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  • Goober Introduces New HD Voice and 6-Way Video Conferencing Solution

    Goober Networks, a Unified Communications provider, announced goober 3.0 as a public beta*, a new collaboration solution that includes multi-protocol instant messaging, HD Voice to landlines and cell phones and 6-way video conferencing calls to PCs including Windows and Macintosh.

    goober 3.0 delivers its HD VoIP calling across multiple PCs, including Windows and Macintosh, and the iPhone and iPad with gooberVoIP, which works over Wi-Fi and 3G networks.

    It delivers HD voice quality from 8-16 kilohertz and is able to support video conferencing resolutions from 720 to full HD. No additional hardware is required by the service provider or the end user, and the software-only client can be downloaded for free.

    It supports 227 countries, offering HD VoIP calling worldwide. According to Goober, their flat rates are “versatile and flexible”, offering an average per-minute price “that’s 25-50 percent less expensive than any other VoIP provider.” Calls in the US and Canada are $.01 USD per minute.

    “Goober 3.0 is compatible with today’s 100 million VoIP subscribers worldwide, the 1.6 billion people projected to use IM services by 2012 and the projected 1.9 billion email users by 2013, plus the growing population of social networking and instant messaging sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, GoogleTalk, Jabber, ICQ, MSN, QQ, Yahoo and AOL,” the company said.

    "Goober Chat offers multiple protocol messaging features, allowing friends to join chats, even if they’re using other messengers besides goober, such as ICQ, MSN, GoogleTalk, Jabber, AOL, Yahoo! and QQ – no other UC provider offers this cross-platform chat capability and we’re excited to be the first to bring this capability to the market, so people can simplify their communications from one location," said goober Networks’ CEO Peter Uhlich.

    The solution will be powered by Global IP Solutions’ GIPS VoiceEngine and GIPS VideoEngine.

    *The current beta version offers 4-way video conferencing; however, the final public release of goober 3.0 will support a record-setting 6-way video conferencing capability.

  • Everything Everywhere Joint Venture by Orange and T-Mobile Unveiled

    Everything Everywhere, the joint venture that is claimed to be Britain’s biggest communications company, has been unveiled by Orange and T-Mobile.

    The new company has a customer base of 30 million people: over half of the UK adult population. Orange and T-Mobile promise to transform the industry and give UK consumers” the best coverage, devices, service and communications experience possible.”

    Everything Everywhere is the name of the company that runs Orange and T-Mobile, and the company that all 16,500 employees will work for. The company will be officially integrated on July 1.

    Orange and T-Mobile will continue as brands in the market, with each brand having its own shops, marketing campaigns, propositions and service centers. However, behind the scenes, the two brands will be run by one company, with “one team and one vision.”

    As the companies said, their ambition is to combine both the Orange and T-Mobile networks, cut out duplication, and create a single “super-network.”

    Later this year, customers will experience the first benefits of the merger, with the ability to roam across both networks at no additional cost.

    According to Orange and T-Mobile, the new company intends to propel itself beyond mobile communications, with a greater focus in developing new revenue streams based on the way customers will use their devices in the future. With greater scale, the company intends to develop new revenue streams in adjacent markets, such as mobile advertising and mobile commerce.

    With the company’s new coverage and scale, it also intends to ramp up offers to the business market, as the companies informed.

    There is also a new leadership team for Everything Everywhere, with key personnel from both Orange and T-Mobile. The team is led by Tom Alexander, Chief Executive, and Richard Moat, Chief Financial Officer and Deputy Chief Executive.

    “We are on the verge of a communications revolution. Up until a few years ago, mobile was just about voice and text – not now. Multimedia phones have already started to change the way our customers access the world – for entertainment, education, information – wherever they are, whenever they want,” said Tom Alexander.

    “That is why, through our scale and Britain’s only super-network with its unsurpassed coverage and capacity, we will be leading this revolution, giving customers instant access to everything, everywhere,” he added.

  • NPD: Android Shakes Up U.S. Smartphone Market

    The Android OS continued to shake up the U.S. mobile phone market in the Q1 of 2010, moving past Apple to take the number-two position among smartphone operating systems, according to NPD.

    NPD’s wireless market research reveals that based on unit sales to consumers last quarter the Android operating system moved into second position at 28 percent behind RIM’s OS (36 percent) and ahead of Apple’s OS (21 percent).

