News Archive - October 2004

Vonage Holdings Corp. Plans to Add 600 Jobs to New Jersey by Q1 2005
October 29, 2004

Vonage, which has seen 400% growth in its customer base, announced that it plans to hire more than 600 plus people to fill a variety of positions within the next 6 months.
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Cell phone unit shores up Verizon
October 29, 2004

Verizon profits in the third quarter grew meagerly as rising costs offset better-than-expected demand for its wireless and high-speed Internet services.
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Avantel Mexico Selects SmartNode VoIP Gateway Routers
October 28, 2004

Patton announced that Avantel has selected Patton's SmartNode 2300 H.323-based device as the customer-premise VoIP solution for their PYME Plus IP-based telephone services targeting small and mid-sized enterprises.
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SBC Communications Announces $19.95 Monthly Pricing For SBC Yahoo! DSL
October 28, 2004

Is it a price war or an attempt to get more people on board with broadband access? Whatever the case, $19.95 is quite reasonable and will certainly help fuel growth in broadband services.
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Telefonica Moviles Completes the Acquisition of Bellsouth's Cellular Operators in Venezuela, Colombia, Nicaragua, Peru and Uruguay
October 28, 2004

These acquisitions, which have a combined enterprise value of 2,665 million dollars, complete the second phase of the agreement reached between the Telefónica Group and Bellsouth, by which Telefónica Móviles is to purchase Bellsouth's mobile telephony assets in 10 Latin American countries, for a maximum enterprise value of 5,850 million dollars.
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MERA Updates SBC
October 28, 2004

MERA Systems releases a new version of its session controller, enchancing the product with features requested by carriers.
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WiMAX: Town & Country
October 28, 2004

This story reports that wired operators are more interested in using WiMAX to deliver fixed and mobile broadband services to rural areas than to the big cities.
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SBC Laboratories Joins Organization Dedicated to Development of Standardized Infrastructure For VoIP
October 27, 2004

New "e-Numbering" Group (ENUM) to Focus on Enhanced VoIP Compatibility, Ability to Use a Single Phone Number to Access Voice, E-Mail and Fax Communications.
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Voiceglo Introduces VoIP Industry to Voice Messaging
October 27, 2004

Voiceglo announced that it has added a peer-to-peer voice messaging feature to its proprietary Web- and PC-based service, something similar to the push-to-talk functionality of cell phones.
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Yahoo battles Google for the cell phone
October 27, 2004

Yahoo added a search feature for cell phones Wednesday, just a few weeks after rival Google launched one of its own.
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Nortel Misses Halloween Target
October 27, 2004

Despite "nearing completion," Nortel Networks will not file its financial restatements for all 2003 periods and the first two quarters of 2004 by the end of October, as previously announced.
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Internet phone companies enjoying boom
October 26, 2004

VoIP technology is transforming the telecommunications industry, translating into big savings on phone bills for individuals and companies.
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Tekelec Tops $100M
October 26, 2004

Tekelec showed some evidence that its growth strategy is on track, as it buys up smaller players in the softswitching market in an effort to become a leading voice switching player.
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Qualcomm: A "Wireless Intel"?
October 26, 2004

The chipmaker owns a big chunk of patents in wideband CDMA, a new cell-phone technology, and this may help it dominate the market.
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Vonage Launches Virtual Phone Numbers From London
October 26, 2004

Vonage announced the availability of virtual numbers with London city codes.
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Poland: Goodbye telephone
October 25, 2004

Domestic Internet portal O2.pl is about to launch the first broadband VoIP service in Poland that can make calls to fixed-line phones, and it's cheaper than traditional fixed-line.
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Qwest Launches IP Voice Termination Services for Wholesale Customers
October 25, 2004

Qwest announced a termination service for wholesale customers carrying VoIP traffic.
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PacketVideo Announces Two-Way Videophone Software for Nokia Series 60 Smartphone
October 25, 2004

