Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Alameda, CA, March 26, 2008. Just as they once constructed their own infrastructures for electricity and water supply, many municipalities are taking their future into their own hands by building leading-edge telecommunications systems. From coast to coast, communities are realizing that their economic success depends on high-speed broadband networks coupled with the most advanced communications services – and they are increasingly turning to MetaSwitch to realize that vision.

"MetaSwitch is helping municipalities take the significant step of providing their own telecommunications services by delivering leading-edge technology complemented by comprehensive system integration support," said Paul Drew, vice president of professional services at MetaSwitch. "Our integration teams have experience from hundreds of softswitch and enhanced applications deployments, bringing the necessary expertise to ease the transition and ensure that these new services can be delivered to market quickly and cost-effectively."

Widely recognized as one of the most forward-thinking municipalities in the country, Bristol Virginia Utilities (BVU) is a 64-year-old municipal utility serving the city of Bristol, Va. In early 2000, BVU launched its unique network, OptiNet, to offer voice, video and data services within the city’s regional and metro areas. Three years ago, BVU OptiNet made a strategic decision to expand the scope of its services using the MetaSwitch class 4/5 softswitch.

The decision, according to Mark Lane, BVU director of network engineering, was based on MetaSwitch’s ability to deliver a next-generation softswitch that could operate in a PON-based infrastructure via any access protocol. "Initially we decided to deploy MetaSwitch based on the technology," explained Lane. "We wanted to create an evolved service architecture that would deliver a superior voice product, with the quality and reliability you’d normally associate with traditional telecommunications providers."

MetaSwitch’s packet-based architecture has enabled BVU OptiNet to build out its network beyond Bristol County. In addition, the company is leveraging MetaSwitch applications to offer a telecommuting services bundle to sign up larger, international companies that have established a presence in the region. For local businesses, BVU OptiNet offers a hosted PBX service, augmented by MetaSwitch’s MetaSphere service delivery platform (SDP), to provide unified messaging, auto attendant, conferencing, and music-on-hold. Residential customers can choose from a host of converged services, including Caller ID on their televisions, as either a standalone or as part of a triple-play package of voice, video and data services.

BVU was recently honored with a Digital Expo 2008 Smart Community Award by Last Mile Magazine, which recognized the community for employing innovative solutions in network deployment and applications, as well as fostering community involvement.

MINET, a non-profit public utility based in Oregon, operates a local fiber-optic telecom network delivering television, phone service and high-speed Internet access to the cities of Monmouth and Independence. In business for nearly two years, MINET has been deploying the MetaSwitch VP3510 integrated softswitch for its fiber-to-the-home network for the past 12 months to deliver a triple-play bundle of voice, video and data. The company uses a Broadband PON (BPON)-based infrastructure with a voice-over-ATM network to effectively reach its 3,000 business and residential subscribers. MINET also has plans to deploy Voice-over-IP (VoIP) services in the future.

"Deploying the MetaSwitch couldn’t have been easier," explained Phil Garrett, general manager, MINET. "We were pleasantly surprised by how straightforward it was to get our customers provisioned using the switch. MetaSwitch’s responsive team and ongoing maintenance and support ensure that we consistently deliver high-quality, reliable services to our customers. We have also been impressed with the MetaSwitch MarketVisions program, which is helping us effectively market these services to our community."

Bristol Tennessee Essential Services (BTES), in business for 60 years, serves the city and surrounding areas of Bristol, Tenn. One year ago, BTES registered as a local exchange carrier and added telephone service to its slate of high-speed Internet and cable television offerings, packaging these services into a triple-play bundle to be delivered via its all-fiber optic network.

Prior to purchasing and installing the equipment necessary to start offering telephony services, BTES did an analysis of several different equipment and software providers, ultimately deciding to deploy the MetaSwitch softswitch because "MetaSwitch is an organization with a solid support system," according to BTES chief executive officer, Dr. Mike Browder.

