June 28th, 2006
You are currently browsing the articles from the VoIP Digest written on June 28th, 2006.
Don't call me vending machine crazy, but now Coke is testing a new interactive vending machine called "Cokefridge," according to recent reports.
(You know I have been blogging about vending machines and interactive kiosks a bit -- much watch that!)
Shown at a recent conference in Paris, the machine is capable of delivering downloadable ringtones and games as well as taking digital photographs of customers framed against a Coke logo.
Do you think they might try to sell soda, too (like the "old school" machine at left), or is this a way to get around the new rule by many schools that only "healthy snacks" will be sold from on-school vending machines?
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on June 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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Yesterday was an absolutely rotten day for the concept of an open Internet free of roadblocks, slowdowns, under-the-hood obstacles to content from those content creators and services that won't submit to the broadband duopolists white hat (be our content partner) or black hat (stealth tweaks to deliver content partner- and your competitors- web services at [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on June 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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Written by Skype Journal on June 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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This week's podcast was with FirstHand, previously SIPquest. I spoke with President/CEO Dave Hattey, and we covered the high ground around SIP - where it is today and where it's going. We talked about their transition to a new name, which followed their recent funding news. Finally, we touched on why Ottawa is such a strong market for IP startups.
You can download the podcast here, and read more about David's background.
Written by Jon Arnold's Blog on June 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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Written by Skype Journal on June 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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Any VoIP solution basically uses three kinds of standards:
- H.323: This is a protocol for multimedia communications that supports transfer of audio and video in real-time over packet networks. H.323 is used in Microsoft’s NetMeeting and in Gnome Meeting.
- Session Initiation Protocol (SIP): This protocol establishes a session using a signaling protocol for telephone calls and multimedia conferences. It stores the customer’s IP address in their own package, which can cause connection problems when your operating system is behind a firewall. iChat from Apple, SIP phone and Microsoft’s Messenger use SIP.
- Third Party: like those used by Skype, SCCP and CISCO.
Written by pushpa27 on June 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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A funny story from a friend that's far too good not to share. After picking up his son from an appointment, my friend gets into a conversation and lets his six-year-old son play with his laptop in the backseat of the car. When my friend starts to drive away several minutes later, his son yells "Stop!". "What's the matter?," my friend asks bringing the car to a quick halt. His son excitedly replies, "I've got a wireless [Wi-Fi] connection and I'll lose Nick Jr. if you drive away". That's funny.
Written by Mark Evans on June 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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VoIP technology is taking a big leap towards integration with data applications. The day is not far off when VoIP is embedded in ERP and CRM applications, a move that will allow employees to make VoIP calls at the touch of a button without leaving the environment of the application they were working in. Integrating VoIP with other applications of a business so that information can flow seamlessly between business processes with the added bonus of the human voice aspect in addition to email and text is the next step for VoIP vendors, according to Gartner’s managing vice-president, Bob Hafner.
Joan Vandermate, vice president of product marketing at Siemens, believes that in another four years, voice presence will be embedded in applications. Siemens and Germany-based StepAhead Software are already working on such a product. SAP and Oracle are not far behind – they are also involved in talks with VoIP vendors to offer this capability. IP Communications reports:
Voice communications are headed toward becoming part of an overall software architecture incorporating voice, Web conferencing, e-mail, and IM. Microsofts next version of Live Communications Server incorporates voice and Web conferencing. The people we talk to are looking for a distributed software architecture that allows for intermingling of Web conferencing with instant messaging and call management rules, says Zig Serafin, general manager of Microsoft unified communications.
Written by pushpa27 on June 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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The OSS/BSS software platform from TransNexus, NexSRS, is now fully compatible with the Entice Session Border Controller from Emergent Network Solutions. This enables secure VoIP peering between the two, which communicate using the OSP peering protocol that is supported by VoIP platforms from Cisco, Veraz, Asterisk, SIP Express Router and OpenSER. OSP peering protocol is an operations and billing support (OSS/BSS) protocol standard. TMC Net reports:
The system combo uses Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) services for a more secure peer to peer access control and settlement accounting among interconnect peers. This security feature allows VoIP wholesalers, VoIP clearinghouses, IP transport providers and network co-location providers to "increase customer loyalty and generate new revenues from peer to peer VoIP traffic," noted the companies' news release.
Written by pushpa27 on June 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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Organizations are mandated by compliance measures to save every email, every document, and every transaction. They are unsure of what to delete and what to retain, for fear of litigation at a later date. The problem is compounded in the case of voice mails. The use of VoIP tools suites that deliver voice mails to a user’s email inbox is on the rise, and with it, the quandary of storing voice files that are much larger than text files.
Storage issues rear their ugly head when there are multiple copies of the same file stored in different locations – on the voicemail system, the recipient’s inbox, in personal folders, on backup tapes, and on the server. If the mail in question has been forwarded to a few colleagues, the copies in their email boxes are also stored. The need of the hour is for voice mail to be included in an organization’s document-retention policy that decides what should be saved, how long it should be kept, where it should be stored, who has access rights. Naturally, voice mails that affect compliance will have to be retained.