PacketVideo's 2Way software is a 324M 3GPP-compliant solution for real-time two-way voice and video conversations and video conferencing. — which should seamlessly interwork with widely deployed H.323-based video networks.
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VCON Named to Software Magazine's 2004 Software 500
October 25, 2004

VCON announced that it has been selected for the second year in a row as one of Software Magazine's Software 500.
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T-Mobile UK launches "Office in Your Pocket"
October 25, 2004

-Mobile UK launched "Office in Your Pocket", a major expansion of its mobile services for businesses, and announced key new broadband mobile devices and a more than tripling of UK Wi-Fi network.
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Cell phone batteries: Avoid getting burned
October 25, 2004

As reports of cell phone battery explosions increase, manufacturers and consumer advocates advise a handful of precautions to lessen the chances of a mishap.
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Teleglobe in Compliance with NASDAQ Listing Requirements; Will Trade Under Symbol TLGB
October 25, 2004

Teleglobe announced that following the company's second quarter 2004 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on October 15, 2004, it received notification from NASDAQ on October 22, 2004 that the company is fully compliant with all listing requirements and its common stock will continue to be listed on the NASDAQ National Market.
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Cisco adds scrambler to IP telephony
October 25, 2004

Cisco is beefing up the security of IP telephony kit with an upgrade to its software available from today. A new version of the network giant's IP PBX software, Cisco CallManager 4.1, comes with new enhanced encryption facilities, including Voice over Virtual Private Network (V3PN) functionality.
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AT&T posts $7.1 billion loss
October 21, 2004

AT&T reported a $7.1 billion third-quarter loss because of an $11.4 billion writedown of its assets after its retreat from consumer services and other restructuring charges.
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Western investors eye Russia's wireless market
October 21, 2004

Nearly 60 percent of Russians are still without cell phones. What's more, regulators are set to auction off more bandwidth, and Russian phone companies are looking for capital. To Western investors, it looks like a good call.
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FCC Mulls November VoIP Vote
October 20, 2004

FCC Chairman Michael Powell said he would force a vote at the FCC before the end of the year to declare VoIP an interstate service and preempt state regulation and taxation over the emerging technology.
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Broadwing Communications Launches Broadwing PRIorityConnect
October 20, 2004

Broadwing Communications announced that it has launched Broadwing PRIorityConnect, a new VoIP aggregation service that allows carriers and enterprises to expand their VoIP offering nationwide without purchasing and deploying additional network infrastructure.
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VoIP Vendors Get Vocal
October 20, 2004

VoIP is demanding more and more attention in service provider and enterprise boardrooms these days. This article covers a bit of ground, from SBCs to VoIP testing gear.
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Lucent sees first profitable year since 2000
October 20, 2004

Lucent's quarterly earnings rose sharply, helped by improvement in its wireless networks business and lower costs. — Can we take this as a positive sign that things are improving?
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Skype, Voiceglo say consumers see the light
October 20, 2004

Skype announced that it has reached 1 million user mark, while Voiceglo is claiming it is approaching 2 million users.
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VCON Announces Silver Sponsorship of K-12 Interactive Video Conference
October 20, 2004

VCON announced that the company will participate as a silver sponsor of the 2004 Keystone Conference, a venue created to demonstrate and discuss best practices in videoconferencing at K-12 schools.
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BroadVoice Upgrades Existing Calling Plan, Lowers Price
October 20, 2004

BroadVoice announced that it has upgraded its Unlimited USA plan and re-named it the Unlimited World plan to reflect the fact that users can now place calls to 21 countries, including the United States, for an unmatched rate of $19.95 a month. — The price war is definitely on, but I do not think it can go lower than this.
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Voiceglo Surpasses More Than 1.8 Million VoIP Users
October 20, 2004

Voiceglo announced that it has more than 1.8 million users of its proprietary, patent-pending Internet phone technology.
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Motorola quarterly profit triples
October 19, 2004

Motorola said third-quarter profit more than trippled on sales that rose 26 percent and as shipments of handsets rose 15 percent to 23.3 million.
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Feds must use light touch on Net
October 19, 2004

