Business News Holding

Category: voip

  • Research Identifies IP Media Phone as $7bn Opportunity by 2013


    The evolution of the media phone product segment may just be beginning but it has the potential to become the 4th screen in the home.

    That’s according to a report by In-Stat, which said the device could also become a next generation business IP phone.

    The researchers say service providers and IP phone manufacturers are introducing media phones to add value to traditional voice telephones and enable IP-based services.

    Already devices such as the Verizon Hub and AT&T HomeManager, which support both IP communications and the delivery of Internet information and multimedia content, have been launched on the market.

    The free report, The Media Phone Has Arrived, can be downloaded from the In-stat website.

    Other findings include:

    • Consumer media phones will generate between $4-$8 billion in annual revenue, worldwide, by 2013.
    • Business media phones will generate $3.3 billion in annual revenue, worldwide, in 2013.
    • The US market will open up in 2009, with Europe coming on line in 2010.

  • Mirial's Softphone Video Conferencing Software Upgraded to Full-HD


    Mirial has released version 6.2 of its video conferencing software that steps the Softphone up from 720p to 1080p.

    Cristoforo Mione, business development director at Mirial, said that with Full-HD resolution up to 1080p for both decoding and encoding, the upgraded version set the pace of the evolution in video and VoIP technology.

    He said that whatever the PC settings and available bandwidth, the Softphone automatically optimizes configurations to provide the best user experience and video quality, even in case of floating call conditions such as bandwidth drops/peaks.

    "Video resolution was upgraded from 720p to 1080p, 3-party video calling and H.239 collaboration features are embedded and ready just with a few-clicks installation," he said.

    Mione described the Softphone as "nearly like having a top-class HD camera, an enterprise-fit MCU and a shared meeting room, all in one single piece of software to be launched everyday, anytime, from any desktop".

    Some of the Mirial Softphone’s other features include:

    • Call Management (2 lines: call hold, call transfer)
    • Concurrent support for SIP and H.323, field-proven interoperability
    • Video call recording, playback and export to a Windows Media Player file
    • Natural, full-motion video up to 2Mbps @ 30fps @ H.264 @ 1080p
    • Cristal clear audio with full duplex echo canceller
    • Web integration (single click call)
    • Remote Update

  • Cypress Communication's Frank Grillo Wins voip-biz.news' Person of the Year Award


    Frank Grillo, Cypress Communication’s executive vice president of marketing, is the winner of the voip-biz.news’ Person of the Year award.

    In nominating him for the title, the telecoms professional was described as a "visionary executive" and "innovative thinker" with "technical acumen".

    Grillo joined Cypress Communications in August of 2005 and was responsible for taking C4 IP, Cypress’ hosted VoIP and hosted unified communications solution, from inception to launch.

    Praising Grillo’s handling of the process, a voter said: "C4 IP is a technically challenging configuration and took Frank Grillo’s visionary leadership, technical acumen and foresight to launch.

    "It is the only integration of two traditionally disparate platforms: the carrier class softswitch, Nortel CS 2000, with the powerful multimedia server, MCS 5200.

    "With the successful integration of these platforms, Cypress became the only company in the USA, and only one of three in the world, to accomplish this feat.

    "To date, the C4 IP solution has won 10 awards for product innovation, and under Grillo’s leadership, C4 IP now has over 6,000 installed seats and is credited with the largest hosted VoIP/unified communications installation in the US."

    Prior to joining Cypress, Grillo was senior vice president of business services for Z-Tel and senior vice president of global business markets for MCI WorldCom.

    From 1995 to 2000 he was vice-president of marketing for LDDS.

    Voip-biz.news would like to thank everyone who took the effort to nominate a product and to cast a vote.

  • MyGlobalTalk and IPsmarx's SIP-based Calling Card Platform Share voip-biz.news Product of the Year Award


    Two innovative products dominated voting to share the honours in voip-biz.news’ Product of the Year 2008 competition.

    With 33 per cent of the nominations, MyGlobalTalk’s VoIP calling solution earned praise for its sound quality and call rates, as well as features such as no contract being required, no connection fees and no minimums.

    Launched as a BETA version in June 2008, MyGlobalTalk now works on any cell phone, land line or computer.

