Last month I discussed a rumor regarding 8x8/Packet8 providing SIP trunking services. It turns out this rumor was true as today the company released the news they will not only provide SIP trunking but a more comprehensive product they call... continue reading...
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You can't escape the reality that interconnectivity between humans will increase at a more rapid pace as time goes on. The myriad ways in which we connect with one another, e-mail, social networks, blogging, IM, SMS, telephone, voicemail and others... continue reading...
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Expect Sipera, the Texas-based company focusing on VoIP/UC security to look for resellers to sell their products worldwide. Brenadan Ziolo, the company's VP of Marketing Operations visited TMC this week to brief us on where the company is going with... continue reading...
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If you haven't noticed, there will be more and more touch-enabled devices in your future. The craze seemed to get the biggest boost from the popularity of the iPhone interface which spawned a number of similar interfaces from competing phone... continue reading...
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Let's say your company plays in a few different spaces such as information technology, security and storage. And let's say your company has decided to build a community of interest which is dedicated to a specific subject area as you... continue reading...
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Recently, AudioCodes released the Mediant 1000 MSBG (Multi-Service Business Gateway) a device which combines the following: media gateway, enterprise class session border controller, data router, firewall, LAN Switch, WAN access, Stand Alone Survivability and an on-board general purpose server. This... continue reading...
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Rob Adler has an interesting take on the T-Mobile/Starbucks WiFi lawsuit at his Vantage blog. His point? That the PR hit of winning a lawsuit which takes away WiFi from millions of users will be extreme. I can't help but... continue reading...
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Yes this is a short post but what more is there to say beyond the fact that 87% of respondents in a UK survey said they would deploy unified communications. The UK is turning out to be a great market... continue reading...
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Right now the small business market is the shining star in communications -- plenty of growth is predicted in this space and small businesses for the most part are behind the tech curve -- meaning they need to catch up.... continue reading...
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Greg Galitzine broke the news regarding the new Digium Switchvox AA300, a new appliance dedicated to companies with about 150 users. The box also supports 45 simultaneous calls, 10 recorded and 15 simultaneous conference calls. Tom Keating speculates about... continue reading...
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There is just so much information being spewed out on the internet regarding the unveiling of the iPhone. The latest bit of news has to do with production problems. Check out this article for insights on conflicting rumors and photos... continue reading...
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T-Mobile is already not thrilled AT&T will replace them as the service provider of choice in Starbucks stores, now the GSM-based service provider who was early to embrace WiFi is losing revenue due to the new AT&T/Starbucks promotion of free... continue reading...
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It seems that if you do not blog about the iPhone this weekend you will be out touch with the blogging and news gathering communities. It is just that important. On Monday we will have a new Apple mobile device... continue reading...
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You may hear less from me than usual over the next week as I have a new Laptop -- a Dell M1530, a new desktop from Dell and a new HTC XV6800 (my old one had an unfortunate encounter with... continue reading...
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The HTC Touch Pro may be the ultimate Blackberry killer. I know the term "killer" is used very often but let's look at this situation carefully... People who type a lot benefit from a keyboard. Sure, an on-screen keyboard works... continue reading...
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I have had a few months to use the Plantronics Calisto Pro Series wireless telephone and bluetooth headset and I remain tremendously impressed by this solution which I say is perfect for the small business who wants maximum flexibility... continue reading...
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Will LTE fuel IMS? Bob Emmerson seems to think so and he has a great point. With similar elements defined in WiMAX, LTE and IMS, the chances that carriers will have to install more and more IMS components are good.... continue reading...
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If you are an SMB and you feel you would like to pay less for voice and data service, perhaps now is the time for you to rejoice... Well at least smile. The reason is there is a new flat... continue reading...
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Be sure to visit TMC's newest Global Online Community (GOC), Telephony Hardware sponsored by Pika Technologies. Why would you visit? Simply because regularly visiting a TMC community is an ideal way to learn about a specific topic such as in this... continue reading...
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Later this week I will be a video reporter at the Telx CBX (customer business exchange) event in New York. I always like the CBX events and am looking forward to meeting with the companies in the carrier hotel space... continue reading...
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I am off to Dallas for this event. Maybe I will see you there. Back online soon. -- Rich... continue reading...
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Recently the Bahamas Telecom Company (BTC) decided to migrate its existing countrywide wireline network to IP using Sonus and Calix gear. The move to IP will reduce the amount of equipment that needs managing and in addition, the Bahamian phone... continue reading...
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I came across an interesting article in the New York Times by Randall Stross which discusses consumer VoIP services, the differences in quality between them and the general trend towards multiple services of lower reliability replacing a single service (PSTN)... continue reading...
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I am really looking forward to IP Sizzles 2008 -- formerly VoIP Sizzles 2008. What is it you ask? Well I am glad you did. IP Sizzles is an event put on by ABP which focuses on educating resellers on... continue reading...
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You may recall past writings about how TMCnet has been building communities of interest for customers worldwide in an effort to educate purchasing decision makers about the products and services in different subsets of the communications and technology markets. Our... continue reading...
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Is the world ready to buy their IP PBXs from Costco? We are about to find out as the warehouse club with 537 worldwide stores and over 51 million card holders will be carrying Syspine/Microsft's Response Point, the entry level... continue reading...
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In a way, I must thank VocalTec because it was companies like them that helped me realize how IP would revolutionize communications and further help me decide to launch a magazine dedicated to the market in 1997. VocalTec was one... continue reading...
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In an effort to further educate purchasing decision-makers and influencers in the world of communications and technology, TMC has partnered with Digium to build an Asterisk Global Online Community. The goal of TMCnet's communities (and channels which are micro-communities) is... continue reading...
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If you are interested in analysis on the ClearWire WiMAX deal and other facets of the exciting WiMAX industry, you are in luck as Sidecut Reports has a new report which goes into depth on all parts of the burgeoning... continue reading...
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Wow! Yes -- I know we are supposed to be in a slowdown and all -- but if the news that Sangoma had yet another record quarter is not enough to let you know that there are strong pockets of... continue reading...
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In the category of "Oh no you didn't," comes the comment from a Nokia spokesperson saying people don't use videoconferencing as often as they might because the current angle of camera phones makes them look fat. Pretty funny. See more... continue reading...
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The SIP Forum seems to be making some nice progress in attracting a broad swath of companies to its organization. In case you aren't aware, The SIP Forum is a non-profit IP communications industry association that engages in numerous activities... continue reading...
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It has been a long weekend for many in the US as the weather these past few days was fantastic and based on the level of incoming e-mail I received, it seems many in the tech and telecom industries took... continue reading...
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I just read about a company which allows Flash to SIP and SIP to Flash video calls. This could be useful for situations where SIP is not an option for whatever reason. According to ISC the company behind Flashphone.ru, video... continue reading...
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If you have any doubts about the growth of CRM and the growth of SaaS models, I advise you to consider the fact that Salesforce.com just announced earnings up 52% for the quarter -- year-over-year. Here are some financial stats... continue reading...
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I spent part of my morning on Alex Saunders' Squawk Box -- a gathering place for industry analysts and thought leaders to discuss important technology issues of the day. Topics today included Ariel Waldman's harassment allegations against Twitter. This conversation... continue reading...
