PSTN

Voxbone announces iNum 883 country code

Doug Mohney — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:08:18 -0500

Phone number provider Voxbone has officially launched iNum, a global phone telephone number system, leveraging the ITU's creation of the +883 country code and VoIP technology to provide local number access with international reach. Current use of the numbers is in "private beta," says the company.

Voxbone has teamed up with a laundry list of VoIP players to utilize the new code, including service providers Iotum, Jajah, Mobivox, Gizmo5, Ribbit, Truphone, Rebtel, Voipbuster and Voipuser. Wholesale voice carriers Arbinet, Belgacom ICS, Level 3 Communications and Stealth's Voice Peering Fabric are already routing +883 calls today.

Basically, the 883 country code works like any other international country codes, just as 44 refers to the United Kingdom and 1 to the United States. Voxbox provides iNum numbers for free to carriers and service providers. As the wholesaler, Voxbone will receive calls to these numbers and deliver them to the appropriate service provider, connecting incoming PSTN calls as well as native VoIP calls.

Most participating carriers are expected to deliver calls to iNum numbers free of charge to their users, providing a form of free connectivity between their networks and remote networks.

For more:
- MarketWatch carries the Voxbone iNum press release.

Related article
+883 world numbers on offer - FierceVoIP

FORD: The IP in VoIP should be Instant Presence!

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:03:07 -0500

By Carl Ford

After Jonathan Christensen declared that VoIP was dead, I provided a reply that basically said, if VoIP was only arbitrage, it deserved to die.

But this is a complex issue, as shown by the last regulatory call.

To me, the issue is making the difference clear, and we don't presently do enough to demostrate the difference between VoIP and POTS over IP. Nowhere is that difference more visible than with Presence. POTS has busy signals, while IM has the text "UT?"

And we must show the possibilities of VoIP and Presence, the more it will lumped into the old technologies.

BellSouth had patents for POTS presense in 1999, but nothing happened with them. It would be a shame if POTS is all that VoIP was left with. And that is a distinct possibility. In the call last week it was clear that a totally Internet-based call that was connected via a phone was a cause for confusion and would be likely categorized as traditional service. Well, if that's the case, where does the line get drawn for softclients?. Today it's clear the point of interconnection where a gateway connects to the PSTN is the answer, but if the Enhanced Service Provider exemption disappears, I would assert that the demarcation no longer is relevant.

Thanks to the VON Coalition and Jim Kohlenberger's pursuit of innovation on the web, I have been exploring the site, http://www.Freedom2Speak.org.

The use of Presence and Instant Messaging is my focus in the column, and I want to ask you all to embrace your communication systems. I fear that, like National Public Radio, the number of passionate advocates do not indicate the amount of users.

So evangelize on behalf of the cool apps of VoIP. Embrace their presence experience, and use the voice side of AIM/AOL, GoogleTalk, MediaRing Talk, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger. Use Video with Skype, iChat, ooVoo, Sightspeed, and TokBox, the web based solutions from Adobe, Raketu and Yackpac, the wireless connectivity from a Globe7, and Packet8, and the ad-supported services like Adphone, and Jaduka.

Come back to try Free World Dialup. That client that Jeff Pulver and WebMessenger built is still one of the most innovative. Speaking of innovative, try Say2Go, which is an asynchronous way of speaking - just like IM, or a PalRingo, which is compatible with the rich media (text and pictures) of your cell phone. Use a Peer-to-Peer system like VoIPBuster and the wideband codecs of VoIPWise.

The point is, don't let VoIP be stuck in your mind. No one I know wanted to waste their time updating POTS. Innovation is all around us. The problem is we need to embrace the innovative VOIP. Talk about it - better yet talk with it.

Sutus raises cash, debt, hires new CEO

Doug Mohney — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:44:10 -0400

Vancouver-based Sutus has secured $2 million in venture funding, plus another $2.5 million in debt financing. It has also added a new CEO.

The $2 million in cash came from BDC Venture Capital, and the $2.5 million in debt financing is being provided by MMV Financial. In addition Sutus is bringing telecommunications veteran Mike Donnell on as CEO; Donnell previously lead New Global Telecom (NGT) as its CEO and has also clocked time as CEO of Zi Corporation and Cellular One.

Founded in 2002, Sutus has over $15.5 million invested into its all-in-one Business Central box targeted at the small office market. The company launched product in late 2007.

