Based on a foundation of industry standards like SIP and Signate's LAMPSA open source software stack, SigProvider lets service providers offer both consumer and enterprise telephone service. SigProvider's hosted IP PBX functionality for enterprise customers is completely forms driven, making it easily maintainable from any web browser by the enterprise customer's telephone administrator without intervention by the service provider.

"Whether you're a landlord providing service to tenants or an internet service provider moving into the IP telephony business, our SigProvider hosted solution lets you offer customers all the benefits of a next generation IP-PBX without the initial purchase cost or the ongoing system management," said William Boehlke, CEO of Signate. "Combine that with SigProvider's built-in support for SIP telephone service and popular customer premise devices and you can be in business in just a few weeks' time," he said.

Each SigProvider enterprise customer has a complete independent phone system, with its own telephone numbers, auto attendant(s), dialing directory, operator(s), business hours, music on hold, holiday profile, call groups, voice mail, conference rooms and call detail reporting. SigProvider supports remote businesses, remote offices and remote employees with IP extensions anywhere in the world. For organizations with contact centers or call center needs, SigProvider's optional call center software solution adds call queue support to the PBX offering for individual customers.

"SMB customers are amenable to the savings of a hosted PBX versus an in-house system," said Don Annas, President of Triad Telecom. "With Signate's solutions, we are able to provide the functionality and the reliability that our business customers need, while significantly reducing our own operating costs." Triad Telecom is a nationwide provider of SIP origination and termination services to carriers, ITSPs, and enterprise clients across the US.

Each consumer or enterprise customer extension may also be managed by the telephone user from a web browser with the reseller's or the customer's logo and color scheme. User-controlled features include voicemail integration with email, pager alerts, follow-me roaming, call screening and blocking, call recording and e911 emergency dialing.

SigProvider 2.0 includes a new forms-based interactive voice response builder so customers can configure their own voice response systems.

SigProvider can be scaled to increase call capacities by adding additional call management servers. In multi-server installations, SigProvider calls are automatically load balanced across servers, and unresponsive servers are bypassed until they are available.

Pricing and Availability

SigProvider pricing begins at $8,000 for the first customer-provided 32-bit server, including installation, billing integration through a customer-provided Radius server, and administrator training.

SigProvider is easily upgradeable to SigCarrier, Signate's hosted VoIP solution for telephone service carriers with 5,000 or more customers. SigCarrier adds support for resellers, automated administration, and higher call volumes.

An upgrade from Signate's SigMAN SP is $1,000 for customers under maintenance. The upgrade fee includes migration of customer data to the new architecture.

Signate service provider solutions are offered with around the clock support every day of the year, including automatic 24/7 system monitoring, maintenance and repairs, offsite dial plan and configuration backup; and annual software updates.

Source: VoIP Magazine and Signate 

Posted by Dal at 06:10 PM | Direct Link Posted to PBX / iPBX

Online VoIP services are starting to turn up in all sorts of new places. Skype Technologies S.A. clients have been incorporated into the Salesforce.com Inc. application suite to provide communication. Digium Inc., the parent company of the open-source IP PBX, Asterisk, has linked the client software of Google Inc.’s Google Talk to its Asterisk servers. Now, calls made to an Asterisk server can be forwarded to one or multiple Google Talk clients.

The ability to link VoIP servers, particularly business VoIP servers, such as Asterisk, to computer-based VoIP clients, such as Google or Yahoo! Inc., opens the potential for new communication services that combine PBX functions with online communication services.

Kevin Fleming, senior software engineer at Digium, said the link between Digium’s Asterisk servers and Google Talk required no formal agreement between the two companies. Asterisk can support Jingle, which has been described as an open version of the protocols used in Google Talk. Jingle is a set of extensions to Jabber, a suite of XML protocols widely used for instant messaging and presence. Google is supporting the development of Jingle through the Jabber Software Foundation's community standards process.

Asterisk can support Jingle the same way it supports other protocols, such as SIP, H.323, MGCP and Cisco Systems Inc.’s SCCP, better known as Skinny, by developing a kind of software signaling gateway, called a channel driver, to translate between Asterisk’s internal signaling and various VoIP clients, such as SIP phones. In fact there are few client devices, such as phones, that actually use the Asterisk protocol, IAX, so the Asterisk software has to be able to accommodate other protocols.

Flexibility was important on both sides of the connection between Asterisk and Google Talk. “The lack of any agreement between us and [Google] is proof that you can bring out a new service with a publicly defined protocol [Jingle] that any one can develop to – unlike Skype, which is closely guarded, encrypted and obscured,” said Fleming, “which is why nothing connects to the Skype network yet.”

Beyond its ability to work with other servers, Google Talk “came up with some very creative ways to do things, like NAT traversal and path determination and codec choosing,” said Fleming.

Open protocols, such as SIP or Jingle, give a software developer the ability to create applications that can work on SIP or Jingle networks.

A side benefit of the link to Google Talk and Jingle is that Asterisk might be able to federate with Google Jabber servers and even make use of Google Talk’s network for calling, such as for calls between companies with Asterisk servers, using standard clients, such as SIP phones.

Though Jingle and its parent technology, Jabber, are sometimes viewed as competitors to dominant VoIP protocol SIP, Jingle itself has something of an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) imprimatur. It is based on XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol, an IETF protocol for peer-to-peer multimedia. Google is supporting the development of Jingle through the Jabber Software Foundation's community standards process.

An official version of the Google Talk link will be in the next open-source release of Asterisk by Digium, which will be available in a beta version this week. Typically there is a one- or two-month period of bug testing, then a commercial release likely this summer.

Source: New Telephony 

Posted by Dal at 05:51 PM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk News

 The designs will combine Arabella's Expedited Fast Path (EFP) microcode and custom Linux implementation with Kenati's Network Persona (NP) application stacks for gateways, wireless routers, DSL modems, VoIP equipment, and VPN routers.

Arabella's EFP product comprises microcode for the QUICC or CPM engines found in Freescale NPUs (network processor units), along with an AMP (asymmetrical multi-processing) Linux implementation capable of segregating slow- and fast-path functions. Fast-path operations are "entirely implemented in microcode" and are "aggressively optimized," the company says, leaving the NPU's PowerPC core "almost entirely free for user applications."

Kenati's NP Suites target "converged" gateway devices with integrated VoIP (voice-over-IP) capabilities. Its NP product family comprises five Linux-based designs, including:

Posted by Dal at 11:11 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP Hardware

Snom phones validated for use with Digium's Asterisk Business Edition include the high-end 360, pictured above, and the conferencing-oriented 320, pictured at right. Both phones provide "simplified access to the rich feature sets of Asterisk IP PBX," Snom says.

Additionally, Snom has joined Digium's Asterisk Partner Program. The Program was created in response to growing Asterisk demand and an expanding third-party ecosystem, Digium says.

Jim Webster, director of software technologies at Digium, said, "By partnering with innovative companies like snom, we can offer the business community more options and features. We look forward to [expanding] the VoIP market and [communicating] the important role open source will play in the telecom market."

Dr. Micahel Knieling, marketing director at Snom, added, "For many people, it is nothing new that snom VoIP phones are compatible with Asterisk, but now it has been officially proved."

Click Here for more Information 

Posted by Dal at 10:43 AM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk News

The acquisition further strengthens visionGATEWAY's position in the growing VoIP Solutions marketplace and follows on the heels of a Global Distribution Agreement with Centile to deliver its VoIP Solution through visionGATEWAY's distribution channels in USA, UK, Australia/NZ, China and elsewhere in Asia. It also extends the partnership visionGATEWAY already has with Centile to deliver a Secure VoIP solution to the market through the integrated bundling of visionGATEWAY's INTERScepter VoIP Module with Centile's IntraSwitch VoIP Application Server.

visionGATEWAY said that it expected to complete the acquisition of Centile within the next 60 days, whereby Centile will become a wholly owned subsidiary of visionGATEWAY, Inc. Upon closing of the transaction, visionGATEWAY will have provided Centile expanded sales channels in North America, Asia and Europe.

The sole investment of Centile Limited, a UK registered company, is the holding company for and the ownership of Centile SA of France, a software development (R&D) and distribution company specializing in VoIP technology which was acquired from 8x8, Inc. (a NASDAQ listed company) in 2003.

Centile is a global leader in application software server solutions and an Internet Telephony (VoIP) software vendor. Their key product, the Centile IntraSwitch, enables Telecommunication Operators (GSM, Wireless), Media Companies and Service Providers to be at the forefront of VoIP and multimedia communications, whilst endowing enterprises and residential end users with top quality IP solutions.

Centile Chief Executive Officer Shahal Khan said that the combined company will be able to more readily expand its sales and solution delivery potential to various Global markets as a visionGATEWAY subsidiary. Centile has annualized revenues in excess of US$1 million from its current 20 Service Provider clients in Europe. Additionally, the company has recently won competitive contracts to be delivered over the next three months with initial payments in excess of US$200,000, with recurring revenue estimated at an additional US$1 million annually.

"Centile's introduction of the Secure VoIP Module in conjunction with visionGATEWAY is already creating significant interest in the marketplace," said visionGATEWAY CEO Michael Emerson.

Posted by Dal at 10:16 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

The Virgin service is for mobile customers who want to increase their monthly calling allotment, and it will appeal to a minority of the mobile-addicted folks. But as I've said before, ad-supported calls will debut in a big way on VoIP services such as Skype.

The price of calls via PC or mobile have fallen to the point where ad-supported services are feasible. Skype should be able to integrate graphical or video ads as a pre-roll before you make your call, and eBay already has the advertising network in place to make it happen.

Source: Marketing Shift
 

Posted by Dal at 09:43 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

Posted by Dal at 05:28 PM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk Development

Companies that consider themselves to be in competitive industries are twice as likely (14.6% versus 7.1%) to deploy IP telephony in the next year as those that describe their industries as not very competitive.

Corporations see strategic advantages in the features IP telephony offers over traditional PBX networks, says Ed Daugavietis, Senior Network Analyst of Info-Tech Research Group's Indaba division.

"Although the cost savings surrounding IP telephony have generated a great deal of hype, our study shows that early adopters see it as more than that," he says. "Improved collaboration is a big plus for users and a huge productivity boost for employers"

Daugavietis says companies recognize that IP telephony lags behind traditional telephony on some performance dimensions. Buyers of voice over IP show only half as much interest in product quality and reliability as companies purchasing general networking equipment.

"There's an expectation that some fraction of calls will have some crackle or jitter. They likely understand that IP telephony is a still- maturing technology and it doesn't yet meet every performance benchmark of traditional telephony systems," he says.

Large enterprises are the early adopters of voice over IP. More than half (57%) of respondents with more than 500 employees have either deployed or are planning to deploy IP telephony at some point, compared with 22% of small businesses.

Contrary to some reports, Info-Tech found that security concerns are not slowing down adoption of this technology. In a related study conducted by Info- Tech, 61% of respondents said security is not a factor, while only 25% cited it as a concern.

Source: PR News 

Posted by Dal at 11:19 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

The Aladdin eToken, which is about the size of an average house key, is easy to use and highly portable, providing users with powerful authentication by requiring something they have, the tamper-proof eToken, and something they know, a password. With the adoption of Aladdin eToken, Vonage is gaining One- Time Password technology based on industry-endorsed OATH (Initiative for Open Authentication) standards.

"Aladdin eToken's support for OATH standards was pivotal in our decision to select Aladdin," said Louis Mamakos, CTO of Vonage. "Vonage looks forward to all of its employees gaining extra data security by using Aladdin's NG-OTP eToken." "The flexibility of Aladdin eToken NG-OTP fits perfectly with Vonage's requirements for both USB and OTP authentication," said Dan Pfeifle, senior director of eToken solutions for Aladdin North America. "We see a fast-growing number of organizations seeking highly flexible, open device hardware.

Aladdin is pleased to have Vonage as one of its newest eToken customers." About Vonage(R) Vonage is a pioneer in the Internet telephony industry. The award winning Vonage(R) service is sold on the Web and through national retailers. Vonage Holdings Corp. is headquartered in Holmdel, New Jersey.

Source: PR Newswire 

Posted by Dal at 11:15 AM | Direct Link Posted to Vonage

CSR plc today announced that the company will provide BlueCore3-Multimedia (BlueCore3-MM) silicon to Motorola for use in the company's RCKT-100 wireless audio car adapter and handsfree unit. The BlueCore3-MM will provide the RCKT-100 with the ability to stream digital audio from a Motorola iRadio(R)-enabled phone to a compatible car stereo via a stereo Bluetooth link.

BlueCore3-MM will provide the RCKT-100 with handsfree functionality with caller ID support, CSR's Clear Voice Capture (CVC) technology and the new Bluetooth Handsfree Profile (HFP) v1.5 in order to improve voice quality. The Bluetooth RCKT-100 adapter, launched at CES 2006, will be available later this year.

Additionally, CSR's BlueCore3-MM delivers a host of Bluetooth profiles to give the Motorola RCKT-100 added functionality, including A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) and AVRCP (Audio/Visual Remote Control Profile). The AVRCP profile permits the RCKT-100 to wirelessly control the audio from a Bluetooth enabled handset. The A2DP profile allows high quality stereo music to be received by the RCKT-100 adapter and then channeled through the car speaker system. As the software on the iRadio-enabled phone detects the presence of a trusted A2DP link it will automatically re-route the music without the need for any additional effort.

BlueCore3-MM also implements the HFP profile with caller ID support. The new Bluetooth profile, designed for handsfree voice calling, has enhanced voice quality and allows phone information to be displayed on the car's radio display

The award-winning Motorola iRadio is a subscription based digital radio service providing over 600 channels of digital radio music and talk programs.

Anthony Murray, Vice President Automotive Strategic Business Unit at CSR commented, "Convergence is an increasingly important topic in today's mobile industry and more consumers are demanding more from their gadgets, be they mobile phones, cars or computers. Motorola's innovative products are driving a new level of convergence where functions of one device can be seamlessly transferred to the interface of another. CSR is working hard to ensure that our partners are not hindered by technological constraints in their work towards true seamless, wireless mobility."

Source: Business Wire 

Posted by Dal at 11:09 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

Barbara Darrow reports today that Microsoft will finally clarify its plans next month to turn Live Communications Server (LCS) into a next-generation telephony server. Details are to be released at Microsoft's unified communications event in June. Darrow didn't specify the name of the event but presumably it's Microsoft's upcoming Tech-Ed 2006.

Perhaps the disclosure of just how far down the IP PBX path Microsoft intends to take LCS will clarify the company's postion vis a vis its PBX partners. Those relationships have long been tactically cooperative, but strategically competitive. Tactically, Microsoft needed the voice switching capabilities of the infrastructure vendors, Cisco, Avaya, Siemens etc, to tie LCS into the corporate voice system. They in turn needed Microsoft's desktop and application footprint.

Strategically, however, LCS is a fully functional SIP sever, which means it can switch and route phone calls as easily as it can IM sessions. Once everyone has an LCS client there is little need for the IP PBX. In tomorrow's business communications network, pure-play voice has as much value as it did for Vonage in the consumer market.

Click Here to Continue Reading this Article 

Posted by Dal at 11:03 AM | Direct Link Posted to PBX / iPBX

The wireless mesh network will cover a 230,000 m2 area of the campus and enable outdoor broadband wireless access to the public Internet and the university network. Students and faculty will be able to use laptops and handheld computing devices to access online and university resources as well as applications such as wireless VoIP. In-building wireless access for colleges, dormitories and other facilities is planned as part of future network expansion. Nortel business partner Marubeni Solutions Corp. is handling network implementation.

"The availability of wireless broadband access across our campus will dramatically improve the research environment for our student body and teaching staff," said Dr. Kozo Itano, director of Academic Computing and Communication Center, University of Tsukuba. "It will also support our efforts to evolve Tsukuba into a highly creative university with a stronger international presence."

"Being selected to deploy our first university campus wireless mesh network in Japan at such a prestigious institution as Tsukuba is a significant milestone in enhancing the educational experience for students in this country," said Nick Vreugdenhil, president, Japan, Nortel. "Our solution makes wireless access simple and is ideal for universities. It offers students, faculty and other authorized users a highly flexible, scalable and secure wireless environment, indoors and outdoors, while providing the university with a more cost-effective platform for continuing evolution of eEducation services."

Nortel's Wireless Mesh Network solution uses wireless links to connect access points installed inside or outside to provide secure, seamless access to wireless broadband services. This solution allows enterprises, such as universities, to install wireless LANs in areas where it is difficult or cost- prohibitive to run cables. This innovative approach is designed to reduce the complexity and cost of deploying a traditional wireless LAN.

The University of Tsukuba will deploy 24 Nortel Wireless Access Point 7220 links to provide secure, seamless campus-wide outdoor access to wireless broadband services, with indoor access enabled by Nortel's Wireless Access Point 7215 units in the next phase of deployment. Security for the University's wireless communications is designed into the network by installing Wireless Gateway 7250 units to control the area between access points. Because the solution uses IEEE 802.11 standards, users with Wi-Fi enabled laptops or handheld computing devices will be able to access the university network or Internet without new hardware or software.

Nortel's wireless mesh network solution continues to attract growing interest among universities around the world, with deployments at Jinan University in China, Seowon University in Korea, Edith Cowan University in Australia, and Arkansas University in the United States. The solution is also in field trials at Taiwan National University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the U.S.

Source: PR Newswire

Posted by Dal at 10:56 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

The aversion, it appears, stems from a lack of confidence in what service providers can do and the guarantees they offer. Enterprises prefer to test solutions before committing to outsource. Most enterprises believe that their team can best select, maintain and protect their company’s assets cost effectively, since they know the objectives and values of their business better.

Enterprises that outsource some aspect of their communication needs consider security capabilities, responsiveness and Service-level Agreements (SLA) as the top evaluation criteria when selecting service providers. Also, enterprises assign different priority attributes depending on the service they plan to outsource to a third-party network manager (See Chart 1).

Click Here to Continue this Article 

Posted by Dal at 03:39 PM | Direct Link Posted to PBX / iPBX

Jonathan Brewer, technical director of Wellington wireless provider Araneo, says a WiMAX operator using unlicensed spectrum such as 5.8GHz has four 20MHz channels for transmission and another four for reception. This provides 50Mbit/s per sector of full-duplex (transmit/receive simultaneously) bandwidth, according to Brewer.

However, unlicensed spectrum raises the issue of interference, so many operators are looking at Crown-allocated 3.5GHz spectrum instead. Apart from not having to share the allocated spectrum, 3.5GHz also works better for near line-of-sight installations thanks to the lower frequency, and it also penetrates buildings better.

However, Brewer says that as the 3.5GHz band is split into 7MHz pairs, a four-sector transmission site will only have 1.75MHz per sector, providing less than 5Mbit/s. This, Brewer says, is not sufficient for anything apart from “a pile of 2Mbit/s symmetric links that no one wants, as they can get better from DSL.”

Unless WiMAX operators manage to acquire wider pairs of frequency blocks, like 21MHz ones, Brewer says those using Crown-allocated spectrum won’t be able to offer a competitive service. Brian Miller, manager of radio spectrum policy and planning at the Ministry of Economic Development (MED), says that at the time when the 3.4 to 3.6GHz spectrum was configured, WiMAX had not been conceived.

The MED released an engineering consideration document in September 2000, asking for commercial and public views on its draft plan for the spectrum. Originally, Miller says International Telecommunications Union-RadioCommunications (ITU-R) studies, as well as international trends at the time were based on the aggregation of 250kHz channels. The band itself was aimed for wireless local loop (WLL) and broadband wireless access (BWA) multipoint distribution service.

Click Here to Continue the Article 

Posted by Dal at 05:16 PM | Direct Link Posted to WiMax

Palm OS offers the best selection of hardware and software, while preserving the ease of use that launched the mobile data market in the first place.Palm OS is a terrific solution for basic PIM and document use, and PalmSource’s number one customer, Palm (a separate, independent company that makes hardware), has done a yeoman’s job of extending it to a new line of devices with more multimedia and storage capabilities.

Palm OS as the most used in the world without a VoIP functionality was a sore thumb standing out, causing inconvenience to scores using the OS-driven devices. mobiVoIP has radically changed all of that. With mobiVoIP VoIP is not just possible but a better experience as well.

When Skype came to Pocket PC, allowing wifi-enabled PPCs to make phone calls for free over the internet, users across the globe were hoping for a PalmOS version. The good news has come in the form of the proprietary technology of MantraGroup’s mobiVoIP.

Now with mobiVoIP, Palm OS’s greatest strengths of running on economical devices (often with long battery life), the handiness of VoIP can be experienced for the very first time. Everybody from those on a budget, those with only basic needs, and those who want access to a host of specialized applications will be very happy with mobiVoIP on devices.

Features:

mobiVoIP allows your Palm to connect to the internet through Bluetooth,Wifi, or EVDO. When you place a call, it sends your call through the internet and connects you to whoever you’re calling.

Peppered with great features and developed through a thorough R&D, here’s the list of the most popular features of the first official version of the technology – mobiVoip 1.0:

* Ability to make PSTN calls over IP!
* Caller-ID [via SIP]
* Profiles Settings Dialog [for configuring user Account]
* Secure Account Authentication using SIP MD5 Authentication
* Network Settings Dialog [for IP address related settings]
* Automatic IP resolution [via STUN servers]
* Detecting Dynamic IP [when STUN is disabled]
* Codecs supported: G.711 and GSM 6.10 FR - choose your codec based on your
connection speed! [GSM 6.10 FR for low speed connections > 60kbps, G711 for
high speed connections > 160kbps]
* Call Timer [should be Enabled from Debug Prefs]
* Audio Configuration Dialog [use to save your bandwidth with voice activity
detection]
* Calibration Test - estimate your environment noise and use for noise
suppression!
* Noise Suppression - a great feature to save your bandwidth usage - use
your connection only to transmit your voice!
* Setting for duration to Keep transmitting after silence [specified in
multiples of 20mS]
* Dial, Hang-up & Redial - now with newer and larger button!
* Touch-tones [DTMF]
* Mute Speaker/Mic
* Lookup Phonebook - Dial right from your contacts!
* Bandwidth Test - a simple echo test to get an estimate of your bandwidth!
[(latency time to hear your voice back); (as your voice makes a round trip)]
* Recommended Connections - WiFi, Bluetooth, EV-DO
* Treo 600/650 extras - Easy five-way navigation
* non-Treo extras - No worries of network disconnection on device entering
sleep mode
* Real time auto-updates

mobiVoIP is available in Australia, China, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong,Italy,New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan, the UK and the USA.

Source: PR Leap
 

Posted by Dal at 05:12 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP Hardware

As VoIP continues its penetration into the marketplace, concerns around VoIP security continue to present a major hurdle for organizations seeking to take advantage of the promised benefits of VoIP technology, including cost savings, improved service levels and enhanced productivity.

In order to provide customers with a "bullet-proof" VoIP security solution, Covergence has tested the ability to communicate between the CounterPath eyeBeam 1.5 Video SIP softphone and Eclipse SIP Session Manager using the IETF standards; Transport Layer Security (TLS) for signaling information and its counterpart the Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP) for voice and video traffic.

By using Eclipse, with its unique and purpose-built architecture dedicated to scaling, securing and controlling SIP, service providers give their customers the security and reliability they expect. When used with the eyeBeam softphone, they are providing their users with the rich multi-modal communications (voice, video, text) experience they demand.

Click Here for the Full Story 

Posted by Dal at 04:36 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP Software

Out of the box, the device can support up to 25 extensions—as long as they have Internet access, users can be anywhere in the world. Resellers have the option of offering additional extensions via license codes that can only be obtained through D-Link, which leaves room for potential post-sales revenue support.

The DVX-1000 can be used to combine voice and data onto a single LAN/WAN infrastructure while integrating applications such as call forwarding, call pickup, caller ID, conferencing and many other features. One thing to note, if resellers want to connect the device to a traditional PSTN with an IP-based network, they are going to need an IP analog trunk gateway to make the two coexist. (D-Link recently released the xStack IP Telephony DVG-3004S SIP Analog Trunk Gateway, which will accomplish this task.)

All administration configurations are done through the Web-configuration tool. From here, company policies and employee profiles are assigned. Built into the Web GUI is the option to schedule and invite employees to participate in conference calls. All notifications can be sent out to employees using this feature. When administering a conference call, users can import all pertinent information such as phone numbers, who the participants are, as well as access codes. CRN Test Center engineers were impressed with how quick and easy it was to master the phone-conferencing feature.

Click Here for more Information 

Posted by Dal at 04:33 PM | Direct Link Posted to PBX / iPBX

WiMax and 802.11n (and related standards) are somewhat unrelated. Wi-Fi is a local area network technology; WiMax (whether fixed, nomadic, or mobile) are wide-area network technologies.

Wi-Fi will continue to evolve as the best way to spread a network over an office or home or small area in which a cloud of service is needed. WiMax will probably evolve as a great replacement, alternative, or complement to fixed wired and mobile wireless services. That is, instead of an ADSL line or T-1 line, you might have a WiMax receiver on your roof or an antenna in your window. Instead of a cell phone that uses 3G to carry video or a cell data card for accessing a 3G network, you might have a WiMax-equipped laptop or phone.

Wi-Fi is a local distribution tool to push bits among users connected nearby; with many Wi-Fi base stations using the same name, you can build seamless coverage on a college campus, city park, or corporate campus. While it’s being used for metro-scale deployment, that’s because it’s the best worst solution. It’s not designed for that purpose, but everyone already has a Wi-Fi adapter, the technology works in unlicensed spectrum avoiding that issue, and it’s highly commodified making parts cheap across the supply chain for consumers, vendors, and network builders.

Right now, you can get WiMax or WiMax-like fixed broadband pretty readily in most major U.S. cities and in a lot of urban and rural areas worldwide. It’s very competitive in performance over shorter distances when you get to or over T1 or E1 speeds (roughly 1.5 Mbps each way). Several providers in the US already compete in some cities, and offer incentives like 24 to 48 hours from order to live access and free antennas and receivers with long-term contracts. Switching from a T1 to the equivalent of two T1s over fixed WiMax is often about the same price—sometimes a little less, sometimes a little more.

Click Here to Continue the Article 

Posted by Dal at 03:46 PM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

EarthLink, which is building similar networks in Philadelphia and San Francisco, said it would offer a free service at speeds up to 300 kilobits per second. A paid service will be available for higher speeds.

"We are excited to welcome the investment of EarthLink to better connect our citizens and visitors through WiFi,” said Mayor Ray Nagin. “This is another indication that New Orleans is moving to the next generation of technology. It's one more sign that New Orleans is rebuilding for the future; creating a safer, smarter and more efficient environment for all people.”

EarthLink will utilize WiFi routers from Tropos Networks. They will be attached to light poles.

Source: LocalTechWire

 

Posted by Dal at 02:19 PM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

Bridgewater Systems will begin testing its solutions with several leading WiMAX infrastructure and mobile device vendors in order to offer service providers with a fully tested, end-to-end 802.16e solution.

With Bridgewater Systems' subscriber-centric policy management solution deployed by more than 50 telecom service providers, including Bell Mobility, Sprint PCS and Verizon Wireless, the company brings its expertise as an established leader in policy management to WiMAX service providers. Through its involvement in the WiMAX Forum, the company is actively developing 802.16e standards, particularly those related to policy-management issues. These solutions address network access, including user and device authentication; mobility access, where users are allowed to roam and use mobile IP; managing quality of service (QoS) flows in the network based on policies; and monetization support, including correlating and aggregating of accounting records, and post-paid support.

"Bridgewater Systems has nearly a decade of experience providing carrier-class solutions to cellular operators, so serving mobile WiMAX providers is a natural next step for us," said Russ Freen, chief technology officer, Bridgewater Systems. "Mobility isn't for amateurs. It's a highly complex ecosystem and service providers need to create efficient and standardized network-control architectures and service delivery mechanisms. That's the value that Bridgewater Systems brings to the emerging mobile WiMAX market."

Bridgewater's portfolio of mobile WiMAX solutions offers powerful and proven carrier-class authentication processes, which are critical in WiMAX because the standards allow for flexibility in the authentication requirements of networks. It supports the extensible authentication protocol (EAP), which WiMAX standards require for user and device authentication. Bridgewater Systems has been actively involved in defining these standards through its membership in the WiMAX Forum.

Additionally, the mobile WiMAX solution is compatible with multiple other technologies, enabling cable, cellular and wireline operators to add WiMAX to their service bundles.

Bridgewater Systems' technology presents service providers a unified view of their subscribers and creates a single policy-decision point in the network. It advocates managing subscriber and policy information as close to a subscriber network access point as possible and creates a more efficient and better standard for network-control architecture and service delivery. Using a subscriber-centric approach to policy management offers several benefits. Subscribers have greater control over their network and service experiences through personalized content and customer portals. Service providers can quickly create new application packages and offer expanded services, and easily enter new market segments. And, service providers can significantly drive down the cost of network administration by allowing subscribers to manage their experience on their own, with self care options.

About Bridgewater Systems:
Bridgewater Systems develops the industry's most advanced subscriber-centric policy management software for IP-based services. Its solutions help global service providers maximize profits and launch new services faster. Bridgewater does this by providing them with a unified view of their subscribers across all access technologies. With Bridgewater's software, service providers have an intelligent policy-decision point for the management of subscribers, applications, and network resources. The Bridgewater Systems' product suite delivers high performance policy management via its market-leading authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) systems. It also offers a range of modular products for application support, mediation, and dynamic broadband management.
 

