Wednesday, March 23, 2005

In the good old days 199x - 2004 a typical CLEC with a 50 central office (CO) HDSL build-out, the CLEC is able to break even with just 20 business customers, show net EBITDA
(earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of 20-plus percent over three years and become cash-positive in less than two years.
With the recent UNEP ruling how will these xLECs navigate the vehement tumultous telecom sea and steer their company/ship away from the regulatory rocks so as not to shipwreck?

One solution is VNAP http://vnap.ws and http://dv4.agileco.net/BizLocity Now Virtual Operators, xLECs, xSPs, Mobile, Wireless and Cable MSOs, and others can leverage this Virtual Network Infrastructure to redefine how services and products will be created and offer and break the tyranny of the DS0 and and the shackles of the unwilling partner.

I will have more to say about this at a later time.



8:43:49 PM    

Bus. Std: The Many Uses of Mobile Phones.

My latest column in Business Standard:

The innovation and growth on the mobile phones front is astonishing. The top-end phones available now have the processing power and storage available in desktop computers from just 4-5 years ago. Little wonder then that 2004 saw 674 million phones being bought, and estimates for 2005 stand at 730 million.

The mobile phone is rapidly becoming the uber-device – the one device that seems to have it all and becomes even more indispensable than it is now. Mobile phones have already started functioning as more than just communications devices. Mobiles serve as watches and alarm clocks. Even with the limited free games that come with basic phones, they are already good for “time-pass.” They can also function as calculators.

In unfamiliar neighbourhoods, they tell us where we are. The address book and contacts list on phones is our social interface. Without the phone, many of us would be quite lost in connecting with other people! The calendar function on the mobile phones can help us track our lives. Phones can also function as radios. For some, the mobile phone also becomes a notepad – send an SMS to oneself and make it a reminder service. Owners also have tended to customise phones – with their own ringtones, themes and wallpapers.

This is just for starters. Consider what some of the more advanced mobile phones are also doing:

  • Digital Camera: Point-and-click! Phones capture pictures and let us save them for posterity or transfer them to others and computers.
  • Audio Recorder: Mobile phones can be used to record conversations, or even brief notes to oneself.
  • Video Recorder: Phones are becoming video cameras also – some of the newest cellphones can record an hour or more of video.
  • Multimedia Messaging: Everything recorded can be shared with others by using MMS.
  • Email Client: The phone can be used to connect to any POP or IMAP server and allow receiving and sending email. While most phones may not have the ease-of-use that a Blackberry has with email, contacts and calendar, the fact that it is on the phone itself and there is no need for a separate device can be a big help (along with the lower total cost of ownership).
  • Web Client: Phones can also browse websites – via a WAP and/or HTML browser. Most websites may not look great on the small screen, but it is still possible to connect to any website.
  • Gaming Platform: Mobile games have become big business in the past couple years, as people seek entertainment in the free time that they have on the device that they always carry with them.
  • Documents Viewer: It is increasingly possible to view documents on the cellphone – in the popular MS-Office file formats.
  • Computer Adjunct: For many, the cellphone has replaced the PDA as the complement to the computer. With a remote desktop application, it also becomes possible to make the mobile phone a window to one’s computer.
  • Music Player: The next big thing in 2005 is reckoned to be the combining of music capabilities on the mobile phone. While phones can play MP3s, it will soon also be possible to have music streamed from the Internet. Motorola is expected to introduce a phone this year that marries the mobile with Apple’s iPod.
  • TV: In India, some operators have been promoting many TV channels on the cellphone over next-generation networks like EDGE.
  • Wallet: The phone can also be used to pay for purchases like a credit or debit card. There is already a billing relationship that exists between the subscriber and the operator, and that can be used to make payments to merchants.
  • Bar-code readers: Phones will also be able to read barcodes and that can have very interesting applications in commerce.

