There appears to be indications that IE7 may not be launched until next summer. If this is accurate, you have to wonder how much more ground Firefox will gain as people look for browser alternatives. I've also had a chance to check out a beta version of AOL Explorer. All in all, it's not bad - looks like a combination of Netscape and Firefox built on the IE platform.

Now that Nortel is back to a "normal" financial reporting schedule, its second-quarter results will be out Aug. 3. They should provide some more insight into a couple key areas such as how much progress the company is making in the enterprise market; the state of the wireless and optical markets, and any contribution by PEC Solutions, which was picked up earlier this year for $448-million. Maybe Nortel will offer a counter-rebuttal to some of the comments made recently by ex-COO Gary Daichendt, who made it clear it was a difference "style" rather than strategy that prompted his resignation last month. So far, Nortel has taken the high ground in the embarassing divorce but maybe Daichendt has changed the rules with his outburst.

Russell Shaw has done a nice job today of creating a list of the leading VOIP service providers in the first-quarter - based on data from Point Topic. Not sure what to make of Point Topic's methodology (e.g. not every Yahoo! Japan subscribers uses VOIP even though it is offered with the service) when it comes to compiling statistics but it does offer food for thought.

1. Skype- 5,300,000
2. Yahoo! Japan- 4,517,000
3. VoiceGlo- 605,000
4. Free (France)- 600,000
5. Vonage 535,000.
6. FastWeb (Italy) 528,000
7. Cox- 413,000
8. Time Warner- 372,000
9. Cablevision- 364,000
10. Neuf (France)- 297,000

In Canada, Videotron is the leading VOIP SP with about 42K customers while Shaw has 20K. I would guess-timate that Vonage has between 15K to 20K and Primus Canada has 10K to 15K.