VoIP Phones

Visiting Allworx - Slideshow

Doug Mohney — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 10:12:34 -0400

What secrets and amusements lurk among the hallways of Allworx's headquarters in Rochester, NY?

FierceVoIP got a look inside the company's testing lab and marketing "war room" as it visited with Allworx executives this week. You'd be surprised what you come across on a company's walls and in the parking lot.

The full slide show can be found here.

SPOTLIGHT: Skype like WiMAX

Doug Mohney — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:06:42 -0400

Skype COO Scott Durchslag said the company is looking to extend its business operations from PCs to mobile devices (OK, with 3 and an Java-based mobile client, no big secret there), with WiMAX as one technology where Skype services might have potential.
While in Taiwan, Durchslag said WiMAX was a "different case," since it was just another application across a data-loving network; on cellular networks, it competes with cell dollars. Durchslag was visiting Taiwan to seek opportunities between Skype and Taiwanese makers of handsets and mobile devices.

For more:
- DIGITIMES stalks Skype COO in Taiwan. Post.

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Skype's mobilized phone play - FierceVoIP
3 Mobile and Skype collaborate on VoIP phone

Wii getting VoIP'ed

Doug Mohney — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 22:00:39 -0400

Nintendo rolls out a VoIP phone for the Wii, with the Wii Speak hardware and a bundle with the "Animal Crossing" game expected to hit shelves in Japan on November 20.

Wii Speak is a pretty simple piece of hardware, plugging into the Wii through a USB jack on one end. There's a grey box in the middle of the cable and a microphone unit that clamps on to a video display. Wii Speak will allow discussions with up to four "rooms" between Animal Crossing users.

Initially, Nintendo managers planned to keep Wii Speak and the "Animal Crossing: City Folk" together as a bundle, but have decided to offer both the game and the WiiSpeak hardware as separate items.

According to Wikipedia, there's also a Wii Speak channel for simple chatting; the new channel will supposedly launch on November 16. Users will be represented by their "Mii" avatar and the Mii will lip sync to their spoken words. Users will also have the ability to leave audio messages for other users and add audio comments for stored photos.

For more:
- Tech Radar picks up Wii Speak motion on their screens. Article.
- Wikipedia's most recently updated WiiSpeak entry.

Related articles
VoIP Phones: Nintendo DS Image - FierceVoIP

Voixtas to offer snom SIP phones

Pete Wylie — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 10:21:04 -0400

Voxitas and snom announced Wednesday that they will form a partnership that will see snom's SIP-based phones integrated into Voxitas's business-class VoIP services. The deal comes after Voxitas extensively tested snom's 3xx series VoIP phones and m3 IP DECT mobile phones and found them to be interoperable with all Voxitas's IP PBX customers.

Voxitas said in a release that the partnership would enhance the value proposition it offers its small to medium business customers with its SIP True Voice service.

In addition to wide-ranging support for various security protocols, snom's phones support several audio devices simultaneously, giving customers flexibility and customability, as well as knowledge that their secure communications are protected.

snom's phones will be available through Voxitas's reseller network, as the German firm continues to add partners in the SMB VoIP space. Earlier this month, snom announced a partnership with Fonality.

For more:
- see the joint snom and Voxitas press release here

Related Articles
Pushing SIP trunking
Fonality and snom partner

SPOTLIGHT: Hate and lust over an IP phone prototype

Doug Mohney — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:57:42 -0400

A lot of geek tech sites are frothing over the Tatung VoIP phone prototype. The design has won the 2008 IF, IDEA, and Red Dot design awards... whatever that means. Techno-bloggers seem to be torn between degrading it as an "electronic lollipop," and loving it so much they want to "lick one" the more they look at it.

We'll point out that the creator of the phone -- e-Nova design -- also picked up an award for the TATUNG iHaloo VOIP Webcam Phone, so there should be some very pretty pieces of plastic in the production pipeline.