    Ramesh Jain, professor at University of California, Irivine, wrote on his weblog: “Mobile phones are becoming very powerful and are likely to become a dominant device for CCC (communication, computing and content).”

    So, the phones of tomorrow will be remote controls for our life. They will come with bigger, better keyboards and displays – even though there are practical limitations on how big a device we will carry. Networks are becoming faster, too. And the device that was once a replacement for the fixed-line phone will occupy an even greater role in our lives. Countries like Japan and South Korea already lead the way in having multi-purpose mobile phones. China is following and India is not far behind.

    Consider some of the recent announcements at Cebit.

    A Slashdot reader wrote: “Samsung [is] showing off a new cell phone which runs on Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system which features a built-in hard drive. The SGH-I300 will offer 3GB of storage which allows you to store up to 1,000 songs on it for playback through the music player. The 3GB hard drive is similar to the type of hard drive that is found in Apple's Mini iPod. These 1-inch drives with very low power requirements, are ideal for cell phones and other mobile devices.”

    News.com wrote about two of the announcements at Cebit: “Motorola is demonstrating its 3G Motorola V1150 phone in Hannover. The sleek phone will come with an integrated 2-megapixel camera, two-way video calling and a new Motorola ticker technology called Screen3 that streams news and entertainment from Motorola...Sony Ericsson is showing off the W800 phone, the first Walkman- branded cell phone. The handset comes with a digital-audio player, FM radio tuner and 2-megapixel camera. The W800 will have 38MB of free memory for music and images.”

    Mobile phones are morphing – to the point where voice is just incidental. They are becoming, what George Gilder has called, teleputers.

    [E M E R G I C . o r g]

    • 8:23:27 PM    
     Tuesday, March 22, 2005

    Skype and P2P SIP.
    Prof. Henning Schulzrinne et al. from Columbia University published recently two interesting papers. One paper "An Analysis of the Skype Peer-to-Peer Internet Telephony
    Protocol"     is trying to re-engineer Skype and is giving some insights to the inner working of Skype.

    The second paper "Peer-to-Peer Internet Telephony using SIP" is proposing a way to implement SIP as P2P protocol. The most interesting point IMHO is the possibility for a client to register with a normal SIP-proxy ond at the same time to participate in a P2P network.
    By null. [VoIP and ENUM]
    8:17:27 PM    

    The Economist on Internet Telephony - Mobile operators the big losers.
    The Economist had an article in his December 2nd issue: The phone call is dead; long live the phone call. (premium article).

    Raising the basic question:     Who wins and who loses as phone calls move on to the internet?

    The Ecomomist had an article on Internet Telephony (VoIP) in his December 2nd issue: The phone call is dead; long live the phone call.

    raising the basic question: Who wins and who loses as phone calls move to the internet?

    ....

    Because VOIP service relies on software, rather than the traditional physical telephone infrastructure—voicemails, for instance, come into one's e-mail inbox and can be saved and forwarded—it upsets the entire telecoms industry, for two reasons.

    First, while traditional telephony takes account of geography, distance, and time, says Michael Powell, America's telecoms regulator, “VOIP shatters all three�. In most cases it makes no difference to a VOIP caller where he is, how far away from the person he is calling, or how long they talk. VOIP phones can have traditional telephone numbers, yet still work no matter where they are, provided they are plugged in to a broadband internet connection. Lots of Indian mothers in Delhi have Vonage phones with the American area code 650 so that they can make cheap “local� calls to their sons in Silicon Valley.

    Second, VOIP uncouples the two previously intertwined components of telephony: access to the network (via a wire running into your house, for example) and service (the ability to make and receive calls). Traditionally, both have been provided together. With VOIP you can buy broadband access from one firm and a telephony service from another—or even from a company in another country altogether.

    Who will be the biggest losers? Not the fixed-line telcos, even though their revenues may fall by 25% by 2010 due to VOIP, according to Mr Mewawalla.

