VoIP Blog - VoIP News, Gadgets

VoIP news hotter than ever

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.

A research report issued last week by Synergy Research Group concurs that VoIP sales are on the rise. According to the report, the worldwide enterprise IP telephony market grew about 75 percent in the second quarter of this year to $728 million, up from $414.7 million the same quarter last year.

This IP Telephony Hots Up article talks about how the Australian IP telephony market is hotting up, with around 60 per cent of medium and large companies set to deploy the technology by 2007.

According to the IDC study, one in seven medium and large companies (14 per cent) have already deployed IP telephony and another 47 per cent will be implementing it in the next three years. IDC stated this uptake represented almost a $1 billion market for enterprise IP telephony equipment and VoIP services.

Further, IDC predicts that VoIP revenue will grow from $3.3 billion to a massive $15 billion+ by 2007!

A CNet article titled "VoIP picks up momentum" also discusses the growth of VoIP.

But if you really want proof in the pudding that VoIP is hot, check out this GoogleFight, which compares the number of Google results for two keywords. So I compared two hot keywords - "VoIP" and "Britney Spears".

Considering all the porn sites that add Britney Spears name to their website promising nude photos of her, as well as hundreds of Britney Spear fan sites, etc. who do you think will win?

Is it VoIP or Britney Spears?
Click here to find out:
GoogleFight - VoIP vs. Britney Spears

And just for fun, here are some other interesting Google Fights:
GoogleFight - George Bush vs. John Kerry
GoogleFight - Tom Keating vs. Jeff Pulver

Ok, I win that Google Fight, but that's not fair since my name is a bit more common than Jeff Pulver's. Ok, I'll make the fight fairer by adding "voip" to end of my name so only my VoIP articles come up even though I also write gadget, call center, wireless, and other types of articles which will be excluded.
GoogleFight - Tom Keating voip vs. Jeff Pulver
Well, looks like I win that Google Fight too. Maybe Jeff needs to start blogging more! : )

Skype Lauches Apple Mac OS X version

Skype has launched an Apple version of their popular P2P VoIP client.

The nine million people using Skype's Internet telephony service will now be able to chat to Mac OS X users.

You can download the beta version from Skype's website.

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

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. Local Charter customers are already receiving fliers touting the Internet phone service as "coming to your area soon."

How "soon" was not specified in the flier or in a press release announcing the deals.

The flier states that customers will be able to keep their existing phone number and hypes "simple" calling plans that feature unlimited local and long-distance calling plans for "one low price", although prices are not given.

Charter's entry into VoIP just reaffirms my suspicions that VoIP players such as AT&T, Vonage, Packet8, Broadvoice, etc. could be "on the outside looking in" since they "need the broadband cable providers to provide VoIP access". I discussed this very real possiblity here:
Death Knell for Vonage, Net2Phone, Packet8, Broadvoice, Lingo?

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

as well as here: AT&T is not a phone company - they're "a networking company"

I'm currently a Vonage user and I also use Charter for my cable TV and broadband service. I should state that I'm a loyal and happy Vonage customer, but if Charter can offer a good package deal that lowers my overall monthly cost, then I'm afraid I may have to jump ship from Vonage to Charter.

The fact that I can keep my phone number makes it that much easier to not be married (or chained) to any telecom provider. Now features and especially price will be the deciding factors and not losing your phone number.

It is interesting times indeed in the telecom world!

Aruba Wireless and Ortronics Wi-Jack - the First WiFi Wall Outlet

I came across an interesting release that claims they have developed the world's first Wi-Fi wall outlet.

Here's an excerpt:
Aruba Wireless Networks (Aruba) and Ortronics Inc., a global leader in enterprise structured cabling systems, today announced they have developed the world’s first Wi-Fi wall outlet.

Today, most access points (APs) are deployed in the ceiling at significant cost and on-going operational expense. By deploying Wi-Fi wall outlets as part of a structured wireless system, corporations can now cost-effectively build high-capacity, high performance wireless environments that can be easily managed from a central point.

You can read the full release here:Ortronics.com | Company News - Press Release

AT&T David Dorman interview on VoIP and AT&T's plans

Andy Abramson's blog brought to my attention an interesting interview of AT&T's David Dorman where he discusses AT&T's future direction, including how VoIP will play in AT&T's plans. Overall, Dorman does a good job at deflecting some of the "rumors" about AT&T setting itself up to be sold (which I just recently blogged here)

You can play the AT&T interview here.

AT&T is not a phone company - they're "a networking company"

Fool.com: Ma Bell Up for Sale? [Motley Fool Take] August 23, 2004

This article has an interesting "theory" that with AT&T's latest financial and marketing moves, including a strong push for VoIP offerings (AT&T CallVantage), that AT&T is setting itself up for sale or takeover bid. This is an incredible claim if it is true. Is it possible that the exponential growth of VoIP has expedited the demise of a traditional carrier? I'm not ready to buy into that theory just yet. However, I will say that the growth of VoIP has forced carriers to change their business models, including AT&T's.

If only the carriers listed to Rich Tehrani and myself in 1998 when we launched Internet Telephony Magazine. We knew VoIP would one day before a feasible business model, but instead the carriers looked at us like we were crazy and said, "You’re crazy. VoIP is for hobbyists and chat. There are no business applications for Internet Telephony." Boy, were they wrong! (Side note: Remember VocalTec’s Internet Phone product sold at CompUSA, one of the first VoIP applications?)

