Networks
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LEMONADE (License to Enhanced Mobile Oriented and Diverse Endpoints) is an IETF
(Internet Engineering Task Force) protocol and working group aimed at
addressing email bandwidth issues for mobile devices, which are often
restricted in storage space for email attachments. The LEMONADE
solution includes extensions to existing email protocols (IMAP, SMTP)
designed specifically for mobile email. One feature is the ability to
"forward without download", whereby an email with an attachment could
be forwarded to another email address without the attachment first
being downloaded by the mobile device.
Isode has updated its M-Box
software to implement all of the IETF's mobile email recommendations.
They offer the first commercial email server to do so. [sources: Cellular News] The IETF also maintains the SIP signalling protocol, which is an open standard used in VoIP services to emulate the functionality of regular PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) calling features.
Written by ewriter on October 6th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Software and Standards and Networks.
If you use VoIP to make a lot of calls and have concerns about call quality,
what you might try doing is keeping a call log, which you can analyze
later. Use a spreadsheet or word processor program, and keep all or
some of the following information in a grid or table form:
- Date of call
- Time of call
- Duration of call
- Quality
of call - any info, including approximate (great, good, okay, poor,
terrible) or even the number of dropouts you experienced.
- Type of VoIP - both delivery medium and interface (e.g., pure play, soft phone/ IM, power-line, etc.)
- Which VoIP service/ soft phone (e.g., Vonage, Comcast, Skype, Windows Live Messenger)
- Destination locale (local, national, international, or even specific country, state, province)
For example, a few days ago, I spoke to a writer in India using Google Talk,
around mid-afternoon, New York time zone. He sounded like he was in the
next room, over an intercom system. The quality was very good, but
three or four times, his voice dropped out for a few seconds. Although
I probably didn't miss any important words, I suspect I didn't hear
every word.
If I manage to remember to keep a log over the next
few months, I'll be able to analyze the data and compare different VoIP
services/ soft phones. If find any interesting patterns, I'll share the
information here.
Written by ewriter on October 6th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Software and Business VoIP and Networks and Residential VoIP.
Back when I was working on a Master’s degree, one class I was in was
part of a trial with another nearby university. The course was being
jointly taught by two professors, one in each town. The room my class
was in was a small amphitheatre with a large screen usually obscured by
the overhead projector’s screen. The other university had a similar
setup. Occasionally, our lecturer would turn on the transmission and
we’d see the other professor, who would conduct the rest of the lecture
- or vice versa with our professor. This only happened a few times
during the semester, and the transmission was over a satellite link. It
was video-conferencing of a sort, but very expensive, if I recall.
This
was back around 1993-4. I know the room is still there, although I
don’t know if they still use the satellite link. The campus had access
to the "web" back then, which consisted only of email, ftp, gopher,
archie, newsgroups, etc., access. The full Internet was only a few months
away. Today, there is Wi-Fi across parts of the campus, accessible if
you have a student or alumni account. But video-conferencing is not
only a lot more accessible these days but far less expensive. Anyone
with an internet connection and a video-calling soft phone like Sightspeed can have a video conference.
In fact, several SMBs
(small and medium businesses) in the United States are using
video-calling functionality. A small teacher certification business in
Texas uses Sightspeed’s video-conferencing feature to communicate with
their students. The founder of a consulting firm also uses Sightspeed
to communicate with both clients and colleagues (in another office).
Yet another company uses Skype and the Festoon add-on, which bridges both video and voice calls between Skype and Google Talk.
VoIP itself can save a small business.
Video conferencing can save a business even more, coupled with the
ability to share clickable URLs, documents and desktop applications,
the need to travel even locally between offices can be reduced
significantly. This not only saves money but valuable time.
Written by ewriter on October 5th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and Software and Networks and Business and Netmeeting.
According to a report by ComScore Media Metrix, 107 million Americans
viewed just over 7Bln online videos in July. That's almost 70 videos
per person, or about 2 per day per person. YouTube, however, was only
the third highest provider of content, and Google was somewhere lower.
The
surprise, to me anyway, is that Yahoo was first and MySpace second.
There are, of course, numerous other sites that offer video, but the
ones that have made themselves viral (that is, allow their content to
be embedded on other websites) have a larger piece of the market share.
Which is a shame because sites like Atom Films
have been offering quality indie films and other video content since at
least 1999. But even today, you still cannot embed their content, as
far as I can tell.
IPTV (Internet Protocol TV), a hot growth area of IP convergence, is a more encompassing term for online video content, including live broadcasts. Recently, Microsoft announced a deal to exclusively broadcast live online concerts over the next few years. This week, Om Malik broke a story that the founders of Kazaa and Skype are working on something codenamed The Venice Project, which will be a P2P (peer-to-peer) platform for IPTV,
and will include an ad-based system. When this tantalizing-sounding
piece of IPTV software comes out, and if Kazaa and Skype popularity is
any indication, expect the per person average for online video watching
to skyrocket.
Note: Just before I posted this, CNBC TV had a segment suggesting that YouTube
might go down the tubes completely because of copyright issues and
potential (not pending) lawsuits. If Hollywood and the music industries
are smart, they'll sign a deal instead of turning on YouTube. Of
course, mouth Mark Cuban said that only a moron would buy YouTube, but
that's not what I'm suggesting the entertainment industry do.
[additional sources: Teleclick, CNBC TV]
Written by ewriter on October 5th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and Software and Networks.
I don't believe this for a minute, given how long BlackBerries have
lasted and how much their users love them, but.... IDC has release a
report saying that BlackBerries cannot last against push email
solutions from Microsoft and Nokia. [via Teleclick.ca]
Here's
why I don't believe it. The people who use BlackBerry, as far as I'm
aware, are employees. Their employers have all the equipment and
servers in place. While Microsoft and Nokia may succeed in signing on
new business, existing RIM clients are probably unlikely to want to do
a wholesale switchover. Unless there was some overwhelming benefit. And
not just cost, I'm thinking.
Another factor? RIM stock. I know
former RIM employees who became millionaires and retired. One of the
founders of RIM set up an incredible science facility in the Waterloo,
Canada area, where RIM is headquartered, with $95M of his own money, if
I remember correctly. Then the brightest physics minds of the world
were invited for fellowships.
It isn't just Canadians,
particularly employees, who bought stock. No doubt loads of Americans,
particularly executives, bought stock. With Microsoft stock sucking
bollocks for about five years now, execs aren't going to let RIM stock
decline just because Microsoft or Nokia comes out with a new competitve
product. I'm sure of this. When Microsoft had hot stock, I found this
same kind of attitude from executives I worked with. I despised
Microsoft's strategies back then, but they defended the big M, even
though I presented facts as to why they were not the better choice. No
luck at all.
