Web Democratizes Auto Repairs

It is amazing to see how the internet has changed industry after industry. The latest to feel pressured by the power of a mouse, broadband connection and monitor is your local mechanic who now needs to worry that his/her prices... continue reading...

Packet8 Virtual Trunking

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...

Hyperconnectivity, Live and in Person

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...

Sipera Looks To The Channel

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...

Keep In Touch

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...

iPhone Adoption and Women

Women love iPhones but not as many as I thought. The iPhone seems the natural phone for women as it is stylish, powerful and easy to use. I would have guessed that more than 50% of iPhone users are women... continue reading...

Build Communities With Google's Help

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...

Podcast: AudioCodes Mediant 1000 MSBG

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...

Google and Apple News

I go on a podcast soon but before I go, it is worth pointing out a few articles I perused this morning. One is focused on Google making us stupid -- and the concept is that reading on the web... continue reading...

T-Mobile Lawsuit Repercussions

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...

UC Hot in UK

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...

Talkswitch Interview: Jan Scheeren

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...

Amazon Down Again

Amazon having more problems. Second time in a few days. I am in the middle of an order and the site is hanging and then crashing. Very frustrating. Yes, they have complicated systems but this can't be good for business.... continue reading...

Switchvox AA300

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...

Conflicting iPhone Rumors

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...

Amazon Fights for First Amendment

The scary part about so much information about people being in a single place is that the government knows where to look. This is a good thing when they are investigating a suspect but when they start to investigate the... continue reading...

T-Mobile Suing Starbucks

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...

Will Steve Jobs Wow Us?

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...

How Business Can Learn From Obama

I came across an article which shows how a small company can use the methods Obama utilized in the election to help them compete with big players in the market. Some of the examples include how a small hardware store... continue reading...

Tech Overload For Rich Tehrani

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...

Amazon Outage

Amazon is out. They are down and I wasn't aware of it until I received an email from Greg Galitzine. This a huge deal and will likely reduce the company's revenues and moreover an outage of major proportions is extremely... continue reading...

CBX 2008 News and Analyis

Telx CBX has kicked off and I am going to be doing all the video reporting in about 20 minutes. Here is my quick take on the news breaking from the show so far: WBS Connect will provide telepresence service... continue reading...

HTC Touch Pro

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...

Plantronics Calisto Pro Series Review

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...

Mobile Virtual Worlds Emerge

There are so many communications companies pushing products and services revolving around virtual worlds, one wonders if we are about to see a new subset of communications break out and achieve mass appeal like VoIP, the iPhone or Blackberry. Do... continue reading...

Will LTE Fuel IMS?

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...

Flat Rate Voice/Data Plans for SMBs

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...

Telephony Hardware Community

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...

Why Microsoft Needs to Worry About Firefox

Mozilla's Firefox is on schedule to break 20% share next month and this is very bad news for Microsoft. If we are to play out what the next 5-10 years will look like in the world of technology, one of... continue reading...

Headed to Telx CBX 2008

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...

Nortel User Group 2008

I am off to Dallas for this event. Maybe I will see you there. Back online soon. -- Rich... continue reading...

One More Reason To Vacation in the Bahamas

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...

Of IP Communications and Broadband Reliability

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...

Speaking at IP Sizzles 2008

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...

Eyeball Networks Signs 5-Year Micro-Community Agreement with TMC

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...

Microsoft Response Point at Costco

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...

Vocaltec Sells Patents to Karo Millennium

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...

New Asterisk Community

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...

WiMAX Research Launched

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...

Google in Travel and A Monopoly

I was just reading how Google may soon get into travel search and as I realized this I wondered which companies would be affected. Travelocity? Expedia? Countless others? It will be interesting to watch. I also came across an article... continue reading...

Sangoma Blows Out Earnings -- Again

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...

Tech Trade War?

In this corner weighing in at many billions of euros we have the EU... In the other corner -- backed by an anemic dollar and a slightly stronger yen we have the tag-team duo of the US and Japan... Let's... continue reading...

Google Gears Powers MySpace

There is a fascinating transformation always taking place in computing. Mainframe computing relied on dumb terminals and then as clients became smarter, we started to migrate to client/server environments. Over time, news ways of working appeared and disappeared and more... continue reading...

SIP Forum Growth

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...

