Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

LEXINGTON, Ky.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–SinglePipe Communications, Inc. (SinglePipe), a facilities-based wholesale communications provider, announced today that it has received an additional $2.5 million in equity funding. The financing was led by Louisville, Kentucky-based Chrysalis Ventures, a leading source of equity capital for growth companies in the Midwest and South. London, Kentucky-based Meritus Ventures, L.P., a Rural Business Investment Company (RBIC) which invests in expansion-stage companies in central and southern Appalachia, also participated as a co-investor.

SinglePipe provides residential and business VoIP services through wholesale and agent channels to clients across the United States with points of presence throughout the Southeast. The company delivers private-branded turnkey wholesale VoIP solutions to a large provider universe that includes Cable Operators, Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLEC’s), Internet Service Providers (ISP’s), Wireless ISP’s, VoIP Providers, and Value Added Resellers (VAR’s). SinglePipe offers turnkey solutions for residential VoIP, Hosted PBX, and SIP Trunking/Line Replacement over its own highly reliable network and in conjunction with partners nationwide. Its services include origination/termination, turnkey VoIP with industry-leading support, training and marketing resources.

In January 2007, the company raised a $4.0 million Series A equity investment, also led by Chrysalis Ventures, to fund its acquisition of ALEC, a Lexington, Kentucky-based CLEC and provide working capital necessary to aggressively market the company’s products. As a result of this existing private network, the company is now able to provide wholesale local telephone service at a lower cost compared to traditional voice options, as well as to offer the rapid and cost-effective introduction of new features and services at no additional cost.

According to Matthew J. Phillips, SinglePipe CEO, “We are delighted to partner with Chrysalis Ventures and Meritus Ventures for this additional round of equity financing which will help us continue to grow our business. In addition to capital, both investors provide strong leadership and expertise to support our aggressive entry into the rapidly expanding VoIP market.”

“SinglePipe is off to a great start and we are pleased to participate in this follow-on round of growth capital,” said Wright Steenrod, principal of Chrysalis Ventures and member of the SinglePipe board of directors. “Meritus Ventures is an experienced partner and we are excited they have chosen to invest in the SingePipe team.”

“We are very pleased to be co-investing with Chrysalis Ventures in SinglePipe Communications in this follow-on round of growth capital,” said L. Ray Moncrief, Meritus Ventures Fund Manager. “This investment highlights the fact that high-tech businesses flourish in rural areas and that rural businesses can attract high-quality management teams.”

For more information, www.singlepipecom.com.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Sipera, the VoIP security firm that I saw first at BlackHat 2007 has warned VoIP firms before disclosing the vulnerabilities. There are multiple vulnerabilities, advisories and they are listed here.

The tests focused specifically of residential and SMB VoIP service and equipment. I was surprised to find strong authentication, signaling security, and media encryption were lacking, looks like everybody is following Microsoft. Get it Out there first and then we fix it as troubles jump up.

So what does these vulnerabilities do to users? spoofing, eavesdropping, and remote exploits are some of the possibilities.

I will write later today about what you should be looking in VoIP Security.

Following is the news release by Sipera;

Richardson, TX, October 23, 2007 – Sipera VIPER™ Lab, operated by Sipera Systems, the leader in comprehensive VoIP/UC security solutions, today disclosed multiple threat advisories for users of VoIP services and equipment from Vonage, Globe7 and Grandstream. Among other threats, unwitting VoIP users face eavesdropping, spam, spoofing and denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. Full details on these vulnerabilities are posted as an educational security service to Sipera’s customers and the general public at http://www.sipera.com/viper.

Sipera VIPER Lab determined the Vonage VoIP Motorola Phone Adapter (VT 2142-VD) and Vonage service implementations leave users vulnerable to a form of VoIP identity theft, allowing hackers to take over a user’s phone service with a “registration replay attack,” then make and receive calls while impersonating the victim. Incomplete security practices, such as not encrypting traffic, open Vonage users to eavesdropping on private voice and video communications. Hackers can also send multiple SIP INVITE messages to a user, an Internet version of “ringing the phone off the hook” which creates a DoS attack. Leveraging these vulnerabilities, remote attackers can also send malicious messages directly to Vonage users, subjecting them to spam, social engineering and VoIP scams.

“These vulnerabilities create serious privacy and service availability issues for users,” said Krishna Kurapati, Sipera founder/CTO and head of Sipera VIPER Lab. “Vonage, Globe7 and Grandstream customers can no longer assume that their VoIP providers are automatically securing their services, but they should demand best security practices be followed as a condition of becoming a customer. Sipera VIPER Lab will continue to proactively identify VoIP threats and assist VoIP providers to implement best security practices before attacks occur.”

Sipera VIPER Lab also found issues with European provider Globe7’s online account access, as a result of utilizing unsecured connections and employing a weak encryption scheme. This allows hackers to access confidential name, password and account balance data, as well as steal VoIP service to make and receive calls, masked as a legitimate Globe7 user. Likewise, Sipera VIPER Lab established the Grandstream HandyTone-488 PSTN-to-VoIP adapter is vulnerable to buffer overflows and fragmented packet attacks. By sending a specially crafted SIP INVITE message to public IP addresses, attackers can disconnect legitimate Grandstream users.

