News Archive - January 2006

NTT DoCoMo Finds a Smart Partner
January 31, 2006

Japanese mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo is to acquire half of NTT Communications' 14% stake in Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. for US$443.6 million.
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Google calls upon VoIP
January 31, 2006

Google confirmed that it has contracted with a Florida-based company to provide Internet telephony services for its free click-to-call service, which lets people speak with advertisers on its search results without having to pick up the phone and dial.
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Skype brings Warner ringtones to VoIP
January 30, 2006

Skype is bringing a phenomenon from the mobile world to internet telephony.
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Avaya says VoIP value lies beyond the network
January 30, 2006

Avaya's director of IP telephony and mobility Lawrence Byrd said the future of VoIP is not about the network, it's about applications. — Too bad SIP is being used, as it is not application-friendly.
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EarthLink Pushes VoIP Service
January 30, 2006

EarthLink plans to announce a bundled VoIP and high-speed Internet service next week that would undercut prices charged by phone and cable companies, as part of the Internet service provider's strategy to reduce reliance on its dial-up business.
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Celebrating SIP's 10th Birthday (Part 1)
January 30, 2006

It is hard to believe, but SIP is now a 10 year-old protocol. It's actually quite odd how some media outlets continue to refer to SIP as an "emerging" protocol given its age. This series of articles tries to provide some rationale.
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Could Your VoIP Phone Be Tapped?
January 28, 2006

Several privacy and civil-liberties organizations are mounting a legal challenge to prevent VoIP and other Internet-based communications from being subject to taps from law-enforcement agencies.
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British VoIP outage affects thousands
January 27, 2006

BT Group admitted that its Broadband Voice service crashed, leaving thousands of customers without their Internet telephony connections.
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BT Mobile Attacks Telco's New VoIP Service
January 26, 2006

Tesco claims that the launch of their new broadband telephony service will result in the cost of telecommunications being "slashed to rock-bottom prices," however, other members of the VoIP industry disagree.
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Siemens delivers VoIP for IBM
January 26, 2006

Siemens and IBM announced they would team up to support IP phone calls directly from IBM's email and collaboration software.
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NetCentrex Adds VoIP Kit
January 26, 2006

Netcentrex announced the release of its Voice over Broadband Starter Kit (VSK) for the Americas market. The VSK is a cost effective entry level platform designed to meet the needs of new VoIP Service Providers.
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New Asterisk Hardware Product Launched by Xorcom
January 25, 2006

Xorcom has lauched Astribank-8, a new channel bank for Asterisk Open Source PBX. Astribank-8 connects to the Asterisk PBX via standard USB-2 and provides 8 FXS port, eliminating the need for additional high cost PRI cards. Astribank-8 features 4 input ports and 2 output ports for connecting external devices to the Asterisk PBX.
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Video conferencing market set to grow over the next five years
January 25, 2006

The video conferencing market grew in value by 9% last year and is set to grow by 33% over the next five years.
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Texas promises better VoIP calls
January 25, 2006

Texas Instruments claims to have improved VoIP and IP-video connections with new self-adapting technology.
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The Nokia N90: A Fully Loaded Brick
January 25, 2006

The N90 is fully loaded. It can play music, record video, take pictures, and, of course, allow one to make phone calls. It does better than just voice, though: it also supports video calls. The capabilities of this phone are numerous, but it has one very huge disadvantage: its size.
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RADVISION Announces New Release of its SIP Toolkit for Communications Systems Development
January 24, 2006

RADVISION announced the immediate availability of version 4.0 of its award-winning SIP toolkit for real-time communication applications such as VoIP and IM.
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European VoIP demand booming
January 24, 2006

Surging demand for IP telephony has driven vendor ShoreTel to set up further European offices in Munich and Madrid, and a reseller alliance in Benelux.
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AT&T, Avaya ally on VoIP migration
January 24, 2006

AT&T has joined up with Avaya in an effort to help companies smoothly transition to Voice over Internet Protocol telephone systems.
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Surf Communication Solutions Receives Product of the Year Award
January 24, 2006

SURF Communication announced that Technology Marketing Corporation's (TMC) INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine has named its SurfRider-812/PTMC DSP resource board as a recipient of a 2005 Product of the Year Award.
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Survey: VoIP Quality Is Breaking Up
January 20, 2006

More than a third of VoIP service providers rely on customer complaints to find out about service quality problems, according to the results of a survey conducted by test-and-measurement vendor Empirix Inc.
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WCA: WiMAX Forum unveils first certified products
January 19, 2006

