Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com
Yesterday’s announcement by AT&T offering a great site where you could watch online shows was just a tip of the iceberg. Here’s 25 Places to Watch the Fall TV Season Online
Source: www.voip-news.com
Add newspapers to the ever-growing list of companies that have transitioned to a managed voice, Internet and data networking solutions package. The Kansas City Star in Kansas City, Missouri, is now using a solution from tw telecom.
“We’d outgrown our old network and needed a provider with the ability to support us in creating a robust 10-location wide area network (WAN) to sustain The Star’s continually increasing network needs,” said John McPhail, Systems Manager for The Kansas City Star. “Important to us was that tw telecom was able to provide The Star with a cleaner, self-healing solution that gives us a better network with improved bandwidth at every site, and a layer of redundancy we didn’t have before. The Star’s headquarters, production facilities and seven distribution centers throughout the metro area are now connected over a much more secure and cleaner network than we had before.”
The company’s new network is a multi-solution, 10-location Ethernet-based network that provides 40 Mbps of metro Ethernet connectivity and voice services.
“Critical to our decision to select tw telecom was its network fiber footprint,” said McPhail. “When we reviewed all the proposals, many of which were priced similarly, none could match tw telecom’s network capabilities or technical sophistication. The Star is now directly connected to a fully protected network, and we immediately reduced our costs by more than 10 percent. We gained more than just an improvement in cost, we were able to upgrade nine of our sites from a consumer-type DSL connection to a production quality T1. In addition, this transition to tw telecom had the added benefit of reducing to one the number of providers we now have to manage.”
Source: www.voip-news.com
Patton has reduced prices on FXS models of the SmartNode 4110 VoIP Gateway Series. The change went into effect on June 1.
“Recent technology and process innovations at Patton have brought substantial cost-savings in our analog gateway production. Over the years our customers have stood by us through all the economic storms. During the present global economic downturn, it makes perfect sense to pass our savings along to those who have sustained our business through those other tough times,” said Burton A. Patton, Executive Vice President.
According to the company:
Expected to stimulate the analog VoIP gateway market, Patton’s lower prices reflect an average decrease of 20 to 40 percent for distributors, resellers and end-user customers.
In spite of the current economic crisis, the lower pricing makes the stability and interoperability of Patton’s high-end, carrier-class SmartNode VoIP equipment affordable for small to medium enterprises (SMEs).
Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com
My $99 per month U-verse plan that gives me the whole enchilada of the U-verse 400 package, 6 MB of Internet and U-verse Voice is expiring in mid-June. TimeWarner in my market is offering something similar, but not quite as extensive at $99 per month. Plus TimeWarner will give me a $100 rebate to switch, minus the $40 installation fee, giving me a net rebate of $60 per month.
Having made several calls over the last week, I did manage to negotiate the following:
Everything stays the same, but with the following modifications.
They offered to keep the plan at $99 if I agreed to go to the U-200 plan. That meant losing Showtime, HBO and a few other movie channels. I can do without most of the movie channels, but I really do like HBO.
The friendly customer service person offered me HBO at $14.95 per month. I said no. He countered with $5.00 per month. I said yes.
My landline service still costs $25 per month, and I am still on the fence about it. That’s $300 per year for service I hardly use. I could use that money to buy a Kindle or just save it. I kept the land line, but am inclined to kill it.
For now, I have won a small victory. What was going to go back to costing me $179 per month, will now cost me $104 per month – minus of course a few movie channels I can live with out.
I have a video that I am making the tracks the conversations with AT&T which I will try to post this week.
I still believe that AT&T offers a better and more comprehensive service than TimeWarner does. I just was not prepared to pay a massive premium.
Stay tuned.
Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com
I still have until June 11 to make a decision on what to do about my AT&T U-verse service.
Source: www.voip-news.com
OneAccess will be assisting TeleCable in providing new telecommunications services with VoIP technology for their Asturias business customers. TeleCable will be using a One Access ONE100 router among its new technology.
“TeleCable has a strong track-record as one of Spain’s most innovative telecoms operators. Its selection of our ONE100 multiplatform router demonstrates that the ONE100 is the best solution available in terms of the services it enables and therefore the new revenue streams it provides for the operator. It also cements OneAccess’ position as a leading supplier to the Spanish telecoms market,” said Alan Brazier, CSO of OneAccess.
According to the companies:
The ONE100 equipment allows TeleCable to offer digital telephony services without having to modify its current network, which already has two interfaces for ISDN Basic, or four interfaces for larger businesses.
With this move, TeleCable reaffirms its trajectory as one of the most innovative telecommunications operators and OneAccess strengthens its position as the leading provider within the Spanish market.
Source: www.voip-news.com
Angola and Mozambique represent two emerging communications market where revenues from mobile communications are expected to be considerably higher over the next few years, according to a new report from Frost & Sullivan.
“Mozambique and Angola are both emerging from long civil wars,” said Frost & Sullivan research analyst Silvia Hirano Venter. “Their governments have put together reconstruction plans to rebuild the basic infrastructure from roads and power supply to communications.”
According to Frost & Sullivan:
Many foreign companies have been attracted to these countries due to their available commodities and high GDP growth rates. They are creating a demand for a range of services, with communications being high on the list. As they are not just basing themselves in cities with established fixed-line infrastructure, there is a significant opportunity for mobile technologies.
“Foreign companies are importing staff from countries with developed technology, so they are likely to demand services like VoIP and value added services,” Venter said. “Operators are therefore investing in infrastructure development to support these services.”