So even if Microsoft and Nokia
come out with something better, they have a whole "Crackberry" culture
to deal with. And with RIM moving into cool phones like the Blackberry Pearl and plans to get into VoIP, they are expanding their potential customer base. They may not have as deep pockets as Microsoft
and Nokia, but they're deep enough to, say, make a few strategic
acquisitions. And they are a wildly innovative company with a large
"fan" base.
Written by ewriter on October 4th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Networks and Services and Phones.
The number of options for VoIP service that you have available to you
are quite numerous, whether for business or for residential use. If you
have asked your self some questions about VoIP usage, then you can look at some of the options.
First, consider the mediums of Internet and VoIP delivery, in no particular order.
From these mediums, you still have choices. For example, you can get pure play VoIP over broadband (e.g., Vonage)
or go through your broadband provider - who is very likely to charge
you more for the same service, on top of your monthly broadband costs.
Unless you get a triple-play bundle, which usually includes TV,
Internet access, and VoIP service. But how many small business offices
have either high-speed dialup or cable Internet? Some cable companies
charge a lot more to install cable for a business than for residential.
And then for on-the-move/ on-the-go calls, you can use either a Wi-Fi VoIP phone or a dual-mode
cell phone, over a variety of wireless networks. And depending on the
cell phone/ smartphone/ PDA that you have, if any, you may be able to
use mobile VoIP over its cellular data network. These plans are often
capped at 250 Mb (megabytes) of bandwidth per month, even if the plan
is called "unlimited". Some cellular providers will not allow you to
use VoIP, by their TOS (terms of service).
As you can see, lots of choices. Each choice has its own advantage or
disadvantage, as well as falls into a diverse monthly price range. Not
all of these options will be suitable for you, depending on where and
how you will use VoIP. So to narrow your choice down further, make up a
spreadsheet or table listing your options, in your area, and the costs
of available plans. Then cull the list based on the features you want.
The simplest solutions, though not necessarily best for your needs, in my opinion, are:
- Free soft phones for people who have a computer and broadband Internet access. Skype, Gizmo Project and others have free calling from PC to phone in some countries.
- A plug'n'play VoIP adapter that will let you use a standard telephone over broadband. The adapter comes as part of a VoIP plan, which is offered to you either from your cable/ broadband provider, or a pure play provider like Vonage.
- VoIP via PSTN lines using a service such as Jajah. Gizmo Project has something similar as well. Both require you to register yourself and the numbers you will be calling. Gizmo needs for both parties to be registered online.
The first two require a broadband connection (as do pretty much
everything mentioned above). But if you are tech-savvy or have help,
there are more sophisticated options, especially when it comes to
enterprise or SMB use.
Written by ewriter on October 4th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Software and Business VoIP and Networks and Residential VoIP.
MTV is looking for VJs for their Total Request live show, which often features Sightspeed-driven videos by fans. Sightspeed is arguably the best video-calling VoIP soft phone available. Andy Abramson talks about
the MTV casting call and some of the positive aspects of this
development, including a new type of social interaction enabled by VoIP.
Earlier this year, Skype promoted a special contest for fans of alt-rock band Coldplay. The two young women who won got to Skype with members of the band for several minutes. Now consider the Japanese TV broadcasting via Skype.
So there is great potential for celebrities to connect with fans via
IPTV over VoIP IMs, either live or recorded. And with video interaction
through Sightspeed, Skype or similar soft phones, citizen video could
become the source of unique TV or IPTV content, such as 11 Cameras (which is supposedly a view of the lives of several people via 11 video or webcams viewed through instant messengers).
Written by ewriter on October 3rd, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and Software and Networks.
Ginny Granger writes about
a network of free public VoIP phones called iKiosks in Aberdeen,
Scotland. The iKiosks offer free email, videomail, internet access, and
free VoIP phone calls. Calls are based on software similar to Skype. Robert Gordon University is one of the first iKiosk sites.
This is a marked contrast to SJSU (San Jose State University) in California (and other universities)
where they had planned to ban the use of Skype on campus but later
reversed their decision. Maybe something like iKiosk would be more to
the university's liking? Free public phohes is a radical idea. In
Australia and other places, public VoIP pay phones are being rolled out.
Written by ewriter on October 3rd, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Software and Networks and Phones.
If you have a busy company that gets a lot of calls during the day, you
know that there can be some peak times when your telephony system can
barely handle the load. You may have a trickle of callers one moment,
and a flash crowd of callers the next. Then there's the potential that
maybe someone is running a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack
on your system, to compromise it. How does a VoIP system tell the
difference? The VoIPSec site has a thread that points to VoIP sercurity company Vodasec,
who are researching this very issue. They are working on detecting
system overloading prior to its happening, as well as distinguishing
between the two types of overloading.
Their technology is patent pending, but they do give a brief description
of how their model works. The sample graphs they display show a
distinct difference between the two types of overloading. This could
definitely be useful for the next generation of load-balancing VoIP systems, and for ensuring quality of service.
The essential principle, I'm assuming, is to study long-term behaviour
of both types of overloading and refine both behaviour models as new
data is collected. In fact, statistical analysis using MMAs (Multiple
Moving Averages), or some other trend indicator, could probably deduce
the diference. But these are not the kind of models you really want to
advertise online, or you'll have another generation of smart vishers.
Written by ewriter on October 3rd, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Software and Security and Standards and Networks.
IT Week has an article that says a number of VoIP providers are
claiming vendors like Cisco are misleading enterprise customers about
their ability to deliver all of a package of network-related
infrastructure functionality including voice and data transmissions.
Cisco is saying that they cannot guarantee the performance or quality of VoIP calls.
Now I'm not going to defend Cisco, but I'm using this as a jumping off point for a reflection about VoIP call quality. My research the past few months points to something very odd regarding the way that some VoIP software might be delivering calls. Computers use two different protocols known as UDP (User Datagram Protocol) and TCP
(Transmission Control Protocol) to send information over a network.
Without getting into a deep discussion about either one, let me just
summarize their behaviors. UDP chops up data into packets and sends it
out over a network without much regard to the order the packets arrive
in. TCP chops up data but sequences packets in their natural order.
Now I am not an expert on how various VoIP services
function internally, but some article I read, which is lurking in the
corner of my mind, suggests that some of them may actually use UDP
instead of TCP. This would be absurd because what a person is saying
would be scrambled. The only way that that could work is if a "code"
packet went first, and acted as a map to know which arriving UDP
packets should be sequenced and how. That would cause a lag in
conversation over a great distance but not over short distances. This
is because the receiving decoder would have to wait for an entire set
of packets to arrive before they can be sequenced properly and
delivered to their final destination.
At least theoretically.
However, if the "map" packet some how got messed up itself during
transmission, the call or parts of it would be undecipherable. Which
could explain some call quality issues, whether due to sabotage or not,
I don't know. This does not mean that VoIP services using TCP could not
also be scrambled up, though. So both types of transmission are
susceptible to problems.