Sipera VIPER Lab is comprised of experienced VoIP security researchers operating globally 24/7/365. Since its inception in 2003, Sipera VIPER Lab has identified thousands of vulnerabilities and security threats which include fuzzing, floods and distributed floods, spoofing, stealth attacks and spam. VIPER Lab research is used to continuously improve the Sipera IPCS products that protect, control and enable real-time unified communications for enterprises and service providers. Sipera VIPER Lab also recently launched a blog to discuss ongoing VoIP attacks and VoIP/UC vulnerabilities at http://www.sipera.com/viper/blog.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

TORONTO, ON/SEOUL, KOREA – October 17, 2007 – Sigma Systems (www.sigma-systems.com), a premier provider and leader in the design, development and deployment of OSS service management solutionsand Xener Systems, Inc., (www.xener.com), a key provider of Next Generation Networks, of Seoul, Korea, have signed a strategic alliance to accelerate and collaborate on voice over IP (VoIP) solutions in Korea and Asia Pacific.

“Softswitch vendors now recognize the value of an integrated service management platform to enable operators to deliver an end-to-end solution as an integral part of a complete service delivery model,”says Sigma Systems president and COO Tim Spencer. “As such, we have forged a strategic alliance to embark on a joint marketing and sales strategy that will provide a holistic solution for Xener’s current and prospective customers in Korea and APAC.”

“With this agreement, we gain momentum to expand into new markets by taking Sigma Systems’ residential and commercial VoIP expertise and offering a value-added solution that addresses the voice needs of cable and telecommunications companies,” adds Xener Systems CEO Yong-Gu Kang. “Through our mutually beneficial business collaboration, we will leverage our own next generation network capabilities and add Sigma’s service management solutions to expand our voice services business. We will position Sigma as a valued partner as operators expand or transition services for competitive or operations scalability opportunities.”

The Sigma VoIP Service Packages provide a robust OSS service management solution that is pre-integrated to define, provision and maintain residential VoIP and hosted commercial VoIP services on IP networks. The service package encapsulates the voice services domain expertise and best practices that Sigma has gained from working closely with some of the world’s largest communication service providers since 1996. The solution is applicable to any cable, telco or broadband IP service provider looking to offer residential and/or business voice services.

“Our solution will allow quick optimization and automation of operational processes for voice services for many of Xener’s customers,” adds Spencer. “It can rapidly create new bundles of residential and commercial services, including hosted voice service for small to medium businesses (SMBs), voice mail, unified messaging, SIP residential telephony features and Centrex and IP-Centrex call features for SMBs.”

“As the VoIP service market is quickly growing in Korea and Asia Pacific, Xener has focused its efforts in enhancing responsiveness to the customers’ needs on the diverse and differentiated subscriber services by expanding its partnerships with the industry’s best-of-breed solution providers like Sigma Systems,” adds Yong-Gu Kang. Xener has maintained its leading position in NGN and VoIP solution market, deploying the core networks for most of VoIP service providers in the Korean VoIP market such as KT, Hanaro Telecom and Korea Cable Telecom (KCT), and recently extended its coverage into the enterprise IP telephony solution market with its own IP PBX and IP-Centrex solution.

Source: voipcentral.org

In the wake of tough competition from Cable players, registering VoIP customers is an uphill task for the companies who primarily focus on VoIP services. However, US-based SunRocket has achieved a major feat today when it registered its 200,000th residential VoIP subscriber.

Lisa Hook, CEO of SunRocket says,

Building a 200,000 subscriber base from scratch in a relatively short period of time demonstrates how rapidly consumers are embracing the value, simplicity and enhanced feature set of SunRocket Internet phone service.

She continued,

And while category growth has been impressive - approximately 10 million U.S. consumers subscribe to VoIP - we have barely scraped the surface in a market with more than 50 million broadband households ready, willing and able to make the switch to SunRocket..

The company has announced that it will continue to emphasis on home-centric offerings than its competition in the coming days. SimRing is the centerpiece of SunRockets home-centric services.

It is a ringing feature that enables customers to set up three different phone numbers simultaneously to reach you on a single number.

Source: voipcentral.org

I have gone through the ABI Research Report on the state of Residential VoIP in the next five years. I am not at all surprised to find out a whopping number of residential customers have lined up to adopt VoIP by 2012.

According to ABI, the global residential customers would reach 267 million in 2012, an increase of 229 million from last year.

The strong growth can be attributed entry of Cable service providers into the VoIP arena. For instance, Comcast, the US-based cable service provider has registered more than 419,000 new voice customers during fourth quarter of 2006 ending the year with 1.9 million voice customers.

The competition between cable players and telecom service providers would push forward residential VoIP in the next five years.

Interestingly, ABI has different projection for Japan. It says,

Meanwhile in Japan, the drive is not coming from the telecoms operators or even from the cable operators, but from the third-party broadband players such as SoftBank.

