VoIP News - Monday 19th October

TringMe's App Lets You Make Calls From Facebook
VoIP startup TringMe has launched a Facebook application that lets users make calls from the social network using its Flash-based web phone for browsers. The app also lets you embed widgets to your profile for your Facebook friends to call or SMS you. The app has much of the functionality that a regular VoIP app like Skype has. TringMe's app lets users set up caller-id, send SMS messages from Facebook, lets callers leave voicemails that the users can access and lets you add TringMe widgets to your profile that let friends and visitors call or SMS you from that page, which seems to be the most appealing feature of the app.
http://www.washingtonpost.com

UAE: VoIP may be legalized by year end, says TRA official
The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) is working on a policy to make international internet calls via Voice over IP (VoIP) legal, reported Maktoob Business on Sunday. Mohammed Gheyath, executive director of technology development affairs, said: “Hopefully by the end of this year a new policy will be out.”
http://www.kippreport.com

Is VoIP the voice of the open mobile Internet?
It may be mobile VoIP that mobile operators use to argue they already embrace the open Internet as the FCC mulls new net neutrality rules. Last week, Verizon Wireless announced a deal with Google that will see the search giant's Android platform run on Verizon's network but also bring controversial applications such as Google Voice to Verizon subscribers.
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com

Skype may buy peer-to-peer VoIP startup Gizmo5
According to the Washington Post, Skype may soon purchase peer-to-peer VoIP startup Gizmo5 for around $50 million. The purchase is part of a back-up plan to ensure code base for the online VoIP provider in the event that it's lawsuit with Joltid results in the company not having access to the underlying code Skype uses to make VoIP calls. Currently the code base is licensed to Skype by its original founders who now run Joltid and are suing the company and eBay over intellectual property rights among other things (like getting the company back).
http://www.fiercevoip.com

Internet watchdog challenges VoIP patent
On Wednesday, the EFF, a civil liberties organization that works to protect rights in the digital world, filed a re-examination request to the U.S. Patent and Trademark office, stating it had discovered a prior patent as well as published reference material that should invalidate a patent that had been granted to a company called Acceris. The patent that Acceris was granted describes how voice over IP technology can be used to make calls to and from traditional analog telephones.
http://news.cnet.com

gotalk declares VoIP war
Aggressive Trans Tasman full service/broadband/VoIP telco gotalk today launched another salvo in the current escalating VoIP price war – hotly disputing competitor Engin’s claim to have “the best offer on the market”. Announcing a range of “improved” VoIP plans today, a confident gotalk CEO Steve Picton said his new plans “will persuade thousands of customers to change service providers.”
http://www.cio.com.au

Comcast launches HomePoint VoIP Phone/Router, some ask 'why?'
In an extremely limited release, Comcast is putting its HomePoint VoIP phone/router converged device on the market. The new device integrates Comcast's VoIP service with its cable Internet service combining a wireless router with a VoIP phone in an all-in-one device. Comcast customers in Fort Meyers, Fla. will be the first to get the chance to try the technology with Comcast launching the service in other markets soon.
http://www.fiercevoip.com

Kineto Intros Mobile VoIP App for Carriers
Kineto Wireless has introduced a mobile VoIP application designed specifically to be deployed and managed by mobile operators. The app, which leverages the operator’s existing voice network infrastructure, is designed to run on iPhone, Android, Symbian, and Windows Mobile devices.
http://www.voipplanet.com

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VoIP News - Thursday 8h October

What's Behind AT&T's New VoIP Policy?
It looks like you'll be able to use Skype on the iPhone over a 3G connection after all. AT&T changed course on Tuesday by allowing skype to connect over the carrier's 3G network. The new decision is a complete reversal of a previous policy that restricted VoIP applications to use the iPhone's Wi-Fi connectivity only, and not the device's cellular capability.
http://www.pcworld.com

CNET News Daily Podcast: AT&T finally warms to VoIP
In today's podcast, we get CNET News writer Tom Krazit in the studio to talk about yesterday's news that AT&T will finally allow voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) applications to run on its network. This opens up the field for apps from Vonage and Skype to actually compete with AT&T's business, and possibly bring Google's Voice service to Apple's iPhone.
http://news.cnet.com