My point may be moot, as there may not
actually be any VoIP services using UDP. I cannot see any benefits of
doing so, besides for adding an extra layer of voice data encryption at
the expense of suffering a bigger time lag than for TCP. However,
having never written or looked at the innards of VoIP software, I can't
say one way or the other. But in summary, call quality can be affected
by many factors, and each contributes to the whole experience. PSTN lines have had the benefit of a hundred years of innovation and improvement, as someone said recently.
Written by ewriter on October 2nd, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Software and Security and Networks.
Well, I didn't find it, exactly. After I posted my Single geek male seeks single toll-free number
article, Michael Steverson from SkyNET-tel.com posted a comment saying
that they can do what I was asking for right now: a single 800 VoIP
number. Do my eyes deceive me? Really?
The deal is US$9.99/month
for a Personal 800 Number. That has to be teamed with the One Cent
Plan, which is $4.99/mth. Calls are then $0.01/minute. While I haven't
been as much of chatty kathy lately, if I were to resume my old talk
habits of 800+ minutes per month, well that'd still only be 14.98 +
8.00 per month. My old toll-free number cost me about $35/mth, if I
remember correctly. So even if I used 1000 minutes per month, that'd
still be just under $25/month. There's also the unlimited plan of
$23.99/mth (first month free) or the unlimited business plan of
$39.99/m.
Coupled with a personal 800 number, that's not a bad
deal at all, if I can find a reasonable VoIP call-in number plan and
suitable area code, then I'm set. The 800 number requires a local
number, but if I can get a local area code with VoIP when I move to the
big city, then I'm good. (That might be a problem, as most popular VoIP
services do not cover the city I'm moving to, including SkyNET, from
what I can tell.) But the 800 toll-free number is apparently good for
36 international locations. People from all of these locations can call
the number as if it were local. Man, am I excited. I can finally enjoy vishing and annoying telemarketing calls from all over the world.
Sounds like a deal. Currently, most of my voice chat minutes are local. I've been taking advantage of Skype's
SkypeOut free calling promo in North America, to test quality and
generally freak friends and family out with my pc-to-phone calling. On
the other hand, I did say I was moving. I would still need a soft phone
Call-In number for the new locale. If I find one, basically for not
more than what I used to spend only a regional 800 number, I can get
pretty much what I was looking for: a single toll-free 800 number, not
counting a local number. (SkyNET will have their own soft phone in the
future. Just a suggestion, but guys/ gals, base it on SIP, so that it
can communicate with users on Gizmo Project, iPhox, and others.)
Incidentals:
There's a shipping charge of $25 for the free SkyBOX, which I assume is
a VoIP adapter for the broadband connection. They're charging sales
tax, even though it's the Internet. Maybe it has to do with where I am.
And there's a $19.99 activation fee. Okay, I'll stop being a
cheapskate. This still seems like a pretty good deal
I'm listening to
Roy Orbison, the man with the soothing golden voice, right now as I
write this. So maybe I'm a bit sentimental at the moment, but this
might just be the beginning of a beautiful VoIP relationship. Thanks,
Michael. The only things that worry me are (1) the secure HTTP server
certificate on their website has expired. So I hope they'll fix this
before I decide to commit to a serious relationship. And for those of
you that don't use credit cards, like myself, they accept payment by
Paypal. I'm not moving just yet, but when I do, I'm itching to try
this. Although if Skype ever gets real mobile support going, I'll have a grand time combining Skype and SkyNET.
Written by ewriter on October 2nd, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Networks and Services and Business and Solutions and Residential.
Song Huang from SoonR responded in detail to my original post about Sooner, as well as a post about soft VoIP for mobile devices. SoonR is an application that lets you not only make Skype calls from your mobile
phone or PDA, but it also lets you view your desktop applications.
Apparently it can render all kinds of information on your phone
including Powerpoint slides, AutoCad and Illustrator drawings, and PDF
documents.
Except that I couldn't get it to work, other than
being able to view my desktop's folders. I couldn't get a simple text
file, nor could I use the Skype feature to phone a friend. Actually, I
could, but when SoonR called my cell, I was still on data mode and it
went to voicemail. So the friend I was trying to call heard my voice
mail instead of me.
According to Song's response to my problems
with SoonR on my Palm Treo 650, it appears that I missed a few details.
Treos are problematic, especially on EV-DO networks. (At least, I think
that's the issue. Palm devices using Microsoft Pocket PC don't have the
problem.) SoonR allows you to set a delay so that you can switch from
data over to phone mode. I missed that. But then, I missed that setting
for a few apps. Delays are how Mino Wireless and EQO Mobile
both get around the Treo data network problem. (Though at least Mino's
is automatic, and EQO might be as well.) So if you are having similar
problems with SoonR on Palm OS-based smartphones/ PDAs, try configuring
the delay setting.
Now I guess I have to add SoonR to the
growing list of VoIP/ voice apps that I have to try or re-try. But
assuming that it will work for me now, with all the features it has,
it's an incredibly cool application. At least in theory. While it'd be
very nice to have access to apps like Outlook, Powerpoint, Illustrator,
and PDF, it's like I said about Cognos announcement about running their
business intelligence software
on Blackberry devices. Basically, the app may be cool, but all of them
suffer from the fact that mobile devices typically have such small
viewing screens.
What I'd like to see - although I am a geek - is a HUD (heads-up
display) that I can connect to my PDA, and a simple interface -
possibly a wired glove (maybe even RFID) to actually interact with the
application as simply as possible. This is about the only way I'd care
about running complex apps or viewing complex data on the go. (That and
a better cellular data plan.) Even my relatively large Palm Treo 650 screen won't cut it for me.
Written by ewriter on October 2nd, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and Software and Networks and Services and Solutions and Phones and PDAs.
Telecommunications service provider OPEX Communications is offering VoIP services to all Internet users, irrespective of their mode of connection. All you have to do is log on to the Chicago-based company’s website, and, for $9.99, you can subscribe to the OPEX Click-2-Dial plan that offers unlimited local and long distance calling.
The company claims that the service is equally effective for users of DSL, Cable broadband and dial-up. With call quality being the major differentiator in choosing among the numerous VoIP service providers, it remains to be seen if OPEX can deliver what it promises – good quality calls for all users. To test the company’s guarantees, follow this link.
Written by pushpa27 on September 30th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Networks.
Nortel and Videotron have signed a multi-year pact according to which the communications solutions provider will provide primary VoIP technology and professional services to the Canadian cable operator and integrated communications supplier. Videotron will deploy Nortel’s complete VoIP solution that includes Nortel IMS-ready technology and Nortel Global Services with project management, multi-vendor integration and testing, security assessment, and deployment to make sure that the network implementation goes through without hitches. Nortel is also bringing to the table continuous reliability in the form of technical support, emergency recovery, and repair services. IP Communications reports:
Videotron's VoIP service will utilise their existing Optical DWDM and SONET network, which uses the Nortel Metro Ethernet Networks portfolio, including the Optical Metro 5100 and Optical Metro 3500, to provide IP voice transport and business services to more than 16 locations in the Quebec-Montreal-Toronto corridor, the company claims.
