July 10th, 2006
You are currently browsing the articles from the VoIP Digest written on July 10th, 2006.
SightSpeed is an interesting company that I've become familiar with through Andy Abramson, who does PR and advisory work for them. They're doing industry-leading work in the area of PC-based video calling, and their upcoming release is going to take it much further with place shifting for TV. This sounds very promising, and for anyone who has been following Slingbox, it's hard not to get excited about the possibilities here.
I haven't experienced this first-hand yet, but am planning to next week. Until then, you'll have to get the scoop from uber-blogger cum Internet entrepreneur, Om Malik. Om has the story and he posted about it to his blog earlier today. As noted on his post, look for a more detailed analysis in the next day or so.
Technorati tags: SightSpeed, Jon Arnold, Place shifting, Om Malik, Andy Abramson
Written by Jon Arnold's Blog on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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This is a 3 part post about a story I hope you'll enjoy.
Part 1 is the basic story itself, which came out this morning.
Part 2 is a guest blog posting from my son, Max, about a related story that ties in nicely to today's Vonage story.
Part 3 is a link to my appearance this afternoon on ROB TV talking about the Vonage story.
Ok, so here's Part 1. It's pretty short.
Today, there was news of Vonage acquiring Digital Packet Licensing Inc. The story was not widely followed and I saw very little coverage on it until late today. I talked about it earlier today with a few people, and appeared on ROB TV this afternoon to comment on it (see Part 3 for the link).
Basically, Vonage seems to have pulled an interesting defensive move by acquiring a company who has been suing Verizon (and Sprint) over the same patent infringement issues Verizon is going after Vonage about. How about that?
So, in effect, Vonage is counter-suing Verizon since they now own the company that is suing Verizon. I'm not a patent expert, but it could be a smart bargaining chip to make this thing go away, especially with more suits coming. In fact, another suit came forward today from Klausner Technologies about a voicemail patent infringement. It's not easy being Vonage....
If you want to continue the thread, I invite you continue to Part 2...
Technorati tags: Vonage, Jon Arnold, VoIP
Written by Jon Arnold's Blog on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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Welcome to Part 2! By now, you should know the basic Vonage story this series of posts is built around.
Part 2 is a bit different, but there's an interesting connection here.
This afternoon I appeared on ROB TV here in Toronto to comment on the story. No big deal, but here's the twist. It's summer, and my oldest son, Max, was around and came along with me to the studio. My entourage, so to speak!
I wanted to share a couple of things that came from his being there. First, while I was in the studio, Max snapped a photo of me and the host, Pat Bolland with the other part of my entourage, the Nokia N90.
So, that's what it looks like when you're on TV.....
Ok, that's the fun stuff. For the rest, I'm going to let Max do the talking - this is his second guest posting on my blog, and I sure hope he does more of these. Take it away, Max....
"While waiting for my dad to make his appearance on ROB TV, I was looking through a magazine on one of the tables in the studio lobby, when a Vonage ad caught my eye. I began to look at it, when I realized that the product being advertised, was an idea that I had 2 years ago when I was first introduced to internet telephony. It was a USB device the size of a flash drive with an dual optical microphone/headset port that could be universally connected to any computer containing your account information (I.e. how many minutes you have left, your address book, etc.) and VOIP software, for immediate launch and use upon connection, without any downloads being necessary.
It didn’t take me very long at all to notice that this was my idea. I said “Hey, dad… you remember in 2004 when we met Niklas Zennstrom? I showed him this idea!”. While recalling what happened during that time, he stated that, yes, indeed, I did show him some ideas for VOIP ideas that he vaguely remembered, and said that this was one of them. At this time, I had several emotions running through my head such as “wow… the next big breakthrough in VOIP technology was technically made by me?”, “Could Zennstrom have taken this idea and sold it to Jeff Citron for Vonage?”, “will any of my other ideas have a breakthrough like this?”. Upon all this happening, we were called into the studio, and we further discussed this on the way back to the house, where we decided that this would be a good blogging topic, and would go especially well with an idea copyright infringement occurring with Vonage.
Thanks for reading!"
Max Arnold
For reference, Max is talking about the V Phone that Vonage recently launched - here's the press release, photo below...
Most of you don't know Max, but he's my 13 year old son, and someone should hire this guy quick. As he mentioned above, not only did he think of this idea and share it with Niklas Zennstrom 2 years ago, but he also figured out how today's Vonage story has strong parallels to his idea that became the V Phone. I'm impressed.
So, for the patent lawyers out there, if any of you think there's a way for Max to get some true due for his ideas, he'll be happy to strike a deal with you! And just in case you think he's pulling your leg, he really is one of the few kids in North America who have met Niklas personally - more than once. Kevin Delaney, too, and he's in town here with us - I think they need to get together...
Technorati tags: Vonage, Jon Arnold, VoIP, Skype
Written by Jon Arnold's Blog on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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If you've made it this far, then there's not much to say. This afternoon, I was on ROB TV commenting about the Vonage story discussed in Part 1.
The interview runs about 5 minutes, and you can view it here for the next 7 days. After that, they take it off the website.
To view the link, scroll down to the 1:50 pm time slot for today, July 10. I'm the guest on Pat Bolland's show. Enjoy!
Technorati tags: Vonage, Jon Arnold, VoIP
Written by Jon Arnold's Blog on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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Phishing is defined as the act of sending targeted, unwanted emails to
people in the hopes of tricking them into giving up their financial
details, be it credit card numbers, banking codes, or even Paypal or
eBay account information. This is usually accomplished by getting the
victims to click on a fraudulent website link, using the graphics and
text copied directly from a legitimate service-based website. Phishing
is related to spam but is typically more targeted to small groups of
people at a time. Unfortunately, people are falling prey to phishing,
and because of past successes via email, it didn't phishers long to
apply their wiles to VoIP.
Vishing, or VoIP-based
phishing, is already becoming a problem, according to a couple of very
recent reports. With the proliferation of free VoIP software and
services such as Skype, Sightspeed and Gizmo Project,
it's also easy when the software often has SDKs (Software Development
Kits) that can be used to build vishing applications right into
fraudulent websites.
PC World reports
that such fraudulent websites sometimes appear to offer financial
services. Such sites offer a "Skype me" type of button, which
legitimate sites also offer. But when you call the fraudulent site's
Skype phone number, they ask you via recorded message to leave credit
card details. Another new scam is getting auto-dialed calls via VoIP
telling you that there are problems with your credit card. An IT Observer article elaborates further.
It
goes without saying that vishing is going to be a big problem if there
isn't a concerted effort in the VoIP industry to come up with solutions
now.