    The mobile operators are likely to be the big losers, with their revenues plunging by 80%. Together, VOIP and wireless broadband could fatally undermine their costly third-generation (3G) networks.


    By null. [VoIP and ENUM]
    8:16:34 PM    


     

    Australia Rolls Out ENUM Services; U.S. "Stalled"

    While ENUM - they tying of telephone numbers to Internet Protocol addresses, a potential boon to the growth of Internet telephony - is described as "stalled" in the United States, it is being rolled out in Australia "with a light regulatory hand," according to a story published April 12 in Washington Internet Daily , an online newsletter. One would hope U.S. regulators would watch and learn from the Australians.

    The story isn't available from the newsletter's website, but is available via Lexis-Nexis. Here is a very brief excerpt...

    Austria is ready to be "first to jump the cliff" into commercial e-numbering (ENUM) services, Internet Foundation Austria (IPA) Chmn. Michael Haberler told us. A 2-year commercial phase will launch this year, overseen by the country's Broadcasting & Telecom Regulatory Authority (RTR) and with NIC.at providing registry services, said Georg Serentschy, RTR managing dir.-telecom section. The plan flies in the face of claims ENUM isn't ready for prime time in Europe because technical and regulatory issues aren't resolved. Because no one knows how ENUM will develop, Serentschy said Thurs., regulators are exerting a light touch.

    ENUM activities don't fall within Austria's telecom act because it specifically excludes domain names from RTR's authority, Serentschy said. However, he said, early on the govt. applied for .3.4.e164.arpa for its ENUM domain name because it recognized the relationship between telephone numbers and ENUM services. As the domain owner, RTR sets rules for its use.

    Austria ran an ENUM trial, but it's shifting to a commercial rollout in the late 3rd quarter or early 4th quarter, Serentschy said. The phase is limited to 2 years because "one of the things we want to find out" is what the ENUM service will look like, he said. NIC.at will have the right to operate the registry during that time, he said, but if ENUM proves popular, others may be allowed to bid on providing registry services. Extensive discussion in the U.S. has concerned whether there should be multiple registries as well as registrars. Austria is most likely to go with a single registry and several registrars, Serentschy said, but it depends on the market. It's not clear who will be most interested in ENUM - consumers, businesses or both, he said. Until that's known, the govt. doesn't want to overload the emerging service with regulatory constraints, he said.

    The only regulatory action the govt. has taken is to dedicate a new number range - 780 - for ENUM services, Serentschy said.

    U.S. regulators ought to watch what Australia is doing - and not doing - about ENUM, and learn from it.

    As Computer Business Review reported April 7 :

    Public deployment of ENUM, the three-year-old standard for using telephone numbers over the internet, is still a way off in the US, despite the fact that many people think it will be an essential component of widespread voice over IP adoption.

    The US government came out in favor of accelerating ENUM plans in February 2003, but little has happened since, as the telecommunications, cable and internet industries try to hammer out the details of how implementation should happen.

    Interested parties organized into a group called the ENUM Forum have agreed that the best way to introduce ENUM in the US would be to form a limited liability corporation, which would receive contractual authority to run ENUM from the government.

    But there is still disagreement over how the ENUM registries contracting with this LLC would be required to operate. The complex issue takes into account political boundaries and competition and revenue concerns.


    By null. [VoIP and ENUM]
    8:15:31 PM    

    Emergency Services. Since I am also working now on Emergency Services for VoIP, I will also start to post issues related to Emergency Services here. The IETF has established a new workgroup "ecrit" -
    Emergency Context Resolution with Internet Technologies.

    NENA has defined three VoiP and E911 migratory stages:
    I1 - deliver the 911call from VoIP
    I2 - deliver via 911 network, with ANI and ALI within limits
    I3 - deliver via IP-based E911 systems to IP PSAP

    Since all I1 and I2 stages will be different in most countries depending on the existing local infrastructure, IETF WG ecrit will deal only with I3 related issues.

