Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

The SPA962 VoIP telephone will appeal to businesses using a hosted IP telephony service, an IP PBX, or a large scale IP Centrex deployment, with it’s array of features.

Here are some features that stand out;

• Full featured six line business class IP Phone supporting Power over Ethernet 802.3af
• Connect directly to an Internet Telephone Service Provider or connect to an IP PBX
• Dual switched Ethernet ports, Speakerphone, Caller ID, Call Hold, Conferencing, and more
• Appealing Four Inch, True Color Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)

I like the fact that it has a color Screen!Standard features on the SPA962 include six active lines, dual switched Ethernet ports, 802.3af PoE support, a high resolution color display, speakerphone, and a 2.5 mm head-set port. Each line can be independently configured to use a unique phone number (or extension), or can be configured to use a shared number that is assigned to multiple phones. The power supply for the SPA962 is sold separately and will be required if PoE functionality is not implemented.

Comprehensive Interoperability and SIP Based Feature Set
Based on the SIP standard, the SPA962 has been tested to ensure comprehensive interoperability with equipment from VoIP infrastructure leaders enabling service providers to quickly roll-out competitive, feature rich services to their customers. With hundreds of features and configurable service parameters, the SPA962 addresses the requirements of traditional business users while leveraging the advantages of IP telephony. Features such as easy station moves, presence, and shared line appearances (across local and geographically dispersed locations) are just some of the many advantages of the SPA962.

Carrier-Grade Security, Provisioning, and Management
The SPA962 uses standard encryption protocols to provide secure remote provisioning and unobtrusive in-service software upgrades. Linksys secure remote provisioning tools include detailed performance measurement and troubleshooting features, enabling network providers to deliver high quality support to their subscribers. Remote provisioning also saves service providers the hassle and expense of managing, pre-loading, and re-configuring customer premise equipment
linksys

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

At First I thought it was Oma, meaning Grand Mother in Dutch! But it sounds the same if I am pronouncing it right.
So the Silicon Valley start up is coming out with VoIP service that offers a fancy gateway that is called a HUB and an extension called Ooma Scout. My Grand ma was a Girl Scout!
Anyway the Ooma has a unique approach. You pay in the form of purchasing the devices the HUB and the SCOUT and you get all local calls free. will also offer a free second line, conference calling, voice mail service and an online "lounge" where users may change their preferences or get voice mail in an e-mail format. More I investigate, hub is a Voip(broadband)/PSTN gateway with voice mail and some more bells and whistles added.
The Hub is said to be $399.00 and the company will start selling the devices Thursday with an invitation-only offer to select U.S. residents. I think it has to be by invitation because, a few will part with $400 after SunRocket took off with all those prepaid $199 a year accounts! and without recourse. It is not clear about the hub and the codecs and protocols it uses. Are the proprietary? Or are they compatible with any VoIP server like SER or Asterisk? If the answer is no to the latter, my $400 will stay in my pocket. I have too many VoIP gateways that I don’t use.(Can’t use!).

"It’s nothing like anything a carrier can do currently," CEO Andrew Frame said. "Once you own the box, you don’t have to pay ooma anything in the future." unless you make long distance calls.

Frame also says you have to pay again to Ooma, if you want to make long distance calls. the way they plan to make money. So far I know they offer 1 Cent per minute to Europe (Not clear if cellular calls included) and 8 cents to India. Not much different from other carriers.

So far I know very little about the technology and the methodology. But from guessing from the tid bits from various sources, one can achieve the same with Skype and some of the gateways listed at voip-info.org, consumer and enterprise versions are offered, they are much cheaper and could be used with any VoIP provider. Then there are a bunch of Skype Phones from the likes of Linksys and polycomm that cost less than $100 and plugs in to any broadband service!

The difference seem to be that Ooma will use your gateway (Hub) to terminate local calls to numbers that are not on Ooma network! We use to have such network in early 2000s when every one did not have broadband connections and wanted to make cheap VoIP calls. So we used to volunteer our phone line for greater good, until we found that software always did not find the correct termination number and called numbers beyond your free local call Zone, as pacbell used to call them! May be they have improved the technology! and a patent for improved technology?
Ooma seem to have patent-pending call-routing algorithm called "distributed termination," similar to peer-to-peer and distributed computing ideas. I would like to know how much is this different from that of Skype’s solution, which is also a distributed P2P other than hub having PSTN call capabilities.

