Asterisk VoIP News

eBay’s fight with Skype founders may threaten the Skype IPO

2009-07-03T22:30:57Z

eBAY Inc.’s dispute with the founders of its Skype Internet-phone division threatens to delay a Skype initial public offering (IPO) and lower the amount raised.

Skype, which lets users place calls online, told a London court in April that it may have to suspend the service if it can’t resolve the fight. Skype’s founders, who still own a piece of software used by Skype, have accused eBay of breaching a licensing deal. They’re threatening to yank the technology from Skype, disabling the world’s largest provider of international calls.

]]> eBay sued the founders in London to prevent that from happening. Still, the timing of the case may interfere with plans to spin off Skype as an IPO in 2010. If unresolved, the lawsuit also may cut the price eBay gets in the offering, said Randolf Katz, a lawyer at Baker Hostetler in Costa Mesa, California. He isn’t involved in the case.

“The market hates uncertainty because you can’t price around it,” said Katz, who has advised technology companies on corporate finance and IPOs. “The lawsuit is out there, and it will be factored into the price.”

Chief executive officer John Donahoe devised the IPO plan to unlock more value from Skype. He has pegged the business’ value at least $2 billion, saying he’s already rejected at least one offer for Skype.

John Pluhowski, a spokesman for San Jose, California-based eBay, declined to comment. Joltid Ltd., the company operated by Skype’s founders, also declined to comment.

Skype had asked a judge to accelerate the trial. It lost that bid, meaning the case is likely to go to court in the first three months of 2010, Justice Kim Lewison said, according to court transcripts of the April 3 hearing. eBay wants the IPO to happen in the first half of next year.

If Joltid wins, the effect would be “devastating,” Charles Hollander, Skype’s attorney, told the court. Skype would “exit the market whilst we embark on a lengthy and costly process of developing an alternative form of software code.”

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Microsoft declines to commit to releasing Response Point 2.0 PBX, future uncertain

2009-07-03T21:45:48Z

If you were wondering about the future of Microsoft's Response Point small business VoIP system, you can keep wondering. The system's future has been in doubt for months, and the company declined to clear up the confusion at a meeting with Voice over IP resellers this week.

]]> ChannelWeb first reported on the issue in May, when Microsoft layed off much of the group behind Response Point, and wouldn't commit to future development of a 2.0 release.

This week, ChannelWeb reports that Response Point Program Manager John Frederickson told a town hall meeting with VoIP resellers that the company doesn't currently plan to release future versions of Response Point but will continue to maintain the product and evaluate specific feature requests.

Hard to know exactly what that means, but if I were looking for a VoIP PBX for my small business, I'd be looking for a little more reassurance about Response Point's future. Otherwise, I'd keep looking elsewhere.

According to ChannelWeb, Response Point is "a full-fledged IP PBX system designed for organizations with up to 50 employees." It boasts an "affordable price tag and robust feature set, which includes SIP trunking and click-to-call functionality via Outlook."

See Microsoft's Response Point site.

Source: Bmighyl

New Free Phone System / PBX RFP (Request for Proposal) Book Offer for IT Managers & Coordinators

2009-07-01T22:10:31Z

Editor's Note: I want to bring attention to a free book offer "Creating RFP's for IP Telephony Systems" that is being presented by VoiceIP Solutions. The book covers the process that goes into creating a RFP when getting bids for a new phone system / PBX. This is ideal for the IT Manager or Telecommunication System Director that has been tasked with getting competitive bids from various vendors. If you use this book and it does come in handy for your PBX project, please send me a note and let me know. Enjoy.

Here is what Amazon.com states the book covers:

· What are RFPs and RFQs
· Why use and RFP for IP Telephony Systems
· What are the Key RFP Objectives and Processes
· How to Identify Company Communication Requirements
· Who is involved in the Creation of an RFP
· The Typical Steps in Creating an RFP Document
· How to Issue and Manage RFPs
· Evaluating RFP Responses
· RFP Communication between Issuer and Responder
· Outline Template for a typical RFP

Goto the following link and fill out the information form and a book will be send out within 7-10 business days (While supplies last):

VoIP & IP PBX RFPs Book Offer - VoiceIP Solutions

Digium releases TCE400B Voice Compression Card for Asterisk PBX

2009-07-01T21:35:36Z

Digium, Inc., today released the TCE400B PCI Express card for use with voice applications based on the open source Asterisk telephony platform. The new card provides hardware-based voice compression and decompression (codec) capabilities to shift transcoding from software to hardware. Using the TCE400B in place of a software-only solution places fewer demands on servers and frees up Asterisk to more efficiently process calls and to provide functionality for phone systems such as call recording, conference calling and interactive voice response (IVR).