    The company, which is part of i2Telecom, is preparing a widgets launch which will enable MyGlobalTalk to be used from Outlook, iGoogle or Facebook.

    In the many comments of recommendation, voters also highlighted customer service and ease of use as reasons for their satisfaction with MyGlobalTalk.

    Sharing this year’s award is IPsmarx’s SIP-based calling card platform, which eliminates the need for a VoIP gateway and PSTN lines using DID technology.

    Fully over IP, the calling card solution offers a range of advanced features.

    So much so that the product was described by voters as "the platform of the future", "user friendly" and having a "great technical support team".

    One reader said: "I am extremely impressed with IPsmarx’s ability to think outside the box and eliminate common problems that exist in the calling card space."

    To take this year’s award, the joint winners saw off a large field which included well-known names including Mobivox, Ifbyphone, XConnect, Skype, Fring, ShoreTel, Cypress communications and HelloSoft.

    Voip-biz.news would like to thank everyone who took the effort to nominate a product and to cast a vote.

  • Vonage Confident of Growth Despite Subscriber Loss


    VoIP provider Vonage had a revenue increase of 9 per cent to USD $900 million in 2008.

    However, reporting on its fourth-quarter and full-year 2008 earnings report, the company said it had lost a net of 14,700 subscribers in Q4.

    Net loss excluding debt extinguishment costs narrowed to USD $34 million from USD $93 million excluding certain charges.

    GAAP net loss was USD $65 million or $0.41 per share in 2008.

    Marc Lefar, Vonage’s CEO, said the company had improved its financial position throughout 2008 – to the extent that it delivered adjusted operating profit and positive cash from operations for a full year for the first time.

    Noting the loss of subscribers, he was optimistic about Vonage’s business model, which he said was solid and the market opportunity for digital voice remains robust.

    "While our financial performance was sound, we fell short in our ability to substantially grow our subscriber base," he said.

    "However, we are confident Vonage has significant opportunities to create future value for shareholders."

    Lefar said a range of initiatives were being lined up for launch, including:

    • improving the customer experience
    • enhancing distribution and marketing
    • improving quality and reliability
    • initiating new products and features
    • optimizing our cost structure
    • improving talent management

    Lefar said he was confident these will drive Vonage forward as a business model poised to achieve significant new growth.

  • ZTE Announces EV-DO Rev B on CDMA2000 System


    ZTE Corp has achieved what it claims is the world’s first EV-DO Revision B (Rev B) VoIP call on its CDMA2000 system.

    It is the first time in the industry that a CDMA vendor has achieved a 9.3Mbps download rate and 5.4Mbps upload rate.

    EV-DO Rev B allocates flexible bandwidth and offers better Quality of Service (QoS) so improving user experience.

    It is a telecommunications standard for the wireless transmission of data through radio signals, typically for broadband Internet access.

    It was designed as an evolution of the CDMA2000 (IS-2000) standard that would support high data rates and could be deployed alongside a wireless carrier’s voice services.

    ZTE has completed the first stage of achieving EV-DO Rev B and adopted 3-carrier bundling technology, with each carrier having a bandwidth of 1.25MHz.

    Effectively, ZTE’s EV-DO Rev B upgrade’s EV-DO Rev A’s software with no additional hardware equipment required.

    Both ZTE’s EV-DO Rev A and Rev B adopt an identical baseband chipset.

    The company plans to commercialize its EV-DO Rev B system in Q3 2009.

    In future, EV-DO Rev B can bundle up to a maximum of 15 carriers, with a download (forward) rate of 73.5Mbps and an upload (reverse) rate of 27Mbps.

    Li Jian, general manager of CDMA Products for ZTE, said it had launched the world’s first EV-DO Rev.B technology several months ahead of its rivals.

    "We are committed to the industry and continue to invest and speed up large-scale commercial use of EV-DO Rev.B to leverage telecom operators’ investment in EV-DO Rev A networks," he said.

  • Swiss GSM Carrier in&phone Buys Blueslice's SDM Platform


    Blueslice Networks has sold a SIP-enabled ngHLR, HSS and AAA, bundled into one fully integrated solution, to Unify Mobile.

    The SDM platform is to be used by in&phone, one of its mobile operations in Switzerland.