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Objectworld's CEO, David Levy Objectworld is a Canadian-based software-only company providing unified communications solutions for small to medium businesses. Their solution includes UM, fax server, IVR, TTS, Exchange & Lotus Notes integration, etc. Objectworld's solutions work with about 90% of... continue reading...
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If you haven't been watching, you may have missed the fact that TMC's Communications Developer event has been gaining some major top level sponsors and I have taken an early look at the registration database and there are a good... continue reading...
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Zed-3 is the company most people have never heard of but it is backed by telecom veteran Iain Milnes who launched Zarak -- the successful testing company later sold to Spirent and Zultys -- the company which made a... continue reading...
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As the wireless industry evolves, the level of complexity has evolved with it allowing companies such as Starent Networks to thrive by delivering technology which enables carriers to deliver rich content multimedia services. We all have cell phones and it... continue reading...
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Without a doubt, the new Netflix Player by Roku set top box will become a serious contender for the title "iPod of the world of television." I haven't seen this device yet but based on what I have read... continue reading...
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Om Malik discusses how Skype is evolving to show video clips. I have detailed at length many of the ideas Skype should embrace to make money and showing videos makes good sense as it leverages the success of other video... continue reading...
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As I mentioned recently, Comcast picked up Plaxo. Just today I received this e-mail to Plaxo users, explaining the company has been acquired and will remain an independent entity, evolving and growing. It is a pretty good letter as it... continue reading...
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Remember when hosted communications was called Centrex? Those were the days. Life was slower back then. We didn't have smart phones -- really we didn't even have mobile phones. Heck, we didn't even have e-mail or voicemail... My, how things... continue reading...
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MindWireless is focused on the wireless expense management space which as you might imagine is an area of growing importance inside telecom expense management. Just think about how complicated it is to manage wireless gadgets as employees have become obsessed... continue reading...
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Congratulations to CNET for being acquired by CBS for a 40% premium. I have always admired the company and I am curious to see how it changes as it becomes part of a larger media company which has so many... continue reading...
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I have heard a rumor regarding 8x8/Packet8 getting into the SIP trunking business. No confirmation yet but this makes great sense as this area of the market is doing well. All trunks will eventually be SIP trunks it seems... Unless... continue reading...
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TMCnet grows daily with thousands of new news items and stories. As the site grows, we are always looking for ways to improve. One of these ways is to develop community pages which focus on a particular subject matter... continue reading...
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One of the areas we have been feverishly working on at TMC is our conference program for ITEXPO,September 16-18, 2008 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. We have truly strengthened this offering with the addition of new TMC University certifications.... continue reading...
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I am back from Canada and the first thing I did when turning on my phone was praise the engineers who came up with the awkward-sounding acronym called EVDO. By the way in my discussions in Canada it seems the... continue reading...
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H.having experienced touch-screen browsing on the iPhone and even via Skyfire, I can tell you browsing without a touchscreen is a painful experience. Of course this applies to mobile devices. RIM knows this and is subsequently rolling out a new... continue reading...
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I am here at Nortel R&D headquarters in Ottawa, Canada where the Nortel incubation team is showing us a bunch of the latest technologies they are working on in the labs. This is the first day the media has... continue reading...
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Perhaps one of the biggest misperceptions among those who dabble in communications is that Asterisk is only used in small business environments. The reality is that Asterisk is being used in service provider environments as well. Of course this doesn't... continue reading...
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I had an amazingly smooth trip up to Canada considering the weather in New York was stormy when I left. It felt like 40 degree weather with 40+ MPH gusts. Somehow we took off and had a flight that wasn't... continue reading...
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Few people know more about UMA than Steve Shaw... He really lives and breathes this market. This is why I am thrilled Steve will be writing for TMCnet with a special focus on unwired mobile access or UMA. Here is... continue reading...
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WiFi is not new and providing WiFi to a city is not new. What is new and worth noodling on is the fact Cablevision will soon have a WiFi network in New York City -- well over the next... continue reading...
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Recently I traveled to San Francisco to PAETEC World, the largest of annual meetings that PAETEC has with its customers. During this cold San Francisco week, over 350 customers and well over 100 PAETEC employees spent a few days in... continue reading...
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Vonage has done a great job this last quarter -- posting growth numbers in a slower economy. I just had a podcast interview with Jeffrey Citron where he talked about the company's growth rate and the number of new initiatives... continue reading...
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Do you have iPhone envy? I do. In fact, just this past Sunday I walked into the AT&T store and I browsed TMCnet on the iPhone and was blown away at how easy it was to surf on this phone... continue reading...
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OK, now I have heard it all. Large, incumbent telephone companies are going to launch a competitor to Skype. But before I proceed with my thoughts, as often the case with such amazing speculation, it is good to air out... continue reading...
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Hosted applications continue to get more press as time goes on. Similar to the e-commerce space, this market saw a slew of new entrants during the bubble times and many of these companies subsequently crashed and burned. Obviously having ASPs... continue reading...
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Companies spend incredible sums of money on their communications and technology infrastructure but all too often they do not focus enough attention on protecting the investment in such equipment. As telepresence, unified communications, handheld devices, mobility and IP communications turbocharge... continue reading...
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If you are having trouble getting e-mail on you mobile device it just could be because there was a scheduled Blackberry outage that ran over by approximately six hours. Engadget has more details and to be honest, I did some... continue reading...
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Nortel announced earnings today and to get more detail on the news I had a chance to speak with Joel Hackney, President of the Enterprise Solutions Group at Nortel. Some details worth sharing... The company's net loss widened but revenue... continue reading...
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Good news in the communications space from from NET who announced their highest level of profitability in 10 years. According to the company, total revenue in the fourth quarter was $33.4 million, a 15 percent increase from $29 million in... continue reading...
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I have never heard the kind of rumors about a vendor that I am hearing about Shoretel. Reports of unhappiness in the ranks of the workers and management problems persist in the industry. Some comments I have been hearing is... continue reading...
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Yesterday at Interop I asked exhibitors and analysts what they were hearing about the economy. Most said they think the recovery would be U shaped, not a V but some thought that Q3 would be the start of a recovery.... continue reading...
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In a challenging economic environment, what can one say about the financial performance of Interactive Intelligence? Consider this: quartlerly revenue of $29.5 million; up 21 percent over revenues of $24.3 million in the same quarter last year. I must admit... continue reading...
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Another year, another Interop. I am off once again across the country to Vegas where I will likely spend more time standing in line than I will sleeping. How amazing is the fact that you can build a city in... continue reading...
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Jamie Siminoff beams with enthusiasm as he explains to me in this podcast about his excitement regarding his company's name change from SimulScribe to PhoneTag. According to Siminoff, sales have increased dramatically since the announcement of the new name and... continue reading...
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I really had some great meetings today with Fortune class companies who are in various stages of deploying VoIP. It is always great to get to spend time with these companies and learn about their challenges and success stories. I... continue reading...
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I head back from Paetec World today and I have had a number of very good meetings so far. I have a busy morning planned but before I head off to the day's festivities it is worth pointing out that... continue reading...
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TellMe just launched a new application which allows people to use their Blackberry for voice search. utilizing the TellMe speech recognition engine and Microsoft Live Search, you can have search results automatically localized if you happen to have a GPS-enabled... continue reading...