Source: XTV World 

Posted by Dal at 11:20 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiMax

"The Brekeke JTAPI SDK is a software development kit for creating SIP compliant applications using Java language," said Junko Nagata, VP of Engineering at Brekeke. "This software development kit contains base components of Brekeke's OnDO SIP Server and OnDO PBX, a SIP Proxy and SIP Registrar, and IP-PBX, whose stability and usability is confirmed by users worldwide."

By combining features, Java software developers can easily create their own IVR, call service application, or conference server. Additionally, developers can convert existing non-SIP applications to SIP, re-use existing JTAPI applications, and integrate SIP-based telephony systems with other applications such as CRM or groupware.

"Brekeke's JTAPI SDK does not require extensive knowledge of SIP technology which makes it easier to learn and use compared to other development tools such as JAIN or SIP Servlet framework," stated Shin Yamade, Brekeke CEO.

Supporting such features as making calls, receiving calls, call transfer, call recording, call conference, playing sound files and DTMF recognition, the JTAPI SDK is available for a limited time through a trial program and is being offered at an introductory price exclusively through Brekeke Software.

For more detailed information about the Brekeke JTAPI SDK: http://www.brekeke.com/products/products_jtapi.php

Availability and Pricing

An introductory price is available through June 15, 2006. For more information about purchasing Brekeke JTAPI SDK, inquire using the on-line form: http://www.brekeke.com/buy/buy_jtapi_form.php

Brekeke currently offers a 60-day trial program to qualified applicants for evaluating the Brekeke JTAPI SDK. To try the SDK, fill out the on-line form: http://www.brekeke.com/products/products_jtapi_form.php

Source: MarketWire 

Posted by Dal at 10:58 AM | Direct Link Posted to SIP

Already 25 percent complete, the network is expected to spur economic development and reduce the city's fixed costs. Upon completion the city's wireless mesh network will cover 10.4 sq. miles.

"Citi WiFi partnered with Strix because its multi-radio, multi-RF approach to mesh networking is extremely scalable and affordable, it gives us many deployment options, and it will allow us to add more services in the future," said Frank McCarthy, president of Citi WiFi Networks, in a release. "We believe that the advantages of Strix's approach boil down to containing the cost per square mile, which allows for cost-effective deployment of services and enables us to capture the maximum possible service revenue per square mile.

If you want to deploy broadband service now and add IP, multimedia, and VoIP applications in the future, you have to build a network today that can deliver the throughput and low-latency to support such applications tomorrow."

Source: Gov Tech 

Posted by Dal at 10:51 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

There's been lots of VoIP news in the gadget world lately. This time, digital voice communication comes in the form of a keyboard. The IP-Talky Keyboard KIPS-800 has a USB IP phone attached next to the number pad (via Techie Diva).

Posted by Dal at 10:32 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP Hardware

The flight away from risk amid volatile global markets was underlined Wednesday as shares in Vonage, the internet telephone service provider, plunged 13 per cent in the company’s first day of trading in New York.

Vonage’s $531m initial public offering was the worst US market debut in more than two years. It followed a sharp correction in US markets this month, with the technology-dominated Nasdaq Composite index falling 7.5 per cent in the past two weeks.

The Vonage float netted a total first-day loss for its investors of $67.5m – making it the fifth-worst market debut in New York in the past quarter century, according to Jay Ritter, finance professor at the University of Florida.

The market’s sharp rebuke for Vonage demonstrated the growing “flight to quality” among global investors, who showed little interest in picking up shares of a company that was still losing money, even though it was operating in a growth sector.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 10:27 AM | Direct Link Posted to Vonage

Critics call them vultures, or buzzards. I prefer the term gleaners.  They're the people or companies that sweep the last crumbs of profit from a market or industry. Day traders, hedge fund managers, private equity funds — they all provide liquidity, lubricate the economy, and keep the system efficient.

Signate is using open source to glean what profit remains from the telephone equipment market. They sell a virtual PBX, based on open source tools, which small telephone companies or landlords or private companies can use to provide business-class voice service to hundreds or thousands of desks.

"The telecom business is into its last residue of proprietary applications," CEO William Boehlke told me. "It's where companies like DEC went to die. What used to be a quarter million dollar piece of gear now sells for $75,000, and we can build them for $25,000."

While a company like Fonality will build the box and sell it to a business office, Boehlke sees this as still being a service provider business. "Not only do we need a richer feature set than Fonality but we have to give customers the ability to provide E911 and 411 and meet the CALEA regulations," he explained.

"People bought PBXs so they wouldn’t pay to call a colleague. We don’t have that problem. We think the PBX wil disappear, and will become part of what you pay for basic service. Only large organizations will keep telephony in-house."

Source: ZD Net 

Posted by Dal at 10:22 AM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk News

"IP PBX was the only segment which grew sequentially during the first quarter of 2006, with growth coming from NEC, Siemens and then Inter-Tel," commented Steve Raab, Director IP Telephony Research at Dell’Oro Group. "Avaya’s transition to IP telephony, particularly with hybrid systems, is propelling demand for its products. For example, Avaya’s IP telephone shipments have grown 50 percent year-over-year," Raab added.

Click Here for more Information 

Posted by Dal at 02:20 PM | Direct Link Posted to PBX / iPBX

“PBX Select is the answer to the small medium business need for end-to-end solutions that VoIP Supply was not positioned to handle” said Cory Andrews, Executive Vice President of PBX Select. "There is a lot of opportunity in the small medium business market, but we feel that ultimate success in the marketplace depends, to a great extent, on the approach of the vendor. '

We have designed a business process, combined with the dedicated pre/post sales resources necessary to educate business customers about the technology, help the customer make an informed decision, and provide central management of the overall implementation. Our wide range of vendor offerings allows us, in most cases, to offer clients the exact mix of price and feature set they require."

PBX Select aims to take the guess work out of implementing a VoIP solution. Through partnerships with leading vendors such as Aastra, Cisco, Linksys, Polycom, and Talkswitch, PBX Select will manage every element of the migration to Voice over IP, from hardware, to service, installation, training, and support.

For more information on PBX Select, or to request a quote on a small medium business phone system, visit: www.pbxselect.com
 

Posted by Dal at 11:16 AM | Direct Link Posted to PBX / iPBX

Bed and Breakfast’s are continually looking for ways to meet and exceed the needs of their guests. They can by providing access to high speed Internet.

Bed and Breakfast and Hostels are frequented by tourists and students. These groups all have a desire to keep in touch with family and friends. They need access to information at high speed access. In addition, the latest boom in digital cameras has created a demand for Internet access to enable photographers to upload their pictures while on the road.

Most B&B owners do not have any technology background. Using WHOTSPOT & our “B&B WiFi Package” as their resource allows them to focus on their business, improve their hospitality and leave the technology to be managed by the experts”.

The B&B package includes activation on the Whotspot Basic Service Plan. We include everything needed to provide WiFi service to the end user. Essentially the B&B owner receives 85% of the revenue (WHOTSPOT keeps 15% for user management, support and credit card processing) for a low monthly account fee of $25. Other plans are also available.

For only $599, B&B’s receive a complete B&B WiFi Starter kit, including a pre-programmed WiFi gateway, their own customized web portal page, a sampling of Posters, Tables Cards and Prepaid SurfCards. Each location is branded with the participants name on the custom designed portal page from which all users are directed to login. Out-of-the-box simplicity, just plug the supplied WiFi gateway into any existing Internet connection and you are ready for business. Customers can use Prepaid SurfCards or purchase an account online with their favorite credit card.

Special Limited Offer: Over $600 in prepaid SurfCards are included in the B&B package. Just sell these prepaid cards, and you will recover your WiFi package costs!

About WHOTSPOT

Since 2001, Whotspot has been providing "One-Stop" products and services for public Internet access. We take care of the end-to-end process of creating, maintaining and profiting from a "WiFi Internet Hotspot".

 

Posted by Dal at 11:09 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

“NASA had recently purchased Cisco’s 7970 IP phones and were struggling to find an effective way to train their employees”, states Jim Cossetta, President of 4What.  Cossetta continues, “NASA found us on the web, reviewed our demo and called us on a Thursday asking if there was anyway we could get them our training product for their training class on Monday”.

The VoIPTrainer is an interactive training and support solution designed by 4What Interactive for end users of IP Telephony.  4What’s product was not only made available for download, but was customized to reflect the look and feel for NASA’s phone environment and was posted for download within 24 hours.

4What Interactive is a multimedia based communication firm that specializes in the creation of innovative marketing and training solutions.
 

Posted by Dal at 11:04 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

Giving Gizmo Project users the ability to log into Asterisk means they can now be universally reachable via their Asterisk PBX or directly through the Gizmo Project network. The option to seamlessly receive calls from their office PBX while anywhere in the world leverages Gizmo Project's advanced NAT ("network address translation"), firewall and router traversal features and server infrastructure. More information about Gizmo Project 2.0 with Asterisk support may be found at www.gizmoproject.com/asterisk.

The benefits of using Asterisk to power an office PBX can be significant in terms of cost savings, efficiency and access to features previously only available to large businesses. Using Gizmo Project as an office softphone lets users easily place calls without the burden of special VoIP phones or the expense of traditional phone call charges. Incoming calls to an office PBX will reach mobile workers anywhere in the world. Gizmo Project also provides such high-end features as voicemail-to-email, free conference calling, call history, free access to millions of people on SIP-based networks, and built-in instant messaging (IM) capabilities.

"Whether a company is focused on a completely free Asterisk PBX installation or is running a premium version, Gizmo Project is now the ideal softphone for use with any size deployment," said Michael Robertson, chairman and CEO of SIPphone. "Our experience at routing millions of calls through almost any network setup means that mobile computer users can be reached anywhere as if they were physically in their office. Plus, companies save money with low domestic and International calling rates using Gizmo Project," Robertson concluded.

Companies around the world deploying the Asterisk PBX software, premium PBXs developed by such companies as SwitchVox, Epigy, webFones, or any other SIP-based PBXs can now easily use Gizmo Project for making and receiving calls. Specific information about setting up Asterisk for use with Gizmo Project 2.0 may be found at www.gizmoproject.com/setupasterisk.

The free Gizmo Project software for Apple Macintosh, Microsoft Windows and Linux computers delivers crystal clear VoIP calls. Gizmo Project uses licensed, best-of-breed audio codecs such as GIPS and employs media relays around the world to route calls through the most efficient path. Gizmo Project also routes calls through one of several phone partners which provides for the lowest possible per minute International calling rates. PC-to-PC calls are always free.

Source: Business Wire
 

Posted by Dal at 11:02 AM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk News

In a nutshell the way it works is fairly simple; a WiFi VoIP cellular phone such as those provided by Viper Networks and ZyXel access to a VoIP enabled Wireless LAN. The neat thing about this arrangement is that you can access the VoIP enabled network from anywhere you can get wireless access which means you can now talk via your VoIP service from wireless hot spots worldwide. This is a great new opportunity for those of you who travel often. Typically the wireless access needs to be 802.11 compatible.

The technology is gaining use in certain vertical markets rapidly such as healthcare and retail where employees are often away from a phone, but close enough to the wireless access point. This mobility adds a new freedom in organizations and can substantially increase worker efficiency.

Of course, the whole reason i mentioned in the beginning that this technology is taking shape, is that like everything else neat and wonderful, it comes with challenges that have yet to be totally overcome for widespread adoption. The 802.11 standard has some scalability issues that preclude it from being a viable medium for widespread enterprise level wireless VoIP deployment. The familiar QOS or Quality of Service issues that have plagued VoIP adoption are still an issue in a wireless application. A new version of 802.11 on the horizon is slated to include QOS support. Fast roaming is required for uninterrupted transmission. This is also a proposed feature of yet another version of the 802.11 spec.

Click Here for the Full Story 

Posted by Dal at 11:39 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

The Sensoria network extends broadband connectivity outside campus buildings and into all of its open spaces providing continuous access to the Internet, which makes Cal State San Marcos the most connected public campus in San Diego County, as well as one of the most connected in the 23-campus California State University system and part of an emerging trend in the nation.

“We’re ecstatic to be offering our students such unparalleled connectivity for a campus environment. We’re more than pleased with the Sensoria solution, which has exceeded our expectations in nearly every regard,” says Wayne Veres, Dean and CIO, Instructional and Information Technology Services for Cal State San Marcos.

The EnRoute500 dual radio outdoor wireless mesh routers deployed at Cal State San Marcos feature the next generation of Sensoria’s WirelessFabricTM mesh networking platform with an advanced Quality of Service (QoS) framework and support for multiple user classes. The QoS mechanism enables priority to VoIP and other high priority traffic, and fairly distributes network bandwidth to connected clients. These upgrades achieve improved network performance and enable the network operator to designate multiple user classes or subscriber levels to allow for different levels of service such as higher priority to public safety users over public access.

At Cal State San Marcos, the Sensoria network enables faculty and staff seamless access to the same screens and files as their desktop; student users are also granted seamless access to their university accounts and the web; and, finally, guest users can login as with any public hotspot to obtain access to the Web.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 11:36 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

 As of some time in the next couple of days, the cvs.digium.com and related servers will disappear; DNS entries for those names will be removed. If you need to continue building Asterisk or any related
projects directly from our SCM (as opposed to building from released packages), you will need to switch to using Subversion to do your checkouts.

We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you, but the continued maintenance of the CVS servers and mirroring the Subversion repositories into them is no longer something we wish to do :-)

Posted by Dal at 11:32 AM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk Development

Mark Galvin, co-founder, president and CEO of Whaleback said, "Whaleback is capitalizing on the opportunity to bring managed broadband VoIP services to small-and-medium businesses, and Rubin Gruber's tremendous success at Sonus and his history of founding and growing innovative companies provides Whaleback with insights that can help fuel our business growth. Rubin is a 'serial entrepreneur' and he has practical, real-world experience in building an innovative and highly successful VoIP company."

Gruber recently retired from the Sonus Networks Board of Directors after serving as its Chairman Emeritus. Co-founded by Gruber in 1997, Sonus Networks is a leading provider of wireless and wireline VoIP and multimedia infrastructure solutions for carriers, PTTs, ISPs, cable companies, CLECs and next-generation service providers.

According to Gruber, "Whaleback has a great opportunity to bring broadband VoIP services to small and medium businesses. I'm pleased to join Whaleback's Board of Directors to help guide the company's growth. Whaleback has a strong Board and has a management team in place that can quickly capitalize on the opportunity to offer managed voice services that remove the complexity of business communications and simplify the delivery of VoIP over cable and DSL broadband connections."

Gruber is a well-known and highly successful entrepreneur, having founded many other companies including VideoServer, Inc. (now ezenia!), a leading provider of multimedia communications servers. Before VideoServer, Gruber served as senior vice president at BBN Communications Corporation, where he introduced a new generation of packet-switching equipment in support of mission-critical applications. Gruber also founded Davox (now called Concerto), a leading supplier of call-center systems, and Cambridge Telecommunications (CTX), which was the first company to incorporate microprocessors in communications equipment and an early supplier of packet network access equipment. CTX was acquired by GTE and remains part of Sprint.

He is also a member of the Board of Directors for Brix Networks, Net Devices and the IMS Forum (formerly the International Packet Communications Consortium). Gruber holds a B.Sc. from McGill University and an MA in mathematics from Wayne State University.

Source: Business Wire 

Posted by Dal at 04:07 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

Last week we covered TCP/IP networking basics. The more you know about the care and feeding of TCP/IP the better, so don't stop with my very basic overview.

Today we're going to configure our Internet router/gateway to give priority to Asterisk traffic. This how-to is for admins who have nice sturdy Linux-based Internet gateways. If you're using a commercial router with its own operating system, like Cisco, you'll have to learn the traffic-shaping incantations peculiar to it.

Indeed, while Cisco, Linksys, Netgear, Zyxel, et al, make excellent routers and Internet gateways, you can easily duplicate or exceed their functionality with Linux on ordinary x86 hardware for a fraction of the cost, for all but the most high-demand routing. In other words, if you're not AT&T or an ISP, Linux will do everything you need and more.

If you're wondering about terminology like "router" and "gateway," let's define them so we're all on the same page. A router is any device that enables traffic to pass between networks, like between the Internet and your LAN, or different subnets on your LAN. A gateway does routing, and also includes other border services like firewalling, intrusion detection, HTTP caching/filtering, and whatever else the network administrator thinks is needed to guard the borders.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 02:20 PM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk Help

 

The acquisition means Boingo will operate Concourse's neutral-host networks in 12 leading US airports, including three New York city airports: JFK, LaGuardia and Newark; two Chicago airports: O'Hare and Midway; and other top 100 airports including Toronto, Ottawa, Detroit, Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, Nashville and Atlanta. These 12 networks represent 54% of enplanements among North America's top 100 airports, and 27% of all North American enplanements.

The acquisition expands Boingo's business of building a worldwide Wi-Fi hot spot roaming network and gives the company a platform for testing emerging dual mode handset implementations and VoIP traffic management.

"More than four years of direct usage data showed us that high-traffic airports are the single most valuable venue for Wi-Fi usage and customer acquisition," said David Hagan, president and CEO of Boingo Wireless. "Concourse is the unquestionable leader in domestic high-traffic airports; their commitment to neutral-host systems and high-quality airport installations are a perfect complement to both our retail and platform service lines of business."

"Boingo's global presence and strategic relationships, combined with their retail service offerings, will take Concourse to the next level," said Joseph Beatty, president of Concourse Communications Group. "Extending roaming to more global operators and increasing recurring revenue through subscription services stays true to Concourse's mission while dramatically lifting revenue opportunities."

"As the roaming pioneer in commercial Wi-Fi, Boingo recognizes the value of a neutral-host facility and is committed to ensuring that the installations remain neutral-host for the benefit of all parties interested in roaming," said Jon Irwin, chief operating officer for Boingo Wireless.

The two companies' lines of business are highly complementary with little operational overlap. As a result, Boingo will retain nearly the entire Concourse staff and continue to operate the field offices in Chicago, New York and Dallas. Boingo has developed joint-task teams of Boingo and Concourse employees who will work together on strategies and timelines for integration of operations. In order to minimize disruption of either operation, the companies will pursue business as usual for the time being.

Boingo Wireless and its Concourse subsidiaries will use the Boingo brand name. The parent company, Boingo Wireless, Inc., will be cash flow positive with a strong balance sheet that allows Boingo to continue building a global roaming network for connecting Wi-Fi enabled devices -- from laptops to dual-mode handsets -- to the Internet through partnerships with major carriers, operators and brands around the world.

Boingo's investors, which include New Enterprise Associates, Mitsui & Co. Venture, Sternhill Partners and Evercore Venture, will retain a majority stake in the new company. Concourse's investors, which include Cardinal Growth, will acquire a minority share in the new company as part of the transaction.

Source: Business Wire

Posted by Dal at 09:26 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

Polycom also introduced a SIP 2.0 software release, adding new features and functionality to the entire line of SIP-based Polycom phones, including integration with Microsoft® Live Communications Server (LCS) 2005, new telephony features, advanced security, and system management capabilities that reduce deployment costs of IP phones.

"Polycom offers a range of SoundPoint IP and SoundStation IP phones to meet the unique business communications requirements of customers," said Sunil Bhalla, senior vice president and general manager of voice communications at Polycom. "The SoundPoint IP 430 addresses specific customer demand for a business phone that is priced for broad deployment and offers a high-quality full-duplex speakerphone. We are also giving customers new features and functionality through our SIP 2.0 software release, which adds value to the entire IP phone portfolio."

"New Global Telecom tests numerous IP devices in our in-house Product Lab to ensure end-to-end quality for our customers," said John Guillaume, vice president of product for New Global Telecom, a leading provider of wholesale hosted VoIP services. "Polycom's IP product line not only meets our certification requirements, but it has also enjoyed widespread use by our customers. In particular, the SoundPoint IP desktop phones are ideal for the needs of our SMB audience. We anticipate the SoundPoint IP 430's competitive price-point paired with the full duplex speakerphone functionality will be well received by customers."

SoundPoint IP 430 -- Ideal IP Desktop Phone for Broad Deployments

The SoundPoint IP 430 is an affordable, two-line SIP desktop phone that includes a full-duplex speakerphone with Polycom Acoustic Clarity Technology, which delivers excellent voice quality and enables natural, two-way conversations. The SoundPoint IP 430 provides an easy transition from legacy PSTN systems to the world of IP telephony with simple menu navigation, an easy-to-read graphical LCD, and convenient, one-button access to essential telephony features. The enterprise-grade IP phone delivers a rich feature set encompassing traditional telephony features such as call hold, park, pick-up, and transfer, as well as more advanced capabilities such as shared call/bridged line appearance and integration with Microsoft LCS 2005 for telephony and presence. Built-in IEEE 802.3af Power over Ethernet circuitry and a dual-port 10/100 Mbps Ethernet switch for PC and LAN connection offers a choice of powering and cabling options to help reduce costs and cord clutter.

SIP 2.0 Software Expands Capabilities of Polycom IP Phones

Polycom SIP 2.0 software delivers expanded capabilities for the complete line of SoundPoint IP desktop phones and SoundStation IP conference phones. Enhancements include:

The SoundPoint IP 430 is available for order today worldwide (except Korea and China) for a MSRP of US$239 through Polycom certified VoIP resellers. The SoundPoint IP 430 is scheduled to begin shipping in late June. Polycom SIP 2.0 software release will be available in late June at no cost through Polycom certified VoIP resellers.

Polycom reserves the right to modify future product plans at any time. Products and/or related specifications referenced in this press release are not guaranteed, and will be delivered on a when and if available basis.

*Some described features must be supported by the call server and may require updated software.

Source: Yahoo PR 

Posted by Dal at 09:18 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP Hardware

 

Least-cost routing has traditionally required customers to constantly download rates and recalculate the current lowest rate for domestic and international calls. Using the FlexRate program, customers no longer have to maintain their own database of rates. With minimal configuration changes, the Asterisk PBX will automatically retrieve the rate for a particular destination and decide which provider to use at the moment a call is made.

"We encourage our customers to do their own least-cost routing to take advantage of the lowest rates from multiple providers," said Ravi Sakaria, VoicePulse's president. "By offering FlexRate real-time pricing, we give our customers 1 cent calling to most of the United States and the ability to automatically use another provider for the rest."

VoicePulse Connect for Asterisk customers can make and receive calls from anywhere in the world using the standard SIP protocol as well as Asterisk's own IAX protocol. Using the VoicePulse Connect API, customers can easily integrate VoicePulse Connect into their own back-end systems and websites.

The VoicePulse Connect for Asterisk service includes:

  -- Fast, easy to use website at http://connect.voicepulse.com/
  -- Incoming U.S. phone numbers from 40 states, 200 area codes,
     3,500 cities
  -- Incoming toll free phone numbers
  -- Asterisk-friendly website, configuration samples and
     customer support
  -- Prepay (pay-as-you-go) service
  -- No volume commitment or activation fees to open account
  -- 1 cent/min outgoing to most of the U.S. 48
  -- 4.9 cents/min incoming toll free
  -- $11/month for each incoming phone number
  -- Free incoming minutes

CONTACT:  VoicePulse Inc.
          Chris Liu
          (732) 339-5100
          chris.liu@voicepulse.com

Posted by Dal at 09:12 AM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk News

It is backed with $22 million from big-name venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, as well as Elron Electronics, Star Ventures and BRM Capital.

Click Here for the Full Story 

Posted by Dal at 09:05 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

VoIP provider, Bandwidth.com, which caters primarily to small and medium-sized businesses, has launched a new division that will appeal to larger enterprises.  Bandwidth.com has built a name for itself by finding the best deals for SMBs that lack the patience and expertise required to negotiate directly with carriers.

Bandwidth buys bulk service from carriers like AT&T, Sprint, Qwest, and Level 3, then resells it to these small and mid-sized organizations.

The company’s special new focus on large corporate customers is due to the fact that such clients are now actively seeking out easy ways to make the transition to VoIP. Until recently, IP communication was sold mainly as a consumer technology, not seen as reliable enough for the business market.

“That has changed in the last 18 months or so,” said Bandwidth.com CEO, Henry Kaestner. “There is a now a pronounced difference between consumer and business-class VoIP. Today enterprise companies are increasingly looking to migrate their telecom infrastructure to converged IP-based networks and services.”

Kaestner also described how consumer-oriented VoIP carriers like Skype and Vonage are attempting to enter the business market, but that their offerings are insufficient for the majority of large corporate customers.

Click Here for the Full Story 

Posted by Dal at 08:58 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

HauteSpot Networks Corporation announced today availability of the new HR-WRAPDXi and HR-WRAPDX2i indoor wireless 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi routers.

Following the tremendous success of the HR-WRAPDX and HR-WRAPDX2 outdoor rated high performance wireless 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi routers, HauteSpot Networks released new indoor versions of the products. The HR-WRAPDX product line is designed for maximum flexibility, performance, reliability and manageability.

Capable of supporting radio modules operating in the FCC unlicensed radio spectrums of 900Mhz, 2.4Ghz, 5Ghz, and the public safety spectrum of 4.9Ghz, and complying with IEEE specifications for 802.11a, b and g, these full feature wireless routers are ideal for use as access points, repeaters, point to point bridges, or point to multipoint bridges. When used with client equipment from EnGenius Technologies, which HauteSpot Networks represents as a distributor, the products deliver maximum performance, range and reliability.

The HR-WRAPDX product line uses the HauteRouterOS operating system which supports features normally found only in extremely high end products, yet the HR-WRAPDX products are affordably priced.

The primary applications for the HR-WRAPDXi indoor wireless router are as access points/routers for hotels, restaurants, enterprises, schools, government buildings and high end homes. With the integrated captive portal functionality of the router, public access hot spots can be easily created, without the need for separate gateway controllers. With excellent receive sensitivity and transmit gain, surpassing most wireless devices on the market, the HR-WRAPDXi supports a range of clients, even those with extremely low transmit power and receive sensitivity, such as PDAs or Wi-Fi phones.

For the enterprise or government, the HR-WRAPDXi offers complete security, from 802.1x user authentication, to WPA2 encryption, to IPSec and PPPoE tunneling, to simple MAC address filtering.

Where wireless repeating is required, the HR-WRAPDX2i offers a non-blocking, two radio solution. One radio can operate at 5Ghz for backhaul using full transparent bridging (WDS) or routing, and the other can operate on 2.4Ghz for local distribution to the clients. The WDS protocol implementation used on the HR-WRAPDX product line is fully compatible with the HR-3054DX, HR-G192DX, and EL-3054CB3+ Deluxe access points, so these low cost products can be used as wireless repeaters to extend coverage over a broad area.

Technically, the HR-WRAP products are embedded computer systems with expansion module slots to allow for wireless radio modules. They are specifically designed for low power consumption, small foot print, and broad temperature operation. As computers, they are highly adaptable, and very configurable. If you have a wireless application, these systems can support it.

The HR-WRAPDXi and HR-WRAPDX2i are both available for immediate delivery.

More information on the HR-WRAPDXi and HR-WRAPDX2i is available at the HauteSpot Networks' web site http://www.hautespot.net

Source: PR Web 

Posted by Dal at 08:49 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

As Vonage prepares for its IPO, possibly as early as next week, it's being hit with even more bad news. A Wall Street Journal article savages the service, quoting one subscriber as saying, "If you have to choose between two cans and a string and Vonage, take the cans and string. You'll be happier with the service."

The Journal article cites widespread subscriber unhappiness with Vonage. Subscribers complain of poor voice quality, as well as a wide variety of "bureaucratic hassles and snafus" when dealing with issues with the service.

One subscriber, for example, said that it too him 11 hours, most of it on hold, to try and cancel his subscription and move back to Qwest.

The article also cited complaints of poor voice quality, and phones not ringing for incoming calls.  The article also noted that 77,000 Vonage subscribers abandoned the service in the first quarter of this year, about 2.1% per month. That's compared to a loss of 1.9% per month in the fourth quarter of last year.

This all adds up to bad news for the IPO. I've already written that because of VoIP competition, this IPO might be troubled.

Now it looks as if voice quality and customer service may take their toll as well.

Posted by Dal at 08:25 PM | Direct Link Posted to Vonage

While the NSA supposedly received records from three largest phone companies, the agency doesn't have the wherewithal to contact smaller VoIP vendors, which has prompted some consumers to switch to other carriers.

Web-based VoIP companies such as Skype offer greater anonymity since PC to PC calls are more difficult to track, and since customers only have to provide an email address to get an account. I'm not sure what records Skype keeps of PC to phone calls, and for how long, but it likely is not as detailed as telco records. Ditto for voice calls between IM clients. New encryption utilities such as Zfone also make it more difficult to intercept communications.

Source: MarketingShift 

Posted by Dal at 08:18 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP Politics

Since its launch last year, more than 4,300 businesses nationwide have deployed XOptions Flex.

Source: Tmcnet 

Posted by Dal at 08:14 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

With VoIP technology, the phone call is routed through the internet and gets terminated to a PSTN or other VoIP client. Instead of passing the telephone call to a telephone operator, it uses the existing Internet connection and thereby provides cost savings on phone bills. 

mobiVoIP requires the Palm device to be able to connect to the Internet through Bluetooth, WiFi (802.11), or EVDO. It allows the user to place telephone calls directly from the PDA thus expanding PDA’s capabilities to be used as a converged device.