For more:
- Gizmodo has pretty pictures and conflicting tastes. Blog
- Visit e-Nova design. Website

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SPOTLIGHT: Dessert Cart Ruins VoIP Phone
Ten VoIP phones

Nokia drops VoIP on new N-Series

Pete Wylie — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:57:01 -0400

Without a formal announcement, Nokia has ceased to offer VoIP capabilities on some of its new handset models, such as the N78. The N-series phones previously had come equipped with a VoIP client that enabled users to access services such as JaJah, Truphone and Fring. None of these services now function on new N-Series phones, according to gigaom.com. The move away from pre-loaded VoIP clients is a culture change for the company, which has been quite open-source and VoIP friendly of late.

The older N-series phones 80, 81, 82 and 95 all continue to offer VoIP capabilities, according to Nokia's website.

Analysts have speculated that the move away from VoIP on new N-Series phones could be a result of carrier influence, with mobile long distance calling revenues getting shredded by VoIP bypass schemes.

For more:
- gigaom.com dishes on Nokia VoIP bailout

Snom Upgrades Wideband Voice

Doug Mohney — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:02:11 -0400

Snom has announced klarVOICE. No, it's not Klingon, it's a wideband handset that can be adopted to snom VoIP phones.

Wideband or "HD" style codecs provide higher quality voice calls than the stock wireline PSTN/POTS standard sampled across 8 kHz. The new klarVOICE handset works with the G.722 wideband codec and with a sampling rate double that of a standard VoIP call is capable of offering an effective pass through rate of 50 to 7,000 Hz; so-called "narrowband" VoIP calls come in at about 200 to 3,300 Hz.

The klarVOICE handset requires $32.50 (suggested retail price) and a snom 3xxx series VoIP phone using the company's latest firmware release. An entry-level snom 300 phone lists around $183, so adding wideband as an upgrade isn't that much of a stretch.

Snom's move to support G.722 makes life more interesting in the HD voice arena. Cisco and Polycom also support G.722 on the handset side and Asterisk provides IP PBX support. Freeconferencecall.com supports wideband voice through WYDE voice hardware developed by a "sister company." Skype also supports G.722, but you have to go through some contortions to have Skype talk to something other than another Skype client.

For more:
- PhonePlus carries the snom klarVOICE specs

Related articles:
Extending SIP to Skype, VoIP to iPod Touch
Whence HD Voice?

Venetian waiting on VoIP

Doug Mohney — Fri, 23 May 2008 12:41:12 -0400

While the $1.5 billion Venetian Resort is a high-roller in network infrastructure, VoIP is less sexy than the bandwidth going to slot machines.

The Venetian, with its 7,000 guest rooms, 120,000 square foot casino floor, and waterways for gondolas uses 700 switches supporting 10G Ethernet with a network split into 98 virtual LANs supporting everything from 4,000 cameras to wireless hotspots.

Only 2,000 of the resorts 20,000 phones are VoIP, powered by PoE along with the wireless access points. It's hard to justify VoIP phones in the rooms, since a legacy TDM phone costs $20 or less, while an IP phone would cost $125; take the difference, multipley by 7,000 rooms, and there's real money.

A nearly identical network has been deployed at the Venetian Macao and officials expect to save $5 million over five years due to the reliability of the HP switches and other equipment involved.

For more:
- Learn more about the Venetian high-speed network from Network World

Related articles:
Limited Budgets Drive North American SMEs to Hosted IP Telephony
Citel Announces Portico Telephone VoIP Adapter

Bank of America Deploys 100,000 Cisco IP Phones

Doug Mohney — Mon, 12 May 2008 21:14:08 -0400

EDS and Bank of America have announced the deployment of 100,000 Cisco IP phones throughout the bank's network infrastructure. The deployment effort has so far spanned more than 4,000 Bank of America retail banking centers, branch, and remote offices and features Cisco UC and network system software and hardware. Cisco says this is the largest enterprise VoIP deployment worldwide.

Bank of America is replacing multiple legacy voice systems with the VoIP/UC rollout and the deployment is one component of a multi-year systems integration and services agreement with EDS. The two companies have been working together since 2003 to consolidate, upgrade, and "transform" the bank's voice and data network infrastructure. EDS features a "converged communications network" for financial services, and can provide IP telephony and unified messaging.