Don’t take my word for it, follow this link to learn more about Ooma, (I could not, there is no much information) I would not call my users white rabbits, then again you can give a call to your Oma, Grandma, that you have been putting off, using any phone at hand!
I learned about it here.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

At First I thought it was Oma, meaning Grand Mother in Dutch! But it sounds the same if I am pronouncing it right.
So the Silicon Valley start up is coming out with VoIP service that offers a fancy gateway that is called a HUB and an extension called Ooma Scout. My Grand ma was a Girl Scout!
Anyway the Ooma has a unique approach. You pay in the form of purchasing the devices the HUB and the SCOUT and you get all local calls free. will also offer a free second line, conference calling, voice mail service and an online "lounge" where users may change their preferences or get voice mail in an e-mail format. More I investigate, hub is a Voip(broadband)/PSTN gateway with voice mail and some more bells and whistles added.
The Hub is said to be $399.00 and the company will start selling the devices Thursday with an invitation-only offer to select U.S. residents. I think it has to be by invitation because, a few will part with $400 after SunRocket took off with all those prepaid $199 a year accounts! and without recourse. It is not clear about the hub and the codecs and protocols it uses. Are the proprietary? Or are they compatible with any VoIP server like SER or Asterisk? If the answer is no to the latter, my $400 will stay in my pocket. I have too many VoIP gateways that I don’t use.(Can’t use!).

"It’s nothing like anything a carrier can do currently," CEO Andrew Frame said. "Once you own the box, you don’t have to pay ooma anything in the future." unless you make long distance calls.

Frame also says you have to pay again to Ooma, if you want to make long distance calls. the way they plan to make money. So far I know they offer 1 Cent per minute to Europe (Not clear if cellular calls included) and 8 cents to India. Not much different from other carriers.

So far I know very little about the technology and the methodology. But from guessing from the tid bits from various sources, one can achieve the same with Skype and some of the gateways listed at voip-info.org, consumer and enterprise versions are offered, they are much cheaper and could be used with any VoIP provider. Then there are a bunch of Skype Phones from the likes of Linksys and polycomm that cost less than $100 and plugs in to any broadband service!

The difference seem to be that Ooma will use your gateway (Hub) to terminate local calls to numbers that are not on Ooma network! We use to have such network in early 2000s when every one did not have broadband connections and wanted to make cheap VoIP calls. So we used to volunteer our phone line for greater good, until we found that software always did not find the correct termination number and called numbers beyond your free local call Zone, as pacbell used to call them! May be they have improved the technology! and a patent for improved technology?
Ooma seem to have patent-pending call-routing algorithm called "distributed termination," similar to peer-to-peer and distributed computing ideas. I would like to know how much is this different from that of Skype’s solution, which is also a distributed P2P other than hub having PSTN call capabilities.

Don’t take my word for it, follow this link to learn more about Ooma, (I could not, there is no much information) I would not call my users white rabbits, then again you can give a call to your Oma, Grandma, that you have been putting off, using any phone at hand!
I learned about it here.

Source: voipcentral.org

Do not forget that Cisco was the owner of the trademark iPhone. Ciscos subsidiary Linksys has been using the trademark to develop IP phones for Skype users. Taking a little break from further reading Apple iPhone, I am back to cover Linksys iPhone.

Linksys has launched its latest iPhone, CIT400 for the Skype users. In fact, the phone comes with the companys iPhone Dual-Mode Internet Telephony Kit and a base-station package enabling users to make calls to Skype users over the Internet without PCs.

Features:

1.Colour LCD screen with status indicators

2.Hands-free calling facility

3.Supports both SkypeIn and SkypeOut calls

4.Voice mail service

5.SkypeOut credits

6.Supports four handsets with the one base station

7.10 hours of talk time and 120 hours Standby time

Status: Now available for $239.95

Report with Image:

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Michal Lev-Ram, Business 2.0 Magazine writer has gone picking iPhone alternatives.

I am glad I did pick some of them sometime ago;
HTC Touch, iPrada, and also those Linksys iPhones!
Of all those choice, I think I will go with Nokia N95, if not for it’s price.

Anyway Michal takes us through his 10 picks;
Prada by LG, (I call this iPRADA)
Nokia N95, (I like this Phone, better camera, GPS, wireless VoIP!)
Moto Razr2,
Helio Ocean,
Samsung t409, (VoIP again!)
Sony Ericsson W580,
Cisco iPhone, (This is the same stuff from Linksys above)
HTC Touch,
Samsung Wafer,
LG Muziq,
So follow the link to get more info and pricing on these phones;

10 picks for the iPhone-phobic

Source: voipcentral.org

Australia-based MyNetFone, a leading broadband service provider has reached out an agreement with Linksys, under which the Cisco subsidiary Linksys will provide its VoIP equipment to MyNetFone.

The deal with Linksys will enable MyNetFone to create a strong a base in the SOHO (Small Office and Home Office) and SME VoIP markets. The company expects its customers base will hit 10,000 in the next few months by selling equipment worth of $250,000 and $1 million per year in additional revenue.

Announcing the deal, the company explains,

The equipment the two partners have in mind provides two lines of VoIP telephone and fax service. The MNFSPA2100 equipment has not just been configured, but it also has been customized particularly for the MyNetFone services. The implication of this is that reliability is high and there would be encryption based security.

