News Archive - December 2007

Vonage and Nortel announced that the two companies have settled a patent dispute that had been brought to court a couple of weeks ago.

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VoIP clearly has moved into the mainstream, but 2007 marked a year of high-profile stumbles that appear to signal the end of standalone IP telephony.

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This is an interesting article that describes why one man just simply gave up on the telecom industry. After spending 15 years trying to build a business, he has decided there is little to gain. Then again, is this not the beauty of VoIP? The future is about enabling communications of all types, meaning that "voice" is just one of many applications.

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Vonage and AT&T have entered into a definitive agreement to settle their patent dispute, the companies announced. The companies had agreed in principle to a settlement on November 7.

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With a recent decision made by Ofcom, VoIP providers that allow national calls to be made on the PSTN will have to carry emergency calls by September 2008.

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The threats against VoIP are numerous and seem to be growing, but in 2008 the technology probably won't suffer crippling attacks.

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Voice on the Net Coalition Europe, which includes large suppliers like Google, Intel, Microsoft, and Skype, was launched in response to regulatory proposals made by the European Commission that include calls to emergency services.

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Having worked overtime to fend off a number of patent lawsuits already this year, Vonage has attracted yet another patent infringement challenge, this time from Nortel. — We understand why a service provider would sue Vonage, but why an equipment maker? If Vonage does survive, I suspect it will never solicit a bid from Nortel.

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Fledgling technology mobile WiMax could rack up 80 million subscribers within five years—despite having just two commercial networks to its name to date. But the technology must hook the YouTube generation.

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On the one-year anniversary of Cisco TelePresence, Cisco announced it has reached the milestone of 100 customers deploying units in over 40 countries. Cisco TelePresence is the fastest-growing new product category in Cisco history.

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Marking the one-year anniversary of Cisco TelePresence, Cisco announced that it is delivering intercompany capabilities for Cisco TelePresence and has successfully demonstrated the solution with BT through a secure connection across the BT Global Services network. Interoperability functions include support for H.323.

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JetBlue, Yahoo, and Research In Motion plan to offer free in-flight Wi-Fi connections for laptop computers and advanced cell phones.

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The goal in a telepresentation is to make the participants of what we used to label a "conference call" feel as if they're in the same room together. The people are life-sized. Their voices give some approximation of how close or far away they are. The images are bright and vibrant, and the sound is crisp and loud. Both Cisco and Nortel hit very close to the mark, but each has a slightly different advantage.

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After weeks of speculation, NexTone Communications Inc. and Reef Point Systems Inc. have formally announced a definitive agreement to merge.

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A German court has decided to grant T-Mobile exclusive rights to sell the iPhone in Germany, overturning a temporary injunction granted against the operator two weeks ago.

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The ubiquity of the cell phone has finally prompted AT&T to pull out of the pay-phone business. By the end of 2008, AT&T says, it will have exited the business completely.

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Activist investor Carl Icahn welcomed the replacement of Ed Zander as CEO of Motorola, but said there was much more to do and called for a break-up of the world's third-largest cell phone maker.

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