VoIP Now

Odds On Vonage

VoIP News has a well-thought out post about Vonage, complete with financials, estimates, and most interestingly the odds on several scenarios occuring. These scenarios are pretty much in line with what I've been saying about Vonage's future paths. Vonage is one of the first (if not the first) VoIP provider to go public, and that automatically raises their profile.

That means they are a threat to traditional telcos from the telcos' perspective for many reasons. And for those countries that regularly wiretap phone calls, VoIP is also a threat to intelligence and law enforcement agencies. CALEA in the US stipulates that regular telecommunications has to have a backdoor for recording calls, even though experts question whether CALEA can be implemented for VoIP.

So the question is why aren't other companies going through the same sort of thing, if VoIP is such a threat? Well, just my opinion, but besides Vonage being one of few publicly-traded VoIP providers (not hardware manufacturers), I think it would be kind of obvious if every VoIP provider was having problems. If there is in fact intentional financial and technical sabotage, it has to be subtle and not widespread..

Skype Ubiquitous On Mobile Phones? Not Just Yet

So it's not just me. According to a CRN article, Skype on mobile phones and PDAs has some technical hurdles to cover before it'll function correctly. Skype CEO and co-founder Niklas Zennstrom specifically mentioned Symbian phones being more difficult than expected. PocketPC-based phones and PDAs do have Skype, but a lot of other mobile communication devices do not. Or when there is a Skype-related mobile solution, such as SoonR, there are still technical glitches, depending on your phone. So I can almost sympathize with Zennstrom.

In fact, Skype isn't really the only VoIP service having this problem of achieving ubiquity on mobile devices. I've had little luck getting anything to work on Palm Treo 650, a very specific phone. Mino Wireless works, and Chris from EQO says that EQO Mobile should work, too. (I'll try it this weekend.) But as for actual mobile Skype, well Niklas Zennstrom says that have nothing to offer yet and no timetable besides.

Too bad. I guess I'll be waiting with bated breath, and keep my outrageously expensive cellular wireless data network plan going in anticipation. Wonder how many additional active users Skype'll gain when they do go mobile? Maybe Skype needs to start acquiring a few companies with some of that US$2.6B they got from eBay last year. In the meantime, though, Skype-specific Wi-Fi and dual-mode phones do seem to work, so you might want to consider one of those for a bit of mobility.

VoIP Roundup - Fri Sep 29/06

Should Web Traffic Be Prioritized?
Matt Brunk at VoIP Loop considers the types of web-based traffic and makes an argument for why certain types of traffic might need to be prioritized, especially since media convergence is pushing a lot of public services into IP-based access.

Testing Your VoIP And IMS
Ixia has just announced their IxVoice software for testing VoIP and IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) protocols. via Light Reading] IMS is a core part of media convergence. That is, offering a variety of media over via Internet Protocol (IP), and communication between networks.

Telepresence Via Video VoIP
Be Here is offering their TotalView "VoIP Collaboration Phone" which gives a full-room view for conference participants. TotalView was announced at DEMOfall 2006 earlier this week. [via VoIPLoop]

Skype File Transfer: Unusal Uses

Have a Skype-certified mobile device but no appropriate USB cable handy? You might be able to transfer files to the device using Skype's file transfer feature. Skype Blogs has a post about a reviewer who managed to transfer music files to a Sony Mylo media player and wireless Skype VoIP phone via file transfer. (Sony didn't send him an USB cable.)

You can also use this feature to transfer files between two of your own computers. Really, that's no different than if you were just sharing files with someone else. I work daily on both my laptop and desktop computers for overlapping purposes and have two different Skype accounts, and two different Google Talk and GMail accounts. (Google Talk recently got the file transfer feature.)

I suppose I could just as well use either of my wired or wireless networks and Windows Explorer for a file transfer, but this is easier because I don't have to expose my directories to sharing, and then unshare them each time. My home network stays secure. BTW, here's a link if you want a quick overview of various Skype features.

GTalk2VoIP: Combining Google Talk And MSN Messenger

Not so long ago, I was lamenting that Google Talk didn't have true VoIP (until Talqer), and despite being based on an open VoIP standard, it could not communicate with more popular IM (Instant Messaging) clients such as MSN Messenger (now called Windows Live Messenger), Yahoo Messenger, or Skype (although Festoon Unity tried). Well  now it can, at least with MSN, using GTalk2VoIP. No software to download. Just add an email address to your Google Talk contacts and fire away.

Well, I just tried GTalk2VoIP a few minutes ago, and honestly, besides the annoyingly loud background music (Guns'n'Roses?!! bleah), the whole setup involves a text menu with a list of options that you have to choose from. Most people want transparency in their phone calls, VoIP or otherwise. They don't want to have to enter a command, nor memorize the list. sorry, but it's way too complicated for wide spread use. (Look, I'm an old-school Unix/ Linux person, but I don't want a command line program for my VoIP client.)

VoIP Roundup - Thur Sep 28/06

Vonage: Charging To Cancel Accounts
Andy Abramson says Vonage charged him to cancel his account, but explains how he was able to keep his phone number (a form of phone number portability). The VoIP Girl also cancelled her Vonage account, as did Tom Keating, who recorded his call to customer service. What is this? VoIP bloggers-cancel-Vonage week? Current cancellations not withstanding, Vonage still holds the most VoIP market share.

Rebtel Picks Up $20M In VC
Rebtel Networks in Stockholm just picked up US$20M in Series A funding from Index Ventures and Benchmark Capital. [via Light Reading]

Skype And eBay Facing Civil Suit
Why a civil suit I don't know, but Skype and eBay are facing one from a company called Mangosoft Intellectual Property, a division of Mangosoft, regarding a supposed patent infringement. [via The VoIP Weblog]

Smart Telecom Lays Off 180 People
While Comcast, the US cable company leading in the cable VoIP subscriber race, is planning to hire 4000 people, UK's Smart Telecom just laid off 180 people last week. There are another 70 jobs threatened. The company is taking a loan from a co-founder and major shareholder to keep going, and needs more to upgrade its broadband infrastructure. [via The Register UK]

VoIP Roundup - Wed Sep 27/06

EverywhereNet: Might As Well Be On Mars?
Ted Wallingford posted a fascinating article, EverywhereNet is on peoples' minds, in response to Andy Abramson's discussion of something called Open Net. It's new territory for me, and I honestly don't think I can sum it up for you just yet. But if you are interested in reading about ideas for a better national and global IP infrastructure, I suggest you read them both.

Forget iPhone?
Cynthia Brumfield points to David Pogue's NY Times discussion of the rumoured Apple iPhone (not to be confused with the SIP-based iPhone from Teledex). Basically, forget about it.

