Market research firm visiongain says an Apple iPhone will be launched imminently.

"The odds are extremely good that Apple will launch an iPhone this spring in tandem with Helio’s launch in the US," says Pam Duffey, telecoms analyst at visiongain.

"There exists a relationship between Apple and Helio management that goes back to the ROKR iTunes phone, and Helio has declared a target audience identical to iPod’s existing market. Helio’s top rank executives have also publicly voiced frustration with mainstream carriers and appear to be on a crusade to radically shake-up the industry," adds Duffey.

EarthLink and SK Telecom have partnered to form Helio, a US mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), at an estimated cost of $440 million. Recently, Helio Chief Financial Officer Todd Tappin said Helio plans to sign about three million customers and generate more than $2 billion in revenue by 2009. He also said that Helio would subsidise its handsets, and its target demographic is both willing and able to pay for high-end phones. This is a sharp departure from MVNO trends, which lean heavily on prepaid or very narrow specialty niches.

"The iPhone will most likely be produced in South Korea by an existing handset maker, and made available exclusively through Helio. The iPhone will likely be as disruptive to the existing carrier market as the iPod was to the mobile music industry. When the iPhone adds VoIP capability, it will be even more disruptive to carriers," concludes Duffey.

Here, we take a look at some of the best new offerings in GSM VoIP phones:

First up is the Calypso C1250i, with built in 802.11 wireless capability, allowing for not only VoIP audio phone calls, but when teamed up with its 30 frames per second video playback and recording functionality, live action video phone-to-phone video conferencing as well.

Also notable about Calypso Wireless is its “Automatic Switching of Network Access Points” technology which allows seamless voice roaming between GSM cellular networks at WiFi networks.

Next up is Voice Internet Phone Network’s (VIPN) Axia 308. This quadband GSM phone also supports GPRS, 802.11 WiFi, VoIP, and is a PDA running Windows CE. The phone will sell for around US$600.

Finally, Paragon Wireless introduced the first dual mode SIP phone in China this week – the PWTW-1100. The handset boasts a four hour talk / 72 hour standby battery capacity, even when both its WiFI and GSM capabilities are running. It also offers an SD memory card slot and an MP3 player, giving it iPod like functionality. And in terms of security WPA encryption and a VPN (Virtual Private Networking) client are included, as well.

These are some of the hottest VoIP GSM dual mode phones, but clearly they’re not the only ones. Anything better out there that we missed? Post a comment.

BOCA RATON, FL — (MARKET WIRE) — 02/28/2006 — Airspan Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: AIRN, a leading world-wide provider of WiMAX-based broadband wireless access networks and carrier class Voice over Internet Protocols (VoIP) and Wi-Fi Hotzone systems, announced today the iTONE 500, a suite of operator-grade VoIP packages for wireline and wireless service providers and operators.

The solution is a complete package for ISPs and ITSPs that want to offer a competitive VoIP service to their subscribers, or alternatively for providers wanting to offer a hosted VoIP service to other ISPs.

According to a new report from Infonetics, the VoIP market boomed in 2005 and huge growth is expected to continue through 2009. The number of residential and SoHo (Small Office Home Office) VoIP subscribers is expected to skyrocket to 131 million by 2009 in North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa, up from 24 million in 2005. According to Frost & Sullivan, hosted IP telephony through IP Centrex type services is likely to account for an increasing share of business lines, due to cost savings and access to productivity-enhancing tools. iTONE 500 provides a cost-effective, feature-rich system to address these growing markets.

The iTONE 500 solution includes the proven, highly scalable, iTONE Softswitching engine as the core of the system. Gateways between the IP and PSTN networks are also included, along with browser-based configuration and installation support to ensure that a service provider can quickly bring the service to market. The Airspan Web Self Care application is also included, which will enable subscribers to access their accounts via the Internet, and reduce time-consuming operator-focused tasks to manage each subscriber.

When Apple talks, people listen—and chat among themselves—and the computer company’s announcement about products to be unveiled Tuesday had watchers speculating about a VoIP-enabled iPod.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is a fan of hugely-hyped product introductions and this latest campaign, set to take place at Apple’s Cupertino, California headquarters, has the same buzz factor as past ones. It started as usual with a vague reference to “some fun new products” in invitations to the media sent out last week.

What is known: the invitations were issued by the iPod and iTunes media department, suggesting that the announcement is likely related to those two.

Talk of Wi-Fi on personal media devices like iPods has generated speculation that the company might roll out VoIP-enabled media players.

