VOIP

Always with the new! VOXOFON is the latest in VoIP. The company is billing itself as low-cost and easy-to-use for international internet telephony. The service has a good deal of flexibility as well. Calls start at 1.3 cents per minute, and can be made from computers, landlines or cell phones. “We think VOXOFON will appeal to a [...]

I have this thing for online videos … well a lot of people do. It’s so nice to see and hear someone describing whatever — feelings, ideas, hopes, dreams . . . Certainly the same is true for a video of a guy explaining why he thinks VoIP will be the next cell phone type thing. [...]

Fluke Networks has acquired Viola Networks. The network performance management company didn’t say how much it said for Viola, a VoIP management company. According to Network World: The deal brings to Fluke Networks the technologies and source code the now-defunct Viola Networks used to underpin its NetAlly product line. NetAlly offered such products as its Lifecycle manager, [...]

Are you considering switching your call center to a VoIP-based operation? If so, you are going to want to check out this article on Inside CRM (which, in the interest of full disclosure is a sister site to this one). Some things you should think about? What kind of a system do you currently have? How [...]

I was speaking with a woman this week about her phone service. It seems that she has been having trouble with the clarity of her Vonage. She’d been perfectly happy with it until it started having interference. Now, she and her husband have magicJack ready to try out. Wonder which they will prefer? CNET News reports [...]

The Tower of Babel is an ancient town, which, according to the Bible, came to represent the unity of humanity, with everyone speaking a single language.Unfortunately, the reality of today is there is no such place, and no such unified language. Billions are cut off from other people and places on the globe, blocked by the language barrier.Until now.We are delighted to announce the release of our latest world-changing service, aptly named JAJAH Babel. It's the only free, phone translation service where you simply ring a number, speak in English and hear your message back in another…

The experts have once again recognized JAJAH as a leading global success story – this time it was the folks at AlwaysOn and KPMG who have included JAJAH in the coveted AO Global 250 list. Being in the AO Global 250 is a mark of JAJAH’s success in the global technology industries. According to the judges, JAJAH was specially selected by the panel of global industry experts for its achievements in the areas of innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value, and media buzz. "The AO Global 250 winners have excelled in key strategic areas in the global technology markets,"…

We are a big fan of Truemors and are always interested in what our ever-busy friend Guy Kawasaki is up to. In March 2008 Guy Kawasaki, Will Mayall and Kathryn Henkens launched Alltop. It’s a great summary of the top news and views on any topic, from politics to pets, ADHD to yoga, all collected neatly on a single page. The pages follow a simple format – URL is topic.alltop.com (e.g. news.alltop.com) and all the main news sources are there. There is a surprising and impressive range of sources, from the usual suspects to the insiders. "A good metaphor is that Alltop is an 'online magazine…

Every so often a great service comes along that we just love and want to let you know about. Pageonce is such a service. It’s a Personal Internet Assistant that gives you access to all your accounts via one simple page (hence the name). It already has finance, shopping, social networks, travel and email, and now it also has JAJAH. We think this is a great service for all JAJAH customers. Simply go to Pageonce.com and add your JAJAH account details. Then, when you want to check your balance, top up your account or see your recent calls, you go back to the page and it’s all there. And while…

At JAJAH, we love independence. The freedom to be yourself, talk to anyone you want, when you want (and cheaply!). Chez JAJAH, on adore l'indépendance. La liberté d'être soi-même, de parler à qui on veut, quand on veut (et pas cher). JAJAH is celebrating Belgium’s Independence Day with a very special offer – use JAJAH Direct to make a call to or from Belgium on 21st of July and we’ll give you 25% more talk time FREE. Et nous adorons les célébrations. Alors JAJAH célèbre ce grand jour avec une offre spéciale. Téléphonez avec JAJAH la Belgique le 21 juillet et JAJAH vous offre…

In what will be a major challenge to Skype, mobile telecommunications service provider, 28TEL, is launching its free international call service in the US. Users of the service will be able to use their mobiles to make free calls to over 20 countries, without having to install any additional software and without being connected to [...]

Truphone, which carries calls via Wi-Fi and the Internet, has launched its first minutes bundle, Tru Saver, which allows users of iPhone and Nokia handsets to make calls to the USA and Canada for £0.01 a minute, no matter where in the world they are calling from. The Tru Saver bundle coasts £7.49 per month, [...]

Global IP Solutions (GIPS) has announced the GIPS VoiceEngine Mobile, which allows application developers to integrate high-quality, real-time VoIP on Apple’s iPhone. GIPS solution allows iPhone users to benefit from services such as real-time, in-game, multi-person chat. According to GIPS’ CEO, Emerick Woods, “With GIPS VoiceEngine Mobile, we are providing the capabilities that turn voice [...]

The Engineering and Technology Forum of the British Computer Society (BSC) has highlighted the benefits of VoIP technology for small businesses. The manager of the forum, Adrian Walmsley, spoke out to advise small businesses that a recent warning about slow bandwith speeds, by the Communications Management Association (CMA), should not put businesses off using VoIP. The [...]

Telecoms software developer, 3CX, has announced version 6.0 of 3CX Phone System for Windows, which introduces 10 new features for businesses. Over a period of just 20 weeks, 3CX has added key new functionality including call conferencing, paging and support for Windows 2008. Windows 2008 support allows enterprises to virtualise a PBX and eliminates the [...]