Jajah Mobile Suite No Threat?
Russell Shaw weighs in with his nine reasons why Jajah Mobile Suite is no threat to cell or VoIP. Common thread: people with existing cellular or VoIP subscriptions are unlikely to switch.

SJSU OK's Skype
Phil Wolff reports at Skype Journal that, reversing an earlier decision to ban Skype on campus, SJSU (San Jose State University) has okayed the popular soft phone for now. The post also has a nice summary of the reasons why Skype would be beneficial to the university. Bravo on both counts.

Japanese-Language BlackBerry In Mid-2007

Teleclick.ca writes that RIM will be selling Japanese-language BlackBerry communication devices by mid next year. Meanwhile, a BlackBerry with an English-language keyboard will be launching this week in the Japanese market - the first BlackBerry for that market. RIM's recovering nicely since settling their big NTP lawsuit and since then, coming out with this new phone and the BlackBerry Pearl, as well as getting serious about VoIP when they bought Ascendent. In fact, they've announced other phones recently, including the BlackBerry 7130g in India and the BlackBerry 8703e with GPS capability. RIM will be announcing their Q2 2006 results tomorrow. As part of that, there'll be a conference call and live webcast starting 5pm ET. Or you can listen to the replay.

The HP Phone Privacy Saga Continues

The US House of Representatives has been busy subpoenaing people, including five private investigators and at least two HP executives, for the House probe into the Hewlett-Packard scandal. The whole mess was precipitated by now-former Chair Patricia Dunn when she had PIs access the private phone records of some board members.

Her actions were outside of any legal action such as CALEA. In fact, records were obtained by pretexting, an illegal method that involves having people impersonate someone else to access records. (I've had something similar happen to me. A now ex-friend impersonated me just over ten years ago and convinced my phone company at the time to transfer yet another person's phone bill to my phone. After a shouting match with the company, who denied they'd ever do such a thing - despite my friend's confession - I switched to cell phones, and now VoIP, and have not owned a landline since.)

VoIP and SOA

With click-to-call and embedded VoIP apps gaining popularity (witness Adobe's plan to embed VoIP in Flash players and Google's deal with eBay/ Skype), you can expect to see more offerings like BlueNote Network's SessionSuite SOA software [eWeek]. SOA, or Service-Oriented Architecture, software is hot in the web services arena. SessionSuite essentially allows developers to build web telephony CRM apps that work together as a suite.

SessionSuite does not require any hardware (other than a web server) to bulid voice data applications with. Software such as this, some people feel, spells the future of VoIP and the beginning of extremely sophisticated voice-based online applications.

VoIP Roundup - Tues Sep 26/06

Here's a quick roundup of what other VoIP/ IP media bloggers are talking about for IP communications ....

Om Malik at GigaOm says that VoIP loves small business but that maybe too many new VoIP startups are focusing on SMBs as their customers.

Cameron Sturdevant and the gang at eWeek Labs have been able to prove that VoIP can coexist with server security such as SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). Which I think means that businesses (and universities) can implement soft VoIP without the same concern for security as they might have had. Andrew Garcia, also at eWeek, offers an option for IT managers at SMBs who want to use VoIP but don't want to replace hardware: virtual PBXes. When you finish that, look at Garcia's article about some new VoIP gear from D-Link, including routers aimed at the small business market.

I have no previous knowledge of QQ is, but Phil Wolff at Skype Journal is speculating on a merger between them and Skype (as well as something eBay China being purchased by Tom.com, a Skype partner). Wolff also wonders if Skype could be like Mercora's IMRadio service, allowing you to build and broadcast your own Internet radio station. The technology's in Skype already. Hey, I've already watched Japanese TV from Skype.

Speaking of Skype, The VoIP Girl gives the lowdown on the meaning of all those shiny little icons in the Skype interface. She also throws in a list of VoIP services for Canadians, to supplement the ones Canadian tech blogger Mark Evans listed.

10 VoIP Soft Phones and Soft Services

This is a quick list of some of the soft phones and software-based services covered here in the past year. It's not a complete list, and is not an endorsement of any particular soft VoIP client. By "software-based services", I mean VoIP services such as Jajah, which does not use a soft phone but from which calls are initiated via a web page or other software. Also included are text IM clients which have VoIP features. Here they are, in alphabetical order:

1. AIM Pro.
2. Gizmo Project.
3. Google Talk.
4. Hullo.
5. Jajah.
6. Sightspeed.
7. Skype - there are a lot of articles about Skype here, so here's the actual Skype site.
8. Talqer (gives true soft VoIP features to Google Talk, or runs on its own).
9. Wengo.
10. Yahoo Messenger.

Windows Live Messenger has only been covered piecemeal here, over numerous posts, so it's not mentioned. There are other VoIP-related software that works in tandem with some of the above-mentioned softphones, but not by themselves. As such, they haven't been mentioned here.

By the way, check out the article 10 Skype Alternatives for a few more softphone options.

Mino Wireless Reaches 100,000 Users

After seven months since they launched, Mino Wireless has reached 100,000 users. I wrote about Mino Wireless last month. Of all the mobile VoIP solutions I've tried, it's the only one that actually worked for me on my Palm Treo 650. Not only did it work (I used the complimentary free minutes), when I called my father on his landline (cordless phone), he said the call quality was far better than when I called him on Skype or even Hullo from my computer. Given that that's the case, I'm surprised more people have not signed up.

Despite Mino being the only one that's worked, EQO has promised me that in an upcoming revision of their service, they should be supporting Palm Treos as well. Like many mobile VoIP services, Mino works by temporarily using your Java-enabled smartphone/ PDA's cellular wireless connection to access the Internet and establish a call. It then gets off the Internet and gives you a chance to switch your phone back into cellular mode. You then receive a call from their VoIP bridging service. Once you answer, it calls your target party.

For other mobile VoIP providers, see Soft VoIP for your mobile devices or Skype for the mobile warrior.

VoIP Crimes Of Another Stripe?

After the arrest of five foreign nationals in Namibia providing VoIP service without a license, as well as goings on in various Asian and African countries in regards to VoIP, you might be wondering if VoIP is under attack there. Marcelo Rodriguez takes a crtical look [Voxilla] at what Russell Shaw [ZD Net] and Rich Tehrani [TMC Net] are saying.

Rodriguez points out that both Shaw and Tehrani mention "Third World" countries as locales where VoIP seems to be under attack, possibly due to affiliations between the government and the traditional telecoms, but that they leave out the US as being in a similar category. (Examples: Korea and the UAE blocking Skype.) He then goes on to reveal several examples of lobbying, campaign contributions, and all-expense golf vacations.

The Voxilla piece is very revealing and extremely politically charged. I'm going to take my cue to up the voltage. Let's take a few separate scenarios. First scenario, conspiracy: the entire telephony system in North America is fully wiretapped and all calls are monitored either by humans or machines, for whatever political purpose the real men with power wield. Second scenario: the first scenario is crock, but phone calls are a valuable commodity and thus extremely lucrative. Third scenario: a combination of both the first and second scenarios.