“We are the first company to release a VoIP solution for Palm OS. We are confident that mobiVoIP will truly change the way we use our Palm devices.” says Manohar Chapalamadugu, CEO of MantraGroup.

mobiVoIP is offered as a monthly service with various calling plans designed for North America and other countries. More information on the plans can be obtained from http://www.mobivoip.net/.

Source: PR Wire 

Posted by Dal at 01:12 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

Boingo said yesterday that its new open source initiative was released on the popular SourceForge open source development portal. The company's open source software handles connection into its Wi-Fi network, and authentication of users into its network of Wi-Fi hot spots.

Companies supporting the firm's open source initiative include Microsoft, Broadcom, iBAHN, Kyocera Wireless, Accton, BridgePort Networks, and many others. The company said that it expects the move to lower the development costs for handset providers, and that the software is available for BREW, Linux, Windows Mobile 2003 and Windows Mobile 5. Portions of the software are licensed under the Lower GPL license and Apache open source licenses.

Source: SoCalTech
 

Posted by Dal at 01:07 PM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

"Our forecasts show a continued steady uptake of VoIP over the next few years, with adoption following a relatively straight line, not an S-shaped curve typically seen in the adoption of emerging technologies," said Matthias Machowinski, a directing analyst with Infonetics and the study's author.

For the past three years, Infonetics has conducted VoIP adoption surveys, according to the report, and each year the trend becomes more clear: The number of small, midsized and large companies planning to deploy or evaluate VoIP is steadily on the rise. The study also found that companies are becoming more aware of VoIP products and services.

"While awareness doesn't necessarily translate into deployments, it is one of the first obstacles any new technology must overcome," the study says.

((Content component not found.)) In what Infonetics called the "ultimate show of confidence" in VoIP, the study also found that there is an aggressive move from TDM to VoIP. In many cases, companies are phasing out their legacy TDM PBXs in favor of an all-VoIP system.

The study results are based on in-depth interviews with 240 small, midsized and large companies that use VoIP products or services now or will do so by next year. Infonetics also conducted 450 shorter interviews to determine VoIP adoption rates, and 150 exit interviews to determine why organizations are not deploying VoIP. Most of the respondents use in-house VoIP, according to the study, but some use managed VoIP services or some combination of both.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 10:19 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

Mark your calendars for May 23, the date that Internet-telephony giant Vonage Holdings Corp.'s long-awaited initial public offering is set to hit the streets.

Vonage revealed that date in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday, consisting mainly of screen shots of its Web site (www.vonageipo.com) for a special offer allowing certain Vonage customers to participate in the IPO. As part of that filing, Vonage listed the expected offering date for the IPO as May 23.

Vonage plans to issue about 31.25 million shares, priced at $16-$18 each, through the IPO. Another 4.7 million shares would be set aside for underwriters’ overallotments, making the total proceeds from the offering $575 million-$647 million.

Citigroup, Deutsche Bank Securities, UBS Investment Bank, Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., Piper Jaffray & Co. and Thomas Weisel Partners LLC are serving as underwriters for the offering.

Source: MultiChannel 

Posted by Dal at 10:10 AM | Direct Link Posted to Vonage

"As VoIP communication becomes increasingly relevant in today's work environment, where professionals conduct business in the car, at coffee houses and in airports across the world, there is strong demand for greater setup and device simplification," said Will Stofega, research manager at IDC. "The Voyager 510-USB makes VoIP intuitive. In doing so, enterprises benefit from reduced IT support and maintenance costs, and professionals benefit from a reliable, easy-to-use wireless headset for their softphones and mobile phones."

The Voyager 510-USB includes a plug-and-play Bluetooth USB adapter that eliminates cumbersome software setup processes and enables mobile professionals to place hands-free calls through any VoIP service with one easy step. In addition, Voyager 510-USB features multipoint technology to allow users to switch between multiple Bluetooth-enabled devices, including softphones and mobile phones, with the touch of a button. "As communication needs become increasingly mobile, compatibility and flexibility across diverse networks and devices become critical," said Chuck Yort, vice president of Business Solutions at Plantronics.

"The Voyager 510-USB will help make people's lives less complicated on the road by providing simple, one-step VoIP connectivity and a single headset for multiple communication devices." Universal VoIP Compatibility The Plantronics Voyager 510-USB is the first system that brings Bluetooth connectivity to enterprise-class softphones. The system integrates with enterprise softphone software from leading companies including Avaya Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Nortel and Skype Ltd., among others, to offer call notification and remote call answering via the headsets. The Voyager 510-USB is also compatible with most popular consumer Internet telephony services, including AOL, MSN and Yahoo!. An extension of Plantronics' VoIP product portfolio, the Voyager 510-USB includes the award-winning Voyager 510* headset and Plantronics' PersonoCall(R) software to provide electronic answer-end control with major VoIP softphones.

With this broad growth in mind, Voyager 510-USB is designed for all environments in which mobile professionals work, whether in the office, on the go or at home. Growing VoIP Product Portfolio Plantronics offers the industry's most complete family of corded and cordless VoIP products for both business and consumer use.

Widely recognized for their sound quality, reliability, simplicity and style, Plantronics' VoIP headsets are highlighted by the following: o CS50-USB: This premium wireless VoIP headset system for use in the office uses 900MHz technology to deliver crystal-clear conversations -- up to 200 feet away from a PC. o DA Series: A three-model series of USB-to-headset adapters that help businesses drive maximum value for their VoIP investment. The entry-, mid- and premium-level solutions fit into contact centers and enterprises worldwide. o .Audio(TM) PC headsets: This new family of corded PC headsets offers great sound quality, comfort and various wearing styles.

Pricing and Availability
The Voyager 510-USB has a manufacturer suggested retail price of $199 (U.S.) and will be available in June 2006 through Plantronics' authorized resellers, major e-commerce sites and http://www.plantronics.com. The product will also be available in retail stores in early fall. 

Posted by Dal at 09:57 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP Hardware

 The company said that as the services go over managed networks, rather than the public Internet, customers can realize the cost, feature and productivity benefits of VoIP without compromising on the reliability and quality they have come to expect from traditional business telephony.

 The expanded suite of solutions adds Hosted IP Centrex, IP Trunking and Managed IP PBX, as well as an enhanced IP Integrated Access offering, to the Verizon VoIP portfolio. Verizon Business has also launched a global VoIP Gateway service for the wholesale market through its International Partner Solutions business unit.

The Verizon VoIP portfolio incorporates a range of IP communications solutions for enterprises looking to transform the way they do business. Palais de Congres de Paris (France), the renowned convention center in Paris, is one customer already reaping the benefits of Verizon VoIP. The company wanted to implement a VoIP solution to converge voice and data networks and expand its business telephony applications while maximizing its existing TDM-based PBX architecture. IP Integrated Access has proved an ideal first step to convergence.

"Having experienced a high-quality voice service for more than four years and IP services for more than a year with Verizon Business, we have decided to continue our partnership to transition to a full VoIP solution," said Thierry Vaneycke, telecom and audiovisual director at the Palais des Congres.

Click Here for the Full Story 

Posted by Dal at 09:46 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

Ecamm Network has released a plug-in for the Mac OS X version of Skype, the Voice over IP (VoIP) chat software. Call Recorder can create archives of calls you make or take using Skype.

Call Recorder lets you manually start and stop recording, or it can do it automatically. Files are saved using the AAC audio format, and are given descriptive file names that include caller ID and date and time information. Calls are saved as QuickTime files; an MP3 conversion tool is also included.

Uses include call logging, remote interview podcasting and more.

A demo version is available for download. System requirements call for Mac OS X v10.3 or later, Skype for Mac v1.4 or later and PowerPC or Intel processor (the plug-in is a Universal Binary).

Source: Macworld 

Posted by Dal at 09:10 AM | Direct Link Posted to Skype

The agreement was announced today (17 May) at the Wireless Event in London (http://www.thewirelessevent.com/). Abertay’s School of Computing and Creative Technologies will provide the systems expertise, and students will have the opportunity to be involved in the system’s interface design, as well as developing a number of games which can be played across the city over the network.

Lachlan MacKinnon, Professor of Information & Knowledge Engineering at Abertay commented, “Through this project, we are aiming to take the best elements of both local and online communities, giving local residents access to online information which is both relevant and of interest to them.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 09:08 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

The service called High-Availability T1+ (HI-VI T1+) and offered for $600/month, will be backed by Towerstream's leading Service Level Agreement (SLA). More information can be found on the Towerstream website. The initial offering is available for businesses in New York City and will roll out to select cities in the coming months.

Under the terms of new T1 offering, businesses are guaranteed to receive 99.999% availability 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year. Customers who purchase the Hi-Vi T1+ product are assured their service will have less than a minute of downtime per month. Any additional service interruptions will be covered under the terms of the SLA agreement and customers will be credited the appropriate amount pending on the length of the outage if one ever occurs.

Towerstream is able to offer the Hi-Vi T1+ by providing customers with two separate T1 connections, each pointing at different base stations around the city. By doing this, Towerstream provides true last mile redundancy to its customers in need of a reliable broadband service. This combined with Towerstream's wireless sonnet ring in the sky gives customers a complete wireless broadband solution.

Click Here for more Information 

Posted by Dal at 10:42 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiMax

Integration with a mesh network, enables deployment and centralised management of Ethernet and Wi-Fi access to any indoor or outdoor location without the need to install backhaul cabling behind walls, ceilings or between buildings.

"We have always enabled our customers to use any third party access point with our mesh networks, and they still can," said Firetide CEO Bo Larsson. "However, many of our European customers requested that we provide a full-featured and fully integrated mesh/access solution for both indoor and outdoor networks, so we developed our own best of class access points to meet their needs."

The new HotPoint access points are European versions of the Firetide access products that were recently announced for the American market. An indoor model features a compact plenum-rated enclosure with optional brackets for wall, ceiling and office cubicle mounting. An outdoor model features a rugged, weatherproof enclosure and high gain antennas, and receives power over Ethernet directly from a connected mesh node, eliminating the need for an external power supply. HotPoint access points include features such as WPA2 encryption, support for up to 16 ESSIDs, industry compliant QoS, and ruggedised enclosures.

"We maintained a fully modular design to provide maximum performance and flexibility for our customers," said Larsson. "Our products effectively integrate the mesh and access features for real-time critical applications such as voice, video and mobility. At the same time, our modular approach allows customers to make cost effective infrastructure investments by choosing exactly which components they need, when they need them."

Whether connected directly to a Firetide wireless mesh network or to a wired infrastructure, the HotPoint access points are fully integrated and managed with the same HotView software used to manage Firetide mesh nodes. HotView provides remote management from a centralised location and users can manage all mesh and access functions from a single console.

HotPoint access points will be available from June 30, 2006.

Source: GotNoWires 

Posted by Dal at 10:36 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

Cisco Systems today announced that Telefonica Deutschland GmbH is extending and upgrading its network for voice over IP (VoIP) services with Cisco(R) IP Next Generation Network (IP NGN) solutions featuring Cisco PGW softswitches and Cisco media gateways. The expanded network, delivered with Cisco partner, Dimension Data, will support the growth of wholesale and retail broadband voice services and help Telefonica to deliver new fixed-mobile converged services to consumers and business users.

Telefonica is one of the largest VoIP wholesale carriers in the German market, serving 30 national carriers and 160 Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The company is also extending its broadband network reach to offer 25 megabits per second ADSL2+ services to over 40 percent of German households by the middle of this year.

"Telefonica has achieved its leading position in the German market through an uncompromising focus on developing a world-class IP network for all services," said Martin Kutter, COO Telefonica Deutschland GmbH. "By working with Cisco to extend our voice network, we are staying one step ahead in the technology race. The Cisco Advanced Services team played an important role in the success of this implementation to deliver a stable network that supports our business needs."

The solution from Cisco is based on a distributed architecture of Cisco PGW 2200 Series Softswitches and Cisco AS 5350 Series and AS 5400 Series Media Gateways. It provides call control and interconnections for Telefonica's complete VoIP network with Class 4 transit functionality and Class 5 line-side functionality which will be extended in future through the integration with Ericsson softswitches within the Class 5 infrastructure.

"The accelerating demand for advanced broadband services has resulted in Telefonica deploying one of the largest distributed Cisco PGW networks we have implemented to date," said Michael Ganser, general manager and vice president, Cisco Systems Germany. "The project has involved an extensive virtual team from Telefonica, Dimension Data and Cisco, with resources from software development, Cisco Advanced Services through to the financing expertise of our Cisco Capital team."

About Telefonica Deutschland

Telefonica Deutschland GmbH is a major IP carrier in Germany, concentrating its activities in the area of internet services for business customers. Clients include more than 30 national carriers and over 160 internet service providers and online services. Telefonica can connect into the worldwide network of Telefonica S.A. and operates a multiple redundant, widespread backbone.

The business activities range from narrowband and broadband internet connections, virtual private networks (VPNs), integrated language, video and data solutions, value-added services such as Voice over IP as well as classic outsourcing services such security solutions. The unique IP infrastructure with its continuous MPLS capable backbone, ZISP platform, 320 PoPs (Point of Presence) and 74 DSL transfer points enable Telefonica to offer its products and solutions within Germany as full or part service packages, or as advance solutions to mid-sized companies and large enterprises alike.

Information about the corporation: www.telefonica.de

Posted by Dal at 10:17 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

We took a little different approach in building this weather module when it's compared to the default application which ships with Asterisk@Home. We wanted not only current conditions but also a 7-day forecast. And we wanted the caller to be able to choose the weather location rather than having to hard-code a specific city into the AGI script. Finally there's even a simple feature for those that don't want to listen to a full 7-day forecast: hang up.

Click Here for the Full Nerd 

Posted by Dal at 08:34 AM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk Help

We now have a detailed schedule posted.  Each of the three European events lasts two days.  The first day includes two tutorial tracks: Developer and Asterisk 101.  The first option is the Developer/Advanced Track, which includes the developer meeting, a development tutorial lead by Kevin Fleming of Digium, and a number of technical presentations by developers and gurus.  The second option is the beginner or introductory track which includes "Asterisk 101" -- an overview of the capabilities and functions of Asterisk, Telephony 101 by David Duffett of Aculab, and other tutorials for the new Asterisk user.

The second day of each event includes a keynote from Asterisk creator Mark Spencer, and a series of presentations by international Asterisk gurus.  Check out the current schedule for each of the three events on our site for a list of presentations. 

Some of the headliners include:
Matt Riddel of Sineapps
Tim Panton of Mexuar
Alec Saunders of Iotum
David Troy of PopVox
Serge Kruppa of Simitel
Jason Goecke of Presence Technolog

The Asterisk Expo is also starting to fill up.  We currently have 12 exhibitors registered for the tour.  We do have room for a few additional exhibitors, so please contact us as soon as possible if you
would like to exhibit.  The Expo, which will be open both days of each event, has a great mix of products and services.  Several vendors have hinted at new products to be launched during the tour, so be sure to drop in and see the latest in Asterisk stuff.

If you need a hotel room at the event we now have a travel partner who can find you a place to stay (event at Berlin with the World Cup). Please contact Debbie Coley of Specialty Travel Services at +1 618 257 1164 or by email at: specialist@gospecialtytravel.com.  Please make your reservations (and book your seat at AstriCon) as soon as possible as space is limited.

We hope to see you at AstriCon Europe.  Please let us know if you have any questions.

Cheers,

Steve Sokol
Sokol & Associates/AstriCon

AstriCon 2006: http://www.astricon.net/

P.S. We have a very limited number of rooms reserved at the conference hotels.  If you would like to stay on-site, please contact List King:lking@sokol-associates.com or call +1 816 256 8917.

Posted by Dal at 12:21 AM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk News

The first phase will deliver a new client application for BlackBerry handsets and integration with BlackBerry Enterprise Server™ that gives users the ability to easily and securely acquire enterprise dial tone and desk phone identity through the Ascendent Voice Mobility client for BlackBerry.

Ascendent Voice Mobility Suite is a standards-based software solution that can "push" voice calls and extend corporate desk phone functionality (four digit dialing, call transfer, conference calling, etc.) to mobile users on their wireless handset or wire line phone. The Ascendent Voice Mobility client for BlackBerry extends that capability directly to BlackBerry handsets, making it easy and seamless to initiate and receive calls through the enterprise PBX (Private Branch Exchange) or IP-PBX (Internet Protocol PBX) system. The new client software will also authenticate a user through an encrypted key via BlackBerry Enterprise Server, which in turn authenticates the BlackBerry handset to the phone system. The integration delivers enhanced security and privacy for the enterprise by enabling only authorized handsets to access the voice network. The client application will be available with the upcoming release of Ascendent Voice Mobility Suite 4.2.

"The technology integration of Ascendent Voice Mobility Suite with the BlackBerry platform delivers a user friendly, cost-effective, and secure solution for enterprises and enables an integrated mobile voice and data strategy," said Deborah Miller, Vice President, Ascendent, "Enabling the Ascendent client on BlackBerry will dramatically enhance the mobile experience for users. And enterprises will value the control and improved functionality that can translate into increased productivity and accessibility for their workforce."

Ascendent remains committed to supporting a broad range of phones on the market and offers a CallBack feature in Ascendent Voice Mobility Suite that authenticates virtually any device to the PBX. When a user initiates CallBack, Ascendent Voice Mobility Suite will automatically call the user back on their designated CallBack device (a cell phone, home phone, etc. that is identified in the user's configuration profile) to grant full access to enterprise dial tone and PBX functionality. This enables only approved devices to access the enterprise phone system and provides the advantages of centralizing corporate telecommunications.

Ascendent Voice Mobility Suite is a feature rich solution that provides single number reach, consolidation and access to a single voice mail box, and extends desk phone functionality such as PBX dial tone, call transfer and hold, 4 or 5 digit dialing and conference calling capabilities to mobile users. It provides a consistent experience across a mix of telephony systems and simplifies the migration to newer IP-PBX systems. The solution is ideal for organizations with large numbers of mobile workers-such as executives, telecommuters, traders, military officers, healthcare professionals and plant managers-who need to be reachable, while away from their desks.

Source: Market Wire 

Posted by Dal at 11:40 PM | Direct Link Posted to PBX / iPBX

The difference is that instead of talking about it, a few of us got together and actually pushed it into a reality instead of doomed academic discussion. I remember Dan Lane negotiating SMS accessibility to and from the affected regions (indeed, Dan did most of the work, I just tried to keep people off his back!) and he was largely successful. At the core was a Asterisk PBX, which Dan tickled into doing what was needed.

The same concept was used in Pakistan, after the earthquake. The same concepts will be used again, and hopefully morph and evolve into things better and better - to save lives. And one of the things necessary for that evolution to happen is network neutrality. Voice over IP (VoIP) is becoming increasingly used for disaster communication, and SMS will also, hopefully, gain popularity - which means that the gateway to the internet for SMS must remain neutral, or the delays in time to get appropriate access could mean lost lives, or lost quality of life.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 11:35 PM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk News

The purchase price included XETA's assumption of the surviving obligations. To ensure a seamless transition for the distributors' benefit, HITEL provided a transition fee to XETA and will provide transition services. The acquired business is expected to generate future revenue for XETA in the form of technical support fees, software upgrades and parts sales.

"XETA has been a very strong, full service HITEL distributor for 13 years," said Greg Forrest, XETA's President and COO. "We are pleased to be able to expand our role to work with all HITEL distributors in continuing to provide outstanding support of HITEL's PBX products, and we are committed to upholding the high service standard that HITEL has set over the years."

XETA will be prepared to discuss the acquisition during its second quarter results conference call scheduled for May 25, 2006, details of which will be included in the second quarter news release to be issued on May 24, 2006.

Source: Business Wire 

Posted by Dal at 11:25 PM | Direct Link Posted to PBX / iPBX

Posted by Dal at 11:21 PM | Direct Link Posted to Skype

 "This is the largest in-building wireless system of its kind in Atlantic City," said Dan Lafond, Cingular Wireless' vice president and general manager for greater Philadelphia. "We've already heard from our customers about how thrilled they are to use their Cingular service inside these casinos.

This is another example of Cingular's continuing efforts to provide our customers with the best wireless experience where they want it the most." Over the next few weeks, Cingular Wireless has plans to turn on an in- building wireless system at the Borgata Hotel Casino. The company currently provides in-building coverage at all of the Trump casinos including Trump Plaza, Trump Marina, and the Taj Mahal. Elsewhere in Atlantic county, Cingular has activated a cell site in Richland and another just north of Corbin City near the intersection of Routes 50 and 557 in New Jersey.

This year, the company will spend $225 million on network improvements including the addition of 100 cell sites, portable and permanent generators to bring customers better wireless coverage and more services throughout Philadelphia, central and northeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware. Last year, Cingular spent $175 million on network investments in the area, adding 114 new cell sites.

Source: PR Newswire 

Posted by Dal at 11:19 PM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

Inmarsat has spent $1.5 billion developing the Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) system, which uses compact satellite uplink terminals that connect to a laptop and provide up to half-a-megabit (.5 Mbps) of broadband throughput. With two L-band frequency satellites positioned above Brazil and the Indian Ocean, BGAN currently provides broadband connectivity across 85% of the world's landmass.

Last Friday, the FCC approved five North American distribution partners to offer BGAN, including BT, FTMSC, MVS, Stratos / Xantic and Telenor. BGAN, which promises "quality of service" live streaming at 256 kilobits-per-second, has been available overseas since January. The BGAN terminals, which weigh as little as five pounds and are built by manufacturers such as Hughes, cost around $3,000. Transmission pricing ranges from $3 to $7 per megabyte, says Inmarsat COO Michael Butler.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 11:16 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP Politics

All that's required from you is an understanding of TCP/IP networking fundamentals—which we'll talk about today—and a traffic-shaping utility. Next week we'll get into the hands-on implementation, using the excellent utility Wondershaper.

Bandwidth is not speed Usually, when it comes to computer networking speed and capacity we think of bandwidth, as in the more bandwidth the faster our network will be. But bandwidth is merely one of several different factors affecting network performance.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 08:50 AM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk Help

Comprised of three Stratix II FPGAs,the Sequans SQN2110 modem chipset provides wireless OEMs with a ready-made solution for developing mobile WiMAX systems.

Mobile WiMAX is a technology based on IEEE’s most recent iteration for wideband wireless communications. It provides mobile wireless connectivity without line-of-sight to basestations, a cell radius of three to ten kilometers and system access speeds of up to 40 Mbps per channel.

“Altera’s FPGAs allow rapid delivery of an off-the-shelf flexible chipset to accommodate various customer needs and evolving WiMAX specifications, and presents a clear cost reduction path through pin-to-pin HardCopy structured ASIC,” said Bernard Aboussouan, Sequans’ vice president of marketing and business development. “As a result, our solution meets Wave 1 mobile WiMAX certification requirements and offers a clear migration path to Wave 2 certification profile, including the support of adaptive antenna systems (AAS) and multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO).”

Altera’s Stratix II FPGAs are used for the medium control access (MAC) and physical interface (PHY) layers of the 802.16e-2005 channel card. The chipset supports the first-wave certification profile stage as well as diverse hardware requirements and processing speeds with flexibility and integration essential to this new standard. Each wave will include new certification profiles and/or new functions.

“Compared to fixed logic implementations, FPGA-based products offer superior design flexibility,” said Arun Iyengar, senior director of Altera’s wireless business unit. “This is particularly valuable for reducing risk when designing to evolving standards. By partnering with leading intellectual property providers such as Sequans, our customers now have immediate access to a rapid- response solution for new wireless protocols and services.”

For more information on Altera wireless solutions, visit www.altera.com/end-markets/wireless/. To see how other customers are using Altera products in wireless applications, visit  www.altera.com/wirelesssuccess. For information on accelerating WiMAX designs using Altera FPGAs, visit www.altera.com/literature/wp/wp_wimax.pdf.

Sequans will also offer the previously announced SQN1110, a complementary IEEE 802.16e-2005 mobile station modem chip, for customer premise equipment (CPE). For more information on Sequans’ solutions please visit www.sequans.com. Visit Sequans Communications at WiMAX World Europe in Vienna, May 22-24th, in booth #406

Availability

The Sequans’ mobile WiMAX evaluation kits are shipping today. Availability of the chipsets is planned for June 2006.

Posted by Dal at 04:53 PM | Direct Link Posted to WiMax

FreeSWITCH, a brand new telephony application that came on the scene at the beginning of 2006 and made news last month for its ability to communicate with GoogleTalk, is coming close to its first "official" public release with a release candidate in the near future hoping to be adopted in time for the ClueCon Telephony conference this August http://www.cluecon.com

FreeSWITCH is a application known to individuals in telephony circles as a soft-switch, an application designed to accept input from various Voice over IP protocols or from analog or digital equipment and connect them to each other allowing soft phones, IP phones and analog telephones (the ones most of us have) to communicate with one another. This particular soft-switch also makes it possible to answer the call with a script written a simple language and do many interesting things such as transmit TTS (Text to Speech see http://www.cepstral.com/).

The creator and lead developer of FreeSWITCH, Anthony Minessale II had previously spent his time doing development for the Asterisk PBX. Asterisk is another telephony application geared towards home enthusiasts on the Linux platform. After adding many invaluable features to the application (http://www.cluecon.com/anthm.html) Anthony finally concluded that the application had limitations that could not be repaired without a complete rewrite. Since the other developers of Asterisk did not share this vision and firmly rejected the notion, Anthony set out on his own armed with nothing but his prior experience and a text editor. Now, after countless hours of frenzied development,

FreeSWITCH has emerged from the dust able to handle several VoIP protocols as well as power PRI ISDN circuits with a little help from Sangoma's innovative line of telephony hardware. (http://www.sangoma.com) best of all it runs on several platforms including Win32, MacOSX, Linux and most other UNIX variants. FreeSWITCH has a modular design that allows you to load what you need and save the rest for a rainy day. Some of the more interesting features include:

VAD - Voice Activity Detection

Secure RTP - Encrypted Audio

Crash Protection - Ability to withstand otherwise fatal errors

XML-RPC - Control the application with HTTP and XML instructions.

TTS/ASR - Add modules to allow the application to comprehend and generate speech.

Event Engine - Internal event bus can allow external applications to know about everything that takes place in the application.

Pluggable Codecs - API anticipates hardware-driven codecs and timing devices. The FreeSWITCH core is suitable to develop both server and client applications. The source code is freely available at http://www.freeswitch.org

Source: Linux PR 

Posted by Dal at 09:23 AM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk News

Growing a business means staying on top of day-to-day operations and freeing employees from repetitive and time consuming tasks. Providing employees with the infrastructure to work efficiently is half the battle. A good telephony solution must be easy to learn and use. Tasks ranging from a typical receptionist’s duties to the creation of a call center for handling real-time orders and service all must be automated.

Voice over IP (VoIP) technology is becoming increasingly important for businesses large and small. VoIP lets businesses save money on long distance and on changes to their voice network, while offering cost-effective integrated communications tools such as unified messaging and interactive voice response (IVR). While VoIP adds a layer of complexity to the communications network, the lower long distance costs will provide a both near- and long-term return on investment.

It's important to understand VoIP basics. In the past, all digital phone calls were sent over a time division multiplexed (TDM) link, and TDM is still the default multiplexing technique used today. TDM transmissions include built-in quality of service because each transmission receives a dedicated time slot for the user’s data or voice. The time slot cannot be over-run by another user’s voice or data. The downside is that if the dedicated time slot is not used by the voice or data it is wasted because it cannot be shared with another user.

Packet network technology, often called Internet Protocol or IP, eliminates the need for separate networks by converting voice, multimedia, video and data into tiny packets similar to those that comprise email and Web sites. These applications can be transmitted together on the same network. Putting all communications onto one network using digitized packets eliminates boundaries between services. By comparison, the traditional approach requires a network dedicated to voice, which converts conversations to electrical signals rather than digital packets of information.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 09:20 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

CEOcast is a leading source of original and syndicated interviews with newsmakers at public and private companies.  Mr. Downs discussed the company's unique applications platform, the Cistera ConvergenceServer (CCS), and its robust suite of application engines for Cisco's CallManager and CallManagerExpress that deliver applications that add flexibility, productivity and enhance the capabilities of Cisco IP telephony installations.

His message emphasized the current move toward Application-Driven Adoption of IP telephony and likened today's market opportunity to the increase in computer sales that resulted once programs that empowered users became available. In addition, he addressed the company's channel sales model -- including partners AT&T, Bell Canada, and Comstor, a division of Westcon. Downs pointed to the 500 worldwide installations of Cistera products as evidence of the company's growing traction in the IPT market.

The interview is available at: www.ceocast.com

Source: Market Wire 

Posted by Dal at 09:15 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

With such a demand for VoIP products, and little information regarding their services, the owner of a VoIP review site decided to create a simple comparison chart for all to see. “I thought it was really inconvenient that there was no simple way to compare VoIP”, says founder Jonathan Baldwin. "I decided to put the facts for everyone to see."