Today Nortel announced its acquisition of Pingtel, an Open Source IP PBX software company. This is some pretty big freakin news for OS VoIP… it’s BIG.. it’s HUGE.. it’s really BIG.. and here’s why… This acquisition marks a milestone for OS VoIP as a technology because it A) shows that Open Source VoIP is a viable business model and B) it reaffirms that Open Source VoIP is finally established enough, reliable enough, and mainstream enough to warrant acceptance by one of the largest proprietary communications manufacturers around. This move by Nortel is…

Every year InfoWorld releases their Best of Open Source Awards 2008 or BOSSIE for short. It’s pretty much a who’s who in the world of Open Source software. I would consider many of these applications as “safe/I won’t lose my job” Open Source options. Every single CIO/CTO on this planet should use this list as a go-to point whenever in search of a particular software solution. There are still people in this world who think Open Source is a load of rubbish and that it’ll never catch on and will never displace larger proprietary solutions. Although this is…

This week I’m using some link bait which discusses a few of the differences between Asterisk and FreeSWITCH. David Greenfield wrote a short blog post discussing one particular case study where FreeSWITCH was used over Asterisk. I wouldn’t say I’m all that crazy-go-nuts over the post but the topic is worth additional discussion since FreeSWITCH and Asterisk are both fantastic pieces of OS telephony software each of which are strong in their own right. This is in no way a comprehensive comparison between the two, but it’s a start. I think an even better comparison…

I just got some tutorial chapters from PackT Publishing’s AsteriskNOW book by Nir Simionovich. Although most OS-VoIP readers aren’t developers, and the ones who are probably rarely use AsteriskNOW, I figured there’s no harm in putting these up even if only a few people find the chapters useful. Here are the two chapters extracted from the PackT AsteriskNOW book: Chapter 5 - Tentacles of the PBX — The Calling Rules Tables Chapter 7 - “For Annoyance, Press 1″ — Voice Menus and IVR It seems that AsteriskNOW has largely been neglected by Digium ever since they…

OS-VoIP is moving up in the world, or so I like to think. OS-VoIP will now be featured in AllTop’s VoIP section as a premium VoIP news resource. I say premium because it sounds better, and because I hear AllTop is selective in the news they serve which means you don’t have to worry about sifting through junk. Special thanks to Guy Kawasaki for realizing the awesomeness of the OS-VoIP world. I really don’t know how many people use AllTop for their cup-a-joe news yet on a single page and, with a single glance, one can get a snapshot of some very reputable VoIP news/blog sites…

Imperas announced it has signed an agreement with MIPS Technologies, Inc., a provider of industry-standard architectures, processors and analog IP for digital consumer, home networking, wireless, communications and business applications. With this agreement, a series of processor models created by Imperas will be freely available now.

Improving responsiveness and driver communication with GPS tracking and navigation service, TransCare, the largest ambulance provider in the northeast region of the US is using TeleNav Track, a GPS-enabled Mobile Resource Management (MRM) service. Transcare is looking to streamline its dispatch operations and improve response times with its use of TeleNav Track.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced two amendments to the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR). The amendments will have a significant impact on the telemarketing industry as it will bar telemarketing calls that deliver prerecorded messages unless specific conditions are met.

Customer Effective Inc., a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and value-added reseller of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, has recently announced a partnership with ExactTarget, a provider of on-demand, e-mail and one-to-one marketing solutions.

Xplore Technologies Corp., a manufacturer of rugged mobile computers, has introduced its new iX104C4 Tablet PC.

3, my favorite carrier when I'm in the UK, has launched the SkypePhone Version 2 and does it look mighty tasty. First their offering includes both post paid/contract as well as Pay as You Go. The fact that they make this available for Pay As You Go, and their data plans are are low as 2.50 pounds a week or 5 pounds a month makes this a real killer device. When combined together, calls to your Skype buddies on the go, plus to anyone else with the 3 calling plans for international that were available last time I was in the UK, make it an unbeatable offer. Now add in that they've opened up the…

I think I have to worry about trying to update my Comunicano web site. It seems Skype Journal has been frozen by the lack of engineering support at Yahoo where I also host my business web page. Note-the page is about to change, but I wasn't planning on changing my host. Jim Courtney of Skype Journal tells me Phil Wolff has been waiting since the weekend of August 9th for help from Yahoo. Given how important Skype Journal is to the the SKype and VoIP community, obviously their lack of activity is a concern to all of us. Let's hope Phil and Jim can get the site back on its feet with Yahoo. One…

A few years back, about the time I first got into blogging, circa 2003, I had a chat with a good friend at Business Wire where I forecasted the demise of them due to the use of RSS feeds in the blogosphere. The recent SEC decision, in my mind, shows that my I wasn't far off, and over time, the use of services like BusinessWire, PR Newswire and MarketWatch will become less and less relevant as RSS and Personalization of feeds, as well as the alerting of those feeds takes over. I felt than, and still do now, that a whole new way of information dissemination was upon us, and that the new way…

A quick read of a press release from Campbell, CA based research and analyst firm Infonetics shows that VoIP usage and uptake continues to grow the world over. It also points out who the big players are. Comcast in the USA leads the pick up here in the States. Orange in France is selling VoIP like mad too. Other stats show encouraging words for companies selling VoIP into the SMB and Enterprise space too.

Uber Analyst, Jon Arnold, is back from vacation and he has his game face on. In a TMCNet post Jon drills down on the reasons why BT was so fast to pay what the did for Ribbit. He then goes on to highlight Mobivox's moves with Jajah and the reasons why ifByPhone are both companies to watch. While both are agency clients, Jon's independent analysis is spot on, and resonates a belief I've had for some time about applications being the driving force in the 2.0 era of telephony. But, without platforms and infrastructure to support all of these newly created applications, none of this stuff works…

Voxeo Corporation has acquired Beijing-based Micromethod Technologies. Did they also score some Olympic tickets in the deal? Voxeo, a leading provider of IVR and VoIP platforms and services, says the acquisition of Micromethod bolsters its line of SIP-focused products and services and serves as the foundation of Voxeo's expansion into the Asia Pacific market. As a part of the deal, all of Micromethod's employees have joined Voxeo and will work for Voxeo's newly launched Asia Pacific subsidiary. Micromethod CEO Kevin Lu has been named GM of Voxeo Asia-Pacific, while Micromethod CTO Wei Chen…

