News Archive - February 2010
BT offers cross-vendor videoconferencing support
February 26, 2010
BT Conferencing is to offer interoperability with Cisco, Polycom and Tandberg videoconferencing systems as part of its BT One Source managed service.
Skype withdraws support for Windows Mobile
February 26, 2010
Skype has withdrawn its Skype Lite and Skype for Windows Mobile, blaming issues with the Microsoft operating system for the move.
Virgin Media 100Mb broadband is imminent
February 25, 2010
Leading UK broadband provider Virgin Media has announced its state-of-the-art 100Mb internet will be available from the end of 2010.
Skype prepares for HD video calls on Windows
February 25, 2010
Skype is preparing to launch HD video on its Windows client. The company is also re-introducing features removed from the more recent versions of the Windows client.
February 24, 2010
Nortel is working toward a Q2 2010 closing of the asset sale agreements with GENBAND for a purchase price of US$282 million subject to balance sheet and other adjustments currently estimated at US$100 million for a net purchase price of approximately US$182 million.
CA to acquire cloud platform provider 3Tera
February 24, 2010
Magic Jack Tries, Fails To Shut Up Boing Boing
February 23, 2010
Apparently, MagicJack didn't like what one blog site wrote about the company and decided to sue. Unfortunately for MagicJack, telling the truth — no matter how ugly it makes MagicJack look — is not wrong.
H.323 Continues to Lead Videoconferencing Revolution
February 19, 2010
H.323 and SIP were both created in the later 1990s to more-or-less address the same market: to enable one to place a voice or video call over an IP network. H.323 benefited from borrowing a lot of concepts from previous-generation multimedia systems, giving it the ability to easily handle voice and video conferences that might be as small as two people or as large as hundreds of people. SIP took a different direction and it seen an extremely slow road to adoption.
This could be the year of Skype
February 16, 2010
Skype has won a major deal with Verizon Wireless, which could be a massive opportunity for Skype. It still isn't clear how this will be of benefit to Verizon, but perhaps the "free calls" makes little difference considering that telcos are moving to an "all you can eat" voice model while, separately, Verizon has been talking about charging for the bandwidth you use. Perhaps they think they can make even more money per call with Skype using bandwidth?
Cell phone subscriptions to hit 5 billion globally
February 16, 2010
Reaching 4.6 billion at the end of 2009, the number of cell phone subscriptions across the globe will hit 5 billion sometime in 2010, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The world population is estimated at 6.7 billion. So, who doesn't have a mobile phone?
WiMax deployments ramp globally, but U.S. lags
February 16, 2010
WiMax appears to be a hit around the world—except for the U.S., according to deployment data released by the WiMax Forum.
Major new app store to take on Apple, others
February 15, 2010
Some of the world's largest telecommunications companies have teamed up to create an apps store of sorts that they say will rival Apple's and those of other smartphone makers.
Windows Phone 7 Series: Everything Is Different Now
February 15, 2010
It's astounding that until this moment, three years after the iPhone, the biggest software company in the world basically didn't compete in mobile. Windows Phone 7 Series is more than the Microsoft smartphone we've been waiting for. Everything's different now.
Nortel Adds Edgewater Networks Products to Industry-Leading Carrier VoIP Solutions
February 15, 2010
Nortel Carrier VoIP and Application Solutions (CVAS) has added Edgewater Networks to Nortel CVAS' industry-leading business and voice multimedia solution. This new offer gives service providers a carrier-hosted solution to help increase revenue potential with SMBs and large enterprise branch offices.
Skype coming to Verizon Wireless phones?
February 13, 2010
Verizon Wireless could soon be adding Skype software to some of its phones, according to reports.
Goldman Sachs: Shift toward cloud unstoppable
February 12, 2010
The latest technology software report from investment bank Goldman Sachs confirms what IT industry analysts have been seeing as an unstoppable shift toward on-demand IT services and what we now consider to be cloud applications, especially among small businesses.
Facebook Chat Launches XMPP Support
February 10, 2010
Facebook has just launched support for XMPP (aka, Jabber). Now, Facebook users will be able to communicate with people anywhere in the world using this open protocol for IM and presence.
Google Mounts Stealth Attack on UC with Buzz
February 10, 2010
The unveiling of Google Buzz—merging Gmail with social networking capabilities—is seen primarily as a challenge for social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. However, Google Buzz is also another component of Google's quiet sneak attack against unified communications (UC) platforms like those offered by Cisco and Microsoft.
Motorola, RIM leading, with Apple on the rise
February 9, 2010
Although Apple gets all the attention, Motorola and RIM are still the top handset and smartphone makers in the U.S.
Cisco predicts wireless-data explosion
February 9, 2010
If wireless operators thought they'd faced a deluge of data traffic from the iPhone, they haven't seen anything yet, according to a survey from network equipment giant Cisco Systems.
Amazon S3 now supports Object Versioning
February 9, 2010
Amazon introduces the ability to store multiple revisions of any given object stored in its Amazon S3 service. This capability is similar in nature to the way Windows maintains revisions of files, any one of which may be retrieved on demand.
Key VoIP patent to be re-examined
February 8, 2010
A longstanding patent on VoIP technology is to be re-examined by the US Patent and Trademark Office following a complaint by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a patent that essentially claims to be where the PSTN gateway was invented.
Radvision buys Aethra's HD video conferencing business
February 5, 2010
Radvision is to buy certain assets from Aethra, including intellectual property and technology for HD videoconferencing endpoint systems, subject to conditions and authorities approvals.
Fugitive VoIP hacker admits 10 million minute spree
February 3, 2010
A Miami hacker has admitted he pocketed more than $1M by selling millions of minutes of VoIP calls and surreptitiously routing them through the networks of telecommunications companies.
VoIP Still Threatens Legacy Carriers
February 2, 2010
"The first phase of VoIP providers thought they were going to be disruptive," says Robert Poe, analyst-at-large for Heavy Reading and author of the VoIP report. "But they weren't innovative in terms of business models. They used VoIP to essentially emulate what the telcos were already doing."
Amazon Web Services Lowers Data Transfer Prices
February 2, 2010
Working hard to remain the leader in cloud computing infrastructure as a service (IaaS), Amazon took another step at reducing prices for customers. This is just one step of many that Amazon has taken “to drive [their] costs down and become more operationally efficient.”
China Unicom warns of 50% profit dive
February 1, 2010
High 3G roll out costs are partly to blame for China Unicom's latest warning that its earnings could fall by more than half.
Windows Azure finally ready for customers
February 1, 2010
Microsoft's Windows Azure cloud computing service became generally available on Monday with very little flourish. And that might be because this first wave of Azure offerings is frankly a bit odd.
Global cell phone sales on the rise
February 1, 2010
Sales of cell phones around the world rebounded in the fourth quarter, indicating that the recession may be over for the beleaguered mobile handset market.