VoIP Alerts
The VoIP Alerts page is intended
to bring you the latest happenings within the VoIP industry.
This page is updated weekly with the latest news, views
and clues as to where the industry is going. Check back
often to get your latest VoIP alert and see what is
happening in the VoIP community.
2006
According to Scanit security specialists, many large
VoIP installation are lax on security, which can lead
to unwanted wiretapping. Many large installations that
were audited had no encryption on the voice stream and
the primary reason for the lack of security was the
lack of understanding at the highest technical levels
of how to secure the system.
As of November 2008, the U. S. Patent Office has issued
2,049 patents related to VoIP technology. In-Stat has
predicted that VoIP phone shipments will increase from
10 million in 2006 to 146 million by 2010. But, all
this growth is not without its drawbacks as VoIP giant
Vonage has been battling 5 patent infringement lawsuits
since 2005.
Northern Michigan University has converged mobile VoIP
and data wireless LAN using Meru networking equipment.
This spearheads a trend in education to go to an all
wireless mobile VoIP network on campuses. Michigan VoIP
is itself a hot ticket now days as many consumers in
the Great Lake State has been switching over in droves.
Michigan VoIP though is vulnerable to the same problems
as other states, namely 911 service and the Michigan
state government is working with VoIP service providers
over this issue.
Mobile VoIP, which was once a pipe dream has come closer
to reality as Microsoft, Nokia, and Skype Technologies
have all announced phone-based mobile VoIP products.
The separate announcements for mobile VoIP were made
at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
The world's largest computer chip-maker, Intel is teaming
up with German comglomerate Siemens to collaborate on
new Internet telephony technology. The two companies
are co-funding research on secure wireless networks
and real-time VoIP communications.
Comcast has announced that they've hit the 1 million
VoIP subscriber mark this year. Overall, inside the
Internet telephony provider industry, 11,000 VoIP subscribers
are being added per day across all companies.
According to Telephia, a San Francisco performance
measuring firm, residential VoIP service rose 30-percent
from the first quarter of 2006 to the second quarter.
VoIP was used to replace or complement landline service
in 2.9 million households in the second quarter, up
from 2.2 million households in the first.
An article in the South Florida Sun Sentinel called
"VoIP makes phone system hurricane-resistant"
points out that those with VoIP phones that are not
tied to geographical locations, make fleeing an impending
storm easier for both residential customers and businesses.
Businesses running Asterisk PBX and IAX client, two
open source applications for VoIP, need to patch their
software quickly in order to avoid hacker attacks, according
to the latest reports. These two VoIP applications have
been found to be vulnerable to buffer overflows in VoIP
networks.
The Vonage initial public offering (IPO) fell pretty
flat as investors yawned and then voiced concerns about
competition from the cable companies and traditional
phone companies in the coming months and years. The
stock fell 13-percent on the first day of trading, when
it began at $17 per share.
Cisco Systems has stated the demand for VoIP in Germany
continues to grow. Cisco has stated that Telefonica
has deployed one of the largest PGW networks from Cisco
to date.
Verizon Business has announced VoIP Gateway Service,
which allows its wholesale customers to offer global
call termination and full IP Telephony to PSTN trunking
services inside of one product.
The U. S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has
ordered VoIP companies and other broadband companies
to allow snooping. This will allow the NSA, CIA, FBI
and other law enforcement agencies to combat crime and
support homeland security. The Communications Assistance
for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) will also help police
fight child predators.
Yahoo and AT&T have teamed up to offer advertisers
high-speed service and VoIP technology. Yahoo's Messenger
Service with VoIP capabilities will now by dually branded
with AT&T. This means AT&T will not be Yahoo's
network termination provider of choice.
Sprint Nextel has announced that it now offers VoIP
phone service to more than 1 million customers, through
partnerships with cable TV operators. This number quadrupled
in 2005 alone, generating a total of $100 million in
revenue.
Skype, which eBay acquired last September in a deal
worth US$2.6 billion, said it would acquire San Francisco-based
Sonorit Holdings and its U.S. subsidiary, Camino Networks.
This transaction gives Skype direct access to technology
it currently licenses from third parties.
Just six to nine months ago, only 16 per cent of Quebec
consumers and 22 per cent of Ontario consumers surveyed
in a Bell study knew about voice over Internet protocol
or VoIP phone services and could name a provider. Today
this has changed.VoIP awareness has jumped, reaching
33 per cent in Quebec and 47 per cent in Ontario, according
to data compiled at the end of 2005 from another Bell
survey.
As buzz continues to build over Apple's fabled 'iPhone,'
speculation increases that such a cell phone will eventually
take advantage of voice over IP (VoIP), which is projected
to eventually cause serious problems for cell carriers.
Avaya Inc. and Samsung Electronics have inked a deal
to jointly develop and market converged IP communications
solutions to businesses. In addition to integrating
each others technologies, the partners will collaborate
in the developments on a range of voice and video products,
leveraging Avaya's strengths in Voice over IP (VoIP)
and Samsung's position in the mobile communications
market.
Greater China is the world's largest supplier of VoIP
products, accounting for more than half of global output.
In 2006, manufacturers are set to further boost production
to meet growing demand.
A new study from the organisers of the VoIP for Business
event (Olympia Conference Centre, London, 22nd and 23rd
March 2006) reveals that businesses now consider ‘simplifying
internal communications’ and ‘enhancing flexible
working’ just as important a reason for investing
in IP telephony technology as ‘reducing communications
costs’. Each was rated as ‘very important’
in their decision to invest by 55% of respondents to
the study.
VOIP service provider Vonage filed for IPO to raise
about $250 million. Vonage is supposed to have 1.4 million
subscriber lines. The issue is that cost per subscriber
is raising and Vonage is making losses. Additionally,
Skype has lost 50% market share within 12 month in Europe
indicating the VOIP market is still highly voilatile.
VOIP is now a mainstream telecom service in Central
and Eastern Europe following a raft of deployments by
service providers in the region, with IP telephony system
vendors Cirpack and NetCentrex SA the main beneficiaries.
Softswitch maker Cirpack, now part of Thomson has just
announced two new deployments, in Croatia and Slovenia,
to add to the tranche of Eastern European customers
it revealed last November.
According to VoIP Magazine, which cits the Yankee Group,
VoIP service is on a fast track to becoming a major
force in the business world.. The group predicts that
the business VoIP market will leap to almost $3.3 billion
by 2010, from $840 million by the end of 2005.
Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries is installing
voice over IP-based (VoIP) systems to improve services
and reduce costs. The independent brewing and pub company,
whose brands include Marston’s Pedigree and the
2,300-strong chain of Pathfinder and Union Pubs, plans
to use the technology initially for telephony in its
contact centres, but will later extend it to cover data
services.
Microsoft has unveiled a range of VoIP-enabled phones,
developed in cooperation with Philips Electronics and
the US unit of Japanese manufacturer Uniden. Demonstrated
at the International Consumer Electronics show in Las
Vegas, the phones can be used for a normal landline
or internet calls and were developed to facilitate use
of Microsoft's Live Messenger.
At the pulvermedia Consumer VoIP Summit co-located
at the 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show,
Level 3 Communications announced the results from its
second Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) consumer
research study. "VoIP awareness increased from
40 percent in 2004 to 66 percent in 2005..."
2005
Leading VoIP provider Vonage said Wednesday that its
entire customer base has access to enhanced emergency
911 services. “Today, any Vonage customer in the
U.S. who dials 911, will get help when they need it
most,” read the announcement. Providing E911 E911
capability has held up the deployment of many VoIP providers
and Vonage was no exception. The Federal Communications
Commission extended the deadline for compliance to Nov.
28, but then extended it beyond that date without naming
a specific date for compliance.
In order to compete with Skype, Yahoo has decided to
add a new paid service to its Yahoo Messenger offerings.
