August 2005 Archives

The FCC lets onto yet another phone launch - namely Motorola iDEN phones. The i450 and i415 are just basic entry-level phones boost with specs and features similar to the current i560, and the new flagship is the i870. It’s a clamshell with dual color displays, a 1.3 megapixel camera with flash and video capture, Bluetooth (including OBEX), microSD (TransFlash) memory card slot, MP3 music player with external controls, WiDEN high-speed data, MOTOtalk off-network PTT, and a push-to-open auto-hinge.

Read Phonescoop for the full scoop on the new Motorola iDEN phones

It is with great joy and excitement that I can announce that my wife and I are going to have our first baby. My wife is only 2 months pregnant, so she isn't due until April, but both of us are already doing extensive research. Besides reading baby books such as: What to Expect When You are Expecting , Birthing from Within , The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth , and What to Expect the First Year , we've also started our product research and product comparison as well. The Graco brand keeps coming up wherever I go, though Eddie Bauer is trying to get in on the baby act - saw some Eddie Bauer strollers in Babys R Us.

I know they say it's bad luck to buy baby products so early on, but we just had to buy this really nice baby cradle from Once Upon a Child that retails for $120, but we got it for $60.0. We've got our eye on a used crib that that retails for $600 (the store employee called it the "Mercedes of cribs") but they're selling it for $210. Never thought I was much of a bargain hunter, but hunting for baby bargains is fun!

You'll just have to forgive me if you start seeing me review baby products in my blog, including cradles, cribs, car seats, and Graco strollers.

Rich Tehrani, publisher of Internet Telephony Magazine and carny-extraordinaire for Internet Telephony Conference & Expo, backs up his pledge of having the best VoIP show in the world with his wallet. Starting with last year's Miami Internet Telephony Conference & Expo, Rich has offered a 100% money-back guarantee for conferees. So far no one has taken Rich up on his offer, so no doubt TMC's conferees have been very satisfied with the level of VoIP education at TMC's events.

It's too bad Rich doesn't yet offer the same money-back guarantee to exhibitors, since every single Internet Telephony show I have attended has been from "well attended" to a down-right mob scene! But alas, you always get in any type of event at least one or more exhibitors who aret happy with the amount of leads. Usually the problem is not the attendance, it's the exhibitor's poorly designed booth, poor display of their technology, as well as not the best marketing or sales people manning the booths. I can't tell you how many tradeshows I've gone to, disclosed I was "press" and got brushed off. That's not the way to treat any attendee interested in your product or service, and it's downright idiotic to treat any press member that way.

So offering a money-back guarantee to exhibitors with so many variables not under TMC's control would be a pretty risky thing for Rich to do. At least with the educational VoIP conference program TMC designs, the variables are under TMC's control - Rich knows that TMC is sending the best qualified speakers in the industry to speak at the show.

Tradeshow organizers, including TMC, can only market the show and bring qualified people there. After that, it's up to the exhibitors to promote and sell their wares. TMC has the world's 1st and the world #1 VoIP magazine, Internet Telephony Magazine, which actively promotes Internet Telephony Conference & Expo to over 40,000 BPA-audited readers. You will not find a more qualified audience than Internet Telephony Magazine's readers and as such, you will find that Internet Telephony Magazine draws more qualified attendees to the Internet Telephony Expo than any other VoIP tradeshow.

Sony has released a new "PowerPoint presentation" 2.4GHZ wireless mouse that features 4-buttons and 800DPI resolution. What is truly unique about this mouse is the joystick pointer where normally a scroll wheel would be located. The joystick is used not only for scrolling vertically and horizontally, but when it is used as a presentation remote, the joystick can move the cursor on the projector.

Now if they added a laser pointer this truly would be a killer gadget!

Here's an interesting Skype solution that lets you integrate your PBX with Skype/SkypeIn,SkypeOut so you can use Skype for your trunk lines to save money. I actually found this on TMC's VoIP forums.

