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.
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 | Posted in Skype | No Comments »
Skype 
released a new Facebook app today - games from Skype Extras. But what is the link to the Skype VoIP business?
The single- and multiplayer games include bowling, Sudoku, Russian checkers, and backgammon. I launched the bowling game from Facebook, which opened the Extras Manager on Skype’s app (which must be running in order to use the service) and it instructed me to choose an opponent from my buddy list.
The match proceeded as it would have had I plucked it from Skype’s interface, which is to say it was a fun, engaging experience that took full advantage of Skype’s all-in-one services to chat while "rolling," speak over VoIP, interact with a friend, and send screen shots via file transferring. But did I really need the Facebook app?
As a standalone Facebook add-on, Skype Games is little more than an alternate route for virally marketing the Skype app and Extras section. The only newness is the Facebook profile presence. At this early stage, that’s just a thumbnail icon in the apps roster and a tiny textual plug in the left column–a very shy presence for the usually gregarious VoIP titan.
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
Interesting new WiFi VoIP phone for Skype is reportedly launching tomorrow:
3 UK has admitted that it’s working on a Skype phone to bring VoIP connectivity to more of its mobile customers.
While the mobile operator would confirm the phone’s existence, exact details are scarce, though industry rumours suggest the handset will be launched Monday and available in-store by Thursday.
The phone will be available on a £12 a month contract as well as pay as you go, and will feature a 2MB camera and MP3 player as well as video playback.
A humorous post from Russell Shaw:
I regularly visit lots of consumer electronics retailers,
computer-centric and office supply monoliths. Toy stores for adults (of
course me being an adult is debatable)
Although I am already set up with many VoIP accounts and gear, I
like to walk up to the salespeople in the area where VoIP is sold. I
tend to test their knowledge by asking them a few questions about what
a specific VoIP product- say a Vonage router or Skype phone does, how
it works, how to set up, etc.
It’s sort of hit me lately that as a general rule, retail
salespeople are pretty clueless about VoIP. Even at Fry’s Electronics-
where I’ve encountered lots of highly knowlegeable mobile device,
printer, PC and notebook salespeople over the years, a couple of the
veteran salespeople really didn’t seem to know what Vonage and Skype
were, what the peripherals and gear they were selling did, and even
exactly what the bell VoIP is.
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.
American Airlines plans to be the first domestic airline to offer Internet service in the air (in this incarnation):
American Airlines is first out of the starting gate domestically. It
expects to have a test plane operating by December, and its whole
transcontinental fleet of 767s ready in 2008. Virgin America is close
on its heels with plans to equip every seat back with high-speed
capability by mid-2008. And Alaska Airlines will run a test next spring
and, based on its outcome, the company hopes to outfit its whole fleet.
But don’t think you’ll be making free phone calls from the sky:
As for passengers concerned about cellphones in the sky, there’s no
reason to panic, at least not yet. For now, sky-high cellphones are
still banned by the Federal Communications Commission. And American
Airlines plans to disable voice-over-Internet options, such as Skype,
so passengers don’t have to worry about being an unwilling captive
audience to one side of someone else¹s private conversation.
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.
