Call Bangladesh for just 0.5 cents per minute for both landline and mobile

This is a good time for people from Bangladesh or those who have the need to call Bangladesh frequently. Betamax the owners of several voip applications have decided to lower the call rate to Bangladesh for users of FreeCall. User of freeCall voip service will now pay just 0.5 euro cents per minute to landlines and mobiles in Bangladesh
As i wrote in earlier posts FreeCall can be used in a variety of ways which include, freeCall softphone with headset, web activated telephony portal on freecall website or configured on SIP enabled ATA, Routers and Modems. As users of Betamax products allready know, this rate might change anytime without notice so enjoy it while it last.
Subscribe to Solomon's voip world to get informed as soon as any changes occur. More info about FreeCall rates at http://www.freecall.com/en/calling-rates.html

Call India Landline and Mobile for Just 1.5 cents per minute

Betamax is at it again. I think they enjoy playing around with their rates a lot. People complain a lot about their unending rates fluctuations but yet their voip applications are becoming the most used in the industry because they still got the lowest rates and the audio quality is superb. You only need to be on top of things to know which application to use and when to move on to another application. This is what we at solomon's voip world is helping you to do well, we monitor their rates and any other changes and report them promptly so that you can make the best decision
Recently the rates for India were lowered for users of FreeCall. Users of FreeCall can now call landlines and mobiles in India for just 1.5 cents per minute. This still remain the lowest in the market as at this moment and if you are the type that call India frequently i think FreeCall is the best application for you to use at the moment
As with all Betamax voip applications, FreeCall can be used in different ways. You can download the freecall softphone to your computer and call using a headset, you can also call using the web activated telephony interface on their websites or configure freecall on your SIP enabled ATA, Router and xDSL Modem. More info is available at http://www.freecall.com/.

Cheap Calls to Canada and USA Now Available Through Tru Saver

Owners of iPhone and Nokia handsets will now be able to make cheap calls to the USA and Canada through Tru Saver, a newly launched service by Truphone, irrespective of their location around the globe.

Tru Saver is the company's first minute's bundles and it looks so attractive and cheap with the simple plans arrangement. Calls across these countries are being charged at the rate of £0.01 per minute from anywhere in the world and the monthly plan is even cheaper at the rate of £7.49 only per month for every 1,000 minutes.

It is also very interesting to note that Truphone billing represents significant savings on call rates offered by mobile operators such as O2, which charges £0.17 per minute for iPhone users to call the USA and Canada through its International Traveler service.

"iPhone and Nokia owners who regularly call North America can purchase Truphone's bundle to get 'peace of mind' pricing of just 1.5 US cents - 0.75 pence – per minute to the USA and Canada from anywhere in the world. People don't want to calculate precise 'per minute' rates, or check tariff websites, or take a paid-for tariff 'bolt-on' to get a still-high rate. They simply want to feel comfortable about what they're going to pay for the call they want to make," said James Tagg Truphone chief executive.

Obama Makes Histroy

I know after you read the title of this post you probably asking yourself is solomon's voip world turning to a political blog or what has voip got to do with Obama. I say fear not!, your favourite voip blog is not changing to a political blog but your Solomon just want to be part of this great history happening in the United States of America. I watched yesterday the Obama's Acceptance speech as the democratic party nominee to for President of the Country and i feel the great sense of history that moment was. To have for the first time an African-American nominated by a major political party for the presidency of the United states of America is truly an historic moment and shows the progress this great country has made in terms of race releations.
I congratulate Obama, The DNC and the Country as whole for this great moment. America as once again shown that its a country where dream comes true. It does not matter where you come from or what color your skin have but if you hardworking and committed you can achieve your dream.
Now coming back to voip which is the business of this blog, we will hencefort be monitoring Barack Obama's technology policy to see how this could affect the future of our beloved VoIP Technology or Telecoms in General.

John McCain Unveils Technology Policy; Says No Network Neutrality

The U.S. presidential aspirant under the umbrella of Republican party,John McCain, has issued a statement as regards technology policy in the country. The statement released revealed McCain's intention of sticking to his already established positions on major technology issues like Network Neutrality, Patent Protection and Piracy,broadband availability , privacy and the availability of H-1B visas, he is of the mind that these are not of any major concerned and he would rather focus his attention on availability of increased innovation, intellectual property protection, and preserving technology through market forces.
Network Neutrality, is "prescriptive regulation" in which McCain does not believe, according to the policy statement. Instead, he supports that an open marketplace with a variety of consumer choices. McCain will focus on policies that leave consumers free to access the content they choose, free to use he application and services they choose, free to attach devices they choose; if they do not harm the network and free to choose among broadband services providers, according to the
statement of the policy.
His policy differs sharply from that of his opposition, Barack Obama, who favors government action to mandate non-discriminatory handling of network traffic. Obama promised Oct. 29 to impose network neutrality mandates on broadband providers such as AT&T and Comcast if elected to the White House. Network neutrality laws, Obama said, would create a "level playing field for whoever has the best idea." He has also declared he would appoint an FCC (Federal Communications Commission)chairman who supports network neutrality and a CTO for his administration.
The McCain tech policy also calls for the Department of Labor to set visa levels "appropriate for market conditions." The policy statement claims, "Hiring skilled foreign workers to fill critical shortages benefits not only innovative companies, but also our economy. For every foreign worker hired, corporations generally hire five to 10 additional American workers. The best protection for American workers is to ensure that they have access to the world's customers, 95 percent of whom live outside the United States, this access is particularly important for workers in the information technology sector where the United States has so much to offer the rest of the world. Lower tariffs on American products benefit American companies and create American jobs." He also promised to seek international agreements and enforcement efforts that ensure fair reward to intellectual property and efforts to crack down piracy.