Here's a description of the product carried by Spintronics:
. Design Power boost to ensure enough voltage and current to drive your PBX and Ring
. Other USB TeleBOX RJ-11 cannot drive most PBX because their volrage and current from small-power PC USB port
. Connect to your company PBX and take advantage of Skype/SkypeIn/Skypeout services
. Employee can use SkypeOut for low-rate call
. Customers can use regular phone and call SkypeIn number for local call service
. Skyper can call customer service for free
. Use Skype account: spin_callcenter ext.21 to feel it and ask the details
. People who live in USA can use regular phone to call 415-508-3685 ext.21 to feel it and ask the details

Specifications
. Protocol: Skype compatible
. IP management: DHCP/Static IP
. Four port RJ-11 FXS
. Connect to PSTN phone(wire or wireless) or PBX(Digital or Analog)
. Ring (ITU standard-like)
. Dial Tone
. One RJ-45 10/100 Fast Ethernet (LAN)
. Web-base Administration
. Dimension: 19" 2U standard chassis
. Input power: 110/220 VAC, 5A

On their website I see a 1-port, 2-port, and even 4-port solution called CallFree 400. I wonder how they interface with the PBX? I'd be curious to know whose TDM hardware they are using to interface with the PBX.

The website seems a tad "simple" for me and it loaded slowly, so I'm not sure if this a one-man shop building these Skype-to-PBX gateways, or a reputable shop, so just be careful.

I'm just wondering how long it will take before I receive a press release from a VoIP company with a "hurricane spin" to it to try and maximize the exposure and impact it has. I'm expecting something like:

It appears the new Cisco IP Phone 7985G Videophone is OEM'ed from Tandberg (image to left which is identical to the image I posted about the Cisco videophone on Friday).

If the Cisco videophone has the same feature-set as the Tandberg 150 MXP, then it does indeed support SIP, which I was unsure about when I broke the story on the new Cisco videphone. In fact, the Tandberg 150 MXP also supports the H.323 protocol as well, which is a plus since many legacy videophone systems from Polycom and other manufacturers support H.323. I wonder if Cisco also added their SKINNY protocol to the phone? That would make it 3 protocols running on the Cisco videophone.

According to Tandberg's website the Tandberg 150 MXP has the following features, which I assume the Cisco phone will have as well:
• Optional IM and webconferencing
• URI Dialing
• H.323 & SIP support.
• Up to 512 kbps IP
• Superior video quality incorporating the H.264 standard
• Standards-based embedded encryption (AES & DES)
• Protection against network interruptions with automatic Downspeeding and IPLR

The Tandberg 150 MXP retails for US$2,990, which seems extremely steep to me. I doubt Cisco could get away with selling a business desktop videphone for three thousand dollars. Even high executives such as CEOs aren't going to want to pay $3000 for a desktop phone -that's more than the price of many IP-PBX systems! Just how much margin and markup is on this Tandberg phone that Cisco can still make a few bucks on it? Seems very odd to me that Cisco didn't just build their own videophone. They certainly have the expertise to do this. Further, I would think they could build it less expensively and sell it for much less with a higher profit margin. The only thing I can think of it that this phone is more of a "conference room" videophone and not a desktop videophone for every employee. Certainly today most high-end videoconferencing systems do cost around $3000 so it does fit much better in the conference room videoconferencing space.

Personally, I think Cisco would be better off going after the business desktop videophone space. Let's assume most small to medium corporations have between 1-4 conference rooms. Assuming the max - 4 conference rooms, that's only 4 X $3000 = $12,000 sale per business. Now instead let's assume Cisco makes a desktop videophone that retails for $1000 and assume the average business has 50 employees. Multiple $1000 X 50 = $50,000 sale per business. Of course, not every business is going to need videophones on every single employees desk, but if given the choice between a IP videophone and regular non-video IP phone that is only a few hundred dollars less, many will opt for the more expensive video phones.