Since 95 percent of PortalPlayer’s business is iPod-related, many believe Apple’s device will be the first to sport the technology. Wi-Fi could enable iPods to make VoIP phone calls and could allow them could download iTunes content directly from the Internet—bypassing the content fee-share issues of cellular providers.

“Instead of a phone, maybe in a year Apple could have a VoIP-enabled iPod,” said Current Analysis analyst Chris Crotty.

But others believe an actual Apple phone, sporting iTunes software, makes more sense, especially since Wi-Fi availability is spotty while cellular networks blanket areas with coverage.

“We still believe there will be a phone from Apple by holiday of 2006,” Mr. Munster said.

…

The ’slow retirement’ of the old PBX phone shows how long network infrastructure takes to change, he told a Netevents forum in Garmisch, Germany.

…’It is going to be a slow erosion [of legacy telephony] over 15 to 20 years,’ said McHugh, VP of HP’s Pro-Curve networking.

He predicted that by 2010 10Gbits/sec links to the desktop over copper lines would be available to a privileged few, but 1Gbits/sec would be sufficient for most links between company premises and metropolitan trunk lines.

Mobile roaming will be ‘transparent and robust’ and video calling from handhelds will be widely available and largely unused. ‘That’s because people simply don’t want it,’ McHugh said.

Some analysts have responded to this news by hyperventilating, with claims of a coming "bloodbath" and the floor falling out of mobile phone operator stocks:

"Internet voice does not even have to take market share to force traditional operators to cut their prices. The mere thought of free voice is enough to make customers push for price cuts," said Mewawalla, predicting a bloodbath for mobile operator stocks.

and

Mewawalla continued: "The premium for wireless voice, without mobility, will disappear as wi-fi networks spread. By our estimates, that puts 75% of the market for mobile voice revenues at risk of a substantial price downgrade (in the order of 50%-80%). For some international calls, prices could fall by 90% or more."

But wasn’t this entirely predictable?  Why would there be surprise causing major declines in mobile operator stocks?  It’s certainly no secret that Microsoft is always looking to expand it’s reach and offerings.  Adding voice service to its Communicator line was an obvious next step.

It’s true that as WiFi becomes more ubiquitous, VoIP will continue to displace landline and GSM mobile calls.  This indeed will put downward pressure on mobile operator’s voice calling prices.

But mobile telephony firms don’t have to take it lying down.  Free VoIP calls over WiFi only work if you have access to a WiFi network in the first place.  Wireless broadband isn’t really at the point yet where it’s rivaling the reach of GSM service: hotspots don’t overlap and even if they did, one cannot maintain a VoIP call while moving from one hotspot to next, and many hotspots typically involve their own fees (T-Mobile is already making money by offering hotspot Internet access.)

This is a major advantage that GSM networks are going to have for quite some time in all but the most "wired" of wireless cities.  But that’s not the only thing that GSM operators can compete on.  Rather than running away from VoIP service, they can offer their own, giving customers a discount for making international calls using IP telephony.  Or they can compete on services: better quality or more innovative offerings.  In other words, at this point I think it’s too early to put the nails in the coffin of GSM operators.  They certainly have an opportunity to stay profitable; whether they take it or not, we will see.

Finally, while Live Communicator does have about 10 million customers, according to Ballmer, it’s not exactly as if every enterprise with Live is going to use this, and there are plenty that don’t use Live.  To say nothing of non-enterprise users who won’t have access to it.

Microsoft Live Communicator’s sales site: http://www.microsoft.com/rtc

VoIP is often written off as an application that will not work well over an SSL VPN link. To test that argument, we examined 10 SSL VPN products in four network scenarios to see how well VoIP calls were handled by the products’ network extension clients.

The news is generally good. In high-bandwidth, low-latency environments, there is virtually no difference in quality between an unencrypted VoIP call and the same call made over an SSL VPN (see chart). Even better news is our discovery that a VoIP call made over SSL VPN on a typical broadband Internet connection is of higher quality than an unencrypted call. The only bad news comes with truly awful network connections: ones with high loss and limited bandwidth. In this environment, neither unencrypted VoIP calls nor SSL VPN-protected calls will be considered acceptable (for example, below a mean opinion score [MOS] of 3).