Of Cell Phones and Unborn Babies

Does cell phone use cause behavioral problems in children? A new study is out on the the matter and while it is not conclusive it did find increased cell phone use does seem to lead to children with more behavioral... continue reading...

Post Memorial Day Communications Update

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...

Flash to SIP Video and Back

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...

Google To Explain Search Rankings

Quite simply, ranking on search engines is crucial for so many businesses and a even slight change in the way search engines rank results can cripple a business. Having said that, it seems Google is one of the more active... continue reading...

Salesforce.com Grows 50%

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...

Being Part of Squawk Box

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...

Podcast: Objectworld's David Levy

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...

Microsoft Live Search Cashback Analysis

Would you switch your search engine if you got paid to do so? Amazon tried this recently with their A9 search engine and countless dotcoms did as well with chances to win millions if you used them. No one seems... continue reading...

Communications Developer 2008

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...

Camera Van Exposed

Many of us have seen the street level view of Google Maps and other mapping software company services and wondered just what sort of van is taking the pictures. After all, the van does not have a big sign... continue reading...

Podcast: Zed-3's Iain Milnes Discusses The GS8

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...

Podcast: Starent Networks Thierry Maupilé

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...

Roku: The Apple of TV?

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...

Skype Adding Video Clips

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...

Linux In The Dashboard?

Would you want an open source OS in your car... Controlling everything from the motor to the brakes to the internet access? Frankly, over the years, TMC has grown with not only Microsoft computers but we relied on Unix since... continue reading...

Plaxo Sends a Message

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...

MindWireless Podcast

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...

Major Spanish Hackers in Jail

Few things make people as happy as knowing hackers have gone to jail -- especially when the people going to jail are some of the most active hackers on the internet. While reading a story on the subject, I learned... continue reading...

Cisco EMC Merger Rumor

With a majority stake in VMware and a commanding lead of the storage space, what's not to like about EMC. If you are Cisco, it makes sense to pick up EMC now because the stock is down a bit and... continue reading...

CBS Picks up CNET

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...

Microsoft and Yahoo at it Again!

In a story that makes news mostly on weekends, it seems Microsoft is once again in talks with Yahoo. This time the software giant based in Redmond, Washington is thinking about buying some of Yahoo -- not all. I wonder... continue reading...

Packet8 SIP Trunking Rumor

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...

New WiMAX News Site

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...

ITEXPO West 2008 Conference Announced

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...

My Canada Trip and Nortel Wrap Up

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...

Blackberry Thunder Coming to Verizon Stores

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...

Virtual Worlds, The Future of Communications

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...

Comcast Buys Plaxo

Social networking investments are certainly happening at a rapid pace and many never would have thought Comcast would purchase one. As you may remember however, Plaxo service is integrated to the telephony offering Comcast sells and the contacts are actually... continue reading...

What the HP/EDS Deal Means

When you look around the tech market you see factors which suck the profit out of every nook and cranny. In hardware there is a trend towards standards-based hardware which is not slowing down. As this trend continues, prices shrink... continue reading...

Digium Picks Integrics to Power Carrier Solutions

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...

UMAThought Leader Steve Shaw on TMCnet

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...

Cablevision's WiFi Network in New York City

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...

PAETEC: Success Under the Radar

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...

Vonage Record Quarter: Jeff Citron Interview

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...

SkyFire: The Cure for iPhone Envy

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...

Skype as David, Telcos as Goliath

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...

Traveling Upstate Today

I am on the road again today and I could not have picked a sunnier day to be on the road. it is cool -- about 60 degrees and not a cloud anywhere to be seen. I am actually... continue reading...

Google Pushes Verizon on 700 MHz Open Access

Many of us thought the open access provisions of the 700 MHz auction were taken care of and this was the reason Google got involved in the auction in the first place. It seems now that Verizon is saying that... continue reading...

eGlue Interview With Dror Pockard

Today I had a chance to interview Dror Pockard who is the CEO of eGlue, the only tech company I know that was developed on a kibbutz. If you aren't aware, a kibbutz is an Israeli agricultural community and to... continue reading...

Hosted Application Demand Fuels SalesForce.com

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...