Of course, you could simply buy a USB-based $40 Logitech Webcam , but until (if?) the PC replaces the desktop phone, we'll still need feature-rich desktop phones.

Cisco has a new Color IP VideoPhone called the Cisco IP Phone 7985G Videophone coming to market that until now has been kept under top-secret wraps. According to the interim spec I received from an insider, it makes no mention of SIP, so you'll probably need Cisco CallManager to get all the bells and whistles working. Just what we need another proprietary videophone. <sigh> I hope they'll eventually take my advice and make all these videophones interoperate. I'd love to see the Cisco videophone work with the Packet8 videophone or the Vonage videophone.

As of right now I cannot confirm this new Cisco IP phone on Cisco's website nor any product or concept images or I would have included them here. Don't get excited over the image to the left. That isn't the Cisco videophone. The image to the left is actually the Vonage videophone OEM'ed from Videon. I was just teasing you, but my guess is that it will look very simiilar.. The Vonage videophone and the Packet8 videophone look nearly identical.

According to my source the Cisco videophone was originally supposed to be available today, but it must has been pushed back since I can't find any mention if it anywhere.

According to their specs they are positioning it by stating "the Cisco IP Phone 7985G Videophone is a personal desktop video phone for the Cisco IP Communications solution." According to the Cisco document it offers "executives and managers a productivity-enhancing tool that makes instant, face-to-face communication possible from their offices, the Cisco IP Phone 7985G has all the components to enable a video call—camera, LCD screen, speaker, keypad, and a handset—incorporated into one easy-to-use unit."

One feature mentioned below that caught my eye was that it mentions that the color LCD will be less bright if running using 802.3af PoE (Power over Ethernet) instead of using the included power supply. What the heck is that? They didn't design the 802.3af spec to handle power hungry color LCDs? I have to use stick big A/C power brick under my desk just to get the best LCD experience? The whole point of PoE is to eliminate A/C bricks, have 1 wire to the IP phone, and provide centralized battery backup to all IP phones. Perhaps the brightness difference is only negligible, but still. Guess I'll have to ask Cisco to send me a unit to test and figure out if it's a huge brightness difference or not. In any event, check out the features from their specs...

Features
The Cisco IP Phone 7985G is dynamic, and it is designed to grow with system capabilities. Call features such as call forward, transfer, conference, and hold are now available with video and are all initiated through the IP phone. IP telephony and IP video telephony are delivered to every employee using a unified dial plan and a common directory—over a single Cisco IP Communications infrastructure—through Cisco CallManager.

Features will keep pace with new changes through software updates to the phone flash memory. No hands-on moves and changes are required with the phone—the user can simply pick up the phone and move to the new location anywhere on your network. The Cisco IP Phone 7985G provides many accessibility methods according to user preference. In addition to the four Directories, Services, Settings, and Messages buttons, the Cisco IP Phone 7985G has five buttons to control video features.

Messages— The phone offers direct access to voicemail.

Directories — The phone identifies incoming messages and categorizes them on the screen, allowing users to quickly and effectively return calls using direct dial-back capability. The corporate directory integrates with the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol Version 3 (LDAP3) standard directory.

Settings — The Settings feature key allows the user to adjust display contrast, select background images (if available), and select from a large number of unique ringer sounds through the User Preference menu. Network Configuration preferences also can be set up (usually by the system administrator). Configuration can be either automatically or manually set up for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP), Cisco CallManager, and backup Cisco CallManagers.

Services — The Cisco IP Phone 7985G allows users to quickly access diverse information such as weather, stocks, quote of the day, or any Web-based information using Extensible Markup Language (XML) to provide a portal to an ever-growing world of applications, features, and information.

Help — The online Help feature gives users information about the phone keys, buttons, and features.

