Recently in VoIP Category

Ring2Skype, a new startup, brings yet another way to have free calling by leveraging both Skype and the PSTN. Ring2Skype allows you to have a free local number (in NYC, London, Madrid, etc.), forwarded to your Skype (wherever you are) -- once again for FREE.

I should point out that Skype charges you for a PSTN telephone number while Ring2Skype offers you a free number. Also, Ring2Skype provides numbers in more than 100 destinations, while Skype only has about 20. You just need to select the city where you want the number and Ring2Skype emails you the telephone number, which you can share with family and friends. Example: 212-555-1000 x1000. The local phone number assigned is shared amongst other Ring2Skype users, so you have to enter an extension, but hey it's free, so you can't complain!

Fonality folks know how to work hard and play hard as they let off some steam for Halloween. Depicted here are the CEO (Chris Lyman) and Director of Engineering (Samy Kamkar) for Fonality. I'll let you guess who is who.



While we're on the topic of Halloween, here's a short video of my wearing a skeleton/Death costume with a chest piece that squirts blood when I squeeze the heart in my hand. Alas I didn't capture that in this video, but still worth a look:

If you are in the VoIP industry and have a cool Halloween costume to share, send me a picture and I'll try and post it.

According to Infonetics Research, VoIP services brought in $21 billion for service providers in the first half of 2009. According to their report, the number of residential/SOHO VoIP subscribers is forecast to top 225 million by 2013. In other words, with about 310 million Americans that means 75% of all residential subscribers will be VoIP by 2013. Buh bye old analog PSTN landlines!
[RE: Image - Hey just be glad I didn't pick an image of Captain Kirk vs. Gorn]

"Demand for residential and business VoIP services continues to grow even as spending in other communication areas tightens. For the first half of 2009, the worldwide VoIP services market grew to $20.7 billion. Residential VoIP services remain healthy, comprising the majority of worldwide VoIP services revenue, and subscribers are up 14% from the end of 2008. On the business VoIP side, while managed IP PBX revenue growth has slowed in line with IP PBX shipments, we are expecting IP Centrex and hosted UC service revenue to grow 26% year-over-year in 2009," explains Diane Myers, directing analyst for service provider VoIP and IMS at Infonetics Research.

Report Highlights:
- IP connectivity services currently make up about a third of total VoIP business service revenue, growing to 40% of the total by 2013 (managed IP PBX services and hosted VoIP and UC services make up the balance)
- The current sweet spot of the North American IP Centrex market is small business (those with fewer than 100 employees)
> Roughly two-thirds of all IP Centrex seats sold in the first half of 2009 went to small businesses
- While the largest VoIP services opportunities are in North America and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa), demand for VoIP services is growing fast in Asia Pacific and Central and Latin America
- For the first half of 2009, Japan's NTT, France Telecom, and Comcast in North America retain their leadership as the world's largest residential VoIP service providers, together holding nearly 20% of the world's VoIP subscribers

Hosted VoIP is making great strides, but there is often one problem - with hosted VoIP you don't get desktop call control. Well, today SimpleSignal introduced its Call Control Toolbar, which adds advanced business VoIP calling features while leveraging their hosted environment. Personally, I am very computer-centric and hate managing my phone calls using the phone. Why use an antiquated TUI (telephone user interface) to setup a conference when you can use a GUI and drag-and-drop conference participants? So I've enjoyed the use of several desktop call control applications over the years, including Comdial's CTI app, Artisoft TeleVantage (R.I.P),  Fonality's HUD client, and more. I've also used Vonage's (hosted residential service) Vonage Pro, a feature-rich desktop call control app.

In any event, the Call Control Toolbar (image right) is an Adobe Air-based application that floats anywhere on a user's desktop for instant access to a range of calling feature controls. The Call Control Toolbar does not require users to launch a web browser.

"One of the biggest challenges we discovered in our customer research was that our Hosted PBX customers were not using incredibly efficient calling features like simultaneous ring, remote office and voice messaging, or even more basic functions such as speed dial," said Dave Gilbert, founder and president of SimpleSignal, "either because they didn't know how or didn't want to be bothered with logging into a web portal to set up or change their IP phone settings.