Since AT&T is no longer taking new orders for CallVantage VoIP, there's lots of buzz on what might replace it for existing AT&T DSL customers. DSLReports.com says AT&T is going to roll out a "BYOB" (Bring your own broadband) VoIP product in the fall or winter. The new BYOB VoIP will be a best-effort, lower priced service than the company's U-Verse Voice product; since U-Verse Voice runs as a prioritized service over AT&T's IP network, it gets to charge a premium for QoS. For more:- DSLReports.com reports on new AT&T VoIP offering Related articlesAT&T CallVantage: Dead…

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is recommending unrestricted internet telephony for the country's Internet Service Providers (ISPs). If implemented, prices of domestic long-distance calls are expected to drop by half, with international call pricing to fall by a fifth.  ISPs are currently allowed to offer VoIP, but with certain restrictions. The new policies would enable consumers to call through the internet directly to fixed line and mobile numbers across the country and vice versa, regardless of device or connection type. Two years ago, India permitted telecom…

Fluke Networks announced the acquisition to the intellectual property right of Viola Networks, including the popular NetAlly product line. Terms of the acquisition were not announced. Fluke will apply the Viola acquisitions to its present services, which include installing hardware, testing systems and monitoring performance of both wireline and wireless networks. The Viola properties will be integrated into existing Fluke solutions to improve present services and enable new ones, such as VoIP pre-assessment capability, advanced active network performance assessment and VoIP infrastructures…

Over at TMCnet, Jon Arnold discusses Ribbit, Jajah and Ifbyphone and how they fit into the broader VoIP service platform arena. His discussion of Jajah is timely given the company's latest-and-greatest deal with Intel using Remote Wake technology, but pondering Ifbyphone's future is also relevant, given that Jajah seems to be wrapping up the big play deals. For more:- Arnold's Ribbit-Jajah-Ifbyphone blog piece Related ArticlesIntel and JaJah provide remote access VoIP callsBT Spears Ribbit

Is VoIP greener than most traditional telephony technologies? While some individuals believe that VoIP is more environmentally friendly than the telecoms, we felt hesitant to agree. VoIP, after all, employs the Internet to operate, and network communications — along with their data centers and other resources — are notoriously energy hungry. According to Gartner Research, increasing energy costs, green technology, and increased environmental regulations pose significant challenges to corporate IT departments. On the other hand, telephone companies such as Telinet in the UK [PDF],…

Are you a VoIP user? Are you a gadget hound as well? If so, then we’ve got the list for you. The following twenty-five VoIP gadgets for the VoIP fanatic cover the realm of phones, headsets, Web cams and more. But, they’re not your ordinary phones, headsets and Web cams. Oh, no — they’re designed for someone like you, because they’re one-of-a-kind accessories that will heighten all your VoIP experiences. All but one of the gadgets listed below were introduced during 2007-2008, and a few won’t hit the market until the end of this year. We read all the reviews…

Jajah has launched Jajah Direct in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. The new service will allow its users to make low-cost VoIP calls without a PC or special phone or headset. From TMCnet: This solution from JAJAH has successfully triggered what is considered a revolution in global calling. In fact, 10 million people in America, England and other parts of Europe are already using it to save on their phone calls. JAJAH offers the ability to combine the savings of an Internet call with the convenience of being able to use a normal phone. Traditionally, VoIP calls were only…

T-Mobile is close to launching their T-Mobile@Home VoIP service, which is expected to compete with AT&T, Verizon, and Vonage. The new service will start at $10/month for unlimited nationwide calling. From the NY Times: T-Mobile@Home transmits calls from the phone handset through a $50 T-Mobile router to the Internet, where voice-over-Internet-protocol technology is used to complete the call. Customers are allowed to keep their existing home phone number. At the same time, said Chief Executive Robert Dotson, they can get the same services they get from mobile phones, such as personalized…

Have you tried lately to figure out which Linux operating system you’d like to use? And, did you think about adding a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) device to that Linux system? We can guess that you probably overwhelmed with the choices available to VoIP users today. In fact, to write a truly definitive guide to VoIP for Linux users, we would need to write a book. Instead, we combed the online Linux and VoIP Wikis to find the most-used combinations of Linux and VoIP according to the systems and devices that were most talked about on these support and documentation pages. Those…

For the next few days you will only see new posts for Skype Journal. Let's just say that we found it necessary to move off of Yahoo's hosting service and are setting up (with an update to Movable Type 4.2) at a new hosting service recommended to us by some who already use this service.Fortunately we do have access to all our content, including comments, and are having that reformatted and reorganized for incorporating into the new location. (Our goal is such that the only content not being moved comprises over 300,000 spam comments; fortunately MT 4.2 has improved comment spam filtering and…

Technical stuff interfered with Skype Journal running properly this year. So we're moving to a new host, upgrading our software, and using Blogger as our interim service.

Although it hasn't exactly been kept a secret, we're all very excited to announce that the new 3 Skypephone is here. It's called the S2, and as with the first 3 Skypephone, Skype is fully integrated, so you can make and calls and send instant messages to Skype users anywhere in the world absolutely free. Equally, it's absolutely free for other people to call you or message you on Skype while you're using the 3 Skypephone S2. Of course, it does all of the other things you'd expect a mobile to do too - make calls, send text messages, take photos and browse the web.

When we launched our subscriptions back in April, we had always planned to increase the number of countries included. And today, we’re happy to announce the first two new members of our unlimited calling club: Finland and Israel (finishing 22nd and 9th respectively in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest). This is great news for existing subscribers, as Skype's subscriptions now offer even better value — and is very exciting for people who call Finland and Israel on a regular basis. Unlimited World — €6.95–8.95/month ex. VAT Unlimited World subscriptions now include…

Hi all, A few weeks ago we updated the the 4.0 Beta 1 build with some necessary bug fixes. Today we're updating the build again with some more bug fixes, in particular to video calling, where some of you have reported problems when making calls to older versions of Skype. There's no real functional change in these hotfixes, as we're still busy making a number of changes that address a lot of the feedback we've received and are aiming to launch those in Beta 2. That's all for now. Mike

OK, so first we had laughing, and now dancing: (thanks to Phil for the link) There are quite a few Skype emoticons, and we're having a debate in the office about which would make the best videos. Take your pick p.s. According to our friends at TameBay, there’s another video in the works — we’ll let you know just as soon as it’s ready.

