to provide access to, or resell it into, different North American markets. Local number accessibility out-of-country can effectively work both ways if the service providers can reach an understanding of who they are and where they sit in the service chain. The keys to success are the creation, interconnection point and the proper positioning of the service.

During the course of this series it has become apparent that some Ethernet transport service providers don't realize that they currently carry VoIP traffic for their customers. This is somewhat due to the fact that they don't necessarily "care" what their customers are doing with the pipes. This lack of concern may be seen by some as a proper way to not be intrusive on customers' privacy, but it may also result in a general lack of understanding of customer needs and therefore missed opportunities to package and market a natural fit for many other existing and prospective clients.

On the flip side, it also has been interesting to see the number of international wholesale voice carriers that still don't have an Ethernet-based IP hand off available at the carrier hotel where their voice switch resides. Even though this makes logical sense from a cost and efficiency standpoint, things take time. Networks and mindsets must change, which isn't easy, but eventually it will all happen.

The Ethernet service providers that can see VoIP driving some of their enterprise business, and then take steps to leverage it as an application platform for future sales, have much to gain. The biggest hurdle for many of them is coming to an understanding that they don't sell VoIP and are not going to be in the VoIP business, per se, but will talk about how they can enable secure VoIP via Layer 2 transport. There is nothing wrong with knowing that Ethernet carries VoIP traffic and that the trend for many businesses spending more than $10,000 monthly on local and long distance services is toward a Layer 2 VoIP WAN-based solution.

The same importance and potential success can be seen in carrier-to-carrier VoIP, or bi-lateral VoIP peering, via private Ethernet circuits. Identifying demand for this specific application based upon current customer utilization brings back excellent data. As Nanette Peralta, director of sales for Progress Telecom states, "We have found that the Ethernet market right now in South Florida is driven 50 percent by intra-metro needs (Miami-FLL) and 50 percent coming in from overseas driven by VoIP. We do not find this too surprising, as many of the incumbent carriers in Latin America are still running TDM (time division multiplex) networks."

That is valuable knowledge and shows that Progress Telecom is well positioned to predict customer requirements. In the future, marketing Ethernet transport as a VoIP enabler may help drive sales, given this type of information.

Miami plays an integral role in the next phase of global, packet-based networking. From the feature lists it is evident that all of the essential VoIP and Ethernet building blocks are offered here. Between these carrier hotels and the service providers within them, any network operator, enterprise or carrier can find what they're looking for in this multipurpose market.

For more information on 36 N.E. 2nd St., contact Jerry Faught at [email protected]. For information on the NAP of the Americas, contact Josh Snowhorn at [email protected].

This article concludes the Meet Me series that appeared in FAT PIPE magazine for three straight years. As the technology and carrier worlds evolve, so does the publishing world. By the time this article goes to print FAT PIPE will become part of a bigger and better VoIP Business News. I want to thank everyone at Dagda Mor Media, the service providers and carrier hotel owners that helped me so much, and all of the readers - especially those who sent in emails!

Here's looking forward to the new VBN!

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At the time of this writing, Hunter Newby was chief strategy officer of telx.

Originally published in FAT PIPE magazine, November 2005.

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