Vonage App Brings VoIP to Blackberry and iPhone
Vonage is expanding its horizons beyond delivering VoIP over broadband Internet, and hoping to expand its customer base and revenue at the same time. The new app from Vonage allows Blackberry and iPhone users to place cheaper international calls from their mobile phones. It also highlights the shifting competitive landscape between previously separate technologies.
http://www.sfgate.com

Wireless industry makes itself more open in one day
In one day, the wireless industry just made itself significantly more open. No doubt this is in response to the Federal Communication Commission's interest in making net neutrality rules apply to wireless networks and to the commission's queries into exclusive handset deals
http://www.fiercemobileit.com

First Hosted Intros VoiceNet Hosted VoIP Solution
First Hosted Limited, a provider of hosted solutions, has announced the launch of a new business-grade VoIP solution called “VoiceNet” that is claims offers the key benefits of economies of scale, cost efficiencies and centralization for businesses, with feature-rich capability and flexibility.
http://hosted-voip.tmcnet.com

JumperTel wants to take on Skype from scratch with VoIP service
A new US company called JumperTel has launched a VoIP phone which it hopes will rival Skype. It costs $12 a year for unlimited calls to other JumperTel phones, and the special phones cost just $21.99. It claims an edge over Skype with improved voice quality and email based customer care and idiot-proof installation.
http://www.unthinkable.biz

Zer01 unlimited voice and data service demo @ Fall CTIA 2009
It’s been a long time coming, and they’ve had to trudge through a veritable gauntlet of bad press related to Global Verge and Buzzirk Mobile, but Zer01 Mobile is finally ready to show that they’re not just full of hot air. Zer01 CEO Ben Piilani was on hand at the Fall CTIA WITE 2009 conference to prove to the media that Zer01 service is indeed real and does work.
http://www.intomobile.com

Scareware scams spill onto Skype
Scareware spreaders have started to use Skype to spread their cash-sapping crud.
The VoIP channel has joined malicious manipulated search results, malicious online advertisements, Facebook messages and iFrame contaminated sites as a means to spread rogue "anti-virus" software scans.
http://www.theregister.co.uk

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VoIP News - Monday 5th October 2009

Verizon Wireless Dumps the Hub
Less than a year after Verizon Wireless declared the Hub as the landline of the future, the nation's No. 1 carrier quietly drops the VOIP phone.
http://www.eweek.com

FCC to revisit Net Neutrality in the U.S.
In a speech at the Brookings Institution September 21, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced a rulemaking to embrace the concept of “net neutrality,” and the telecom world is crackling with the energy of renewing a fight continued for some years now. It is more than just a new round, too, because the speech almost casually added wireless as well as wireline to the scope of FCC’s concerns, which raises new and serious sets of uncertainties.
http://thegovmonitor.com

Ooma's next-gen 'free' phone system, the Telo, is finally available
You probably don't remember it, but way back in January, at CES, a little company called Ooma unveiled its next-generation phone system, the Telo, which combines DECT 6.0 cordless-phone technology with Internet-based (VoIP) calling. Well, after nearly 10 months of waiting, the Telo is finally landing in stores and is available for $249.99.
http://news.cnet.com

Sprint reaches VoIP patent agreement with Big River Telephone
Large incumbent operators filing lawsuits against competitive and independent service providers over VoIP services has become a phenomenon in recent years. Case in point is Sprint. The IXC, which currently provides wholesale VoIP services to other cable operators, has settled a VoIP patent lawsuit with Big River Telephone Co. Although financial details of the settlement were not revealed, the agreement will allow Big River Telephone to provide wholesale telephone services to other small cable operators.
http://www.fiercetelecom.com

Speakeasy The Latest VoIP Provider To Block Certain Calls
A few weeks back, we noted that VoIP provider MagicJack had begun blocking calls to certain numbers it didn't like -- specifically free conference numbers that were using a regulatory arbitrage loophole that required the networks of incoming calls to certain rural telcos to pay huge connection fees, creating incentives for those telcos to develop cheap or free services that brought in lots of calls.
http://www.techdirt.com

NetTALK: New entrant in the ultra-low-cost VoIP arena.
We're not sure why, but when startup netTALK launched its consumer-oriented VoIP product in July of this year, Enterprise VoIPplanet.com missed the event. An announcement, last month, that the company's common stock was being approved for public trading on the OTC Bulletin Board also slipped past us.
http://www.voipplanet.com