Except for Fortinet’s Fortigate appliance, the vendors included in this test are the same as those that were tested for our blow-out SSL VPN test conducted last December. AEP Networks’ Netilla Security Platform, Array Networks, SPX-5000, Aventail’s Smart SSL VPN, Caymas Systems’ Caymas 525, Check Point’s Connectra, F5’s FirePass 4100, Juniper Networks’ Secure Access 6000, Nokia’s Secure Access System 500, Nortel’s VPN Gateway 3070 and SonicWall’s SSL-VPN 2000.

While our results do show some differences between products, small variations in the MOS should not be considered significant. What is more important, our testing demonstrates that SSL VPN and VoIP work together well over broadband networks, even in the face of some network loss and congestion. We also found that datagram-based SSL VPN techniques, such as those used by Nortel and Juniper (both optionally), do not appear to offer any real advantage for VoIP traffic and may give poorer results than TCP-based SSL VPN from the same vendors.

SMC Networks, a technology provider of LAN hardware, broadband connectivity devices and SOHO/home wireless products in India, recently announced the launch of an all-in-one travel device, the new SMC Wireless Travel Voice Gateway (SMCWTVG). 

The SMC Wireless Travel Voice Gateway (SMCWTVG) integrates the functions of wireless gateway and VoIP technology into one device for the business traveler. Users can now select a myriad functions based on their specific needs in different networking environments and at the same time also have the option to use the RJ-11 voice interface for VoIP calls and life line function.

For security, built-in features like, Network Address Translation (NAT), SPI Firewall and VPN pass-through provides users the capability to construct a secure network. While using the public hotspot network, the SMCWTVG enhances security through its advanced Wi-fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2) and Wireless Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption. At the same time, the wireless SSID broadcast on/off capability and MAC address filtering serves as an additional safeguard.

The built-in 802.11b/g module and internal antenna allows the SMCWTVG to be compatible with both IEEE 802.11g and 802.11b standards, and it can be operated in access point, wireless client or repeater mode. Included in the device are 1 FXS and 1 FXO interfaces with RJ-11 connectors which can be connected to traditional telephones. When an analog telephone is plugged into the SMCWTVG, through the FXS interface, low cost VoIP calls can be made.  The FXO interface can also be connected to PSTN for regular telephone calls or life line function.

CHICAGO – The nationwide rush to go wireless appears poised to extend to its biggest city yet. Chicago is launching an effort to offer wireless broadband, city officials said Friday, jumping on the Wi-Fi bandwagon as similar initiatives proceed in Philadelphia, San Francisco and smaller cities.

Chicago has hundreds of Wi-Fi hotspots in places like coffee shops, bookstores and libraries, where anyone can walk in, sit down and connect to the Web. Hoping to extend that wireless blanket to all 228 square miles, the city plans to ask technology companies this spring to submit proposals for the project.

While it’s too soon to say how the system would operate, the goal is to make Internet access "broad and affordable" for residents and heighten Chicago’s appeal for businesses and tourists alike, according to Chris O’Brien, the city’s chief information officer.

The city did not specify goals for how much the system would charge for access. In Philadelphia, EarthLink Inc. is building a citywide network that will charge a wholesale rate of $9 a month to Internet service providers that would then resell access to the public at an undetermined price.

"We think it’s important for residents of the city and tourists and businesses to have lots of different ways to connect," O’Brien said. "For a city as big as Chicago, with the vibrant business community and diverse citizen base that we have, you want to make sure all kinds of technology are available to them as they work and enjoy entertainment options."

If all goes smoothly, the system could be running as soon as 2007, O’Brien said. That would all but certainly leave the city behind Philadelphia, which hopes to have its entire system in place late this year or early next year. But the size of a Chicago network would dwarf Philadelphia’s planned 135-square-mile network or anything now in place.

The kit includes a wireless handset and Bluetooth adapter to ensure compatibility and seamless voice clarity. The handset follows the traditional button behavior of a traditional handset, but also supports all of the popular Skype™ standard functions such as Contacts, Call List, SkypeOut, Conference Call, etc. Furthermore, the TVP-SP1BK comes with a long-life rechargeable Lithium-ion battery able to sustain up to 6 hours talk time and over 60 hours on standby.

“Skype™ has become a preferred VoIP service for a large segment of our customer base worldwide,” stated Heath Gregory, Marketing Director for TRENDnet. “Up till now most users have used wired headsets or USB attached handsets. By using Bluetooth we deliver a wireless connection that can seamlessly coexist with 802.11b/g devices and ultimately improve their Skype™ user experience.”

Check it out at: http://www.trendnet.com/skype/