    IETF WG ecrit will meet at the next 62nd IETF meeting in Minneapolis, currently four I-Ds are submitted:
    draft-winterbottom-ecrit-location-scope-req-00.txt
    draft-stastny-ecrit-requirements-00.txt
    draft-arai-ecrit-japan-req-00.txt
    draft-rosen-nena-ecrit-requirements-00.txt
    in addition, the already existing inputs from Henning will be covered
    draft-schulzrinne-sipping-emergency-req-01.txt
    draft-schulzrinne-sipping-emergency-arch-02.txt

    The milestones of IETF WG ecrit are quite agressive, the most documents should be available in August 2005 (ok - lets be realistic - End of 2005).

    In the meantime work on I2 seems to make some progress, as Jeff stated today on his blog:


    Update on E911 Trial taking place in King County, Washington

    Earlier today I received the following message:

    Jeff,

    I'm sure you are aware that a E911 VoIP trial is ongoing in King County
    (greater Seattle area). The King County 911 office along with an ILEC,
    Intrado, Vonage, and others have already completed 911 calls that route to
    the correct Primary PSAP, carried the correct call back number, and the
    correct address information. Dynamic routing (within one hour) of "changed"
    address information when a user moves locations, is the last test and is
    scheduled for next week (today the information takes a week to be updated
    by industry). The method is unusual and still needs to be worked through
    the standards organizations but proves that 911 issues for VoIP can be
    resolved by cooperation between government and interested companies. If
    approved by NENA and ATIS, this method of routing 911 calls will bring
    better 911 service to VoIP users in all states.

    The initial coordination of this continuing successful project was started
    at the VON conference in Boston more than a year ago. Inviting staff from
    the Washington State Utility Commission, as well as other state regulatory
    commissions, allowed for the type of communication that will build
    networks and resolve just these kinds of issues in the future between
    industry and the regulatory world.

    Hopefully the difficult issues like E-911 cost recovery will be resolved in
    the same cooperative manner. Thanks again for making it possible for state
    regulators to attend both the Boston and Santa Clara VONs. I will miss the
    communication between attendees. I will also miss the excellent parties.

    Cheers,

    Bob Williamson
    Senior Member Technical Staff
    Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission
    Olympia, WA.

    n

    By null. [VoIP and ENUM]
    8:14:27 PM    

    Nominum, ENUM and VoIP.
    Nominum is bragging in their website about their ANS. Since I cannot confirm or deny this, I just copy in the content of the page for the esteemed audience:

    Nominum delivers groundbreaking ENUM benchmarks for VOIP.

    ENUM is a combination of Internet-based technologies designed to map the global Public Switched Telecommunications Network (PSTN) telephone numbers, known as E.164 identifiers, into domain names. ENUM facilitates the convergence of the Internet with traditional telecommunications services.

    Whereas the DNS architecture is highly scalable across the Internet, ENUM changes the rules of the game by requiring individual DNS servers to store several orders of magnitude more records, respond with reduced latency, and guarantee 99.999% availability.

    To test scalability and performance at ENUM levels, Nominum loaded 200M records into its Authoritative Name Server (ANS) and several other DNS servers. Only ANS loaded the 200M records. All other servers failed at loading even 50M records.

    DNS Server ANS BIND9 DJBDNS Power DNS
    200M Records Pass Fail Fail Fail
    50M Records Pass Fail Fail Fail

    With 200M records loaded, Nominum’s Foundation Authoritative Name Server (ANS) answered to 45,000 queries per second with an average latency of 2 milliseconds.

    Click here for the full benchmark results.
    Click here for the press release.

