Momema Communications
Posted on June 30, 2008 By: Mike, VoIP Facts: The Blog email author
Filed Under New Products
Here’s a note I got from a Spanish start up:
Hi Michael,
I’m Antonio Cerrolaza from Monema Communications, a spanish startup.
I contact to tell you about a new hosted PBX service we are launching. Please, we encourage you to simply take a look at our web, http://www.monema.com./ We belive you’ll be pretty surprised.
TamTam is a very visual PBX fully managed via web, which will probably remind you Yahoo Pipes. Final user oriented, main features are usability and flexibility. TamTam counts with a small number of easy to understand components that permit a small company to take total control of its phone system.
Futhermore we have launched two programs for professionals and companies interested in resell our service with custom private brand.
We are launching our service world-wide although we can only provide incoming numbers in 30+ countries (check our site for availability).
Also, we are providing demo accounts for anyone interested. If you want to evaluate it, please don’t hesitate in request us a evaluation account.
Thank you,
Antonio Cerrolaza,
info@monema.com
Momema Communications
Popularity: 30% [?]
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FCC 700MHz Auction Closed
Posted on March 19, 2008 By: Mike, VoIP Facts: The Blog email author
Filed Under Industry News
The auction of the 700 MHz band ended yesterday after thirty eight days of bidding. A whopping $19,592 billion was raised for the federal treasury, despite fears that the auction would disappoint due to a staggering economy.
During the auction the bidder’s identities were kept secret to prevent collusion, and the FCC is expected to release the results within a few weeks once the auction is officially closed, and the D block is de-linked from auction 73. Speculation has it that Verizon will come out the winner for the commercial block C, although with eight regional licenses, others could share in the spectrum. Google was said to be in the bidding only to ensure that the C block reached the minimum reserve, triggering the open access rules.
One result that we know of already is that the D block public safety band failed to sell. It was bid on once in the first round for less than the reserve and received no more interest for the rest of the auction. The FCC has the option of reauctioning the D block with a lower minimum reserve, and a change in rules to rekindle interest in the band.
The D block requires a public sector, or a commercial entity to build out the nationwide network that could be used commercially in normal times, but would hand over the waves to public safety organizations in times of emergency.
The $19.6 billion raised by the FCC is said to be the largest amount raised for any FCC auction, and in fact exceeds the amount of all the past FCC auctions put together by a half billion dollars.
Related Articles:
FCC’s 700 MHz Spectrum Auction Ends with $19.6 Billion in Bids
FCC Ends 700 MHz Auction
FCC Nets $19.6 Billion On 700MHz Auction
Popularity: 86% [?]
Prostitution on the Web?
Posted on March 13, 2008 By: Mike, VoIP Facts: The Blog email author
Filed Under Commentary
Sex is once more in the news. And why not? The prominent governor of New York, and once zealous moralizer, finds himself resigning in disgrace as his wife stands stoically by his side. Elliot Spitzer got caught booking escorts over the web, paying up to $3,600 and having them flown in to D.C. to join him on his frequent business trips to have sex.
Is anybody surprised that you can do that on the Internet? The porn industry has thrived on the new media and in fact is responsible for many of its early innovations. With streaming media and broadband connections becoming common place, those who will pay and those that are willing are bound to get together, by credit card or cash.
Today’s prostitution websites, such as the Emperors Club from the Spitzer incident, are sophisticated and fully functional, and many are applying some state of the art marketing techniques. Jason Lee Miller offers some insight about just how easy it is to get “hooked” up on the web. Prostitution websites are not shy about being found. They employ SEO, AdWords, and Web 2.0 social networking. According to Miller, even some niche players are getting into the field, offering free websites to call girls in return for who knows what.
The Internet is all about communication, whether it be voice, video, or text, and people hook up for a variety of reasons all over the world. For a website to accept payment by credit card to a bank in a country where prostitution is legal is not hard to do. On a medium where the most popular keyword searched is “sex”, what a great place for the world’s oldest profession to set up shop.
Related Stories:
Spitzer Scandal Sheds Light On Web Prostitution - Jason Lee Miller
Eliot Spitzer Scandal - The Moms View
Governor Spitzer’s Sex Scandal
“Client 9″ domain snapped up minutes after Spitzer sex scandal broke
A New York Sex Scandal In Living Color
Popularity: 87% [?]
Jaduka Launches Web Telephony Widgets
Posted on March 11, 2008 By: Mike, VoIP Facts: The Blog email author
Filed Under New Products, Reviews
I got an email from Rob Unger the other day informing me of some new web phone widgets on the Jaduka web site, so I checked them out. Pretty Cool!
- dukaDIAL is a web based service that allows you to make calls anywhere in North America for free. You just enter your phone number and the number you want to call, and the app rings both phones. It also has call history and a contact list that integrates with other Jaduka applications.
- dukaLINK turns your phone number into a hyperlink. Post the link in your blog, website, email, even on Facebook, and people can call you without ever seeing your number. They click on your link, put in their phone number, and dukaLink connects the call for free.