The chart strips away all the deceptive marketing, and lets the consumer see straight to the naked facts. Price, activation fees, contract terms, and customer service glaring straight for all to see. This has been such a direct hit measure, that even some major VoIP companies have asked VoIP Judge to change his ratings. "I think the consumer needs to be heard, and I'm not gonna budge an inch." says Mr. Baldwin.

VoIP Judge addresses a big issue, by not only showing and comparing price differences, but promotional offerings, as well as hidden fees and expenses that VoIP companies don't want the consumer to know about. Those are all facts that take hours of research to find, and VoIP Judge puts them in the forefront for everyone to see.

About VoIP Judge: VoIP Judge is an independent party, and does not have any bias towards any VoIP company. There are forums for discussion, and everyone is allowed to contribute their opinion about VoIP products. The company was created to help customers find the best VoIP for their needs. The VoIP review site was originally designed with reviews, but now has expanded to contain a comparison, and a moderated forum for discussion of the voip. The major VoIP providers are all compared at the VoIP review site, these include: Vonage, SunRocket, Packet8, Verizon Voicewing, among others.

Media Contact:
214-578-8689
http://www.voipjudge.com
 

Posted by Dal at 09:13 AM | Direct Link Posted to Vonage

Based on the Cisco Service-Oriented Network Architecture (SONA) announced in December 2005, the Cisco Unified Communications system is an open and extensible platform for real-time communications based on presence, mobility and the intelligent information network. By using the IT data network as the service delivery platform, the system helps workers to reach the right resource the first time by delivering presence and preference information to an organization's employees.

"The Cisco Unified Communications system is the first true second-generation Internet Protocol (IP) Communications system providing not just telephone services, but rather a rich communications environment that seamlessly integrates voice, video and data collaboration in one system. It is also the first new Cisco system to fully support the Cisco Service-Oriented Network Architecture (SONA) announced in December 2005," said Mr. Ranajoy Punja, Vice President Marketing, Cisco Systems India and SAARC. "Cisco SONA extends the power of the network to optimize applications, processes and resources to deliver greater business benefits to enterprises. By building on Cisco SONA, Cisco Unified Communications leverages network intelligence to greatly simplify the day-to-day challenges of collaboration with colleagues."

The Cisco Unified Communications system is based on Cisco's industry-leading IP Communications portfolio including Cisco CallManager, Cisco Unity, Cisco MeetingPlace and Cisco IP Contact Center and now includes additional innovative products, applications, features and capabilities. New to the Cisco Unified Communications system are Cisco Unified Personal Communicator, Cisco Unified Presence Server and Customer Interaction Analyzer. Current customers will be able to upgrade their existing systems to take advantage of the new capabilities.

-- Cisco Unified Personal Communicator simplifies the way workers share information by helping them to communicate in real time. Its user-friendly GUI (Graphical User Interface) makes it easy to move through multiple communications applications. The Unified Personal Communicator bridges the gap between the stand-alone applications on the desktop, telephone and network. Using dynamic presence information, employees can search existing directories to locate contacts and simply "click to call" using voice and video, allowing them to exchange ideas face-to-face. The virtual nature of IP networks allows remote or traveling employees to securely access these tools from wherever they are.

-- The Cisco Unified Presence Server collects information about a user's status, such as whether or not they are using a device such as a telephone, personal computer or video terminal at a particular time. Using this information, applications such as Cisco Unified Personal Communicator and Cisco Unified CallManager can help users connect with colleagues more efficiently by determining the most effective method of communication. The Cisco Unified Presence Server aggregates presence information from the network as well as Cisco Unified CallManager and third-party devices using SIP and SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE) and then publishes that information to Cisco Unified IP Phones, Cisco Unified Personal Communicator and third-party services and applications such as IBM Lotus Sametime and Microsoft Live Communications Server (LCS) 2005.

-- The Customer Interaction Analyzer is being introduced to maximize effective communications with customers, a new approach to analytics in the contact center. It uses information from customer interactions, including self service and agent assisted interactions, to determine things like customer distress, agent distress, silence and word patterns. The data helps to give the conversations business context and can help a business to coach and train agents, make changes to processes and self service scripts based upon findings - ultimately creating better customer relationships and growth for the business. Additional new features of the Cisco Unified Communications System include the following:

-- Cisco Unified CallManager 5.0 and Cisco Unified CallManager Express 3.4 and Survivable Remote Site Telephony (SRST) 3.4 now natively support SIP, effectively opening up the system to an emerging standards-based developer community while retaining the current security and resiliency features. A new program, SIP Verified, provides third-party verification for voice, data and video SIP endpoints. An initial set of vendors who have completed this testing is also announced.

-- Cisco Unified CallManager 5.0 is now available in a choice of operating models based on customer and channel partner preference. A new appliance model version based on Linux is available now and a version based on the existing open operating system model is scheduled to be available within 12 months.

Cisco continues to bridge the communications islands with innovative solutions building on the enterprise Wi-Fi (802.11) networks and the GSM public networks. In conjunction with leading wireless handset suppliers such as Nokia and RIM, Cisco will soon bring to market single and dual mode Smartphone solutions which drive enhanced productivity of mobile enterprise employees both inside and outside the office. These single device products allow users to reduce the communications complexity and help companies manage costs without losing the productivity.

Cisco and its partners provide a lifecycle services approach to deploy and manage the Cisco Unified Communications system. New Cisco Operate Services for Unified Communications combine technical support services capabilities such as server replacement, application software updates and hardware and software problem resolution into one service that covers the entire system. To ensure proper deployment, Cisco is also offering Planning and Design Service Bundles and Optimization Services that are packaged for easy ordering.

Cisco also today introduced a number of new phones and updates to existing applications, as well as announcing Cisco Unified CallManager and Cisco Unified IP Phone are localized for China, Korea and Japan. For more information on the Cisco Unified Communications System visit: www.cisco.com/go/unified.

Source: Business Wire India
 

Posted by Dal at 09:08 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

GnomeLink extends the capability of PhoneGnome, adding interoperability with Skype. GnomeLink allows PhoneGnome users to call Skype users from their PhoneGnome-enabled home phone, and to answer Skype calls on their PhoneGnome-enabled home phone.

"GnomeLink is another step towards allowing people to make calls any way that they choose to," said David Beckemeyer, developer of PhoneGnome and GnomeLink. "Our goal with the PhoneGnome product family has always been to bring all telephony worlds together -- PhoneGnome calls, ordinary PSTN calls and SIP calls, all on your regular home phone. With GnomeLink we've added the Skype community into the mix."

PhoneGnome with the new GnomeLink capability means users can now make and receive PSTN, PhoneGnome, SIP, and Skype calls, on the same phone, all using the same voicemail and calling features.

GnomeLink is the latest in a growing list of advanced features and capabilities provided with PhoneGnome. It is available free of charge, adding to the existing PhoneGnome capabilities which include Voicemail to Email, On-line call logs, Find-Me, Click To Call and more,

GnomeLink is available now as a public beta. PhoneGnome can be purchased through the TelEvolution website.

About TelEvolution (http://www.phonegnome.com/)

Posted by Dal at 09:05 AM | Direct Link Posted to Skype

Tradingcom Europe, which primarily trades wholesale telecommunications capacity with leading incumbent and alternative carriers around the world, has deployed a Sonus-based next generation network to improve operating leverage from its wholesale business, as well as to broaden its market reach by delivering a new Voice over WiFi (VoWiFi) service.

Headquartered in Paris, France, Tradingcom Europe has deployed the GSX9000(TM) Open Services Switch, the PSX(TM) Call Routing Server, and the ASX(TM) Access Server. In addition, Tradingcom Europe is leveraging the Sonus Network Border Switch(TM) (NBS) to connect directly and securely via IP to other IP-based voice networks around the world. Sonus' NBS provides direct IP-to-IP peering functionality in a streamlined and cost-efficient manner, helping to improve Tradingcom Europe's fundamental operating performance.

"With IP technologies becoming more and more pervasive in the voice world, building out our IP-based voice network is a critical ingredient in our overall growth strategy," said Arnaud Beauregard, Chairman and CEO of Tradingcom Europe. "We selected Sonus as our preferred partner because of their demonstrated history of being able to rapidly deploy some of the world's most successful IP-based voice networks, their ability to service and support our network as we grow and scale, and their solid vision for leveraging the potential of mobile IMS-based networks such as fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) applications and services."

In the first phase of the deployment, Tradingcom will leverage its Sonus-based infrastructure to support its long-distance wholesale business, rerouting international calls through the IP-based voice network, thereby streamlining the minutes exchange process in a more cost-efficient manner. In future phases, Tradingcom's network will support WiFi-enabled mobile phones, allowing consumers to connect directly to the IP-based voice network, and eventually, roam between fixed and wireless environments through an FMC service.

Sonus, which currently has a regional sales and support presence throughout several countries in Western Europe, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the Czech Republic, has focused on developing its sales and support presence throughout Europe to address the burgeoning market opportunity. Tradingcom Europe, which is initially deploying the Sonus-based network in Paris, France, is the first French customer to choose Sonus as its preferred partner for IP-based voice solutions.

"Sonus has a number of high profile deployments throughout a number of companies in Europe, and we're excited that with the addition of Tradingcom Europe," said Hassan Ahmed, chairman and CEO, Sonus Networks. "Sonus is committed to aligning its resources against the most promising market opportunities. In recent years, Europe has emerged as one of the fastest growing markets for IP-based voice, and we're encouraged that our early efforts to build our reputation as a trusted provider of the industry's most advanced solutions are yielding results."

Source: DMN Newswire 

Posted by Dal at 08:57 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

Having successfully helped carriers generate significant new revenue streams and achieve greater operational efficiencies with Hosted PBX, IP Centrex and Business Trunking applications, the partnership now empowers operators to launch differentiated residential VoIP offerings with a compelling customer self-serve experience that will set a new benchmark for customer satisfaction.

The joint solution enables operators to quickly and reliably scale their wholesale and retail hosted VoIP services for residential customers. By deploying Atreus' automated provisioning and customer self-management software over BroadSoft's industry-leading IMS-compliant VoIP application software, operators have the operational and business agility to deliver services rapidly, consistently and cost-effectively to the residential market. The key features will help operators:

Posted by Dal at 11:28 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

The world’s biggest handset maker, Nokia, has reportedly teamed up with Google to create an updated version of the Nokia N770 Internet Tablet.

The device won’t function as a traditional cell phone, but rather as a handheld computer with built-in Wi-Fi technology. Users will be able to make voice calls using the pre-installed Google Talk VoIP application.

Other features of the new N770 will include music and video player functionality, making it an advanced media-friendly device.

Click Here for more Information 

Posted by Dal at 11:25 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP Hardware

But, some IT managers at the Interop Las Vegas 2006 conference say they have found fault with the services offered by network operators, prompting them to install VoIP systems internally or look for hosting alternatives. For example, XM Satellite Radio has been using the new hosted versions of Avaya’s call centre applications for the past month, after having difficulties in the past with such offerings from conventional telecommunications services providers.

“My name is Tanya, and I am a victim of the service providers,” says Tanya Callaway, director of technical operations at Washington-based XM. Callaway says she has worked with several telecommunications vendors that offer hosted call centre services, but “They don’t know the call centre business, and they can’t move fast enough for me.” She says XM prefers using hosted systems to support its call centre, which for ten months of the year employs about 1,600 customer service agents — a number that mushrooms to 3,000 in November and December.

That requires the firm to quickly grow systems capacity in the fall, said Callaway, who added the network operators XM has used haven’t been agile enough. Although Avaya will have to prove itself next fall, its Contact Centre On- Demand hosted service seems to be working well thus far, she says. The service costs US$50 to US$150 per agent each month, says George Humphrey, director of the On-Demand programme at Avaya. He says that monthly pricing starts at US$25 per user, for Avaya’s IP telephony service, while the voice-mail service starts at US$5 per user.

Click Here for more Information 

Posted by Dal at 06:15 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

That’s a broad view of results from the Interop Labs test of VoIP gear run on the Interop Las Vegas show’s test network and presented at the Labs’ Interop exhibit.

Volunteers set up five model enterprise networks fitted with VoIP equipment, network firewalls, application firewalls, wi-fi access points and VPNs, and ran VoIP calls through them, using a variety of VoIP phones — softphones, hard phones, wi-fi handsets and PDAs.

The tests involved equipment from two dozen vendors. The calls ran over a combination of the public phone network and the internet, using a service provider that supports SIP signalling, and then testers tried to disrupt the calls and measure the results.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 06:13 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

Based on a unique pilot wireless network implementation in Fresno, the 6th largest city in California, the IBM and Alvarion information communication technology (ICT) system is comprised of IBM's suite of productivity-enhancing mobile applications built on Alvarion's broadband and mobile wireless systems. Customizable to deliver broad functionality and support a myriad of applications, while enabling citywide broadband coverage at a fraction of the cost of competing systems, this cooperation now brings affordable broadband within reach of most U.S. communities.

The Fresno public safety network is intended to enable police officers to send and receive text messages, still images, and even full-motion video using their car-based mobile data terminals and their handheld personal digital assistants (PDAs) greatly enhancing productivity and their ability to deter crime and capture criminals.

Fresno's Chief Jerry Dyer said, "Although this capability will certainly be used to increase officer's productivity and enhance homeland security in Fresno, its most important contribution is in making the community safer from everyday crime related to gangs, substance abuse and recidivist offenders."

Built by IBM using Alvarion broadband wireless systems and IBM's WebSphere Everyplace Connection Manager, the network features government-grade wireless encryption, roaming and compression to the city's 250 police vehicle fleet.

Using 900MHz based mobile technology requiring less than one-tenth the number of nodes generally required by competing Wi-Fi based solutions while providing superior net service speeds, the network employs Wi-Fi to extend the network to low cost, end user devices. To protect the city's existing network investments while ensuring seamless connectivity over a wider area, the broadband network features seamless switching at vehicular speeds, as it maintains session persistency with the police department's legacy 800MHz narrowband network. The network provides the optimum balance of minimum infrastructure and maximum access.

"The Fresno project is one of the first Community Broadband implementations and serves as an example of how this technology can solve real problems that impact public safety's ability to respond that may even save lives and improve livability for communities," says Michael Dillon, IBM Director of Safety, Security and Community Broadband. "This is an example of how cities and counties can be customer-focused, cost-effective and creative participants in their communities. Fresno was a collaborative effort that will likely pay-off for everyone in increased responsiveness and flexibility in a security-enhanced environment for public safety."

"The telecom market is in transition toward more ICT solutions, and this partnership is aimed specifically at offering the latest in broadband and public safety technologies to the thousands of tier 2 and smaller communities throughout the world," remarked Tzvika Friedman, CEO and president of Alvarion. "Beginning in the U.S., our joint success in Fresno is evidence that these networks are extremely robust and can add up to several hours of user productivity per day. And the network has proven to be flexible enough to support additional departments and applications and at a fraction of the cost of competing solutions."

Source: GovTech
 

Posted by Dal at 06:08 PM | Direct Link Posted to WiMax

Impulse Internet Services and NetLojix Communications Inc. have completed a transaction merging NetLojix's Internet and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services subsidiary, including Silicon Beach and WestNet, and IIS into a new entity, Impulse Internet Services LLC.

The new Impulse, a privately held company in Santa Barbara, provides Internet access, VoIP, advanced hosting, co-location, virtual private networks and secure multi-site managed private networks.

Tony Papa, co-founder and CEO of NetLojix, will serve as CEO of Impulse. Ken Alker will serve as chief technology officer of Impulse.

Impulse's integrated network will continue to operate each organization's data centers, providing additional capacity and an increased level of redundancy.

Click Here for the more Information 

Posted by Dal at 01:51 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

The RealTunnelT SIP Enterprise Proxy:

IP based voice and video soft/hard-phones often work well on the intranet but communicate poorly with the outside world. The RealTunnelT Firewall/NAT Enterprise Proxy enables SIP clients to set up voice and video calls, chat, file transfer, whiteboard and application sharing to external SIP clients.

The RealTunnelT SIP Enterprise Proxy for corporate firewall/NAT traversal is designed to meet the demands for SIP phones and legacy voice and video systems. The complete solution comprise the RealTunnelT Firewall/NAT Enterprise Proxy located on the intranet, i.e. on the corporate network, and the RealTunnelT Firewall/NAT servers. The servers can either be located in DMZ or centrally. The solution targets medium to large companies.

"Enterprise IT departments have for a long time asked for an IP telephony solution that is easy to deploy and works well on the Intranet as well as the Internet. The RealTunnelT SIP Enterprise Proxy provides connectivity as well as security for any SIP client on any enterprise network. Reconfiguring your network or firewall is no longer needed to make IP telephony work", says Kevin Kliland, Chief Executive Officer at Paradial. "Our new and innovative product confirms our leadership in Firewall/NAT traversal."

Source: WebitPR
 

Posted by Dal at 01:44 PM | Direct Link Posted to SIP

Y-Talk is a SIP-based software application that transforms any PDA device running Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 or Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 into a “Walkie-Talkie” like device using Push to Talk. Enterprises with the need for a ubiquitous solution that increases employee mobility can use Y-Talk for instant communications “on the go”.

Based on Pangean’s award-winning insta-REACT! product, the new solution will combine Voice over IP (VoIP) and Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) technologies to provide Push to Talk on PDA devices for instant communications within a campus network. Unlike telephony soft phones running on PDA devices, Y-Talk will offer a unique solution for enterprises looking to maintain contacts within groups of employees and leverage their existing Wireless LAN network for in-building communications. With the Push to Talk button, employees can instantly communicate with team members and groups of colleagues.

Click Here for more Information 

Posted by Dal at 01:39 PM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

Airspan's WiMAX Forum Certified AS.MAX platform was deployed using an experimental license in the 3.5GHz band from a main Kiva Networks location to multiple areas around the downtown Cherry Creek Business District in Denver to test fixed broadband data and Voice over IP service over WIMAX, utilizing PRIMUS Telecommunications, Inc.'s Premium Enterprise hosted VoIP service, as well as portable/nomadic service utilizing Airspan's self-installable EasyST subscriber radio. "We are very satisfied with Airspan's WIMAX access products and very impressed by the performance of the EasyST.

Airspan is the only company with a WiMAX customer premises radio that can be installed by our subscribers, thereby allowing nomadic broadband service, which is very important to an operator's business model. We see WiMAX as an important extension of our existing Wi-Fi network. It will give consumers, businesses and public safety entities the ability to conduct carrier-class voice calls as well as utilize broadband IP service in a cost-effective manner," stated Bob Letson, Technology Director for Kiva Networks.

"Primus Telecommunications is pleased to work with Kiva and Airspan to test our Voice over IP services over one of the first WiMAX-certified test networks in the US. We believe WiMAX service will allow new operator entrants the ability to offer carrier class voice services. These high-quality networks should effectively compete with existing copper networks providing a low cost, feature rich converged service alternative for business and government entities," stated Joe DiMaio, Vice President Enterprise Solutions for PRIMUS Telecommunications.

"We are experiencing strong growth in our WiMAX business, particularly in international markets where WiMAX frequencies have been made available and where our WiMAX Forum Certified platform can therefore be deployed commercially. Testing our products in the U.S. allows our customers to gain confidence in the technology and in their ability to offer carrier-class services over a WIMAX network. Successful trials like this one with Kiva and Primus demonstrate that Airspan is well positioned to launch its WiMAX products in the US this year, and give us valuable experience and momentum in the market," said Eric Stonestrom, President and Chief Executive Officer of Airspan Networks.

Source: MarketWire 

Posted by Dal at 01:29 PM | Direct Link Posted to WiMax

The National Emergency Number Agency (NENA) generally supports the House bill, which would make it easier for VoIP providers to provide voice competition to incumbent telephone carriers, said Patrick Halley, NENA’s government affairs director.

Under the House bill, a VoIP provider could market and gain new customers in areas where it did not have a 911 solution—something the FCC rules issued a year ago prohibit—if it used a national call center to route calls. However, the bill would require the VoIP provider to order connectivity to a selective router within 30 days of gaining its first new customer and provide direct E-911 service within 180 days to continue getting new subscribers in a given area, Halley said.

“It doesn’t let them out of their responsibilities at all,” he said. “It just changes the timeline in those areas.”

Opposing the provision is the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO), which does not believe VoIP providers should be able to market service without connecting directly into the 911 network, said Robert Gurss, APCO’s director of legal and government affairs.

“We don’t think the call centers are an adequate substitute … because you’re adding delay to that process and potential for human error into that process,” he said. “The call gets answered, but it gets answered by a person in some central location, and you’re depending on that person telling what jurisdiction you’re in and then routing that call to the proper PSAP.

“It multiplies many times the potential for the call to not get through in any kind of a useful matter.”

Gurss also said APCO is concerned with a provision in the bill that would prohibit the FCC from requiring VoIP providers to meet 911 mandates that are not “technically and operationally feasible.”

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 01:17 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP Politics

Units of Verizon Communications and JetBlue Airways Corp. have been the most well-known bidders in the sale which began on Wednesday. The agency had stopped the sale midday on Thursday with initial plans to resume Friday.

The agency instead suspended bidding until 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) Monday.

"The FCC will set the pace of the auction based upon its monitoring of the bidding activity and its assessment of the auction's progress," the agency said in a notice.

An FCC spokeswoman was not immediately available for comment.

After eight rounds of bidding, Unison Spectrum LLC has the highest offer of $4.5 million for a 3 megahertz license while Space Data Spectrum Holdings LLC has the top bid for the other 1 megahertz license with an offer of $244,000.

Unison has declined to comment on its plans.

The auction will end when none of the qualified bidders makes a new offer and does not withdraw a previously provisional winning bid during a round.

The airwaves up for sale include those licensed to Verizon's Airfone service, which offers service through phones embedded in airline passenger seats. Consumers have balked at the Airfone service because of its relatively high cost.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 01:16 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP Politics

By migrating its legacy TDM infrastructure to an all VoIP-based infrastructure, Phone Systems and Network has become the first pure play VoIP alternative operator in France. They can now deliver a range of advanced and competitively priced enterprise and residential IP services including IP Centrex and high quality local and long distance VoIP services.

"We chose Alcatel as our partner for this project because of their global experience in completing some of the largest network transformation projects as well as their local support capabilities." said Eric Saiz, Managing Director of Phone Systems and Network. "Using Alcatel’s solution, we can now expand our services offering through a cost-optimized VoIP infrastructure."

"Phone Systems and Network represents a new generation of competitive operators turning to VoIP technology to reduce their cost of infrastructure and achieve integrated and converged services," said Monika Maurer, President of Alcatel’s fixed solutions activities. "This contract represents a new reference in France for elements of our IMS solution, and reaffirms our leadership in handling complex end-to-end network transformation projects".

The solution provided to Phone Systems and Network include key elements of Alcatel’s IMS solution: the Alcatel 5020 Softswitch and the Alcatel 7515 Media Gateways, providing the link between the worlds of voice and IP data, the Alcatel 8688 Media Resource Function (MRF) providing advanced audio interactions in IP networks and the Alcatel 1515 Compact Cross Connect, bridging the traditional public telephone network with the IP-based next generation network. Alcatel also ensured the complete integration of network equipment as well as assisted Phone System and Network in the migration of their traffic from the existing TDM infrastructure to the new VoIP network.

Source: Web Wire 

Posted by Dal at 11:01 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

Over the last few years small, medium, and large businesses have begun the revolutionary movement from conventional telephone services to VoIP (aka Voice over IP). They have either begun to utilize the many VoIP service offerings made by new or existing carriers or have designed and developed a proprietary VoIP infrastructure within their organizations.

With this movement towards VoIP networks accelerating at an ever increasing rate there is a greater concern about maintaining its high level of availability to that which we have come to rely upon for traditional telephony services.

In order to accomplish this, the concern has focused on business continuity and availability of VoIP services. Ultimately the business continuity and/or availability models or methodologies that will be chosen for VoIP will depend on business models and technical implementation of infrastructure and services.

Click Here for the Full Article

Posted by Dal at 10:54 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

It makes use of Asterisk, which is a global phenomenon in IP telephony, and OpenVoice has developed a deep skills pool around this, allowing the company to deliver IP telephony solutions at a tenth of the cost to its global competitors.

“Utilising a solution such as Asterisk removes the capital barrier entry in terms of allowing SME’s to adopt VoIP without having to invest large amounts in technology.” Asterisk is a softswitch telephony technology, and allows OpenVoice to deliver voice switching, PBX functions as well as a full VoIP platform in the open-source environment.

And Hayward says that the company’s solution is suitable for any company, from a nationwide bank to a single-branch SME.

“We not only use open source at our product level, but for our call-switching infrastructure too,” Hayward reports.

“This means that where our competitors have invested upwards of R100-million in technology, we only needed to spend a tenth of that because we used our own technology to build our infrastructure.” OpenVoice’s solution supports soft phones, IP phones as well as analogue phones by means of the company’s Channel Bank product, or an analogue interface card.

Hayward believes that the VoIP market will grow signifi- cantly, as customers are hungry for cheaper options than the expensive existing telecommunications services.

OpenVoice recently finalised a BEE transaction. This will make the company the only black-owned local VoIP provider, and will bring obvious advantages. Hayward says that this will allow the com- pany to focus on doing work for the government in order to help it lower telephony costs across the board.

“We are also looking at a number of VoIP consumer initiatives, and will be launching full commercial VoIP solutions in the form of dual-mode GSM/Wifi handsets,” he states.

Hayward says that the biggest challenge that the company is currently facing is the regulatory environment, which is still very prohibitive.

He argues that the VoIP industry is still hindered by Telkom, and cannot provide VoIP solutions as cheaply as it should be provided.

Click Here for the Full Article

Posted by Dal at 10:51 AM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk News

Ralph DiBart, executive director of the city's Downtown Business Improvement District, said people in the Westchester city would be able to use the communications link "whether they are sitting in a public park or cafe, waiting for a train at the Metro-North station or conducting a business meeting at a local restaurant."

The railroad and the Empire State Development Corp., a state agency that helps businesses and encourages local investment, are funding the Wi-Fi service. It is being designed and constructed by Wireless Edge, a New Rochelle-based company.

Other cities planning wireless networks include San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago and Minneapolis.

Source: AP News
 

Posted by Dal at 10:46 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

It's hard to really see a market for products like this anywhere but the USA where you're not paying big $$ for mobile termination. I've got a similair setup at home right now running through my Asterisk PBX where I can send an SMS to my SMS gateway at home or access a similair page via WAP which will either ring me back on my mobile (or any other number I select) using italk VoIP and then connect me to a destination number in NZ.

Click Here for the Full Story 

Posted by Dal at 10:38 AM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk News

If necessary factors are met, WiMAX will be the leading contender for mobile services amongst wireless solutions with revenues increasing from $21.6 million in 2005 to $3.3 billion in 2010, Phoenix, Ariz.-based Semico Research predicts.

The firm asserts that WiMAX will do for broadband what cellular has done for phones – make broadband mobile and will become part of a number of networks, providing broadband wireless access in rural areas, offering backhaul services, offloading data traffic, and making broadband mobile.

“There is controversy surrounding this technology because it is not the only broadband option out there,” said Connie Wong, director of wireless communications for Semico, in a statement.

“However, the establishment of global standards, the ability to provide higher throughput and high reliability to the customer, and affordable services in the form of low-priced CPEs will catapult WiMAX into the driver’s seat if met,” she continued.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 10:33 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiMax

The service is initially available in several major metropolitan areas across the U.S. including New York, Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles Basin, San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, Las Vegas and Phoenix. Service coverage in additional market areas will be available as demand warrants. The IPDirect services are available through CommPartners VoIP service provider partners when sold in conjunction with CommPartners feature-rich hosted IP PBX, hosted contact center, and other IP applications and solutions for SMB and Enterprise customers.

CommPartners' IPDirect service includes T-1 access and provisioning and management of a premise-based integrated access device on behalf of the customer. The service features an SLA and streamlined service delivery and customer support through a single provider.

"When business VoIP services depend upon a connection to the public internet, there is a risk that service quality will be impacted by the number of 'hops' it takes to get from a business location over the Internet to the network that is connecting the call," said Michael McGhee, VP Sales and Business Development. "IPDirect, with a direct connection to CommPartners' robust and redundant IP network core, takes that risk out of the equation. This is a rock-solid, business-class connection for business-class phone service for companies that find the quality risks associated with the public internet unacceptable."

CommPartners is also offering an enhanced version of the direct connection service, IPDirectPlus, which includes a connection to the Public Internet consolidating Internet access and VoIP service through a single provider.

Posted by Dal at 10:32 AM | Direct Link Posted to PBX / iPBX

Indosoft has recently completed the installation of its Asterisk based multi-tenant Contact Center for VirtuServe, a provider of hosted, multi-tenant services for Enterprises. Indosoft’s Call Center solution is tightly integrated with Asterisk IP-PBX. Along with web-based CRM to manage the Agent and Administration interface, Indosoft provides all the essential components for an Asterisk PBX based fully blended call center solution.

• Indosoft Q-Pump is a sophisticated session manager capable of providing blended solution.
• Indosoft Multi-Connector is proxy to the Asterisk Manager Interface, which enables CTI-like functions for all non-telephony software sub-components.
• The Indosoft Inbound GUI tool will setup call management and routing for your Inbound ACD requirements by leveraging the complete potential of Enterprise-grade Asterisk Dial-plan and Asterisk Queues.
• Indosoft Predictive Dialer technology is designed to deliver greater contact rate and ‘talk to’ time while working within FCC guidelines.

