Providers
You are currently browsing the articles from the VoIP Digest matching the category Providers.
Internet phone service provider abbeyphone has just released a new beta with Firefox VoIP (above) and Thunderbird VoIP extensions.
Cernio of abbeyphone notes that these extensions fix an abbeyphone bug that I was the first to report late last year.
The bug appeared when working with blogs and content management systems. As cernio wrote as a […]
Written by Russell Shaw on February 23rd, 2007 with no comments.
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My colleague Marguerite Reardon offers a piece about how mobile virtual network operator Helio continues to be a drag on 50 percent-owner EarthLink's bottom line.
The numbers are ugly- $74 million for the 4Q 2006 and $191.5 million for the year. Helio has about 70,000 subs that pay in around $100 per month for basic [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on February 8th, 2007 with no comments.
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I've been having a little fun with alexaholic, a type of Alexa mash-up that lets you compare estimated page view totals and traffic patterns for several websites over specific lengths of time.
Let's compare relative page view rankings for Skype, Vonage, Packet 8, Gizmo Project and SunRocket site views over a six month period, and then [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on November 17th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Vonage and Skype and General and Providers and Packet 8 and Gizmo Project.
A very vivid portrait of regional phone service provider Qwest in the hometown Denver Post the other day offers the perception of a company that for lack of a better term, is not really being bold in the telecom and related sectors.
It's kind of like after losing out to Verizon on the bidding for [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on November 15th, 2006 with no comments.
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Now here's one of the most practical ideas I have seen in quite awhile- a way to access most of your IMs over your mobile phone. Kind of like a Trillian for cell.
The latest version of Java-enabled EQO Mobile lets you perform IM-related functions, but take lets you take and make calls on your mobile via [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on October 5th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and General and Providers and Softphones and AOL.
Fellow blogger Alec is right. I don't "get" JAJAH Mobile. As I have posted, I have trouble envisioning a compelling need for this service.
Obviously, JAJAH execs would beg to differ. They do feel their service is important.
The other day, JAJAH Mobile's Sean O'Mahony and I had a conversation in which he sought to explain why [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on October 3rd, 2006 with no comments.
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Once again, Andy is right on target in his post about companies such as RebTel and Jajah that offer solutions that seem to sidestep traditional telephony calling infrastructures to offer attractive products and services.
Andy indicates his reservations about the likelihood for success for such offerings "beyond simply user growth without carrier cooperation (and possible retaliation) [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on October 2nd, 2006 with no comments.
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Based on Alex Saunders' suggestion, I have downloaded and installed a new free softphone called hullo.It's so easy..no complicated configuration procedures.It's scalable in terms of conference call participants. As Alex points out, the scalability is due in large part to the fact that hullo is not a P2P application, but one which runs Versatel Networks [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on August 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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Today, SIPphone announced that Gizmo Project users will be able to call other Gizmo users for free in 60 countries. The free calling is not just Gizmo to Gizmo, but Gizmo to other Gizmo users from Gizmo to their mobile phones and landlines. We now have to ask ourselves, is this yet another milestone on [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
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This morning, Internet telephony provider SunRocket introduced a flat-fee, $299-a-year calling plan to 41 localities around the world.SunRocket SunSpots Edition will include much of Europe, China, Japan, South Korea and Argentina, as well as key cities in Latin America such as Mexico City, São Paulo, and Caracas. SunSpots also offers unlimited free calling throughout the [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on July 9th, 2006 with no comments.
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According to the Stars And Stripes newspaper, the South Korean Ministry of Information and Communications is arguing with several non-Korean VoIP services, trying to shut them down in that nation because they haven't complied with that nation's Telecommunications Business Act by registering as a phone service and applying for the correct permits.The real issue could [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on July 7th, 2006 with no comments.
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Note: I orginally posted this last night on BBHub, my BlackBerry blog. But after looking over that post a few times, I thought it would apply here as well. Had an interesting experience today going into a "Sprint" store and trying to get my notebook updated for EV-DO. They were out of [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on June 27th, 2006 with no comments.
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As I have already noted in a previous post, I have received a Prospectus for the sale of Vonage stock as part of its Vonage Share Customer Directed Program. The Prospectus is dated May 5. I have read the Prospectus, and have noted what Vonage says about its competitors. Since this information [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on May 8th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Vonage and Skype and General and Providers and trends and CallVantage and Google and yahoo and Verizon VoiceWing and Comcast and AOL and SBC-AT&T and Cingular.
I was playing around a bit with YouTube over the weekend. You know, the site where you can post your own videos. Then I got the idea- hmm, what about YouTube as a distribution media for technology marketing messages. VoIP, maybe? Would this add a note of faux authenticity to these messages that Internet banner [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on May 1st, 2006 with no comments.
