Softswitch

VirtualPBX launches open-system VoIP peering

Pete Wylie — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:46:00 -0500

VirtualPBX announced today that it is introducing native support for open-system VoIP peering, which will enable small businesses to select their optimal set-up for communications. Clients will be able to customize their telephony offering with the mix of VoIP services, traditional PSTN, softphones and handsets that best suits their individual needs.

VirtualPBX COO Greg Brashier said the company offered a mix of high-end products, useful features, extended capabilities and advanced technology that no one in the hosted PBX market could match.

"All along we've been agnostic as to platform," Brashier said. "Some of our customers want to reduce or eliminate their PSTN use, because of the cost savings of using a VoIP service. But others are more concerned about call quality over traditional copper, so we can facilitate either, or a mix of both for our customers."

Brashier stressed that the blended nature of VirtualPBX's offering was the greatest value driver for the end-user. He also noted that the lack of capital expenditures in a hosted PBX offering makes them even more attractive in the present climate, as businesses look to avoid unnecessary capital expense.

For more:
- see the VirtualPBX release here

MetaSwitch reports hot FY08 results

Doug Mohney — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:18:03 -0400

Data Connection Ltd (DCL) reported record revenues of $118 million for its fiscal year ending August 31, 2008, but the real story was that the MetaSwitch division brought in more than three-fourths of the haul.

"We're very, very pleased with the results over the past year," said MetaSwitch President John Lazar. "We try very hard to be very clear about what we're trying to achieve in terms of plan."

The MetaSwitch division of DCL brought in 78 percent of total revenue for a total of $92 million. Growth was up 22 percent over the same period last year and was attributed to both later Tier 1 carrier deployments and continued expansion of the customer base. MetaSwitch now counts over 400 service providers on its books, and the year's final quarter was the company's strongest ever.

Lazar noted that the headline numbers are strong and more importantly, the company is "very profitable." He said the company feels it has a big opportunity in today's economic climate and is in a good position relative to its competition. MetaSwitch is still on track for growth in the forthcoming fiscal year and anticipates continuing to hire "across the board" in sales, engineering, and marketing as revenues increase.

Other highlights from the FY08 report include taking a "significant" venture capital investment in January 2008, a deal with Embarq to provide MetaSwitch's softswitch, media gateway and MetaSphere applications suite to provide the core of its new Embarq Smart IP Enterprise solution. MetaSwitch now serves more than 125 CLECs with its technology.

Moving forward, next generation wireless opportunities look good. "The iPhone has changed the rules," said Lazar. "The Google phone looks very interesting." New enterprise applications taking advantage of SIP phones with XML capabilities are also something that could appear in the future, particularly in the higher education space.

For more:
- MetaSwitch announces FY08 numbers. Release

MetaSwitch lands EMBARQ

Doug Mohney — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:09:06 -0400

MetaSwitch has announced that its softswitch and MetaSphere application suite forms the core of EMBARQ's Smart IP Enterprise solution. The integrated solution is hosted in the core of EMBARQ's network.

"This is another data point, abetted with a nice name, of what we've been doing for some time and continue to do," said MetaSwitch CEO Graeme MacArthur. "We're becoming more and more of a trusted vendor in the industry and that, in a nut shell, is what it is all about."

In addition to EMBARQ, MetaSwitch counts AT&T, BT, Qwest and Sprint among its Tier 1 customers.

EMBARQ's Smart IP Enterprise service will provide business customers with a bundled package of dedicated internet access, local and long distance voice services and IP-enabled call features. MetaSphere enables click-to-dial with Microsoft Outlook integration and advanced voicemail features. MetaSwitch is also providing IP-enabled features, including rules-based call forwarding, auto attendant, music on hold, sequential ring and remote click-to-dial.

While vendors may be scaling back their purchases due to slowing economic conditions, MacArthur doesn't seem to be fazed by the current business climate. "We're comfortable with our growth and sales situation," he said. "The industry in general is more cautious in how they spend their money. It can actually be a good thing, they look for value, quality, longevity... there's more scrutiny, they'll spend with who they trust."