VirtuServe (http://virtuserve.com) provides quality customer service agents for outbound telemarketing, and inbound customer support, for $12/hour by leveraging open source Asterisk and Indosoft Contact Center Technology.
 

Posted by Dal at 09:54 AM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk News

A couple of days ago the company sent me pitch letters by e-mail for the addresses associated with both of my Vonage phone numbers then today they left me voicemail on both numbers.

Enough already! I understand that the company wants to get lots of interest in the IPO but at what point does it become simply another irritating sales pitch that will put people off?

The problem that Vonage and the majority of businesses suffer from in their public messaging is that they don’t create a single point of contact with the customer – they create multiple points with many lists that are so different that cross-referencing them to remove duplicates is next to impossible.

Now it is certainly true that as irritated as many people become by too many “touches” the fact is that an interesting, relevant offer will get their attention anyway -- which is why spam will always work and why it will never disappear unless email technology changes radically.

What I always wonder about is the cost of having and using so many different lists. Surely planning a modern communications strategy for a business should involve a carefully structured customer and prospect database that ensures that messaging is optimized to reduced costs?

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 09:52 AM | Direct Link Posted to Vonage

“There is controversy surrounding this technology because it is not the only broadband option out there,” said Connie Wong, Semico's director of wireless communications, in a statement. “However, the establishment of global standards, the ability to provide higher throughput and high reliability to the customer, and affordable services in the form of low-priced [customer premises equipment] will catapult WiMAX into the driver’s seat if met.”

According to Semico (Phoenix), WiMAX is poised do for broadband what cellular has done for phones—make broadband mobile. Semico believes that WiMAX will become part of a number of networks, providing broadband wireless access in rural areas, offering backhaul services, offloading data traffic and making broadband mobile, the firm said.

Semico's most recent WiMAX forecast, which includes both base stations and customer premises equipment, found that the market is poised to grow from 6,000 units in 2005 to nearly 4.3 million units in 2010, a compound annual growth rate of more than 268 percent. The forecast is featured in the firm’s study entitled. "WiMAX, Wireless Expands its Boundaries."

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 09:44 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiMax

What had been almost instantaneous voice messages in AAH 1.5 turned into 7-10 second periods of silence between each phrase being read to a caller. The former 10-second weather report sample application turned into a 70-second nailbiter. So today our tip of the hat goes to Francois Aucamp from South Africa who has single-handedly reengineered Carnegie Mellon University's open source speech synthesis engine (Flite) to work with Asterisk@Home and restored voice synthesis to its rightful place as an indispensable component in the Asterisk@Home bundle.

Click Here for the Full Nerd
 

Posted by Dal at 11:39 AM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk Help

As with other Sangoma PCI cards, the A108 is available in an A108d version especially built for the soft telephony industry. The A108d supports voice enhancement capabilities including G.168-2002 echo cancellation with 1024 tap/128ms tail per channel on all channel densities, DMF encoding/decoding and tone recognition, voice quality enhancement and adaptive noise reduction.

“We brought this high density product to market at the request of our enterprise and telco customers who require scalability and higher density solutions,” says Sangoma Technologies President and CEO David Mandelstam. “We continue to meet the flexibility and system needs of the industry with the launch of our new 8-port card.”

Distinctive A108d features include:

* Support for 1024 taps (128ms) of echo tail handling on every channel (DS0) meaning that troublesome delayed echoes are properly handled.

* Dynamic and selective activation of echo cancellation, making the system ideal for mixed voice/data applications.

* The same PCI interface, architecture and digital path as all of Sangoma's other AFT based analog and T1/E1 cards, meaning that the A108 has guaranteed stability, motherboard compatibility issues and proper interrupt handling.

Click Here for Availability and Information 

Posted by Dal at 11:32 AM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk Hardware

New version of MCC – Asterisk Billing Sofware released.

Many bugfixes and new functionality. Production ready version. Allready tested in 3 hardworking production environments! You can download preinstalled/preconfigured VMware image also.

Everything here: http://www.paskambink.lt/mcc

Regards/Pagarbiai, Mindaugas Kezys

Posted by Dal at 11:29 AM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk Software

Using the EdgeView VoIP Support System and EdgeMarc routers, Edgewater Networks' Plug & Dial solution reduces the complex, multi-step and error-prone process of router and IP phone setup to a virtually hands-free installation experience. In a hosted PBX or IP Centrex environment users simply plug their IP phone into the LAN, enter their phone number and password guided by voice prompts from the EdgeView system.

This information is used by EdgeView to seamlessly authenticate the user with the feature server. Upon successful authentication, the EdgeView system will generate the appropriate configuration files, install them on the router and IP phones, reboot the phones and then send notifications to upstream OSS systems. This level of automation dramatically reduces installation times from hours with the manual method to minutes using Plug & Dial. 

EdgeView offers us a way to significantly shorten installation time with Plug & Dial. This feature enables the user to self-install, eliminating the need to pre-stage and configure IP phones. At the same time, the intuitive voice prompts have improved the out-of-box experience for customers," said Robert Baker, product manager, Lucent Technologies Converged Core Solutions.

With Plug & Dial, Edgewater Networks continues to develop products that are first to market. Edgewater Networks' in-house development, extensive technology partnerships and customer base allow it to develop voice and video over IP solutions that solve real-world problems.

"Edgewater Networks will continue to advance the VoIP market by developing customer-driven solutions. We believe that Plug & Dial is one of these solutions and is fundamental to driving market growth. Plug & Dial was developed with a few things in mind: reduce operating costs, improve customer service and drive sales for our service provider customers," said Dave Norman, Chief Executive Officer of Edgewater Networks, Inc.

About Edgewater Networks

Edgewater Networks develops products that ensure the secure and reliable delivery of IP based voice and video for service providers and enterprises. Edgewater Networks' products offer proven network and operational savings from the customer premises to the core of the network. EdgeMarc Series routers provide a VoIP aware NAT/Firewall, VoIP survivability, passive call quality monitoring and powerful but easy-to-use traffic management that ensures high quality voice and video. EdgeConnect managed Power over Ethernet switches provide simplified administration, remote configuration and QoS for converged voice, video and data networks. The EdgeView VoIP Support System offers proactive call quality monitoring (including VoIP MOS), Plug & Dial IP phone configuration, and remote management and monitoring of VoIP endpoints.

For more information about Edgewater Networks, Inc. please visit the company's website at www.edgewaternetworks.com or contact Oliver Davis at 415.595.7481.

Source: VoIP-Magazine.com 

Posted by Dal at 11:22 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP Hardware

Whaleback Systems Corporation to Deploy the VoIP Accelerator "Whaleback offers turn-key business-grade VoIP services to small and medium-size enterprises and we pride ourselves on the reliability and quality of our services," said Wray West, Founder and Vice President of Engineering, Whaleback Systems Corporation. "The CTX 600 VoIP Accelerator perfectly addresses our requirements to guarantee call quality on converged voice/data access connections.

The product will also provide critical statistics and management data which contributes to our total service performance monitoring. We plan to offer this product to our customers whenever data and VoIP share the same link." ABP International to Offer Solution to its Customers "ABP provides VoIP solutions to Hosted service providers and Resellers, who often have quality issues costing them money and time in post sales support calls," said Robert Messer, President and CEO, ABP International. "The CTX 600 is the first time advanced Traffic Management technology is being made available to SMBs to solve this problem without the complexity and the high cost of traditional appliances.

I am happy to partner with Converged Access to offer this solution to my customers." "The CTX 600 is perfect for small or remote offices that are experiencing poor voice quality including distortion, word loss, echo, talker overlap or dropped calls on a VoIP network," said Per Suneby, President and CEO of Converged Access. "Customers will very quickly and with little effort and expense, solve all these problems and enjoy toll-quality VoIP results.

They will finally have satisfied end-users and obtain the financial return they had expected on their initial VoIP investment." About the CTX 600 VoIP Accelerator The CTX 600 ensures toll quality performance with robust traffic management to protect VoIP traffic and ensure optimum use of broadband bandwidth at the lowest possible cost. Applications are classified at wire- speed on a per flow basis so VoIP gets top priority and guaranteed bandwidth. Other data applications like e-mail and browsing are given best effort service. For additional product information, visit http://www.convergedaccess.com/products/ctx600.asp

Pricing and Availability

The CTX 600 is available immediately and is priced at $650 list and will be available through Resellers, IP PBX vendors and Hosted VoIP Service providers. The CTX is also available from ABP International (http://www.abptech.com/). 

Posted by Dal at 11:15 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP Hardware

Andy Stanford-Clark knows his bathroom window is open, even though he is 20 miles away on the other side of the Solent. His smartphone told him.  He can also switch on his house lights, the garden fountain, the towel rail heater or the Christmas reindeer, all from the comfort of his office at IBM’s Hursley Park software research and development centre (R&D) near Winchester.

And that’s not to mention tracking the animals in his wife’s llama trekking business at their home on the Isle of Wight.  As an IBM master inventor, Stanford-Clark has plenty of licence to play with technology – but his work always has a real-life business aim in mind.

‘IBM separates the “R” from the “D” in R&D. Research people look five or 10 years out, the blue-sky stuff unencumbered by the harsh reality of today,’ he said.

‘But in the development labs we have an applied research role, which is about taking what we have today and seeing where it will go next. It is about the evolution of the current technology rather than the revolution to the next big thing.’

Stanford-Clark has something of a pedigree in turning research into products. He was part of a team that pioneered techniques such as internet load balancing as part a project that led to the web sites for Wimbledon and the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. And for an initiative to develop an internal directory for IBM, he helped create a personalised news selection function that was a forerunner of the widely-used RSS web syndication tool.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 11:13 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

"Tom's knowledge and expertise in driving sales and channel opportunities for leading contact center solutions companies will be a tremendous asset to Envision as we continue to deliver software and service solutions focused on improving performance from the contact center to the enterprise," said Kuhn. "We are extremely pleased Tom has joined the Envision team."

Most recently Aiello served as senior director of sales and channel development for Aspect Software, a leading provider of contact center solutions. At Aspect, Aiello was responsible for the sales of the company's performance optimization products distributed through both direct and indirect channels. Aiello also served as vice president of sales and channel development for CenterForce Technologies before it was acquired by Aspect. While at CenterForce, he was responsible for North American channel distribution strategy and alliances and was able to increase the channel from two to twenty partners. In addition, Aiello ran sales and marketing at RightForce, LLC.

"Envision offers an experienced management team, a solid business model built on delivering solutions focused on improving performance from the contact center to the enterprise and strong growth momentum," said Aiello. "All of these strengths made the decision to join Envision an easy one."

About Envision

Envision Telephony, Inc. is a global, award-winning provider of software and services that improves performance from the contact center to the enterprise. The company's flexible, integrated solutions enable Global 2000 customers to consistently deliver legendary customer experiences by improving agent effectiveness and contact center and enterprise performance. Envision's software includes business intelligence, speech analytics, workforce management and Click2Coach (comprised of Envision Quality Monitoring and Envision eLearning). The company's solutions are deployed across thousands of desktops in both a telephony and back-office environment. Envision offers business consulting, implementation, training and support services using a proven, ROI-driven methodology that delivers rapid and reliable results. More information can be found at:

http://www.envisioninc.com

Posted by Dal at 11:09 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

Whether it's the slow evening crawl through Corstorphine, delays on the by-pass or queuing for the Forth Road Bridge, Edinburgh's motorists have to cope with their fair share of congestion. But can punitive measures, such as congestion charging and higher fuel duty, ever succeed in isolation?

We now have an opportunity to make transport strategy part of a "joined-up" vision for the Capital, to the benefit of commuters, businesses and the environment. 

Two-hour round trips to work take valuable time away from both the individual and the business. In an era where demands for improved productivity often conflict with the desire to maintain a fulfilling life outside the office, this is clearly madness.

However, while there are plenty of arguments against our continued reliance on the automobile, public transport has yet to provide a compelling enough alternative. Rather than making cars less attractive, we need to look at the whole picture and give people positive incentives to make the switch.

The key to this is not just cutting journey times, but also giving workers a way of eliminating the "dead-time" which occurs while travelling.

Wireless and mobile technologies enable workers to communicate and access company resources from any location they choose. While this ability is of limited value when driving, the opportunity to begin productive work, using a laptop or handheld device on the bus or the train, is a very different proposition.

Click Here for the Full Story 

Posted by Dal at 11:05 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

 Terabeam placed at number 175 on the NW 200 list. In an article published on April 24, Terabeam Grabs Fastest-Growth Spots, Terabeam was cited in the first or second position on all three of Network World's "fastest-growing charts." The company was No. 1 for five-year revenue growth (136%), No. 2 for one-year revenue growth (157%), and No. 1 for employee growth (136%).

"We're honored to be recognized by Network World. We knew that we were growing fast but to be number one in the hyper-kinetic networking market is fantastic," said Robert Fitzgerald, CEO of Terabeam. "A key to our rapid growth is the development of an extremely broad and robust wireless broadband product line. We are seeing our product and experience breadth to be a significant competitive advantage as wireless broadband projects are becoming larger and more complex. We're not looking to slow down!"

Terabeam generates the great majority of its revenue through the sale of broadband wireless equipment by its wholly owned subsidiary Proxim Wireless. In the past few months, Proxim Wireless has issued a series of new product announcements, further demonstrating the company's strides toward expanding its leading portfolio of products for outdoor broadband wireless access. Customers can now take their networks in new directions with:

The capabilities of fixed and mobile WiMAX for the U.S and global markets - Tsunami MP.11, available for 2.4 GHz, 5.25 GHz, 5.47 GHz and 5.72 GHz frequency bands, now includes fast roaming, WiMAX Quality of Service (QoS), and enhanced dynamic frequency selection (DFS).

WiMAX Forum Certified point-to-multipoint products for service provider networks outside of the U.S. in the 3.5 GHz frequency band - Tsunami MP.16, available for 3.4-3.6 GHz frequency bands.

Outdoor wireless mesh solutions for metropolitan and community access networks - including the AP-4000MR-LR, dual-radio, ruggedized Wi-Fi mesh access point, with a similar version, the AP-4900MR-LR, available for mission-critical, 4.9 GHz public safety networks. Both offer double the capacity of single-radio competitive offerings backed by the powerful features of the ORiNOCO Wi-Fi platform.

Millimeter wave technology offering the performance of fiber for a fraction of the cost and installation time - the GigaLink series of point-to-point radio systems, operating in the license-free frequency band of 60 GHz, offers throughput up to 1 Gbps with a range of enterprise and carrier network interfaces, and has proven to be a cost-effective solution for media companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, medical centers, universities and other enterprises requiring bandwidth-intensive data transfers without the issues of installing fiber.

Another significant, recently-announced Proxim Wireless initiative is a special "Equipment Grant Program" for selected municipalities. To qualify for consideration, municipalities must currently be in the planning stages of deploying a Community Access Network. Under the Program, Proxim plans to award to two cities, each of which meets certain qualifications, a quantity of its new outdoor mesh products without cost for use in Municipal Wi-Fi or Public Safety applications.

Posted by Dal at 11:01 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

 In the first phase of the project, the two companies selected for the pilot -- Northrop Grumman Corporation and Motorola -- will install and test their wireless capabilities in Lower Manhattan. After the six-month pilot, the City may select one of the vendors to implement the wireless system citywide.

According to a City press release, the goal of this project is to evaluate networks that can provide emergency personnel in the field with immediate access to large file transfers, including maps, building layouts and federal and state anti-crime and counter-terrorism databases. For example, the network will support the ability to transmit police data on fingerprints, mug shots, and increase the Police Department's ability to improve surveillance and traffic management. In addition, the network will create high-speed links to existing NYPD, FDNY and EMS data systems.

For the FDNY, the wireless network will help integrate technologies currently under development including wireless electronic command boards and firefighter tracking technology. The wireless network will also be able to support full-motion video and radiological and biological environmental monitoring. Other City agencies including the Department of Transportation, Department of Buildings, Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Consumer Affairs will also have access to the wireless network for field personnel dispatched throughout the City. These teams include maintenance workers, inspectors and other non-emergency field personnel.

Click Here for more Information
 

Posted by Dal at 10:57 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

The (incomplete) list of new features:

    * DTHML client: There is now a DHTML client included. It is actually an hybrid client where real time communication is handled by an invisible flash movie and the presentation is done entirely using DHTML/CSS and Javascript. It allows you to develop completely customized panels using well known web technologies. No need to learn ming/flash! The current version allows you to monitor status, not perform actions.

    * Eye candy: it is possible to specify individual button backgrounds with external .jpg files. Together with enable_label_background and no_rectangle you can have nice results like in the live demo. You can also scroll when you have too many buttons, just move your mouse to the right edge and see it in action.

    * Transfer directly to voicemail: you can now drag a phone over the MWI icon and it will transfer the call directly to the voicemail extension for that button (if defined). Use VoiceMailExt in each
op_buttons.cfg entry.

    * Callerid Privacy per button: first pass at enabling individual button clid privacy. Just set Privacy=true in op_buttons.cfg for each button you want to protect.

    * Improved agent status: you can watch agent status more accurately, including Paused agents. Set agent_status=1 in op_server.cfg.

    * Several bug fixes: internal refactoring, profiling and optimizations.

The upgrade instructions are on the tarball UPGRADE file. Remember to upgrade the .swf file and to flush your browser cache!

Many thanks to everyone who provided feedback, patches, ideas and suggestions.

You can grab the latest version from:
http://www.asternic.org


--
Nicolás Gudiño
Buenos Aires - Argentina
 

Posted by Dal at 07:45 PM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk Software

Editors Note:  To start I would like to say that I personally use Asterisk for a couple of my businesses and do consutling/sales in the pbx market.  With that said I have to say that this comparsion used "Big Brand PBX vs. Asterisk/Open Source is a little skewd in my opinion.  When Mark Spencer made Asterisk, one of the core concepts in my opinion was the fact that it was "open source" so that the community would have the option to develop "any" feature that came to there hearts' desire.  Personally I when compared to PBX's at the same price/user level I think Asterisk has a good amount more of features it has available out of the box and I say this with experience dealing with alot of companies over the last 2 years.  This is not to say that some of these major pbx providers don't have some darn "great" features.  But you usually have to pay a pretty penny for them.

Note: I am opening this post up for comments as I would like to hear others thoughts after reading the article

-Dal
.02

Article: 

Private branch exchanges (PBXs) with open source telephony software may cost less than voice products from major manufacturers, but one industry observer warns companies who buy cheaper products will usually get fewer features.
 

Equipment manufacturers, resellers and end-users are buying open source software because they hear it will save them money, said Kevin Fleming, senior software engineer for Digium Inc. of Huntsville, Ala., which makes Asterisk, a Linux-based open source PBX operating system.

“To some degree, it’s completely irrelevant to the end user that it’s based on an open source product, other than the fact that they get a much more powerful system at a lower cost,” Fleming said. “They don’t necessarily care that it’s open source, they just go to the vendor and say, ‘This is what I want to do,’ and the vendor says, ‘Okay, we can do that for $4,000,’ and they go, ‘Wow. Okay. When can I have it?’”

Asterisk includes telephony services such as voicemail, conferencing, three-way calling and caller ID. It includes a central switching core, four application programming interfaces for telephony applications, hardware interfaces, file format handling and codecs. Version 1.2, which was released last November, supports the Distributed Universal Number Discovery protocol and supports more session-initiation protocol (SIP) features than previous versions.

SIP, which originated as a signaling protocol, allows telephony and conferencing devices from different vendors to work together, and support for open standards is one reason users choose open sources telephony, said Joshua Stephens, chief executive officer of Switchvox Inc., a San Diego-based maker of Internet Protocol telephony equipment based on Asterisk.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 12:42 PM | Direct Link | Comments (6) Posted to Asterisk News

WiFi Radio users will have access to over 10,000 channels and connections to worldwide media, news, and entertainment. The content is available from commercial and independent sources around the globe. WiFi Radio allows any user to become an instant broadcaster or publisher to an entire global audience, with the requirement that each publisher must acquire a ".fm" or ".am" domain name from Centale.

"Giving our users free access to a growing global network is very exciting because users will be able to distribute and promote their homegrown or independently produced content on a network that will parallel the reach of major commercial carriers. This freeware entertainment network truly levels the playing field and could become the driving force for the deregulation of mainstream media," stated Moses Johnson, Vice President of Centale, Inc. and creator of WiFi Radio.

"There are an endless number of revenue opportunities through the use of this technology. For instance, domain name distribution is one of hundreds of available revenue generating options through the commercialization of the huge audience that we intend to build. We expect explosive revenue and increased market valuation through the sale of products and services to our global market," stated Jon DeYoung, Chairman and CEO of Centale, Inc.

A free download of the beta version of WiFi Radio is at www.wifiradio.com.

Source: Telematics Journal 

Posted by Dal at 12:26 PM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

"With over 50 years of experience in on-site wireless communications, Ascom is continuously taking strides to deliver exceptional mobility to its customers," said Staffan Ornbratt, product manager, VoWiFi system, Ascom Wireless Solutions. "Leveraging TI's leadership VoIP and wireless technology allows Ascom to offer a VoWiFi experience that increases overall efficiency and productivity of its users."

TI's TNETV1700 WLAN IP phone platform serves at the center of Ascom's i75 handsets that support both the 802.11b and 802.11g radio networks, as well as the 802.11i and 802.11e standards for an increased level of security and voice quality. The VoWiFi handsets offer longer talk and standby times based on the high performance and ultra-low power consumption that the TNETV1700 delivers. Built-in programmability allows for easy upgrades or expansions as standards and capabilities evolve.

The Ascom i75 handsets are part of Ascom's complete, standards-based VoWiFi package that also includes a smart, robust messaging system, VoIP gateway that can be integrated with current communications networks, and a Portable Device Manager that simplifies network administration tasks. Ascom offers two designs of its i75 handsets that are targeted at the healthcare and heavy industry segments. "We are pleased to be working with Ascom to bring a higher quality, more productive experience to enterprise IP phone users through our VoIP and WLAN technology," said Pamela Jordan, WLAN IP Phone product manager, Texas Instruments.

"By leveraging our programmable WLAN IP phone platform, Ascom provides investment protection for its customers, including the ability to update systems through software to enhance capabilities or further increase talk and standby times." Targeted at the enterprise and residential markets, TI's WLAN IP phone platform is a complete solution designed to help developers get to market fast. It includes the TNETV1700 VoWLAN processor, based on TI's proven, power-efficient OMAP architecture used worldwide today by wireless leaders, and TI's TNETW1230 WLAN chipset with software support to meet existing and evolving standards.

TI's award winning Telogy Software for VoIP provides the industry's leading voice processing software, and supports the transport of toll quality voice over WLAN networks. Other TI technology completing the solution includes the TPS65013 power management conversion IC that provides more than 95 percent power efficiency and steps-down power partitions during periods of call inactivity; and the highly integrated TLV320AIC21C dual codec with interfaces to handset, headset, speakerphone and microphone.

Source: PRNewsWire 

Posted by Dal at 12:14 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP Hardware

The Hitachi Cable WirelessIP5000 handset is ideal for workplaces where mobility is part of the business day. The phone bypasses public cellular networks and enables businesses to have the much-needed mobility on their WiFi Infrastructure. This eliminates cellular service charges and improves calling coverage indoors where traditional cellular network coverage is known to be spotty.

The Hitachi Cable handsets may be preconfigured to connect automatically with up to five different WiFi network locations. As a result, users can move from WiFi work sites located miles apart, connect at public hot spots(a) and even communicate via a WiFi network at home without reconfiguring their phone. Since the WirelessIP5000 is based on the industry-approved SIP standard, businesses can deploy the handsets with basic calling features today and add high-end feature support in the future. When used with an Avaya's SIP Server, a large array of traditional calling features are readily supported -- such as Call waiting, 3-way conferencing, and Find me among others.

"We are excited and very proud to be certified compliant by Avaya, the world leader in IP telephony solutions," said Dimitrios Stroumbakis, Technical Director, Hitachi Cable America Inc. "Compliance testing our products with Avaya shows our award-winning handsets can easily interoperate and support a wide range of traditional calling features, giving businesses the benefit of an industry-standard, future-proof solution that can evolve with end user needs."

Hitachi Cable is an Innovator member of the Avaya DeveloperConnection Program -- an initiative to develop, market and sell innovative third-party products that interoperate with Avaya technology and extend the value of a company's investment in its VoIP network. As a member of the program, Hitachi Cable is eligible to submit products for compatibility testing by the Avaya Solution Interoperability and Test Lab in Lincroft, N.J.

There a team of Avaya engineers develops a comprehensive test plan for each application to verify whether it is Avaya compliant. Doing so ensures businesses can confidently add best-in-breed capabilities to their network without having to replace their existing infrastructure -- speeding deployment of new applications and reducing both network complexity and implementation costs.

"By offering compliance testing to the many innovative companies like Hitachi Cable who are members of our DeveloperConnection program, Avaya promotes interoperable solutions that are easier and more cost-effective for companies to implement within their existing, multivendor networks," said Eric Rossman, vice president, Developer Relations and Technical Alliances, Avaya. "That means that together we're expanding the options businesses have for solving their most complex challenges and are helping them derive greater value from their communications infrastructure."

Source: CNW Group 

Posted by Dal at 12:10 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP Hardware

The Downtown Phoenix Partnership and a group of local stakeholders are taking the first steps to create a Wi-Fi network in the city's core.  The DPP along with Arizona State University, Maricopa County and the city of Phoenix -- issued a request for proposals this week to identify a technology consultant to conduct pre-devlopment analyses of the project.

The Phoenix Wi-Fi project would cover approximately 90 blocks in the Copper Square area and later could be expanded to other parts of the city.

Cities locally and across the country have been developing wireless Internet networks at a growing rate over the past few years. Cities such as Philadelphia have struggled to get an expensive network up and running, while others, such as Tempe, have low-cost citywide coverage because of a private company it hired.

Phoenix is positioned to learn from the mistakes other cities have made in developing their networks, and downtown officials say the time is right to develop the service.

About $2.5 billion in new downtown development is slated over the next three years, including hotels and condos, an expanded Convention Center and light rail running through Copper Square.

The Downtown Phoenix Partnership says it's too early to know exactly how much a Wi-Fi network would cost or how it would be accessed and managed, but in the next few months it plans to begin working with a consultant to iron out the details.

Click Here for the Full Story 

Posted by Dal at 12:06 PM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

"We conducted an RFP process, and the winner both in terms of depth of experience and quality of technology was Siemens," said David Dobbin, President, Toronto Hydro Telecom. "Siemens has global expertise in wireless technology, and their proposal was based on leading-edge third-generation wireless technology that more than meets our criteria for reliability, speed and scalability. That’s exactly what a world-class city such as Toronto needs in order to steer a course to greater competitiveness and productivity."

The agreement with Toronto Hydro Telecom includes the use of a mesh Wi-Fi network that will provide coverage for an area of up to ten square kilometres and it is anticipated that it will be fully deployed in downtown Toronto by year-end 2006. End-users will be able to access the Internet from wireless-enabled laptop computers, mobile headsets and other mobile devices, or simply place VoIP phone calls. High transfer rates (up to 54 megabits per second) will mean shorter download times and faster surfing than what is currently available today.

"We are extremely pleased that we have now succeeded in entering the Canadian wireless communication market with our technology. The kind of network we’ll be building for Toronto Hydro Telecom is right in line with the trend today, especially in urban areas. It will offer our customer ideal prerequisites for entering the attractive market of mobile services business with relatively low capital investments," noted Christoph Caselitz, the President of the Mobile Networks Division at Siemens Communications.

As part of its deployment strategy, Toronto Hydro Telecom will use Siemens’ "Wireless Integration@vantage" wireless integration platform which provides features such as access control, authentication and accounting. The software for this platform was developed by Garderos Software Innovations, a wholly-owned Siemens subsidiary. The network nodes are from the "Siemens Mesh@vantage MR" product family, based on industry-leading wireless mesh technology from BelAir Networks.

"BelAir Networks is proud that our industry-leading wireless mesh technology has been chosen by Siemens and Toronto Hydro Telecom for North America’s largest municipal wireless network," said Bernard Herscovich, President and CEO, BelAir Networks.

Source: WebWire 

Posted by Dal at 11:59 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

The mesh network, consisting of 5,000 Nortel WiFi access points, expands Golden Telecom's broadband communication services to include universal indoor and outdoor wireless access to approximately 3.9 million households in Moscow. Golden Telecom plans to offer wireless broadband services that will be competitively priced and offer higher speed services than many other Internet access services currently available.

The network supports advanced wireless services such as VoIP, high-speed Internet services and location-based services packaged with the Aport Internet search engine. Location-based services provide relevant information such as maps, entertainment listings, or local amenities by automatically detecting a user's location.

Nortel's Wireless Mesh Network solution uses wireless links - based on WiFi technology - to connect access for more secure, seamless access to wireless broadband services. Nortel's solution is designed to provide wireless LANs in areas where it is difficult or cost prohibitive to run cables, helping service providers like Golden Telecom avoid additional capital costs required to lay fixed lines to connect access points.

The new mesh network provides end-to-end security and seamless mobility of users across its coverage area. The high reliability and availability of the network is maintained through the self-recovery function of Nortel's mesh solution which restores connectivity in the event of an individual node or network failure.

