T-Mobile isn’t the only contributor in the Haiti situation. Google, Vonage, Skype are offering Free VoIP Calls to Haiti. Ricky sent us in an interesting post on the Google Voice Blog this morning. It looks like Google is doing its part as well providing free calls to Haiti for the next two weeks using Google Voice.
“It’s impossible to watch the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake without wondering how one can contribute in helping the thousands of families who lost everything in this disaster.
Google set up a disaster relief page, which includes information and resources for anyone interested in helping out, and the Google Voice team also wanted to respond in our own way.
Particularly in the wake of such a catastrophe, for people in the US who have family in Haiti, it is critical to stay in constant contact with your loved ones, provide moral comfort, and offer daily updates to friends and family in Haiti.
Showing posts with label voip. Show all posts
Showing posts with label voip. Show all posts
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications
Unified communications offers the ability to improve how individuals, groups and companies interact and perform tasks. Enterprise planners and managers should review how this emerging generation of communication software and systems can improve their business operations and processes.
Unified communications (UC) offers the ability to significantly improve how individuals, groups and companies interact and perform. UC also enables multiple communication channels to be coordinated. In some cases, separate servers may be consolidated, but, more frequently, UC adds functionality to existing communication applications. Key technologies include Internet Protocol (IP)-PBX, voice over IP (VoIP), presence, e-mail, audioconferencing and Web conferencing, videoconferencing, voice mail, unified messaging (UM), instant messaging (IM), and various forms of mobility. Another key capability of UC is that it offers a method to integrate communication functions directly with business applications; Gartner calls this capability "communication-enabled business process" (CEBP).
Unified communications (UC) offers the ability to significantly improve how individuals, groups and companies interact and perform. UC also enables multiple communication channels to be coordinated. In some cases, separate servers may be consolidated, but, more frequently, UC adds functionality to existing communication applications. Key technologies include Internet Protocol (IP)-PBX, voice over IP (VoIP), presence, e-mail, audioconferencing and Web conferencing, videoconferencing, voice mail, unified messaging (UM), instant messaging (IM), and various forms of mobility. Another key capability of UC is that it offers a method to integrate communication functions directly with business applications; Gartner calls this capability "communication-enabled business process" (CEBP).
Users spurn traditional calls for Skype
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Users wanting to call home from abroad are increasingly turning to Skype's Internet telephony service to the detriment of international carriers, new data showed.
"Skype is now the largest provider of cross border communications in the world, by far," said Stephan Beckert, analyst at research firm TeleGeography on Tuesday.
Skype's technology allows consumers to make practically free long-distance calls over the Internet on fixed lines. It is mostly used on desktops but Skype has made the move into mobile too and it now comes pre-installed on some cellphones.
According to the firm's data, over the past 25 years, international call volume from telephones have grown at a compounded annual rate of 15 percent.
In the past two years this growth has however slowed to only 8 percent, rising from 376 billion minutes in 2008 to an estimated 406 billion minutes last year.
"Skype is now the largest provider of cross border communications in the world, by far," said Stephan Beckert, analyst at research firm TeleGeography on Tuesday.
Skype's technology allows consumers to make practically free long-distance calls over the Internet on fixed lines. It is mostly used on desktops but Skype has made the move into mobile too and it now comes pre-installed on some cellphones.
According to the firm's data, over the past 25 years, international call volume from telephones have grown at a compounded annual rate of 15 percent.
In the past two years this growth has however slowed to only 8 percent, rising from 376 billion minutes in 2008 to an estimated 406 billion minutes last year.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
SIP vs XMPP or SIP and XMPP?
History
SIP was invented to provide rendezvous for session establishment and negotiation on the Internet. XMPP (or Jabber) was invented to do structured data exchange such as synchronous or active presence and text communication among group of people. XMPP evolved from instant messaging and presence, whereas SIP evolved from Internet voice/video communication. Later, XMPP added support for session negotiation using the Jingle extension, and SIP community added extensions such as SIMPLE to support instant messaging and presence.