Sutus' Business Central was specifically developed for businesses with up to 25 employees and includes a phone system that supports both PSTN and VoIP connections, a file server, email server, router, firewall, wireless access point, VPN remote access server, and automated backups; it can also serve as a gateway for hosted servers and includes extensive remote management and support features for the VAR/resellers that install it. This reporter doesn't know if a kitchen sink option is available.

For more:
- Sutus announces new CEO, funding on MarketWatch. Release.

SIP Forum: Championing Interoperability and moving beyond SIP Trunking

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:26:25 -0400

By Marc Robins
Managing Director, SIP Forum

One of the most common themes -- and challenges -- being discussed in today's IP communications marketplace is without doubt Interoperability. Compared to the old guard (the PSTN and legacy TDM technology), the IP communications industry has at times operated like the Wild West, with vendors creating "envelope-stretching" IP-based products that unfortunately do not play well with others.

At the Forum, we believe that there is a growing realization within the IP communications industry that achieving interoperability among disparate products and services is key to sustained and long-term growth.

Say what you will about legacy TDM technology, but one great thing about the ole' PSTN was the requirements by regulatory agencies and stringent controls placed by network operators on what went into their networks or attached to them, and the standards that various types of equipment were required to be strictly compliant with. As a result things just worked.

That monolithic oversight is of course a double-edged sword, as while it ensured interoperability it also limited innovation and provided for a limited set of features and capabilities due to the need to serve the lowest common denominator.

The SIP Forum was originally founded 8 years ago as a non-profit IP communications industry association to promote the adoption of SIP by the companies developing products and services. Fast forward to today and now virtually every product is SIP-based. Since the original "battle" has been won, the SIP Forum is now onto "Job #2" - solving interoperability problems to allow different SIP-based networks and various IP communications products to seamlessly work together. This is a critical need because SIP is a complex standard, and there are a number of different options available to developers of equipment and services, creating a hodge-podge of development choices.

In this regard, the SIP Forum is responsible for producing new industry technical recommendations that provide a specific set of rules, guidelines and best practices that determine which SIP RFC and deployment option to use when and where. One example is the SIPconnect Technical Recommendation, which provides rules and guidelines for accomplishing SIP trunking, or direct IP peering, between SIP-enabled IP-PBXs and SIP-enabled VoIP service providers. SIPconnect is a voluntary but peer-reviewed process

The SIPconnect Compliant Program is an associated certification program designed to certify equipment vendors and service providers as SIPconnect compliant and thus offer the highest degree of confidence that they will be able to accomplish trouble-free SIP trunking.

This is one area where the SIP Forum's current industry relevance rings loud and clear. With respect to SIPconnect and our associated compliance program, we have effectively directed vendors and service providers to make important changes to the way they implement SIP so that their offerings strictly adhere to the rules we have established. Without naming names, a number of leading companies have made such changes so that they can be deemed SIPconnect Compliant.

Other notable activities of the Forum include a variety of educational workshops and trade show-related activities that highlight interoperability issues and cover successful applications and deployments, the production of bi-annual SIPit test events, and providing a "meeting place" for developers of commercial SIP-based products and services.

Beyond SIP Trunking

Areas that the Forum is working on other than SIP trunking - areas that cry out for industry consensus and technical interoperability -- are Fax over IP (FoIP), user agents/end-point devices, security and unified communications (OC).

FoIP, for example, is ripe for an industry-approved technical recommendation that spells out the technical method to ensure that Fax works reliably over an IP network. Many pundits predicted that fax was dead several years ago, so it might surprise you to know that due to a host of federal and state regulations (in the U.S. at least) that require that documents be transmitted via fax, including HIPPA (Health-Care related privacy regs and Sarbanes Oxley (public company accounting and reporting regulations), fax is alive and well.

As service provider networks migrate en masse to an IP infrastructure, and enterprises follow suit, fax has suffered. With FoIP, there is an unacceptably high degree of transmission failure (around 2 out of every 10 pages fail to transmit.) What this means is that out of ten 1-page fax transmission, 2 attempts will fail. But it gets much worse when you are trying to send 10 ten-page faxes - the likelihood that each fax transmission will experience issues is extremely high. To help jump-start this work, the SIP Forum will be hosting a FoIP Interoperability workshop in San Francisco during the upcoming VoiceCon show in November.

In addition, the Forum has restarted our Phone Technology working group (now called the UA Configuration Task Group) to develop an industry-approved SIP end-pointdevice profile that will help ensure consistent, reliable interworking across various vendors systems.