JAJAH beta-testing Twitter VoIP calling
JAJAH, an IP telephony platform, announced the beta launch of VoIP calling functionality for Twitter called "@call." Both the caller and the recipient of the call will have to sign up for the beta program for a call to work, but once they've registered, the caller only needs to send a message reading "@call@twittername" to connect to the recipient for up to a two-minute call.
http://www.fiercevoip.com

Engin appoints new CEO, CFO & COO
Charles Solomon, who has been general manager of VoIP service provider, engin since October 2008 has been promoted to CEO and the company has filled new CFO and COO role with internal promotions.
http://www.itwire.com

Toll fraud is alive and well
Almost as long as there have been toll calls there has been toll fraud. From phone phreakers to corrupt insiders to external hackers, fraudsters have found a way to make crime pay. But three trends related to this old crime are bringing it to the forefront once again, creating headaches for enterprise managers.
http://www.computerworld.com

Google Voice, Skype Are on a VOIP Collision Course
Why would Google want to acquire Skype when it already has a VOIP application? The fact is, Google Voice and Skype are not yet direct competitors, but Google is enriching its application and could put it on a collision course with Skype. Google Voice could be linked with Google Talk to approximate Skype's PC calling services. Google also offers video chat via Gmail, which could theoretically be added to any VOIP platform Google was considering.
http://www.eweek.com

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VoIP News - Monday 31st August

VoIP Providers and the Economy: Innovate, Entrench, or Consolidate?
The communications industry, while not entirely immune to it, has felt less of an impact that most during the economic downturn that has crippled more than just a few companies (even some in the telecom space). In fact, many telecom providers and vendors have experienced growth during the recession, like8x8, which recently moved into a new corporate headquarters facility that could accommodate its growth.
http://small-business-voip.tmcnet.com

Sify to tap VoIP market
Sify Technologies, a pioneer among private internet service providers (ISP) in India with 5.7 lakh subscribers and a 5.8% market share, is now targeting yet another area of telecommunications for a first mover advantage — voice over internet protocol (VoIP), for the mass consumer market, as and when government regulation permits it within the country.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Enterprise Fax Over IP Follows VoIP into the Office
Internet telephony has penetrated the enterprise market so deeply that, at this point, small- to medium-sized businesses far and away have emerged as the primary targets for VoIP service providers – and under the not-quite-accurate mantra “VoIP Is Dead,” advocates for technologies such as high-definition IP telephony or video-based communications as the “next” phase of communications have come out of the wood work.
http://www.tmcnet.com

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VoIP News - Friday 28th August

Vonage jumps 35 percent on hopes for VoIP growth
Vonage Holdings Corp shares surged 35 percent on Wednesday on growing views that the company would survive despite earlier skepticism over its business model. The stock has now climbed more than 300 percent in the past week, a rally that has surprised analysts who say the company still faces stiff competition and weak revenue. Last week, the stock was trading at less than 50 cents a share, but it now stands above $2.
http://www.reuters.com

Microsoft Boosts VoIP With JahJah Partnership
JahJah is providing Microsoft with SIP trunking services, a key unified communications technology that connects OCS 2007 R2 to carrier networks and enables phones calls made from PCs, VoIP phones and mobile devices to reach their destinations. SIP trunking also reduces infrastructure costs at the gateway and enables companies to move to a standards-based infrastructure.
http://www.crn.com

Wireless Growth as Fuel for Mobile VoIP
Market researchers and analysts in recent weeks have called for wide adoption of mobile Voice over IP, or “VoIP” technology, including among cellular network operators. The reasons are varied, though many operators face high costs, as well as a lot of complexity and time as they seek to upgrade their networks to support mobile VoIP.
http://small-business-voip.tmcnet.com

The Three Metrics for Monitoring VoIP Call Setup Performance
Welcome to another edition of “Notes from Downstream,” where I discuss the issues impacting the network performance of the various data and multimedia streams flowing through your network. While optimizing the network for both data and voice is crucial, so is monitoring the quality of experience that your users perceive from VoIP and video applications. In this column, I will focus on a vital part of this quality of experience: call setup performance.
http://voip-phone-systems.tmcnet.com

Carrier VoIP revs down 32% in Q2
A new Infonetics research report on second-quarter carrier VoIP spending shows some signs of life for the industry, which has been battered due to reduced carrier capex amid the recession. Global carrier VoIP equipment revenues totaled $598 million in Q2, and while the market segment revenues were off 32 percent year-over-year, they did show slight improvement of 0.8 percent from Q1.
http://www.fiercevoip.com