Written by pushpa27 on September 30th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Networks.
Andy Abramson talks about GrandCentral,
a new beta telephony service that lets you manage your phone numbers
from a single GC phone number. He explains why he likes it, despite PhoneBoy's and Ken Camp's
dislike. Don't know about you, but I like to have a single phone
number. When I worked for a certain large telecom's consulting
division, I carried my own pager plus one from the company, and my cell
phone, which later became two. Four phone/ pager numbers for
communication is absurd. I only keep one cell number now, a million
email addresses, a dozen VoIP soft phone accounts, but no other phone
numbers other than the one that I received free from Hullo. Still, I know no one using Hullo, so I only have one (cell) phone number to manage, at present.
On the other hand, I can see myself in the near future paying for Call-In numbers for possibly Skype and SightSpeed. Except it'd sure be nice to have a single VoIP-based phone number that wasn't tied to any one soft phone. That would be some VoIP holy grail
(or a single multi-protocol soft phone). Anyone got anything like that?
As far as I can tell, that's not what Grand Central does, but it does
let you redirect calls to find you - acting like a hub for all of your
phone numbers.
For some people, who have multiple phone numbers,
either for regular phones, mobiles, or VoIP soft Call-In numbers,
GrandCentral might come in handy. But it's another phone number, which
you'll have to give out to everyone - unless you'd rather they just
left you voicemail on whatever number of yours that they have.
That's
not really what I want, but then I only work from home now and am thus
in the minority. (For now anyway.) Still, what I'd really like is a
single web-based Call-In phone number associated with either my laptop,
desktop, or cell phone/ PDA, attached to one soft phone which could
handle calls from any of the popular soft phones (Skype, Gizmo Project, Sightspeed, etc.) and IMs (Instant Messengers) such as Aim Pro, Yahoo Messenger or Windows Live Messenger, etc.
Imagine that communications holy grail. It's a tall order. But I think it might happen before the end of the decade.
Written by ewriter on September 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and Software and Business VoIP and Networks and Residential VoIP.
So it's not just me. According to a CRN article, Skype on mobile phones and PDAs has some technical hurdles to cover before it'll function correctly. Skype CEO and co-founder Niklas Zennstrom specifically mentioned Symbian phones being more difficult than expected. PocketPC-based phones
and PDAs do have Skype, but a lot of other mobile communication devices
do not. Or when there is a Skype-related mobile solution, such as SoonR, there are still technical glitches, depending on your phone. So I can almost sympathize with Zennstrom.
In
fact, Skype isn't really the only VoIP service having this problem of
achieving ubiquity on mobile devices. I've had little luck getting
anything to work on Palm Treo 650, a very specific phone. Mino Wireless works, and Chris from EQO says that EQO Mobile
should work, too. (I'll try it this weekend.) But as for actual mobile
Skype, well Niklas Zennstrom says that have nothing to offer yet and no
timetable besides.
Too bad. I guess I'll be waiting with bated breath, and keep my outrageously expensive cellular wireless data network plan
going in anticipation. Wonder how many additional active users Skype'll
gain when they do go mobile? Maybe Skype needs to start acquiring a few
companies with some of that US$2.6B they got from eBay last year. In
the meantime, though, Skype-specific Wi-Fi and dual-mode phones do seem to work, so you might want to consider one of those for a bit of mobility.
Written by ewriter on September 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and Software and Wireless and Networks and Phones.
Should Web Traffic Be Prioritized?
Matt Brunk at VoIP Loop considers the types of web-based traffic and makes an argument
for why certain types of traffic might need to be prioritized,
especially since media convergence is pushing a lot of public services
into IP-based access.
Testing Your VoIP And IMS
Ixia has just announced their IxVoice software for testing VoIP and IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) protocols. via Light Reading] IMS is a core part of media convergence. That is, offering a variety of media over via Internet Protocol (IP), and communication between networks.
Telepresence Via Video VoIP
Be Here
is offering their TotalView "VoIP Collaboration Phone" which gives a
full-room view for conference participants. TotalView was announced at
DEMOfall 2006 earlier this week. [via VoIPLoop]
Written by ewriter on September 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Networks and Business and Solutions and Netmeeting.
Most experts agree that VoIP is good for the enterprise, but Skype hasn't typically been considered ready for enterprise despite setting their sights on business use earlier this year. Now, apparently they are working on an enterprise version
of Skype, possibly available in a few weeks. System administrators will
have control over what features employees can use. Though Ted Wallingford
doesn't think it'll go over well if the enterprise version costs money.
Why? Primarily because the product is not open source and companies are
not going to trust Skype to handle all the security without revealing
details, as well as having to pay for it.
A Computer World
piece (also linked above) says that 30% of Skype's 100M+ users use the
soft phone for business. That's far, far higher than I would have
expected, given corporate firewalls and all. As Ken Camp points out, many system administrators are wary of Skype, particularly in terms of network security.
(Even Intel was concerned when some of their employees installed it.)
That's because of the proprietary communications protocols it uses
(despite claims of Skype being cloned). There's also the bandwidth
issue, which is one of the problems that SJSU (San Jose State
University) was concerned about, and for which they had planned to ban
Skype. (Most universities are in fact run like corporations; some even
are incorporated. So it's understandable that they would want to watch
their bottom line.)
Though with some universities picking
Linux-based open source IP telephony systems such as Asterisk, I think
that Skype is missing out on a huge opportunity if they don't address
these problems. If they're listening, they should also consider the
college and university market. There is, of course, Pika Technologies
offering, which bridges Skype and Asterisk for enterprise use. However, there are likely still bandwidth and network security
issues,
at least in the eyes of sysadmins. As my colleagues are pointing out,
if sysadmins cannot monitor and measure activity over their networks,
then they are not going to be comfortable with Skype as a campus (or
enterprise) VoIP solution.
There are other enterprise issues
such as wholesale recording of conversations, which is probably
unnecessary for the university market. But aside from that, there is a
lot of overlap in IP telephony functionality for both markets. And
maybe, just maybe, the security requirements Skype has just satisfied
for Intel will satisfy the rest of the corporate market and the
university/ college market.
Written by ewriter on September 28th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and Security and Business VoIP and Networks.
This is one instance that demonstrates that not all good things come with a costly price tag. The Sam Houston State University (SHSU) is making a bold statement for the open source community by migrating all its VoIP users from a Cisco platform to a network based on Asterisk, an open source software. The driving factor behind this switch? Cost, of course, says Aaron Daniel, senior voice analyst at SHSU.