Choose your scenario. Either way, VoIP threatens the status quo, and hence spawns acts like CALEA, possibly attacks on Vonage's share price, and debates like neutrality vs tiered Internet service. Everything that is happening politically in telephony satisfies one of those three scenarios. Let's face it: VoiP is a threat no matter how you slice your political pie.

VoIP Roundup - Mon Sep 25/06

Universities Banning Skype
A number of universities have decided to ban Skype, stating that it consumes bandwidth and supposedly is an "illegal" waste of resources. (Illegal? Seriously?) Grid computing apps are also included in the ban at several California universities including University of California Santa Barbara, San Jose State University, and California State University Dominguez Hills. They are not banning Gizmo Project or Wengo. [via Ars Technica] Several countries also ban/ block Skype, including Korea and the UAE (United Arab Emirates).

Telrex CallRex VoIP Call Recording For Cisco
Telrex claims that their CallRex version 3.1 is the  first VoIP call-recording solution to be certified for encrypting Cisco Unified CallManager 5.0 calls. [via Business Wire]

SIP Trunking Makes VoIP Telephony More Flexible
Rich Tehrani reflects on how SIP trunking has made IP telephony more flexible by reducing the amount of proprietary hardware. He points out that not all IP PBXes are connected to SIP trunks; that over half of them (some used by IP-based call centers) are still using PSTN trunk lines.

Fastlinks For Mon Sep 18 - Fri Sep 22, 2006

For your convenience, here are links to internal articles posted this week.

1. Cognos Biz Analysis S/W For BlackBerry
2. VoIP Thief On The Run
3. Beyond 3G Communications
4. Cellular VoIP vs Fixed VoIP
5. BigBand Networks To Go IPO?
6. VoIP Roundup - Tues Sep 19/06
7. VoIP Roundup - Wed Sep 20/06
8. Alarm.com Signs Second VoIP Partner
9. VoIP Systems Subject To Security Risks?
10. VoIP Roundup - Thur Sep 21/06
11. Could Alarm.com Help Pure Play VoIP?
12. More Mobile VoIP Solutions: iSkoot, Fring
13. VoIP Roundup - Fri Sep 22/06
14. More VoIP Crimes
15. Let The Embedding (of VoIP) Begin

Let The Embedding (of VoIP) Begin

There's a lot of buzz the past few days about Adobe working on some VoIP project, possibly to embed VoIP from within a flash video player. Om Malik is credited with breaking the story. Bruce Stewart, Tom Keating, Ken Camp, Phil Wolff, and no doubt others have weighed in on the news.

Maybe it's Friday, when I tend to be jaded and play devil's advocate, but I don't see this as particularly surprising or big news. Isn't this really kind of an extension of click-to-call VoIP? At the least, it's embedded VoIP which, while a hot subniche, is already working from web browsers, Microsoft Outlook, and other programs.

But at least with those programs, there's some semblance of relevance for having VoIP-calling, as a phone number will be part of the information. Even if a Flash video has an extra tag for a phone number, how ubiquitous is Flash anyway? (Despite what the other VoIP bloggers are saying.)

Every web design site I've read in the past year cautions people to go easy on Flash-driven content because it's not indexable in the search engines. And it takes time to load, which drives away visitors on slower connections (not everyone has broadband yet).

Nevertheless, while I may not like that Adobe bought out Macromedia, it's an interesting idea and I wish them luck with the Flash-VoIP features. It could certainly be useful for live help sites that want to add VoIPability. [Note: After I wrote this low-key diatribe, I read Tom's piece, which says the Flash player has already had VoIP capability since early 2002. That's a surprise to me, but I still maintain my jaded opinion.] On the other hand, click-to-call types of embedded VoIP applications just might make soft VoIP clients obsolete.

More VoIP Crimes

Not too long ago, 23 year old Edwin Pena and his accomplice Robert Moore were arrested for stealing and reselling 10M minutes of VoIP service. Pena recently went on the run and is being sought by authorities for skipping bail. Now five Asian men have been arrested in Namibia for selling VoIP without a license, based on the country's 1992 Postal and Telecommunication Act.

Bail was set at N$3,000 each and was paid. But the group will have to return to court at the end of October and may face jail time. This seems way out of whack. Wouldn't a fine be sufficient? Skype had been told by the Korean government recently that they did not have the appropriate license. No fine was levied, and Skype stopped taking new memberships from Korean citizens.

The primary difference in crime between Pena/ Moore and the five foreign nationals in Namibia is that the former group stole service from other VoIP providers. But they went to great technical lengths to do so, and got away with it for quite a while. The Nambian five were caught when they tried to sell VoIP service to a member of the public.

Additional sources: VoIP News Australia, All Africa, TMC Net.

VoIP Roundup - Fri Sep 22/06

How To Choose A VoIP Provider
Ron King offers some tips on how to select a VoIP provider, and deciding what service is appropriate for your needs. VoIP Lowdown has a brief overview on types of VoIP service, which may help you decide.

VoIP TV Ads Attack Australian Telstra
Television ads promoting VoIP service Soulmate gently attacking Telstra, an Australian telco, will not be blocked according to decision by the Federal Court in Melbourne. Sounds like Soulmate struck a nerve. [via SMH]

German Telecom Converts Contact Center To VoIP
German telecom O2 is migrating its customer contact center platform to VoIP. This will reduce costs for customers of their platform. [via TMC Net]

More Mobile VoIP Solutions: iSkoot, Fring

There are a couple of recent mobile VoIP offerings that maybe noteworthy. First, Ken Camp talks about fring, a beta offering that is PC-free. It only works for 3G phones and allows mobile-to-PC calls to Skype and Google Talk, as well as other calling combos. It can be downloaded into your handset via SMS text messaging and all calls are free. Just pay for your cellular data network. Unfortunately, as it currently only supports seven Nokia phone models, I can't test it on my Palm Treo 650. Let's hope they follow up with other mobile phone and PDA support.

The other recent offering is iSkoot, also in beta, which is referred by a lot of VoIP/ comm websites as Skype-on-mobile phones. That's because it works with Skype. Fortunately, for me anyway, this one now offers support for Treo 650 and 700p PDA phones (in addition to Motorola, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson). Unfortunately for me, while trying to register with iSkoot, I was unable to enter my full Skype id. Curses!! Foiled again. How much effort would it have been for them to add a few more characters to the form field for Skype id? I'd have to register yet another Skype id just to try iSkoot.

Well, if none of these offerings are for you, there are a number of other mobile soft VoIP options for you mobile warriors.

Could Alarm.com Help Pure Play VoIP?