Eaton’s Ugly Server Monitors Power

There is a mad dash to make servers look better. In the communications space the first good looking server I remember was the Orca from Nuera (now part of Audiocodes). The drive to make servers even better looking came as... continue reading...

Avtech Software Protects Data Centers

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...

CellPoint Flamingo Music Headphones

A little known fact about me is I love to review products. Of course if you know me well, you know I just don't have the time to test every product I learn about. Moreover many of the items I... continue reading...

The Liability of Social Networking

About a decade ago an attorney friend of mine told me that you should always delete emails that are one year old. He went on to explain from a lawsuit/discovery process, these e-mails could come back to haunt you. And... continue reading...

Blackberry Outage

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...

Sangoma's David Mandelstam Shares Thoughts

Sangoma's David Mandelstam always has something interesting to say so I invited him to have a podcast with me. What can you learn from listening is how well Sangoma and other communications companies are doing -- even in a slow... continue reading...

Nortel's Joel Hackney Discusses Earnings

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...

NET has Record Quarter

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...

Heading Back From Interop Vegas 2008

I am heading back from Vegas later today and hope to cover many of the meetings I had. Many analysts told me they hoped for more big news at the show. While I agree there were no ground breaking announcements,... continue reading...

Shoretel Implosion?

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...

Communications and the Economy

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...

Interactive Intelligence has Record Quarter

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...

Interop Bound and Thanks

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...

Half a Million Hacked Websites

I don't mean to sound alarmist but half a million hacked websites? is that how many there are? In other words if users hit any of 500,000 sites using IE they will likely be infected? Talk about an electronic pandemic.... continue reading...

Haptic Feedback May Come to iPhone

Whether the rumors are true regarding Apple working with Immersion to add haptic feedback to Apple's touchscreen devices is true or not it seems obvious to me that every touchscreen device needs to embrace this tactile feedback mechanism. The way... continue reading...

PhoneTag, The New Simulscribe

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...

Headed Back From Paetec World 2008

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...

Of Universities and Technology

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...

Blackberry Voice Search

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...

SimulScribe is Gone. Long Live PhoneTag

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...

Off To PAETEC World

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...

Mobile Banking Heating Up

According to IBM, 21 percent of consumers age 18-34 use their cell phone for mobile banking transactions, compared to about 10 percent of the general population. Like so many new technologies, it is your kids -- or for some of... continue reading...

PayPal and Phishing

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...

A Slacker Weekend

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...

Adobe Scene7 Awakens the Web

If you are interested to see how the world of ecommerce will merge with virtual worlds, you should check out the Hunter Douglas website as it uses Adobe Scene7 technology to allow some serious visualization. You may be expecting a... continue reading...

Podcast: Broadlook Technologies - Co-Founder Broadlook Technologies

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...

Google Quote Finder Launched

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...

Danny Windham Podcast

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...

SMS Saves Lives

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...

EsnaTech Grows the Google Ecosystem

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...

Podcast: Danny Windham, CEO Digium

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...

Why Skype Should be Sold to Google

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...

Ortiva Wireless Enables Mobile Streaming

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...

Callwave Fuze, Unified Communications Plus

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...

Novarra's Better Mobile Browsing Experience

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...

Will Social Networks Make Money?

I came across this well-researched article on the Brooding Savage discussing the fact that social networks may not ever make significant money. Why? Well, part of the reason may have to do with the success of these networks... There is... continue reading...

New TMCnet Record and New Writer

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...

Dialogic Analyst/Media Day

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...

iPhone Denial of Service Vulnerability

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...

Fonality Trixbox 2.0 Launches

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...

Openwave Turns Service Providers into Internet Companies

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...

Ceragon Boosts Wireless Backhaul Throughput

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...

Target Service Provider Marketing by Pontis

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...

Google and SalesForce Enhance Relationship

It was over a year and a half ago when I had a chance to listen to Marc Benioff talk about how his company's software would be integrating with Google to provide a mashup allowing companies to better track their... continue reading...

GrandCentral Outage

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...

NY to Tax Amazon Purchases

There is just something so mind-boggling about our nation's tax collection system. I was reading this MSNBC article about how New York State is looking to and likely will tax Amazon.com purchases and it goes on about how New Yorkers... continue reading...

TiVo On the Offensive

It seems TiVo is on a roll as Dish Network has failed to to convince an appeals court to overturn a previous patent win. Dish Network could end up paying from about $100 to $200 million as a result... continue reading...