Call India for Just 2 cents a minute courtesy of webcalldirect

Webcalldirect is a betamax voip service that has been out there for more than two years now. If you are a user of betamax products you will notice that their rates changes so frequently and you can never be sure what you are paying today for a destination is what you will pay tomorrow. Despite that they still have about the lowest rates for many destinations with very good audio quality and thats why people still use them.
At Solomon's voip world we monitor the quality and rates of several voip providers for destinations that are of interest to most of our readers so that we can always inform you as to the best service to use to call your desired destination at the lowest rate possible and best audio quality.
While rates for India has gone up slighly on other betamax voip services it has actually being reduced to just 2 cents per minute for landlines and 3 cents per minute for mobiles on webcalldirect. Also calleasy, another of betamax service lets you call both landines and mobiles in India for just 2 cents per minute.
Both Webcalldirect and Calleasy have web interface that lets you initiate your phone-to-phone calls from their websites but they can also be configured on iphones and voip adapters. If you know of any other service that could be used to call India at rates cheaper than these please feel free to leave a comment here.

Call rates set to fall in India

With recent granting of licenses to ISP's in India to over internet telephony services call rates is set to fall even futher. Before now the use of voip was limited to PC-to-PC calls but sitting in front of a PC wearing a headset in order to make voip calls is fast becoming outdated. We expect call rates to fall by as much as 60% in the very near future expecially those of international calls. Also cost of calls to India is expected to fall too as termination cost goes down.
Telecom operators which has been really lobbying against legalizing internet telephony will also benefit from the widespread adoption of voip technology in India because most ISP's in India depends on them for their infrastructures and as the volume of calls through the ISP voip service increases due to reduced rates, the telecom operators will generate more revenue.
We at Solomon's VoIP World will continue to monitor the way the new approach develops in India and constantly report it. We will continue to inform our readers in India and all over the world about the best and the cheapest services available to call within India and international calls.

Global IP Solutions Introduces VoIP on iPhones Apps

The multimedia processing services provider, Global IP Solutions (GIPS) announced that the company is ready to enable Apple's iPhone with VoIP applications. The application is GIPS' VoiceEngine Mobile platform on which developers can quickly integrate real-time VoIP
applications, which will make it easier for consumer to enjoy their favorite iPhones game, applications and social networking experiences."With GIPS VoiceEngine Mobile, we are providing the capabilities that turn voice into IP packets so they can be transmitted via Wi-Fi, making it easier for applications developers to come to market quickly with integrated VoIP applications," said Emerick Woods, the GIPS' CEO.
Irrespective of users' location, whether at the PC or on mobile device, this gives them instant access to messaging, various interactive gaming features and social networking sites. Hopefully, this application will ignite users' interest in iPhones considering the fact that GIPS helped build the application. GIPS invented the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) iLBC codec standard, which optimises calls made over the Internet, and in integrated into the iPhone.

Apple's iPhone Now Selling on AT&T's Website

The huddles encountered by buyers of Apple iPhone 3G have now been reduced, the device can now be purchased online directly from AT&T's Premier Enterprise website with a maximum delivery time of 10 business days. This became necessary when Apple realized that many potential buyers had been experiencing difficulty in purchasing the device due to long lines at the point of sales or times shortages from the selling points.
With $199 or $299 for a two-year contract, the 3G iPhone can be purchased by simply ordering the products from the web. The difference in pricing lies in the capacity of the memory of the device, the $199 comes with a 8-GB capacity while the $299 has a 16-GB space. Apple has also included 2.0 upgrade in the latest version for effective delivery for mobile professionals. With the latest version, users can run enterprise applications from companies like Oracle and Salesforce.com.
Other features are; secure push e-mail with Microsoft Exchange support, remote wiping, and built-in VPN. This move to sell the iPhone 3G online is the latest to make the popular touch-screen smartphone more accessible. Earlier this week,Best Buy and Apple announced an agreement to sell the iPhone 3G across the United States in Best Buy's 970 stores starting Sept. 7.

Qwest Supports Obama

Qwest Communications has been chosen as the official telecommunications provider to support the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver. The company has finalized arrangement to ease communication during the occasion by providing wire line voice and data services as well as high-speed for an estimated number of 5,000 delegates, 15,000 members of the media, the convention committee and some administrative officers.
To be able to cope with this arrangement, Qwest revealed that it has added some 2,600 data lines, 3,400 voice-grade circuits, and 140 miles of single strands of copper and coaxial cable to ensure smooth running of the event. The Qwest's president in Colorado, Chuck Ward said "Qwest is well prepared to handle all of the data content that will be streaming through the Democratic National Convention," said Chuck Ward, Qwest's president in Colorado. "Never before has speed played such an important role in a national convention and Qwest is excited for the world to see the capabilities of our network infrastructure."It is estimated that about 35,000 politicians, media, and delegates from across the United States are expected to attend the Democratic National Convention 2008 next week. Much of the focus will be on presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who is expected to capture the party's official nomination.

Free International VoIP Calls Available Through EvaPhone

A VoIP company that is based in Russia has launched a product that will enable its users to make free international VoIP calls from a web browser. This new product named Evaphone only requires its users to be connected to a broadband internet connection and with a headset connected to the device they can are ready to make the free international VoIP calls to anywhere in the world. However, users are required to create an account through the company's website after which they can log in using the dial pad on the web browsers.
The service is quite simple and easy to use and calls go to their destinations very quickly, however there are some problems with the voice quality and the login page. Interestingly, the application does not require any software installation according to the company's press secretary, Maxim Demiov, who also said that the service has been designed to work directly from a web browser. All that is needed is to navigate to the company's website through a browser and dial the number right there in the window browser. He also said that calls to landlines and mobile phones will be supported by a short ad that is displayed while the telephone connection is being established.
To be able to enjoy the service however, Adobe Flash player 9.0 or higher must be installed on users' PCs. The EvaPhone service was displaying an ad from Ymax, which offers a VoIP service called MagicJack. That service uses a matchbook-sized device that plugs into a PC for free service. The device costs $39.95 and includes the first year of VoIP service.