For more:
- MetaSwitch EMBARQ announcement

Related articles
MetaSwitch Makes Mashups

BroadSoft and JoeDeveloper.NET mashup Facebook

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:59:57 -0400

BroadSoft and JoeDeveloper.NET have launched the first Facebook mashup to include carrier-grade VoIP features. J.NET's Click2Message Facebook application talks to Broadsoft's BroadWorks VoIP application platform, so Facebook users can enable their friends and colleagues to call them through their Facebook profiles with a single click.

The Click2Message application enables click-to-dial using any device and Facebook users can add the application to their profile pages, allowing their network of friends and business connections to call them without revealing their own phone numbers to the caller. (If they are your friends, why would you need to hide your number? Hmm.) The basic Click2Message application is now available free of change to any U.S.-based Facebook user; sign-up information for the free beta is available at http://marketplace.broadsoft.com. A for-pay version with advanced bells and whistles such as low-cost outbound calling, call forwarding, do not disturb, and voicemail-to-text transcription, will be released shortly

Click2Message is the latest high-visibility application announced out of BroadSoft's Xtended Developers Program, following announcements combining BroadWorks functionality with Salesforce.com, ACT! by Sage, simulScribe, and Polycom. Developers get access to APIs to integrated advanced voice features with their applications.

For more:
- BroadSoft Facebook Mashup release

Related articles:
BroadSoft powering XO Hosting Mobile UC
TMC piece on Broadsoft ACT! Mashup

UTStarcom: 500 Billion Minutes Served

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:59:57 -0400

UTStarcom reports the company's mSwitch has carried more than 500 billion minutes of usage from the second quarter of 2005 through the fourth quarter of 2007. Using data from market researcher iLocus, the number would represent 16 percent of global VoIP traffic. In addition, iLocus ranked UTStarcom as the No. 1 vendor for global Class 5 VoIP minutes of usage for the 11th consecutive quarter, giving the company a cumulative 45 percent share of global traffic.

Next Generation Networks (NGN) is a core business area for UTStarcom, as the company capitalizes upon the continuing growth of Internet traffic and the end-of-life of legacy switches. Recent deployment contracts include PLDT in Asia and Jersey Telecom in Europe. UTStarcom includes a comprehensive feature set in the switch and also supports value-added applications such as unified messaging and communications and fixed mobile convergence.

For more:
- UTStarcom NGN Milestone Release
- UTStarcom mSwitch information

Related articles:
1 trillion minutes of VoIP in 2006
P2P VoIP network traffic doubles

Comverse Converges Connexion, Opens Bahamas

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 06:59:54 -0400

Comverse has announced two Northern Hemisphere customer wins with FTTH operator Connexion and Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC).

Cary, North Carolina-based Connexion provides one-stop shopping for real estate developers and communities looking for a FTTH network with design, installation, and operational services. Connexion Technologies will be using Comverse's My Call Converged Communications system to help carriers serve residential customers with IP-based phone services, complementing the company's other fiber broadband services such as high-speed Internet, television, and home security monitoring.

Operating on Comverse's Class 5 Application Server, MyCall Converged Communications is a pre-integrated solution based on an IMS architecture, providing messaging services across fixed and mobile phones as well as PCs. Two of the applications of MyCall, the PC Communicator and Mobile Communicator, allow users to access all of their communication and messaging services - including telephony, voicemail, SMS, MMS, IM and Presence - via PC and mobile phone respectively using a single ID/telephone number.

BTC, in operation for more than 100 years, is installing Comverse's InSight Open Service Environment along with voice mail and other services for its wireline subscribers. InSight, installed at more than 100 operators around the world, provides an open and modular environment for the delivery of a wide variety of communications, messaging, and content services over IP, circuit-switched, hybrid and IMS networks. An IP-based architecture and standard interfaces enable core components to be shared by multiple services.

For more:
- Comverse's Connexion Release is here.
- BCT and Comverse is here.

Related articles:
The real deal arrives Editorial
Comverse names Dahan president Report

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

Google Skype rumor fills the holiday void

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 06:59:57 -0500

Google had a good day on Friday. As Americans were digesting their Thanksgiving turkey, Google's market cap rose a little over 2 percent, equal to about a $4 billion gain for the day. Wouldn't we all like to make that sort of money while on holiday? But $4 billion also happens to be about what the internet phone service Skype is worth--and while the U.S.A. relaxed, over in London, the rumor mill was in full swing about a possible Google buy out of Skype.

