And the acquisitions keep piling up!

Artisoft, Inc., announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire privately held Vertical Networks, Inc. Vertical Networks makes distributed IP-PBX software and communications solutions for large enterprises. With the acquisition, Artisoft is looking to increase its customer base and market, including the addition of several large enterprise customers in the retail, financial services, and healthcare verticals, as well as expand the breadth and scope of its technology and product offerings to include distributed enterprise solutions.

Building on recent distributions deals with Ingram Micro and Navarre, Packet8 has announced that Internet shoppers can now find Packet8 VoIP products and services online at Amazon.com.

The Packet8 offerings currently featured at Amazon.com include the recently introduced DV326 Broadband VideoPhone, which is designed to work like a regular telephone and delivers video calls over a high-speed Internet connection, and the DTA Broadband Phone Adapter, which is designed to allow a regular phone to make and receive calls worldwide over the Internet, with accompanying VoIP service plans.

Both Packet8 offerings at Amazon.com are accompanied by special promotional incentives including a mail-in rebate on the DTA adapter of $60 until along with free activation and two months of free service and a $200 mail-in rebate on one Packet8 VideoPhone, $500 mail in rebate for two, along with free activations and one free month of service.

//////////////
Weekend recap: The Mets won 2 out of 3 from the Cubbies this weekend, unfortunately, the home team decided to lose in front of me.

Frost & Sullivan has released a report covering the World Session Border Controller Market. Prepared by Jon Arnold, program leader, VoIP Equipment at Frost, the report defines what Session Border Controllers (SBC) are, why they are important, and outlines a market forecast pegging the growth of the market at a rate of nearly 60% by 2008.

The report details a complex vendor landscape, and Frost expects the market to continue to evolve significantly over the next 2–3 years. Arnold profiles 12 SBC vendors, and has created a unique strategic matrix that plots the market positioning for 18 vendors based on their function set and markets served.

Often overlooked in favor of the flashier cellular handset side of the family, Nokia’s network division has announced some interesting news at the Broadband World Forum in Venice, Italy. Nokia has launched a new solution for broadband operators, which — according to the company — will enable VoIP services to be combined with broadband. The Nokia Voice solution brings POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) compatibility to the Nokia D500 IP DSLAM, connecting traditional voice connections to a packet-based network.

The D500 supports SIP and provides the QoS features for connectivity with WLAN-enabled terminals and PCs.

Ford Motor Company has selected SBC to design, implement, and manage an advanced IP telephony network comprised mainly of Cisco gear.

The solution is designed to converge Ford's disparate communications networks into a single IP-based network, carrying voice, video and data. SBC will deploy a customized solution based on their PremierSERV IP Telephony Advantage platform, using the Cisco’s IP Communications system. The network will include approximately 50,000 Cisco IP telephones, rolled out to users in 110 Ford facilities in southeast Michigan over three years. SBC engineers will work at Ford's Dearborn data center to manage the service on an ongoing basis.

Read the full press release here

Tekelec just announced that it has acquired VocalData, Inc., a provider of hosted IP Telephony applications.

Tekelec purchased 100 percent of VocalData's outstanding stock for approximately $27.5 million, consisting of $14.5 million of cash and approximately 780,000 shares of Tekelec common stock, or $13.0 million, based on today's closing price. VocalData will be integrated into Tekelec's Next-Generation Switching business unit.

VocalData, headquartered in Richardson, Texas, is a North American market share leader in IP Centrex, accounting for 44 percent of all IP Centrex lines deployed at the end of 2003, based on 2003 IP Centrex NA line shipments reported in a recent Frost & Sullivan study.

Microsoft and Polycom today announced a joint marketing and development agreement to deliver rich media collaboration solutions. The initial offering, is scheduled for release in late 2004, and will combine the presence and IM capabilities of Microsoft’s Live Communications Server and Windows Messenger with a slew of Polycom's desktop and group video conference systems, IP phones, voice and video bridges; and the conference portal.

The solution will support SIP from infrastructure to the endpoint. Microsoft and Polycom's SIP strategy is designed to deliver a customer solution that combines the benefits of video with voice, instant messaging, applications, business processes, Web services and Web collaboration.

Vonage, the broadband phone company, announced that Office Depot will now sell its IP communications services in over 700 of its stores as well as online.

Last week, rival AT&T announced that their CallVantage service would be available online at Amazon.com and at over 600 Best Buy outlets nationwide.

At this rate, how long will it be before my wife send me out to the local 7-11 store to pick up milk and I come home with a new phone service? (Please, no replies about how most of the phone cards sold over the Qwikie-Mart counter are utilizing VoIP already.)

All kidding aside, this mass marketing of VoIP services bodes well for our industry, as this puts VoIP in the spotlight and gives people an alternative to traditional phone services.