Today, Skype's President Josh Silverman picks a lesson from Communist-era dissident communication that is equally relevant to companies that seek to become - or remain -- innovative. In fact, there's even an connection to the recently-introduced beta version of Skype 4.0 for Windows as well (which, for the traditionalists among us, will also have a compact mode). When a Polish dissident read a letter from his East German friend, he didn't take those handwritten lines at face value. He knew that to make it past eagle-eyed officials, the letter had to appear innocuous. The…

I have been getting a ton of API related press releases the last two months. So many that at one point I contemplated why Smith On VoIP did not have an API. I mean, if everyone is doing it, why not me? (more…)

Being “offline” is a great way to think about the online world. Over the last two days “offline” (for the most part) I have been thinking a lot about the online world, most specifically about how, in a world that is continuosly changing, does a marketer keep up with the changing ways in which people consume content online. (more…)

The iPhone’s VoIP capability is a dud. When I first got my iPhone I was giddy over the prospects of being able to leverage the phone’s WiFi capabilities to send and receive WiFi calls. As it quickly approaches one year with my iPhone, I realize that not much has changed and that the promise that the iPhone once held for mobile voip caling is dwindling with each day. (more…)

I got an interesting piece of mail from the folks at Google today. It was an offer for $250 worth of Google Adwords. While this isn’t the first time I have gotten a mailer like this, what struck me as odd is that the company name on the mailing address was “SIP TO THE SKYPE NETWORK” a company I have zero affiliation with, but whose offering is, to say the least, “very targeted” to someone in my industry and profession. (See image below). (more…)

By now you have probably heard about Nortel’s acquisition of Pingtel, what it means for open source telephony and all of the other blah that comes with a large company acquiring another company with open source roots (and community) during a less then “hot” period for VoIP related news. But is this news important and does it really impact Nortel or the industry at large? (more…)

As people become more mobile, the demand for wireless technology continues to increase. Now VoIP is enabling a entirely new suite of wireless conveni1 Vote(s)

I have my eyes set on Asterisk/Digium as the next big IPO in VoIP. Open Source VoIP has hit a critical level where it is a serious force to be reckon2 Vote(s)

FVC, a Value Added Distributor, in the Middle East & North Africa, has added Digium, Inc.'s hardware product line, including Switchvox.1 Vote(s)

SpeedVoIP Debuts VoIP Anti-Blocking. VoiceGuard is versatile and powerful VoIP anti-blocking solution for ITSP and end-user which can protect call co2 Vote(s)

The Last HOPE conference will begin July 18th and end July 20th. Featured speakers include Kevin Mitnick, Steven Rambam (hopefully), and Adam Savage1 Vote(s)

BOONTON, N.J., July 30 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- Total worldwide sales revenue for telecommunication gateways and session border controllers is expected to increase at a compounded rate of nearly 13 percent over the next five years, says a new market study from INSIGHT Research. This specialized equipment enables traditional phone networks to interconnect with next generation network services that make extensive use of the Internet. During 2008, nearly $2 billion worth of gateway technology will be sold in global markets; by 2013, sales of new gateway gear will increase to $3.5 billion…

NEW YORK, N.Y., July 24 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- TravelCell, the leading provider for global cellular and satellite phone rentals, announces special summer cell phone services for international travelers. Summer is a popular time for international travel, and keeping in touch with business and family while abroad is important. Many people will find that their U.S. cell phone will not work abroad and if it does, it can be costly; this can lead to stress, loss of time, and money. And, while many people may rely on calling cards, calling cards do not take incoming calls. So, what happens if a…

Higher quality and more features at less cost... and it's green COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 23 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- Leader Technologies(R) announced today its Get Green initiative, which will implement special programs with green non-profits to reduce communication costs and reduce the carbon footprint of participating companies simultaneously. Chairman Mike McKibben points to Leader Phone(R) audio conferencing as an obvious way for companies to "get greener." "Our patented Web 2.0 innovations in phone conferencing have greatly improved calling quality and service while reducing cost."…

ORLANDO, Fla., July 22 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- Auditel Inc. today announced that it has been awarded by General Services Administration (GSA) schedule of Telecommunication Audit & Financial Training Services (SIN 520 14)(www.auditelinc.com/GSA_Schedule.aspx). Auditel Inc. can now offer GSA rates to military, federal, state, and local Government agencies to reduce telecom expenses and control telecom budgets through Telecom Expense Management Training (TEM). Stretching and saving taxpayer dollars when times are tough is a difficult job, and now more than ever before telecom cost recovery…

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., July 8 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- Clareity Security Financial Services Group, a leading supplier of financial industry information security and identity authentication solutions announced today that their TEXT-pass+ line of customer authentication and transaction verification solutions will be expanded to include several key mobile banking functions. TEXT-pass+ already provides strong, two-factor authentication for securing online banking sessions by delivering one-time passwords and transaction verification messages to account holders' cell phones. Now TEXT-pass+ also…

Increasing Demand for TelcoBridges’ Telecom Platform Fuels Global Expansion

Telecentrex helps FreedomVOICE Systems in showcasing FreedomIQ, a business-class VoIP hosted PBX service at the Fall 2008 Channel Partners Conference and Expo held August 18th - 20th in Boston, Massachusetts.

IP-Converge will Integrate TouchStar's World Class Predictive Dialer and Call Center Software to Increase Productivity and Reduce Operating Costs

IVO Software has presented the latest Expressivo 1.4.2 program which can read any text aloud. The new Expressivo has been embedded into the Skype communicator which, thanks to this, has started to speak to its users.