]]> Asterisk is the most widely used open source telephony engine and tool kit. By offering flexibility to access and alter the software code, Asterisk empowers developers and systems integrators to create Voice over IP (VoIP) communication solutions that match the specific needs of a business. Many businesses use Asterisk as a PBX to manage phone calls, but it’s also commonly used as a gateway between IP and PSTN networks, a telephony feature server and as the basis for call center applications.

In addition to its support for G.729a transcoding, the TCE400B gives Asterisk the ability to convert G.723.1 compressed audio into other formats, a capability not otherwise possible with Asterisk or software-only solutions. The card’s capabilities allow transcoding between simple, G.711 u-law and a-law, and complex, G.729a 8.0 kbit/s and G.723.1 5.3/6.3 kbit/s, codecs. When running in G.729a mode, the TCE400B can support 120 simultaneous transformations; in a mixed G.729a and G.723.1 mode, it supports 92 simultaneous transformations.

“The TCE400B will be of interest to companies using Asterisk to build feature servers, gateways or custom systems and wanting to conserve CPU cycles,” said Bill Miller, Digium’s vice president of product management. “The card’s ability to work with compressed audio in multiple formats also supports its use in complex telephony environments. Overall, the TCE400B will help bring Asterisk into more enterprise telephony environments.”

For more information about TCE400B PCI Express card, visit http://www.digium.com. It is available immediately through Digium’s network of partners worldwide for U.S. $1,295.00 USD.

Documentation Link

Source: Business Wire

Comcast to offer 4G wireless broadband service

2009-07-01T21:16:23Z

The largest cable operator in the U.S. will launch the new service in Portland, Ore. And it will expand the service to other Comcast cities later in the year, including Atlanta, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Comcast invested in the new Clearwire in 2008, along with Google, Intel, Time Warner Cable, and Sprint Nextel, which gave Clearwire its 2.5GHz spectrum.

]]> Clearwire's plan has been to roll out its service nationwide. The service is now up and running in a few cities, including Atlanta, Baltimore, and Portland, Ore. And the company has plans to roll it out to 80 markets by the end of the year.

Some of the cities where it plans to launch the service include, Las Vegas, Chicago, Charlotte, N.C., Dallas/Ft. Worth, Honolulu, Philadelphia, and Seattle. And it plans to launch the network in cities such as New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Houston, and the San Francisco Bay Area, in 2010.

Clearwire is using a technology called WiMax, which offers faster speeds than current 3G wireless technologies, but offers wider coverage than other high-speed wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi. Clearwire claims that it can provide up to 4Mbps for downloads and 500 kbps for uploading, which is more than double what consumers can expect using a 3G wireless connection.

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Media5 SIP Softphone App Turns iPhone into IP-PBX Extension

2009-06-19T20:53:06Z

Media5 has released a SIP client application that allows the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch to be used as a IP-PBX extension. The company says the full-featured softphone enables the Apple devices to be used to access the same phone services and features as if they were in the office.

]]> That includes remote workers being able to contact other offices or employees.

Pascal Doré, Media5's mobility product line manager, said the new release of the Media5-Fone extends its mobile portfolio to iPhone users on the go. "It offers them the key features needed to integrate an easy-to-use SIP IP-PBX extension within the iPhone," she said.

Doré said in addition to the Lite version, Media5's engineers are working to bring the next fully featured Enterprise version of the Media5-Fone. She said that will embed strong Voice security encryption among the key features.

VoIP service providers who offer calling plan can also benefit from the same SIP connectivity extension for their customers who own an iPhone.

Enterprise users can also leverage the cost-saving benefits of VoIP by enabling their users with high quality phone calls wherever there is a broadband connection.

Media5-Fone is now available in the Apple App Store.

