February 23rd, 2006
You are currently browsing the articles from the VoIP Digest written on February 23rd, 2006.
Acoustic shock happens when loud or unannounced sounds travel through phone lines, and hit your ears.Your ears may not know what hit them. As a result, they can suffer the auditory version of a panic attack.We're talking some nasty stuff- ringing in the ears, inordinate sensitivity to sound, and difficulty in processing the details of [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on February 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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Tie-ups with three positioning vendors bring a range of potential solutions.
Written by VoIP Magazine Featured Stories on February 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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There's a mythology out there, spread by the uninformed, that since 90 percent of broadband fiber is sitting in the ground and we getting exponentially better at sending massive amounts of bits through the air, that fiber's time has come and gone. Not so. As the demand for rich broadband and high-definition television is increasing- [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on February 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on General and trends and Products and Research.
The recent imperative by VoIP service providers to make their E911 service compatible with the U.S.' nearly 8,000 Public Safety Answering Points has generated a new focus on what these PSAPs are and what they do.One might think that PSAP territories totally overlap jurisdictional city and county boundaries. No, they don't.So what PSAP are you [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on February 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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Ever know a woman or man who could have done better, but married below their station because they didn't get out in the world and make themselves available to all the better choices out there?That's sort of the feeling I have when I think about this IDT-Net2Phone consummation formally announced less than a week ago.Background: A [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on February 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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My latest Business 2.0 article, The Black Box That Would Conquer Telecom, just went online over at the CNN Money website. This is a story about a stealthy startup called Vyatta, that has build the world’s first commercial open-source router, and how open source is slowly moving its way into the telecom world. Vyatta’s first product, an enterprise class router that will compete with Cisco-medium to low end offerings is currently in beta testing with some customers is based on XORP or extensible open router platform and runs off on two Intel chips.
The versatile open-source application can direct data traffic for a giant corporation as easily as it can manage a home Wi-Fi network. And that’s what makes it as disruptive as a leaf blower in a feather factory: Vyatta’s router will cost about a fifth the price of comparable models from big networking equipment makers such as Cisco Systems.
Vyatta is one of the many start-ups that are bringing open source disruption to the highly profitable and closed world of networking. While open source software movement has ravaged the bottom lines of companies like Sun Microsystems; networking behemoths like Cisco and Juniper have continued to enjoy fat margins they earned even before the telecom crash of 2000. Even today, a big portion of their IT budget goes into networking gear. Routers, switches, firewall devices, and even VPN boxes cost thousands of dollars.
“Open-source is providing real competition to the commercial telecom companies,” says John Todd, an open-source telephony expert. “It will force them to improve.”
The scramble for open source in networking comes because two primal forces tearing the old telecom order apart. First, the Internet-based technologies are replacing the closed legacy phone systems, thus helping the convergence of computer and the phone systems. In old times, in order to build a networking box, companies would design specialized chips, and run specialized software on them to get the best performance. Now you can buy extremely powerful processors like Advanced Micro Devices’ Opteron chips for a few hundred dollars, run special networking software on them, and get similar performance. There are nearly half-a-dozen open source projects that capitalize on the cheap processing power.
“I used to work in Novell’s multi protocol router group, but that failed because the chips were not fast enough,” Chris Ranch, Director of Network Architecture at data center operator Affinity Internet. “But you can do it all on a good PC.” His company is currently using open source load balancing software running on 15-pizza-box style servers that cost about $25,000. Similar gear from Cisco Systems or F5 Systems could have cost Affinity at least $750,000. “Given that we making money by selling hosting services, the cost of equipment is the difference between us making money or not,” says Ranch.
Corporations shopping for PBX systems are reaching same conclusions, and are turning to ultra-cheap boxes made by start-ups like Fonality, a Los Angeles company that packages open source Asterisk PBX software onto PCs running Linux. But no project is as audacious as Vyatta’s attempt to take on the highly lucrative and profitable router market.
Vyatta’s core brains come from XORP, a software router project started at ICSI in Berkeley back in January 2001. Atanu Ghosh a British-born researcher who works on the project points out that the software can be scaled down to run a simple enough home router on one end of the spectrum, to large-scale data network on the other extreme. “It is easy for third parties to extend the software, and I think people will come up with ideas to extend it,” says Ghosh.
The biggest interest in XORP and future Vyatta products will be in emerging economies like China and India, which are not cash rich, but have broadband ambitions. No one wants to pay for expensive commercial routers. “In the near future there would be ad-hoc networks on a person, and that could conceivably need a router with a tiny footprint, like XORP,” Ghosh predicts.
Written by Om Malik on February 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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My podcasting partner Niall Kennedy is organizing SF Tech Sessions, and the debut event is tonight. It is a straight-up shoot out between the new groupware applications - Joyent, Zimbra and Kerio.