Founded in 2004 by four entrepreneurs, Soundwin with strong R&D team and reliable marketing policy/services, profoundly innovates itself in telecommuting products, inclining to stretch its arms over international markets.

Most Cowetans who call 911 from their cell phones don't have to worry about location errors such as the one that may have contributed to the recent death of a woman in north Fulton County. When a call comes in to Coweta's 911 center, the location instantly pops up on a map of the county on the operator's screen. Landline calls additionally show the address where the phone call originated. Cell phones, for the most part, can be instantly pinpointed to within 100 feet, said Eddie Ball, Coweta's 911 and emergency management director. John's Creek resident Darlene Dukes died Aug. 2. It took 25…

IPC Systems, a provider of communications solutions to financial services firms, announced today that Bank of Beijing has chosen the IQ/MAX, IPC's voice over IP-enabled desktop tool, for its trading floor. With its main focus on transitioning to VoIP technology in order to support a technologically modern trading floor over the long-term, Bank of Beijing evaluated numerous vendors after formerly relying on PBX phones. Features of the IQ/MAX turret include call logs and caller ID.   The IPC solution allowed the bank to install technology that would have the capacity to grow as the…

An Ontario woman is trying to obtain class action status on a lawsuit against Rogers Wireless, alleging that the cell phone provider is pocketing more than its due in 911 service fees. Patricia Robson’s suit alleges no more than 10 cents of the monthly 50-cent fees usually charged to subscribers is actually required by regulators to pay for the necessary telecommunications infrastructure. The systems are operated by the former phone monopolies and are used to dispatch police, fire and ambulance services. The rest is pocketed alongside controversial “system access“ fees,…

Note:  Looks like the integration is complete.  Good thing Cisco makes good hardware. Cisco appears to be nudging ever closer to dropping the Linksys brand. Today it announces that it has combined the engineering teams for all its SMB products, forming a single group to develop products for the Cisco and Linksys brands. It has also retired the Linksys reseller initiaive and is urging Linksys' 20,000-strong reseller community to sign up for the Cisco Channel Partner Program. According to the Cisco press release: "This process includes bringing the Linksys Business Series…

General Dynamics C4 Systems has been awarded a $2.8 million contract by the National Security Agency (NSA) to add a new Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) feature to the Sectera vIPer Universal Secure Phone.  The new feature, called "PSTN Connect," will enable the vIPer Phone to connect with traditional telephone networks, enabling users of secure desktop phones to use one secure phone on either PSTN or VoIP networks. The vIPer Phone currently operates on Internet Protocol (IP) networks. "The idea behind PSTN Connect is to provide users with a flexibility they don't…

Increasing Demand for TelcoBridges’ Telecom Platform Fuels Global Expansion

IP-Converge will Integrate TouchStar's World Class Predictive Dialer and Call Center Software to Increase Productivity and Reduce Operating Costs

Internet phone technology is based on Voice-over-Internet protocol where the voice signals are transmitted through internet or some other networking systems. Internet phone is also known as IP telephony, broadband telephony as main source of transmission of voice signals is internet protocol.

Bypass VoIP Blockade by customized Softphone/Dialer You Brand your Logo, No time limited, Running forever.

AcroVista introduces flexible and affordable campus emergency notification system using standard Windows PCs, networks, and VoIP phones. Entire campuses can be alerted using client PCs and network audio players attached to indoor and outdoor audio systems.

VoIP Web Conferencing Does More with LessCorsavoo.com, France - 6 hours agoWith sales of nearly $15 million and growth of over 5% in 2006, Voice-over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, Incorporated has become a true player in Internet How To Know If VOIP Phone Service Is Right For You Corsavoo.comVoIP Phones Corsavoo.comVoip - Internet Telephony Corsavoo.comCorsavoo.comall 5 news articles

CRM Integration Systems releases new VoIP integration with ACT! by TMC Net, CT - 7 hours agoSCOTTSDALE, AZ, August, 18 2008 - CRM Integration Systems, a leading provider of CRM/VoIP application software, today announced that it has released the new

The Digital Home Video: When will VoIP supplant cell phones?CNET News, CA - 10 hours agoWill VoIP become the technology of choice for the future of cell phones? I certainly think so. Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has covered

Telesphere: Mobile Convergence is the Future for VoIPTMCnet - 12 hours agoBy Rich Tehrani According to Telesphere’s Director of Channel Sales, Dean Jordan, predictions for VoIP in 2009 include AT&T (News - Alert) buying out Qwest, Acme Packet: Session Border Controllers Play Key Role in VoIP Security TMCnetall 2 news articles

IPtimize Acquires AFS's Hosted VoIP Telephone Services BusinessRedOrbit, TX - 14 hours agoIPtimize, a broadband voice and data service provider, has acquired American Fiber Systems's broadband access and hosted VoIP telephone services business,

It is no doubt PSP is a great game player. But it is also a very good entertainment device which can be used for playing music. Assume you have some songs on your iTunes and are trying to figure out how to put them on your PSP. You copy and paste them in the PSP music folder, however, the PSP doesn't recognize the songs as music at all. So what's wrong? Don't worry! This guide will help you out of the trouble. The music downloaded from iTunes is under DRM protection. In order to play it on your PSP, you need to strip the DRM off and have the iTunes M4P M4A converted to PSP MP3 format. You can…

With the £5.5m network upgrade, the university will be able to offer its 14,000 students a wide range of services from VoIP to IPTV and video conferencing, so they will be able to view lectures online.

DENVER, BUSINESS WIRE -- IPtimize, Inc. (Pink Sheets: IPZI) ("IPtimize"), a broadband voice and data service provider, and American Fiber Systems, Inc. (AFS), a leader in metro fiber connectivity, announced today that IPtimize has acquired AFS's broadband access and hosted VoIP telephone services business.