MyNetFone ensures customers to make and receive phone calls over any type of broadband Internet connection. The calls between MyNetFone customers are free. However, the company charges very low rates for the calls to the public fixed and mobile networks.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

VoIP IP Telephony @ http://snapvoip.blogspot.com
It is coming in to light that big name companies are using more and more Open Source products. It is no difference when it comes to VoIP. I remember a bunch of companies that used OpenH323 before SIP came to be the leading protocol.
It is revealed that Cisco is using OpenSER as SIP proxy for Service node in Linksys one communication platform.
OpenSER is not the only Open Source Package in the Service Node;
The Cisco Service Node servers run a collection of open-source and Linksys One software:

• FreeBSD-This is the open-source operating system that runs on all Cisco Service Node servers. FreeBSD provides a mechanism that allows multiple virtual instances of the OS to be spawned and run on the same server, with each virtual OS completely isolated from all other instances. This is the partitioning mechanism used to implement the brand-level services.

• PostgreSQL-This open-source package is used to provide database services on the Cisco Service Node.

• OpenSER-This open-source package is used as the Cisco Service Node SIP proxy.

• BIND-This open-source package is used for Domain Name System {DNS) services. The Cisco Service Node runs its own DNS servers. DNS is used for several functions on the Cisco Service Node, including ENUM-based call routing of SIP calls and branding (each brand is known to the outside world as a separate DNS domain name).

• BIND DLZ-This open-source package allows BIND to use the PostgreSQL database to store its zone information. Dynamically loadable zones (DLZ) allows DNS updates to be reflected immediately when a change is made to zone data in the database. This feature is important because CPE that uses Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) can change its IP address at any time. When this happens, DNS must be updated immediately for the ENUM-based call routing to be able to successfully route calls to the CPE.

• NET-SNMP-This open-source SNMP package runs as an agent on the servers and implements several MIBs.
Thank you Cisco for letting us know so openly and congrats to OpenSER people for providing such quality product.

Links;
The OpenSER mail archive entry and discussion

OpenSER gets CISCOs vote of confidence
Cisco Service Node for Linksys One SN-10 and SN-100 Data Sheet

Source: voipcentral.org

Going by media reports for the last few days, I presumed Apple would launch its iPhone on Monday. However, it proved wrong. Linksys, a division of Cisco Systems has announced the launch of its two latest iPhones, model CIT400 and WIP320 for VoIP market.

These two models are compatible with Skype. The model CIT400 is a Dual-Mode Internet Telephony Kit that has a cordless phone base station. It plugs straightly into your network through Ethernet. The iPhone contains Skype software to enable the user to make VoIP calls without seating before a computer.

The WIP320 is a WiFi phone. The customers can make calls while they are outside home. The phone requires WiFi hotspot to initiate VoIP calls. It is bit expensive than the model 400 since it provides the customers to take their Skype account anywhere they like. The price of WIP320 is nearly $199.99 and the price of CIT400 is about $179.99.

Mike Pocock, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Linksys says,

As the next generation of handheld devices, Linksys iPhone voice solutions and products are changing the way people communicate with their friends, family and colleagues. They enable compelling internet services, allow consumers to know when their contacts are available for calls, and offer access to personal content like music, movies and live video cameras.

Ciscos subsidiary Linksys has marketed more than three million VoIP products worldwide since the summer of 2004. It has produced seven phones in its iPhone product line during this period.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Remember the post I made on WIP300, VOIP IP Telephony: WIP300 Wireless-G IP Phone by Linksys Reviewed
Yes that plus a few other models have emerged as iPhone. But not as we expected, as you know WIP300 was by Linksys, a subsidiary of Cisco. Yes iPhone comes to you from Linksys/Cisco not from Apple. May be Apple was too late in registering the trade mark!
But Coolest-Gadgets has more information on the iPhone trademark! He also has an article on iPhone from a different angle. Follow the link below to catch the article. The article on CG states "For almost a year now people have been speculating about the possibility of Apple releasing a communication product called the iPhone. But apparently Linksys, a unit of networking equipment maker Cisco, already owns the “iPhone” trademark. According to BusinessWeek.com, a company called Infogear registered the “iPhone” name in 1996. Cisco then absorbed the “iPhone” trademark when it acquired Infogear in the year 2000. Oops. Score -1 for the bloggers. We really should have picked up on that little tidbit months ago."
Indeed need to do better reserch
The phones themselves looks very similar to WIP300 and only two phones are new in the release. The others were in the market for a while. This is since 2004 and all the products has been wrapped under iPhone product line.

