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Category: voip

  • Net2Phone’s SIP Trunking Solution Now Rated “Avaya Compliant”

    Net2Phone, one of the largest distributor-based VoIP providers in the world, today announced that its SIP Trunking solution is compliant with key small and medium enterprise solutions from Avaya, a global provider of business collaboration systems, software and services.

    The Net2Phone SIP Trunking solution helps businesses reduce their overall telecommunications costs while providing high-quality call origination and termination. The application is now compliance-tested by Avaya for compatibility with Avaya IP Office 8.1.  It is supported for use with both IP Office 500 and IP Office Server Edition.  

    “Net2Phone's Business VoIP solution enables Avaya customers to make outbound and receive inbound calls from anywhere across the globe using their existing Avaya IP Office system,” says Jonah Fink, senior vice president, Net2Phone. “Our solution is based on open, standard-based platforms, which helps business customers incorporate new technology easily and cost effectively and uncover new possibilities for getting more out of their communications infrastructure.” 

    Net2Phone is a Technology Partner in the Avaya DevConnect program—an initiative to develop, market and sell innovative third-party products that interoperate with Avaya technology and extend the value of a company’s investment in its network.  

    As a Technology Partner, Net2Phone is eligible to submit products for compliance testing by the Avaya Solution Interoperability and Test Lab. There, a team of Avaya engineers develops a comprehensive test plan for each application to verify whether it is Avaya compatible. Doing so enables businesses to confidently add best-in-class capabilities to their network without having to replace their existing infrastructure—speeding deployment of new applications and reducing both network complexity and implementation costs.  

    “Technology partners like Net2Phone are helping Avaya by providing VoIP services to our customers, helping them to reduce inefficiencies and complexities in their networks,” said Eric Rossman, vice president, developer relations, Avaya. “This enables organizations to be more productive and responsive, and helps accelerate operational and development processes.”

    About Avaya
    Avaya is a global provider of business collaboration and communications solutions, providing unified communications, contact centers, networking and related services to companies of all sizes around the world. For more information please visit www.avaya.com. For more information on the Avaya DevConnect program, visit www.avaya.com/devconnect.

    About Net2Phone
    Net2Phone provides a full suite of VoIP solutions in over 160 countries.  As the largest distributor-based VoIP provider in the world, Net2Phone routes millions of minutes daily over data networks, offering high quality voice services and saving consumers and businesses up to 90% off international calling rates.  For more information about Net2Phone’s products and services, please visit www.net2phone.com. Net2Phone is a subsidiary of IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT).  Through its Telecom division, IDT provides telecommunications and financial services.  IDT Telecom’s retail products allow people to communicate and share financial resources around the world while its carrier services business is a global leader in wholesale voice termination.  For more information, visit www.idt.net.

  • Alcatel-Lucent and Reliance Communications enter long term billion dollar contract

    Alcatel-Lucent and Reliance Communications (RCOM), a telecommunications service provider for India, announced that they had signed a contract for an innovative, end-to-end network that will provide service for customers in the Eastern and Southern regions of India through the year 2020.

    This contract means that the current business agreement between RCOM and Alcatel-Lucent will be continued with an additional 1 billion USD.

    The customer demand for communications applications and services is ever-changing and constantly evolving, thus making this agreement even more significant. According to the companies, the contract offers the first fully-integrated line of services for India, and is among only a handful across the world.

    Through the aid of Alcatel-Lucent, RCOM will combine both the wireless and wireline departments into a single, synergized organization. With this new streamlining in place, RCOM can then direct their energy toward business expansion and maintaining high-level communication services to patrons. RCOM's current practices and tools, with the help of Alcatel-Lucent, will be standardized in order to enable the optimum level of efficiency throughout the company.

    Through this contract, Reliance Communications will be able to provide quality and reliability across a variety of devices and connection mediums for its customer base. One of the first steps on Alcatel-Lucent's end of the deal will be to implement next-generation OSS (operation support systems), as well as high-end tools for improved network capabilities for the wireless, wireline, and long-distance features that RCOM has to offer. By working together, these two major companies will forge a road that the modern digital communications society of India demands.

    Gurdeep Singh, Chief Executive Officer of the Wireless Business division for RCOM, and Rajeev Singh-Molares, President of the Asia-Pacific division of Alcatel-Lucent, both commented on the contract, saying that the partnership can only bring good things for both companies, who have had a long-standing, positive relationship. Reliance Communications hopes to emerge from this agreement as the leading provider of voice and data communications services. The main priorities of Alcatel-Lucent in the relationship will be to improve quality and providing a reliable customer experience throughout all service areas.