Source:  WirelessInsight  Asia
 

Posted by Dal at 11:55 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

Acme Packet's Net-Net SBCs are used for hosted NAT traversal, which enables Telefónica del Perú to maximize its service reach for the new communication offerings without impacting the customer premise. Telefónica's service infrastructure is secured with topology hiding, access control and denial of service (DoS) attack prevention features. Showcasing the rich multiservice feature set of the Net-Net platforms, Telefónica del Peru is using Acme Packet's SBCs for multiple projects.

"We chose Acme Packet as its SBCs excelled in every lab test and delivered the necessary features for a successful launch of our VoIP services," said Carlos Flores, Manager for Customer Engineering and New Services at Telefónica del Perú. "The configuration flexibility that enabled Acme Packet to quickly prove interoperability with our Huawei and Alcatel VoIP equipment allowed us to quickly bring new services to market."

"Telefónica del Perú is using Acme Packet's Net-Net SBCs in their network to solve security, quality and service reach challenges across a variety of services and applications," stated Andy Ory, president and CEO of Acme Packet. "Cabiphone and Speedyphone represent economical and innovative communication services for TdP's customers."

Posted by Dal at 10:39 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP Hardware

"Our release of the IQmax Test System represents the latest first-to-market product from LitePoint showing our continued commitment to our customers to provide the lowest cost-of-test manufacturing and Q/A solutions in the market," said Greg Ravenscroft, President / Advanced Development at LitePoint Corporation. Mr. Ravenscroft continued, "LitePoint pioneered dedicated WiFi legacy and WiFi MIMO test solutions and was the first to support Bluetooth 2.0+EDR testing."

The IQmax Test System supports the IEEE 802.16-2004 / WirelessMAN OFDM PHY standard including all bandwidth and data rate options. The dual RF ports are selectable for either Tx or Rx operation and support the most popular 3.3 to 3.8GHz frequency band. An optional upgrade to tri-band operation, which adds 2GHz and 5GHz frequency bands, will be available later this year.

Included with the IQmax Test System is the richly featured IQsignal Analysis Suite. This GUI driven software presents the user with all IQmax instrument set-up, control and analysis functions needed to measure the performance of a Device-Under-Test (DUT). With this tool, many analysis functions are available including time domain RF and I&Q graphs, frequency spectrogram, power spectral density, constellation diagrams, EVM per symbol or subcarriers and peak, average power levels and many other functions.

To support automated laboratory and manufacturing floor testing, a C++ compatible API is included with the IQmax Test System which enables fast non-link based testing.

The IQmax Test System is software upgradeable for easy transition to the proposed 802.16e standard or feature enhancements and product upgrades.  LitePoint is a member of the WiMAX Forum

The IQmax Test System is available now. Contact LitePoint for a demonstration of the IQmax Test Solution at: 408-456-5000

Posted by Dal at 10:36 PM | Direct Link Posted to WiMax

AT&T is dead serious about broadband, and is expanding its range of broadband offerings. AT&T Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre outlined company’s future broadband plans at the Detroit Economic Club.

In the AT&T traditional local service area, these initiatives could help bring broadband to as many as 11.5 million additional homes and businesses, the company estimates.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 10:33 PM | Direct Link Posted to WiMax

Meetings are held at Sound Choice Communications LLC...
http://maps.google.com/maps?oi=map&q=7839%2012th%20Ave%20S%2055425

Sound Choice Communications is located in Bloomington Minnesota, just 1/2 mile west of the Mall of America. The address is: 7839 12th Ave S, Bloomington Minnesota 55425.  We are just south of Hwy494 on 12th Ave. -12th Avenue is one exit west of Hwy 77 (Ceder Ave).


This month we'll hear from Eric Osterberg and Shane Young as we discuss Asterisk and app_rpt. Using Asterisk with Two-Radio systems. We'll demonstrate a remote base radio application in Windows, Asterisk as a Repeater controller, and to keep the interests of general Asterisk users,  we'll talk about options for paging. Both the overhead type, and of course paging with radios. Does your business need paging? Talking caller ID?

If you have an Asterisk question or issue, bring it to a meeting for free help. We love helping new users!

Come to a meeting to meet other asterisk users, see asterisk solutions, win a door prize, eat food, or for the good company, to look for work, if your looking for employees, to go out for a drive, to get out of your house, whatever, JUST COME TO THE MEETING!


New visitors can help themselves to FREE FXO Interface cards (So you can connect your phone line, and have a timing source for meetme and IAX protocols). Some members have been known to swap hardware at the meetings. Have extra VoIP gear, looking for VoIP gear?  There's plenty of
hardware to see. Have you been to a meeting recently?

Please come and share your own ideas and learn from others. As always, free food.


We are always looking for help with meeting topics. If you feel like taking the lead, please do and simply let me know if you need anything.


Meeting starts at 11:30am and parking is available in the rear of the building. Runs about 2 hours or less, and we'll order Pizza to the meeting for lunch.

Look forward to seeing you there.

http://www.voip-info.org/tiki-index.php?page=Asterisk%20User%20Group%20TwinCities%20Minnesota%20USA


If you have a product or service you'd like to introduce to our members, send a private message to ejo1(at)soundchoicecomm.com and we'll see if we can't get you listed as next month's sponsor.


SPONSORED THIS MONTH BY: SOUND CHOICE COMMUNICATIONS LLC
                           "Keep in touch with the World"


PS: The Atlanta user group will be providing a dial-in number where you can attempt to listen in. But hey, you should come to a meeting. We'll pick you up at the airport! It's only a mile away!
http://www.atlaug.com - Send a private email for login information.

Posted by Dal at 10:26 PM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk User Groups

The most prevalent and successful wireless technologies are all cellular. Cellular carriers are scrambling to provide fast, efficient IP transport mechanisms across the various cellular networks. But therein lies a lot of the problem. There are multiple cellular networks globally with multiple connectivity and transmission protocols. To successfully provide global wireless VoIP coverage requires recognizing and understanding tens of protocols – all at the same time if you want proper roaming and seamless handoff from network to network.

WiMax, a microwave-based WLAN technology holds promise – it can be made to operate as simply as WiFi and has a range of a few miles. But it isn't fully ready for nationwide/global rollout. There is ClearWire with its wireless broadband access technologies that are being rolled out in Stockton that are fast enough to handle VoIP readily. There are other still faster technologies that are a few years further away that could solve wireless bandwidth issues and handle converged multimedia wireless communications.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 05:06 PM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

Stroudwater Contact Point has added enterprise-class ACD capabilities such as unlimited agent groups, multiple routing strategies, detailed real-time displays, flexible, standards based reporting by agents, campaigns and groups, advanced call recording and monitoring, remote agents, virtual queues, unique ACD softphone, true third-party call control, advanced yet easy-to-use scripting and much more.

Designed to handle contact centers from 5 positions to more than 75 positions, iQueue provides a robust and stable platform for growth. Dirigo iQueue provides customers with a legacy PBX or ACD an upgrade path at their own pace from their current TDM environment to a true IP based PBX and ACD.

When used with Stroudwater's award winning Dirigo iGuide dynamic desktop environment, it provides a complete end-to-end solution for all business telephony requirements.

"Dirigo iQueue provides a level of capabilities not previously offered in this price range," said Bill Hunt, Stroudwater Contact Point's president and chief technology officer. "Stroudwater's experience in implementing enterprise contact centers has given us a unique perspective that allowed us to give iQueue the power of an enterprise-class ACD combined with high-end PBX functionality with the price point of a mid-range business PBX."

Field trial implementations of iQueue are scheduled to begin at two 70-seat facilities in May. The product will be formally launched at the Kansas City Call Center Expo on May 11, 2006 and will also be displayed at the Northeast Contact Center Forum at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA on June 13th.

Kurt Ellis, manager of Mountain Valley Teleservices of Plattsburg, NY, said, "We are excited to be working with this new product. We have worked with Stroudwater since our inception and we know that this product will help us to continue to grow economically and efficiently."

Dirigo iQueue is backed by a two-year hardware warranty, available 24x7x365 support and 4-hour on-site response. Stroudwater's support has drawn rave reviews including this recent comment from a customer in Pennsylvania: "I cannot express enough how impressed I am with [your support staff's] knowledge, dedication to service and willingness to go above and beyond 'normal service.' In today's day and age of providing outstanding service, [you have] set a new standard and I know that now I have to step up my game!!"

About Stroudwater Contact Point

Headquartered in Portland, Maine, Stroudwater Contact Point is the developer of the innovative, award-winning, DirigoSoft family of solutions for customer contact management. DirigoSoft solutions have been implemented for companies ranging from startups to the Fortune 100. DirigoSoft products are designed to maximize the effectiveness of customer contact and to provide maximum ROI for its users. Stroudwater Contact Point can be found on the Internet at http://www.stroudwater.com.

Posted by Dal at 02:16 PM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk News

Each year Interop sees new wireless LAN products aiming to be in the next generation of unwired offices. This year is no different, with a clutch of companies showing technology they claim will ultimately take the wires out of the office.

Last year, the big news was "single channel WLANs" offered by Meru and Extricom. This year, the new idea seems to be wireless backbones - systems in which wireless links push the wires one step further back toward the wiring closet.

Once again, it's Meru making the biggest noise about it, with a system that bonds channels to make a 100 Mbit/s backhaul from access points to distribution switches. Xirrus also launched a bonded backhaul for enterprise WLANs, in the form of a software upgrade, Release 2.0 of its Integrated Access Point, that bonds three radios together for links which it claims are up to 162 Mbit/s. The software will be available at the end of May.

Other companies added mesh networking to their systems, to allow businesses to scrap some of their wires in hard-to-reach places. These included Symbol which announced it would add mesh ability to its wireless LAN system.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 02:14 PM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

Customers who have signed up for Vonage Holdings' broadband VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service will be offered the chance to buy shares in the company when it floats its stock.

Vonage, which helped pioneer VoIP phone service in the US and has grown to become the country's largest independent internet phone service provider with 1.6m customers, said as much as 15 per cent of its planned initial public offering will be set aside for customers.

Anyone who opened an account on or before December 15 will be eligible to buy shares at the IPO price.

"Because much of our success is attributable to our customers, we have asked the underwriters of the IPO to reserve shares of common stock for sale to certain Vonage customers at the IPO price in a directed share programme," said Vonage.

When Google, the internet search and advertising group, floated two years ago, it organised an online auction that favoured smaller investors.

Vonage, which began offering internet phone services in October 2002 but has yet to make a profit, initially explored a trade sale but failed to attract buyers and announced last month that it planned to sell a 20 per cent stake.

In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it planned to offer 31.25m shares priced at between $16 and $18 a share. On that basis, the company, backed by private equity firms including Britain's 3i Group and Bain Capital, would be valued at as much as $2.82bn.

Click Here for more Information 

Posted by Dal at 02:11 PM | Direct Link Posted to Vonage

Truphone completed its service testing using Nokia’s new E-series handsets, the first mobile VoIP, Wi-Fi handsets from a big name manufacturer; others are set to follow and Wi-Fi functionality on mobile phones will rapidly become commonplace.  Truphone is also developing mobile VoIP applications for the millions of smartphones already in circulation, ensuring mass market availability of free and low-cost mobile phone calls by the end of 2006.

Using the well-established SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) for Internet telephony, Truphone ensures its compatibility with SIP-based solutions and services already developed by more than 100 companies across the world.  As a result of the SIP community’s efforts, the rapidly-growing number of SIP network users stands at more than 30 million worldwide.  Most consumer services including Yahoo, Microsoft and Google have adopted SIP, as have many large corporations.

James Tagg, founder and CEO of Truphone, said: “Wi-Fi telephony is going to change users’ mobile phone experiences dramatically.  I recently received a near-£700 mobile phone bill for a month that included one week spent on holiday in France - 95 per cent of this was roaming charges.  Mobile VoIP technology, which is inherently much cheaper, would have virtually eliminated my roaming bill.  Even £70 instead of £700 would have been acceptable, yet that sum is still three times the average revenue per user achieved by UK operators,” he added.

Chaired by John McMonigall, former BT director and telecoms partner at Apax Partners, Truphone’s board comprises individuals with long track records bringing new digital technologies to market.  Eden Ventures’ Mark Farmer co-founded Metrica Systems, while Alexander Straub, partner at Cambridge Accelerator Partners, founded the pioneering e-marketplace Mondus.  Truphone’s founder and CEO, James Tagg counts among his previous achievements the launch of Mobile Instant Messaging with carriers in the UK, Germany and Italy.

Truphone is compatible both with private, home or office Wi-Fi networks, and with public Wi-Fi hotspots such as those found in cafés, hotels, airports and bars, delivering a global Wi-Fi mobile network comprising potentially hundreds of thousands of Wi-Fi points-of-presence.  Each new person that subscribes to the Truphone service becomes a mini-cell in a new, collaborative network that they share with their friends, spontaneously building the world’s first 4G network.

Although the precise definition of a 4G network has yet to be agreed the characteristics of a 4G network are generally accepted as: high data rates, all-IP infrastructure and the use of open Internet standards. 

When Truphone users are both connected via Wi-Fi, the call is routed entirely over the Internet and incurs no mobile operator charges, even if the caller and recipient are on opposite sides of the world.  If only the caller is connected to Wi-Fi then call charges are significantly reduced.  Using a commercial public Wi-Fi hotspot incurs a low, generally flat-rate fee.  In addition to inbound and outbound calling, Truphone also delivers SMS, presence, and voicemail and will be available in pre-pay and post-pay.  

Truphone will be demonstrating at this month’s VON Europe exhibition in Stockholm, Sweden, on stand 532B. 

Posted by Dal at 02:03 PM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

The recently announced dual bid with Earthlink to provide wireless coverage for San Francisco will prove a testing ground for Google to assess whether location based advertising over free wireless is a profitable business model. Google will provide a service with speeds of around 300Kbps for free with locally targeted advertising, an advancement of the company's current successful business strategy, whilst Earthlink will provide 1Mbps access for a monthly fee of $20. If successful, Google will be able to provide access to its free VoIP, email packages as well as internet browsing, amongst other services, to major US areas by 2008.

With sufficient potential to expand operations throughout the US and into Europe, Google could become one of the first Wireless Virtual Network Operators, presenting a significant threat to the traditional voice business of cellular/mobile operators.

"The argument that Wi-Fi and cellular are complimentary rather than competitive depends on who is operating the service," comments report author Adam Walkden. "Google's successful advertising based business model allows the company to offer services for free. If it can convert this business model to include local based advertising to Wi-Fi users, it poses a significant threat to mobile operators."

Click Here for more Information 

Posted by Dal at 02:00 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

Voxeo Corporation, the leading provider of standards-based Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and Voice-over-IP (VoIP) platforms, and MAP Telecom, a leading IVR hosting provider in Europe and the Middle East, today announced a multi-year strategic partnership whereby Voxeo will provide the IVR infrastructure for MAP Telecom's current facilities in Europe and four planned facilities in the Middle East.

The partnership twins the award-winning Voxeo Prophecy platform, the world's only 100% VoiceXML-compliant platform, with MAP Telecom's expertise in serving enterprise customers with multiple language needs across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. As well as giving customers the choice to move from MAP Telecom's legacy platform, the partnership provides for MAP Telecom's 2,500 developers' migration to a new and expanded multi-language developer community portal based on the Voxeo Evolution site. MAP Telecom will also continue to promote access to its platform using Skype.

"This deal cements MAP Telecom's position in the forefront of VoiceXML hosting in Europe," said Jon Alcantara, COO of MAP Telecom. "Our enterprise customers demand best-of-breed technology and require features such as CCXML and call center support. We have evaluated all of the leading VoiceXML providers, and Voxeo is clearly our first choice. We are delighted to offer customers a more fully-featured platform, greater scalability and second-to-none reliability."

"We are flattered that such a respected name in the industry has chosen to move its customers to the Voxeo platform," said Jonathan Taylor, Voxeo's CEO. "This partnership is a key part of Voxeo's efforts in Europe and the Middle East, and MAP Telecom is better placed than any to capitalize on the wave of new opportunities in these markets."

The Voxeo platform will be operational in MAP Telecom's facilities in the South of France starting this month and will be rolled out across facilities in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, among others, over the next 24 months.

Posted by Dal at 01:58 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

Distributor InTechnology has extended its focus on the voice technology sector with the launch of a Managed Voice Services arm.  Last week the firm unveiled the division, which will invest in areas such as hosted IP PBX voice services. Mark Lower, former chief executive of telecoms firm Evoxus, has been appointed as managing director of the division.

 
InTechnology added IP telephony to its list of managed services last year (CRN, 17 January). At the time, the distributor confirmed it would offer its IP Voice Connect services over Ether-net using vendor Broadsoft’s hosted voice over IP (VoIP) applications.

Lower told CRN: “InTechnology has increased its managed services business over the past three to four years. With the move into IP, voice is like another application, so the new division is a natural progression.”

He added that InTechnology will now be able to white-label the Evoxus offering as part of a three-year strategic partnership.

“Evoxus has carrier-grade enterprise soft switches,” he said. “It is a traditional minutes telephony business. The business market is ready to accept VoIP, and hosted services is ideal for multi-site customers. InTechnology wants to be the market leader in hosted PBX services.”

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 01:54 PM | Direct Link Posted to PBX / iPBX

A South Jersey wireless network could also draw more businesses to the region and boost the economy.
New Jersey is fractured into hundreds of governing authorities which makes delivery of services expensive and keeps taxes high. So, when governing bodies make an effort to work together, the benefits to residents can be significant.

One promising development is a proposed wireless digital network that Burlington, Camden and Gloucester county officials recently began discussing. They are looking to launch a wireless network that would cover about 1,378 square miles from Shamong to Newfield.

Wireless networking, which operates on radio waves and allows anyone to plug into it with a wireless-equipped computer, is the future in business and personal communications. If the tri-county region started a wireless network, it would be the first in the state, according to Burlington County Freeholder Aubrey Fenton.

But across the river, Philadelphia already is working with Earthlink, an Internet service provider, on setting up a wireless network that could serve about 1 million people. Earthlink is paying the estimated $10 million to $15 million to build the network.

Click Here for the Full Story 

Posted by Dal at 01:50 PM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

Ranch Networks today announced it has developed an RN appliance feature to enable uninterrupted voice over IP calling with servers running Asterisk open source IP PBX software. The new feature, called 1+1 High Availability (HA), switches between two Asterisk servers to ensure that VoIP service is always available.

It works by sending SIP registration requests from the RN appliance to the Asterisk servers. If a number of requests are not answered by one server, then calls are automatically redirected to the responding server. Administrators can configure the specific quantity of responses that must fail before voice traffic is redirected.

"The goal here, for SIP-based monitoring, is to make sure that the entire thing as a package is accessible, meaning the access to the machine is available, the access to the stack is good, and the Asterisk itself is up and running," said Ram Ayyakad, CEO and co-founder of Ranch Networks.

A single IP address is used for both the active and backup Asterisk servers, so they do not need to be on the same network. And the 1+1 HA feature allows databases in both servers to be synchronized.

Click Here for more Information 

Posted by Dal at 08:37 AM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk Hardware

I am currently looking for people to help add applications.  While I have been very picky about what gets included in AstLinux, I am much more flexible about what gets added to the build system.  I am hoping to add at least the following:

- mysql
- perl
- unixodbc
- postgres
- rx_fax, tx_fax (spandsp)
- chan_misdn
- BRIStuff
- SER

If you have any other ideas or are willing to help, please sign up to the AstLinux mailing lists at http://lists.kriscompanies.com and post your thought.s

As of right now, with only a few commands you can build a bootable AstLinux CF image or ISO.

With the advances of the new build system, I have also released AstLinux 0.4.0.  There have been numerous updates, including:

- Asterisk Native Sounds (g729, ulaw) now included in the base image
- based off of uclibc for a reduction in memory footprint
- Asterisk 1.2..7.1, Zaptel 1.5, and libpri 1.2.2
- Wifi support.  Everyone that has wanted to add WIFI support to their Soekris, this is your chance!  Support for madwifi and all drivers in the kernel tree
- Speaking of kernel, upgrade to 2.6.16.12
- Soekris/PC Engines (SC1100) performance improvements.  I include NAPI support for the natsemi ethernet driver.  This should reduce CPU usage and improve throughput dramatically.
- Now includes microperl (limited version of perl)
- WRAP Error LED support
- SNMP support (client, server, and traps)
- Booting from USB is back on i586

As always, you can find out more about both at http://www.astlinux.org.

Thanks!

--
Kristian Kielhofner

Posted by Dal at 08:31 AM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk Software

Empty, the unit weighs a mere 196gms and measures a very modest 92 x 162 x 25mm. At the rear you get a pair of USB 2.0 ports plus a Fast Ethernet port and the chassis incorporates an 802.11g wireless access point. A single, detachable aerial screws in at the back and the unit is powered by a reasonably small supply which adds a further 154g to your running weight.

The smoked plastic panel in the centre of the unit appears to be merely cosmetic but the unit does come with a stack of status LEDs. You get no less than eight indicators showing power, LAN, WLAN and USB port status along with internal HDD status and activity plus a warning light for when hard disk capacity is reaching its limit or there is a disk error. Two recessed buttons at the side control power and the backup feature, while pressing both together will reset the unit back to factory defaults.

The backup button will prove useful as it initiates a copy of data on any attached USB device to the internal hard disk. This is similar to the Backup Button feature offered by Infrant’s ReadyNAS NV but you do not have any options to customise operations. Pressing the button will simply copy everything from the USB disk to a new folder named with the date.

Click Here for the Full Review 

Posted by Dal at 11:56 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP Hardware

Some researchers are now eyeing the technology being used to detect signal strength as an accurate gauge and forecasting tool for the weather itself.

Monitoring the status of cellular networks, which are now widespread in most of the world could bring up to the minute climate data to meteorologists, much faster than the methods currently used.

“The weather affects the signal strength dramatically,” said Hagit Messer, who is the vice president of research and development at Israel’s Tel Aviv University. She went on to explain that if better real-time data can be collected, the accuracy of weather forecasts could potentially improve.

Click Here for more Information 

Posted by Dal at 11:36 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

The open source IP PBX brings the benefits associated with open source: stability, rapid development, flexibility, and cost savings, to a domain that has been dominated by proprietary technology controlled by large corporate entities. VoIP presents an enormous opportunity for businesses to save money, integrate data systems, and improve accessibility to its work force. By leveraging the collective development work, real-world deployment scenarios, and testing done by a large open source developer community, open source IP PBX systems emerge and mature more quickly than proprietary systems can.

A common misconception of open source software is that it is free of charge. The refrain most used to straighten out this notion is that open source is ‘free as in speech, not free as in beer’. By definition, software that is open source must have available source code, but that does not mean the product itself is free of charge. While many open source software packages are available at little or no cost, commercial packages of open source software are also available and are still considered open source. The most widely recognized example of this is the relationship of Red Hat and Linux. Red Hat sells and supports a particular targeted version of the Linux operating system. While Linux is free, Red Hat’s Linux products are commercially supported and tested, but still built on that free, open source software.

In the open source IP PBX domain, Asterisk is the most widely deployed solution and has incredible momentum. Digium is the corporate entity that provides the direction and management of the Asterisk project, keeping the development flowing and acting as a caretaker of the source code. The community that surrounds Asterisk can build upon the core IP PBX technology, adding features that allow them to build commercial Asterisk packages tailored for VoIP providers, SMBs, call centers, etc., while Digium supports those vendors and those vendors support their users. Digium’s efforts are largely funded through sales of telephony interface cards, used in conjunction with Asterisk software to create hybrid TDM-VoIP PBX systems.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 01:32 AM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk News

"After careful study of the CRTC decision, and the subsequent appeals, the government believes it is in the public interest for the CRTC to reconsider its decision," said the Honourable Maxime Bernier, Minister of Industry. "This will give the CRTC the opportunity to take into account the increase in demand for VoIP services and changes to the overall regulatory environment since the original decision was announced last year."

Following the release of the CRTC's decision in May 2005, the GIC received a joint appeal from Aliant Telecom Inc.; Bell Canada; Saskatchewan Telecommunications (SaskTel); Télébec, société en commandite; and TELUS Communications Inc. Separate appeals were filed by the Province of Saskatchewan; the Coalition for Competitive Telecommunications; The Vancouver Board of Trade; and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. The appeals called on the GIC to vary the CRTC's decision.

Under the Telecommunications Act, the GIC has the authority to vary or rescind any telecommunications decision of the CRTC, or refer it back for reconsideration.

"In addition to considering the progress that VoIP has made in the market, the CRTC will be able to reconsider the decision in light of the detailed work recently completed by the Telecommunications Policy Review Panel," said Minister Bernier.

In March 2006, the Telecommunications Policy Review Panel released its final report and recommendations. The panel made numerous recommendations in favour of reducing regulation in the telecommunications sector, and of relying to the greatest possible extent on market forces to achieve policy objectives. The government is currently studying the panel's recommendations.

"In order to encourage innovation and productivity, it is imperative that regulatory measures interfere as little as possible with competitive market forces," said Minister Bernier. "I look forward to reviewing the CRTC's conclusions after it reconsiders this important decision."

The CRTC will have 120 days to reconsider the decision.

Posted by Dal at 12:54 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP Politics

Mobile Tech Today also seems to think that this 802.11b/g router would have served us well, providing both basic SecureEasySetup-compatible WEP and WPA encryption along with more advanced Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) and browser-based fine tuning options for regulating traffic. With four out five stars from MTT, the only downside to this 5.2-ounce router is its range, due mostly to the internal antenna, but when you're sitting five feet away from it in your hotel room that probably won't matter too much.

Click Here for more Information 

Posted by Dal at 12:52 PM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

You didn't see it on the show-floor, but in backrooms at Interop, VoIP vendors were quite candid about how they intend to solve telephony's scaling problem. I'm sure you know what I mean. You deploy a small IP PBX or key system, save on upfront costs, but end up getting slammed with having to purchase a new IP PBX (and throw out the old one) once the system outgrows the old switch's capacity.

ShoreTel has always pushed hard on this message and for good reason. Shoretel claims its Voice Switches (thin appliances) can be incrementally scaled from 24 to 10,000 users. But traditionally ShoreTel has been unique in that regard.

Not for much longer. Both Avaya and Siemens demonstrated and discussed ways that they too will achieve this sort of scalability. It's important for them because Cisco's story for small, branch office survivability is so compelling: Avoid placing a nearly full IP PBX in every branch. Drop in a call processing blade into the existing Integrated Services Routers (ISRs) and gain most of the functionality that you need at a significantly lower price point.

Avaya's moving strongly into the small office and mid-market solutions with very competitive offerings. The peer-to-peer telephony solution, dubbed One-X Quick Edition, allows users to plug up to 20 Avaya phones equipped with the Quick Edition software into their Ethernet switches, and have the phones locate and configure themselves. The phones will cost around $485 to $585. With Avaya's Communications Manager hosted solution, companies could now use those phones to incrementally scale above 20 users. Eventually, enterprises can bring Communications Manager onto the site for further economies of scale.

Click Here for the Full Story 

Posted by Dal at 12:42 PM | Direct Link Posted to PBX / iPBX

VoIP-News spoke to several major players in the peer-to-peer VoIP market about the future of “free” telephony and what needs these voice applications seek to fulfill. What effect will legislation seeking to regulate VoIP have upon users and the innovation of IP telephony? From the responses of industry insiders, analysts and the companies themselves, one can infer that the result would not be positive for growth and innovation.

Paul Askin, General Counsel for Pulver Media comments: “We have the potential to revolutionize the ways in which we communicate and offer even better capabilities to advance the social good, if the emerging industry is not shackled by legacy, one-size-fits-all regulations that might work well for traditional telephony providers but only serve to stifle the promise of Internet communications.” [[editor's note – Pulver Media is actively supporting one side of the regulatory debate currently underway in the House and the Senate for more on regulatory issues 

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 12:38 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP Politics

AOL will also offer an "unlimited" version for $14.95 per month that will offer unlimited local and long-distance calls to US phone numbers and those in 30 other countries.

A USA Today article quotes AOL Digital Services President John McKinley calling the offering "disruptive," noting that AIM's 80 million younger users of the instant messaging client to drop their regular old telephones in favor of a cell phone (which they all already have) and an AIM number.

The problem with this scenario is AIM's reach.

On Monday's installment of "For Immediate Release," (the podcast I co-host with Neville Hobson), I interviewed my 17-year-old daughter about her communciation habits-habits that will undoubtedly translate into the workplace when she and her generation get out of school and begin their careers. Instant messaging plays a huge role, and she touted the benefits of AIM, the key one being that it's the client all her friends use. Feedback from our non-US listeners was swift. Outside the US, hardly anyone uses AIM; Microsoft's instant messenger is the preferred app in Europe and Canada, according to our listeners.

