July 29th, 2006
You are currently browsing the articles from the VoIP Digest written on July 29th, 2006.
The FCC just released a list of 168 qualified bidders for the AWS spectrum auction coming up on August 9th, and also announced that the process will not involve the controversial blind bidding. We’ve been following the companies interested in bidding pretty closely, and there were a few surprises in the FCC filings, including a group tied to Rupert Murdoch, DirecTV and Echostar, which put down almost a billion dollars that it can use to bid on spectrum.
Wireless DBS, the consortium tied to Echostar, DirecTV, News Corp, News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch and Echostar’s Charles Ergen, qualified to bid and paid one of the largest upfront payments out of the list of interested bidders, of $972.55 million. The group’s auction plans might involve WiMAX, and prove to be crucial to these companies future as triple play becomes common place. (The upfront payment is refundable if the company doesn’t win the specturm it desires, but could be an indicator of how much the companies are willing to spend.)
The cable consortium SpectrumCo, tied to cable companies Comcast, Cox, and Time Warner Cable and Comcast CEO and Chairman Brian Roberts, among others, qualified to bid and put down another large upfront payment of $637.71 million. Other cable groups like the Washington Post’s Cable One qualified and paid an upfront payment of $3.5 million. The Dolan Family, tied to Charles Dolan, Cablevision’s Chairman, qualified and paid an upfront fee of $149.98 million.
Most of the largest U.S. phone companies qualified. T-Mobile paid an upfront fee of $583.52 million, Cingular put down $500 million, and a company tied to Verizon paid an upfront fee of $383.34 million.
The company tied to Paul Allen, Bend Cable Communications, that we previously profiled, qualified to bid, and paid an upfront fee of $176,000. At least four companies backed by spectrum speculator “Super Mario” Gabelli qualified to bid, paid a total of $3 million in upfront payments. Controversial wireless bidder Allen Salmasi and Nextwave Telecom, qualified to bid through a company called AWS Wireless, and that group put down $142.83 million.
The group called POP Wireless, backed by BPL company Current Communications, which is funded by Google and Earthlink, that we profiled earlier, was listed as “not qualified to bid.” We’ll follow up with more on the upcoming auction before the big day.
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on July 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Unwired and Cablevision and Cable Cos and verizon and PhoneCo and spectrum and broadband over powerline.
The New York Times takes a look at the emerging trend of mobile phones with built in Wi-Fi connectivity and concludes that the barbarians are at the gates. Their conclusion is that WiFi could pose challenges to the traditional cell phone carriers. Maybe, maybe not!
Instead of relying on standard cellphone networks, the phones will make use of the anarchic global patchwork of so-called Wi-Fi hotspots. Other models will be able to switch easily between the two modes.
A lot of my good pals are pretty excited about this article, perhaps too excited. The story, looks at the positive side of the trend, but skips over the challenges of today’s Wi-Fi networks and consumer ability to use them as conduits for voice. These challenges, are likely to be around for sometime, despite what the folks from T-Mobile might have to say.
Later this year, T-Mobile plans to test a service that will allow its subscribers to switch seamlessly between connections to cellular towers and Wi-Fi hotspots, including those in homes and the more than 7,000 it controls in Starbucks outlets, airports and other locations, according to analysts with knowledge of the plans
Except, if you try to log on to the T-Mobile network, you have to jump through the hoops on a web page, which is temperamental at very best. Unless you have two of the T-Mobile’s Windows Mobile handsets - MDA and SDA - you cannot easily log on the the T-Mobile network.
I have tried it with Nokia N93, Nokia E61 and Nokia 9300i. It is a problem that occurs on other non-PC devices as well. Good luck entering your username and password information on a mobile phone browser. And even if you do, something strange will always happen making you repeat the process. And when you somehow overcome these problems, then try making a VoIP phone call. It would be a good way to convince your mother that you are an astronaut.
