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The TMCnet VoIP Week in Review

TMCnews Featured Article


January 28, 2008

The TMCnet VoIP Week in Review

By Patrick Barnard, Group Managing Editor, TMCnet


There was an absolutely astounding amount of VoIP-related news this past week (Jan. 21-25), due largely to Internet Telephony Conference and Expo East 2008, held this past Wednesday through Friday, Jan. 23-25, in Miami, Fla. There were literally dozens of big announcements – and we’ve done our best here to try to highlight what we feel are some of the more important ones. So let’s roll through some of the many great news items brought to you by the TMCnet editorial team:


On Monday TMCnet covered the alarming news about a newly discovered flaw in Skype which lets cyber criminals “turn videos into weapons.” This latest “loophole” comes from a programming error in Skype’s software which gives online evil-doers a new way to sneak their malicious software onto a victim's PC. Although all versions of Skype are at risk, the flaw mostly affects Skype version 3.6.0.244. Skype was reportedly working on the problem.
 
Also making news on Monday was Sangoma’s announcement that it was partnering with PeopleTech to expand distribution of Sangoma’s telephony and data cards throughout India. Sangoma is a provider of PC-based telephony hardware and software products for proprietary and open source based networking and telephony solutions, while PeopleTech is a provider of open source technology services and solutions. Through this partnership, PeopleTech is expected to provide a sales channel and first line of support for Sangoma’s Indian customers. According to Sangoma officials, the latest distribution agreement with PeopleTech is an integral part of Sangoma’s strategy to offer customers open source voice and data solutions in telecommunications and information technology in territories of India, including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan.
 
Also making a splash on Monday was Avaya’s announcement of new contact center solutions designed to provide businesses with a more cost-effective, simplified and productive way to deliver customer service, while also improving experiences for customers. The solutions include powerful new Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) capabilities benefiting all facets of a contact center – for IT administrators seeking to streamline contact center operations, customer service agents working anywhere, and customers demanding faster service with a personal touch. The new solutions from Avaya provide “end-to-end” SIP-running from the service provider trunk to an agent’s desktop phone – taking greater advantage of the open nature of SIP. Such an approach allows businesses to cut costs and simplify the implementation of customer service operations. A new, low-cost Avaya SIP contact center phone is also part of the end-to-end SIP solution. The phone does not require the addition of CTI (News - Alert) middleware, further streamlining savings and network management.
 
Another big headline on Monday was the news that NEC is working with IBM to deliver advanced unified communication and collaboration capabilities to businesses worldwide. As per the announcement, NEC will integrate its UNIVERGE IP communication servers with the IBM Lotus Sametime 8.0 collaboration platform. Using NEC’s UNIVERGE gateway module for IBM Lotus Sametime, companies will be able to view online presence information, as well as leverage click-to-call services from within a Lotus Sametime instant messaging chat, Web conference or IBM Lotus Notes e-mail inbox. This new integration uses the open Eclipse-based Lotus Sametime platform and the Lotus Sametime Telephony Conferencing Service Provider Interface (TCSPI) to support the convergence of voice and data.
 
Yet another major news item on Monday was snom Technology’s announcement that Interlink Communication Systems will be a distributor of snom phones in North America. As per the agreement, Interlink will distribute snom’s full line of VoIP telephones, including snom 300 series IP phones and snom m3, the new IP DECT phone for the home office, SMB or enterprise. The snom VoIP phones will be available to Interlink’s North American network of Value Added Resellers, Network Service Providers and Systems Integrators. Snom also announced on Monday that it has entered into a distribution agreement with Novus, making its phones now available through an additional North American channel. Novus will offer snom’s complete line of IP phones in conjunction with its service suite, which includes call center management, consultation, and asset management services to customers. Novus is a premier distributor of TDM and VoIP communications equipment. Its’ comprehensive portfolio of managed services includes asset management, inventory and logistics management, system rental, disaster recovery, managerial and engineering consultation and call center management.

