Unified Communications

VON Joins forces with TMC?

October 29, 2008

According to Andy Abramson's post published 20 minutes ago, Carl Ford and Scott Kargman, who were big parts of the VON brain trust has joined forces with TMC. As Andy also commented - Hath hell frozen over?

This is like Mirror! Mirror! where Captain Kirk and Spock meet their opposites.

Posted in TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP, Wireless

Logitech Acquires SightSpeed

October 29, 2008

I'm a huge fan of SightSpeed and so I was pleasantly surprised this morning to read that Logitech has acquired SightSpeed for approximately $30 million in cash. I'm a fan of both companies actually, and my favorite webcam is the Logitech Quickcam Orbit AF, The acquisition is expected to close in early November. Just check out my favorable review of SightSpeed here and how SightSpeed carried out their patriotic duty in offering SightSpeed videoconferencing for online gameplay between Pros and G.I. Joes.

Posted in Reviews, SIP, TMCnet, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, VoIP

fring updates Symbian VoIP client

October 24, 2008

Posted in SIP, Skype, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP

Fonality Beats Avaya and Boasts 3,000 Call Centers

October 22, 2008

Fonality's CEO Chris Lyman spoke with me earlier today to talk about the strong inroads Fonality has been making in the call center market. Chris said, "Fonality has become a big player in what I like to call the micro call center market. We launched our call center product in 2005 and we have almost 3,000 deployed call centers now."

When asked to define "call center" since many people have a different definition, Chris responded, "Anybody who purchases Call Center Edition plus HUD Agent. We can't imagine someone buying barging, monitoring, recording, and queue reporting if you weren't doing call center activity.

Posted in Asterisk, Avaya, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP

2008 World Series Wager: Oranges for Cheesesteaks?

October 22, 2008

I was sent a release about a wager between two hosted VoIP companies over which team will win the World Series - either the Philadelphia Phillies or the Tampa Bay Rays. The bet involves a dirty dozen cheesesteakes by Alteva against Telovations' two bushels of oranges. Ok, I'll bite (pun intended) and blog this since it involves VoIP and our national past time.

Check out the wager:

2008 World Series: Oranges for Cheesesteaks?

The Philadelphia Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays will soon battle it out on the field in the 2008 World Series. In each respective state, thousands of people are already placing bets on who should win this year's title.

Posted in SIP, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP

Excellent Telecom & Voice over IP Blog

October 20, 2008

If you haven't been reading On Rad's Radar, you should. This TMC blog is written by Peter Radizeski the CEO of Rad-Info, Inc. Let me take an excerpt from his bio.

"Today, I am still an agent for about 20 carriers (all through other master agents), but I spend more time consulting for service providers (ISP, WISP, CLEC, MSO, FTTH, and ITSP) on strategy, marketing, messaging, and sales training. I also spend a good deal of time blogging here at TMC and other places. Thanks for reading!"

Peter also speaks and moderates sessions at Internet Telephony Conference & Expo.

Posted in ITEXPO, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP, Wireless

TringMe Creates Flash VoiceXML Platform

October 17, 2008

TringMe has announced a Flash-enabled VoiceXML platform. TringMe said, "A lot of infrastructure is required to build voice application, because of the complexity involved in building interactive voice applications and the need for optimum performance and carrier grade reliability. Even with the innovation on both voice and RIA (Rich Internet Applications) fronts, something is required to bridge the gap and make voice accessible from RIA in a simple manner effectively."

They added, "With TringMe, we have tried to bridge this gap. With extension of our platform, TringMe opens up VoiceXML accessibility to millions of flash and web developers to easily, yet, tightly integrate voice and telephony without having to know the intricate details of call-signalling, routing, billing etc."

Developers only require Flash and Web technologies to create rich voice and telephony applications.

Posted in TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP

OctroTalk adds Video Conferencing and Live Streaming to Windows Mobile

October 15, 2008

A major new version of OctroTalk (see previous write-up), an IM/VoIP/video P2P app just came out. The new version is called OctroTalk 2.0 for Windows Mobile and it now has real time video conferencing with VoIP, File Transfer, Instant Messaging and avatar support. You can even have video calls if you have OctroTalk running at both ends. The OctroTalk desktop version also supports video conferencing.

OctroTalk supports IM/VoIP and can communicate with Jabber, Google Talk, AOL/AIM, MSN Messenger, Yahoo, and ICQ.

Posted in Mobile Phones, SIP, TMCnet, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, VoIP, Wireless

Microsoft OCS 2007 R2 Heralds the Death of the IP-PBX

October 14, 2008

Today, Microsoft debuted Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2 (R2), an update to Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. Customers will be able to purchase the release, currently in private beta testing, beginning in February 2009.

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 includes several new important functionality, particularly for remote and mobile workers. It includes on-premise audioconferencing to help reduce operational costs and introduces new developer advances, including the ability to build communications-enabled business processes.

"Office Communications Server 2007 R2, debuting just one year after the Microsoft unified communications launch, highlights the pace of innovation that is possible with software," said Stephen Elop, president of the Microsoft Business Division at Microsoft.

Posted in Microsoft, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP