Source: www.voip-news.com
What major company is going to finally reveal what’s going on with them on Monday? Massive layoffs have left a lot of questions . . .
What country has raided and seized a VoIP vendor in an emerging market?
And is your regulatory archival method for VoIP up to snuff? Really?
Find out the answers to these questions and more in this news update from VoIP News.
Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com
Paris, April 7, 2008 — Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris et NYSE: ALU) today introduced My Teamwork Office Edition, a software-based multiparty conferencing and collaboration solution tailored to the small-medium business (SMB) market in North Africa. Implemented in combination with the best-in-class small business call server, Alcatel-Lucent Omni PCX Office, My Teamwork Office Edition enables businesses to run cost-effective, premises-based audio and web conferencing events for dramatic costs savings and productivity gains over service provider solutions and other proprietary hardware-based applications.
Available in a single, software-based server, the My Teamwork Office Edition features advanced audio and web conferencing capabilities, a browser based client accessible from any location or browser for support to any telephony device, and presence-driven IM with single-click access to chat or call contacts, initiate application and desktop sharing, record calls, or managing documents to facilitate critical employee collaboration for results-driven communications.
The software-based solution easily scales up or down to accommodate businesses of all sizes and offers a range of packaging options and pricing designed specifically for the small-medium business segment. The collaboration tools promote streamlined communications while the conferencing enables growth through telecommuting and also reduces long distance travel for valuable cost and time savings, allowing smaller organizations to maximize their human resources and support green technologies.
My Teamwork Office Edition is now part of the Alcatel-Lucent Office Communication Solutions set that allows small and medium businesses to enhance their performance on an everyday basis with simple, flexible, affordable solutions and services. The Office Communication Solutions form a comprehensive portfolio of products and services that brings together enterprise-quality business telephony, applications, cost-effective Voice over IP (VoIP), and a secured LAN and WiFi infrastructure.
”Alcatel-Lucent has vast experience and knowledge in developing and selling solutions tailored to the small-medium business market segment,” says Matthieu Destot, director, Small-Medium Business Solutions for Alcatel-Lucent’s Enterprise activities. “We are leveraging this experience by bringing to market an easy to use, plug and play conferencing and collaboration application, enabling the business owner to realize immediate cost savings and productivity gains. We understand that time, resources, and budgets are limited, and My Teamwork Office Edition allows small businesses to do more with less at an attractive and competitive price point,” adds Destot.
Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com
Covering up all that from CITA Wireless, I was impressed by this product introduced by Nortel.
LAS VEGAS – Nortel* now offers one of the industry’s largest selections of Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) solutions for service providers, designed for seamless voice, video, and data access regardless of location or device. Nortel is demonstrating several new solutions within its FMC portfolio at CTIA Wireless** in Las Vegas from April 1-3.
Recently deployed by TDC Sweden** and announced at VoiceCon**, Nortel’s Mobile Unified Communications (UC) solution along with two new solutions – Mobile Extension Hosted and Mobile Extension Hybrid – will be the latest additions to a portfolio of seven innovative FMC solutions for businesses. These solutions transform mobile phones into office extensions giving mobile workers access to the same corporate network voice calling features as their desk phones, like internal extension dialing, conferencing and call transferring while consolidating all devices under one business phone number.
"Many mobile workers use about six different communication devices which increases complexity without helping people connect quickly and efficiently," said John McCready, general manager, Carrier Multimedia Networks, Nortel. "Nortel’s FMC portfolio is helping operators embrace the opportunities of Hyperconnectivity by offering a range of solutions that bring together wireline and wireless phones with the convenience of one, easy phone number. By making one common phone number possible across any number of devices, Nortel is helping to simplify the work environment through faster, real-time interaction and a simpler communications experience."
In addition to these new Mobile Extension FMC solutions, Nortel has four other FMC solutions that help a mobile workforce connect quickly and efficiently. Nortel’s Voice Call Continuity , being deployed by a tier one wireless carrier, allows users to seamlessly transfer calls from WiFi to cellular networks using dual-mode mobile phones. Nortel also has commercial deployments of the following FMC solutions with service providers around the globe:
Recent research of over 2,000 consumers and nearly 1,000 businesses, conducted by Nortel and RONIN Corporation **, found that more than a quarter of respondents across consumer, SMB and enterprise showed a strong likelihood of purchasing and implementing a converged mobility solution. As well, 80 percent of companies included in the research – both SMB and enterprise – reported a need for a mobile assistant solution with the highest willingness to pay for this service. Nortel’s comprehensive FMC solutions address these market needs and provide flexible deployment options for both enterprises and carriers, including the option of solutions located in the enterprise, carrier-hosted or a model that uses both approaches to match a customer’s unique requirements.
At CTIA Wireless, Nortel is demonstrating some of the new Mobile Extension solutions as well as the "Communicator" service from Telefonica. Nortel continues to lead in carrier VoIP solutions and will also be showcasing their innovative Integrated Multimedia Mobile Client which makes real-time mobile multimedia services like VoIP, video telephony and push-to-talk/see simpler for mobile subscribers to use by delivering all these capabilities in a single integrated client. Nortel is showcasing the live demonstration of this client on a CDMA EV-DO Rev A handset operating with the Application Server (AS) 5200 , Nortel’s leading SIP application server.
These FMC solutions are made possible by leveraging Nortel’s Communication Server (CS) 2000, an IP multimedia softswitch, Nortel’s AS 5200, Nortel’s Wireless Mobility Gateway (WMG) 6000 and the Nortel Communication Server (CS) 1000 IP PBX.
Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com
Quintum Technologies, a leading innovator in VoIP technologies and a subsidiary of Network Equipment Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: NWK), announced today that the new Tenor Hybrid VoIP Gateway for Microsoft’s Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007, has been awarded the 2007 Product of the Year by the Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC®) Unified Communications Magazine. The Tenor Hybrid debuted at the recent TMC INTERNET TELEPHONY EXPO, and garnered the Best of Show Award for Best Large Enterprise Solution.
The first annual Unified Communications Product of the Year award is presented to companies who have designed innovative new products that address the needs of enterprises and service providers deploying unified communications. With the vast number of UC products entering the marketplace, TMC’s awards are aimed at helping readers identify those products that offer the best solutions for their unified communications deployments.
The Tenor Hybrid Gateway includes Quintum’s MultiPath VoIP switching technology and is Microsoft Mediation Server-ready to simplify deployments of Microsoft Unified Communications (UC). This new hybrid VoIP product is a single box solution, specifically designed to allow customers to easily integrate Microsoft OCS 2007 into existing enterprise voice networks and as a result, leverage past voice network investments and minimize disruptions to business.
Quintum’s Unified Communications Proxy (UCP), included in the Hybrid Gateway, as well as all Tenor "S" gateways and switches, addresses the critical requirements for deploying Microsoft’s OCS 2007. The UCP supports "any to any" switching, which enables the integration of OCS 2007 with the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and any legacy or SIP-based voice equipment, including analog telephony equipment, TDM PBXs, IP-PBXs, fax and modem based devices and SIP-based endpoints, including standard SIP phones.
The UCP also supports the deployment of multiple gateways behind a single mediation server, providing the ability to extend gateway capability to branch offices. The UCP addresses these critical business needs when deploying Microsoft OCS 2007 into today’s diverse voice network environments. Traditional VoIP gateways lack the "any to any" switching thus limiting their ability to integrate all the elements typically found in the enterprise voice network.
"Quintum has consistently set the bar high for innovative technologies, and in this case, they have surpassed that standard," said Rich Tehrani, TMC President and Group Editor-in-Chief of Unified Communications. "The Unified Communications Proxy, which is standard on the Tenor Hybrid, expands Quintum’s successful MultiPath switching to support SIP to SIP connectivity, and thus allowing Microsoft’s OCS 2007 to be integrated with both TDM and VoIP networks."
"Quintum’s Tenor Hybrid Gateway was designed specifically for Microsoft UC deployments," said Chuck Rutledge, Vice President of Marketing for Quintum. "The single box solution provides a mediation server ready unified communications VoIP gateway for those customers deploying Microsoft OCS 2007. Its MultiPath switching design and UCP makes it easy to install with minimum modifications to the existing network."
The Tenor Hybrid Gateway is generally available. For more information, please go to: Tenor Hybrid Gateway. For information on our new Unified Communications Proxy, please go to: www.quintum.com/microsoft.
Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com
Voipfone is offering its customers a Managed Broadband service. According to VoIPfone, the service uses their business class, privately peered, network specifically engineered to complement telephone services that are run over IP. They also mention about the prioritizing of voice traffic above other Internet traffic so that it’s customers get the very best possible call quality and line reliability at any given time time. Also offered are Fast provisioning, free technical support and up to 25 simultaneous conversations - and best of all, unlike most other ISPs there’s no contract either.
They do not even lock you into their own router, they just provide raw bandwidth and you can bring your favorite router!
VoIPfone’s Managed Broadband offers;
Find out more about this and the other services offered by VoIPfone.
Source: www.voip-news.com
The group is now up and running and the link to go join is here:
http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/79057/6CCE3E504508
You will need to be a member of LinkedIn as well, but LinkedIn is a great resource for professionals, so you are quite likely to want to join anyway.
Source: www.voip-news.com
VoIP News is forming an experts group via LinkedIn. First off, some basic details so you know what this means.
LinkedIn is a ’social media’ site that connects professionals and their networks of colleagues, peers and business relationships. It has proven to be very successful and many influential people within IP telephony and the VoIP space are members of LinkedIn. One of the ways these professionals can connect via LinkedIn is via professional groups. VoIP News is setting up one of these groups for VoIP experts to connect and help make business relationships. In this case, because we want to be completely open and to facilitate community within VoIP, we are simply going to say that if you think you are a VoIP expert, then you are one.
Some people will invited directly via email form within the LinkedIn system. The other way to join is via a link to the group. We do not have that today, but we will in the next couple of days and we will post the link here for those who want to join.