Bogged down by the licensing fees that Cisco demanded in order to run its CallManager network, SHSU has moved on to an Asterisk/Cisco model which will use Cisco phones attached to Linux back end servers running on Asterisk. This will eliminate the license fees associated with each phone attached to Cisco’s CallManager.
Another area where the Asterisk system scores over Cisco is the security aspect. With only Cisco-approved server updates and patches allowed on the Windows Server 2000-based CallManagers, Daniel felt that Asterisk offered them more control over the servers and IP PBX software to fix bad exploits in SIP.
The migration does have its share of drawbacks – Asterisk does not offer all the features that Cisco did, and Cisco will not be offering technical support to the system anymore. But this has not fazed Daniel - he is looking into alternatives for the secretarial function that was offered by Cisco besides keeping his finger on the pulse of things by monitoring online support forums and mailing lists for the community that develops and maintains Asterisk.
Daniel is also very meticulous about the documentation for the entire project. With the University already having cut back its VoIP costs by 33 percent with the use of the new system, it looks like the project is well on its way to being a huge success.
Written by pushpa27 on September 28th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Networks.
Comcast Cable, a company leading the subscriber race for cable VoIP, declared last week that they will not prioritize and tier Internet access. Earlier this year, broadband Internet providers
stirred up a hornet's nest when they announced that they planned to
charge differentrates for different customers and possibly different
types of traffic. Anyone who didn't pay would have their web traffic prioritized accordingly.
This
decision by Comcast should make net neutrality proponents very happy.
(If only all the other cable companies followed suit, then things would
be wonderful.) Comcast, who only entered the VoIP arena earlier this
year, has been doing so well with their VoIP subscriber numbers (one
million already) that they are adding 4000 jobs.
One theory states that broadband ISPs (Internet Service Providers) want
to implement a tiered Internet because of concerns that VoIP calls
would consume their Internet bandwidth, costing them profits if they
had to increase capacity.
Written by ewriter on September 27th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Networks and Residential VoIP.
EverywhereNet: Might As Well Be On Mars?
Ted Wallingford posted a fascinating article, EverywhereNet is on peoples' minds, in response to Andy Abramson's discussion of something called Open Net.
It's new territory for me, and I honestly don't think I can sum it up
for you just yet. But if you are interested in reading about ideas for
a better national and global IP infrastructure, I suggest you read them both.
Forget iPhone?
Cynthia Brumfield points to David Pogue's NY Times discussion of the rumoured Apple iPhone (not to be confused with the SIP-based iPhone from Teledex). Basically, forget about it.
Jajah Mobile Suite No Threat?
Russell Shaw weighs in with his nine reasons why Jajah Mobile Suite is no threat to cell or VoIP. Common thread: people with existing cellular or VoIP subscriptions are unlikely to switch.
SJSU OK's Skype
Phil Wolff reports at Skype Journal that, reversing an earlier decision to ban Skype
on campus, SJSU (San Jose State University) has okayed the popular soft
phone for now. The post also has a nice summary of the reasons why
Skype would be beneficial to the university. Bravo on both counts.
Written by ewriter on September 27th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and Software and Networks and Phones.
Katie Fehrenbachr at GigaOm says
that domain names with the new .mobi TLD are now available for purchase
by members of the general public. The TLD is being promoted by a group
called dotMobi, and is aimed
at people and companies that want a dedicated website for mobile phones
and other connected devices. I have to agree with her (and with the
creator of the web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee) that maybe this isn't such a
good idea. Sir Tim says that this could fragment the mobile web.
True
that. Why should you have to go to a different URL to view web content
from a mobile device? Why can't the web server determine your device
type and dish out the appropriate content? On the other hand, instead
of dishing up different types of web page content from a .com site, if
a mobile device accesses the site, the mobile web browser could be auto
redirected to the associated .mobi domain. (That means companies better
get online and buy up all the .mobi domains related to their
trademarks, even if they have no intention of offering mobile contenet.)
It seems to me like there might be an opportunity for promoting mobile VoIP services on .mobi domains, and for smart phones to have a ready-launch icon in their operating system for such a service. By the way, dotMobi has an emulator web page (for desktop computers) so that you can see how your own web pages might look on a mobile device.
Written by ewriter on September 26th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Standards and Wireless and Networks.
After the arrest of five foreign nationals in Namibia providing VoIP service
without a license, as well as goings on in various Asian and African
countries in regards to VoIP, you might be wondering if VoIP is under
attack there. Marcelo Rodriguez takes a crtical look [Voxilla] at what Russell Shaw [ZD Net] and Rich Tehrani [TMC Net] are saying.
Rodriguez
points out that both Shaw and Tehrani mention "Third World" countries
as locales where VoIP seems to be under attack, possibly due to
affiliations between the government and the traditional telecoms, but
that they leave out the US as being in a similar category. (Examples: Korea and the UAE blocking Skype.) He then goes on to reveal several examples of lobbying, campaign contributions, and all-expense golf vacations.
The
Voxilla piece is very revealing and extremely politically charged. I'm
going to take my cue to up the voltage. Let's take a few separate
scenarios. First scenario, conspiracy: the entire telephony system in
North America is fully wiretapped and all calls are monitored either by
humans or machines, for whatever political purpose the real men with
power wield. Second scenario: the first scenario is crock, but phone
calls are a valuable commodity and thus extremely lucrative. Third
scenario: a combination of both the first and second scenarios.
Choose your scenario. Either way, VoIP threatens the status quo, and hence spawns acts like CALEA, possibly attacks on Vonage's share price, and debates like neutrality vs tiered Internet
service. Everything that is happening politically in telephony
satisfies one of those three scenarios. Let's face it: VoiP is a threat
no matter how you slice your political pie.
Written by ewriter on September 25th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Security and Networks and Regulation and Privacy.
A recent study [via SDA Asia] by Keynote Systems indicates that the IP phone call quality of the twelve leading VoIP providers is better than that of regular telecoms. In general, VoIP quality has improved since last December. The study compares Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger (soft phone) against 11 VoIP providers from both pure play (adapter-based hard VoIP) and broadband (digital cable) categories.
The list of VoIP providers, based on subscriber numbers, consists of AT&T, Comcast, Lingo, Packet8, Skype, SunRocket,
TimeWarner Cable, TrueVoice, Verizon, Vonage, Vonics and the
aforementioned Messenger. A separate but related study compares
end-user experience of Messenger and Skype based on usage in New York
and San Francisco areas.
According to the first report, where VoIP seems to lag behind PSTN
is in audio delay. However, I think that as more powerful computer
chips and voice processing algorithms are employed, this will improve
as well, in all categories. The full report is available for purchase.