It only took the carriers 6 years to come around, but I think they finally get it.

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

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.

But certainly it is possible that the Tier 1 carriers can offer advanced features that Vonage, Packet8, Lingo, etc. cannot offer.

In fact, AT&T CallVantage has some really cool features that some of the other boradband VoIP players do not. In fact, an AT&T insider told me, "Other cool features are on the way that will blow away Vonage." Whether that is true or not remains to be seen. In my opinion, AT&T CallVantage needs to come down in price then worry about the features. Or at least offer a base feature set with a low monthly cost and then offer some ala-carte features for say $1/month per feature. This way they can compete price-wise with the likes of Lingo, Packet8, Vonage, etc.

The deal between Sprint (a phone company) and Mediacom (a cable company) brings to mind my argument just last week where I argued that the cable companies could pull a Benedict Arnold on AT&T and take VoIP customers for themselves.

I argued in that blog entry (AT&T makes deal with the devil (cable companies)), that it "Seems to me AT&T could be shooting itself in the foot. In fact, several cable companies already offer voice. For example, CableVision offers Optimum Voice (voice over cable). It certainly seems to be strange bedfellows to me, but maybe I'm missing the big picture."

Andy Abramson offered some good counterpoints to this in the comments section of my blog entry.

Putting that argument aside for a moment, maybe now with AT&T and Sprint brokering deals with cable companies, small VoIP broadband companies like Vonage, Lingo, and Broadvoice will be on the outside looking in. Could this spell the death knell for Vonage, Net2Phone, Packet8, Broadvoice, and Lingo? You tell me...

Hmmm, It Looks like an Ipod It Smells like an Ipod, Gee it is an Ipod!

Hewlett-Packard (HP) has been hinting at their HP-branded iPod for some time now.

Cnet is reporting the details of the HP-branded iPod which is called Apple iPod from HP.

Check out the article and specifications here:HP tips its hand on new iPod | CNET News.com

Basically, the specifications are exactly the same! I would have expected HP to add some value to the HP version, such as some new feature or tighter integration with Windows. But alas, it seems to me like all HP did was slap their HP logo on the iPod.

Get Ready for Nigerian VoIP Spam!

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. Do Not Call (DNC) Lists and is almost impossible to track."

This reminds me, there have been lots of articles lately discussing VoIP spam, just wait till the Nigerians catch win of this.

Ok, maybe it's a bit insensitive of me to think this, but hey, if it does happen, don't say I didn't warn you.

AT&T Surrenders Residential Market? I don't think so!

This VoIP article titled "Competition: Gone Today, Here Tomorrow" just confirms what I blogged several days ago - that AT&T is not "surrendering" the residential market.

In fact, it bears repeating a quote from my blog entry, AT&T The Sleeping Giant Awakens to Blitzkrieg the VoIP Market, where I said "No friggin way!". AT&T is NOT giving up, they are not surrendering.

Far from it. Like I said in that previous blog entry, AT&T is "going in the back door" to avoid the spaghetti of telecom regulation.

AT&T's "excuse" for supposedly abandoning the residential market had to do with the discount program, called the Unbundled Network Elements Platform (UNE-P) rate structure, which forced the Baby Bells to lease equipment & lines to AT&T (and other phone companies) at artificially low prices established by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). AT&T protested that the loss of these price controls was the end of local competition and consumer choice for local phone service, forcing their hand and making them abandon the residential market.

But, AT&T pulled a fast one and many mainstream journalists fell for it writing artlcles stating that AT&T was giving up and abandoning the residential market. Anything for a big news headline. Sheesh!

Just look at the evidence that AT&T is NOT abandoning the residential market:
Exhibit A: The AT&T Olympic commercials promoting AT&T CallVantage
Exhibit B: I've seen many Google ads and banner ads promoting CallVantage based on certain VoIP keywords. (though it looks like their Google keyword campaign may have slowed)

My suggestion to journalists uneducated in VoIP or specifically AT&T's plans? Go read AT&T The Sleeping Giant Awakens to Blitzkrieg the VoIP Market, maybe you'll learn something.

Volunteer Asterisk programmers adding STUN support to Asterisk

Mr. Blog (David Beckemeyer) and Karl Brose are funding development for STUN support for the popular Asterisk open-source PBX.

This is great news since STUN support is a key feature to have in a VoIP deployment to get around the firewall "nasties".

You can read about it here: Mr Blog Entry - 07/07/2004: STUN Support for Asterisk

Vonage secures $105 million in financing

Some Breaking news to share...

Vonage has closed a $105 million series D financing round led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation from 3i, Meritech Capital Partners and investors. Vonage senior management also participated in the round.

This latest round of financing, which brings total investment in the company to $208 million, will be used to accelerate expansion of Vonage’s service in the United States and abroad, including Canada, the U.K., the Pacific Rim and Latin America and to support the development of new offerings.

AT&T CallVantage partners with Amazon

Sheesh! I just blogged 10 minutes ago about how it seems everyone in the VoIP industry is making announcements about partnering and selling their products in retail stores and partnering with broadband router manufacturers.

Well, before I could finish my cup of coffee, into my Inbox comes similar news. AT&T CallVantage is now being sold online via Amazon.