Government must regulate both lightly and carefully to encourage the expansion of broadband infrastructure and applications such as VoIP, the FCC chairman Michael Powell.
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Qualcomm chips in Siemens 3G phones
October 19, 2004

Qualcomm announced that it will supply Siemens with third-generation cell phone chips.
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NMS Communications Fuels the Mobile Video Revolution
October 19, 2004

NMS Communications announced the availability of Video Access, a toolkit for developing carrier-grade, standards-based mobile video applications and solutions to reach the more than 10 million video-enabled handsets that will be in the market by the end of 2004.
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Net2Phone Announces Availability of Wi-Fi VoIP Service
October 19, 2004

Net2Phone announced availability of the first product in its suite of wireless VoIP solutions for service providers globally, enabling them to empower residential and corporate users worldwide with wireless VoIP applications.
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Kagoor Delivers First Session Border Controller Capable of More than 100,000 Concurrent Calls in a Single System
October 19, 2004

Kagoor Networks announced its new carrier-grade VoiceFlow 4000 session border controller, which is capable of carrying more than 100,000 concurrent calls and delivering 750 calls per second (CPS), all in a single system.
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GVT Uses Acme Packet to Become the First Large Brazilian Carrier to Launch VoIP Services
October 19, 2004

Acme Packet announced that GVT, one of Brazil's most successful competitive, fixed telephony operators with nearly a million subscribers, has officially launched VoIP services to its business and residential customers using the Acme Packet SBC products.
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Wi-LAN Launches First Product To Deliver Broadband Throughput with Seamless Handoff
October 19, 2004

Wi-LAN launched Mobilis, the first commercially available two-way broadband wireless product designed for a high-speed mobile environment.
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New 3G Technology Trial Aims to Bring Broadband to Rural Areas in Nordic Countries
October 19, 2004

Nordisk Mobiltelefon and Nortel Networks have presented a live demonstration of the broadband mobile technology CDMA 450 in Tampere, Finland. The trial system, implemented with Digita Oy, the Finnish TV and radio mast operator, brings the prospect of improved geographical reach for advanced mobile services in Nordic countries at data rates up to 2.45 megabits per second.
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Lucent Announces Contracts With China Unicom Totaling US$107 Million for CDMA Expansion Projects
October 19, 2004

Lucent announced a series of contracts totaling US$107 million with China Unicom's provincial subsidiaries in Zhejiang, Shaanxi and Liaoning for their CDMA network expansion projects.
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Alcatel and Thales Join Forces To Develop Secure IP Telephony Equipment To Enterprises
October 18, 2004

Alcatel and Thales will work together to integrate hardware encryption modules from Thales into the Alcatel OmniPCX Enterprise IP communication server.
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VoIP future hangs on regulatory decisions
October 18, 2004

Regulators in the U.S. and around the world are trying to figure out whether and how to place restrictions on IP telephony, knowing that they could change the economics of VoIP as a business to make it impossible for start-up providers to survive.
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Boingo Wireless And Vonage Team To Simplify Wireless VoIP Services
October 18, 2004

Boingo and Vonage announced a relationship that teams two industry innovators in an effort to simplify voice over Wi-Fi services and make them more accessible to customers.
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Veraz Gets More Controlling
October 18, 2004

Veraz is extending the functionality of its softswitch with Session Border Controller functionality, with call signaling and media processed independently by separate devices
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SBC Announces $1.99 Monthly Wi-Fi Pricing
October 18, 2004

SBC announced it will offer Wi-Fi service for $1.99 a month to customers who bundle the service with SBC Yahoo! DSL.
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RIM Previews New BlackBerry Handheld for WLAN Networks
October 18, 2004

RIM is demonstrating a new BlackBerry Wireless Handheld at the Gartner ITXPO Symposium that operates on 802.11b networks and incorporates both voice and data capabilities.
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Converged Mobile Devices Expand Role Within Enterprise
October 18, 2004

IDC reports that the promise of productivity gains possible on converged (voice and data) handheld mobile devices is increasing.
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SIP Ready for Prime Time, Says BT
October 15, 2004