Technically comparing SIP and XMPP is like comparing apples and oranges because the core protocols serve different purposes: session randevous/establishment vs structured data exchange. On the other hand, because of the extensions invented in both the protocol worlds, SIMPLE and Jingle, they now have overlapping functions, and can be compared. When one compares SIP vs XMPP, actually the comparison is SIP/SIMPLE vs XMPP for IM and presence and/or SIP/SDP vs XMPP/Jingle for session negotiation. Even though the goals of the two sets of protocols are converging, there are fundamental architectural differences that I will enumerate in this article. There are other articles on SIP vs XMPP [1, 2, 3].
SIP was invented to provide rendezvous for session establishment and negotiation on the Internet. XMPP (or Jabber) was invented to do structured data exchange such as synchronous or active presence and text communication among group of people. XMPP evolved from instant messaging and presence, whereas SIP evolved from Internet voice/video communication. Later, XMPP added support for session negotiation using the Jingle extension, and SIP community added extensions such as SIMPLE to support instant messaging and presence.
Technically comparing SIP and XMPP is like comparing apples and oranges because the core protocols serve different purposes: session randevous/establishment vs structured data exchange. On the other hand, because of the extensions invented in both the protocol worlds, SIMPLE and Jingle, they now have overlapping functions, and can be compared. When one compares SIP vs XMPP, actually the comparison is SIP/SIMPLE vs XMPP for IM and presence and/or SIP/SDP vs XMPP/Jingle for session negotiation. Even though the goals of the two sets of protocols are converging, there are fundamental architectural differences that I will enumerate in this article. There are other articles on SIP vs XMPP [1, 2, 3].
SIP in the view point of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo
In our last post, we discussed how GTalk2VoIP brings SIP capability to your instant messengers. Continuing our discussion with Ruslan Zalata, co-founder or GTalk2VoIP, today we will talk about SIP strategies of Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. The interview extract follows (AS – Alok Saboo; RZ – Ruslan Zalata):
AS. GTalk2VoIP is essentially filling a gap by bringing SIP services to the ubiquitous instant messengers. Why do you think, Google, Microsoft, or Yahoo are not providing such a service themselves?
RZ: It’s about four years have passed by since we started our service. During all this time we cannot help hearing that Google, MS or other Biggie “just almost ready to deploy” a SIP/VoIP service, which will definitely kill ours and make whole consumer VoIP business seamless. Perhaps one day one of the biggies will finally come up with such a killer service, yet there are some obstacles I believe different to each company, preventing them from starting a killer VoIP service. Here are my personal thoughts:
AS. GTalk2VoIP is essentially filling a gap by bringing SIP services to the ubiquitous instant messengers. Why do you think, Google, Microsoft, or Yahoo are not providing such a service themselves?
RZ: It’s about four years have passed by since we started our service. During all this time we cannot help hearing that Google, MS or other Biggie “just almost ready to deploy” a SIP/VoIP service, which will definitely kill ours and make whole consumer VoIP business seamless. Perhaps one day one of the biggies will finally come up with such a killer service, yet there are some obstacles I believe different to each company, preventing them from starting a killer VoIP service. Here are my personal thoughts:
VoIP 2010: Simplification through Integration
In addition to the product trends the communications industry has experienced over the past year – all of which will be on display in the exhibit hall and topics of conference sessions atITEXPO ( News - Alert) East in Miami – there has been a significant shift towards integration of products and services between vendors as they seek to provide more complete solution sets for their resellers and end users.
The idea is to provide them the very luxury today’s communications solutions are designed to provide for end users – the ability to focus on their core businesses, in this case, selling product. Naturally, they are able to leverage the latest feature and product enhancements, from mobility to HD and more, but by providing a pre-integrated set of solutions, driven by the adoption of common standards, like SIP, the vendor community effectively simplifies the entire sales process, benefitting the entire value chain.
The idea is to provide them the very luxury today’s communications solutions are designed to provide for end users – the ability to focus on their core businesses, in this case, selling product. Naturally, they are able to leverage the latest feature and product enhancements, from mobility to HD and more, but by providing a pre-integrated set of solutions, driven by the adoption of common standards, like SIP, the vendor community effectively simplifies the entire sales process, benefitting the entire value chain.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
SIP Trunking is Much More Than a PSTN Replacement
We have reached another tipping point in the telecommunications industry. SIP trunking is the fastest growing service in our space right now and we all have an opportunity to capitalize on this trend, but we must be smart about our approach.