Check out the news:
AT&T CallVantage Service Now Online@Amazon.com

8x8 (Packet8) adds Fry's Electronics

Boy, what a flurry of announcments the past few days about VoIP providers partnering with retail outlets (BestBuy) or partnering with broadband router manufacturers (LinkSys, NetGear) to embed VoIP functionality in their routers. All of the aforementioned companies in parenenthesis have some sort of deal involving VoIP.

Well, add Fry's Electronics to the VoIP bandwagon!

Here's the news release:

8x8 ADDS FRY'S ELECTRONICS TO GROWING LIST OF PACKET8 RETAILERS

"We are very pleased that a respected retail chain like Fry's has acknowledged the strength and potential of our Packet8 offerings," said Huw Rees, 8x8 Vice President of Marketing & Sales. "Our voice products represent the industry's easiest to use and most affordable VoIP telephone service available, and our broadband videophone service opens up new ways of communicating and staying in touch with friends and family. Consumers that are thinking about trying VoIP and broadband communications can get 'hands-on' with Packet8 at all Fry's Electronics locations."

Samsung MM-A700 - TV on your cell phone

The Samsung MM-A700 is one cool cell phone. It's loaded with Sprint PCS's Vision Multimedia Services and a built-in Media Player application. It features a sharp 262,000-color screen, stereo sound, and can play back pre-recorded TV shows at 15fps.

Unfortunately, they don't currently support streaming live TV, though the technology exists today. So you're stuck picking the content the service provider has recorded or if being offered by third parties. Supposedly, Sprint is looking for partners to help offer live TV content.

In any event, after the ga-ga coolness factor wore off, I began to wonder how long it would be before some sort of sick application of Darwinian evolution theory would be applied to drivers who attempt to watch TV on their cell phones while driving. Hey if technology can weed out some population and make my 1.5 hour daily commute to work in the morning a little faster with less cars on the road, then that's another reason for me to love technology! (Just kidding. Kinda. Sorta..)
Read more about the Samsung MM-A700 here:
ZDNet AnchorDesk: TV on cell phones? We'll see.

Apple's iPod problematic install on Windows

Apple is known for having the most userfriendly experience in computing. I've always been a PC fan, even in the old 8086 and 80286 days before Windows even existed - DOS was my friend.

My first experience with Apple was a Macintosh IISE I believe which my college roommate had. I could never get used to the one-click mouse. I also had to take a computer science class designing chip circuits using Macs. The interface was pretty, but it didn't have color. All and all, and to be perfectly honest, I wasn't that impressed with Macs.

Then came the Apple iPod - the coolest MP3 player on the planet!! I wanted to replace my Creative Labs Nomad II (64 measly megabytes - approx. ~12 songs) for an Apple iPod. So for at least 3 Christmas's I have desired an iPod. But alas, it was not to be.

Then this past weekend my wife bought me a brand new 15 GB ipod as an anniversary gift. I installed all the software, set up itunes, etc., and then attempted to transfer my music library to the ipod.

I expected the "Apple experience" - you know, so simple and idiot could do it, right? Was I wrong! The problem started when the iPod prompted me to name the iPod. I called it's "Tom Keating's iPod" or something to that effect. I then launched iTunes, selected some songs to download, and then I got this error:

"The iPod cannot be updated. The required folder cannot be found."

huh? what?

So then I download the latest software from Apple's website and even reset the iPod back to factory defaults. Once again, I try to download my songs - same error. Finally, on a mere hunch, I decide to leave the default iPod name (IPOD all caps) and not change it to "Tom Keating's iPod".

Sure enough, after leaving it as "IPOD" everything was fine. So nice error message Apple! How bout something more intuitive? Even searching Apple's site revealed nothing about this error. I believe there is either a character limit or it didn't like the apostrophe. Who knows? I was too busy playing with the working iPod to figure out the exact cause.

After a slow start getting the iPod installed and working, I can finally say I love an Apple product. It only took them 15+ years for me to feel that way.

So does this finally make me part of the elite Mac fan club? Nah... I still love and am married to Windows - and polygamy is not permitted. Though I do have an occasional "affair" with Linux from time-to-time. : )

BugMeNot is no more

I probably surf over 200 web pages a day both for my job and for personal reasons. As such, one of my major pet-peeves is having to register on certain websites. I don't mind so much for certain types of sites, such as financial institutions (credit cards, banks), forums (i.e. VoIP Forum, 3000GT forum, Viper forum), so I can get notified for any new posts or replied to my posts. But to have to register to receive news is just plain annoying!

Especially since I can probably find the same or similar news story somewhere else. And even if it is exclusive content, it's just not worth the hassle to register to be able to read one story link.

Many times I have "googled" a particular topic, then see an interesting excerpt on the Google search results, click on the link and then prompted to register to read the story. Grrr! Usually I just go back to google and try a different search result.

But then I found a website called BugMeNot.com. It contained a database of usernames/passwords of popular websites that require registering, such as the NY Times. I could enter in the website and it would give me a username/password to use. It not saved the time and hassle of registering and remembering yet another username/password combo, but it also provided anonymity and helped prevent yet more spam in my Inbox.

Well unfortunately, BugMeNot is no more.

Read about it here: Boing Boing: RIP, bugmenot.com

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

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...

