It has been a fantastic year for SIP and VoIP in general. As a founder of a small SIP software startup I never thought that within a year we could would have over 100,000 people making and receiving phone calls using our software, be talking with some of the largest companies in the industry and making quite a lot money from selling our software. Considering the company has had production software in the market for 7 months, and started with only $120,000 in funding only 6 months prior we have done exceptionaly well. The next 2 years will be even better, I am sure of that. You will see some things change around Xten. A renewed focus on product development and a push to deliver Xten SIP softphones to every PC, MAC and Linux desktop. A a solid committment to work with the major feature server vendors to deliver an excellent Xten experience on every major network. To everyone who has contributed to the success of Xten, thank you for your support! Happy New Year! Hang on, these next 2 years are going to be FUN!
December 2003 Archives
The Powell Pulpit FCC chairman, in `field trip' to valley, talks about VoIP, telecom By Michael Bazeley Mercury News Exerpt.. Now to be a phone company, you don't have to weave tightly the voice service into the infrastructure. You can ride it on top of the infrastructure. So if you're a Vonage, you own no infrastructure. You own no trucks. You roll to no one's house. They turn voice into a application and shoot it across one of these platforms. And, suddenly, you're in your business. And that's why if you're the music industry, you're scared. And if you're the television studio, movie industry, you're scared. And if you're an incumbent infrastructure carrier, you'd better be scared. Because this application separation is the most important paradigm shift in the history of communications, and will change things forever. . . . I have no problem if a big and venerable company no longer exists tomorrow, as long as that value is transferred somewhere else in the economy.
Since May of this year Xten has been making waves in the industry. The SIP softphones are second to none. X-Lite is the only free MAC OS X SIP softphone that I am aware of and the long list of features offered in both the Windows and MAC versions of X-Lite and X-PRO certainly draw the crowds. Crowds to the tune of 100,000+ users. By providing organizations like FreeWorldDialup and SIPphone with X-Lite Xten has seen over 100,000 activations of the software. Downloads exceed this number. It has been a fantastic year for Xten, I would like to personally thank everyone that has supported the company. Regards, Erik
During the X-mas break FreeWorldDialup offered free Phone calling to seven different countries via their SIP telephony network. This sparked interest in the media and consequently an Israeli TV station [Channel 2] aired a sport on FWD and Xten. An avalanche of X-Lite software activations ensued and over the next few days Xten saw over 25,000 user activations. A local Israel phone company decided to block Xten.com in order to short circuit the offering. It might have slowed the process but it did not by any means stop it. What a way to end the year!
Mobitus, a division of FatPort has launched a Wi-Fi VoIP service for on-net and PC-to-Phone services. Here is the article from Wi-Fi Planet: VoIP Invades Hotspots
Xten Receives Internet Telephony's “Product of the Year” Award for X-PRO SIP Softphone Burnaby, Canada, December 19, 2003 /PRNewswire/ - Xten Networks (www.xten.com), a leading provider of award-winning, high-quality SIP softphones and toolkits for IP Telephony networks, announced today that its X-PRO softphone received the “Product of the Year” award for 2003 from Technology Marketing Corporations’ INTERNET TELEPHONY ® magazine. INTERNET TELEPHONY’s “Product of the Year” award aims to recognize the best the IP telephony industry has to offer.
About 13 percent of international voice traffic is now carried by Internet telephony, the low-cost, feature-rich technology lately being introduced to consumers. Although less than one-fifth of 1 percent of U.S. phone lines use a Voice over Internet Protocol phone service such as Vonage, the technology is making huge inroads behind the scenes, in long-distance networks and at big companies, according to a new report by TeleGeography. The 13 percent of global phone traffic that analyst Stephan Beckert estimates is now transported via voice over IP accounts for nearly 24.5 billion minutes a year. In 2002, voice over IP's share of international traffic was 10 percent; it was 4 percent in 2000. TeleGeography said its research ``suggests that VoIP can transform a century-old business in just a few years.'' -- Associated Press
LindowsOS 4.5 Launched with Integrated Free SIP Softphone provided by Xten Burnaby, Canada, December 17, 2003 /PRNewswire/ - Xten Networks (www.xten.com) and Lindows.com (www.lindows.com), today announced the immediate availability of X-Lite Plus, an Xten softphone which is now native in the latest release of LindowsOS version 4.5 (www.lindows.com/lindowsos). Xten’s softphone provides LindowsOS users with free worldwide calling through the integration of Xten’s new X-Lite Plus SIP softphone software into the LindowsOS operating system. “Integrating Xten's softphone client into LindowsOS demonstrates that Linux is taking a leadership role in innovation in the operating system business,” said Michael Robertson, chief executive officer of Lindows.com Inc. “By turning the common PC into a global calling tool and providing customers with free conferencing -- an industry first -- telecommunications have finally been democratized with LindowsOS and Xten.”