"The SimpleSignal Call Control Toolbar eliminates these hassles for users," Gilbert continued. "The controls are user-friendly and always available in the background on a user's desktop, so it's easy to make quick, on-the-fly changes to IP phone settings. "

The SimpleSignal Call Control Toolbar also features call notification screen pops. When a user receives an incoming call, a small window pops up at the bottom of the user's computer screen with complete caller ID information. Users can also answer the call directly from the screen pop.

The Call Control Toolbar is provided free of charge for SimpleSignal's Hosted PBX customers.

Features that can be managed by the toolbar include:

• Simultaneous Ring for up to six numbers
• Remote Office, which displays your office number on caller ID regardless of which phone is being used
• Outbound Dialing by entering the phone number or copying and pasting into Toolbar window
• Speed Dial for six numbers
• Sequential Ring for up to six numbers
• Voice Messaging Control (http://www.simplesignal.com/feat_Visual-Voicemail.php), including email notifications and transfer upon dialing "0"
• Call Forwarding Always
• Call Forwarding Busy
• Call Forwarding No Answer
• Do Not Disturb

Today, Microsemi is launching a new line of midspans which feature integrated lightning protection. This marks the first time a PoE midspan features lightning protection. As more and more PoE devices are used outdoors, including outdoor wireless Access Points (APs), outdoor security cameras, and more, having lightning protection is critical. One lightning bolt strike and it can wipe out your entire networking and IT infrastructure. While lightning is great & all since it bestows Captain Marvel his super powers, when it comes to networking equipment, not so much.

The new PowerDsine 9001G-40/SP is a single-port, high-power Gigabit solution for remotely powering both current and emerging high-power networking terminals and equipment while also providing surge protection optimized for outdoor devices such as security cameras and wireless LAN access points.


                 Rear product view

According to Microsemi, "Until now, PoE could only be deployed safely outdoors with a costly surge-protection unit installed alongside it, to prevent direct or nearby lightning strikes from damaging or destroying both the powered devices and their network switch. Surge and lightning protection units can cost from $250 to $400."

"A high percentage of outdoor PoE installations, especially in the enterprise, do not implement surge protection units because of their high cost or a lack of awareness," said Sani Ronen, senior product manager for Microsemi's PowerDsine midspans. "Nearby lightning strikes are much more common than most people think. Strikes as far as a mile away can induce a voltage level that can damage outdoor devices. Without lightning protection, surges also can move quickly along the Ethernet cable to damage expensive indoor network switches. Our new midspan delivers that protection at a cost savings of as much as 50 percent."

Microsemi's newest midspan has been tested successfully to the GR-1089 lightning standard for surges up to 2500V/500A. It can power devices designed for either the IEEE 802.3af standard, or the recently ratified IEEE802.3at standard for high power over Ethernet applications.

The 9001G-40/SP offers up to 40W of power which means it can support power-hungry devices such as 802.11n access points, pan-tilt-zoom cameras and WiMAX customer premises equipment.

"The 9001G-40/SP was designed to deliver the latest benefits of the new high-power 802.3at standard while also offering a cost-effective, single-box solution for powering and simultaneously protecting outdoor PoE systems from lightning damage or destruction," Ronen said.

KEY FEATURES
- Interoperability with IEEE802.3af and IEEE802.3at devices
- Lightning protection up to 2500V/500A
- 10/100/100-BaseT support

Pricing and Availability
The PD-9001G-40/SP Midspan is available in production for a unit list price of $119. Additional information is available at Microsemi's website here: http://www.microsemi/PowerDsine.com.

In a fascinating deal, IBM and Digium announced today that they are teaming up to offer Asterisk for Smart Cube, a customized version of Asterisk Business Edition. IBM's Smart Cube is very similar to Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS), a pre-packaged bundle of various IT & business applications - except in this case Smart Cube is based on Linux not Windows.

Businesses using Smart Cube can be up and running with a complete IT solution to run their business, including the operating system, integrated middleware, database, security and back-office functionality such as file, print, backup and recovery, and more. Extending the IBM Smart Cube to IP telephony and unified communications is a natural extension of the Smart Cube.

Asterisk for Smart Cube has administration capabilities built right into the Smart Cube Smart Desk GUI, which is perfect for the SMB. Asterisk initially ran on rPath but now uses the very popular CentOS distribution. IBM on the other hand is very partial to SuSe Linux. thus one of the technical challenges IBM and Digium worked on was getting Asterisk Business Edition to run on the SuSE Linux platform. Additionally they worked on seamlessly integrating it into the Smart Desk GUI.