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You've definitely heard me go on about voicemail transcription and just how amazing it is to have your voicemails transcribed and e-mailed to you so you never have to dial into your mailbox again. One of the companies leading the... continue reading...
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I am heading out to the 2008 PINNACLE Users Conference at PAETEC World today. I had heard good things about Virgin Atlantic and am even taking one of their flights today. Yesterday I met with a company int he communications... continue reading...
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Phishing and other methods of theft are getting more sophisticated all the time. While many companies are affected by this practice, it is really up to the major sites in the industry to do something to minimize the threat. Thankfully,... continue reading...
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I recently wrote about how I thought Skype should be sold to Google and in response I received a very well-worded response from Skype PR representative Chaim Haas. Here is an excerpt: [On] yesterday's eBay Q1 earnings call, where it... continue reading...
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I just started using the Slacker website to stream music and I remain very impressed at how good the service is. You are able to listen to a number of predefined stations or make your own. You can also customized... continue reading...
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Are CRM and SFA tools only as good as the data they contain? You bet they are. This is exactly why I invited Dan Hughes the co-founder of Broadlook Technologies on a TMCnet podcast so I could learn more about... continue reading...
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Picture this... You say something and you really didn't mean it. Perhaps it was that you can see see US troops in Iraq for 100 years or that snipers were attacking you in some far away country. In the past,... continue reading...
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Yesterday's podcast with Digium's CEO Danny Windham is getting a good deal of exposure and a number of people have been commenting on it to me. There is also a related article written by TMCnet's Susan Cambpell worth reading. For... continue reading...
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The only thing better than seeing the world interconnecting with technologies such as SMS, is seeing health care providers taking advantage of the latest gadgets and technology to help curb disease outbreaks and improve prescription compliance. Case in point is... continue reading...
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One of the latest trends I have noticed is integrating disparate solutions into Google's suite of applications. Just this month in fact, two companies in the communications and CRM spaces have decided working with Google more closely makes a great... continue reading...
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How does a company go from being a leader in the open-source communications space while simultaneously looking to generate revenue? Even open-source purists realize that companies supporting this movement need a way to generate earnings. Digium, the sponsor and maintainer... continue reading...
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There are now rumors circulating that Google will buy Skype. These rumors are not new -- I wrote about this as recently as November 20 of 2007. But they did die down for a while and have been renewed. I... continue reading...
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Do you remember the past CEO of Cantata, Mark Zionts? He keynoted a past ITEXPO and was head of the company just before it sold to Dialogic. Since then he joined another company which he helped sell and now he... continue reading...
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In the race to provide the best Unified Communications solution, there are just so many approaches. The various ways to achieve UC are staggering in fact. Companies like Microsoft have partnered with many companies to achieve seamless UC - with... continue reading...
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A shift has taken place in internet usage and now more than ever it seems people want web access on the go. A single device in fact - the iPhone shows that if we make it easy to surf on... continue reading...
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Thanks to our readers -- once again, TMCnet has hit a new record. In this case, we built a Global Online Community in conjunction with Interactive Intelligence and this community generated just under 600,000 page views in one month according... continue reading...
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Today I head to New York City for a Dialogic Press and Analyst day. We will be having a function this evening in Yankee Stadium which should be lots of fun. Many people have asked me to bring them some... continue reading...
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Radware today discovered the iPhone Safari browser is vulnerable to denial of service attack. The specific model being tested was the Apple iPhone1.1.4. In order to experience this problem a user must browse to a website containing malicious Javascript... continue reading...
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According to Chris Lyman, the Founder and CEO of Fonality, the brand new Trixbox 2.0 is the "look mom, no hands, reseller version." In fact, the company is doing its best to make sure resellers have to touch these phone... continue reading...
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For years, service providers could see their competitors coming head on. For example CLECs and VoIP providers are pretty easy to spot and entrenched telecom providers worldwide have adopted different strategies to battle these new entrants. But that was the... continue reading...
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As wireless service providers seem to be battling to see who can provide the lowest cost unlimited voice and data plans, a problem is emerging that needs to be dealt with quickly. The issue is simply, how to cost-effectively upgrade... continue reading...
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At the recent CTIA show in Las Vegas, much of the talk centered around how service providers need to focus on generating revenue from advertising as companies like Google will be giving away many of the services they hope to... continue reading...
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Today was apparently a bad one for GrandCentral customers as many report the service was out for hours. As mentioned by TechCrunch, if you want to be phone company you can't go dead.... continue reading...
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There is no question Microsoft could charge more for its OS if it worked as well as products from Apple. This is the feeling of ZDnet's Robin Harris and it is difficult to agree with the many lucid points made... continue reading...
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What's on your wish list for the iPhone? The obvious addition is a keyboard and faster connection (well that is my personal wish list anyway.) But certainly stereo bluetooth and GPS are on my short list as well. According... continue reading...
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Qwest is investigating an internet outage which took place yesterday. Apparently internet and VoIP service was interrupted for a number of customers yesterday afternoon. Perhaps not coincidentally, some ISPs were also knocked offline which in turn took TMCnet down for... continue reading...
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TMCnet's Eve Sullivan writes about the massive adoption rates of IPTV worldwide. Apparently IPTV services grew from 4.7 million households in 2006 to 14 million in 2007. The growth rate in Europe actually hit 250%. Here is more information... continue reading...
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Are unlimited voice and data plans causing unlimited headaches for carriers? More than one person told me at CTIA they think Sprint is going to be in real trouble as a result of the unlimited plan they are selling to... continue reading...
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You have heard me discuss how contact centers could connect with virtual worlds and moreover how virtual worlds could connect with e-commerce. One of my most recent posts is titled Virtual Customer Interactions and in this post I give an... continue reading...
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It is great to see the US Government embracing technology. Recently the FCC said that by 2010 we should have a nationwide alert system capable of delivering timely warnings vis SMS in the event of disaster. Participation in this broadcast... continue reading...
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Open source web conferencing company Dimdim is looking to attack the conferencing market in the same way Asterisk "attacked" the PBX space. Although the concept of open source is not new this sort of product just shows how virtually... continue reading...
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It looks like Digium's Java based client will be getting commercialized as a result of a five year deal with PhoneFromHere.com. Apparently this agreement will improve the voice quality of PhoneFromHere's products and for Digium this signals another potential revenue... continue reading...
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Correction... Despite my best efforts to be perfect this device is called the HW251N-USB not the HW351N-USB. Sorry if this caused you any problems. If you are like me you look for ways to ensure your entire team is as... continue reading...
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Ken Lamneck President The Americas Tech Data Distribution companies are in a great position to tell us what trends to look for in the market. What is hot? What is not and more. It is for this reason I was... continue reading...
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Dieter Thompson CEO TAG I had a chance to have a podcast interview with Dieter Thompson the CEO of TAG, an Alcatel-Lucent company specializing in telecom procurement, contract negotiation and vendor management solutions. Thompson shares many things in this interview... continue reading...
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You may recall I have written about the RIM division Ascendant Systems and how the company enables mobile unified communications. Now the company which allows your Blackberry to function as a wireless extension of your communications system has inked a... continue reading...
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I agree with Gary Kim that FTTH is needed, if not today, at least very soon. Unless a service provider is looking to sell out this year or next, they should be considering doing what rural Smithville Telephone did... continue reading...