After ten years of brewing in the IETF, BT has declared that SIP is ready for prime time after successful completion of multi-vendor interop testing — I just wonder if anybody tried anything more than a basic voice call.
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Ireland Defines Framework for VoIP
October 14, 2004

ComReg set out the framework for the provision of VoIP services in Ireland, introducing a new phone prefix for VoIP and giving VoIP service providers access to existing geographic numbers.
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USA Datanet Launched VoIP for Residential, Commercial, and Wholesale
October 14, 2004

USA Datanet announced a comprehensive portfolio of broadband telephony products and services for residential, commercial and wholesale markets.
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Nortel to Delay Transfer of Manufacturing Facilities to Flextronics
October 14, 2004

Nortel decided to delay transfer of certain manufacturing facilities in Canada and Ireland to Flextronics until 2005.
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AT&T creates local Net telephony plan
October 14, 2004

AT&T launched a local version of its VoIP service for residential customers, allowing people to make unlimited local calls for $19.99 a month. — Just where did AT&T get the idea that the Internet had the concept of "local service". It sounds like a throwback to "the old days."
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Study links cell phones, tumors
October 14, 2004

A Swedish research institute has released a report that links the use of analog cell handsets and a benign tumor—adding fodder to the long-running debate over cell phones and brain cancer.
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FCC eases high-speed network rules
October 14, 2004

The FCC made more of the local phone companies' high-speed fiber networks free from competition rules, stating that new fiber installations do not have to be shared with competitors.
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National Cable Television Cooperative Selects Net2Phone for VoIP
October 13, 2004

Net2Phone announced that the National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC), a purchasing group representing more than 1,000 US cable operators, has selected Net2Phone to be their first "Platinum Vendor" of VoIP services to their members.
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ALLTEL Evolves Network Using VoIP
October 13, 2004

ALLTEL, a service provider with more than 13 million customers in 26 US states, is VoIP solutions from Nortel for local and long-distance in select locations across North Carolina and Georgia.
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PC Connection Offers New Internet Phone Service
October 13, 2004

PC Connection, a direct marketer of information technology products and solutions, recently expanded its product offerings to include a $24.95 per annum VoIP telephone service, under the IP Connection brand.
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France fries cell phones
October 13, 2004

French mobile users who refuse to switch off their phones while watching a movie or play will face new obstacles as venues begin installing signal-jamming equipment in line with new laws.
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Symbol Technologies Announces Support for the WiMAX Forum
October 13, 2004

Symbol believes that WiMAX technology will build upon Wi-Fi in a very complimentary way, expanding open standard based wireless networking for metropolitan-area outdoor mobility applications.
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China's Mobile Industry Readies for 3G/UMTS
October 12, 2004

Trials of 3G/UMTS radio access networks and terminals are now completed and it is anticipated by the UMTS Forum that China's administration may signal its intention to award 3G licenses in due course.
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NGN 2004 Great Debate: Are Smart Networks a Dumb Idea?
October 12, 2004

"Are Smart Networks a Dumb Idea?" will be the topic of this year's Great Debate at Business Communications Review's 18th annual Next Generation Networks Conference.
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SBC to Provide Data and Videoconferencing Network to City of Encinitas
October 12, 2004

SBC announced a $1 million data networking and videoconferencing contract with the city of Encinitas, a city with a population of more than 58,000 located near San Diego, California.
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Verizon sees new telecom laws within reach
October 12, 2004

Congress will likely rework laws to ease regulations governing the U.S. telecommunications market within two years, says Verizon — by which time, AT&T may have closed shop?
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Will your phone become your credit card?
October 12, 2004

Motorola and MasterCard are at work on cell phones capable of secure financial transactions, such as banking or buying groceries with a credit card.
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High court will not hear AT&T appeal
October 12, 2004

The U.S. Supreme Court let stand a decision that threw out federal regulations requiring big local telephone companies to lease access to their networks at cut-rate prices — leaving AT&T in a very bad position.
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Polycom and Broadsoft Announce VoIP Solution for Service Providers and Enteprise Customers
October 12, 2004