Please note: LinkedIn takes professional relationships very seriously as do we here at VoIP News. If you aren’t a VoIP expert then please don’t try to join. LinkedIn relies on members only making connections when there is a real connection there to be made - in other words, don’t build and add to your network just for the sake of having a big network - in the long run you’ll hurt your reputation.
Finally, this is an experiment. It may not work. But if it does it should provide another way for VoIP professionals to connect with one another.
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
After going through extensive testing in Brittany, SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) is now a part of Voice over IP telephony included in the offres Net (without subscription France Telecom) by Orange.
Until now, Orange was only offering H.323 protocol for VoIP communications, one of the first standards validated by the ITU for VoIP telephony. By having SIP protocol, Orange customers now could extend their communication capabilities beyond just VoIP, like Unified Communications.Continue reading at;Téléphonie IP : Orange adopte le protocole SIP
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
REDBACK NETWORKS, AN ERICSSON COMPANY, EXPANDS R&D FACILITY IN VANCOUVER B.C.
Company More Than Doubles R&D Campus With 70,000 Square Foot Lease
Redback Networks, an Ericsson company (NASDAQ:ERIC), today announced a real estate lease agreement which doubles the size of the company’s research and development campus in Burnaby, a suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia.
The seven-and-one-half-year lease provides Redback with more than 67,000 square feet of office space, which can accommodate up to 350 employees. In 2008, Redback is planning to hire up to 60 additional engineering employees in Vancouver.
“We have a strong research and development team in Vancouver, and our growth in this region is testament to Redback’s continued focus on innovation and leadership in Internet-based packet networks,” said Ebrahim Abbasi, senior vice president of operations, information technology, and customer service at Redback Networks.
The Vancouver expansion comes on the heels of Redback’s San Jose campus expansion in December 2007, as well as Ericsson’s creation of a new Product Area Packet Networks unit based in Silicon Valley. The new product area was created to help Ericsson address a $14.2 billion router market in fixed and mobile broadband infrastructure.
Redback’s Vancouver campus is responsible for the development of NetOp™ policy and management software used by the company’s SmartEdge® family of network routing products. Redback also has software and hardware development projects for SmartEdge and SMS in Vancouver. Redback routers are used by 75 percent of the largest telephone companies worldwide to deliver broadband, phone and TV services to 63M+ subscribers.
The new campus, located at 4333 Still Creek Drive, will double Redback’s campus size from 35,000 square feet to 67,000 square feet, and will include additional software and hardware labs for product development and testing. In the last 18 months, Redback has doubled its workforce to more than 1,000 people worldwide, with approximately 185 employees based in Vancouver, B.C.
Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com
With expected influx of baby boomers and the need to cover the communications need of Social Security Administration has brought about a new VoIP Porject at SSA known as Telephone System Replacement Project or TSRP. Nortel Government Solutions is the team leader on a 10-year, $300 million project, which will bring SSA and its field offices to over voice over IP.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) has confirmed selection of a team led by Nortel Government Solutions to deploy one of the world’s largest enterprise VoIP networks under the 10-year, US$300 million Telephone Systems Replacement Project (TSRP).
The SSA selected Nortel Government Solutions, a U.S. company wholly owned by Nortel [NYSE/TSX: NT], in July 2007 because its solution offered the best value. Deployment was delayed pending resolution of a competing bidder protest.
TSRP is expected to expand and improve services for an anticipated influx of new users, including retiring ‘baby boomers.’ It will include a centrally managed contact center solution with carrier-class unified messaging and interactive voice response (IVR) capable of supporting 55,000 field office agents. This will provide a common, more friendly ‘look and feel’ for users and faster, more efficient call handling through skills-based routing that matches each caller’s inquiry to the most appropriate agent.
The SSA also expects its new VoIP network to help consolidate monthly public network service charges, decrease operating and maintenance costs, and establish a platform for future services.
"SSA has confirmed its initial assessment that our combination of software, services, government contracting expertise and world-class Nortel products offers the best value for this project," said Chuck Saffell, chief executive officer, Nortel Government Solutions. "We’ve committed the necessary resources to meet SSA’s aggressive deployment schedule and we’re eager to get started."
Core network rollout begins immediately and is expected to be complete within 180 days. The schedule calls for replacement of existing telephone systems in 205 of the SSA’s nearly 1,600 field offices in the first year and another 500 per year after that. The contract also includes network integration operation, maintenance, user support and training.
The new SSA VoIP network will feature Nortel’s Communication Server 1000 switching, Media Processing Server 500 IVR, unified messaging solution with Unified Messaging 2000 core platform and CallPilot*, and IP Phone 1100 Series handsets.
The Nortel Government Solutions team includes General Dynamics, Black Box Network Services, Shared Technologies, York Telecom, High Wire Networks, NetIQ, NETCOM Technologies and Pal-Tech.
Nortel Government Solutions is also involved in a number of major VoIP transitions for U.S. Government customers worldwide, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Energy, the U.S. Senate, the Department of Transportation, the U.S. Air Force and other elements of the Department of Defense.
More Info at Nortel