Additional sources: Business Week.
Written by ewriter on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and Software and Security.
Mobile commerce might be getting a lot of attention today, but the reality is that mobile commerce in the U.S. gets very little foot traffic, and might not gain ground for years to come. That leaves some room for a startup like Frucall that offers cell phone users a way to compare the price of goods through just a basic low-tech phone call. It’s not mobile payments yet, but its a step toward easier shopping via wireless.
The way it works is that a Frucall user calls the 1-800 number, types in the barcode of the product, and listens to a list of price quotes from Amazon, Yahoo Shopping and, just added today, Streetprices.com. The service might not convince the early adopter types, given mobile data users could easily get sick of listening to automated voice messages. I know I do.
But CTO Nasser Manesh says the service is targeted at the mainstream cell phone user that favors “good-old voice interface,” as he puts it. It could become popular with thrifty U.S. shoppers because its simple to use and of course it is free. That’s the niche the company wants to fill, given comparison-shopping on the web could be pretty easy to port to a web-based mobile phone. Nasser says the service, which is still in beta, has 700 registered users, given word of mouth.
Frucall also uses SMS to help users create a social network around shopping. Next week the company is turning a group-based voice messaging system on, that records voice messages and saves them for your Frucall peers. I’m not sure how the social-networking function will do, given a lot of social networks are based on the allure of checking out visual profiles. A mobile social network that doesn’t emphasize images, and is based on voice and SMS messaging, might not keep its users happy. But Frucall also has more tech-savvy mobile commerce plans in the pipeline, including a WAP site.
Update: Mobile commerce in the U.S. is getting hot enough to deliver $10 million more to mobile coupon startup Cellfire. Menlo Ventures led the deal, which will help the company market its cell phone coupon service to more users. (Cellfire is a GigaOm advertiser)
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Unwired and Start-Ups and Cellular and Social Networks.
The Nokia N93 looks like a wee TV, but don’t be fooled. This video phone has Carl Zeiss optics and takes DVD-quality video and 3.2-megapixel stills. But where’s the digital TV? Streaming video? Subsidized coolness?
Priced at about $600, this is definitely not a mass market phone. The N93 should have a digital television tuner (DVB-H), but that standard is not sufficiently supported on our shores and means that the U.S. continues to lag in the high quality digital-video-over-cellular front, much to my personal dismay. As a result, Nokia has been forced to aim this at folks who want to take home movies with their phones rather the folks who might want to watch the big game on their small screen.
Written by John Biggs on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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Tom Keating & Asterisk-guru & Digum President Mark Spencer
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Digium, creator of Asterisk and pioneer of open source telephony, today announced that Mark Spencer, president of Digium, has been named to Inc.com's "30 Under 30: America's Coolest Young Entrepreneurs".
Inc. selected the top 30 entrepreneurs based on their proven ability to run a successful company, manage a company with a novel approach, create a successful or innovative product, and/or otherwise demonstrate their innovative idea in the world of entrepreneurship. Inc.'s article can be found at
www.inc.com/30under30.
"I am honored to be included in Inc.'s 30 under 30," said Mark Spencer, president of Digium and creator of Asterisk. "Work has become quite a passion for me and it is very rewarding to receive such recognition."
Congratulations, Mark!
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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VoIP ubiquity in software and hardware [1, 2, 3]
is just around the corner, and it's likely to come in (now) familiar
packages. Some of these VoIP voice applications are already here, some
just arrived, and countless others are on their way. Imagine being able
to initiate a VoIP call via Microsoft Outlook,
just by clicking on a contact's name in your address book. Your
familiar email client becomes a VoIP client. Or maybe you want to send a Paypal payment via Skype, or track and buy something from an eBay auction via Skype.
Of
course, you can already do all of those activities, and many people
have. I don't have sales figures for Skype-based Paypal payments, but
it's pretty obvious that electronic payments in general are increasing.
That's true whether via the Internet, through RFID-enabled smartcards
or smartphones, or with biometric devices that incorporate RFID.
In fact, it's said that India will have the largest market for
contactless electronic payments via cell phones, with possibly up to
100 million users.
While I have a bit more faith in the security
of hybrid biometric-RFID contactless payment systems, I'm not so sure
I'd want my cell phone, or Skype or Outlook software, to be able to
make a payment without my explicit authorization. So it made me wonder
if there could be some way to authorize e-payments via VoIP, in terms
of a digital audio voice signature.
The theory's long been put forth that each human voice is unique (notwithstanding comedian and impersonator Rich Little).
While that theory has had a bit of difficulty in courts of law in the
past, newer research suggests that it's true. It wouldn't be all that
difficult, then, to take a voice scan for authorizations as an
alternative to fingerprints.
It's my feeling that such an
alternate will be more welcome than biometric scans. The reason for
this may be purely psychological. Human beings have been familiar with
voice recordings for decades. So recording their own voice does not
make them uncomfortable. Biometrics, on the other hand, is a new
science and the general populace does not have first-hand familiarity
with it, unless they work in secure-access offices, military bases, or
laboratories.
Of course, biometrics could be combined with VoIP
technology for secure authorizations. However, my feeling is that such
a combination would be unnecessary and more costly when digital audio
voice signatures could be used reliably instead, and would probably
have wider acceptance.
Sources: Owl Investigations - Aural Spectrographic, TC-Helicon - Voice Modelling Parameters.
Written by ewriter on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and Software and Security and Solutions and Hardware and Phones.
I have to take issue with the New York Times' assertion, that Old - new New - Media was a winner during the World Cup because of strong television ratings and healthy newspaper sales. While I'm not disputing a lot of people watched TV and devoured newspaper coverage, it is wrong to dismiss New Media as simply playing a "supplementary role". You only need to look at how many people got their World Cup fix from Web sites and blogs to look at how New Media played an active role. As well, the World Cup also provided high-definition technology with a tremendous showcase to demonstrate how compelling it can be. The experience watching the final between France and Italy yesterday on HD-compatible large-screen TV was awesome, and likely gave many people with a reason to check out HD. Tags: World Cup, HD
Written by Mark Evans on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Uncategorized and Main Page.
Today we'll show you how to install the latest and greatest TrixBox 1.1 with freePBX 2.1.1 in just over an hour. As with the earlier release of TrixBox, these new Asterisk products are designed to support the casual home or home office user's PBX needs as well as gigantic call centers processing millions of calls a month.
Everything is free except the hardware on which to run your new system. That can be almost any old Pentium PC or a multi-processor RAID box with mainframe horsepower. We also want to get TrixBox properly configured to support our next free application: TrixBox MailCall.