Looking down the road

In the near-term, the Forum will continue to expand our efforts around resolving issues relating to SIP trunking. Longer term, there are obviously other areas where interoperability is a critical issue. The SIP Forum will continue to direct our resources in interoperability testing, profile definition, and work with the IETF and other standards bodies to ensure SIP is the multi-vendor, robust protocol of choice for all IP communications products and services.

Marc Robins currently serves as president of SIP Forum LLC (the operating U.S. subsidiary of the SIP Forum) and as the consulting managing director of the SIP Forum. He is also founder and Chief Technology Evangelism Officer of Robins Consulting Group (RCG), an IP Communications industry consultancy, and partners with leading industry analyst Jon Arnold in the industry information portal IP Communications Insights.

Lights Out for Phone Networks

Doug Mohney — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:37:33 -0400

SIP VoIP devices already account for as much as 20 percent of landline phone traffic, with mobile networks soon to embrace VoIP as Fring and Truphone offer options to traditional voice plans, says Daniel Beringer over at GigaOm. It's only a matter of time before SIP makes the analog network go away.

Pile on SIP clients for consumer handheld devices (Games like the Nintendo DS or players like the iPod Touch), gizmos like magicJack, and free calls for subscribers on services like Skype, Vonage, Jajah or Jaxtr and it's only a matter of time before a majority of callers stay "on net" rather than gatewaying out to the PSTN.

Of course, there's the not-so-minor matter of how all the "free" services pick up extra revenue by connecting calls from the PSTN to their clients. A 20 percent VoIP penetration implies that called and calling parties have VoIP devices about 4 percent of the time, leaving plenty of work (right now) for the legacy phone network. Down the road, the penetration of VoIP devices will cross a line where the traditional minutes-based business model of telco and VoIP players alike just doesn't work.

The legacy network has its uses, with reliability giving the POTS an edge over the Internet for sales calls and other "high-value" communications. (This reporter wonders if Berenger thinks telemarketers calling during dinner represents high value). Beyond that, there's a dive into the Brave New World of better devices, cheaper rates, and a train-wreck at some point when the by-the-minute model declines and revenues from arbitrage goes away.

For more
- GigaOm Sees The End of Telephony

Related articles:
PSTN and VoIP get equal time in China
VoIP peering shapes up to disrupt
Keynote Kicks VoIP Reliability and Clarity

Net2Phone drops prices, gets credit for breaking Kuwait VoIP blockade

Mon, 05 May 2008 06:59:54 -0400

Net2Phone has dropped prices on its VoiceLine resident broadband phone service to $19 a month and is waiving all activation, equipment and shipping charges. VoiceLine provides unlimited local and long distance calling within the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. For another $15, customers can add unlimited calling to more than 60 countries, including Argentina, Brazil, China, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and the U.K. Customers can even get their current phone number transferred to VoiceLine at no additional charge.

Of course, there's an "early deactivation fee" of $39.99 if you cancel service within one year of activation and a monthly enhanced service fee for "recovering costs incurred by Net2Phone" to maintain and connect a phone number with the PSTN, plus taxes and a universal service fund surge in the fine print.

Next2Phone is also getting some buzz with the lifting of an Internet telephony ban in Kuwait. About a year ago, the Kuwaiti Ministry of Communications blocked access to VoIP websites and stated cracking down on pre-paid (VoIP driven) telephony cards in order to boost the ministry's revenues (Hmm, and the price of oil is now how much?). Net2Phone is getting mentions for participating in the undermining of Kuwaiti phone rates.

For more:
- Net2Phone's announcement on lower VoIP pricing
- VoIP Lights up in Kuwait Again
- Arab Times report on reopening of Net phone sites in Kuwait.

Related articles:
VoIP competition drives African telecom prices down
90% of Irish users find VoIP cost effective

Budgets drive N. American SMEs to hosted IP telephony

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:59:54 -0400

Research and Markets "North American Hosted IP Telephony and VoIP Access Service Markets 2008" (written by Frost & Sullivan) finds that North American IP and VoIP access service markets are expected to continue grow over the next several years. The biggest growth has been in hosted IP PBX services with the key value proposition (as you'd expect) in the ability to offer a fully outsource solution to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that lack the money to implement and manage telephony in house. There is also bonus credit given for greater scalability and business continuity associated with hosted solutions.

