Tom Keating : VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Tom Keating
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VoIP

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

wIPphone VoIP service offers unlimited numbers worldwide

September 2, 2004

wIPphone is offering unlimited numbers free of charge to select cities (over 900) in the U.S. and countries worldwide. Thus, you can for instance have the ever-popular New York number, as well as a number in California, or wherever.

There FAQ states:
Can I get a regular or toll-free US phone number attached to my wIPphone?

South Africa - Welcome to the VoIP Revolution Man!

September 2, 2004

Nintendo DS offers WiFi VoIP gaming

September 1, 2004


It is being reported that the Nintendo DS has a headset port which will be used in conjunction with the built-in wireless 802.11b networking capabilities to offer VoIP chat. This will also enable gamers to use the Nintendo DS to make free phone calls or simply to talk trash while fragging your opponent.

Of course Microsoft Xbox Live already does this. But rumor has it the Nintendo DS will enable PSTN phone calls - not just gamer-to-gamer voice chat.

VoIP news hotter than ever

August 31, 2004

There has been a flurry of VoIP news, announcements, and VoIP reports, which all point to the same thing. VoIP is exploding!

For example, according to this Yankee Group VoIP release, more than one million US consumers will have subscribed to an IP telephone service by the end of this year, up from only 131,000 at the end of 2003.

The report also predicts that 17.5 million US households will be using the technology by the end of 2008.

Charter goes for the Telecom Triple Play (voice, data, video)

August 31, 2004

As of late, several phone companies have been partnering with cable and satellite TV providers to complete their triple play, while at the same time, several major cable firms are moving strongly into phone services via VoIP.

Well, my cable provider Charter Communications is set to complete the "telecom triple play" with the addition of phone service.

Service providers have long considered the so-called triple play of voice, video and data the Holy Grail because it allows them to become a customer's sole provider with one package price and one bill.

Charter announced deals Monday that will allow it to add VoIP phone services to its cable TV and cable Internet access offerings.

Death Knell for Vonage, Net2Phone, Packet8, Broadvoice, Lingo?

August 27, 2004

I was just reading this article: Net2Phone Out2Dry and it brings up some interesting points regarding the positioning of phone companies/Tier 1 carriers, cable companies, and the likes of Net2Phone, Vonage, Lingo, etc.

It discusses how Sprint picked up a cable-telephony contract from Mediacom Communications Corp. and how that could spell trouble for Net2Phone which is also trying to get a foothold in cable telephony.

The article goes on to say that the reason why Mediacom chose Sprint was because of crucial telecom features such as 911 service. Of course, a counterpoint to the 911 argument is that Vonage, which is a similar company to Net2Phone supports 911 just fine.

Get Ready for Nigerian VoIP Spam!

August 27, 2004

GET ANY DIRE AND URGENT REQUESTS TO HELP MOVE $5 MILLION DOLLARS FROM SOME NIGERIANS LATELY? (YES THE ALL CAPS IS ON PURPOSE)

Ok, back to normal case. Well, I was reading this news story, allAfrica.com: West Africa: VoIP Wears Human Face in West Africa, which talks about how VoIP is taking off in Africa.

A quote from the article states, "Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) warms-up for its regular technical meeting, focusing on the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), with theme: 'VOIP: Face to Face with The next revolution in Telecommunicating,' the recent report of Balancing Act's Africa, seems to give credence to its over-whelming deployment in the sub-Saharan Africa."

I couldn't help but think to myself "Gee, now that's just great, now I'll be receiving Nigerian VoIP spam (at little to no cost to them) that bypasses the U.S.

Volunteer Asterisk programmers adding STUN support to Asterisk

August 26, 2004

AT&T CallVantage partners with Amazon

August 25, 2004

AT&T makes deal with the devil (cable companies)

August 19, 2004

I was reading on Cnet and several other news outlets that AT&T struck some deals with Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Cox Communications, and Charter Communications. But have they struck a deal with the devil? Will the cable companies turn on AT&T? Read on...

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