It'll let you retrieve and play back your email messages using any touchtone telephone and your TrixBox 1.1 system. And, yes, you'll need TrixBox 1.1 to make everything work.
Click Here for the Full Nerd
Written by Dal on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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It's fun and useful to explore pure IP telephony, but most folks want PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) integration as well. (PSTN is also known as POTS: Plain Old Telephone Service.) An Asterisk server can interface with "legacy" systems, which means "not IP," or your ordinary old digital and analog telephone systems.
Digium Inc., the inventors and sponsors of Asterisk, make legacy interface hardware. Other popular brands are Sangoma, VoiceTronix, and Cisco. There are dozens of different vendors, as most networking hardware manufacturers have added VoIP devices to their product lines. I'll use Digium's products as examples. These require the Zaptel drivers, which you can download from asterisk.org, and the Linux operating system—because the Zaptel drivers only work on Linux.
Other operating systems can use standalone media gateways. "Media gateway" is a broad term that includes both devices for servers, and devices for individual telephones. You can use a media gateway with your Linux system, rather than installing interface cards in your Asterisk server. Analog interfaces An Asterisk server plugs nicely into an existing analog phone network.
Just add an adapter like Digium's TDM2400P. This connects to your existing punch block with a standard 25-pair telco cable and connector. Now you have a powerhouse PBX that can do just about anything, for a fraction of the cost of a traditional PBX. The TDM2400P cards cost from around $600 to $1,700, depending on how they are configured. You may use the TDM2400P to connect your existing analog phones to your VoIP network, which allows you to replace them with IP phones on a timetable that suits you. Or never replace them, whatever fits into your master plan.
Click Here to Continue Reading
Written by Dal on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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Vonage Holdings Corp., a leading provider of broadband telephone services, today announced that it has acquired ownership of three patents from Digital Packet Licensing Inc. that enable voice over internet protocol technology (VoIP).
The three acquired patents, U.S. Patent Nos. 4,782,485, 5,018,136 and 5,444,707, are directed to the compression of packetized digital signals commonly used in VoIP technology.
"We're committed to developing, acquiring and protecting the root technologies that are at the heart of our business," said Michael Tribolet, president, Vonage America Inc. "The acquisition of these patents is part of Vonage's strategic plan to further develop our core technology and build on our innovative, affordable and feature-rich phone service. Vonage's strategic plan also includes a concerted effort to grow, create and acquire other significant intellectual property portfolios."
Vonage's acquisition of these three significant patents now places Vonage in control of pending litigation against Sprint Communications LP and Verizon Communications, among others, in federal court for infringement of one of these VoIP patents. Vonage is presently in cross-licensing negotiations with regard to them. Leading telecommunications companies including Motorola, Time Warner, Qwest Communications and others have already settled with and/or taken a license from Digital Packet on these VoIP patents, and as a result of acquiring the VoIP patents, Vonage also assumes ownership and control over these agreements.
Source: Vonage
Written by Dal on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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Navtel Communications Inc. the leader in IMS, VoIP and IP to IP Gateway test solutions has announced that it has expanded its test solutions to include large-scale TLS security, Theft of Service, Rogue Media and DoS/SIP Flood attacks test capabilities.
The new release will also add H.263 and H.264 video, AMR and ILBC audio and DTMF to an already comprehensive list of media test capabilities.“Carriers deploying IMS and Voice over IP services are concerned that an all IP network will be vulnerable to Theft of Service, Rogue Media and SIP Flood Attacks which can significantly impact the Carriers’ revenues and degrade the quality of their users' experience”, said Alvin Francis, Navtel’s Vice President of Marketing.
“A number of security appliances, such as Security Gateways, Session Border Controllers, and Border Gateways are being developed to protect the Voice over IP and IMS networks. Navtel’s security test solution is designed to validate the functions of these security appliances and test their ability to scale to support large number of users and high rates of signalling with audio, video and DTMF media, while providing acceptable levels of user experience”
Highlights of this release include over two hundred and fifty thousand simultaneous TLS connections, several hundreds of TLS and Call establishments per seconds, H.263 and H.264 video generation with quality analysis using the MDI algorithm, ILBC and AMR wideband and narrowband audio generation with VQT/QoS analysis, generation and analysis of DTMF in band, out of band (RFC 2583) and within the SIP Info message, and Rogue Media and Theft of Service test capabilities.
This release will add to Navtel’s VoIP, IMS and Security test capabilities which already include the industry leading Session Border Controller, VoIP and NCS with IPSEC test solutions.
Source: PR Web
Written by Dal on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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Networking company D-Link has introduced DVX-1000, a network telephone exchange that seeks to address the requirements of installation of a new and expansion of an existing enterprise IP communications network.
Using a built-in firewall, the DVX-1000 protects the system against unauthorized access and denial of service attacks. Commenting on the advantages of IP-PBX, Gunneswara Rao, director-VoIP, said, "With an IP-PBX, the corporate LAN/WAN becomes the platform for connecting IP phones over a shared packet network. This creates a unified environment for data and voice applications."
The DVX-1000 helps VoIP devices like SIP phones, gateways, etc to make and receive calls, implements host of voice call features and manages accounts and auto provisioning of D-Link endpoints. It is interoperable with any SIP standard based product and uses CPL and Voice XML for call control and feature implementations.
The new network telephone exchange requires minimal configuration for installation and, unlike PBX systems, it completely eliminates customer dependency on the vendor for administration and maintenance owing to its intuitive and secure web-based administration and management interface.
The DVX-1000 will be available throughout India through D-Link's regional distributors and comes with a one-year warranty.
Source: D-Link
Written by Dal on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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Zultys Technologies today announced the release of four new VoIP phones to complement its existing range of nine wired phones and two wireless phones. The new models vary in price and features, have a completely new design, and offer greater choices for customers.
All four phones have the following features:
- call control using SIP to permit interoperability with a broad range of SIP products
- full duplex speaker phone that has excellent speech quality using a custom designed acoustic chamber for the speaker and advanced acoustic echo cancellation
- patented jitter buffer to assure the highest quality when talking over the Internet
- 3.5 mm headset jack (pink and green) that permits the use of standard headsets
- 20 keys and 15 buttons ensure functions are easily accessible and not buried in soft menus
- 128 bit AES encryption to ensure that conversations are secure
- four Ethernet ports with true line rate switch
- four call appearances that permit four separate calls or a conference with up to five parties
- large backlit LCD that can be tilted to adjust viewing angle
- management by TFTP or HTTP file download or HTTP browser
The ZIP 4x4L and the ZIP 4x5L have graphical monochrome LCDs. The ZIP 4x4B and ZIP 4x5B have graphical color LCDs, a USB port, and Bluetooth to support wireless headsets and the BTC conference phone that Zultys previously released.