Content-addressed storage, where only a single copy of any non-duplicated file is maintained, is not much use in such situations as such storage platforms come into the picture only after the data on the file has outlived its usefulness.
The solution is a voicemail system should be smart enough to retain just a single copy of the same file sent out to multiple recipients. This process, known as single-instancing, can help reduce redundancy, reduce server workload, and save a large amount of disk space.
Written by pushpa27 on June 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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Ross Levinsohn’s wheeling and dealing to get News Corp. back in the Web game has been ridiculed by many as profligate and late. But he may yet prove them all wrong. … this is my latest article for Business 2.0, which is now available online. A lot of people had some wonderful comments and insights on Robert Young’s post from yesterday, and perhaps this piece adds to the whole conversation. I hope you find the time to read it. (Of course you could read about Ross’ boss here!)
PS: Slow Blogging today - a pinched nerve is preventing me from writing today!
Written by Om Malik on June 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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BellSouth will launch its fixed wireless broadband service in five new cities in the third quarter of 2006. The service will be available in some select parts of Melbourne, Fla.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; Greenville, Miss.; Charleston, S.C.; and Albany, Ga. The service will have a downstream speeds of up to 1.5Mbps. The system transmits signals between local radio towers and a small non-line-of-sight desktop subscriber modem and utilizes BellSouth licensed WCS 2.3GHz spectrum. Other cities where the service is available include Athens, Ga;Palatka, Fla.; New Orleans, La.; Gulfport, Miss.; and DeLand, Fla. In addition, BellSouth announced yesterday that it would begin lab trials of WiMAX next quarter using Alcatel’s Evolium® WiMAX solution.
Written by Om Malik on June 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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Vonage announced their oft-rumored USB "VoIP-on-a-stick" product today. Nothing new here,
Mplat has a similar product called Mplat FlashPhone F2K that I wrote about. Unlike the
Vonage V-Phone which is limited to Vonage, the Mplat device not only comes standard with
Skype software but it's also compatible with MSN,
Google Talk, and other VoIP services. Prices for the Mplat device start at about $40 for the 128MB unit and $80 for the 512MB model.
VoiceStick also has their USB "VoIP-on-a-stick" product that has been out for awhile. It's unclear how much memory is on the USB-based V-Phone and if Vonage allows you to install third-party applications, like say Skype?
As
Russell Shaw points out, who is going to pay $40 just to make a VoIP call when you can just pick up the phone? Sure the $40 gives you a turnkey VoIP solution (embedded Vonage software) that you can simply install into someone else's PC and then be "good to go". But are you really "good to go"? Does this PC have a microphone or headset? Unlike the Mplat, I don't believe the V-Phone has a builit-in mic, but I'll have to confirm that.
Why a user wouldn't simply download and use the Vonage softphone client instead of paying $40 is beyond me. Although, you have to pay $9.99/month for 500 softphone minutes, but you do get the added benefit of gaining access to your SIP credentials for use in other SIP devices.
I
wrote back in February that a source informed me that
Vonage would be opening up their SIP credentials which would enable third-party softphone clients (and SIP ATAs) to connect to the Vonage service. This was supposed to happen at the end of 1Q, but that didn't happen. Instead Vonage launched their
failed IPO and now have their shareholders to answer to. They certainly aren't going to open their SIP credentials now (for free), since that would negate the need to pay $9.99/month for the softphone client and upset already
irate Vonage shareholders. Now that Vonage is a public company, I wonder if their first SEC filing will include a breakdown of not only the number of subscribers, but the number of paying softphone client users as well. They may have had to disclose that information already as part of the IPO process. I'll have to go look. But in summary, nothing to see here. Move along...
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on June 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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We all know someone who has a web phone service by now, right? Everybody wants to give it a try and not surprising as the number of people turning to VoIP as a low-cost alternative to traditional phone service has nearly doubled in the past year, and the industry has struggled to keep pace, according to PC World. We are also by now familiar with some complaint or the other about the services of their web phone.
Though there are growing number of complaints about the VoIP service, it is not doing much to dampen the heightened curiosity towards Internet telephony. Among the hundreds of complaints regarding VoIP service that are filed to state public-utility commissions, the most common involve dropped phone calls, poor sound quality, problems with transferring numbers from standard phone companies to VoIP providers, and long wait times for customer service.
Did you know that by replacing landlines with Net phones, you may be not be able to access your 911 emergency services? FCC regulations require VoIP firms to inform customers of the important differences between calling 911 using a Net phone and doing so with a traditional landline phone. However this is often not passed on to the consumers despite the regulation.
Then there are the “drooped call†complaints and hundreds of people have had their conversation cut short abruptly much to the annoyance of many consumers. There are problems with the sound quality and also consumers who have had to give up their old numbers when it would be so much easier for VoIP providers to have a liaison with standard phone companies to enable users to keep their numbers.