According to a Yahoo press release, "Yahoo's new
'Phone Out' option enables users to call regular and
mobile phones for one cent per minute in the United
States and two cents a minute to about 30 other countries,
including calls to Argentina, Australia, China, France,
Germany, Italy, Japan and Korea." Users can also
sign up to receive unlimited calls from anywhere for
about $30 per year.
Yak Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:YAKC), a provider of
telecommunications services to residential and business
customers, announced today that it has joined forces
with Emergent Network Solutions, Inc. and DaVinci Integration
Inc. to provide users of its new yakForFree VoIP service
(www.yakforfree.com) with an easy means for upgrading
to local/long-distance VoIP-to-PSTN services. This sophisticated,
prepaid VoIP capability is a standard feature of the
new yakForFree virtual videophone service, which debuts
today.
VoIP is still an unknown word for most consumers. This
is according to a Harris Interactive poll last Spring
2005 that said that 36-percent of consumers don't use
VoIP because they don't know enough about it. Even,
worse, a more recent poll says that most consumers think
that VoIP is either a new, fuel-efficient automobile
or a brand of vodka. Fortunately, few of those who think
VoIP is a brand of vodka are VoIP-ing and driving at
the same time.
A federal court has refused to push back the deadline
date for Internet phone operators to move towards a
more adequate emergency dialing service. The decision,
by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia,
means VOIP (voice over IP) providers still face the
Nov. 28 deadline to comply with some new federal 911
rules, or risk not being allowed to sign up new customers.
- PC Magazine
Already on a tear, VoIP service is predicted to grow
18-fold -- from $1.24 billion in 2004 to $23.4 billion
in 2009 -- representing total revenues of $62 billion
to be spent on the technology over the five-year period,
according to a report released Wednesday. The figures
were contained in a report from Infonetics that also
predicted 24 million subscribers will be using VoIP
service in 2008.
Juniper Networks has announced a network security solution
designed to defend voice over IP (VoIP) systems from
session initiation protocol (SIP)-based attacks.
The Dynamic Threat Mitigation solution brings Juniper's
routers and intrusion detection and prevention (IDP)
systems with its service deployment system (SDX) to
create a single unified security solution. The solution
mitigates SIP-based denial of service (DoS) attacks
and worms by allowing enterprises and providers to identify
and respond to them individually.
IPv6 is now gaining momentum globally, with a lot of
interest and activity in Europe and Asia. It also is
gaining traction in the U.S., and it is only a matter
of time before a transition to IPv6 will occur worldwide.
IPv6 offers the potential for achieving the scalability,
reachability, end-to-end interworking, QoS and commercial-grade
robustness necessary if VoIP is to replace the TDM infrastructure
on a global basis.
Hackers will attack voice over IP (VoIP) telephone
conversations with spam and malicious code within two
years, equipment manufacturer Nortel has claimed. Companies
using VoIP and other multimedia services, such as videoconferencing,
should plan to defend against unsolicited adverts appearing
mid-conversation, the company said.
Sprint Nextel Corp. on Tuesday said it has sued Vonage
Holdings Corp., Voiceglo Holdings Inc. and Theglobe.com
Inc., accusing them of infringing on seven patents related
to Internet telephony technology. The patent-infringement
lawsuit, filed in federal court in Kansas by one of
Sprint Nextel's subsidiaries, seeks an injunction that
would bar the defendants from using the communication
company's patented technology. The suit also seeks unspecified
monetary damages.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission said it
would give VoIP providers more time to receive acknowledgements
from customers if their network doesn’t provide
access to 911 emergency lines. The FCC said it won’t
begin enforcing the rule until October 31, instead of
this Wednesday, but only if the VoIP providers submit
a status report by October 25. Many VoIP providers have
already submitted reports, and the FCC has felt encouraged
so far by the level of compliance.
Vonage, a leading provider of broadband phone service,
has announced it is rolling out emergency 911 service
to let users know how their e911 calls will be handled.
