News Archive - May 2006

Internet Phones: Clear Winners
May 31, 2006

With improved call quality and low rates, the best Net phone services may finally be ready to replace your Baby Bell. PC World ranks the VoIP service providers. Vonage is on top.
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BT, AT&T Set Sights on India
May 31, 2006

A liberalized long-distance voice market in India has not only spurred competition among domestic carriers, but is also attracting an influx of foreign carriers, including such big names as BT and AT&T.
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Google Connection May Pay Off for Asterisk
May 31, 2006

The link between Digium's Asterisk servers and Google Talk required no formal agreement between the two companies, since Asterisk can support Jingle.
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Vonage moves to reassure nervous investors
May 31, 2006

Vonage, tarred by a disastrous initial public offering last week, is scrambling to reassure investors, saying it would reimburse the bankers who handled the sale if any Vonage customers refused to pay for shares that were allotted to them.
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Skype software to ship on Dell laptops
May 31, 2006

Skype's voice over Internet Protocol software that allows people to talk for free over the Internet will ship on Dell's new XPS notebooks.
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Sources: Nortel Sizes Up Sylantro
May 26, 2006

Nortel is on the verge of garnishing its VoIP equipment business by taking a controlling stake in hosted VoIP systems specialist Sylantro, according to industry sources.
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Cambodia bans 3G phones
May 26, 2006

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has banned 3G, or third generation, mobile phones after a complaint from his wife and her friends about receiving pornography on them.
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VoIP's sound may be iffy, but it's not going away
May 25, 2006

The sound of people chatting on Skype and other free telephony services is not what you'll want to hear if you're a company investigating VoIP technology. Skype audio quality just plain sucks.
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Excise Tax Repealed - Finally!
May 25, 2006

The federal excise tax on long distance calling, put into place to help finance the Spanish American War in 1898, will be repealed and the IRS will refund three years worth of the taxes to consumers and businesses.
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Yahoo, iBasis Team Up for International VoIP
May 24, 2006

Yahoo and iBasis have joined forces to offer the Yahoo Messenger with Voice, which will enable U.S. users to make PC-to-phone calls via iBasis' international network, which spans more than 180 countries.
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Vonage Debut Turns Ugly
May 24, 2006

The Vonage IPO got off to a rocky start Wednesday, with shares falling 12% in heavy trading.
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EBay, 21 Others Sued by File-Sharing Firm
May 23, 2006

The firm behind Morpheus online file-swapping software is suing eBay Inc. and 21 other defendants in a dispute over the right to technology used to make telephone calls over the Internet.
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Vonage, poised for IPO, has rivals at its heels
May 23, 2006

The article claims that as more people make decisions to go with bundled voice and data services, Vonage's run as the industry leader is likely to end.
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Is the VOIP Privacy Genie Already out of the Bottle?
May 22, 2006

New CALEA regs from the FCC try to make VoIP open up to law enforcement, but those who wish to hide the contents of their calls still can.
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RADVISION Launches Market's Most Powerful Conferencing Platform as Part of Broad Strategy for Unified Communications
May 22, 2006

RADVISION unveiled its next generation SCOPIA platform and iVIEW Suite management application as part of its comprehensive suite of solutions for the Unified Communications market.
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Italtel Grows as It IPOs
May 22, 2006

Italian softswitch vendor and integrator Italtel SpA has reported a 21% increase in first-quarter revenues to US$129 million just days before it makes its debut on the Italian stock exchange in an IPO.
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Polycom Delivers Industry's Most Secure Video Communications Platform
May 22, 2006

Polycom announced enhancements to its industry-leading line of video communications solutions that give customers the most secure platform in the industry for high-quality video communications within and between organizations, adding support for H.460-based firewall and NAT traversal, as well as comprehensive Security Mode, based on FIPS 140-2, for locking down systems.
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Avaya, Cisco To Lead VoIP Market
May 22, 2006

Merrill Lynch analyst expects the VoIP market to grow 25% to 30% per year until 2011 and that Cisco Systems should continue to lead the market.
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Encryption tool rekindles security debate
May 21, 2006

Phil Zimmermann releases a free Windows software program, Zfone, that encrypts a computer-to- computer voice conversation so both parties can be confident that no one is listening in.
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Enterprise VoIP Adoption in North America Will More than Double by 2010
May 20, 2006

While VoIP is still in the early phase of adoption, it's starting to go mainstream.
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Email, IM, SMS, VoIP Further Complicating Record Mgmt Says ISF
May 19, 2006

According to the Information Security Forum (ISF), Record Management is becoming a costly legal and technology minefield that is further complicated by email and IM technologies along with the increasing business use of other forms of messaging such as mobile SMS and even VoIP.
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Nokia wins GSM network expansion deal in China
May 19, 2006

