I am in Chicago most of this week for a myriad of different meetings. The primary one is to attend International Telecoms Week (ITW). Most of you know Broadvox as a SIP Trunking service provider, but our legacy is as a carrier’s carrier or wholesale SIP Termination and Origination business. In fact, nearly a third of our wholesale business is generated by terminating traffic in the US, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and Canada. Therefore, attending ITW is very important to our wholesale account team.

Not one to order surf n’ turf, I surprised myself when I recommended that for Friday dinner. Gay agreed and I grilled a lobster tail and porterhouse steak, both seasoned with Greek inspired herbs and spices. A block party was planned for Saturday and we decided to make potato salad, deviled eggs, cookies, smoked salmon, smoke cheddar cheese and grilled Italian seasoned chicken. Rain cancelled the party, but the grandkids came over and helped us consume the food. They, also, got the benefit of eating some baby back ribs I had smoked and grilled just for me.

As I earlier communicated this week, I listened to an economist indicate that while the Internet is creating jobs it is doing so at a pace that is far lower than those created by the manufacturing industry. While intuitively this seems true, given our role in expanding the use of the Internet and IP communications, I believe we should know what effect our daily efforts to deliver VoIP / SIP trunks is having on job creation.

Generating a blog three times a week that delivers information to you that is useful in conducting your business and of interest to me can be difficult. However, sometimes, like today, I come up with a very useful topic only to discover I can’t do sufficient research in the 1 hour I allow for this task and fully understand and discuss the chosen topic. We all can agree that the Internet and IP Communications has changed the way we work, communicate, entertain, travel and on and on.

On Friday I mentioned that I was smoking 28 pounds of bacon, 17 pounds of cheese and 17 pounds of salmon. That’s a lot of smoking, and since it was also Cinco de Mayo weekend - that meant indulging in a lot of Tex-Mex food. While I cooked some basic breakfasts, I mostly smelled of hickory smoke the entire weekend. That is until Sunday. Sunday I made fish tacos in a style I learned was popular in San Diego, deep fried. I wanted a light crust rather than a batter crust so I employed the ever popular flour coating, egg wash dip and panko breadcrumbs for crunch.

Ericsson leads in the world of wireless.

Amazon Kindle Fire is the most sold Android tablet but sales have fallen from 4.8 million in 4Q2011 to 750,000 in 1Q2012.

SBCs and ESBCs are important to the success of VoIP and SIP with Sonus and Acme Packet leading the market.

Apple has more than a winner in the iPad. It has market dominance.

Microsoft and RIM are fighting for third place in the smartphone market. Microsoft will probably win.

RADVISION needed to be purchased by Avaya. It was losing mindshare as a standalone company.

A few of you may have noticed there was no blog on Monday and therefore no recipe. Let’s just say my Monday started off with a few unexpected turns and writing the blog was briefly interrupted. It was a great weekend for food, as I cooked cocoa infused French toast with sautéed pears, prime rib with iceberg wedge salad and poached salmon in a creamy wine sauce with wild mushrooms and peas. Last night I made four Indian dishes, a traditional Rogan josh, butter chicken, beer braised beef with vegetables and coconut milk, and chicken green masala curry with yogurt.

Earlier this week the astounding numbers regarding Apple’s iPhone and iPad sales created a surge in their market cap moving the stock from $560 per share to $610 in twenty four hours. Also, benefiting from the sales of these products were Verizon and AT&T although actual activations were down quarter over quarter. It seems the only carrier to actually see their subscriber base grow as a result of iPhones sales was Sprint. However, the increase did not improve their revenue side of the ledger. But that’s not the subject for today’s blog.

That’s right! “We regret to inform you that your position with the company has been eliminated. Please pack your belongings and leave the building immediately.” Okay, I exaggerate, the actual message was “I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and wish you all the best for the future.” Except it wasn’t true. Someone in the Aviva Human Resources department sent the goodbye email to the entire company rather than the one person for whom it was destined. And it was definitely a goodbye email as it covered returning company equipment and confidentiality policies.

This is my favorite time of year in Dallas with the fall second. The reason is simple. Sunny weather and we can be outside to enjoy it. Summer in Texas can be brutal with 100 degree days quite common. Anyway, I did a bit of gardening and enjoyed some good eats. Friday, I made beef nachos. Saturday breakfast was a modified Croque Madame, buttered toast layered with a slice of gruyere cheese, ham, and scrambled eggs.