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  • Launch Date Set for First Android-based Smartphone

    Android launch will heighten competition in a market increasingly dominated by Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s BlackBerries

    Touted as Google’s answer to the iPhone, the first cell phone powered by the feverishly anticipated Android software is to be unveiled on 23 September.

    T-Mobile has announced a press conference in New York to demonstrate the touchscreen, 3G phone next week – but the handset isn’t expected to go on sale until October.

    As has been widely reported, the phone – possibly called the Dream – will be made by Taiwanese manufacturer HTC and will be the first to use the open-source mobile-phone operating system.

    Android is expected to make it easier and more enticing to surf the Internet on a handset.

    Details about the phone’s pricing have not been released but T-Mobile is expected to subsidise part of the phone’s cost for buyers who agree to subscribe to the carrier’s mobile service.

    Google is anticipating higher advertising revenues from use of the software because of increased use of its Internet search engine and other services while they are away from the office or home.

    The iPhone is currently Google’s biggest source of mobile traffic but the search giant expects hundreds of different mobile devices to run on the Android system.

    The Open Handset Alliance, a group that includes Google, T-Mobile, HTC, Qualcomm and Motorola, is billing Android as the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices.

    Handset manufacturers and wireless carriers are expected to be allowed to customise the platform, possibly introducing new services, internet applications and user-friendly interfaces.

    Sprint is also planning to produce an Android phone but that is not expected to launch until early next year.

  • Vyke Says Mobile Operators Risk Being Leap-frogged in Evolving Market


    VoIP provider, Vyke, has warned that mobile operators are poorly positioned to cope with latest industry developments.

    Aaron Powers, head of business development at Vyke, said the operators are failing to spearhead new innovations – leaving them open to greater than ever competition from a new breed of rivals.

    "Metro WiFi networks are springing up everywhere; there’s one in Singapore – a whole country covered by WiFi," he said.

    "At the same time handsets are advancing to a stage where they are becoming the access point for services installed by the consumer, meaning they don’t need network-provided services anymore, and this goes straight to the core of mobile operators’ revenues.

    "That leaves them poorly positioned in a rapidly evolving market. They need to be the ones directing these changes in a way that benefits them or they’ll get leap-frogged."

    Powers also criticised telecoms operators for opposing the European Commission’s proposal to cap mobile data roaming rates.

    European telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding is set to recommend restrictions on data roaming fees this autumn.

    She has also made clear she intends to impose caps on SMS roaming charges and mobile termination rates, proposals which have drawn widespread criticism from a number of European telcos.

    Citing a recent GSMA report, Powers claimed that the rising uptake of mobile data services was boosted by a 25 per cent fall in roaming rates in the year to April 2008.

    "Actually when you look at it, a small reduction in roaming rates has led to operators making a lot more money off data by volume of usage," he said.

    "Yet all of a sudden there’s uproar when the EU tries to set a cap – mobile providers have taken a head in the sand point of view."

  • European VoIP Spending to Rise to USD $12bn in 2012


    Market intelligence expert IDC forecasts that VoIP spending in Europe will grow at a CAGR of 22 per cent, from USD $4.6 billion in 2007 to $12.4 billion in 2012.

    The projected increase represents about a third of the TDM-based voice services market.

    Angela Salmeron, research manager for IDC’s European Telecommunications service, said: "The deployment and uptake of consumer VoIP services is increasing rapidly in Western Europe as a whole but there are wide local variations in availability and penetration rates."

    The IPC study reviews and forecasts the evolution of the Western European market for consumer VoIP services from 2007 to 2012.

    A detailed country breakdown is provided for VoIP traffic, spending, and customer subscriptions.

    IDC has also produced a presentation providing the results of a examining vendor shares and trends in the worldwide voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) semiconductor market during the calendar year 2007.

    Segments covered include carrier VoIP media gateway semiconductors, VoIP IP phone semiconductors, and enterprise VoIP IP PBX/gateway semiconductors.

  • VoIP Providers Must Allow Emergency Calls and Give Caller Location


    The UK communications industry regulator, Ofcom, has told internet telephony providers that they must now allow emergency 999 calls over their networks or face the risk of enforcement action.

    Caller location information must also be provided where technically feasible.

    Effective immediately, the ruling for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers affects businesses such as BT, Vonage and Skype that offer services that connect VoIP calls to the public telephone network.

    Operators must now provide the ability to make calls to 999, the emergency number used in the UK, and 112, the number most used in other EU countries.

    Ofcom had previously told operators to place stickers on equipment or on-screen labels indicating whether or not emergency calls were possible over a service.

    The rule, known as General Condition 4 of the General Conditions of Entitlement, also provides that the network operator must provide Caller Location Information for calls to the emergency call numbers "to the extent that is technically feasible".