More IP phones will likely be added to the total in the future. Bank of America has more than 6,100 retail banking offices in the United States and serves clients in 175 countries.

For more:
- Read the press release on EDS deploying 100,000 Cisco Unified IP Phones for Bank of America
- HP Buys EDS; does this make HP a bigger VoIP player?

Related articles:
UC battle begins; Cisco, Microsoft Lead, says Infonetics
Enterprise telephony market tops $9.6 billion in 2007, IP phone shipments up 29%

ADTRAN intros new IP PBX all-in-one, IP PBX phones

Thu, 01 May 2008 06:59:54 -0400

ADTRAN has rolled out the NetVanta 7060 Modular IP PBX and a couple of its own IP phones as complements.

The NetVanta 7060 bundles in IP PBX features such as voice mail and auto attendant along with a 24-port Power over Ethernet (PoE) switch in a single compact box; building in the PoE switch eliminates an additional box. The new box includes GUI wizards for setup and management, graphics-based Voice Quality Monitoring (VQM), support for SIP trunking, SIP proxy, a system scheduler, and the ability to function as a wireless controller.

Complementing the IP PBX, the ADTRAN IP 700 series of SIP-based business phones includes the IP 706 six button phone and the IP 712 (what else?) 12 button phone. All phones in the series support functions like Key System Mode, PBX Mode, Busy Lamp Field, Shared Line Appearance and Hands Free Auto Answer. Each model offers dual switched Ethernet ports to enable simultaneous voice and data, a full-duplex speaker phone and headset support. List price for the 706 is $249 while the 712 is $299.

For more:
- Adtran Announcements on IP Phones and NetVanta IP PBX

Related article:
ADTRAN Unveils Innovative Voice Quality Monitoring Technology in NetVanta and Total Access VoIP Platforms

SPOTLIGHT: Extending SIP to Skype, VoIP to iPod Touch

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:59:53 -0400

Surprises can be wonderful, especially when it comes to taking an existing platform--such as Skype or the iPod Touch--and opening it up to an entirely new set of possibilities.

Voxeo and Vapps have a way to connect Skype into their SIP-based platforms, leveraging the capabilities of Skype to use its wideband G.722.2 codec for higher quality voice calls. It's a little awkward, since connecting into Vapps under G.722.2 apparently requires dialing a rather large (over 99 digits) number within Skype. Read Phoneboy's Skype to SIP Possible, In Use scoop

One might doubt Apple was surprised to find someone had figured out how to turn an iPod Touch into a VoIP phone. Cheers to the lads in the Land Down Under (Well, Lifehacker) for providing step-by-step instructions in how to hack an iPod Touch into a Phone.

ALSO NOTED: Sonus Networks to Acquire Atreus; J-COM launches VoIP Mobile Phone; and much more...

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:59:52 -0400

> Sonus Networks to acquire Atreus Systems

> Japan Communications launches VOIP Mobile Phone

> EQO's Global Mobile Community triples in size over past 10 weeks

> SureWest Communications deploys Alcatel-Lucent solution to enable new SureWest Digital Phone VoIP service

> UCN signs significant enterprise contact center accounts in Q1 2008

EMBARQ 's Casabi-flavored Home Phone--Hot!

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:59:58 -0400

Traditional VoIP phones have been nothing but glorified dumb handsets, with about as much functionality and sexuality. EMBARQ has introduced some spice to the marketplace by announced the eGo phone, a spiffy SIP-phone with a built-in light web browser. EMBARQ is laying claim to being the first telco to deliver a cordless home phone with visual voicemail, news and information, personal phone books and phone directories.

The special seasoning that makes eGo hot is Casabi, a technology that brings IP client/server capabilities to the humble cordless handset, in this case provided to EMBARQ by VTECH. A simple web client talks to servers to pull up a variety of services, ranging from (now almost necessary) visual voicemail, to the latest sports scores and weather reports. On-line local business listings allow keyword lookups, so you can do a search on your phone rather than pull out the yellow pages and let your fingers do the walking. Users also get an online address book where they can centrally store numbers.

