Recently in VoIP Category

Skype seems to have dominated the VoIP news and blogosphere today, with their announcement of a new $29.95 annual, "all you can eat" calling plan today. What makes it even sweeter is they are offering a 50% discount to those that sign up before Jan 31, 2007, and throwing in a gaggle of extra bonuses. Check out Tom Keating's lowdow and assessment of the goodies, here.

Unlike Tom, I think this whole move is positive and a sweet deal to boot, and although it may open the door a bit wider for competitors like Jajah and Raketu who are sticking to totally free calling plans, I'm not sure this is going to make the doors swing open that much more for them.

My colleague and blogger buddy Jon Arnold has also written up a great analysis of the announcement, and I agree with everything he has to say on the matter, so I defer to his own words.
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The folks at blog VoIP Lowdown have come up with a great list of ten leading-edge VoIP, VoIM, IP and mobile applications we should all be keeping our eyes on -- apps that go WAY BEYOND plain vanilla VoIP calls. The writer -- the mysterious "ewriter" -- is definitely a person after my own heart.

The numbers are in for the first three quarters of 2006: According to Dow Jones VentureOne and Ernst and Young, venture capital firms have invested $455.5 million in 79 deals involving Web 2.0 companies -- more than double the deal flow of the same period in 2005.

The amount represents 28% of the $1.6 billion VCs have plowed into consumer technology firms, and the interest is no doubt due to froth created by the recent Google/YouTube and News Corp./MySpace deals and the hope to get a front row seat for the next great buyout or IPO.

Are we in tech bubble territory? A number of firms feel that too much money is chasing too few good deals, and that there is a sort of "lemming effect" in operation.

However, many still believe that there are still opportunities in the market, and I for one believe that one area that can help an up-and-coming Web 2.0 company distinguish itself in this increasingly crowded space is to integrate VoIP, Video and other IP communications capabilities within their social networking framework. The technology has the capability to act as superglue for an online community -- providing a foundation for incredibly rich collaboration and other applications.

I've written a bit about this juicy opportunity before, most recently in my Internet Telephony magazine Mind Share 2.0 column, VoIP Mash-Ups in a Web 2.0 World.

I'm sure there are a bunch of great examples of IP Comm/Web 2.0 combinations out there -- and I'm all ears if you know of any -- and if so, please feel free to comment! Continue Reading...

Locking down an enterprise network to protect VoIP communications is becoming an increasingly vital endeavor -- and a task that can be a bit daunting.

To help clarify the specific security-related tasks that should be performed, the blog site VoIP Lowdown has compiled a pretty decent list of tips. Definitely worth checking out.

BroadSoft held a grand opening ceremony for its new European Operations Center in Belfast earlier this week, and U.S. Consul General for Northern Ireland Howard Dean Pittman cut the ribbon to officially open the center. At the same time, BroadSoft announced that Irish broadband provider Digiweb was signed on as a new customer of its VoIP application software.

Digiweb plans to offer BroadWorks-enabled VoIP services to broadband and WiMax subscribers in Ireland.

Hosted IP-PBX service provider M5 Networks just announced it has signed up it's 500th SMB customer -- Dale & Thomas Popcorn, the famous, Oprah-salivating, New Jersey-based popcorn maker. With this milestone, M5 marks a 25 percent increase in its customer base over the course of this year.

In the midst of explosive growth with plans to open more than 200 retail locations nationwide, Dale & Thomas has tapped M5's outsourced IP phone system after suffering persistent downtime with a previous hosted IP phone system from SBC (now AT&T). The M5 implementatation was achieved with IT consultant partner Network Doctor.

Tomorrow, November 28, I'm honored to be the opening presenter at the 4th Annual Industry Conference on Broadband Communications and VoIP, hosted by the New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA). The event is a half-day investor conference attended by institutional investors and analysts, and features companies that want to get more exposure on Wall Street, and includes CTI Group, mPhase, and VoIP Inc.

The New York Society of Securities Analysts (NYSSA) is the premier membership organization on Wall Street for portfolio managers and security analysts, and the largest society of its kind in the world. Founded in 1937, it is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to educating investors and advancing the competence of investment professionals. Founders included Benjamin Graham, considered to be the father of security analysis.
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According to a new 2007 Industry Review study from Boonton, New Jersey-based Insight Research Corp., the worldwide telecom industry is in a strong growth mode, and overall industry revenue is expected to climbs to $1.3 Trillion in 2007.

According to the study, strong growth in wireless is leading the way as wireless service revenues are expected to grow at a compounded rate of nearly 10 percent over the next few years, while wireline service revenues grow much more modestly at two percent. Nearly all of the growth in both sectors is expected to occur in broadband services, with wireless broadband service revenues expected to grow at a compounded rate of more than 60 percent over the forecast period, while wireline services grow at 10 percent over the same forecast horizon.

“The 2007 Industry Review states that in the growth environment set off by the rush to meet subscriber demand for broadband services, service providers are trying to create viable business models on the fly in order to deliver new types of IP-based services, including Residential Video Telephony, Fixed Mobile Convergence, File Sharing/Downloading Services, Audio/Video Streaming Services, Location-Based Services, and Presence-Based Services.

The study highlights rapidly growing industry segments such as VoIP, WiFi and WiMax, fixed-mobile convergence, IMS, IPTV and streaming media, as well as technological innovations such as grid computing and DWDM and WDM in fiber optics. Continue Reading...

In the lastest mash-up of VoIP and a Web 2.0 application, Google's Click-to-Call feature is now available as a free enhancement to Google Maps. Here's how it works: After you find the specific selection you're looking for on a map, you can click on it and a small "click" link will appear. When you click on this link, you'll launch a small box to enter your phone number into. Then Google will call your number and connect you to the number of the map selection.

FYI, Google is using VoIP, Inc. to partner with in providing this service.

Rich Tehrani sent me this photo a while ago while he was traveling and meeting with TMC prospects and customers, and I thought it was worth sharing.

It's nice to see that people are still reading the ole' analog stuff, despite the surroundings  -- As a monthly contributor to Internet Telephony magazine, I sometimes wonder how many people actually read the stuff I write.

P.S. If you can't read the small print in the photo, click here to read the column, "The Voice Enabled Web Gets Its Groove On",  online...