Click Here for the Full Article
 

Posted by Dal at 12:36 PM | Direct Link Posted to Skype

picoChip and Airspan Networks are proud to announce complete WiMAX Forum certification of Airspan's MacroMAX Basestation for the 3.5GHz FDD profile.  The MacroMAX is powered by picoChip¹s software upgradeable architecture, as are Airspan¹s HiperMAX and MicroMAX-SDR basestation models which are expected to achieve certified status during 2006. All three products can support both 256 OFDM and SOFDMA PHYs. Airspan is the first vendor to complete certification of an end-to-end WiMAX system for the mainstream 3.5GHz FDD market.

picoChip is proud to be involved in this significant WiMAX milestone, said Guillaume d'Eyssautier, President and CEO of picoChip. Our engineers have worked closely with those at Airspan to help ensure success in this certification. Our WiMAX reference design is now a proven platform that provides a sure and speedy route to certification, and when we release the software upgrade to 16e our customers will instantly benefit from that.

Jeremy Rowe, Vice President of Engineering at Airspan, added, ³This is a significant achievement for us. The picoChip reference design helped us accelerate our development, and delivers the strategic advantage of a software upgradeable architecture. This allows us to easily add features, and to support both 16d and 16e from the same product.  picoChip recently announced it had been selected by CETECOM to supply reference designs for the MINT T2230 protocol conformance tester for Mobile WiMAX testing. The CETECOM system is being used by the WiMAX Forum for certification and Œplugfest interoperability testing for 16e.

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Posted by Dal at 12:31 PM | Direct Link Posted to WiMax

Computers and telephones are coming together in a big way, and for one reason: Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). VoIP exists to do one thing: to make telephone calls cheap by sending them via the Internet, and as such is giving the established telcos heart attacks. When eBay buys out Skype for $2.6 billion, you know that VoIP is set to be very big indeed. In this column, we're going to talk about Asterisk, a fully featured open-source telephone exchange. Asterisk supports all the features you'd expect in a conventional telephone exchange - incoming and outgoing calls from extensions, with call routing, voicemail and conferencing over normal telephone lines - but it also supports VoIP, letting you get in on this revolution for minimal cost.

Working with telephone exchanges is complicated. From the user's viewpoint, nothing could be simpler: pick up the handset, listen for a dial tone, dial number, listen for another sequence of tones, and then if you're lucky talk to the person you're calling. If you're unlucky, you talk to a machine, or even interact with a robot voice. Dig deeper, though, and it gets complicated very quickly, a maze of three- and four-letter acronyms designed by the telecoms industry to confuse. And to add to the confusion, different styles of phones work in different ways.

First, let's examine some of the basics. In the world of wired telephony, there are still two types of phone line: conventional analog and digital ISDN. We're all familiar with the former, and a few will have used the latter. They work completely differently, so we need to treat them separately. The way an analog phone line works has barely changed since Alexander Graham Bell made his mark, the main reason being the need to ring a bell. The line has a receiver, complete with bell, at one end and a telephone exchange at the other. The exchange end is powered, and provides the voltage that rings the bell in the receiver at the other end. Hence, the two ends of an analog phone line work quite differently and use different forms of signalling - the exchange end is properly called a Foreign Exchange Station (FXS) and the receiver end a Foreign Exchange Office (FXO), and it's the FXS that sends the ringing voltage to the FXO. An Asterisk system connected to an ordinary phone line will have an FXO plugged into its external lines and an FXS for each internal extension.

As we'll be seeing later, the fact that one end provides the ringing voltage is very important, and something you have to take into account when setting up an exchange for conventional phones. You also need to be aware that there are subtle differences between how analog lines are set up in different countries: problems arise if, for example, you want to use Caller Line Identification (CLI) to see who's calling.

The digital world of ISDN is much better suited to computer operation, but problems still exist. ISDN doesn't have to ring a mechanical bell, so there are fewer differences between its ends. All traffic carried over an ISDN line is in digital form; to be precise, voice digitised at 64Kb/sec (an important number that should be committed to memory). The big difference lies in how ISDN circuits are delivered to you.

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Posted by Dal at 12:20 PM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk News

Equipped with the R&S SMx-K49 option, the signal generators R&S SMU200A, R&S SMATE200A and R&S SMJ100A generate signals in accordance with the IEEE 802.16-2004, 802.16e and WiBro standards. There is hardly a technology that is undergoing as much change as WiMAX. Rohde & Schwarz is a step ahead of this trend and offers component and receiver manufacturers a reliable reference solution.

Users can regularly update their software options with new firmware to meet the latest technological requirements, says the company. The R&S SMx-K49 option allows users to generate WiMAX signals with 511 frames. Signal generators can thus provide complete PN9 sequences for bit error ratio measurements and ensure that test results are correct.

Plus, the R&S SMU200A is believed to be the world's only instrument that optionally offers an integrated fading simulator and a two-path design. The new firmware update also makes it possible to generate signals with fully utilized subchannel allocation (FUSC) and partially utilized subchannel allocation (PUSC) permutations.

These two methods allocate logical channels to physical channels. Furthermore, users can generate signals with multiple zones. Space time coding allows the receiver to process signals from more than one transmit antenna.

The purpose of transmit diversity generated in this way is to increase data rates. The new tests can be enabled for all signal generators of the R&S SMx family by means of a firmware update. The R&S SMU200A, whose single sideband phase noise of typ. -135dBc (1GHz, 20kHz offset) and wideband noise of typ. -151dBc (1GHz, >10MHz offset) are the best values in its class, is ideal for tests on WiMAX equipment, says the company.

Posted by Dal at 12:18 PM | Direct Link Posted to WiMax

Wang pointed out that Nokia has decided to utilize third-generation (3G) base stations with built-in WiMAX capability for the deployment of its WiMAX network equipment business, and plans to procure key parts and modules from Taiwan under to the same mode as its has purchased equipment for 3G base stations

Industry sources said that Nokia's future procurements are expected to benefit several leading network-equipment makers on the island, including Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co. Ltd., GemTek Technology Co., Ltd., and D-Link Corp

Data compiled by market-investigation company Gartner showed that Ericsson was last year's No. 1 global mobile-telecom equipment supplier, accounting for 27% of the global supply, trailed by Nokia (14%), Siemens (13%), and Motorola (11%)

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 12:09 PM | Direct Link Posted to WiMax

Melbourne-based distributor and managed services provider, Enabled Networks, has begun importing a new SIP-based IP Telephone from German manufacturer snom Technology AG. The first thing you will notice about this new SIP phone is the price. snom says the snom 300 will enter the market at less than $200 when it is launched next week at CeBit in Sydney.

It’s an entry level VoIP phone with six configurable function keys four of which can be configured as line appearances. Upgrades are available from snom that lets you configure (up to) all six function keys in this way.

But it’s the security features such as SRTP and SIPS, which snom says are hard to find in a low-cost phone that make this phone standout.

"The mark of a quality VoIP phone is in the firmware - and this is where snom leads the SIP-based sector. The new 300 model shares a common firmware with the high-end models, not to mention a well designed and properly weighted hand-piece - a rarity in the entry level segment of the market." says Scott Rigby of Enabled Networks.

"We recently entered into a closer relationship with Alloy Computer Products to better support their extensive range of business grade VoIP telephony products, headlined by the Epygi IP PBX series,” he said.

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Posted by Dal at 11:28 AM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk Hardware

The fixed-mobile convergence sector is forging ahead with IMS being the key driver advancing the market," said Harald Braun, President Networks Division, Siemens Communications. "By integrating BridgePort Networks' innovative technology into the Siemens IMS solution, service providers are enabled to quickly and easily introduce services and applications that represent the next generation of communications."

The Siemens IMS/FMC portfolio integrates both packet- and circuit-switched telephony networks, as well as a range of different wireless and fixed technologies.
With BridgePort Networks' NomadicONE ICS, Siemens' IMS/FMC solution, based on IMS@vantage®, can offer operators the ability to support true single phone number services. These can seamlessly handover an active voice call between circuit-switched cellular and Voice over IP over Wi-Fi networks by providing in-session switching of calls between networks.

The solution conforms to the technical requirements recently completed by the standards bodies 3GPP and 3GPP2 for IMS to circuit-switched seamless voice handover, known as Voice Call Continuity (VCC). The NomadicONE ICS is a specialized application server in the IMS architecture. It supports GSM, CDMA, UMTS and Wi-Fi networks and implements the IMS Controlled Model (ICM) method of seamless handover per 3GPP technical requirements, as well as the Call Transfer Model (CTM) method of handover, per 3GPP2 technical requirements.

"Fixed Mobile Convergence is a key business case for IMS," said Mike Mulica, President and CEO of BridgePort Networks. "We look forward to continuing our work with Siemens, and our handset solution partners, as we jointly deploy IMS Fixed Mobile Convergence solutions within service provider networks the world over."

"As IMS continues to evolve, interoperability efforts in areas such as end-user device links to core infrastructure will represent an important dimension in successful trials and early deployments of Fixed Mobile Convergence based upon IMS," said Tom Valovic, Program Director for VOIP Infrastructure at IDC.
 

Posted by Dal at 11:25 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP Hardware

BeoLink Wireless 1 can be seamlessly dispersed room to room, without any delay in sound distribution throughout an entire household, office building, and/or multi-unit development of choice. Now the entire BeoLink network can be offered as a wireless solution that doesn't compromise the sound quality without the need to draw cables from room to room.

"For BeoLink Wireless 1, Bang & Olufsen has chosen a mature wireless technology that can match three critical parameters: it is very robust, it has zero delay without any echo in its sound distribution, and it can distribute audio in up to 21 rooms in your home, all at the same time," states Torben Kyed, Product Manager of Bang & Olufsen. "By combining all three dynamic characteristics, we have aimed to produce the finest audio solution available on the market to date."

BeoLink Wireless 1 adds the convenience of wireless transmission of quality audio between rooms, replacing the Master Link cable in Bang & Olufsen's BeoLink concept. The only cables present are those drawn from the BeoLink Wireless 1 receiver to the loudspeakers placed in the room, which ensures optimal placement options that will avoid signal cancellation from intersecting transmitter signals.

BeoLink Wireless 1 works with all BeoLab loudspeakers, together with the remote IR eye, which relays the signal to the loudspeaker. In addition, many older, classic Bang & Olufsen products not even sold today will still work in this wireless setup. The elegantly-shaped BeoLink Wireless 1 unit is available with a black or white finish, and can be placed on the floor, shelf or bookcase, or mounted on one of two wall brackets.

Each BeoLink Wireless 1 unit functions as both a transmitter and receiver. A single transmitter can service up to seven rooms (seven pairs of loudspeakers), and the system can manage up to three transmitters with 21 pairs of loudspeakers around the house. Depending on the actual placement and surroundings indoors, a receiver and transmitter can be up to 100 feet apart. The outside range is approximately 330 feet.

BeoLink Wireless 1 operates on the 2.4 GHz band, which is available worldwide, but is also used for many other devices (WLAN networks, Bluetooth telephones, microwaves, and so on). Therefore, Bang & Olufsen was challenged to find a technology that could meet its stringent requirements, while still being very robust against interference from other devices.

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Posted by Dal at 11:51 PM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

Branco noted that analysts struggle to predict the growth of the South African broadband industry and have in the past underestimated the demand for broadband services. “From the report it s evident that not even experts had any idea of what broadband uptake would be like,” said Branco.

Predictions from the South African research company, BMI-TechKnowledge, sit in the region of 662 000 broadband users by 2008. But as Branco noted the figures in the past have been consistently underestimated. Whilst the true extent of broadband growth in South Africa is debatable one trend that seems to be fact is that wireless broadband services will become increasingly popular. In 2004 wireless services were negligible with a paltry 4600 subscribers.

By 2009 BMI-T predicts that this access medium will grow to 12%. What is interesting is that ADSL which held 3.2% of the pie in 2004 will only grow to 17% with both services stealing market share from the 95% which dial-up held in 2004.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 11:49 PM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

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Posted by Dal at 01:55 PM | Direct Link Posted to Vonage

For millions of users, voice over Internet protocol, or VoIP, is lowering phone bills for calls they make from their PC or land-line phone. But soon VoIP could cut cell-phone bills, too - most of all for international users.

It's a hard concept to get your head around: Many customers already pay a flat monthly fee for a bucket of calling minutes within U.S. But for business travelers, international students and immigrants, calling abroad can add up quickly. However, if they're already paying for a data plan, routing international calls over their phone's data connection -- using VoIP -- instead of a carrier's voice network, they can save considerable money. 

That's the bet that Mino Wireless is making. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based startup is offering cut-rate VoIP calls at 2.2 cents a minute to 40 countries, and claims to be the first to introduce VoIP on mobile phones to the U.S. market. To use Mino, you need service from Cingular, Nextel or T-Mobile, a data plan, and an up-to-date phone that can run Java.

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Posted by Dal at 04:24 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

Pricing plans for the service, which will be called AOL High Speed -- Powered by Clearwire, will start at $25.90 per month. Clearwire offers download speeds of 768Kbps to 1.5MB and upload speeds of either 128Kbps or 2256Kbps, depending on service plans. 

Click Here for more Information 

Posted by Dal at 04:20 PM | Direct Link Posted to WiMax

The phone can be preordered now exclusively online at an MSRP of $249.99, with additional information at:

Posted by Dal at 04:16 PM | Direct Link Posted to Skype

ICTA is partnering with Enterprise Technology (Pvt.) Ltd, a local firm, to deploy the project, while non-profit organization Horizon Lanka Institute has chipped in with 30 computers. Mesh networking consists a series of smart digital devices called routers or ‘Meshboxes’, which use infrared or radio waves, to carry high speed wireless connection over a wide area.

This type of networking is unique, and is currently being used by local financial institutions like banks to transfer data between branches. Instead of having a central server – which decides how data is passed between computers –the mesh creates a system which can be shared with every computer connected to the network, allowing individual computers to communicate with each other. It can grow organically and will automatically organize itself.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 04:12 PM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

Asterisk provides all of the features you would expect from a PBX and more: Voice over IP (VoIP) in many protocols, interoperation with almost all standards-based telephony equipment, voicemail services with Directory, Call Conferencing, Interactive Voice Response and Call Queuing, etc. Asterisk supports three-way calling, caller ID services, and much more. Its popularity has soared recently - becoming one of the most active and successful Open Source Software projects.

The Asterisk Boot Camp will be held May 6 in Indianapolis from 9am to 3pm. The cost is $40 for CINLUG members and $80 for non-members. On-line registration and further details are available at www.cinlug.org/bootcamp. Attendees are expected to bring their own PC which will be used to install Asterisk. Visit the website for system requirements and preparation instructions before the event.

Space is limited - other Boot Camps have sold out early. Reserve your space soon!

The Boot Camp will cover:

Attendees will receive free software, temporary access to upstream SIP services and a Boot Camp workbook.

For further information about CINLUG, visit: www.cinlug.org

For further information about OfficeTone, contact Travis Cross, CEO, at 317-339-4871

Posted by Dal at 07:27 AM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk News

SpectraLink Corp., the leader in workplace wireless telephony, is demonstrating the ability to port SpectraLink's industry-leading PBX integration technology to third-party devices including dual-mode (Wi-Fi/cellular) handsets.

This demonstration shows how SpectraLink's unique voice over IP (VoIP) gateway technology can be utilized to deliver business telephone features to both on-site and off-site mobile employees while leveraging an enterprise's existing telephone system. This exciting move offers emerging wireless voice technologies the benefit of SpectraLink's extensive experience in Wi-Fi telephony and furthers the company's technological leadership position in the Wi-Fi telephony market.

SpectraLink is demonstrating a softphone application using SpectraLink Radio Protocol (SRP), a thin-client protocol developed specifically to provide optimal performance and voice quality over converged wireless networks. The softphone application can be run on any technically-suitable voice client such as Wi-Fi-enabled PDAs and smartphones.

SRP enables third-party devices to make and receive telephone calls via the enterprise PBX over a broadband connection to a SpectraLink NetLink Telephony Gateway connected with the PBX at the customer premises. The NetLink Telephony Gateway's unique digital interface technology makes it possible to extend the advanced features and functions of a company's phone switch, such as call transfer, conferencing, and voicemail integration, to the end-user device.

"This demonstration shows the value of SpectraLink's PBX integration capabilities in delivering mobile voice solutions beyond our market-leading Wi-Fi handsets," said John Elms, SpectraLink president and CEO. "What we're offering is far more extensible than a multi-mode cellular product. Today, we are furthering our commitment to delivering business-class wireless voice to nearly any communications device deployed within the enterprise." SpectraLink is featuring a live demonstration of its softphone application running on a dual-mode client over a Wi-Fi network at its Interop booth (no. 316).

Posted by Dal at 07:19 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

Since it was announced nearly two years ago, Mayor Street's plan to bring citywide wireless broadband service to Philadelphia has crept along at dial-up speeds.  But a City Council vote yesterday has backers convinced that the plan is finally ready for the information superhighway. Or at least the political one.

A pair of Council committees unanimously approved a contract between the city and Wireless Philadelphia, the nonprofit Street created to administer the system to be built and operated by the Atlanta-based Internet firm EarthLink. The contract will now head to the full Council, as early as next week.

"This is a huge transformational benefit to the city at no cost to taxpayers," City Solicitor Romulo L. Diaz Jr. said.

If Council approves the deal, EarthLink will begin work on a system of 4,000 wireless Internet transceivers that would allow customers to access the Web from anywhere in Philadelphia. EarthLink would lease access to the network to other Internet providers and offer Internet access on its own, charging as little as $9.95 a month for low-income residents.

Click Here for the Full Story 

Posted by Dal at 07:10 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

The FCC in August decided to require compliance with U.S. wiretapping laws by facilities-based broadband providers and those that offer Internet telephone service that connects calls to and from the traditional telephone network.

The growth of Internet communications could have permitted criminals to circumvent wiretaps by using e-mail and Internet phone service instead of traditional telephone services.

The agency declined requests by carriers to reconsider the deadline and also turned down a request for companies to be able to recover the costs of complying with the requirements.

"I remain committed to ensuring that these providers take all necessary actions to incorporate surveillance capabilities into their networks in a timely fashion," said FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, a Republican.

Additionally, the FCC decided it was too soon to intervene on setting standards governing the specifics of how companies comply with the access requirements.

The decision comes two days before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia hears an appeal by universities and libraries challenging the FCC's authority to impose such requirements on broadband services.

Jupiter Research forecasts there will be 5.3 million Internet telephone subscribers by the end of 2006 and 8.3 million in 2007.

The FCC decision to extend the surveillance law to broadband Internet access raised concerns by educational institutions which said the agency overstepped its bounds.

Private networks would not be subject to the wiretap requirements but those that are connected with a public network would have to comply with the law.

Staci Pies, head of a coalition of broadband service and software providers Voice on the Net, said the group was pleased the agency did not get into the standard-setting process and that while they support law enforcement, questions remain.

"There are still so many open questions, it's hard to have a real informed judgment on what the impact of this order is," she said. Pies also serves as vice president for government and regulatory affairs at PointOne, an Internet phone provider.

FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, a Democrat, said the agency needed to further clarify its intentions for whether universities, libraries and others must comply.

The government "should work together to provide clarity here and to avoid confusion -- and potentially significant expenses -- for these institutions," he said.

Source:  Reuters

Posted by Dal at 10:04 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP Politics

The state Gaming Control Board recommended Cantor Gaming as the state's first licensed manufacturer and distributor of the devices. The board's parent state Gaming Commission will have final say on the licensing at a May 18 meeting.

The board endorsed Cantor after Joe Asher, managing director and vice president of the company, said Cantor is ready to invest "significant" capital to install mobile gambling systems in Nevada hotel-casinos.

Asher also said the devices should attract gamblers in their 20s and early 30s who have grown up with video games, cell phones and other devices, as well as older gamblers who use such technology.

Regulations passed in March, based on the 2005 legislation, made Nevada the first in the nation to approve use of handheld devices for gambling in any public area of the state's casinos, such as restaurants and poolsides.

Click Here for the Full Story 

Posted by Dal at 09:59 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP Politics

We're often at a loss as to why the citizens of earth deem it necessary to partake in these "outdoors" of which they speak, but if such an action must be done, might we recommend a WiFi umbrella to help combat the elements? The premise is pretty simple, the umbrella handle has an LED that glows based on the likelihood of precipitation, so instead of taking the 30 seconds necessary to look up the weather on the Internet, or sticking your head out of a window, you can just glance at your umbrella on the way out.

Click Here for more Information 

Posted by Dal at 09:43 PM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

Last fall, IT administrators in New Orleans set up the nation's first free wireless Internet network that is solely owned and operated by a major U.S. city. The move was first aimed at helping aid workers do their jobs and was then expanded to boost the city's struggling businesses and enable residents to communicate with friends, relatives and much-needed federal and city services.

While residents had an overwhelmingly positive response to the set up of the network, area telephone and cable companies weren't as happy about the deal which offered free service within a three-square-mile range that covers the French Quarter, the central business district and the warehouse district. Vendors that offer broadband Internet service in the area have complained, pointing to a state law that mandates that any municipal network run at 128Kbit/sec -- a far cry from the 512Kbit/sec service that is offered now.

Chris Drake, project manager in the mayor's Office of Technology in New Orleans, says they're working hard to keep this free, high-speed service up and running. For starters, the city's CIO Greg Meffert is pushing to have the state law changed, allowing municipalities to run networks at higher speeds, according to Drake. The city also is in negotiations with Earthlink. Drake says they want the ISP to take over the existing network and then build it out to cover the entire area where the city's population has returned. So far, Earthlink is reportedly agreeing to do this at the company's expense. This free Earthlink service wouldn't be able to run at 512Kbit/sec, says Drake, but they should be able to keep it at 384Kbit/sec -- fast enough to enable most applications and Voice over IP phone calls.

The New Orleans city council will meet Thursday night to haggle over the deal.

''This has been central to the recovery,'' says Drake. ''You would have thought you were bringing starving people food from the reaction on the street and the phone calls. At City Hall, nobody comes down to say 'thank you'. To get calls from people to say 'thanks' was unusual and heartening. We heard stories about law firms being able to come back to town. People were able to call relatives without driving 30 miles to get access. It was really pretty unique.''

Click Here for the Full Story 

Posted by Dal at 09:39 PM | Direct Link | TrackBacks (0) Posted to WiFi / Wireless

"There is significant interest in LiteScape solutions from the agencies I work with because they have come to realize that adding applications maximizes their investment in Cisco IP Infrastructure," said Scott Morrison, Federal Consultant Systems Engineer-Voice at Cisco Systems. "This contract will make it very easy for any agency to deploy the VoIP solutions that will result in better service to the American public."

LiteScape Technologies, Inc. has been awarded a GSA Schedule Contract for Information Technology. GSA (www.gsa.gov) offers pre-qualified resources to meet federal, state and local government agency needs. This new contract is effective immediately.

"This year, we've made major inroads into several government agencies looking for security and biometrics around their VoIP applications," said LiteScape executive vice president of sales and marketing Rod Hamlin. "Our GSA schedule will simplify the process for federal agencies that want to automate their business processes to increase productivity and add secure identity management."

Posted by Dal at 09:33 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

The CITC will offer education in IP telephony, IP applications and advanced IP internetworking. NEC will provide a hands-on, live laboratory environment for ITE students to gain practical experience in IP networks. Course topics will include basics on IP hardware and software, as well as SIP architecture and the evolution from legacy to IP systems.

At the CITC, NEC is deploying its Univerge server for the first time. The NEC Univerge SV700 Multi-purpose Server is a Linux-based IP voice communications platform with an SIP-based telephony server.

The first course at the CITC is expected to commence in July 2006 with 90 students. The centre is expected to train around 250 ITE students per year.  

Posted by Dal at 02:05 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

I spoke with Tim Saunders, ADTRAN's VP of Product Management, Enterprise Networks Division, at Interop today about a couple of things: their NetVanta 7000 IP PBX product, the challenges associated with introducing new products into a market, and, most interesting, the changing face of SMB network products.

ADTRAN's NetVanta product is, in one sense, an IP PBX but it is also a converged hardware product with integrated IP router and Ethernet switch, 24-port Power over Ethernet, voicemail, auto attendant, VPN, support for analog phones, fax, modem and more.

If you walk around the floor of Interop you can find similar solutions to the SMB problem of network infrastructure but they require 4-5 pieces of equipment. Why shouldn't all of the equipment in a small business' network closet be a single box? For a small business without an IT staff a single machine is certainly easier to troubleshoot than, say, figuring out that no one can get voicemail because the router is unplugged.

Click Here for the Full Story 

Posted by Dal at 01:58 PM | Direct Link Posted to PBX / iPBX

The TMCX specification is available to qualified manufacturers interested in developing client devices optimized for citywide Wi-Fi deployments, or those wishing to enhance their current product offerings. With the commitment and cooperation of client device manufacturers, the TMCX specification will further improve the end-to-end performance of all metro-scale Wi-Fi networks and further lower operating costs for service providers.

With the rapid growth of citywide Wi-Fi deployments, opportunities to offer Wi-Fi based residential broadband services are materializing worldwide. Many Wi-Fi enabled laptops and client devices lack sufficient transmit power and radio control software to send data reliably to an outdoor mesh through some types of building construction. They also generally lack the management intelligence to be monitored, optimized and maintained remotely by service providers. The requirements of the TMCX specification provide a blueprint to client device manufacturers allowing them to optimize their products for use in a carrier grade, metro-scale WiFi environment. These enhancements to the device’s software intelligence, connectivity and manageability add significantly to the optimal operation and economics of a carrier-class broadband wireless network.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 01:55 PM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

“This is a strategic win for us and our local partner Incotel,” comments Adam O'Hare, Business Director for Dataflex, “...and we are pleased to be working with such a forward thinking service provider like Entel in an implementation which highlights the flexibility offered by the ViNE product family to satisfy both the requirements of the service providers and end customers.”

Empresa Nacional de Telecommunications S.A. (Entel) is the second-largest Telecommunications Company in Chile offering mobile and long distance, local telephony, data and Internet services with 2004 revenues of approximately $1.3 billion and assets of over $2.2 billion. As part of a planned expansion programme, Entel has rolled out Chile’s first IP-Centrex over ADSL service aimed at small businesses to provide a lower cost and feature rich alternative to leased lines.

“Our new IP-Centrex product provides an enhanced service and range of features to our customers, “ comments Juan Cristobal Caceres, Product Manager Business Area, Entel, “ So to ensure that the customer premises equipment is suitable, we have had a long period of interoperability and performance testing which included over a dozen products from vendors in the US, Far-east and Europe.”

“In our trials, the Dataflex ViNE products performed exceptionally well and have the key advantage of seamless interoperability with the Huawei Softswitch used to deliver the service. The MGCP functionality of the Dataflex ViNE units gives our customers the option to use less complex IP-Phone handsets that further reduces initial startup costs. Also, because the ViNE units already support ADSL 2+ and can remotely switch between MGCP and SIP we have greater flexibility with our service.”

Entel is initially launching its new IP-Centrex service to key business customers ahead of a wider awareness campaign later in the year. “So far, feedback from initial trial customers has been very positive and we are now planning to expand the services across Chile,” Juan Cristobal Caceres adds.

Click Here for the Full Release
 

Posted by Dal at 01:52 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

Working with CipherOptics, Extreme Networks is extending its family of Sentriant Virtual Security Resource (VSR) appliances with the Sentriant CE150. The Sentriant CE150 is targeted for complex business environments with fast, precise encryption capabilities that are available as an on-demand, network-wide service. Unlike other data encryption products, the Sentriant CE150's unique policy capabilities can target only sensitive data for protection and avoid wasting scarce cryptographic resources on trivial traffic. As a result, customers experience much higher effective encryption capacity and far more control than ever before.

"With the increasing number of compliance and privacy regulations enterprise IT teams are faced with, data protection solutions are becoming a must have," explained Jon Oltsik, Sr. Analyst from the Enterprise Strategy Group. "The combination of Extreme Networks' intelligent Ethernet switching solutions with CipherOptics' Security Gateways brings Extreme Networks customers a superior data protection solution."

Customers can immediately benefit from the following data protection solutions:

  * Protecting Data for Multi-Campus Enterprises - Protect data for large
    enterprise networks for point to point connections or mesh networks to
    help keep sensitive internal enterprise networks safe from data theft or
    misappropriation.
  * Cryptographic Segregation - With the Sentriant CE150, organizations
    supporting diverse user roles, such as guests, internal users, and
    contractors, can utilize the same physical network for everyone without
    privacy compromises. For organizations facing network security demands
    driven by regulatory compliance requirements, such as HIPAA or
    Sarbanes-Oxley, the Sentriant CE150 contributes to a robust overall
    privacy framework.
  * Securing Critical Applications and IT Resources - Many applications,
    such as eCommerce, CRM, and healthcare management, contain information
    that must be kept private.  The Sentriant CE150 helps protects key
    applications and network resources throughout the enterprise.

This security solution has passed FIPS-140-2 Level 2 validation and offers customers the first certified data protection solution from Extreme Networks.

"CipherOptics offers a breakthrough data protection solution that can scale to greater capacity and can provide increased effectiveness when integrated with our secure switching fabric," said Herb Schneider, senior vice president of research and development for Extreme Networks. "Our ExtremeXOS operating system provides an open foundation with communication extensions that can work fluidly with best-in-class security solutions. This can make the resulting network more responsive and secure."

"We are excited about this new alliance and look forward to working with Extreme Networks as they provide managed security solutions within the network infrastructure," said Ron Willis, CEO of CipherOptics. "Together Extreme Networks and CipherOptics will be delivering policy based data encryption solutions to secure data as it moves throughout the network, providing 'set it once' control for persistent policy enforcement. We believe that results of this relationship will provide enterprises the right level of security for Data in Motion based on business policy and rules."