    “As in the past, carrier distribution and promotion have played a crucial role in determining smartphone market share,” said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD. “In order to compete with the iPhone, Verizon Wireless has expanded its buy-one-get-one offer beyond RIM devices to now include all of their smartphones.”

    Strong sales of the Droid, Droid Eris, and Blackberry Curve via these promotions helped keep Verizon Wireless’s smartphone sales on par with AT&T in Q1. According to NPD, smartphone sales at AT&T comprised nearly a third of the entire smartphone market (32 percent), followed by Verizon Wireless (30 percent), T-Mobile (17 percent) and Sprint (15 percent).

    “Recent previews of BlackBerry 6, the recently announced acquisition of Palm by HP, and the pending release of Windows Phone 7 demonstrates the industry’s willingness to make investments to address consumer demand for smartphones and other mobile devices,” Rubin said. “Carriers continue to offer attractive pricing for devices, but will need to present other data-plan options to attract more customers in the future.”

    The report also shows that the continued popularity of messaging phones and smartphones resulted in slightly higher prices for all mobile phones, despite an overall drop in the number of mobile phones purchased in the first quarter.

    The average selling price for all mobile phones in Q1 reached $88, which is a 5 percent increase from Q1 2009. Smartphone unit prices, by comparison, averaged $151 in Q1 2010, which is a 3 percent decrease over the previous year.

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  • Mobilicity Gets CRTC Approval and Launches in Toronto This Spring

    Mobilicity, formerly known as DAVE Wireless, has received a green light from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to operate as a telecommunications carrier. The new wireless carrier is gearing up to launch in Toronto this spring.

    Rollouts will subsequently take place in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Ottawa.

    “It has taken four years to get to this stage and the impact of our upcoming launch will be felt across the country,” said Mobilicity Chairman John Bitove.

    “We want to let consumers know that Mobilicity will be bringing simplicity and value to Canadian wireless customers very soon,” ha added.

    The CRTC approval was granted subject to changes, which Mobilicity has agreed to implement within the required timeframe.

    Mobilicity, formerly known as Data & Audio Visual Enterprises Wireless Inc. (DAVE Wireless), is a Canadian wireless carrier. The company is led by Obelysk, a diversified Canadian holding company, and Quadrangle Capital Partners, a global investor in the telecommunications and media sectors.

    Following the Canadian wireless spectrum auction, Mobilicity holds licenses which cover more than half of Canada’s population in 10 of the 13 largest markets including Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa.

    They were recently named one of Canada’s Top 25 Up and Coming Information & Communication Technology start-ups by the Branham Group.

  • GIPS HD Voice to Power LG FMC VoIP Solution

    Global IP Solutions announced that it has been selected by LG Mobile to provide HD voice for its Fixed Mobile Convergence solution.

    FMC allows telecom operators to combine fixed telephony, cellular telephony and broadband into unified end-user services. The aim is to provide both services with a single phone, which could switch between networks ad hoc. Several industry standardisation activities have been completed in this area such as the Voice call continuity (VCC) specifications defined by the 3GPP.

    Typically, these services rely on Dual Mode Handsets, where the customers’ mobile terminal can support both the wide-area (cellular) access and the local-area technology (for VoIP). However, an alternative approach achieves FMC over 3G mobile networks – eliminating the requirement for Dual Mode. LG SU210

    Last month LG announced the KH3900 JoyPop, the company’s first FMC phone.

    LG Electronics added HD Voice capabilities to its FMC application by integrating GIPS VoiceEngine Mobile, which includes advanced acoustic echo cancellation (AEC) technology. “Good AEC implementation is critical to improve quality of voice calls on mobile devices,” according to LG.

    The company also said that GIPS’ strong local support and expertise team in South Korea ensured a smooth implementation of voice processing technology in their smartphone model SU210/KU2100/LU2100 for FMC solution.

    LG will be initially selling this product to service providers, starting with the South Korea market.

    According to GIPS’ CEO Emerick Woods, implementing GIPS HD voice technology offers service providers assurances that network, bandwidth and delay issues will be overcome.

    GIPS has already enabled HD Voice and Video Chat to the iPad, iPhone as well as to the Android mobiles.

    Related articles
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  • iPad Available Internationally on May 28

    Apple announced iPad international availability and pricing – the “magical and revolutionary device” will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK on Friday, May 28.

    Customers can pre-order all iPad models from Apple’s online store in all nine countries beginning on Monday, May 10.