On Tuesday, Quintum Technologies’ announced its new Tenor Hybrid Gateway 60, which is built on Quintum’s Tenor switching intelligence, and is Microsoft Mediation Server-ready to simplify deployments of Microsoft-based Unified Communications. The Tenor Hybrid Gateway 60 is integrated on an Intel SR-1500 1U server with Intel Quad-Core Xeon processors. It supports up to 60 simultaneous VoIP calls, with up to two T1/E1/PRI spans. A single box solution, the new hybrid product has been specifically designed to allow customers to easily integrate Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 with legacy and IP-based PBXs, analog endpoints, fax, and modem-based devices, while providing connectivity to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). The Tenor Hybrid Gateway 60 contains Quintum’s new Unified Communications Proxy (UCP), enableing Tenor to provide intelligent, MultiPath connectivity between VoIP, Legacy telephony (TDM) equipment and unified communications with any-to-any call routing, including SIP–SIP, TDM–TDM and SIP–TDM connections. Providing a host of benefits, the UCP offers the ability to deploy multiple gateways behind the Tenor Hybrid Gateway 60 to simplify the deployment of multiple gateways distributed within the headquarters network, as well as those deployed in branch offices. It also provides TDM to TDM switching to support fax and modem equipment on the same PSTN connections as are being used by Office Communications Server 2007.

Also on Tuesday, Broadvox announced that it has achieved interoperability with Grandstream Networks’ new IP-PBX product, the GXE502x series. Broadvox resellers can now easily deploy IP communications such as video telephony utilizing Grandstream IP-PBX products on Broadvox’s robust IP network. “Grandstream is the only vendor with an end-to-end solution that incorporates video,” said Eric Eckman, Director of Business Development at Broadvox. “Partnering with Grandstream enables delivery of a complete IP communication system to businesses that are looking for the cost savings of SIP Trunking while exploring and using its more advanced features.” As such, Broadvox GO! SIP Trunking can now offer a face-to-face experience made possible with video transmission through Grandstream IP PBX products.

Also making the TMCnet headlines on Tuesday was the Amanda Company’s announcement that it will soon offer what it claims is "the first embedded Asterisk phone system to enhance voice quality through the inclusion of multiple microprocessors as well as DSPs," the Vdex-40. The commercial release of TechnoCo's Vdex-40 embedded Asterisk IP-PBX appliance in North America is slated for the end of the month and offers the SOHO market an affordable Internet-based telephone system. The Vdex-40 offers excellent voice quality, thanks to the inclusion of a standard, additional digital signal processor for compressing voice and canceling echo, as well as separate microprocessors for processing voice and data. The product also includes the use of flash memory instead of spinning hard disk drives for better quality and the elimination of unneeded cooling fans to "provide greater reliability than the mechanical equivalents used with traditional PC server solutions thereby providing a longer product lifespan.”

On Wednesday, Pika Technologies, which sells media-processing hardware and software, announced that its Pika for Asterisk family of analog and digital boards is now compatible with Fonality's (News - Alert) trixbox CE, an Asterisk-based IP-PBX product. Terry Atwood, vice president of sales, marketing and customer care at Pika, said compatibility with trixbox CE "opens a wider audience to Pika's media processing software and hardware." The Pika for Asterisk suite comprises hardware and software designed to support applications built on the open-source Asterisk platform. These building blocks are designed to provide network connectivity to bridge between legacy networks and Asterisk-based IP telephony applications. With the low-density PCI analog board, the analog FXO (trunk) and the FXS (station) boards from Pika's Daytona product family and the PrimeNet digital T1/E1 boards, the portfolio of Pika for Asterisk boards supports the latest trixbox CE version 2.4, as well as the previous 2.2 version.

Wednesday also brought Broadvox’s announcement that it has achieved SIP interoperability with Epygi Technologies’ Quadro IP PBX and gateway products. This certification assures customers that Broadvox solutions can share and exchange information with the Epygi systems, providing a VoIP solution for SMBs using SIP trunks. Broadvox’s GO! SIP Trunking delivers converged voice and data over an IP trunk. This allows businesses to achieve significant cost savings while using a secure platform for the features and functions supported by SIP. Mario Cuello, CEO and president at Epygi, said “Broadvox is committed to delivering the highest quality SIP Trunking services and their focus on SMB business solutions aligns nicely with ours; the needs of the Twenty-first Century small business.”

