January 2005 Archives

It looks like Jeff has sprung another one on the Phone industry. By linking Asterisk servers he has created what looks to me to be a IAX clearing house. Not sure where the P2P is here apart from the servers being linked by Bellster. "The Bellster challenge for 2005 is to find out whether or not there are still people in the world who would let total strangers place noncommercial phone calls for free in exchange for the ability to do the same thing themselves," Pulver said in an e-mail. This sounds a little reminiscent of the MicroTelco concept introduced by many including Quicknet and others several years ago. At any rate it's always good to see disruptive technology put to good use more...

Xten is now working with BC.net to deliver IP Videoconferencing via eyeBeam without the aid of a conference server. "Desktop videoconferencing can change the way we work. By enabling face-to-face communication over the Internet, we can cut travel time and increase contact with academics and researchers across the province and around the world,”said Hrybyk. We are confident, that this type of technology will help our members to become more productive and effective.” BCNET (www.bc.net) is a non-profit society supporting and promoting advanced networks for the province’s research and education communities. The organization serves BC’s academic, research and development institutions, government bodies, community organizations and industry groups. BCNET is the province’s foremost leader in advanced network technology. BCNET is supported by the provincial and federal governments as well as by its regional member institutions.

It looks like McDonald's is experiementing with VoIP. If they were smart they would give away a softphone with every combo-meal and a free on-net VoIP, Video, IM service. There are many free networks out there they could leverage, they could even do something with EarthLink for example. more...

Well I guess it was inevitable, Google has seemingly alluded to its plans to get into VoIP and IP communications. It would make perfect sense for the big G to build and IM client with VoIP, Video and Presence. Their massive appeal could amount to tens of millions of end points will little effort. Another competitor for Skype, let's hope they choose to go with open standards! more...

Belkin Partners with Xten Networks to Implement callEverywhere Broadband Phone Service SoftPhone COMPTON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 19, 2005--Belkin Corporation, in conjunction with iNuntius, a provider of VoIP technology, announce their collaborative partnership with Xten (OTCBB:XNWK), a provider of Advanced VoIP, Video, Instant Messaging and Presence SIP softphone SDKs (Software Development Kits). Belkin and iNuntius, codevelopers of callEverywhere(TM) Broadband Phone Service, have licensed a private-label version of Xten's X-PRO SIP softphone SDK for integration and deployment with Belkin's recently announced callEverywhere SoftPhone. The callEverywhere SoftPhone is software that allows users to make calls with just their broadband Internet connection, PC microphone, and PC speaker. "We are excited to be working with Belkin to further expand their callEverywhere service," comments Erik Lagerway, President and CEO of Xten Networks, Inc. "Belkin's vast distribution channels reach into the largest retail chains, which will give them the edge in the broadband telephony market."

Wow! is all I can say. When I posted the news about the Xten Linux softphone beta here about a month ago I did not expect the avalanche of requests to join that beta program that soon followed and continue today. With this in mind the production version of the free SIP softphone "X-Lite" for Linux will be made available on or about Valentine's Day [Feb.14]. Until then, all of you early-early adopters can send your requests to linuxbeta at xten.com in order to get into the beta program, we could sure use your help kicking the bugs out. Early summer 2005 you will see the eyeBeam SDK for Linux [plus Mac OS X, Windows SDK available now]. We have lots in store for 2005, some VERY exciting projects that will have global impact, stay tuned for that.