Yesterday, I reflected briefly on Alarm.com's signing of SunRocket as a partner, who follow Vonage, the first to sign. Like other competitors InnovAlarm and NextAlarm, Alarm.com offers home security alarm services using VoIP for the communications component. Garrett Smith thinks that this sort of additional VoIP-based service might give pure play VoIP providers such as SunRocket and Vonage a bit more competitive edge, by offering their own "triple play" of services, compared to broadband providers.

While I vaguely said something similar, I still feel that cable providers have the edge, especially considering that Alarm.com is target this type of VoIP provider next for partners. PhoneBoy weighs in, basically agreeing, and says any advantage will be minimal because pure plays won't be offering anything unique.

That doesn't mean that there isn't any market for pure play VoIP. Anyone who does not have or want a computer (there are such people) might prefer to opt for a service such as Vonage, were they forced to change from traditional telephony. Or simply want to save on long-distance calls.

VoIP Roundup - Thur Sep 21/06

Thomson + Skype Offer Dual-Mode Skype Phone
Thomson and Skype are aiming a new wireless handset at Skype-lovers who want to maintain the ability to make both landline and Skype calls. The GE DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Technology) 6.0 wireless handset (GE Model 28300EE2) has an MSRP of US$149. The set has 120 hours of standby time, 10 hours of talk time. The system is expandable up to six handsets, which can be placed around your home. Read about the feature set at Skype blogs.

Brazil: Mobile Phone Lines Exceed Fixed Lines
The current number of mobile phone lines (12.3M) in Brazil are twice the number of fixed lines (6.5). [via Cellular-News]

Yahoo Messenger Plugins: Learn Languages
Someone's gotten smart and created an interesting way to learn a language, in this case Vietnamese. The Peacemoon plugin for Yahoo! Messenger supports four types of quizzes. While it's designed for Vietnamese, a note in the description welcomes other users.

VoIP Systems Subject To Security Risks?

Some experts are saying that VoIP in the enterprise represents serious security risks [CIO], making a company vulnerable to vishing (phishing via VoIP) attacks. One anonymous security researcher claims that bank networks will be subject to penetration and the phone lines to hijacking - thus leading to the theft of credit card numbers and bank account data.

Now I'm not a VoIP security expert, but I can make an educated guess, based on my many years of computer experience, that this guy, who goes by the pseudonym "The Grugg", is grossly exaggerating the security issues, potentially to gain some attention. It's absurd to think that banks, who have been dealing with electronic security issues for several decades now, would even think to put their data and VoIP networks on the same lines. Besides telecoms, I've worked at a big mutual fund company. Even they had backup and redundant networks, with firewalled access to account information.

While it's likely true that little technology exists at present to filter out vishing attacks, there's nothing that says a bank's data network has to run on a VoIP network. And just because a bank's telecom system is converted to IP telephony doesn't mean the data network is suddenly at risk. In fact, if someone wanted to mount a vishing attack on a bank, they could do so already using an existing VoIP system (sorry, not going to tell you how). And they wouldn't have any more or less success than if the bank had a VoIP network or not. (On the other hand, a VoIP phone system could potentially be taken offline by a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack if a load balancing system is not in place.)

Despite what The Grugg (give me a break) is saying, I'm not so sure that bank data networks are at risk. Of course, I could be proven wrong, but let's hope I'm not, as this expert is saying that vishing attacks on banks will probably start later this year. I wonder how he knows this.

Alarm.com Signs Second VoIP Partner

Alarm.com, a home security service that uses VoIP as a means of communication, signed their second partner, SunRocket. Earlier this year, they announced their first partnership with Vonage. [via PC Mag] Vonage recently announced that they would be providing optional VoIP installations courtesy of a third party. Now if Vonage is smart (or maybe Alarm.com?), they'll work out a package deal for customers whereby they can have both their VoIP and Alarm.com's security system installed simultaneously.

While both current partners are "pure play" VoIP providers, Alarm.com is also aiming at partnerships with ISPs next. ISPs, of course, offer "triple play" services: television programming, Internet access, and VoIP. The PC Mag article talks about quad-tier services, which would include cellular phone service, and refers to Alarm.com's service as being like a fifth tier for ISPs.

A similar VoIP-based security alarm service is being offered by InnovAlarm, who will be getting US$10M in venture capital.

VoIP Roundup - Wed Sep 20/06

Cable VoIP Really Gaining Ground
Cable giant Comcast is so pleased with their one million VoIP customers that they are apparently adding 4000 new jobs [GigaOm]. as Om says, it's proof of the success that cablecos will enjoy because of offering triple play services. People want simplicity, and getting a single bill each month satisfies that demand. Comcast only got into the VoIP business earlier this year.

New VoIP Consortium Member: Anue Systems
The University of New Hampshire's Interoperability Lab is overseeing a VoIP Consortium, where members can jointly test products with a VoIP system emulator as well as variety of hardware and software provided by Consortium members. Anue Systems is the latest member. Get more details at TMC Net.

Intel Offering Plug'n'Play VoIP Development Kit
Intel is branching out into other hardware arenas with a development kit for plug'n'play VoIP. The kit, the Intel UPDI (Universal Phone Device Interface), consists of a software framework that is intended as a uniform platform for soft phone and hardware device interfaces. [via MyBroadband] Earlier this year, Intel launched a phone adapter to allow VoIP calls over regular phones.

VoIP Roundup - Tues Sep 19/06

What's Digium's VoIP Business Strategy?
Garrett Smith reflects on what he thinks might be Digium's plan of action for their future. Digium is the company that offers the Asterisk breed of SIP-based open standard IP PBXes and related software and hardware. While they've been giving away their software, presumably to sell their hardware and support services, Garrett thinks that Digium may take a different approach now that they have US$13 M in venture capital. Go have a read.

Cable VoIP Gaining Ground
Vonage may have reached 2 million subscribers for its true VoIP service, but  cable VoIP providers in Canada and the US scored over a million new subscribers in Q2 2006. This isn't it all suprising, since cable companies have the advantage of offering a "triple play" of services, including TV programming, telephony, and Internet access in a convenient bundle.

Summary of Weak + Strong Areas For VoIP
Light Reading has a recap of a report from Keynote Systems of some areas that VoIP is either lagging behind in or ahead of traditional telephony. And if you're in the mood for overview, Andy Oram at O'Reilly Net summarizes the report from VON. Both articles are worth reading.

BigBand Networks To Go IPO?

Vonage may be taking a drubbing in the stock market since going IPO, but Israel's BigBand Networks Inc. may be going IPO anyway.  Some experts are questioning the wisdom of VoIP companies going IPO, but BigBand is a cable equipment provider that sells broadband access and VoIP tech. So they're in a different niche than a company like Vonage. Light Reading's discussion pegs the potential IPO value at US$500M.