Linkwell International Co., Ltd. announced today that 28TEL , the company's leading online mobile telecommunications service provider, is launching International "Free Call" service in the United States.

AltiGen® Communications, Inc. , a leading provider of VoIP business phone systems and Unified Communications solutions for small-to-medium businesses , announced Metro Communication Services, Inc., a multi-location reseller of communications services in Oakdale, MN, is offering AltiGen's products to its customers.

I am periodically asked to review VoIP services. One of the more recent ones is Denmark based Vopium. They provide a piece of software that will dynamically redirect calls through their gateways, thus giving you a cheaper rate. Very similar to what Truphone Anywhere does when WiFi and 3G aren’t available. They also do SMS as well–at least the sending part. Based on the theory that inbound SMS is free–not in North America anyway–SMS can be sent over IP at a substantial cost savings. I’m trying to find the value here beyond making things cheaper–stealing…

Seems that my bloakes in the UK with compatible Nokia handsets can get their hands on FIFA08 for free. Head on over to www.n-gage.com/fifa08 to watch some amusing videos of people so engrossed in their game that they’ll do anything to stay in it as well as download the game with the license. (Note this offer is limited to the first 120,000 people and expires at the end of August) This promo reminds me of something I learned first-hand playing with Download! with a UK SIM last year. They get so much better content, and in the US, we don’t get anything near this cool. It’s…

cellphones.ca is reporting that Skyfire supports Microsoft Silverlight, which, for all you Olympics fans, means you can watch streaming video of the Olympics on your mobile phone! And yes, I was actually watching the .01 second victory by Michael Phelps on my mobile phone, as pictured. While it did play as well as could be expected, the browser did not complete playing the video–it unceremoniously crashed after a few minutes. Screen rotation along with slightly tighter zooming would make the video much easier to watch. I also ran into some “activation” niggles as well, since…

I have admittedly been a late comer to last.fm, but lately, I’ve found myself using it more than I ever thought I would. I’m not sure if it’s the new interface or that I finally figured out what value it might bring to my music-listening experience. I haven’t started using the social aspects of last.fm yet, but it been useful simply as a way of capturing what I listen to and suggesting other stuff I might like. Last.fm, through scrobbler applications on various platforms, including the Mac and Nokia S60 applications, are able to send to last.fm the music you listen to…

Not too long ago, my work machine started showing these error messages. I called our service desk and asked about them, they told me I should probably consider backing things up, but I could ignore the errors. Yeah, right. I got out my copy of Spinrite. When I went to run Spinrite against my drive, I was presented with a RED screen with a warning about my drive being in imminent danger of failuer according to the SMART subsystem. The recomendation was to back up any data I could before running Spinrite as the process could push the drive over the edge. Of course, I immediately rebooted back…

Anyone got any idea how I am running UMA on an Irish O2 registered iPhone?

I started off doing these trips to “The Valley” a couple of years ago now and my communications kit is finally at a stage where its really getting quite simple. This pack started off at multiple phones, multiple laptops, multiple sims a couple of years ago. Now its quite easy MAXroam, roaming in the USA now and new USA inbound pricing so if they want me from home they call a local number to them and if they want me from here they call a local number to them, it finds me no matter where I am. Its like GrandCentral on a sim to be honest. Iphone 3G, with open wifi everywhere and…

Just discovered a very useful new application on the iPhone APP store designed by an Irish company, is this the first Irish iPhone APP? EirText designed by Vincent Coyne aggregates your free online SMS from the carriers and allows you to send them from your iPhone. Works from Vodafone, Meteor and O2 Very clever, well done Mr Coyne whom I have never met but hopefully will remedy that soon.

With bloggers currently moving to the newsletter format I had thought I better take a look at Toddle this weeks beneficiary of the Tues (Thursday) shove. As a recipient of Jason Calacanis’s wonderful new almost weekly newsletter I would suggest Jason takes a close look at this product. It does what it says on the tin “Beautifully simple email newsletters” More

Intel took a sizeable investment in Jajah last year and whilst most of us speculated that the final product would be a virtual phone on a PC it appears to have gone a lot further than we had guessed. JAJAH’s telephony functionality being paired with Intel’s latest Remote Wake Technology which is being announced later today. “The combination of these technologies enables a PC to make and receive calls over the JAJAH network and ­ critically - to ‘wake up’ from energy efficient sleep mode to receive a call. Currently, the inability for a PC to function as a phone…

Global IP Solutions , the leading provider of IP multimedia processing solutions, announced today that GIPS is enabling voice over IP (VoIP) for Apple Inc.'s iPhone. Using GIPS VoiceEngine™ Mobile, iPhone application developers can quickly integrate quality, real-time VoIP applications, which makes it easier for consumers to enjoy their favorite iPhone games, applications and social

The San Jose California based company, Concentric, has entered into a mutual agreement with RingCentral, a provider of an on-demand, hosted phone for small businesses, in order to make the later virtual phone and fax system available to its customers and by doing so expand its market reach and sales force. With this recent agreement, Concentric  would be able to offer phone and Internet fax

The agency in charge of regulation of communications, Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has cautioned Comcast about an allegation files against the company for violating the commission's Internet access rule; the network neutrality law.  Comcast was reported to have improperly interfered with users' access to the internet by blocking traffic of BitTorrent Inc.'s file sharing service.

