TY - JOUR T1 - Open Source Telecommunication Companies JF - Open Source Business Resource Y1 - 2007 A1 - Peter Liu AB - Little is known about companies whose core business is selling telecommunications products that lever open source projects. Open source telecommunications (OST) companies operate in markets that are very different from typical software product markets. The telecommunications market is regulated, vertically integrated, and proprietary designs and special chips are widely used. For a telecommunications product to be useful, it must interact with both access network products and core network products. Due to specifications in Service Agreements Levels, penalties for failures of telecommunications products are very high. This article shares information that is not widely known, including a list of OST companies and the open source projects on which they depend, the size and diversity of venture capital investment in OST companies, the nature of the commercial product-open source software and company-project relationships, ways in which OST companies make money, benefits and risks of OST companies, and competition between OST companies. Analysis of this information provides insights into the ways in which companies can build business models around open source software. These findings will be of interest to entrepreneurs, top management teams of incumbent companies that sell telecommunications products, and those who care about Ontario's ability to compete globally. PB - Talent First Network CY - Ottawa UR - http://timreview.ca/article/82 IS - August 2007 U1 - DragonWave Haijun (Peter) Liu is a software manager with DragonWave Inc., an innovative Ottawa company that designs, develops, markets and sells carrier-grade microwave equipment offering high capacity broadband wireless systems for network operators and service providers. Peter joined DragonWave the first year of its incorporation, and has experienced first hand how a startup secures venture capital investment, diversifies its product portfolio, carries out trials with industry giants, and lives through tough times. Peter received his Master degree in Computer Science, from the Institute of Computing Technology, China Academy of Science, a very prestigious graduate school which designed the very first Chinese computer. His research topic was Machine Translation, a branch of Artificial Intelligence. Prior to Peter's research, machine translation systems depended solely on syntax information. He designed and built a translation system which used semantic and context information to improve translation accuracy. Peter has published in Chinese computer journals. Peter is about to complete his master's degree in Carleton University's Technology Innovation Management program. ER -