That's not so much money that someone might not decide to buy them out. It'd certainly be a good investment, generally speaking. And with all the other VoIP acquisitions going on (such as ATG's acquiring of eStara [TMC Net]), there might be a suitor waiting in the wings. Wake up, Microsoft. Here's an opportunity for you to branch out and prop up your stock - considering you're showing some interest in VoIP. In fact, why wait until they get listed on the NASDAQ. BigBand has not yet filed an S-1 form with the SEC. Make'em an offer they can't refuse.

Cellular VoIP vs Fixed VoIP

VoIP Central (via EFY Times) indicates that revenues from mobile VoIP will outdistance that from fixed VoIP in Europe and the USA, but especially in the latter, by 2012.

I think that there will be a fair bit of growth in business use of fixed VoIP, especially since communications costs for SMEs [VoIP Central] is expected to be reduce by 20-40%. This cost reduction can be enough to save a small business. As for cellular VoIP, there are a few solutions that work like a charm, but it has farther to go than either true (hard) VoIP (e.g., Vonage, SunRocket) or soft VoIP from a desktop or even laptop. However, SME and SOHO owners who see the benefit of fixed VoIP are likely to add cellular VoIP to their business comm toolkit, and then tell their friends about how much money they save. Hence, eventually cellular VoIP can most definitely outsell fixed VoIP.

Beyond 3G Communications

Web sites have already been throwing around the term 4G (fourth generation) as the successor to 3G mobile communications technology. But a bunch of biggies in the industry had a jam session recently to decide exactly what 4G should have. Silicon.com has a brief look at their ideas.

I'm thinking 4G will include GPS abilities for sure, as location-aware phones [Silicon.com] are expected to be a Euros 622 M business in Europe by 2010. In fact, GPS will be part of 3G phones as well, what with Nokia buying Gate5, a mapping company, and surveys showing that cell phone users want such features. But with Samsung already testing 4G tech, it'll be very exciting to see what else such phones will have - hopefully dual mode VoWiFi and cellular calling,

I suppose, however, that companies like T-Mobile will have to be convinced not to ban VoIP from its cellular wireless network.

VoIP Thief On The Run

Steal VoIP, go to jail. Or if you're Edwin Pena, barely out of his teens, you go on the lam, possibly using your 40-foot speed boat, which was paid for by resold stolen VoIP service. Pena was arrested by Miami police a few months back, along with his buddy hacker. They supposedly stole and resold around 10 M minutes of VoIP service and were facing up to 35 years on a couple of charges. Pena skipped bail and is suspected of heading somewhere from where he can't be extradited. Time to bring in the CSI: Miami crew, though I'm not sure they've covered any telecom crimes to date.

These two guys are obviously bright minds, given the way they engineered their whole set up. Had they thought just a bit further, they could have been doing VoIP security consulting and making good money, instead of doing time. Given the shortage of skilled workers in the IP telecom industry, it's a waste. A good mind is a terrible thing to waste; a good VoIP mind even more so.

Cognos Biz Analysis S/W For BlackBerry

As Blackberry PDAs and phones gain more market penetration, we're probably going to see more high-end software being ported over. One such package is Cognos Inc's business intelligence software, which will be offered for Blackberries [CRN] in early 2007.  That's likely to include the new Blackberry Pearl mobile phone.

But as the CRN article implies, getting the user screens right is going to be a challenge when screen real estate is so minimal. I don't know about you, but I think that complex software really has no place on today's mobile devices.

On the other hand, if someone comes up with affordable HUDs (Heads-Up Displays) - which have an effective real estate of a large-screen TV, and that don't make you look like a Cyborg - as well as some ingenius, simple method of data entry outside of a keyboard (say a one handed keyboard or eye-tracking tech) and makes it all affordable... Well, then now we're talking. Complex software can have a place on mobile devices. Until then, though, only the simplest of applications, including mobile VoIP, are really all that are likely to get used.

Fastlinks For Mon Sep 11 - Fri Sep 15, 2006

For your convenience, here are internal links to articles posted this past week:

1. New VoIP Providers: RNK Telecom
2. Enterprise VoIP: Pika Combines Skype and Asterisk
3. VoIP Roundup - Mon Sep 11/06
4. Online Role Playing Games Add IP Communications
5. Diamonds Are A Cell (Phone)’s Best Friend
6. Telus Corp To Become Income Trust
7. Free Avaya VoIP Security For Dummies eBook
8. Finally: Skype Video Calling For Macs
9. LumenVox Speech Recognition Engine for Asterisk
10. What Is Mobile Phone Number Portability?
11. Free Conferencing On Yahoo Messenger
12. Free Muni Wi-Fi In Pittsburgh
13. VoIP Roundup - Fri Sep 15/06
14. Vonage VoIP Installations Courtesy of Endeavour
15. Online Music Collaboration, VoIP Chatting, + Social Networking: Rype

Online Music Collaboration, VoIP Chatting, and Social Networking: Rype

About two years ago, I was helping a young musician develop some confidence in his guitar-playing abilities. (I had spent several years booking bands for shows and promoting local musicians in the past, so I decided to help this immensely talented young man.) Because we worked conflicting schedules at the time, we oftened chatted using MSN Messenger. in text mode. At that point, I'd forgotten that Messenger had rudimentary VoIP (pc2pc only) capabilities.

When my friend, A, initiated a voice chat, I was impressed. At least for a few seconds, until I realized how crappy call quality was (probably mostly due to my then poor wireless signal). But he pulled out his guitar across town and played for me some of the new songs he'd composed. I reviewed them with him. Despite the quality issue, it was quite a heady experience.

Fast forward a couple of years and VoIP call quality has improved - at least for some soft clients. I lost touch with A, because of his strange work hours, and last I heard, he was a bit disheartened about not being able to collaborate and thus gave up writing new songs. (Unfortunate, because he has the talent to be the next John Mayer or Dave Matthews, his fave.)

His biggest problem was finding people to collaborate with when he was actually at home, on his computer, too tired to go meet with anyone to jam in person. Well, budding musicians will be happy to know about Rype, a desktop application that appears to be the ultimate tool for musical collaboration in the global village.

Rype is from guitar.com, but it's not quite available yet, so what I'm telling you is based on the wee bit of text at the site, and the screenshots. And it really looks impressive. Rype will let you record, edit, and produce music, and has a built-in social network. So I assume that regardless of where you are, you'd be able to find someone awake to collaborate with. And when you do finish a song, you'll be able to sell them on iTunes. Brilliant or what?

This is one of those "killer" apps VoIP, and I can't wait to get my hands on it, even if it costs money. (No indication either way.) And if it's as good as it looks, or maybe even if not, it'll probably spawn a dozen copycats/ competitors. First it was online games using VoIP, now this. What's next?

