Seems passe to be writing about VoIP, but that's the overarching theme of this post. What is happening in the VoIP world?

Microsoft bought Skype and announced today that Skype for Asterisk will be shuttered. Yep, looks like Skype will be for LINC, maybe a few select partners, and maybe a reborn Response Point program.

Web Hosting companies are in the game of VoIP now. Intermedia is now offering Hosted PBX as a stand alone product. Parallels, which is a web hosting platform company, has developed an automation and provisioning system that includes voice apps from the likes of Alteva and 4SPA.

MegaPath has put some Hosted PBX features into its Integrated Voice-Data solution, including Find-me/Follow-me. MegaPath leaves you with a great sales question: "What Hosted Voice features would be most advantageous for your employees?" It would be a good question to ask customers and prospects and a good one to ask during product development.

Momentum was already a Broadsoft shop doing white label for Tier 2 cablecos before it acquired the assets of CommPartners Hosted business. We'll see where that goes, because that might have been a Money Pit that Momentum got.

TelePacific just acquired a Hosted PBX shop that will become part of TelePacific's Managed Services subsidiary.

XO is knee deep in Broadsoft Cloud Communications fun. So much so, I wonder why they haven't joined the Cloud Communications Alliance yet. Who did join the CCA? GLOBALINX

Here's a letter from the Smoothstone President to clients and partners about the acquisition of Smoothstone by West Corp.

TouchTone rolled out an Unlimited Calling SIP Trunking service called BusinessFlex, which provides unlimited local and long distance calling anywhere in the Continental U.S., Puerto Rico, Canada, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. No contract term is required; and standard features include BTN with E-911 and Caller ID/Name, one DID per SIP trunk, and many other enterprise features.

Junction Networks launched a free VoIP Service named GetOnSIP. GetOnSIP is built upon the same SIP and XMPP foundation as Junction Networks' existing OnSIP hosted PBX service. However, GetOnSIP is a stripped down offering with a SIP URI. Once your SIP phone or soft phone is registered you can start making and receiving calls to any other SIP URIs.

In Rich Calling, Ringio partnered with InPhonex to create Televate.

Cbeyond's Virtual Receptionist was recognized for Outstanding Innovation.

SYNNEX rolled out CLOUDSolv UC as their hosted unified communications platform that works with both VoIP and desktop voice services. It's a private-label service sold through SYNNEX resellers that works with Microsoft and Broadsoft technology.

M5 Networks launched a cloud based call recording solution for SMB.

Packet8 decided to jump into the SOHO and solopreneur sector with a UC solution for even offices of One. Details of that offering are here. 8×8, which owns Packet8, "added 3,009 gross new business customers in the fiscal fourth quarter of 2011 and ended the period with 24,385 business customers in service," according to its press release. It did $18M for the quarter and $70M for year with churn at 2.3%.

Telcentris joined the white-label turn-key crowd with its "managed wholesale VoIP enablement solution [that] is ideal for interconnects, service providers, carriers, and entrepreneurs looking to offer Internet telephony services within weeks with minimal upfront investment."

I think that covers most of the "news". Now here's a sales link: Determining Whether Hosted VoIP is Right for Your Small Business.