VoIP

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

Could VoIP market become fragmented?

August 9, 2004

One of the beauties of VoIP is its openness, its adherence to industry standards, and its ability to easily route calls across the public Internet or private networks. Unfortunately, many VoIP startups are building their own proprietary networks (i.e. their own “islands”) that don't communicate with each other.

For example, say you sign-up with Vonage and then you make a call to a Packet8 user.

Posted in VoIP

In Search of a Linux-based PBX 3 years later

August 7, 2004

In the November 2001 issue of Communications Solutions Magazine I wrote about my quest to find an open-source Linux-based PBX. I actually wrote the article in August 2001 (magazine lead time), so it is exactly 3 years ago that I wrote that article.

I remember thinking "Linux is taking off everywhere, why hasn't it taken off in telephony?" I did find a few companies such as Picazo (which was bought by Dialogic and then acquired by Telecor). Where they are today is anyone's guess.

Posted in VoIP

Verizon to battle Vonage for VoIP broadband supremacy

July 26, 2004

Well, first it was AT&T, now another major carrier is jumping on the broadband VoIP bandwagon. Verizon has announced residential VoIP over broadband to compete with Vonage and AT&T's offerings (amongst others, i.e. Packet8, VoicePulse, etc.).

Vonage still reigns as king, and Vonage has a much more flexible pricing structure than either AT&T or Verizon (which is more expensive @ $39.95 per month or $34.95/month if you have Verizon DSL).

Posted in VoIP

VoIP Developer Conference around the corner...

July 26, 2004

Posted in VoIP

SS8 Networks Best Guess Algorithm

July 20, 2004

This press release gave me a chuckle. It uses a "best guess" technique to figure out where the call should be routed. Computer: "Hmmmm, I think this VoIP call should go here. Oh wait...

Posted in VoIP

Computer Telephony without Telephony Boards

June 25, 2004

I just read a news release from Uniqall that discusses Moore's law and the affect that VoIP has had on eliminating the need for hardware telephony boards (i.e. Dialogic/Intel) and instead using software-based host media processors for all of the media processing.

This is similar to Intel's NetStructure Host Media Processing (HMP) which is also software-based and uses the Pentium chip for processing. Anything to make you upgrade to the latest and greatest Pentium, right?

Posted in VoIP

Yahoo Messenger adds new VoIP capabilities

June 22, 2004

Anyone that currently uses Yahoo! Messenger knows it already has a "push to talk" capability that lets you talk PC-to-PC to someone on your buddy list.

Well, at SuperComm 2004, Yahoo announced it would be supporting "click to call" over the PSTN for making PC-to-phone calls. Two possible PSTN providers include SBC Communications and Verizon Communications, which utilize Sylantro's VoIP infrastructure that Yahoo also uses.

With Yahoo's strong presence in the IM space, seeing them getting into VoIP with PSTN access capabilities will surely cause some heads to turn, especially Microsoft (Messenger) and AOL (Instant Messenger).

Posted in VoIP

Xbox Live Brings VoIP to the Masses

June 18, 2004

There have been quite a few news stories on Microsoft's XBOX Live service doing fairly well.

Microsoft has more than 750,000 customers paying an average of $50 a year to access Xbox Live and logging approximately 500,000 hours of online game play each day. Not too shabby to think of 500,000 VoIP hours or 30,000,000 VoIP minutes per day!

I should mention that I have an Xbox connected to my 65" Mitsubishi TV set with full Dolby/DTS 7.1 surround sound and a subwoofer that makes the walls shake when I blow something up in a game...

Posted in VoIP

Invores Systems integrates with Asterisk open source IP-PBX

June 17, 2004

Invores Systems has a SIP-based VoIP VoiceXML gateway platform called EXpress2.0™ that they have integrated with Asterisk's open source IP-PBX.

Asterisk is certainly making waves in the VoIP space due to the fact that it is open source and I welcome third-parties offering solutions to Asterisk's platform.

I have no doubt that the old days of proprietary PBXs and complex integration (ala CTI) are nearly gone.

Standards in the PBX/telecom world are here to stay - they finally caught up with the data/network world.

Posted in VoIP

Voiceglo Linux-based Telephone using a Wi-Fi Router

June 2, 2004

I thought this bit of VoIP news was quite interesting:
Voiceglo Introduces Linux-based Telephone in a Wireless Wi-Fi Router

Basically, Voiceglo Internet PBX integrates with any Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) router and can be used with cordless phone systems, analog phone systems, digital phone systems and Wi-Fi- capable PC’s.

If I understand this product correctly, it sounds like this product essentially is IP-Centrex for the small business/SOHO environment. You hook up one of these boxes to your WiFi connection and then you get up 2 – 10 lines in small homes and businesses and up to 254 lines (per Wi-Fi router) in larger scale PBX deployments. Voiceglo acts as the ITSP providing the termination to PSTN phone numbers and charging just $24.99 per month for unlimited calling in the United States and Canada.

Posted in VoIP

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