Infineon Chip Responsible for Poor Quality of iPhone Services

It has been reportedly said that Infineon Chip could been responsible for poor performance of iPhone across the globe. Various users have expressed their complaints through websites and blogs and most them complaint about the inconsistency in the internet speeds, they support their points by pointing that at times when in areas designates as 3G, the phone still reverts to the lower telephony technology such as EDGE.
As reported by Nomura, an Infineon chip could be at the root of complaints from around the world that Apple's new iPhone drops calls and has unpredictable Internet links. According to Richard Windsor at Nomura "We believe that these issues are typical of an immature chipset and radio protocol stack where we are almost certain that Infineon is the 3G supplier," Windsor wrote in the report dated Aug.12. There are too many instances on iPhone blogs and Apple's own Web
site for it to be coincidence. Furthermore, it is not just the U.S. but other countries as well".
Another report from BusinessWeek's website also mentioned the fact that iPhone is suffering from faulty software on an Infineon chip, and that Apple plans to fix the problem with a software update. BusinessWeek's online report cited an unidentified source as saying the problem lay with Infineon technology, which it described as "fairly new and untested in high volumes outside a lab setting." BusinessWeek reported that Apple had set up the Infineon chip to demand a more powerful 3G signal than it needed, resulting in a switch back to the slower network if there are too many people in the same area trying to use their iPhone at the same time.
However, Infineon spokesman Guenter Gaugler declined to comment on the iPhone, but noted that the German chipmaker has been supplying 3G chipsets to phone makers such as Samsung Electronics without any problems.

India Legalise VoIP for ISPs

India have decided to allow ISPs in that country to offer VoIP services. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) have before now only issued licenses to Telecom operators to offer voip but most of them have refused to sign on to it thinking that voip will cut their revenue. But now TRAI will be issuing licenses to Internet Service Providers to offer voip services throughout the country. This is a cheering news for anybody living in India or have to make calls to India as this can only mean one thing which is low cost of calls to and from India.
Now that India ISPs can offer voip services, Telecom operators such as Vodafone and Bharati will have no choice but to offer internet telephony services which will mean lower call rates for the consumers. I am particularly excited that ISPs in India can now offer unrestricted internet telephony services because i have always felt that India has made lots of inroad in the information Technology world to be left behind in this amazing technology the is shaping the way people communicate and will have greater impacts in the future that will can not even imagine now.
Congratulations to India telecom consumers and let the call cost start crashing!

Intel Announces Wake-on-VoIP

Intel is set to replace its old Wake-on-LAN/ Wake-on-WAN with an improved version named Remote Wake. The new version is a Wake-on-VoIP that "wakes up" the PC when a VoIP call is initialized through an alert signal. The technology is similar to that of Skype and some other VoIP service Providers. Although not the first of its kind in the industry, it promises to be a better technology adapted to suit users' desire.
Four new unspecified motherboards is included in the design, and these are the G45 or G43 chipset: the DG45FC, the DG45ID, the DG43NB, and the DP43TF."Basically four motherboards we put out have this capability, and the software vendors have been doing the PR." These were the words of Intel Spokesman, George Alfs while he was confirming the capability of the motherboards. Already, the technology has attracted some service providers and they pledge support for the service. The service providers include, Jajah,Orb Network and CyberLink. The support from these service providers is an indication that Remote Wake will be used for media management, such as recording TV shows. Jajah was selected by Intel to be the first telecommunications provider to implement Intel's Remote Wake capability into their core telephony infrastructure, Intel and Jajah said. Intel invested $20 million into the company in May 2007.

Wideband VoIP Available on Apple's iPhone 3G Courtesy SPIRIT DSP

Users of Apple's new iPhone 3G can now enjoy high voice quality calls as a result of the incorporation of SPIRIT's wideband VoIP applications by Apple. This new application will not only improved the voice quality but also reduce cost when compared with traditional telephony system. The application, named TeamSpirit 3.0 Voice&Video, has already earned SPIRIT an award as the best in that category and the company hopes that Apple users will also achieve maximum satisfaction and high quality voice calls.Distinguishing itself through provision of high quality applications, SPIRIT has over the year come to be recognized as the world's leading provider of voice and video software engines. And as of today, the company is the only vendor in the industry that has voice and video engines that is compatible with any type of communication devicesacross all the segments of the market including PC, mobile and IPTV/set-top. Its experience in delivering high quality and real time voice and video on mobile devices over 3G and IP networks has paved ways for its adoptability by developer companies that used its services.
Among the company's great application is its proprietary IP-optimized patent-free wideband voice codec IP-MR(TM) (IP Multi-Rate) that was developed specifically to provide superior voice quality in packet networks and has already brought VoIP functionality for a wide range of platforms: PC, mobile, desktop, etc. SPIRIT Voice Engine Mobile also supports a dozen of standard narrow- and wideband codecs (GSM AMR NB and WB, G.729 etc) for interoperability. World leading OEMs, including HTC, Quanta Computers, Arima, Compal Communications, etc. have already implemented SPIRIT voice and video processing solutions. Little wonder that the company mobile OEM customers jointly exceed 60% of today's worldwide smartphone shipments.
VP product of SPIRIT, Slava Borilin, was quick to say "We are happy that our innovative, complete and easy-to-integrate Voice Engine Mobile enables wideband VoIP on Apple's iPhone 3G. Wideband voice in VoIP applications is the ultimate benefit for end-users simply because voice quality is noticeably better as wideband doubles the bandwidth. While other software vendors offer narrowband VoIP solutions only, SPIRIT supplies iPhone 3G applications developers with the wideband Voice Engine already deployed on a number of mobile platforms and delivering the highest voice quality over IP and 3G networks." TeamSpirit 3.0 Voice&Video Engine Mobile includes a set of components to provide customers with rich voice and video experience, backed up by unprecedented quality and reliability. TeamSpirit is a complete solution which includes speech enhancement algorithms for superior voice quality, network optimizing functionality to handle varying delay (jitter) and packet loss, a library of highly optimized, low-MIPS consuming speech and video codec and voice&video synchronization.

