« December 2008 | Main | February 2009 »


January 27, 2009

EnGenius Technologies releases long range Super G Wifi router with PoE

 
 
EnGenius, just introduced their most powerful Wireless Access Point/Client Bridge for the business network environment. The ECB3500 is a high-powered 802.11 Super G long range WiFi device that was designed to offer consistently robust communication over wide areas and long distances, while also being highly adaptable and easy to use.

"Businesses are becoming increasingly dependent on wireless communication. However, employees don't always sit in the same office or even the same building anymore. The ECB3500 was designed to offer the wireless coverage needed to productively reach all employees," remarks Roger Chien, Product Manager.

The ECB3500 provides strong, uninterrupted coverage up to 108 Mbps over a wide area using high 600mW of wireless output power. It operates at the 2.4 GHz frequencies in both the 802.11 b/g (11/ 54 Mbps) or Super G (108 Mbps) wireless standards. And, with the use of QoS (Quality of Service) technology, the ECB3500 optimizes all data transmissions; thereby, maximizing its ability to handle heavy loads of traffic. This includes all forms of wireless video streaming, VoIP (Voice-over IP), and other multimedia business applications.

"We've engineered the ECB3500 to ensure superior long range WiFi coverage to all the leading brands in its class," added Chien.

The key features of the new, powerful ECB3500 are:

  • High 600mW Wireless Power - guarantees a robust signal over long-distances
  • Super G 108 Mbps Support - enables high-transfer speeds for large data transmissions
  • Dual High-Gain Detachable Antennas - optimizes wireless traffic with Antenna Diversity Technology and transmits higher power up to 2000 mW EIRP using a 5dbi antenna
  • Multiple Wireless Names - permits different access levels within one device
  • Multi-Functional Device (7 operation modes) - performs multiple uses for different network topologies
  • Intelligent Quality of Service (QoS) Technology - orders bandwidth priority for high-demand transmissions
  • Power-Over-Ethernet (802.3af) - allows power and data to come over one cable for ease of installation

Almost any enterprise can take advantage of the ECB3500's remarkable power and range because the device is adaptable to most network environments. For example, in AP mode, the ECB3500 can broadcast multiple WiFi networks (SSID); allowing for numerous security levels within one device. In fact, ECB3500 can serve different functions:

1.   Wireless Access Point - network connectivity for multiple wireless clients
2.   Client Bridge - wireless network connectivity for a single wired client
3.   Universal WiFi Repeater - wireless range extender that reaches dead-spots
4.   WiFi Router - wired internet or network connectivity for multiple wireless clients
5.   Client WiFi Router - wireless network connectivity for multiple wired clients
6.   WDS (Wireless Distribution System) - wireless connectivity to expand an established network

In addition, EnGenius solved one of the biggest problems when installing a new wireless networking product: proximity to outlets. The ECB3500 supports 802.3af PoE (Power-over-Ethernet) which allows power and data to be accessed over a single cable. This feature helps to speed up deployment time and reduces network down time.
The EnGenius ECB3500 Super G, Long Range WiFi 802.11g Wireless Access Point/Client Bridge is a high-powered, efficient wireless product that can adapt to any network topology or business environment. It is available at select value added distributors, direct marketers, e-commerce sites and value-added resellers at a retail price of $119.00.

For addition information about the ECB3500 or other EnGenius products, please visit www.engeniustech.com.

Source: PR Web

Posted by Dal at 01:34 PM | | TrackBacks (0) Posted to Wireless Hardware

January 19, 2009

Native Skype Application Coming to iPhone

Usually we are not reporting about upcoming, not released yet, applications, but this one is special: the original native Skype for iPhone is coming! While already several third pary apps for iPhone offer some Skype functionality, they often are based on usage of 3rd party servers and proxies and simply do not offer some functions.

Skype is a revolutionary voice over IP (VoIP) program that brought VoIP to masses thanks to usage of easy, Instant Messaging -like, user interface and excellent voice quality. Skype offers also I.M., video calling, file transfer and through plugins many other functions, including screen sharing. Skype was originally owned by a Swedish guy with headquarters in London, England and development (programming) division in Estonia (east EU). Later it was purchased by eBay (USA).

For the first time Skype itself is confirming Skype for iPhone:

Scott Durschlag, Skype’s chief operating officer, said Skype’s iPhone application is still under development. Engineers are still working on cutting the amount of power the application consumes, he said.

