VoIP News: May 2007

Deutsche Telekom has become the first major telecommunications provider to back an external VoIP company through its investment in Jajah.

The move follows the company's announcement earlier this month that it had seen profits for the last quarter drop by 58 per cent and it is therefore likely to be seen as an acknowledgement of the impact of VoIP on the market.

Jajah will receive the investment through Deutsche Telekom's venture capital arm T-Online Venture Fund, which hopes to offer the VoIP technology to its customers.

T-Online Venture Fund chairman Andreas Kindt said in a company statement: "By investing in companies like Jajah, we will be able to continue to bring users around the world the innovative solutions they are looking for."

Deutsche Telekom's investment in VoIP is indicative of the rapid decline in demand for traditional fixed line services, which has seen the German company lose half a million of its customers to cheaper rivals.

In contrast, use of VoIP technology has grown to the point where nearly one fifth of UK internet users say they regularly use it to make cheap or free calls over the internet.

Posted on: 2007-05-30, in: General VoIP

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Telephony hardware supplier Mediatrix has launched a new series of access devices which allow analogue phones or fax machines to be hooked up to VoIP.

The Mediatrix 4100 Series connects up to 24 devices to a local area network or broadband line to allow easy use of internet voice calls for smaller businesses.

Described as an evolution from previous product lines, the latest generation is the result of ten years of Mediatrix's involvement in VoIP systems.

"As the enterprise VoIP market continues to evolve, we have worked diligently to provide VoIP technology that is of the highest levels of performance and voice quality," said Philippe Babin, director of product line management for Mediatrix.

Innovations in the new 4100 series include support for high compression codecs on each analogue port which should save on the amount of bandwidth taken up by VoIP without degrading the call quality or reliability.

This new product announcement follow Mediatrix's March launch of a 'branch-in-a-box' product that featured VoIP routing, firewalls and defences against network failures.

Posted on: 2007-05-30, in: Networking hardware

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Facebook, the rapidly-expanding social network, has added a VoIP feature that allows users to connect and talk through the site.

In a newly-announced widget from VoIP operator Jangl, users of the social network can contact their Facebook friends without exchanging a real telephone number.

The Jangl application instead creates a private phone number for each relationship - giving users control over who can talk to them.

Michael Cerda, chief executive and co-founder of Jangl, said: "For the last year, Jangl has been giving social networks a voice through our widgets and partnered products.

"And with our latest release of Jangl ... people online can now connect with anyone, anywhere by simply entering an email address."

Facebook's 24 million active users will be able to send an invitation to talk to another person in their network, who then can click on a link to hear the person talk before deciding they want to chat.

The expansion to Facebook is an upgrade of the service that Jangl offers to dating site Match.com and lets users make calls using their VoIP client, internet-ready mobile phone or landline.

Posted on: 2007-05-29, in: General VoIP

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Microsoft will not replace current private branch exchange (PBX) sellers as it cannot offer comparable features or support, according to one vendor.

The Seattle-based company recently signed up some PBX vendors to provide VoIP inter-operability with its up-coming Office Communications Server 2007.

Some industry experts suggested this could lead to companies indulging in "rip and replace" of their current systems and herald a full-scale move by Microsoft into becoming a PBX vendor itself.

Office Communications Server includes a simplified version of PBX systems, based on the Office Communicator VoIP client.

But Richard Jenner, a product manager for Avaya EMEA, told IT Week: "Microsoft has a long way to go before it can become a voice vendor."

"It needs to offer quality of service, voice switching and security

"Nobody in the enterprise market would take a Microsoft desktop telephony solution and use it as a replacement for a PBX – you need the infrastructure behind it."

However, Mr Jenenr added that he thought the integration of IP PBX and Office Communications Server could be a success if they were run "in a complementary fashion".

Posted on: 2007-05-29, in: IP PBX

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In a move that may free VoIP users from their home or office net connections, a UK internet provider has launched a wireless VoIP (wVoIP) service that will tap into any compatible Wi-Fi network.

Velophone announced a service that will allow callers to use their existing SIM card and then automatically switch to making calls over VoIP when in range of a designated Wi-Fi hotspot.

The VeloMobile service will initially use a handset from Taiwanese manufacturer HTC, but compatability with a Nokia handset is being tested.

Speaking at a wireless internet industry event in London, Velophone managing director Mark Gordon said the service will make it easier for VoIP users to make cheaper calls on the move.

"Many dual-mode devices today require the subscriber to select the network to use; we have created a solution so that the handset automatically does that for them," he said.

Users in Europe would receive call charges of just 5p a minute but will have to pay a £30 monthly fee for the service, although the company said that discounts may be offered for companies with large numbers of users.

However, Velophone may face opposition to its service from mobile networks who fear losing out on call revenue.

Recently in the US, carriers forced the removal of Wi-Fi connectivity features from the Nokia E61 phone, although Velophone said it hopes to avoid such problems by marketing its service purely to business clients.

Posted on: 2007-05-25, in: General VoIP

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