    Pricing details:

    UK:
    • 16GB WiFi £429
    • 32GB WiFi £499
    • 64GB WiFi £599
    • 16GB WiFi+3G £529
    • 32GB WiFi+3G £599
    • 64GB WiFi+3G £699

    Continental Europe:
    • 16GB WiFi €479
    • 32GB WiFi €579
    • 64GB WiFi €679
    • 16GB WiFi+3G €579
    • 32GB WiFi+3G €679
    • 64GB WiFi+3G €779

    Canadian pricing is $50 (in CAD) more than US pricing.

    Apple also informed that it plans to release iPad in Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore in July. The availability and local pricing and pre-order plans for these nine additional countries will be announced at a later date.

    In the US, Apple has already sold over one million iPads and customers have downloaded over 12 million apps from the App Store, as well as over 1.5 million ebooks from the new iBookstore.

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  • Verizon Boosts Functionality and Security for Selected VoIP Services

    Verizon Global Wholesale is now offering additional functionality for three of its product platforms — SIP Gateway Service, Advanced Toll Free IP Termination and Carrier IP Termination Transport. This new functionality enables the product platforms to share a single, secure virtual private network connection called an IP Security (or IPSec) tunnel.

    According to Mike Yancey, director of wholesale voice services for Verizon Business, Verizon bypasses other security protocols in favor of IPSec tunnel because it offers the greatest level of flexibility.

    An IPSec tunnel maintains integrity and confidentiality because all data is encrypted prior to transmission, then authenticated upon receipt to verify the data has not been altered. The source of the data is also authenticated to prevent the possibility of such security breaches as "spoofing" an IP address – a fraudulent network technique in which a program or person masquerades as another.

    Verizon’s SIP Gateway Service comes in four configurations: Inbound Complete, Two-Way Local, Two-Way Complete and Outbound. These services are complemented by Carrier IP Termination Service. This offering allows customers to take advantage of the cost savings of originating long-distance traffic and terminating that traffic via SIP protocol over a global network.

    The company’s Advanced Toll Free Service allows U.S.-based customers to support toll-free calling solutions on a global basis. The service supports in-country toll-free dialing outside the U.S. across more than 80 countries and Universal International Freefone Numbers across more than 40 countries.

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  • Visa Brings Mobile Payments to iPhone

    Visa and DeviceFidelity are working to allow iPhone users to make payments by simply waving their iPhone in front of a contactless payment terminal. The new technology, developed by DeviceFidelity and certified by Apple, combines a protective iPhone case with a secure memory card that hosts Visa’s contactless payment application, called Visa payWave. The technology will work for both iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G devices.

    iPhone users will be able to make Visa mobile payments in retail stores, at fast food restaurants, in taxis, during sporting events, and also make purchases at vending machines that have contactless payment terminals.

    Visa claims that “thousands of merchants throughout the U.S.” have already upgraded their payment terminals to allow consumers to make Visa mobile payments.

    The technology will also work with a majority of smart phones that have a slot for a memory card. “By simply inserting the card into the memory slot on their phone, mobile users can transform their existing mobile phones into a Visa payment device,” according to the company.

    Visa has already rolled out a similar technology in Malaysia and Japan, where consumers can make mobile payments in stores and restaurants.

    The mobile payment application can be password protected and utilizes advanced security technology to uniquely identify each contactless transaction. In addition, all Visa mobile payments are backed by Visa’s global processing network and analyzed for potential fraud in real-time. If a mobile device is lost or stolen, account holders should contact their issuer, as they would if their card was lost or stolen. The issuer can immediately deactivate the account.

    Market trials of the payment-enabled iPhone are scheduled to start this summer.

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  • Sprint and Virgin Mobile Introduce "Beyond Talk" Unlimited Data Prepaid Plans

    Since Sprint’s acquisition of Virgin Mobile, the company has rolled out a series of new prepaid products, and today Sprint officially unveiled its new comprehensive multi-segment approach to the prepaid wireless marketplace.

    On May 12, Virgin Mobile will unveil three new "Beyond Talk" plans that all include unlimited messaging, email, data and web:

    • The $25 plan includes unlimited messaging, email, data and web with 300 minutes of voice per month;
    • The $40 plan includes unlimited messaging, email, data and web with 1,200 minutes of voice per month;
    • The $60 plan includes unlimited messaging, email, data and web with unlimited voice.

    Virgin Mobile customers can add Blackberry data service to any of these plans for $10 more, enabling $35 plan consisting of both voice calling and Blackberry data service.