Dragnet 2.0

In a social network connected world, it seems auto theft will be a thing of the past. A car dealer had a relatively rare Nissan Skyline GT-R stolen recently and posted this information with pictures on the internet. The... continue reading...

Dragnet 2.0

In a social network connected world, it seems auto theft will be a thing of the past. A car dealer had a relatively rare Nissan Skyline GT-R stolen recently and posted this information with pictures on the internet. The... continue reading...

Next iPhone to Have Bluetooth Stereo, GPS, Nike Integration

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...

Unlimited Plans = Unlimited Trouble?

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...

Google Android Running

Here is the good news. You can get Google's Android running on current hardware. In fact the AT&T Tilt is the Guinea Pig of choice for this particular endeavor in the following example. It is a bit early to jump... continue reading...

Sending out an SMS

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...

Digium's New Deal

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...

Plantronics HW251N-USB Wideband Headset

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...

Podcast: Ken Lamneck - President The Americas, Tech Data

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...

Podcast: Dieter Thompson, TAG

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...

Mobile Unified Communications from Verizon

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...

FTTH is Needed Soon

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...

Communications Developer Call for Papers

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...

Bob Emmerson: TMC's European Editor

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...

Messy Skype Presence Solution

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...

TMCnet Podcast Library

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...

Red Hat Takes Anti-Patent Stance

Red Hat, a leader in the open source software market is taking a major stance against the current patent system. An important case referred to as the Biliski Case is now being decided by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals... continue reading...

TMCnet Gets a Redesign

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...

Recycle That Cell Phone

Verizon really wants you to recycle that old cell phone. The have partnered with HopeLine, who has helped keep 200 tons of electronic waste out of landfills to date. In order to take advantage of this program you can return... continue reading...

ScanSource Wants its MTV

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...

Live Communications Webinars

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...

Sprint Pays Klausner

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...

EU Authorizes Fist Fights on Planes

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...

Mind CTI Interview: Monica Eisinger

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...

TMCnet Hits 100 Sponsored Community Milestone

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...

Mossberg: 3G iPhone in 60 Days

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...

Men Swindled More Often Online

It is a shame the concept of Internet fraud exists at all but since it does, it seems natural that people would try to figure out who gets taken in by online fraud the most. Now that the results are... continue reading...

Browser Wars

I recently downloaded and tested Apple's Safari browser on my Windows-based computer and wow is it fast. Frankly I was the last person I expected to switch to Safari, but I just did. Graphically speaking, it is the nicest... continue reading...

Westport VoIP

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...

HD Voice goes Hosted

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...

Packet8 Links With SalesForce.com

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...

CellTrust: Providing Secure SMS

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...

The Coming Mobile WiMAX Revolution

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...

Plantronics Discovery 925: is it Jewelry?

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...

Jabra BT 4010

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...

Motorola's Helpful Help Desk Solution

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...

Save Money in a Slow Economy

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...

Allworx Does Analog

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...

Sprint Success

No one could more critical of Sprint than I have been these past months. I must say that the company's new TV ads are compelling and I am impressed with the new business model of pushing the $99 all you... continue reading...

Polycom's Software Play and More

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...

Polycom's Durable 8002 VoIP Phone

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...

NEC's New Vision

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...

OnRelay's Mobile PBX Solution

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...

Here at CTIA in Vegas

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...

VPF Winter 2007 Video Interviews

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...

Google's Government Wins

Google is slowly but surely racking up government wins and has some pretty big names under its belt so far. For example, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the... continue reading...

Tax VoIP Illegally, Get a Raise

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...

Nortel's Recent Wins and More

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...

Disney, Netflix, Blackberry and Disney Outages

You would think the happiest place on earth would have the happiest engineers and subsequently would be immune from power outages that take out the rides and other fun attractions. After all, electricity is one of the happiest inventions around.... continue reading...

TMC Growth Update

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...

Cubans Can Now Use Cell Phones

Cuba is slowly opening up as evidenced by the government's decision to allow ordinary Cubans to have cellular telephones. Apparently Raul Castro is slowly opening up the country to new freedoms. Still, while this is a ray of light, most... continue reading...