How this affects Digium's own home-grown Switchvox SMB offering remains to be seen. But Digium gaining access to IBM's huge distribution and reseller channel is great news for Digium.

Via internetnews.com

If you're running Office Communications Server or LCS whatever you do, don't install KB974571 or you will cause the LCS or OCS server to state you are running the evaluation version and then say it has expired. Poof! - There goes your corporate unified communications (UC) followed by a parade of your coworkers carrying pitchforks & torches looking to find out why their UC isn't working. How widespread this patch is affecting OCS/LCS installs worldwide is unknown.

KB97451 is also known as  "MS09-056: Vulnerabilities in CryptoAPI could allow spoofing" and it was released just yesterday on Patch Tuesday. If you use WSUS or Windows Update to automatically download/install patches, you might be surprised this Wednesday morning to find your OCS/LCS server has failed. Didn't we have Patch Tuesday cause another major outage? (See: Skype Outage & Skype Outage caused by Windows Update)

If you apply the patch, the LCS/OCS services fail to start and you see these errors in the event log:

Event Type:        Error
Event Source:    Live Communications Server
Event Category:                (1000)
Event ID:              12290     
Description:
The evaluation period for Microsoft Office Live Communication Server 2005 has expired. Obtain the released version of this product and upgrade to the non-evaluation version by running setup.exe

Uninstalling the patch is the only way to fix it. According to the Microsoft OCS blog, "The issue is currently being escalated, but until a fix can be found, delaying the install of KB974571 is recommended."

You can also read more about it here.

The big news last week was how AT&T grants denies us mobile VoIP freedom. Just last week I wrote how AT&T had "granted" us mobile VoIP freedom by finally allowing SIP port 5060 on their 3G data network. I was able to use siphon, a SIP-based application on my jailbroken iPhone to register with TMC's IP-PBX and make/receive phone calls.

Well apparently, AT&T must read my blog or something, because once again SIP port 5060 is blocked. I tried siphon on my iPhone this morning and now it won't register. I tested port 5060 and it is indeed blocked. Alas, so no more SIP calls using siphon. The AT&T Overlord giveth, and the AT&T Overlord taketh away.

Hey FCC, can you give AT&T a little smackdown for me please? Just last week AT&T announced it was allowing VoIP over 3G, so why the inconsistency? Is it because siphon is a jailbroken app and not an "official" iTunes app?  I doubt it. I doubt AT&T is able to detect what iPhone application is making an outbound connection. That would be a form of spyware if AT&T knew exactly which iPhone applications you were using. So seems to me that AT&T is still blocking VoIP calling over their 3G data connection. AT&T is talking a big game about being "open", but they aren't backing it up. I'm sure they'll blame it on some network glitch or something. AT&T could be dragging their feet on allowing VoIP over their 3G network hoping the mere "huge" announcement of support for VoIP over 3G will get the FCC off their backs. It's time for the FCC to stop AT&T's stalling tactics. I want my mobile VoIP freedom and I want it now!

On September 17th I wrote about how siphon, a SIP app for the iPhone was working over 3G for me in Los Angeles but not in Connecticut. Apparently, port 5060, the SIP port was blocked in Connecticut but not in Los Angeles. Sources have informed me that AT&T was trialing opening up port 5060 nationwide but was first opening it up in select cities, including Los Angeles. I guess I was onto the "big news" about AT&T now allowing VoIP over 3G calls and didn't know it.

I just tried siphon again in Connecticut, which just a few weeks ago was not working, and whaddya know? It works! I was able to register an extension to my Asterisk-based IP-PBX and make an intercom call to my coworker. Quality was superb over the 3G data connection. I was also able to receive a call. Since my iPhone is jailbroken, I was able to set siphon to run in the background and receive inbound calls while checking my email. Sweet! Being able to make and receive SIP calls on the iPhone is certainly a game changer.

Here's a screenshot of me connected over 3G. I blurred out TMC's SIP server for obvious reasons:


Of course, it isn't just SIP VoIP calls that work over 3G now. Before AT&T's announcement to allow VoIP over 3G, Skype was limited to just WiFi but now it too works over 3G. Allhough there were "hacks" to get around the WiFi limitation by using VoIPover3G or 3G Unrestrictor. I've been using these hacks for awhile to make Skype over 3G calls. Guess these hacks are no longer needed. Though Skype will have to release a new software update to allow VoIP over 3G calls. By default it tells you it isn't allowed. This also means all the other SIP-based applications in the Apple App Store will have to release new versions that remove the 3G restriction. It might take some time for your favorite VoIP app to be released that allows 3G data calls, but it is coming.

