Archive for October, 2007
Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 | Posted in WiFi VoIP | No Comments »
Good article from the Wall Street Journal on the potential benefits of the rumored Google Phone, as well as the significant challenges it will likely face:
Google Inc. is close to unveiling its long-planned strategy to shake up the
wireless market, people familiar with the matter say. The Web giant’s
ambitious goal: to make applications and services as accessible on
cellphones as they are on the Internet.
In a move likely to kick off an intense debate about
the future shape of the cellphone industry, Google wants to make it
easier for cellphone customers to get a variety of extra services on
their phones — from maps to social-networking features to
video-sharing. To get its way, however, the search giant will have to
overcome resistance from wireless carriers and deal with potentially
thorny security and privacy issues.
Google is trying to loosen the grip wireless carriers have over the
software and services consumers can access on cellphones. Carriers have
considerable clout, especially in the U.S., where they control
distribution of phones to consumers through their retail stores.
New IP Powered Business solutions from Nortel (NYSE: NT) are making it easy for service providers around the world to sell and host pre-tested VoIP services to small and medium sized businesses (SMB). These solutions, announced today at the Fall VON Conference in Boston, combine the latest VoIP technology with planning, installation, management and technical support from Nortel’s portfolio of Global Services for SMBs. They also include marketing support to help service providers target and sell VoIP to the growing SMB market.
"As the world leader in both carrier and enterprise VoIP, Nortel is uniquely positioned to deliver a full-range of simple solutions for SMBs that easily allow carriers to offer advanced IP services without the cost or complexity often associated with next-generation communication services," said Alf Decardenas, general manager, Carrier Multimedia Networks, Nortel. "The needs of SMBs vary dramatically, and as a result, they require VoIP packages that can provide a range of options from fully hosted to onsite IP solutions. Nortel’s new IP Powered Business Solutions can help SMBs deliver big business services like unified communications, integrated multimedia messaging and voice services like Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) with a simple yet powerful IP solution made specifically with the needs of SMBs in mind."
Source: Nortel
Saturday, October 27th, 2007 | Posted in Vonage | No Comments »
Another settlement from Vonage in its saga with AT&T, Sprint and Verizon:
Vonage on Thursday announced it has settled a protracted patent lawsuit with telecom giant Verizon Communications that will cost the struggling VoIP firm a maximum of $120 million.
Ahead of the announcement, Vonage shares slid 7 cents a share, or four percent, to $1.53 a share before storming up $1.22 a share, or 80 percent, to $2.75 a share in after-hours trading following the news.
In March, a Virginia jury found Vonage had infringed on three Verizon
patents and awarded the company $58 million in damages plus a royalty on future sales of its Internet-based telephone service. In September, an appeals court sent the remaining two patents in dispute back to a lower court for retrial.
Vonage had already set aside a $66 million cash-collateralized bond, a $12 million second-quarter escrow payment and a $10 million third-quarter escrow payment to cover the initial damages awarded to Verizon in March. While the Court of Appeals weights the merits of the two remaining patents, identified as ‘574 and ‘711, Vonage has effectively capped its maximum exposure to damages at $120 million. If Vonage wins a rehearing on either of the remaining patents in dispute, it will only pay a total of $80 million in damages to Verizon.
Is someone using your VoIP phone to eavesdrop on you?
A leading member of the Jericho Forum has criticised the security of voice-over-IP technology after security researchers revealed that it was possible to eavesdrop on VoIP conversations.
An eavesdropping vulnerability was revealed on the popular Full Disclosure mailing list on Wednesday. Vulnerability researchers Humberto Abdelnur, Radu State and Olivier Festor claimed the exploit could allow a remote attacker to turn a VoIP phone into an eavesdropping device, citing a Grandstream SIP phone as an example.
The Jericho Forum is an international group of leading corporate security professionals, academics and vendors, and promotes the development of secure software architectures, among other IT security interests.
Saturday, October 20th, 2007 | Posted in Vonage | No Comments »
On the heels of Sprint’s success against Vonage, AT&T follows suit:
In a filing with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, AT&T alleged that Vonage wilfully infringed an AT&T patent related to telephone systems that allow people to make VOIP (voice-over-Internet Protocol) calls using standard telephone devices.
In the legal filing, AT&T said it tried to reach an agreement with Vonage to license the patent, but failed, which forced the lawsuit.
Vonage announced on Oct. 8 that it settled its suit with Sprint Nextel for US$80 million.