Colorodo Data Center Available

A relative of mine has a data center for lease/purchase and I figured my readers may be interested. It is located in Thornton, Colorado about eleven miles north of Denver. The building includes a cafeteria, hundreds of parking spaces... continue reading...

China Weather Control

Sure you could carry an umbrella if it rains but if you are China, you have a major problem... You make the umbrellas for the world but you are so busy shipping the umbrellas to other countries that you... continue reading...

Real Visual Voicemail on your iPhone

If you are happy with your iPhone but still annoyed that you aren't getting your voicemail read to you, you can now get visual voicemail on your Apple iPhone. How you might ask? Simple... You go to Jamie Siminoff's blog... continue reading...

Comcast and BitTorrent Collaborate

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...

Organizing the World's Meteorites

Google's tagline of organizing the world's information is all I could think of when I learned that Geologist Arthur Hickman accidentally found a meteorite crater while scanning Google Earth in a search for iron ore. The crater is between 10,000... continue reading...

Grandstream's Grand GXE502X

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...

DirecTV Outage

What is it about late March that seems to make companies supplying us with movies have outages. there jest seems to be a steady stream of outages in fact. Yesterday it was a Netflix outage and today it is a... continue reading...

Netflix Outage

One of the scariest things that can happen to a site that relies on the internet for its success is a website outage. Nothing is worse for a company which relies on the internet for sales. Ouch. Netflix had an... continue reading...

Facebook Security Breach

As more and more people use Facebook, it is worth noting that more hackers are looking for ways to get at this information. This article discusses the latest in successful attempts to to crack a social networking site. In this... continue reading...

LiteScape's Unified Communications Applications

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...

Calabrio's Call Center Solutions Advance

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...

The Talkument Evolution

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...

Nortel's Customer Experience 2.0

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...

Phybridge Has a new Angle on IP Communications

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...

Mitel and Sun go Green

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...

Vermark's Big Telecom Expense Management Ambitions

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...

Superconducting Error

So there was this big hoopla last week about superconducting material which works at room temperature. This discovery would have revolutionized the world as we know it. It would have been responsible for better and faster electronics, as well... continue reading...

Microsoft's Call Center Push

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...

RCP to Replace WiMAX?

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...

Podcast: The VoIP Connection

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...

Kindle Interest Rekindled

Boy was I ever wrong about the Kindle. I said no one wants the device and it sold out in a day and Amazon can't keep up with demand. Wow! I really screwed up. I only wish Amazon would tell... continue reading...

700 MHz Auction Concludes

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...

Communications To Fuel Global Economy Growth

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...

Carriers Need Advertising

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...

Dan Miller New TMCnet Columnist

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...

HTC Shift Vista UMPC does EV-DO

What is amazing to me is just how small full featured devices are getting. The HTC Shift ultra mobile PC or UMPC packs the Microsoft Vista OS, WiFi and now EVDO. Sure it has a weak processor, battery and... continue reading...

Tech Data Carries Cbeyond

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...

Spectrum Auction Concludes

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...

3COM Deal Off the Table

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...

Dialogic to Support Asterisk

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...

SearchMe Analysis

I finally got a password for the SearchMe beta and had a chance to play with this relatively new search engine. Simply stated, this search service is what Apple might design. You put in your search term and when the... continue reading...

Tandberg Integrates Unified Communications and Telepresence

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...

Where is the TMC Team?

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...

Avaya's Huge Unified Communications Push

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...

IBM's Big Unified Communications News

Recently I spent a good number of hours at the sprawling Somers, NY campus of IBM where the company announced to the media their intention to spend a billion dollars in unified communications development over the next three years. IBM... continue reading...

Will Backing up Music Soon Be Illegal?

Some of you may remember that MP3.com was a dot-com era company allowing people to upload CDs they owned and then stream this music to various devices. It was a service ahead of its time and in fact Webot... continue reading...

Hot News: Ixia, VPI, Wyde Voice, Google, Spirent, Sangoma, LifeSize, Aculab and more

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...

Russell Shaw and Frank Macari will be Missed

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...

Ashley Dupre Update

Let's face it, how often do I get to discuss topics as interesting as Ashley Dupre? The short answer is never. I just came across an article discussing how Dupre spent countless hours updating her social networking profiles once the... continue reading...