Global IP Solutions Enables the iPhone with High Quality, Real-time VoIP

Global IP Solutions , the leading provider of IP multimedia processing solutions, announced today that GIPS is enabling voice over IP (VoIP) for Apple Inc.'s iPhone. Using GIPS VoiceEngine™ Mobile, iPhone application developers can quickly integrate quality, real-time VoIP applications, which makes it easier for consumers to enjoy their favorite iPhone games, applications and social networking experiences.
"The popularity of the iPhone, along with the emergence of various applications and faster connectivity, makes it an ideal platform for developing applications that incorporate quality real-time VoIP, giving consumers real-world communication experiences like in-game, multi-person chat," said Emerick Woods, GIPS' Chief Executive Officer.
Woods continued, "We are excited to enable the iPhone with VoIP capabilities and lead the mobile communications market with our voice processing technology. With GIPS VoiceEngine Mobile, we are providing the capabilities that turn voice into IP packets so they can be transmitted via Wi-Fi, making it easier for applications developers to come to market quickly with integrated VoIP applications. GIPS technology is second-to-none, and we're excited to introduce our award-winning VoiceEngine to the increasingly popular iPhone application development community."
Inventors of the popular IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) iLBC codec standard, a narrowband speech algorithm designed to optimize calls made over the Internet, GIPS pioneered VoIP technology for many of the leading Internet service providers, application developers and hardware manufacturers worldwide. iLBC is currently part of the iPhone.
GIPS is recognized for its media processing expertise for IP communications and continues to innovate by enabling iPhone application developers to accelerate their time-to-market with applications that include the best voice experience possible.
A highly competitive and exploding market, a recent Strategy Analytics forecast reports that 297 million mobile phones were shipped worldwide in the second quarter of 2008, an increase of 15 percent year-on-year. According to Apple the demand for the new 3G iPhone has been enormous: the company stated it sold more than one million during the weekend the mobile phone launched, in mid-July.
GIPS VoiceEngines have been downloaded more than any other voice engine worldwide, enabling consumers and businesses to enjoy high-quality IP-based communications, even under adverse network conditions. For more information visit www.gipscorp.com/ve

RingCentral forms Alliance with Concentric

The San Jose California based company, Concentric, has entered into a mutual agreement with RingCentral, a provider of an on-demand, hosted phone for small businesses, in order to make the later virtual phone and fax system available to its customers and by doing so expand its market reach and sales force.

With this recent agreement, Concentric  would be able to offer phone and Internet fax service to its customers in addition to the services which it offers and these include a variety of hosted solutions such as web site hosting, Microsoft hosted exchange etc. It is hoped that this will help to consolidate their focus on serving companies with distributed workforces and especially those who can benefit from systems that streamline communications between colleagues and clients. Going by the current situation in US' economy, hosted solutions similar to those offered by these companies are bound to be more popular.

According to a statement made by the executive vice president of product and marketing for Concentric, "The RingCentral hosted business phone system compliments a small business's voice services by providing a centralized phone and Internet fax solution for mobile and distributed employees. With RingCentral, we now offer a comprehensive suite of affordable small business services including everything a small business needs to create a big business presence on the web and on the phone."

In his own remark, the president and CEO of RindCentral, Vlad Shmunis said "Concentric's focus is to help growing businesses project an established, professional image. It does this by offering Web hosting and messaging services—and now hosted phone and fax, through RingCentral. The RingCentral hosted business phone system is a perfect fit with these services enabling businesses to extend their professional image and brand through the most critical communication channel, their phone."

Concentric is offering a 30-day trial of the hosted phone and fax system to its customers, new customers can equally try it out for free after signing up for a Concentric e-mail account or by purchasing a RingCentral plan, either way they are "good to go."

FCC Cautioned Comcast

The agency in charge of regulation of communications, Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has cautioned Comcast about an allegation files against the company for violating the commission's Internet access rule; the network neutrality law.  Comcast was reported to have improperly interfered with users' access to the internet by blocking traffic of BitTorrent Inc.'s file sharing service.

Although Comcast claimed that it was not intentional and the blocking only occurred during the peak hour when the network is expected to be congested, this was later found to be untrue by The Associated Press and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) which conducted tests that revealed the truth state of the situation. It was discovered that Comcast was secretly sending packets that aborted BitTorrent file transfers.  And this happened at all hours and not the peak period as claimed by Comcast.

Consequently, the FCC gave Comcast a month ultimatum to correct the anomaly and they must follow three steps in doing so; Comcast must disclose what the commission referred to as discriminatory network-management practices. Secondly, a detail plan must be submitted describing how it will put a stop to such practices before the end of the year and finally Comcast has been ordered to disclose to both customers and the FCC the alternative measures to replace its discriminatory practices. To ensure that the company takes these orders seriously, FCC warned that failure to comply to these rulings will earn the company the "interim injunctive relief".

However, some people have expressed mixed feelings as to the effectiveness of these rulings and that if FCC really meant business it ought to have penalized Comcast right away. They argued that the statement made by FCC clearly revealed the commission's unpreparedness to effectively enforce the network neutrality rule.