Skype would not be the first iPhone program that makes use of Internet calling technology to save people from having to spend their cellular minutes. But when Apple started letting outside companies make programs for the iPhone, it barred voice-over-Internet applications from connecting to the cellular network, leaving them functional only when the user is in a Wi-Fi hot spot.

To learn more, visit related article about Skype for iPhone.

Source: Mobile Tech Addicts

Posted by Dal at 11:51 AM | | TrackBacks (0) Posted to Skype

January 15, 2009

Nortel Bankruptcy Signals More Consolidation in Voice Telephony Market

Nortel has filed for bankruptcy and may be sold off in parts, according to one Canadian news outlet. The Globe and Mail reports Toronto-based Nortel applied for court approval for creditor protection in Delaware Wednesday morning. It was expected to file in Toronto, as well.
 
Nortel was Canada’s largest company at the peak of the tech boom in 2000, with a $366-billion (Canadian) market capitalization and 95,000 employees, and its decision to seek court protection from creditors marks not only the noteworthy fall of a one-time telecommunications giant, but also heralds the incredible shrinking market for competition among VoIP platform providers.

BroadSoft, Inc., a leading worldwide provider of software-based VoIP applications to the telecommunications industry, announced in December it had acquired Sylantro Systems Corporation, a provider of VoIP applications based in Campbell, California and its main competitor in the software as a service space for a decade.

Nortel’s fall leaves network equipment makers such as Alcatel Lucent and Cisco facing the challenges of competing in a VoIP market now trending clearly toward more open Web-style development of voice telephony, and raises the question of how proprietary platforms such as Broadsoft’s may eventually fare against Digium’s open-source Asterisk solution.

Source:  Voxilla

Posted by Dal at 03:10 PM | | TrackBacks (0) Posted to PBX / iPBX

January 09, 2009

FreeSWITCH PBX 1.0.2 Released

With the new year comes a new release of FreeSWITCH, a very powerful open source telephony application.

The FreeSWITCH team is pleased to announce that version 1.0.2 is now available.

The last five months since the release of 1.0.1 have been very busy. New features, bug fixes, additions from the community - all of this and more. Some of the most exciting developments have to do with very high quality VoIP codecs. With this new release, FreeSWITCH now supports the Polycom Siren(tm) family of codecs as well as the very high quality CELT codec. Please visit here for all of the details.

What is FreeSWITCH?

FreeSWITCH is a very powerful, extensible telephony platform that can scale from a soft-phone to a soft-PBX and even to a class five soft-switch. Please visit our web site for more information.

Posted by Dal at 02:47 PM | | TrackBacks (0) Posted to VoIP Software

January 05, 2009

Firebox Sells World's First 3D Webcam

 

Online Gadget retailer Firebox is selling what it calls the first 3D webcam int he world and it is available for only £49.95; the Minoru even comes with five pairs of 3D glasses (ed : when will they have stylish 3D glasses?)

The webcam looks like a single legged red-aced alien with arms protruding. Minoru works the trick by combining two USB webcams altogether and adjusting the red and blue levels to create a near perfect 3D video stream.

Obviously, the trick works best if the other party also has a similar webcam. Minoru is compatible with existing messaging programs like MSN or Skype and you can always upload pictures of your antics on Youtube.

Don't try to convert a 2D movie into a 3D one using this technique though or you could be in for a rather nasty headache. Minoru can still be used as a 2D webcam if you or your friends do not have the glasses.

Source: IT Pro Portal

Posted by Dal at 01:21 PM | | TrackBacks (0) Posted to Blogsphere News

January 04, 2009

VoIP Still Isn't Dead - Part Deux

Since the birth of the VoIP industry, the millions (maybe Billions) of dollars of VoIP Telco infrastructure that has been purchased and will continue to be purchased has been meaningful for quite a number of companies. So in real life, VoIP really isn't dead.

For some people, VoIP has become a word associated with "network plumbing."  And in that perspective, I can appreciate why some of my friends no longer believe that VoIP is cool.
From my own perspective, I miss reading stories about startups prepared to leverage the concept that "Voice is just an Application" and empower a new generation to communication in ways which were not possible or practical in the past. Something more than Skype and something different than Vonage. What we are missing are the totally disruptive startups willing to challenge the status quo.