    Ofcom said that ‘technically feasible’ should be taken to mean that location information must be provided where the VoIP service is being used at a predominantly fixed location.

    In May, a child died in Calgary, Canada after an ambulance was dispatched to the wrong address in response to an emergency call placed by his parents using a VoIP phone. The ambulance had been dispatched to an address in Ontario, 2,500 miles away.

    The requirements already apply to fixed line and mobile communications providers but the VoIP industry had resisted their extension.

    In December last year, the Voice on the Net (VON) Coalition Europe was set up as a lobby group to influence the regulation of internet telephony.

    The group, which includes Google, Microsoft and Skype among its founding members, warned against the “premature application” of emergency call rules to VoIP services that are not a replacement for traditional home or business phone services".

    The VON Coalition said the move "could actually harm public safety, stifle innovations critical to people with disabilities, stall competition, and limit access to innovative and evolving communication options where there is no expectation of placing a 112 call".

  • VOIP Driving Service Revenue Increases


    VOIP is a major contributor to rising broadband value added services, which generated USD $25.7 billion worldwide in 2007.

    According to the latest data from Point Topic this represented an increase of 62 per cent on 2006 and the expectation is that growth will continue to be robust.

    Of the service revenues generated worldwide, 56 per cent come from the combination of Voice over IP (VOIP) and security.

    They are followed, in order of global revenue generated by online gaming, home networks, music downloads and video over broadband.

    John Bosnell, senior analyst at Point Topic, said the success story of 2007 was VOIP. “Overall revenue has very nearly doubled, average revenue per user (ARPU) is up and take-up in major markets, particularly North America and Western Europe is growing quickly,” he said.

    Bosnell said value added services were growing strongly and were increasingly significant in overall revenue terms.

    “We estimate that value added services were 10 per cent of total broadband revenues, which includes subscriptions, in 2003, but by the end of 2007 that has increased to over 30 per cent,” he said.

    “As it gets harder to make a profit in the hyper competitive line rental market the operators and suppliers have to look to add value, and revenue, with their service offerings.”

    Point Topic splits VOIP into two segments, IP Telephony which means VOIP provided by ISPs and Internet Telephony, which includes services like Skype which route through the user’s PC.

    Bosnell said it was difficult to measure active users of the Skype and its cousins, like the applications embedded in the popular instant messaging services, but Point Topic estimates put the worldwide number of active users at around 20 million.

    Whilst the ARPU is relatively low on these services, IP Telephony on the other hand produces around 10 times as much revenue per user.

    VOIP is not a bottomless well.

    At the end of 2007 VOIP accounted for 27 per cent of fixed lines in France, many served via bundled deals. Market saturation is still some way off but not out of sight.

    “We expect VOIP to continue to grow strongly in the next few years and in combination with other value adds, particularly IPTV, global revenues should continue to grow,” concludes Bosnell.

  • i2Telecom Unveils MyGlobalTalk Smartphone Application

    Digital-Quality Cellular VoIP Application Now Available to Smartphone Users Worldwide for as Little as Two Cents Per Minute

    i2Telecom International, Inc, a developer of VoIP products and services, has announced the launch of MyGlobalTalk for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile users.

    The software allows uses Internet telephony to make international and long distance cellular calls independent of wireless carrier, smartphone handset make, or voice/data plan for as low as two cents per minute anywhere in the world.

    i2Telecom said that non-smartphone users can also access the same benefits by using the MyGlobalTalk “Bridge”.

    Paul Arena, CEO of i2Telecom, said today’s economy required business executives to be smart about how they push business forward domestically and abroad.

    He said MyGlobalTalk provided a high-quality, low-cost option for their communications needs.

    “We are the sensible solution for smartphone users who require an alternative to overpriced international rate plans, hidden fees and poor call quality,” he said.

    MyGlobalTalk enables digital-quality international and long-distance calls to be made at a cost lower than that charged by wireless carriers and, because it does not require local access to the Internet, it is functional virtually anywhere.

    Customers only pay for the calls they make with no contracts, connection fees, monthly or minimum charges.

  • Skype Questions Carriers Commitment to "Open" Networks


    Christopher Libertelli, Skype’s senior director of government and regulatory affairs for North America, has written a strongly-worded letter complaining that the major US wireless carriers are all talk when it comes to "open" networks.

    Writing to the Federal Ccommunications Commission (FCC) chairman, Kevin Martin, he said that if the Commission wanted to live up to its stated goal of making open networks more accessible, it would affirm that this policy covered wireless networks.

    Libertelli said that last week at the CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment conference in San Francisco, the major US carriers paid lip service to the idea of open networks, but strongly cautioned that too much choice would lead to chaos and damage the viability of their business model.

