VoIP

VoIP news, trends, and opinions, VoIP reviews. Covering Asterisk, Cisco, Grandstream, Polycom, Microsoft, Vonage, Packet8, etc.

FCC Now Requires VoIP Outage Reporting

February 15, 2012

The Federal Communications Commission today voted and passed a requirement that interconnected VoIP service providers report significant network outages that meet specific criteria and thresholds. The goal is to ensure 911 system reliability and perhaps customer awareness of fly-by-night VoIP operations that are just trying to make a buck. The FCC will use outage reports to "track and analyze information on interconnected VoIP outages affecting 9-1-1 service and determine if action is needed to prevent future outages." In other words you might be looking at fines if you don't have a reliable VoIP network.

According to Chairman Julius Genachowski, "With today’s action, the FCC is helping ensure that our communications infrastructure is more resilient. We are helping ensure that consumers will have access to reliable phone service, particularly when calling 9-1-1, whether they are using a traditional telephone or one that operates by interconnected VoIP service."

Posted in TMCnet, VoIP, Vonage

KEMP Load Balancer Certified for Microsoft Lync Server 2010

February 14, 2012

KEMP Technologies today announced that its LoadMaster hardware-based and virtual appliance load balancers are now approved for Microsoft Lync Server 2010. If you recall, I spoke with Kemp last year about their Exchange 2010 load balancer, so adding Lync load balancing certainly rounds out their Microsoft portfolio. KEMP’s LoadMaster products offer server load balancing, optimized application delivery and built-in SSL acceleration. These features enable the LoadMasters to seamlessly integrate with Microsoft's Lync server pools.

By adding load balancing, traffic can be scaled wide across Lync 2010 Front End, Director, and Edge server pools. With Layer 7 health checking, the LoadMaster ensures that should a server become inaccessible, the load balancer will take that server off-line and automatically re-route and reconnect users to other functioning servers keeping application uptime guaranteed.

“Having our entire product portfolio approved for Microsoft Lync Server further strengthens the LoadMaster’s ability to deliver highly available, reliable and secure solutions to our business customers utilizing Microsoft applications,” said Peter Melerud, executive vice president of product management at KEMP Technologies. “The Microsoft -approved LoadMaster solutions for Lync Server 2010 continue to reduce the price barrier for any-sized business while ensuring high availability across all applications.”

The entire portfolio of LoadMaster products -- hardware-based, Virtual LoadMaster (VLM) for Hyper-V and Virtual LoadMaster (VLM) for VMware is approved for Lync Server 2010. Pricing starts at only $1,490.

Posted in Microsoft, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP

Watch out for Metallic Objects in IP Phones! You Could Get Hurt!

February 13, 2012

I've tested, used, and reviewed many Polycom phones over the years, but apparently I never noticed or received this warning letter with these phones. Check out this ridiculousness:

WARNING ALL SOUNDPOINT IP PHONES
With respect to section 5.4.3.10 of the Australian Communications Authority as Telecommunications Technical Standard AS/ACIF S004 2004 under the s376 of the Telecommunications Act 1997:

You should be aware that, under certain operating conditions, the handset earpiece may retain small metallic objects. If this occurs, these objects should be removed before using the handset.

Really? Seriously? You have to warn users that the handset earpiece may contain small metallic objects (metal shavings?) and should be removed before using it?

a) The handset is made of smooth plastic, so any metallic shavings or objects should slide right off.
b) If loose metallic objects are internal to the handset, then won't they likely stay there?
c) Even if loose objects fall out through the ear piece's opening, who the heck grinds the handset into their ear that would cause an injury and merit a warning?
d) If you're idiotic enough to pick up something and stick it on your ear without noticing metal objects on the earpiece... well, perhaps you deserve sharp metal pricks to your ear - a little smack to the head too I might add.

Posted in Personal and Humor, Polycom, SIP, TMCnet, VoIP

Dell Voice Launches in Canada - Will it Fail As Badly As Dell Video Chat?

February 9, 2012

Dell has partnered with Ontario-based Fongo to offer Dell Voice, a VoIP app exclusively available exclusively in Canada that offers a Canadian phone number and free calls to most of Canada. Also, incoming calls and Dell Voice-to-Dell Voice calls are free of charge. This reminds me of how Dell partnered with Sightspeed, now a part of Logitech to offer a multi-party video conferencing service called Dell Video Chat. I reviewed the software and it works well, but with free alternatives like Skype, having the ability to do 9-way (3x3) Brady Bunch video is a very niche application.

