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Tag: voip-services

  • VoIP Portal: Velocity’s New Addition to The Telecom Sector


    Velocity VoIP has recently launched a VoIP Portal that is said to facilitate easy access to all the services that Velocity offers to its customers. Velocity, being a major provider of hosted VoIP switching and billing solutions for most VoIP services providers, has just brought their services closer to their customers.

    According to Velocity, the main reason as to why they came about with the portal is to enable their customers have access to the services they offer them and make it easier for them to manage their accounts. These latest VoIP addition has a number of benefits in the telecommunication sector.

    To begin with this service allows one to find numbers within the United States and 58 different countries in no time. This is the live provisioning DIDs. Secondly, the VoIP Portal gives one the ability to port in different international carriers and submitting the information electronically as you receive status updates as the numbers are processed. This is termed as the automated LNP Process. The other advantage of this new VoIP Portal is it’s easy to use AIP for all features, including the integration and linking of your website to streamline the new accounts and customers.

    Velocity, which was founded in 2005, has aims to provide the best field for their customers to prosper and at the same time compete in a more advanced and manageable environment.

  • 5 Top Residential VoIP Providers in 2014


    There are several competing VoIP providers that make the service available at affordable rates to residential users. With VoIP services now having considerable demand, residential buyers are able access the services at cheap monthly fees. MyVoipProvider.com came up with the list of 2014’s top residential VoIP providers based on their customer care packages, prices, customer satisfaction, and scalability.

    ITP

    ITP’s high flexibility rate has placed it among the top 5 residential VoIP service providers. They have a metered package for home or work customers with low call volumes which go for less than 3 cents per minute. Special discounts are offered for additional services and lines that a customer may subscribe to. Some of their extra service features include; unlimited international calling packages, good discounts, and a phone adapter in the service plan. They also have a remarkable customer support system available 24/7 for any assistance.

    Phone Power

    Phone power’s success in managing their various services and having a wide variety of customers makes it one of the top residential VoIP providers. Customers can have a long term contract with the company to be able to get low rates and a financially sound monthly package. Extra features include free 60 minute for international calls, extra equipment and an additional line.

    VoIPo

    VoIPo residential VoIP services are clear and simple, which makes customers happy. Their package plans are well organized for both business and residential VoIP services, having very few differences between the two. Clients for home or small business lines can subscribe to their $15 monthly contract or $8.25 annual contract to enjoy unlimited calls to the US and Canada.

    MagicJack

    MajicJack's affordability placed it among the 5 best residential VoIP providers. Residential buyers can get an annual package goes for as low as $19.95 per line. Customers get to use the service on computer by plugging in a USB drives and the MagicJack Plus allows customers to receive calls even without the computer on.

    Phone.com

    Phone.com has several interesting packages for both residential and business VoIP customers, which is quite impressive. Phone.com’s business VoIP plans are based on the number of minutes purchased. They offer between 300 and 2500 minutes monthly in their four plans. All the plans have similar main features and the extras have the same price in each plan. Customers have to sign a contract with them but there is an option between a monthly and an annual contract.

  • Velocity VoIP Uses PortaOne and OpenCNAM to Offer Caller ID to Wholesale/Retail Customers in Seconds


    Velocity VoIP is one of the most innovative hosted VoIP infrastructure providers out there. In 2011, the Boca Raton, Florida-based company took a major step in its quest by choosing PortaOne PortaSwitch Procinctus. This is PortaOne’s fully redundant and high capacity product and is its core convergent softswitch billing software.

    Jason Silverman, Director of Sales for Velocity VoIP indicated that the company’s reseller clients are always looking for different ways to grow their business. He added that Caller ID is not a new service, but the need to offer the service quickly, on a customer to customer basis is paramount. He indicated that the company has realized that there is need for a strategy to offer CNAM products through all the underlying carriers and CLEC relationships in such a way that both of them benefit economically.

    The CNAM, or Caller Name Delivery enables customers to instantly see the Phone number information and caller name for any incoming phone call. In the past, adding the CNAM to a system was a very involved process, however, this process has been simplified by OpenCNAM. The OpenCNAM is now available as a simple web service and is widely used throughout the industry to provide Caller ID information for mobile applications, phone systems, CRM systems and fraud prevention systems for large financial institutions. Its elegant API is well suited for IT professionals, developers and enterprise telecommunications companies.

    Silverman noted that customers are always demanding for low cost, higher quality services with a broad list of features. These kinds of solutions will now be provided thanks to PortaOne.

  • EPC Opts for Ontario VOIP firm Instead of MTS


    Calls to retender a contract worth about $6 million that was awarded to an Ontario firm were rejected by a city committee, despite protests from MTS, the losing bidder.