Casabi technology also offers excitement to incumbent phone carriers trying to increase their stickiness with their established customer base by offering additional features above and beyond vanilla voice service. Cable companies have sweeping up business by offering lower prices; Casabi enables operators to offer value-added services over DSL and generic VoIP offerings. AT&T demonstrated (i.e. at least toyed with) Casabi in their booth at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show, so it is plausible other carriers may turn up similar services in the future.

Finally, it should be noted implementing eGo was most likely put into motion during Dan Hesse's watch at EMBARQ. Is this a clue for general technology innovation we might see from Sprint in the future?

For more:
- EMBARQ's eGo release
- Behind-the-scenes Casabi service

Related articles:
EMBARQ loses Hesse to Sprint top job
Engadget's piece on VTech Internet-connected cordless phones

WiFi phone sales leap 60% as support improves

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:59:54 -0400

It's funny what a little support can do for a product. Infonetics Research says WiFi phone sales increased more than 60 percent last year--682,000 units were sold worldwide--because vendors did more to support wireless VoIP.

"IP telephony has matured, and wireless LANs have also matured," says Infonetics analysts Richard Webb. "Companies started to build wireless LANs to put data on them, but now they are looking for other applications."

For more:
- Read the release from Infonetics Research

Related articles:
Vodafone swings behind VoIP
Mobile VoIP key for next-gen networks

Competition the cure for U.S. broadband woes

Tom Burton — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:59:59 -0400

U.K. analyst Dean Bubley--the guy who predicts there will be 250 million mobile VoIP phones over the next five years--had an "Aha" moment last week at Lee Dryburgh's eComm2008. One of the speakers asked how many ISPs in Edinburgh (Scotland), to which the answer was, "about 30." The same speaker then asked his U.S. audience the same question of their hometown and the answer came back: one or two!

As Bubley puts it: "Now I understand why Americans get so exercised about open access, net neutrality and so on. I hadn't realized quite how appallingly competition policy had failed in the U.S.--I knew it was bad, but I hadn't really grasped just how bad. The stuff I take for granted in the UK--lots of wholesale ISPs, and quite a few local-loop-unbundled ones, plus cable--just doesn't map onto the reality in the U.S."

"I've realized that I sometimes assume that ordinary, mundane, competition will give deep packet inspection and application-blocking a solidly good kicking. Which is fine, if ordinary, mundane competition actually works," says Bubley

In two paragraphs Bubley destroys the self-congratulatory smugness evident yet again in the FCC's latest puffery on broadband deployment in the U.S. The FCC reports a 55 percent increase in broadband lines in fiscal 2007. Pity that the vast number are 200 kbps lines--OK for email and not much more. Nor that many are on shared cable lines where coverage rises and falls depending on what is on prime time.

And probably more significant is the well-documented reluctance of U.S. providers to roll out voice 2.0 type applications. While the FCC was peddling figures suggesting lots of areas with multiple competitors, the reality for most American homes is an incumbent offering vanilla ADSL and, if lucky a cable operator that provides connectivity which is good as long as the kids stay at school.

But rather than decrying the lack of facilities based competition, the public policy debate has instead been high jacked by the net neutrality crowd--a Utopian socialist view akin to demanding there be no slow lanes on the freeway. Look across the Atlantic and the dynamism and energy of the European IP marketplace can be attributed to one simple fact: effective unbundling of the local loop.

Rather than the FCC running around the Ivy League fraternities holding show trials for Comcast for having the audacity of trying to manage network congestion, maybe the FCC should focus on getting real competition--30 ISPs worth--into the network. Amen. Tom

Skype scores 12M concurrent customers

Tom Burton — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 06:59:55 -0500

Skype watchers noted the big VoIP provider this week enjoyed 12 million concurrent users for a short period. The peak occurred around 19:00 GMT and coincided to a period when both European and U.S. users were using Skype. According to the Skype Journal, the strong rise in usage reflects a recent lift in the take-up of Skype by U.S. customers. Over 80 percent of Skype's user base is offshore from the U.S. and Skype has long yearned for a bigger U.S. audience. The peaks are driven by its European base.