Google Voice: Let Freedom Ring
Google Voice is the telecom invention that everyone wants, though few understand how it works. Like TiVo, digital cameras and BlackBerrys, innovations such as this take a while to be considered necessary by us regular people, and even longer for us to understand how they work.
http://www.politicsdaily.com

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VoIP News - Tuesday 25th August

AT&T: iPhone deal blocks VoIP over cellular
In a letter to the FCC, AT&T acknowledged that Apple and AT&T have an agreement to block VoIP apps from using AT&T’s cellular networks, but that VoIP apps that use Wi-Fi are OK. Here’s a selection from the letter.
http://government.zdnet.com

Google's Andy Rubin responds to "inaccurate" USA Today article regarding VoIP on Android
Google Vice President of Mobile Platforms Andy Rubin responded directly on Google's public policy blog to an article published Friday by USA Today, disagreeing with several of the papers claims related to the availability of VoIP applications, including Skype, on the Android operating system.
http://www.mobileburn.com

4G Wireless Evolution - Amdocs: 4G Technologies to Push 'Creativity' of Internet, Mobile Devices
Fourth-generation wireless technologies require a major transformation of the network, a representative for a St. Louis-based provider of customer experience systems, told TMCnet in an interview. Despite that, the technology will bring new meaning to the word mobility and give users the option to take services anywhere they go, according to David Chambers, solutions manager, mobile OSS, Amdocs.
http://4g-wirelessevolution.tmcnet.com

Voxbone aims to let consumers keep one phone number for life
Voxbone, a wholesaler of transferrable VoIP phone numbers to service providers, announced that 8 out of 10 respondents wanted to have on phone number for life so as not to lose contact information after a move or service provider change, according to the results of a survey it commissioned. It said the traditional line-based way phone numbers are handled needs to shift to an individually focused strategy, and it aims to facilitate that transition through its iNum service, which lets consumers keep the same phone number, even if moving overseas.
http://www.fiercevoip.com

Burning Question: When Will International Phone Calls Be Free?
Not anytime soon, bub. But when you eventually get your iPhone 4G, they should be included in your rate plan. Which is weird, because it's probably been a long time since you nervously eyed the clock while on the phone with your granny in Smallville. Long distance has been all-you-can-eat since cell phones and voice-over-IP conquered the universe.
http://www.wired.com

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VoIp News - Monday 24th August

AT&T can veto iPhone VoIP apps
AT&T has the power to veto sales of Apple iPhone applications capable of generating cheap telephone calls over the Internet, the companies say. The U.S. telecommunications giant and Apple say AT&T gained the veto power as part of its exclusive contract with Apple to serve as the popular iPhones' sole service provider, Financial Times reported Saturday.
http://www.themoneytimes.com

Google Denies Blocking Skype on Android Devices
Google on Friday denied that it is blocking VoIP services like Skype on Android devices, and said that full-featured VoIP apps are not available on Android phones only because developers have not yet created them.
http://www.pcmag.com

XO expands VoIP services
XO Communications has enhanced its VoIP service with expanded nationwide coverage, upgraded business continuity features, and interoperability support for a wider range IP-PBX platforms using Session Initiation Protocol. XO effectively doubles its footprint across the United States, now providing VoIP services to 80% major metropolitan markets. The increase in VoIP service areas better positions the company to support multi-location businesses.
http://www.networkworld.com

GL Communications improves real-time VoIP analyzer
Enhancements to GL Communications' PacketScan real-time VoIP analyzer allow it to handle up to 1300 simultaneous calls with bidirectional RTP traffic. In addition, the software now produces a summary of MEGACO calls, classifying them as active, completed, or failed. The summary of each call contains signaling information, such as physical termination, ephemeral termination, context ID, call start time, call duration, and information about media sessions associated with it.
http://www.tmworld.com

Wi-Fi, Though Not VoIP, Completely at Home in the Air
The writer of this post at GIzmodo doesn't seem to have made much of an effort to check the veracity of this vignette he picked up at Evan's Blog. The story is that a commercial plane waiting to take off at Newark Airport when the captain asked if there was a passenger with a laptop and connectivity on board. Bad weather was delaying things. The plane was 50th in line, which essentially means that passengers were in for an extended stay in the land of Tony Soprano.
http://www.itbusinessedge.com

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