It all started as nothing but the flimsiest of rumors, albeit from a writer cum blogger for the Guardian newspaper in London, Jemima Kiss. Her exact words: "Currently in favor around London's webbist community is the rumor that Google has been in negotiations to buy Skype, the web telephony firm, from eBay."

Newspapers around the world have struggled with how to deal with bloggers. At first most respected papers avoided blogs fearing they lacked the normal journalistic checks, which readers associated with their brands. But as the blog phenomena took off most relented and now blogs are to be seen on news sites around the world. But the tension over their journalistic integrity still exists.

Kiss was previously a contributor to the respected industry site, paidcontent and before that at journalism.co.uk, so has a solid pedigree. But if such a paragraph had been submitted to the printed edition it would not have made it past the first copy editor. That is not to say it is wrong. But to get printed there would have had to have been some real sourcing, not to mention checking with the parties involved.

But on the internet, anything goes, and so it was by Sunday evening 256 different web publications had referenced the Kiss rumor, with only one, Gigaom, actually checking with Skype or Google as to its veracity. Skype humorously said they did not comment on rumors. Most of the commentary suggested it was a good fit and consistent with Google's ambitions to remake the telephony world into an open ecosystem where carriers are just that. Significantly none of the major business publications followed the story up.

As for Kiss she had moved on to her latest rumor: News Corp to buy the social network site for bizoids, Linkedin.

More Reports:
- Where the rumor started: Guardian Blog
- Skype requirement to pay out $200 million if sold before April 2008
- Why sell Skype Skype Journal Report

Related articles:
- Technology cold war Report
- Google talks, world shudders Report

ALSO NOTED: Digium gets funded; Does Skype equal VoIP?; and much more...

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 20:01:32 -0400

> Digium, developers of the open-source softswitch Asterisk, just landed $13.2 million in venture funding. Article

> In the blog world, one blogger writes, Skype and VoIP are more or less equivalent. This is yet one more reason to not believe what you read on blogs. Article

> Companies who build systems to let VoIP carriers comply with CALEA are taking issue with people who say it can't be done safely. Article

> And Finally... The headache's still there, but I'm getting so much done... Article

Asterisk vulnerabilities found, patch issued

Mon, 17 Jul 2006 20:01:37 -0400

If you use the Asterisk open-source softswitch, we hope you had a good weekend because you've got some patching to do today. Internet Security Systems found a couple of flaws in Asterisk last week, problems that could let attackers take down the software by sending floods of traffic its way. The good news is that patches were released Saturday that should make Asterisk more resistant to Denial of Service attacks.

For more information on Asterisk DoS vulnerabilities:
- read this article in CIO

Siemens Com to cut further 1,000 jobs

Mon, 01 May 2006 20:01:34 -0400

Siemens will reduce its Com unit's 50,000-strong workforce by another 1,000 as it struggles to find a strategy to fix this troublesome unit. Siemens Com, which makes equipment for fixed and mobile networks, has seen its profitability plunge during recent years and has already got rid of 1,500 jobs in the last six months. The 1,000 job cuts will come in administration, sales and development to help reduce the unit's costs.

For more on Siemens' plan on the proposed job cuts:
- look at this Financial Times article

PLUS: Siemens Com reports to have shipped about 75 percent of its 3 million softswitch IP ports into Class 5 applications during the quarter. This represents a 61 percent increase in softswitch ports over the last quarter. Update

SPOTLIGHT: Ala. carriers think IMS with MetaSwitch

Fri, 07 Apr 2006 14:53:35 -0400

TODAY'S SPOTLIGHT... Ala. carriers think IMS with MetaSwitch
Ashford, AL-based Graceba Total Communications is migrating from Siemens EWSD digital switching system to MetaSwitch's softswitch. Union Springs Telephone of Union Springs, AL, began making the transition from Nortel's DMS-100 to MetaSwitch UC9000 Unified Communications System more than a year-and-a-half ago. Castleberry Telephone in Castleberry, AL, will be installing MetaSwitch's VP2510 integrated softswitch. Tier 2 and tier 3 operators are also thinking about and making the move toward IMS. Release