Speakerphone, Mute, and Headset Buttons — The phone features high-quality, speakerphone technology, including an easy-to-use speaker On/Off button, Microphone Mute button, and Headset button.

These buttons are lit when active.
Ethernet Switch — The internal Cisco 2-port Ethernet switch allows for a direct connection to a 10/100BASE-T Ethernet network through an RJ-45 interface with single LAN connectivity for both the phone and a co-located PC. The system administrator can designate separate VLANs (802.1Q) for the PC and Cisco IP phones, providing improved security and reliability of voice and data traffic.

Headset Port — A dedicated headset port eliminates the need for a separate amplifier when using a headset. This feature allows the handset to remain in its cradle, making headset use simpler. Note: Best headset sound quality can be achieved, by using recommended Plantronics MX100 headset.

Volume Control — The convenient Volume Control button on the phone provides for easy decibel-level adjustments for the speakerphone, handset, headset, and ringer. The handset offers Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and hearing aid-compatible (HAC) compliance, with a maximum handset volume of 13 dB. New US Section 508 Accessibility capability can be achieved using an in-line handset amplifier such as Clearsound IL-40 Portable Telephone Amplifier.

Self View — The Self View button switches the video image from incoming to outgoing video. Self View displays your outgoing picture in full screen. This feature allows you to see what is being transmitted to the other end.

Picture in Picture (PIP) — PIP displays a smaller picture of the outgoing video. The PIP is displayed on top of the bigger incoming picture when users are in a call, allowing them to see both pictures at the same time.

Video Mute — This button toggles the Video Mute feature on or off. When Video Mute is active, the video phone does not send out the user’s video image. The far-end video phone displays a muted-video icon indicating the near-end user is on video mute.

Display Button — This button toggles the menu on and off. With this button, all the information displayed on the phone screen—soft-key labels, lines, and call information—can be essentially removed and the video image can be set for full-screen view.

Brightness Button — This button controls monitor brightness.

Flexible Power Options — The Cisco IP Phone 7985G can receive power down the LAN from any Cisco IEEE 803.3af Power over Ethernet (PoE) switch. It also can be powered locally with a power supply (part number CP-PWR-CUBE-3). Note: To achieve full LCD brightness, use the local power supply, The LCD will have reduced brightness levels while operating in IEEE 802.3af PoE mode.

Multiple Ring Tones — More than five user-adjustable ring tones are available.

ADA Features — A HAC handset (meets ADA requirements) is available, as well as HAC compliance for magnetic coupling to approved HAC hearing aids. The dial pad also is ADA-compliant.

Signaling Protocol Support — The phone offers Skinny Client Control Protocol (SCCP) support.

Codec Support — G.711µ, G.729ab, and G722 audio compression codecs are available.

Configuration Options — IP address assignment can be statically configured or configured through the DHCP.

Voice Quality — Comfort-noise generation and voice activity detection (VAD) programming are performed on a system basis.

Update: (15 min from original post)
Found this regulatory statement for the 7985G on Cisco's website, but not much info on the color screen or video.

This tidbit on the Cisco 7985G videophone is pretty amusing though:

Statement 355 applies only to the Cisco IP Phone 7985G..

Telephone receivers produce a magnetic field that can attract small magnetic objects such as pins and staples. To avoid the possibility of injury, do not place the handset where such objects may be picked up. Statement 355

So why is it that only the Cisco IP Phone 7985G has magnetic issues with metal pins and staples? I'm reminded of a scene from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon where a peson was killed by a single metal pin to the neck. I can see the warning labels now "Do not make VoIP calls with metal pins or staples within a 6 foot radius. Doing so may result in flying pins or staples resulting in injury or death. If injured, dial 911 immediately. Assuming you have acknowledged the e911 rules mandated by the FCC your call will be connected. If not, we can't help you. You're going to die and Cisco shall not be held liable."