Wednesday also brought one of the biggest VoIP news announcements of the week: The news that Fonality has entered into a partnership with Dell to make available affordable VoIP phone systems to the SMB market under a brand name that Dell has dubbed Fonality VoIP Phone System. TMC President and Editor-in-Chief Rich Tehrani broke the news on his VoIP blog on Wednesday morning. This huge announcement was made at Internet Telephony Conference and Expo East 2008. This is really big news, because as we all know, Dell is the one of the best-known brands in the PC and server market. So, this will give Fonality a lot of brand exposure and expansive market reach. The folks at Fonality must be extremely psyched!

In another huge announcement on Wednesday, AT&T (News - Alert) Inc. announced a new VoIP service to accompany its U-verse IPTV service called U-verse Voice. The service is reportedly being rolled out in the Detroit area first. “The launch of AT&T U-verse Voice is the next step in our vision to bring customers a complete set of wireless and wired services that work together seamlessly for them,” Jennifer Jones, vice president and general manager for Michigan, AT&T, said in a statement. The new service is a complement to the company’s U-verse package, which offers digital television (IPTV) and high-speed Internet services, delivered over a new fiber optic network being rolled out in 13 states, including Michigan. U-verse Voice offers voicemail, which can be accessed from any phone line or PC, and U-verse Messaging. The service also includes an online management portal that gives users the option to manage their call preferences, voicemail, contacts, and call history from any PC, in addition to the ability to access voicemail and control call preferences from their home phone.

Also making the headlines on TMCnet Wednesday was the SIP Forum’s announcement that it had ratified SIPconnect Technical Recommendation 1.0, after a unanimous vote by the Board of Directors. SIPconnect represents a standards-based approach to direct peering between SIP-enabled IP PBXs and VoIP service provider networks. It specifies a reference architecture and defines protocols, features and rules necessary for seamless VoIP-to-PBX interconnections. The recommendation also eliminates the need for using a VoIP gateway because it details a method for tying enterprises to VoIP services with an end-to-end IP connection. This improves voice quality and results in a stable foundation for rich media services and personalized applications, the organization said. Ratification of SIPconnect Technical Recommendation 1.0 came after peer review by both SIP Forum members and members of the SIP community. This peer review demonstrated that the recommendation is stable and well-understood. Now that ratification of the 1.0 recommendation is complete, the SIP Forum announced formation of the SIPconnect 1.1 Task Group. This group will not create new standards (that being the work of standards bodies like the IETF) but rather to develop workable technical recommendations and profiles based on existing standards. This Task Group will develop the next version of SIPconnect, and toward that end it is now accepting suggestions from the SIP community. Information about the initiative is available at www.sipforum.org.

Wednesday also brought Avaya’s announcement that is has released Communication Manager 5.0, which will benefit businesses by providing essential and innovative telephony functions using end-to-end open standards-based SIP. The latest version features new SIP trunk alternate routing, which is capable of redistributing voice, video and data when network congestion occurs, thereby making communications more reliable and the software provides a foundation for applications in the area of contact centers, unified communications and mid-sized businesses (using MultiVantage Express). Enhancements in the product will allow users to handle "ad hoc" video calls in the same way as voice calls, simply adding and forwarding both voice and video, and creating video conferences for up to six people.

Wednesday was also the day that Allworx announced its new 9200 IP-Phone Series at ITEXPO. The new line of phones for the SMB market includes the top-of-the-line 9212, and the affordable 9202 IP-phones. These high-end phones from the New York-based outfit are expected to complement its popular 9112 and 9102 phones, and offer customers a broader set of features with a sleek and intuitive design and the highest fidelity audio available without requiring extended protocols. The Allworx 9200 series is designed to bring a new level of simplicity and ease-of-use for things like checking messages, conferencing functions, and moving calls via hold, redial and transfer. These features are are now accessible via one-touch programmable keys. The 9212 supports up to 12 call appearances and the 9202 supports up to two call appearances. Both phones are able to distinguish between different calls via unique ring tones and monitor multiple voicemail boxes. Allworx also announced the release of its latest system software, version 6.8, which offers unified communications capabilities, such as “follow-me-anywhere” features, which route incoming calls to multiple Allworx SIP phones, or external numbers - including full system integration of mobile phones. Additional features include simplified off-site access calling, voicemail escalation, SMS notification for messages, and other features designed to improve productivity while projecting a professional image, regardless of where employees are located.

