Peer-to-Peer phone system for the SMB - No PBX Required

Tom Keating : VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Tom Keating
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Peer-to-Peer phone system for the SMB - No PBX Required

I've written about Peerio/Popular Telephony in the past in regards to their P2P VoIP solutions. There have been some criticisms that Popular Telephony is "vaporware" or that it doesn't work. I doubt that is the case since Popular Telephony has offered me to look at and test their software on a few occasions, but alas, I've been too busy to test it. So many VoIP products to test, so little time. :(

In any event, Popular Telephony today came out with some interesting news I thought I'd share...

POPULAR TELEPHONY ANNOUNCES A PBX-LESS PEER-TO-PEER IP PHONE FOR THE SMB MARKET

(Sophia Antipolis, France) February 21, 2005. Popular Telephony today introduced Peerio ONE+ONE™, a breakthrough peer-to-peer (P2P) IP phone for SMB users offering advanced embedded PBX functionality that eliminates the need for small and medium sized enterprises to own and maintain in-premises IP PBX and related VoIP equipment or outsource their communications to hosted services providers.

Once plugged into an enterprise LAN, Peerio ONE+ONE™ serverless phones identify each other and interconnect, allowing communications networks to be federated regardless of network or carrier. “An IP PBX in a pod”, said Popular Telephony founder and CEO Dmitry Goroshevsky. “The Peerio ONE+ONE™ terminals serve themselves, enabling plug-and-play networking, by delivering a full range of PBX-like and other advanced functionalities.”

With an IP media gateway integrated in the firmware, Peerio ONE+ONE™ phones provide direct calling access to public networks. In addition, an autonomous, built-in 4-port 10/100 data switch enables owners to provision an entire small office computer network, eliminating the need for exterior hubs and data switches.

Peerio ONE+ONE™ devices are fully compatible with PeerioBiz™, a free peer-to-peer software client for the PC, and use an intuitive feature synchronization function to download additional on-demand communications features and applications into terminals, giving enterprises an access to the best services at a lowest price.

Peerio ONE+ONE™ is based on the award winning Popular Telephony Peerio™ middleware, a major advance in peer-to-peer autonomous network design. Peerio™ advances the transition to a new economy with smarter ways of communicating, slashing up to 80% of all costs associated with traditional VoIP systems as well as recurrent hosted service charges.

“Our goal was to create a most integrated and powerful IP Phone, and I’m excited about this product capabilities. This device is really a powerful illustration on how intelligence has moved to end points from central place. It is underlining the necessity of deploying a true P2P architecture in today’s advanced networks. But it is also the most intuitive and plug and play IP Phone that will bring true add value to any SMB network.” added Dmitry Goroshevsky.

Intelligent phones that talk to each other

At the heart of every ONE+ONE™ terminal is an award winning Peerio™ middleware that works by internally distributing the network’s intelligence among ONE+ONE™ terminals and PeerioBiz™ software clients. Two or more ONE+ONE devices, or/and PeerioBiz™ clients, form a reliable, feature-rich and affordable enterprise communications network - without the cost of an IP PBX or hosted service. The access to PSTN is achieved directly from each terminal via an embedded one port IP gateway or, alternatively, via the PeerioAway™ end-to-end VoIP connectivity package, that leverages the wholesale globally available high-quality network service provider platforms from leading VoIP underlying carrier. The package components include E-911, local numbers, local number portability, operator assistance, directory listings and directory assistance.

Phones that function as a system

Peerio ONE+ONE™ carries a built-in set of most-commonly used and high-level telephony features and services. Voice mail, auto attendant, call routing, answering systems, conferencing facilities and others will give your small business the enhanced productivity features that large companies pay millions of dollars to implement – and it’s included in ONE+ONE™. Station features such as hold, transfer, conference, forwarding, override, call-park, voice mail and others can be accessed and implemented from any terminal, following user authentication. Hundreds more features (collaboration, mobility, presence and much more) as well as advanced data applications could be downloaded with PeerioBiz™ PC client or directly from a product website, on a $1.99-per-feature basis, and charged into ONE+ONE™ terminals in a snap.

Peerio ONE+ONE™ features a large high-contrast backlit LCD display with an adjustable viewing angle. The graphic interface and operability guarantee an intuitive, hassle-free user experience.

A do-it-yourself telephony, without limits Interconnection between Peerio ONE+ONE™ devices is transparent and efficient, requiring no LAN, VPN or WLAN re-configuration. When you add a new phone it waits for the user number and password and then it joins the network. Each connected device is ready to communicate. Need another extension? Just add another Peerio ONE+ONE™ phone, and since Peerio™ is truly scalable there is no limitation on the number of terminals in the network.

Management administration and maintenance are supported through a set up on-screen menu of any Peerio ONE+ONE™ terminal that can access the LAN. Complex codes are replaced by simple buttons that takes seconds to learn and even less time to use.

Valuable convergence
Peerio ONE+ONE™ is more than a plain vanilla telephony. The Linux-based terminal is powered by AMD 300 MHz MIPS processor with 32 Mb of RAM, dedicated Digital Signal Processor and has an embedded 4-port 10/100 Mb autonomous data switch with dedicated one port PSTN gateway. The high performance embedded switch allows users to reliably construct an entire data network on the base of ONE+ONE™ terminals where with only 4 devices joint you obtain a built-in 12-port data switch for your computers and other peripherals. A media gateway integrated in each terminal gives you a seamless PSTN access. Peerio ONE+ONE™ is the most powerful IP telephony platform ever designed and is a great value for money.

Pricing and availability
Peerio ONE+ONE™ IP phone is available to authorized Peerio Partners starting from today. It will be available to the general public on March 15, 2006 at the CeBIT Expo for a suggested retail price of $249 US from Peerio Partner Resellers.

PeerioBiz™ v. 1.1 (Beta) software client is available for a free download at www.peerio.com with the additional downloadable features are available by pressing an Upgrade button on either Peerio ONE+ONE™ terminal or PeerioBiz™ software.
The commercial availability of the PeerioAway™ connectivity package is due at the end of Q1 2006.



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