Other features of the Media5-Fone include:

Voice Mail Integration
Loudspeaker
VoIP over Wi-Fi
Native Contacts List
Hold
Easy Configuration
Call History
Mute

Source: VoIP Biz

Three indicted for hacking 2,500 company phone systems (PBX)

2009-06-16T19:46:27Z

The acting U.S. attorney in New Jersey unsealed indictments Friday for three people in the Philippines charged with hacking the private branch exchanges (PBX) of more than 2,500 companies for stealing pass codes they sold to call center operators in Italy.

Italian officials allege the sale of the pass codes helped finance terrorist activities, IDG News Service reported. On Friday, Italian officials arrested at least five people in raids on 10 call centers.

]]> The three indicted in the U.S. are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, unauthorized access to computers and other charges, according to U.S. attorney Ralph J. Marra, Jr.

"The hackers we've charged enabled their conspirators in Italy and elsewhere to steal large amounts of telecommunications capacity, which could then be used to further or finance just about any sort of nefarious activity here or overseas," Marra said.

Pakistani nationals in Italy used the stolen codes to offer cheap calls to their clients on the PBXs of commercial companies in the United States, Australia and Europe.

Some of the profits from the scam were used to finance the activities of Islamist extremists in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Italian officials said, according to the IDG News report.

Marra said the hackers dialed into the PBXs and used a process known as a brute force attack to hit vulnerable points of the PBX systems.

Source: IDG News Service

Asterisk PBX 1.6.2.0-beta3 Now Available

2009-06-16T19:14:29Z

The Asterisk Development Team is pleased to announce the third beta of Asterisk 1.6.2.0. Asterisk-1.6.2.0-beta3 is available for immediate download at
http://downloads.digium.com/pub/asterisk/

This is an incremental release of the 1.6.2.0 branch as the previous beta was released just over a month ago, and many issues have been resolved since then. Included in this release are the following issues reported by the community:

* Update spiral support in trunk and 1.6.x branches to match what is in 1.4
   (related to issue #13630).

* Fix RFC2833 issues with DTMF getting duplicated and with duration wrapping
   over (issue #14815).

* Fix a bug where the codecs of the called party leg were not properly sent
   back to the call leg when reinvited (issue #13569).

* Fix broken attended transfers (issue #15183).

* Add flags to chanspy audiohook so that audio stays in sync (issue #13745).

* Resolve issues with choppy sound when using res_timing_pthread
   (issue #14412)

Additionally, an update to chan_iax2 related to issue AST-2009-001 is included
in this beta release. For more information, see:

http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/security/AST-2009-001.html

For a full list of changes in this beta, please see the ChangeLog:

http://svn.digium.com/svn/asterisk/tags/1.6.2.0-beta3/ChangeLog

You can get more information about the new features and various changes in
Asterisk 1.6.2.0 at:

http://svn.digium.com/svn/asterisk/tags/1.6.2.0-beta3/CHANGES

And if you're upgrading from previous versions of Asterisk see this file:

http://svn.digium.com/svn/asterisk/tags/1.6.2.0-beta3/UPGRADE.txt

Issues discovered in testing of this beta can be reported at
http://issues.asterisk.org

Thank you for your continued support of Asterisk!

Digium and AMTELCO Announce Interoperability Partnership for E&M Interfacing Asterisk to Wireless Applications

2009-06-08T20:23:04Z

Digium, Inc., the Asterisk Company, and AMTELCO, an innovator in call center communications systems and externally defined switching (XDS) boards, today announced an interoperability partnership that gives Asterisk developers new choices for E&M line and wireless interface solutions. Digium has certified the AMTELCO XDS 8-port E&M board for use with Asterisk telephony software.

]]> Digium is the creator, sponsor and driving force behind Asterisk, the most widely used open source telephony software. The company’s product lines include a wide range of hardware and software to enable businesses to implement turnkey solutions or to design their own VoIP systems.

Digium provides the award-winning Switchvox family of turnkey IP PBXs for small and medium enterprises. In addition, for custom implementations, Digium offers both commercially licensed and open source versions of Asterisk as premier development frameworks for application builders looking to leverage the power of Asterisk to create custom telephony solutions.