Vonage is the first Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
service provider to utilize TeleCommunication Systems'
(TCS) recently introduced VoIP Verify™ service.
Designed for mobility, VoIP Verify provides Vonage subscribers
with a simple tool to determine the availability and
extent of the individual's emergency services coverage
from the caller's current registered location.
UBS Investment Research maintained a "neutral"
rating on Lucent Technologies (nyse: LU - news - people
) and said the network equipment maker may be close
to landing a VoIP contract with a major telecommunications
carrier and that carrier is likely to be Bell South.
eBay, Inc. has purchased Skype
for a cool $2.6 billion in cash and company stock. Although
eBay is touting this move as a way to integrate its
eBay and Paypal into the communications business using
Skype, insiders doubt this will happen and Skype will
remain a standalone application.
First Amendment is accepting
100 members for an initial trial of their innovative
new service. By agreeing to listen to a short ad at
the beginning of the calls that they initiate, consumers
will have access to free VoIP (Voice over IP) service
that will allow them to call anywhere in the US 48 states
plus Canada. Those interested in taking part in the
beta will need to have their own broadband connection
and First Amendment will provide the Voice over IP (VoIP)
service and adapter.
A recent report by In-Stat found
that large and middle-scale companies show a higher
percentage of concerns about VoIP security than small-scale
companies. The report also states that budgets allocated
for new security appliances are significantly higher
in companies that have already implemented VoIP. In
addition, reliability is apparently the most important
criteria for the purchase of new security appliance
products.
TigerJet Network, Inc. announced
its Tiger560C as the world's first single chip solution
for interfacing any standard phone to a USB port to
provide VoIP functionality. TigerJet Network believes
that integrating all of the required features into a
single chip changes the economic argument so dramatically
that VoIP solutions will migrate from using dedicated
handsets or headsets towards the use of standard phones
to provide that functionality. The Tiger560C enables
the use of the same phone (including cordless phones)
for all phone calls whether those calls are regular
calls or calls using a VoIP service like Skype.
Verizon said that a Harris Poll
found that 87 percent of the respondents did not know
VoIP allows phone calls to be made over the Internet
rather than traditional telecom networks.
Some consumers ventured that
VoIP was a type of hybrid automobile while others guessed
it was a new brand of low-carb vodka, Verizon said in
a release.
Silicon Valley solutions provider,
Marvel, announced "a family of highly integrated
VoIP solutions targeted at the rapidly growing, Internet
voice communications market. The Marvell 88W8618 has
been designed specifically for ultra-low power Voice
over WLAN (VoWLAN) handsets with other members of the
Marvell 88W86 family targeted at VoIP residential gateways.
Each product integrates VoIP processing, low power WiFi
circuitry, a high-performance host CPU and peripherals
into single system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions."
TeleGeography's latest
consumer survey research has found that 30 percent
of U.S. residential broadband subscribers have never
heard of voice-over-IP (VoIP) telephone service. This
is a crucial point for providers to consider, as TeleGeography's
research also reveals a strong, positive correlation
between familiarity with VoIP and likelihood of subscribing.
People who are already familiar with VoIP are 50 percent
more likely to subscribe than those who are unfamiliar.
Microsoft has acquired Teleo,
a small San Francisco start-up which sells software
to let people make calls from computers to traditional
telephones for from PC to PC with the aid of their software.
Microsoft is expected to roll the Teleo software into
its MSN Messenger service and compete with Google Talk
and Yahoo Messenger.
With voice-over-IP (VoIP) technology
surging in popularity among consumers, cable operators
are starting to grab a lion’s share of the new
broadband voice market, according to the latest research
from Cable Digital News publisher Kinetic Strategies.
North American MSOs easily surpassed
the 1 million mark for total VoIP subscribers in the
second quarter after signing up slightly more than 470,000
new IP phone customers during the three-month period.
U.S. and Canadian cable operators ended the quarter
with almost 1.4 million VoIP customers, more than half
of the estimated 2.4 to 2.7 million VoIP subscribers
throughout the continent.
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