Archive for the ‘VoIP News’ Category
Monday, November 12th, 2007 | Posted in VoIP News | 1 Comment »
Organizations look to unified communications for efficiency and emergency preparedness:
"It’s just another way of trying to get a message out to students. When something bad happens like the Virginia Tech [shooting], you have to try to get to students any way you can," said Steve Stempien, director of information services at Adrian College.
The technology also has more prosaic, albeit important, uses. Admissions counselors at the college intend to use the new Mobile Call Manager as a way to "stay in communication with prospective students," said Stempien.
This and other functionalities are part of a package that ShoreTel is introducing Nov. 12 as it tries to jump on the unified communications bandwagon.
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.
Bad news for Vonage , via the AP:
For the second time in two days, Internet phone company Vonage Holdings Corp. was hit with bad legal news Wednesday when a federal appeals court upheld a March jury verdict and injunction against it for patent infringement.
The company’s shares sank to 93 cents, their lowest level since Vonage went public in May 2006.
A Virginia jury awarded Verizon 
Communications Corp. $58 million in damages plus 5.5 percent royalties on future revenues after finding that Vonage violated three Verizon patents in building its Internet phone system.
On Tuesday, Vonage was ordered to pay Sprint Nextel $69.5 million in damages after a jury found that Vonage willfully infringed on six Sprint telecommunications patents.
Verizon spokesman Peter Thonis said Wednesday’s ruling ‘’speaks for itself.”
Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 | Posted in VoIP News | No Comments »
Yet another free VoIP service provider on the block: Pudding Media, and once again, an interesting business model.
Pudding says that it will offer free VoIP calling (to any phone in North America) if users agree to allow the company’s voice recognition software listen in, serving up targeted advertisements on the user’s screen during the conversation.
While some are decrying "privacy concerns" with this plan, this claim is difficult to take seriously. Pudding is upfront about the fact that calls will be monitored; those who don’t like this policy can take their VoIP calls elsewhere. Besides, Pudding says that they’ll offer "fun, entertaining and valuable information" by monitoring calls. Who could be against that? Take this example from Pudding Media’s Web site:
It’s Saturday night. You plan to go to a movie with Ashley. But which movie should you see…? Time to call her and decide. You surf to ThePudding.com and call Ashley for free. As soon as you start talking about movies, a list of local movies, complete with reviews and show times appear on the screen. Now, what about dinner? Just talking about where to get dinner, and offers for local restaurants are displayed. Now you and Ashley have everything you need for dinner and a movie! Oh and just a few clicks and you’ve reserved the tickets and a table. Sweet!
All we can say is sign us up!! Or, perhaps not.
Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 | Posted in VoIP News | No Comments »
Yet another free VoIP service provider on the block: Pudding Media, and once again, an interesting business model.
Pudding says that it will offer free VoIP calling (to any phone in North America) if users agree to allow the company’s voice recognition software listen in, serving up targeted advertisements on the user’s screen during the conversation.
While some are decrying "privacy concerns" with this plan, this claim is difficult to take seriously. Pudding is upfront about the fact that calls will be monitored; those who don’t like this policy can take their VoIP calls elsewhere. Besides, Pudding says that they’ll offer "fun, entertaining and valuable information" by monitoring calls. Who could be against that? Take this example from Pudding Media’s Web site:
It’s Saturday night. You plan to go to a movie with Ashley. But which movie should you see…? Time to call her and decide. You surf to ThePudding.com and call Ashley for free. As soon as you start talking about movies, a list of local movies, complete with reviews and show times appear on the screen. Now, what about dinner? Just talking about where to get dinner, and offers for local restaurants are displayed. Now you and Ashley have everything you need for dinner and a movie! Oh and just a few clicks and you’ve reserved the tickets and a table. Sweet!
All we can say is sign us up!! Or, perhaps not.
Thursday, September 20th, 2007 | Posted in VoIP News | No Comments »
Keynote Competitive Research, the industry analysis group of Keynote Systems (Nasdaq: KEYN), today announced the top-line results of its newest study of voice quality including VoIP, packet cable and traditional phone service (PSTN). The new study reveals that while packet cable digital voice and Voice over IP offerings still lag in quality, they are proving to be highly competitive with traditional PSTN service providers. This finding is of great significance to VoIP providers who are under increasing market pressure to understand and prevent high rates of customer attrition and churn in a rapidly changing market.
In order to benchmark and rank the quality of consumer voice services, Keynote measured the relative performance of the leading voice providers in the New York and San Francisco markets, including digital cable voice services, adapter-based Voice over IP services, and PSTN service in those cities. Keynote then rated the leading voice service providers on critical performance factors that influence the end-user experience using Keynote’s commercially available Voice Perspective®, an on-demand voice quality test and measurement service.
More from Keynote Systems
Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 | Posted in VoIP News | No Comments »
According to eWeek, Yahoo acquired open source software maker Zimbra for US$350 million in a bid to expand its presence in universities and businesses. Zimbra’s AJAX client bundles collaboration and messaging tools, including VoIP.
Via Channel Web:
Although it won’t launch until the fall, Microsoft’s Friday release to manufacturing of two key components of its VoIP strategy is probably causing some tinkling of champagne glasses in Redmond.
Office Communications Server 2007 and the Office Communicator client are now code complete, Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft’s Business Division, said Thursday at the vendor’s annual analyst meeting.
"We’re one step close to delivering the products that will establish Microsoft as a major force in communications," said Raikes, adding that Microsoft expects to be able to help organizations cut their enterprise telephony costs in half.
Via Government Computer News:
The Defense Department has awarded an $18.4 million contract to General Dynamics Network Systems to design and install voice-over-IP for DOD’s Renovation and Construction program office.
The award represents continuing work on the Wedge 2-5 stage of the modernization project. Wedge 2-5 refers to a project phase that involves the renovation of four million square feet of space in the Pentagon. The work includes modernizing the physical plant and the information technology and telecommunications infrastructures.
Wedge 2-5 also includes completing a new building-wide telecommunications backbone to provide integrated voice, video and data communications over unclassified and classified DOD networks. DOD plans to complete the renovation project by December 2010.
The contract modification, announced recently, specifically addresses VOIP, said Daniel Busby, vice president and general manager for Army infrastructure sector at General Dynamics IT.
The VOIP aspect of the modernization work is part of a larger effort undertaken by the Defense Information Systems Agency to deploy the technology at several installations, Busby said.
Mobile VOIP provider WiFiMobile have announced the release of their latest software Version 751 which provides complete support for the Nokia flagship handset, the Nokia N95.
With the much awaited Nokia N95 device now widely available on the market, users will be able to make VOIP calls either over Wi-Fi or through a 3G network. WiFiMobile’s OneFone software is fully supported on any Nokia N95, whether it be unlocked or network branded due to the inclusion of a full SIP stack in the application. In addition the software provides presence information in the form of a buddy list.
Source: WiFiMobile
