The Kerton Group runs the Service Provider Investment Forum, SPIF, a monthly meeting of representatives from wireless & wireline carriers' venture capital and R&D divisions in Silicon Valley.(147k pdf)

The SPIF exists so that colleagues with similar goals and duties can gather and share ideas, contacts, opportunities, and knowledge during the informal sessions.The member carriers have telecom operations across the globe, but usually have an office in the San Francisco Bay Area to pursue investment, technology, and partnership opportunities. At each meeting, we review a few interesting young companies who are seeking funding, strategic investment and/or have a product or service that would be useful to the carriers in attendance.

Presenting Companies:
Companies who are chosen to present can expect the following. The Forum is normally held on the last Friday of the month, drawing 15-30 members. As members take turns hosting the forum, the location changes each month. Each forum generally consists of three start-up presentations, and one analyst presentation. Each presenter is allotted 30-45 minutes to use as they wish, including Q&A. There will be a short break after each presentation for follow-up networking. To apply, please fill out our online application.

Members:
Members represent the local venture capital or R&D groups of telecommunications service providers seeking investments, partnership opportunities, and/or new products and technologies. Members include:

	AT&T Labs			NTT DoCoMo
	AT&T Wireless			NTT Labs
	BCE Capital / Bell Canada			Qualcomm
	Bell Mobility			Samsung
	Bouygues Telecom			Siemens Venture Capital
	British Telecom			SK Telecom
	Cisco			Sony
	Covad			SonyEricsson
	Deutsche Telekom			Sprint Ventures
	Ericsson Venture Partners			SRI International
	France Telecom			Sun Microsystems
	Hutchison Whampoa			Swisscom
	Innovacom Venture Capitalists			Telecom Italia Labs
	Innovature Capital Partners			TeliaSonera
	Intel Capital			Telmex
	Micron Ventures			Telus Ventures
	Mitsui Ventures			T-Mobile
	Motorola Ventures			Verizon
	Nokia Growth Partners			Vodafone