Posted by Dal at 02:06 PM | Direct Link | TrackBacks (0) Posted to Asterisk Releases

After years of stealing telecom service share from traditional providers, Skype is looking to cozy up with carriers. The company recently broke free of legal entanglements between its former parent, eBay, and its founders. Its chief operating officer resigned, heading to the U.S. to "pursue career interests within the global Fortune 500 technology, telecommunications and media industry."

And under its new owners (an investor group that includes Silver Lake Partners and Andreessen Horowitz), it is focusing in the near term on carrier partners. Its CEO, Josh Silverman, has hinted at possible deals in the works with Chinese mobile operators in particular but is more explicit about the timing.

"You should expect to see [more carrier deals] in 2010," Silverman told Dow Jones Newswires. "The attitude of carriers has shifted a lot in 18 months, and we think that is a trend that is going to continue."

Not only have carrier attitudes shifted a lot — toward third-party voice services on their networks — the entire landscape has as well. Skype competitors come in all shapes and sizes now, from little-known mashups and features on existing services to the big kahuna, Google, whose acquisition of VoIP start-up Gizmo5 this month seems aimed at taking advantage of Skype's long-lived corporate distractions.

Source: Telephony Online

Posted by Dal at 11:50 AM | Direct Link | TrackBacks (0) Posted to Skype

Polycom and BT have announced a worldwide three-year agreement designed to accelerate the growth of audio and video conferencing within the corporate and public sector industries. Under this global agreement, the companies will combine Polycom's voice, video and telepresence products with BT's managed services and global MPLS network.

Posted by Dal at 11:45 AM | Direct Link | TrackBacks (0) Posted to Polycom

Maine's attorney general says the state will be receiving $45,000 as part of a $3 million multistate settlement with Vonage Holdings Corp., an Internet-based telephone company. Janet Mills said Monday that Maine and 31 other states had reached a settlement that calls for Vonage to make changes in how it markets its service and how it handles consumer cancellation and refund requests.

She said many consumers had trouble canceling their Vonage service because of incentives the company paid employees for retaining customers. Under the settlement, Vonage must revise what it discloses regarding offers of "free" services, money back guarantees and trial periods. Vonage said there was no finding of any wrongdoing by the company.

Source: AP

Posted by Dal at 02:52 PM | Direct Link | TrackBacks (0) Posted to Vonage

Along with Sprint and its cable partners, Clearwire, founded by wireless pioneer Craig McCaw, is competing with the dominant U.S. mobile providers Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc (T.N) in the race to sign up consumers to lucrative services such as mobile Web surfing.

Sprint the No. 3 U.S. mobile service and Clearwire's 51 percent owner has been struggling to stem customers losses from its own network, but it is banking on Clearwire's network for its next generation of wireless data offerings.

Cable operators Comcast Corp and Time Warner Cable will invest $196 million and $103 million respectively. These companies rent space on Clearwire's network to offer high-speed wireless services. Chip maker Intel Corp's contribution to Clearwire will be $50 million.

Soleil/Nelson Alpha Research analyst Michael Nelson said the funding was good news for Clearwire but noted that it was less than half of a total $3.4 billion in funding that he estimates the company will need by 2013.

Nelson said in a research note that he has "significant concerns regarding Clearwire's business model and cash burn in the face of a weak macro environment."

Clearwire said it would get about $1.057 billion in cash from equity financing within five business days and $440 million by year-end, with the remaining $66 million to be funded during the first quarter of 2010.

Clearwire also said it would launch an offer of a minimum of $1.45 billion in senior secured notes and to use net proceeds to pay off its existing $1.40 billion credit facility.

In the latest funding round, Craig McCaw's investment firm Eagle River Holdings will also give Clearwire $20 million in new funding and Bright House Networks will contribute $19 million. All the participants will get newly issued shares priced at $7.33 per share in exchange for their investments.

Click Here to Continue Reading

Posted by Dal at 02:45 PM | Direct Link | TrackBacks (0) Posted to WiMax