TMCnews Featured Article

After a somewhat quiet few weeks, as many of you — and us — took time to enjoy time with families and friends during the holidays, the VoIP community broke into 2009 with a flurry of exciting news and activity. Certainly, the economy is a concern for everyone, but vendors and providers alike realize that not only does innovation need to continue through this recessionary period, but that the communications industry can actually take advantage of it to further engage both business and consumer customers and offer cost saving and productivity enhancing solutions that can help them, too, weather this storm.

 

Here is just some of the VoIP news from the past week.

 

Grandstream Networks, which has made its goal to become the dominant player in the SMB VoIP space, continued its growth by adding another SIP Trunking provider to its growing list of partners. The latest SIP Trunking provider to pass interoperability testing with Grandstream is AireSpring, which offers services across a national footprint thanks to partnerships with some of the biggest network operators in the country, including Global Crossing, PAETEC (News - Alert), and XO. Having undertaken and successfully accomplished interop testing, AireSpring’s SIP Trunking solutions are now certified for seamless operation with Grandstream’s All-in-One IP PBX (News - Alert), offering a nationwide alternative to traditional key systems and more expensive IP PBXs. Read my full article here.

 

Tim Gray reported that FreeSWITCH has released version 1.0.2 of its open source VoIP platform after more than five months of retooling by the development team and community. The group teamed with Polycom to produce new VoIP features into FreeSWITCH program, including providing users with access to Polycom’s wideband (WB) and ultra-wideband (UWB) Siren family of codecs. FreeSWITCH now supports both wide and narrow band codecs with the ability to bridge legacy devices to the future.

 

As I noted, the economy is, in fact, providing an opportunity for the VoIP community, which was confirmed by Alteva, a provider of enterprise hosted VoIP in an interview with TMCnet. CEO William Bumbernick says that technology can offer multiple benefits in times of crisis, and noted that, “In general the hosted VoIP market has seen an increase in growth during this time of a downward economy.  As I speak to peers in the industry they are mirroring this sentiment.  Hosted and “as a Service” models become more appealing when budgets are being scrutinized.”

 

TMC’s Group Editorial Director Greg Galitzine (News - Alert) (aka, the VoIP Authority) confirmed Alteva’s comments in another interview with Bumbernick, who explained what Alteva’s new relationship with Polycom means to his firm. He explained that customer needs drive the partnership, including providing the best sounding call every time an Alteva customer makes a phone call and mitigation of technology obsolescence. “When call clarity in an enterprise level account is the most pressing concern, then no other company other than Polycom can deliver the quality that the customer desires,” he said.

 

Skype has released a lite version of its VoIP application, a ‘thin’ client that can be downloaded to Android (News - Alert)-based mobile devices as well as more than 100 other Java-enabled mobile phones. “Making the Skype experience available for download to Android-powered devices, as well as hundreds of other mobile phones from the world’s leading handset manufacturers is a major step forward for Skype,” said Scott Durchslag, COO at Skype.

 

Lenovo took a page out of the Nintendo playbook with its IdeaCentre A600 all-in-one desktop PC — specifically the remote control that comes with the system, which offers motion sensitive technology, not unlike that which has made Nintendo’s Wii the most popular game system today. But what really makes the system a complete communications tool is the remote’s functionality as a wireless VoIP handset

 

Michelle Robart reported that TalkSwitch has named Independent Computer Owners Network (ICON) as its main distributor for the United Kingdom. Gaining increasing recognition for its small business VoIP system, TalkSwitch provides its customers with an easy-to-use phone solution at an affordable cost. At recommended retail prices starting from GBP499 ($759.56), TalkSwitch features built-in voicemail, auto-attendant greetings, call forwarding to mobiles, remote management, and support for both analogue and IP handsets for up to 16 extensions, with modular growth to 64.

 

Also, as Mike Dinan wrote, in a move designed to lower materials and assembly costs, SiTel Semiconductor announced that its software now runs natively under the MicroController Linux, or “µClinux,” operating system. Sitel officials say that by making their “Natalie DECT” stack and VoIP software run on the same processor, they’ll lower the number of integrated circuits needed for cordless telephony-enabled VoIP solutions. According to Mark De Clercq, product marketing manager at SiTel, VoIP is rapidly becoming the preferred telephony option for businesses because it offers significant cost-savings.

 

Reports from Spanish news sites have been buzzing about Google’s plans to launch Google-owned GrandCentral, an online voice communications service, in Spain sometime during 2009. TMCnet’s Jessica Kostek writes that a plan is in the works to offer international calls via mobile phones as an advanced voice mail service, separate from those offered by regional mobile operators and that Google has started contacting various carriers to finalize the plan, looking to become a reseller of value added services provided by the operators.

 

And back in the U.S., ooma announced it has expanded its retail partnership with Best Buy to allow all 1,010 Best Buy stores nationwide to offer ooma’s (News - Alert) phone systems, to allow low-cost calling anywhere in the U.S. ooma provides most of the features users have come to rely on with their traditional phone services and more, including voice mail notifications to email and mobile devices, and the ability to listen to voice mail and perform admin functions from a Web portal. The full article is here.

 

As you can see, the VoIP community full of exciting activity already in 2009. For more VoIP and other IP Communications industry news and features, be sure to visit TMCnet daily, signup for our eNewsletters, and set up your own personalized alerts to ensure you don’t miss anything.