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Tag: voip

  • Motorola Unveils Router That Combines WiMAX, Wi-Fi and VoIP Connectivity


    Motorola has released an all-in-one access point that combines WiMAX, Wi-Fi and VoIP, along with an Ethernet port.

    The wi4 WiMAX CPEi 775 is a WiMAX 802.16e modem with an integrated Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g router, VoIP ATA ports for voice calling, and an Ethernet port.

    Unveiled at the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas, this is the second generation for the router.

    Motorola said the CPEi 775 follows the award winning CPEi 850.

    The company said that by incorporating adaptive switching techniques, the CPEi 775 does not need to be rotated for optimal signal strength, allowing easier installation.

    With some of the most advanced antenna designs available today, Motorola claims the CPEi 775 sets new standards for device transmit power and receive sensitivity — two factors that have a big impact on a network operator’s bottom line, and the number of cells required to provide coverage.

    Charles Riggle, senior director of strategy and business development, WiMAX devices, Motorola Home & Networks Mobility, said service providers are looking for ways to leverage the speed and performance of WiMAX for more advanced services as mobile WiMAX networks proliferate globally.

    "It takes considerable know-how to put two different radio technologies together in a single package with internal antennas and not suffer from interference or degraded throughput," he said.

    "With the CPEi 775, we are able to provide high performance in a very attractive form factor."

  • Nominations Open For The Outstanding VoIP Person and Product Of 2008


    With 2008 fast drawing to a close biz-news.com is seeking YOUR help in choosing outstanding candidates for the titles of Man/Woman of the Year and Product/Service of the Year.

    We would like you to nominate an individual and/or product/service that you feel has contributed greatly to the VoIP sector over the past 12 months.

    The winner will be selected from the nominations submitted by our readers – professionals and technology enthusiasts in the industry.

    Obviously, as this is a crowd-sourcing survey, we need your participation.

    Spreading word of this survey to friends and colleagues will also ensure a wider participation in the poll and will give a much more accurate result.

    If you have more than one nomination for either category you can make multiple submissions – but you can only vote once for any person or product.

    We will publish the results in early 2009 and share the raw data with the community. (Personal information about contributors will not be disclosed).

    After a year like 2008 there are plenty of good candidates – so please give it some thought and send your Man/Woman and/or Product nominations to us.

  • Jaxtr Gambles On Free Mobile Calling


    Jaxtr has launched a new service called FreeConnect that allows subscribers to talk to each other for free on their mobile phones.

    The VoIP startup’s CEO, Bahman Koohestani, said he expected the service to attract new members, some of who will switch to the more convenient and feature rich premium services offered by Jaxtr.

    The free calls ploy has been used beforeby other VoIP companies – among them Rebtel and AOL – but has never proven to be a great success.

    A drawback to FreeConnect is its complexity. All users have to be members of Jaxtr.

    To make a call, the number has to be entered into Jaxtr, which then provides a local number for the caller to use.

    This is then dialled on the cell phone and Jaxtr sends an SMS message to the person being called with a number that’s local for them.

    They then dial this number and the two callers can then have a free mobile call for as long as they like.

    While the call set-up is long-winded, once doen the same local numbers can be used again in the future.

    What Jaxtr is hoping is that sufficient numbers of callers will tire of the process and make their calls on Jaxtr’s paid service.

    Koohestani insists that FreeConnect will not just be available for a trial period.

    That remains to be seen, especially as Jaxtr will incur overhead costs for the FreeConnect service.

    In June, the company completed a USD $10 million funding round but then had to lay off 13 staff.

    Its CEO Konstantin Guericke then resigned and Koohestani (VP Engineering) stepped up to be interim CEO.

  • Nimbuzz Strikes Deal With Spice Mobile


    Nimbuzz has agreed a distribution deal with Indian telecoms company Spice Mobiles.

    As a result Spice Mobile handsets will now have the Nimbuzz application pre-installed.

    Nimbuzz is a mobile instant messaging, (geo) presence and VoIP provider whose software allows users to chat, message and send files on the go.

    The deal also includes Spice Mobiles becoming a major distribution partner to join Nimbuzz’s global Manufacturer Affiliate Program.

    Spice Mobiles has approximately 25,000 retail outlets.

    Nimbuzz CEO, Evert-Jaap Lugt, said they had subscribers in over 200 countries and were growing at a rate of 20,000 new users per day.

    Nimbuzz CEO Evert_Jaap Lugt

    The Spice Mobiles deal is a global contract. In addition to India, pre-installed Spice Mobiles devices will be sold in other APAC territories.

    "This deal ensures significant market penetration for Nimbuzz across the APAC territories and we will be working closely with Spice Mobiles to encourage future shipment of new handsets,” said Lugt.

    Gartner expects India’s mobile user base of around 300 million to reach 737 million by 2012.