The ZIP 4x4L is designed for business owners that want a fully functional phone for the office. The ZIP 4x5L is designed for the remote worker because it includes a complete router with VPN, NAT, firewall, and DHCP server. This phone also has an analog port to provide local PSTN telephony service allowing a remote worker to publish a local phone number and dial emergency numbers. It can therefore be easily plugged into the broadband device to provide IP telephony, access to network resources, and the full functionality of the PBX at the headquarters, to a user away from the main office. The ZIP 4x4B and the ZIP 4x5B provide similar functionality for office and remote workers but offer additional capabilities.
“We have invested heavily in acoustic testing and are certain that these phones sound better than anything on the market today,” said Tony Cox, Managing Director of Zultys New Zealand. “Having four new phones with such a broad range of options and prices will be a great competitive advantage in this market.”
A summary of the differences between phone models is given in the following table:
FEATURE ZIP 4x4L ZIP 4x4B ZIP 4x5L ZIP 4x5B
Analog ports 0 0 1 1
LCD (graphical) monochrome color monochrome color
PoE yes yes no yes
Headset 3,5 mm 3,5 mm 3,5 mm 3,5 mm
USB no yes no yes
VPN, NAT, Firewall no no yes yes
Bluetooth no yes no yes
Voice dialling no yes no yes
“These phones are a great complement to the recent product introductions by Zultys,” said Mr. Cox. “They look great and sound excellent. The ZIP 4x4L demonstrates that Zultys knows how to build products with superior acoustics that are truly easy to use. The new phones complement the additional productivity benefits now available with Zultys VoIP systems through the release of version 3.0 of the software for its MX30 and MX250 IP PBXs.
“Customers will like the performance of the new ZIP 4x4L, which complements the recent release of the BTC conference phone and the WIP 2 Wi-Fi phone. They like the new color scheme of these phones as well,” he said.
Pricing and Availability:
The ZIP 4x4L phone is available in global distribution now. Other models will become available over the next four to 10 weeks. The phones are fully managed in release 3.0 of the software for the Zultys MX30 and MX250, which goes on general availability today. Prices are competitive with other manufacturer’s phones and can be obtained through the global resellers of Zultys products. Further details are available at: http://www.zipphones.com
About Zultys Technologies
Incorporated in 2001, Zultys Technologies has its headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. Zultys designs and manufactures VoIP communications products sold to businesses, enterprises, governments, and military organizations. Zultys develops its hardware and software specifically to create products that deliver completely integrated and converged solutions, allowing for ease of deployment, management, and use. These products support multiple languages and are based on open standards to ensure interoperability. After installation, productivity increases and operating costs decrease. Zultys sells its products worldwide and has distribution today in over 115 countries.
Written by Dal on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on VoIP Hardware.
A lot of people want to know if it is possible to build an enterprise-grade open-source VoIP solution and if there are any benefits to it.
The answer is that it is not only possible, but there are special features that are exclusive Asterisk which is an open-source IP telephony platform. Asterisk not only serves as an IP call signaling server (sometimes referred to as an IP PBX), but it also serves as a tradition TDM/analog PBX and seamlessly bridges the gap between the two worlds.
In Figure A, we have an enterprise class hybrid IP/TDM/analog telephony solution. Note that there is no such thing as a "pure" IP solution because there is no way to avoid analog devices and the analog telephony POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) world. At some point a company has to support an analog Fax machine or an analog telephone port for some thing. The only question is how many analog phones versus how many IP phones do you use and who gets which phones.
In my "Open Source VoIP" illustration, the solution is made up of several key components. They are:
- IP PBX (Asterisk servers)
- Voicemail and Fax servers
- Ethernet to T1 Bridge
- Channel banks
- Ethernet Switch segments (thick tubes labeled LAN)
- Analog phones
- Analog faxes
- CAT-5 Ethernet wiring (black)
- T1 wiring (red)
- Standard analog phone cabling (green)
- Router/Firewall devices
- IP Phones
- Computers with software IP phones
- PDAs with software IP phones
- Telco cloud
IP PBX (Asterisk servers)
PBX is a very generic term that usually indicates some kind of central box that controls all the telephones. The term IP PBX is a very loose term and usually means there is some kind of call signaling server that sets up and negotiates IP to IP phone or IP to analog POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) calls. The PBX also manages the phone system in general. In our particular illustration, we have two redundant Asterisk servers that act as the IP PBX solution. The server hardware for Asterisk in this scenario could be a generic "white box" 1U server costing US$1,000 to US$2,500 or a name brand server from an IBM, Dell, or HP costing US$1,500 to US$5,000. That's the beauty of Asterisk software, is that it can run on commodity x86 Intel or AMD hardware and the cost savings are enormous compared to proprietary PBX systems that cost 10 times more.
Voicemail and Fax servers
Voicemail and Fax server functionality can be rolled in to a single Asterisk server. The beauty of this approach is that a commodity server will have massive storage capacity compared to a proprietary voice mail solution. Voice mails can be emailed. There are smaller Internet based telephone companies that use Asterisk to host production voice mail today. Asterisk has the following voicemail features:
- Visual Indicator for Message Waiting
- Stutter Dial tone for Message Waiting
- Voicemail to email
- Voicemail Groups
- Web Voicemail Interface
Ethernet to T1 Bridge
An Ethernet to T1 Bridge such as the RedFone foneBRIDGE can be used to link multiple servers to 4 T1 devices. Even though a slightly cheaper quad T1 PCI card can be used directly in an Asterisk server, it forces you to commit those T1 resources to that particular server. The foneBRIDGE allows you the flexibility to use those T1 resources on multiple servers and be more robust in a server failure scenario. T1 interfaces connect to the Telephone Company or Channel Banks that can break out to many analog devices. The foneBRIDGE is priced US$2,200, which costs more than a Quad T1 PCI adapter but it isn't locked to any specific server. If more than 4 T1s are desired, additional foneBRIDGE devices can be added. Asterisk's parent company Digium makes PCI T1 and E1 adapters which are natively supported in Asterisk.
