Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

AT&T has developed a software trick that will let modern mobile handsets, including  the iPhone, recognize voice commands without the need for specialized voice recognition software.

AppleInsider has the news here along with a video.

Source: www.voip-news.com

It’s a five-pete! Or is it five-peat! Whatever the case, ShoreTell has been named Best Overall VoIP Provider in the Nemertes PilotHouse Awards for Unified Communications & Collaboration for the fifth time. The awards ranked 24 VoIP providers.

“We’re extremely pleased that Nemertes has provided an independent opportunity for our customers to express satisfaction with their ShoreTel UC systems,” said Steve Timmerman, vice president of marketing, ShoreTel. “We understand the business and communications challenges our customers face, and we will continue to create the systems that meet their most exacting demands for high reliability, ease of deployment and use, and features that provide them with a competitive edge. We are especially proud that we have earned the top spot in Nemertes’ evaluation for the fifth straight year.”

Source: www.voip-news.com

It’s good to be king . . .

An independent survey recently revealed 100 percent satisfaction with Global Crossing’s collaboration services — as in conferencing. The survey was conducted by KS&R, but was paid for by Global Crossing.

Eighty-five percent of respondents said that they were very likely to recommend the service to others.

“The latest survey results reflect our commitment to providing a superior customer experience and high level of account support that differentiates us from our competitors,” said Dan Wagner, executive vice president enterprise sales and collaboration services. “Now, especially as use of Global Crossing’s collaboration services around the world continues to accelerate, our award-winning collaboration services take the element of geography out of the business equation and allow companies to improve productivity, while reducing their travel costs and carbon footprints.”

Source: www.voip-news.com

Avistar Communications Corporation is going to be offering desktop videoconferencing through a partnership with City Information Services Limited.

“CityIS is a significant player in our strategy to deliver our C3 solutions through the reseller channel. CityIS has more than a decade of specialized experience in the videoconferencing space, and knows first-hand what its clients need to remain competitive in today’s challenging global marketplace. With offices around the world servicing global clients, CityIS offers a breadth and depth of channel coverage that will be instrumental in our goal of making Avistar desktop videoconferencing as ubiquitous as large room implementations,” said Darren Innes, General Manager of Worldwide Sales for Avistar.

The companies say that the product fills a much-needed area of the market as more and more companies seek ways to cut costs and travel less.

Source: solokay.blogspot.com

Source: www.voip-news.com

As if answering the popular question: what? you have to buy bandwidth too? VoIP Supply has partnered with bandwidth.com to provider users with both. Read about the partnership on The VoIP Weblog.

Fring is now available on JAVA ME and Linux-based phones. Read about it on VoIP News.

Someone had an awesome experience with Truphone. Read about it on VoIP Watch.

Source: www.voip-news.com

The new fiber-optic submarine cable for Global IP-based communications in Esterillos of Parrita, Puntarenas, has been lighted by Global Crossing. The cable will connect the area of Costa Rica with ICE’s international network.

“We’re excited to reinforce our partnership with ICE in this initiative to expand Costa Rica’s telecommunications services and increased connectivity around the world. This agreement is another step in the ongoing, cooperative effort between ICE, RACSA and Global Crossing to promote the continuous social and economic growth of the country,” said John Legere, CEO of Global Crossing.

The cable is part of the Pan American Crossing that connects the west coast of the U.S., Mexico, Panama, Venezuela and the Virgin Islands as well as the U.S. east coast, South America, Europe, and Asia.

Source: www.voip-news.com

8×8, Inc. has new services now that can replace traditional premise-based telephone “key systems” used by companies where employees share common phone lines, regardless of location. The new Packet8 hosted Internet Protocol (IP) telephony features the Packet8 675xi series of IP desktop phones. It also adds shared line appearance services to the Packet8 Virtual Office platform.

