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Voice over IP (VoIP) Learning

2005-04-14T20:11:00.000-07:00

Voice over IP (VoIP) Awareness more than Technical Knowledge

VoIP may be the talk of the town, but even the tech-friendly may not understand the basics of how Internet phone service works, according to online poll results released this week.

The survey, conducted by SunRocket, a Virginia-based Internet phone company, found that 85 percent of those questioned had heard of VoIP or Internet phone service. But only about half knew, for example, that you can use a regular telephone to make VoIP calls or that the calls do not have to go through your computer.

The poll of 2228 respondents, conducted in late February, had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

The poll "demonstrates that consumer awareness does not equate to consumer understanding," says Joyce Dorris, co-founder of SunRocket, was which founded in 2004.

Because the poll was conducted online the respondents were likely more "tech-savvy," SunRocket says. The vast majority of respondents, 97 percent, had Internet access at home, and about two-thirds had broadband. One in 20 already had Internet phone service.

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Technology
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How
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article: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,120397,00.asp

Voice over IP Information Guide Released

2005-04-05T14:01:00.001-07:00

Austrialian Communications Industry Forum released a Voice over IP Guide to inform potential subscribers. Voice over IP Subscribers need to be informed, According to ZDNet:

"VoIP sends voice information in digital form over Internet Protocol-based networks rather than via the traditional hardware circuits of the public switched telephony network (PSTN). A major advantage of VoIP and Internet telephony is that it can potentially avoid the tolls charged by ordinary telephone services.

...

According to Hurley, the fact sheet released today is her organisation's answer to consumers' request for help in identifying quality VoIP providers and making an informed choice. It is a "guide" for VoIP providers on what information they should be telling consumers."

Related Links:

VoIP Basics
VoIP Tutorial
VoIP Solutions

full article

2005-04-05T13:55:00.000-07:00

Canada states that fixed Voice over IP users must be provided VoIP 911 emergency services within 90 days. The ruling of VoIP 911 emergency services was passed last april by The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

According to GlobeAndMail.com:

Among concerns about voice over Internet-protocol (VoIP) phones, which can be moved from place to place, is that 911 calls may be routed to the wrong centre.

Emergency service providers are also concerned that, even if calls get to the right place, VoIP technology provides them with fewer options to deal with a situation than traditional phone lines.

VoIP Security
VoIP Tutorial
VoIP Resources

full article

2005-04-05T13:50:00.000-07:00

VoIP Services to rise for residential market. But voip residential users need to be educated to the benefits and advantages of VoIP before full adoption. Accoridng to Electronic News:

As major telecommunications carriers begin to roll out Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service offerings to give themselves a competitive edge, residential VoIP has clearly come into its own in the U.S., fueled in part by consumers looking to add value to their telephony service, according to market researchers at IDC.

As a result, the Framingham, Mass.-based firm expects the number of U.S. subscribers for residential VoIP services to grow from 3 million this year to 27 million by the end of 2009.

VoIP Tutorial

read article

Skype opens source code to developer community

2005-04-02T08:32:00.000-08:00

Skype is encouraging third party developers to develop software for the skype platform. Skype hopes that the developers profits will be shared by the parent company. Skype third party products include, (according to cnet news):

"Skype's developer program has seen some limited success so far. In the vanguard are relative unknown companies such as VOIPail, Connectotel and Meinskype, offering free Skype voice mail, SMS and ring tones, respectively.

Also in the works are Skype-based advice lines selling legal and medical information, astrology forecasts and other services. Paypal-style payment services for Skype have already been developed to handle micropayments involved in such transactions, potentially turning Skype into a sort of eBay for advice and dating services, if Skype developer Jyve has its way. The company is developing tools to let Web site operators cash in on just such a trend."

Skype developers can use the Skype platform to charge for service calls.

read more...

Voice over IP Service offerings by Vonage, ATT & Verizon target Home End-users.

2005-02-26T20:30:00.000-08:00

Voice over IP (VoIP) is becoming more adopted by home users. New VoIP Services such as Vonage, ATT and Verizon is targetting the home user market. From what I've been reading...VoIP rates are typically flat rate. Not too bad for domestic and long distance nation-wide calling.

"Voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) has been batted about in techie circles for many years. Over the past few years, it has been installed in many large companies to replace traditional telephone systems for internal calls. But within the past year or so, home users have begun to buy VOIP services, using their broadband Internet connections to make phone calls across the same pipes that carry the Web traffic. The start-up Vonage has packaged VOIP for the home user. Vonage's Digital Voice service costs $25 per month for unlimited local and long-distance calls in North America. The company boasts 450,000 customers, with an additional 10,000 coming onboard each week.

Vonage is no longer the only game in town, as telephone companies and cable companies have also started selling VOIP services to their residential customers. AT&T's CallVantage and Verizon's VoiceWing start at $30, and Time Warner Cable's Digital Phone starts at about $40."
(US NEWS & WORLD REPORT)

Related Voice over IP (VoIP) Resources & Articles:
Voice over IP Tutorial

read more…

VoIP use is easy & cheap: Skype and Vonage Discussed

2005-02-21T12:51:00.000-08:00

This is a great article discussing how easy and cheap it is to use the Skype and Vonage Services. Call quality is great and the VoIP setup is easy to do.

"We've got a new word in our family dictionary, "to skype", as in: "we can skype this evening", or "I'll skype you now".

The ugly word stands for a little piece of software called Skype, which allows computer users to make calls over the internet using "peer-to-peer" technology.

The beauty of it: the software is free, the sound quality of calls is outstanding, and if the other party has Skype as well, calls to the other end of the world won't cost a penny."

WiMAX technology can also run Voice over IP phones

2005-02-21T01:29:00.000-08:00

Voice over IP meets WiMAX - net phoning on wireless phones. WiMAX will offer wireless users large bandwidth pipes that can run their wireless laptops and Voice over IP phones over the same IP network. Imagine if you can make flat rate Voice over IP phone calls all over the world while surfing your web on a wireless laptop. Combing WiMAX and VoIP will make cell phone infrastructure and services obsolete.

"WiMax, a technology standard that will provide broadband Internet access over many miles of coverage, is expected to make a big splash when services emerge in 2006 or 2007. That's because WiMax could become a third option for broadband access, challenging cable companies and DSL providers.

While high-speed data access is considered a driving force behind WiMax's consumer appeal, service providers must bundle features such as VoIP--voice over Internet Protocol--to make enough money for survival, according to a study conducted by market researcher In-Stat/MDR."

read more: Study: Net phones key to WiMax success | CNET News.com

Nortel and 3Com offer SIP for VoIP support on BlackBerry

2005-02-21T00:03:00.000-08:00

Looks like Nortel and 3Com are teaming with Blackberry to offer SIP compability to Blackbery devices. Smart move on getting into VoIP equipment market.

"Nortel and 3Com have both signed up to develop SIP-based voice support for Research In Motion's (RIM's) BlackBerry 7270.

Both vendors will support the device's wireless LAN (WLAN) capability to give users access to their voice over IP (VoIP) phone systems via campus WLANs."

IEEE Release Voice over IP Whitepapers

2005-02-20T23:51:00.000-08:00

IEEE Releases new Voice over IP whitepapers.

"Voice over IP -- This month's tech focus is on Voice over IP The Internet is growing rapidly and its applications are becoming more diverse. IP telephony is one area of tremendous growth. VoIP and quality of service addresses the challenges and achievements associated with the evolution toward an IP telephony environment that offers the QoS to which customers have become accustomed with legal telephony networks. Papers in this tech focus section offer a broad view of the topic, spanning work done in laboratories, carried out in support of actual field implementations of VoIP, and captured in our industry standards. papers include important topics of voice quality measurement and predication in the VoIP environment, VoIP network admission control, and VoIP network reliability."

read more: Free Papers on IP Telephony

Vonage formal complaints to FCC of ISP VoIP call blocking

2005-02-14T10:20:00.000-08:00

Vonage complains to FCC about ISPs blocking their Voice over IP calls. This is done by port blocking, which prevents Voice over IP calls from successfully transmitting throug the ISP network.

"Internet phone provider Vonage said it's asked U.S. utility regulators to investigate allegations that a "major" broadband operator is deliberately blocking Internet phone calls.

Any investigation and its findings will add more tension to the relationships between providers of high-speed Internet and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), software that lets Internet connections double as inexpensive phone lines.

Vonage recently met with Federal Communications Commission representatives, said Vonage spokeswoman Brooke Schulz, to discuss an instance of "egregious, alarming and harmful port blocking." Port blocking is when Internet providers prevent traffic of certain kinds from traveling through their Internet Protocol (IP) networks."

read more: Vonage says broadband provider blocks its calls

Voice over IP (VoIP) Advantages

2005-01-15T12:45:00.000-08:00

Cost Savings

There are many VoIP cost savings advantages and benefits to deploying such a network.

