Unified Communications

Let's get Naked (DSL) Cowboy!

July 9, 2008

Image of the famous Times Square Naked Cowboy.

An interesting new IDC Insight report reveals that although residential VoIP services have been available in Australia for the past four years, the uptake in naked DSL has been slow compared with Europe and the U.S.

The Insight report titled Residential VoIP: Let's Get Naked, attributes the slower uptake to several factors including lack of, and high cost of broadband, poor quality of service (QoS), number portability and high complexity. However, over the past 6-12 months, IDC notes there has been an upswing in consumers moving to residential VoIP services due to many of these inhibitors being overcome.

The biggest factor is the regulatory rules regarding Naked DSL, which enables service providers to offer VoIP over DSL copper lines without the unwanted bundled PSTN telephone line.

Posted in TMCnet, Triple Play, Unified Communications, VoIP

Freebox France offers VoIP, HD TV, and Internet for just 29.99 €/month

July 8, 2008

I just happened to be checking out our firewall logs and noticed traffic coming from 88.160.222.185. Curious, I did a whois and figured out it was coming from http://www.proxad.net/ which redirects to http://www.free.fr/adsl/.

The first thing I noticed other than the fact that website is in French,-- which I can't read -- is that they offer Internet + Telephone + Television for 29.99 €/month. I was able to figure that out since apparently Internet, Telephone, and Television don't translate at all in French. They're the same words except for some accent letters, as seen here from a website screen grab I did:

What I can gather is that they offer 250 channels, ADSL (ADSL2+?), Freebox HD receiver, unlimited phone calls to 70 destinations, and even a WiFi-MIMO (multiple-input and multiple-output) router.

Posted in Home Entertainment, TMCnet, Technology and Science, Triple Play, Unified Communications, Video Hardware & Software, VoIP

BroadSoft announces Xtended Voice/VoIP Mashup Contest for Cash

July 8, 2008

Sheesh, what is this, VoIP Contest Day? I just blogged this morning about a SIP/IMS contest sponsored by mobilkom austria and now BroadSoft is launching a voice/VoIP mashup contest. They wrote me to say, "We're looking for mashups that will revolutionize telephony services from today's one-size-fits-all offerings to the Long Tail internet approach where users decide what services are valuable. Winners will receive cash, plus the opportunity to demo their mashup live in front of hundreds of service provider executives at BroadSoft Connections."

Full news after the jump...

Posted in SIP, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP

Awesome Adtran & Digium article

July 8, 2008

Just came across a great article in The Huntsville Times titled "Twin visions for telecom Digium, ADTRAN follow opposite tracks", which discusses and compares ADTRAN and Digium. Both companies are based in Huntsville, Alabama, a best-kept-secret when it comes to technical talent and often referred to as "the "Silicon Valley of the South". In the article, Digium CEO Danny Windham calls the Huntsville/Madison County area "a hidden secret." Traditionally rooted in the defense and government work, Huntsville, Alabama has moved into technical commercial businesses due to its strong intellectual capital.

ADTRAN's Gorgeous Campus & Buildings

The article explains the connections between Digium and ADTRAN beyond geography when it tells how Danny Windham left ADTRAN to become Digium's CEO.

Posted in Asterisk, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP

A1 InnovationDays Contest looking for Creative SIP & IMS Apps

July 8, 2008

Received a tip about an interesting VoIP/SIP/IMS developer's challenge. Relatedly, I would be remiss if I didn't mention TMC's Communications Developer show in L.A. California September 16-18th, which is co-located with ITEXPO - one of, if not the best attended communications/telecom show. The Communications Developer show targets developers and focuses on VoIP development, IMS, open source, security, and more.

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

Aastralink RP Debut Coincides with Microsoft Response Point SP1 release

July 8, 2008

As I wrote back in March, the Microsoft Response Point Service Pack 1 (SP1) release would coincide with Aastra's Response Point phone system debut, which is interesting when you consider Aastra got into the IP-PBX game with a Microsoft IP-PBX competitor - the AastraLink Pro 160 appliance, an Asterisk IP-PBX derivative. Well, today marks the launch of Microsoft Response Point SP1 and the Aastra Response Point system aptly named the AastraLink RP.

Before I go into the AastraLink RP, let me first mention that the Microsoft Response Point Service Pack 1 is available as a free download to current Response Point users. Secondly, the announcement is being made at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2008. I'm told, "a very special senior Microsoft executive will make an appearance to help announce." I would have guessed it will be Bill Gates's but he retired recently on June 27th.

Posted in Asterisk, Microsoft, Reviews, SIP, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP

Sangoma Acquires Paraxip Technologies

July 7, 2008

Sangoma has acquired Paraxip Technologies giving Sangama a broader communications play than just offering telephony boards for Asterisk-based solutions. Sangoma is positioning the news as a new foothold in the Windows Unified Communications and IP Contact Center markets.

This kind of reminds me of Aastra which first started offering IP-phones used in Asterisk, trixbox, FreePBX, etc. but then launched the Aastra Aastralink Pro 160 Appliance, making Aastra a 'competitor' to IP-PBX platforms such as Digium's Asterisk, trixbox, etc. Similarly, by Sangoma acquiring Paraxip Technologies, they get their entire NetBorder product line, which enables IP telephony applications such as IP-PBXs, IVRs, call center routing, outbound dialers, and more. Obviously, the IP-PBX and call center functionality is a direct shot across the bow of some of their IP-PBX partners that use Sangoma hardware.

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

AT&T Dropping CallVantage?

July 3, 2008

Just got this email stating that as of July 7th, AT&T will no longer offer CallVantage through their affiliate channel. To me, this is "codeword" for "we're no longer promoting CallVantage and expect AT&T to end CallVantage entirely in the near future." I've read about many affiliate programs that when they're ended, it's the end of the road for that product. Further, the emails explains, "We ask that you remove all of your promotion of the CallVantage product on/before July 7th and we recommend that you swap out your creative to another of our product offerings such as High Speed DSL or our latest flagship product, UVerse."

Now tell me that doesn't hint towards the end of the road for CallVantage. So current CallVantage affiliates are supposed to promote High Speed DSL which has little to do with VoIP phone service?

Posted in TMCnet, Triple Play, Unified Communications, VoIP, Vonage

fring Enhances Mobile IM Client with fringAdd-ons

July 1, 2008

fring claims that since they opened their API last Monday that hundreds of apps were submitted "proving that there's an insatiable appetite in the U.S. for new mobile widgets and add-ons." In the past week, fring has approved four of these submitted apps/widgets which will be announced tomorrow.

Today, fring announces new fringAdd-on applications for social networking, video streaming and email notification specifically for Facebook, Google's social networking site Orkut, VTap and Gmail. Essentially any web developer can develop a fringAdd-on just by heading on over to developers.fring.com. Only basic knowledge of PHP & XML is required.

Posted in Apple, Asterisk, SIP, Skype, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP, Wireless

Microsoft Drops VoIP from Windows Live Messenger

June 26, 2008

Just saw this article that reiterates Microsoft's decision last year that the existing VoIP partnership with Verizon would be terminating in 2008. (See 2006 launch of Windows Live Messenger w/ Verizon deal) As of today you can use Windows Live Messenger users to make regular landline and mobile phone calls, but this functionality is set to expire on July 15th 2008 in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and the USA on August 31st 2008.

Once again, Microsoft's consumer-play VoIP offerings seems very incoherent with many stops & starts. They're on again off again... First, they added SIP to Windows Messenger and it worked with 3rd party SIP ITSPs such as Net2Phone.

Posted in Home Entertainment, Microsoft, SIP, Skype, TMCnet, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, VoIP

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