Can you believe we’re only on Thursday?

Thursday brought Taqua’s announcement, made at ITEXPO East 2008, that Ohio-based service provider, Communications Options, Inc. (COI), had purchased two Taqua 7000s (T7000) to support its growing voice services in Ohio. The first T7000 is deployed as "a full-featured next-generation Class 5, operating with centralized call control at the edge of COI’s access network," while the second T700 purchased is being used as an intelligent gateway at a different location, where it provides the PSTN interconnection and advanced features and call control are managed by a remote softswitch. Taqua is well known in the service provider market for its very advanced and highly reliable softswitch, definitely a company to keep your eye on.
 
Thursday also brought the exciting announcement that Avaya Mobility Edition is now available for Lenovo ThinkPad notebooks and ThinkCentre desktops. Targeted for business users that embed the Avaya Internet protocol (IP) Softphone application into Lenovo PCs, this unified solution enables complete, enterprise communications from any location with optimum security, usability and quality of service. An Avaya IP Softphone transforms a Lenovo PC into an office phone by integrating with an existing office extension number and linking it with multiple office, home and mobile numbers that can ring simultaneously or in a sequence at the user's choice. Thanks to Avaya, location becomes irrelevant and callers can reach employees quickly through a single number. Employees also have full access to Avaya Communication Manager features, voicemail and directories on their Lenovo PCs. Moreover, users can make calls using a simple, click-to-dial feature from corporate directories, call logs, Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes contact lists or any open desktop application.

Also making headlines on Thursday was Vyke Communications’ announcement that it has acquired Callserve Communications Ltd., a UK-based telecommunications service provider. The company is expecting that the deal will be sealed by the end of this month for a maximum consideration of £2.9 million. The consideration is expected to be satisfied by the issue and allotment of up to 4,004,602 ordinary shares in Vyke, with lock in periods of up to one year for the majority of the shares. Vyke officials say that the acquisition of Callserve compliments and expands on Vyke's existing operational base in the UK, and also will provide them greater penetration into the UK market.
 
Thursday also brought the news that VoIP managed services provider VoIP Logic has made its Web services application programming interfaces (APIs) available to service providers via the company’s Cortex System Management 2.1 portal. VoIP Logic said it is first to market with APIs designed to help service providers more efficiently integrate with provisioning and management associated with end-user feature sets, phone and emergency services, messaging and billing. Also, the API allows service providers to choose either the branded Cortex Web portal or integrate directly using their own Web sites. Further, VoIP Logic’s APIs enable a variety of ways to access and make use of information from third-party vendor subsystems from companies like Sylantro, High Deal and Iperia. Some of the capabilities enabled by the APIs include: provisioning end-user systems, accessing end-user functionality across multiple systems and Cortex, ability to look up all entity types, entity changes and deletes.
 
Also making a splash on Thursday was Raketu’s unveiling of Raketu Lite, the light version of its VoIP calling desktop application (“tastes great, less filling”). The application is ideal for customers seeking Raketu's VoIP calling features, including Global IM/SMS and email capabilities. Raketu Lite comes with a "Slim" interface and integrates Internet protocol television (IPTV) streamed video and video on demand (VOD) entertainment content. "Some consumers who told us they value Raketu for our call quality, sms-texting, instant messaging, and great low rates globally, were interested primarily in our communications feature sets," said Greg Parker, president of Raketu Communications. "Raketu Lite now offers a sleek, easy-to-use interface to address these consumers." Raketu Lite supports Windows Vista and offers affordable VoIP calling from a desktop PC. It also offers free anytime PC-to-PC calling globally.