- dukaBUZZ was developed with the Blogger in mind. This nifty little widget lets visitors post audio comments through their phone instead of typing. Others can listen to the comments or testimonials through the widget on your site.
Popularity: 91% [?]
3-7-08 Technology Week in Review
Posted on March 7, 2008 By: Mike, VoIP Facts: The Blog email author
Filed Under Commentary, Industry News
Siemans, Skype, Clearwire, and Tata - Apple opens the iPhone
Skype for Call Centers
Peer to Peer VoIP provider Skype will be the backbone for the AltiGen Communications call center solution. Through a partnership with VosKEY, the Skype Certified VosKEY Exchange VoIP application gateway will provide access to the Skype network.
In addition to saving call centers tons of money in communications costs, the AltiGen/VosKEY/Skype offering adds four new capabilities to AltiGen’s call handling and management functionality.
- Remote Agents: Allows remote agents the same access to AltiGen’s IP PBX as on site agents utilizing Skype’s free client on their computers.
- Web Click-to-Call: Web site visitors will have click to call access to call centers, reducing toll free number costs and increasing conversion rates by giving them real time access to experts and/or sales staff.
- Skype Trunking: Reduces toll charges using Skype Pro and SkypeOut, saving 90% on US/Canada calls, and 50% on international calls.
- Global Direct Inward Dial (DID): Gives businesses a local presence anywhere they want by using local access numbers for incoming customer calls on the Skype network, reducing toll free number costs.
The VosKEY Exchange is a rackmounted hardware appliance that connects the AltiGen PBX phone system to the Skype network.
On the Wireless Front
Indian service provider Tata Communications Ltd. announced plans to build the largest fixed WiMax network to date, covering 110 cities for Enterprise, and 15 cities for retail by the end of 2008.
Tata already has over 5000 customers in 10 cities, Bangalor alone deploying 600 base stations. They plan to increase their customer base to 200,000 by 2009.
The wireless ISP will use Telsima WiMax solutions to deploy over 3000 base stations in India.
Clearwire’s fourth quarter results indicate 47,000 new subscribers over the year, giving them just under 400,000 total subscribers. Revenue per user however, fell $.30 and churn rate increased from 1.9% to 2.4%.
Clearwire is still negotiating with Sprint to try to work out a deal to build a nationwide WiMax network, with Intel being rumored in there to help facilitate a deal.
Siemans Goes Soft
German company Siemans Communications has said that it is restructuring its business from hardware to software based. It drove the point home recently by announcing it would close down factories and layoff about 6,800 employees.
Siemans Open Space Unified Communications Server is the app that will transition them to a software company, their view being that voice as a standalone technology is no longer feasible. Microsoft, with their Office Communications Server, seems to have the same point of view.
iPhone Opens Up
In an effort to get a piece of the Blackberry market, Apple will offer a software development kit (SDK) to third party developers to write applications directly for the iPhone. Users will be able to download them from iTunes after the iPhone 2.0 release.
Apple caved to Microsoft, and the iPhone will now offer native support for Exchange with Active Sync. Other business friendly upgrades include VPN security and authentication, and enhanced WiFi security.
The switch from a consumer based to a businesscentric Apple might seem to some as too little too late.
Related Articles:
AltiGen & VoSKY Partner to Deliver Advanced Skype-Enabled VoIP Call Center Solution for Businesses
Tata Communications Rolls Out World’s Largest Commercial WiMAX Network with Telsima
Clearwire Increases Subscribers, Revenue and Losses
Unified communication with Siemens OpenScape v2.3
Apple and Business - Is it 25 Years Too Late?
Popularity: 93% [?]
Residential VoIP Goes Mainstream
Posted on March 6, 2008 By: Mike, VoIP Facts: The Blog email author
Filed Under Articles
Don’t be fooled by SunRocket’s collapse or Vonage’s woes, VoIP in the residential community is very much alive and well. Owen Linderholm of VoIP-News.com has put together a comprehensive list of the “best consumer VoIP tools for end users, residences and small offices”. According to Linderholm, much of the growth of residential VoIP has been in add ons, and voice utilities and applications.
Specifically, he breaks these innovations into five categories.
- Free desktop VoIP messaging services
- VoIP and IP related services for mobile phones
- Managing voice, text, and email messages
- Paid residential VoIP services
- Hardware devices for VoIP
The article is a good look at the state of the art of residential VoIP today.
All-Star VoIP Products: 40 VoIP Applications, Tools and Services That Take VoIP Mainstream
Popularity: 93% [?]
Open Source VoIP List
Posted on March 4, 2008 By: Mike, VoIP Facts: The Blog email author
Filed Under Articles, New Products, Reviews
Here’s a nice little list I found of some of the best open source VoIP applications out there today. The list includes SIP proxies and clients, H323 clients, PBX and IVR platforms, developers and more.