Eliminate long distance toll charges. This type of VoIP solution is the called VoIP Toll Bypass. For example, VoIP calls can bypass long distance telephone toll charges by first routing the VoIP calls over the IP Data network. Then, the call is placed out to the telephone company, which locally resides at the destination phone in another state.

[VoIP Phone A-San Francisco]-->[Corporate IP Network]--->[VoIP Gateway-New York]--->[NY phone company]--->[Phone B-New york]

No more extra T1/T3 line charges. Since both the VoIP system and data will run over the same IP network, T1/T3 trunk lines that interconnect PBX's will no longer be needed. All information will run over one IP infrastructure, thus saving T1/T3 costs for PBX lines.

Extra features at no cost. VoIP conferencing is a feature that allows VoIP users connect together into a voice conference. Currently, voice conferencing is usually outsourced to a vendor with voice conferencing capabilities like ATT. However, if you deploy VoIP conferencing with your own equipment. You will incur no additional charges for using VoIP conference
capabilities. It is already a part of your network. The fixed-cost of VoIP conferencing system hardware will pay for itself over time. However, outsourced voice conferencing services will cost on per-use basis.

Low flat-rate VoIP Service charges. Many VoIP service providers are offering unlimited local and long distance calling for a flat rate fee. This is tremendous cost savings to VoIP residential and small/medium sized business users. Companies such as Vonage, ATT and Lingo are offering such services.

Simplified Network Management

Since the VoIP solution can run over the same corporate IP data infrastructure, the administrator will only have to manage a single IP network. No longer will they have to administer a PBX network infrastructure.

Increased Productivity

With Voice over IP call forwarding feature, telecommuting users can configure the VoIP system to forward all calls for their extension to their phone of choice (cell phone, home phone, hotel phone, etc...).

VOIP for the SME Markets

2004-12-21T10:06:00.000-08:00

Good Article for Sales Executives when selling VOIP to SME Markets.

Article suggests strategies and approaches when selling to SME market.

"Only a fool - or someone who slept through the dot.com crash - would
wander into an SME's office today and attempt to sell VoIP service as
the panacea to every company's telecom challenges. To succeed, a VoIP
salesperson must offer pragmatic, cost-effective solutions that deliver
real value and capabilities to the SME. Otherwise, they might as well
not even waste the time knocking on the SME's door.
"

SBC offers VoIP service over DSL

2004-12-15T10:15:00.000-08:00

SBC will start offering Resitential VoIP Services in 2005.

SBC News Release:

"The full-scale VoIP service rollout will take place in early 2005. It is preceded by a trial, now under way, in Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago and San Antonio. The service will use IP technology and a DSL Internet connection to deliver not only voice calling but also other enhanced features, such as a Web-based portal and advanced call- management capabilities that make it easier for customers to manage their communications.

FEATURES

"The SBC VoIP service will have a Web portal with features such as "find me" and enhanced "do not disturb," giving customers the ability to specify which numbers can ring through, as well as a click-to-call capability that lets customers call friends and family with a click of a mouse The service will also have popular calling features, such as voice mail, call forwarding, call waiting, caller ID and three-way calling. "

"Also in September, SBC companies launched SBC Unified Communications. This new messaging service uses IP technology to create a single electronic mailbox for multiple types of messages, including e-mail, wireless voice mail, landline voice mail and even faxes. The innovative service works over either a DSL or dial-up Internet connection. Customers access the mailbox from any compatible PC or PDA with Internet access or any touchtone landline or wireless phone. The service uses text-to-speech technology to read e-mail and/or fax headers over the phone. "

Read article...

Cisco offers VoIP Call Manager 5.0

2004-11-21T10:11:00.000-08:00

Cisco announces Call Manager 5.0 to support SIP Ip Telephony protocol.

According to Network World:

"Today, Cisco is the only major networking vendor not to support SIP phones with its corporate telephony server. Both Avaya and Nortel Networks already deliver SIP support, although through proprietary extensions. Cisco phones must use Cisco's Skinny Client Control Protocol (SCCP), an H.323- derived protocol lacking presence, IM, and many of the convergence capabilities readily available in the SIP/SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE) environments."

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