Finally, there is a lot of fine print you may be missing: low usage fees, early termination fees, and mandatory shipping costs for returning faulty equipment to name a few. You could be called a business account if you receive 75 percent or more of the calls on your account, or make 75 percent or more calls and that translates into huge hikes in rate. What's your experience?
Written by shiama on June 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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FON drops router prices for 1M customers to foster adoption, but will service providers allow them?
Written by VoIP Magazine Featured Stories on June 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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There is a
new release of Skype for Linux v1.3 (in beta) that was announced today. It's been awhile since Skype released a new version for the Linux operating system (last year in fact). One of the highlighted features includes support for the ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) sound system, which
Jaanus points out is one of the most requested features by the Linux community. X11 API was added, and the "latest-greatest" emoticons as well as flags are supported in this release. Mood messages were also added. It doesn't appear the Linux Skype client supports videoconferencing still. Bummer.
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on June 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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Now the Jajah registered users can make free international calls among themselves using the VoIP service of Jajah. The offering came from the Jajah, a web-based VoIP service.
The company calls it Jajah Free Global Calling Plan, the plan that allow the registers customers to make free calls to other users by using any type of phone; softphone, IP phone, conventional landline phone or cell phone.
Although the company claims it global plan, the free services are restricted to some selected countries such as United States, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Australia, UK, Germany, France, Italy and most other European nations.
Via: [VoIP Central]
Written by gautam.chabbra on June 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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I was reading a story last night about MySpace in the latest issue of
Wired, and it twigged me about a discussion I had with my brother, Sean, about whether marketing really matters within Web 2.0. If you think about it, many of the biggest brands and most popular services -
MySpace, Google,
YouTube,
PhotoBucket - were mostly created on the strength of low-cost viral marketing and word of mouth. There were no expensive advertising campaigns or well-crafted public relations initiatives. Instead, these companies offered compelling and useful services that resonated with consumers. So what role does marketing play within an environment that prides inside on low development, distribution and marketing costs? Is there room for hotshots like
Tara Hunt, who expound
new marketing theories for the Web 2.0 world. You could probably make a good argument that Web 2.0 companies with interesting and useful services can get away with a single marketing person (albeit someone who can wear a variety of hats). Instead of marketing campaigns, companies should just focus making their services, meeting the needs of users, and using nontraditional tools (blogs, podcasts, self-generated e-mails from the CEO when someone signs up for a beta, etc.) to build a community and create a brand. Of course, you could argue these are marketing tools but they are grassroots as opposed to hiring some slick marketing agency to "build" your brand.
Update: Ben Barren has a few bon mots about the Wired story while Om Malik takes the opportunity to highlight a
Business 2.0 story he wrote on News Corp.'s Internet strategist, Ross Levinsohn.
Written by Mark Evans on June 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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Bush Pilot (Audio in German)
Bush Pilot (with English subtitles)
Thanks to Otmar Lendl for pointing out this one.
Written by VoIP and ENUM on June 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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According to Skype's PR people, a new beta version has been
posted today that adds ALSA driver support to the Linux version of the program. This is important for users of outboard audio gear like USB microphones, which utilize the ALSA framework. In addition, Skype has added mood icons and a new getting started wizard (just what Linux users need).
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Written by Ted Wallingford on June 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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Verizon Business will be providing an advanced VoIP Security Assessment Service, the service highly productive for the business and government customers.
The VoIP Security Assessment Service also known as the professional service is developed to make out and tackle potential security vulnerabilities connected with customer premises-based VoIP and hosted IP PBX systems from any hardware and software vendor.
A business team of about 300 security professionals supports the Verizon's VoIP Assessment Service that solves the various problems like fraud, loss of service, denial of service attacks, viruses as well as newer challenges associated with the integration and interoperability of VoIP software and hardware.
Via: [Vonmag]
Written by gautam.chabbra on June 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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It appears that Freshtel, the leading VoIP service provider and technology developer will stand tall in the UK VoIP market. It has adopted an aggressive marketing strategy in this regard. The VoIP service provider has now decided to start its own retail VoIP service in UK and joined hands with Binatone to produce internet phone products to meet the need of the customers. Freshtel disclosed it earlier this year. They will sell their products Binatone's existing retail network throughout the UK, in a staged implementation from August 2006. Binatone's telephone products are hitting the UK market. Binatone makes one in four phones purchased by UK households, says Dino Lalvani, Binatone COO.
Via: [VoIP Central]
Written by gautam.chabbra on June 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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With SingTel preparing to deploy VDSL2 broadband technology, Singapore is all set to receive a high-speed internet access network that will allow 100Mbps over existing copper infrastructure. Based on Ericsson's EDA VDSL2 technology, the network will make possible a triple play service (Video, Voice and Data) over the legacy local loop. The striking feature of this latest VDSL2 standard is that it uses Ethernet that facilitates the service provider to use VLANs as the delivery apparatus across the entire access network.
Via: [VoIP News]
Written by gautam.chabbra on June 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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