Keynote, by the way, has several free white papers
(registration required) on VoIP and voice data applications in their
resource library. A couple of the papers discuss "load testing" for
websites and web applications. I haven't read them yet, however, I've
quickly scanned the one entitled "Enterprise Load Testing for Web
Applications". While it is a technical paper in terms of topic, it
seems accessible to someone comfortable around computers and savvy
enough with some of the intracies of the Internet and web servers.
Proper load testing and load balancing on larger VoIP telephony systems
will definitely go a long way towards keeping call quality high. What's
more, load-balanced VoIP systems are less susceptible to DDoS
(distributed denial of service) attacks.
Written by ewriter on September 25th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Vonage and Software and Networks and Residential VoIP.
Universities Banning Skype
A number of universities have
decided to ban Skype, stating that it consumes bandwidth and supposedly
is an "illegal" waste of resources. (Illegal? Seriously?) Grid
computing apps are also included in the ban at several California
universities including University of California Santa Barbara, San Jose
State University, and California State University Dominguez Hills. They
are not banning Gizmo Project or Wengo. [via Ars Technica] Several countries also ban/ block Skype, including Korea and the UAE (United Arab Emirates).
Telrex CallRex VoIP Call Recording For Cisco
Telrex claims that their CallRex version 3.1 is the first VoIP call-recording solution to be certified for encrypting Cisco Unified CallManager 5.0 calls. [via Business Wire]
SIP Trunking Makes VoIP Telephony More Flexible
Rich Tehrani reflects on how SIP trunking has made IP telephony
more flexible by reducing the amount of proprietary hardware. He points
out that not all IP PBXes are connected to SIP trunks; that over half
of them (some used by IP-based call centers) are still using PSTN trunk
lines.
Written by ewriter on September 25th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Standards and Networks and Regulation.
Apparently 92% or more of mobile phone users in Argentina use SMS (Short Message Service) to send text messages. I don't have any exact figures, but given the technical, phone-specific, network-specific problems with mobile VoIP on cell phones and PDAs, I'm guessing that more people use SMS that mobile VoIP.
That's
probably true everywhere, not just in Argentina. Not sure about South
America, but in the UK, young people also use SMS to flirt and even dump people. Maybe Radio Shack should have used SMS to fire 400 employees recently, instead of by email. Dear hunny-bunny, don't come in to work on Monday.
Written by ewriter on September 22nd, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Software and Wireless and Networks.
IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) is essentially the broadcasting of live or
recorded video over the Internet. With announcements like Apple's
recent iTV device, which wirelessly streams content from a computer to
a TV set, you can see that big players are gearing up to take advantage
of the potential IPTV market. While there are already many soft interfaces for IPTV, here's one that you likely already have on your computer: Skype. The VoIPRelay blog has a quick piece on how to watch TV on Skype (albeit Japanese and Taiwanese content) via Skype's video calling feature. I tried it (but directly from the source web page's Skype-me buttons) and the quality was no worse than what I get from an external TV capture box, from cable.
Written by ewriter on September 21st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and Software and Networks.
Yesterday, I reflected briefly on Alarm.com's signing of SunRocket as a partner, who follow Vonage, the first to sign. Like other competitors InnovAlarm and NextAlarm,
Alarm.com offers home security alarm services using VoIP for the
communications component. Garrett Smith thinks that this sort of
additional VoIP-based service might give pure play VoIP providers such
as SunRocket and Vonage a bit more competitive edge, by offering their own "triple play" of services, compared to broadband providers.
While
I vaguely said something similar, I still feel that cable providers
have the edge, especially considering that Alarm.com is target this
type of VoIP provider next for partners. PhoneBoy weighs in, basically
agreeing, and says any advantage will be minimal because pure plays won't be offering anything unique.
That
doesn't mean that there isn't any market for pure play VoIP. Anyone who
does not have or want a computer (there are such people) might prefer
to opt for a service such as Vonage, were they forced to change from
traditional telephony. Or simply want to save on long-distance calls.
Written by ewriter on September 21st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Vonage and Networks and Services and Hardware and Residential.
Some experts are saying that VoIP in the enterprise represents serious security risks [CIO], making a company vulnerable to vishing
(phishing via VoIP) attacks. One anonymous security researcher claims
that bank networks will be subject to penetration and the phone lines
to hijacking - thus leading to the theft of credit card numbers and
bank account data.
Now I'm not a VoIP security
expert, but I can make an educated guess, based on my many years of
computer experience, that this guy, who goes by the pseudonym "The
Grugg", is grossly exaggerating the security issues,
potentially to gain some attention. It's absurd to think that banks,
who have been dealing with electronic security issues for several
decades now, would even think to put their data and VoIP networks on
the same lines. Besides telecoms, I've worked at a big mutual fund
company. Even they had backup and redundant networks, with firewalled access to account information.
While
it's likely true that little technology exists at present to filter out
vishing attacks, there's nothing that says a bank's data network has to
run on a VoIP network. And just because a bank's telecom system is
converted to IP telephony doesn't mean the data network is suddenly at
risk. In fact, if someone wanted to mount a vishing attack on a bank,
they could do so already using an existing VoIP system (sorry, not
going to tell you how). And they wouldn't have any more or less success
than if the bank had a VoIP network or not. (On the other hand, a VoIP
phone system could potentially be taken offline by a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack if a load balancing system is not in place.)
Despite
what The Grugg (give me a break) is saying, I'm not so sure that bank
data networks are at risk. Of course, I could be proven wrong, but
let's hope I'm not, as this expert is saying that vishing attacks on
banks will probably start later this year. I wonder how he knows this.
Written by ewriter on September 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Security and Networks and Business.
Alarm.com, a home security service that uses VoIP as a means of
communication, signed their second partner, SunRocket. Earlier this
year, they announced their first partnership with Vonage. [via PC Mag] Vonage recently announced that they would be providing optional VoIP installations
courtesy of a third party. Now if Vonage is smart (or maybe
Alarm.com?), they'll work out a package deal for customers whereby they
can have both their VoIP and Alarm.com's security system installed
simultaneously.
While both current partners are "pure play" VoIP
providers, Alarm.com is also aiming at partnerships with ISPs next.
ISPs, of course, offer "triple play" services: television programming,
Internet access, and VoIP. The PC Mag article talks about quad-tier
services, which would include cellular phone service, and refers to
Alarm.com's service as being like a fifth tier for ISPs.
A similar VoIP-based security alarm service is being offered by InnovAlarm, who will be getting US$10M in venture capital.
Written by ewriter on September 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Vonage and Networks and Services and Hardware and Residential.
Many, many years ago, when I was still working in the bricks-and-mortar
world instead of online, I cursed this new telephony feature called
voice mail. It soon became one of the most inefficient features of
communication, often causing me to have several conversations with an
inanimate object until I could reach the desired person. Not
surprisingly, at least to me, John Parkinson points out this
talking-to-voicemail phenomenon as being the primary motivation behind
a communications feature called "voice presence", which started with IM (instant messaging) client and is now being explored witih VoIP. He goes on talk to about the four reasons why VoIP is a good call
[CIO Insight], a conclusion reached based on the analysis of a pre-VoIP
telephony system's CDRs (Call Detail Records) and call analysis. (I'll
warn you that it's fairly technical article.)