Since its inception in 1976, AMTELCO has been a leader in call center and computer telephony innovations. These innovations led to the XDS CTI Boards Division in 1980. AMTELCO has provided XDS E&M interface solutions for connection to special PBXs, radio dispatch and wireless communication devices in the police, military, aircraft, call center and healthcare markets. By providing reliable, easy-to-implement solutions, AMTELCO’s global XDS customer base continues to grow.

Jim Becker, AMTELCO vice president and director of the XDS division, stated, “This new partnership between AMTELCO and Digium provides developers with new opportunities when interfacing to radio interface devices, as well as more modern wireless dispatch platforms.”

“This new partnership provides market expansion opportunities for Asterisk developers in new and emerging wireless applications,” said Bill Miller, vice president of product management at Digium. “We welcome AMTELCO to the Digium ecosystem.”

Source: BusinessWire

Asterisk PBX 1.2.33, Asterisk 1.4.25.1, Asterisk 1.6.0.10, and Asterisk 1.6.1.1 Released

2009-06-05T23:45:25Z

VoIP Inc. hit with involuntary bankruptcy petition

2009-06-05T18:51:06Z

Three creditors are attempting to push a defunct Fort Lauderdale company into bankruptcy court. An involuntary petition was filed June 2 against VoIP Inc., a voice over Internet provider, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Southern Florida.

The company had already said in 2008 that it eliminated most of its workforce and suspended all telecommunications operations. It is also facing a lawsuit, filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission in U.S. District Court in Miami, alleging former executives misled investors about the financial health of the company.

]]> Now, some creditors are appealing to a bankruptcy judge to help them recover judgments against VoIP. The petitioning creditors are Noctua Fund LP of Carlsbad, Calif., with a claim of $245,559; Garyn Angel, with a claim of $391,000; and Carrie Angel, with a claim of $152,172, according to the petition.

“The filing of the involuntary [bankruptcy] is not directly related to the SEC action, although I’m sure they will eventually overlap,” said bankruptcy attorney Craig Pugatch, of Rice Pugatch Robinson & Schiller, who represents Noctua Fund, but said he does not represent the Angels. “A group of creditors have been attempting to collect assets. They believe assets are available.”

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Linksys Dual-Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router WRT320N

2009-05-28T00:13:41Z

Priced at $110 (as of April 20, 2009), the Linksys Dual-Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router WRT320N is the sole router in this review that can operate on either the 2.4GHz or the 5GHz Wi-Fi band. Though we didn't test the WRT320N's 5GHz performance, the router exhibited very good throughput overall on the 2.4GHz band, at both short and long range.

]]> If you're surrounded by neighboring Wi-Fi networks, and if all of your devices can operate over 5GHz (most newer laptops with built-in 802.11n adapters support both bands), switching to 5GHz could be the answer to your interference problems. Be forewarned, though: 5GHz 802.11n does not have quite as good range as the 2.4GHz band.

The WRT320N has a sleek spaceship-style design and very good features. It also has an excellent software utility called LELA that goes beyond standard setup tasks to include features like network maps and device information, making it useful for ongoing network monitoring.

Click Here to Read More

TRENDnet Releases New Cutting Edge N-Wireless IP Video Camera

2009-05-22T23:21:42Z

TrendNet announces today, from Interop Las Vegas, the availability of the first to market Wireless-N Internet Camera Server with 2-Way Audio, model TV-IP512WN, offering unsurpassed wireless range and video bandwidth. This is the first Internet security camera with integrated 300Mbps wireless n technology to produce unmatched wireless surveillance capabilities.

]]> The Wireless N Internet Camera Server with 2-Way Audio transmits real-time high quality streaming video over the Internet. Users can view and manage the camera from any Internet connection. 300Mbps wireless n technology provides up to four times the coverage and vastly improved bandwidth to wirelessly stream Internet security video. Manage up to 32 TRENDnet cameras with the included complimentary IP View Pro 2.0 camera management software.

The camera offers advanced features such as multiple variable-shape motion detection recording windows, event driven email alerts, scheduled recording sessions, MPEG-4 and MJPEG image compression and advanced hard drive storage allocation tools. Add this camera to your wireless network at the touch of a button with Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) support. 2-way audio allows users to hear and talk to people in the camera's viewing field. Input/Output ports can be hard wired to third party alarm systems.