    "The attitude of the wireless carriers was perhaps best summed up in Sprint Nextel Corp,” he wrote.

    He quoted Sprint CEO Dan Hesse’s recent comment: ‘The big Internet can be daunting… There can be too much choice.’

    Libertelli continued: “This stands in stark contrast to the Commission’s wise policies designed to promote as much consumer choice as possible."

    He said Skype was mindful of the challenges wireless carriers faced in moving to an open network. But he also said it was not enough to simply talk about open networks.

    "Consumer choice, competition and free markets, not carriers acting to block competition, should win the day in wireless–now, not later," he said.

    "If the Commission believed that the transition to more open networks was going to proceed quickly, statements out of CTIA’s convention suggest just the opposite.”

  • iPhone Interface Allows Call Center Mangement


    Smoothstone IP Communications has developed a mobile interface that allows corporate call centers to be controlled from anywhere in the world using the iPod and iPhone.

    The company says Apple’s new support for corporate security standards allows it to provide a secure, enterprise solution for IT professionals to use when they are out the office environment.

    Utilizing the new technology available in Apple’s handset, clients with Smoothstone’s Intelligent Call Control (ICC) suite can now use the mobile version of the revolutionary ICC application to:

    * Manage call queues across multiple locations in real time

    * Reroute any calls to any other agent or call center location on the fly

    * Transfer held calls through a drag-and-drop interface

    * See instant statistics and analytics of call activity and agent performance

    * Listen to live calls via Bluetooth headset or speaker

    * Record and review calls for training and quality assurance

    The announcement comes a year after the initial launch of Smoothstone’s ICC suite, a completely integrated solution.

    ICC requires no customer purchased equipment, is flexibly priced according to client size, and can be tailored to each organization’s individual needs.

    ICC is a part of Smoothstone’s comprehensive managed solution for mid- to large-size enterprises, which delivers next generation applications over Smoothstone’s nationwide, private, MPLS network that utilizes proven Cisco Systems technology.

  • Toshiba Strata CIX System Wins Best VoIP Product Award


    Toshiba’s Strata CIX family of IP business communication systems has been named winner of Network Products Guide’s Best Products and Services Award in the 2008 VoIP category.

    The annual award by the Silicon Valley publication on technologies and solutions, honors products and services that represent the rapidly changing needs and interests of the end-users of technology worldwide.

    As part of the technology industry’s global awards program, this year’s Best Products and Services were nominated from all over the world.

    Rake Narang, editor-in-chief of Network Products Guide, said: “Toshiba has been awarded Best in VoIP by our readers for its proven ability to deliver solid IP business communication systems that give users flexibility, reliability, durability and migratability across the Strata CIX product family.”

    Toshiba’s Strata CIX VoIP systems range from the newly announced Strata CIX1200, offering up to 1,152 ports, to the small Strata CIX40, which accommodates up to 40 ports.

    All Toshiba Strata CIX VoIP systems can be networked together for up to 128 sites and can be customized using Toshiba’s FeatureFlex adaptability tool.

    The systems work with both digital and IP endpoints, including desk telephones, softphones, third-party SIP phones, attendant consoles, wireless phones, and more.

    Strata CIX systems offer easy migration to larger systems in the Strata CIX family and work with the same applications, including voice mail, unified messaging, IVR, ACD and reporting, video conferencing and collaboration, Web-based personal and system administration and FeatureFlex, all of which reside on Toshiba’s Strata Media Application Server (Strata MAS), a single-server solution.

  • London Council Gives Virtualisation Green Light


    Faced with 100 per cent year-on-year data growth, the London council of Hillingdon’s IT team has decided to virtualise its servers.

    With a population of almost a quarter of a million, Hillingdon is one of London’s largest local authorities.

    It has responsibility for running schools, social services, waste collection and roads within the borough.

    Now the council has created a sustainable IT environment by replacing its disparate array of servers and storage hardware with a greener virtual environment using Compellent and VMware.

    It took the virtualisation decision after being faced with the rapid growth of employees’ e-mail boxes, the need to retain documents such as benefits assessments records, and the increased use of digital images in planning applications and property and highway inspections.

    Roger Bearpark, assistant head of ICT for the Borough of Hillingdon, said they were looking for a new storage solution that could automatically manage data and drive down the cost per TB of stored data over the life of the SAN.

    “It had to provide us with affordable system resilience and also contribute to a greener IT infrastructure,” he said.

    Virtualising the servers with VMware and the storage with Compellent enabled Hillingdon to reduce 94 production servers to just three, and to reduce the number of server rooms it had from three to two.

    The subsequent power reduction from 34kW to 1.1kW led directly to Hillingdon saving GBP £20,000 on its annual energy bill.
    The green IT initiative enabled it to reduce its carbon footprint by 20 per cent over 18 months.