One of the reasons I ended up buying an E61 was because it boasted WiFi and VoIP in one device. WiFi is nifty when surfing the web or checking email, but VoIP hasn’t worked… period. You need special clients from Avaya or Cisco and your company needs to be using their IP-PBX systems. A simple Asterisk system, the kind I am using doesn’t work.
Even the WiFi VoIP only handsets, if you try using them outside the closed WiFi network (inside your home or office) are not that easy to use. Let me be even more blunt: WiFi/VoIP combo today is where the MP3 players were before iPod came along. So unless something as gigantic as “iPod” happens, this is just another complex technology for consumers (not the early adopters) to decipher.
The bottom line is that before WiFi-on-the-mobile becomes a legitimate way of making phone calls, you would find speedier versions of 3G - EVDO Rev A and HSDPA would come to market. The carriers will use the increased capacities to offer some sort of VoIP plans. What happens then?
That should be a topic for another Times story!
Written by Om Malik on July 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and VoIP and WiFi and Cellular.
Now that
Amanda Congdon has left the video-blogging world (at least temporarily), the medium's new star is
Ze Frank, whose in-your-face (literally), smart, rapid-fire commentary has become a must-see for many people (
Rob Hyndman calls Ze Frank one of his first stops on the blogosphere). Ze Frank's star should burn hotter now that
Blogspotting has put him on its radar. Not sure where the guy gets his inspiration each day but his video blog is darn good.
Written by Mark Evans on July 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on video and Main Page and Podcasting.
Former Second Life staffer Rueben Steiger crunches the numbers on Second Life’s growth, and figures that if the current rate of 22% monthly growth continues, there will be 3.6 million Second Lifers by July 2007. Slower growth, say 10% every month, will still bring the total number to Second Life to about 936,000 residents. GigaOM contributing writer Wagner James Au goes further and estimates that by 2008, Second Life could eclipse World of Warcraft in terms of users.
Now there are some problems with the math - it is taking a very short term trend and extrapolating it over an extended period of time, the kind of stuff which got Web 1.0 forecasters in trouble. I wonder how much the popularity and user base of WoW will grow over the same period. Interesting debate unfolding here, here and here.
Written by Om Malik on July 29th, 2006 with no comments.
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BPL, the technology that could work, or not is getting another test, this time in Austin, Texas. The Austin City Council is planning to spend around $317,500 just to test the technology, though there are no plans at present to bring this to the city dwellers. The money will be spent to see if Austin Energy’s gear is good for carrying broadband.
“Everyone is saying how great this is,” Peter Collins, the city’s chief information officer told The Statesman. “All we want to know is, what does this really do? I don’t like to jump on a new technology just because everyone else is jumping on it. This is an education pilot program for us.”
Will Collins come to the same conclusions some of my readers have, after spending the tax dollars? Chances are yes! As Jesse Kopelman says, “BPL is like LEO satellite service — I wouldn’t say there is no hope that it will become economically viable, but it is still likely decades away.”
Written by Om Malik on July 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Broadband Life.
TalkSwitch known for its specialization in the design and manufacture of innovative voice systems for small and multi-location businesses has made its debut with a bang. By launching TS-80 series as the latest addition to its line of professional quality business telephone sets TalkSwitch has entered in the telephone set segment worth $ 119, offering great features and value. The telephone sets have been designed for use with TalkSwitch PBX systems.
TS-80 telephone sets are single-line analog telephones featuring adjustable, easy to read backlit LCD display, a business quality speakerphone with 6 feature keys, and caller ID display with call logging capability. Moreover, the set has been put up so that full advantage of its features can be taken which are built into each TalkSwitch telephone system. It also includes features like programmable line access codes, hands-free paging and intercom calling, data port and message waiting indicator. TalkSwitch telephone systems are the ideal voice solutions for small and multi-location businesses with up to 32 telephone users per location.