Despite the improvements in IP telephony, businesses remain skeptical of the technology's ability to match the level of reliability in the PSTN. Another downside listed is E911 compliance issues.

Still, the report sees more hosted IP telephony services moving beyond SMEs into large (over 500 employees) businesses, especially those with remote offices and telecommuting workforces. Incentives include cost savings and the ability to migrate sites on an individual basis through hosted, rather than to upgrade voice infrastructure (and all those capital costs) all at once.

For more:
- Research and Markets North American Hosted IP and VoIP access report brief.

Related articles:
Hosted VoIP one click away
Enterprise VoIP in 2008 an uphill battle
XO Hosting Mobile UC

Limited Budgets Drive North American SMEs to Hosted IP Telephony

Doug Mohney — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:50:09 -0400

Research and Markets “North American Hosted IP Telephony and VoIP Access Service Markets 2008" (written by Frost & Sullivan) finds that North American IP and VoIP access service markets are expected to continue grow over the next several years. The biggest growth has been in hosted IP PBX services with the key value proposition (as you’d expect) in the ability to offer a fully outsource solution to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that lack the money to implement and manage telephony in house. There is also bonus credit given for greater scalability and business continuity associated with hosted solutions.

Despite the improvements in IP telephony, businesses remain skeptical of the technology’s ability to match the level of reliability in the PSTN. Another downside listed is E911 compliance issues.

For more:
- Research and Markets North American Hosted IP and VoIP access report brief.

Related articles:
Hosted VoIP one click away
Enterprise VoIP in 2008 an uphill battle
XO Hosting Mobile UC

+883 world numbers on offer

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 07:59:54 -0400

Belgium VoIP backbone provider Voxbone is to offer +883 world numbers to enable VoIP users to have a global non-geographic number for all inward calls. The initiative is called iNum and the idea according to CEO Rod Ullens is to provide a virtual world number reachable from anywhere. "We'd like this number range to be number range to be reachable for free from all the VoIP communities and a very cheap call from the PSTN," says Ullens. "We want to first focus on the VoIP communities, and then later on PSTN."

Because it is only a number for inward calling Ullens says issues such as emergency services access will not be affected. Getting carriers to establish a sensible pricing regime for these numbers is going to be the challenge as the telcos have little incentive to price these numbers below what they already charge for calls to their domestic numbers. As others have observed carriers typically still charge a premium to call non geo numbers. But with European regulators pushing for VoIP portability across the continent the trend to universal numbers is going to strengthen.

For more:
- New Numbers for a new world Event
- iNum initiative

Related articles:
VoIP numbers to be used across Europe Article
FCC demands portability Article

Global IP carrier sales top $1B in Q3

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 06:59:58 -0500

Worldwide IP telephony carrier market quarterly revenues have exceed $1 billion for the first time in the third quarter of this year, according to market research by California based Dell'Oro Group.

The strong market results was driven by robust softswitch sales as carriers continue to convert their networks to IP. "The increase in softswitch sales this quarter was particularly encouraging due to the strong growth of POTS and T1/E1 subscriber license shipments, which more than doubled year-over-year," said Greg Collins, Vice President at Dell'Oro Group.

While $1 billion in quarterly IP carrier sales is a record, it suggests telcos are still reluctantly moving away from their POTs technologies. "The surge in these license shipments indicates that service providers are accelerating their slow transition away from circuit switches to IP-based solutions as they convert their legacy POTS lines to softswitches" Collins said.

The Dell'Oro report found Nortel and Nokia Siemens Networks each accounted for almost 50 percent of the increase in softswitch revenue for the quarter.

According to Dell'Oro all IP Telephony carrier market segments contributed to the third quarter's record revenue. "The emerging session border controller (SBC) and voice application server markets each grew in double-digits compared to the prior quarter, while media gateways, the largest market segment, showed modest sequential growth."

More Reports:
- Dell'Oro press release

Related articles:
- One trillion VOIP minutes Report
- Opportunity vs. risk: Fixed-Mobile Convergence Report

VoIP quality on the upswing

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 06:59:56 -0400

Conventional wisdom holds PSTN trumps VoIP when it comes to over-all quality, but the gap is closing, according to a study from Keynote Competitive Research of San Mateo, Calif. The study compared the PSTN (public switched telephone network), PacketCable and VoIP hard phone services in the New York and San Francisco markets from June 1-30.

