IP Communications

Ifbyphone Launches iPhone Conferencing App

October 30, 2008

Ifbyphone today announced a new conference call application for Apple's iPhone.

Available immediately on the iTunes App Store, the Conference Call App enables users to set up ad hoc conference calls from their iPhones or iPod touch devices, or to arrange conference calls in advance.

It's as easy as choosing a group of recipients the contacts in the iPhone address book and tapping on "schedule conference." This is the second Ifbyphone application available on the iTunes App Store following up on Ifbyphone's popular Voice Broadcast app. The Conference Call App is free to download, and includes 100 free minutes of conference calling per month, with an option to upgrade for additional minutes.

Posted in Enterprise, IP Communications, Mobility, Video, VoIP

Logitech Dials Up SightSpeed

October 29, 2008

Logitech International has announced that it will acquire SightSpeed Inc. for approximately $30 million in cash. SightSpeed offers consumers and businesses high-quality, SIP-based Internet video communications services, including video conferencing, video chat, video voicemail, collaboration tools, and more. According to the announcement: The acquisition of SightSpeed will provide Logitech with video calling technology and a software and services development team that can be focused on future video calling initiatives that can enable cross-platform video communications with an intuitive, lifelike experience, for people sitting in front of a personal computer or with their family in a living room. I've used the service before and I must admit the quality was very good in my experience. The software got a recent boost by being featured on CBS' morning news program. Congratulations to Peter Csathy and the rest of the SightSpeed team. The acquisition is expected to close in early November.

Posted in Enterprise, IP Communications, Unified Communications, Video, VoIP

Rich Does Wall Street; Nortel Does Hospitality

October 28, 2008

Rich is down at the NY Stock Exchange this morning attending an event sponsored by Nortel and featuring Nortel executives Araldo Menegon, VP Northeast Region, and Joel Hackney, President of Nortel's Enterprise group, as well as a keynote by Don Tapscott, author and enterprise 2.0 strategist. In his blog, Rich mentions some Nortel news that was released this morning: One item was an announcement that Nortel's Unified Communications solution was deployed at Miraval Resort and Spa in Tucson turning it into an "all-IP resort." Nortel apparently hit the hospitality market hard today, announcing hotel/spa deployments in Dubai, Vancouver, and Las Vegas as well.

Posted in Business, Enterprise, IP Communications, Unified Communications, VoIP

Truphone for Blackberry Now in Beta

October 28, 2008

Blackberry users rejoice! Truphone today announced the launch of a beta of Truphone Anywhere, for BlackBerry. Earlier this year the application was made available for iPhone users. According to the announcement: Truphone works with the user to save them money. Instead of requiring the user to remember what to do, Truphone Anywhere simply asks whether he/she wants to make a Truphone call whenever an international number is dialed. The user simply accepts, and Truphone connects the call. Users can download the application for free from www.truphone.com/blackberry and Handango users can download Truphone from www.handango.com.

Posted in Enterprise, IP Communications, Mobility, Technology, VoIP

Tom Reviews Aastra Phones

October 17, 2008

Tom offers an in-depth review of Aastra's new 57-series phones -- the 57i and 57i CT. As usual the denizen of TMC Labs gives his thorough overview. Now, how do I get one of these on my desk?

Posted in IP Communications, VoIP

Continued Growth for Residential VoIP

October 15, 2008

According to a new report out from Pike and Fischer, residential VoIP is set to enjoy continued growth through the end of the decade. The data suggest that approximately 8.5 million U.S. households will start using VoIP for their home phone service by 2010, which would bring the total number of VoIP connected households to about 30 million. The Pike and Fischer report estimates this would translate to over $11 billion in revenue for VoIP providers. According to the announcement hailing the new report: Although top telephone companies such as Verizon and AT&T will see their overall residential lines continue to decline, they will see their VoIP customers increase steadily as they attract more customers to their fiber-optic service packages (Verizon's FiOS and AT&T's U-verse), according to the analysis.

Posted in IP Communications, VoIP

Nokia: Out of UC, In with Touch-Screen Phone

October 3, 2008

So, I received a note from Ovum Research with their take on the fact that Nokia is leaving the enterprise solution business, namely their IntelliSync unified communications play. According to Senior Analyst, Claudio Castelli of Ovum: Mobile unified communications involves high complexity and vendors should concentrate on their strengths instead of trying to provide end-to-end solutions. Nokia will no longer develop software solutions for enterprises. The company has recognized that it is unable to advance into the enterprise market as a standalone mobility solutions provider. Nokia will now concentrate its efforts on developing powerful user interfaces for its devices, which will be supported by its UC partners on their platforms- they include companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Cisco and Alcatel-Lucent.

Posted in Enterprise, IP Communications, Mobility, Unified Communications

Quintum/NET and Microsoft Connect at ITEXPO

September 17, 2008

I just left Microsoft's meeting room at ITEXPO, where executives from Quintum/NET and Microsoft's Response Point team shared the news (and showed off the hardware) that Quintum/NET has developed two new gateways designed specifically for Microsoft Response Point systems: a VoIP T1/E1/PRI version and a four-port FXS. The gateways are designed to work with Response Point systems from all of the solution OEMs (Aastra, Syspine, and D-Link) The gateways have been designed and are currently undergoing beta testing. General availability is expected in mid-October. The pricing is as such: the four-port is listed at $330; the T1/E1/PRI is $1,800.
For more details, check out Michael Dinan's full coverage.

Posted in IP Communications, ITEXPO, VoIP

Communications Developer Keynote: Avaya's Lawrence Byrd

September 16, 2008

Lawrence Byrd, Director of Unified Communications Architecture at Avaya kicked off the keynote schedule of the Communications Developer conference on Tuesday with a presentation entitled Unified Communications in a Web 2.0 World. The gist of the speech was that developers will play a critical role in the future of communications, and in fact the developer community is the engine that runs the IP communications world. Byrd threw about several definitions of "2.0," including one from Tim O'Reilly that defines the Web 2.0 phenomenon as "...networked apps that explicitly leverage network effects." Byrd also used this definition from Harvard Business School's Andrew McAfee, "Enterprise 2.0 is the use of emergent social software platforms within companies and between companies and their partners and customers." In any event the developer community should recognize this as an opportunity; an expanded playground to create ways of connecting these elements to deliver added value for their end customers. "We've spent the last 20 years trying to connect the phone to the Web," said Byrd. "Connect the Web to the store. That is the definition of unified communications, connecting both the old and the new." And as we move ahead we need to be sure that legacy applications and modern cutting edge applications work well together. That is how we add value. It has to work together.

Posted in Enterprise, IP Communications, ITEXPO, Unified Communications, VoIP

Aastra Makes Headlines at ITEXPO

September 16, 2008

Aastra Telecom made several announcements this morning in conjunction with their participation at Internet Telephony Conference and EXPO in Los Angeles. Aastra will be exhibiting in the open source pavilion at ITEXPO on Wednesday and Thursday. First up, Aastra introduced the Aastra MBU 400 DECT Mobility solution, which is designed to slot in between the company's personal mobility solution and their enterprise class SIP DECT solution, which were previously announced. Aastra also announced a Web portal called myAastra.com.
Lastly Aastra announced that they will be releasing a software upgrade to their Asterisk-based solution (AastraLink Pro) in the November time frame.

For more details, please check out this article.

Posted in IP Communications, ITEXPO, VoIP

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