This article from TechRepublic looks at upcoming Microsoft VoIP products:
With its new Office Communications Server (OCS), the company is
setting out to get its feet wet in the VoIP space — in a big way.
OCS is about more than VoIP, but VoIP is a big part of OCS. Its VoIP
capability is what sets it apart from its predecessor, Live
Communications Server (LCS). You can integrate the software-based VoIP
feature in OCS into existing PBX systems, or you can use it alone.
Here’s a closer look at OCS, what it does, and what it means to
companies looking to deploy VoIP in their organizations.
Two editions for two different markets
OCS, like many other Microsoft server products, comes in two
different editions to serve different markets. Small and midsize
companies can get into the game at a lower cost with the Standard
Edition. Not only does the software itself cost less, but it runs all
the components, including the database that stores user information, on
a single server computer so hardware costs can be less as well.
Friday, October 12th, 2007 | Posted in E911 | No Comments »
Perhaps a solution to VoIP’s E911 woes is in the works:
Anyone making a 911 call in the U.S. today using a voice-over-IP (VoIP) telephone isn’t directly calling the local 911 center. Instead, the call has to go through a third party, such as a competitive local exchange carrier, who then connects that emergency call to the local 911 operator.
The reason for a middleman is simple — current Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules only allow traditional telephone service carriers to connect directly with the 911 system backbone to avoid swamping the service during emergencies. That leaves VoIP phone companies without a direct way to provide 911 service on their own.
A new bill introduced recently in the U.S. House of Representatives aims to change that to allow VoIP companies to offer 911 services to customers.
The 911 Modernization and Public Safety Act (H.R. 3403), which is being pushed by Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.), would give VoIP companies and other news-related services direct access to 911 systems.
Wednesday, October 10th, 2007 | Posted in VoIP News | No Comments »
Just another example of the benefits of VoIP service:
Flooding caused untold misery for homeowners and businesses across England earlier this year, but one firm found it could continue working through the freak weather thanks to VoIP.
Cheltenham-based telecoms company TTL found that it had to make use of the IP telephony products it provided to local firms to keep their own business afloat instead.
Targeting organizations with 30 to 250 phone users, 3Com is introducing the 3Com® VCX™ Connect, an all-in-one platform that delivers Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) software-based IP telephony call control and unified messaging in a single-server package. There are two versions of the product. The VCX Connect 100 delivers high-performance voice capabilities for organizations with 30 to 100 users. The VCX Connect 200 delivers the same robust performance for up to 250 users.
As part of 3Com’s commitment to providing the platform and support for clients to implement best-of-breed Open Source solutions, the company also is launching the 3Com Asterisk Appliance, an Open Source voice-over-IP (VoIP) system based on Digium’s Asterisk Appliance. Designed for five to 30 phone users, it delivers plug-and-play operation right out of the box backed by 3Com’s warranty, service and support. The 3Com Asterisk Appliance works with 3Com’s full line of telephone handsets.
"Small and medium-sized businesses demand flexible and affordable communications solutions to ensure effective collaboration and productivity," said Brian Riggs, research director for Current Analysis’ Enterprise Communications practice. "With these new products, 3Com is bringing enterprise-caliber VoIP communications and applications to organizations of all sizes."
Source: 3Com
When you think about buying a new laptop, WalMart may not be the first vendor that springs to mind — but perhaps it should be.
WalMart has great prices on laptops from vendors like Everex, Acer, Toshiba, Dell, Sony, and HP.
You may find the best deal by visiting your local WalMart instead of going online. WalMart’s web site offers a basic Everex NC1501 laptop for $398. My local Wal-Mart is selling a much more well equipped Acer for the same price.
Acer is a better brand than Everex. Toshiba, Dell, Sony, and HP are all premium brands which you can buy for very good prices at your local WalMart store.
For $648, you can purchase a Toshiba Satellite with a 15.4″ WXGA widescreen display, a 1.8 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core processor, 1 GB RAM, and an 80 GB hard drive. That’s quite a reasonable machine!
In addition to comparing brands when buying a cheap laptop, you will also want to compare:
- Display size
- Display resolution
- CPU
- RAM (How much? How many available DIMM slots?)
- Storage (How much? How fast?)
- DVD drives (Read-Only or Read-Write?)
- Wireless (Built-in or add-on?)
When looking for the best deal, it pays to do your research and shop around. My recommendation is that you add WalMart to the list of places you look for your next laptop.
