By Tim Young

This month, Pipeline headed to the Strip for the annual collaboration between the TIA and USTA: NXTcomm 2008. Las Vegas represented a new venue for NXTcomm, which was in Chicago last year, and will return to Chicago in 2009.

In contrast to the last few shows in Chicago (whether as NXTcomm or GLOBALCOMM, but especially compared to the Supercomm days), this show felt a little quiet. The reduced din may have been partly caused by the show floor setup, which had exhibitors on two floors (and only three escalators connecting the two). This broke up the expo and, inadvertently, diminished some of the intangible buzz of the show floor.

Furthermore, in a discussion with one vendor, we arrived at the theory that the problem with exciting, alluring show venues like Las Vegas can be that registration numbers may improve, but there's no way to make sure that the attendees spend their time at the show rather than at Cirque du Soleil. Random chatter I heard in and around the show often centered on Vegas entertainment rather than the industry at hand. (One of my personal favorites, overheard on the NXTcomm shuttle: "Did you go see Carrot Top? He's hilarious." It's good to see that he still has a few fans.)

Still, the show represented one-stop shopping for major telecom vendors active in the North American market, and is still one of the biggest shows in the telecommunications world. As a publication dedicated to the OSS space, however, we are perennially compelled to report that shows like NXTcomm are tough for smaller vendors. The big guys (Microsoft, Sun, Fujitsu, et. al.) have massive budgets and enormous booths. What's an OSS vendor in a 10x10 to do?

NXTcomm attempted to address this issue with the OSS/BSS Pavilion at this year's show. The pavilion, we're sorry to report, had only four companies involved: Aricent, Sonus, Amartus, and OmniOSS. Still, the show is on the right track by at least designating an area for these companies. I hope they continue to look for ways to represent industry subsets

and interesting revenue streams and maintain viability, even as their role in the space changes.

Furthermore, the idea of quality as a key differentiator is being hammered home more than ever. What else can service providers compete on? Offerings are getting more similar every day. No one wants to compete on price. Quality is key. If you don't believe it, check out any Verizon ad. From wireless to FiOS, they've embraced this messaging of quality above all, and they're not alone.

The Expo:

As usual, we wanted to take some time to highlight some companies we visited on the expo floor, and let you know a little about where they've been and where they're going.