    RCOM's Chief Executive Officer, Punit Garg, and Alcatel-Lucent India's President and Managing Director, Munish Seth, are both confident that the enhanced bond between the companies will bring great things, allowing customers to gain access to state-of-the-art technologies through this entirely re-invigorated, re-envisioned provider. Alcatel-Lucent has over 20 years of experience with outsourcing and network operation, with over 100 operations across the globe

  • Voxbone Launches VoIP Emergency-Calling Service in Europe

    VoIP telephony service providers are struggling to meet European regulatory requirements and market demand for access to emergency-calling services. Inability to fulfill these needs is deterring many enterprises from migrating to VoIP-based telecommunications and is necessitating costly, complex arrangements for those that make the move.

    Voxbone today launched an easily-set-up,cost-effective solution: VoxOUT, which enables providers of cloud communications, SIP trunking and other enterprise VolP services to support emergency calling.

    Available initially in seven countries – the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Denmark – VoxOUT is claimed to be the first wholesale service that supports telephone access to emergency services in multiple European countries from a single IP-based interconnection. As a result, VoxOUT helps customers avoid the cost and complexity of alternatives for providing emergency-calling services in Europe, which require interconnecting with a local telco in each country or managing a local VoIP-to-PSTN gateway at every customer location.

    When a Voxbone customer’s subscriber calls an emergency number, Voxbone connects the call via the PSTN to the closest emergency service center. According to Voxbone, this process is completed in seconds and works with any SIP-compatible service platform.

    VoxOUT is available as an add-on to Voxbone’s VoxDID service, which offers global service providers local geographical telephone numbers and call capacity from more than 4,000 cities in 50-plus countries. VoxOUT is priced at a flat rate.

    “Our new VoxOUT service gives VoIP providers a competitive advantage when targeting European and multinational enterprises by helping them overcome one of the biggest barriers to migrating to VoIP,” said Voxbone CEO Rod Ullens.

    “While wholesale access to emergency services is widely available in North America, this is not common in other countries. This complicates things for U.S.-based cloud communication providers wanting to expand their services internationally. Combined with powerful IP-based communications applications and traditional voice-termination services for local calls to regular phone numbers, VoxOUT enables cloud providers to offer communications services that are superior to old-style telephony at all levels.”

    The company also informed that later this year, itwill make VoxOUT available in additional European countries, "followed by other major markets based on customer needs."

  • Mobile UC Deployment the Key to Higher Productivity, Says Survey

    Adding mobile technology to a Unified Communications strategy could allow the average business to recover $5,500 per employee per annum in lost productivity.

    Webtorials has collected survey responses from 200 people employed at companies which have over 500 employees, most of which are located in the United States. The survey, which was commissioned by the SIP communications company Sonus Networks, has some results that will interest business owners.

    Only one-quarter of the businesses surveyed stated that the saturation of Mobile UC in their workforce was intermediate, while another quarter said they were just starting to deploy the new technology. Another twenty-one percent said they had limited deployment of Mobile UC.

    With this technology only effectively deployed in around one-third of the businesses surveyed by Webtorials, there is a lot of room for improvement. The technology allows employees to communicate with each other on different mobile devices, such as tablets and smart phones, and can therefore boost employee productivity significantly.

    The report also stated that the shortfall in the widespread adoption of offsite UC capability could promote the development of a "productivity gap" between remote workers and onsite workers. This leads to a loss of around 2.5 hours per week per employee, a significant waste in productivity. Mobile UC allows enterprises to recover around $5,500 per annum in lost productivity.

    The use of smartphones and tablets at work is now widespread. According to the survey, two-thirds of knowledge workers in enterprise use their mobile devices at least one-quarter of the time.

    Steve Taylor, editor-in-chief of Webtorials, highlights the importance of this new technology, stating that mobility and flexibility is the key to the UC conundrum, especially for large enterprises. "Enterprises must push their Unified Communications capabilities beyond the office walls if they wish to get the maximum return on investment from their technology investments and the employees who use them."

    Wes Durow, the vice president of global marketing at Sonus, added: "Enabling mobility across the enterprise should be the first consideration as companies plan their UC deployments and that means having a robust, open-standard, SIP-based communications architecture in place that can support employees no matter where they are or what device they use."