SIP Trunking’s growth presents a new revenue opportunity, but only if the trunk offers services above and beyond PSTN quality voice. If a service provider simply provides VoIP connectivity, they will see their revenues erode. SIP Trunking offers service providers a tremendous opportunity to deliver valuable services to enterprises by providing new communication services in demand by the enterprise market. Enterprises are becoming more educated on SIP Trunking. Practically every large enterprise has read a case study that demonstrates how an enterprise can reduce their trunks by 30% – 40%, which is obviously a negative revenue proposition for the service provider. So service providers must develop a comprehensive managed service offering to enhance and complement their SIP Trunking service.
SIP Trunking’s growth presents a new revenue opportunity, but only if the trunk offers services above and beyond PSTN quality voice. If a service provider simply provides VoIP connectivity, they will see their revenues erode. SIP Trunking offers service providers a tremendous opportunity to deliver valuable services to enterprises by providing new communication services in demand by the enterprise market. Enterprises are becoming more educated on SIP Trunking. Practically every large enterprise has read a case study that demonstrates how an enterprise can reduce their trunks by 30% – 40%, which is obviously a negative revenue proposition for the service provider. So service providers must develop a comprehensive managed service offering to enhance and complement their SIP Trunking service.
Twitter Meets up with Unified Communications
The convergence of social networking and unified communications was on display this week at the VoiceCon conference in San Francisco.
The Siemens Enterprise Communications Group used VoiceCon as a venue to show off some forthcoming integration between the Twitter social networking service and Siemens’ OpenScape unified communications software.
With all the people using various services on the Web to interact with each other, it’s only a matter of time before these types of services become tightly integrated with unified communications software.
Siemens is encouraging developers to extend OpenScape to these services using a set of published application programming interfaces that it is making available via a cloud computing service. This “sandbox in the cloud” gives developers a way to experiment with OpenScape integration without having to purchase their own infrastructure for testing.
The Siemens Enterprise Communications Group used VoiceCon as a venue to show off some forthcoming integration between the Twitter social networking service and Siemens’ OpenScape unified communications software.
With all the people using various services on the Web to interact with each other, it’s only a matter of time before these types of services become tightly integrated with unified communications software.
Siemens is encouraging developers to extend OpenScape to these services using a set of published application programming interfaces that it is making available via a cloud computing service. This “sandbox in the cloud” gives developers a way to experiment with OpenScape integration without having to purchase their own infrastructure for testing.
Predictions: VoIP Trends in 2010
By all accounts, 2010 should be a banner year for IP Communications and VoIP in general. A recent report we wrote about saw VoIP as the 'industry of the decade' and then went on to project VoIP as the industry that will see the most growth over the next decade!
With the economy still on shaky ground VoIP will most likely continue its slow and steady growth seen at the end of the decade with companies realizing the cost savings of the technology and looking for ways to invest in upgrades. Upstart technologies like Internet voice and mobile VoIP will be at the mercy of the Net Neutrality rulings while Videoconferencing will probably continue to see growth in line with rising energy costs and the demands to make working cheaper for companies and employees.
Read more: http://www.fiercevoip.com/special-reports/predictions-voip-trends-2010#ixzz0d1J1Bpgd
With the economy still on shaky ground VoIP will most likely continue its slow and steady growth seen at the end of the decade with companies realizing the cost savings of the technology and looking for ways to invest in upgrades. Upstart technologies like Internet voice and mobile VoIP will be at the mercy of the Net Neutrality rulings while Videoconferencing will probably continue to see growth in line with rising energy costs and the demands to make working cheaper for companies and employees.
Read more: http://www.fiercevoip.com/special-reports/predictions-voip-trends-2010#ixzz0d1J1Bpgd
SIP in Unified Communications
Do you fire up your Gmail client to send an email to another Gmail user? And would that email fail to arrive if you used Outlook instead? Of course not and it's all down to the standard email protocol called SMTP. Every email client supports it so you don't have to worry what the other person is using. Likewise, HTTP delivers web content regardless of the browser being used.