The deal essential states that when customers call about CallVantage and state that they do not have broadband Internet access, AT&T will forward these calls to the cable company.

Ok, well first of all, who is going to call AT&T about CallVantage that doesn't have broadband already? Unless they are a newbie, they should know that VoIP requires broadband connectivity.

Secondly, let's assume that due to AT&T's attempts to make VoIP mainstream (i.e. see the AT&T VoIP commercials aired during the Olympics) that there are lots of "newbies" out there calling AT&T and asking about CallVantage that don't have broadband.

Sure, AT&T can give the referral to the cable company, but what is to prevent the cable companies from telling the customer "Forgot about AT&T CallVantage. We can not only give you broadband, but we can also offer you VoIP access as well, all from one company and at a lower price, with more features, blah blah blah."

Seems to me AT&T could be shooting itself in the foot. In fact, several cable companies already offer voice. For example, CableVision offers Optimum Voice (voice over cable).

It certainly seems to be strange bedfellows to me, but maybe I'm missing the big picture. AT&T certainly needs the broadband providers in order to bypass the local carriers (and the spaghetti of regulation) and provide voice, but I worry that the cable companies can turn on AT&T by offering package deals that AT&T can't compete with. It's an interesting time indeed in telecom, when I worry about AT&T not being able to compete.

AT&T strikes VoIP deals with cable | CNET News.com

U.S. Soldiers in Iraq using VoIP to call home

Whether you are in the Bush or Kerry camp, and as divisive this election year has become, I think we can all agree that we should support our troops.

I was surfing the web and came across a company, Freedom Calls Foundation, that is offering free VoIP and video services to our troops abroad so they can call home for free. When you haven't seen your loved ones for months at a time, having not just voice capabilities, but also video to "see and virtually feel" your loved ones from afar is a real morale booster for our troops. I'm sure seeing live video has a very powerful impact on the miiltary families.

Freedom Calls Foundation's mission is to build a communications network independent of military networks employing state of the art Wi-Fi, VOIP telephony, Video Conferencing and Satcom technology to enable our troops to communicate free of charge from their base camps with their families at home by internet telephone, instant messaging and video conference.

Their website states, "Your generous contributions to the Freedom Calls Foundation serve to ease the burden of thousands of our brave soldiers and their families in their effort to protect our country and rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan. A $50 contribution by just 1 million Americans will enable the Freedom Calls Foundation to offer its state of the art communication services to virtually every soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan free of charge."

I should mention that the video piece was donated by Viditel. In fact, although I don't have a photo of military personnel using Viditel, I thought I would share a stock marketing photo from Viditel. Notice the multiple video windows. I can certainly envision our troops being able to talk to parents, siblings, and grandparents all at the same time. Kudos to both organizations - and don't forget to consider a donation to Freedom Calls Foundation since it is a worthy cause.

Vonage new 311 service

Vonage just recently announed their new 311 service which lets you access local government services and information based on where you are located. Good stuff! Vonage 311 Service

Unfortunately, when I tried it on my Vonage line, all I got was a fast busy. I went back to their website and noticed they have a very limited number of cities supporting the 311 service- 13 total cities in fact with 7 coming soon. Unfortunately, the list is mostly large cities and I live in a small town. Oh well...

Well, here's some more info from their website:

Vonage is proud to offer 311 for non-emergency dialing and city information services. When you dial 311, your call is routed from the Vonage network to a public information center in your area.
*Note that 311 access depends on its availability within your area. Typically, only people within a given city's limits can dial 311. Contact your community information center for more details.

311 Dialing services include:

Live operators 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Contact with local governmental departments
Tourist information
Garbage collection schedules
Reporting neighborhood disturbances
Parks and Recreation

Here are some important facts you should know about this free service:

You Must Pre-designate the Physical Location of Your Vonage Line for 311 Dialing to Function

Remember that unlike traditional phone lines, Vonage service is portable to any location with broadband Internet access. For example, you can have a New York number and receive calls in Texas. You can also take your equipment with you on a trip but, when you travel, 311 Dialing will automatically route your call to the public information and service center for the address on file, not your temporary location. So if you have a New York City number and take your phone adapter to visit your mother in San Jose, California, you will be connected to the New York City public information center when you dial 311, not the one in San Jose.
You must sign up for 911 Dialing service in order to have access to 311 Dialing services. If you choose to opt out of 911 Dialing service, you will also lose 311 dialing capability. To sign up for Vonage 911 Dialing service, simply fill out a short form that tells us your actual physical address. This information will then activate your 311 Dialing service. When you dial 311, the call is routed to the local public information service center designated for the address you register on file here.
Keep in mind that when you move, you MUST provide your new location. You can conveniently update your new location online. It may take several days to update your record.
Since your 311 call could be from anywhere, we need you to verify the physical location of your phone in order to activate this 311 dialing feature from your phone.

Broadband overtakes narrowband dialup woohoo!

Since I'm a bandwidth fan/nut/hog, I thought I would share this interesting release announcing that broadband has overtaken narrowband, i.e. dial-up. Just don't tell my dad he's in the minority and he needs broadband - he says he's fine surfing the Web at 56kbps. Add my co-worker, gadget-phobe, former Microsoft-patch-a-phobe and somewhat of a "technology Luddite", Robert Hashemian to that list of "holdouts" still surfing.. i mean "crawling" the Web on dial-up. Though he does know his ASP.NET, ASP, C#, and other programming languages, which is quite a contradiction, don't you think?