The WiMAX Forum, one day after discussing changes in the IEEE 802.16-2004 standard that led to a last-minute delay in certification testing, announced this morning the first products to pass conformance and interoperability testing and achieve the designation of WiMAX Forum Certified.
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Cisco flags flaws in VoIP and router software
January 19, 2006

Flaws in Cisco Systems software for routers and IP telephony could be a conduit for attacks on enterprise networks.
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British supermarket chain to ring up VoIP
January 19, 2006

Supermarket giant Tesco is expanding its telecommunications portfolio into the Internet telephony market. — We have heard it all now...
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Google Jabbers On
January 18, 2006

Google made its Google Talk IM/VoIP service instantly interoperable with other Jabber-based VoIP clients in a move that could push PC VoIP user numbers higher.
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RADVISION wins Internet Telephony Magazine Product of the Year
January 17, 2006

RADVISION announced that INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine has chosen Click to Meet for Microsoft Office as one of the winners of their prestigious Product of the Year Awards.
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VoIP demand drives semiconductor sales
January 17, 2006

Growth in VoIP adoption will fuel a frenzied demand for VoIP semiconductors, with sales growing to over $2.4 billion in 2009 — a compound annual growth rate of 38.9% for 2004-2009.
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Polycom Video Bridges Honored By Frost and Sullivan, Internet Telephony Magazine and Video Conferencing Insight for Performance and Market Leadership
January 17, 2006

Polycom announced it has received the prestigious 2005 Market Leadership Award in the Global Video Conferencing Infrastructure Systems Market from analyst firm Frost & Sullivan, as detailed in the "World Videoconferencing Infrastructure Systems" report published in December 2005.
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TANDBERG Chosen ‘Videoconferencing Company of the Year’ for 6th Consecutive Year
January 17, 2006

For the sixth year in a row, TANDBERG has been named Videoconferencing Company of the Year by Videoconferencing Insight Newsletter.
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India Looks to WiMax for Broadband
January 16, 2006

In contrast to the explosive growth of mobile in India, the country is struggling to get broadband connectivity off the ground with its limited fixed-line infrastructure — paving the way for WiMax as a potential savior.
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VoIP is the Holy Grail of communications
January 16, 2006

VoIP is fast emerging as the technology that will eventually overtake the traditional telephone service.
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US: 24 million VoIP subscribers in 2008, Vonage, Time Warner, Cablevision market leaders
January 15, 2006

VoIP service revenue in North America will grow 18x between 2004 and 2009, from $1.24 billion to $23.4 billion, with subscriber numbers increasing to 24 million. — That's a pretty expensive cost per subscriber, if you ask us!
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China Mobile rings up HK takeover
January 14, 2006

China Mobile is taking over Hong Kong-based China Resources Peoples Telephone Co in its first acquisition outside the Chinese mainland.
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Lucent Cuts 2006 Outlook
January 13, 2006

Lucent saw its share price lose 10 percent of its value in pre-market trading this morning as the company warned that revenues in its 2006 fiscal year, which runs to September 30, will "be essentially flat or increase in the low-single digits for the year" instead of the previous predictions of mid-single digit growth.
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Accton Readies Wi-Fi VoIP Phones
January 13, 2006

Accton Technology confirmed that it is developing two wireless handsets that allow users to place calls over the Internet using Wi-Fi, and may have them out late in the second quarter.
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A nice day for a VoIP wedding?
January 13, 2006

Two Indonesians in their 50s exchanged wedding vows this week without ever meeting by using the Internet to make up for the oceans that separate them.
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VoIP Ireland acquires US telephony firm
January 11, 2006

VoIP Ireland has swallowed US-based VoIP firm QC2, in a bid to attain the scale it needs to service the internet telephony requirements of corporate America.
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VoIP gear highlighted at CES
January 11, 2006

Phone calls over the Internet, made using VoIP technology, was popular at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this year, with a number of companies showing off handsets and other peripherals to make it easier for the average user to connect to low-cost or free voice calls.
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Bell wins VoIP phone contract with RBC
January 11, 2006

Bell Canada has landed a multi-year contract to convert about 8,400 of Royal Bank's phone lines to VoIP.
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Samsung M8000 WiMAX Handset
January 11, 2006

Samsung unveiled its M8000 WiMax handset, a Windows Mobile handset with a built-in sliding QWERTY keyboard. — Move over IMS... welcome to the world designed for users.
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Telemedicine slashes hospital stays
January 11, 2006