Toshiba Extends Services to Medium-Sized Biz through its CIX1200

The Toshiba's IP telephony being enjoyed by companies with less than 100 workers are now available for medium sized companies with workers between 200 and 1000 through Toshiba new CIX1200. With CIX1200, it is now possible for companies to upgrade to IP equipment at their own pace and without having to part with so much.

The CIX1200, like other CIX series products, is a hybrid of Time-Division Multiplexing (TMD) and IP PBXes and this implies that it is compatible with both traditional TDM digital phones and IP phones. The important of this is that companies would be able to keep their old phones for as long as they want until they can afford to acquire new IP phones. This has huge financial benefits because companies would not have to spend unnecessarily to acquire new IP phones since they can make do with old phones thereby cutting the cost of purchasing new phones.

Speaking on the benefits companies stand to enjoy with their new product, Jon Nelson, product marketing manager for Toshiba's Telecommunication System Division said "In fact, two-thirds to three-fourths of the PBX lines that Toshiba ships are still of the TDM variety. When customers buy IP lines and phones, it's for a particular purpose. It seems the majority of their users are local, and they choose digital phones for those users, and opt for IP for remote sites and wireless applications and for the other devices such as cameras that are on the system. IP doesn't provide you with any telephony features; all it does is provide you with some connectivity options."

Nelson added that "Businesses can keep their old phones for a long time, even those that they bought with the key systems that long predated the IP-PBX era. You can take digital phones we made 10 years ago and hook them up with the CIX IP systems we sell today." Even the earliest digital phones are visible online through Toshiba's Net Phone client software, which displays such things as presence information about devices connected to CIX systems.

Other previous series which range from CIX40 for 24 users to the CIX670 for up to 560 users are only suitable for small business companies with lower employee rate.

 

Vello Releases User Friendly Conferencing Application

Vello Corporation has launched a new conferencing application that will ease the stress users' face during conference calls. Vello was a featured demonstrator at the recent AlwaysOn and SVTP (Stanford Technology Ventures Program) Summit at Stanford University. The web 2.0 works without a VoIP and it was developed to overcome basics problems related to conference calling and these include the trouble of having to remember conference times, call-in numbers and even pass codes when you have other important issues as well on your mind.

With Vello all these and many more were put into consideration during the design of the application. Users don't have to go through the stress of remembering call-in numbers; they can easily use names or number more convenient for them to set up a conference call. What's more, they can choose to hold the call or postpone it for a later time and they don't have to worry at the designated time because the system will call every one exactly when the time reaches. Another interesting feature is the fact participant who encounters any difficulty in connectivity can immediately call 1-888-MYV-ELLO for instant connectivity.

The company also included client software for Blackberry and Windows mobile devices; this allows users to easily set up calls from their mobile equipments.

One notable fact about Vello is that it delivers its service based on Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM) platform, a traditional telephony system, rather than using a VoIP platform. Vello chose to use traditional telephony rather than VoIP equipment because it didn't trust the reliability of, for example, Asterisk-based platforms. "I can't afford to be rebooting my conference bridge every 16 days because it has memory leak," said Mark Dzwonczyk, the Vello president and COO. "If our bridge rebooted at 2 p.m. Thursday and was only down for two minutes but, sorry, we dropped 4,000 people off the line, we won't do that." The company chose the Compunetix equipment because it was the most popular traditional bridge around.

He also mentioned the fact that the service saves users lots of time. "In particular, it puts an end to the irritation of waiting 5 or 10 minutes for everyone to call in. There are also no missing overseas participants who can't figure out the right time zone in which to call. Phone calls become scheduled meetings; it's phenomenal when everyone's phone rings at once."

Although, Vello doesn't necessarily save businesses a lot of money, since calls cost 12 cents per minute, per participant. Dzwonczyk claimed that the cost is a concern to very few customers, who are mainly interested in the convenience and efficiency that the service offers.

NSA Sues for Secure VoIP Services

 

Soliciting for a secured VoIP services that is reliable and effective in terms of service delivery, by adding a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) feature to Sectera vIPer Universal secure Phone, the National Security Agency (NSA) has awarded a contract worth $2.8 million.

Winning this contract is General Dynamics, which has immense knowledge on how to effectively execute the project. With this feature, users can connect to the traditional telephone network via a secure network by using the vIPer Phone without compromising the quality of service obtained.

According to John Cole, the vice president of Information Assurance for General Dynamics C4 Systems, providing a product that will accommodate evolving communications technologies is very necessary in order to gain customers' confidence.

He said "The idea behind PSTN Connect is to provide users with a flexibility they don't have today. For example, the vIPer Universal Secure Phone will appeal to those whose installations currently use the PSTN network, but who plan to migrate to voice over IP; users who currently have voice over IP networks; and others who plan to stay with traditional PSTN."

Releases about two years ago, the Sectera vIPer remains the only VoIP phone approved by the NSA for top secret information based on its reliability and performance.

 

Integr8 Telecoms Storms the VoIP Market

The competition in the VoIP industry may hot-up with the entering of Integr8 Telecoms (Pty) Ltd, a subsidiary of Integr8 Group. The company which is based in South Africa has already concluded plan to enter into partnership with some other firms in order to achieve its target of becoming the fore front service provider in the already established telecommunication sector and it believes it can achieve these by offering a cost effective and reliable service to clients which is perceived to be lacking in the country's telecommunication sector.

Laying emphasis on its achievements and its extensive marketing strategies which have yielded good results in the past time combined this with its market experience in infrastructure management; the company expressed confidence to that it will have a fair share of the market. Integr8 FAX/TELECOM CEO, Walter Bredell said that the evolving telecoms market combines with the fact that people are seeking a cheaper telecoms service in addition to quality, will make them succeed through the combined efforts of their partner companies

He also said "With inter-connects and access to clients through our infrastructure, it is now possible to change the normal TDM Telkom client platform, to a VoIP service with quality of service for better and cheaper phone calls. No need for a client to change existing company PABX (Infrastructure), we integrate with all brands in the market. In essence Integr8 will install a gateway behind the existing infrastructure of the client, changing normal TDM services from the PABX into a VoIP solution.