Voice services from AT&T's CallVantage and PSTN service; Comcast, Primus Lingo, Packet8, SunRocket (before it died), Time Warner Cable, EarthLink, Verizon's VoiceWing and PSTN; Vonage and Vonics Digital were evaluated for audio clarity, and reliability during peak and off-peak times.

Keynote placed 125,000 calls to make the assessment. While only two of the eight services tested provided 100 percent "availability" in the tests, VoIP nonetheless was deemed "highly competitive" with traditional PSTN. The most obvious factor not mentioned by Keynote would be price.

For More:
- Keynote's summary is here

Related Articles:
8x8 signs up 19,000 ex-SunRocketers Report
A quality call is more than voice Report

PSTN and VoIP get equal time in China

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 06:59:55 -0400

The public switched telephone network and VoIP are neck and neck in China. According to a report accessed by the VoIP Monitor, call durations on both systems were virtually the same, but VoIP is growing faster. VoIP accounted for more than 43 percent of the country's long distance calls last year, and is expected to exceed PSTN and mobile in the next two or three years, according to analysis conducted by Reporterlinker.com.

The data is based on official state information, but also believed to be a hefty black market trade in international calling that grew 30 percent, year over year, from 2003 to 2006, when it reached a total of 550 million minutes.

The coverage notes that only a handful of telecoms have the official 'OK' from state regulators to run VoIP operations, but World Trade Organization rules are set to go into effect, and foreign investment is expected to follow. One might do well to chat with Mattel first.

For More:
- VoIP Monitor's summary of the report is available here

Guest Commentary: Rob Wolpov

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 10:44:56 -0400

Guest Commentary: Rob Wolpov

FierceVoIP welcomes this no-free-lunch perspective from Rob Wolpov, president of hosted PBX VoIP provider Junction Networks in New York. Junction charges a flat fee for a certain number of users rather than the typical per-seat pricing structure for unlimited minutes. FierceVoIP does not endorse the service of Junction Networks nor any other specific service provider. The opinions expressed here are the author's alone. FierceVoIP welcomes reader comments.

Is the premise of free Internet calling the reality of VoIP?

With the recent closure of SunRocket and a new breed of VoIP providers entering the market offering low cost internet calling, a closer look at the industry is in order.

Are we really getting a deal? Business customers and consumers alike need to look beyond the "great deal" being offered and consider what they are really getting. You may be getting ridiculously cheap calls but you are paying for it in other ways and eventually it will affect the quality of service.

For the most part, providers are riding a wave of hope that one day the traditional telephone network will be replaced by cheap Internet calling. Many providers are pushing the envelope, trying to drive down prices by avoiding the PSTN and focusing solely on the Internet. Many hold this vision of the future, but it may be a bit premature.

NO FREE RIDES

Calls to and from phone numbers cost money, there is no way around it. Providers offer the low-cost or free calls, and gladly bare the brunt in the hopes of up-selling you on more expensive services you will surely need, eventually canceling the free portion of the service and forcing you to pay. Even when calls avoid the PSTN and take place exclusively over the Internet, there is still a cost. Internet access, hardware, software and employees all cost money. Someone's got to pay eventually--the customer.

Unfortunately, reality will bite these services, which ultimately are likely to face reliability challenges as costs rise and revenue doesn't. Bottom line--cost cutting will eventually lead to poor service. Users will be hung out to dry. Take SunRocket for example; they overestimated the market and ended up closing their doors, leaving their customers stranded.

For a business customer, "FREE" should mean "too good to be true." Unlimited usage is well and good, but it certainly can't last forever. What businesses need is reliable service at a fair price; no hidden agenda and no up-selling. If you are making unlimited calls, you are making up for this somewhere else by paying more for add-on services or higher per-seat charges.

COST STRUCTURES

Seat charges are a way to limit small business customers from getting the same services as the big enterprise customers at more affordable prices. Some providers will require a minimum seat purchase in order to gain access to more advanced features like auto attendant. Why shouldn't the little guy be able to buy a smaller amount of service and still get their needs met?

Another consideration is looking at the provider to determine if they are going to stand the test of time. With the multitude of vendors to choose from, there is an opportunity to really shop around and find the best deal. Is the hardware they are offering compatible with other VoIP systems? Are you going to make a huge investment in hardware that's useless if you switch providers? Are they using SIP?

Don't be fooled by promises made for free calling, there is always a catch. Advancements in technology are certainly bringing the costs of calling down, but they will never be free. It's a business after all, and there are tons of companies out there making money selling phone service.