The Toshiba's IP telephony being enjoyed by companies with less than 100 workers are now available for medium sized companies with workers between 200 and 1000 through Toshiba new CIX1200. With CIX1200, it is now possible for companies to upgrade to IP equipment at their own pace and without having to part with so much. The CIX1200, like other CIX series products, is a hybrid of Time-Division

Vello Corporation has launched a new conferencing application that will ease the stress users' face during conference calls. Vello was a featured demonstrator at the recent AlwaysOn and SVTP (Stanford Technology Ventures Program) Summit at Stanford University. The web 2.0 works without a VoIP and it was developed to overcome basics problems related to conference calling and these include the

Got some nice news to share about a former client that hit the wires this morning. Micromethod Technologies is a tiny company most of you have never heard about, and they've been quietly doing some leading edge work in the SIP server space. Today, at their big industry event - SpeechTEK - Voxeo announced the acquisition of Micromethod. The news was a key highlight from their event today, and colleague Dan York provided a more detailed take on the Voxeo blog. Last year, Micromethod engaged me to help find a buyer, and Voxeo was one of several companies we entered into discussions with. During…

Carl Ford is one of my favorite people in this business, and few people make more of an indelible impression than Carl. He has long been the Mutt half of VON's Mutt and Jeff combination, and one of the first questions that came to my mind with the demise of VON was what would Carl do? For better or worse, Carl is not shy, and most of us have stayed in touch via his various Facebook pages, and he's been working his network to keep busy in this brave new world. Like me, he's got a bunch of things on the go, and with an unparalleled network of industry contacts, Carl has many avenues to pursue.

My latest Service Provider Views column is running now on TMCnet. I've decided to revisit some companies from earlier columns who embody various aspects of the platform play - Ribbit, Jajah and Ifbyphone. They've all had important news announcements recently that show how quickly this space is evolving. Actually, the news from Jajah was only announced this morning, so it's very fresh. I don't want to divert you from reading my article yet, but for convenience, you can pick up the press release from Jajah and Intel here - it's pretty interesting stuff. Hopefully that will pique your interest…

TMC's Fall edition of the IT Expo is just over a month away, and it's time to start talking it up. The IT Expo West 2008 will be in Los Angeles, and runs from September 16-18, and you can immerse yourself in the program at the event website. The IT Expo has truly been a survivor and is still one of the best horizontal telecom events around, especially for the enterprise and SMB market. There is a healthy list of keynotes from market leaders, and it's especially nice to see Jonathan Christensen from Skype in that mix. Skype is certainly making strides in the business market, and it's great to…

The date for eComm 2009 has now been set, and will be March 3-5, returning to the same venue in San Jose. The event is very much a work in progress, so there's not much more to share publicly, but as that changes, I'll keep you posted. There was a ton of great content at the inaugural eComm, and Lee Dryburgh has labored long and hard to share as much of it as possible on the eComm website, and I urge you to spend some time on the eComm blog to see what you missed. I've been asked to join the eComm Advisory Board, which I'm happy to be a part of. This will be made public when the eComm 2009…

Remember not all that long ago when just about every computer notebook manufacturer was having problems with batteries -- like catching on fire! Now we have battery problems with cell phones!  Apple is blaming a problem its problem with overheating iPods in Japan on faulty batteries.In response to reports that Japan is investigating incidents of iPod nanos getting hot enough to scorch paper placed nearby, Apple acknowledged that "in very rare cases" first-generation iPod nanos sold between September 2005 and December 2006 can overheat.Extremely rare, Apple said it has received…

The music has stopped at Muxtape.com, the free, online music site that allows users to create a playlist or mixtape of up to 12 songs and share the list with friends. It was temporarily shutdown as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) flexed its copyright protecting musclea. The Manhattan-based startup has informed users that it "will be unavailable for a brief period while we sort out a problem with the RIAA." The RIAA has been cracking down on illegal sharing of copyrighted music on the Web for the past few years. Muxtape has previously said that it does not violate any…

Who would have figured that Wal-Mart would have become the exclusive retailer for classic rock bands coming back to life?In the latest news in this area, the king of retailers revealed that the new AC/DC album, Black Ice, will be sold exclusively in Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores starting in late October.The deal is part of a wider strategy for the world's biggest retailer to get exclusive deals to sell CDs. It is the latest album to be sold under such an arrangement, as Wal-Mart got exclusive rights to sell albums by the Eagles and Journey in recent months.(And don't forget that AC/DC has…

VoSKY just announced the VoSKY Exchange Pro VISIP-EX, a SIP-to-Skype gateway product that bridges the Skype network with SIP-based IP-PBXs and SIP gateways. The VoSKY Exchange Pro VISIP-EX enables companies with SIP-enabled PBXs to add Skype trunks for inexpensive calling. This isn't the first SIP-to-Skype gateway, I've written about others here, here, here, and here, however, this is the first "Skype-certified", enterprise-grade PBX-to-Skype gateway for SIP networks.The new VoSKY Exchange Pro VISIP-EX is based on the company's enterprise-grade Linux platform and connects an IP-PBX to Skype…

Yesterday, Digium released version 1.2 for the Digium Asterisk Appliance 50 (AA50). It's been awhile since I've heard any news about the AA50, so I'm glad to see Digium is still developing for the AA50 even with their new Switchvox-based AA60 appliance offering and their even newer AA300 & AA350 offerings. Actually, I discussed whether Digium's AA60, AA300, and AA350 would compete against their original AA50 Asterisk appliance, which might be worth a read. In a nutshell, I stated that they target different sized businesses. Still, there is some overlap, which is why I'm glad to see Digium…

SightSpeed Marketing VP Eric Quanstrom joined us on this morning’s SquawkBox conference call.  This call was inspired by the fact that SightSpeed seems to be multiplying the number of ways that you can use their technology pretty dramatically. They’re touching everything from MySpace to corporate video conferencing.   It seemed a good opportunity to hear from one of the market leaders in desktop video how the market is evolving. We covered SightSpeed’s product offerings, corporate video versus personal desktop video, and how the new SightSpeed Lite widgets embedded in…

Q1 Capital Partners publishes an online newsletter / blog titled Q-News.  Comparing the state of Canada’s venture sector to our disappointing Olympic medal count, Managing Director Mike Middleton writes: Rather than blather on about the dire state of the Canadian venture capital universe I’ll just let the numbers speak for themselves. CVCA reports Q2 2008 as lowest level of VC activity in almost three years Canadian investment levels decline 31% year-over-year and 10% compared to Q1 US VC investment levels equal Q2 2007 and decline 1% compared to Q1 US Internet-related investment at $1.5…

