TMCnet

VoIP Phone for $19.99? What?

July 1, 2010

On Buy.com I came across a VoIP phone listed for $19.99. The product description catches my eye because it says "VoIP/Skype Desktop IP Phone w/Digital Answering System - Use Your Internet Connection to Make Calls! - PH210-PB". So it's a Skype VoIP phone with a digital answering machine.

Posted in SIP, Skype, TMCnet, VoIP

Cisco Cius HD Android Tablet

June 30, 2010

Cisco unveiled Cisco Cius, a business tablet running on the Android OS that offers "virtual desktop integration with anywhere, anytime access to the full range of Cisco collaboration and communication applications, including HD video." Now before you think iPad killer, you should know that Cisco is focusing this tablet on the business enterprise not the consumer market. It sports WiFi, 3G, and soon 4G when it becomes available. Nice! It also has a front-mounted 720p HD camera supporting 30fps.

I should add that many enterprises are using iPads as laptop replacements, so I wouldn't classify the iPad as strictly a consumer product.

Posted in Android, Cisco, TMCnet, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, VoIP

Skype Manager Reports - FAIL!

June 29, 2010

A couple of months ago I wrote 'Googlebye Skype Business Control Panel Hello Skype Manager!' , which is a web-based management tool that replaced Skype Business Control Panel (BCP). Well, can we have the old Skype Business Control Panel back? I just logged in today to check out some reports of international test calls I made. Every report I ran for each of the Skype users came up blank as seen here:

In the Reports screen I went to Summary and then Usage.

Posted in Skype, TMCnet, VoIP

Global Dialer - Cheap Minutes App - is Gone

June 29, 2010

A reader to my blog tipped me off to Global Dialer going out of business. They had a proprietary software application that you download directly onto your mobile phone that enabled you to make low-cost, 'one-click' international calls. The screenshot of their calling rates is from 2006 when I first wrote about them. Rates listed here have certainly come down since then.

According to Whois, the registration for the website was created in 2001 and expires in October 2010.

Posted in Mobile Phones, Skype, TMCnet, VoIP

Enterprise Unified Communication, VoIP & TDM Equipment 2010 (1Q10) forecast report

June 28, 2010

Infonetics Research released the 1Q10 results from its first quarter 2010 (1Q10) Enterprise Unified Communication, VoIP, and TDM Equipment forecast report. In it they point to how Cisco and Avaya battle for supremacy in enterprise telephony market with Avaya closing the gap with Cisco due to their Nortel acquisition. Could Avaya finally knock Cisco off their #1 IP-PBX perch?

Here's the news:

ANALYST NOTE
"We expected the acquisition of Nortel's enterprise assets to put Avaya in the clear lead for overall PBX equipment market share leadership, and while Avaya did receive a nice bump this quarter, softness in the acquired Nortel business combined with strong results by Cisco meant that Cisco and Avaya essentially tied for revenue market share, although Avaya is ahead in terms line shipments. This unfolding battle will be interesting to watch over the coming quarter, as both companies bring certain strengths and weaknesses to the table," notes Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise voice and data at Infonetics Research.

1Q10 MARKET HIGHLIGHTS
- Cisco maintains its lead in the overall enterprise telephony market in 1Q10, but only by a hair over Avaya, which saw a 25% quarterly jump in PBX revenue after absorbing Nortel's enterprise solutions business
> Both vendors posted their strongest PBX revenue standings since the end of 2008
- Manufacturer revenue from PBX and KTS system equipment hit $2.0 billion in 1Q10, a 4% sequential dip
- Despite the quarterly decline, the enterprise telephony market continues to grow from the lows set in the first half of 2009, and is up 7% year-over-year from the first quarter of 2009
- The North American PBX equipment market posted the highest year-over-year (1Q09 to 1Q10) growth among all regions
- IP phones continue to recover from their 1Q09 low point, up 32% year-over-year to 3.9 million phones shipped in 1Q10
- Sales of unified communication (UC) applications are temporarily down due to expired promotions
> The UC market, led by Cisco and Avaya, is expected to resume growth in 2010

REPORT SYNOPSIS
Infonetics' quarterly Enterprise Unified Communication, VoIP, and TDM Equipment report provides worldwide and regional market size, market share, analysis, and forecasts through 2014 for the enterprise telephony market, including TDM PBX and KTS systems, hybrid and pure IP PBX systems, IP PBX by system size, VoIP gateways, unified communication applications (communicator, unified messaging), IP desk phones and IP soft phones.

Posted in Avaya, Cisco, Nortel, ShoreTel, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP

Cracking IP-PBX SIP Passwords - Be Afraid!

June 28, 2010

A few years ago I had an email conversation with Chris Lyman, the former CEO of Fonality, the makers of trixbox IP-PBX systems. I expressed concern that their trixbox Pro system was using the MAC address both for the password and the username, which for obvious reasons isn't very secure.

Below is the email conversation slightly edited for security and clarification reasons, followed by some further thoughts on SIP security:
________

Chris,
Security is going to be a huge competitive advantage after we see some high profile VoIP intrusions.

How bout forcing users to change their voicemail PIN after X number of days? TMC's voicemail was hacked many years ago. (see link/story below)

More importantly, how about automatically changing extension passwords every month and then flash all of the phones with the new passwords at 3am?

Posted in Asterisk, Polycom, SIP, TMCnet, VoIP

No Facetime friends? Call 1-888-FACETIME

June 25, 2010

Posted in Apple, Mobile Phones, TMCnet, Video Conferencing, VoIP, Wireless

Yealink SIP-T28P Review

June 24, 2010

Yealink
, a Chinese manufacturer of IP phones is starting to make inroads in the U.S. market with their line of VoIP phones. Several months ago Yealink sent me a Yealink SIP-T28P IP phone to review. The SIP-T28P is a 6-line phone sporting a large 320x160 LCD screen and has full HD voice support (wideband codec, wideband handset, wideband speakerphone) .

Posted in Polycom, Reviews, SIP, TMCnet, VoIP