Channel banks
Channel banks allow you to break a T1 line in to 24 independent FXS or FXO ports. So if you bought 1 foneBRIDGE that used up a T1 to connect to the Telco and used 3 T1 connections to link up to 3 24-port Channel Banks, you would be able to serve 72 analog telephone or fax devices. Here is a great resource that breaks down some of the Channel Bank solutions and vendors. 24 port Channel Banks range in pricing from US$700 to US$1,500. Considering the cost of Power-Over-Ethernet, powered FXS analog ports are about half the price of a powered IP phone port. If you don't need so many analog ports and you're not interested in building redundant Asterisk servers, you can skip the foneBRIDGE and the big Channel Bank by going with a USB device like the Astribank 8.
An FXS port on a Channel Bank allows you to plug an analog phone in to it and the FXS will supply power to the phone. An FXO port on a Channel Bank allows uplink to a telephone company which is providing you an FXS port in the form of an RJ-11 jack. Either of the following connection scenarios are valid.
- Phone (FXO) - (FXS) Channel bank (FXO) - (FXS) Telco
- Phone (FXO) - (FXS) Telco
Ethernet Switch segments
The thick tubes illustrated in the drawing represent distinct Ethernet segments. This could be a physically separate switch or an isolated VLAN on a switch. The internal LAN segment and the VoIP segment are separated by a router/firewall device. Having the firewall is highly recommended if you don't want your phones and phone system hacked or infected.
The TDMoE (Time Division Multiplexing over Ethernet) LAN segment is for PBX-Voicemail and PBX-Channel Bank communications. In the past, TDM communications between these devices used expensive T1 cards, but this has been vastly improved by sending TDM communications over inexpensive Ethernet.
Analog phones
Analog phones are the regular phones we've been using for a hundred years. They are simple, inexpensive, and well understood. They don't have as many features as an IP phone, but they do a great basic job for many people. An analog phone has an FXO RJ-11 port that connects directly to a power-providing FXS port on a Channel Bank or provided by the Telco on the wall socket.
Analog faxes
While server based faxing has revolutionized faxing in the office place, there are times that a simple fax machine is still needed. A fax machine like the analog phone has an FXO RJ-11 port that connects directly to a power-providing FXS port on a Channel Bank or provided by the Telco on the wall socket.
CAT-5 Ethernet wiring
CAT-5, CAT-5e, or CAT-6 cabling are used for 10-Base T, 100-Base T, or even gigabit Ethernet. CAT-5 is the most generic Ethernet cabling.
T1 wiring (red)
T1 wiring is used to connect T1 ports between PBXs, Channel Banks, and the Telco. A T1 carries 24 standard telephone channels which is why a single T1 port can be split in to 24 individual FXS or FXO ports or a combination of FXO/FXS ports. A T1 connected to a Telco can carry 24 simultaneous calls.
Standard analog phone cabling
This is usually just a pair of copper cabling with RJ-11 connectors on both ends. These cables carry enough power to feed a simple analog phone. These cables are used between the Telco, the analog phone, the analog fax, and the Channel Bank.
Router/Firewall devices
A router connects multiple Ethernet segments. Having an integrated Firewall or at least a simple router ACL can limit the traffic flow between two Ethernet segments. For security reasons, it's always a good idea to restrict traffic flow to a minimum.
IP Phones
IP phones are actually special purpose dedicated computers that run VoIP software. IP phones cost anywhere from US$70 for a very basic unit to US$700 units that have large color LCDs for customer applications. IP phones can be powered via Ethernet with the 802.3af POE (Power over Ethernet) standard or Cisco's proprietary POE for Cisco IP phones or a separate AC Adapter. Adding POE to an Ethernet Switch costs an extra US$50 per port over the cost of a regular Ethernet Switch. Here is a good list of vendors that offer IP phones.
Computers with software IP phones
Software based IP phones or "softphones" run on general purpose computers and are very similar in function to dedicated IP Phones. Softphone prices range from free to US$50 and here is a good list of softphones.
PDAs with software IP phones
PDA based softphones are identical to PC based software phones only they run on small PDAs instead of full blown laptops and desktop computers.
Telco cloud
The Telco cloud represents any generic telephone company. Companies can connect to a Telco over a simple single-channel pair of copper cabling via the RJ-11 jack on the wall or they can trunk 24 channels over a single T1 line. This is still the most common approach in Telco connectivity.
There is a new breed of telephone companies that operate over the Internet and let you connect directly to them using a cheaper Internet connection. One unique benefit of Asterisk is the fact that it has its own IAX (Inter Asterisk Exchange) protocol which allows the efficient multiplexing of multiple VoIP channels. This allows you to multiplex over 180 VoIP conversations over a single T1 Internet or Frame Relay connection whereas a normal T1 can only carry 23 voice channels.
Source: ZDNet Asia
Written by Dal on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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Verizon Business has unveiled a managed service to enable large corporate and government customers to use wireless technology to securely extend the reach of local area networks (LANs) within office buildings, factories and other locations.
The offering, Verizon Business Managed Wireless LAN (WLAN) Service, enables employees to access networks, applications and data whether sitting at a desk, attending a meeting in a conference room or working in a lab or on an assembly line.
"Enabling employee mobility is key to enhancing productivity and collaboration -- proven factors driving business success today," said Jim DeMerlis, vice president of managed services, Verizon Business. "Businesses of all kinds are seeking ways to maintain their competitive edge. Our new managed WLAN Service provides organizations the opportunity to deploy a wireless LAN without additional investment in internal management and maintenance resources."
The offering is suited to a wide range of industries, including government, education, manufacturing, health care and retail. It addresses all aspects of a WLAN deployment and provides a platform for the introduction of future applications, such as voice-over-WLAN. As a result, customers can better focus on core business activities that drive revenue and value.
Source: Verzion
Written by Dal on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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I got a chance to check out Metalink’s wireless chip technology a few months ago, as the company played a crystal-clear high definition movie and ran it over three blazing-fast wirelessly-connected TV’s. If the demo was the norm, it was as easy and fast as wireless networking should be. Today Chinese consumer electronics-maker Haier said it tested its high-def TV’s that are using Metalink’s new WiFi chip set–N-compliant standard–for wireless networking.
But the technology won’t likely land in your living room for a good long while, if it makes it that far. Metalink is an Israeli fabless chip company, that has plans to work with other consumer electronics makers to embedded really fast WiFi in products like set-top boxes, DVRs and residential gateways. While the technology is the latest wireless breakthrough for the digital home, the company isn’t making any money off its innovation just yet. The company lost $4.1 million in the first quarter of this year, and competitors like Airgo, and Broadcom could very well have the upper hand.
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Uncategorized and Connected Home and Unwired and Broadband Life and WiFi.