Posted by Dal at 01:48 PM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP Hardware

 "The added flexibility provided by the F1000 handset makes Vonage Internet phone service even more attractive when compared to traditional phone service," said Bruce Robertson, director of product marketing and programs for Vonage Canada. "With the added mobile capability provided by the F1000, consumers and road warriors only need one telephone while on the go, as they can access public wireless networks, like those in Fredericton and soon to be Toronto, or one of the nearly 1500 Wi-Fi hotspots, in Canada."

To use the Wi-Fi handset all consumers need is access to a wireless network. This could be at home, at the office, at a hotspot or through a wirelessly enabled downtown core. The F1000 Wi-Fi handset is configured with standard Vonage call features including: voicemail, call waiting, three-way calling, call forwarding, and caller ID based on phone book entries. The handset also includes standard features you typically find with cell phones and high-end telephones including hold, mute, repeat dialing, distinctive ring options including: silent and vibrate and selectable ring tones.

Users can also save Wi-Fi profiles for a number of Wi-Fi hotspots for ease of connectivity. Equally important, the F1000 supports a robust battery, with up to five hours of talk time, 50-100 hours standby and the ability to recharge in two - three hours.(*) "The F1000 makes it even easier for Vonage customers to travel with their home phone service," said Brian Caskey, vice president of worldwide marketing for UTStarcom.

"The sleek durable design of the F1000 handset makes it perfect for consumers who are looking for an easy way to consolidate their home and office phone while benefiting from the convenience of wireless technology." Product Availability The F1000 Wi-Fi handset is currently available at www.vonage.ca with a suggested retail price of $159.99 with a $65 instant rebate.

Posted by Dal at 01:42 PM | Direct Link Posted to Vonage

The filing showed improved financial performance, but the magnitude of the change once again raises the question: Is Vonage worth what the company is asking, and will Wall Street respond enthusiastically to the offering?

The improvement in the company’s financials are most strongly reflected in lower losses, down to $72.8 million in the first quarter of 2006 compared to a loss of $261.3 million for the same period in 2005. Revenue for the first quarter of 2006 was $118.9 million compared to $40.7 million in revenue for the same period in 2005. The number of subscribers more than doubled year over year, from 639,899 in the first quarter of 2005 to 1,597,317 subscribers in the first quarter of 2006. Therefore, Vonage at least seems to have the potential to achieve profitability as it grows its subscriber base and revenue.

Growing that subscriber base by whatever means possible has been the central strategy for Vonage. Analyst have speculated that the company spends as much as $400 or $500 to acquire each subscriber, though the company’s own figures are just above $200 per subscriber. The marketing spend was $55.4 million for the first quarter of 2005 versus $88.3 million for the first quarter of 2006. Vonage is the largest single advertiser on the Internet, and its advertising is ubiquitous, sometimes appearing, amusingly, even beside articles critical of VoIP.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 01:41 PM | Direct Link Posted to Vonage

Symbol's Wi-NG architecture will apply the same innovative concept of centralized wireless switching to RFID for improved security, manageability and scalability. By 2009, the RFID market will reach $2.5 billion(1) and the enterprise WLAN market will grow to $2.9 billion.(2) Rather than continue to build separate networks, Symbol will help customers consolidate both to create a RF switched domain that integrates both environments.

"With a rich history of experience and innovation in wireless and mobility, Symbol is uniquely positioned to forecast what is next for the enterprise and change the face of the wireless industry," said Anthony Bartolo, vice president and general manager of Symbol's Wireless Infrastructure and RFID Divisions. "Wi-NG is the blueprint to build a fourth-generation network, and represents the next step in Symbol's enterprise mobility strategy -- enabling organizations to capture data; move the information with applications on Symbol's Wi-Fi network; and securely manage the entire system."

Next Generation Wireless Switching to Take Business Efficiency to New Heights

Symbol's Wi-NG will serve as the architecture that enables a RF switching domain to address the adoption and convergence of Wi-Fi networks and emerging RF technologies such as RFID. Businesses will be able to deploy an integrated RFID system with the proven security and scalability of a Wi-Fi network. Additionally, Wi-NG will give businesses the ability to expand their Wi-Fi networks beyond the four walls with a centrally managed mesh network, as well as enhanced security, management and wireless integration features.

For organizations such as BP, RF switching can ease the manageability of various wireless technologies used for business operations. "At BP, we believe technology can make a significant impact on the enterprise. We focus on a few technologies with immediate impact that will also benefit long-term business needs," said Mike Haley, CTO office for BP's digital and communication technology team. "The integration of current and emerging RF communications for large industrial sites could yield greater efficiencies for business operations."

The cornerstone of the Wi-NG architecture is the modular Linux-based operating system that provides a separation between infrastructure, services, application and management layers. "Symbol has a history of innovation in enterprise wireless dating back to 1989 when we introduced the first wireless LAN, and again in 2002 with the industry's first wireless switch," said Sujai Hajela, vice president of engineering of Symbol's Wireless Infrastructure Division. "The layered Wi-NG architecture is an engineering concept leap that takes advantage of multiple hardware platforms and multiple-processor systems to enable scalable, high-performance wireless solutions required by the next generation of enterprise mobility."

The Wi-NG architecture includes integrated RF management features to monitor and manage wireless devices throughout the spectrum to ensure maximum up-time and peak performance of the network system, as well as plan, evaluate and monitor the Wi-Fi network. Symbol's RF management with Wireless Intrusion Protection System (Wireless IPS) enables businesses to extend location-based services throughout the enterprise, and quickly locate devices and disarm potential threats, providing 24-by-7 protection against unauthorized access and malicious attacks on the Wi-Fi network.

The Wi-NG architecture also enables Layer 3 roaming to handle multi-floor or large-scale campus-wide deployments. Layer 3 roaming is achieved without compromising the performance, connectivity and device power conservation required for business-critical wireless application deployment. This allows mobile users to maintain connectivity as they roam throughout the enterprise for a seamless voice and video application deployment.

Symbol's Wi-NG will serve as the foundation for Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC) for the enterprise, providing persistent connectivity to dual-mode cellular/Wi-Fi handheld devices. Wi-NG will enable FMC by supporting current and emerging broadband wireless technologies, including 802.11n, WiMAX, GPRS, EV-DO, and integrate multiple Wi-Fi networks in a LAN. Dual-mode VoIP phones will switch back-and-forth seamlessly between the Wi-Fi network and the cellular carrier for the user to take advantage of the best available connection.

Later this year, Symbol's award-winning WS5100 wireless switch will be the first product to leverage the Wi-NG architecture. The WS5100 wireless switch will offer switch-assisted 802.11 mesh networking, allowing businesses to use their access points to securely extend the perimeter of wireless coverage to locations previously too expensive or physically difficult to wire.

To learn more about Symbol's wireless solutions, visit:
http://www.symbol.com/wireless

Posted by Dal at 08:22 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

Key findings included:

- 95% of companies agreed that there was a critical need for business continuity planning for voice communications
- Only 2% confirmed they had such a plan in place
- 100% stated daily operations would be interrupted if phones were shut down for an extended period

“Businesses spend thousands to back up their critical information, and have disaster recovery plans in place for their data networks,” said Joe Schiavone, Vice President of Sales for VoiceNation. “But the results of this study lay bare the lack of importance many companies place on their voice communications emergency planning in the face of potential terrorism, pandemics, storms and other threats.”

The 2005 telemarketing survey contacted 400 companies across the country, in industries including manufacturing, shipping, electronics, general contracting and real estate. The survey found that while 381 out of the 400 companies agreed that there was a critical need for some sort of emergency plan if they lost their voice communication platform, only 6 out of the 400 businesses actually had some sort of plan in place. The most startling fact is that 100% of the companies surveyed stated that they would have to shut down for the day if their phones were shut down for an extended period.

Joe acknowledges this gap can be attributed primarily to businesses that consider themselves outside of traditional disaster zones, such as hurricane regions and earthquake centers. “If companies are not located on the Gulf Coast, California, or Tornado Alley, they feel that they are safe,” observes Joe. “The problem is that disasters come in many forms, from pandemics and terrorism, to a simple winter storm or power outage. A problem as mundane as a burst water pipe could shut down a phone system for days.”

“We thought we had a communications back up plan in place,” says Vivian Mitchell, network analyst for AIG United Guarantee. But when a snowstorm overwhelmed their voice service provider, United Guarantee’s 800 employees were unable to contact their employer. This survey confirms that many businesses find themselves in similar situations and lack a reliable back up voice communication solution.

Another common misperception is that call forwarding is a suitable response to the issue of disaster management. Many businesses feel that their employees can have all calls forwarded to their evacuation location or the location of another office outside the threatened area. The problem is that for call forwarding to work, a call must first come into the company PBX and then be routed to the new location. If the company network is down at the location where the incoming call is directed, that call is going nowhere. Says Mitchell, “It takes six to seven hours for our alternate location to go live. In that time, this number is the only way employees have to get updates.”

Joe cites the dire consequences of such interruptions in phone service stating: “Imagine customers trying to reach a business, but getting only dead air or the same static message over and over. Imagine orders going unfulfilled and distribution channels that are completely closed off. Imagine employees not knowing where or how to report in during a disaster and having no way of contacting their clients or customers. Now imagine how financially devastating all of this can be to a business, especially a small-to-medium sized organization.”

VoiceNation’s Response to Disaster Recovery and Management

VoiceNation’s response to this issue is to offer a hosted platform for voice communications. VoiceNation isolates their client’s voice systems from service-ending disasters. Even if all landline and cell phone service is interrupted at a client’s location, callers can still get through and access all of the functionality of a normal PBX and voicemail system. A customer can be routed to an employee’s regular voice mailbox, and VoiceNation can get the message to the employee through their email, cell phone, or other communications technology that the employee can still access.

Through VoiceNation, employees can stay connected to their office as long as they have access to some sort of phone or cell phone. Regardless of where they are calling from, by dialing a specified number they can access their entire voice network, as well as any messages telling them where to go and what corporate emergency plan is in place.

“Picture a local school district in an area hit by a snow storm,” suggests Joe. “Normally, there would be generic closing notices announced on the radio, and if they were lucky, one number where both faculty and students could call and check on the school’s status. With a VoiceNation program in place, each department could have their own unique number to call for personalized messages. That way, facility management could report in for snow removal, teachers could come in 2 hours later, and students an hour after that.”

Press Release by: Write2Market

Posted by Dal at 08:19 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

Along with San Francisco, major cities like Toronto and Philadelphia are moving ahead with plans to blanket their city in wireless. These plans take two main avenues. Some cities, such as St. Cloud, Fla., offer services free, with either the city government or advertising revenues footing the bill. Others, like Philadelphia, provide it at monthly or per-use costs. And other cities, like San Francisco and Toronto, plan to combine the two options. Google and Earthlink, in addition to their free service, plan to provide the Bay City with a faster, higher-quality connection at $20 per month. Toronto plans to offer free services for six months before switching to a paid system.

Still, various concerns have arisen over plans to build such wireless networks. There are inevitable technical problems with large-scale projects: Philadelphia’s wi-fi won’t work in many apartments and towers, and Google/Earthlink will have to work to avoid similar problems due to San Francisco’s hills and high-rises. Even in smaller towns like St. Cloud, residents complain about spotty service, often sticking to their original Internet provider.

But other, more serious concerns have cropped up as well. In San Francisco, the ACLU and two San Francisco-based groups jointly requested that the city rethink its plans, citing privacy concerns. They claim that the service is “non-consensual” because if users register and log in, Google could track them; Google argues that the requirements are necessary to combat spammers. At present, the debate’s outcome is unclear.

Click Here for the Full Article

Posted by Dal at 08:13 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

According to Richard Brown, vice president of Corporate Marketing, Via Technologies, "With our new Via C7-M ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) processor platform we are taking major steps to provide the right solution for enabling the development of these innovative new devices, combining the best performance per watt operation in the industry with the smallest silicon footprint in the market." 
 
Via first demonstrated the new generation UMPC devices powered by the Via C7-M ULV processor at CeBIT, Hannover, in March 2006, including the 'SmartCaddie' from Japan-based PBJ, which has already launched this product in the Japanese market.
 
Via is also seeing growing demand for Via C7-M ULV processor-based UMPCs in all other major global markets, and expects to see such products launched by partners in India in the second half of 2006.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 02:20 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

Skypecasts are live, moderated discussions that allow groups of Skype users anywhere in the world to discuss shared interests, from classes to computer support to cultural or political debates. They amount to the conversational equivalent of Web blogs, complementing the written interactions of blogs.

"To date users have been talking one-to-one and one-to-many in private settings," Saul Klein, Skype's head of marketing, said in an interview of Skype's current services. "Skypecast is about starting to have conversations in public settings."

The service is moderated by a designated host who is able to pass a virtual microphone to participants in the group when they wish to speak. To keep conversations on track, the software allows the moderator to silence or eject detractors.

The social networking trend grew up out of the online dating scene with the rise of Friendster and has evolved as the power of collaborating with one's friends and acquaintances has been applied to everything from music to news to Web search.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 02:19 AM | Direct Link Posted to Skype

OK, so when has need ever stopped an early adopter? Good point, but even the usual desire to own the latest technology is dampened by the realisation that you’re getting absolutely no practical benefit whilst still paying over the odds for the privilege of testing the product line. Being an early adopter you’ll no doubt already have invested in Multiple Input,

Multiple Output (MIMO) enabled kit if you really required the extended range on offer. The test reports I’ve read so far would suggest that MIMO, which is also a key part of the emerging 802.11n specification, is just as effective on existing 802.11g devices anyway. Which just leaves the speed issue, and let’s face it that’s the real hard sell for Wireless-N isn’t it? The marketing blurb makes for moist reading: up to 600Mbps throughput claim some vendors. But a claim is all it will remain for some time to come, as a closer inspection of the facts reveals.

Click Here for the Full Article
 

Posted by Dal at 02:15 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

The complete conversion and adjustment of all software systems tothe new VoIP technology will lengthen the edge enjoyed by the marketleader Median Telecom GmbH over the competition. The core element ofthe new VoIP call shop solution is iPBX, a software-based telephoneexchange system which uses the Median software "MedianCharge(R)" tosettle and charge all telephone calls made. The conversion to VoIPwill lead to a drastic reduction in feed costs and will lower chargesfor fixed network calls, for example within Europe, by as much as 60%! The main beneficiaries of this will naturally be the franchisees ofthe Median's "TELECAFE(R)" franchise system.

The conversion of the existing call shops is already well underway while it is also becoming considerably simpler to connect new and,in particular, international call shops. The Amitelo subsidiarySunline Communications SL in Malaga has just connected its firsttwelve proprietary call shops in Spain within the space of one weekwith the help of this solution. Sunline plans to connect more than 200further call shops to the Amitelo network on the basis of this system.One call shop generates between EUR 5,000 and EUR 15,000 sales permonth, depending on the location.

The VoIP call shop system currently forms the basis of intensivenegotiations with governments in Africa in order to carry out themodernization of the existing infrastructure in these countries basedon the Amitelo technology. For these countries, the integrated areasof e-learning (internet-based learning methods) and e-government(authorities and ministries represented in the internet) are ofparticular significance.

Posted by Dal at 02:10 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

"Packetry II is the only merchant silicon solution in the industry to offer a combination of cost-effective Gigabit Ethernet connectivity and advanced features like large tables, IPv6, extensive QoS and MPLS/VPLS," said Jiang Jianping, CTO and R&D general manager of Harbour Networks.

"Greenfield's flexible architecture enables Harbour Networks to develop highly advanced and industry-leading switching solutions." "We are pleased that Harbour Networks has selected our Packetry II architecture for their highly scalable Ethernet switch platform," said Bill Rossi, president and CEO of Greenfield Networks. "Winning Harbour Networks as a customer is great recognition of our architectural advantages and technology leadership."

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 02:07 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

PBA chief executive Jonathan Withers said the company was yet to finalise dates for the launches, which would be in the second half of the year. "You always have to be pretty vague because just getting the sites can be variable in time," Mr Withers said.

PBA, the licensed carrier that owns and operates the iBurst wireless internet network, would also consider moving into regional areas, he said. Adelaide and Perth would complete iBurst's coverage of major metropolitan centres on mainland Australia. Unwired, which recently expanded from Sydney to Melbourne, has also promised to launch in other major capitals, but it is yet to provide a firm schedule for its plans.

The two companies want to win the loyalty of wireless internet users before the second half of 2007, when Intel is expected to start building chipsets for portable computers capable of connecting to WiMax networks. Unwired, which is focused on the consumer market, had 48,434 customers at the end of March.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 02:04 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

SpectraLink Corp., a provider of Wi-Fi VoIP handsets, now offers the ability to port its PBX integration software to third-party devices including dual-mode (Wi-Fi/cellular) handsets.  SpectraLink's VoIP gateways can be used to deliver PBX features from a company’s telephone system to mobile employees on site or off site.

At the same time, a softphone using SpectraLink Radio Protocol (SRP), a thin-client protocol developed for performance and voice quality over Wi-Fi networks, can run on any suitable device, such as PDAs and smartphones with Wi-Fi capability.

SpectraLink Radio Protocol enables third-party devices to make and receive telephone calls over a broadband connection to a SpectraLink NetLink Telephony Gateway connected to the PBX at the customer premises. The NetLink Telephony Gateway's interface makes it possible to extend the features and functions of a company's phone switch, such as call transfer, conferencing and voicemail, to the third-party device.

www.spectralink.com

Posted by Dal at 02:01 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP Hardware

This means that people subscribing to the $24.99 per month Premium Unlimited Plan and the $49.99 per month Small Business Unlimited Plan will be able to call people in these European countries and talk as long as they like for a flat monthly rate, just like they do when they call people within the U.S. Previously, subscribers were billed per minute to locations within these countries.

Vonage, which uses a broadband connection and the Internet rather than the regular telephone network to carry calls, has gained popularity among consumers and small businesses as a low-cost alternative to traditional phone service. The company, which recently filed for an initial public offering, is fighting perceptions that voice over Internet Protocol provider Skype's international presence could limit its growth.

Traditional phone companies, such as AT&T and Verizon Communications, have been offering their own local and long-distance flat-rate calling plans for the past couple of years. For example, Verizon Communications charges $40 a month for its unlimited plan, which includes calls within the continental U.S. and Puerto Rico.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 01:59 AM | Direct Link Posted to Vonage

Consumer electronics maker SOYO Group Inc. has released the SOYO U201 IP USB phone for Skype users.  The phone lets subscribers use the keypad and LCD to manage Skype software and make calls without checking back to the computer display.

The phone comes with a headset jack, mute button and hands-free speaker. Other functions include personalized ring tone, caller ID, Skypeout balance display and call history.

The U201 also has a 16-bit sound card and a 20KHz bandwidth loudspeaker with adjustable call volume.

The phone carries a suggested retail price of $49.99.

Posted by Dal at 01:56 AM | Direct Link Posted to Skype

Posted by Dal at 12:33 PM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk News

And existing Avaya customers running the older DEFINITY ProLogix, IP600 or S8100 server can now upgrade to greater power and functionality via the Avaya S8400 Media Server.  Though Avaya is targeting its new solutions at companies of between 100 and 500 employees, that is not to say that they've simplified the apps in any way from their enterprise counterparts.

"Our goal is not to dumb down in terms of the richness of the application but they are dumbed down in the sense of being simplified of how you get access to them and how you deploy them," Lawrence Byrd, director of IP Telephony and Mobility at Avaya, told internetnews.com.

Part of the simplification from Avaya's point of view is the standardization that they have undertaken to have their solution powered by a common OS.

All of the new Avaya VoIP solutions are powered by Linux, which shouldn't be too much of a surprise considering that Avaya has had a Linux product-based roadmap for some time. Byrd said customers don't see the operating system and they don't care. But they do like to know that it's an open standard and there are some cost benefits to that.

Click Here for the Full Article

Posted by Dal at 10:18 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

When it comes to VoIP solutions, many SMBs are under a pair of misperceptions: residential-class VoIP products will deliver the level of functionality and performance SMBs need, and business-class VoIP offerings mandate a significant upfront investment in new phone systems. SMBs buying into these misperceptions either buy a VoIP solution that doesn’t meet their needs or they stick with their legacy telecom environment and miss out on the upside VoIP offers.

Why won’t the $24.95 residential-class VoIP product work for SMBs? In short, because these solutions rely on the public Internet, which offers no quality, performance, or security guarantees. Nor do they provide quality of service capabilities that guarantee that voice calls get priority over data transmissions. No business can afford to suffer from calls that are characterized by echoes, stuttering, or clipping – or worse yet, dropped altogether. Yet without a quality of service guarantee, this is precisely what businesses can expect to endure.

Another shortcoming of residential-class VoIP is that it is a voice-only solution that requires SMBs to obtain a broadband access solution from another provider. Not only does the SMB have to deal with multiple vendors, but voice and data services are segregated. These bandwidth stovepipes cannot be combined, meaning unused voice capacity sits idle instead of augmenting data capacity. In other words, the SMB doesn’t get the most bang for its buck.

Click Here for the Full Article
 

Posted by Dal at 10:14 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

The SMCWSKP100 Skype Wi-Fi phone is compatible with most standard 802.11b/g access points and provides constant connectivity without slowing down network connections while running in a pure 802.11g wireless environment. In a shared wireless and data network, the SMCWSKP100 Skype Wi-Fi phone with Quality-of-Service (QoS) function, it maintains exceptional quality by prioritising voice over data packets.

With the embedded Skype software, the user-friendly phone incorporates most Skype features such as voice mail, as well as Skype-In or Skype-Out services, which allow users to make low-cost calls to other phone networks.

As long as users have a valid Skype account, they can access both PSTN and Skype networks. Within any free wireless environment, Skype account holders can use the compact SMCWSKP100 device to make calls in different scenarios; Skype-to-Skype calls, Skype Phone to PC, PC to Skype Phone, Skype-Out to cell phone or fixed line and Skype-In from cell phone or fixed line, the SMCWSKP100 is a perfect fit for business traveler, expatriates and foreign students who wish to enjoy the full Skype experience while on the move.

Having an enhanced power-saving design, the SMCWSKP100 has a relatively long period of standby and talk time. And with Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), the SMCWSKP100 is designed to provide the same level of security as that of a wired LAN.

“We’re pleased to offer Skype products that extend the benefits beyond the PC. Skype technology offers huge benefit to, international travelers doing business or holiday makers around the world, by offering an alternative to expensive long-distance and International phone calling”, according to Mr. Jimmy Goh, Vice President, Marketing, SMC Networks Asia Pacific, “Together with our other SMC VoIP product, SMC Wireless Travel Voice Gateway (SMCWTVG), a complete VoIP solution with secured networking capability is available for today’s mobile professional who frequently make calls on the move. Greatly reducing the cost of mobile communication, the SMCWSKP100 Skype Wi-Fi goes above and beyond other Skype phones currently on the market.”

Posted by Dal at 10:12 AM | Direct Link Posted to Skype

"WiMAX is an important and rapidly developing technology," said Asa Atallah, CEO of Mobile Metrics, Inc. "One of our goals is to further accelerate its deployment and commercial application with our Torrent 7100 test system. In particular, we would like to help equipment manufacturers focus more exclusively on their core business of system development, and free them from having to also develop associated in-house tools."

With the Torrent 7100, equipment manufacturers and operators and can run suites of parallel, highly realistic traffic profiles which can programmatically interact with the system under test via telnet or ssh. For example, test cases can automatically monitor the system under test for memory leaks or error logs.

The Torrent 7100 realistically simulates a wide variety of protocols such as HTTP, WAP, MMS, PTT, SIP, RTCP, RTP, FTP, SMTP, POP3, ICMP, and DNS. Test results are accurately characterized with high-resolution histograms and over 450 hierarchically organized statistics. The new Torrent 7100 will also provide users with the same rich test suites and advanced mobile simulation found its predecessor, the Torrent 5100 GTS.

Further details about the Torrent 7100 WTS are available at:

http://www.mobilemetrics.net

Posted by Dal at 10:09 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiMax

Of course, there is the usual collection of add-on products (SendMail, Asterisk Mail, PHP, PHPmyAdmin, MySQL, SugarCRM, the Festival Speech Engine, Flash Operator Panel, Open A2Billing, Digium card auto-configuration, loads of AGI scripts including weather forecasts and wakeup calls, xPL support, Microsoft File Sharing and Networking support through Samba and much more) which makes Asterisk@Home one of the most revolutionary products in the commercial or open source marketplace. And, yep, it’s still free! Let us begin by suggesting who shouldn’t install this software: NEWBIE’S!"

Click Here for the Full Nerd 

Posted by Dal at 09:25 AM | Direct Link Posted to Asterisk Help

Aruba Networks, meanwhile, is teaming with AirMagnet to incorporate troubleshooting tools into its WLAN platform, and wireless telephony vendor SpectraLink is demonstrating interoperability between its handsets and WLAN products from Meru and the Asterisk open-source VoIP platform.

Meru is unveiling its Wireless Backbone System, a portfolio of products designed to eliminate wiring from the network core out to the client device, a paradigm that Meru is touting as the All-Wireless Enterprise.

“For the channel, it’s not a sale of a small number of access points and controllers but [it] becomes an opportunity to provide an end-to-end wireless infrastructure,” said Ihab Abu-Haleima, president and CEO of Meru, Sunnyvale, Calif.

To set it up, solution providers deploy a Meru Controller and Radio Switch in the network core. The Radio Switch attached to the core switch then communicate wirelessly to other Radio Switches on the network, which in turn connect wirelessly to Meru Access Points. From there, every user in the enterprise can run voice and data over the WLAN, he said.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 09:21 AM | Direct Link Posted to WiFi / Wireless

Starting at $25 per month per user, customers will be able to receive a service based on Avaya's Communications Manager IP PBX platform, with 700 call features, according to Avaya product description material. The service supports onsite IP phones and gateways, with call processing and public switched telephone network (PSTN) termination in the hosting company's data center. Among the North American providers slated to offer the service are XO Communications, Sprint and Cross Telecom, according to Avaya documents.

Customers can pay an additional $5 per month for a voice mailbox add-on. For midsize companies looking for outsourced call center applications, a Contact Center On Demand offering will be available for $50 to $150 per month per agent. The hosted service provides call routing, a self-service voice-response portal for customers, and reporting services. Gateways, IP phones, softphone clients and other related applications and software are provided to onsite client machines.

Avaya plans to launch MultiVantage Express - an all-in-one IP PBX, messaging server and gateway. The company also plans to introduce the S8400 Media Server - a Linux-based blade server card that slides into legacy PBX or gateway voice equipment, converting the gear to IP.

MultiVantage Express comes on a Linux-based appliance and includes Communications Manager IP PBX software, Audix voice mail and desktop-management applications, IP softphone support, autoattendant features and limited call center capabilities for up to 50 agents.

Click Here for the Full Article 

Posted by Dal at 09:19 AM | Direct Link Posted to VoIP News

The first joint product from this alliance is the Polycom Communicator(TM), a Skype Certified, co-branded USB speakerphone that leverages Polycom's renowned Acoustic Clarity Technology(TM) to deliver hands- free, natural, two-way voice communication for Skype voice and video conversations, without echoes or feedback. The Polycom Communicator complements the new Skype for Business offering, providing an affordable and portable personal speakerphone solution that delivers business-quality, high- fidelity wideband voice communications for individuals or small groups. It delivers a best-in-class user experience with outstanding voice quality, integration with Skype software, and portability. In addition to the core speakerphone capabilities, the Polycom Communicator also offers high-quality audio output for playing music, games, etc. from a laptop or desktop PC.

"The partnership between Polycom and Skype is a natural fit," said Will Stofega, research manager of VoIP services at IDC. "Skype is making inroads into business environments which require business-quality solutions. The Polycom Communicator delivers the full range of wideband voice quality for the Skype application and the experience is excellent. The hands-free design and tight integration makes the Polycom Communicator easy to set up and use."

"Teaming with Polycom, we can offer Skype business customers high-quality, portable communications solutions, based on proven technology, that can help them extend Skype more broadly into their everyday work environment," said Henry Gomez, Skype's general manager for North America.

Polycom Communicator was introduced this morning in conjunction with the NASDAQ market opening by Polycom CEO Robert Hagerty, who was accompanied by Polycom CFO Mike Kourey and SVP of Voice Products Sunil Bhalla. The company is celebrating its tenth anniversary as a publicly traded company and the shipment of the two-millionth SoundStation conference phone -- the award- winning, triangular-shaped conference phone line that has become an icon for voice conferencing quality in businesses around the globe.

"Personal and group collaboration is a critical communications need in this world of distributed workgroups. Skype's unique offering, broad global user base, and growing adoption within business environments is a natural fit for Polycom's leading communications and collaboration solutions," said Robert Hagerty, chairman and CEO of Polycom. "We are pleased to launch our first Skype Certified hands-free, wideband USB speakerphone, which leverages our expertise in real-time voice communications and is a logical extension of our award-winning voice communications product line. The Polycom Communicator's deep integration with Skype provides customers with unrivaled quality and performance in a personal PC speakerphone."

Click Here for the Full Release 

Posted by Dal at 09:10 AM | Direct Link Posted to Skype