The VoIP industry in America was fortunate to have been born at a time when the FCC embraced disruptive technologies. People like Dr. Robert Pepper, Julius Genachowski and Kevin Werbach under the leadership of FCC Chairman Reed Hundt did the right things necessary to embrace VoIP. Their embracing of VoIP and appreciation for disruptive technologies helped the VoIP industry grow. This growth continued under the leadership of FCC Chairman Bill Kennard.

Looking back, the VoIP Industry was most fortunate to have come of age a time when the FCC Chairman was Michael K. Powell. Chairman Powell embraced the nascent VoIP industry and made it a point to come out to the VON conferences and connect directly with our community. I enjoyed the opportunity to spend time with Chairman Powell at my VON Conferences and meeting with him in Washington, D.C. I most of all enjoyed being able to call Chairman Michael K. Powell, a friend.

Chairman Powell's FCC embraced my VON Conferences and FCC staff members were an active part of the community. During the VON events we held a number of "Town Hall Meetings" with various members of the FCC staff. I will be forever grateful for all of the work that Dr. Robert Pepper did over the years to make sure the FCC had a presence at the VON events.
 
Chairman Powell's FCC is one of the big reasons the VoIP industry grew in the United States and around the world. Chairman Powell recognized the need not to apply legacy rules and regulations to the VoIP industry. And I will be forever grateful to Chairman Powell and the FCC of 2003/04 for the fact that the "Pulver Order" was issued under his leadership.

Looking back, since Chairman Powell's departure from the FCC, the VoIP industry in America has suffered.

One of the reasons I believe VoIP will find a new beginning in 2009 is because this is the year Kevin Martin will be replaced at the FCC. Since becoming Chairman of the FCC in 2005, Kevin Martin is the one person in America who has done more harm to the future of the VoIP industry than anyone else. If you take a look at his career as Chairman of the FCC, it was his public policy approach of taking the most  burdensome rules and regulations of the wireline service and imposing it on the VoIP industry that sucked a lot of the air out of the VoIP revolution.

While the wireless industry in America had many more years to in effect "grow up", Chairman Martin's FCC forced the nascent VoIP industry quickly out of adolescence and into adulthood. An adulthood it wasn't necessarily prepared to embrace at the time.

Under Chairman Martin's rule, there was little need for a the Telcos to pay any lobbyists to convince the FCC Staffers to apply telecom laws developed for a different technology and throw such rules at the totally disruptive independent VoIP service providers. It seems as if this is some that freely happened on it's own.

Ever since Chairman Martin held the open E911 hearings and used traumatic, heart wrenching stories as a way to make an example out of Vonage, I realized we were dealing with someone who was acting from their bully pulpit. In fact, when Chairman Martin used his platform to make it a requirement for all VoIP service providers comply with E911, it became clear to me that he was out to suck the air out of the VoIP industry rather than embrace it. Time after time Chairman Martin passed on the opportunity to leverage IP based platforms to deliver solutions better than what the PSTN could have offered. Instead he decided to focus a backward compliance rather than a forward looking one.

If anyone is wondering why the FCC was never seen at any of the VON events since Spring 2005 VON, it was because of Chairman Martin never accepted any of my invitations to speak at VON. In fact, there was a time when no one from the FCC was permitted to attend VON under the Martin leadership.

Beyond this, Chairman Martin's FCC failed to act on two petitions which I filed during his tenure. One was the ( http://pulverblog.pulver.com/archives/003912.html ) Pulver/ Evslin Petition on Post-Disaster Communications</a> which is still relevant today as it was when it was filed on March 16, 2006. The second was the ( http://pulverblog.pulver.com/archives/006642.html ) Network2 Petition for a Declaratory ruling that Interview Video is not subject to regulation under Title III or Title VI of the Communications Act. I believe both of these petitions are relevant and hopefully will be considered under the new FCC Chairman.

So why Chairman Martin has been focused on damaging the VoIP industry is beyond me. Maybe one day he will be public about it and tell all of us.  I will be leading the cheer on behalf of the VoIP industry on the day that Chairman Martin leaves office.