The event will bring together journalists, bloggers, small businesses, and other interested users to learn more about groupware and underlying technologies such as Ajax, Ruby on Rails, and open-source. Attendees will learn more about the industry and the three featured companies and hopefully walk away with solid material for a blog post or business decision. Each product is so close to launch you will have an exclusive look before anybody else!
Joyent, Kerio, and Zimbra will have 30 minutes to present to the general audience. After all three companies have presented we will divide into three groups for in-depth discussion and hands-on opportunities with the product. Each company will have a chance to introduce themselves on this blog before the event.
Details
Groupware: Joyent, Kerio, and Zimbra
Thursday, February 23
6:30-9:00 p.m.
CNET headquarters
235 2nd Street
San Francisco
Written by Om Malik on February 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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Restaurants and cafes represent the fastest growing segment of public Wi-Fi, according to JiWire. They estimate that 34,544 eating establishments currently offer Wi-Fi access, which is up from 16,277 a year ago. Tokyo (1,037) has the most restaurants and cafes with Wi-Fi access, followed by London (578) and Singapore (410). Within the United States, New York City (328) has the most eating establishments with Wi-Fi access, followed by San Francisco (319) and Chicago (271). Implications of this? Maybe Skype should really focus on making their mobile client better. And definite need for more WiFi-based location-specific services, and better feed readers for mobile devices.
Written by Om Malik on February 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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DigiLinea, a Voice over IP service provider to the US Hispanic and Latin American markets, announced today a unique VoIP offering - the availability of new unlimited calling plans to the USA and Latin American for clients residing in Central America. What caught my eye was this part of their news release, "DigiLinea is the only major VoIP provider with local licensing that allows DigiLinea to offer VoIP services legally in Central America." So are they saying that DigiLinea has a monopoly on VoIP in the Central American market that crosses several countries with their own rules, regulations, and political agendas? That's odd... Of, they used a disclaimer "only major VoIP provider". Ahhhh, so there must be some "minor VoIP providers" competing with DigiLinea in Central America. Those tricky PR flaks!
In any event, DigiLinea offers unlimited VoIP calling plans to the US and Latin America for $29.95/month and also provides local telephone numbers across Latin America. DigiLinea is focused uniquely on the US Hispanic and Latin American markets and is vertically integrated into many countries in Latin America since DigiLinea owns local Latin American telecom licenses.
more from their release...
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Written by tkeating@tmcnet.com on February 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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TDM shipments will continue to decline.
Written by VoIP Magazine Featured Stories on February 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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Get your free SkypeOut minutes today! I just logged on and saw I could claim 10 free minutes as part of their Skype Gift Day. Didn't they just do a special offer on Valentine's Day too?
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Written by tkeating@tmcnet.com on February 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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Are you a great video game player? How about professional grade?
If youÂ’re ready for the major leagues of video gaming, then get set for Major League Gaming, taking the excitement and enthusiasm of competitive video gaming into the worldÂ’s first professional video game league.
The 2006 tour will make seven stops in major cities across the U.S., with the best gamers in the world signed to exclusive deals.
The 2006 pro tour dates:
- New York (March 24-26)
- Dallas (April 21-23)
- Atlanta (June 2-4)
- Los Angeles (July 14-16)
- Philadelphia (August 25-27)
- Playoffs: Chicago (October 6-8)
- National Championship:Â Las Vegas (November 17-19)
Get in the game at http://www.mlgpro.com/.
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Written by tkeating@tmcnet.com on February 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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Skype has some new payment options including the ability to pay in US Dollars via PayPal, Moneybookers and Click&Buy. Here's the news..
Skype, the global Internet communications company, today announced new, convenient, global payment methods for customers to buy products from Skype.com. Skype Credit is now available in 14 local currencies including US Dollars, and can be purchased with myriad payment methods such as PayPal, bank transfers and credit cards.
Skype Credit can be used to buy SkypeOut calling minutes, SkypeIn numbers, Skype Voicemail, and personalized ringtones and avatars.
Skype has made it easier for people on most continents – including Europe, the Americas, Asia and Oceania – to buy and keep track of their Skype Credit in 14 local currencies, including Euros, US Dollars, Polish Zloty, Brazilian Real, Canadian Dollar, British Pound, New Taiwanese Dollar, Swedish Krona, Danish Krona, Norvegian Krona, Japanese Yen, Hong Kong Dollar, Australian Dollar and Swiss Francs.
Skype customers can now enjoy a simpler and faster way to buy Skype Credit with PayPal. Once customers pre-approve payments with PayPal on their Skype account, they can pay in just two clicks. With PayPal, Skype customers can fund payments using their stored PayPal balances, their bank accounts, or any major credit card. PayPal has more than 100 million accounts across 55 markets worldwide, and supports seven currencies.