    Click here to download high performance version of queryperf.
    By null. [VoIP and ENUM]
    8:10:49 PM    
     Monday, March 07, 2005

    Small telecom carriers focus on providing choices. WASHINGTON - As traditional competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) retool to keep up with U.S. regulations and battle the huge regional Bells, a range of new business models are emerging. [InfoWorld: Top News]
    10:00:44 PM    

    Telesym Podcast: the Future of VoWLAN. If you're interested in where Voice over IP over WLAN is heading in the enterprise, listen to this interview with Telesym: I met over in Bellevue, Wash., today with Telesym, a firm that extends an enterprise-based phone exchange (PBX) system into laptops, handhelds, and "scanners": bar-code devices used in retail and logistics by store and floor personnel. I spoke with Mike Houston, Telesym's director of Marketing, Ken Myer, senior VP of sales and marketing, and Jennifer Gehrt, a founding partner at Communiqué Public Relations about Telesym's position in the market, but more largely about the future of VoWLAN. (Ken had to leave for a meeting, so I spoke primarily with Mike in this podcast). You'll hear at the outset of the recording after my introduction a conversation we had using Telesym technology: I was on a USB headset connected to a Telesym client running under Mac OS X; Mike was on a cellular phone. I had the recorder up to the headphone on the headset; next time, I'll plug the recorder into the line out on the laptop to better demonstrate the quality. The audio file is available as an 8 MB MP3 download, a 6 MB MP3 compressed with ZIP, or your podcast-capable news reader should already have identified it.... [Wi-Fi Networking News]
    9:57:28 PM    

    CLECs search for new business models. WASHINGTON - Recent months have been tough for competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs), as their allies get gobbled up by competitors and the government dismantles network-sharing regulations. But CLECs say they will survive by adopting new business models and focusing on customer relations. [InfoWorld: Top News]
    9:56:18 PM    
     Sunday, March 06, 2005

    New Free VoIP, Video & P2P IM Client using Open Standards.

    ineen is new P2P IM software with VoIP and Video that's easy and free to use. The client was built using Xten's eyeBeam SDK and makes use of SIMPLE for P2P IM and Presence. VoIP is supported by SIP and the Video media is H.263[+]. You can use ineen to call over other networks as well, including: Free World Dialup, SIPphone, & iptel.org.

    Xten will be demonstrating ineen at VON next week.

    [SIPthat.com]
    12:41:46 PM    

    Who Will Win The Home IP Phone Market. Doug Mohney of VoN Magazine has a great summary of the residential IP phone market. In addition to the companies he listed that are the likely candidates to sell lots of phones, there are many rising stars in Asia who... [VoIP Watch]
    12:41:07 PM    

    Searching for weather, by web or phone
    As a kid, I would stare for hours at repetitious weather reports on TV. Boring, you say? Not to me - I love weather. And since I've worked here, I've wondered why Google doesn't do weather. It seemed like a perfect 20% project for me, so now I'm pleased to report that you can get current conditions and a forecast by typing [weather Chicago], or whatever your U.S. location is (zipcodes are also fair game). If you prefer, use Google SMS to send a text message to the U.S. five digit shortcode 46645 (GOOGL on most mobile phones) followed by your meteorological query.



    Ben Sigelman

    Software Engineer
    [Google Blog - Live]
    12:40:12 PM    

    Spring 2005 VON: In the News Today.

  • Investors Business Daily - March 7th: Internet Telephone Service Buzz Comes Calling At Big Trade Show
  • Mercury News - March 6th: Phone calls destined to be sent like e-mail, as packets of data (requires subscription)

    [The Jeff Pulver Blog]

    • 12:34:59 PM    
     Thursday, March 03, 2005

    Liberty Focuses on Mobile Web Services
    February 14, 2005
    By Clint Boulton


    The Liberty Alliance Project released Mobile Business Guidelines 2.0, a document for describing how service providers can deploy secure mobile Web services.

    The Mobile Business Guidelines document addresses issues such as quality standards, risk management, liability/dispute and resolution policies for those offering single sign-on and Web services via handheld computers, smart phones and laptops.