TalkSwitch came with this product due to the rising demand for a line of professional quality telephone sets to bring about the same quality that they expect from its PBX systems. With this new addition TalkSwitch expects that its telephone lineup would fit a range of budgetary requirements. It needs to put cautious steps as initial acceptance have proven misleading in many product launches. Customer will take some time to evaluate TS-80 telephone sets. For the time being TalkSwitch can enjoy and laugh.
Written by Peter Poffenberger on July 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Networks.
Rob Hyndman, one of the
mesh gang, is chairing
a roundtable on online freedom of speech on Aug. 5 in Toronto at the Rivoli featuring Jon Newton of
p2pNet,
Michael Pilling of OpenPolitics.ca,
Jason Young of Deeth Williams Wall, and Russell McOrmond of
Digital Copyright Canada. More details on the event can be found
here.
Written by Mark Evans on July 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Main Page.
TeleCommunication Systems, Inc. (TCS) , a leading provider of mission-critical wireless communications has signed an agreement with ConneXon Telecom Inc. to resell TCS Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) E9-1-1 service. This will mark TCS' foray into enterprise arena without the overhead associated with integrating the national medium to small businesses that ConneXon serves. The company has expressed to provide leverage to its partners through enabling reduced costs with innovative technologies.
TCS works closely with VoIP providers, PSAPs and local exchange carriers (LECs) to manage the deployment and operation of VoIP E9-1-1 services. ConneXon's strengths to build its channel will be increased through TCS once the integration takes place completely. TCS too can add channel partners without additional cost. This will enable both companies to realize lower aggregated costs for the E9-1-1 services. But how this mutual admiration will continue and how these two service providers live on mutual dependence will attract some performance dissection.
Designed for mobility, TCS VoIP E9-1-1 service enables ConneXon provides affordable emergency call routing to small- to medium-size VoIP providers and enterprises. The agreement reached would see ConneXon launching its new service called 11Enable(TM), which will be based on TCS' VoIP E9-1-1 service to deliver for Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs). Providing an effective, real-time call routing of emergency VoIP 9-1-1 calls the system will now live to over 3,000 PSAPs.
As per the companies, the agreement is going to impact more than 120 million wireless subscribers by providing most reliable, flexible and cost-effective VoIP E9-1-1 solution available. Aren't you waiting to see that happening? Please do…
Written by Peter Poffenberger on July 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Wireless.
Three companies have come together for the sake of providing voice peering to TDM-based services. sentitO Networks along with Stealth Communications and telx have partnered to accelerate the exchange of VoIP services with traditional TDM based service providers . The partnership is going to make free availability of connections with sentitO's IVG1200 Intelligent Voice Gateway will translate TDM to VoIP telephone calls between traditional service providers and VPF Members and thereby playing a crucial role.
According to sentitO, this agreement will be on trial-basis service that will allow service providers to start generating profitable VoIP revenues with less required capital while simplifying their network architecture. It is here that the service providers now would easily interface into the VPF. Free VoIP trials will be first of the results coming out of the partnership.
Service providers, as claimed, will be able to take advantage of this free service benefiting towards increased profit margins. Further it will also be able to simplify carrier and enterprise interconnection, reduce time-to-revenue by standardizing interoperability, seamless migration from trial to network implementation, and rapid deployment of VoIP services.
sentitO's Open Network Xchange (ONX) architecture and solution will set to provide media and signaling conversion between the PSTN and IP networks, while facilitating new service delivery in a multi-vendor environment. The ONX product portfolio includes the IVG1200 Intelligent Voice Gateway, Proxy7 Signaling Gateway, and PreVision Network Manager. Is too much of option will keep organizations at bay? Questions are being heard for migration for many organizations from traditional infrastructure to newer one will become difficult. Complexity has been taken care of but how complex that statement going to be only time will tell.
Written by Peter Poffenberger on July 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Networks.