Source: voipcentral.org

According to ZDNet Research, the residential VoIP market is soaring. It is on its way to become a $4.1billion business in 2010. The growth in this segment would attract companies to manufacture VoIP products for the household consumers.

The ZDNet Research says residential VoIP product revenues would grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 31.1 percent to touch $4.1 billion even more from $1.1 billion in 2005.

There is also a surge in the residential VoIP subscribers. As per the report, the subscriber for Residential VoIP is poised to cross 151.2 million mark by 2010 from 15.8million in 2005.

While, the worldwide VoIP equipment revenue will rise to $11.9 billion in 2010 at a CAGR of 24.7 percent up from $3.95 billion in 2005.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

ZDNet Research reports that the residential market will reach 11.9 Billion by 2010. This figure is supplemented by the number of residential VoIP subscribers worldwide is expected to increase to 151.2 mln by 2010, rising at a CAGR, Compound Annual Growth Rate of 57.1% from 15.8 mln in 2005.
These are healthy figures for the VOIP providers as well as VOIP equipment makers. I think that these figure will also reflect healthy benefits to the VOIP users, be it corporate or Residential.
According to the article, "The residential segment is the second-largest market for VoIP gear. Equipment in this segment includes residential gateways and IP phones. Equipment makers are vying for a piece of the residential VoIP market, hoping to capture a slice of this growth. Telecom service providers also are aggressively targeting this segment in an attempt to maintain their share of the $430 bln annual voice market and to offer so-called triple-play services, i.e. suites of multimedia offerings consisting of video, audio communications and broadband Internet access."

Links;
ZDNet Research article

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

ZDNet Research reports that the residential market will reach 11.9 Billion by 2010. This figure is supplemented by the number of residential VoIP subscribers worldwide is expected to increase to 151.2 mln by 2010, rising at a CAGR, Compound Annual Growth Rate of 57.1% from 15.8 mln in 2005.
These are healthy figures for the VOIP providers as well as VOIP equipment makers. I think that these figure will also reflect healthy benefits to the VOIP users, be it corporate or Residential.
According to the article, "The residential segment is the second-largest market for VoIP gear. Equipment in this segment includes residential gateways and IP phones. Equipment makers are vying for a piece of the residential VoIP market, hoping to capture a slice of this growth. Telecom service providers also are aggressively targeting this segment in an attempt to maintain their share of the $430 bln annual voice market and to offer so-called triple-play services, i.e. suites of multimedia offerings consisting of video, audio communications and broadband Internet access."

Links;
ZDNet Research article

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

ZDNet Research reports that the residential market will reach 11.9 Billion by 2010. This figure is supplemented by the number of residential VoIP subscribers worldwide is expected to increase to 151.2 mln by 2010, rising at a CAGR, Compound Annual Growth Rate of 57.1% from 15.8 mln in 2005.
These are healthy figures for the VOIP providers as well as VOIP equipment makers. I think that these figure will also reflect healthy benefits to the VOIP users, be it corporate or Residential.
According to the article, "The residential segment is the second-largest market for VoIP gear. Equipment in this segment includes residential gateways and IP phones. Equipment makers are vying for a piece of the residential VoIP market, hoping to capture a slice of this growth. Telecom service providers also are aggressively targeting this segment in an attempt to maintain their share of the $430 bln annual voice market and to offer so-called triple-play services, i.e. suites of multimedia offerings consisting of video, audio communications and broadband Internet access."

Links;
ZDNet Research article

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

ZDNet Research reports that the residential market will reach 11.9 Billion by 2010. This figure is supplemented by the number of residential VoIP subscribers worldwide is expected to increase to 151.2 mln by 2010, rising at a CAGR, Compound Annual Growth Rate of 57.1% from 15.8 mln in 2005.
These are healthy figures for the VOIP providers as well as VOIP equipment makers. I think that these figure will also reflect healthy benefits to the VOIP users, be it corporate or Residential.
According to the article, "The residential segment is the second-largest market for VoIP gear. Equipment in this segment includes residential gateways and IP phones. Equipment makers are vying for a piece of the residential VoIP market, hoping to capture a slice of this growth. Telecom service providers also are aggressively targeting this segment in an attempt to maintain their share of the $430 bln annual voice market and to offer so-called triple-play services, i.e. suites of multimedia offerings consisting of video, audio communications and broadband Internet access."

Links;
ZDNet Research article

Source: voipcentral.org

I read the findings of ChangeWaves latest VoIP survey entitled Consumer Home VoIP Trends. Overall, the survey brings positive notes for VoIP technology in USA.

Although, the corporate world is still suspicious on VoIP technology due to deployment and security problems, the residential users are happy with this latest Voice technology.

In terms of ChangeWave survey, nearly 90 percent of customers are somewhat satisfied on VoIP. However, they have some reservations on Vonages VoIP services. Most of the users are impressed by Skype services.

Rockville-based ChangeWave conducted the survey in October with 2,640 members.

Jon Arnold has the full report.