VoIP

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

Internet Telephony Expo Draws More Countries

January 16, 2008

Last year (2007) just about a week before ITEXPO, we had 64 countries represented. This year, also just 1 week away from Internet Telephony Expo we have 74 countries represented, about a 15.6% increase. If the number of countries registered is any indication, then I expect the show down in sunny Miami taking place Jan 23-25th to be even better than last year.

Check out who is represented:
Argentina Australia Bahamas Belgium Belize Bolivia Bosnia-Herzegovina Brazil Burundi Cameroon Canada Chile China Peoples Rep Colombia Costa Rica Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Dominican Republic Dubai Ecuador Egypt (Arab Rep of) El Salvador Finland France Germany Ghana Guadeloupe Guatemala Honduras Hungary India Iran Israel Italy Ivory Coast Jamaica Japan Kazakhstan Liberia Malaysia Mexico Morocco Nepal Netherlands Nicaragua Nigeria Norway Pakistan Panama Peru Philippines Qatar Romania Russian Federation Rwanda Saudi Arabia Sierra Leone Singapore Slovenia Spain Sri Lanka St Kitts-Nevis Sweden Switzerland Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay USA Venezuela Yugoslavia Zimbabwe

Posted in ITEXPO, News, TMCnet, VoIP

AT&T U-Verse Batteries Exploding

January 16, 2008

AT&T just can't catch a break with their troubled U-Verse service. AT&T has to replace the lithium metal polymer batteries in the VRAD cabinets for U-Verse IPTV because four fires have occurred in various locations. 'Fire' is a bit tame of a word choice since "explosions" have occurred in Houston, Cleveland and Wisconsin. In Wisconsin it was reportedly strong enough to blow the 50-pound cabinet door off its bolts.

Posted in Triple Play, VoIP

University of Cambridge claims largest IP telephony system

January 14, 2008

Score one for Cisco. They now claim that the University of Cambridge has become one of the largest if not the largest IP telephony system in the education sector. Cisco and BT announced the deployment in a multi-million pound deal which will see BT, Cisco, and the University’s IT Consultancy partner, PTS Consulting, deliver approximately 20,000 IP telephony handsets to the University over the next 18 months.

"The University’s investment will modernise the student experience, enabling students to collaborate in new and more innovative ways through the deployment of a converged voice, video and data network. Sharing information more easily will improve the quality of education and research, with students and academics using instant messaging, voice emails, streaming video and much more to share ideas in real time, from anywhere in the world."

20,000 handsets is nothing to sneeze at and it's something that I'm waiting to hear comparable news from the Asterisk camp.

Posted in Asterisk, VoIP

Third-party SkypeIn Jetnumbers

January 9, 2008

Skype currently is limited to a few countries for SkypeIn numbers. So what if you want local dial access in a country NOT supported by Skype? Well, Jetnumbers.com claims to have the answer. They wrote TMC to say, "JetNumbers.com has just launched a new usage for its call forwarding service.

Posted in Skype, TMCnet, VoIP

IPEVO Solo Skype Desktop Phone now with Wi-Fi

January 9, 2008

The IPEVO Solo Skype Desktop Phone now no longer needs a wired Ethernet connection. At CES, IPEVO announced the new Wi-Fi Dongle bringing wireless capability to the IPEVO Solo, enabling users to choose the best spot for their Skype calls, since they don't need a wired connection to a router - just a power connection.

I guess this would make it truly a standalone Skype phone that is not only PC-less, but wireless as well. Just need to snip that handset cord and everything will be fine.

Reminds me of Dr. Emmett from Back to the Future: "Don't worry! As long as you hit that wire with the connecting hook at precisely eighty-eight miles per hour the instant the lightning strikes the tower ...

Posted in Skype, VoIP, Wireless

Sony PSP Skype Headset

January 9, 2008

As expected, Sony launched Skype on the PSP at CES. Sony PSP users can now use Skype after installing a software update scheduled for release in late January.

Here's the microphone module:

Although Skype is the leading consumer-based VoIP software, I wonder if other apps will take advantage of the microphone module. Since the firmware is locked, it's difficult to hack in new applications. Unfortunately, this only works on the newer PSP-2000 model (earlier models need not apply) and it doesn't have chat/IM functionality.

Posted in Skype, VoIP, Wireless

Cool Phones for FiOS, Uverse and other VoIP providers

January 9, 2008

Home phone systems haven't kept up with the latest innovations in mobile handsets, such as Internet access, streaming video, camera, etc. Considering many people are now choosing VoIP providers such as Vonage, Packet8, Skype, etc. which already sit on the Internet, wouldn't it make sense to have more advanced home phone systems? Where is Phone 2.0 for the home?

In fact, most VoIP providers simply use an analog telephony adapter (ATA) that lets you use your home analog cordless phone system.

Posted in Packet8, Skype, Technology and Science, Triple Play, VoIP, Vonage

D2 Technologies mCUE mobile convergence softphone launches

January 7, 2008

D2 Technologies today released at CES what they claim is the industry’s first embedded mobile convergence software solution for dual-mode phones. D2’s mCUE mobile convergence software solution combines a communications user interface with the company’s vPort MP VoIP software platform and is targeted towards OEMs and service providers to help deliver integrated Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) and Unified Communications (UC) functionality.

mCUE provides a complete embedded software framework for multi-mode mobile handsets for enterprise and consumer use, such as dual-mode cellular plus Wi-Fi phones. Its completely Java-based user interface framework for Linux can be ported to other GUI platforms.

“mCUE revolutionizes mobile communications by tying together the best aspects of PC-based communications, such as VoIP, instant messaging and presence support, with the roaming benefits of mobile cellular and connection speed and quality of in-building wireless,” said Doug Makishima, vice president of marketing at D2 Technologies. “It is a complete turnkey solution for multi-mode mobile communication devices.”

mCUE is interoperable with enterprise IP-PBXs and UC systems as well as service provider networks.

Posted in Android, Google, Linux, Microsoft, Mobile Phones, TMCnet, VoIP, Wireless

SightSpeed Light Flash Video Conferencing & Chat

January 7, 2008

There has been a lot of hype behind Flash VoIP, including Adobe's formerly top-secret Flash VoIP project, which Om Malik (get well soon) and I broke the story back in 2006. Other players have come along in that time, including Ribbit (covered here), Flashphone (covered here), PushCall, and Wengo. I've been very pro-Flash VoIP apps since the vast majority of PCs, Macs, PockePCs, Windows Mobile, and other operating systems all have Flash installed. This enables easy cross-platform VoIP calls simply by visiting a website with a Flash VoIP applet embedded.

Posted in TMCnet, Video Hardware & Software, VoIP

trixbox CE 2.4 Released

January 4, 2008

trixbox CE 2.4 was recently released and features some major improvements. trixbox CE 2.4 features CentOS 5.1 as the base operating system and Asterisk 1.4 as the engine. These are two major improvements over prior releases.

Fonality's Kerry Garrison writes, "One problem with trixbox CE 2.x is the lack of hardware support for current systems, especially newer Dell platforms. The vast majority of this has been solved because trixbox CE 2.4 is now based on top of the latest CentOS 5.1 kernel.

Posted in Asterisk, VoIP

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