Rob Wolpov is president of Junction Networks, a New York-based company founded in 2004, providing next-generation SIP services to 3,000 small business customers. Wolpov was previously with IBM Business Consulting Services, and started his career as a software engineer. He holds his M.B.A from Columbia University and received a B.S . from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania .

SPOTLIGHT: Global Crossing expands its reach

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 20:01:33 -0400

Global Crossing has added Hong Kong, Rome and Milan to its network of VoIP Local Service cities, allowing DID numbers on the PSTN to be bridged directly to customers' IP networks. Press release

A Web-to-PSTN API

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 20:01:34 -0400

I can't quite decide whether this is a great idea or something so retro that it's deserves comment. Jaduka is a spin-off of Network IP created to popularize a new API for web programmers. Jaduka claims its API is the only one in the world that will allow a website to establish a call over the PSTN. Why, with so many entrants that do the same thing for the VoIP market, would anyone want to bridge to the PSTN? Quality, says Peter Patullo, chairman of the parent company, Network IP. Network IP has been doing it for years for clients including cars.com. The API sets up calls through one of Network IP's Nortel switches--so part of the business plan is selling buckets of minutes to programmers who take advantage of the API.

For more information about Jaduka:
- check out Jaduka's website

Linksys wireless VoIP phone shuns WiFi

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 19:01:37 -0500

Linksys is now offering a dual-mode wireless phone that doesn't use WiFi. No, that's not a contradiction in terms. The CIT310 (photo) works both with Yahoo Messenger with Voice and with the PSTN. But unlike most wireless VoIP or VoIM phones, the Linksys unit uses the DECT standard to communicate with a base station that plugs both into a PC's USB port and a PSTN wire. The phone has a color screen that lets users scroll through a buddy list or search for a local business. Estimated price: $100.

For more information about the wireless Linksys phone for Yahoo Messenger:
- read this PC World article

New term of the day: VoIPhreaking

Thu, 07 Sep 2006 20:01:36 -0400

Because you don't have enough to worry about, here's something else: your VoIP service interfaces with the PSTN at some point or other, right? What do you think of the prospect of some cracker using holes in VoIP to get privileged access to the PSTN and having some "fun"? The coinage is VoIPhreaking--"phreaking," of course, being the old-school term for hacking the phone network. The action item here isn't anything new: secure your networks--all of them. The telcos long ago hardened their networks against these guys, but every new technology and access point offers new opportunity for mischief, even (especially) from low-level script kiddies and social engineers. The article's from Malaysia, but the Net goes everywhere, you know. Which is kind of the problem, right?

For more information about VoIPhreaking:
- read this article from The Star

ALSO NOTED: FreeTEL has new bridge; Logitech sells VoIP gear; and much more...

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 20:01:32 -0400

> FreeTEL System announces FTS-G200, a SIP-based VoIP to PSTN bridge that requires a PIN to access a PSTN line. Article

> Just in time for back-to-school, Logitech releases a keyboard, mouse, headset, and speakerphone combination to use for PC-based VoIP. Article

> Remember that scene in the Star Trek movie where Scotty tried to use a 20th century computer by speaking into the mouse? Who's laughing now? Article

And finally... Going for a spin? Call Buzz Aldrin. And dress warm. Article

Jajah launches free international service

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 20:01:34 -0400

Jajah's innovative Web-based VoIP service is going free for some international calls. Jajah allows its customers to set up calls through a Web site; the service then calls the customer's phone (PSTN or VoIP) and the recipient's phone and bridges the call together. Free calling is available in the United States, Canada, China, Singapore, Taiwan, most of Europe and to and within Australia. There's no stated call limit, but the company's asking customers to not abuse the privilege. Jajah also announced solutions that allow one-click calling from Microsoft Outlook, Apple's Macintosh Address Book and the Firefox browser.

For more information about Jajah's offerings:
- read this article on TMCNet

Vodafone goes FMC in NZ

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 20:01:37 -0400

Vodafone is rolling out an interesting deal in New Zealand that could have major impact on the FMC market. The idea is that mobile calls placed within 2 kilometers of a home base will be routed through the PSTN and will be free. Outside of that, calls will be carried on the usual GMS network. Regulators have given the preliminary OK. A similar plan was implemented in Germany last year.

For more information on Vodaphone's New Zealand deal:
- check out this article in Digital Journal