    Price Waterhouse Coopers reports the Indian mobile VAS market will reach USD $2 billion by the end of 2008 and expect it to account for 18 per cent of operator revenue by 2010.

    Spice Mobiles CEO, Kunal Ahooja, said the Indian market was experiencing soaring mobile usage and penetration.

  • Gizmo5 Introduces Browser-Based VoIP Application


    Gizmo5 has launched a web-based VoIP app that allows users to call 800 numbers and SIP addresses for free.

    GizmoCall is Flash-based, so it only requires a browser to use the service rather than having to download a software client.

    Users go to the Web site, sign up for a username and password, and start making calls.

    The service can also accept inbound calls to the login user name, so long as the app is running in a window or browser tab.

    You can also drop one line onto a webpage to do inbound calling from GizmoCall.

    To make outbound calls, users require a GizmoCall account.

    The Adobe Flash client should work on Mac, Windows and Linux platforms.

  • VoIP Business Phone Systems Made Simple


    As VoIP increasingly shifts into the mainstream more businesses are going through the process of selecting the best phone systems for their needs.


    VoIP.biz-news asked Terry Martin, CEO of Coms PLC, to explain some of the options surrounding business VoIP and offer some basic guidelines for SMEs.

    Voice over IP (VoIP) telephony uses the internet to make and receive phone calls using a broadband connection instead of standard phone lines.

    As broadband bandwidth increases, call quality and reliability has also greatly improved, making VoIP a realistic option for every business.

    However, as with all technologies, the options and choices can be just as confusing as the technology itself. There are four primary types of internet telephone system:

    • Free IP-PBX: Download free software and setup your own VoIP IP-PBX server
    • Managed IP-PBX: A vendor will install and manage an IP-PBX server on your premises
    • Hosted IP-PBX: A supplier delivers a VoIP service without a server on your premises
    • Add a VoIP Gateway or Card to your existing, traditional PBX.

    By far, the simplest, and most flexible options is the Hosted IP-PBX service which is centrally monitored, updated and managed.

    This means that the customer pays a monthly bill and the day to day management of the service is taken care of by the service provider.

    A hosted service provides all the benefits that might be expected in a VoIP solution but takes away the stress and confusion.

    Terry Martin, CEO ComsPLC

    But how can small and medium sized businesses benefit from a hosted VoIP service?

    Firstly, customers are immediately updated when new features are available. This means there is no expensive equipment upgrade a few years down the road.

    Scalability is an important point for ambitious, growing companies as customers only pay for the seats they need on a monthly basis. With a hosted service, extra network members can be added to a system at the click of a button without the cost of a new line.

    With a hosted VoIP service, the customer can integrate teleworkers and customer service lines through their own broadband connections. In addition, features such as an automated switchboard, voicemail to email, and conference calling for example, come as standard with most business packages.

    A hosted VoIP service is very mobile and lends itself well to remote working. Using a dual mode mobile, such as the new Nokia e Series range, the customer can access their network via a Wi-Fi connection and continue to make VoIP calls at the same minimal cost as they would in the office.

    Companies can choose which number they want to use wherever they are in the world. Businesses can take an ‘020’ number and adopt a virtual London presence. This means that companies have the freedom to move premises or even countries and keep the same contact number.

    The most notable advantage, however, is the dramatic financial savings available. Calls to other network members, for instance other regional offices, teleworkers, stockists or special clients, are free of charge. Also customers save substantial amounts on maintenance, line rental and upgrades as it is all centrally managed.

    What should SMEs consider when implementing a VoIP service?

    There are a number of questions that companies should consider before implementing a service:

    • Does the provider offer the whole range of geographic, non-geographic and International numbers?
    • Does the provider have any technology to compress more calls down a standard DSL line? Most SMEs use a standard ADSL broadband line and VoIP calls take up a lot of bandwidth. If the service uses technology to cut down the amount of bandwidth used on each call, then more calls can be made at the same time.
    • What are the disaster recovery systems in place if your IP connection is down? Should disaster strike and the broadband connection fail, what emergency processes are in place as back up.
    • What does the service provider offer in terms of quality, reliability and scalability?
    • Does the provider offer number portability to ensure you keep your existing numbers?
    • What support services are offered?
    • How competitive are the rates?
    • Can the provider support mobile devices and provision them over the air?

    About Coms Plc

    Coms Plc was founded by Jason Drummond in 2000. Coms.Net is the core service of Coms Plc, which provides a VoIP business telephony service.
    The Coms.Net solution is based upon the industry standard SIP protocol, which enables the widest possible connection of customers, devices and integrated Web 2.0 applications.
    Coms Plc is an OFCOM authorised Public Electronic Communications Network (PECN) and a member of the Internet Telephony Service Providers Association (ITSPA). Coms Plc is also listed on the London Stock Exchange AIM market (LSE:COMS).