Posted in Android, Apple, Skype, TMCnet, VoIP, Wireless

Vonage Attacks Skype with 30% Price Cut and Free App-to-App Calling & Texts

February 8, 2012

Vonage today launched new versions of their mobile app for both iOS and Android phones that feature free app-to-app calling and international calling rates that on average are 70 percent less than major mobile carriers and 30 percent less than Skype according to their release notes on iTunes. What's nice about their mobile app is it lets you talk and text worldwide for FREE with anyone else who has the app. It's also wideband HD audio for better audio quality.

Another nice feature is that you simply use your existing address book and there is no need to leave the app. It works on both Wi-Fi and 3G/4G.

Posted in SIP, Skype, VoIP, Vonage, Wireless

ITEXPO IP Communications Trade Show Continues Solid Growth

February 8, 2012

ITEXPO East 2012 in Miami was TMC's best show ever with over 200 booths and over 8,200 attendees. Conferee attendance for ITEXPO East increased more than 50% from 2011, resulting in dozens of standing room only sessions at ITEXPO and collocated conferences such as HTML5 Summit, M2M Evolution, Business Video Expo, Super WiFi Summit, and 4GWE. As an example, here's a photo I took at the jam-packed Ingate SIP trunking conference session:

Even with the additional third day of exhibit hall hours, foot traffic was pretty good - on a Friday no less. I heard from several exhibitors saying it was their best ITEXPO ever.

TMC's next show, ITEXPO West 2012, is scheduled to take place on October 1-4, 2012, in Austin, Texas, (the 'new' Telecom Corridor) which will be the second time in Austin after moving from Los Angeles.

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

TMC Showcases the Top 40 "Newsmakers" at ITEXPO

February 2, 2012

There is a lot of news (product launches, new versions) being made at TMC's ITEXPO, some of which I've already covered (Digium, Xorcom)... ITEXPO has a record number of exhibitors that have unveiled new products and services at ITEXPO in Miami.

There have been many competing shows over the years, most notably VON, which suffered an untimely demise. ITEXPO and VON were the two best shows focused on VoIP and IP communications.

Posted in ITEXPO, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP

Digium Gamechanger! Launches D40, D50, & D70 IP Phones

February 1, 2012

Today, at ITEXPO, the premiere communications event, Digium launched a line of IP phones that work in conjunction with their Asterisk and Switchvox solutions. This truly could be a gamechanger, since Asterisk is a popular IP-PBX solution that popular 3rd party phone vendors such as Aastra, snom, and Polycom offer products for. This move by Digium and the impact on these phone vendors could be quite interesting. This reminds me of 2008 when Aastra, a traditional IP phone manufacturer decided to offer a full-fledged IP-PBX based on Asterisk, called AastraLink.

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

Zultys MX Release 7.0 Unified Communications Release Adds Android Support

January 31, 2012

At ITEXPO in Miami, Zultys today announced their latest UC software offering mobility features for Android, call center enhancements, and third-party CRM integrations. The latest major firmware release for the MX platform, MX Release 7.0 Unified Communications Software is a secure, all-in-one SIP-based IP phone system that is highly scalable and highly customizable. This version also includes enhancements to SIP security.

Zultys introduced Zultys Mobile Communicator for iPhone and Blackberry users in MX Release 6.0. In MX Release 7.0, Zultys adds support to Android-powered devices.

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

Pumped for StartupCamp5's Fast-paced Startup Pitches

January 24, 2012

I'm headed out to ITEXPO East, taking place next week from January 31 through February 3, at the Miami Beach Convention Center, in Miami, Florida. One of the the items of my must-see list is StartupCamp5 Comm Edition, collocated with ITEXPO East. I'm pretty pumped to see this, especially since at StartupCamp4, Internet / Ethernet legend Bob Metcalfe gave a phenomenal keynote, which was very well received. You can see his keynote here:

During the keynote Bob had some kind words to say about Apple's Steve Jobs, before Steve Jobs passed.

Posted in ITEXPO, Internet, TMCnet, Technology and Science, Unified Communications, VoIP, Wireless

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 ... 214 Next

VoIP & Gadgets Blog

VoIP