Carrier will measure audio clarity of VoIP calls as part of new service-level agreement with customers of its Private IP plan

By Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service

Businesses are adopting VoIP for cost savings and for future capabilities, but as their voice traffic shifts from traditional dedicated, circuit-switched networks to a data network, it takes work to match the expected quality of a call.

At the FutureNet trade show in New York, the carrier introduced an SLA for customers of its Private IP service that measures audio clarity on a standard scale. The Mean Opinion Score (MOS) SLA uses a quantitative standard for audio clarity from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) that measures the end-user's call experience.

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Says Supreme Court ruling invalidates Verizon case

By Paul F. Roberts

Internet based phone company Vonage says a ruling by the U.S.

By Leslie Cauley, USA TODAY
Vonage for years was the fresh face of Internet telephony, a shiny example of what raw entrepreneurial spirit, backed by advanced technology and a good marketing plan, could accomplish.

Not anymore.

In a keynote address at VoiceCon Spring 2007, Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft Corp.'s Business Division, today predicted that in just three years, the average voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) solution for business will cost half what it does today, as VoIP systems move from hardware to software. Raikes also predicted that in the same time frame, 100 million people -- twice the number of current business VoIP users -- will have the ability to make phone calls from Microsoft Office applications.

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Earthlink has taken a fairly inventive approach with their Home VoIP Plus DSL. As of now, its only available in four cities, but they have approached Covad with $50 million to build the infrastructure out to eight more cities. This expansion will be available to more than 12 million homes when completed. They are currently offering three packages ranging from $50 to $70 with speeds up to 8Mbps. Story continues

By Andrew Garcia
With the explosion in the popularity of the Skype peer-to-peer voice over IP program, IT managers are finding themselves faced with some familiar questions: Should they curb Skype's use in the company? Should they support the application, even when it comes in through the backdoor? Should they embrace the solution, deploying it from the get go?

Recent moves by the Skype organization indicate that it is time for enterprises to get off the fence—those that want to continue using it should bring it in-house to fully manage and control the application. Those that don't need to figure out how to block its use outright. Story continues

By Jon Udell

Voice and data networking remain two different cultures that have so far failed spectacularly to come together. But I’m stubbornly optimistic that, sooner or later, they will.

Small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) in Asia will spend more than $500m on internet phone calls this year, researchers predict.

The spending represents an increase of more than 40 per cent over last year and growth is expected to continue at a similar pace, according to research consultancy Access Markets International Partners.
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By Paul Korzeniowski
TechNewsWorld

While VoIP is proving to be enticing, it does have limitations. One significant issue is the reliability of IP networks.

By Peter Sayer, IDG News Service

Skype is working to make its Internet telephony service more enterprise friendly, and expects to introduce a beta version of its software with support for enterprise management functions within weeks. Free IT resource

The update will allow system administrators to use standard Windows management tools to set how the Skype software connects to the Internet, or to disable any of half a dozen functions, including file transfers, said Skype's vice president of telecommunications and Skype for business, Michael Jackson. Story continues

Companies switching to VOIP make themselves vulnerable to phishing attacks, researcher warns
By Sumner Lemon, IDG News Service

Banks and other companies switching their phone systems to VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) are making themselves vulnerable to phishing attacks for which there are currently no effective detection or prevention tools, a security researcher warned Wednesday. Free IT resource

"People will be able to penetrate bank networks and hijack their phone lines," said an independent security researcher, known by his pseudonym The Grugq, in an interview. VOIP is becoming increasingly common as companies and operators look to the technology to help cut costs, which makes them more vulnerable to attack, he said.
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By W. David Gardner

Cellular VoIP services will generate more revenue in the U.S. than fixed VoIP by 2012, recording more than $18 billion versus about $12 billion for fixed VoIP, according to a report released Monday by Analysys.

Although mobile phone VoIP is still a rarity today, the upgrade of CDMA2000 1x EV-DO to Revision A beginning in 2007 and the upgrade of W-CDMA to 3G Long Term Evolution (LTE) beginning in 2010 will hasten the move to cellular VoIP by service providers, the market research firm said.
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EarthLink will expand to eight more cities Net phone service that requires no additional customer equipment.
By Marguerite Reardon, Staff Writer, CNET News.com

EarthLink will announce Tuesday that it is expanding its line-powered Internet-based phone service to eight more cities throughout the United States.
Beginning this month, customers in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, San Diego and Washington, D.C., will be able sign up for Home Phone Service, EarthLink's voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone service. Story continues

AOL will open up AIM Phoneline to external developers to let them create hardware devices and software applications for this Internet telephony service.

AOL will give developers access to the AIM Phoneline platform via application programming interfaces (APIs), the Dulles, Va., Web portal said Thursday. Story continues

by Mark Raby

Berlin (Germany) - With over 100 million customers already tapped into the voice-over IP messenger, Skype is now accessible through the first pair of cordless phones that integrate Skype software with a traditional landline phone, without the need to connect to a PC. The new phones will function almost identically to a regular handset - with the exception of emergency calls.

By Peter Cohen

Computer peripheral maker Keyspan on Monday announced its new Cordless VoIP phone, compatible with both Macs and PCs. The telephone is designed to work in conjunction with Skype, the Voice over IP (VoIP) chat and messaging service.

Subscribers to VoIP services increased by 83 per cent last year, new figures reveal.

Worldwide retail VoIP subscribers jumped from 10.3 million at the beginning of 2005 to over 18.7 million by the end of the year, according to broadband analyst Point Topic.

The company also estimated that the number of people who paid for PC-to-phone calls during 2005 was over 4.7 million. Story continues

Electronics maker Philips is selling cordless telephones that can make Internet-based voice calls using either Windows Live Messenger, or Skype, as well as utilising the existing public switched telephone network. Story continues

IBM announced it will now integrate VoIP and video conferencing features into a new version of its collaboration platform IBM Lotus Sametime, version 7.5. This upgrade will also enable users of the platform to collaborate with instant messaging (IM) communication clients such as AOL and Yahoo! The technology giant also announced future plans with Google to connect Lotus Sametime and Google Talk users. Story continues

By Jay Wrolstad

"Most people, other than early adopters, don't want to deal with all of the steps necessary to hook up a phone or headset for VoIP service," Forrester Research analyst Maribel Lopez said. "They expect to have the same experience with Internet calling that they now have with their traditional phones."

Computer peripheral specialist Logitech is taking much of the guesswork out of Internet calling with an array of products designed for the growing number of VoIP users, including a keyboard with built-in call buttons, a speakerphone, and cordless headsets. Story continues