“With the introduction of the Packet8 hosted key system solution, 8×8 has expanded its addressable market to include the millions of businesses that require shared line appearance services rather than the PBX functionality offered with our Packet8 Virtual Office hosted iPBX solution,” said 8×8 Vice President of Sales & Marketing Huw Rees. “Our new line of IP phones has enabled us to deploy one of the first hosted key system services in the world, enabling businesses to benefit from the lower costs associated with VoIP while maintaining the familiar key system feature set they are used to. As with all of our other business services, we also maintain the capability of having the IP phones situated at any location anywhere in the world, enabling one of the first distributed, hosted, multi-office/home-office shared line appearance services in the market.”

The system also includes searchable corporate directories, direct intercom paging and shared line appearance functionality.

Source: www.voip-news.com

There is a free live webinar coming next week (Thursday, July 24, to be exact) on unified communication. It’s intended to help employers and employees connect across organizations.

Among the things you will learn:

Learn step-by-step how to:

1. Plan and prepare each stage of your UC project with the right people in your organization
2. Understand what platform features, pricing and technical specifications best suit you and your
employees
3. Cost-effectively help increase on-site and remote employee productivity
4. Easily integrate video, voice, data, instant messaging and email into your existing desktop environment
5. Reduce the risk and worry of moving to unified communications

TO learn more, or to find out how to sign up, click here.

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

Whenever I read about new and emerging technologies such as Ultra High Definition, I really get excited about the next step up in HD.   

Sure, I know it may be a couple of years out before brands like Sony or Samsung have them sitting at my local Bjorn’s or Best Buy, but it let’s me plan my upgrade path for new TV’s in the family room, and, budget allowing, other bedrooms.

With all the wonders of having all this great high quality video in my home, common sense begs the question:  how will I be able to ship Ultra HD from room to room, especially in the network I am gradually building out in my home.

By the end of this year, AT&T is supposed to be delivering on its vision for what they call Whole Home DVR – giving me the ability to have content on a single DVR device and then view the content in other rooms over my existing wiring scheme.

That’s all fine and good, what about the needed bandwidth to handle this UHTV load?  In the next generation of home networking standards, G.hn – which AT&T is supporting - will solve this–  and other issues.  G.hn will deliver a true gigabit home network – all over existing wires like coax, phone lines – even electrical wires.

There’s also a company called CopperGate (a client I have done PR work for) whose HomePNA chips go in every set top box and residential gateway that AT&T (and other service providers) delivers to your home.  They’ve already announced they will have G.hn chips out as early as next year.

Aside from Ultra HD, I know that AT&T is trying to further distinguish it U-verse service from the cable and satellite providers by offer new service offerings in my home. G.hn appears to be the default standard by which service providers like AT&T will shift to in the years to come

Source: www.voip-news.com

Non-profit Elwyn is getting a voice, data and network services makeover from Carousel Industries. Carousel will also be modernizing the company’s physical infrastructure including cooling and power.

According to the companies:

The new system will be designed, installed, serviced and maintained by Carousel. This project represents a multi-million dollar investment in improvements for Elwyn and its branch locations. The project will integrate Elwyn’s communications environment to increase interoperability, features, applications, scalability, and reliability for all users. These enhancements will allow teachers and case workers to spend more time with the mentally challenged adults and children they support.

Avaya products will be used for the IP Telephony system including Avaya S8300 media servers and 1000 IP, digital and analog handsets. The network will be connected via a meshed AT&T MPLS network.

Source: www.voip-news.com

The latest report by Light Reading’s VoIP Services Insider says that there is more potential for major security breaches in unified communications. Among the biggest problems? Improper or incomplete use of security features by business and enterprise users.

“Even as vendors put technologies in place to provide protection from the threats that exist, as well as from impending threats, the likelihood of a major and successful attack on UC systems is growing for one simple reason — end-user failure to implement security techniques properly,” says Denise Culver, research analyst with Light Reading’s VOIP Services Insider and author of the report. “Simple measures such as encryption aren’t utilized by customers, even though their UC platforms enable such protection, leaving vendors to wonder what kind of disaster must occur before enterprises realize the need for implementing the security measures on their UC platforms.”

According to Culver, although UC services from services providers seem to have less chances of attacks, mistakes by users can undo properly setup security measures.

“Vendors are working diligently to build more security into their UC platforms, teaming up with third-party security experts and, in some cases, with vendors that normally would be considered competition,” she said.