    Virgin will also introduce new handset lineup that will include: Blackberry Curve 8530 (available for $299.99 at the end of May), LG Rumor Touch ($149.99; only available without a contract on "Beyond Talk" plans), LG Rumor 2 QWERTY ($89.99; also only available without a contract) and Kyocera Loft QWERTY ($69.99).

    Sprint’s prepaid portfolio will initially be driven by four brands (Virgin Mobile, Broadband2Go, Boost Mobile and Assurance Gíreles) with each focused on a specific audience. "The launch of this portfolio goes far beyond changing prices," explained Dan Schulman, president of Sprint’s prepaid group.

    "We are introducing innovative and attractive offers for specific groups of customers based on usage and habits – from those who are on limited budgets and use their phones infrequently to those who want high-end devices to use for all their communications, entertainment and social networking."

    According to him, this is the year that prepaid moves to the forefront of the wireless industry.

    "In the first quarter of 2010, more than half of the mobile gross additions in the U.S. selected prepaid, and we predict that approximately 70% of the net adds in 2010 will choose plans without a contract," he said.

    "With almost 60 million people now on prepaid service," Schulman continued, "the no-contract market has clearly moved beyond the credit-challenged and lower income segments. The prepaid market has changed dramatically, with customers across multiple demographics and lifestyles demanding a wide variety of handsets, features, and plans tailored to their specific needs and wants."

  • Winning VoIP Philosophy: Interview with Arash Vahidnia, CEO of IPsmarx

    “VoIP penetration among businesses is increasing rapidly, but I believe that reliability and redundancy can still be improved. Many service providers have not yet implemented redundancy to improve reliability,” said Arash Vahidnia, President and CEO of IPsmarx, in an interview with VoIP.Biz-News.com. 

    IPsmarx SIP-Based Calling Card Platform has recently been awarded our “Product of the Year Award 2009”.

    The platform is an all-in-one solution that incorporates both Pin & Pinless service management with advanced recharge options, integrated billing and e-commerce, as well as rich marketing features. Because the solution is SIP based, there is no need for a physical gateway to be installed, which dramatically reduces operating costs and go-to-market time.

    The award goes to IPsmarx second year in a row. We asked Arash to tell us what he thinks makes their product unique: “Because all of our solutions are built on the same platform, we are able to provide a unified solution. Therefore, service providers are able to offer a wide variety of VoIP services without installing and managing more than one piece of equipment or billing interfaces,” he answered.

    He gave us this example: “We have clients who offer residential VoIP service, calling cards, and manage callshops or internet cafes and they are able to use the same billing system, agent management solution, and marketing features for each service, which significantly reduces their operating costs.”

    “IPsmarx also puts focus on testing and reliability, enlisting the top testing companies to test our billing and switching capabilities under the most stressful conditions and the highest capacity and CPS (calls per second), to ensure that our platform can support the most successful VoIP companies out there,” he added.

    When asked how the Platform has changed during this year and what features have been added to keep it competitive on the market, Arash said, “Our development team is constantly adding new features based on our clients’ needs. This year we’ve added a complete suite of marketing features, such as integrated email marketing, a customer service ticketing system, loyalty program management, and discount and promotion tools for service providers. We’ve also enhanced our reseller and agent management platform, enabling many different multi-tiered selling strategies among our clients.

    “We’ve also added additional solutions to our product line, enabling calling card providers to expand and offer other VoIP services as well, such as business and residential VoIP service. We’ve released the latest version of our IP-PBX platform for business service providers recently.”

    He revealed that the company will also introduce some new features pertaining to smart phones in the near future.

    He said IPsmarx has seen a lot of their clients grow and expand their businesses with IPsmarx solutions over the years. “Small start ups have become nationwide chains and we have remained their preferred backbone because of our scalable solutions and high customer support standards,” said the CEO of IPsmarx.

    As for plans for 2010, Arash said the company will continue to add features to our IP-PBX Platform to encourage growth among Small and Medium Business Service Providers.

    “We believe that the Small and Medium business sector will begin to adopt VoIP more rapidly in the near future, creating an opportunity for service providers. That is why we have placed an emphasis on developing features for providers addressing this market,” he said.

    He also said IPsmarx is looking forward to the ITW show in Washington, DC May 24th-26th where they can meet with new and existing clients.

    “For the last 10 years, our philosophy has been to foster growth among our service provider clients’ businesses. Therefore, we strive to support all of our clients to achieve success and expand their service offering in any way that we can,” he concluded.

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