• iPhone Cordless Internet Telephony Kit – CIT200
• iPhone Dual-Mode Internet Telephony Kit – CIT300
• iPhone Dual-Mode Cordless Phone for Yahoo! Messenger with Voice – CIT310
• New! – iPhone Dual-Mode Internet Telephony Kit for Skype – CIT400
• iPhone Wireless-G IP Phone – WIP300
• iPhone Wireless-G IP Phone with Web Browser – WIP330
• New! – iPhone Wireless-G Phone for Skype – WIP320

iPhone Family Pricing and Global Availability:

• iPhone Cordless Internet Telephony Kit – CIT200 – Available globally through e-commerce retailers, retail stores, and VAR partners. Estimated Street Price: $79.99.

• iPhone Dual-Mode Internet Telephony Kit – CIT300 – Available globally through e-commerce retailers, and VAR partners. Estimated Street Price: $99.99

• iPhone Dual-Mode Cordless Phone for Yahoo! Messenger with Voice – CIT310 – Available in the U.S. through e-commerce retailers, and VAR partners. Estimated Street Price: $99.99

• New!! iPhone Dual-Mode Internet Telephony Kit for Skype – CIT400 – Available immediately in the U.S. through e-commerce retailers, and VAR partners. Global availability through e-commerce retailers, and VAR partners is expected for Q1 2007. Estimated Street Price: $179.99

• iPhone Wireless-G IP Phone – WIP300 – Immediately available in North America, Europe and Asia through distribution and authorized VAR partners. Estimated Street Price: $219.99

• New!! iPhone Wireless-G Phone for Skype – WIP320 – Immediately available in North America through distribution, online retailers and VAR partners. Europe, Asia and LATAM availability is planned for Q1 2007. Estimated Street Price: $199.99.

• iPhone Wireless-G IP Phone – WIP330 – Immediately available in North America, Europe and Asia through distribution and authorized VAR partners. Estimated Street Price: $369.99

Links;
Linksys iPhone
Coolest Gadgets article on iPhone

Source: voipcentral.org

In any form of communication, data transfer rate assumes greater significance. Keeping it in mind, Linksys, a division of Cisco Systems has introduced its latest wireless network adopter, Linksys Wireless-N USB Network Adapter that supports multimedia applications such as video, gaming and VoIP calls.

With Linksys Wireless-N USB Network Adapter, the customers can get high-speed wireless network access at larger distances for their desktop and notebook computers.

The latest adapter is 12 times faster than the Wireless-G and can connect to Wireless-G and B networks. It provides better bandwidth to run multiple media-intense data streams through the network at the same time.

In brief, the Linksys Wireless-N USB Network Adapter has following important features:

1.Ensures High-speed Wireless-N networking for desktop and notebook computer

2.12 times faster than Wireless-G

3.Connects Wireless-G and B networks

4.256-bit encryption for wireless transmissions protection

5.MIMO Technology for strong signal that travels up to four times faster and reduces dead spots

Read

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

If you were misinformed that Skype is the only free/non free service in the VOIP IP Telephony arena, yes, you were mis informed. Yahoo messenger also allows you to talk to your brother in up stairs room and your uncle somewhere in New York. Also you can call land lines if you have subscribed to Yahoo Phone out.
So what does Company like Yahoo do with a service like that, it joined with Linksys to make your life easier. Since most VOIP users still rely on POTS (Plain Old Telephone) line to call when VOIP is not satisfying, Yahoo and Linksys have teamed up to create a dual-mode cordless phone that gives user the ability to toggle between VoIP functionality and a traditional land line.
Dubbed the CIT310, the phone has a small color display and users will receive 100 free minutes yahoo phone out when they sign up for the service.
Today it was around $79.00 at amazon.
You can get more info about Yahoo phone, Yahoo Phone out etc at Yahoo voice site. If you do not have a Yahoo account you can get one there too. But who did not have a Yahoo messenger account!

Source: voipcentral.org

Cisco-owned Linksys, a VoIP equipment manufacturer has joined with Yahoo! to develop a new dual-mode cordless handheld device called Linksys Dual-Mode Cordless Phone for Yahoo! Messenger with Voice (CIT310).

Reviewing the latest model, Tom Keating writes that the CIT310 is somewhat similar to that of Linksys CIT200 Skype Phone. The handheld device provides the user low-cost PSTN Outbound calling using VoIP and Free voice calling to their Yahoo Messenger friends.

Yahoos Senior Director of Real Time Communications, Jeff Bonforte explains Yahoo! Messenger and Linksys are offering consumers the flexibility to make and receive free internet calls from the same phone they use for their home line.

The CIT300 also equips Yahoo! Local Search service to enable the users to find out local restaurants and business and quickly make a call with one touch.

The features of the CIT310 are color display cordless DECT handset, USB base station, Headset jack for connecting a headset, Multi-language support, Caller ID for both VoIP and PSTN calls, Weather search and Polyphonic ring tones, and Melodies.