 "All the major players are implementing IP solutions and selling VOIP solutions. Altech's fight with ICASA just proves the competition is on for space in the I.P. game. And, of course there is WiMax, everyone is competing for space in the Wi Max game, that is the obvious next step".

BOINGO WIRELESS LAUNCHES WI-FI AT RONALD REAGAN AND DULLES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORTS

Boingo Wireless, Inc., the global market leader in Wi-Fi, will today announce the addition of the major airports in the US capital, Dulles International Airport (IAD) and Ronald Reagan Airport (DCA), to its expanding global network of airport hotspots accessible to travelers.
The Boingo Wireless contracts with the two Washington-area airports mean Boingo’s fast and easy-to-use Wi-Fi network will now be available to the more than 24 million passengers who travel go through Dulles annually, and the more than 18 million annual passengers who fly through Ronald Reagan Airport.
With Boingo Wireless accounts, passengers with Wi-Fi enabled laptops, mobile phones or PDAs are able to connect to the Internet to check their e-mail, access corporate servers, download documents and surf the Web from anywhere in the airport.
Boingo gives travelers the best choice of Wi-Fi hotspots by combining more than 100,000 locations from more than 150 leading Wi-Fi operators into one worldwide network spanning 90 countries. That includes more than 500 airports with 85 of the top 100 airports worldwide and airports in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Tampa in the United States.
Boingo is also available at more than 17,000 hotels, such as Hilton and Marriott Hotels, and retail destinations such as McDonald’s and Barnes & Noble. Other locations include coffee shops, restaurants and cafés.
The increasing popularity and availability of Wi-Fi is always good news for voip users because it means more access to their mobile voip applications anywhere they go which translate to lower rate or free long distance and international calls.

Jajah launches Babel and Concierge

Jajah has just launched two great services named Jajah Babel and Jajah Concierge. Jajah Babel is a speech-to-speech translation service. With Babel you can use your phone to translate from one language to the other but as at now its only available to translate from English-to-Chinese (Mandarin) and vice versa, just in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics you would say. Anyway Jajah Babel is available in USA, UK, Australia and China. Using Jajah babel is quite easy you just need to call one of the access numbers and follow the voice commands. You say what you what to tranlate and the system ask you to confirm by playing that back to you and if everything is ok you press the digit to confirm and the system will say thesame thing in chinese, pretty cool.
Babel is a great tool for travellers to China, they could use it to find their way around without language barrier or need for a translator. All they have to do is say what they want to say in english and hand over their phone to the Chinese guy to hear the chinese translation. I have tested the system and it work fine but i cant confirm the chinese translation because i dont speak chinese. The only down side to the system is that it can they a awful long time for the system to fully understand you since everybody have different way of speaking. This service was developed in partnership with IBM and More languages will be added soon. To read more and obtain the country sepecific access numbers visit http://www.jajahbabel.com/
The other service launched by Jajah is the Jajah Concierge. This service let Jajah users voice activates Jajah services so that they can make calls hand free. Jajah concierge gives jajah users a local number which they can use to access the jajah voip service and initiate phone calls, send a text message or establish a conference call. With jajah concierge there is no need to scroll through address books or dial numbers anymore, you can make your calls completely hands free. To read more and get access numbers visit http://www.jajahconcierge.com

BT Acquire Ribbit to stay competitive

The internet-telephony company, Ribbit , has finally allowed BT to
buy it for a cash sum of $105m with the hope that this will
stiffing up competition against communication giant which includes
Google's Android platform and Skype. The partners hope to be on the
fore front of the industry's market.
Ribbit, also known as 'Silicon Valley's first phone company', provides
'an open platform' to developers, who can create internet-telephony
applications and services around this. Its technology brings together
communications over mobile phones, landlines, desktop applications and
internet applications. For example, the company's Amphibian
application — which is yet to launch — lets voicemail be managed like
email on the desktop or phone, with audio messages transcribed into
searchable text. Existing applications of Ribbit's technology have
seen developers integrate voice into Salesforce.com and create voice
applications to run within Facebook and iGoogle.
The company's multi-protocol softswitch, or software-based
call-switching technology, can also handle calls from services such as
Google Talk and Skype, a BT spokesperson told ZDNet.co.uk on Tuesday.
Which 802.11n frequency band goes fastest and furthest — 5GHz or
2.4GHz? Dialogue Box fires up its new router and takes a laptop on a
wireless walkabout.
Speaking on this new development, Ribbit's chief executive, Ted
Griggs, said BT was "exactly the partner" his company had been
seeking. "The communications industry is entering a new phase," he
said. "Closed networks are becoming open platforms and developers are
now driving innovation. By adding Ribbit's capability to the power of
BT's global 21CN platform, we will now be able to give the development
community the tools they need to innovate on a global scale", Griggs
said in a statement.

In his own remark, BT spokesperson said in an email that
the Ribbit acquisition would help BT "leapfrog competition and gain a
strategic advantage in the Silicon Valley 'telco 2.0' platform race,
which includes Google Android and Apple's iPhone [software-development
kit.
It is also believed that the acquired technology would pit BT against
services such as Skype and Google's GrandCentral on the
unified-communications side.
Ribbit will retain its name and management team as it becomes part of
BT. The Mountain View-based Company's platform will be integrated into
BT's existing web services

Research Revealed Revenue from Mobile Social Networking Market to Hit $3.3B

According to the outcome of a recent survey carried out by ABI Research firm, the revenue generated from Mobile Social Networking and related services will soon hit a landmark of $3.3 B.