Another big announcement on Thursday was Dialogic’s release of the industry’s first Fax Over IP Endpoint and Gateway solution supporting V .34 T.38. The Dialogic Brooktrout SR140 Fax Software and Dialogic 3000 & 4000 Media Gateway Series is designed to enable enterprises to deploy fax server solutions confidently into existing VoIP installations, while leveraging their existing IP infrastructure. With the addition of V .34 T.38 support, these products have the ability to transmit fax data at 33.6 kbps. The current industry standard is the transmission of fax traffic over T.38 at a maximum of 14.4 kbps. Dialogic has positioned itself in the industry as providing robust fax and fax-over-IP platforms. The Brooktrout SR140 and DMG3000 and DMG4000 platforms support real-time fax-over-IP to provide companies with the ability to integrate fax servers into the VoIP network.
 
Thursday also brought the news that Radware, a provider of integrated application delivery solutions for business-smart networking, has launched its application delivery product suite, SIP Director. The product range is a first-to-market solution that features a SIP-aware application delivery controller (ADC) and is based on Radware’s award winning AppDirector, the SIP Director solution has been developed specifically for SIP-based applications. With the proliferation of converged Web and VoIP applications such as application/feature servers, VoiceMail, IVRs, messaging servers, conference applications, media servers, call center applications and 911 services, SIP deployment has witnessed a rapid growth. Key advantages of the solution include: high availability and resilience (intelligent SIP ADC performing health monitoring, fail-over and disaster recovery); service delivery assurance (in-depth SIP message analysis); traffic routing based on service fulfillment and availability; scalability (a "scale as you grow" approach, load-based routing and TLS offload for minimized system cost -- an important criterion for implementation in large scale networks); SIP interoperability and service delivery assurance (integrated SIP Proxy supporting UDP, TCP and TLS for enhanced interoperability and service availability); transport translation (bridges between common SIP transports - TCP, UDP and TLS); flexibility (easy to use configuration interface, with no coding or scripting requirement); enhanced security (protection from DoS and other attacks -- additional privacy enablement features offered too); and reduced time-to-market (out-of-the-box carrier-grade compliance and system performance).

Another big announcement on Thursday was Envox (News - Alert) Worldwide’s launch of Envox 7.1, a next generation open, standards-based communications development platform. The platform allows organizations to significantly reduce time, cost and complexity of developing and deploying voice and IP communications solutions, by offering more capabilities for video, IP communications and automatic speech recognition. Using Envox 7.1 speech, video messaging, streaming video, email, fax and SMS can be integrated to create IVR, IVVR, outbound dialing, multi- modal contact center, video customer service and unified communications solutions. Envox 7.1 gives significant price and performance advantages for high-volume deployments, making it the ideal choice for service providers who offer IP telephony, voice self service/IVR, conferencing, video or voice-based entertainment services and thereby boost customer satisfaction and retention.

Also making our headlines was the news that BBTelsys, a nationwide communications carrier offering VoIP service plans to residential and business customers, has selected U4EA Technologies as its preferred vendor for VoIP calling solutions. BBTelsys provides local and long distance calling services using the latest technology to combine voice and Internet networks for quality, reliable and cost-effective calling solutions. “We have selected and deployed U4EA’s Fusion 200 Series multi-service business gateways and have been extremely pleased with the results,” said Art Hale, Chief Technology Officer of BBTelsys, in a Thursday announcement at ITEXPO. “U4EA’s solution has given us all of the tools – through remote management of equipment, sessions and QoS – to gain unprecedented control over the voice quality of the network, while providing our customers with the simplicity and cost-savings of a single-box solution. We will definitely look to expand into other U4EA Fusion products to suit customer needs.” The broadband service plans offered by BBTelsys includes unlimited residential voice calling plans to US and Canada, and business plans for round-the-clock high quality telephone communications, including hosted PBX services. U4EA’s Fusion 200 series is made up of small form-factor devices ideal for managed service delivery to small office users. With the installation of the solution, BBTelsys is able to set clients up, control sessions and ensure the customer receives consistent, quality voice service.