    The publication of the schema was made in time for 3GSM World Congress in Cannes, France, where the notion of being able to access Web services safely via will be a major topic.

    Software makers such as Microsoft, IBM, BEA Systems, and others are intent on expanding the adoption of Web services, application-to-application communication that enables users to purchase goods securely via the Internet.

    But the software needs some service providers and wireless operators to use the Web services infrastructure and applications written by the software companies, enabling them on mobile gadgets to spur Web-based purchases for mobile commerce.

    This is a step in the right direction. Those operator wishing to accelerate their Liberty/SAML  deployment should look at http://dv3.agileco.net/eTRUST


    3:17:44 PM    
     Monday, February 28, 2005

    New Versions of ETSI Documents on ENUM.

    Richard Stastny points to new versions of ETSI TISPAN WG4 documents on ENUM. He says:

    • "ETSI TS 102 172 V2 "Minimum Requirements for Interoperability of ENUM Implementations" may now be considered stable. It is planned to approve the document at ETSI TISPAN#5 in January 2005. It may serve in conjunction with the relevant (and referenced) IETF RFCs (and drafts) as basis for ENUM implementations in e164.arpa worldwide. The document may be updated in one year or so depending on experiences and feedback from first implementations and also if IETF finally catches up with the RFCs for IANA registered "enumservices"."
    • "ETSI TR 102 055 "Infrastructure ENUM" now also reaches stability, after some parts have been moved to be covered in a subsequent document. So it may be considered as a framework document covering potential Infrastructure ENUM scenarios. The subsequent document will cover some specific scenarios, e.g. for TISPAN IMS NGN. It is also planned to have this document at least ready for WG approval at ETSI TISPAN#5 in January."

    [via VoIP and ENUM]

    [ITU Strategy and Policy Unit Newslog]
    9:33:20 PM    

    Mobility Unplugged.

    Mobility Unplugged: Technologies, Policy Challenges and Market Opportunities (PDF) was presented by Lara Srivastava , ITU Strategy and Policy Unit, at the Annual Telecom Symposium 2004 in New Delhi, India. The agenda of the presentation includes:

    • No wires: what’s all the fuss?
    • Technology focus
    • The mobile phone as the device of choice
    • Key policy challenges
    • Advantage Asia
    • The world’s biggest mobile growth market
    • A peek into the future?
    [ITU Strategy and Policy Unit Newslog]
    9:32:31 PM    

    CIRPACK Triple Play. Quick news to share. If you're attending CeBIT, you should check out CIRPACK - they're yet another solutions provider offering a Triple Play solution, which is a technology that I am very very high on._________________________________________________CIRPACK will be exhibiting at... [VoIP Blog - VoIP News, Gadgets]
    9:24:25 PM    

    Vonage IPO This Year?. Om say Vonage IPO. I don't think they can wait. Reports are their growth is slowing, that costs are rising and that founder Jeffrey Citron has a bundle of his own cash in the venture.... [VoIP Watch]
    9:19:25 PM    

    A Short History of Ringtones.

    ringtones_xl.jpgThe New Yorker, which is apparently a magazine and not a sandwich, has an article on the history of cell phone ringtones, the little bits of MIDI and MP3 that accounted for four billion dollars in revenue last year. While the history may not be enlightening—they started crappy, then got better—it serves as a decent round-up of the state-of-the-art in coworker frustration, as well. They neglect to mention the nascent trend among the cutting edge, where discordant sine waves are loaded onto different phones, forcing the evacuation of cerebrospinal fluid through the ears of every other person in your sales meeting.

    Yes, this was the worst clip art I could find.

    RING MY BELL [NewYorker via Slashdot]

    [Gizmodo]
    5:28:51 PM    
     Sunday, February 27, 2005

    February 2005 Pulver Report Published.

    I've been writing and publishing "The Pulver Report" since August, 1996. The report used to get published at least 10 times a year.