The iPhone 2.02 software was pushed last night, and the last thing I did before bed was to start the upgrade on my phone.  This morning I can say that it appears to have fixed a lot of the problems I’ve encountered with 2.01. The VPN client will now run on both WiFi and 3G networks. Stability seems dramatically improved.  I haven’t seem email, Safari, or Facebook crash yet this morning. I’ve noticed dramatically reduced performance connecting to web sites when my VPN is active, which suggests that it is routing all internet traffic through the VPN, rather than just the…

Today Palringo is unveiling their “vocal instant messaging” on iPhone.  It lets users send the equivalent of a text message, but by voice.  Sound familiar?  Of course.  It’s the service we’ve all come to know and love as “push to talk”.  But unlike traditional push to talk services, this one spans handsets from Apple, Nokia, RIM and Windows Mobile OEMS, plus carriers. That’s a paradigm shifter.

David Spark has been working away on a fabulous new resource for folks thinking about the role that social media should play in the business plan. Called be the voice, it’s a blog and podcast featuring “stories of thought leadership driving business growth”.  Thought leadership, of course, is one of the most powerful public relations strategies if you can execute it well, and David’s blog is a showcase of some of the best. Although the podcast officially launches this week, I am flattered to have been David’s first interview.  In Sell your product by letting everyone see you use…

I’m one of the persons that use GMail as my primary email account. All my company emails are forwarded to my Gmail account, this way I can also leverage the best spam filter I’ve ever tried so far. In addition, I have a GMail for your domain account, where my addresses @lucafiligheddu.com point to. From within Gmail, I can also manage multiple accounts and send emails with this or that mail address, depending on the case. In a nutshell, the best way to keep up on your email and to be as much productive as you can with the application that most of us use continuously and,…

LinkedIn, my favorite business social network, today announces the introduction of “Company Directory“. This is a very interesting feature by which you can easily find a company together with various information about it. For example, you can get a quick screenshot on how people in a certain company are connected to each other and what other companies are connected with employees of that company. I find this feature very useful and I will definitely use it intensely since it is a great source of aggregated information about companies and the networks any company is connected to.

I met Felipe for the first time a couple of months ago in the Bay Area. He used to work for a software company in Sacramento but in his spare time he designed and developed a very cool site for travelers, YowTrip , who he was promoting during various networking events in San Francisco. Felipe is from Brazil, so the only way to get a Vista is to work for a local US company. Unfortunately, this fact fights with his entrepreneurial ideas, who are now leading him to give up on everything he was doing in the US and move to Montreal, Canada, in order to make a crazy idea happen: The One Year NO JOB…

I apologize if I’m not that responsive in getting back to you or if I don’t promptly follow up on news that you send me. I’m just at home on “vacation”… Well, not really, since my wife is working in this period and I stay at home with my sons… 21 months and 2 months old… Available time is close to 0, sorry. I’ll try to catch up as soon as possible… If you liked this article, please buy me a coffee! Technorati Tags: Blogging, luca filigheddu, vacation ShareThis

Abbeyphone, my company’s division for consumer VoIP, just came out with the new summer rates, really very cheap. Abbeyphone is a not much advertised service, but I have to say that it works very well, from any SIP device or from the web, through call back (if needed) and it’s up and running since 2003 thanks to very faithful and loyal customers. Here is a snapshot of the rates compared with Skype’s ones, you can have a look here for more. If you haven’t tried Abbeyphone yet and you are looking for a cheap way to make calls worldwide from your PC or your SIP device,…

© scalespeeder VoIP in the Call Center. Could be a great way to make some cost cutting pay off while increasing customer relations. IT sounds like a great idea, simple, cost effective, and will link all your employees in a snap. Plus, adding to the Call Center you get all the features you love. Call recording, routing, voice mail, and chat are simple plug-n-play. Hold on one minute. Have you thought of everything? Take a look at this excellent article titled: "6 Things to Consider Before You Add VoIP to Your Company's Call Center". A really nice article that will get you thinking from…

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Richard Hobson If you are like most, you are probably slightly confused about the services available for VoIP. Should you use Skype, Live Messenger, Freshtel, Pennytel, iiNet, TPG, etc. Should you be using ISP-based or SIP protocol. There are many factors that go into your decision making. For me, I tried Skype, fell in love with it, had headaches through the growth periods, but the service just does what I need. I think that is the most important aspect to picking any service...KNOWING what you need. To help you weed through the VoIP services available, check…

© gemsling Not everyone is 100 percent VOIP aware. I came across two articles this week that might help the VOIP newbie. And if you think you know enough already, you just might want to browse them for a quick refresher on current trends. The first article: Guide to internet phone calls will help you understand how much money you might be able to save with a VOIP phone plan, how to get started, and presents some of the pitfalls. The second article: Benefits of Hosted VoIP Business Service will take you through some questions to help you choose your VOIP vendor. See full article. Related…

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Alberto Pomares I will be taking a break from my various blogs for the next week and a half-including this one. I will be on vacation with my family, visiting friends and enjoying my time away from the usual day-to-day of my life. VoIP will be the farthest thing from my mind. Unless one of the other roaming bloggers posts something while I'm away, expect The VoIP Weblog to be silent until I return. See full article. Related Entries: Time sharing your Vacation home - 16 April 2006 Location of Your Next Vacation Home - 18 October 2006 Paid Vacation Leaves in…

Back in the early days of my industry experience, 8x8 was a company I was familiar with only insofar as I knew they had a Check Point firewall and I worked for the company that provided support for them. Nowadays, I know them as a VoIP company, both in terms of providing service through their residential Packet 8 service, many of their business offerings, and of course their patent portfolio, which totals 73. Carolyn Schuk does an excellent piece on her VoIP Princess blog about 8x8, their history, and how they compare to the competition. What I did not know was that they started a residential…