  • Infonetics: Cisco is the Ruler Among PBX Vendors

    According to a recent market study made by Infonetics Research, the third quarter of 2012 saw a few positive changes in the leading business PBX telephony systems. Cisco was found to be the leading PBX business phone system vendor, followed closely behind by Avaya.

    Cisco has managed to keep this top position for the last five consecutive quarters. Both Cisco and Avaya hold firm control of about 50% of the PBX business telephony market. Following in the footsteps of these two corporate giants, NEC has climb to third position with double digit growth over the quarter, and regretably, Siemens has slipped back into fourth place.

    According to further studies made by Infonetics, the high roller in the Unified Comminications (UC) market is Mcrosoft, with a rise in revenues of approximately 40% over second quarter profits. Other top UC contenders are traditional telephony vendors such as, Cisco, Avaya and Siemens. "The UC market continues to experience general growth, but Microsoft seems to outpace other vendors in the market, " says Dian Myers, a renown analyst in the VoIP and IMS industry for Infonetics.

    Other areas of enterprise telephony seem to be on a downturn with declines continuing for this third quarter.

    At the same time, the enterprise telephony market continues to struggle in some aspects, with year-over-year declines continuing in the third quarter. This slowdown comes as a result of the tough economic times which have slowed business upgrades, and caused many to hold onto existing platforms. "However, market studies show that the market will move back into positive growth over the next year," says Myers.

    The global PBX market, including TDM, hybrid and pure IP PBX systems, has seen an approximate six percent decline in this third quarterdue to continued market softness in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, bud did see a 2.8 percent increase over prior quarters, according to the Infonetics telephony study.

    Over the third quarter the average revenue seen by each new PBX line fell well below $200, an event that has not previously happened. Revenue continues to drop for now.

  • KeKu Celebrates 500,000 Users With Group Calling App

    KeKu, the VoIP telephone service only launched early this year, but is already reaping the rewards of a fantastic service. With 500,000 customers internationally using their service on both iOS and Android devices, the sky seems to be the limit for this New York-based startup.

    KeKu’s apps allow free VoIP calls within their system, as well as inexpensive international rates for both mobile and traditional phone lines. The secret is that they provide local numbers to their users, which can be dolled out amongst their family and friends, regardless of their calling area.

    According to Manilo Carrelli, the company’s CEO, their success relies heavily on an exciting viral growth, especially in areas you wouldn’t expect that to occur within. The Middle East has been one of their biggest markets, probably due to the incredible expense of calling both locally and long distance in that region. Canada has also been a key area for them, with a 400% growth since the app’s launch.

    The international calling feature seems to be at the heart of their expansion. Users have found that they can use KeKu for local calls and often receive a better rate than they would from their area’s traditional phone service. And fans of Google Voice have been integrating with the KeKu app to direct Google Voice calls to an international phone line while abroad, a feature that Google does not yet provide on its own.

    With all of this unexpected growth, KeKu has been able to turn their attention towards additional services for its fans. First down the pipe is an iOS-based group calling app. All you have to do is drag the contacts you want to include into a group folder and tap the call button. It’s simple at the moment, without a lot of bells and whistles, but it certainly gets the job done.

  • Imo Pairs VoIP Capabilities With Its IM App

    Imo has been widely used for years now by fans of instant messaging looking to bring all their various accounts under one umbrella. The company recently announced that it is expanding its free VoIP calling service from an Android-only option to users on iOS devices as well.

    The Imo app can aggregate the eleven top IM applications into one easy service. And while Android clients have enjoyed free VoIP calling on top of all of that, any Apple users running iOS 3.1 or later who also have a 3G or better wireless connection will now be able to make their own VoIP calls.

    Users should take note that calls made while on your own 3G or 4G service will sap your data plan, and could be costly if you’re not too careful. Simply switching to an available Wi-Fi service will remove that concern.

    According to Imo representatives, the quality of the calling service should stand up to any traditional phone. Add that to the app’s voice-based IM service, photo sharing capability, and group messaging through Google Talk, Skype, Facebook Chat and many others, and you’ve got one powerful tool on your mobile device.