MacBook Air Problems

Wow... that was fast. Just a  short while after the MacBook Air started to sell, the laptop that fits inside an envelope seems to be less useful than the envelope when pushed too hard. Apparently the laptop shuts down one... continue reading...

E-Mail Customer Service Complaints

Few things annoy me  as much as poor e-mail interactions with companies I either purchase from or am thinking of purchasing from. I am sick and tired of companies who send me an auto-response e-mail and then never follow through... continue reading...

Prosody X Gets a Win

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...

Fingerprint Memory Drives Flawed

One would imagine that a fingerprint reader on a memory stick or hard drive was a guarantee of security. Those of us in technology for any period of time know that security in any market is more journey than destination.... continue reading...

Bill Gates on Innovation

While short on too many specifics, Bill Gates believes there will be tremendous innovation in technology going forward. Gates was specific in the area of TV where he predicted that the TV and computer will merge. As this happens, we... continue reading...

Gadget Virus Complaints

It is enough to make you cry. That shiny new gadget you crave, went out and purchased and carried home with the utmost care could be home to a virus living snugly in your device's memory waiting for someone unsuspecting... continue reading...

E-Mail Server Channel

So you are looking for a place to learn more about e-mail servers... You aren't content not knowing all of the news, opinion and analysis on the space. As you might imagine, as always -- I try come up with... continue reading...

Bebo Bought

Boy was I glad I blogged about Bebo being purchased a few months back. The rumored acquirer was supposed to be Google or MySpace but it seems like AOL is getting serious about being a web player once again and... continue reading...

SMash: Secure Mashups

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...

Voiceless Conversations

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...

SIP Security Webinar

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...

WYDE Voice Debuts Better Conferencing Solution

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...

Podcast: Peter Vicars, Newstep Networks

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...

Adding Value to Wireless VARs

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...

Bill Gates Promotes Education and Immigration Improvements

Today the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology will hold a hearing on the future of innovation and U.S. competitiveness. This hearing commemorates the committee's 50th anniversary and as part of the event, Bill Gates will be speaking. Microsoft... continue reading...

Newest Tech, Oldest Profession

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...

SearchMe Enters Beta

I just learned of SearchMe a search engine which differentiates itself by being more graphical than others. When you search, you are presented with category tabs as well as a graphical representation of what the results pages look like.... continue reading...

A Nightmare for MacBook Air Owners

While you should be happy with your new MacBook Air, you should also be advised to get to airports early. Why? Well it seems that some security agents do not recognize Apple's latest credit card thin laptop as a laptop.... continue reading...

Outsourcers Abusing Work Visas?

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...

Microprocessors: The Weakest Security Link

Although there seem to be limitless ways to attack computers, a vulnerability you might not have ever seen coming takes place in the microprocessors. As chips have become more powerful than , it is now possible for a person in... continue reading...

Gigabyte GSmart MS808

Remember last week when I told you what a disaster it would be if Deutsche Telecom was to purchase Sprint as there are just so many wireless technologies to support? Well, I think I may have just found the... continue reading...

Monitor Size Boosts Productivity

In case you thought people who ask for and use multiple monitors are just being silly, there is now research which shows what I have known for many years. More monitor real estate means more productivity. In fact two... continue reading...

Aspect Brings Unified Communications to the Contact Center

In 1997 TMC decided to launch a magazine titled Internet Telephony to cover what we hoped would become a huge IP communications industry. A few years later, contact centers saw the technology as a great way to take advantage of... continue reading...

Daylight Savings Time: OPEC's Friend

Indiana is home to four important things... Interactive Intelligence, some of the best steaks you will find anywhere, some of the nicest people around and really bizarre daylight savings rules that made it virtually impossible to know what time it... continue reading...

Ken Camp is Available

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...

Yes, Telecom is Broken

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...

Service Providers Get Into Home Security

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...

Peter Radizeski Joins TMCnet

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...

Rumor: Deutsche Telecom to Acquire Sprint

I don't want to predict a disaster but having Deutsche Telecom acquire Sprint doesn't make sense from the perspective of all the different network types these companies use. Sprint uses CDMA, Deutsche Telecom's T-Mobile uses GSM and Nextel uses iDEN.... continue reading...

Communications News March 7, 2008

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...

Jaduka's New Products

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...

iPhone Gets ActiveSync

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...