In my opinion, the near future for VoIP in America to some extent rests on the decision of who is selected to become the New FCC Chairman and whether or not they will attempt to unwind the regulatory burden Chairman Martin's FCC placed on the VoIP Industry.  It would also matter how supportive the new Chairman will be toward communication innovation in America. <B>With the right approach to public policy, the new FCC Chairman will be able to put a shot of adrenaline into the arm of the VoIP Industry and jump start a new generation of communication innovation.</b>

When I look to the future, I believe we are just on the edge of the time when the true promise of VoIP can be realized. In order for these dreams to be realized, it will require a new group of people who believe in challenging the status quo, to stand up and be counted on.

While I am looking for others to join the NEW revolution, I am ready and prepared to do what it takes to continue to push for the promise of what IP Communications can offer.

So while some of my friends may declare that VoIP is Dead, I still don't. And I won't.

"VoIP is Dead, Long Live VoIP." Jeff Pulver

(see: http://pulverblog.pulver.com/archives/008753.html )

Posted by Dal at 04:50 PM | | TrackBacks (0) Posted to VoIP News

January 02, 2009

VoIP is NOT Dead!

Today is January 2, 2009 and I find it real interesting some of my friends have declared 2008 as the year that VoIP died.

On the eve of 2009 the promise of VoIP is alive and well and living in the hearts of many people who believe in the future of innovation in communications. Ask many of my friends including: Vint Cert, Henry Sinnreich, Joe Rinde or Daniel Berninger and they would agree with me that one day the vision and the promise of end-to-end IP based communications WILL happen. The Internet communications revolution is STILL happening. In fact, we are living in an Internet Communications Continuum.
According to Wikipedia, Continuum Theory can be defined as: "anything that goes through a gradual transition from one condition, to a different condition, without any abrupt changes or "discontinuities."

And when I refer to the Internet Communications Continuum, I am referring to how I envision the continued evolution of the IP Communications Industry. In my case, this continuum represents all forms of IP Communications, including: VoIP, Instant Messaging, Presence, IP Signaling, Internet TV, Unified Communications, Social Media and more.

We are also living in an industrial revolution unlike anything our parents or grandparents ever experienced. Since 1993 the advent of the Internet has continued to challenge the status quo, directly and indirectly and has brought out great change in many parts of our lives. The fear, greed and disruption that the birth of the VoIP industry had on the traditional telecom industry is directly connected to this.

Back in 1996, because of the accounting rates regime in place at the FCC, consumers paid a high price just to place international phone call from the United States to the rest of the world. (Dollars, not pennies). Just a few years later all of this changed because of the threat of VoIP, back in the days of dialup and before broadband became the norm.

Today, there is accounting rate parity with many countries because of the promise of VoIP as an alternative communication channel. And while many people are crying that there are very thin profits these days in their revenues, I don't hear many if any consumers complaining that it costs very little to place a call to just about anywhere in the world from the United States these days.

At the first VON conference which took place April 1-3, 1997 at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco, it was a gathering of people from the worlds of: Computers, Data Networking and Telecom, as well as people from the investment community and people with dreams of what could be possible when all someone needed was some software to launch a communication service. All these years later, while we have accomplished a lot, I believe the best is yet to come.

I wonder how many of the people who actually believe VoIP is dead were involved in the VoIP industry at the time I introduced the concept of "Purple Minutes" back at Spring 2002 VON. I warned people as best as I could that we should use IP based communication platforms to do more than simply replace or substitute existing telecom infrastructure. To the extent that many of the people who were responsible for empowering the communication revolution eventually gave up on changing the world and ended up becoming part of the establishment rather than disrupting it, well maybe for them "VoIP is Dead" but then again, for these people VoIP died a long time ago.

When I look to the future, I believe we are just on the edge of the time when the true promise of VoIP will be realized. In order for these dreams to be realized, it will require a new group of people who believe in challenging the status quo, to stand up and be counted on.

While I am looking for others to join the NEW revolution, I am ready and prepared to do what it takes to continue to push for the promise of what IP Communications can offer.

So while some of my friends may declare that VoIP is Dead, I don't.

"VoIP is Dead, Long Live VoIP." Jeff Pulver

Thoughts / Comments - please join the conversation over at: http://pulverblog.pulver.com/archives/008747.html

Posted by Dal at 09:04 AM | | TrackBacks (0) Posted to VoIP News

Search



Recent Posts

Tech Topics

Archives

Subscribe to this blog's feed
[What is this?]
Powered by: Dal