LiveEye XCAP Server for Instant Messaging and IP Communications Honored for Innovation SANTA CLARA, CA - January 18, 2005 - Xten Networks, Inc. (OTCBB: XNWK), a provider of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), Video over IP, Instant Messaging (IM), and Presence SIP softphones, today announced that Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC®)'s Customer Inter@ction Solutions® magazine (www.cismag.com) has named Xten's LiveEye XCAP (XML Configuration Access Protocol) server as a recipient of a 2004 Product of the Year Award. "Xten is delighted to see the LiveEye XCAP server winning this award," commented Erik Lagerway, President of Xten. "This is one of the only XCAP servers available today. Winning this award from Customer Interaction Solutions says a great deal about Xten's commitment to new open standards technology and the quality of our work." Xten's new eyeBeam 1.1 SDK is now shipping with the LiveEye XCAP server source code and binaries for Linux and BSD operating systems. The new eyeBeam v1.1 SDK makes use of XCAP for storage of centralized buddy lists and remote configuration routines. The eyeBeam SDK also comes with a basic Presence Agent module for SER [SIP express Router by iptel.org]. XCAP servers are a necessary component for any carrier or enterprise looking to build an Instant Messaging infrastructure using Open Standards where buddy lists are stored centrally rather than on the local machine.

Another happy Xten customer...

Yak Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:YAKC), a provider of telecommunication services to residential and business customers, and Xten Networks, Inc. (OTCBB:XNWK), a provider of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), Video over IP, Instant Messaging, and Presence SIP softphones, today announced that Yak has entered into a software licensing agreement with Xten. Under the terms of the agreement, Yak has licensed Xten's eyeBeam SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) softphone, which delivers open standards VoIP, Video, Instant Messaging and Presence, and Xten's X-PRO SIP softphones. more...

Customer Inter@ction Solutions Magazine selects Xten for Product of the Year Award. Xten's new eyeBeam 1.1 SDK is now shipping with the LiveEye XCAP server source code and binaries for Linux and BSD operating systems. The new eyeBeam v1.1 SDK makes use of XCAP (XML Configuration Access Protocol) for storage of centralized buddy lists and remote configuration routines. The eyeBeam SDK also comes with a basic Presence Agent module for SER [SIP express Router by iptel.org]. XCAP servers and Presence Agents are necessary components for any carrier or enterprise looking to build an Instant Messaging infrastructure using Open Standards. One of the big selling points of XCAP is that it allows buddy lists to be stored centrally rather than on the local machine. WebDAV also performs this function and is another technology supported in the eyeBeam 1.1 SDK. We are delighted to see the LiveEye XCAP server winning these awards. This is one of the only XCAP servers available today, winning this award says a great deal about Xten's commitment to new open standards technology and the quality of our work. We felt it was important for Xten to ship a free XCAP server with eyeBeam 1.1, mainly for testing purposes. Alternative XCAP servers are few and far betwen and very costly. Xten will eventually contribute this server to the open source community and the company does not foresee supporting this product commercially. This is the second Product of the Year Award Xten has won for 2004. The first award was for the eyeBeam 1.1 Softphone and SDK presented by Internet Telephony Magazine, both are very well respected publications in the industry.

Most of us believe VoIP can reduce the telephony costs of remote branch offices. What's harder to determine is which kind of VoIP we're talking about. Is this the VoIP that's built around a remote gateway? The VoIP that involves only IP phones in the branch office? Or is it a combination of both? Making an informed choice is difficult because there are so many ways VoIP can be implemented. Attendant consoles can drop those costs even further. Attendant consoles generally cost about a hundred dollars more than a regular phone. Avaya still charges $500 for its software-based attendant console used with its key system replacement, IP Office. However, many IP telephony vendors now build this functionality into the phone, or, as is the case with ShoreTel, bundle it as an application with the phone. The difference is particularly acute when it comes to high-end phones. Today's third-party SIP-based softphones, such as Xten Networks' EyeBeam, run around $60, equipped with integrated video, presence, and IM capabilities. A comparable hard client would cost hundreds of dollars, and even Avaya's SIP-based softphone costs twice that amount. more...