Update 2: Saturday 9:33pm EDT
Just found an image (diagram) of the new Cisco videophone that I thought I'd share. I was wrong about it looking like the Vonage or Packet8 videophone it actually looks more like the Motorola Ojo videophone.

Rich explains why he believes Internet Telephony Conference and Expo is the best damn VoIP show in the world. He even provides photos and videos as proof of how well attended the shows are. I'll never forget a recent Internet Telephony Conference & Expo where it was so jam packed that the air conditioning couldn't keep up with the crowds and it reached something like 82 degrees in the exhibit hall. The hotel had to install fans throughout the exhibit hall to try and cool down the attendees. I figure the hot exhibit was because VoIP is so hot right now.

As I mentioned to James Seng in a comment I posted to his Google Talk post Google Talk isn't using SIP (yet). James confirmed my packet capture analysis of Google Talk with some sniffing of his own, which you can check out in his More About Google Talk blog post. He has some interesting discoveries, including Google appearing to install a STUN server on every Google Talk client to solve the VoIP NAT issues. James writes "In other words, like Skype, Google Talk turns every client into a possible server to help relay voice call between two users." Doesn't this sound eerily like Skype's super nodes that everyone gripes about?

James has echoes my sentiments when he writes, "Very smart thing to do technically speaking but let me go read the Google Talk UAT again. (Hmm...What happen to the 'Don't be Evil' plan?)"

BREAKING News! As I predicted, the FCC would extend the deadline. The FCC said the deadline would be extended to Sept. 28 for the providers to get their acknowledgments. If by that time a provider still has not received confirmation from a customer, then the FCC said the companies should disconnect a customer's regular Internet phone service, but could still allow emergency calls to be made.

Uhh, so now the FCC is asking the VoIP providers to allow 911 to be dialed but to block any other number? Now the FCC is just changing the rules due to the firestorm of controversy over them forcing VoIP providers to cut access - including 911 access. Now they're just covering their butts.

Update: (here's an excerpt from the FCC PDF)
In this Public Notice, the Enforcement Bureau (Bureau) provides further guidance to providers of interconnected voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service concerning enforcement of the subscriber affirmative acknowledgement requirement set forth in the Commission’s VoIP Enhanced 911 (E911) rules.1 Specifically, the Bureau announces that it will continue to refrain, for an additional 30 days -- until September 28, 2005 -- from enforcing the requirement that VoIP providers obtain affirmative acknowledgements from 100% of their subscribers that they have read and understood an advisory concerning the limitations of their E911 service against those providers that meet the reporting requirements established below.

In addition to satisfying these reporting requirements, to be eligible for this extension, providers also must have filed a report on or before August 10, 2005 in accordance with the Bureau’s July 26, 2005 Public Notice. The Bureau will evaluate the sufficiency of the updated reports filed by interconnected VoIP providers and take subsequent action as necessary.

P.S. This blog post marks 1,000 posts!

Rich Tehrani's War on Terror by Nerds caught my eye where Rich referenced a blog post by Isen.blog which referenced Sun Ray Blog (the source of this War on Terror UNIX joke).

You have to be a UNIX geek to get this, but if you are, then this is pretty funny.

Here's a sample:

$ cd Afghanistan
$ ls
bin Taliban
$ rm Taliban
rm: Taliban is a directory
$ cd Taliban
$ ls
soldiers
$ rm soldiers
$ cd ..
$ rmdir Taliban
rmdir: directory "Taliban": Directory not empty
$ cd Taliban
$ ls -a
. .. .insurgents
$ chown -R USA .*

Even funnier than this is Sun Ray Blog's full "translation" for the non-UNIX geeks along with a full set of commands that you should check out.

Earthlink Vling uses a new product developed in open-source by Pingtel. Earthlink is Pingtel's first customer for their open source SIP user agent called SIPxua which Earthlink is using to support its rollout of its hosted VoIP Vling service. Pingtel also develops an open-source IP-PBX called SIPxchange based on open source work done at SIPFoundry.org, and which competes with the open source Asterisk platform.

