December 2005

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So Long '05. Hello Opportunity!

December 30, 2005

It’s hard to believe 2005 is almost a memory. Rather than come up with a list of predictions that will most likely come true (if I guess conservatively) or most likely will never come to fruition (if I take some genuine chances) I’d rather wish the readers of my blog a safe, healthy, and happy new year!

Next year will be a busy one here at TMC. As has already been well documented, we are in the process of launching two brand-new magazines (SIP magazine and IMS magazine) in addition to publishing our flagship Internet Telephony.

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UK Set to Claim Title as Europe's "Most Wired"

December 29, 2005

According to research from Point Topic, the United Kingdom has now overtaken France as the biggest broadband country in Europe — although the gap is still narrow. However, this is according to estimates by Point Topic which suggest that the UK will have 9.8 million broadband lines by New Year's Day 2006, while France will have 9.7 million. As the chart below shows, in Q305, France still had a slim lead over the UK.

Nevertheless, the report notes that the British broadband market is facing huge changes in 2006, which should stimulate growth further by bringing increased competition and investment.

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IBM Picks Up Micromuse

December 21, 2005

IBM announced it will acquire San Francisco-based Micromuse in a cash transaction valued at about $865 million.

IBM continues to expand its telecom-related portfolio of products. Micromuse is a maker of voice-, VoIP-� and video-traffic management software. Micromuse's Netcool suite is an engine for event collection, consolidation, and correlation.

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Verizon Testing Nortel IMS Solution

December 14, 2005

Today, Verizon announced that it is testing an IMS solution from Nortel, as part of Verizon's ongoing plans to evaluate IMS technologies. Verizon is beginning its evaluation of IMS compliant solutions in order to converge voice, video, and multimedia service using globally standardized protocols and architecture.

"Verizon, which has been using Nortel's softswitch since 2001, is now beginning its evaluation of IMS compliant solutions. We are looking for open, standards-based solutions that will support rapid development of new innovative services to increase customer retention and attract new subscribers,” said Mark Wegleitner, senior vice president and chief technology officer, Verizon.

For more on this news, please check out this story published on TMCnet.

Nextone Powers GSM SIP & IMS Trials

December 13, 2005

NexTone Communications has� announced that four of the seven GPRS Roaming Exchange (GRX) carriers used the NexTone IP Multimedia Exchange (IMX) platform to power their successful trials in the European and Asian interoperability tests.

The tests were conducted by the GSM Association (GSMA), a global trade association that exists to promote, protect, and enhance the interests of GSM mobile operators throughout the world.

The trials, conducted over the last six months, brought together mobile network operators, GRX carriers, and equipment suppliers to ensure that the next generation of multimedia services, based on the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS), will work smoothly and have compatibility across networks once these services are launched for customers. The tests are crucial for the many operators around the world that are planning to use IMS to handle multimedia services such as instant messaging, push-to-talk-over-cellular, video-sharing, and multiplayer-games in the future.

FIFA on a Friday Afternoon

December 9, 2005

The 2006 World Cup draw has been set. The US is in a rather tough Group� E� with Italy, Czech Republic and Ghana. Host Germany should have a relatively easy road to the next round. Costa Rica, Ecuador and Poland round out Group A.

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Telcordia Enhances IMS Portfolio

December 6, 2005

From the "If-you-can't-bill-for-it-how-will-you-ever-make-money" files, Telcordia announced a significant enhancement to Maestro, its IMS portfolio today.

The news involves an integrated Diameter interface to its Telcordia Converged Real Time Charging solution. With the integration of Diameter and the Credit Control Application (CCA), both industry standards specified by the 3GPP, Telcordia’s Real Time Charging solution gives operators an tool to introduce new services, flexible pricing offers, reduce revenue leakage, and minimize operating expenses. Just in time for the holidays, this would make the perfect gift for any service provider on your list. Really.

Check out the news as it appears on Telcordia's site.

Openera Launches P2P Video Sharing App

December 6, 2005

Openera Technologies, Inc., a developer of IMS mobile client applications for fixed and mobile operators, announced today the commercial availability of its peer-to-peer video sharing application with integrated rich presence. The solution is designed to enable mobile phone users to talk with and view fellow callers simultaneously. Openera's Peer-to-Peer Video Sharing (PPVS) is the newest addition to Openera's suite of IMS Mobile Client applications, which partner Lucent Technologies is delivering to market as part of its end-to-end IMS offering.

For more information, take a look at the company's� Web site.

Greg Galitzine's VoIP Authority Blog

December 2005