Microsoft displays at telecom show

The nation's biggest telecommunications trade show opens at McCormick Place on Monday, but it might as well be a computer or cable TV confab.

There was a time when telecom folks gathered to check out the latest in optical fiber, network switches and digital cross-connect boxes. That stuff is still on hand, but it is overshadowed by new software aimed at video and entertainment.

A big presence at this year's Chicago show will be Microsoft Corp., which is unveiling its latest advances in Internet protocol TV that enable consumers to search for video content quickly rather than browsing. It also lets people move photos and music from their computers to their television sets.

"With IPTV, you can do things you cannot do with any other platform," said Ed Graczyk, Microsoft TV marketing director. "Instant channel zapping, for instance. You change channels in a fraction of a second instead of the two seconds it takes for cable or satellite."

This isn't your grandfather's telephone trade show.

In North America, Microsoft's main IPTV customers are AT&T Inc. and BellCanada, two telecom carriers looking to compete with cable-television operators. The software giant will be attending NXTcomm to show off its latest applications, but it is also coming to Chicago to meet privately with customers and potential customers.

"It's an opportunity to engage one on one with customers and partners," said Graczyk. "A big part of our strategy is to build an ecosystem of partners, from set-top box suppliers to video encoders. For us, the best activity is what goes on in meeting rooms around the convention center."

And even though NXTcomm is aimed at the telecom industry, the major cable TV operators also will be there, checking out the competition.

"The lines are blurred," said Wayne Crawford, NXTcomm executive director. "Companies that make equipment for telecom carriers are the same companies that make stuff for cable TV operators. Everyone is moving toward Internet protocol networks."

This will be the first NXTcomm trade show under that name. For many years, the telecom industry held gatherings under the name SuperComm, but that ended in 2005 because of disagreements between SuperComm's two owners, the US Telecom Association, made up of carriers, and the Telecommunications Industry Association, made up of equipment vendors.

Last year, the equipment vendors staged a trade show in Chicago and the carriers held a rival show in Las Vegas, but people in the industry complained about having two separate events to attend and pressured the trade groups to reunite under a single banner again. "We need to keep expanding the diversity of buyers who attend the show," Crawford said.

And converging technology helps them do that, attracting firms such as Yahoo, Google and Microsoft that in years past might have barely paid attention to a telecom trade show.
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