Another item of interest was Iwatsu Voice Networks’ announcement at ITEXPO that it has expanded its Valued Integrated Partner program (VIP) with the addition of TeleDirect International, Inc. TDI is a provider of technology solutions for the contact center industry. The VIP program is designed to offer products and services that provide value that can be integrated with the Iwatsu Enterprise Communications Server (ECS). This solution is Iwatsu’s flagship call processing offering for small to medium sized business. TDI will provide Iwatsu with its Encore product line. This comprehensive recording, performance management, coaching and reporting solution for mid-sized contact centers and businesses adds value to the Iwatsu portfolio. Encore voice recording and quality monitoring integrates easily with the ECS via SIP, T1/PRI and station tap to provide contact center managers with the tools necessary to retain and reward their best agents, rapidly identify and deliver training for staff, and meet government or company mandated recording compliance.

Thursday also brought PhoneFusion’s announcement at ITEXPO that it has released an enhanced version of its flagship PhoneFusion One product. The new enhancements have integrated a Unified Communications solution with the VoIP technology, providing small businesses an easy adoptable and affordable way to manage all of their daily communications. The PhoneFusion One Control Center provides subscribers call control directly from their desktop. Using the Control Center, subscribers can view caller ID in a small box on the computer screen. With that information, the subscriber can choose to send the call to voicemail, hang up, accept the call or transfer it to another number. Other new features include the ability to record and deliver announcements based on time, and a powerful voicemail application that centralizes multiple voicemail boxes and allows people to see a list of their voicemail messages right on their mobile device.

You still there? Hang on, we’re almost finished!

Friday brought the major news that Sprint has filed four patent infringement actions in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas in its continuing effort to enforce its Voice over Packet (VOP) patent portfolio. The lawsuits are against NuVox Communications, Inc., Broadvox Holdings LLC, Big River Telephone Company, and Paetec Communications, Inc. Sprint alleges that each of these companies has infringed at least six VOP patents by selling VOP services that utilize the Sprint patents. According to company officials, Sprint is seeking monetary damages from these companies and an injunction that is expected to enjoin the companies from ongoing infringement. Sprint’s VOP portfolio is comprised of over 115 United States patents and dozens of foreign patents. The VOP patents cover rediscoveries by Sprint engineers relating to interfacing packet networks, such as the Internet, with traditional circuit-based telephone networks, such as the Public Switched Telephone Network. Company officials say that these patents, some of which were filed as early as 1994, protect innovations that allow the use of inexpensive and highly efficient packet networks to carry voice traffic. TMCnet’s President and Editor in Chief Rich Tehrani provided an excellent analysis of this news, which can be found here.
 
Finally, Friday brought some more positive news from Canadian cable company Videotron, which announced that more than 636,000 business and residential customers are now using its cable VoIP service – this milestone coming just three years after the launch of the IP Telephony service. The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Quebecor Media Inc., also offers high speed Internet and digital television services over its regional network serving much of Montreal. According to a company press release, Videotron gained roughly 235,000 VoIP customers in 2006, and roughly 238,500 VoIP customers in 2007. The company is seeing accelerated adoption of its IP Telephony service, which was initially launched on Montreal's South Shore and then gradually rolled out to its entire service area. Between October 1 and December 31, 2007, 62,500 Quebec households signed up for the service, compared with 53,700 in the same period of 2006. Videotron last made news on TMCnet in October when it announced that it was using Nortel’s (News - Alert) technology to deliver a new video calling service over its cable network. Specifically, the company’s video calling service, facilitated through its softphone, is powered by Nortel’s Communications Server 2000, a carrier-class IP Multimedia softswitch which enables fixed mobile convergence, advanced Web services and unified communications.
 
Think that was a lot of VoIP news? Well, that wasn’t even half of it! If you want to read about more of the announcements coming out of ITEXPO this past week, check out our show news page, as well as Rich Tehrani’s VoIP blog. And if you didn’t make to ITEXPO this past time around, make sure you check out the West Coast event this fall. See you next week!

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Patrick Barnard is Assignment Editor for TMCnet and Associate Editor for Customer Interaction Solutions magazine. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page.

Don’t forget to check out TMCnet’s White Paper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP Communications industry. The library offers white papers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users.

Today’s featured White Paper is titled VoIP Doesn’t Require Any Phone Equipment Investment, brought to you by Accessline.







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