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Be sure to submit your call for papers entries for the Communications Developer show which will be collocated with ITEXPO later this year in the Los Angeles, California Convention Center. The specific dates of the event will be September 16-18,... continue reading...
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Bob Emmerson joins TMC as out European Editor. We are truly proud to have Bob join the team as he is a communications and technology veteran. Previously, Emmerson was a designer of digital control systems, a journalist, and a copywriter.... continue reading...
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Its funny, I spend so much time writing about solutions for service providers and enterprise customers that when I come across a do it yourself (DIY) solution allowing you to keep tabs on your Skype friends without the use of... continue reading...
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Sure you have an iPhone or iPod or even a PC where you like to listen to your music. But have you had a chance to listen to TMCnet's high quality podcasts as of yet? ;-) I know many... continue reading...
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I am very happy to be the first to tell you TMCnet is in the midst of one of its largest graphical overhauls. We are very proud of our new look which emphasizes softer blue colors and shades. There are... continue reading...
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I have come across an open position for a brand marketing specialist in Dallas, Texas. You would be working for a major telecom/datacom company and probably gain tremendous global experience. If you are interested, or know someone who is --... continue reading...
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ScanSource, a company distributing specialty technology products in communications, POS and other spaces, has acquired MTV Telecom Distribution, a UK-based distributor of voice and data solutions. Many US distribution companies are looking to expand internationally. This is especially true as... continue reading...
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I was just reading an article from TMCnet's David Sims where he talks about SalesForce.com satisfaction ratings and I was blown away. Why? the company recently surveyed over 4,000 of their users and 94% said they definitely or probably will... continue reading...
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How do you stay up to date on the latest in communications and technology without leaving your desk? One of the best ways is with a webinar which allows you to sit comfortably in your office while you learn from... continue reading...
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Google's rumored ploy to get the service providers to pony up extra dollars for the 700 MHz auction seems to be more fact than fiction. I was just reading an article on TMCnet from Susan Campbell that outlines how Google... continue reading...
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Sprint recently signed a deal with Klausner Technologies to enable them to use visual voicemail without the fear of being sued. This news is interesting as Sprint is one of the companies coming after VoIP providers who the company claims... continue reading...
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OK I may be a bit over the top with this headline but allowing a plane full of passengers the ability to talk on the phone -- all in different languages... What is the EU thinking? According to TMCnet's Mae... continue reading...
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In the past few years there has been tremendous interest paid to VoIP and the underlying internet protocol which allows IP communications to take place. For those people who started to pay attention to the communications space in the last... continue reading...
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All I can say is thank you to our loyal readers who visit TMCnet frequently and our sponsors who have launched communities and channels in partnership with TMC on TMCnet. Furthermore, thanks for your loyalty and the nice testimonials many... continue reading...
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I recently came across a software-based IP-PBX company from Germany that I have never written about before. Vertico Software GmBH makes a product called Starface which comes in a variety of flavors, from software to an appliance or hosted solution.... continue reading...
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Who am I to doubt Walt Mossberg the Wall Street Journal tech reviewer who gets his hands on gadgets before most others. According to Mossberg, we will have an iPhone capable of 3G speeds in less than 2 months.... continue reading...
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There are numerous reasons for service providers to engage in deep packet inspection -- the practice of analyzing packets and understanding what type of data is contained therein. One simple reason to do this is to prioritize certain types of... continue reading...
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Although this may not be earth-shattering news, I find it personally satisfying to see that after about ten years of publishing Internet Telephony Magazine and holding Internet Telephony Conference & Expo, that the town of Westport, CT has decided they... continue reading...
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Yahoo has just invested $20 million in vlingo a voice recognition company specializing in the mobile market. Yahoo!, leveraging this relationship, announced the launch of a voice-enabled version of Yahoo! oneSearch, a new mobile search client that supports unstructured, open-ended... continue reading...
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I have long mentioned there is an opportunity to start using stereophonic, surround sound quality in IP communications as the quality of phones today is just atrocious.Thankfully, Polycom, Skype, Microsoft and others have embraced this concept with their wideband codecs.... continue reading...
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In the race to differentiate IP communications services, a natural area for service providers in the business market to look is the CRM space. Integration with customer relationship management systems is common in large enterprises and even medium companies have... continue reading...
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While SMS is a fantastic technology for consumers, there is a roadblock to SMS use in companies due to the security problems inherent in this unencrypted communications medium. Business users such as financial institutions and those in e-commerce would use... continue reading...
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Over the past fifteen years the world has become smaller as a result of the internet and more recently broadband connectivity allowing IP communications consisting of voice and video to flourish. As connectivity has improved, entire industries were transformed. For... continue reading...
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If you have a doubt that your bluetooth headset is becoming more and more like jewelry, take a look at the new Discovery 925 line by Plantronics. The new headset reminds more of an earing than a headset and... continue reading...
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Let's face it… Morse Code was great when there was no telephones around but why would anyone use this century-old communications mechanism today? The simple answer is that anyone with a bluetooth headset today generally has to interpret flashing lights... continue reading...
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As carriers look to add more and more services to their portfolio of products, it is apparent that support costs will continue to increase in direct proportion to the concurrent services offered. Sure, there are some services which have fewer... continue reading...
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What is one of the best ways to cut costs without cutting heads or disrupting you key business operations? One simple solution is to explore the adoption of a telecom expense management or TEM solutions. Recently I had a chance... continue reading...
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Is it that Sandra Gault at Allworx loves her job or is it that Allworx is a great place to work? I say this because whenever I meet with her, she seems to be so excited about how her company... continue reading...
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Depending on the era, if I asked people what the name Polycom makes them think of they would give me different answers. In the nineties it was video conferencing and audio conferencing devices. Around 2000 you could add IP phones... continue reading...
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I have to be frank… I have never been in a meeting where I saw a product launch accompanied by a phone being slammed on a table. So I was a bit surprised when Polycom's Ben Guiderian did just that... continue reading...
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Recently I had a chance to sit down with NEC Unified Solution's new president Jeffrey Kane and talk shop. Kane has an extensive background in systems integration having worked at firms like Perot Systems and EDS. Most importantly, he has... continue reading...
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Years ago I realized that mobile phones would get cheaper and cheaper and eventually cause a threat to the PBX vendors of the world. Of course… trends are generally easy to spot but timing technology adoption is generally very difficult.... continue reading...
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So here I am in Vegas. I had a 45 minute wait for a cab followed by a 15 minute wait to check in to find out that the hotel I thought I was staying at is not the right... continue reading...
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Everything seems to be coming together -- camera, phones, e-mail devices, etc. It was just a matter of time before a company decided to merge Skype, a keyboard and silicon to develop a VoIP-ready keyboard with microphone and speaker... continue reading...
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Although the temperature near TMC's Norwalk, CT headquarters is below freezing, I am told we are actually in spring. And I am admittedly late in sharing this information with you, frequent readers of these pages know I believe it is... continue reading...
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It is a sad day when a city government decides it needs to come after a specific technology -- one that has truly helped and empowered its constituents, in order to generate more revenue. The city of Los Angeles just... continue reading...
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Nortel's Wes Durow credit SMEI.org One of the largest if not the largest deployment of VoIP I am aware of has to be Nortel's 10-year, $300 million dollar win with the US Social Security Administration which will support fifty-five thousand... continue reading...