With every teenager sporting a cell phone these days, the college dorm phone is quickly being relegated to the closet. Rave Wireless, a New York city-based startup that makes mobile software, saw this coming, and has started creating applications for cell phones that could help college kids wirelessly manage their social and academic lives.
Rave co-founder and CEO Rodger Desai says the company will launch with 15 universities for the Fall school year and another 20 or so in the months after that. The company already runs its service at Montclair State University in New Jersey, which the AP talks about a bit in an article this weekend. With the way things are moving along, he says the company will be profitable by the end of next year. The company uploaded a promo video on Google video this morning.
To meet that time frame, Rodger’s been busy signing up universities like Georgetown, doing deals with all the carriers, and even has the ear of Microsoft, who wants to get its software on college kid’s phones. That’s because the company has a savvy business model–position itself between these three deep-pocketed giants, and get parents of the college kids to cover the cell phone bill. Now that’s smart. The company does a deal with a carrier, which can build out the cellular network around the school, ensuring students can get phone coverage. Microsoft, the universities and the carriers are desperate for ways to reach these young mobile subscribers. Parents just want to be able to reach their kids.
The company’s service creates mobile channels that can be used by the university to send messages and updates to students. Students can use the service to socialize with each other. One of the more interesting applications the company has developed is a mood-based presence function. A student can set messages such as “I’m bored,” or “I’m hungry,” and these messages can be combined with GPS-based location services that help you find close-by friends that feel the same way. Another application somewhere down the road could sync with connected laundry machines that alert the students to open washers and dryers, or when your laundry load is done. A few months ago I talked with a student who was writing a mobile blog he called “Bored in the Dorms.”
Out of the 15 universities that will launch in the Fall, 6 of them require students to purchase a Rave-managed cell phone. When colleges mandate that students buy cell phones with the Rave service, the company gets a deal that can be worth around $2 million. That’s a nice deal, but the downside is that Rave has to open a store on campus to manage the handsets, which can cost significant capital.
When the college doesn’t mandate a phone, but decides it wants the service as a mobile option for students, the deal is more like $500,000. With that option the university and students still have access to all the mobile campus channels, just over student’s personal phones. To do all this, Rave has already raised $17 million from venture firms like Bain Capital Ventures, Sigma Ventures, and RRE Ventures.
The biggest hurdle to Rave’s service could be the students themselves. Mandatory phones, and universities sending you messages, doesn’t always equal cool-factor. College-backed digital music services haven’t gained popularity when there’s hipper alternatives nearby. While Rave and the VCs invested want the service to be as popular as Facebook is for colleges, a top-down approach might not be the most direct way to gain student’s favor. There’s also a lot of competition for the screen on student’s cell phones, and wireless social applications like Facebook’s mobile plans, or Intercasting’s Rabble service, could contend with Rave for most-favored status.
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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Written by Skype Journal on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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CacheLogic, a Cambridge, UK-based start-up that sells IP traffic inspection technology products says it has raised $20 million in Series C funding round led by Amadeus Capital Partners. Existing investors 3i, Pentech Ventures and The Cambridge Gateway Fund also participated in the round. The company has raised around $30 million in three rounds of financing.
The money will be used to build out the sales team, and add more depth to its portfolio. The four-year-old company is well known for releasing traffic analysis data on various peer to peer networks. It is now working on developing new products that track online video. As the traffic on the broadband networks goes up, expect the packet inspection business to get a bump, and perhaps more start-ups are going to jump into the fray.
Written by Om Malik on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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Taipei has introduced VoIP services accessible through a Wi-Fi network that covers the entire city. The “Taipei Easy Call†undertaking is expected to have various benefits including lower call rates that will save the city’s exchequer nearly $1 million annually. Ten technology providers have collaborated on the project which harnesses the power of mobile technology and the cost-effectiveness of VoIP to generate mobile internet telephony for the residents of Taipei. IP Communications reports:
The city's education system will greatly benefit from the project. Many public schools will not only have VoIP equipment installed and services hooked up, but children, parents, and teachers will be urged to make their calls over the Internet by school officials.
Written by pushpa27 on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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Though Internet telephony made its debut in India four years ago in 2002, it has gained immense popularity over the past few months. VoIP usage, which was recorded at 56 million minutes during the Q3 in 2005-2006, has registered a sharp increase to almost a billion minutes during Q4. The average international long distance (ILD) telephony market usage stands at a mere 600 million minutes per quarter.
The surge is attributed to various reasons, including the increase in bandwidth, courtesy broadband networks, a well-regulated license regime, permission to use VoIP for domestic calls, and the fact that users don’t have to pay access deficit charges (ADC) as in the case of ILD calls, which makes VoIP a quality, cost-effective option. But TRAI, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, reports that Internet telephony has always been widely used in India, but internet service providers (ISPs) are reporting the correct statistics only now.
When VoIP was introduced in 2002, over 120 ISPs were permitted by the government to offer their customers the service, but only 32 took advantage of the allowance. Other ISPs resorted to providing the service without paying license fees due to the government, hence the need to under-report the usage. But now, they are mandated to pay six percent of their annual revenues as license fees, which is why they report the right numbers that use Internet telephony.
Written by pushpa27 on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) rule mandating VoIP service providers to deliver E911 (enhanced 911) services is not being followed by all the 200 Internet telephone companies in the US. While some like SunRocket and ViaTalk adhere to the rules strictly, others do not offer the E911 service to new customers who have the service on their landlines, a few like Broadcom do not offer the service at all, and yet others like MyPhoneCompany.com leave it to the discretion of the customer.
Providing E911 services to customers entails VoIP providers to allow them to hookup directly to emergency personnel who receive the number and address of the caller’s location. The only exception to the FCC rule concerns the provision of VoIP services to areas that do not support 911 services even for landlines.
Vonage is one of the companies that says it provides only 911 services in some parts of the country, where you have to explicitly provide the emergency staff with your phone number and physical address. MyPhoneCompany.com says it offers its customers the option of signing up for E911 services which carry the one-time activation fee and a fixed payment every month.
The provision of E911 services across the country depends on the 6200 public safety answering points (PSAPs) that take care of all emergency calls. With phone companies blocking access to some PSAPs, Internet telephony providers are prevented from offering E911 services in certain locations, alleges Jim Kohlenberger, executive director of the Voice on the Net Coalition, which represents the VoIP industry.
But there is hope for VoIP providers in the form of HR 5252 and S. 1063, two Congressional bills that are under consideration, and if passed, will mandate traditional phone companies to provide access to and sell 911 service to Internet telephony providers.
