Calling itself “North America’s largest provider of enterprise hosted VoIP, Alteva has become a pioneer in showcasing reliabile, carrier-grade hosted VoIP service. William Bumbernick, CEO of the Philadelphia-based competitive service provider, has been instrumental in the planning for the 2009 VON CTO Summit, at which a select group of telecom visionaries and technologists will create a plan for an alternative IP peering fabric to carry HD voice and other advanced communications services. By e-mail on the way to Miami for the VON Conference & Expo, Bumbernick answered a few questions from VON editor Richard Martin.

VON: What made you sign up for the CTO Summit? What do you hope to accomplish at the roundtable?

William Bumbernick: I believe that ‘a rising tide raises all ships,’ and this CTO Summit will allow the recognized leaders in the hosted VoIP industry to get together and collaborate on how we can make our industry better.

VON: How will a nationwide (or near-nationwide) IP peering fabric benefit Alteva? How will it benefit the industry?

WB: First off I believe that what benefits the industry always benefits Alteva. Some of the benefits of a nationwide IP peering fabric could include:

• Four-digit dialing amongst different service providers
• More cost-effective peering relationships for service providers and their customers
• Nationwide “HD to HD” calling between different service providers

VON: What do you see as the primary barriers – technological, economic, institutional – to creating such a fabric?

WB: The barriers are the same as in any sound business decision – is there a sound ROI that can be established? At Alteva, we believe ROI comes in two different flavors: return on investment and return on innovation. While I think there are strong cases for both, I am very interested in what other attendees see as the major components that make up their estimated ROI. In the end, it comes down to collaboration and resource allocation.

VON: More generally, what do you see as the primary objectives, for your company and for the advanced IP services industry, over the next 6-12 months?

WB: Alteva’s primary objective is to remain focused on maintaining its dominance in the enterprise hosted VoIP marketplace. Neck-breaking growth always presents challenges, which are nice challenges to have but challenges nonetheless. Alteva and I assume the other attendees have the same problem of innovating in a rapidly changing marketplace in times of great growth. All of my fellow hosted VoIP service providers seem to be growing at a rapid rate. Alteva is on pace to grow at 66 percent in 2009, and needs to invest in the future but keep focused on its task at hand.