The gist of the
analysis is that, from an enterprise viewpoint, there were four lessons
learned, which result in the conclusion that VoIP is a better choice.
Lesson one: use of voicemail
wastes time and reduces productivity. Lesson two: conference calling is
growing in use, and is poorly handled using regular phones. Lesson
three: conference calls often use multiple channels. I.e., voice and
text chatting, application sharing, etc. Lesson four: VoIP offers a unified communications channel to support these activities, including video calling.
On a related note, Leon Erlanger has a 4-page article on building VoIP into the enterprise
[ComputerWorld], providing several company case studies including
Subway restaurants, a school, a credit union, and a training center.
Enough there to probably extrapolate from, in case you are planning to
convert to VoIP in your business.
Written by ewriter on September 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Business VoIP and Networks.
VoIP Central (via EFY Times) indicates
that revenues from mobile VoIP will outdistance that from fixed VoIP in
Europe and the USA, but especially in the latter, by 2012.
I think that there will be a fair bit of growth in business use of fixed VoIP, especially since communications costs for SMEs [VoIP Central] is expected to be reduce by 20-40%. This cost reduction can be enough to save a small business. As for cellular VoIP,
there are a few solutions that work like a charm, but it has farther to
go than either true (hard) VoIP (e.g., Vonage, SunRocket) or soft VoIP
from a desktop or even laptop. However, SME and SOHO
owners who see the benefit of fixed VoIP are likely to add cellular
VoIP to their business comm toolkit, and then tell their friends about
how much money they save. Hence, eventually cellular VoIP can most
definitely outsell fixed VoIP.
Written by ewriter on September 19th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Wireless and Networks and Business.
While some cellular providers are outright banning VoIP on their data networks, Vodafone
is allowing it via 3G laptop data cards. They are, however, monitor
activity because they don't want their network used as a gateway. [via CBR Online]
I'm not sure what this means, precisely, but at least they aren't banning VoIP
like T-Mobile and others. I think, basically, the primary issue brought
up previously is that cellular data networks just cannot handle VoIP
calls en masse. There just isn't enough bandwidth.
For completely different reasons, Skype Journal notes that San Jose State University (SJSU) in California may ban Skype use on campus. They have their reasons
(PDF, 2 pgs), and while some of them may seem legit, others seem
misinformed or plain contradictory. Skype Journal notes that Oxford
University recently lifted their ban on Skype.
Written by ewriter on September 19th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and Security and Networks.
Web sites have already been throwing around the term 4G
(fourth generation) as the successor to 3G mobile communications
technology. But a bunch of biggies in the industry had a jam session
recently to decide exactly what 4G should have. Silicon.com has a brief look at their ideas.
I'm thinking 4G will include GPS abilities for sure, as location-aware phones [Silicon.com] are expected to be a Euros 622 M business in Europe by 2010. In fact, GPS will be part of 3G phones as well, what with Nokia buying Gate5, a mapping company, and surveys showing that cell phone users want such features. But with Samsung already testing 4G tech, it'll be very exciting to see what else such phones will have - hopefully dual mode VoWiFi and cellular calling,
I suppose, however, that companies like T-Mobile will have to be convinced not to ban VoIP from its cellular wireless network.
Written by ewriter on September 18th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Wireless and Networks and Phones.
Steal VoIP, go to jail. Or if you're Edwin Pena, barely out of his teens, you go on the lam, possibly using your 40-foot speed boat, which was paid for by resold stolen VoIP service.
Pena was arrested by Miami police a few months back, along with his
buddy hacker. They supposedly stole and resold around 10 M minutes of
VoIP service and were facing up to 35 years on a couple of charges.
Pena skipped bail and is suspected of heading somewhere from where he
can't be extradited. Time to bring in the CSI: Miami crew, though I'm
not sure they've covered any telecom crimes to date.
These
two guys are obviously bright minds, given the way they engineered
their whole set up. Had they thought just a bit further, they could
have been doing VoIP security consulting and making good money, instead
of doing time. Given the shortage of skilled workers in the IP telecom
industry, it's a waste. A good mind is a terrible thing to waste; a
good VoIP mind even more so.
Written by ewriter on September 18th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Security and Networks and Services and Business.
Some airports are offering VoIP service, but with the recent problems with Sony batteries, airlines such as Virgin Atlantic are banning
[Silicon.com] Apple and Dell laptops on flights. Since that likely
rules out Sony laptops (though it's not mentioned anywhere I've seen),
maybe I should buy shares in Acer? Or does Sony not use their own
batteries for their Vaio laptops?
If you're a workaholic like me
and tend to do a lot of work while you're jet-setting around on planes,
that means also making VoIP calls (business and personal), assuming
your flight has on-board Internet access. With these new rules, I
wouldn't be surprised to see more laptops banned. (My old Dell laptops'
power transformers used to overheat, not the batteries. The same thing
happens with my current Acer laptop's transformer, but not as hot.)
This
means you may want to revise your work habits and maybe carry around a
smartphone with cellular Wi-Fi access, for VoIP calls. (Alternately,
some countries have VoIP pay phones,
so airports may follow suit.) Make your calls in the airport when you
take off, and retrieve messages when you land. And just relax on your
flight, if you're able.
Written by ewriter on September 18th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Wireless and Networks.
About two years ago, I was helping a young musician develop some
confidence in his guitar-playing abilities. (I had spent several years
booking bands for shows and promoting local musicians in the past, so I
decided to help this immensely talented young man.) Because we worked
conflicting schedules at the time, we oftened chatted using MSN
Messenger. in text mode. At that point, I'd forgotten that Messenger
had rudimentary VoIP (pc2pc only) capabilities.
When my friend, A, initiated a voice chat, I was impressed. At least for a few seconds, until I realized how crappy call quality
was (probably mostly due to my then poor wireless signal). But he
pulled out his guitar across town and played for me some of the new
songs he'd composed. I reviewed them with him. Despite the quality
issue, it was quite a heady experience.
Fast forward a couple of
years and VoIP call quality has improved - at least for some soft
clients. I lost touch with A, because of his strange work hours, and
last I heard, he was a bit disheartened about not being able to
collaborate and thus gave up writing new songs. (Unfortunate, because
he has the talent to be the next John Mayer or Dave Matthews, his fave.)
His
biggest problem was finding people to collaborate with when he was
actually at home, on his computer, too tired to go meet with anyone to
jam in person. Well, budding musicians will be happy to know about
Rype, a desktop application that appears to be the ultimate tool for
musical collaboration in the global village.