Currently, BTES provides basic and enhanced telephone services, including caller ID and unconditional call forwarding, to nearly 3,500 business and residential customers. The company plans on expanding with MetaSwitch to make this service available to all its customers. Plus, BTES believes that offering telephony services is a key tool in recruiting business and industry to the community.

"BTES chose MetaSwitch because of its interoperability with our other equipment, allowing for a complete voice services delivery platform that is easy to provision and easy to use," explained Browder. "Moving quickly from zero customers to ‘any’ customers, it was imperative to partner with a solution provider that had been through the process before and understood what was required. MetaSwitch helped make this transition as easy as possible and continues to offer excellent support and resources, allowing BTES to deliver the best service to its customers."

The city of Windom is a regional transportation hub in southwestern Minnesota. For more than 100 years, Windom Municipal Utilities (WMU) has provided residents with electric, water and wastewater services. In 2005, WMU rebranded as Windomnet and launched a citywide fiber-to-the-home network in order to provide cable television, high-speed Internet and telephone services to 2,000 homes and 300 businesses. After numerous vendor interviews, evaluations and customer references, Windomnet chose MetaSwitch as its VoIP telephone softswitch supplier.

"Choosing the right vendor partners was crucial in the process of building out and running this network," explained Dan Olsen, director of operations at Windomnet. "It was particularly important to pick the right vendor, because voice really is the most fundamental communications service."

Currently, Windomnet is using its MetaSwitch platform to provide voice-over-fiber using traditional TDM voice-over-fiber, but according to Olsen, Windomnet plans to transition to VoIP later this year to offer hosted PBX-type services to businesses in the community.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

RA’ANANA, Israel, Mar 27, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — NICE Systems Ltd. (NASDAQ:NICE), a leading global provider of advanced solutions that enable organizations to extract Insight from Interactions to drive performance, today announced that Thailand’s leading and only fully-integrated telecommunications service provider, TRUE Corporation has selected NICE SmartCenter for its VoIP contact centers. NICE Perform and the NICE workforce management solutions will replace competing systems being used today. TRUE selected NICE SmartCenter to leverage the synergies of the NICE solutions, to improve customer service, dispute resolution capabilities, and operational efficiency.

TRUE Corporation is Thailand’s leading and only fully-integrated provider of telecommunications services, with more than 10,000 employees, and operates five core businesses, including: mobile, business, online business, pay-TV, digital commerce, and digital content. TRUE’s contact centers handle over 8 million annual customer calls covering topics such as account information inquiries, telephony needs, and technical support requests.

With NICE SmartCenter TRUE will be able to leverage the synergies of the NICE solutions for liability recording and workforce management to better link its customer interactions with its planning and management processes. The NICE solution for 100% interactions capture of inbound and outbound calls will enable TRUE to efficiently handle and manage information archives regarding topics such as billing, payments, collections, and telesales. The NICE solution for workforcemanagement will help TRUE efficiently manage and optimize scheduling of agents.

"We are pleased that Thailand’s leading telecommunications services company has selected our comprehensive solution for improving contact center performance at the agent, operational, and enterprise levels," said Doron Ben-Sira, President, NICE APAC. "This reflects a trend we are seeing gaining more and more momentum around the world – of companies across a variety of verticals turning to NICE to replace competing systems – and help them achieve their strategic and operational goals."
For more information, please visit: http://www.truecorp.co.th

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Paris (France) – March 26, 2008 – Thomson’s VoIP softswitches have been selected by the telecommunications group artelis for deployment of IP telephony by its subsidiaries in Luxembourg and Germany with more than 250,000 subscribers.

The owner of two telecommunication companies – Cegecom in Luxembourg and VSE NET in Germany, artelis also provides wholesale communications services to other operators. artelis has chosen Thomson’s Cirpack VoIP platform in order to launch a double play offer packaged with primary line telephony to its residential customers as well as "IP centrex" services with advanced business features to enterprise customers.