NEC, Microsoft, HP Labs and Comcast News

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...

Hunter Newby Leaves Telx

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...

Sun Unified Communications Solutions

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...

Packet8 Get's 72nd Patent

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...

Fred Goldstein on Net Neutrality

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...

Ask.com Run Out of Search

In a sign that competing with Google in search is very difficult to do, Ask.com recently announced that they will leave the general search business and focus on helping married women manage their lives. Ask.com has an Alexa ranking... continue reading...

White House E-mail Controversy

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...

AT&T's Bullish Investment

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...

The Self-Fulfilling Recession

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...

Steve Jobs Can be Proud ;-)

How would you like to be responsible for creating something so popular that it actually moves the needle on crime rates. I am sure there are a number inventions worthy of similar distinction such as money, the automobile and the... continue reading...

TMCnet's New Vertical Communities

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...

Podcast: Joel Hackney, Nortel

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...

Google Gears for Mobile

It is here... Finally here. Google Gears is a middleware program with tremendous potential as it allows web based applications to run, even when there is no web connectivity. Currently, using Google Gears is a bit clunky meaning you have... continue reading...

IMS News from Ericsson, Radvision and Quanta

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...

Siemens Business Communications to be Sold

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...

A Coke, Collaboration and a Smile

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...

Virginia Court: Spam is not Protected Speech

Virginia's Supreme Court on Friday upheld the first US felony conviction for spamming. The spammer will serve nine years in prison for sending what authorities believe to be millions of messages over a two-month period in 2003. Jeremy Jaynes, a... continue reading...

TMCnet Services

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...

Why are Finnish Students so Smart?

As a follow-up to my entry from last night where I discussed the problems with the U.S. education system, I thought it worth sharing a related article I just discovered from the Wall Street Journal which discusses why Finnish kids... continue reading...

AT&T U-verse Improves

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...

Flood us With New Careers, not Money

As most people looking for technical talent know, in the U.S. there is full employment in the tech space. In addition, it is very difficult to hire foreign tech workers as the government makes workers and employers jump through hoops... continue reading...

Microsoft's SaaS Push

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...

Tech Moving From Hardware to Software

As I sit in more and more meetings with companies in the IP communications hardware space I keep hearing that these companies are moving from hardware to software because that's where the money is. In fact, at a recent conference... continue reading...

Building IMS Applications

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...

Refurbished iPhones

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...

Vonage Spent $1.4 million on Lobbying

Vonage spent $1.4 million dollars lobbying last year but some think this may not be enough to counterbalance the huge telcos who have been at this lobbying game for far longer. More from the AP and Russell Shaw... continue reading...

RIM Patents the HTC XV6800

OK, this one came as a surprise but not really. I have seen many companies patent technologies invented elsewhere and then use these patents to sue companies without patents. It happens all the time -- especially in IP communications. I... continue reading...

Tellme Just a Small Yahoo?

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...

Bain and Huawei Resubmit Bid

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...

David Yedwab Live on TMCnet

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...

Daimler Battery Breakthrough

                                            An S Class Mercedes For over a decade now we have witnessed Moore's Law in action, making microprocessors cheaper and faster. Ditto for hard drives and memory. What... continue reading...

Web 2.0 comes to CRM

The above graphic is a bank mashup showing all banks in Norwalk, CT -- where TMC headquarters are located. (credit: Webmashup.com) A logical place for mashups to show up are in customer relationship management applications where they can allow... continue reading...

When Acquiring, Look to Cisco, not Oracle

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...

Google Gives Away Voicemail to Homeless

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...

Telecommuting Slowdown

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...

Did Comcast Hire People to Attend the FCC Forum?

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...

Senate Passes new 911 Bill

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...

New Germ Free Keyboard

How many colds and viruses are picked up because of shared keyboards and phones? Now there is a solution for the problem of spreading germs through shared keyboards at least. If you think this is a small problem consider... continue reading...

What Nortel Should do Now

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...

Will Salesforce.com be Sold?

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...

Florida Power Outage

So here I am on my flight about to take off. This is a bad time to get a news alert that says south Florida has had a massive power outage. Hope we can still take off soon.... continue reading...

Siemens has Large Cuts

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...

Pakistan Blocks YouTube Worldwide

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...