The Earthlink Vling service is currently available for download on EarthLink’s website in beta form. The soft phone client is based on Pingtel’s SIPuxa.

Boy, Earthlink announced their federation with Google Talk just the other day and now this VoIP news? Earthlink has been busy on the VoIP front lately.

Good bloggers write regularly on specific topics because it is a passion of theirs. Bloggers also develop a strong community with fellow bloggers that share their viewpoints or write about the same topics. Part of that community involves posting comments on blogs you read, doing trackbacks to interesting blog posts, as well as adding interesting blogs to your blogroll. By adding a link to a blog to your blogroll this not only acts as an endorsement of the outside blog, but it also serves to share you Google PageRank to "friends" of your blog. This helps drive traffic to blogs you deem important, news worthy, funny, pertinent, etc.

Alas, I have been neglectful in updating my Movable Type blogroll for blogs that I read. I have not been sharing the love of my Google PR7. I have sinned against you my fellow bloggers, please forgive me.

I have updated my blogroll to include those I read on a regular basis in my RSS reader. However, it's only fair that I include just blogs that have a blogroll within their blog as well, since I'd like to reward blogs that also participate in the blogging community by sharing the link love. You didn't even have to include my blog on your blog already to make it onto my blogroll. I didn't even bother to look, I just checked to see if you have a blogroll and then add you to my blogroll. This post isn't about me trying to get more links or PageRank. It would be pretty hard for me to hit Google PR8 even with more links. I"m just trying to be a good blogger netizen. But if you are a blogger and do read my blog regularly feel free to share the link love.

Some quick research news from Infonetics to share on carrier VoIP equipment. Worldwide next gen voice product revenue jumped 18% to $614 million between the first and second quarters of 2005, a new record for a quarterly gain, and is up 55% year-over-year, according to Infonetics Research's latest report, Service Provider Next Gen Voice Equipment. Annual revenue is forecast to grow to $5.7 billion by 2008.

All segments of the next gen voice market are up year-over-year, and all but softswitch class 4 and media servers are up from 1Q05.

"Growth in equipment sales is very strong as carriers continue down the network modernization and service innovation path," said Kevin Mitchell, directing analyst at Infonetics Research. "We upped our North American subscriber forecast and added a European subscriber forecast. In both regions, we expect penetration of VoIP to near 40% in 2008."

North American residential/SOHO VoIP subscribers jump from 1.1 million in 2004 to 24.3 million in 2008, with over 6 million new subscribers added in 2006, 2007, and 2008. In Europe, VoIP subscribers multiply from 2.2 million in 2004 to 27.8 million in 2008, with close to 8 million new subscribers in 2007 and 2008.

2Q05 Highlights
- Worldwide softswitch revenue totaled $247.9 million, up 15% from 1Q05 and 106% from 2Q04, with all growth due to class 5 applications
- Nortel leads in worldwide media gateway and softswitch revenue market share, followed by Siemens and Sonus
- Worldwide session border controller sessions totaled 1.1 million, a 10% sequential increase and an 82% increase from 2Q04

Infonetics' report tracks VoIP subscribers, media servers, session border controllers, trunk media gateways, voice application servers, softswitches, and class 5 packet switches.

Companies tracked include Acme Packet, Alcatel, AudioCodes, BayPackets, Broadsoft, Brooktrout, Carrius, CIRPACK, Cisco, Convedia, CopperCom, DiTech, Ericsson, Huawei, IPeria, IP Unity, Italtel, Juniper, Lucent, Marconi, MetaSwitch, Mera, NeoTIP, NetCentrex, Netrake, NexTone, NewCross, Nortel, Pactolus, Persona, Sansay, sentitO, Siemens, Sonus, Sylantro, Tekelec, Ubiquity, UTStarcom, Veraz, Xener, others.

Download sample data at www.info.infonetics.com.