"We were especially interested in Thomson’s interoperability with multiple networks, including traditional telephony[1] and cable infrastructures, which made the Cirpack softswitch suitable for our deployments in both countries as well as for our wholesale clients some of whom are cable operators" said Mr Leidinger, General Manager of artelis. "In addition, we were attracted by the fact that Thomson provides end to end solutions for triple play, something that we are examining for the future."

"Our deployment with artelis further demonstrates Thomson’s success in providing multiple play service platforms to telecom operators," said Bruno Fabre, Executive Vice President, Sales & Marketing of the Systems Division at Thomson. "Our Cirpack VoIP softswitches are uniquely positioned to help operators with hybrid networks and multi countries operations to launch rich broadband services"

As more German operators accelerate their migration to next-generation networks, they are seeking more network optimization as well as operating cost reduction opportunities. Many are turning to Thomson; already, Thomson’s Cirpack softswitches have been involved in 14 operator deployments in Germany.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

San Jose, Calif. – March 19, 2008 – Covad Communications Group Inc., (AMEX: DVW), a leading national provider of integrated voice and data communications,announced several wholesale service provider partners that are using its unique voice-optimized broadband access to power their bundled service solutions. The announcement was made at the Spring VON Conference & Expo, where Lisa Graham, general manager of wholesale services for Covad, presents today at 1:00 p.m. PT in a discussion entitled, “Delivering VoIP – A Better Model: Bundling with Carrier Partners for Single Service Solutions.” Ms. Graham, responsible for managing Covad’s nationwide network of 450 wholesale partners, will discuss Covad’s Voice-
Optimized Access (VOA) product and the increasing demand for its use with partners’ VoIP services. Covad’s VOA product powers VoIP services from over fifty partners, including Bandwidth.com, CommX, and Thinking Phones Networks, enabling them to provide customers with leading, business-class voice and data services. “Covad’s unique voice-optimized broadband access enables us to provide true business-quality voice and data services from our VOIP platform,” said Michael Rogers, CommX Vice President. “Combined with Covad’s award-winning partner systems and tools, this service puts us far ahead of our competition in serving our
demanding and savvy business customers.”
Covad Voice-Optimized Access is an award-winning broadband access service that prioritizes voice packets over data on Covad’s managed nationwide network all the way through the last mile. The resulting connection minimizes packet loss, maximizes network utilization, and is designed to provide a superior voice service. VOA is available with several of Covad’s broadband access products, including T1, SDSL, and dedicated ADSL. Covad VOA fits within the existing regulatory framework and is an excellent way for voice providers looking to reduce overall costs and complexity and to differentiate their VoIP service from competitors.
In addition to VOA, Covad offers partners a broad portfolio of DSL and T1 services, including bonded T1 and next generation ADSL services that operate through the nation’s largest next-generation ADSL 2+ network. For more information on Covad services, please visit www.covad.com.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

DAYTON, Ohio–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Traditional medical alert units, often worn by seniors around their neck or wrist to call for help in case of a fall or other adverse event, were designed to communicate by way of POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service). After placing a telephone call, the emergency unit sends information from the home to the monitoring center to determine which emergency unit is calling and what type of help is needed. When consumers switch to digital phone service, the data can be distorted or omitted as the bandwidth of the internet service provider fluctuates (see http://www.monitoringcare.com/voip/ for an example), resulting in missed or inaccurate emergency reporting at the monitoring center.

In recent months, a growing number of seniors have switched from traditional phone service to bundled packages in order to save money on the service. For many seniors living on fixed incomes, the monthly savings have come just in time to offset rising gas prices and other healthcare costs. However, the switch may come at a much higher price if emergency help is not available when someone needs it most. “The biggest problem is that consumers are switching to VOIP service, and without knowing it, they have significantly reduced the reliability of a device designed to help them remain safe and independent,” says Andy Schoonover, President of Valued Relationships Inc. (VRI), a leading medical alert provider. “Many medical alert providers have no way of knowing the change has occurred until something goes awry.” Unfortunately, some medical alert providers have taken the strategy of telling customers that traditional solutions will work, even when they are not reliable and could fail at any time. Similar problems exist for home security systems, so if you have non-traditional phone service, you should check with your security company to ensure that your service will remain operational.