“Skype is about simplicity, convenience and choice, and we want to ensure this experience extends into buying from our site,” said Michael Jackson, head of paid services at Skype. “We also want to make sure the full possibilities of the Skype experience are open to everyone – wherever they are and whether or not they hold a credit or debit card. It’s never been easier for people the world over to buy from Skype.”
Skype customers can also choose to pay for Skype Credit via GlobalCollect and FIRSTGATEÂ’s Click&Buy. GlobalCollect enables local offline and online bank transfer payments to be made in 50 countries worldwide. Click&Buy allows online purchases to be made with multiple local payment options in countries across Europe and the Americas.
Skype customers without a debit or credit card can now purchase Skype Credit with Ukash vouchers bought from high street retailers in more than 50,000 locations across the UK, Republic of Ireland and Spain, with further countries to be added shortly. Skype Scratch cards are currently available in Sweden and Finland at Clas Ohlson and other retail stores, with more countries and retailers to be added soon.
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Written by tkeating@tmcnet.com on February 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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I’m sure Apple in its wildest dreams never imagined that iTunes would be the runaway hit that it is. As the iTunes Music Store heads toward download number 1 billion, Apple has 1 billion reasons to celebrate. And to mark the way, music fans who download every 100,000th song will receive a prize package featuring a black 4GB iPod nano and a $100 iTunes Music Card.
But that’s not all. If you feel lucky (you do feel lucky, don’t you?), then the music fan who downloads the 1 billionth song from the iTunes Music Store will receive a 20-inch iMac, not one iPod, but 10 60GB iPods as well as a $10,000 iTunes Music Card to jumpstart your digital music collection. In addition, Apple will create a full-ride scholarship in your name to a world-renowned music school. Just think: You could help launch the careers of an entire generation of musicians.
At 999 million and counting Â…
Hey, anybody care to take a guess at what that 1 billionth song will be?
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(Jamie on
Feb 23, 2006 8:31 AM)
The Money Song by Pink Floyd? Probably not, but that would be funny.
(Randy Savicky on
Feb 23, 2006 9:17 AM)
Funny indeed! Actually any song with "money" in the title would be appropriate ...
Written by tkeating@tmcnet.com on February 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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Qpass is expanding its current agreement with Skype to offer Personalise Skype which is a service that allows Skype users to include branded music content from iconic UK dance music record label Ministry of Sound. Ministry of Sound is one of the first major record labels to take advantage of this new distribution channel. Personalise Skype which Qpass runs as a fully managed service allows Skype users to customize and download pre recorded music, ringtones and voice clips.
"The Ministry of Sound brand has a global following and we are always looking for new channels which can expand our reach into new markets." said, Matt Dicks, Head of Media, Ministry of Sound. "In partnering with Skype, Qpass has helped to create an exciting new distribution channel for the music industry which can only grow and we are delighted to be involved."
via [PhoneContent]
Written by gautam.chabbra on February 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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NeoAccel which is a leading provider of internet security solutions has ambitious plans to make foray in India. The company plans to invest fifty crores in its development operations. The company plans to recruit a team of world class IT professionals to address security, technical support and networking support to both Indian and global enterprises.
NeoAccel has made a late entry in the Indian market and would have to cope with market competition in the security space. Company’s SSL VPN-Plus achieves 6x to 30x better performance as compared to conventional SSL VPNs.
According to Michael Sussai, CEO, NeoAccel:
We are capitalizing on a significant fundamental technology flaw with existing SSL VPN products, so there should not be a tough competition.
via [CXOToday]
Written by gautam.chabbra on February 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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Avaya has been identified as the global market leader in Enterprise Internet Protocol Telephony Port shipments by Synergy Research Group’s Enterprise VoIP Equipment Report for the year 2005. According to the report, Avaya is leading in IP Port shipments for the ninth consecutive quarter with 20% of the global market in the fourth quarter of 2005. Avaya was also declared as a leader for third consecutive year in IP Port Shipments with 21% for the full year. In terms of IP Telephony revenue also Avaya led with 23.1% share. The company also completed its eight millionth IP telephony line shipment during the quarter with nearly one million IP port shipments in the quarter alone.
via [Strategyiy]
Written by gautam.chabbra on February 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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Yak Communications has introduced the Yak Unlimited Calling Plan for international customers. It is being offered in addition to the other VoIP services offered by Yak which includes YakForFree peer to peer Virtual Videophone and YakToAnyone PC to PSTN calling. This plan allows international customers to choose a local North American number to associate with their account in order to make and receive calls to and from analog or mobile phones anywhere in the world.