A British telemedicine project has halved the time patients spend in the hospital by enabling doctors to monitor their condition remotely.
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New Wi-Fi standard back on track
January 11, 2006

After months of squabbling, the new, faster Wi-Fi standard that got derailed late in 2005 could finally be back on track, say people involved in the standards process.
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Accton Readies First Wi-Fi VoIP Phone
January 10, 2006

Taiwan's Accton Technology plans to launch two wireless handsets by the middle of February that allow users to place calls over the Internet at little or no cost using Wi-Fi, potentially beating U.S. rival Netgear to market with the first Wi-Fi phones designed for VoIP.
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WILLCOM Selects Sonus for Nationwide NGN VoIP Deployment
January 10, 2006

Sonus announced that WILLCOM has selected Sonus as the foundation for its new nationwide long-distance network in Japan to support WILLCOM's PHS system.
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Breaking down VoIP's walls
January 6, 2006

You can scour the shelves of your local RadioShack for a Skype Starter Pack. Or you can go to Best Buy or Fry's and see row after row of products—this one for Vonage, another for AT&T CallVantage, and on and on. Want to switch services? You'll have to go buy more gear.
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Verizon closes book on MCI merger
January 6, 2006

Verizon Communications closed its $8.44 billion acquisition of long-distance carrier MCI. The MCI CEO will get nearly $40M in a severance package. — Just think of how many people could have been employed for a year for $40M. Wow.
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Handset Offer May Propel Microsoft's VoIP Efforts
January 5, 2006

VoIP phones from Uniden America and Royal Philips will be offered to more than 200 million MSN Messenger users this spring.
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Million Dollar VoIP Page
January 5, 2006

By now, we're sure you've heard of the Million Dollar Home Page. Here we are, lowly VoIP engineers in the telecom business for years struggling to make ends meet, and this fellow comes along with a million dollar idea before getting out of college! Are we jealous? Of course! Why didn't we think of that?!?! So, we're proposing to do the same for VoIP. Who will be the next to sign up?
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Uniden and 8x8 introduce new generation of co-branded VoIP products
January 5, 2006

Uniden and 8x8 announced the extension of their strategic partnership and introduced a new co-branded VoIP product.
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USRobotics Announces Availability of Skype-certified Speakerphone
January 5, 2006

USRobotics announced the availability of its Skype-certified USB Internet Speakerphone. The speakerphone will be available through resellers later this month and is priced at $49.99 (MSRP).
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Microsoft-Philips VoIP is not a Skype killer: it's a Vonage-competitor
January 5, 2006

Microsoft is working with Philips on the development of a wireless household phone.
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TRAI Recommends MGCP Adoption
January 5, 2006

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released a consultation paper in which it has suggested the examination of issues relating to broadband and telephony over cable TV networks and open up the MGCP to enable cable operators to offer telephony services to their customers through cable connection.
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Skype, Netgear to launch Wi-Fi phone
January 4, 2006

Networking products maker Netgear and wireless calling provider Skype on Wednesday unveiled the first Wi-Fi phone designed to work on the internationally popular VoIP service.
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Vonage Confirms Sonus Deployment
January 4, 2006

A year after VoIP equipment vendor Sonus Networks was linked with an engagement at voice over broadband pioneer Vonage, the companies have officially announced their relationship.
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Google to fight VoIP lawsuit, while Vonage may settle
January 4, 2006

Google has dug in its heels over an intellectual-property lawsuit filed last October by Rates Technology, which holds key VoIP patents, the company has revealed.
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Richer VoIP apps drive increasing headset sophistication
January 4, 2006

One of the undereported stories at the Consumer Electronics Show this week is the growing sophistication of headsets for VoIP calls.
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ThinkPads to support Cingular 3G technology
January 4, 2006

Lenovo, the maker of ThinkPad laptops, plans to embed high-speed Internet access technology from Cingular Wireless into its laptops. — Then can we do VoIP over 3G? I have an H.323 client ready...
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How to beat jet lag for $550,000
January 3, 2006

One of the reasons traditional videoconferencing has failed to take off as a communications tool is because it can't capture the finer points of a face-to-face meeting. More than half of human communication is not verbal at all, but physical, and Halo has specifically been designed with that fact in mind, HP and DreamWorks say.
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Skype targets mainstream consumers
January 3, 2006

Skype is making a play for the mainstream IP telephony market with a series of new products being announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.
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