So what does this mean for mobile VoIP? Well, AT&T has just opened the door for iPhone users to use inexpensive SIP termination service providers of their choice. Of course, most mobile phone users already have a free bucket (3500, 5000, etc.) of minutes, so this may not mean much to them. The big deal may only come into play when making expensive international calls. Then again, teenagers can use 3500 minutes in a week, so having a supplemental service (VoIP over 3G) that can help them avoid overage charges could be huge for the teenage demographic.

Lastly, businesses will find it useful because now employees can have a single-number identity. Coworkers can just dial a fellow coworkers extension and it can ring their iPhone over 3G. No need to know the cell phone number, which the coworker may wish to keep private anyway. Although there are some complexities involved with having a desktop phone and an iPhone registering simultaneously with the same SIP credentials for an extension. Vonage solved the dual SIP-credentials dilemma, so I'm sure the IP-PBX manufacturers will figure it out as well. Outbound single-number identity works beautifully as well. Now employees can make calls using the CallerID of the corporation and not their iPhone's phone number, thus retaining the privacy of their cell number.

Finally AT&T has granted us mobile VoIP freedom... So I have one last thing to say...
F R E E D O M !!!!


Update 10/12/09:
Apparently, AT&T must read my blog or something, because once again SIP port 5060 is blocked. No more SIP calls using siphon. The AT&T Overlord giveth, and the AT&T Overlord taketh away.

My oh my! Things just got very interesting in the mobile VoIP space. Check this out:

Begin forwarded message:

From: Chaim Haas
Date: October 6, 2009 5:13:14 PM EDT
To:
Subject: Skype statement: AT&T to allow 3G Skype calls

Josh Silverman, President of Skype, issued the following statement regarding AT&T's announcement today that it has taken the steps necessary so that Apple can enable VoIP applications on the iPhone to run over AT&T's 3G wireless network:

"Since launching our iPhone application six months ago, consumers have downloaded and installed Skype on 10% of all iPhone and iPod touch devices sold. This clearly demonstrates that our customers are extremely interested in taking Skype conversations with them on the go on the iPhone. We applaud today's announcement by AT&T to open up its 3G network to Internet calling applications such as Skype. It is the right step for AT&T, Apple, millions of mobile Skypers and the Internet itself. Nonetheless, the positive actions of one company are no substitute for a government policy that protects openness and benefits consumers and we look forward to further innovations that will enable even more mobile Skype calling."

http://share.skype.com/sites/en/2009/10/good_move_att.html.

Chaim Haas
Vice President
646.747.3557 (direct)
646.652.6331 (SkypeIn)
908.244.6525 (mobile)
skype me! chaimhaas

Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/chaimhaas

KAPLOW
19 West 44th Street, 6th floor
New York, New York 10036
212.221.1713
changing conversations®

Get Skype and call me for free.

From: Chaim Haas
Date: October 6, 2009 5:13:14 PM EDT
To: 
Subject: Skype statement: AT&T to allow 3G Skype calls

Josh Silverman, President of Skype, issued the following statement regarding AT&T's announcement today that it has taken the steps necessary so that Apple can enable VoIP applications on the iPhone to run over AT&T's 3G wireless network:

 

"Since launching our iPhone application six months ago, consumers have downloaded and installed Skype on 10% of all iPhone and iPod touch devices sold. This clearly demonstrates that our customers are extremely interested in taking Skype conversations with them on the go on the iPhone. We applaud today's announcement by AT&T to open up its 3G network to Internet calling applications such as Skype. It is the right step for AT&T, Apple, millions of mobile Skypers and the Internet itself. Nonetheless, the positive actions of one company are no substitute for a government policy that protects openness and benefits consumers and we look forward to further innovations that will enable even more mobile Skype calling."

 

http://share.skype.com/sites/en/2009/10/good_move_att.html.

 

 

 

 

Chaim Haas
Vice President
646.747.3557 (direct)
646.652.6331 (SkypeIn)
908.244.6525 (mobile)
skype me! chaimhaas

Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/chaimhaas

 

KAPLOW
19 West 44th Street, 6th floor
New York, New York 10036
212.221.1713
changing conversations®

 

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Get Skype and call me for free.