This achievement is not unconnected to the popularity of this technology and its support for varieties of applications. ABI Research found out that location-based service also constitutes a framework within which previously independent location-based services such as search; friend-finder, people tracking, and user-generated content complement and reinforce each other. It is therefore no surprising that Nokia has shown interest in the acquisition of mobile social networking start-up, Plazes.

The ABI Research principal analyst, Dominique Bonte stated in an interview that "Successful business models may differ from what many observers expect. While location-based advertising integrated with sophisticated algorithms holds a lot of promise, the current reality rather points to licensing and revenue-sharing models as the way forward for social networking start-ups to grow their customer base and reach profitability."

He cited examples to back-up their findings and these include the agreements between GyPSii and both Garmin and Samsung and the partnership established by Loopt with all major U.S. cellular carriers. The findings also pointed the fact that new positioning technologies such as Skyhook Wireless' hybrid system combines GPS, Wi-Fi, and cellular signals for improved indoor coverage have been licensed to several social networking vendors.

In the meantime, the firm expressed concern over several factors that are hindering mass market adoption of location-based mobile social networking. Privacy concerns are still a major issue, the company stated that many small players are still struggling to create sufficient brand awareness in a fragmented market, and there is also concern about the cost of data plans.

Reigate and Banstead Borough Council Opts for Automated Payment Transaction

The Reigate and Banstead Borough Council has finalized arrangement to adopt Telephonetics VIP speech self service solution which will be integrated into its automated payment transactions. This arrangement became necessary when the council realized the need to broaden its self service solutions to the latest solution available for its payment system other than the VIP's ACD solutions the company has been used to.

Telephonetics solution is the latest in speech recognition and voice automation payment methods, the service will be available to about 127,000 residents around 50,000 homes in Reigate and Banstead. It will be introduced gradually in order to facilitate its usability, the Council has decided to first use the speech self service technology to process payment such as parking fines or council tax bills before proceeding to other contingent services which will involve other services that do not include payments such as residents being able to report minor problems like abandoned vehicles or a missed refuse collection.

Telephonetics VIP Ltd, whose headquarters is located in Hemel Hempstead Hertfordshire UK, can process 35 million minutes of speech recognition per annum, across 20,000 telephony channels via its carrier class Voice XML hosting platform or customer premises solutions with its VIP. The company was founded in 1993 and has been offering hosted and customer premises speech recognition and voice automation solutions since then.

Version 6.0 of 3CX Phone Now Available

The upgrade version 6.0 of 3CX Phone System is now available in the market and it comes with 10 new features that ensure easy access to business, this was announced by the Telecoms Software developer and manufacturer, 3CX. The spirit of innovation as exhibited by 3CX has led the company to add key new functionality which includes call conferencing, paging and support for Windows 2008 over a period of 5 months.

With Windows 2008, enterprise users can virtualise a PBX and eliminate the need for an extra server to run a phone system, thereby making it very easy to use.

Intercom, support for Vegastream gateways, enhanced interoperability, BLF provisioning, phonebook, fax server, and extended HTTP API are among the features that comes with the new version.

The company has offices in UK, USA, Germany, Cyprus, Malta and Honk Kong and currently has four versions of this product in the market and they are; Small Business, Pro, Enterprise and a free edition for trial or personal use.

ShoreTel Awarded the Best VoIP Provider

ShoreTel has been awarded the 'Best Overall VoIP Provider'  in the fifth annual Memertes PilotHouse Awards for Unified Communications & Collaboration.

ShoreTel emerged as the overall best following opinions poll conducted for customers to assess VoIP vendors' performances. In all, the opinions and experiences of  426 customers were examined against 24 VoIP vendors and the overall result came in favour of ShorTel.

The vote was conducted in an Olympic gymnastics style voting system,  where winner amassed the most points or votes. ShoreTel  got a total score of 4.22 out of a possible maximum high score of 5.0.

Among the parameters considered during the vote are the kind of technology used covering the underlying software, platforms, intelligence and standard compliance; product features focusing on handset and switch capabilities; solution experience focusing on the ability to understand business requirements and craft solutions that meet customers' needs.

Wake Up Calls from Hannah Montanan

Recently, there have been several  reports on how  Disney's Hannah Montanan Wake-Up Call is being abused by some users. Hannah Montana Crank Call is a platform that allows its user to send phone calls as a recorded message from their website and you can do so by simply follow the registration steps.

In most cases, the message comes through early in the morning when the receiver might still be sleeping. The recorded message is Hannah Montana's voice telling the receiver

how it's bright and early and the need for the receiver to get up and wear his/her favourite outfit or a reminder in the format  "Dear [name], don't forget that today you have [activity]."

 

This is  where the problem lies, the message could be sent to you without any prior notice and like spam message they are always unwelcome especially when the messages come in the wrong timing.

One of the reasons why the Hannah Montana Crank Call is opened to abuse could be attributed to the registration procedure. This is a web-to-phone service opened to the public without any validation or constraints, and therefore users are free

to enter any source phone number they want, making it look like the calls are coming from someone else. There's no opt-out mechanism or audit trail. Even attempts to constrain the system can be circumvented: You can change the recipient's time zone and wake them up in the middle of the night, or back-date the wake-up call to have it placed immediately.

Although , visitors must be over 18 to use the service,  it probably won't make the calls any more mature or limit the mischief.

It is important to always bear in mind the lessons learned from online services as we integrate internet, telephony, mobility and video into any platform or application.

It's too easy to let features like authentication, transparency, opt-out and masquerading prevention fall by the wayside in a land grab for names and numbers. http://www.hannahmontanacalls.com/registration.aspx

Trimax Announces TMAX 3000 Series

TMAX 3000 Series is a wireless broadband router introduced by Trimax Wireless, a developer and manufacturer of a complete line of modular wireless broadband infrastructure equipment.

