As a move to consolidate on their growth plans, Nimbuzz announced that they have been able to raise $15 million of Second Round funding. Nimbuzz is a mobile VoIP and IM provider that also brings IM and voice to social networks, the company intends to use the new cash injection to assist in the development of its product range, to enable the software to be used on the widest selection handsets possible.

 Currently, they support use on 22 brands and over 500 different models which are compatible with many Internet-enabled mobile phones with Java ME; this includes the ubiquitous BlackBerry as well as the Nokia S60 enabling integration across multiple IM and Social Network communities and in anywhere.

Nimbuzz can offer both voice and IM to social network operators; this is achieved by the incorporation of fully integrated real-time communication into the networks. They can give users access to voice calls, chat, file sharing and access to their friends in other popular IM communities such as Skype, AIM , Yahoo, MSN and GTalk.

The company has been very active in seeking out distribution deals with the main social networks as well as the big mobile operators.

Their intended aim is to blend their technologies with the existing mobile internet systems.

They consider that the advantage for the operators that they partner with will be increased traffic, as they believe that Nimbuzz can bring a raised demand for mobile data plans, an up and coming revenue maker for the companies.

Nimbuzz claims to have 10 deals with major social networks as well as 3 operators ‘already on the table’, although the information available does not qualify what the actual situation is with those deals. The company further claims to be ‘on the way’ to signing up one million users and states that they are receiving 5000 new sign ups each day.

It must be assumed that the new cash means that their backers are of the opinion that the company is worthy of the new funds injection and that there is a good degree of interest in their products.

Results of research by analysts at IDC are indicating that VoIP will evolve to around half a billion users globally over the next four years.

Last year Nimbuzz raised an initial $10 million from Naspers / MIH Group and Holtzbrinck Ventures, which amongst other things allowed them to take on 70 staff members in their Brazilian and Argentinean offices.

Nimbuzz mobile VoIP can be used worldwide with all Symbian Series 60 devices that are hooked up to a 3G or Wifi network.

Users that only have a GPRS/ EDGE link or have the use of Java-enabled phones are able to make international mobile VoIP calls in around 50 countries with Nimbuzz "hybrid-VoIP" at local call rates.

Sky-View has called on Alianza to help deploying WiMAX and DOCSIS-based voice solutions to both residential and small business customers in southern Utah. Sure of what it has to offer , Alianza said that its VoIP Service unifies all VoIP components into a single interface, providing seamless back-office functionality, increasing adoption rates and margins for its partners by quickly adding a fully integrated, white-label voice offering to their broadband services, with no capital expenditures.

President  of Sky-View Technologies, Mical Terry stated that "We were looking for a partner that could help us bring greater value to our current customer base as well as attract new customers by being able to offer a more versatile voice offering along with our other services. We wanted to launch the product quickly, in addition they have indicated the commitment to provide excellent marketing support and have ongoing training to ensure we are using best-practices of the voice industry".

While responding to this, Brian Beutler, CEO Alianza said "We are honored to be chosen by Sky-View as their WiMAX VoIP solution for adding voice applications to their current offering. The advantages of our hosted solution complement their nimble approach to market innovation and competitiveness".

Alianza is a provider of hosted, fully integrated IP-based VoIP platform for delivered via SaaS for Broadband Service Providers while Sky-View Technologies is a Broadband Internet Service Provider in St. George, Utah.

As a strategy to offer their users more quality services and attract more customers in the process, Sigma Systems and Columbus Communications have collaborated to extend the deployment of high-speed data services and applications, including VoIP, across Sigma current network, Jamaica, Trinidad and Grenada inclusive.

Being consistent in its services, Sigma continues to offer a high level of support, and meets the requirements of its customers, especially the likes of Columbus Communications, who require consistent improvements and revisions to ensure they maintain a happy customer base.

Columbus Communications uses the IP fulfillment of high-speed data and VoIP services from Sigma Systems, which they believe fulfills their needs, utilizing features such as a order entry for voice services.

Sigma works alongside Columbus Communications by managing operations in Jamaica, Trinidad and Grenada, from a central OSS Platform, allowing soft switch and voicemail platform integration to their BSS system.

The effective function of Sigma Systems accommodates Columbus Communications needs, and will allow them to increase deployment and adapt current strategies as well as acquiring the ability to introduce new services and packages.

The rate at which Skype is growing left many IT managers in some very decisive situations, they no longer have to sit on the fence; those that want to continue using it should bring it in-house to fully manage and control the application and those that don’t need to figure out how to block its use outright.

It is crystal clear many advantages Skype has to offer them among which is the provision of cheap long-distance calling, particularly for those who frequently travel abroad. Skype also enables quick collaboration via conferencing for small groups. Best of all, it’s easy to use and has a broad user base.

Little wonder Michael Jackson, Skype’s vice president of mobile and telecom services, announced at the European IT Forum Sept. 25-26, that Skype has 113 million registered users, 30 percent of which use Skype for business.

By its nature, Skype wants to be on the network and wants to work under any network conditions. The Skype protocol is so well-engineered that it can’t be denied access by simply blocking users’ access to foreign IP address blocks or to network protocols. Skype also will readily leak out of the network, using high-numbered ports—either TCP or UDP (User Datagram Protocol). As a last resort, it will use ports 80 and 443, which are most commonly used for Web traffic.

Another interesting point is that a firewall that blocks inbound traffic or uses NAT (Network Address Translation) also won’t stop Skype. When a Skype client starts, it opens a session with a supernode in the Skype network. If the client cannot be contacted from the Internet, the supernode will notify the client when a call comes in—via the open connection. If the recipient cannot directly contact the sender, the supernode or a relay agent can then act as a proxy between the two callers.

These supernode proxies can be located anywhere on the Internet. In Section 4 of Skype’s EULA (end-user license agreement), its revealed that Skype can use any user’s computer processor and network resources to help facilitate performance. With enough processing power and network bandwidth at its disposal, any Skype client could be a supernode or a relay agent.

Almost all Skype communications are strongly encrypted with AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), and some setup traffic is obfuscated with RC4 encryption, so the proxies cannot decipher any third-party traffic that crosses through. But this encryption also means that network administrators have no insight into what data is contained within the encrypted stream.

Check out the all new Skype 4.0