Additionally, local populations are increasing in their demands for communication services including basic voice and sms.
“Operators in both countries will have to look at offering services that are in line with the needs of the population,” Venter says. “For instance, services customised to sugar farmers in Mozambique, such as commodity prices on demand, could be quite successful.”
Source: www.voip-news.com
8×8 is the latest of the VoIP companies to announce their call to release the data on their earnings for the quarter that ended on March 31. For 8×8, that means FY09, quarter 4 — so the year end results will be released at the same time.
The conference call will be led byBryan R. Martin, the chairman and CEO and Dan Weirich, the CFO and president. It will begin at 4:30 p.m. EST on May 21.
Here’s the detes:
Date: May 21, 2009
Time: 4:30 p.m. EDT
Dial In: (888) 397-5338, domestic
(719) 457-2630, international
Replay: (888) 203-1112, passcode 4712725, domestic
(719) 457-0820, passcode 4712725, international
Webcast: http://investors.8×8.com/
Source: www.voip-news.com
WatchGuard Technologies has unveiled WatchGuard Fireware XTM, a new operating system for WatchGuard security appliances, which work on a variety of technologies including VoIP.
“WatchGuard’s vision of extensible threat management means giving customers the ability to extend or add on to or augment their security foundation,” said Eric Aarrestad, Vice President, Marketing at WatchGuard Technologies. “With Fireware XTM, businesses gain a new and formidable tool that keeps their networks, resources and sensitive data safe and highly secure.”
According to the company:
The new WatchGuard operating system, Fireware XTM, defends networks by adding innovative security features, including full HTTPS inspection, VoIP security, and IM and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) application blocking. Furthermore, Fireware XTM integrates new networking capabilities, including clustering, load-balancing and other networking features. Additionally, the new operating system also extends management capabilities by adding role-based access control (RBAC), centralized multi-box management and enhanced reporting functions. The combination of this makes Fireware XTM the most powerful operating system developed by WatchGuard needed for today’s ever-growing threats and dynamic business environments.
Source: www.voip-news.com
Group Centurion says that they have cut their monthly telephone bills by 85 percent since deploying VoSKY’s PBX-to-Skype gateway, which lets them make low-cost Internet-based Skype calls. The UK-based company’s phone bill has dropped from 2500 pounds to just 400 pounds.
The gateway they are using is VoSKY Exchange Pro VIT1/E1 Centurion.
“It was good to bring in a new system that integrated VOIP as it’s been great for business. VoSKY’s Exchange Pro VIT1/E1 has saved us a huge percentage of our monthly phone bill, enabling us to redirect resources into other areas of the company, and with savings like these we expect the whole VoSKY project to pay for itself in less than 6 months,” said Andrew Broster, head of IT for Group Centurion. “We bought the equipment through our existing Avaya Business Partner and VoSKY reseller AbbiTek who has provided us with a strong level of support during the installation, but as the gateway is literally plug and play it was easily integrated with our existing infrastructure – deployment really couldn’t have been simpler.”
Centurion said that the new gateway was easy to install.
Source: www.voip-news.com
Verizon Business has unveiled enhancements to their Hosted IP Centrex, the cloud VoIP service. The enhancements allow businesses to create effective telephony solutions by leveraging their IP networks and applications.
“Whether companies want to reduce real estate costs, improve productivity, increase customer and employee satisfaction or reduce carbon emissions, the tools exist today for businesses to do the job right,” said Blair Crump, group president of worldwide sales for Verizon Business. “By thinking outside of the box – or in this case, the physical office — companies can transform their operations to establish a more global presence, or a more local presence, as their business requires, while controlling costs.”
According to Verizon:
The new enhancements are:
– Expansion of the company’s Burstable Enterprise Shared Trunks (BEST)
capability to Hosted IP Centrex. BEST enables cost savings by
allowing customers to use idle VoIP capacity in one location to
accommodate an increase in traffic from another location.– The addition of features that enable Hosted IP Centrex customers to
make the virtual office a reality for remote workers, and allow
businesses to more efficiently establish a local presence. These
features include the ability to have calls made from a softphone — a
software program using a computer, headset and a broadband Internet
connection — appear to originate from the user’s business line;
easily register a physical location for E-911 purposes; and to
provision local business numbers for teleworkers that are in business
markets strategic to an enterprise.
Source: www.voip-news.com
Some industries are making it despite the recession. Really, even in hard times, there are always winners. IBISWorld today published a list of the top 10 industries expected in 2009.
Check out what tops the list:
INDUSTRY REVENUE GROWTH 2009
1. Voice Over Internet Protocol Providers(VoIP) 20.1 percent
2. ecommerce & Online Auctions 12.6 percent
3. Biotechnology 10.3 percent
4. Engine, Turbine & Power Transmission
Equipment Manufacturing 10.0 percent
5. Scheduled Bus Service 9.2 percent
6. Court Reporting Services 7.7 percent
7. Community Housing Services 7.5 percent
8. Search Engines 6.5 percent
9. Family Counseling 6.1 percent
10. Video Games 5.8 percent*Full research reports for these industries are available upon request
“Emerging industries remain well represented and continue to benefit from technological innovation and cost advantages,” explained George Van Horn, senior analyst with IBISWorld. “Unfortunately, the impact of the recession is equally pronounced among sectors directly benefitting from the social and financial stress associated with the downturn.”