By Marguerite Reardon Staff Writer, CNET News.com Bell Canada is moving more aggressively toward Internet Protocol technology. Top on its "to do" list: voice over IP service for residential customers. At its annual shareholder meeting in Toronto on Wednesday, Michael Sabia, chief executive officer of the Canadian phone company, outlined his company's strategy for moving all of its communications services onto an IP-based communications network. "It's clear the future for the industry is IP," Sabia said in a statement. "The company is solidly engaged, and we have the plans and the proven ability to execute to support our determination to compete and win in an IP world." Bell Canada's overall objective is to migrate 100 percent of its traffic, including all of its voice traffic, onto a national IP backbone network within three years. The carrier said that IP-based communications will provide its customers with several benefits including simpler provisioning, greater self-service and multimedia Internet. The company said the move also will significantly reduce operating costs. Full Story
Lindows 4.5 was launched today with Xten softphone bundled natively with the OS. Xten's X-Lite Plus softphone was bundled with the SIPphone service to deliver worldwide free calling and conferencing. There is no other SIP softphone bundled with Lindows 4.5. Here is some news on the topic: Globe and Mail Yahoo! Finance
TechTerra Deploys New Xten Technologies in Delivering Free SIP-to-SIP Calling and Other Integrated Services AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 15, 2003--TechTerra Communications, Inc., a leading VoIP service provider, today announced the expansion of its product line to include: free SIP-to-SIP, TerraConnect and TerraCall X-Pro Business Edition. TechTerra is proud to be the first service provider to deploy these services powered by new technologies from Xten Networks, Inc. TechTerra' SIP-to-SIP (StS), also known as PC-to-PC, is a free service allowing voice calls from one PC (or other approved SIP-enabled endpoint) to another. TechTerra is offering a free broadband TerraCall X-Lite client to access the free service, with which landline and cellular calls can also be made at very low rates. StS will also support the Actiontec Internet Phone Wizard, a USB device that merges your regular telephone and VoIP into one endpoint.
This isn't really related to telephony today but there is some crossover which will become apparent very soon. This battle is reminiscent of the VoIP regulatory issues we are experiencing these days as well. I support Lindows as I believe that they are being bullied by the software giant in Redmond, give them hell Michael!
Broadline Communications, a subsidiary of FDN Communications, a CLEC serving the southeastern U.S., has launched a residential VoIP service to consumers in the 407 and 321 area codes of Orlando. The service is being offering in 2 packages including a local dialing package for $19.95 per month that offers long distance for 5 cents per minute and a long distance dialing package that provides unlimited long distance calling for $39.95 a month. Consumers can connect up to 5 phones per household. Service features include, call waiting, caller ID, and unlimited *69. Broadline will supply customers with a MTA, for connection to a cable or DSL modem. Broadline plans to expand its service throughout Florida and into Georgia within the next few weeks. Broadline Communications
SIPphone and Xten Partner to Offer Free Global Telephone Calls and Conferencing Thursday December 11, 6:31 am ET Two Market Leaders Bring Free Telephone Calls and Conferencing to the Masses SAN DIEGO and BURNABY, British Columbia, Dec. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- SIPphone, Inc., ( www.sipphone.com ) and Xten Networks ( www.xten.com ) today announced that they have joined forces to bring free telephone calls and conferencing to the masses. Xten softphones turn computers into business class telephones and offer unlimited user conferencing at the click of a mouse button. SIPphone delivers a feature-rich and free telephony network, and hassle-free configuration. Free phone calls and conferencing are the key to delivering true global communication to the general public.
What drives the governments to regulation? Lobbyists from the largest taxpaying Telcos and alike are applying pressure to the governments to tax VoIP. The regulators are listening because they know they too will be loosing revenue from lost taxes and they do not want to see an exodus from traditional telephony which is sure to happen if VoIP continues its rapid growth. Jeff Pulver among other VoIP advocates are doing their best to combat the proposed taxation and regulation of VoIP by the FCC and other country regulators. Free World Dialup Petition to the FCC TMC Labs Petition Form