The camera comes with a removable CS lens and features 16x digital zoom. A built-in SD card slot allows users to store images directly to a memory card. The off-white camera housing blends into most environments and includes a wall/ceiling mounting kit for easy installation. "The Wireless N Internet Camera Server (TV-IP512WN) redefines the design parameters and product capabilities of wireless IP cameras," stated Zak Wood, Director of Global Marketing for TrendNet. "It offers greater installation flexibility, enterprise class product features, far superior wireless bandwidth and the convenience of one-touch wireless network connection to WPS."

The Wireless N Internet Camera Server with 2-Way Audio, model TV-IP512WN, will be available from all Online and retail partners within a few working days. The MSRP for the Wireless N Internet Camera Server with 2-Way Audio is US $249.99.

Source: TrendNet

Digium Launches Switchvox Developer Central

2009-05-19T19:26:36Z

Digium, the Asterisk Company, today unveiled Switchvox Developer Central, an online community for developers who are integrating voice and web applications using the Switchvox unified communications solution. Switchvox is Digium’s family of voice over IP (VoIP) phone systems for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). Switchvox systems, which are based on the open source Asterisk telephony platform, are cost-effective, easy to use and full of features that are typically found only in expensive PBXs.

]]> Available since April, Switchvox SMB 4.0 includes the new Switchvox Extend API. This new toolset lets developers integrate Switchvox with their business applications using an XML API, IVR management tools and event notifications. Utilities such as Fire Dialer, the click-to-call extension for Firefox, or the Switchvox Outlook Plugin are examples of the applications that can be created using the Switchvox Extend API. The newly released API is currently in beta.

Switchvox Developer Central is a website for developers to connect with one another to share ideas and solve problems. It includes a wiki containing all documentation for the Switchvox Extend API, a forum for ongoing discussion, a blog for the Digium engineering team to post news to the community, and tools to simplify development and testing. Digium’s new developer crossroads, http://developers.digium.com, lets users choose their development platform or path—Asterisk.org if they want to contribute directly to the open source software or Switchvox Developer Central if they want to integrate with Switchvox using the Switchvox Extend API.

“The Extend API was one of the most important new capabilities released in Switchvox SMB 4.0 and we want to provide documentation for it in a living format,” said Joshua Stephens, general manager of Digium’s San Diego operations, where Switchvox is developed. “An administrator or reseller of a Switchvox system can integrate their phone system with a custom web application that’s completely tailored to their business or an employee’s job function.

If they have the skills to create the web application, integrating with Switchvox will be easy because they can use whatever programming language they’re comfortable with, so there’s virtually no learning curve or specialized knowledge required. If they’ve worked with any web-based API before, this is going to look really familiar, so they should be able to ramp up quickly.”

Source: Schwartz Communications & Digium Inc.

Asterisk open source PBX project servers have new names & URLs

2009-05-15T18:51:42Z

In order to more closely align the services that Digium provides to the Asterisk open source community with the Asterisk project itself, we've recently renamed many of the servers that provide these services.

Effective immediately:

1) http://bugs.digium.com has moved to https://issues.asterisk.org

There are no content or functional changes (except for the new site being SSL/TLS enabled), only a renaming of the site. The old URLs will continue to operate indefinitely, automatically redirecting the user to the new site.

2) http://reviewboard.digium.com has moved to https://reviewboard.asterisk.org

There are no content or functional changes (except for the new site being SSL/TLS enabled), only a renaming of the site. The old URLs will continue to operate indefinitely, automatically redirecting the user to
the new site.

3) http://svn.digium.com has moved to http://svn.asterisk.org

There are no content or functional changes, and the old URLs will continue to operate indefinitely, *without* redirects, as Subversion does not handle redirects in a transparent fashion and we don't want to break users' existing checkouts.

4) http://downloads.digium.com has partially moved to http://downloads.asterisk.org

The open source Asterisk project content has moved to the new site, which contains *only* open source content. The Digium commercial products present on downloads.digium.com will continue to be hosted
there. URLs to open source content that used to be present on downloads.digium.com will automatically redirect to downloads.asterisk.org.

Hopefully these changes have been made in as transparent a fashion as possible, and you won't experience any problems. If you do, please don't hesitate to post on the asterisk-users mailing list and we'll try to get the problem addressed as quickly as possible.

Thanks for using Asterisk!