This has always been the promise of SIP (the Session Initiation Protocol). Designed to establish, manage and 'tear down' communication channels between any media device, anywhere. Sound good?
SIP in Unified Communications
I'm not going to give you a definition of Unified Communications (UC) here, just hit Google and wade through all the interpretations that pop up. I do however, want to talk about how SIP 'underpins' UC.
It does this by ensuring that all elements of a business UC solution can establish connections to work together. It also allows for 'mid session' information to be passed between these elements to enhance the communications experience. A good example of this is starting up a whiteboard application with a colleague to give your existing conversation another dimension.
SIP/SIMPLE
Now UC isn't just about Instant Messaging, but I need to start somewhere.
The IETF SIMPLE (SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions) working group focuses on the application of SIP to Instant messaging (IM) and Presence services. Invariably their work will affect any UC solution.
This has always been the promise of SIP (the Session Initiation Protocol). Designed to establish, manage and 'tear down' communication channels between any media device, anywhere. Sound good?
SIP in Unified Communications
I'm not going to give you a definition of Unified Communications (UC) here, just hit Google and wade through all the interpretations that pop up. I do however, want to talk about how SIP 'underpins' UC.
It does this by ensuring that all elements of a business UC solution can establish connections to work together. It also allows for 'mid session' information to be passed between these elements to enhance the communications experience. A good example of this is starting up a whiteboard application with a colleague to give your existing conversation another dimension.
SIP/SIMPLE
Now UC isn't just about Instant Messaging, but I need to start somewhere.
The IETF SIMPLE (SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions) working group focuses on the application of SIP to Instant messaging (IM) and Presence services. Invariably their work will affect any UC solution.
Unified communication to grow to $30B market
Two separate studies on unified communications from Wainhouse (News - Alert) Research reveal the UC industry will grow to a healthy $30 billion market just five years.
UC service providers should see rapid growth due to the complexity of premises-based UC solutions, Wainhouse Research reported. In fact, the research hub anticipates that UC services revenues, which are far smaller than product revenues today, will eclipse those of traditional conferencing services by 2013 or 2014.
UC service providers should see rapid growth due to the complexity of premises-based UC solutions, Wainhouse Research reported. In fact, the research hub anticipates that UC services revenues, which are far smaller than product revenues today, will eclipse those of traditional conferencing services by 2013 or 2014.
Top Stories of 2009: SIP trunking and Unified Communications gain momentum
n 2009 it was hard to look through VoIP news and not bump into another announcement about a SIP or Unified Communications (UC) deal. Both items have gained momentum and are becoming the rule in the VoIP world. According to Infonetics, SIP trunking service revenue is expected to have an 89 percent compound annual growth rate from 2008 to 2013! In the same report they predict that hosted UC services would "take off," with worldwide revenue doubling over the next four years. Sounds like smart money is on these two areas of IP communications.
A key indicator of UC's coming dominance was Cisco announcement of a major push to corner the collaboration market with new products, reseller options and licensing packages for its unified communications solutions. Cisco pegged the value of the UC market at a whopping $34 billion! A study in October carried out about Frost & Sullivan--commissioned by Cisco and Verizon--found that collaboration tools like VoIP, instant messaging, and high-definition video meetings resulted in cost savings averaging four times the return on investment for firms using the IP platforms. Frost and Sullivan surveyed 3,662 decision makers in small- and medium-sized business as well as enterprises in various parts of the world, and found that 44 percent had deployed some form of unified communications already. According to an ABI Research report on Unified Communications, uptake is on a 'steeply rising curve.' ABI's report predicted that spending on UC would rise from the lowly sum of $302 million in 2008 to $4.2 billion by 2013. Just recently, Adtran also threw its hat into UC arena.
A key indicator of UC's coming dominance was Cisco announcement of a major push to corner the collaboration market with new products, reseller options and licensing packages for its unified communications solutions. Cisco pegged the value of the UC market at a whopping $34 billion! A study in October carried out about Frost & Sullivan--commissioned by Cisco and Verizon--found that collaboration tools like VoIP, instant messaging, and high-definition video meetings resulted in cost savings averaging four times the return on investment for firms using the IP platforms. Frost and Sullivan surveyed 3,662 decision makers in small- and medium-sized business as well as enterprises in various parts of the world, and found that 44 percent had deployed some form of unified communications already. According to an ABI Research report on Unified Communications, uptake is on a 'steeply rising curve.' ABI's report predicted that spending on UC would rise from the lowly sum of $302 million in 2008 to $4.2 billion by 2013. Just recently, Adtran also threw its hat into UC arena.