Nokia said it has won an order to expand the global system for mobile communications (GSM) network of Sichuan Unicom, a subsidiary of China Unicom.
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Skype VoIP freebie could put Vonage on the ropes
May 18, 2006

The bare-knuckle bout for VoIP supremacy is still in the opening round, but Skype Technologies has thrown what could be a haymaker punch.
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Acme Packet and Italtel Renew Commitment to Build NGNs
May 17, 2006

Acme Packet and Italtel announced that, after several of years of successful deployments and thirteen customer wins, the two companies have renewed their systems integration and distribution partnership.
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Three VC firms back wireless broadband plan
May 17, 2006

Three Silicon Valley venture capital firms are backing a project to grab a slice of valuable U.S. wireless airwaves to offer nationwide wireless high-speed Internet service.
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BT to create wireless cities
May 17, 2006

BT has begun rolling out wireless infrastructure in six U.K. cities as the first phase of a wider project. Those cities are Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool and Westminster.
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Linksys Launches 802.11g VoIP Phones
May 17, 2006

Linksys said that it has begun shipping its WIP300 and WIP330 802.11g IP phones.
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FastWeb Picks Up Business
May 17, 2006

Italian operator FastWeb SpA is known as a consumer triple-play pioneer, but it's also emerging as a player in the enterprise services market, a shift reflected in its first-quarter results.
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AudioCodes Nabs Nuera for $90M
May 17, 2006

AudioCodes says it will buy Nuera for $85 million in cash, plus another potential $5 million if revenue targets are met.
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Verizon Takes IP Services International
May 17, 2006

Verizon Business, which includes mostly services and resources of the former MCI, is taking IP network services that have been announced recently in the United States - Hosted IP Centrex, IP trunking and managed IP PBX, as well as an enhanced IP integrated access - and repackaging them for international business.
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VoIP Eats Into Traditional Voice Service Revenue
May 16, 2006

A new report says that because of VoIP, traditional voice service will soon not be the primary revenue generator for traditional telecom operators in developed nations.
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Analysts: Skype Freebie Is Defensive
May 16, 2006

Skype says its offer of free SkypeOut calls for U.S. and Canadian users is a promotional event, but analysts say it's coming in response to growing competitive pressure from the "Big Three" IM providers.
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Nortel Sees Q1 Revenue Drop
May 16, 2006

Nortel today announced that it is full-on hot over metro Ethernet and that its short-term financials will be a bit of a disappointment compared to what Wall Street has been expecting of the equipment giant.
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Demand for VoIP grows in Germany
May 16, 2006

Germany's increasing use of VoIP is pushing the growth of IP networks in the country.
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Atmel Embeds RADVISION SIP In VoIP Chipsets
May 15, 2006

RADVISION announced that U.S.-based Atmel is licensing RADVISION's SIP toolkit to be used on Atmel's product line of wireless and wired VoIP processors.
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Icann approves .tel top level domain
May 15, 2006

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has approved the creation of the new .tel top level domain. — Who would use this and why? Doesn't this go against the idea of having a single identity?
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Cisco: Do-it-All Gateway on the Way
May 15, 2006

Scientific-Atlanta, a Cisco Systems company, is preparing a do-it-all residential gateway product that it plans to release later this year that will be outfitted with a 4-port Ethernet switch/router, two lines of SIP-based VoIP, an 802.11g WiFi access point, as well as the HPNA home networking standard for coax cable.
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VoIP may be next for archiving regulations
May 15, 2006

IT chiefs were have been warned to prepare for the possibility of new corporate governance rules that would require them to keep records of VoIP conversations alongside email, instant messaging and other forms of communication.
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VoIP tailored for mid-sized firms
May 15, 2006

Avaya is aiming to meet demand for IP telephony systems among medium-sized companies by offering an all-in-one product engineered for fast, easy installation and customisation by users.
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China Banking Regulatory Commission Selects Polycom Video Communication Solutions
May 15, 2006

Polycom has announced the successful completion of a video conferencing network for the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC). The new deployment will facilitate better internal collaborative interactions and information sharing within CBRC while leveraging its existing network infrastructure.
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Skype offers free calling to phones in U.S., Canada
May 15, 2006

Skype users can now make free SkypeOut calls to traditional landline and mobile phones in the U.S. and Canada until the end of the year.
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Users mull over hosted VoIP option
May 15, 2006

Avaya has announced a set of subscription-based IP telephony, call centre and voice-mail services for businesses - an unusual move for a networking equipment vendor, since hosted VoIP is primarily the domain of telecommunications carriers.
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Skype talks up on-the-fly call translation service
May 14, 2006