VRI has recently announced a new solution for medical alert units used with VOIP. In response to the growing number of seniors switching to VOIP service, VRI has introduced “DIGICARE”. DIGICARE is a VOIP compatible PERS unit that leverages proprietary hardware and software changes in the company’s CSAA 5 Diamond Certified Medical Alert Monitoring Center to receive both emergency and maintenance calls from medical alert units without the risk of interference or data loss from VOIP bandwidth issues. “This is a significant accomplishment for our team,” says Mr. Schoonover. “We committed to providing a cost-effective, reliable option for seniors with VOIP service, and are excited to announce that we have made that commitment a reality.” To the company’s knowledge, it is the only solution currently available in the medical alert industry to address VOIP issues.

VRI is a healthcare services company with nearly 20 years of experience and is one of the largest providers of medical alert monitoring in the country. Located in Dayton, OH, VRI’s services enable seniors and those with disabilities to maintain their independence and avoid long term care facilities and hospitalization. The company’s service portfolio includes Personal Emergency Response Systems (PERS), electronic medication reminder devices, telehealth and vitals monitoring, fall detection, medication management and mobile medical alert solutions. The company currently serves over 35,000 clients in all 50 states. For more information, or to see the range of VRI’s products, please visit www.monitoringcare.com.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

NASHVILLE, Tenn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–For the second time in 2008, Dalcon Communications Systems, Inc. announced Dalcon has achieved national recognition: The VON Magazine Innovator Award.

“The 2008 VON Magazine Innovator Award is the foremost listing of innovative VoIP communications companies,” says David L. Condra, Dalcon’s CEO. “Dalcon has been named to the list due to our DCM 2.0 solution for small and medium sized businesses.”

Building on the legacy of the Pulver 100, the VON Innovator Awards recognizes companies representing the future of VoIP communications. Recipients are selected from a committee made up of VON editors, columnists, and contributors. “The VON Innovator Awards recognize the Internet Communications industry’s best and brightest companies. The selection committee unanimously felt Dalcon stood apart from the large field of nominees,” said Bill Sell, Publisher, VON Media Group.

“We’re doubly-delighted since this represents our second award this year,” says Condra. “Along with the Internet Telephony’s Product of the Year, 2008 continues to validate our national standing in business communications.”

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

CHARLOTTE, NC–(MARKET WIRE)–Mar 5, 2008 — JMI Telecom Corp. a next generation telecommunication products and services company, today announced they have signed a wholesale agreement with VoX Communications Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Pervasip Corp. and a provider of wholesale and retail Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services, also known as Digital Phone. Now, with this aggreement in place, JMI Telecom will now offer digital telephone service (VoIP) to Residential and Business consumers nationwide. Plans start as low as $10.95 a month.
VoX offers wholesale broadband voice, origination and termination services to cable operators, carriers, ISPs, CLECs, resellers and other wireless and wireline operators. "We are delighted to support both the business and residential needs of JMI Telecom through a reliable telecommunications partnership," stated Mark Richards, President of VoX Communications.

This new partnership is a great opportunity for JMI Telecom Corp. to acquire customers in this area with new technology as well as to meet a growing subscriber demand for both local and long-distance VoIP and next generation services. "I am very excited that VoX Comunications has extended their products and services to us, which millions of consumers worldwide rely upon every day for their information and communication needs. We are frequently looking for new technology that allows us to deliver a highly reliable telephone service to our customers," said Kyle Freeman, CEO and President of JMI Telecommunications Corp. For more information, visit www.voxcorp.net and www.pervasip.com and at JMI’s website at http://www.jmitelecom.com.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

SAN DIEGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–TelCentris announced today that Technology Marketing Corporation’s (TMC®) INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine (www.itmag.com) has named TelCentris (www.telcentris.com)’ Unified Communications Service Delivery Platform as recipient of its 2007 Product of the Year Award. INTERNET TELEPHONY has been the VoIP Authority Since 1998™.