Google's next target: Unified communications
Unified communications has been a technology specialty of networking vendors for years, but Google Inc.'s recent forays into voice communications and collaboration could drastically upset the competitive landscape.
It's not as if Google Voice and Google Wave, which are both launching later this year, will kill related efforts by companies like Cisco Systems Inc., Microsoft Corp. and others that are heavily involved in unified communications, but Google seems to have the competition scrambling already.
Witness today's comment by Doug Dennerline, Cisco's senior vice president of collaboration software: "Google Wave validates what we've been doing for two years [with the Webex Connect collaboration offering]," Dennerline said during a webconference with reporters and analysts. "We are going to invent and reinvent. You'll see cool things from us."
Anybody who has followed the computer industry for long knows that when a vendor says another company has "validated" them, it really means, "Yes, they are clearly in our living room, and we are making sure they don't move in permanently." Dennerline was careful to imply that Cisco is up to the Google challenge and would "invent and reinvent" to stay competitive.
While Google Voice and Wave seem more focused on consumers, with tools for instant messaging, e-mail and social networking, Dennerline was quick to point out that "social networking is important to enterprises, too."
It's not as if Google Voice and Google Wave, which are both launching later this year, will kill related efforts by companies like Cisco Systems Inc., Microsoft Corp. and others that are heavily involved in unified communications, but Google seems to have the competition scrambling already.
Witness today's comment by Doug Dennerline, Cisco's senior vice president of collaboration software: "Google Wave validates what we've been doing for two years [with the Webex Connect collaboration offering]," Dennerline said during a webconference with reporters and analysts. "We are going to invent and reinvent. You'll see cool things from us."
Anybody who has followed the computer industry for long knows that when a vendor says another company has "validated" them, it really means, "Yes, they are clearly in our living room, and we are making sure they don't move in permanently." Dennerline was careful to imply that Cisco is up to the Google challenge and would "invent and reinvent" to stay competitive.
While Google Voice and Wave seem more focused on consumers, with tools for instant messaging, e-mail and social networking, Dennerline was quick to point out that "social networking is important to enterprises, too."
Google and Unified Communications
Deciphering Google's involvement in unified communications is difficult simply because the company moves so fast and has so many balls up in the air.
That said, it's clear that Google is a significant UC player, whether the definition is broad and generic or the narrow one used by the folks in the business
Investopedia and No Jitter offer, between them, three articles that together form a good backgrounder that provides context for Google and its UC initiatives. Investopedia's James Brumley starts with a nice summation of some of the relevant moves made by the firm during the past couple of years. These include pushing the development and use of the Android open source mobile operating system, the launch of Google Voice, and the acquisition of Gizmo5.
That said, it's clear that Google is a significant UC player, whether the definition is broad and generic or the narrow one used by the folks in the business
Investopedia and No Jitter offer, between them, three articles that together form a good backgrounder that provides context for Google and its UC initiatives. Investopedia's James Brumley starts with a nice summation of some of the relevant moves made by the firm during the past couple of years. These include pushing the development and use of the Android open source mobile operating system, the launch of Google Voice, and the acquisition of Gizmo5.
How Gtalk2VoIP brings SIP capability to your instant messengers?
We talked about GTalk2VoIP earlier as wonderful solution to SIP-enable your plain vanilla instant messaging client. GTalk2VoIP is an interesting service, bringing SIP service to your instant messenger. If you have not tried GTalk2VoIP, I would strongly urge you to try the service. While the service is great, we were not sure how the folks at GTalk2VoIP manage this feat. However, I was recently able to speak with Mr. Ruslan Zalata, co-founder of GTalk2VoIP, and he was kind enough to share some insights into the service and other technical details about how GTalk2VoIP brings SIP capability to your instant messengers. The interview extract follows (AS – Alok Saboo; RZ – Ruslan Zalata):
GTalk2VoIP_logoAS: For the benefit of our readers, can you introduce yourself?