    Calls to retender a contract worth about $6 million that was awarded to an Ontario firm were rejected by a city committee, despite protests from MTS, the losing bidder.

    On Friday, the city announced the new telephone contract that was selected by the public service online. The overall combination of awards is expected upon approval to transfer about 4,000 landlines to VOIP service and the award is expected to save $1.5 million over a period of 5 years.

    However, MTS held the view that it was competitive on all contracts, including the VOIP landline that it lost to FlexITy Solutions. The company further questioned why the executive policy committee supported investment from outside Manitoba.

    Kelvin Shepherd, MTS’s president alleged that the small firm that won the tender may lack the necessary security level that is needed to safeguard sensitive city data.EPC members on the other hand noted that the tender would have immense benefits to the city residents and it voted to support the proposal, with a descanting vote coming from Coun. Brian Mayes (St. Vital).

    City staff noted that they are not permitted to discriminate on a tender process basing on geographical location.

    Cisco is a business partner of FlexITy and its  regional director, Shane Warnez intimated that the company has over 9 years of experience with VOIP, has a proven security record and already operates in the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.

    MTS was awarded several services by city including landline and cellular contracts worth nearly $10.6 million.

  • TDS Achieves Prestigious Polycom Choice Partner – Platinum Status


    TDS Telecommunication announced that it has been named as Polycom’s platinum level choice partner. Polycom is the international standards-based unified communications and collaborations. TDS has joined the selected group of VOIP providers in achieving the platinum status for the fourth year in a row. This status is achieved by less than 5% of service providers and it is based on their level of expertise, performance and experience.

    The platinum status, which is the most prestigious Polycom choice partner program, is only achieved by service providers who demonstrate the highest standards in deploying Polycom’s programs. They should demonstrate best of class solutions in order to quality for the award. Customers are assured that TDS, as a Polycom choice award partner has the ability to provide all their projects needs including concept installation, ongoing support as well as management.

    TDS is the seventh largest local exchange telephone company in the US with over 2,500 employees and close to a million subscribers. The company offers services such as VOIP, hosted managed services and dedicated high speed internet.

    Polycom has over 415,000 customers and together with its partners, delivers the most complete video collaboration solutions. The choice partner program is a part of Polycom’s partner network, which represents over 7,000 channels and alliance partners.

  • Cost Savings Drive SMBs To IP Telephony


    Small to medium-sized businesses primarily shift to VoIP services because of the cost savings they offer.

    That’s the conclusion of a new report from Infonetics Research, which also points to powerful features as a secondary motive for SMBs to switch to IP telephony.

    It cites the fact that the growth of SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) trunking is outpacing other VoIP services as evidence of the importance of price in enterprises’ decision-making.

    The report found that global VoIP services grew 33 per cent in 2008 to USD $30.8 billion. The researchers include hosted VoIP, hosted UC (unified communications), integrated IP access, managed IP PBXes, residential VoIP, SIP trunking and other types of IP voice access in its definition of VoIP services.

    They found that while business VoIP services represented only 31 per cent of the total, they grew faster than residential services during the year.

    Managed IP PBX, hosted IP PBX and hosted UC services accounted for three-fourths of the business VoIP total.

    Diane Myers, directing analyst at Infonetics, said demand for residential and business VoIP services continues to grow through the economic downturn because of the cost savings they provide.
    She said that as a result, in 2008 the VoIP services market had healthy growth of 33 per cent to USD $30.8 billion.

    "For the first 3 months of 2009, service providers experienced an average of 40-50 per cent year-over-year growth for IP Centrex, indicating the demand for outsourcing and managed solutions remains healthy," she said.

    "We expect hosted UC services to take off, with worldwide revenue doubling between 2009 and 2013, and we forecast SIP trunking service revenue to hit an 89 per cent compound annual growth rate from 2008 to 2013."

    Other highlights of the report include:

    • NTT, France Telecom, and Comcast took the lead as the world’s largest VoIP service providers in 2008
    • Deregulation plays a significant role in the adoption of VoIP in some countries, such as France, where it costs only USD $0.02 per minute for fixed-to-fixed line calls worldwide, making PC-based services such as Skype irrelevant
    • Residential VoIP growth in Central and Latin America has grown stronger in the past year, particularly in Brazil where Embratel ended 2008 with 1.8 million subscribers to its NetFone service
    • In 2008, there were 106 million residential VoIP subscribers worldwide, the majority in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) and Asia Pacific, where competitive operators and incumbent carriers are in an aggressive battle for subscribers

  • Microsoft Includes VoIP Ban in App Store Restrictions


    Microsoft is to ban apps that enable VoIP services over carriers’ networks from its Windows MarketPlace for Mobile store when it launches in the second half of this year.