[Found via Skype Journal, but the actual permalink doesn't work, so I haven't supplied it.]

Vonage VoIP Installations Courtesy of Endeavour

Having never used services like Vonage, I can't tell you about any experiences trying to install any necessary hardware. But I can tell you that even for a long-time computer person like myself, I occasionally run into some weird glitch while trying to install hardware related to my computer - such as my wireless router for Internet access around the house.

So anyone just a little reluctant to use Vonage and similar true VoIP providers will be happy to know that the company will be offering installations [ZDNet IP Telephony VoIP] courtesy of a new deal with Endeavour Telecom. Installation costs start at US$99.95 and are aimed at both residential and business customers. Endeavour field techs will represent themselves as being from Vonage, which will be a psychological plus for most people.

As Russell Shaw says (link above), this deal will be a good thing for Vonage. Not only will this increase the chances of new customers, but support calls will be likely be reduced, and only those customers who feel they need the service have to pay for it. And considering that Vonage is reputedly cutting back on their advertising campaign, despite reaching a 2 million customer milestone, it's little things like this that might make the difference between gaining customers or losing them. Of course, adding services like ReVos long-distance calling packages (courtesy of RNK Telecom) will also help.

VoIP Roundup - Fri Sep 15/06

President Asks For Warrantless Wiretaps
US president George Bush is asking for warrantless wiretaps, particularly in relation to prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. [via CNBC TV] Recently, US District Court Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ordered a halt to the wiretapping program, concluding in her report that warrantless wiretapping is unconstitutional. CALEA allows a backdoor for law enforcement agencies to wiretap calls if public security is threaten. However, the wiretapping program in question was secretly signed by President Bush in 2001.

Telus Corp Wins 5-Yr Telecom Contract
The government of the Province of Ontario (Canada) awarded Telus Corp (second-largest Canadian phone company) a five-year, Cdn$140 M contract to manage and supply various network services, including IP communication. [via CNW] Telus recently announced that they were converting to an income trust.

Yahoo Messenger Plugins: Pandaf Sudoku Battle
Not sick of the immensely popular Sudoku number puzzles? The Pandaf Sudoku Battle plugin for Yahoo! Messenger 8 lets you battle against an opponent. I assume you race to finish first. This is of course quite the variation on the puzzle, as it's traditionally a one-player challenge.

Stratus Techologies Acquires Emergent
  Stratus Technologies announced the US$10 M buyout of Emergent Network Solutions [Extreme VoIP], a VoIP infrastructure company.

Free Muni Wi-Fi In Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh officially has free municipal Wi-Fi in the downtown area as of yesterday at noon. The initiative was started by Mayor Bob O'Connor, who passed away due to brain cancer on Sept 1. It took US Wireless Online only two months to build the 60-site network. The FreeConnect service option allows a maximum of two hours per day at no cost. DayConnect offers faster access at US$7.99/day, $14.95/m, or $119.99/yr. VoWiFi (Voice over municipal Wi-Fi) service is planned for the future. [via Pittsburgh Business Times, Business First]

I don't know if that's a record implementation time for municipal Wi-Fi, but it sure sounds like it is. Wow.

Free Conferencing On Yahoo Messenger

Yahoo is offering free conferencing calling for users of their text and VoIP IM (Instant Messaging) client, Yahoo! Messenger. The service is called ConFreeCall and is sourced from Vapps, Inc.

However, unlike other soft VoIP clients such as Skype, you have to download something to do conference calls. The conferences will reputedly be able to handle up to 500 participants on one call, and one person can act as moderator by announcing participants and controlling volumne, etc.. [via eWeek]

The moderator function is a definite plus. As I've mentioned previously, something like Roberts Rules of Order is necessary for successful moderation of conference calls.

What Is Mobile Phone Number Portability?

While others are frustrated with their inability to move their VoIP, phone, or cellular numbers to a new provider, and industry steering committee in South Africa is asking their telecom regulator to delay their MNP mandate [Cellular News].

MNP, or Mobile Number Portability, would require changes in telecom company business practices. Such practices would, in this case, allow customers to port (move) their cell phone numbers with essential ease.

I think that we'll see more and more countries bringing about MNP regulations. In fact, it probably behooves cellular operators and providers to participate, to get started now, if they don't want to see a mass migration towards VoWiFi-only (VoIP over Wi-Fi) phones. While that's not a reality just yet in most cities, the increasing number of municipal Wi-Fi projects (free or otherwise) is going to help.

Personally, I think dual-mode cellular/ VoWiFi phones are going to boom in sales when that happens. So users would get a cellular signal in areas without Wi-Fi Internet access, and VoIP calling otherwise. If number portability is in place in those areas with muni Wi-Fi, then everyone wins.

LumenVox Speech Recognition Engine for Asterisk

Asterisk Business Edition will now be including [Asterisk VoIP News] the Speech Starter Kit and Speech Engine from LumenVox at no extra cost. Or you can get the Kit and Engine for US$245 if you're an Asterisk open source community member. Speech processing solutions can be built over the Speech Starter Kit. (LumenVox also has a number of other voice processing packages, including Speech Tuner and Speech Assistant. Their Speech Engine received a Best of Show award at TMC's Internet Telephony Conference earlier this year.)

This is good news for anyone wanting to build advanced voice data applications for VoIP systems using Asterisk, based on the open source VoIP standard, SIP. In fact, this Speech Engine could spur the development of inexpensive voice-triggered CRM (Customer Relationship Management) applications for SMBs and even SOHOs, not to mention enterprises. And now that Pika Technologies just built a seamless integration package for Skype and Asterisk for enterprise use, I can see some pretty sophisticated VoIP call center solutions being created as well. Call Center/ IVR and CRM in a box anyone?

By the way, you can try out the IVR demo for ordering a pizza or checking the weather. Neither my SkypeOut call nor a call from a cordless phone seemed to register too well, but the "woman" for the pizza demo is pretty darn funny. So since she psychically knows where I live, I should be getting a gigantic pizza in about a half hour.

Finally: Skype Video Calling For Macs

Mac Skype users who have been salivating over the video-calling that PC users have had for a while can wipe their drool. Skype just released Skype Mac 2.0 beta. You need "OS X v10.3.9 Panther or newer, a G4, G5, or Intel processor running at 800 Mhz or faster, 512 Mb RAM, 40 MB free disk space" and of course, an Internet connection.

Video display can be within a Skype window or full-screen. (Hey! Do PC Skype users get that?!) You also get to see yourself in a separate window, in case you have a piece of chive in your teeth or pizza sauce all over your the front of your shirt. (Unless of course, you want it that way.) Don't forget the niceties of video calling, especially in a video-conference.

Apparently, Skype also released Skype for Mac OS X 1.5 Gold, but I see nothing about it or 2.0 on the Mac OS X download page. Sightspeed, by the way, has had video-calling for Macs for quite some time.