Written by pushpa27 on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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The South Korean Ministry of Information and Communications is stirring up a hornets’ nest by denying access to VoIP services in U.S military bases in the Asian country. Internet telephony is the preferred mode of long distance communication as it is relatively inexpensive when compared to calling cards. The ministry claims that VoIP providers such as AT&T, Skype, Vonage, Lingo, and others do not comply with South Korea’s Telecommunications Business Act. IP Communications reports:
It was reported that military bases have already received notices about not being permitted to use non-Korean approved VoIP services. Korean VoIP minutes can reach up to more than ten cents.
Written by pushpa27 on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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A few posts back, I made a prediction that VoIP with video (WoIP) could be used to set up a new type of online dating. It's actually a prediction that pretty much anyone with an understanding of VoIP or Skype could have made. Verbdate, however, has made it come true (at least for audio VoIP), vying for a piece of the billion-dollar online dating business. [via GigaOm]
Verbdate works pretty much like any other online dating service, except that they've mashed up quite the variety of "web 2.0" Internet services. They've used AJAX
(Asynchronous Javascript and XML) coding to speed up the search
process. As well, provided a member has approved it, you can VoIP them
for free via Skype. If you prefer
to just IM chat, you can specify that in your profile. You can decide
whether or not to display your Skype status - online or offline - and
even allow people to Skype you directly from your Verbdate profile.
They've
also coupled verbdate with Flickr, so that you can post photos of
interest. Then there's the Google Maps, whereby you can specify your
location. I'm not so sure that it's necessarily a good idea to be too
specific. Fortunately, it only goes down to the city level.
Surprisingly, despite Verbdate being a Canadian startup, they were
unable to display my own city in their list. To top it all off, after
you enter your search criteria, you can subscribe to the results using
its custom RSS feed.
Verbdate
is a fascinating idea that appears to be rather well thought out. Other
web 2.0-ish features not commonly found in older online dating services
includes a "tag cloud",
which gives you a visual weighted list of keywords from a member's
profile. For example, one member's tag cloud shows "dancing" to be of
importance to her.
In all, an interesting mashup of existing
online services, but the navigation could be improved somewhat. If
you've been lamenting, like I have, that none of your friends or
relatives will download tools like Skype, or even understand it,
Verbdate might interest you. It takes chat rooms to the next level,
allowing actual chatting. It'll be interesting to see how long it is
before someone offers a similar service for Sightspeed, incorporating video VoIP as well.
Written by ewriter on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and Services and Netmeeting.
In a tit-for-tat battle,
Vonage today announced that it has acquired ownership of three patents from Digital Packet Licensing Inc. that enable voice over internet protocol technology (VoIP). The three acquired patents, U.S. Patent Nos. 4,782,485, 5,018,136 and 5,444,707, are directed to the compression of packetized digital signals commonly used in VoIP technology.
This acquisition of these VoIP patents is obviously in response to
recent litigation by Sprint and
also Verizon. I speculated that the rash of lawsuits by the carriers against Vonage, knocking Vonage's stock down even further, could be "sweet revenge" for bringing down their profit margins. But it could also be a precursor to a takeover of Vonage by
Sprint or Verizon. The cheaper Vonage stock goes, the less money it takes to acquire them.
In any case, Vonage is claiming that this "acquisition of these three significant patents now places Vonage in control of pending litigation against Sprint Communications LP and
Verizon Communications, among others, in federal court for infringement of one of these VoIP patents." We'll see.
As if on cue, Klausner Technologies, Inc. announced today that it has filed suit against Vonage Holdings, Inc. for patent infringement, with damages and royalties estimated at $180 million. The lawsuit asserts that the Vonage VoIP voicemail platform infringes Klausner Technologies' U.S. Patent. 5,572,576. Klausner Technologies filed a $200 million patent infringement lawsuit against America Online (AOL) before AOL gave in and licensed it for AOL Voicemail. I sincerely hope this isn't one of those "obvious" patents and Klausner Technologies isn't extorting money for obvious ideas. I hate patent trolls.
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Hmmmm....
11 a.m. 12:30 p.m.. 2:30 p.m. and still no sign of the new and improved Rocketboom - presumably featuring interim host
Joanna Colan, a VJ with MTV Europe. I wonder if Andrew Baron, who spent a good chunk of his weekend in Toronto, is reloading strategically. For some interesting insight into the split between him and Amanda Congdon, check out this
YouTube video featuring Baron at the
CaseCamp conference a few days ago.
Update: Here's a
short blog post by Baron on his contribution to Rocketboom.
Written by Mark Evans on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Uncategorized and Main Page and Podcasting.
You know, gadgets don't have to look cool to be cool, but it certainly helps. (Exhibit #1 please: the iPod).
Well, if you love design and all things gadgets (and Beyond -- remember that from seeing Click! recently?), then the recent issue of Business Week that featured "The Best Product Design of 2006" is must reading.
According the article, design teams from Asia nabbed a quarter of this year's gold awards, up from 8 percent in 2005. What's more, the bar of excellence is moving ever higher; design has become strategic, the very core of their efforts to differentiate what they make and do.
Take a look at the 2006 Industrial Design Excellence Awards (IDEAs), which is sponsored by BusinessWeek and judged independently by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA). Here's an excerpt from the article:
What were the key surprises this year? The strong showing by Asia is clearly one of the most striking trends. Panasonic won six awards, twice as many as the next winner and far more than any U.S. or European corporation. China’s Lenovo Group computer maker took two golds, the most of any company. Samsung Group won a gold and two silvers and still leads all global corporations, including Apple Computer, for the most idea wins over the past five years.
Wha'ts really interested is actually seeing all of these neat product designs -- you will not believe how cool some of them are! (And even for what might be consider "uncool" products.)
Read all about it at www.businessweek.com.
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A focus on services required for late adopters.
Written by VoIP Magazine Featured Stories on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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Just last week
Vonage launched their "VoIP-on-a-stick" V-Phone (see
review) and now it appears that Sandisk is going to all offer "VoIP-on-a-stick" by bundling the
Skype application pre-loaded on the SanDisk Cruzer Micro and Cruzer Titanium lines of Skype-certified U3 smart drives. The nice thing about this USB-based VoIP sticks is that you can make and receive VoIP calls from almost any PC without leaving any information behind on the host computer, but it's still a very "niche" feature.
The SanDisk Cruzer Micro with Skype preloaded is available at retail outlets in U.S. and Europe, including Skype’s online store, for suggested retail prices ranging from $39.99 to $199.99. Capacities are 512 megabytes (MB), 1 gigabyte (GB), 2GB and 4GB. SanDisk Cruzer Titanium with Skype comes in 1GB and 2GB, at suggested prices of $74.99 and $119.99 respectively, and is now shipping in most major markets.