This new launch product is a three-radio modular platform in a rugged outdoor enclosure that can be configured with a variety of radio modules and antenna options to optimize network design .

Designed to be wireless infrastructure mounted on light poles, TMAX 3000 is contained

in a compact rugged outdoor enclosure that is integrated with a patch antenna. The patch antenna can be used with 4.9 GHz or 5 GHz radio modules. The remaining two radio modules can be any combination of Trimax's high-powered radios supporting frequencies from 900 MHz to 6 GHz.

The Chief Executive Officer,  Ulrich Altvater, speaking on the occasion stated that  "No single wireless technology can address all of the requirements of metropolitan scale wireless networks today. That is why Trimax combines different technologies – WiFi , WiMAX and DECT – operating in different frequency bands, in the same system. The TMAX 3000 might receive wireless backhaul through a long haul 3.6 GHz link, create a network of other TMAX 3000s in the area with its 5 GHz radio module, and provide secure access for public safety clients through a 4.9 GHz radio module. This unparalleled flexibility enables cities and service providers to leverage their available spectrum and build efficient wireless networks that support voice, video and data across multiple applications."

 

The modular design of the TMAX product line lends itself perfectly to a wide range of homeland security, public safety, municipal operations, and intelligent traffic systems applications, company officials say. There are two powered Ethernet ports on the TMAX 3000. An Ethernet video camera can be directly attached and powered by the TMAX 3000, enabling cost effective wireless video surveillance on a city-wide scale.

Lower Calls Rate from Mobiles to Fixed Lines via Metatalk

Metatalk is a new software designed to lower calls rate of a mobile
call to fixed line anywhere in the world to just as low as 3c a
minute. The software was developed by Irish scientists as a project
work at the Department of Computer Science Trinity College, Dublin.
Metatalk allows its users to pay for low-cost calls using Skype at
wireless hotspots. Already, arrangement has been concluded for the
trial to kick off this month, and during the period users will be able
to register on www.metakall.com and to download call credit to try out
the new phone system. Instead of signing up for expensive hotspot
charges by the hour, Metakall hopes to enable users to pay only the
amount of time required for the call – a kind of pas-as-you-go plan.
The Metatalk Project Director, Professor O' Mahony, speaking on the
potentials and opportunities offered by this solution pointed out
that; "The possibilities for this new technology are huge. Using a
handset or mobile device they will be able to seamlessly roam from one
wireless hotspot area to another.
"Since we first kicked off this process, we've been in contact with
several firms, both indigenous and multinational, to discuss it," he
added.
The team was able to secure €400,000 in funding from Enterprise
Ireland last year for the initial development of the technology, and
they now plan to bring the service to

Yugma ranks high in software review, outpaces Microsoft, IBM and Adobe

Yugma, the leading Web-collaboration service that lets people connect instantly over the Internet to share content and ideas using any application or software, announced today that a vendor-independent review of 21 Web conferencing solutions rates Yugma Professional at No. 3 in the world, ahead of providers such as Microsoft, IBM, Adobe and NetMeeting.
On a scale of evaluated features ranging from 1 to 10, Yugma 3.0 Professional achieved a score of 9.0, barely behind the 9.1 received by WebEx MetMeNow 2.1 and the 9.5 awarded to Citrix GoToMeeting 4.0, according to www.webconferencing-test.com reviews of online- collaboration products.
The evaluator, based in Frankfurt, Germany, found that only Yugma works seamlessly across Windows, Mac and Linux platforms, and that Yugma 3.0 professional was priced almost 50 percent less per user per month when compared to the Citrix and WebEx products.
“We pride ourselves on Yugma’s radical ease of use and reliability for users on any platform, so it’s very satisfying to have an independent evaluation confirm our attributes versus such strong competitors,” said CEO Vas Bhandarkar.
Skype-certified, Yugma revolutionizes real-time collaboration by enabling quick and instant sharing of ideas by letting users conduct virtual meetings or webinars and to share desktops spontaneously.

VoSKY’s Product Earned Skype-Certified Gateway

In recognition of their contribution to the VoIP industry, VoSKY has
been appraised by Skype by certifying its newly launched solution.
The VoSKY Exchange Pro VIT1/E1 is the company's new addition to its
PBX-to-Skype gateway family and the industry's first enterprise-grade
T1/E1 PBX-to-Skype gateway to achieve Skype certification.
This new add-on product will enable medium and large enterprises to
migrate to VoIP and enjoy cost savings of up to 90 percent over
traditional telecommunication trunks. The solution is the Based on
VoSKY's latest enterprise-grade Linux platform; the VoSKY Exchange Pro
VIT1/E1seamlessly integrates with existing corporate PBXs with T1 or
E1 digital interfaces, allowing businesses to take advantage of
Internet telephony without replacing their existing network
infrastructures.
VoSKY Exchange gateway has been designed to enable employees make and
receive Skype calls from their regular office phones – no Skype
software, computers or headsets are required. In addition, the
standalone, 1U rack-mountable appliance is easy for telecom/IT
managers to configure and manage by simply following the set up steps.
Interestingly, VoSKY's latest gateway can support up to 30 concurrent
Skype calls using E1 ISDN PRI or up to 23 calls with T1 ISDN PRI,
providing scalable performance for enterprise applications. Multiple
VoSKY Exchange gateways can be set up in dispersed office locations to
enable free calling between colleagues located in different places

Subscribe and Win promotion WEEK 8 draw result.

And the winner is:

sklindon78@yahoo.fr

Congratulations.

An e-mail has been sent to this e-mail address requesting for full name and mailing address.