Polycom and BroadSoft announced an end-to-end SIP-based VoIP solution that combines BroadSoft's BroadWorks platform and Polycom's complete line of high-quality, standards-based SoundPoint IP desktop phones.
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Tekelec's Multimedia Gateway Powers Budget Phone and Pine Tree Networks
October 12, 2004

Tekelec announced that Budget Phone and Pine Tree Networks have deployed the Tekelec 3000 Multimedia Gateway Controller and Tekelec 8000 Multimedia Gateway to enable expansion of prepaid calling and long-distance services.
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China's Largest Metropolitan Area Embraces Next Generation Services
October 12, 2004

Nortel Networks, China Netcom Join Hands in Bringing New Experience to Subscribers in Shanghai City
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NENA Creates Next-Generation E 9-1-1 Forum
October 12, 2004

The National Emergency Number Association (NENA) announced the formation of the Next Generation E 9-1-1 Forum with Vonage as a charter member.
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Vonage, Rhode Island E 9-1-1 and Intrado Test Enhanced 9-1-1 for VoIP
October 12, 2004

Vonage, Rhode Island PSAP, and Intrado will announce successful trials for broadband telephony emergency services calls.
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Polycom Introduces SIP-enabled MGC
October 11, 2004

With Polycom's latest MGC unified conferencing platform, customers can now support any mix of ISDN, H.323 or SIP-based applications in the same conference, leveraging their existing communications infrastructure and introducing new, advanced IP-based services built around their own business strategies.
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GlowPoint Introduces Video Call Director
October 11, 2004

Glowpoint introduced Video Call Director, the first and only advanced call completion system available to video conferencing users.
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Ericsson chosen by TeliaSonera as sole supplier for 2G and 3G mobile systems in Denmark
October 11, 2004

TeliaSonera has selected Ericsson as sole supplier for its future-proof GSM and WCDMA network, enabling high capacity mobile services for consumers and enterprises in Denmark.
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Analyst: Copper Is BellSouth's Gold
October 11, 2004

BellSouth is set to award contracts for its planned new triple-play access infrastructure before the end of this year, and the RBOC will opt for an IP-over-Ethernet approach.
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Phone line alchemy: Copper into fiber
October 11, 2004

Verizon and other Bell companies are gambling that by replacing century-old copper wire technology with high-speed fiber optic lines, they can hang onto their most valuable asset: a direct line into the home of each customer.
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In pitch to seniors, static for cell phone industry
October 11, 2004

Having equipped most adults and half of all teenagers with cell phones, the mobile phone industry is turning its attention to the last untapped demographic—people over 65. Unfortunately, AARP is not too happy with what it is hearing from seniors about mobile phone service.
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Office Depot to sell VoIP
October 11, 2004

Office Depot plans to start selling Internet phones and calling plans in November, another sign of the growing popularity of cheaper Net dialing.
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Uniden Unveils Consumer VoIP Solution
October 11, 2004

Uniden unveiled a consumer VoIP solution, the DTA 200 Digital Telephone Adapter, to serve as a cost-effective consumer VoIP offering.
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U.S. Joint Forces Command Chooses Jabber's IM and Presence
October 11, 2004

Jabber announced that USJFCOM's Joint Experimentation Directorate (J9) is deploying the Jabber Extensible Communications Platform (Jabber XCP) as part of its efforts to develop, explore, test, and validate 21st-century war fighting concepts.
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New Mexico Independent Telephone Company Saves Money with VoIP
October 11, 2004

Mescalero Apache Telecom will install MetaSwitch's Class 5 softswitch, saving the company money over upgrading their existing 3-year-old PSTN switch.
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U.S. Department of Justice Expands Use of GlowPoint Video Services
October 8, 2004

The US DoJ will be expanding the use of the GlowPoint service from more than 30 cities today by an additional 11 cities, adding unlimited video services as part of the agreement.
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AT&T, Covad close in on WiMax
October 8, 2004

