VoIP Facts, News and Commentary: IP Telephony, Unified Communications and Related Technologies

Choose the Best Hosted VoIP Vendor

Business Products, Business Voip, VoIP PBX No Responses »

Sep 012011

As VoIP technology advances and develops, business owners need to feel confident when choosing a service provider. When it comes to selecting a hosted VoIP vendor, FreedomVOICE, a provider of hosted VoIP PBX and other virtual office products, recommends a number of key points to keep in mind during the search process.

Most importantly, “business voice quality” should be guaranteed by the vendor. At today’s stage of VoIP development, a provider of hosted VoIP should be able to provide the same level of quality as either a premise-based system or the traditional public telephone network.

To make sure you won’t be missing any vital programs, it’s also important to identify the features that will come with your hosted VoIP system. Additionally, find out which features are optional and can be added on later. If your telecommunications budget increases, you can add these bonus features to your system at that time.

Also worth considering is the hosted VoIP service’s compatibility with the phone hardware your business presently has in place. You may need to upgrade to more compatible devices. Lastly, customer service quality and bottom-line cost are two fundamental pieces of information to gather before settling on a hosted VoIP vendor.

If you keep these points in mind when choosing a hosted VoIP vendor, you’ll be sure to get the best system for your company’s needs. For more information visit CompareBusinessProducts.com.

Introducing Compare Business Products

Business Products, Industry News, New Products 1 Response »

Aug 172011

Hello!

My name is Charron and I am the Publisher here at Compare Business Products, a leading marketplace for buyers and sellers of business products and services. Our mission is to generate more sales opportunities for vendors by connecting them with the serious, in-market prospects who are shopping for business products across the Web. CPB also serves business buyers by providing them the most efficient way to research and shop for products and services in order to make the best purchasing decisions for their organizations. We have many comparison charts and articles so come take a look.

How much should a VoIP system cost per user?

By Pha Lo

The best argument for switching from traditional phone service to VoIP is the long-term cost savings of calls made through broadband internet. Instead of paying three or four different bills for local and long-distance calling and internet, VoIP lets businesses combine telecommunications costs. This kind of streamlining saves time and money, but depending on the telecommunications needs of a given business, VoIP costs can vary widely.

According to 2007 research from AMI reported by Forbes.com, hosted VoIP spending in 2005 for small businesses with one to 99 employees was $80 million, with individual spending highly specific to each individual business’ needs. That number was projected to increase to $1.12 billion by 2010. Businesses with 100 to 999 employees spent as much as $66.7 million in 2005 with 2010 spending projected to reach $310.8 million.

Spending will vary from one business to the next. Here are some variables that will affect the costs of traditional VoIP systems:

Owning versus Hosted

Purchasing a system outright and managing it in-house versus going with a hosted solution will impact costs. The decision is personal and highly specific to a small business needs.

Scale

The number of lines, employees and remote locations linking into the VoIP system all impact costs. Scale is one of the main predictors of cost and is always included in customized price quotes. Often, VoIP vendors provide cost estimates based on a range of users, for example 0-5, 6-10 or 11-15 employees.

Service can start at around $200 for certain number of lines, such as four users, with fees for additional users.

Equipment

A business’ current hardware and potential equipment upgrades impact cost. Items to assess for equipment cost include telephones, headsets and the current data connection–whether it’s DSL, fiber or cable. Look for vendors who bundle in free equipment or who can integrate services with your existing equipment. As a point of reference, equipment can cost around $250 per phone.

Take a look at our Business Phone System Comparison Chart.

More about VoIP from Compare Business Products

3CX IP PBX new version launched today

VoIP News 3 Responses »

Dec 082008

3CX (www.3cx.com) the international developer of telecommunications software has announced the roll out of version 7.0 of 3CX Phone System for Windows. The new version comes with a revamped design aimed at making its already user-friendly Management Console and User Interface even easier to work with; whilst effectively delivering more mobility to users by empowering them to configure their own extensions with advanced call handling rules based on caller ID and time of call.

Nick Galea, CEO at 3CX said that these improvements are building on the company’s strategy to deliver a software-based IP PBX that is easy to manage and use. “One of the things we discovered from listening to our customers is that VoIP phone system users want more flexibility in managing their incoming calls. By allowing call rules to be configured based on caller ID, time received and type of call, users can break free from the office and have more mobility. For example, after-hour calls from important customers can be routed to a mobile phone, whereas all other calls can go to voice mail” Galea said; adding that with the new call handling rules also come many added functionalities such as a new management console and a new configuration wizard.

Furthermore, 3CX version 7.0 is an example of better Windows integration in an IP PBX environment. “By replacing the use of technologies such as Apache and PHP with IIS and .NET, adding support for PBX virtualization in Hyper V, resolving inbound calls to MS Outlook contacts, and incorporating Windows management tools for better monitoring, we are taking a step forward towards further integration of 3CX Phone System with Microsoft Windows”, added Nick Galea.

3CX Phone System for Windows allows businesses to completely break free from the restrictions of expensive hardware-based, proprietary phone systems. It also ships with many other enterprise-level features that help businesses enjoy substantial productivity and efficiency gains.

Key new features of 3CX Phone System for Windows version 7.0

Revamped Web Management Console and User Interface
Added support for running as a virtual instance in Hyper V
New configuration wizard
Advanced call forwarding and call queue rules
Resolve inbound calls to MS Outlook contacts
Support for Sangoma cards
Integration of Microsoft Web server, .NET and Windows management tools
.NET API
Optimized system performance to handle 50,000+ calls per day

A video presentation on 3CX Phone System for Windows v7.0 is available here.

3CX Phone System is available in five editions. The Free edition can handle up to 4 simultaneous calls, whereas, the Commercial editions have a more extensive feature set and concurrent call capacity that can be expanded with upgrade packs. A detailed edition comparison table can be found here.

Momema Communications

New Products No Responses »

Jun 302008

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

FCC 700MHz Auction Closed

Industry News 3 Responses »

Mar 192008

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.

Prostitution on the Web?

Commentary No Responses »

Mar 132008

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.

Jaduka Launches Web Telephony Widgets

New Products, Reviews 2 Responses »

Mar 112008

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.

3-7-08 Technology Week in Review

Commentary, Industry News No Responses »

Mar 072008

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.

Residential VoIP Goes Mainstream

Articles No Responses »

Mar 062008

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

Open Source VoIP List

Articles, New Products, Reviews No Responses »

Mar 042008

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!

Older Entries Newer Entries

VoIP-Facts.net: The Blog