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For the last few months, VoIP users in Belize have been up in arms at what they perceive to be an organized effort by Belize Telecommunications Limited to block outgoing calls over Vonage, Skype and other Internet phone service providers.Online forums have bristled with frustrated posts. The Vonage Forum has a busy thread on the [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on April 24th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Vonage and Skype and General and Regulatory and Providers and International.
On his IT Facts blog, colleague Alex Moskalyuk posts a link to a Harris Interactive report entitled, "Awareness of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) on the Rise in Great Britain and in the United States.The report, which has been summarized before, asks 1,089 U.S. and 1,117 U.K. consumers 18 or over about VoIP.Noticed I said [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on April 16th, 2006 with no comments.
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David Strom is one of those relatively rare, prominent tech journalists who has the scientific credentials to further inform his work. Not only does David hold an M.S. in Operations Research from Stanford, he's written about networking and related technologies for 20 years. Among his many credits, he started Network Computing magazine, and until early [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on March 30th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on General and Providers and Verizon VoiceWing and Earthlink.
Remember Lycos? At one time, they had an important search service. Now, after being at the periphery of search, they are using a partnership with India-based Global 7 to launch a softphone product called Lycos Phone. (First duh: Lycos Phone got its own website before a link to it was posted on the main Lycos [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on March 26th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and News and General and Providers and Softphones and yahoo.
As I posted last week, more than a few Vonage customers are suspicious that Comcast is crimping the quality of their voice calls. Vonage denies the charge, but the subject is still a red-hot issue on the Vonage Forum. But now we have concrete proof of another strategy broadband cable is taking to discourage their [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on March 6th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Vonage and News and General and Regulatory and Providers and trends and Shaw Communications.
That's AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre, superimposed on a Google Earth map of territory that for the most part,will fall under his company's domain if a blockbuster acquisition of BellSouth goes through.We have lots of details here, as well as my FAQ-style explanation and vision of what is going to happen, how, and why. AT&T-which is still [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on March 5th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Vonage and News and General and Regulatory and Providers and CallVantage and Microsoft and Packet 8 and Verizon VoiceWing and BellSouth and SBC-AT&T.
That's the food court at Independence Mall in Philadelphia.Soon, you'll have free Wi-Fi there - and in lots of other locations in the city as well. Yesterday, Philadelphia Mayor John Street announced details of a deal that will bring citywide Wi-Fi to the nation's fifth most populous city.The deal involves EarthLink, as well as Wireless Philadelphia, [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on March 2nd, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on News and General and Providers and WiFi and Earthlink.
Just got an email from SIPphone CEO Michael Robertson.On Thursday, SIPphone is announcing a new service called Area775. If you switch back and forth 'tween VoIP, cell and land lines like I do, you'll be interested in learning more.Which you are about to: "It's the first service to give you one number that will reach [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on February 15th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on News and General and Providers and Softphones.
Just got an email from SIPphone CEO Michael Robertson.On Thursday, SIPphone is announcing a new service called Area775. If you switch back and forth 'tween VoIP, cell and land lines like I do, you'll be interested in learning more.Which you are about to: "It's the first service to give you one number that will reach [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on February 15th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on News and General and Providers and Softphones.
As the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee held hearings about net neutrality yesterday, it's worthy to note that cable broadband service providers have been strangely noncommittal about their feelings on the issue.Net neutrality is the principle that high-speed Internet service providers should not charge- and not be allowed to charge - fees to high-bandwidth services to [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on February 7th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on News and General and Regulatory and Providers and trends and BellSouth and Comcast and SBC-AT&T.
I try not to get overly political on these pages, but I feel the need to make an exception here.Reading my colleague Anne Broache's excellent coverage of Tuesday's net neutrality hearings before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, it is plain to see that those Committee Members who would prohibit broadband Internet service providers from imposing [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on February 7th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Vonage and General and Regulatory and Providers and trends and Google.
Leading mesh network vendor BelAir Networks has formed a technical advisory board consisting of cable system broadband Internet service providers. The goal is to involve these operators into BelAir's future mesh network development plan.Planning for mesh networks that would look similar to the mesh at the top of this post.Once a reality, mesh networks provided [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on February 2nd, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on General and Providers and Research.
CableLabs, the research arm of the U.S. cable television industry, is preparing an updated standard that would enable its members to enhance their current VoIP offerings with video telephony, TV-based instant messaging, and integration of VoIP service with wireless.This would be done via the forthcoming PacketCable 2.0 communications standard,an upgrade of the PacketCable 1.5 standard [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on February 2nd, 2006 with no comments.
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On Wednesday, the Finance Committee of the Colorado House defeated a measure that would prohibit Colorado cities from taxing VoIP services.The measure lost by a close 7-6 margin, but a stipulation of the vote was that the proposal cannot be brought up again this term.Opponents testifying before the committee said that exempting VoIP from taxes [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on February 1st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Vonage and News and General and Regulatory and Providers.