In any event, here's the release:

U.S. Broadband Connections Reach Critical Mass, Crossing 50 Percent Mark for Web Surfers, According to Nielsen//NetRatings Wednesday August 18, 9:30 am ET Young Adults and Kids Boast Highest Broadband Penetration; Seniors Still Log-on via Narrowband NEW YORK, Aug. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Nielsen//NetRatings (Nasdaq: NTRT - News), the global standard for Internet audience measurement and analysis, reported that broadband connections for the first time reached 51 percent of the American online population at-home during the month of July, as compared to 38 percent last July (see Table 1).
Sixty-three million Web users connected to the Internet via broadband during July 2004 as compared to 61.3 million accessing the Internet through narrowband. Overall growth for broadband connections rose 47 percent year-over-year, while narrowband dropped 13 percent annually.
"Despite a plateau in the growth of U.S. Internet access, we've seen continued high double-digit growth in users' broadband access," said Marc Ryan, senior director and analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings. "We expect to see this aggressive growth rate continue through next year when the majority of Internet users will be accessing the Internet via a broadband connection."
Table 1. Broadband vs. Narrowband Connections (U.S., At-Home)
-------------------------------------------------
Connection Speed Jul-03 Jul-04
-------------------------------------------------
Broadband 38% 51%
Narrowband 62% 49%
-------------------------------------------------


Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, July 2004

Note: Broadband connections include ISDN, cable modems and DSL; narrowband connections include modem speeds from 14.4K through 56K.
U.S. Online Demographics
Broadband penetration rated highest among those between ages two through 34 years as compared to those 35 years and older. The 18 to 20 age group possessed the highest penetration of broadband surfers at 59 percent, followed by kids at 58 percent, 25 to 34 year olds at 55 percent, and teens and 21 to 24 year olds both at 53 percent (see Table 2). In comparison, seniors between the ages of 65 to 99 years have the lowest penetration of broadband connections at 34 percent.
Table 2. Broadband vs. Narrowband Connections by Age Group
(U.S., At-Home)
--------------------------------------------
Age Group Narrowband % Broadband %
--------------------------------------------
18 To 20 41% 59%
2 To 11 42% 58%
25 To 34 45% 55%
12 To 17 47% 53%
21 To 24 47% 53%
35 To 49 49% 51%
50 To 54 51% 49%
55 To 64 54% 46%
65 To 99 66% 34%
--------------------------------------------

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, July 2004
Note: Broadband connections include ISDN, cable modems and DSL; narrowband connections include modem speeds from 14.4K through 56K.
"Not surprisingly, the younger set of adults, kids and teens, who grew up with PC technology, have the highest penetration of broadband access," said Ryan. "The norm of waiting for a page to load has gone by the wayside through increased broadband access. With high-speed access in the majority, we're likely to see the richer, more interactive content becoming the standard."
· Nielsen//NetRatings reports July 2004 data for the Top Sites by Parent Company and Top Brands. In addition, Nielsen//NetRatings reveals the Top Advertisers by Company for July 2004.
Nielsen//NetRatings Top 5 Web Sites by Parent Company and Top 5 Web Sites By Brand
Month of July 2004

Table 1. Top 10 Parent Companies, Table 2. Top 10 Brands,
Combined Home & Work Combined Home & Work

Unique Time Per Unique Time Per
Audience Person Audience Person
Parent (000) (hh:mm:ss) Brand (000) (hh:mm:ss)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Microsoft 105,601 2:01:14 1. MSN 92,141 1:42:18
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Time Warner 93,710 5:10:54 2. Yahoo! 90,826 2:51:30
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Yahoo! 92,484 2:49:03 3. Microsoft 88,369 0:38:09
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Google 61,207 0:31:48 4. AOL 64,963 6:38:08
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. eBay 48,176 1:40:29 5. Google 60,654 0:31:24
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. United States
Government 43,678 0:25:07 6. eBay 46,508 1:37:30
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. InterActiveCorp 37,149 0:21:09 7. MapQuest 35,357 0:11:32
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. Amazon 34,531 0:18:27 8. Real 31,174 0:46:07
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
9. RealNetworks 32,105 0:48:35 9. Amazon 30,277 0:16:26
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
10. Walt Disney 10. Lycos
Internet Group 31,744 0:47:55 Network 24,948 0:08:28

MCI deploys Ericsson's VoIP Engine solution

Ericsson and MCI Inc. today announced an agreement to deploy Ericsson's Engine solution to migrate MCI's US-based international gateway traffic from traditional circuit switching to carrier-class Voice over IP (VoIP).

Building on its domestic VoIP migration plans, announced in June 2003, MCI has become one of the first U.S.-based service providers to provision the transition of its international voice service to its core IP backbone. Already well into the deployment of Ericsson's latest generation voice switching platform into the network, MCI
expects to begin transitioning traffic by mid 2005.

The reasons for the migration to an all IP backbone are simple:
1) It enables MCI to flexibly and cost-effectively converge international voice services onto its IP backbone to optimize the network.
2) It increases efficiency and realizes operational savings while providing more value and feature offerings (such as "follow me") to customers.
3) By having a 100% IP core, MCI can become a "true" international phone company offering phone service throughout the world. The deltathree's of the world better watch their back!