Wide Open VoIP: Top 50 Open Source VoIP Apps
Enjoy the read!
Popularity: 96% [?]
2-29-08 Technology Week in Review
Posted on February 29, 2008 By: Mike, VoIP Facts: The Blog email author
Filed Under Commentary, Industry News, Net Neutrality
Senate Passes e911
The Senate passed the IP-Enabled Voice Communications and Public Safety Act this week that would require all VoIP service providers to offer enhanced 911 services to all of their subscribers. The bill also gives the FCC the authority to require new 911 services as they evolve, and mandates they keep an eye on next generation 911 capabilities. VoIP pure plays and Cable companies would be given the same access under the same terms as traditional providers to emergency services.
This could be good for the VoIP market, especially in the residential arena, where the perceived lack of 911 capabilities has served as a deterrent for those who might have otherwise switched.
The enhanced part of 911 is that persons dialing the number would be connected to a local operator, and contact information would be sent automatically to the call center. Most pure plays today do this today by having the subscriber sign up for 911.
Which brings up another question: How will the center know the source when the user is not dialing from their registered address? One of the great advantages of VoIP is mobility, allowing users to place calls from any location with a broadband Internet connection. Are GPS enabled devices the answer? Maybe the FCC can figure it out!
The Senates bill must first square up with the House version, which is expected, before it will be sent to the President for signing.
Comcast Blocking People Too?
In an FCC forum on traffic management at Harvard University Monday, Comcast apparently paid people off the street to take up seats in the meeting hall. The cable company was on the hotseat as the FCC looked into their practice of tampering with some p2p traffic from BitTorent to save bandwidth.
Comcast says it did pay people to hold places in line for some of their employees, but denies it paid them to take up seats at the public forum. Others disagree, saying about 100 interested citizens were denied access to the meeting, as seats were taken by people sleeping in their seats, and carrying yellow highlighters in their pockets.
The Silicon Valley website Valleywag says that the FCC will take no action on the companies DOS to the public practices, but is considering holding another hearing this time at Stanford University.
Comcast, what are you doing? You just lost pretty much any credibility you ever may have had, at least with the public. These dirty little tactics may work well in D.C., but taking them to a public open meeting on a college campus will win you no friends. You should definitely consider firing your PR guy.
Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!
Popularity: 100% [?]
Internet Not Perfect
Posted on February 27, 2008 By: Mike, VoIP Facts: The Blog email author
Filed Under Blogs, Commentary
Some strange things have been happening to the Internet lately.
Five cable cuts in a two week period bring voice and data communications to a crawl in the Middle East and south Asia. Internet theorist cry conspiracy while industry experts say it happens.
Pakistan says it will have none of that neutrality stuff on its net, and proceeded to block YouTube because of an anti-Islamic video clip. Unfortunately, one network in Pakistan announced to the rest of the world’s routers that it was the best path available to get to YouTube, denying access to most of the worlds Internet users to the site. Ooops!
YouTube removed the offending clip so that the Pakistanis could get back to enjoying their zany clips.
Software giant Microsoft is also having their problems, announcing a glitch in Windows Live log in services. People worldwide that were not already logged in were unable to access their hotmail, IM, calendars, and other Windows Live services for most of the day yesterday. MS won’t say what the problem was, but insists it has nothing to do with their brand new Windows Server 2008.
All this just goes to show that the Internet is not perfect, and is vulnerable to things that happen, malicious or not. But what isn’t?
About a fifth of the population of Florida went without power as an accident in a substation in Miami triggered a blackout reaching up and down the peninsula as far north as Daytona and Tampa.
No 99.999% uptime there either!
I guess the only thing that’s really dependable any more is the POTS. (Ha! Just wait till hurricane season)
Popularity: 94% [?]
Software Based PBX for Windows
Posted on February 26, 2008 By: Blanca Garcia email author
Filed Under Industry News, VoIP News
3CX has released a new version of 3CX Phone System for Windows. The latest version of the award-winning software-based IP PBX has an integrated 3CX Tunnel which simplifies firewall configuration by channeling all VoIP traffic over a single port; making it easy for remote workers to connect to their company’s PBX and for Network Managers to connect different remote PBX systems between them. Traditionally, firewall configuration for remote SIP / VoIP systems and/or extensions can represent a challenge, because it requires many open ports.
Nick Galea, 3CX CEO, says that the 3CX Tunnel, “unlike other similar tunneling protocols, is not proprietary and can be used with popular VoIP softphones and hard phones.” This is good news for businesses, as they can use a variety of telephone options with their IP PBX depending on their needs and budget.
3CX Phone System for Windows allows businesses to completely break free from the restrictions of hardware-based, proprietary phone systems. It is built on the open SIP standard and interoperates with all popular SIP phones, VoIP Gateways and VoIP providers.
3CX Phone System for Windows is available in four editions: Free, Small Business, Pro and Enterprise, all supporting an unlimited number of extensions.
Popularity: 99% [?]
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