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Tag: uc

  • Skype Connect 1.0 Officially Launched

    Skype on Monday announced the official launch of Skype Connect 1.0, formerly known as Skype for SIP. Previously available in beta, Skype Connect delivers a business solution that enables IP-enabled private branch exchange (PBX) or Unified Communications systems to connect to Skype.

    According to the company, by using Skype Connect, businesses can now:

    • Make outbound calls from desktop phones to landlines and mobiles worldwide billed at Skype’s standard per-minute calling rates
    • Receive inbound calls from Skype connected users worldwide by placing Skype’s Click & Call buttons on their Web sites
    • Receive calls from landlines or mobile phones in the corporate PBX using Skype’s online numbers that have been purchased separately
    • Manage Skype calls using existing PBX or UC systems’ features such as call routing, automatic call distribution, conferencing, auto-attendant, voicemail, call recording and logging.

    David Gurlé, VP and general manager of Skype for Business said that based on internal research, in the first quarter of 2010, approximately 37% of Skype users reported that they use Skype for some business or business-related purposes.

    "Our team’s goal is to empower businesses of all sizes and types with rich communications tools to unleash their productivity, while reducing their telecommunications costs. […] Skype Connect seeks to enable our customers to reduce their phone bills, while protecting their investment in existing telecommunications equipment,” said Gurlé.

    Skype Connect already has over 2,400 active global customers and it’s now certified to work with PBX and UC products from Avaya, Cisco, SIPfoundry, ShoreTel and other OEMs.

    The solution also works with older TDM PBXs or Key Systems which can now add Skype calling capabilities through third-party IP gateways from AudioCodes, Grandstream and VoSKY.

    Companies using Skype Connect are charged a monthly channel fee of €4.95 / $6.95 per line. This is based on the number of concurrent calls being made or received. Each channel allows for one inbound or one outbound call at any given time. Calls to landlines and mobiles made using Skype Connect are billed at Skype’s standard calling rates worldwide.

    Relating articles
    Skype Now Available on Verizon Multimedia Phones on the BREW Platform
    Skype for iPhone Now Supports Multitasking, No Charges for Calling Over 3G
    Skype Names David Gurle to Lead Skype for Business Team
    Skype For SIP Now Available in Beta

  • Avaya Introduces New Products at Interop 2010

    Avaya today at Interop 2010 unveiled new data products that are specifically designed to support the growing needs of today’s bandwidth-hungry video and unified communications applications.

    These products address the main challenge that enterprises face today: how to cost-effectively add the bandwidth needed to position them for growth.

    The products introduced at this year’s Interop include:

    • Avaya Ethernet Routing Switch 8800: helps enterprise campuses and data centers boost capacity to embrace UC, virtualization and unified wireless solutions. It is especially suited to support bandwidth-hungry video applications. According to Avaya, the solution provides more than a 150 percent increase in memory while using approximately 33 percent less power compared to existing 8600 options.

    • Avaya Wireless LAN 8100 Series: an advanced Enterprise Class 802.11n wireless solution that “easily and seamlessly” extends UC applications to mobile users. Its ‘split plane’ architecture helps eliminate the inefficiencies and bottlenecks of overlay wired/wireless networks with a solution optimized for voice, UC and video applications. It provides a full 802.11n solution including a wireless controller (WC 8180), 802.11n wireless access points (WAP 8120), management software and partnerships for enhanced application support.

    • Avaya Configuration and Orchestration Manager (COM): is a real-time, web-based, multi-user network configuration management solution. It is part of the Unified Communications Management (UCM) solution that can manage multi-user configuration, provisioning and troubleshooting for a wide range of enterprise technologies. Acting as a unified configuration management platform, COM delivers an extensible architecture allowing it to support pluggable device add-ons through data-driven development models and loadable software components.