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It's funny, in most other businesses, you wouldn't use the expression "one throat to choke" as a positive but in communications, the complexity of systems has evolved to a point where this expression is not only accepted, it is cherished.... continue reading...
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Congratulations to TMC's Kevin Kiley who was just promoted to VP of Finance. Great job Kevin. In addition I would like to thank TMC readers and our partners who have allowed us to continue our wave of growth. In the... continue reading...
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In a dramatic turn of events, two companies that seemed to be at each other's throats just a few months back, Comcast and BitTorrent have decided to join forces and work together to advance ways in which rich media can... continue reading...
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I have been on the road for a few weeks meeting with companies around the world and I just can't wait to get it all in my blog. One of my biggest challenges is sharing everything important I hear each... continue reading...
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Many of us know Grandstream for their IP Phones which offer great value as well as an assortment of analog gateways, ATAs, videophones, etc. I have spoken with resellers in fact who sell truckloads of Grandstream equipment on the show... continue reading...
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One of the more interesting unified communications companies is Litescape. They are doing new things in the UC space and more importantly, I can't think of another company who does what they do. The company's Oncast solution enables phones... continue reading...
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The trend towards unification is something you can see everywhere from cellular phones which now include music players, GPS and cameras to desktop software allowing communications with once disparate applications. One company in the call center space which is surfing... continue reading...
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Plantronics is planning something big. I have discussed this before and they are staying pretty quiet about what they are working on. Moreover whatever they are doing has been in development for over a year and they aren't close enough... continue reading...
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Have you ever compared an e-mail conversation to one by phone? I can search e-mail conversations and forward them as needed. These conversations via e-mail become part of a company's knowledge base and can be used for analytics and other... continue reading...
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Perhaps one of my most interesting vendor meeting as of late was with Nortel where David Murashige VP & GM Multimedia Applications and Debora Glennon in Multimedia Applications Marketing really got me thinking about the way customers are serviced today.... continue reading...
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Sometimes the most simple concepts make for the most incredible opportunities. In a recent meeting with Oliver Emmanual President and John Croce CEO of Phybridge I came away wondering why I didn't think of the idea these guys have just... continue reading...
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In the communications space there are a number of companies that tell us they are green and to be honest, I am sure they are all doing their best to develop applications which are energy efficient. But until every company... continue reading...
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One of the fastest areas of growth in the communications market has got to be telecom expense management as TEM solutions are needed to better manage corporate telecom spend levels. The sheer variety of communications services like PSTN, SIP trunking... continue reading...
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There is a level of excitement in the call center space I haven't witnessed since VoIP began transforming the call center into the contact center. Over the years, we have seen technology after technology change the way contact centers work... continue reading...
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I am a student of history which is ironic because when I actually took history in high school, I wasn't such a good student. Other than Teddy Roosevelt hitting someone in the back of the head with a 2x4, I... continue reading...
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Today I had a chance to conduct a podcast interview Mike Crown Managing Partner, Olaf Bellstedt CTO and Joe Aiello Strategic Account Manager of the The VoIP Connection. The VoIP Connection has made a practice of installing Asterisk-based systems with... continue reading...
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The FCC 700 MHz auction concluded recently and the major winners were Verizon and AT&T. While this may seem like bad news to those who would have preferred more competition as a result of this auction, FCC Chairman Martin explains... continue reading...
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Infonetics pegged PBX growth at 7% last year and they further mentioned that companies are beginning to slowly see the benefits of IP-PBX systems beyond the typical costs savings associated with lower phone bills. With unified communications software now available... continue reading...
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I have been saying for over a decade that carriers need to explore ways to deliver enhanced services. To be fair, some companies are doing this. AT&T has done an amazing job partnering with Apple (the way I hear it,... continue reading...
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As I mentioned a while back, TMC is experiencing record growth and I promised we would maintain our high levels of quality as we grow. TMCnet currently has just under 50 worldwide columnists and most of them write daily or... continue reading...
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My equipment vendor contacts tell me Cbeyond has great quality of service on their SIP trunks when compared to others and this is not a surprise as they also supply the broadband pipe. So in order to get their excellent... continue reading...
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In case you missed it, the bidding is now over for the 700 MHz spectrum. The US governemnt racked up just under a cool 20 billion dollars as a result. I guess we can thank the telecommunications industry for those... continue reading...
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Bain and Huawei were hoping to purchase 3COM but national security reasons kept our government from allowing the deal to go through. In the past few months, Bain and Huawei have been trying to restructure the deal in a manner... continue reading...
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Dialogic has announced that the company's Diva media processing boards will support Asterisk. These boards will help Asterisk systems scale and moreover increase reliability while reducing strain on the CPU. The functions handled by the Diva board include DTMF recognition/generation,... continue reading...
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As more and more customers deploy Microsoft's OCS, they are asking videoconferencing companies to help interconnect their products with their shiny new unified communications systems. But it isn't just video integration these companies want… These clients also want interconnection with... continue reading...
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This week, we have a total of nine TMC team members traveling to industry events. Dave Rodriguez, Erik Linask and I are headed to VoiceCon while Greg Galitzine will be at VON. I am looking forward to an information packed... continue reading...
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I am off to VoiceCon today and you probably already had a chance to see the big Avaya news of the day. To stay up to date on all things VoiceCon, be sure to check out the TMCnet VoiceCon news... continue reading...
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Avaya has certainly made unified communications history today with a suite of announcements that will certainly rattle the competitive landscape. UC will never be the same in my opinion. The New Jersey-based company's biggest news had to do with affordable... continue reading...
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I try not to play favorites with the news and instead of giving you my picks of the week, I defer to TMC editors who picked the following stories as some of the week's best. This week, we have a... continue reading...
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This morning I woke to horrible news as I just learned Russell Shaw has passed away. Apparently he died in his hotel room on a business trip. I cannot be sadder. Russell was a fantastic guy… And he seemed to... continue reading...
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Isn't there a saying, you can never be too rich or too thin? Well in my case I obviously have given up on the "thin" part and replaced it with broadband connectivity. So I say, you can never be too... continue reading...
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Aculab's Prosody X had a big win recently as Interactive Intelligence just signed on to use this PCI-based media processing card featuring on-board IP infrastructure, 600 media resource channels per card, redundancy and more. One of the reasons for this... continue reading...
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So you think you have seen everything in the communications market? Well you haven't as there is yet a new product which kind of fits into a new category and kind of doesn't. The product is the Snap Communicator from... continue reading...
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IBM has potentially opened the door to enterprise mashups, allowing for the first time these web services which rely on multiple data and/or programming sources to have security built-in. SMash which is short for secure mashup is what the new... continue reading...
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The above video shows an example of how Audeo from Ambient Corporation allows you to communicate by moving your mouth while not producing any sound Just when you thought you needed to use your voice to speak, along comes... continue reading...
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While SIP is an excellent protocol which has made the IP communications market a much better place, there are security challenges with this protocol as it is very open and not inherently secure. It is ironic that the openness of... continue reading...
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A new product was just announced today and I cannot be more excited as it shows innovation is very alive and well in communications. WYDE Voice is a new start-up venture backed by Free Conferencing Corp. founder and CEO... continue reading...
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There is a race taking place in communications. Everyone is looking to converge as fast as they possibly can. Service providers want to provide enterprise service. Wireless carriers want to own the SMB and consumer markets. Oh... And I forgot... continue reading...