What I find interesting is that recently AT&T announced very strong "VoIP plans" - to be at the very core of their offerings, and now another major carrier, MCI has done the same. In other words, VoIP isn't just a disruptive technology - it's a revolution! If you don't see that by now you must be blind!

Kagoor Delivers Session Border Control Solution For Voice over Broadband

Remember Aravox Technologies? Well I do. They were one of the first companies to offer a session border control (SBC) that solves the issue of NAT traversal over VoIP without compromising security. Basically a SBC device, is an edge device that opens and maintains a secure hole through a firewall for real-time traffic, such as voice over IP or video. These devices contain call control features such as a SIP proxy server and an H.323 gatekeeper, so that media ports can be opened and closed on a per-call basis. It also performs network address translation (NAT) from private to public networks.

Aravox had a good product but unfortunately they never made it. Alcatel swallowed up Aravox's technology in January 2003.

Well, today there are a few SBCs, such as Acme Packet, Jasomi Networks, Kagoor Networks, Netrake Corp, and NexTone Communications Inc.

Just today, Kagoor was tooting its own horn for announcing a cable customer (the only one for session border controllers, according to them), as well as a voice over broadband solution for the expanding market for VOIP via cable and xDSL.

Here's the release and then my comments below:
First Announced Customer for Session Border Controllers in Rapidly Developing Cable IP Telephony Market

"Kagoor is very pleased to help KCN deliver its new, exciting cable-based IP telephony services. We think the cable VoIP market is very active and this is only the beginning," said Opher Kahane, CEO and Co-founder of Kagoor Networks. "We also value our strong relationship with NEC and plan to continue working with them on our many current and future VoIP opportunities."

This is great news that a session border control product has an actual customer - and a large one at that. I think the service providers are realizing the need to not just offer "VoIP" just like every Tom, Dick, and Harry, but they also need to secure their VoIP offering. Now when will the service providers "get" that they also need to offer QoS so VoIP customers can talk on the phone will perfect quality while streaming a video, using a P2P client, and downloading a large file?

They also have a related release which you can check out here:
Kagoor Delivers Session Border Control Solution For Voice over Broadband

VoIP via power lines

First came voice over copper and for a over one hundred years voice was carried over copper. Then came wireless which allowed car phones and cell phones to flourish. Next, came the Internet and we had Voice over the Internet aka Voice over IP (VoIP) over dial-up (ex: VocalTec's Internet Phone, Microsoft Netmeeting). Next came broadband and much improved VoIP offerings from Vonage and other players using ATA devices such as the Cisco ATA-186 and now Sipura.

It makes one think, "What more can we possibly do to invent new ways of transmitting voice and communicating?"

Well, how about "voice over power"? Check out this release:
Fonix Delivers VoIP Via Power Lines; Innovative BPL Technology Targeted for Availability Q4 2004 for Customers in Southeastern Region

Here's a snippet of it:
Fonix Corp., an innovative communications and technology company providing integrated telecommunications services and value-added speech technologies, announces the successful delivery of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) on Broadband over Power Lines (BPL), giving customers more choices in how they receive voice, data and media services in their homes or businesses. On Aug. 6, 2004, Fonix's recently acquired subsidiary LecStar Telecom Inc. completed installation and testing of the new service. LecStar is among the first to implement this technology in the United States.

LecStar is currently field testing its BPL service with a Southeastern utility company. About 20 percent of the customers in the six-month trial will test LecStar's new Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) on BPL service. BPL, which delivers high-speed Internet and voice services over existing power lines, represents one way Fonix plans to introduce cost-saving technologies to businesses and individuals in its growing network of telecommunications customers.

Now with Voice over "power" there is another choice for VoIP which means more competition and good news for consumers.

It harkens me back to our 1998 premiere issue of Internet Telephony Magazine which has a cover SCREAMING the words "Free Speech!"

The way VoIP is exploding and with big players like AT&T launching VoIP services, it won't be long before our 1998 vision of "Free Speech" and the 1st Amendment right "Freedom of Speech" will become a much more literal term!

Pingtel drops hardware and goes all open source

It was only a matter of time before Pingtel switched to a completely 100% software company. (See: Pingtel Completes Strategic Transition with Sale of Its Award-Winning xpressa Desktop Phone Product Line)

First, let me state that I've always loved Pingtel's VoIP phones which include a very cool LCD display with the ability to run Java applets. In fact, their vision was that users could access the phonebook on the LCD display, lookup a local pizzeria, and even be "pushed" a coupon for a discount or special.

But the high pricetag on the Pingtel phones as well as competition from Cisco and other VoIP phones that also often had LCD displays took some of the competitive advantage away from Pingtel.

Pingtel came to TMC Labs a couple of months ago and gave us a preview of their open-source IP-PBX called SIPxchange. I put it through some rigorous tests and was impressed with the results. I hope to publish the results of the testing in the October issue of Internet Telephony Magazine. So keep your eye out.

You might say Pingtel is an "open source competitor" to Asterisk. It sounds contradictory to say the words "open source" and "competitors" in the same sentence, but indeed Pingtel and Asterisk could be considered as such, since both are open-source IP-PBXs.