  • 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.

  • Security tool for VoIP solutions released


    A new tool which allows enterprises to assess if their VoIP solutions are vulnerable to targeted eavesdropping has been released.

    UCSniff, from Sipera Systems’ VIPER Lab, is a free application which allows network managers find out how easy it is to imitate an enterprise VoIP phone, download a directory and then listen in on confidential calls.

    "UCSniff is an assessment tool that helps demonstrate vulnerabilities in VoIP design and implementation," said VIPER Lab director Jason Ostrom.

    "It was born from the concept of combining targeted attacks against VoIP users along with the corporate directory, intelligent VLAN support, and man-in-the-middle features."

    The results of a survey released last month revealed that security was one of the top-five concerns for respondents when investing in VoIP solutions.

    The security and regulatory compliance implications are significant for VoIP eavesdropping, especially given the ability for outside hackers to access corporate directories.

    Once done they can use that information to target and automatically record conversations between anyone from CEOs, CFOs, corporate counsel and outside law firms to accounts rReceivable dealing with customer credit card payments.

    The UCSniff tool is available now for SIP and SCCP signaling protocols. A future version will allow testing VoIP Video calls on the Windows OS.

  • VoIP Market Down 8% in 3Q08 as Telcos Scale Back


    A two-year "pause" in the overall carrier VoIP space is being forecast as the effects of the economic downturn spread globally.

    Large RBOCs and ILECs are scaling back on VoIP equipment purchases, helping bring down the worldwide service provider VoIP market 8% sequentially to $816 million in 3Q08, says market research firm Infonetics Research in a new report.

    The overall market weakness in 3Q08 was led by a steep decline in the high density media gateway segment, as well as a dip in the softswitch segment, according to the report, Service Provider VoIP and IMS Equipment and Subscribers.

    On the positive side, sales of session border controllers and media servers were up in 3Q08, although not enough to offset losses in other segments in the next gen voice market.

    Stéphane Téral, principal analyst for VoIP and IMS at Infonetics Research, said third quarter service provider VoIP equipment sales confirmed what was had already been seen in the previous quarter.

    "In North America, carriers were already slowing their VoIP investments after completing major projects; in Western Europe and some parts of Asia, such as South Korea, inventories were already high," she said.

    "The quarter also reflects the global economic downturn, which is turning the expected VoIP deployment dip into a drop.

    "New VoIP projects will be postponed at best, and some may be cancelled altogether, as more consumers ditch their fixed lines, thus cutting the need for wireline upgrades.

    "As such, we are predicting a 2-year pause in the overall carrier VoIP space, with a pick up expected in 2011."

    Other highlights from the report:

    • Year-over-year (from 3Q07), softswitches, SBCs, and media servers are up
    • Cisco shook up the worldwide trunk media gateway market with a 37% sequential jump in revenue in 3Q08, propelling them to the #1 spot, followed by GENBAND and Huawei
    • Nortel maintains its #1 position in the worldwide softswitch market
    • Cable MSOs are likely to postpone PacketCable 2.0 deployments for residential VoIP due to tough economic conditions
    • Given how bad the current economic turmoil is, the 5-year outlook for service provider next gen voice is decent
    • Voice over broadband (VoBB) will continue to be the big driver across the board

    Infonetics’ report tracks VoIP subscribers and carrier VoIP equipment, including high-, mid-, and low-density trunk media gateways, SBCs, media servers, class 4 and class 5 softswitches, and IP Centrex/hosted IP PBX, IP trunking, and residential voice application servers.

    The report also tracks fixed-line and mobile network IMS core equipment, including HSS, CSCF servers, media resource function, breakout gateway control function (BGCF), application servers, and PSTN gateways.

  • Ifbyphone Secures $4.6 Million in New Round of Funding


    Times may be tough but Ifbyphone has defied the apparent drought in venture capital funding and secured USD $4.6 million in a second round of institutional funding.

    The capital infusion for the hosted telephone application platform company was jointly led by Apex Venture Partners and Origin Ventures, who also invested in Ifbyphone’s first round of institutional funding.

    They were joined by three other venture capital firms:Spring Mill Venture Partners, i2A and Blue Crest Capital Finance, L.P.

    Irv Shapiro, Ifbyphone founder and CEO, said the new round of funding was a strong endorsement of the company’s growth and expansion strategy.

    Ifbyphone provides small and medium-sized businesses with telephony features that enable them to create phone solutions.

    “It positions us extremely well to continue our expansion during these complex economic times,” he said.

    Ken Green, co-founder and managing partner at Spring Mill Venture Partners, said he believed Ifbyphone represented the next great wave of Internet-enabled business services.

    He said it allowed small and medium-sized businesses access to capabilities previously only available to their larger competitors.

    "This kind of service offers an opportunity to level the competitive playing field,” he said.