AT&T is looking to WiMax technology to remove its dependence on other telephone carriers in order to serve its customer— a savings that could be worth US$8.5 billion annually.
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Calls for FCC Relief Get Louder
October 8, 2004

The FCC received more pressure to modernize telecom regulations this week as BellSouth and others touted a new report all over Washington D.C.
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MCI Expands Wireless IP Relay Services to Business Customers
October 8, 2004

MCI announced the launch of the first wireless IP-Relay communication service targeting deaf and hard-of-hearing business customers, making it possible for them to communicate using a BlackBerry device.
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Experts: Future of VoIP challenged by prices, spam
October 7, 2004

Internet Telephony giants such as Cisco, Lucent and Avaya gathered in downtown Los Angeles this week for the Internet Telephony Expo and dicussed threats to IP telephony: The problem of spam may be taken to a whole new level.
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Sprint Canada Selects Lucent
October 7, 2004

Lucent and Alpha Telecom announced that Sprint Canada has deployed their joint voice over broadband solution to provide VoIP services to residential and small/home business customers on the carrier's local service network throughout Canada.
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Experts say IP not ripe for video-conferencing
October 7, 2004

For video-conferencing users, IP technology offers a low-cost alternative to ISDN, but IP doesn't always offer good quality or security, according to speakers at a recent industry conference.
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AT&T slashing 7,400 additional jobs
October 7, 2004

AT&T Corp. is cutting 7,400 more jobs and slashing the book value of its assets by $11.4 billion, drastic moves prompted by the company’s plan to retreat from the traditional consumer telephone business following a lost court battle.
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Yes, but can your VoIP service do this?
October 7, 2004

Videoconferencing is "a big focus now" for AT&T's CallVantage Net telephony service. Meanwhile, Vonage is planning to use MP3 playback technology for voice mail soon.
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QUALCOMM taps RADVISION for SIP
October 7, 2004

QUALCOMM has agreed to license SIP technology from RADVISION for use in its Qvideophone videoconferencing solution.
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Skype readies business telephone offering
October 7, 2004

Skype plans to offer a business telephone service for "individuals and work groups, not CIOs" that the free Internet phone service provider says will shake up another major telephone market.
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Study: VoIP to proliferate in U.S. households
October 7, 2004

The number of homes that use Net telephony should reach 12 million by 2009, but existing VoIP players could face hurdles.
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Tightening Wireless LAN Security
October 5, 2004

Here's some news that will grab any information security professional's attention: of 500 firms recently polled by Jupiter Research, less than half had implemented security solutions for their wireless networks.
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TIA, USTA Split on Supercomm
October 5, 2004

The two organizations that brought us Supercomm will not continue the trade show once their current contract expires, as each party wishes to host separate telecom-related trade shows going forward.
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AT&T Wireless opens mobile music store
October 5, 2004

AT&T Wireless is launching a service to allow customer to buy music from their mobile phones to be downloaded from their computers at a later date. — Going after impulse shoppers? Where is the instant gratification?
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EarthLink Launches Free VoIP Service
October 5, 2004

Earthlink announced the launch of EarthLink Free Online Calling, a service which enables EarthLink High Speed access subscribers to make Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls free-of-charge.
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Is Broadcom Buying Agere?
October 4, 2004

Agere Systems stock got a boost Monday from rumors that Broadcom Corp. is considering an acquisition of the troubled chip firm.
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SBC links e-mail, voice messages, faxes
October 4, 2004

SBC announced a new service that integrates voice messages, faxes and e-mails into a single mailbox that can be accessed from anywhere by phone or the Internet.
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Cox brings VoIP service to more cities
October 4, 2004

Cable provider Cox Communications announced plans to deploy VoIP services in more markets this year, yet another indication that VoIP represents a viable new business market for the cable operators.
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VoIP Threats Loom Large
October 1, 2004

VOIP is skyrocketing in popularity, but is it outgrowing industry's ability to secure IP networks?
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