Free Avaya VoIP Security For Dummies eBook

Jupiter Web is giving away free copies of the Avaya edition of VoIP Security for Dummies eBook (PDF, 68 pages) in consideration for people joining the Avaya developer community. The link was sent to me in a regular Jupiter Web email, so I cannot guarantee you'll be able to use it, but I don't see why not.

The ebook is pretty "dummy-ish", in the sense that they've simplied a wide range of IP telephony security issues and summed each of them up in a few short paragraphs. It even mentions privacy issues such as CALEA (Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Agencies) and a number of US govt regulations that add up to considering why you should record VoIP calls in your company.

This is certainly not a book you would use to actually implement VoIP security measures, but it's not a bad place to start if you feel you don't know enough about the issues, or don't know where to start reading about them. (The book is of course geared towards discussing Avaya solutions, so it's not exactly vendor-neutral.) You can sign up free (just your name, email, and job function) at this Jupiter Web page and download your copy.

Telus Corp To Become Income Trust

Canada's Telus Corp, the next biggest telecom after Bell Canada, plans to move to becoming an income trust, with the intent to improve the stock price. As part of the plan, the yearly trust payout will be approximately Cdn$4/ unit compared to a current per share dividend of just over Cdn$1. Trusts are also tax-exempt, which is part of the motivation of the conversion. Shares will be converted to trust units on a one-to-one basis, provided shareholders vote their approval in January 2007. [via Bloomberg]

Late last year, Telus merged their fixed-line and wireless divisions. This seems to be part of a growing trend of telecoms to present a single brand instead of separate services, as well as to streamline business to cut costs. If traditional phone service revenue is going to decrease dramatically as expected, then moves such as these are better done sooner.

Diamonds Are A Cell (Phone)'s Best Friend

Marilyn Monroe and dozens of starlets may have sung that "Diamonds are a girl's best friend", but cell phones might love them too. Or at least, cell phone owners. According to a combined academic and industrial research project, diamonds may help improve cell phone reception [Cellular News]. In particular, a new material called UNCD (UltraNanoCrystalline Diamond) could be used to make highly accurate tuning forks, which would dramatically improve reception and transmission of cellular signals.

The project is being conducted by the US Dept of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, and funded by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency). You know that when DARPA gets involved, initial applications will be of the military variety first. Such research, however, is unlikely to apply to IP telephony or even Wi-Fi communications. So such improved call quality wouldn't apply to mobile VoIP calls.

Online Role Playing Games Add IP Communications

RPGs (Role Playing Games) are a type of online game that involves multiple players online at the same time. MMOGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games) have been popular for several years and have spawned a whole subculture. One acquaintance of mine would play for up until 30 hours straight when he was out of work. Now, as a baker, he has to get up early and can't play as often. But on his days off, he's back to the mega-sessions, playing up to 15-20 hours straight.

One of things he repeatedly asked me to check on (before I started writing about VoIP) was a way for his clan (forgive me if that's the wrong term) to be able to talk to each other simultaneously without paying a fortune for some company's subscription fee. Now that was last year, before I knew about free VoIP conferencing. But his clanmistress was ultimately happy with her choice. However, their choice was not integrated into the game they were playing - meaning that while playing the RPG, they would have to use a separate web browser window (or tab) to start a conversation using another service.

Enter a new generation of RPGs, with integrated VoIP. A new RPG, Fallen Earth, by Icarus Studios, will have IP communications integrated right into the software. Another company, BigWorld, is producing a new RPG development suite which will have VoIP capabilities built-in. Both are a couple of new customers [Mass High Tech] for Vivox Inc.'s integrated IP communications platform and development software.

While there are a growing number of voice data applications, I believe this is a new direction for VoIP. I'm not otherwise aware of any of the more popular online games having this ability. Though I wouldn't be surprised to see, in a few years, RPGs with video capability and even video avatars, where a person appears as their character, in real-time. And then a whole new generation of sleep-deprived players will be swept in.

VoIP Roundup - Mon Sep 11/06

Yet More VoIP Acronyms: FoIP - Fax over IP
8x8, Inc., launched their new fax over IP service (aka FoIP) today. [via Sys-Con] They are not, however, the first company with fax support over IP. Other companies already offer support in their IP telephony routers. Companies like Tiger NetCom have VoIP adapters which will support fax.

Atreus Receives IP Telephony Award
Internet Telephony magazine awarded Atreus Systems their 2006 TMC Labs Innovation Award. [via Sys-Con]

New VoIP Services: ROK Viper
ROK Entertainment Group is offering ROK Viper, which they claim is the world's first free no-contract mobile-to-mobile VoIP application [The Engineer Online]. Though the service seems kind of limited as it apparently connects from a mobile phone via Bluetooth to a computer with broadband Internet access. Doesn't seem particularly mobile to me. ROK apparently also created technology for the first mass-produced mobile TV.

Skype Available In More Than 27 Languages
While Skype is officially only available in 27 languages, there are actually translations for Thai and several European languages.The translation work has been done by members of the Skype community.

Enterprise VoIP: Pika Combines Skype and Asterisk

Big news on the enterprise VoIP front. Pika Technologies, Inc., a Canadian call center services company, has come up with a solution that seamlessly combines Skype and Asterisk. Free plus free equals free. Get more details on Bill Campbell's post at Skype Journal, or the Pika press release.

Wow. It's amazing how flexible Skype seems to be, considering it's not open source like Asterisk. Regardless, anyone with a small business should be salivating at this news. This sounds like the perfect enterprise VoIP soution, both for SMBs (aka SMEs) and large enterprises. And here even Skype was saying last November about how it wasn't suited for enterprise use. Pika (and Asterisk) save the day. Expect to see an aftermarket of solutions and hardware for Pika.

New VoIP Providers: RNK Telecom

RNK Telecom Inc. of the Massachusetts region is launching [Biz Journals]their new consumer VoIP service, ReVos, which gives subscribers low-cost calls to over 40 countries. They also  get a number of features including a virtual number and IP calls from a cell phone. The company sells both prepaid phone cards and wholesale services. Vonage and Packet8 are both customers.

In the Biz Journal's article, they thank Vonage for "doing all that premarketing". Vonage spends over US$20 M per month in advertising, although word is that their annoying TV ads are disappearing. It's been a while since I've seen one, and at least one other VoIP blogger said the same thing a few days ago.

I guess with the bottom expected to drop out of calling cards, this is a good move. I feel sorry for all the mom and pop stores that are going to lose yet another source of low-margin income. But I don't see them selling VoIP services - unless they get VoIP phone booths.

Fastlinks For Mon Sep 04 - Fri Sep 08, 2006

For your convenience, here are internal links to articles posted here this week.