    The proof is in the numbers. To date, Imo has been downloaded more than four million times. And people are really using it as well. They average more than fifty million messages delivered each and every day, from over 700,000 regular users. Imo added VoIP calling to their Android app in February of this year, and it is a bit odd that it took them so long to figure it out for iOS customers. That delay may cost them some users, as there are now several other VoIP service apps for iOS devices that have already gained traction.

  • LifeSize Communications Launches Virtual Video MCU

    LifeSize Communications is well respected in the VoIP industry for their UVC video conferencing platform, especially since it is entirely software-based. They’ve recently announced some incredible innovations that will make video calls on mobile devices easier than ever.

    According to LifeSize VP and general manager of video solutions Michael Helmbrecht, the software platform will now include a unique bridging capability, allowing for video calling amongst multiple parties in a virtual environment.

    The company launched their UVC software platform back in February, after many years of development. They’ve faced stiff competition from larger companies in the market, such as Polycom and Cisco Systems. But while those behemoths focus on hardware-based systems, LifeSize is taking advantage of the increasingly mobile focus in the marketplace.

    Today’s workforce is all about mobility, so having the option to create a video conference on a tablet or smartphone as well as on a desktop or laptop computer is incredibly enticing. Hence, LifeSize’s UVC Multipoint. The multiparty video conferencing software is incredibly easy to use, and can scale upwards to meet increasing demand.

    LifeSize promises rock solid service, with reliable connections even in the extreme case of a system failure. And with each company employee able to start and manage their own video conference from wherever they are in the world, it’s clear that the UVC Multipoint fills an important void in the market. Each company that purchases the software will have one interface for administration, which means a shorter learning curve, and anyone with the license key can use it.

  • UK's Rural Communities About to Experience Upgraded VoIP

    VoIP has become a prevalent digital solution in most parts of the world, offering quality phone service with the inexpensive convenience of the internet. But business owners in rural communities have not enjoyed the service as much as their urban counterparts. Well it seems like progress is being made, and soon more rural customers will enjoy VoIP service.

    The question was posed to Trefor Davies, a member of the Internet Services Providers’ Association UK, why is VoIP service in rural areas so complicated? He acknowledged that the issue is an incredibly important one, but as of now only about 66% of the populace can access the speedy broadband service necessary for quality VoIP connections.

    VoIP-List.com: extensive catalog of voip providers, available software and hardware resources

    Parliament is working hard to rectify the situation, which as with most other issues comes down to funding. But according to Davies, leading VoIP provider BT feels they can bring 90% of the country into the broadband fold, given enough resources. Their aim is to make that goal by the end of the current parliamentary period.

    Their hope is that those 90% of residences would have broadband service at speeds of 25 Mbps or better. The other 10% of people will continue to have spotty service, until more of the country’s infrastructure is invested in improving broadband.

    It’s a governmental issue, as VoIP is merely an update on traditional phone service, and will need to be accessible to the masses to take the next step. The sooner the private sector and the governmental funding bodies can get on the same page, the better for the country’s businesses, especially those operating well outside the major population centers.

  • Arizona-Based Nextiva Expands VoIP Business

    As broadband phone services continue to rise in popularity, regional VoIP providers are finding the means to expand their businesses. Nextiva, a VoIP firm based in Scottsdale, Arizona, expects to hire an additional 100 employees by the end of the year. They specialize in providing VoIP for small and mid-sized businesses, two of the largest growth areas in the industry.

    Executives from Nextiva were happy to point out that VoIP is being adopted by even the largest companies in the world, including communications corporations such as AT&T, an idea that seemed complete implausible even a couple of years ago. Nextiva has used that growth to post annual revenues well in the millions of dollars, and currently count thousands of users internationally.

    VoIP-List.com: extensive catalog of voip providers, available software and hardware resources

    According to Nextiva CIO Joshua Lesavoy, VoIP can save a business as much as 70% off their standard phone service. And since the service includes fax and text messages on top of traditional voice communication, there should be no limit to the potential growth in the sector.

    Nextiva was founded in 2006, and launched their VoIP service two years later. They are owned by UnitedWeb Inc., which is also based in Scottsdale, and earns several other technology companies. And while some communications traditionalists still believe that VoIP cannot be relied on, the quality of commercial broadband services now available means a standard that is well in line with if not better than traditional calling.

    In the past few years, Nextiva has grown from a staff of just a few engineers to more than 165 people, and they even handle their customer service internally with a fully staffed call center. With more than 25 million small businesses currently in existence, chances are this particular small business will grow consistently for years to come.