In any event, the announcement that Pingtel has sold off its hardware did not surprise me. Pingtel's focus on their open-source IP-PBX is a good idea. Their competitor, Asterisk certainly has a loyal fan base and a lot of traction in the open-source community, so it remains to be seen if the community will embrace the Pingtel platform. From what I have seen of SIPXchange's feature-set, I don't see why not.

Windows XP SP2, Skype and Limiting the number of connections

VoIP Forum and other Technology Forums: Windows XP SP2, Skype, eMule
I posted this in the VoIP forums and thought it would be useful to blog it as well:

I've noticed some problems with the number of simultaneous connections after installing Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2).

Apparently, as a security measure, Microsoft has limited the number of simultaneous connections to 10 to reduce the spread of viruses such as MSBlast.

As a side effect, this has slowed down many eMule users and I've noticed some issues with my Skype client.

Well, I found a patch for it! It patches the new TCPIP.SYS file in the C:\Windows\system32\drivers directory. It does a simple change to the hex value 10 in the file. more...

Hawking cracks black hole paradox

Very interesting...

From newscientist.com
Hawking cracks black hole paradox
"After nearly 30 years of arguing that a black hole destroys everything that falls into it, Stephen Hawking is saying he was wrong. It seems that black holes may after all allow information within them to escape. Hawking will present his latest finding at a conference in Ireland next week.

The about-turn might cost Hawking, a physicist at the University of Cambridge, an encyclopaedia because of a bet he made in 1997. More importantly, it might solve one of the long-standing puzzles in modern physics, known as the black hole information paradox."

For the full story, check out the link:
Hawking cracks black hole paradox | New Scientist

AT&T CallVantage VoIP calls blocked

Some VoIP calls being blocked | CNET News.com

Cnet.com has reported that some users are having issue receiving inbound calls. This has once again raised the issue of whether or not cable broadband companies are blocking VoIP calls.

I discussed the potential for network service providers to block VoIP traffic in my Vonage Outage Part 2 blog entry. Damn hypercompetive bastards!

A TMC VoIP Forum poster also commented on not being able to receive inbound calls, as seen in the thread titled "AT&T Call Vantage Sucks"

According to Cnet, AT&T is using a non-standard VoIP port - port 69 to be precise. Most VoIP providers use the standard SIP port - 5060. Apparently, port 69 was used by the MSBlast virus, so many ISPs are now filtering this port.

When will AT&T learn? Stick with the standards and don't go "all proprietary on us" and you'll be all right...

Playing chicken installing Microsoft Windows XP SP2

A few fellow co-workers that all work in IT played a game of "chicken" yesterday. That is, we were trying to figure out who would be the guinea pig to install the Microsoft Windows XP SP2 (Service Pack 2). The conversation went something like this.
"You install SP2."
"No, you"
"Uhh, no. You first."
"But it's really good. Maybe it'll solve your PC crashing problem? or the fact that it is so slow? Go ahead, do it. Do it now!"

Finally after some bantering and each one of us not wanting to "screw up" our PCs I decided to bite the bullet and install it myself at 5:15pm Wednesday, which wasn't a smart idea since if a problem did happen I'd either be working late to fix it or have to leave it for the following morning and "stew" over my PC being broke all night long. Well, including the reboot, and logging back on, the time was 5:33pm or 18 minutes total time on a Pentium 4 3.00Ghz.

After rebooting, it looks like the same old Windows. Of course I knew it would, but with all the hype behind SP2, you'd think it was a new operating system upgrade. Well, in fact it is - under the hood anyway. I won't rehash the new features (just Google XP SP2), but I will point out that SP2 not only includes all the latest security patches but also a better firewall which is turned on by default.

Here's a screeshot of the main screen:

After the SP2 install, the following morning I decided to check my Event Viewer and I saw 2 new errors:
Error 15 - Automatic certificate enrollment for local system failed to contact the active directory (0x80072751). A socket operation was attempted to an unreachable host.
Enrollment will not be performed.

and this:
Error 1054 - Windows cannot obtain the domain controller name for your computer network. (A socket operation was attempted to an unreachable host. ). Group Policy processing aborted.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

I figured it had to do something with the new firewall blocking certain ports (Active Directory ports), so I looked at the Windows Firewall exceptions list. I saw "File and Print Sharing" as an exception, but I didn't see Active Directory as one of the "exceptions" listed. What the hell is that? How is corporate America going to access their domain controllers to authenticate? I didn't have Active Directory's ports memorized, so I had to Google "active directory" port to find the ports I needed to MANUALLY add to the list of "allowed exceptions". Take a look at the Exceptions screen where I added "ADS-3268, ADS-3269, and ADS-389":

It's possible that those 2 errors were not related to the firewall and I've had them all along, but I doubt it. I would check the Event Viewer for these errors, but somehow my Event Viewer log has been corrupted by SP2. oy! Also, I was too busy this morning to to perform any sort of tests to see if indeed the firewall caused those two error messages. But my money's on Microsoft thinking about setting up the firewall by default to protect "home users" and didn't take into consideration "business users" when they designed SP2. It's actually kind of funny that Microsoft is blocking their own Active Directory service - the very flagship and core of Microsoft security!

Here are some cool tips to manage Windows Firewall:
One of Windows Firewall's most powerful features is the ability to use Group Policy to manage client's firewall configurations - perfect for corporate environments. You can use Group Policy to configure all your firewall exceptions from one location and apply them to all target computers.