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While we don't usually talk about stock prices here, sometimes investor confidence (or lack thereof) can be gleaned from a read of the trends.Well, today, Vonage closed at $7.40 a share, their lowest ever, and more than half the $17-a-share IPO.Today's year-in-advance, free-calling-to-41-world-locales SunRocket announcement didn't help. Just shows that VoIP prices are circling the [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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Following the crowd of the young online travel startups that are pushing community-based features, Yahoo is adding some more social functions to its Yahoo Travel site. While Yahoo launched Trip Planner late last year, looking to create a community around travel, the company has added the ability to share journals and check out other traveller’s trips on a tagged map. Yahoo has been adding more social features to many of its sites, including an upgrade of social-book marking My Web this weekend.
Yahoo Travel was already the 6th most visited online travel site in the U.S. in April says comScore Media Metrix, but it is increasingly competing with young startups that have the travel-based social-networking, blogging, and community-features down pat. Though, not the users yet.
Last month Gusto’s social networking-style travel site raised $4 million from investor William Darr, while blogging-based travel site Real Travel raised $1 million from private investors last November. Blog-based hotel review site Travel Post raised $1 million last July.
While VC’s are getting their check books out for community-based online travel, they shouldn’t expect Yahoo to be buyer. Of course, there are all those old school travel sites…
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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No matter what anyone says, mobile Web browsers leave much to be desired when it comes to accessing news - and believe me, I've tried many different tools. This is why Virtual Reach's
NewsClip product is such a compelling way to get information using RSS technology while on the road. It's such a good tool, it has put my Blackberry in an entirely new light.
Virtual Reach, a small-start in suburban Toronto, is focused on the enterprise market, although it is more than happy to do white-label deals with wireless carriers looking for a new way to boost ARPU. One of the company's
founders is Jay Steele, who started
Plazmic Inc., a rich-media graphics technology developer that was acquired by Research in Motion in 2001. If you are looking for a mobile, easy-to-use, easy-to-configure
RSS reader to get the news, blogs, you may want to give NewsClip a spin. (To try NewsClip, click on the logo on the top right of this blog)
Written by Mark Evans on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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A few days ago I read something about ABC trying to out-hustle the DVR technology. I found it amusing because these studio guys are sooooo late to the game always. DVR as a technology is at a point where most devices will carry some form of time-shifting in the near future. What he should really be worrying about is place shifting, a technology that has been gaining in popularity, thanks to Sling Media.
Place shifting as a concept, however is about to get more interesting. We have learnt exclusively that SightSpeed, Berkeley, CA-based VoIP software and services provider is going to soon add place shifting features to its new video/voip softclient. (Screenshot after the turn.)
You should expect more such entrants in the place shifting market. Last week, Engadget reported about Novac, a Japanese hardware maker that will use Skype to place shift television.
This is how SightSpeed TV works: say you have a Media Center, and you download and install SightSpeed on it, you can basically set up an account, and have the television beamed to your Sight Speed client software on another computer. You can also place shift your television channels from a Media Center to a Mac as well.
The software will come with a virtual remote to change channels. The timing of this new software release is a little fuzzy, but we have seen a demo. Hopefully, we will be able to test it out, and report the results.
(A more indepth post on this whole trend of place shifting everywhere will follow, perhaps tomorrow in tandem with a big report on Cisco’s consumer strategy and role of Linux inside the home. Any data points, send them across!)
Written by Om Malik on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Connected Home and VoIP and Start-Ups and Place Shifting.
Wireless licenses being auctioned by FCC is all set to rake in a large sums of money and the ones bidding seem to think the market is there to fork out these large amounts. The FCC is scheduled to begin auctioning the licenses for advanced wireless services on Aug. 9 in a sale that analysts have said could raise between $8 billion and $15 billion.
Who did not qualify include Cingular Wireless, the No. 1 U.S. wireless carrier, was one of the bidders that failed to initially qualify, according to forms filed with the FCC. However, Verizon Wireless and Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile have qualified to participate in an August sale of valuable wireless licenses, according to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.
Companies are interested in netting the 1,122 licenses to get more more third-generation mobile networks capable of shuttling voice, data, video and other services at higher speeds.
VoIP service on airplanes - In June, the FCC auctioned off frequencies for in-flight wireless Internet access on all domestic flights. These licenses allow the carriers to offer wireless seat-back phone service as well as Internet broadband access on all domestic flights. Decision has not been made to lift the ban of cell phones and VoIP access on airlines by the FCC and FAA. However, FCC has already begun proceedings to determine the feasibility and safety of such a service.
Frequent business flier survey reveals fliers don't want cell phones and VoIP on planes: This entire race to get the wireless license strangely is not doing much for the targeted consumers of these companies it seems. An International Airline Passengers Association (IAPA) survey of frequent business travelers released last week found the respondents fear “that the impending introduction of cell phones onboard commercial jets will be disruptive, anti-social and even dangerous, possibly even sparking air rage between passengers, according to Travel.com.
Written by shiama on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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WiFi phones are essentially changing the home-phone landscape, bringing cellular portability and cool into a realm that was once owned by the Bells and later folks like Con-Air and Coby (see: $9.99 special phones at your local drug store). Even though seem to be running a little bit behind schedule put forward by telephone industry leaders.
Not surprisingly, WiFi phones like D-Link’s latest, the $249 DPH-540, are essentially home phones with SIP connectivity to most major VOIP carriers (which means you’ll probably be able to use this thing with Vonage or your Cable company’s VOIP system). Surprisingly, this phone looks like a low-end, clamshell cellphone, which means the size and shape of these things will soon rival even the slimmest Motorola.
Best of all, this phone is compatible with PsipTN, which is a public VOIP telephone system that just may take the big boys down a peg or two. Expect firmware upgrades from D-Link in the next year.
Earthlink has plans to offer WiFi phones. Municipalities are also getting into the act, although only Taipei has created a faux-public network call “Taipei Easy Call” to unwire their offices and schools while making - or not making - a buck selling service to private consumers
Mobile carriers should worry about the trend because, if not today, or tomorrow, eventually the alternative s will get enough traction. If they follow the same design-and-feature curve as the cellphone, it won’t be too difficult to imagine a future where these WiFi things had better end up lying side-by-side with the latest CDMA or GSM phones.
D-Link DPH-540 WiFi Phone
Written by John Biggs on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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