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In the communications space there has been accelerating progress these past decades. In the eighties we had IVR, voicemail and unified messaging. In the nineties, we had CTI (TAPI,TSAPI, etc), international callback, the PC-PBX and later the IP-PBX. This decade... continue reading...
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Sarah Hofstetter is a VoIP veteran as she was the head of PR for Net2Phone since the 1990s and has been in the IP communications space longer than just about anyone else out there. The reason I point this out... continue reading...
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I must admit, I was not 100% sure I wanted to cover this topic in my blog but in the end the human interest angle coupled with the popularity of the news regarding the Eliot Spitzer prostitution arrest made... continue reading...
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Some of the brightest minds in IP communications have teamed up to launch a new site called IP Communications Insights. Readers of this blog no doubt know Marc Robins and Jon Arnold as I have discussed them both often... continue reading...
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If you thought callers exhibit the same behavior regardless of the type of technology they use, you would be wrong. In fact, callers on VoIP lines make many more long distance calls. Of course it is not the underlying technology... continue reading...
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The clash between U.S.-based companies and outsourcers continues as outsourcing companies such as Infosys Technologies, Wipro, Cognizant Technology Solutions and UST Global who are either based in or have the majority of their workers in India are bringing thousands of... continue reading...
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Kevin Martin seems to be genuinely upset at Comcast and the fact they weren't forthcoming about their traffic shaping of BitTorrent traffic. "A hallmark of what should be seen as a reasonable business practice is certainly whether or not the... continue reading...
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Thanks to Bell Labs, the people behind the transistor, there is now a thriving a tech industry. Moreover, many innovations in telecom are due to the team at this world famous labs team. Having said that, Bell labs hasn't been... continue reading...
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Regular readers of my blog and attendees of TMC expos no doubt know Ken Camp. Ken is very knowledgeable in the field of information technology with special expertise in communications and security. He has written books, articles, spoken at shows... continue reading...
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Yes Peter, telecom is broken in some areas you mention but in others it seems to be doing just fine. What scares me most about the points you mention is how our politicians and regulators don't seem to care about... continue reading...
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How do you get the triple-play to expand into the quintuple-play, etc? Easy... You add a brand new service -- home security to the mix. Quest is the first carrier to publicly promote the idea of service providers getting... continue reading...
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TMCnet's latest blogger is Peter Radizeski. Peter is knowledgeable and not afraid to say what he thinks. He is direct and has a long history in telecom. He will will write things that ruffle feathers. His views many not always... continue reading...
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My editorial team has selected the following stories as some of the most important ones of the week. Hopefully some or all of these news items will be useful to my readers. Some of my favorite ones are how green... continue reading...
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Jaduka has a suite of new products/services which allow IP communications to enter the realm of web 2.0. The company has a suite of services in fact and they are worth discussing individually... dukaDIAL lets you make phone-to-phone calls to... continue reading...
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The latest industry where Google hopes to compete and subsequently keep executives at other corporations up at night is TV advertising. I came a cross a great article discussing Google's latest services in this space. In addition there is some... continue reading...
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Last summer I wrote about by trip to Redmond to visit Microsoft and more specifically my thoughts on when the iPhone will get ActiveSync if ever. Here is an excerpt: As part of the Redmond software giant’s mobility strategy,... continue reading...
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I was traveling yesterday and I didn't get a chance to communicate with my blog readers in the detail I would normally like to give. This morning I decided to share all the news that caught my eye from last... continue reading...
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For those of you who know Hunter Newby, you are aware is one of the more knowledgeable people in our industry. Hunter is especially well-versed in areas like net neutrality, fiber deployment and not surprisingly carrier hotels. I know many... continue reading...
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Sun is getting into the unified communications game with the aid of Mitel. This is great as IBM is big player in the space and having an alternative vendor like SUN is great for companies who are looking for options.... continue reading...
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Chalk up yet one more patent for Packet8. U.S. Patent No. 7,339,604 is the company’s 72nd patent to date. The official name of the patent is "Videoconferencing Arrangement Having Multi-Purpose Digital Still Camera," and it was given on Tuesday, March... continue reading...
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Just when you thought you knew everything you need to know about the net neutrality debate and the controversy involving the FCC, Comcast and BitTorrent... There is more. A fantastic article from Fred Goldstein of ionary Consulting sums up what... continue reading...
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I just came across this summary of the White House missing e-mail fiasco and I am pretty blown away at just how out of touch Washington is with technology. I knew that this administration was tech-phobic when Dick Cheney was... continue reading...
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AT&T is making a major telecom investment in many areas of its business. The telecom giant cites the explosion of high-speed networks, data consuming devices and the move to IP as the reason for this investment. The money is... continue reading...
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In my discussions with the people who run tech companies, for the most part they tell me they are lowering their guidance because people tell them they should. Yesterday in fact in a podcast interview, Joel Hackney, President of the... continue reading...
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Over the past decade, TMCnet has become the accepted resource for news, product research and analysis in communications and technology markets - including telecom, VoIP, and contact centers. Moreover, the site has become the defacto location online where companies build... continue reading...
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If you want some great perspective on Nortel's recent earnings as well as information on which areas of Nortel are doing best, be sure to check out this podcast interview with Joel Hackney, President of the Enterprise Solutions Group at... continue reading...
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There is a good amount of news in the IMS space these days and perhaps most exciting is Ericsson working with Beijing Netcom, a branch of China Netcom to provide an IMS platform for the Olympics. It will be... continue reading...
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Siemens has put its Enterprise Communications division up for sale and it seems potential acquirers are Alcatel-Lucent, Nortel Networks and hedge fund Cerberus Capital Management. Alcatel-Lucent would be an interesting partner as Lucent spun off its enterprise division into Avaya... continue reading...
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I really don't get too many e-mails from communications companies that I would put in the funny basket so when I opened my e-mail inbox today and received the SpinVox 10-Point guide to Polite Cell Phone Practices, I felt it... continue reading...
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Coke employees will now be collaborating using Microsoft's communications and collaboration suite which integrates software and web services. This must have been a large dollar deal because even Bill Gates had some comments to share about this Coke purchase: "Coca-Cola... continue reading...
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In an effort to allow TMCnet readers easy access to the breadth of TMCnet services such as the personalized MyTMCnet and TMCnet Mobile, TMCnet has launched a new TMCnet Services page which will allow you to instantly access the... continue reading...
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Today I was perusing a press release from AT&T touting the new HD channels they will be offering in Fairfield County, Connecticut as part of their U-verse offering. This release was of special interest since this county is where... continue reading...
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There are rumors suggesting Microsoft will soon unveil its hosted/on demand/Software as a Service strategy where many of its applications will be provided via the Internet. If Google is the strongest competitor in this space -- and they are... The... continue reading...
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TMC's Erik Linask If you are interested in learning the latest information regarding how you can build IMS or IP multimedia subsystem applications, I suggest you check out this article by Erik Linask which discusses a webinar regarding this... continue reading...
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What could be better than an iPhone in a slowing economy? how about a less expensive, "previously owned" iPhone which will cost $199 for 4GB and $249 for 8GB. The good news is these phones will be offered by... continue reading...