by Robert Sparks CTO, Xten A traveling worker hears a unique ringtone on his cell phone, checks the screen and finds a presence notification that a colleague is awaiting a plane in the same airport.  A ‘soccer parents’ presence channel’ on a dad’s SIP softphone shows all the team’s parents are available to share a group voice or IM session right now.  A teenager who just wrecked his mom’s car checks the family presence channel on his mobile phone to find out his mother’s current mood. These examples only hint at how presence technologies will enable a large class of services not achievable on existing mobile networks.  Presence technologies already have revolutionized how and when network-connected ‘buddies’ communicate. A quick look at the instant messaging (IM) window on a PC tells which buddies are present and available to converse and which ones have stepped out or are otherwise engaged. In short, the availability of presence information puts the “instant” in instant messaging. Presence enables one to avoid the uncertain, delayed responses associated with ‘non-instant’ email or voice messages. The IP network user wastes less time and effort—not to mention network capacity—on attempts to communicate with absent interlocutors. more..

Belkin's callEverywhere Broadband Phone Service launched several months ago and it now available with a Softphone [created by using Xten's SDK]. If you want to see the Softphone in action you can try it out at the CES show in LasVegas, at booths #30847, #36166 and #26359. The callEverywhere SoftPhone plans free email and voice mail, 3-way conference calling, call holding. The plans start at US$9.95 (including 500 minutes of calls in the US and Canada) or US$19.95 for unlimited calls in the IS and Canada. Both plans offer the user a US based phone number. The callEverywhere service is presently available in 34 metro areas in the United States. Since the inception of the company in 1983, Belkin has enjoyed 19 consecutive years of dramatic growth with gross sales exceeding $460 million worldwide FYE/2002. The company headquarters are located in Compton, California. Belkin has a dedicated research and development facility located in Rochester, New York. The headquarters occupy more than 400,000 square feet where more than 20,000 products are sold. Belkin also has a wholly-owned subsidiary in West Gosford Australia, Belkin Corporation limited. In addition, Belkin has a 800,000 sq. ft. distribution center in Indianapolis; to ensure that our orders are filled expeditiously. Belkin Corporation is a privately held company with more than 1000 employees. This could be a strong competitor for other Brandband Phone Providers. more...

According to Voxilla the next version of the Pulver Communicator will be compliant with Skype. It's good in that there is another multi-network client out there to join the growing number of them, not unlike Gaim and Trillian. I wonder if the likes of AOL, MSN and Yahoo! will ever stop blocking these rogue IM clients. I guess we will continue to see the service providers battle these free clients that hack their way into these networks until they decide to just go open standards themselves rendering these multi-network clients useless. Maybe they already have and we just don't know it yet. Just think if Yahoo! and AOL joined forces in the IM world and used open standards protocols like SIP and MSRP for this new client, they would immediately have approximately 80 Million users at their disposal. The open standards approach would allow anyone who wrote a client application to communicate with those 80 million people + other developers who are abiding by those open standards when building their apps. That number could grow immediately into the hundres of millions of users. I would think that once the first big service providers takes the plunge you will see them all follow, which means that unless makers of these hacked multi-network clients want to be left in the dust, they will need to incorporate open standards technology. When will this happen? Could even happen this year in fact. When it does, Xten will be here to welcome them with open arms, we have enough SDKs to go around for everyone

Yes, it's true I have made the switch. Although I have to be honest I couldn't pull the plug on my PC entirely so I use a remote desktop tool and gain access to my PC until I obtain enough MAC "wisdom". eyeBeam v1.1 for Mac is in Beta, it still needs work New OS and new office, Xten's R&D facility in Vancouver just moved downtown, a truly kewl and funky space. Vonage has released a new WiFi handset and recently Fortune magazine mentioned VoIP as the technology of the year for 2005. They showed a shot a of the Vonage Softphone, which was created by Xten and not Vonage as the article points out. :-p eyeBeam v1.1 also won 2 more awards for 2004, "Product of the Year" from Internet Telephony Magazine and our new free XCAP server now being bundled with eyeBeam 1.1 SDK also won "Product of the Year" from Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine. There will be some press releases on this soon. Yep, it's go-time at Xten! It's going to be a killer year!