    With everything else that is going on, I'm just glad that I was able to get the February 2005 edition published and distributed yesterday morning.

    Subscriptions to The Pulver Report remain free. There are around 50,000 subscribers at the moment.

    [The Jeff Pulver Blog]
    8:11:42 PM    

    WAPI Whacked. Chinese peeved, walked out over procedural move in ISO over WAPI: The Wireless Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure (WAPI) proprietary standard that the Chinese government originally intended as a mandatory element for all domestically sold Wi-Fi gear was made optional and moved into the ISO standards organization to be approved as an international protocol. It was fast-tracked for approval initially, but then through a procedural move placed into a slower track. 802.11i remains fast tracked and may be approved as an optional security standard by April. I learned recently that the Chinese object to 802.11i because it includes a 128-bit key length version of AES which they believe the NSA has the ability to decipher. The corresponding problem with WAPI is that it is a proprietary protocol controlled by the government which leads one to believe that it has either a back-door or a weak known flaw in it that would allow interception.... [Wi-Fi Networking News]
    8:10:44 PM    

    VoIP News Roundup. VTech Skype cordless phone unveiled, Illinois Telephone goes NuvioCentrex, Net2Phone, ETB co-brand VoIP services, Adelphia, Rogers opt for Nortel, TW Telecom launches new voice service

    [Article ID: 1447-6668] By Pike and Fischer. [VoIP Monitor]
    8:09:41 PM    


    eurovoip: VoIP carriers launch peering network. eurovoip: VoIP carriers launch peering network To me it sounds a lot like what Arbinet was supposed to do or is still setting out to do.... [VoIP Watch]
    8:09:03 PM    

    New Social Networking Tool will Debut at Spring 2005 VON!.

    Next week we will be introducing a new software application to help facilitate the transition from being part of a virtual community to being part of a physical community.

    My hope is that with the advent of our new social networking tool, members of the Spring 2005 VON Conference Community will be able to accelerate their own face-to-face, business-to-business networking.

    [The Jeff Pulver Blog]
    8:08:12 PM    

    GSM - watch VoIP. GSM - watch VoIP--James Seng in Singapore has a post about GSM, WiFi and VoIP. He quotes Mike Mulica CEO of Bridgeport Networks. If you are not familiar with Bridgeport they have some of the smartest guys in the crossover... [VoIP Watch]
    8:06:59 PM    

    Cablevision, Covad Post Steady VoIP Growth. Cablevision ended the final quarter of 2004 with more than 270K subscribing to its IP telephony service, up 44% from the previous quarter. Independent service provider Covad posted growth across the board in its traditional data offerings as well as VoIP. [Article ID: 1447-6666] By Pike and Fischer. [VoIP Monitor]
    8:06:15 PM    

    P2P VoIP & Open Standards.

    We are starting to see some progress with a few proposed P2P VoIP drafts in the IETF. It will probably take several months but there will be a standard here and that is good news!

    With Skype's seemingly immense popularity the business case for P2P VoIP has been already been introduced, albeit nothing new. When we take that model and apply it using Open Standards like SIP [Session Initiation Protocol] the doors fling wide open.

    Imagine all of the islands of communication you are used to, e.g. IM, Voice, Video.. all coming together under one roof and a great deal of it is what some would call free! It's coming, sooner than you think and some of those solutions will be using the Xten eyeBeam SDK to do it! Keep your ears to the rails, the trains'a comin :)

    [SIPthat.com]
    7:57:48 PM    

    Voice over WiFi on the Highway.

    It looks like VoWiFi is making inroads into mobility, this is great news for the IP communications industry.

    Excerpt from eWeek...

    I-19, the Canamex Interstate Highway, is the home of the "world's first highway Wi-Fi mobile voice and high speed data network," from Rio Rico to South of Green Valley, Arizona according to New Zealand based RoamAD, which supplied the Wi-Fi mesh software used in the network's infrastructure.

    more..