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If you want to get an idea of what Yahoo could possibly look like after a Microsoft acquisition, it may be useful to look at Tellme, a company Microsoft acquired last year. It is worth pointing out that Tellme was... continue reading...
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Bain and Huawei are changing their bid for 3COM in a manner that does not change the financial elements of the deal but it minimizes Huawei's access to certain Ethernet technologies. Last week, the parties pulled their application with the... continue reading...
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You may know David Yedwab as one of the leading analysts in telecom. If you aren't aware of him, then I am glad to let you know that David is now writing for TMCnet and his columns can be found... continue reading...
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I am so fed up with the synergies CEO think they have when they acquire. In many cases CEOs and other powerful executives are on ego trips and buy companies and immediately change the acquired company's name to their... continue reading...
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For those of you who were in telecom back in the day, you may recall that the Computer Telephony show in Los Angeles, CA had a press event where they got together with exhibitors to give away free voicemail to... continue reading...
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While I have been espousing telecommuting and moreover discussing frequently how IP communications enables companies to hire remote workers without losing productivity... Even I have been a bit surprised that some companies have such a large number of at home... continue reading...
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There have been a number of reports that Comcast filled the recent FCC Forum with its employees and people off the street who were paid. By doing so, many claim the company denied access to people who had legitimate concerns.... continue reading...
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Nuvio is suing Garmin over its Nuvifone product. As you probably know, Nuvio sells a hosted communications service so now that Garmin has launched this telephony product there is a serious chance for confusion. More... continue reading...
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The Senate just passed the IP-Enabled Voice Communications and Public Safety Act of 2007 which amends the Wireless Communications and Public Safety Act of 1999 to impose on IP communications service providers engaged in interstate or foreign communication a requirement... continue reading...
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Nortel will be cutting 2,100 jobs and shifting about one thousand more to areas which have lower costs. These actions are in response to a wider loss in the fourth quarter. The company remains optimistic about its long term future... continue reading...
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Will Salesforce.com be sold soon? I keep hearing rumor after rumor and some say Marc Benioff is getting bored. i haven't had time to reach out to Marc but I thought it worth sharing the news. Likely purchasers would be... continue reading...
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Close to 8,000 positions will be eliminated at Siemens in their communications division as part of a reorganization which allows the company to shift from being a hardware vendor to one that produces software. Over the past five years the... continue reading...
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It is quite scary to hear that when Pakistan ordered YouTube to be blocked, they accidentally blocked the site around the world. Can you imagine what would happen if other countries start accidentally blocking unfriendly sites worldwide? More... continue reading...
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If you aren't aware, it seems like my responsibility to at least mention some webinars worth attending. They happen to all be webinars that are hosted by TMC. I am going to try to attend them all. Some of the... continue reading...
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Many of us think of a softphone as a phone that runs in "software." Apparently to others the term means a phone you could use as a teddy bear. More from Gizmodo and Yanko Design... continue reading...
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Above: NEC's View of IMS NEC is targeting mid-tier providers with its new IMS products. The company's new Service Convergence Integrated Platform or SCI-P is a 'starter' framework for IMS, and bundles carrier-class call processing quality, blade-server architecture, a... continue reading...
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It seems as if FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is the champion of the US citizen today at the FCC Forum as he seems genuinely concerned that there is discrimination taking place on the internet. Moreover he seems concerned about the... continue reading...
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Steve Rubel is alarmed that companies are being advised to launch social media programs in order to take advantage of the search engine benefits. Rubel is disturbed by this trend and in my experience, once the companies see an area... continue reading...
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A year ago I wrote an entry titled Living in the Third World of Communications and boy, I must have been really pissed off on that day because I usually don't tell politicians they need to be sure they... continue reading...
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This week there will be an FCC Forum in Boston where the FCC will be discussing many issues regarding the future of the internet. While the lobbying system of the US is wonderful in that it allows many to have... continue reading...
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Remember a while back when I suggested we use YouTube as a political barometer in response to Iran blocking the video sharing site? Well, Pakistan is the latest country to join the list of YouTube blockers. More See also: Blogging... continue reading...
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While some of us in the US may be proud that we are able to surf the web at speeds of 10 Mbps or even a bit more, in Japan they are striving for speeds of 1.2 Gbps or... continue reading...
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Apple has applied for a patent that would cover podcast mashups. Similar to a mashup with something like Google Maps, numerous sources will be tapped to produce a new podcast consisting of multiple clips from each. For the listener this... continue reading...
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Yesterday I discussed how well the SMB space is doing in the communications market and today there is more evidence of competition in the space as WhaleBack Systems is expanding deeper into the mid-Atlantic region. Three companies, Schultz Technology Solutions,... continue reading...
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What can you say about Cbeyond? Like HP they hit the cover off the ball with their earnings. The company which provides voice, broadband and mobile service to the SMB space had strong fourth quarter growth with revenues of $76.9... continue reading...
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Before I met Jamie Siminoff the CEO of SimulScribe the visual voicemail company, I would get emails from people in the industry telling me I should meet him as he was a great guy. Jamie does come across as a... continue reading...
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T-Mobile is at it again. They are now starting trials of a new service called HotSpot @Home Talk Forever Home Phone in Dallas and Seattle. Interestingly this service is actually backwards looking allowing customers to plug their landlines into... continue reading...
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One wonders what need China Mobile has for revenue sharing agreements with Apple when it seems iPhones are streaming into China faster than Walmart purchase orders. In fact, analysts estimate 400k iPhones entered China last year alone! This is a... continue reading...
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I am a cable quadruple customer. VoIP, broadband, TV and the reason I switched from standalone VoIP to cable had to do with dropped packets on my network. After spending days trying to figure out what the problem was... continue reading...
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Jon Arnold has done a great job of analyzing how Vonage is doing and according to the Arnold, the latest quarter had some ups and downs. Jon spells out why Vonage may not make it into 2009 and I for... continue reading...
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I have been intentionally staying away from the news regarding Verizon Wireless introducing new unlimited voice plans but now that AT&T has come out and matched Verizon's plans, it seems I have to at least mention it and point to... continue reading...
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Thanks once again to our loyal TMCnet readers. Because of you, TMCnet has broken more online records. In January of 2008 TMCnet experienced 38,368,961 page views (meaning total number of web pages viewed on TMCnet in January alone. The total... continue reading...
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I have been waiting, patiently waiting for businesses to take advantage of web 2.0 in a way that affects me. I wanted to see something that took advantage of this new technology and made my life better. There have... continue reading...
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Ericsson has divested itself of its Enterprise communications business and this move reminds me a great deal of Lucent spinning off its enterprise division in 2000 or so. For Ericsson the logic behind the move is sound as it wants... continue reading...
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Huge news comes from Nortel as they recently commissioned a survey which found SMBs are more technically savvy than some might have imagined. SMBs seem to be screaming for FMC solutions and unified communications -- especially as it relates to... continue reading...
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Some analysts are concerned that patents held by "patent troll" Rembrandt IP Management will be used successfully against cable companies and others. In cases originally spread across federal courts in Delaware, New York and Texas, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Charter... continue reading...
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In the world of VoIP, there is a serious problem... There are so many companies giving away telephony, how do you compete? Vonage sells service which is ridiculously cheap yet Skype gives their service away even cheaper and in some... continue reading...