    Montreal-based Blueslice’s CSP 3000 includes the ngHLR and its Advanced Low Cost Roaming solutions – giving in&phone the ability to offer subscribers new roaming features.

    It also means roaming charges can be significantly reduced or even eliminated.

    Blueslice said its patented Multi-IMSI will allow end-users to have a single subscription in the ngHLR containing multiple identities (IMSIs) in several countries or area codes.

    in&phone’s subscribers will be seen as "local" by the network and can roam across borders on multiple networks without paying roaming surcharges.

    Carel Begeer, founder and chief development officer of Unify Mobile, said the deal provided Unify with the tools to have multiple access technologies in multiple territories under a single user profile.

    "Cost and quality have been the main driving forces for our customers," said Begeer.

    "They want to use their mobile phone without the fear of paying huge roaming fees."

    Begeer, said in&phone, like many carriers, is faced with the challenges of modernizing aging networks while maintaining a high level of service at value prices.

    in&phones’ subscribers will be able to roam between GSM/UMTS and IP networks thanks to Blueslice’s ngHLR-based Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) solution.

  • Economy To Slow VoIP Growth in US Business Markets


    The struggling economy will slow the growth of VoIP, but deployments remain wide-ranging at mitigated levels.

    So says In-Stat in a report that also found just over a third of US businesses that have deployed VoIP use it exclusively.

    Many more businesses use VoIP as a partial voice solution – and they are also beginning to embrace voice-enabled IM capabilities, particularly among younger workers.

    David Lemelin, In-Stat analyst, said IP continues to be a partial voice solution for most businesses with VoIP, particularly among larger businesses.

    "Therefore, there is significant room for growth even among businesses that have already adopted it," he said.

    Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

    • 32 per cent of Enterprise size businesses say the economic situation has slowed their VoIP deployment plans.
    • Broadband IP Telephony remains the most common carrier-based business VoIP solution with revenues exceeding USD $1.1 billion in 2008, compared to USD $857 million for hosted IP Centrex service within the US.
    • Adoption varies significantly by size of business, with Enterprise businesses preferring a partial deployment, while SOHO businesses are more likely to go IP-only.
    • 13 per cent of US businesses use both carrier-based and premises-based IP solutions.
    • Digital visual interface (DVI) and high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI), are related, high-bandwidth, unidirectional, uncompressed digital interface standards.

  • JAJAH Announces Advanced Solutions for WinMo, BlackBerry and Symbian


    JAJAH is to offer new services enabling VoIP calls to be made either via WiFi or over the cellular network for Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and Symbian users.

    They are being offered as white label solution to enable carriers and non-carriers to launch the service under their own brand.

    The new services follow JAJAH’s recent release of a solution for the iPod Touch, which enables it to be used for phone calls.

    JAJAH said its platform has everything a company would need to launch the service immediately under their own brand.

    This includes the application itself, plus the entire suite of management services, from termination of the calls and quality control, right through to billing and processing payments in 200 countries around the world.

    For BlackBerry users, the application adds ‘JAJAH Call’ to the phonebook menu.

    JAJAH for Symbian gives anyone with a phone running Symbian s60 the ability to choose whether international calls route over the JAJAH IP network or the standard cellular network.

    The application automatically detects the presence of a WiFi network and offers the choice to use JAJAH when a long distance phone number is dialed (either manually or via the address book).

    With Windows Mobile, JAJAH is a full SIP over HSDPA/WiFi mobile VoIP solution. Currently deployed by eMobile, one of the leading operator’s in Japan, it turns any device into a VoIP phone.

  • Spitfire SIP Trunking Completes Panasonic Testing


    Spitfire has completed interoperability testing and accreditation for its SIP Trunking service with the Panasonic range of phone systems.

    This includes Panasonic’s next generation phone system, the KX-NCP (Network Communications Platform).

    The voice and data solution provider’s SIP Trunking has been designed as an ISDN30 and ISDN2 replacement to give business quality secure telephony.

    Spitfire says its typically costs a third less than the monthly rental cost of an equivalent ISDN service.

    Tom Fellowes, Spitfire’s sales director, said interoperability testing was completed for both Panasonic and Avaya phone systems.

    He said its SIP service on Asterisk and a number of other SIP systems had also been tested and approved.

    "Providing the IP circuit ourselves allows us to control the quality of service delivery to the customer," he said.