The battle is raging for the traditional cable customer, with DBS and telcos seeking to capture market share. Time will tell how the market shakes out, but ultimately the winner will be the supplier that can provide the best combination of reliable service at a fair price. Customer satisfaction is the ultimate barometer to success.

Network reliability is one of the most important factors in retaining satisfied customers and growing their willingness to purchase additional services. Network reliability can be broken down into two components-uptime and QoS. This session will address new tools that operators can use to significantly decrease their overall mean time to repair and increase their mean time between failures with little to no network impact.

Ken Dumont Director, Digital Media Networks Scientific Atlanta – A Cisco Company

Mr. Dumont is a 22-year veteran of the telecom industry, in which he has held various roles with increasing levels of responsibility. He started his telecom career as a mechanical engineer and was instrumental in the design, development, and manufacturing of many of the first commercially viable fiber-optic splicing techniques and test equipment. He has experience in sales, marketing, product management, market management, and business unit management.

Gideon Agar Solutions Director, Network Management Technology Group Cisco Systems

Mr. Agar’s team is responsible for the engineering and marketing of solutions for managing IPTV, carrier ethernet, IP radio access and application level SLAs. He joined Cisco in 2004 as part of the acquisition of Parc Technologies, where he was chief executive officer. Prior to Parc, Mr. Agar was president of Agar Corporation, a manufacturer of process control systems, and a development manager at Oracle.

Doug Place Vice President, Operations Verizon

Mr. Place assumed his current position in December 2005. He is responsible for end-to-end video network operations, including the super head-end and video hub office sites located throughout Verizon's wireline footprint. Prior to his current assignment, Mr. Place was vice president of national network provisioning. Responsibilities included FiOs and DSL network creation, network provisioning, and service activation across the long-distance backbone network. Previously, as vice president of the national data services network operations department, Mr. Place was responsible for Verizon's DSL, IP, and fast packet national networks.

Alan Young Chief Technology Officer SES Americom

Mr. Young is responsible for SES Americom's technology strategy and investments supporting next-generation applications and services, information systems and services, and spectrum and orbital slot development. Mr. Young has extensive R&D, telecommunications, engineering, and technology experience gained in diverse business environments, from financial services to media and entertainment. His background includes executive technology assignments leading emerging technology development, information security services, and strategic vendor partnerships for Citigroup. Prior to his seven years with Citigroup, he was the vice president of engineering for Viacom's MTV Networks, responsible for the technical aspects of their global satellite distribution, including the transition from analog to digital.