Rype is from guitar.com,
but it's not quite available yet, so what I'm telling you is based on
the wee bit of text at the site, and the screenshots. And it really
looks impressive. Rype will let you record, edit, and produce music,
and has a built-in social network. So I assume that regardless of where
you are, you'd be able to find someone awake to collaborate with. And
when you do finish a song, you'll be able to sell them on iTunes.
Brilliant or what?
This is one of those "killer" apps VoIP, and
I can't wait to get my hands on it, even if it costs money. (No
indication either way.) And if it's as good as it looks, or maybe even
if not, it'll probably spawn a dozen copycats/ competitors. First it
was online games using VoIP, now this. What's next?
[Found via Skype Journal, but the actual permalink doesn't work, so I haven't supplied it.]
Written by ewriter on September 15th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Software and Networks and Services and Solutions and Netmeeting.
News reports in Nepal are suggesting that the ISPAN (Internet Service
Providers Association of Nepal) is causing the loss of revenue to the
Nepal Telecommunications Authority and to the Nepalese government due
to ISPs allowing international calls via VOIP. The ISPAN denies this,
but given that this appears to be the case in other countries it
wouldn't be surprising if it's happening in Nepal. It's not clear from
this Nepal News
article whether VoIP is illegal, but ISPAN said that their ISPs cannot
be responsible for their own clients' misuse of services.
Very
interesting. I don't think I've come across any other government's
telecom authority feeling threatened by VoIP. Sure, there are other
issues such as wiretapping and CALEA,
but nothing like this that I'm aware of - it almost seems some sort of
inversion of Net Neutrality. Then again, Nepal is a relatively small
country compared to the US, and VoIP use really could cut into telecom
license profits to a significant level.
Written by ewriter on September 15th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Business VoIP and Networks and Residential VoIP.
President Asks For Warrantless Wiretaps
US president George
Bush is asking for warrantless wiretaps, particularly in relation to
prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. [via CNBC TV] Recently, US District
Court Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ordered a halt to the wiretapping
program, concluding in her report that warrantless wiretapping is unconstitutional. CALEA
allows a backdoor for law enforcement agencies to wiretap calls if
public security is threaten. However, the wiretapping program in
question was secretly signed by President Bush in 2001.
Telus Corp Wins 5-Yr Telecom Contract
The
government of the Province of Ontario (Canada) awarded Telus Corp
(second-largest Canadian phone company) a five-year, Cdn$140 M contract
to manage and supply various network services, including IP
communication. [via CNW] Telus recently announced that they were converting to an income trust.
Yahoo Messenger Plugins: Pandaf Sudoku Battle
Not sick of the immensely popular Sudoku number puzzles? The Pandaf Sudoku Battle plugin for Yahoo! Messenger 8
lets you battle against an opponent. I assume you race to finish first.
This is of course quite the variation on the puzzle, as it's
traditionally a one-player challenge.
Stratus Techologies Acquires Emergent
Stratus Technologies announced the US$10 M buyout of Emergent Network Solutions [Extreme VoIP], a VoIP infrastructure company.
Written by ewriter on September 15th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Software and Security and Networks and Business and Privacy.
Intel and Siemens have agreed to form a business alliance for the development of new enterprise communication systems using VoIP technology. Both companies will fund and conduct research focused on secure wireless networks and real-time communications using VoIP technology. Their main objective is to develop VoIP-based on Intel's dual-core chips and Siemens' HiPath 8000 and OpenScape telecommunications technology. The two companies plan to demonstrate the first wave of their findings at an undisclosed Intel lab by the end of the year.
Read my previous post titled "Vulnerability of VoIP Systems" to know more about VoIP technology and the risk associated with its use.
Written by Sagar on September 14th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Networks.
Pittsburgh officially has free municipal Wi-Fi
in the downtown area as of yesterday at noon. The initiative was
started by Mayor Bob O'Connor, who passed away due to brain cancer on
Sept 1. It took US Wireless Online only two months to build the 60-site
network. The FreeConnect service option allows a maximum of two hours
per day at no cost. DayConnect offers faster access at US$7.99/day,
$14.95/m, or $119.99/yr. VoWiFi (Voice over municipal Wi-Fi) service is
planned for the future. [via Pittsburgh Business Times, Business First]
I don't know if that's a record implementation time for municipal Wi-Fi, but it sure sounds like it is. Wow.
Written by ewriter on September 14th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Wireless and Networks and Services.
While others are frustrated with their inability to move
their VoIP, phone, or cellular numbers to a new provider, and industry
steering committee in South Africa is asking their telecom regulator to
delay their MNP mandate [Cellular News].
MNP,
or Mobile Number Portability, would require changes in telecom company
business practices. Such practices would, in this case, allow customers
to port (move) their cell phone numbers with essential ease.
I
think that we'll see more and more countries bringing about MNP
regulations. In fact, it probably behooves cellular operators and
providers to participate, to get started now, if they don't want to see
a mass migration towards VoWiFi-only (VoIP over Wi-Fi) phones. While
that's not a reality just yet in most cities, the increasing number of
municipal Wi-Fi projects (free or otherwise) is going to help.
Personally,
I think dual-mode cellular/ VoWiFi phones are going to boom in sales
when that happens. So users would get a cellular signal in areas
without Wi-Fi Internet access, and VoIP calling otherwise. If number portability is in place in those areas with muni Wi-Fi, then everyone wins.
Written by ewriter on September 14th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Networks and Services and Regulation.
RPGs (Role Playing Games) are a type of online game that involves
multiple players online at the same time. MMOGs (Massively Multiplayer
Online Games) have been popular for several years and have spawned a
whole subculture. One acquaintance of mine would play for up until 30
hours straight when he was out of work. Now, as a baker, he has to get
up early and can't play as often. But on his days off, he's back to the
mega-sessions, playing up to 15-20 hours straight.
One of things
he repeatedly asked me to check on (before I started writing about
VoIP) was a way for his clan (forgive me if that's the wrong term) to
be able to talk to each other simultaneously without paying a fortune
for some company's subscription fee. Now that was last year, before I
knew about free VoIP conferencing.
But his clanmistress was ultimately happy with her choice. However,
their choice was not integrated into the game they were playing -
meaning that while playing the RPG, they would have to use a separate
web browser window (or tab) to start a conversation using another
service.
Enter a new generation of RPGs, with integrated VoIP. A
new RPG, Fallen Earth, by Icarus Studios, will have IP communications
integrated right into the software. Another company, BigWorld, is
producing a new RPG development suite which will have VoIP capabilities
built-in. Both are a couple of new customers [Mass High Tech] for Vivox Inc.'s integrated IP communications platform and development software.
While there are a growing number of voice data applications,
I believe this is a new direction for VoIP. I'm not otherwise aware of
any of the more popular online games having this ability. Though I
wouldn't be surprised to see, in a few years, RPGs with vi