RZ: My name is Ruslan Zalata, I’m a co-founder of GTalk2VoIP, Inc., one of the developers of GTalk2VoIP service and a piece of mobile VoIP (mVoIP) software called Talkonaut.
GTalk2VoIP_logoAS: For the benefit of our readers, can you introduce yourself?
RZ: My name is Ruslan Zalata, I’m a co-founder of GTalk2VoIP, Inc., one of the developers of GTalk2VoIP service and a piece of mobile VoIP (mVoIP) software called Talkonaut.
SIP Services Offer Cost Saving Options: Communications Provider
As more companies understand the benefits that Session Initiation Protocol, or SIP, services provide, adoption of the technology is on the rise. A recent report from Infonetics Research found that SIP trunking will likely become the second most commonly deployed service this year.
While widespread adoption of SIP services is still a ways off, businesses are looking more at the communication solution simply to save costs, according to a Cincinnati, Ohio-based communications provider. As signs of an economic recovery increase, companies still have cost savings solutions at the top of their list to keep their operations functional.
While widespread adoption of SIP services is still a ways off, businesses are looking more at the communication solution simply to save costs, according to a Cincinnati, Ohio-based communications provider. As signs of an economic recovery increase, companies still have cost savings solutions at the top of their list to keep their operations functional.
Can a VoIP Solution Lead Us Into the Future?
Voice over IP is the process of an IP network to carry telephone voice signals as IP packets over the internet or other data networks. IP packets are small packets of digital bits of information which are routed through the Internet infrastructure. The bit sequence of the packet (field structure) usually is arranged to convey the destination address in addition to the data that is already being transported along with other data such as the packet originator and error protection bits.
To implement a VoIP Solution all you need is a microphone for instant free voice communication in a chat room. By uniting the traditional phone system and the advanced communication capabilities of using a single data network for all communications, it is possible to reduce overall costs of communication for end users.
To implement a VoIP Solution all you need is a microphone for instant free voice communication in a chat room. By uniting the traditional phone system and the advanced communication capabilities of using a single data network for all communications, it is possible to reduce overall costs of communication for end users.
Compare VoIP and Traditional Phone, It's Free
In a family with several children, it's not very good to compare them with each other. Oftentimes this will result to a feeling of enviousness and rivalry. They would also try to compete for their parent's attention. Comparing can be very harmful to the kid's relationship towards each other.
Comparing things can be useful if you're trying to compare a VoIP service provider. And this goes true even to different businesses offering products and services in order to attract customers; they want to compare their products/services against a competitor. Whichever provider that comes out best will get the fairer share of the market.
Comparing things can be useful if you're trying to compare a VoIP service provider. And this goes true even to different businesses offering products and services in order to attract customers; they want to compare their products/services against a competitor. Whichever provider that comes out best will get the fairer share of the market.
How An IP Phone Controls
Something that everyone ought to bear in mind of is how an IP phone works, specifically because of the multitude of benefits that you are offered by an IP phone and phone service. An IP phone works by using VoIP technologies that permits telephone calls to be made over the Net instead of through the ordinary PSTN system.
The IP phones use protocols like Session Initiation Protocol and Skinny Shopper Control Protocol, and can be merely software-based Softphones or purpose-engineered hardware devices that seem abundant additional like an normal telephone.
There are varied options when it comes to buying an IP phone for yourself, the most fashionable version being the wireless IP phone as a result of then you do not have any wiring or cable to fret regarding and it will be much easier and additional convenient for you to use. There are different sizes, designs and brands that you’ll select from, therefore opt for from a large choice and find one that’s simply right for you.
The IP phones use protocols like Session Initiation Protocol and Skinny Shopper Control Protocol, and can be merely software-based Softphones or purpose-engineered hardware devices that seem abundant additional like an normal telephone.
There are varied options when it comes to buying an IP phone for yourself, the most fashionable version being the wireless IP phone as a result of then you do not have any wiring or cable to fret regarding and it will be much easier and additional convenient for you to use. There are different sizes, designs and brands that you’ll select from, therefore opt for from a large choice and find one that’s simply right for you.
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