At the same time, Skype claimed to have clocked 100 billion minutes of audio and video usage. What that means is hard to get your head around, other than to note there are now 276 million users with registered Skype accounts. If only someone could work out how to make money from free telephony!

For more:
- One hundred billion reasons to call this a milestone Skype Blog
- 12 million online Skype Journal

Related articles:
Skype struggles to find revenue Report
Skype asks where are all the WiMAX devices Report

ALSO NOTED: Cisco rushes security patch; VoIP portable phone debuts; and much more...

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 06:59:52 -0500

> Cisco plugs VoIP Malawi loophole Article

> VoIP portable phone debuts Article

Popular enterprise VoIP phone hacked

Tom Burton — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 06:59:54 -0500

A public hacking warning group has found a large security flaw in the web interface of the popular Snom phone. The phone is widely distributed through business and has a web interface to enable calls and management. The same people who hi-jacked the BT Home Hub have detailed in easy-to-read detail how they took over the Snom phone.

GNUcitizen.org notes some of the easy-to-do breaches you can do once you have the phone under control. These include calling arbitrary people via the Web interface, stealing the phone history from the logs, poisoning the address book and most chillingly, monitoring the victim by making a phone call to the attacker's number (at their expense).

It is scary reading for any CIO who has deployed Web enabled VoIP phones and will also keep the big phone vendors, Cisco, Nortel, Avaya and Polycom awake as they scurry to find patches.

For more:
- Total surveillance made easy with VoIP phones Article

Related articles:
Sipera finds VoIP vulnerability Report
Security big issue for Unified Communications Report

AT&T dives into VoIP

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 06:59:57 -0500

It is a week for the big boys with AT&T finally unveiling its VoIP product to be deployed as part of a tripleplay bundle with its U-Verse service. Detroit gets first dibs on the residential VoIP offering, and AT&T says it will expand the service to other U-Verse regions this year.

Neither Verizon nor U-Verse could be accused of jumping into the end-user IP-voice marketplace and, like every telco in the world, there are many carrier executives who see themselves as losers in the IP evolution as call margins are slashed and slashed again. While the business services groups for both carriers are busily ramping up their IP product suite and know how, the residential departments have been lagging, hoping it might just all go away.

Pure plays like Vonage might not survive, but the greatest rivals for the telcos are the big cable companies that all are rapidly transforming themselves into full-suite, digitally-based carriers. Ironically cable digital voice is not bargain basement, and the U-Verse Voice service will come bundled at the not-cheap rate of $114 a month, with the actual voice service beginning at $30.

For More:
- AT&T press release
- AT&T moves into Detroit with VoIP Article

Related articles:
Go to our sister site FierceTelecom for detailed coverage of AT&T's Q4 earnings
AT&T's VoIP, U-Verse plans Report

Broadcom teams up with Trolltech

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 06:59:55 -0500

IP chip giant, Broadcom has teamed up with Norwegian open source platform developer Trolltech to offer a fast track development platform for IP phone manufacturers. Trolltech's Qtopia software is already the platform for many Asian based VoIP phones and an upcoming release promises a feature-rich graphical experience. The alliance with Broadcom aims to provide OEMs with an integrated software package for faster time-to-market for the development of next generation IP phones.

Trolltech last week confirmed it had switched sides in the ongoing battle between Linux-based mobile consortias. In a statement Trolltech said it will "contribute strategic components to the LiMo software stack that include a breakthrough integration of online services and native mobile applications".

Trolltech had been a founding member of the competing LiPs forum, a group trying to develop a shared set of standards for mobile. It may be all academic as to who prevails between LiMO and LiPs, with both consortia under threat of being blown out of the water by Google's Open Handset Alliance.

For More:
- Broadcom announces Partnership with Trolltech Release
- Trolltech switches sides Article

Related articles:
Google launches open handset alliance Article
Avaya selects Broadcom Release