Skype has moved to offer on-the-fly translation services. The VoIP provider teamed up with Language Line Services to make it easier for businesses and individuals to translate from English into more than 150 languages.
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Coming Soon: In-Flight VoIP Calling
May 12, 2006

Like it or not, airline passengers in U.S. skies are likely to be listening to their fellow passengers talking on phones in a year or so. An FCC frequency auction underway will likely pave the way for VoIP calls in-flight.
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Tackling the Voice Security Threat
May 11, 2006

There is no denying the benefits of voice and data integration - cost reduction, bandwidth efficiency, enhanced scalability and improved productivity to name but a few. However, the convergence migration process opens networks and applications to new threats.
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It's Time to Take VOIP Seriously
May 11, 2006

VoIP is finally coming into its own. Studies show the technology is gaining serious traction in businesses of all sizes and its use in small companies is expected to triple during the next three to four years.
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VoIP and security top enterprise IT priority lists
May 11, 2006

Convergence and security top the list of "hot" technologies that will have the greatest impact in 2006, according to the results of a new poll.
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Microsoft Select Verizon for VoIP
May 10, 2006

Microsoft has selected Verizon to provide its VoIP services for users of its new Windows Live Messenger 8 software.
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AT&T Waits on Lightspeed VOIP
May 10, 2006

Project Lightspeed, AT&T Inc.'s new fiber-based services bundle, will launch in San Antonio next month and will contain broadband and video service — but VoIP won't be a part of the launch. — Because? Blame it on something called IMS.
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Net2Phone Selects BridgePort Networks To Provide MobileVoIP Convergence Solutions
May 9, 2006

Net2Phone and BridgePort Networks announced that Net2Phone selected BridgePort Networks' MobileVoIP convergence architecture for its telecommunications partners.
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VOIP Had Me at "Hello?"
May 9, 2006

This is an interesting story of a person who switched to VoIP because of problems with the PSTN line. Interesting! Apparently, the decision to switch to VoIP was worth it.
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T-Mobile Bans VoIP
May 9, 2006

T-Mobile appears to have married its launch of an HSDPA data card and new "all you can eat" professional tariff with a ban on VoIP or IP messaging over its network. — Update: Ban is out of "quality" concern for customers? That's silly. If it does not work (and likely will not with today's wireless infrastructure), customers will not use it. But ban it?
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Chambers' Telepresence Vision Sign Of Demand For Collaboration
May 8, 2006

Video meetings have been promised for decades, but they're still pretty much limited to occasional business functions. The broadband network, however, is ready to handle videoconferencing now.
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VoIP regulation decision overturned; Canadian telcos to benefit
May 8, 2006

Canada's new Minister of Industry has overturned the CRTC's VoIP regulation decision
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Vonage reserves IPO shares for customers
May 8, 2006

Internet telephony provider Vonage said that it will set aside shares of common stock for eligible customers participating its initial public offering.
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Rogers criticized as anti-competitive
May 6, 2006

VoIP telephone service provider Comwave Telecom is accusing the rival telecom arm of Rogers Communications of anti-competitive conduct and discriminatory practices for restricting consumers from being able to transfer a home phone number when they switch service providers.
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Demystify VoIP phone, experts say
May 6, 2006

The message experts told about 150 people gathered at Rochester Institute of Technology for the second annual conference on VoIP was that companies need to demystify VoIP technology before consumers completely embrace it.
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Federal cabinet tells CRTC to reconsider year-old VoIP policy framework
May 5, 2006

The federal cabinet, responding to an appeal launched by Canada's biggest phone companies, has instructed the CRTC to reconsider a controversial year-old policy framework for VoIP phone services.
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Miller To Boost AOL Through Free VoIP Service
May 5, 2006

AOL is hoping at least some of its 61 million AIM users will fork over the $14.95 the company will charge to make outgoing calls from the computer to telephones. — Surely not. Skype is far cheaper. $14.95!?!
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Appeals court takes dim view of Net-tapping rules
May 5, 2006

federal appeals court suggested on Friday that government regulations levying extensive Internet wiretapping requirements on universities and libraries may go too far. — I'd say they went to far to require it of enterprises or even broadband providers that merely act as an access provider.
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Will Intel Trash Telecom?
May 4, 2006

Among the questions facing Intel in its biggest reorganization in years: What to do with all these networking products?
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Why VOIP is headed for your cell phone
May 4, 2006

For millions of users, VoIP is lowering phone bills for calls they make from their PC or land-line phone. But soon VoIP could cut cell-phone bills, too - most of all for international users.
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EarthLink, GE fund broadband over power line provider
May 4, 2006