It also provides many other features like voice mail, caller ID, unified messaging, conference calling and call waiting for $19.99USD.
via [VoIP-Magazine]
Written by gautam.chabbra on February 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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Earthlink is playing a high stakes game of poker. At stake - beleaguered Atlanta-based ISP’s future. Its two big bets - cellular MVNO and muni wireless networks. Both are costly mega-million dollar investments. It has already carved out one (Helio) and raised outside capital from SK Telecom. Could muni networks division be next, with a big cash infusion from outside investors?
By Om Malik
It should have been quite a day for Earthlink. It wasn’t.
The stock ended down for the day, despite what seems to be good news. The company made a joint bid to San Francisco-wide wireless network along side search and online advertising giant, Google. The two companies, would offer two tiered service - a slower free version by Google, and a for-fee but higher speed (1 megabit per second) service by Earthlink.
On surface seems to be a great partnership. Earthlink takes out one of its biggest rival, and the joint bid is enough to calm the nerves of bureaucrats that always favor brand names. (Google, of course doesn’t have to worry about managing the network or those pesky headaches.) The bid to build-and-operate a municipal wireless network is one of the four strategic moves being made by Earthlink to grab a tiger called broadband by the tail.
Like America Online, Earthlink has been in a desperate fight to make itself over, using any and every broadband technology. Broadband over powerlines, Fixed Wireless, MuniWireless, Broadband MVNO, and Voice over IP - anything to get off its dependency on incumbent - DSL or cable - access pipes.
These are expensive initiatives that come at particularly harrowing time for the company. According to its most recent earnings statement, the company is losing premium dial-up customers who are switching to cheaper People PC offerings or to broadband. The broadband business’ profits are taking a toll, because of increased competition and costs. (I bet the incumbents are squeezing blood out of a stone here.)
During the fourth quarter of 2005, EarthLink maintained its position as the fastest-growing value narrowband ISP by adding 104,000 net PeoplePC Online subscribers, added 63,000 net broadband subscribers in the quarter. EarthLink continued to manage the decline of its premium narrowband subscriber base, which decreased by 174,000 net customers during the quarter….. Broadband revenues were $111.4 million, an increase of 4.9 percent over the prior year quarter, resulting from the growth in broadband subscribers partially offset by a decline in overall broadband average revenue per user.
The company essentially forecasted a flat revenue outlook for 2006, at about $1.3 billion. In the first quarter of 2006, the company is expecting an increase in its expenses, mostly due to “the expected municipal Wi-Fi market introductions in Anaheim, California and Philadelphia.” The new initiatives are going to cost between $75 million to $100 million.
“Its most profitable business is in decline … and it’s going into areas where it is late to market and has a lot of competition from some well-capitalized firms,” said analyst Jim Friedland at S.G. Cowan & Co. brokerage in San Francisco. “The company wasn’t in dire straits last year, but it’s not necessarily in better shape this year.”
Earthlink is currently planning WiFi networks in five cities, and the total cost of building networks in these cities will be in the $50 million range, according to informed industry insiders. Municipal Wireless is the easiest way for Earthlink to get out from under the yoke of large incumbents, and it has no option but to aggressively chase these opportunities. And to turn it into a viable business, many think the company needs to play in at least 20 cities, including some NFL towns.
Twenty cities at $10 million per, could put them in the $200 million capital expenditures. [ Great news for Tropos Networks, which has become a key supplier of WiFi gear for some of the major players in the Muniwireless marketplace - including Google (Mountain View) and Earthlink (Philadelphia, and Anaheim.)
While the company has ample cash on hand, the problem will not be funding it, but explaining it to Wall Street. Its core business is that of an ISP, which gets a certain specific valuation. The muni wireless effort is “access business” with a different valuation metric. Earthlink, which is running the muni wireless business as a separate division under, Don Berryman. By carving out this business, the company could easily tap outside capital for expanding its muniwireless business.
It certainly has past history of spinning out businesses. Helio, their MVNO was spun-out and has received backing from SK Telecom of South Korea. So why not Muni Wireless Business? In recent days I have heard fleeting rumors about Earthlink spinning off the muniwireless business as a separate entity, including an investment from a big investment bank.
I asked the question to Earthlink spokesperson Jerry Grasso and he said, “It is still a fully functional unit at Earthlink.” I tried to press him for answers, but he denied any immediate plans. He refused to give any details, on the Google-Earthlink joint bid as well. (I have an inkling how that deal is structured, but cannot confirm the details.)
I guess, we will have to wait for the analyst day tomorrow in New York to get a clearer picture on the future of muni networks business. The conference call starts at 8 am tomorrow morning. And that’s just a few hours away!
Written by Om Malik on February 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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