I have been writing that MySpace would be an ideal acquirer for Net2Phone's underpriced, iconic softphone's assets.Now it appears that the hugely popular social networking site- owned by News Corp.- has had other ideas.MySpace has partnered with theglobe.com to release tglophone for MySpace users.Any Myspace user who downloads the tglo software receives a softphone allowing voice [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on January 26th, 2006 with no comments.
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British supermarket chain, Tesco recently announced that they are adding a VoIP service offering through their Tesco Telcoms subsiderary. Not really that shocking huh? Of course not everyone is hopping on the IP Telephony bandwagon these days. What was found to be interesting was this quote from Alex Freudmann, a commercial manager at the company,
Because Tesco’s VoIP traffic will travel over the public Internet, it won’t be able to guarantee the quality of service. However, the company claims that the quality will be better than traditional fixed-line telephony because of the data compression rates it uses.
“Assuming you have a reasonable phone, the sound quality is better than a landline. We tested the service in customer test groups and had favorable results. We minimized the data feed–it’s compressed as much as possible. It even works very well over narrowband,” Freudmann said.
Statements such as this will continue to come about as more and more companies try to get into the IP Telephony space. What is unfortunate about statements like the one made above is that it clearly over promises. This is a traditional business “no-no” never over promise, then under deliver. By stating that the call quality is “better than a landline” this Alex obviously has never used the service. I have used dozen’s of VoIP services over the past two years, and none of them were “better then a lanline” and certainly none of them “worked well over narrowband” or dial-up. Instead of educating consumers about the IP Telephony and VoIP, yet another company has taken the easy way out and made promises they will not be able to keep.
Garrett Smith
Written by Garrett Smith on January 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on VoIP (the New Phone) and Articles and VoIP and News and Providers.
Talk is rife with the stated wishes of telecom-based broadband Internet access providers such as AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth to impose or negotiate surcharges for high-bandwidth content and services such as VoIP.But rather than the looming battle over net neutrality that many (including yours truly) and I predict in Congress, the FCC and the Courts, [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on January 18th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on General and Regulatory and Providers and trends and SBC and Packet 8 and Verizon VoiceWing and BellSouth.
It appears quite likely that Apple is getting ready to release a cellular-enabled iPod.Either that, or an iPod-enabled cell phone.If not, then why did Apple, according to the San Francisco Chronicle's Ryan Kim, file four trademark applications earlier this month, covering such terms as "digital music," "cellular" and "communications?"The four trademark applications in question are [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on January 17th, 2006 with no comments.
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According to the London-based Financial Times newspaper, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch says that "voice services" will soon be introduced to youth-oriented social networking site MySpace. Looks like a two-month time frame from now until this feature is enabled. I have written often about how this 47 million-member, and growing, site is a natural place for [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on January 10th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Vonage and General and Providers and trends.
Well, the traditional phone companies are at it again, looking for pounds of flesh that they can extract from the feature-rich Internet-based services and sites that want carriage over their networks.Just yesterday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (I'm there) Verizon Communications CEO Ivan Seidenberg talked of willingness to strike up deals with [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on January 6th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Vonage and General and Regulatory and Providers and trends and SBC and Google and CES and Verizon VoiceWing and BellSouth.
I'm posting this from the Sands Exhibition Center, which is the Consumer Electronics Show's overflow exhibition and conference facility here in Las Vegas.Just had demos of the new softphone from NetZero Voice, as well as Packet 8's new softphone.Unlike more familar softphones such as Skype - these softphones are, in a word, pretty. The dialpad, especially [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on January 5th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on General and Providers and trends and Products and Softphones and CES and Packet 8.
Microsoft is working with Philips on the development of a wireless household phone.The phone will be able to make VoIP calls using Microsoft's Instant Messenger and its "Windows Live Call" service.No more specifics @ this point, but I am at the Consumer Electronics Show, in the words of the former Cat Stevens, "on the road [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on January 5th, 2006 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Vonage and Skype and News and General and Providers and Products and Microsoft and CES and Packet 8.
Well, it seems that everybody has been posting their top ten predictions for 2006. In the converging worlds I cover here, I foresee the fast-approaching New Year as one for new forms of competition, unprecedented cross-sector alliances, under-the-table sleight of hand, political machinations, lawsuits, and more acquisitions. So then, dust off the crystal ball. Here are [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on December 27th, 2005 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Vonage and General and Regulatory and Software and Providers and E911 and trends and SBC.
That's Rupert Murdoch, boss of News Corporation, which now owns MySpace.And of course, Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com.Why have I Photoshopped these gents in a canvass with the Net2Phone logo in the middle? Well, let me tell you. So I've been reading the latest tender offer on the part of IDT Corporation's NTOP ACQUISITION, INC. for [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on December 21st, 2005 with comments disabled.
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