The TelCentris Service Delivery Platform ("SDP") is a Unified Communications and managed wholesale VoIP enablement platform for service providers. It is ideal for all types of carriers, including ILECs, CLECs, MSOs, ITSPs, Entrepreneurial Ventures or any VoIP or Unified Communication service providers that require state of the art functionality, unsurpassed reliability, unmatched scalability and world class, VoIP optimized network architecture. TelCentris’ SDP is the market’s only completely turnkey environment for service providers that boasts not only the most complete set of VoIP features, but also includes voicemail, unified messaging, hosted call center functionality, instant messaging, email, collaboration, device provisioning, text messaging, calling card services, callback, pinless dial, a full featured API, and complete end-user billing solution, a brandable Softphone application and many more groundbreaking components that enable service providers to stand head and shoulders above the competition. The TelCentris SDP can also be used by VoIP Enablers to sell white label VoIP and Unified Communication platforms to VoIP service providers (VVNOs).

“We are honored that TelCentris’ Service Delivery Platform has been recognized as Product of the Year by INTERNET TELEPHONY, one of the industry’s leading publications,” said Bryan Hertz, CEO of TelCentris. “TelCentris Service Delivery Platform has emerged as a powerful enablement platform in the battle carriers are waging to profitably deliver Unified Communication and VoIP services worldwide. Until now, carriers have been struggling to earn a profit in the VoIP space due to the exorbitant licensing fees they must pay to technology and platform providers. TelCentris’ business model helps ensure that carriers have a turnkey, cutting-edge service offering, with quality that is second-to-none, at a fraction of the cost of similar functionality.”

“TelCentris has proven they are committed to quality and excellence while addressing real needs in the marketplace. INTERNET TELEPHONY is pleased to grant a 2007 Product of the Year Award to their Unified Communications Service Delivery Platform,” said Rich Tehrani, TMC President and Editor-in-Chief of INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine. “We’re proud to honor their hard work and accomplishments and look forward to more innovative solutions from TelCentris in the future.”

A full list of Product of the Year winners will be published in the February, 2008 issue of INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine. (www.itmag.com)

For more information about TMC, please visit www.tmcnet.com.

tag: voip news, VoIP business, TelCentris, Unified Communications, NTERNET TELEPHONY, ILEC, CLEC, MSO, ITSP, billing solution, voicemail, unified messaging, hosted call center functionality, instant messaging, email, collaboration, device provisioning, text messaging, calling card services, callback, pinless dial,

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

VoIP Your Life, a leading provider of Voice over Internet Protocol digital telephone services, announces the official launch of its new affiliate program.

Oklahoma City, OK (PRWEB) February 27, 2008 — VoIP Your Life, a leading provider of Voice over Internet Protocol digital telephone services, announces the official launch of its new affiliate program.

"This program will play a substantial role in the phenomenal growth of VoIPYourLife," said Gary Holshouser, President of VoIP Your Life, adding that VoIP Your Life is actively seeking affiliate partners wishing to capitalize on VYL’s extremely generous program. "Our commission structure is so liberal that we’re expecting a robust reaction from new our affiliates.
Sources indicate that VoIP Your Life will be providing affiliates with a private forum to facilitate faster communications and greater responsiveness. Added Mr. Holshouser, "We’re also going to provide our affiliate partners with access to real-time statistics for sales and traffic. Anytime they wish to, they can pull up detailed reporting and payout figures and, of course, they will get dedicated account management. The potential for this program has us very excited, to say the least"

To celebrate the roll out of the affiliate program, the company is also offering a few ‘Master Agent’ opportunities for those affiliates who desire to earn additional residual income. These Master Agents receive a bounty for new sign-ups, plus a significant percentage of recurring revenue.