1. Can VoIP Reduce Call Center Outsourcing?
2. Are Telcos Getting Short Shrift On VoIP?
3. Yet Another Top 30 VoIP Blogs List
4. Vonage Reaches 2 Million Customer Milestone
5. Bundled VoIP Packages
6. Avoiding The Fate of Dixon’s Freetalk VoIP Service
7. China's Mobile and Broadband Markets Likely To Exceed India's
8. What Now? An iPod Phone? No VoIP?
9. Things To Think About When Signing Up For VoIP
10. HP Under Investigation For Investigating Board Member
11. New Treo 750 Phone From Palm?
12. Blackberry Pearl Camera Phone
13. Social Networking For Networking + Communication Types
14. The MP3/ Phone Player Wars
15. VoIP Roundup - Thur Sep 07/06
16. What’s Up With the Palm Treo PDA/ Smartphone Series?
17. Skype Promos: Free French SkypeOut, Free Phones For Flowers
18. Mobile Phone Number Portability

Mobile Phone Number Portability

Phone number portability is becoming more of an issue for people who tend to move around a lot, obviously. Tom Keating recently talked about his frustrations of moving his stationary phone number to a different VoIP provider. Imagine the problems of trying to move your mobile number. (Everytime I've changed cellular providers, I've had to get a new number.)

In Japan, mobile operators will be allowing cell phone users to keep their phone numbers [VNU Net] when they switch providers. This government-mandated option will not officially take effect until late October, but millions of switchers are expected. Part of the reason for this is that Japan has a very high percentage of mobile phone users (97 M) compared to the population size (127 M).

Portability in this situation is actually beneficial to mobile service providers because of the saturation. Customers have the advantage, but providers also benefit from customers who switch - since the chance of gaining new customers is reduced. Everyone's happy. Hopefully.

Skype Promos: Free French SkypeOut, Free Phones For Flowers

Skype announced a couple of days ago that SkypeOut calls would be free from France to landlines in France. As with the SkypeOut offer in Canada and the US, this offer is only good until Dec 31, 2006. (However, out calls to mobile numbers are not free in France, but are in North America.) Skype also recently announced free SkypeOut calls to toll-free landlines in Taiwan. Skype calls can be made on PC, Mac, Linux computers, Pocket PC phones/ PDAs, and several new Wi-Fi and DECT phones.

On the other hand, if you don't live in France or North America - or even if you do - Fleurop-Interflora Flowers, a Skype partner, is running a free phone promo. Buy flowers, refer five friends, and if one of them buys flowers, you'll get a free Perfectel USB Skype phone.

What's Up With the Palm Treo PDA/ Smartphone Series?

Om Malik thinks Palm's Treo line may be in trouble. While I keep repeatedly writing how much I love my Treo 650, reading what Om has written makes me realize that I have some of the same issues, and then some. Apparently the company is aware of this and already says their sales for this new fiscal quarter will be lower than expected.

Now I got a good deal on my Treo, either $149 or $199 - I don't remember exactly, because I think I got an extra $50 rebate from an already unexpectedly low price. And for my purposes, it's quite sufficient. I owned a Palm V from late 1999 and I loved it. But after dropping it way too many times - even inside a Rhino aluminum case - it ceased to work altogether. Back then, the damn thing cost me around $650 including sales taxes, and they didn't have any connectivity whatsover.

However, I love Palm's OS and interface, and the opportunities to develop software for it (my own projects) seemed more worthwile, since Palm OS PDAs rule the market. Or did. That's probably changing. And now with RIM's slick new Blackberry Pearl mobile phone/ music player, leaked news of Palm's not-yet-shipping Treo 750 phone may not make a difference. Throw in the fact that a prototype Apple iPod Phone (iPhone?) has now been confirmed ready for manufacture, the hybrid phone/ MP3 player war is going to likely be furious. Ultimately, the player/ PDA/ cell phone I'll settle on has to have simple to use mobile VoIP.

VoIP Roundup - Thur Sep 07/06

Vonage Needs To Watch Their Back
Vonage may have passed the two million subscriber mark, but apparently cable providers aren't too far behind. Om Malik adds that Vonage has already spent over half a billion dollars to get those 2 mln customers, but needs 3 mln more to make a profit.

New Yahoo Messenger Plugin: Typing East Indian Scripts
For our East Indian readers, you may like to check out the ChitChat plugin from Vishal Monpara for Yahoo! Messenger 8. With it, you can type text in eight different East Indian scripts including Hindi.

Oregon: Wi-Fi Investment Leader
According to a study of all 50 US states, Oregon leads in Wi-Fi investments.

US East Coast VoIP Services
The areas of Boston, New York, Philly, and D.C. will have new VoIP services offered to SMBs (Small and Medium Business, aka SMEs) from a partnership formed by BroadSoft, Inc., and mindSHIFT Technologies. Broadsoft is a VoIP app software provider and mindSHIFT is a managed services provider. The VoIP service will work through hosted PBXes. [via New Telephony]

The MP3/ Phone Player Wars

CRN Daily News brings up a good point regarding MP3 players. While most people, especially iPod owners, wouldn't give up the gadget they have, there are still millions of people that don't have a device and will probably eventually choose something. These are the people that companies like  Microsoft and Nokia are going after. Given that the digital music player market is dominated by iPod (75% in the US, 50% around the world), it's not going to be easy going for Microsoft and Nokia.

And then don't forget the rumour about the supposed iPod phone and some big Appple press conference in California for Sep 12. Word is, the iPod phone is actually ready for production [via O'Reilly Emerging Telephony]. Though would you pay $600 for it?

Social Networking For Networking + Communication Types

WIP Connector is a website that hooks up business partners focused in the areas of 3G, RFID, Wi-Fi and WiMax communications. It was launched by the Wireless Industry Partnership (WIP) and is designed as a social networking site. [via Silicon]

Full membership costs US$300; a partner membership costs $200 but is currently limited to MX Alliance, Ottawa Wireless Cluster, and WINBC (Wireless Innovation Network of BC) - at least two of which are Canadian. Let's see. A Canadian website (I think) charging US dollars for membership and being promoted on a British website (Silicon). That's IP communications for you: enabling the global village.

Blackberry Pearl Camera Phone

RIM's blackberry line gets a camera phone next week. The Blackberry Pearl has a 1.3 megapixel camera, media player (audio and video), a microSD card slot, trackball, and fairly largish looking screen. [see Computer Business News for some details, and BBHub for loads of pictures and details about file format capabilities.]

I did not see any indication of its ability to VoIP, but that doesn't mean it can't. Regardless, it's good to see that RIM has gotten past the lawsuit that NTP had levied on them and moved on to doing what they do best - making cool mobile communication devices. I'm guessing this phone is new territory for them. By the way, there's a Google Talk client for Blackberry devices.