New VoIP CEO Gets Interviewed

By RICH TEHRANI

President & Group Editor-in-Chief

There are many newcomers to the VoIP market. Indeed, every day there are new companies entering the space and claiming to be "leaders at this" or "pioneers at that." Viper Networks, one of the companies that has been in the business for a long time, is publicly traded and headed by Ron Weaver-- the dynamic VoIP pioneer that believed in VoIP way before it was fashionable.

Recently Ron became Chairman of the Board and Farid Shouekani was named as the new CEO. I never met Farid and decided that I wanted to get his take on the future of VoIP. Here are the results of my brief phone interview:


Where do you see the VoIP market going in the next few years?

There is a huge influx of growth coming from international communities as broadband is gaining traction in the international arena. We will see increased VoIP interconnectivity in these markets, as tariffs overseas are higher than in the US. The US market will be heading for more growth as well.

What are Viper’s product plans to take advantage of this growth?

We are focusing on India, acquiring a license and starting a new operation. We are also expanding sales into the US market. We'll head towards Asia soon, as well.

Will you be a service provider in India?

Will be licensed – yes, in the next few months and we will sell service on our own network.

Are you coming up with new devices?

We’ve found it better to let others develop devices which allow us to concentrate on the network and services. We will use devices from UT Starcom and possibly Sipura.

Who is the biggest competitor in the market

The typical large operators. Vonage, Net2Phone, and Skype. These companies also help the market by educating it.

Where will Viper be in 5 years?

We will have a large international presence. Larger than other companies. That is what we are concentrating on.

Is there a future making money from services?

Video is coming, but the bandwidth is not available in all international markets yet. Other services can be added as well. Such as, videoconferencing, large scale audio conferencing and audio broadcasting.

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Rich Tehrani is President and Group Editor in Chief at TMC. In addition he is the Chairman of the world’s best attended VoIP event, Internet Telephony Conference & Expo.