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Amazon has been getting lots of positive press lately on its new storage initiative Simple Storage Service or S3. The service has been a tremendous help to startups as well as established companies as it lowers the cost of scaling... continue reading...
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I have to kick myself because I did it again. Sometimes I think I will never learn. Nobody wants to pay more than they should so when I somehow pulled a muscle in my neck while sleeping, I found myself... continue reading...
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It is pretty amazing to see how many separate issues are surfacing that could affect the future of the internet. The FCC and government have their plates full deciding what to do with telcos and their potentially anti-competitive practices. The... continue reading...
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As I have written about extensively, the advent of VoIP means that we are able to increase the quality of communications quite substantially. To that end, we at TMC are always looking for ways to educate you on concepts like... continue reading...
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Somehow the title "The Dangers of Unprotected SIP" caught me off guard since today is after all Valentine's Day. Seems like something they should teach you about in geek health class in high school. But seriously, I don't think... continue reading...
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I just couldn't help but sharing this article about how companies who increase their marketing spend in a recession come out of it doing better than when they went into it. I am not advocating that there is a recession... continue reading...
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A staggering $133 billion dollars will be spent on communications services by businesses in 2008 according to Insight Research. 39% of this spending will be on cell phone bills. This staggering amount could be reduced if companies explore IP... continue reading...
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The following are comments from Ovum SVP, Brett Azuma on Microsoft and what they are up to in service provider communications. I thought this was worth passing along. Microsoft provided an update on its Telco 2.0 vision. The analyst telebriefing... continue reading...
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If you haven't been paying attention, you will have missed the fact that Verizon Wireless is investing like mad around the US to improve their mobile network. The quality of the wireless network was amazing to begin with and... continue reading...
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If you missed ITEXPO this past month in Miami, you missed a great opportunity to meet with VARS, service providers and many companies looking to purchase IP communications products and services. I am truly humbled by the unsolicited comments... continue reading...
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Vonage is doing better than it did last year but with mounting debt and a weak quarter, it may be difficult for the company to operate unless it improves its performance dramatically. On the bright side, the company lost 6... continue reading...
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Covad reported a fourth quarter net loss of $11.9 million or $0.04 per share, compared to a net loss of $8.4 million or $0.03 per share in the previous year quarter. Net revenues for the quarter increased to $121.6 million... continue reading...
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Tom Keating has an excellent review of the Garmin nuvifone and after reading it I remain very impressed with what the company will be releasing soon. Let's look at the facts. Garmin's nuvi line is fantastic. I like the... continue reading...
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Earlier today the U.S. Senate defeated an Amendment to strike the provisions providing immunity from civil liability to electronic communication service providers for certain assistance provided to the Government. The White House-backed surveillance measure, which grants legal immunity to companies... continue reading...
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It was bound to happen... Google Apps have finally become connected to the world of Unified communications. Thanks to Voice Mobility, you can now integrate Google Apps with your unified communications system in your campus or corporate environment. As... continue reading...
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So yesterday I wrote an entry titled Intellectual Property, The Other Defition of IP and later I wished I had the opportunity to shorten the title to Intellectual Property, The other IP. You know, a play on "Pork, the other... continue reading...
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Tom Keating alerted to me a new phone hack which is for now targeting SNOM IP phones. The big hack involves the ability of some VoIP phones to make phone calls from the Web interface using a simple web POST... continue reading...
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Here is the challenge with today's mobile devices. They are generally good at some things and bad at others. You need a device and a set of chargers for various functions. For example, on your vacation -- you need a... continue reading...
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When a thief wielding a Taser entered the Alaskan home of a grandmnother, she faught back with her phone and eventually chased the thief away. Apparently she thinks she was Tasered but somehow didn't fall down. One wonders about this... continue reading...
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Packet8 has done a good thing today by allowing charter subscribers to their MobileTalk service free access. In other words, there are no longer fees associated with signing up to use this service which allows you to seamlessly connect your... continue reading...
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If you were hoping for the day that you could fit a video projector in your pocket, perhaps that day is finally here. Of course this depends a bit on how big your pockets are. From this picture it seems... continue reading...
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Quite often people are in places like a bar room brawl, a rain storm or even a war zone and they wish they could take crucial phone calls. After all, it could be an important caller letting you know for... continue reading...
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It's funny... I have been writing about the enhanced services made possible via IP communications for over a decade. To some degree, these services are here and while I think there is a great deal of room to go in... continue reading...
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Microsoft unified communications gets video interoperability with Tandberg products. Specifically, TANDBERG MXP endpoints can now register and authenticate directly with Office Communications Server 2007 allowing them to appear as contacts in an Office Communicator 2007 user's contact list. By... continue reading...
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In the world of communications a sad fact is that in the past few years, technology has evolved to the point where communications is being more integrated into business processes than ever. Regardless of industry, communications has evolved to the... continue reading...
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Great news for caffeineoholics who need internet access and want it for free. Through an agreement between Starbucks, AT&T and T-Mobile the three companies have come up with a way for AT&T to provide internet access at Starbucks locations.... continue reading...
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Good news for the open source market as Digium now offers a slew of new warranty related announcements meaning that purchasers of Digium software and hardware will get better warranties and and a money-back guarantee if a product does perform... continue reading...
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As you may know, Mobile World Congress kicks off this week and to get the ball rolling the event has put out some of the key terms you will be hearing more about this week. I have posted them here... continue reading...
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Imagine a world where your bluetooth devices could take some instant steroids which bulk up your file transfer speeds allowing you to transfer at 100 Mbps or more. Ultrawideband was supposed to be the "steroids" allowing such functionality but... continue reading...
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Alcatel-Lucent just reported somewhat disappointing numbers for the quarter with a few bright spots. On the negative side, the company reported its largest ever quarterly loss since it was created in 2006. The loss was 2.58 billion euros ($3.74 billion)... continue reading...
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Russell Shaw explains that VoIP Inc. will be shutting its network operations and call termination businesses. This was to be expected after Shawn Lewis left the company IMHO. According to Shaw: The company will recast itself as a pay-to-click services... continue reading...
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Another day, another Google purchase rumor. This time it is Plaxo, the company that stores online business contact details. This company recently launched something called Pulse which allows you to decide if someone is a business or personal contact. I... continue reading...
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I was pretty blown away at just how much South American traffic there was at the recent ITEXPO a few weeks back. Much of this traffic was in the booths of companies who focus on the open source space. Digium... continue reading...
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Thank you Polycom for eliminating that annoying "buzz" heard so often on conference calls. Caused by a proliferation of wireless devices, there is nothing more annoying in a conference call setting or a keynote speech at a trade show... continue reading...
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In a few days a bunch of reporters will be viewing the first Google Gphone and sharing their thoughts with the public. Unfortunately I will not be at the Mobile World Congress so I won't see this phone in person... continue reading...
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A company called Aerophone has recently announced that they will be using picocell technology connected to transceivers to allow passengers to use their cellphones to talk while in-flight. According tot he company, the system will not have a negative... continue reading...
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GigaOm reports that BT Fusion is going away to be replaced by a new service powered by HTC devices. Fusion is a convergence service that allows subscribers to make cheap or free calls via Wi-Fi into a BT broadband hub... continue reading...
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It is enough to make the average person sick. How does a company with a name like Yahoo! get a valuation in tens of billions of dollars. Sure, we all use Yahoo! so this is not such