    [SIPthat.com]
    7:56:41 PM    

    iPodderSP is "the podcasting client for SmartPhones." [Scripting News]
    7:53:43 PM    

    Popular Telephony and Linksys WRE54G WiFi Extenders. Check out Rich Tehrani's blog entry from yesterday about Popular Telephony announcing Commoca and Texas Instruments agreement to embed Peerio in color IP Telephony terminals. The news was made to coincide with the "opening day" of Internet Telephony Expo. I... [VoIP Blog - VoIP News, Gadgets]
    7:53:06 PM    

    GlobalNet's Turn Key Consumer VoIP Solution Launches. Interesting news from a Latin America-based VoIP company which is launching a new service at the Miami-based VoIP show I am covering. I find it fascinating how many Latin American companies come to the Miami-based Internet Telephony Expo to launch... [VoIP Blog - VoIP News, Gadgets]
    7:52:25 PM    

    Voxeo Launches Turnkey VoIP Platform Including IVR, Conferencing, and more. Voxeo Corporation today announced its new line of standards-based turnkey communication servers today. The new VoiceCenter Fusion Server product consolidates seven previously separate platforms into a single, integrated communications solution. Voxeo claims that it's VoiceCenter Fusion Servers are the first... [VoIP Blog - VoIP News, Gadgets]
    7:51:17 PM    

    e.164.info interconnects 100 million phone numbers through VoIP. Interesting release to share, especially since I believe ENUM will continue to play a more and more important role in VoIP...According to an email they sent me, they state, "today marks the world's first massive deployment of a carrier... [VoIP Blog - VoIP News, Gadgets]
    7:50:16 PM    

    Skype to SMS.

    Skype SMS



    The trickier part was getting it so a cellphone could send an SMS text message to a Skype user, but Connectotel has also worked it out so you can do the reverse, too (yeah, it’s already fairly easy to send an SMS from a PC). Basically you just add “smsgateway” to your user list, type in the number of the person you want to bother, and then enter you message and you’re good to go.



    [Engadget]
    7:43:16 PM    

    Samsung to intro the i730 next month. i730


    Can we say how excited we were when we first peeped the i730, Samsung’s new EV-DO capable Pocket PC Phone? We thought we’d finally found what we were looking for—the i730 is only slightly larger than the Treo 650 and sports a 2.8-inch QVGA (240x320) 65,000 color touch screen, 64MB RAM, a 1.3 megapixel digital camera, WiFi, Bluetooth, and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard—but then we played around with it. Yeah, the screen is nice, and the prospect of having EV-DO on a phone like this really, really, really appeals to us, but that slide-out keyboard (which is one of the big selling points) just wasn’t cutting it for us (typing on it wasn’t pleasant). Anyway, not that we care as much as we used to, but apparently the i730 is going to be launched at the big CTIA wireless trade show in March, with Verizon all but guaranteed to be the carrier (it really couldn’t be anybody else now, could it?).



    [Engadget]
    7:29:32 PM    

    Broadband @ 70 MPH!.

    Last night after a very long wait at the Jacksonville Airport, I finally found a taxi to take to Amelia Island. Given the distance I had to travel, I took out my PC, launched the Verizon EVDO service and used the time to catch up on email and afterwards play a little poker. During the time I was in transit, I thought it was pretty cool that while the taxi was going at least 70 MPH, the connectivity did not miss a beat while I was playing.

    Broadband in the back of a Jacksonville taxi...it just works!

    [The Jeff Pulver Blog]
    7:27:57 PM    

    Telecoms Fight to Curb Public Competition (AP). AP - Cities and towns from San Francisco to Philadelphia, viewing access to advanced telecommunications as pivotal to prosperity, are aggressively seeking ways to provide high-speed Internet connections, wired or wireless, for citizens and local businesses. [Yahoo! News: Technology]
    7:23:20 PM    

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