    • Avaya Advanced Gateway 2330: a flexible SIP gateway providing cost-effective, survivable voice services for branch locations. It can provide local branch connectivity to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) as well as SIP survivability in case of IP wide-area network failure or service outages. It’s also upgradable to support a full suite of routing and WAN services.

    According to Kevin Kennedy, Avaya President and CEO, the days of the ‘one size fits all’ network solutions are over.

    "The Avaya Data Solutions business is positioned to play a critical role in Avaya’s growth as we lead the industry to ‘Fit for Purpose’ data and SIP-based communications technologies that will redefine the IT value proposition and offer the best return on investment for business communications," he said.

  • OnRelay Releases Open Source Mobile PBX


    OnRelay has released its mobile PBX solution following successful trials in Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East.

    Unified MBX is a software-only IP business communication system built for mobile phones.

    The Cellular Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) provider said the solution provides Unified Communications (UC) without the expense of proprietary telephony hardware or IP PBX licenses.

    It does so by pre-integrating cellular FMC software with an open source IP PBX.

    The result is that Unified MBX can be deployed on-premises, or hosted in the cloud to provide mobile business communications as Software as a Service (SaaS).

    OnRelay said customers across ten countries have so far self-installed the solution with only remote OnRelay support.

    It is built around OnRelay’s Telephony Internetworking Protocol (TINP).

    TINP uses voice and data signalling to bring full IP PBX functionality to the mobile phone, over any cellular network – 3G/GSM, EVDO and Low Power GSM.

    In an interview with smartphone.biz-news earlier this year, Ivar Plahte, CEO and co-founder of OnRelay, said he had no doubt that mobile PBX is the future – with smartphones increasingly replacing desktop phones to become the sole business phone.

  • IP Desktop Market Revenues to Decline Until 2011


    The IP telephony endpoint market will be affected by the economic downturn – despite the fact an increasing number of enterprises are recognizing the benefits of both IP desktop phones and enterprise soft clients.

    That’s the conclusion of Melanie Turek, principal analyst at Frost & Sullivan, which has just released its latest global study of the sector’s enterprise market.

    She says that IP desktop phones are rapidly proliferating in the enterprise, displacing their analog and digital predecessors.

    Today, this is largely due to declining prices and clear productivity benefits, according to Turek.

    "Last year, we anticipated that PC soft phones offered a natural transition to more sophisticated UC clients," she said in her No Jitter blog.

    Melanie Turek, principal analyst Frost & Sullivan

    "Today, we can confirm that this new generation of soft clients is quickly penetrating the market, often replacing their old counterparts."

    Turek said that thanks to the strong case around UC and the continued shift from hardware-based to software-based solutions, more telephony vendors are aggressively pursuing bundling strategies.

    This includes combining platforms, server software, advanced UC clients, and access to either a-la-carte or bundled applications.

    She said this has considerably boosted the penetration of enterprise soft clients such as PC desktop soft phones, advanced desktop UC clients, and mobile clients (FMC and UC).

    The world enterprise IP desktop phone market continued to grow in 2008, generating USD $2.57 billion in total revenues, a 3.1 per cent increase over 2007, according to the Frost & Sullivan report.

    Steady revenue decline is expected until the end of 2010, but the market is expected to gradually recover by 2011 and continue with a healthy growth pattern until at least 2015.

    Turek said the world enterprise IP soft client market has more than doubled its size, from 1.0 million units shipped in 2007, to almost 2.4 million clients in 2008.

    "This prominent increase in client shipments has been driven not so much by a swell of customer demand, but rather by the effective penetration strategies that many IP telephony providers have been implementing," she said.

    As a result, Frost & Sullivan estimates that less than 45 per cent of total enterprise soft clients shipped in 2008 are being used as a primary tool for voice communications.

    Although PC desktop softphone revenues are expected to considerably decrease over time as UC offerings penetrate the market, the higher profit margins granted by advanced UC clients and mobile FMC/UC clients are expected to largely offset this revenue decline.