Current Communications Group, which has developed technology to provide high-speed Internet access over power lines (PLC), announced that it has secured another $130 million in financing from investors including General Electric and EarthLink.
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Microsoft and Qualcomm enter smart phone pact
May 4, 2006

Microsoft said it struck a deal to enable its Windows Mobile operating system to work with Qualcomm's mobile phone chips, helping Microsoft expand in wireless.
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Secure VoIP - an achievable goal
May 3, 2006

The fusion of computing and communications technologies has made VoIP possible. But converged networks are also the source of its potential weaknesses. VoIP is a combined target for the different kinds of attack that are faced by both computers and phone systems.
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U.S. to VoIP, broadband: we can't track the terrorists so now *you* gotta pay
May 3, 2006

The FCC ruled unanimously that VoIP phone companies, broadband providers, large enterprise networks and universities will have to get the tab for building in mandatory wiretap access for police surveillance. — Bush wants to catch those "turrists" (as George W. Bush calls them).
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Skypecasts mean VoIP conversations for big groups
May 3, 2006

Web phone-calling company Skype is bringing social networking to crowds as it unveils a service for groups of up to 100 people to hold spontaneous conversations online.
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Skype Introduces New Edition Of Its Internet Calling Software
May 3, 2006

Skype released a new version with some very cool features and, additionally, Skype introduced an new version of Skypecasts, which allows up to 100 participants to attend a moderated conference.
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Consumers liking bundled telecom services
May 3, 2006

Time Warner CEO says that customers like the tripple-play bundle it offers, saying that in the last quarter the company added 241,000 digital video customers, 346,000 high-speed Internet subscribers and 270,000 digital phone subscribers.
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FCC approves Net-wiretapping taxes
May 3, 2006

FCC says that broadband providers and Internet phone companies in the U.S. will have to pick up the tab for the cost of building in mandatory wiretap access for police surveillance.
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Vonage Makes Additions
May 2, 2006

Vonage has changed its corporate look and expanded its service by offering free calls to France, Ireland, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.
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Avaya VoIP Linux Style to The SMB
May 2, 2006

Avaya is now targeting its VoIP efforts at the small- to midsized-business (SMB) market with a new series of Linux-powered initiatives.
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Skype-Polycom Partnership Pumps Up Enterprise VoIP
May 2, 2006

Old school business meets new school technology in the partnership of corporate speakerphone giant Polycom and VoIP provider Skype, which has produced a portable speakerphone featuring high-quality voice communication and audio functionality.
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NeoAccel Unveils Industry's First Accelerated, All-in-One SSL VPN Network Security Appliance
May 2, 2006

NeoAccel announced Version 2.0 of its flagship SSL VPN-Plus Enterprise Edition, the first network security platform to combine an extremely high-performance, enterprise-class SSL VPN with integrated Network Access Control. SSL VPN-Plus eliminates the latency and overhead that keeps SSL VPNs from broad adoption by enterprises that rely on online business applications and/or VoIP, video conferencing, media streaming and other real-time applications.
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Secure SIP protects VoIP traffic
May 1, 2006

The article claims that SIP has become the call control protocol of choice for VoIP networks because of its open and extensible nature. However, the integrity of call signaling between sites is of utmost importance, and SIP is vulnerable to attackers when left unprotected. — What is not understood is that the "open and extensible" nature of SIP means that every vendor and every product implements SIP differently. What a nightmare.
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Cisco Overhauls Router Line To Improve VoIP, Security
May 1, 2006

New modules for the 7200 promise performance improvements for aggregation of services such as security and VoIP from branch offices, and the router line now scales up to OC-3/Gigabit Ethernet speeds.
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Lots of options available to VoIP users
May 1, 2006

The Internet phone industry is growing at an exponential rate and today boasts more than 4 million users, more than doubling in the past year. But as the number of users increases, so does the number of providers.
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Standard Extends Use of Legacy Equipment for Deaf in IP-Networks
May 1, 2006

A new standard extending support of a key communications tool for the deaf and hard of hearing to IP-based networks was consented at a recent meeting of ITU-T's Study Group 16. See ToIP.
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IMTC and ITU Conference: H.323, SIP: is H.325 next?
May 1, 2006

The rollout of NGN will bring with it in a new era of multimedia communications and with that a need to consider updating or replace the currently used H.323 and SIP multimedia protocols. Conference dates: 9-11 May 2006.
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Distributed, Globally Scalable VoIP Communication
May 1, 2006

H.323 and SIP both have their roots dating back to 1995 and 1996. Today, H.323 is still one of the most widely used protocols for VoIP and the most widely used videoconferencing protocol. This document talks about building globally scalable communication systems using H.323 and DNS.
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