You can also manage Windows Firewall clients via the Netsh command-line tool. You can use Netsh to configure network settings through a batch file or directly from the command line. For example, the command "netsh firewall show config" displays the current settings of the Windows Firewall client. Netsh lets you configure most Windows Firewall settings which is great for scripters, who can now use a logon script to configure and verify Windows Firewall operation.

Here's a sample script that you can run from a command line (cmd.exe):
the following Netsh command will create a local firewall rule to allow certain addresses to FTP into a Windows Firewall-protected computer:

netsh firewall add portopening
protocol = TCP port = 21
name = FTP mode = ENABLE
scope = CUSTOM addresses =
192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0,
10.0.0.0/255.255.240.0

Want to know which ports are open on your firewall? Just type this from a CMD line:
netsh firewall show portopening

Blocking attachments in Outlook Express

After my little episode of having my home PC infected by my wife with the Bagle virus I thought I would look into some freeware/shareware utilities that remove untrustworthy attachments (i.e. .exe, .com, .pif, .bat, .vbs, etc.) from Outlook Express. (Note: I had the latest anti-virus definitions installed, but the virus writers are always a step ahead, so best to just block certain file types if at all possible)

I found one shareware called Outlook Express Quick Tools (OE Quick Tools for short) for $29.95 that lets you remove attachments, but it's unclear if you have to manually remove them or not. I think iit just removes attachments of all kinds just to reduce the size of your Outlook Express database. I don't think it proactively blocks unsafe attachments.

Fortunately, I found some info on Microsoft's website. They recommend enabling the attachment blocking feature in Outlook Express.

To enable Outlook Express 6 extension blocking, click on Tools, then select Options. In the options dialog box, select the Security tab, and click the checkbox for "Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus". You can also check the box marked "Warn me when other applications try to send mail as me".

Of course, I then remembered that I actually DID enable attachment blocking, but then my wife complained she couldn't open important attachments, so I had to disable it. Thanks Microsoft for such a wonderful feature! Damned if you do and damned if you don't. Why don't they just let you pick which file types to allow and which ones to block? sheesh!

I know Outlook (not Outlook Express) lets you block certain attachments while letting others through. I guess I need to switch my wife over to using Outlook instead.

I also read on Microsoft KB83738, that you can edit the registry to allow/disallow certain extensions in Outlook. Unfortunately, these regedit changes only work on Outlook and not Outlook Express. oy!

Basically, you perform the following steps to block certain file extension:
1) Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2) Locate and then click the following key in the registry: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Security
3) On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click String Value.
4) Type Level1Add, and then press ENTER.
5) On the Edit menu, click Modify.
6) Type <file_name_extensions>, and then click OK.

Where file_name_extensions is a list of the attachment file name extensions, and each attachment file name extension is separated by a semicolon.

On the flip side if you want to allow certain attachments, you should check out this Slipstick link which details some utilities to enable certain file types in Outlook.

Moral of the story: Outlook Express sucks. But I knew that already.
Time to go try Mozilla's Thunderbird 0.7 ...

VoIP2Save.com "We have Number Portability - Our Competitors Do Not!"

VoIP2Save.com "We have Number Portability - Our Competitors Do Not!"
Na na na na!

Well they weren't actually quoted saying it like that, but pretty damn close! : )

I just saw this release hit the wire:
PRESS RELEASE: Broadband Internet Phone Company, VoIP2Save.com Announces Full Phone Number Portability

The release claims that Vonage, Packet8, Voice Glo, Lingo and I-Connect do not allow customers to keep their phone number the company assigned to them, if the customer decided to switch to another phone company. I know I have heard complaints from users when they tried porting their phone number when switching from one broadband VoIP service provider to another.

Voip2Save.com claims that these broadband VoIP service providers only allow you to keep your number and port it over to another phone company IF the customer previously established that phone number at another phone company. So for example, if you started with AT&T, then signed up with Vonage, then wanted to switch to Lingo, you can port your number. However, if you originally started with Vonage and used Vonage's allocated phone number, you will have difficulty porting your number (if at all).

Here's the full release so you can read for yourself:
The Providence Telephone Company, which operates the broadband internet telephone service, VoIP2Save.com became the first internet phone company to offer customers full telephone number portability. "No other internet telephone company, to this date, has offered total number portability. We are the first," said Bob Blanchard, the president of the company.

VoIP2Save.com, operates in Metro New York City, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Maine. It offers unlimited worldwide calling for $24.95 a month, which is currently the lowest rate in the internet telephone industry. To place an internet phone call a caller needs a broadband connection plus an internet phone or adapter. Bob Blanchard, the president of "VoIP2Save.com", is a former journalist and three time Emmy Award winner in the field of consumer protection reporting. The company web site is http://www.VoIP2Save.com

Snom's new 220 VoIP phone

I am a fan of the Snom VoIP phones, TMC Labs reviewed a couple Snom phones recently and were pretty impressed. (Snom 100 and 200 product review)

so I thought I would share their press release announcing their new 220 phone which features a 128 X 64 pixel graphical backlit display:

Berlin, 2004-08-10: snom technology, situated in Berlin, is expanding its VoIP phones business line with the new IP phone snom 220, which has been specially developed for the small and medium-sized enterprise segment. This high-end affordable device addresses the communication needs of power users such as executive and administrative staff who require very high standards from communication systems.