VoIP Your Life provides high quality telecommunication services, including access points, local phone numbers and a rich variety of features that work just like a regular phone service. According to the company’s website, http://www.voipyourlife.com, VoIP Your Life is consistently rated as one of the top 5 VoIP companies from multiple independent review sources. The company is also offering for a limited time free hardware, free activation and free shipping with no term commitments and no termination fee.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

ATLANTA, GA – (February 20, 2008) – Verso Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSO), a global provider of next generation network solutions, announced today that it has been selected to provide a North American Tier One telecommuniciations carrier with a Vclear Edge VoIP solution which will provide the carrier with the ability to offer a true VoIP Managed Service Offering.

“Carriers have been slow in the deployment of VoIP services to their enterprise customers due to the inability to reliably deliver on Service Level Agreements (SLAs) similar to what they offer today,” said Steven A. Odom, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Verso. “Our new Vclear Intelligent Demarc technology is paving the way for larger carriers to finally begin deploying VoIP reliably to their enterprise customers. Their rollout will provide them with a significant head start and strong competitive advantage as they transition away from circuit switching services.”

“We believe this may be the most significant initiative this customer has for the immediate future – a true VoIP Managed Service Offering,” said Jeff Donahue, Vice President – North American Sales for Verso. “It could have a place in every VoIP managed service offering that they deploy. The solution provides several benefits to the customer at both pre-deployment and post deployment stage with the end user. In pre-deployment, the carrier can assess network readiness in a non-intrusive manner, actively verify the networks capability, measure the networks performance and allow it to be tuned prior to deployment. In the post deployment stage, it provides real-time monitoring and reporting of jitter, delay, and packet-loss on a per call and site-to-site basis, detect and report current network problems, predict potential network problems in advance, and provide real-time performance troubleshooting so the carrier can allocate resources to the issue on a timely basis.”

“One of the first actions we took as part of our turnaround at Verso was to get closer to our key customers,” said Mark Dunaway, Verso President and Chief Operating Officer. “Being selected by this large North American carrier to provide a VoIP solution is a direct result of our working closer with them. Further, being selected by this customer in particular is further strong validation of our VoIP product and solution capabilities.”

For more information, contact Verso at www.verso.com or call 678.589.3500.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

BELLEVUE, Wash., and BERWYN, Pa. – Feb. 22, 2008 – T-Mobile USA, Inc., and SunCom Wireless Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: TPC) today announced the completion of T-Mobile’s acquisition of SunCom Wireless. This means more than 1.1 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands will be able to benefit from T-Mobile’s award-winning customer service and the unique products and services offered by T-Mobile.

The acquisition enhances T-Mobile’s network coverage. The company now serves 98 of the top 100 markets nationally.

“We look forward to offering our new customers in the Southeastern U.S. and Puerto Rico T-Mobile’s industry-leading customer service, quality national network and unique personal communications products and services that help customers stay connected to those who matter most,” said Robert Dotson, president and chief executive officer of T-Mobile USA.

T-Mobile recently earned the highest ranking in the J.D. Power and Associates Wireless Customer Care Performance Study, the seventh consecutive period it has held the top spot.

T-Mobile and SunCom Wireless announced their merger agreement in September 2007. The deal received Federal Communications Commission approval February 8.

Through this acquisition, T-Mobile USA expects to significantly expand its national network to cover 259 million Americans, an increase from 244 million. T-Mobile USA also expects to realize synergies with a net present value (NPV) of approximately $1 billion through reduced roaming and operating expenses. Plus, the company anticipates further upside growth opportunities through the addition of the new markets.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

TMCnet has added a "Making Money with VoIP – Real World Examples" a free white Paper to it’s white paper library. Just fill a simple form to get your copy.