Since
Wordpress burst onto the blog publishing scene, it has been a free service but this status may be poised to change. The company, which took some angel financing, earlier this year is
experimenting with "contextual adsense" advertising. Here's Matt Mullenweg's explanation:
"Depending on how it goes, it could enable you guys to put your own ads on the site, or some sort of share. We don't know yet. The main is that if ads aren't going to be worth it on the site, we'd rather not have them at all for free users (Yours or ours)."
In many ways, Wordpress adopting some kind of advertising platform is no surprise. With the service growing and
investors now on board, Wordpress needs to evolve from a cool public service to a revenue-generating business. Mullenweg has talked about his company,
Automattic, selling value-added services to Wordpress users but that could be a challenge given Wordpress users are used to paying nothing. So, advertising seems like a natural way to generate revenue given the advertising market's growth and Wordpress's popularity. If Mullenweg can convince Wordpress users (like me) that the introduction of advertising will be a win-win scenario, he may not have much resistence.
Written by Mark Evans on July 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Uncategorized and Main Page.
Incognito Software has now upgrading the scope of cable operators . It has announced multi-unit testing platform for cable modems and multimedia termination adapters (MTAs), the Broadband Command Center Multi-Unit MTA Test Appliance. By doing so it makes possible for the cable operators to test as many as 44 devices with one appliance in less than five minutes.
Speeding up of point-and-click testing of PacketCable MTAs and DOCSIS Modems will come by applying the introduced multi-unit appliance that comes in two models: BCC MTA Test Appliance MU 24 Port and MU 48 Port. The latter can will enable to test up to 12 PacketCable MTAs and 32 DOCSIS cable modems simultaneously. Using the appliance's simple point-and-click GUI, a regional field technician can process 1000 MTAs and 3000 cable modems in an eight-hour work day. Does that sound good? Probably yes when compared to the prevailing conditions you have been going through.
Going ahead this increased capacity will allow quick redeployment of functional devices to the field. This will thus eliminate cost of all unnecessary returns for manufacturers. Known for being the global provider of automated IP address management,domain management, and multimedia provisioning systems Incognito products come with device provisioning, VoIP call agent simulation, and test automation software pre-installed on a Linux server, as well as an Ethernet switch, modem multiplexer, and all the necessary cabling.
Incognito has emphasized that with its right tools, cable operators can realize substantial savings from their operations. Manufacturers are just hoping that that doesn't remain half toasted offer for the product that needs to be sold. Though going by Incognito its device performance based on Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP) and Network Call Signaling (NCS) standards would prove beneficial for increasing profitability and productivity.
Written by Peter Poffenberger on July 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Software.
Huge! That is the word for Nortel is enjoying. First, a deal worth US$ 20 million for providing VoIP services and secondly, to Rolls-Royce – a brand to give an impetus others will be jealous of. It comes about from the recent agreement under which Rolls-Royce is to transform its telecommunication services (makeover) from Nortel worth US$ 20 Million. Rolls-Royce, as everyone knows, is a world's leading provider of power systems and services is going for a overhauling of its entire telephone network into a single, advanced network to be provided on VoIP services based on Nortel technology under a seven-year contract.
The agreement has upped Nortel position as the preferred provider of enterprise telephone network solutions for global voice network. It is going to serve about 26,500 users in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Norway, Germany and France for Rolls-Royce company which feels that Nortel is going to simplify their communication network.
Nortel has established itself as a global player having expertise in management and integration of voice and data networks. It enables to deliver a platform to address future communications requirements for a company but there are more challenges when there is a new client. Its global voice network for Rolls-Royce is to make sure that its client receives a comprehensive voice calling services, unified voice, fax and e-mail messaging, and a platform for introduction of advanced mobility services for communications and collaboration. But will it? The numbers of raised eyebrows are less, as decision comes from the Rolls-Royce! Now, Nortel has to live up to expectations galore.
Written by Peter Poffenberger on July 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Business VoIP.