VoIP

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

Packet8 MobileTalk Launches

November 19, 2007

8x8, provider of Packet8 broadband VoIP services, today announced the launch of Packet8 MobileTalk - a mobile calling service that utilizes a downloadable software application that can currently reside on any Windows, Palm or Symbian based mobile phone.

It connects the calls from the mobile phone to the Packet8 digital VoIP network to save on costs.

Packet8 MobileTalk users can dial calls directly and natively from their mobile handset, contact list or speed dial directory. Once the destination number is dialed or selected, the Packet8 MobileTalk software application identifies the international prefix being called and redirects the call to a local Packet8 network access number for terminating the last leg.

You might say Packet8 MobileTalk is similar to Truphone, except Truphone routes the call over the data connection, so the QoS is more affected. You might compare Packet8 MobileTalk with JAJAH, which offers the JAJAH Mobile Plugin, a softphone application that like MobileTalk works with Symbian phones. JAJAH Mobile Plugin, like Packet8 MobileTalk routes the call over the voice channel.

Posted in Packet8, VoIP

Jajah Direct Launches

November 18, 2007

JAJAH Direct is a new service launching tomorrow, which allows you to simply dial a local access number to talk globally - no Internet or data access needed and you can skip having to dial from your PC using VoIP software (i.e. Skype).

With JAJAH Direct, anyone who with a phone can enjoy international calls for free, or at the local rate of the access number. Jajah says callers can expect to see a savings of nearly 90% versus traditional global calling plans.

How JAJAH Direct works:
1.

Posted in TMCnet, VoIP

Unified Convergence and Disaster Recovery Webinar

November 14, 2007

Unified communications - the convergence of various communications medium - presents ever increasing complexity due to the way all the various pieces communicate with one another. In some instances a single failure could be disastrous for your business continuity. In two weeks - on Wednesday, November 28, 2007, 2:00pm ET 11:00am PT, TMCNet will host a webinar on this topic. Disaster preparedness may not be sexy, but IT managers, CIOs/CTOs need to stay up on this stuff.

Oracle, Iwatsu, and SafeHatch are speaking with FaxCore moderating.

Here's the description and agenda:

National disasters like hurricanes, tornados, winter storms and fires have demonstrated repeatedly that too many companies do not have an effective plan in place to ensure business continuity.

Posted in VoIP

Viseon, Vonage Video Phone Manufacturer, Bites the Dust

November 14, 2007

Viseon Media, a video phone manufacturer, has apparently bitten the dust. Vonage was supposed to offer Viseon's VisiFone (image right) to their subscribers to compete with Packet8 which was first to market with a VoIP videophone. Obviously, Vonage decided to OEM from Viseon rather than develop their own video phone. Now, people that signed up with Vonage hoping to at some point upgrade to a videphone will have to wait till Vonage signs up another OEM video phone partner.

Posted in Packet8, Reviews, TMCnet, VoIP

Spock, Kirk, E911 for VoIP and All that Jazz

November 14, 2007

TMCNet is reporting that the House passed legislation requiring Internet telephone companies to provide customers with emergency 911 calling services. According to the article, the 911 Modernization and Public Safety Act, aims to bring Internet telephony companies in compliance with new Federal Communications Commission rules, will now allow VoIP providers, such as Skype, the ability to obtain direct access to the backbone of the E911 system.

Hmmm, E911 on Skype? That'll be interesting to see how that works. Most Skype users move from location to location since they have the ability to sign-in from any PC or they bring their laptop on the road.

Posted in VoIP

SkyStone releases new version of Skype gateway

November 14, 2007

Posted in Skype, VoIP

PBX in a Flash Asterisk Distro Launches

November 13, 2007

Ward Mundy over at Nerd Vittles informs me that tomorrow Nerd Vittles will officially launch PBX in a Flash, a new Asterisk-based distribution that bundles in the best parts of Asterisk along with some cool third-party applications. PBX in a Flash includes Asterisk 1.4.13, FreePBX 2.3.1, Apache, MySQL, PHP, phpMyAdmin, SendMail, Perl, Flite, and more. Ward sent me a preview of the news that he plans to share tomorrow. Ward hinted in a previous post that PBX in a Flash would be coming in November - well starting on Wednesday you'll be able to download and install it.

Posted in Asterisk, Linux, Reviews, VoIP

VoIPo3G Will Reach 250M Cell Phone Users by 2012?

November 13, 2007

According to the Disruptive Analysis report there will be over 250m VoIP Users Over 3G Mobile Networks by 2012. Call me a cynic, but this seems overly optimistic for 250 million users to be making VoIP over 3G calls.

6 Reasons why we Won't Reach 250M VoIPo3G users:

1) You need phones with softphone clients such as Skype, Google Talk, MSN Messenger to run on cellphones You can count on 1 hand the number of phones that can run these apps today.
2) You need phones with the processing horsepower to handle the encoding of the voice packets - possible with high-end smart phones yes, but most cellphones use slow processors to save on battery life.
3) Most people aren't going to spend $600 for an iPhone or some other high-end smartphone just to make VoIPo3G calls. Most cell phones purchased are in the $80-$180 range and are "simple" cell phones - no VoIP application support.

Posted in TMCnet, VoIP, Wireless

Microsoft Response Point Review

November 12, 2007

Microsoft Response Point, is Microsoft's foray into the SMB phone system space, offering companies of up to 50 employees to easily set up and maintain an IP-PBX with advanced functionality such as speech recognition dialing and voicemail-to-email - all at an affordable price. Response Point, which was developed under the code name 'Edinburgh', is being sold as embedded software within digital phones manufactured by Microsoft hardware partners D-Link, Quanta Syspine, and Uniden Evolo. Aastra also plans on offering a Response Point system sometime in 2008.

Inevitably, Response Point will be compared by some against its big brother Office Communications Server 2007. You can read my take on that comparison here.

Posted in Microsoft, VoIP

Sat3Play Satellite Triple Play - cool stuff!

November 9, 2007

Apparently, I don't know everything in VoIP , since I never heard of Newtec's Sat3Play until this morning. Sat3Play is a Satellite Triple Play system that offers 2-way communication to enable VoIP, Internet access, and video (IPTV). They categorize it as a "Satellite Multimedia Broadband system".

They announced today that they has won the prestigious Frost and Sullivan European Product Innovation Award, for the company's Satellite Triple Play System (Sat3Play). Hmm, I may have to consider Sat3Play for the TMC Labs Innovation Awards.

Posted in Reviews, Triple Play, VoIP

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