Business News Holding

Tag: internet-telephony

  • i2Telecom Eyes New Opportunities As Berman Appointed CEO


    Telecomms veteran Andy Berman has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of i2Telecom International.

    The move follows a "transitional period" for the Atlanta-based company which has seen it shift priorities towards mobile applications and services.

    Berman, 50, replaces founder and current CEO Paul Arena, who will remain the chairman of the board, secretary and CFO.

    A director of i2Telecom since last April, Berman said i2Telecom had created a valuable intellectual property portfolio surrounding its Internet telephony and mobile applications technology.

    He said this provided it with an excellent platform from which to deliver end-to-end Internet telephony solutions and applications on an international scale.

    i2Telecom products and services include VoiceStick, MyGlobalTalk and Digital Portal communications and microgateway adapters for VoIP long-distance services.

    "Unlike many of its competitors, i2Telecom has successfully developed award-winning solutions and applications that are superior for the communications needs of users in many demographics," he said.

    "I hope to leverage my business and sales experience to assist i2Telecom in penetrating a variety of key strategic markets."

    Berman said the company was currently in negotiations regarding initiatives that should expand the market for, and revenues from, its products and services.

    "We believe that certain new products we have developed are ahead of the market curve and have the potential to drive powerful newly identified business relationships," he said.

    Among those are a new mobile VoIP solution being readied for launch that will allow users to make low-cost international calls from anywhere in the world using one SIM card.

    With over 27 years of industry experience, Berman has been involved in nearly all sectors of the technology and telecommunications industries and was instrumental in revolutionizing global Internet connectivity in the early 1990s.

    He has extensive experience in the disciplines of strategic alliance planning and business development, as well as sales and marketing, product development and distribution.

    Berman is the founder and owner of Virenta LLC, a consulting group of high-level executives specializing in strategic global alliances and business development for the technology and telecommunications industries.

  • US VoIP Calling Rises By 32%


    It may still not enjoy the popularity found in other parts of the world but there’s no doubt that Internet telephony is rapidly gaining ground among consumers in the US.

    According to responses from Mediamark Research & Intelligence (MRI) just released Fall 2008 Survey of the American Consumer, four per cent of respondents reported they had made an online phone call in the last 30 days.

    While this leaves VoIP calling still far from mainstream – especially compared to other Internet-related activities such as emailing – it does represent a year-to-year increase of 32 per cent.

    It also gives online phone calling one of the the biggest year-to-year per cent increases among adult Internet users, along with downloading TV programs and watching online videos.

    E-mail, news gathering and paying bills online continue to be among the most widely used Internet activities by US consumers.

    MRI began measuring Internet activities in 1997 and continually adds new Internet behavior questions to its survey.

    The fall 2008 data include four new Internet activities: sharing photos (done by one in four adults in the last 30 days); sending electronic greeting cards; watching a live TV program online; and uploading or adding video to a Web site.

  • 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".

  • 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.