Pat Montani is the CEO of IP-V Gateways the most important company in the telepresence and videoconferencing industry that you have never heard of.  IP-V Gateways is a telepresence and videoconferencing inter-connection specialist which means that they sit in a carrier neutral co-location facilities in Toronto and New York City,  where  they connect different networks together, match disparate QoS tagging schemes from the various carriers, handle public/private address issues, and security on high-speed telepresence and video calls.  For telepresence and videoconferencing end-users this means that IP-V can connect a company with a Verizon Business network connection to their joint venture partner on MASERGY, their law firm on Tata, or their customer on BT and ensure a quality telepresence/video experience.  Right now IP-V is matching tags and exchanging traffic on 30+ carrier networks more than anyone else in the industry.  On June 25th the company announced a deal with Telx a leading provider of carrier neutral collocation space and carrier "Meet-me rooms" where the carriers physically connect their networks. Telx has over 600 network providers who physically connect in Telx facilities.  I had the opportunity to talk with Pat about IP-V, the deal with Telx, and the future of inter-company telepresence and videoconferencing that the inter-connection specialists and the telepresence/video exchanges are rapidly bringing into view.  


HSL: Give me a two minute overview of IP-V Gateways, how you got started, and what do you guys do?

Pat Montani: The founders of IPV all come from a telecom background. We knew the world was moving from ISDN to IP and after reading Francis McInerney's Future Wealth, we believed the premise that bandwidth would approximate Moore's Law which meant that the cost would be half and the speed would double approximately every 18 months, and it has. If you project this out, it was written 7 or 8 years ago that there would be huge amounts of bandwidth at very economical prices and video would shift to IP and that the foundation of IPV was to get into the middle and to help the customers deal with the rapidly changing infrastructure and the telecom intelligence underneath it. We started to get into the middle and add value and we believed that the carriers simply wanted to fill their pipes and networks and would not be in the business of providing added value so that we walk both sides of the fence. IPV is an inter-exchange point for anyone wanting to move video or telepresence traffic to anyone else globally with a focus on security, quality, and price. We also allow video providers and their customers to park bridges, gateways and related Video and telepresence equipment in the carrier neutral Telx cloud.

HSL: I would categorize IPV as a telepresence and video conferencing inter-connection specialist. There are a number of other inter-connection offerings out there: Glowpoint has TEN, Iformata has an exchange, Tata Communications is building an exchange, Cisco has developed a business unit focused on telepresence exchange under Mark Weidick; what is that you do vs. what the others do and how do you differentiate yourself from the other folks who are attempting similar business models.

Pat Montani: There are multiple exchanges and if you look at every major corporation who wants to deal with their customers and suppliers, you can almost consider them an exchange. Many of these exchanges are generally driven from the need to either sell hardware, services and other related pieces, all aimed at growing the core service or  manufacturers business.

What makes us different and unique is that Telx and IPV sit in the middle of all the carriers, managed service organizations and video and telepresence manufacturers.  The neutral position IPV and Telx occupies, allows every carrier,  hardware centric player, Polycom, TANDBERG, Radvision, Cisco and HP to easily and efficiently give  their exchanges reach, while ensuring customers can traverse across any and all of these exchanges. We come at it purely from a neutral  perspective and we come from a world of efficient carriers. Carriers have been exchanging traffic with each other since telecom was invented. Carriers know how to work with other carriers and know how to manage quality amongst themselves.  Coming  from the carrier business, we simply believe that the revenue from the carrier side is many times more than the hardware side over 5 and 10 years so carriers are a key part of an efficient ecosystem and together with Telx, we ensure growth and efficiencies for all in the industry. Francis McInerney got it right in Future Wealth. The premise is that efficient models work and the most efficient model is to come off the major connector facilities into the North American facilities Telx controls, add an element of switching and intelligence to move the traffic and security to anyone and that greatly impacts the old model of private line networks like HP HVEN, and an Iformata that provides a network with multiple POPs. Yes...they can provide the service but at what price or cost to the customer and when you move it into the clouds and you connect in the cloud, the ability to gain reach and cut costs goes way down so we don't see competing with any of the B2B communities, we see ourselves enabling all the B2B communities grow.


HSL: Tell us a little bit about the deal with Telx and what does the Telx Video Exchange give to end user customers and what services does IPV provide vs. what services Telx will be providing.

Pat Montani:  Telx controls the meet me rooms in the major North American telco hotels and partners with the other leaders globally.  If we are to have true Inter-company telepresence, carrier, equipment, vendor and service provider agnostic, then a neutral partner is needed.  Telx, like IPV is a very efficient player with the right connections globally.  Add what we do together and the reach within the carrier game and the foundation is there for true Inter-company telepresence across any and all exchanges.




HSL: The carriers, hardware vendors, and managed service providers seen to be finally focused on inter-company telepresence. Has the phone been ringing?

Pat Montani: Not one person in the traditional video equipment business called. Many in the carrier business have called including Joe Laezza [Co-CEO of Glowpoint], he  understood it, he came from a carrier background.   As customers continue to demand, reach, better price and better quality, we believe that the carriers, hardware vendors and managed service providers will see the value in the IPV suite of services and the Telx Video Exchange.

HSL:  Thanks for speaking with us today!


Bicycles for Humanity
While Pat and I didn't discuss it in our interview I would like to take a second to tell everyone about another enterprise of Pat Montani's that I am an enthusiastic supporter of: Bicycles for Humanity.    Bicycles for Humanity is a non-profit founded by Pat Montani that collects unused bikes in North America, Europe, and elsewhere in the western world and ships them to developing countries, primarily in Africa, where they change lives by providing transportation for local entrepreneurs, charities, and deserving individuals.

Some of the groups that benefit from Bicycles for Humanity include:

• Women, who typically spend more time walking than men through performing domestic duties like gathering food, water and firewood.
• Children, who face long walks to school and arrive too tired to learn, or simply don't attend
• Healthcare workers, who often walk long distances to provide medication and counseling to people living with HIV/AIDS and malaria in their homes
• Unemployed people, who can start bike shops, delivery businesses, tourism ventures or spin off projects making trailers, racks and other addons.
  

 

A News Story on Bicycles for Humanity

In 2008 Bicycles for Humanity focused on distributing Bicycling Empowerment Centres (BEC) around the world.  A BEC is a bicycle shop in a box, ready to be delivered to any community in a developing country. Stocked with 300-400 bicycles, tools, spare parts and accompanied by comprehensive training in bicycle mechanics, it is designed to empower disadvantaged people and their communities with their own transport and their own means of maintaining it. The BEN Namibia, Okathitu update on a BEC will give you a better idea of how it works and the benefits derived.

How to Help: Donate - Time, Money, or Bikes/Tools/Spare Parts., Organize a Bicycle Empowerment Centre, Organize fundraising activities to help fund the cost of a shipping container, shipping to a deserving community, tools and in-country delivery