    The VoIP app restriction is among the 12 application types forbidden in a list of "rules" announced by Microsoft.

    Earlier this week, a Gartner report forecast that traditional network-based mobile carriers face the real prospect of losing a major slice of their voice traffic and revenue to new non-infrastructure players that use VoIP.

    While the Microsoft ban is limited to VoIP services it is unclear whether developers will be able to offer VoIP apps using Wi-Fi.

    That will not be known for sure until the store is up and running with apps.

    InformationWeek points out, however, that Skype already works over 3G on Windows Mobile phones.

    It suggests the ban on them must be a concession that the carriers wrung out of Microsoft in return for carrier billing.

    Other prohibited apps include those larger than 10MB, those that promote or send users to alternative app stores for the same application, and ones that change the default browser, search client or media player on the device.

  • NetAlly VoIP Assessment Software Eliminates Deployment Risk


    Fluke Networks has released a new version of its NetAlly VoIP Assessment and Troubleshooting Software designed to help eliminate risk associated with deploying or expanding VoIP services.

    Version 7.0 of the package works by assessing the current state of the network and previewing the service before it is deployed on that network.

    This allows maximum call volume and call quality to be determined quickly, while saving money by reducing post-deployment troubleshooting, according to the company.

    Assessing a network, a requirement of many leading IP PBX manufacturers, makes VoIP deployments faster, more successful and less costly.

    However, a recent Gartner Research report highlighted the fact that some enterprises and integrators still do not perform proper predeployment assessments of the enterprise network.

    It said this often leads to unplanned additional costs or deployment delays.

    NetAlly claims its software shortens installation time periods by performing proper network assessments, detecting deficiencies in the network and pinpointing where corrective actions and fine-tuning need to take place.

    The company offers users a preview of the VoIP service as it will be delivered over a production IP network.

    It says that, unlike network simulation software, the package generates traffic over the actual network and provides responses based on real-world measurements.

    This allows IT professionals to determine if there is sufficient network capacity to support a proposed VoIP project.

    NetAlly version 7.0 is the result of Fluke Networks’ acquisition of key technology from Viola Networks, announced in August 2008.

    The new software version is available for immediate delivery worldwide.

  • Cisco Preparing 320Mbps Cable Modem With VoIP


    Cisco is developing a 320Mbps cable modem – the DPC3212.

    It will be one of the first to use the DOCSIS 3.0 standard to pass 300Mbps.

    Equipped with a new Broadcom chip, it joins eight – rather than four – cable channels together to reach the maximum speed.

    Capable of 120Mbps upstream, the cable modem lets Internet providers ramp up speeds progressively by limiting how many channels are used until the network can handle the load.

    The DPC3212 also carries space for two lines on cable providers with VoIP service.

    The network hardware producer expects to submit the DPC3212 to CableLabs for approval before the spring.

    It would then be available by mid-2010.

    The technology should lead to increased speeds for DOCSIS 3 services.

    Services such as Comcast’s in the US currently tops out at 50Mbps but upgrades to modems and the network could see them reach 160Mbps.

  • Europe's VoIP Services Growing Rapidly


    VoIP services in Europe are growing at a blistering pace and reshaping the fixed-line market, according to a report from TeleGeography.

    Consumer IP telephony subscribers reached 25.3 million at year-end 2007, up from 15 million in 2006, and only 6.5 million in 2005.

    As a result, revenues were projected to top USD $5.7 billion in 2008, up from USD $4.2 billion in 2007.

    Prices for triple play service in the US are approximately 70 per cent higher than in Europe, which accounts for VoIP adoption in Europe growing far faster than in the US.

    While customers continue to flock to VoIP services, market penetration in the 13 countries surveyed varies greatly.

    France leads the way in adoption of VoIP, as TeleGeography estimates that 42 per cent of the population has a VoIP line, while Spain’s VoIP uptake is only 2 per cent.

    All adoption statistics are based on fixed-line replacement VoIP installation, excluding VoIP soft clients like Skype.

    Skype has more subscribers in Europe than any individual provider of handset-based VoIP services, but the revenues and traffic volumes generated by Skype’s subscribers are lower and have a much smaller impact on incumbent’s revenues.

    Expect continued strong growth in VoIP revenue in Europe, as there are several large markets with low penetration currently, including Austria and Spain.

    TeleGeography’s European VoIP & Triple-Play Research Service is the authoritative source of data on consumer VoIP services and service providers in western Europe.